132 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

1832 raised the number of voters from 500,000 to 1,000,000,
benefiting chiefly the upper middle class; Acts of 1867 and 1884
gave the vote to some of the town and countryside workers
respectively. The Representation of the People Act, 1918, gave
the vote to nearly all men over 21, and to the great majority of
women over 30. The process was completed in 1928 when
women were given the vote on the same terms as men. Thus
has Parliament grown from an enlarged feudal assembly into a
democratic institution representing 30,000,000 adults. Developed
in the I4th century, uncertain of its existence in the I5th,
tutored in the i6th, struggling for mastery in the lyth, supreme
in the i8th, democratised in the I9th, it has reflected at every
stage the growth and conflict of classes. Just as recognition of its
Sovereignty is essential to an understanding of the Constitution,
so an acquaintance with its development will explain the history
of England.

RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES.

From the time when the two Houses began to sit apart they
had, in law, equal powers. At an early date, however, it was
recognised that the Commons should have chief power over
finance, and from this it followed that they became the more
important House. A serious conflict between the Houses occurred
over the 1832 Reform Bill, and later in the century Mr. Glad-
stone's Governments had difficulties with the Lords. The legal
equality of the two continued until 1909, when the Lords,
standing on their legal right, rejected certain taxes which Mr.
Lloyd George, as Chancellor of the Exchequer in a Liberal
Government, had proposed. At a General Election in January,
1910, the Government were victorious; the Lords accepted tie
taxes, but the Government, determined to prevent such difficulties
in future, introduced a Bill to limit the Lords* powers. Another
Election, held in December 1910, and a threat to "swamp" the
Lords1 were necessary before this Bill was passed, to become

1 See Ch. II.