World history; World history -- Juvenile literature
In England, where the members of Parliament were still elected according
to a Royal Decree of the year 1265, and where a large number of recently
created industrial centres were without representation, they brought
about the passing of the Reform Bill of the year 1882, which changed the
electoral system and gave the class of the factory-owners more influence
upon the legislative body. This however caused great discontent among
the millions of factory workers, who were left without any voice in the
government. They too began an agitation for the right to vote. They put
their demands down in a document which came to be known as the "People's
Charter." The debates about this charter grew more and more violent.
They had not yet come to an end when the revolutions of the year 1848
broke out. Frightened by the threat of a new outbreak or Jacobinism and
violence, the English government placed the Duke of Wellington, who
was now in his eightieth year, at the head of the army, and called for
Volunteers. London was placed in a state of siege and preparations were
made to suppress the coming revolution.
But the Chartist movement killed itself through bad leadership and no
acts of violence took place. The new class of wealthy factory owners,
(I dislike the word "bourgeoisie" which has been used to death by the
apostles of a new social order,) slowly increased its hold upon the
government, and the conditions of industrial life in the large cities
continued to transform vast acres of pasture and wheat-land into dreary
slums, which guard the approach of every modern European town.
EMANCIPATION
THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF MACHINERY DID NOT BRING ABOUT THE ERA OF
HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY WHICH HAD BEEN PREDICTED BY THE GENERATION
WHICH SAW THE STAGE COACH REPLACED BY THE RAILROAD. SEVERAL REMEDIES
WERE SUGGESTED BUT NONE OF THESE QUITE SOLVED THE PROBLEM
IN the year 1831, just before the passing of the first Reform Bill
Jeremy Bentham, the great English student of legislative methods and the
most practical political reformer of that day, wrote to a friend: "The
way to be comfortable is to make others comfortable. The way to make
others comfortable is to appear to love them. The way to appear to love
them is to love them in reality." Jeremy was an honest man. He said what
he believed to be true. His opinions were shared by thousands of his
countrymen. They felt responsible for the happiness of their less
fortunate neighbours and they tried their very best to help them. And
Heaven knows it was time that something be done!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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