ABSTRACT
The workers could come to the hustings and shout lustily in their support; but only a handful of them anywhere possessed the vote. Wherever the workers are voteless, or the right of political agitation is not granted to them, working-class political movements are bound, if they exist at all, to take a revolutionary form. For though a Labour Party can and usually does include men of other classes among its candidates, no party can properly represent working-class claims and interests unless it consists predominantly of actual workers. The Act of 1832 did nothing to enfranchise the working classes. Under the conditions of 1837, the enforcement of the principles meant sheer destitution for a large section of the working classes. The Act of 1832, revolutionary as it seemed at the time, had left the basis of the electorate very narrow.
