Many Whigs, too, who had expected a milder measure were at first dumbfounded by the breadth of Russell’s proposals. … They soon rallied to the Government when they saw the enthusiasm of the country, for the Whigs believed that Reform would forestall revolution. … The Tories, on the other hand, feared that it was the first step on the road to cataclysm. To them, and indeed to many Whigs, English government meant the rule, and the duty to rule, of the landed classes in the interests of the community. … A wider franchise would mean the beginning of the end of the old system of administration by influence and patronage.

Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Sp…, loc. 1699