hey numbered less than
thirty thousand, and the procession of a million which was to march
across Westminster Bridge, to the Houses of Parliament, dwindled to
half a dozen. When the huge petition was unrolled it was found to
contain only about a third of the boasted number of names. Further
examination showed that many of the signatures were spurious, having
been put down in jest, or copied from gravestones and old London
directories. With that discovery the whole movement collapsed, and
the House of Commons rang with "inextinguishable laughter" over the
national scare.

Still the demands of the Chartists had a solid foundation of good
sense, which the blustering bravado of the leaders of the movement
could not wholly destroy. Most, if not all, of the reforms asked for
were needed. Since then, the steady, quiet influence of reason and of
time has compelled Parliament to grant the greater part of them.[1]

[1] Sir Thomas Erskine May, in his "Constitutional History of
England," says: "Not a measure has been forced upon Parliament which
the calm judgment of a later time has not since approved; not an
agitation has failed which posterity has not condemned."

The printed or written ballot has been substituted for the old method
of electing candidates by a show of hands or by shouting yes or no,--
a method by which it was easy to make blunders, and equally easy to
commit frauds. Every voter must now have his name and address
registered in a printed list. Every voter, too, casts a secret ballot
and so safeguards his political independence (S609). The property
qualification has been abolished (S591, note 1), so that the day
laborer may now run for Parliament. He is sure, too, of being well
paid, for Parliament voted (1911) to give 400 pounds a year to every
member of the House of Commons. The right of "manhood suffrage" has
been greatly extended, and before the twentieth century has advanced
much farther every man in England will probably have a voice in the
elections.

592. The Corn Laws (1841).

At the accession of the Queen protective duties or taxes existed in
Great Britain on all imported breadstuffs and on many manufactured
articles. Sir Robert Peel, the Conservative Prime Minister (1841),
favored a reduction in the last class of duties, but believed it
necessary to maintain the former in order to keep up the price of
grain and thus encourage the English farmers. The result of this
policy was great dist