checked by the extremes into which French Liberalism plunged in 1791,
causing reaction in England. By 1820 pressure was again being exerted by
British Liberals of intelligence, and they found arguments in such
reports as those just quoted. From that date onward, and especially just
before the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832, yet always a factor, the
example of a prosperous American democracy was an element in British
home politics, lauded or derided as the man in England desired or not an
expansion of the British franchise. In the earlier period, however, it
is to be remembered that applause of American institutions did not mean
acceptance of democracy to the extent of manhood franchise, for no such
franchise at first existed in America itself. The debate in England was
simply whether the step forward in American democracy, was an argument
for a similar step in Great Britain.

Books, reviews and newspapers in Great Britain as the political quarrel
there grew in force, depicted America favourably or otherwise according
to political sympathies at home. Both before and after the Reform Bill
of 1832 this type of effort to mould opinion, by citation of America,
was widespread. Hence there is in such writing, not so much the
expression of public opinion, as of propaganda to affect that opinion.
Book upon book, review upon review, might be quoted to illustrate this,
but a few notable examples will suffice.

The most widely read and reviewed book on the United States before
1840, except the humorous and flippant characterization of America by
Mrs. Trollope, was Captain Basil Hall's three-volume work, published in
1829[14]. Claiming an open mind, he expected for his adverse findings a
readier credence. For adverse to American political institutions these
findings are in all their larger applications. In every line Hall
betrays himself as an old Tory of the 'twenties, fixed in his belief,