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BEFORM ACTS 468 BEFOBMATION REFORM ACTS, a term applied to certain acts of the British Parliament by which the regulations as to the parlia- mentary representation of the people were altered, and especially to those of 1832, 1867, and 1884-1885. The first two acts provided both for an extension of the franchise and for a redistribution of seats. The Reform Act of 1832 dis- franchised 56 rotten boroughs with less than 2,000 inhabitants each, and return- ing 111 members; 30 boroughs with less than 4,000 inhabitants, and two above that number, lost each a member, and thus 143 seats were obtained for distri- bution. Forty-three new boroughs were created, 22 of which received two mem- bers each, and 21 one member each. The county members for England and Wales were increased from 95 to 159, 26 of the large counties being divided, and a third member given to seven important county constituencies. Scotch and Irish Acts followed; the Scotch representation, fixed by the Act of Union at 45 was raised to 53 (30 of them given to coun- ties and 23 to cities and boroughs), and the Irish members fixed by the Act of Union at 100, were increased to 105. The Reform Act of 1867 disfranchised 11 small English boroughs, took a member from 35 more, and two from Scotch counties, which with four seats obtained from boroughs disfranchised for corrup- tion, gave 52 seats for redistribution. Five of these were given to as many large English and Scotch boroughs on the three-cornered system, and three to universities, the others to old or new coiznty or borough divisions. Seven members were added to Scotland. There was no redistribution in Ireland. In the third successful effort for parlia- mentary reform, that of 1884-1885, the franchise and redistribution of seats constituted two distinct acts. The franchise bill received the royal assent on Dec. 6, 1884, and came into operation on Jan. 1, 1885. It established household and lodger franchise in the counties, in- troduced a service franchise, diminished, though it did not destroy, fagot voting, and made a uniform occupation franchise of $50 rent both in counties and in boroughs in place of the three formerly existing. It left untouched the 40-shil- ling freeholders of inheritance, and con- ferred votes on copyholders possessing land of greater value than $25 annually. By the Redistribution Act of 1885, 81 English, 2 Scotch, and 22 Irish boroughs were totally disfranchised; 36 English and 3 Irish boroughs, each lost a mem- ber, as did two English counties; the city of London was reduced from four to two; six seats were obtained from places disfranchised for corruption, and the members of the House of Commons were increased by 12. The seats thus obtained for redistribution were 180. The great feature of the scheme which followed was the separation of populous boroughs and counties into divisionb, each returning a single member. Only a few places hitherto with two member? were left with the old arrangement. England has now 465 members, Wale^ 30, Scotland 72, and Ireland 103, Tc? reduction from 105 occurring through the disfranchisement of Sligo and Cashel some years ago for corruption. REFORMATION. The religious rev- olution of the 16th century, known as the Reformation, is the greatest event in the history of civilization since Paganism gave place to Christianity as the faith of the leading nations of the world. It marks the supreme importance of this revolution that the age which preceded and the age which followed it belong to two different phases of the human spirit. With the Reformation begins what is distinctively known as Modern Europe, while the epoch that preceded it bears the equally distinctive designation of the Middle Ages. In the articles on Luther, Charles V., Henry VIII., Calvin, Knox, and others details will be found regard- ing the aims and methods of the revolu- tion in the various countries where it de- clared itself. Here, therefore, it will be sufficient to indicate briefly the general causes which produced it, the special course and character it took among the different peoples, and its chief results for the human spirit at large. The central fact of the Reformation was the detachment from papal Christi- anity of the nations distinguished by the general name of Protestant. By thir severance an order of things came to an end under which Christian Europe had been content to exist from the close of the 8th century. From the year 800, when, by a mutual understanding of their respective functions, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III., western Europe had come to regard the papacy as the essential condition of individual and corporate lifCj as a prime necessity in human affairs. Thus conceived, the power of the Church underlay all human relations. It was the consecration of the Church that con- stituted the family; the Church defined the relations of rulers and their subjects, and the Church was the final court of appeal on the ultimate questions of human life and destiny. In the nature of things such a power could never be realized as it was ideally conceived. Yet during the 11th and 12th centuries, the period when the power of the Popes was