The1865 United Kingdom general election was held 7 July 1865 to 24 July 1865 to elect 658 members of theHouse of Commons. It saw the Liberals, led byLord Palmerston, increase their large majority over theEarl of Derby's Conservatives to 80.
Palmerston died in October the same year and was succeeded byLord John Russell asPrime 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 thenBenjamin Disraeli.
This was the last United Kingdom general election until2019 where a party increased its majority after having been returned to office at the previous election with a reduced majority.
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 describedThe 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, 50election petitions were lodged, of which 35 were pressed to a trial; 13 ended with the elected MP being unseated. In four cases aRoyal Commission had to be appointed because of widespread corrupt practices in the constituency.[3]
Crewe, Ivor (2006), "New Labour's Hegemony: Extension or Erosion?", in Bartle, John; King, Anthony (eds.),Britain at the Polls 2005, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, p. 204
Everett, Jason M., ed. (2006),"1865",The People's Chronology, Thomson Gale, archived fromthe original on 6 August 2007, retrieved12 May 2007
Roberts, Matthew. "Election Cartoons and Political Communication in Victorian England"Cultural & Social History (2013) 10#3 pp 369–395, covers 1860 to 1890.
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