Note 3 — Chapter XXV · “I HAVE PLEADED THE CAUSE OF THE WORKING-PEOPLE, AND I SHALL NOW SEE THAT CAUSE TRIUMPH.”

According to “A Peep at the Commons” (Lond., 1820), the suffrage at Preston was nearly universal. “Nearly the whole of the inhabitants are Reformers, but, for want of the ballot at elections, undue influence has prevailed, and they have never been enabled to throw off the yoke of slavery. This town, however, is not without numbers who dare, in despite of power, to exercise their political rights.”