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1818 United Kingdom general election

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Field	Value
election_name	1818 United Kingdom general election
country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1812 United Kingdom general election
previous_year	1812
outgoing_members	List of MPs elected in the 1812 United Kingdom general election
next_election	1820 United Kingdom general election
next_year	1820
seats_for_election	All 658 seats in the House of Commons
majority_seats	330
elected_members	List of MPs elected in the 1818 United Kingdom general election
election_date	17 June – 18 July 1818
<!-- Tory -->	image1	File:Sir_Thomas_Lawrence_(1769-1830)_-_Robert_Banks_Jenkinson_(1770-1828),_2nd_Earl_of_Liverpool_-_RCIN_404930_-_Royal_Collection_(cropped).jpg
image1_size	160x160px
leader1	Earl of Liverpool
leader_since1	8 June 1812
party1	Tory (Pittite)
seats1	280
percentage1
image2	File:_Grey2_(cropped).jpg
image2_size	160x160px
leader2	Earl Grey
leader_since2	—
party2	Whigs (British political party)
seats2	175
title	Prime Minister
posttitle	Prime Minister after election
before_election	Earl of Liverpool
before_party	Tory Party (UK)
after_election	Earl of Liverpool
after_party	Tory Party (UK)
seat_change1	120
seat_change2	21
last_election1	399
last_election2	196
map_image	1818 UK GE composition diagram.svg
map_caption	Composition of the House of Commons after the election

The 1818 United Kingdom general election was the 5th general election after the Acts of Union 1800, held on 17 June 1818 to 18 July 1818. It saw the Whigs gain a few seats, but the Tories under the Earl of Liverpool retained a majority of around 90 seats. The Whigs were divided over their response to growing social unrest and the introduction of the Corn Laws.

The fifth United Kingdom Parliament was dissolved on 10 June 1818. The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 4 August 1818, for a maximum seven-year term from that date. The maximum term could be and normally was curtailed, by the monarch dissolving the Parliament, before its term expired. The sixth Parliament lasted only about a year and a half, as King George III's death on 29 January 1820 triggered a dissolution of Parliament.

Political situation

The Tory leader was the Earl of Liverpool, who had been prime minister since his predecessor's assassination in 1812. The Tory Leader of the House of Commons was Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh.

The Whig Party had long suffered from weak leadership, particularly in the House of Commons.

At the time of the general election, the Earl Grey was the leading figure amongst the Whig peers. The last Whig Prime Minister, the Lord Grenville, had retired from active politics in 1817. It was likely that Earl Grey would have been invited to form a government, had the Whigs come to power, although in this era the monarch rather than the governing party decided which individual would be prime minister.

The Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, until his death in 1817, was George Ponsonby, Lady Grey's uncle. About a year after Ponsonby's death, George Tierney reluctantly became the recognised Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. However, after 1819 he did not carry out the functions of leader although he retained the title.

Summary of the constituencies

Note

Key to categories in the following tables: BC – [Borough constituency

[Monmouthshire (1 County constituency with 2 MPs and one single member Borough constituency) is included in Wales in these tables. Sources for this period may include the county in England.

Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country

Country	BC	CC	UC	Total C	BMP	CMP	UMP	Total MPs
England	202	39	2	243	404	78	4	486
Wales	13	13	0	26	13	14	0	27
Scotland	15	30	0	45	15	30	0	45
	33	32	1	66	35	64	1	100
	263	114	3	380	467	176	5	658

Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country

Country	BCx1	BCx2	BCx4	CCx1	CCx2	UCx1	UCx2	Total C
England	4	196	2	0	39	0	2	243
Wales	13	0	0	12	1	0	0	26
Scotland	15	0	0	30	0	0	0	45
	31	2	0	0	32	1	0	66
	63	198	2	42	72	1	2	380

References

His Majesty's Opposition 1714–1830, by Archibald S. Foord (Oxford University Press 1964)
(Dates of Elections) Footnote to Table 5.02 British Electoral Facts 1832–1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000).
(Types of constituencies – Great Britain) British Historical Facts 1760–1830, by Chris Cook and John Stevenson (The Macmillan Press 1980).
(Types of constituencies – Ireland) Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801–1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978).

References

Rix, Kathryn. (18 June 2018). "The General Election of 1818".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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