ABSTRACT
Mr. A. W. Humphrey begins his book with an acceptance of the claims of George Jacob Holyoake, the well-known Co-operative and Secularist leader, to have been the pioneer of working-class representation in Parliament. Labour representation begins with the issue, over the signatures of twenty-four leading Trade Unionists, of a manifesto “to the People of England on the Direct Representation of Labour in Parliament”. Henry Broadhurst held office in a Liberal Government and was Hardie’s principal antagonist when the Socialists were trying to bring the Trades Union Congress over to the policy of independent Labour representation. As for the middle-class Radicals, who claimed to be the guardians of democratic interests in Parliament, their reception of the claim of working men to sit there was mixed and hesitant. The proposed Convention of delegates from all parts of the country which was to concert the working-class campaign had not met; and no parliamentary fund had been created to finance workmen’s candidatures.
