rospect that the Bill would be passed. A
few hours before the debate on April 29th, 1891, a leaflet (Tract No.
22) was published explaining the futility of the proposal from the
Fabian standpoint, and a copy was sent to every member of Parliament. To
the astonishment of the Liberal leaders a group of Radicals, including
the present Lord Haldane and Sir Edward Grey, opposed the Bill, and it
was defeated by the narrow majority of 13 in a house numbering 354. A
few years later the proposal was dropped out of the Liberal programme,
and the Leasehold Enfranchisement Association itself adopted a new name
and a revised policy.

But the main object of the Fabians was to force on the Liberal Party a
programme of constructive social reform. With few exceptions their
members belonged or had belonged to that party, and it was not
difficult, now that London had learned the value of the Progressive
policy, to get resolutions accepted by Liberal Associations demanding
the adoption of a programme. Sidney Webb in 1888 printed privately a
paper entitled "Wanted a Programme: An Appeal to the Liberal Party," and
sent it out widely amongst the Liberal leaders. The "Star" and the
"Daily Chronicle" took care to publish these resolutions, and everything
was done, which skilful agitators knew, to make a popular demand for a
social reform programme. We did what all active politicians in a
democratic country must do; we decided what the people ought to want,
and endeavoured to do two things, which after all are much the same
thing, to make the people want it, and to make it appear that they
wanted it. The result--how largely attributable to our efforts can
hardly now be estimated--was the Newcastle Program, reluctantly blessed
by Mr. Gladstone and adopted by the National Liberal Federation in
1891.[28]

The General Election of 1892 was anticipated with vivid interest. Since
the election of 1886 English Socialism had come into being and Trade
Unionism had been transformed by the rise of the Dockers, and the other
"new" unions of unskilled labour. But a Labour Party was still in the
future, and our Election Manifesto (Tract 40), issued in June, bluntly
tells the working classes that until they form a party of their own they
will have to choose between the parties belonging to the other classes.
The Manifesto, written by Bernard Shaw, is a brilliant essay on labour
in politics and a criticism of both the existing parties; it assures
the working cl