The Reform League was established in 1865 to press for manhood suffrage and the ballot in Great Britain. It collaborated with the more moderate and middle class Reform Union and gave strong support to the abortive Reform Bill 1866 and the successful Reform Act 1867. It developed into a formidable force of agitation at the very heart of the country.
During the autumn and winter of 1864–65 members of the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes planned to form a new organisation which would concentrate solely on manhood suffrage. As a result, the Reform League was established on 23 February 1865 and the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes became defunct. The leadership of the League, which was to remain consistent throughout its life, drew heavily on personalities from the International Working Men's Association, including George Howell, George Odger, William Cremer and Benjamin Lucraft. The father of the International, Karl Marx was delighted but he soon came to be disappointed by the outlook of the League. The League leadership also included a number of respectable figures including the barrister, Edmond Beales, as President of the League and Sir Wilfrid Lawson.
The League excluded a number of trade unionists, including Thomas Vaze of the Painters and John Bedford Leno the shoemaker poet because they had supported the South during the American Civil War.
During the first few months of the League's existence, it proved important that Howell's role was a full-time one that was paid for by a few wealthy supporters. This enabled him to concentrate on marketing the League in newspapers and communicating announcements of the Reform League's Executive Committee. This helped recruit supporters. New branches were rapidly opened in both London and the provinces. During its first year the League received donations of £621, of which £476 came from rich Radicals such as P.A. Taylor MP, Samuel Morley MP and Sir Wilfred Lawson MP.
The Liberals remained in power after the 1865 election.
Support quickly grew for the League and meetings were held in pubs all over London. It provided left-wing leadership to a broader-based national movement that built up rapidly over the winter of 1865–6.
William Ewart Gladstone introduced a Reform Bill in March 1866. It was criticised on all quarters; some thought it went too far, others that it didn't go far enough.
Three months later an amendment to the bill brought down the Russell-Gladstone government in June and the bill was dropped. Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke a Liberal M.P., enraged the working class by describing them as "impulsive, unreflecting, violent people" guilty of "venality, ignorance, drunkenness and intimidation". "Eight years in Australia and a visit to America had left him a convinced opponent of democracy." A succession of Tory Ministers further frustrated the working classes and the Reform League saw the chance to start major agitations which were to achieve pre-eminent national importance and put the Reform Union in the shade.
Trafalgar Square demonstration of 1866
Disappointed with the failure of the Bill, the Reform League, organised a series of demonstrations throughout the nation. The radical MPs John Bright and Charles Bradlaugh were prominent in these public meetings which attracted crowds in the hundred thousands. At one such meeting, in Trafalgar Square on 29 June 1866, speeches were made which refused support for any future Reform Bill which was not based on the League's programme. It was also declared that the advent of Tories to power was "destructive to freedom at home and favourable to despotism abroad". Red flags and the cap of liberty were sported by a march from Clerkenwell Green. Crowds cheered the Liberal Reform Club in Pall Mall and Gladstone's house in Carlton House Terrace and jeered loudly outside the Conservative Carlton Club.
A second meeting on 2 July 1866 was even more heated, with rioting in the West End by a "fortuitous concourse of the waifs and strays and roughs of a great city".
Hyde Park demonstration of 1866
The Trafalgar Square meetings were followed by a giant meeting held at Hyde Park on 23 July 1866. The Tory Home Secretary, Spencer Horatio Walpole declared it to be illegal, and issued a Police Notice, but the Reform League resolved to attempt to enter the Park and, if this failed, to move on to Trafalgar Square.
The procession started off from the Reform League's headquarters, at 8 Adelphi Terrace, headed by a cab containing the Reform League's president, Edmond Beales, his friend Colonel Dickson and a few other aristocratic supporters.
The procession was so vast that when the leading carriage reached Bond Street, the last had not yet left Holborn. When the procession reached Marble Arch they were confronted by a line of policemen and the park's gates were chained. 1600 constables, on foot and mounted, guarded Marble Arch alone. Barricades of omnibuses were on every side; the carriages of the wealthy blocked the way. A massive crowd assembled at the Arch and Beales attempted to enter the park. The police prevented this amid scuffles. Three days of what are variously described as "skirmishes" or "riots" ensued.
While arguing with the police, John Bedford Leno's friend, Humphreys, noticed that the railings would stand no pressure and began to sway them backwards and forwards. He was soon helped by the masses and the railings fell in what was to become known as the "Hyde Park Railings Affair". The people flooded into Hyde Park despite the efforts of the police to restrain them.
Simultaneously, two other parts of the demonstration also broke into the park; one from Knightsbridge headed by Charles Bradlaugh, and another from Park Lane. In addition to the members of the procession, large numbers of bystanders, who were sympathetic to the cause, joined in the storming of Hyde Park and the police were overwhelmed "like flies before a waiter's napkin". It is estimated that 200,000 people invaded the park leading the police to call for military support. When the Royal Horse Guards arrived the crowds cried "Three cheers for the Guards - the people's Guards!". The soldiers held back and merely manoeuvred at a distance, despite the police commissioner, Sir Richard Mayne, and others being stoned by the mob.
The meeting proceeded as planned under the Reformer's Tree. At its end it was decided to hold another meeting the next evening in Trafalgar Square. John Bedford Leno and the leaders of the Reform League heard a rumour that the government was determined to crack down on the demonstrators and so decided to confront the Home Secretary, Walpole. They pointed out to him that if the police or military stepped in bloodshed would ensue. With tears in his eyes Walpole agreed that restraint was the best option. John Bedford Leno and George Odger went back to the crowds and announced the next evening's meeting at Trafalgar Square. As the sun set the crowds dispersed and the police and military held back, out of sight, and the meeting passed without undue violence.