Crossley wrote to his friend Canon Francis Raines, Chetham Society editor and Council member, on 23 August 1867, giving his opinion on the Reform Act of that year. This piece of legislation had been brought forward by Disraeli, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer in a minority Conservative administration led by Edward Stanley, the fourteenth Earl of Derby, whose son Edward Henry was also in Parliament at the time and was a keen supporter of Disraeli. In response to popular feeling, Derby is said to have suggested that 'of all possible hares to start, I do not know a better than the extension to household suffrage, coupled with plurality of voting.' An earlier bill introduced by Gladstone had failed, and by some adroit political manoeuvring Disraeli managed to beat Gladstone at his own game, enfranchising a larger portion of the population than even his rival had imagined. He gambled on the proposition that large portions of the working and lower-middle classes would vote Conservative, but predictably, this view was not shared by many in his party.
In Crossley's letter we see how a provincial dyed-in-the-wool Tory viewed the matter. The relevant part of the letter runs as follows:
The Reform Bill, which some respectable, but rather obtuse Baronet or member of Parliament is selected to do for a Bubble Company - to give plausibility to the scheme which a distinguished professor of Legerdemain ie, my friend Dizzy is making a job of. Alas! Alas! for the name of Stanley. He cannot look at you without being rebuked by the spirit of his great Ancestor ... The Monarchy is doomed.
