Pells' and the 'Tellers of the Exchequer' ceased
to exist.[70] Other offices seem to have melted away by degrees,
whenever a chance offered.

Many other of the old abuses had ceased to require any special
denunciations from political theorists. The general principle was
established, and what remained was to apply it in detail. The prison
system was no longer in want of a Howard or a Bentham. Abuses remained
which occupied the admirable Mrs. Fry; and many serious difficulties
had to be solved by a long course of experiment. But it was no longer
a question whether anything should be doing, but of the most
efficient means of bringing about an admittedly desirable end. The
agitation for the suppression of the slave-trade again had been
succeeded by the attack upon slavery. The system was evidently doomed,
although not finally abolished till after the Reform Bill; and
ministers were only considering the question whether the abolition
should be summary or gradual, or what compensation might be made to
vested interests. The old agitation had been remarkable, as I have
said, not only for its end but for the new kind of machinery to which
it had applied. Popular agitation[71] had taken a new shape. The
county associations formed in the last days of the American war of
independence, and the societies due to the French revolution had set a
precedent. The revolutionary societies had been suppressed or had died
out, as opposed to the general spirit of the nation, although they had
done a good deal to arouse political speculation. In the period of
distress which followed the war the Radical reformers had again held
public meetings, and had again been met by repressive measures. The
acts of 1817 and 1819[72] imposed severe restrictions upon the right
of public meeting. The old 'county meeting,' which continued to be
common until the reform period, and was summoned by the
lord-lieutenant or the sheriff on a requisition from the freeholders,
had a kind of constitutional character, though I do not know its
history in detail.[73] The extravagantly repressive measures were an
anachronism, or could only be enforced during the pressure of an
intense excitement. In one way or other, public meetings were soon
being held as frequently as ever. The trial of Queen Caroline gave
opportunity for numerous gatherings, and statesmen began to find that
they must use instead of suppressing them. Canning[74] appears to have
been the first minister to ma