ABSTRACT
After the war with Napoleonic France ended in 1815, the political influence of the public continued to grow. At the same time increasing demands were made for changes in the way in which the country was run. In 1820, Peel wrote:
Do not you think that there is a feeling becoming daily more general and more confirmed – that is, independent of the pressure of taxation or any immediate cause, in favour of some undefined change in the mode of governing the country? It seems to me a curious crisis – when public opinion never had such influence on public measure and yet never was so dissatisfied with the share which it possessed ... 1
