1859 United Kingdom general election

|[[File:1859_UK_general_election_map.svg|300px]] |Results by constituency |[[File:United Kingdom general election 1859 (by country).svg|300px]] |Results by country The 1859 United Kingdom general election was held from 28 April to 18 May 1859 following the defeat of Prime Minister the Earl of Derby's Conservative government in a vote of confidence. The newly formed Liberal Party, led by Viscount Palmerston, secured victory despite winning fewer seats than in the previous election.

There is no separate tally of votes or seats for the Peelites. They did not contest elections as an organised party but more as independent Free trade Conservatives with varying degrees of distance from the two main parties.

It was also the last general election entered by the Chartists, before their organisation was dissolved. , this is the last election in which the Conservatives won the most seats in Wales.

The election was the quietest and least competitive between 1832 and 1885, with most county elections being uncontested. The election also saw the lowest number of candidates between 1832 and 1885, with Tory gains potentially being the result of a lack of opposition as much as a change in public opinion. According to A. J. P. Taylor: : the government which Palmerston organized in June 1859 was a coalition of a different kind: not a coalition of groups which looked back to the past, but a coalition which anticipated the future. Had it not been for Palmerston himself—too individual, too full of personality to be fitted into a party-pattern—it would have been the first Liberal government in our history. Everything that was important in it was Liberal—finance, administrative reform, its very composition: the first government with unmistakable middle-class Free Traders as members.

Results

|votes % = 65.80 |seats % = 54.43 |plus/minus = −0.2 |votes % = 34.17 |seats % = 45.57 |plus/minus = +0.3 |votes % = 0.03 |seats % = 0 |plus/minus = −0.1 |}

Voting summary

Seats summary

Regional results

Great Britain

Party	Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change	Total
	392	157	306		314,708	66.6
& Peelites	327	160	245		157,974	33.4
	1	0	0		151	0.0
720	317	551		472,833	100

England

Party	Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change	Total
	330	109	251		307,949	67.1
& Peelite	286	129	209		152,591	32.9
	1	0	0		151	0.0
617	238	460		460,691	100

Scotland

Party	Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change	Total
	44	34	40		5,174	66.4
& Peelite	17	11	13		2,616	33.6
61	45	53		7,790	100

Wales

Party	Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change	Total
& Peelite	18	14	17		2,767	63.6
	18	14	15		1,585	36.4
36	28	32		4,352	100

Ireland

Main article: 1859 United Kingdom general election in Ireland

Party	Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change	Total
& Peelite	67	36	53		35,258	38.9
	73	26	50		57,409	61.1
140	62	103		92,667	100

Universities

Party	Candidates	Unopposed	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change	Total
& Peelite	6	6	6
6	6	6			100