apply them to English aristocratic
society and government. In 1790 societies began to be formed, meetings
held, and pamphlets issued by men who sympathized with the popular
movements in France. Indeed, some of these reformers were suspected of
wishing to introduce a republic in England. After the outbreak of the
war the ministry determined to put down this agitation, and between
1793 and 1795 all public manifestation of sympathy with such
principles was crushed out, although at the cost of considerable
interference with what had been understood to be established personal
rights. Much discontent continued through the whole period of the
war, especially among the lower classes, though it did not take the
form of organized political agitation. It was a period, as will be
seen, of violent economic and social changes, which, although they
enriched England as a whole and made it possible for her to support
the unprecedented expenses of the long war, were very hard upon the
working classes, who were used to the old ways.

After the peace of 1815, however, political agitation began again. The
Whig party seemed inclined to resume the effort to carry certain
moderate reforms which had been postponed on account of the war, and
down below this movement there was a more radical agitation for
universal suffrage and for a more democratic type of government
generally. On the other hand, the Tory government, which had been in
power during almost the whole war period, was determined to oppose
everything in the nature of reform or change, on the ground that the
outrages accompanying the French Revolution arose from just such
efforts to make reforming alterations in the government. The radical
agitation was supported by the discontented masses of the people who
were suffering under heavy taxes, high prices, irregular employment,
and many other evils which they felt to be due to their exclusion from
any share in the government. The years intervening between 1815 and
1830 were therefore a period of constant bitterness and contention
between the higher and the lower classes. Mass meetings which were
called by the popular leaders were dissolved by the government,
radical writers were prosecuted by the government for libel, the
habeas corpus act was suspended repeatedly, and threatened rioting was
met with severe measures. The actions of the ministers, while upheld
by the higher classes, were bitterly attacked by others as being
unconstitution