of them could express clearly any theory of popular sovereignty.) The old Whig families, kept out of office by the Tories whom George III.

had placed in power, and who now controlled the House of Commons, supported reform and the enfranchisement of the middle class because they saw no way of getting back into power except by a new electorate and a redistribution of Parliamentary seats.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the landowner, still Whig, though now, as a general rule enrolled with the Unionist Party, has not been excluded from political power, but the representatives of the middle-class and of the working people are predominant in the House of Commons.

The claim of the House of Lords to reject the bills of the Commons has been, in our time, subjected to the criticism formerly extended to the royal prerogative, and an Act--the Parliament Act--has now been passed which formally requires the Lords to accept, without serious amendment, every Bill sent up from the Commons in three successive sessions.
The transition from monarchy to aristocracy in England was brought about at the price of civil war.

In many countries democracy has been born in revolution, and the birth pains have been hard and bitter.