1865 United Kingdom general election

The 1865 United Kingdom general election was held 7 July 1865 to 24 July 1865 to elect 658 members of the House of Commons. It saw the Liberals, led by Lord Palmerston, increase their large majority over the Earl of Derby's Conservatives to 80.

1865 United Kingdom general election

← 1859 11–24 July 1865 (1865-07-11 – 1865-07-24) 1868 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 658 seats in the House of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	854,856
First party Second party   Leader Viscount Palmerston Earl of Derby Party Liberal Conservative Leader since 12 June 1859 July 1846 Leader's seat Tiverton House of Lords Last election 356 seats, 65.8% 298 seats, 34.2% Seats won 369[a] 289 Seat change 13 9 Popular vote 508,821 346,035 Percentage 59.5% 40.5% Swing 6.3 pp 6.3 pp
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Viscount Palmerston Liberal Prime Minister after election Viscount Palmerston Liberal

Palmerston died in October the same year and was succeeded by Lord John Russell as Prime Minister.^[1] Despite the Liberal majority, the party was divided by the issue of further parliamentary reform, and Russell resigned after being defeated in a vote in the House of Commons in 1866, leading to minority Conservative governments under Derby and then Benjamin Disraeli.

This was the last United Kingdom general election until 2019 where a party increased its majority after having been returned to office at the previous election with a reduced majority.

Corruption

The 1865 general election was regarded by contemporaries as being a generally dull contest nationally, which exaggerated the degree of corruption within individual constituencies. In his PhD thesis, Cornelius O'Leary described The Times as having reported "the testimony is unanimous that in the General Election of 1865 there was more profuse and corrupt expenditure than was ever known before".^[2] As a result of allegations of corruption, 50 election petitions were lodged, of which 35 were pressed to a trial; 13 ended with the elected MP being unseated. In four cases a Royal Commission had to be appointed because of widespread corrupt practices in the constituency.^[3]

As a result, when he became Prime Minister in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli announced that he would introduce a new method for election petition trials, which were then determined by a committee of the House of Commons, resulting in the Parliamentary Elections Act 1868, whereby two Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Exchequer of Pleas or Queen's Bench would be designated to try election petitions with full judicial salaries.^[3]

Constituencies

Many new constituencies were used for this election:

• Northern West Riding of Yorkshire
• Southern West Riding of Yorkshire

Results

Main article: List of MPs elected in the 1865 United Kingdom general election

UK General Election 1865
Party		Candidates						Votes
		Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Liberal	516	369[a]			+13	56.08	59.52	508,821	−6.2
	Conservative	406	289			−9	43.92	40.48	346,035	+6.2
Total			658			+4	100	100	854,856

Voting summary

Popular vote Liberal   59.52% Conservative   40.48%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Liberal   56.08% Conservative   43.92%

Regional results

Great Britain

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	433	133	311	5	457,289	60.0
	Conservative	347	115	244	1	304,538	40.0
Total		780	248	555		761,827	100

England

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	359	88	251		406,978	59.0
	Conservative	308	94	213	4	291,238	41.0
Total		667	182	464	4	698,216	100

Scotland

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	51	30	42	2	43,480	85.4
	Conservative	17	7	11	2	4,305	14.6
Total		68	37	53		47,785	100

Wales

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	21	15	18	3	4,565	74.0
	Conservative	16	12	14	3	1,600	26.0
Total		37	27	32		6,165	100

Ireland

Main article: United Kingdom general election, 1865 (Ireland)

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Liberal	83	28	58	8	51,532	55.6
	Irish Conservative	59	27	45	8	41,497	44.4
Total		142	55	103		93,029	100

Universities

Party		Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Conservative	6	2	6		7,395	76.5
	Liberal	2	0	0		2,266	23.5
Total		8	2	6		9,661	100

Source: Rallings & Thrasher 2012, pp. 8–9

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1865 United Kingdom general election
• 1865 United Kingdom general election in Ireland

Notes

1. The seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons