ABSTRACT
When Liverpool resigned early in 1827 the cause of parliamentary reform seemed as forlorn as at any time since the end of the Napoleonic Wars. As radical leaders and opponents of reform alike knew, only high prices and unemployment could translate an intellectual case for constitutional change into a mass movement of incalculably threatening aspect. Wellington's government experienced the usual initial differences of view. Influential provincial journals like the Manchester Guardian and Leeds Mercury had been pro-reform for some years; by 1831 they had been joined by some sections of the erstwhile Tory press, like Nottingham Journal. The first Reform Bill, which Lord John Russell presented to the Commons in March 1831, reflected Grey's determination. The Home Secretary, Viscount Melbourne, for one, was said to have been 'frightened to death' by the Bristol riots. The crisis of the 'Days of May' which followed makes little sense without an appreciation of the pressures generated both inside Westminster and 'out of doors'.
