Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/245

 1834-] The First Reformed Parliament. 231 party was so large, and, what is still more important, how it happened that it was not larger and more influential, it is necessary to see what the Reform Act really was, and what its authors intended it to be ; what it did, and what it left undone ; and how the classes which it enfranchised, and the constituencies which it manipulated, were capable of being managed and controlled. The places from which the Radical party could be re- cruited were increased in number, but the increase was limited, and the possibility of growth small. It was in the large metropolitan and other new boroughs, in which there were not only a considerable number of working men enfran- chised, but where the influence of public opinion could affect voters in other classes, that there was a chance for candidates who took that opinion for their guide, and who wished to gain for it wider and more direct expression in Parliament men who desired that the government of the country should be for the people and by the people. Forty-two new boroughs were created, of which twenty-two were to return two members, and twenty were to return one member each. It was hoped that immediate gain would be derived from this source, and from a few of the older cities and boroughs, such as London, Westminster, Southwark, Liverpool, Bristol, and Newcastle. The chances of growth in the future were that many of the small boroughs which retained members might become more popu- lous and more independent, and that in some of the grouped boroughs, especially in Scotland and Wales, territorial influence might be divided, and in some might be overcome. Only from the last-named direction has the assistance really come. On the other side, the probability of increased strength from the counties was cut off by the operation of the Chandos , Clause, which, by giving votes to occupiers of $Q value and upwards, practically made the landowners paramount. Some of the Radicals and Roebuck was amongst them * hoped that this influence might in time be overcome, and that the tenant farmers would vote in accordance with their own views and
 * " History of the Whig Ministry," vol. ii. p. 198.