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 ment of life. I think it was strange that the former as well as the latter section of Tories were opposed to reform of the House of Commons. The result was that it fell wholly to the Whigs to force it on; and the Whigs, being weak in Parliament, did not scruple to appeal to the passions of uneducated people outside Parliament. They encouraged ‘monster meetings’, ‘monster petitions’ and such like. There were riots in favour of Reform. At one riot at Manchester in 1819 the soldiers had to be called in, and several people were shot. Very likely these were only innocent spectators and not rioters at all; those who get up riots are usually careful to keep out of the way when their suppression begins. Stiff laws were passed in Parliament to prevent such riotous meetings for the future.

From 1820 to 1830 the question of Reform was never for a moment allowed to slumber, and at last in 1832 the Duke of Wellington, who, though opposed to Reform himself, was always moderate and sensible, advised the Tories to give way, and a ‘Reform Bill’ was at last got through both Houses, an eminently sensible and moderate Bill. The number of members in the House was not increased, but the absurd old boroughs with few or no inhabitants lost their right of sending members, and the great growing towns got that right. All persons in the counties with a moderate amount of property, and all persons in the towns who had a house worth £10 a year, got votes for the election of members. The educated people of Great Britain and Ireland were very fairly represented in the House of Commons between 1832 and 1867.

But this did not stop agitation outside. A group of men called ‘Chartists’ began to cry out for something