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| 1865, June |
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| The Union Chargeability Act capped Poor Law reforms that attempted to charge uniform rates and establish a consistent system of assessment. The law required that rates be assessed in the same manner throughout the Union and thus forced wealthier parishes to assist the poorer. The Poor Law Board also required all unions to provide adequate medical facilities in workhouses and added a doctor to the inspectorate (1866). | 1 |
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| 1866 |
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| Outbreaks of bubonic plague and cholera in Bristol, London, and Liverpool. | 2 |
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| 1867, July 17 |
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| THE SECOND REFORM BILL. The Russell cabinet had advanced a reform bill in 1866 that had been defeated by a coalition of Liberals and Conservatives. The Russell government resigned and was replaced by Derby in association with Disraeli. Derby depended on the divisions within the Liberal camp to ensure a Conservative-Liberal majority, and his conservative stance also enabled passage of a bill in both Commons and the Lords. | 3 |
| Provisions: The bill provided a third seat for Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham but also allowed the electors in those districts to vote for only two M.P.'s, thus providing for a minority seat in each district. Scotland received seven additional seats, but the number allotted to Wales and Ireland remained unchanged. The act also created 11 new boroughs and gave a seat to the University of London. The bill extended the franchise to male, adult householders who paid the poor rates in the boroughs. In the counties, the annual value of property required for the vote was decreased from £10 to £5. In doing so it virtually doubled the number of eligible voters, but it did not provide the secret ballot. | 4 |
| Hornby v. Close undermined the legal protection of the trade unions. A boilermakers' union had filed a claim against a dishonest treasurer, but the court ruled that the claim could not be honored because of the union's doubtful legal status as a suitor. | 5 |
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| 1868 |
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| Trades Union Congress (TUC) was formed. | 6 |
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| 1870 |
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| Army reforms under Secretary of War Edward Cardwell reduced the size of the standing army, created a system of reserves, and abolished the system of purchasing army commissions (1871). | 7 |
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| June 4 |
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| Civil service reforms encouraged competitive examinations. | 8 |
| The First Married Women's Property Act began to extend some rights of property to wives. It was followed by two more such acts (1882 and 1893), which, in 1893, provided married women with the same property rights as single women. | 9 |
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| Aug. 9 |
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| The Education Act enabled local governments, who considered it necessary, to permit elected school boards to establish public schools maintained by taxes and fees, which could be remitted for the poor. State aid was also increased for voluntary schools, and religious instruction in public schools became noncompulsory and nonsectarian. In 1880, attendance at elementary school was made compulsory, and in 1891, all fees were abolished. | 10 |
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