ABSTRACT
R O M IL L Y ’S opinion, that the effect of the Revolution in English politics was purely negative or reactionary, must carry great weight. There were men who judged otherwise. A Scottish Radical of the early nineteenth century wrote that “ a spark was kindled at the French Revolution which the enemies of freedom think they have extinguished, but still it burns.” 1 Byron, in the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold, speaks to the same purpose :—
The nature of this survival, in so far as it was political, is best defined in the comment made by Francis Place on an article by the Scottish economist, M‘Culloch. “ Mr M'Culloch,” he wrote, “ says, ‘ It is quite a mistake to impute the existing discontents to the existing distress ; they originate in other causes,' and that ‘wise measures will never be adopted without a reform in Parliament.' This is a plain statement of two very important truths, and the conviction of their truth has been steadily and regularly marching and spreading over the face of the country ever since the Constitutional and Corresponding Societies became active in 1792.” 3 This conclusion is contrary, on a superficial view, to the weight of evidence, which rather
suggests that the march of Radical opinion suffered a disastrous check, and that, before it recommenced, the conditions of politics, the temper of the country, and the social background, had been completely changed.
