152 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1820- people obtained for it consideration, not as the wild demand of impatient ignorance, but as something brought by the soundness of its principles within what a later statesman has called "the range of practical politics." In this way, too, the energy, which might have been lost in mere declamatory agitation, was concentrated and focussed in Parliament. The force which was contained in public opinion, like that in wind or steam, was practically wasted until the machine and the mill were constructed through which it could be utilized. The advantage to the Whigs was even more direct and immediate. Whether for the triumph of their principles or for the gratifi- cation of their ambition, their object as a political party was to obtain place and power. Any success of the Whigs would involve some change, however small, in constitution and policy which might injuriously affect the interests of the governing class. It was certain, therefore, that the masters of the present constituencies, the manipulators of Government seats, the owners of pocket boroughs, the territorial magnates of counties, would not entrust power to the hands of a party favourable to reform of any sort Only by pressure of an extraordinary kind could this dead weight of Conservativism be overcome. Nothing less than an agitation undertaken in real earnest by all sections of the unenfranchised ; the middle class in towns as well as the lower class throughout the country ; the con- victions of the educated giving strength and direction to the popular desires and determination ; nothing less than a thoroughly national movement of this kind could overcome the obstacles to political progress. Such an agitation could neither be aroused nor led by the Whig party as it then existed. The greater number of the Whigs were men who did not wish to materially reduce the influence of rank and wealth in the government of the country. They owned boroughs and dominated counties, and were naturally unwilling to destroy the power in which they shared. They were honestly desirous of effecting reforms in the administration and in the finances of the country ; they would have secured and extended the
