ABSTRACT
Opinion during the Nineteenth Century (1905) It may seem absurd to suggest that democracy has not been taken seriously in Britain when it-or ‘something like’ it in Dicey’s phrase-could plausibly be said to have been in place since the beginning of the century. Plausibly, but misleadingly. It is not just a matter of quibbles, though scarcely trivial ones, to the effect that in 1900 full manhood suffrage had yet to be achieved, that women were entirely excluded from the suffrage and would not be included on parity with men for another quarter century, that such supports of democratic politics as payment of elected members were still absent, that forms of plural voting remained until mid-century, and that the House of Lords-as the budget crisis of 1909-11 was to show-remained a major undemocratic player in British politics. Against the self-image, it is worth recording that pre-1914 Britain had the most restricted franchise of any ‘democratic’ state except Hungary.1
