ABSTRACT
The starting-point for this essay is J. R. Vincent’s Pollbooks: How Victorians Voted 1 —an important contribution to our understanding of the role of class in nineteenth-century history, which appeared too late for me to discuss at any length in chapter 1. The essay itself is a postscript to the one on Bath. A postscript suggested by Vincent’s book. In some ways Mr Vincent’s argument is similar to my own. He also uses evidence from the poll books to support his contention about the nature of political conflict in the first half of the century. My main disagreement with his analysis stems from the use he makes of the occupational lists of voters he has abstracted from them.
