Page "Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury" Paragraph 10

When parliamentary reform came to prominence again in the mid-1860s, Cranborne worked hard to master electoral statistics until he became an expert.

When the Liberal Reform Bill was being debated in 1866, Cranborne studied the census returns to see how each clause in the Bill would affect the electoral prospects in each seat.

Cranborne did not expect Disraeli's conversion to reform, however.

When the Cabinet met on 16 February 1867, Disraeli voiced his support for some extension of the suffrage, providing statistics amassed by Robert Dudley Baxter, showing that 330, 000 people would be given the vote and all except 60, 000 would be granted extra votes.

Cranborne studied Baxter's statistics and on 21 February he met Lord Carnarvon, who wrote in his diary: " He is firmly convinced now that Disraeli has played us false, that he is attempting to hustle us into his measure, that Lord Derby is in his hands and that the present form which the question has now assumed has been long planned by him ".

They agreed to " a sort of offensive and defensive alliance on this question in the Cabinet " to " prevent the Cabinet adopting any very fatal course ".

Disraeli had " separate and confidential conversations ... carried on with each member of the Cabinet from whom he anticipated opposition had divided them and lulled their suspicions ".

That same night Cranborne spent three hours studying Baxter's statistics and wrote to Carnarvon the day after that although Baxter was right overall in claiming that 30 % of £ 10 ratepayers who qualified for the vote would not register, it would be untrue in relation to the smaller boroughs where the register is kept up to date.

Cranborne also wrote to Derby arguing that he should adopt 10 shillings rather than Disraeli's 20 shillings for the qualification of the payers of direct taxation: " Now above 10 shillings you won't get in the large mass of the £ 20 householders.

At 20 shillings I fear you won't get more than 150, 000 double voters, instead of the 270, 000 on which we counted.

And I fear this will tell horribly on the small and middle-sized boroughs ".