From all of which the next step takes us to the revolution in politics which made England for the first time a really democratic country. I suppose it is more than possible to exaggerate the influence of the industrial changes upon these political changes, but the tendency does not seem to be in that direction. The Wilkes episode with all its significance, the influence of the French Revolution pro and con, the general trend of the age, are factors usually well built upon. The agitations which shook the nation in the early nineteenth century, the focussing of great areas of population in the new centers of manufacture, the combination of the sense of industrial injustice such as was evidenced in the excesses of the “Luddites,” with the sense of political injustice of which the Manchester riots were a symptom--all this not only wrought profound differences in the social fabric of England, but was, I believe, the greatest single factor in bringing about the great reform bill. Whether superlative or comparative there is room for difference of opinion; but unquestionably this effect of the actual machine upon the political machine is to be made a point of in presenting to the class the drama of that peaceful (compared with that of other countries) and salutary transition from a government altogether of the land holders to an aristocratic democracy. This revolution, which crowned the slow evolution of the British Constitution, which was so unlike the cataclysm across the narrow seas, was caused by a series of events stretching over the backward centuries. That is a mere truism to our mature “grown-up” mentality which has a taste for poking its nose into the roots of things and for generalizing therefrom. But not so with the fledgling mentalities before us--enough for them that the very old time struggles helped along; that seeds of a free spirit were not lacking in the teutonic blood; and that the events of the seventeenth century did much to down the pride and power of royalty. With this much for a foundation, the ultimate effects of the new order of industry are comparatively simple to comprehend, and easy to view, like the superstructure of the building which the unseen base supports. The Napoleonic Era.