The rule of the aristocracy saw England become a great power among the nations of the world, and the British Navy supreme over the navies of Europe; but it saw also an industrial population, untaught and uncared for, sink deeper and deeper into savagery and misery.

For a time in the eighteenth century the farmer and the peasant were prosperous, but by the close of that century the small farmer was a ruined man, and with the labourer was carried by the industrial revolution into the town.

The worst times for the English labourer in town and country since the Norman Conquest were the reign of Edward VI.

and the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
The development of our political institutions into their present form; the establishment of our Party system of government by Cabinet, and of the authority of the Prime Minister; the growth of the supreme power of the Commons, not only over the throne but over the Lords also: these were the work of the aristocracy of the eighteenth century, and were attained by steps so gradual as to be almost imperceptible.

No idea of democracy guided the process; yet our modern democratic system is firm-rooted upon the principles and privileges of the Constitution as thus established.