ABSTRACT
Antiquarians among the Intellectuals of the Reform movement produced historical evidence to prove that Parliament had only of recent time ceased to be a delegate body, and that the supersession of its ancient representative function by the grosser prejudices of a corrupt age was due to the monopoly of the representation by boroughmongers and placemen. When Reform candidates appeared at the hustings in 1831 and 1832 assuring their potential constituents that they were but instruments whereby to work the will of the electors, scandal was caused among the adherents of the more Conservative doctrine. Tories approached the problems of Government authority from another angle. Authority to the Tory was not a matter of a general election at all.
