If, as the Whigs taught, those who paid the taxes were entitled to a voice in the government, then the manufacturing districts ought to send representatives to Parliament.

It seemed monstrous that places like Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham had no one in the House of Commons to plead for the needs of their inhabitants.
The manufacturer wanted Parliamentary representation because he hoped through Parliament to secure the abolition of the political disabilities of Nonconformists, and to get financial changes made that would make the conditions of trade more profitable.

And he felt that it would be better for the country if he and the class he represented could speak freely in Parliament.
The workman wanted the vote because he had been brought to believe that, possessing the vote, he could make Parliament enact laws that would lighten the hardships of his life.

The whole of the manufacturing class--capitalist and workman alike--could see by 1820 that the House of Commons was the instrument of the electorate, and that to get power they must become electors.

(Yet probably not one per cent.