d; and he
mooted a plan for its reform by an increase of the county members, who
then formed the most independent portion of the House. Further he could
not go, for even in the proposals he made he stood almost alone. The
Tories and the king's friends were not likely to welcome proposals which
would lessen the king's influence. On the other hand the Whigs under
Lord Rockingham had no sympathy with Parliamentary reform. As early as
1769, in his first political publication, their one philosophic thinker,
Edmund Burke, had met a proposal to enlarge the number of constituents
by a counter-proposal to lessen them. "It would be more in the spirit of
our constitution, and more agreeable to the fashion of our best laws,"
he said, "by lessening the number to add to the weight and independency
of our voters." Nor did the Whigs shrink with less haughty disdain from
the popular agitation in which public opinion was forced to express
itself, and which Chatham, while censuring its extravagance, as
deliberately encouraged. It is from the quarrel between Wilkes and the
House of Commons that we may date the influence of public meetings on
English politics. The gatherings of the Middlesex electors in his
support were preludes to the great meetings of Yorkshire freeholders in
which the question of Parliamentary reform rose into importance; and it
was in the movement for reform, and the establishment of corresponding
committees throughout the country for the purpose of promoting it, that
the power of political agitation first made itself felt. Political
societies and clubs took their part in this quickening and organization
of public opinion: and the spread of discussion, as well as the
influence which now began to be exercised by the appearance of vast
numbers of men in support of any political movement, proved that
Parliament, whether it would or no, must soon reckon with the sentiments
of the people at large.

[Sidenote: Publication of debates.]

But an agent far more effective than popular agitation was preparing to
bring the force of public opinion to bear directly on Parliament itself.
We have seen how much of the corruption of the House of Commons sprang
from the secrecy of Parliamentary proceedings, but this secrecy was the
harder to preserve as the nation woke to a greater interest in its own
affairs. From the accession of the Georges imperfect reports of the more
important discussions began to be published under the title of "Th