# 1790 British general election > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/1790_British_general_election > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/1790_British_general_election.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_British_general_election > Source revision: 1343748706 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Election in Great Britain 1790 British general election ← 1784 16 June – 28 July 1790 (1790-06-16 – 1790-07-28) 1796 → ← outgoing members elected members → All 558 seats in the House of Commons 280 seats needed for a majority First party Second party Leader William Pitt Charles James Fox Party Pittite Foxite Leader's seat Cambridge University Westminster Seats won 340 183 Seat change 60 28 Composition of the House of Commons following the election. Prime Minister before election William Pitt Pittite Prime Minister after election William Pitt Pittite The **1790 British general election** returned members to serve in the [House of Commons](/source/House_of_Commons_of_Great_Britain) of the 17th [Parliament of Great Britain](/source/Parliament_of_Great_Britain) to be summoned after the merger of the [Parliament of England](/source/Parliament_of_England) and the [Parliament of Scotland](/source/Parliament_of_Scotland) in 1707. ## Political situation The Prime Minister since 1783, [William Pitt the Younger](/source/William_Pitt_the_Younger), led a coalition of [Whig](/source/Whigs_(British_political_party)) and [Tory](/source/Tories_(British_political_party)) politicians. The principal opposition to Pitt was a faction of Whigs led by [Charles James Fox](/source/Charles_James_Fox) and the [Duke of Portland](/source/William_Henry_Cavendish_Cavendish-Bentinck%2C_3rd_Duke_of_Portland). ## Dates of election The general election was held between 16 June 1790 and 28 July 1790. At this period elections did not take place at the same time in every constituency. The returning officer in each county or [parliamentary borough](/source/Parliamentary_borough) fixed the precise date (see [hustings](/source/Hustings) for details of the conduct of the elections). This was the first general election after the law had been changed in 1785 to limit the maximum duration of polling in county elections to fifteen days. Under the old law, the poll could remain open longer. For example, the election for [Sussex](/source/Sussex_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) in 1774 had polls open for 24 days (ignoring Sundays when polling did not take place). It was hoped that the change would reduce the enormous expense of most contested county elections. ## Summary of the constituencies See [1796 British general election](/source/1796_British_general_election), for details. The constituencies used were the same throughout the existence of the Parliament of Great Britain. ## Results ### Seats summary Parliamentary seats Tory/Pittite 65.0% Whig/Foxite 35.0% ## See also - [List of parliaments of Great Britain](/source/List_of_parliaments_of_Great_Britain) - [List of MPs elected in the 1790 British general election](/source/List_of_MPs_elected_in_the_1790_British_general_election) ## References - *British Electoral Facts 1832–1999*, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000). (For dates of elections before 1832, see the footnote to Table 5.02). v t e Elections in Great Britain General elections 1708 1710 1713 1715 1722 1727 1734 1741 1747 1754 1761 1768 1774 1780 1784 1790 1796 → British elections (1800–present) This Great Britain election-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:GB-election-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AGB-election-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:GB-election-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [1790 British general election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_British_general_election) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_British_general_election?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.