Political History	105
lecting instances.637 Using the techniques of the sociologist,
Guttsman professes to track the history and changing social
composition of Britain's leaders, but since his definition of an
elite is both too large and too far removed from the realities of
the nineteenth century, the result has limited value.633
(b)   POLITICAL  HISTORY
It will be best to list, chronologically, a series of works which
between them destroy much of the old picture but have not
yet really made possible a new one. The Peterloo Massacre has
attracted three serious studies: Read and White modify the
blood-and-thunder tradition, while Walmsley, who altogether
exonerates the traditional villains, probably goes much too
far.639 The activities of the century's first reforming administra-
tion are expounded by Fay hi a 'life and times' type of study.640
The powerful influence upon policy and parliamentary elections
of one of the problems requiring reform is shown up by Machin's
, study of catholic emancipation.641 A peculiar incident in the
peculiar career of the most familiar of extra-parliamentary
radicals is described by Harrison.642 One topic that has re-
ceived much attention is the real effect of the first reform bill:
Gash shows how little things changed-in particular, how
«8* Asa Briggs, Victorian People. L: Odharn: 1954. Pp. 317. Rev: EHR
71, 502.-Idem, Victorian Cities. Ibid. 1963. Pp. 416. Rev: EHR
80, 634£; EcHR* 16, 563f.
<38 W, L. Guttsman, The British Political Elite. L: MacGibbon &
Kee: 1963. Pp. 398. Rev: EHR 80, 647.
638 Donald Read, Peterloo: the 'massacre* and its background. Manchester
UP: 1958. Pp. ix, 234. Rev: EHR 74, i72f. - Reginald J. White,
Waterloo to Peterloo. L: Heinemann: 1957. Pp. ix, 202. Rev: EHR
73, i67f. - Robert Walmsley; Peterloo: the case reopened. Manchester
UP: 1969. Pp. xx, 585. Rev: Hist 55, *&&
«*° C, R. Fay, Huskissm and his Age. L: Longmans: 1951. Pp. xv, 398,
Rev: EcHR* 6, 86fF.
M1 G. L T. Machin, The Catholic Question in English Politics, 1820 -
1830, O: Clarendon: 1964. Pp. xi, 1*27. Rev: EHR 80, So^f.
1 ** Brian Harrison, *Two roads to social reform: Francis Place and
the "drunken committee" of 1834% HJ 11 (1969), 272-300.