y than those who must always earn their
daily bread by their daily toil.

The explanation of that change was to be found in the progress of good
government, the extension of popular rights, and the advance of
material improvements. Let us consider these changes in their natural
order.

608. Further Extension of the Right to Vote, 1832-1894.[2]

We have already described the far-reaching effects of the Reform Bill
(S582) of 1832, which, on the one hand, put an end to many "rotten
boroughs," and on the other, granted representation in Parliament to a
number of large towns hitherto without a voice in that body. Three
years later (1835) came the Municipal Reform Act. It placed the
government of towns, with the exception of London,[1] in the hands of
the taxpayers who lived in them.

[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxvi,
S31.
[1] The ancient city of London, or London proper, is a district
covering about a square mile, and was once enclosed in walls; it is
still governed by a lord mayor, court of aldermen, and a common
council elected mainly by members of the "city" companies,
representing the medieval trade guilds (S274). The metropolis outside
the "city" is governed by the London County Council and a number of
associate bodies, among which are the councils of twenty-eight
metropolitan boroughs.

This radical measure put a stop to the arbitrary and corrupt
management which had existed when the town officers elected themselves
and held their positions for life (S599). Futhermore, it prevented
parliamentary candidates from buying up the entire municipal vote,--a
thing which frequently happened so long as the towns were under the
absolute control of a few individuals.

A generation passed before the next important step was taken. Then,
as we have seen, the enactment of the Second Reform Bill (1867) (S600)
doubled the number of voters in England. The next year an act reduced
the property qualification for the right to vote in Scotland and
Ireland; thus the ballot was largely increased throughout the United
Kingdom.

The Third Reform Act (1884) (S600) granted the right to vote for
members of Parliament to more than two million persons, chiefly to the
farm laborers and other workingmen. Since that date, whether the
Liberals or the Conservatives[2] have been in power, "the country," as
Professor Gardiner says, "has been under democratic influence."

[2] The Whigs (S479) included two