Following the passage of the Reform Act 1832 and related legislation to reform the electoral system and redistribute constituencies, the tenth United Kingdom Parliament was dissolved on 3 December 1832. The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 29 January 1833, for a maximum seven-year term from that date. The maximum term could be and normally was curtailed, by the monarch dissolving the Parliament, before its term expired. At this period there was not one election day. After receiving a writ for the election to be held, the local returning officer fixed the election timetable for the particular constituency or constituencies he was concerned with. Polling in seats with contested elections could continue for many days. The general election took place between December 1832 and January 1833. The first nomination was on 8 December, with the first contest on 10 December and the last contest on 8 January 1833. It was usual for polling in the University constituencies and in Orkney and Shetland to take place about a week after other seats. Disregarding contests in the Universities and Orkney and Shetland, the last poll was on 1 January 1833.
Summary of the constituencies
For the distribution of constituencies in the unreformed House of Commons, before this election, see the 1831 United Kingdom general election. Apart from the disenfranchisement of Grampound for corruption in 1821 and the transfer of its two seats as additional members for Yorkshire from 1826, there had been no change in the constituencies of England since the 1670s. In some cases the county and borough seats had remained unaltered since the 13th century. Welsh constituencies had been unchanged since the 16th century. Those in Scotland had remained the same since 1708 and in Ireland since 1801. In 1832 politicians were facing an unfamiliar electoral map, as well as an electorate including those qualified under a new uniform householder franchise in the boroughs. However the reform legislation had not removed all the anomalies in the electoral system. Table of largest and smallest electorates 1832–33, by country, type and number of seats
Monmouthshire is included in Wales in these tables. Sources for this period may include the county in England. Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country
Country
BC
CC
UC
Total C
BMP
CMP
UMP
Total MPs
186
68
2
256
322
142
4
468
15
13
0
28
15
17
0
32
21
30
0
51
23
30
0
53
33
32
1
66
39
64
2
105
255
143
3
401
399
253
6
658
Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country
Country
BCx1
BCx2
BCx4
CCx1
CCx2
CCx3
UCx2
Total C
52
133
1
1
60
7
2
256
15
0
0
9
4
0
0
28
19
2
0
30
0
0
0
51
27
6
0
0
32
0
1
66
113
141
1
40
96
7
3
401
Results
!colspan=2|Party!!Candidates!!Unopposed!!Seats ! colspan="2" style="padding-left: 1.5em; text-align: left;" | Total
