Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/72

 58 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

limitation in 1825, the platform had already been actually untram- meled for four years. Since then this tremendous engine of popular power has been subject only to the limited restrictions imposed by the ordinary law.

Very quickly after acquiring its freedom the platform gained two of the most amazing victories in the entire history of popu- lar government, Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and Parlia- mentary Reform in 1832. Hitherto the platform had lacked that compact organization which is necessary to carry any great measure. This was taught to the people of Ireland by O'Connel and Sheil in the years from 1823 to 1829; the English reformers learned the lesson from across St. George's Channel. These two achievements of the platform demonstrated how public opinion through the use of this organ could wring by sheer force from a hostile government laws of the first importance. "The first great result of the agitation for the Reform Act was to instal the platform formally among the great political institutions of the country — to raise it at once into one of the governing authori- ties of the kingdom." ^"^ What could not be repressed must be utilized, and for the first time we begin to see cabinet ministers making frequent use of the platform. Men who had hitherto disdained to resort to public speaking now began to take every occasion to put their views before the people. The didactic function of the platform developed by leaps and bounds.

The history of the platform during the second third of the century is connected with the Chartist movement in which it performed a pre-eminently instructive service, the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the second parliamentary reform. During the last generation it has been employed without cessation upon every political question of any importance whatever and has come to be continually used by statesmen of the first rank. It is the increas- ing number of speeches by the prime minister and the inner cir- cle of the cabinet which, in this connection, distinguishes the last decade. Co-operating with the press, the platform has at length secured for public opinion the ultimate control of governmental action in England.

"Jephson, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 128.