Narratives of the mid‐18th‐century state as drifting towards oligarchy and closure have long been superseded by accounts stressing its responsiveness to outside interests and opinion. Participatory election rituals, crowd activity and the expansion of print media demonstrate that political activism was not limited to a narrow circle of elites, even after the passage of the 1716 Septennial Act. Additionally, as an institution after 1688 the Westminster parliament rendered itself useful to propertied society through its passage of greater amounts of legislation. However, while the strength of party and trajectory of electoral participation is well mapped, as are addresses to the crown, the petitioning of interest groups has had few systematic quantitative surveys. This article first sets out the chronology of petitioning to both houses of parliament from 1660 to 1788, demonstrating that petitioning was at its height before 1722, rather than rising to its greatest levels with the reform movements in the 1780s. Second, the article demonstrates the role of petitioning in expanding the political nation beyond the boundaries of parliamentary boroughs, and why, on occasion, petitioning involved women and illiterate men. Third, in order to emphasize the continuity in petitioning and its contribution to the formation of public opinion, the article compares the different roles that concurrent subscription practices envisaged for the public. Finally, the article argues that despite the rising tendency to cite numerical strength to arbitrate political divisions, petitioners continued to legitimise their voices on the basis of representing collections of reasons and interests rather than opinion.

中文翻译：

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威斯敏斯特议会的请愿和请愿者，1660 年至 1788 年

长期以来，关于 18 世纪中叶国家走向寡头政治和封闭的叙述早已被强调其对外部利益和意见的反应的叙述所取代。参与式选举仪式、群众活动和印刷媒体的扩张表明，即使在 1716 年《七夕法案》通过之后，政治激进主义也不限于少数精英。此外，作为 1688 年之后的一个机构，威斯敏斯特议会通过更多的立法使自己对有产社会有用。然而，虽然政党的实力和选举参与的轨迹被很好地描绘出来，对王室的讲话也是如此，但对利益集团的请愿几乎没有系统的定量调查。本文首先列出了 1660 年至 1788 年向议会两院请愿的年表，表明请愿在 1722 年之前达到顶峰，而不是随着 1780 年代的改革运动上升到最高水平。其次，文章展示了请愿在将政治国家扩展到议会行政区之外的作用，以及为什么有时请愿涉及女性和文盲男性。第三，为了强调上访的连续性及其对舆论形成的贡献，文章比较了并发订阅实践为公众设想的不同角色。最后，文章认为，尽管越来越倾向于引用数字力量来仲裁政治分歧，