ABSTRACT
The mass agitation for parliamentary reform which followed the peace in 1815 had its origins in the earlier Reform movement which dated back to the Wilkes affair of 1763-74. After 1781 the Association movement declined rapidly. Outside London and Yorkshire there was relatively little support for parliamentary reform. The American crisis, which had stimulated the agitation in the first place, came to an end. It needed the writings of the English democrats and the outbreak of the French Revolution to root the Reform movement in deeper soil. Edmund Burke's real target was the English Reformers rather than the French revolutionaries. To the former, it seemed that Burke's arguments could all too easily lend themselves to an inflexible defence of the status quo. Therefore from the moment Revolution broke out across the Channel, members of the Commons were unconvinced by arguments that timely parliamentary reform was the only sure means of avoiding revolution in England.
