A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



as Lord Winmarleigh. Meanwhile, in 1857, Lord Spencer Compton 

 Cavendish (afterwards marquis of Hartington, now duke of Devonshire), 

 represented the Liberal interest in the county till 1865, when, by a process 

 of reaction after the passing of the Reform Bill, the county representation again 

 became wholly Conservative. North-East Lancashire, created a division in 

 1868, also returned Conservative representatives at this election, rejecting 

 the Liberal candidates. Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth (now Lord Shuttle- 

 worth) and Mr. Fenton, and returning Mr. Holt and Mr. Chamberlain 



Starkie. 



South Lancashire had up to the year 1847 been Conservatively inclined, 

 rejecting Viscount Molyneux and Mr. Wood in 1835, in favour of Lord F. 

 Egerton and the Hon. R. B. Wilbraham, until 1846, when Mr. W. Brown 

 was returned as Liberal and Mr. Entwistle for the Conservatives. A contest 

 of 1847 returned another Liberal, Mr. Alexander, and again in 1852 

 Mr. Brown and Mr. Cheetham. In 1859, however, the Hon. A. F. Egerton 

 was returned and with him Mr. Legh for the Conservative interest, and when 

 a third member was assigned to this division in 1861 Mr. Turner, Con- 

 servative, defeated Mr. Cheetham, who again contested the division. In 1865 

 the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone (as has been already mentioned) was returned 

 as Liberal member for this division, with the Hon. A. F, Egerton and 

 Mr. Turner as Conservatives, but on the Conservative middle class reaction of 

 1868, Mr. Gladstone, who had been so closely associated with the Reform Bill, 

 was unseated, and Mr. Turner and Mr. R. A. Cross became the Conservative 

 members for the new division of South- West Lancashire, while, in South-East 

 Lancashire, the Hon. A. F. Egerton retained his seat, and another Conservative 

 was also elected, Mr. J. S. Henry. 



In 1874 the Liberals were again rejected in this division, as they were 

 in South-West Lancashire also, where they continued to be defeated, the Con- 

 servatives continuously returning Mr. Cross (afterwards Sir R. A. Cross and 

 Viscount Cross) and Colonel J. Ireland Blackburne. But in 1880 two Liberal 

 i members recaptured South-East Lancashire under the leadership of Mr. Leake 

 and Mr. W. Agnew."* By this time the middle and upper classes, once so 

 hostile to democracy, had become partially permeated with mildly Liberal and 

 Progressive ideas, and in 1884, by mutual consent of both parties, another 

 extension of the franchise was proposed. As before, the Bill was Mr. Glad- 

 stone's, and it was introduced into the Commons in February, 1884. The 

 great change proposed was the putting of the county population on the 

 same level as the population of cities and towns. This extended the vote to 

 the agricultural labourer just as the Bill of 1877 had included the town 

 artizans. 



The household franchise of 1867 would . . , be untouched. The ten pounds clear 

 yearly value franchise would be extended to land held without houses or buildings : while 

 there would be created a new franchise which Mr. Gladstone proposed to call a Service 

 Franchise, for persons who were inhabitants of a house but were neither occupiers nor 

 tenants. . . . There would be therefore four kinds of borough franchise, the ten pound 

 franchise, the lodger franchise, the household franchise of 1867, and *he service franchise. 

 In the counties the franchise which reduced the ten pounds yearly value and the household 

 lodger and service franchise of the boroughs would be established in the county con- 

 stituencies. 



"♦ For a table of shire representation see The ParRamentary Representation of Lane j. 1258-1885, by W. Dun- 

 combe Pink and the Rev. A. Beavan, 1889. 



256 



