The electoral system of the 18th century was deeply
unrepresentative - partly because only a small number of
property owning men were eligible to vote, and partly
because the structure of the country's constituencies had
remained unchanged for centuries. As a result, many
thriving towns, such as Birmingham, had no
representatives at Westminster - while counties such as
Cornwall could still return 44 members, many of them
representing decrepit fishing villages. These under-populated seats
were often also completely 'in the pocket' of their landlords - and therefore came to be known as pocket or rotten boroughs after ChathamΓÇÖs description of boroughs as ΓÇÿthe rotten part of the constitutionΓÇÖ.
In 1785, William Pitt introduced his Reform Bill, designed to disenfranchise 36 rotten boroughs, but was defeated by a mixture of
public indifference and opposition from both king and parliament.
