Franchise Gallery

Cartoon, The Return From Victory (Disraeli and Reform)

Cartoon, The Return From Victory -- a satirical comment on Disraeli's success in getting his Reform Bill passed after a third reading in the House of Commons on 15 July 1867. Depicting him as a returning soldier in armour, supported by John Bright and the Standard newspaper, with Lord Derby holding out his hands to greet him. The Reform Act brought household suffrage to boroughs, reduced the county franchise to 12, gave votes to lodgers, and broadened the scope of the planned redistribution of seats. Before the Act, only one million of the seven million adult men in England and Wales could vote: the Act doubled that number to two million. Date: 1867

© Mary Evans Picture Library

Cartoon, A Surprising Success (Electoral Reform)

Cartoon, A Surprising Success -- John Bull congratulates Lord Derby, Conservative Prime Minister, on his success in winning the Reform Stakes, using horseracing as a metaphor for electoral reform. Bull didn't think it would be possible. Derby's political colleague, Benjamin Disraeli, can be seen in the background, as a jockey riding a horse from Derby's Stables'. The Liberal Party had tried to bring in reform when they were in government, without success, leaving the field open to the incoming Conservative government. Date: 1867

© Mary Evans Picture Library

Christabel Pankhurst self-exiled in Paris 1912

Christabel Pankhurst (1880 - 1958), British suffragette, photographed buying a newspaper in Paris, following the discovery of her whereabouts after she left London six months before to avoid arrest. The Sketch captions this image with the speculative "seeking news of the cabinet?" which conveys Christabel's continued political activism and involvement in the suffragette movement despite being away from London, in this way challenging claims that she had abandoned her cause.
1912

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans