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In the 1850s virtually all Welsh MPs were drawn from the landlord class; by 1906 hardly a single landlord MP was elected. In this change, the key elections were those of 1868 and 1885.

The election of 1868 saw the dramatic victory of Henry Richard at Merthyr Tydfil and the defeat of members of landlord families such as the Douglas-Pennants of Penrhyn Castle. That of 1885 saw the rejection of the owner of Wynnstay and the heir of Golden Grove, the largest and the second largest of the landed estates of Wales.

Although some Welsh landed families supported the Whig Party, the majority were Tories, thus ensuring that up to the 1860s the parliamentary representation of Wales was predominantly of a right-wing character. In 1880, however, Wales returned only four Conservative MPs, a number which fell to nil in 1906.

The main beneficiary of reform was the Liberal Party which dominated Welsh politics from the 1860s until 1922. The party succeeded in attracting the support of a wide range of the classes and groupings in Wales.

Industrialists approved of its policy of free trade; the growing professional class endorsed its emphasis on self help, as did the industrial working class initially; tenant farmers warmed to its support for land reform; Nonconformists saw it as the best hope for the disestablishment of the Church.

The Liberal political culture of late 19th century Wales provided the background for the astonishing career of David Lloyd George, first elected to Parliament in 1890 as member for Caernarfon Boroughs.

By the early 20th century, Liberal traditions of the free market and of limited government seemed at odds with the demand for social reform. Lloyd George, by securing old age pensions, a national insurance scheme and the restricting of the powers of the House of Lords, succeeded in imbuing the party with new radical ideals. The prospects of Liberalism however, were fatally damaged by the blood bath of the First World War.