 |
|
 |
|
Even where people could, in theory, choose their parliamentary representatives, the system was fixed by those who had money. There were 'rotten boroughs', where the electorate could be bribed to vote for a particular candidate, and 'pocket boroughs', where one person, known as a patron, controlled the voting rights in a particular constituency. Members of Parliament chosen by such a biased and corrupt system inevitably tried to protect the interests of those who had power and property and ignored the needs of those who had neither.
|
|
It was increasingly difficult for landowners and their representatives in government to ignore the rising tide of anger generated by those on the lower rungs of society. A pamphlet written in 1791 by Tom Paine, entitled The Rights of Man, sold 200,000 copies. A response by Mary Wollstonecraft, called A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, generated heated debate. Demonstrations often numbered tens of thousands of people.
|
|
|
