RADICAL, in English politics a supporter of the more extreme section of the Whig or the Liberal Party; in American politics, anyone who desires to make radical (Lat. radix, root) changes in the social order—hence usually a Socialist or Com munist. The first use of the word in a political sense is generally ascribed to Charles James Fox, who in 1797 declared for a "radical reform." It was thenceforward used as a general term covering all those, from Sir Francis Burdett to Richard Carlile, who supported the movement for Parliamentary Reform. After the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832, the more adventurous of the reformers, of whom the chief organizers were Francis Place (London) and Joseph Parkes (Birmingham) remained in informal but continuous association. They exercised continual but vain pressure upon Lord John Russell and other Whigs, to agree to an extension of the franchise to the working-class. Their most effective work was done after 1835 in the reformed administra tion of the provincial towns, some of which they controlled from the first democratic election, and in which they had to remove the effects of years of corruption and indolence. Their spokesmen formed for some years a recognized group in the House of Com mons, which included George Grote, Slingsby Duncombe, Thomas Wakley and Joseph Hume. They were out of sympathy and touch with the organized section of the working-class owing to their support of the new Poor Law (1834) and their hostile attitude to the Chartists (see CHARTISM).
From about 1839, consequently, their influence suffered a. decline, but it revived after about 1850 when Chartism was prac tically extinct. The National Reform League, whose president and leader was Edmond Beales, was most active in promoting the reform of the suffrage, achieved in 1867 for the towns and in 1884 for the country: Frederic Harrison, J. S. Mill, and Profes sor Beesly being the most distinguished of its theorists. The Radicals, through the group of officials known as the Junta, gained also complete control of the political mind of the trade unions and from 1874 to 1892 every trade unionist who gained a seat in Parliament sat as a Radical. Reynold's Illustrated News, the most popular Radical organ, somewhat exaggerated the respect able Radicals' view in its vehement Republicanism, its contempt for revealed religion and its advocacy of complete laissez faire in economics, but these principles were generally regarded as inher ent in Radicalism. The London Radical clubs towards the end of the 19th century probably represented the most powerful single political grouping in the country. They were only induced by the personal intervention and prestige of Charles Bradlaugh to merge their identity in the new machine of the National Liberal Federa tion, controlled by Mr. Schnadhorst ; and from that time we may date the disappearance of organized Radicalism. (R. W. P.)