HAMPSTEAD, _September, 1911._ CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The British Influence--"Government of the People, by the People, for the People"--The Foundations of Democracy--British Democracy Experimental not Doctrinaire--Education to Democracy CHAPTER I THE EARLY STRUGGLES AGAINST THE ABSOLUTISM OF THE CROWN The Great Churchmen--Archbishop Anselm and Norman Autocracy--Thomas a Becket and Henry II.--Stephen Langton and John--The Great Charter CHAPTER II THE BEGINNING OF PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION Democracy and Representative Government--Representative Theory First found in Ecclesiastical Assemblies--The Misrule of Henry III.--Simon of Montfort, Leader of the National Party--Edward I.'s Model Parliament, 1295--The Nobility Predominant in Parliament--The Medieval National Assemblies--The Electors of the Middle Ages--Payment of Parliamentary Representatives--The Political Position of Women in the Middle Ages--No Theory of Democracy in the Middle Ages CHAPTER III POPULAR INSURRECTION IN ENGLAND General Results of Popular Risings--William FitzOsbert, 1196--The Peasant Revolt and its Leaders, 1381--Jack Cade, Captain of Kent, 1450--The Norfolk Rising under Ket, 1549 CHAPTER IV THE STRUGGLE RENEWED AGAINST THE CROWN Parliament under the Tudors--Victory of Parliament over the Stuarts--The Democratic Protest: Lilburne--Winstanley and "The Diggers"--The Restoration CHAPTER V CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT--ARISTOCRACY TRIUMPHANT Government by Aristocrats--Civil and Religious Liberty--Growth of Cabinet Rule--Walpole's rule--The Change in the House of Lords--"Wilkes and Liberty" CHAPTER VI THE RISE OF THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA The Witness of the Middle Ages--The "Social Contract" Theory--Thomas Hobbes--John Locke--Rousseau and French Revolution--American Independence--Thomas Paine--Major Cartwright and the "Radical Reformers"--Thomas Spence--Practical Politics and Democratic Ideals CHAPTER VII PARLIAMENTARY REFORM AND THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF THE PEOPLE The Industrial Revolution--The Need for Parliamentary Reform--Manufacturing Centres Unrepresented in Parliament--The Passage of the Great Reform Bill--The Working Class still Unrepresented--Chartism--The Hyde Park Railings, 1866--Household Suffrage--Working-class Representation in Parliament--Removal of Religious Disabilities: Catholics, Jews and Freethinkers--The Enfranchisement of Women CHAPTER VIII DEMOCRACY AT WORK Local Government--The Workman in the House of Commons--Working-class Leaders in Parliament--The Present Position of the House of Lords--The Popularity of the Crown--The Democratic Ideals: Socialism and Social Reform--Land Reform and the Single Tax CHAPTER IX THE WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT: ITS STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS East and West--Tyranny under Democratic Forms--The Obvious Dangers--Party Government--Bureaucracy--Working-Class Ascendancy--On Behalf of Democracy LIST OF PLATES KING JOHN GRANTING MAGNA CHARTA MAGNA CHARTA--A FACSIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM