Michael Lynch sees a new British state emerging in the wake of the Reform Act of 1832. This began the widening of the electoral franchise, from less than 5,000 landholders, which was to continue with further acts in 1868 and 1884. Lynch argues that there were concentric identities for Scots, where "a new Scottishness, a new Britishness and a revised sense of local pride – were held together by a phenomenon bigger than all of them – a Greater Britain whose stability rested on the Empire". Lynch also argues that the three main institutions which protected Scotland's identity - the Church, education and the law - were all on the retreat in this period.