Older Benchinistas might remember the days before the 'universal suffrage' we enjoy today. No longer do we need to own a property with a hearth, or as much land as could be bought for 40 shillings in order to have a voice, but it was not always so.

A number of great Reform Acts led to this current freedom. The first of them came in 1832 and set in motion a process which was to change the face of British politics forever. Few of us, however, appreciate the significance of one particular bench in the then House of Commons (sadly destroyed by fire a couple of years later).

There was much opposition to reform, and getting the bill passed was no straightforward matter. But when, in March of 1831 the First Reform Bill was passed on its second reading by a single vote, the process had begun that was eventually to lead to the (Great) Reform Act of 1832.

Of that night, no less a witness than the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, himself a Member of Parliament for a rotten borough, described the jubilant scenes following the division. Word obviously leaked out from the tellers before the count could formally be announced, because Macaulay wrote in a letter:

'Such a scene as the division of last Tuesday I never saw, and never expect to see again. If I should live fifty years the impression of it will be as fresh and sharp in my mind as if it had just taken place....When Charles Wood who stood near the door jumped up on a bench and cried out. 'They are only three hundred and one.' We set up a shout that you might have heard to Charing Cross - waving our hats - stamping against the floor and clapping our hands.'

And thus did a bench play its worthy part in the progress of democracy in Britain.