its force, nor was it destined to do
so before it had awakened in the multitude a spirit of quickened
intelligence and self-respect which made them restive under political
servitude and in the presence of acknowledged but unredressed
grievances. Education, through the disinterested efforts of a group of
philanthropists, was, moreover, beginning--in some slight degree, at
least--to leaven the mass of ignorance in the country, the power of the
press was making itself felt, and other agencies were also beginning to
dispel the old apathy born of despair.

The French Revolution, with its dramatic overthrow of tyranny and its
splendid watchword, 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' made its own appeal
to the hope as well as the imagination of the English people, although
the sanguinary incidents which marked it retarded the movement for
Reform in England, and as a matter of fact sent the Reformers into the
wilderness for the space of forty years.

More than a quarter of a century before the birth of Lord John Russell,
who was destined to carry the first Reform Bill through the House of
Commons, Lord Chatham had not hesitated to denounce the borough
representation of the country as the 'rotten part of our constitution,'
which, he said, resembled a mortified limb; and he had added the
significant words, 'If it does not drop, it must be amputated.' He held
that it was useless to look for the strength and vigour of the
constitution in little pocket-boroughs, and that the nation ought rather
to rely on the 'great cities and counties.' Fox, in a debate in 1796,
declared that peace could never be secured until the Constitution was
amended. He added: 'The voice of the representatives of the people must
prevail over the executive ministers of the Crown; the people must be
restored to their just rights.' These warnings fell unheeded, until the
strain of long-continued war, bad harvests, harsh poor laws, and
exorbitant taxes on the necessities of life conspired to goad the people
to the verge of open rebellion.

[Sidenote: 'FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE']

Wilkes, Pitt, Burdett, Cartwright, and Grey, again and again returned to
the charge, only to find, however, that the strongholds of privilege
were not easily overthrown. The year 1792, in which, by a noteworthy
coincidence, Lord John Russell was born, was rendered memorable in the
history of a movement with which his name will always be associated by
the formation of the society of the '