1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 459 and in a lesser degree the humanitarian sentiments fashionable in France. Some account, too, of the origin and early stages of the industrial revolu- tion is given in this introductory chapter. Having thus put before his readers an outline of the political and social position in 1789, he proceeds to trace the changes it passed through after that date. His first chapter deals with the check to progress during the war with revolutionary France and the repressive policy of the government. Previously constitutional in character, the movement in favour of parlia- mentary reform became revolutionary in spirit. Fear of that spirit caused the education of the poor to be considered dangerous, and even Sunday schools were suspected of being nurseries of Jacobinism, combinations of workmen were made illegal, and though the victory of the anti-slave-trade agitation was assured in 1792 its accomplishment was delayed. The delay, we are told, was merely due to the democratic methods of the agitation. Several weighty reasons, as Lecky has shown, 1 deterred Pitt from pressing for the extinction of the trade. The first Factory Act, however, small though its benefits seem to us, proves that where fear of Jacobinism did not influence the governing class it was still open to humane feeling. The different spirit that prevailed during the war with Napoleon is well brought out, and is illustrated by the relief granted to dissenters by the ' new Toleration Act ', ecclesiastical reforms, and, though its results were meagre, Romilly's attack on the severity of the penal code. But it was, as Dr. Mathieson says, a time of promise rather than of actual growth. A distinct though by no means great advance towards the social condition of the present day was made during the generally troublous five years that followed the peace. These years are reviewed here in a separate chapter, in which we have a concise history of the poor-laws down to the timid attempt made in 1818 to introduce improvements in the system of relief. Some extraordinary instances are also given of the abuse of charitable endowments for education, the exposure of which was due to Brougham's persistent endeavours. The economic and political troubles of these years are carefully treated. Acute distress set in with the prospect of a bad harvest in 1816, coming as it did on the derangement of industry consequent on the conclusion of peace. Riots and a belief in the existence of widespread disaffection provoked a return to a policy of repression far more generally detested than in Pitt's day, for being adopted in time of peace it was regarded simply as a means of restricting freedom. Other causes contributed to the crisis of 1819, which was followed by the first serious attempt of the working class to obtain political power. The government measures known as the Six Acts had one unlooked-for result. Bitter feelings had long existed between the whigs and the radicals, each party being set on a reform of parliament after its own heart. Now the zeal with which the whigs condemned these acts pleased the working men and combined with the growing consciousness of the radicals that they were powerless while acting alone, and the popularity the whigs gained by upholding the cause of the queen made it certain that they, and not the radicals, would control the movement for reform. How they brought it to a victorious end is told briefly, 1 History of England in the Eighteenth Century (8vo edition), jr. 65-7.
