The Second Reform Bill built on the Reform Bill of 1832 in that it continued the progressive push for democratization of the existing British government. The Reform Bill of 1867 expanded "voting privileges from the upper levels of property holders to less wealthy and broader segments of the population" (Reform Bill, 994). The Victorian age is noteworthy for being a period of great social transition (as demonstrated in the aforementioned Reform Bills) in which people outside of aristocracy began to have a say in the government. This was brought on by a burgeoning, literate, and fiscally dependent middle class. This new middle class of people used their newfound knowledge to critique, and subsequently, to improve their living conditions. For example, Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist asked readers to consider the living conditions of the urban poor (a story featured in a magazine that was read and produced by members of the middle class). 

Source: "Reform Bill.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, 1994, pg. 994. Trailll, Henry Duff. Social England - A Record of the Progress of the People in Religion, Laws, Learning, Arts, Industry, Commerce, Science, Literature and Manners, From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. 1901. University of California Libraries.