IF we except such affairs as food-riots and occasional mob activities
in London and elsewhere, it was in the Wilkes movement ( 1763-1771)
that the working classes had their earliest experience of political
activity. This 'tribune of the people' led what he called the
'middling and inferior classes' in the first organised demand for
the reform of Parliament. His skirmishes with the autocratic rule
of the King and his Tory ministers were followed up by an attack
on the entire system of corruption and privilege, which made both
the election of members to Parliament and their attitude inside the
House of Commons a mere parody of representation of the people.
Popular enthusiasm flared vigorously from 1769 to 1771, and left
behind it valuable lessons in political organisation. The struggle
of the American Colonists, especially the Declaration of American
Independence ( 1776), brought new life to the agitation for civil and
religious liberty in Great Britain; and speedily many members of
the middle classes, who had been left untouched by a bare democratic
appeal, were roused by the increasing burdens of taxation and by
depression of trade to blame the expense of the war on the corrupt
oligarchy, whose unimaginative handling of the situation had caused
the conflict which they were now disastrously mismanaging. A
well-organised campaign outside parliament was helped by sympa-
thisers inside; and when the Whigs came to power in 1782 Burke's
Civil Establishment Bill considerably weakened the King's power
to buy seats for his followers and to purchase their continued loyalty.
The concession of a substantial instalment of 'economical reform',
without electoral reform, satisfied a large part of the Reformers'
following, especially among the county freeholders. But within a
few years the celebration of the centenary of the 'Glorious Revolu-
tion' of 1688 partly revived the Radical movement.

See "Short History", Part I, chapter 3."Common People", chapters 7, 8, and 12.

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