ABSTRACT
The Royal Commission and its personnel This tidal wave of social reform owes a great deal to the Liberal Governments, but the elements of this wave were there before the 1906 election. This election not only brought the Liberal party to office, it also brought to Westminster the first Parliamentary Labour Party. Together, the two radical parties would appear to represent a highly developed desire for change in the country as a whole. The origins of this desire are difficult to trace, but the late Gilbert Slater in Poverty and the State, a book which is not up to date but which contains many interesting points, lists possible reasons which are worth quoting in full1 [Slater was active in the field during the period about which he was writing] :
a. The beginning of a scientific study of sociology;2 b. The strengthening of democracy in political and in-
dustrial life, which made impossible the enforcement of a deterrent Poor Law.3
