REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 69 



The Parliamentary reform of 1832 did not 

 make Great Britain a democracy, but it put 

 in a very clear light a trend of social and polit 

 ical progress that must narrow the distance 

 between the British and the American systems. 

 All the reforming movements that have been 

 noticed promoted liberty, in the sense of re 

 moving from some class of the population re 

 strictions which, however valuable at one time, 

 had lost their utility. In the United States the 

 restrictions had never existed, because they 

 had never been useful; and for that reason and 

 in the sense suggested America had led Great 

 Britain in respect to liberty. The era of the 

 Reform Act was signalized by the appearance 

 of political practices that were new and terrify 

 ing in England. Associations for partisan agi 

 tation among the townspeople were larger, 

 wealthier, and better organized than had ever 

 been the case before. Both leaders and follow 

 ers in these political unions displayed a high 

 degree of genuine skill in the game of politics 

 and beat the aristocracy in the field where it 

 claimed to be alone qualified to appear. The 

 repressive legislation of 1819 was no longer in 

 effect, so far as its most rigorous features were 

 concerned, and the British people enjoyed in 



