 Unlike the previous rules which had favoured Conservatives and Catholics (as the requirements were lower in the countryside), this benefitted the Liberal Party and damaged the Catholics, who lost more than half their seats.The existing electoral law differentiated in tax requirements between cities and countryside; cities (where Liberals were stronger) had to pay higher taxes in order to vote, compared to the countryside (where Catholics were stronger).The Liberal Party held its founding congress two years earlier, on 13 June 1846, where it approved a proposal to lower the tax requirements in order to expand suffrage.