REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 87 



and were already exciting the antagonism that 

 was to be so serious in the middle of the cen 

 tury. The other elements nowhere became 

 numerous or assertive enough to produce a 

 perceptible impression. They were mostly arti 

 sans or farmers, Presbyterians or English dis 

 senters, well adapted to conform without fric 

 tion to the social conditions into which they 

 came. A large proportion of them had left 

 their homes under pressure of social or economic 

 discontent and distress, and so far as they gave 

 a basis for opinion as to Great Britain they 

 confirmed the conviction that the people there 

 were a very decent body, shamefully oppressed 

 by a haughty group of peers and clergy. This 

 opinion derived new support from the fate of 

 the Chartist movement in the late thirties. The 

 demands of the Chartists were to Americans 

 elementary political rights; and the summary 

 treatment of the agitation strengthened the 

 notion that English liberty under Whig domina 

 tion was as unreal as under the Tories. 



