Little Circle

The Little Circle was a Manchester-based group of Non-conformist Liberals who held a common agenda with regards political and social reform. The first group met from 1815 onwards to reform political representation and gain social reform in the United Kingdom. The second group operated from 1830 onwards and was key in creating the popularist movement that resulted in the Reform Act 1832.

By 1819, Lancashire was represented by two Members of Parliament (MPs). Voting was restricted to the adult male owners of freehold land valued at 40 shillings or more – the equivalent of about £80 as of 2008 – and votes could only be cast in the county town of Lancaster, by a public spoken declaration at the hustings. Constituency boundaries were out of date, and the "rotten boroughs" had a hugely disproportionate influence on the membership of the Parliament of the United Kingdom compared to the size of their populations: Old Sarum, with one voter, elected two MPs, as did Dunwich which had almost completely disappeared into the sea by the early 19th century. The major urban centres, Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn, Rochdale, Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and , with a combined population of almost one million, were represented by either the two county MPs for Lancashire, or the two for Cheshire in the case of Stockport. By comparison, more than half of all MPs were elected by a total of just 154 voters. These inequalities in political representation led to calls for reform.

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