THE death of Scott fell in the year 1832, which is commonly
taken as marking a turning point between periods into which,
for convenience of treatment, literary history is divided. There
is more reason for attributing such importance to 1832 than in
most cases. It was the year of the Reform Bill, which by ex-
tending the franchise and to some extent equalizing representa-
tion between the growing cities and the counties, gave to the
middle class the political power which its importance deserved.
The Reform Bill was a recognition of the fact that Great Britain
had ceased to be an agricultural and had become a manufactur-
ing and commercial country. This change was emphasized
by the agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws, or duties on
foodstuffs, which took place in 1846. The Industrial Revolu-
tion had called into being an immense population of workers,
and given rise to a new set of social problems, met by the Poor
Law of 1834, which attempted a scientific treatment of poverty
through the establishment of work-houses. The demand for
political representation of the masses took form in the movement
for a People's Charter, of which the first clause was universal
male suffrage. The Chartists were especially active in 1839 and
1848, the latter a year of revolution throughout Europe, and
although they failed to move Parliament by their monster peti-
tions, their cause was won through the later Reform Bills of
1867 and 1884. The necessity of popular education was recog-
nized by the National Education Act of 1852.

These measures were the result of the long domination of
British politics by the Liberal Party. Liberalism was a middle-
class philosophy. It was linked with the economic doctrine of
laissez faire, which held that economic laws such as supply and

-185-