The business of farming was worked more scientifically, with better tools and greater success; but after the middle of the eighteenth century the condition of the agricultural labourer got no better, and now the great mass of the rural population were mere labourers....

Pauperism became more and more a pressing evil, especially after 1782, when _Gilbert's Act_ abolished the workhouse test (which compelled all who received relief from the rates to go into the half-imprisonment of a poor-house), and the system of poor law doles in aid of wages was encouraged by the high prices at the end of the century.

In 1803 one-seventh of the people was in receipt of poor law relief."[77] But with all the considerable distress, in town and country alike amongst the working people, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, swift progress was taking place in agriculture and in manufactures.

Only, the accumulated wealth fell into fewer hands, and the fluctuations in the demand for goods, caused partly by the opening up of new markets, brought successions of good times and bad times.

"The workmen shared but partially in the prosperity, and were the first to bear the brunt of hard times."[78] THE NEED FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM The point for us to note here is that the changed economic conditions made Parliamentary reform a necessity, and brought the question of popular enfranchisement within sight.