The expanding economy; the extending franchise; the harmonious society

In the quarter century following 1851 Britain reached its world peak economically and politically, achieving leadership in both aspects. Because of the increase in her productivity and her consequent dominance of world trade, real incomes rose for almost all classes. This was the high Victorian age, beginning with the Great Exhibition of 1851 and ending with the first signs of economic faltering in the 1870s.

Half way through the period the second Reform Act of 1867 brought a radical change in the structure of political power. The working classes, hitherto excluded from voting and from membership of the House of Commons, now made their first entry into the constitution. Though there was only a partial opening of the door, it was such as to increase the electorate of Britain from about 717,000 adult males in 1832 to 2,226,000 after 1867. In qualitative terms this tripling of voters (while the population had increased by two-thirds) meant that the political parties had now to adjust their presentation of themselves to an electorate with a major new component. In the shorter run many of the new voters shared the values of the upper and middle classes; few would have any hope of entering a parliament which still demanded a property qualification. But in the longer run they would inevitably develop an outlook deriving more directly from their own view of their own interests.