Answer: In 1830, when Queen Victoria started her long reign in British history, England got a new status. At that time though the world of 1830's still looked back, England with new ideas, was growing fast. G. B. Shaw, a late Victorian writer showed in his essay Freedom, the condition of exploited common man and observed different revolutions of the Victorian age against the slavery and exploitation that poor endured through the ages. The common man was always made fool by the upper class people in the society. Though They performed all kinds of job, they did not get the respect or courtesy. If they raised their voice, they are told that poor people got most of the benefits because they did not have to give tax and the upper classes have to pay tax from their earning. Besides, they had the Factory Acts, the Wages Boards, and got free education etc. Also they were cajoled by saying that they had the right to vote to select the ruler. They do not understand the real meaning of freedom because they had to remain busy to earn their food and shelter. So when the philosophers, politicians and reformers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Karl Marx of the society came ahead and encouraged and helped them to live a better life. But the ruler class did not take it in good way and they established a bad image of the reformers among minds of common people and they made the common men think that those reformers were not good people at all. In order to gain their own sake, the ruler class Either banned them from the society or suppressed their voice. Even their followers, disciples could not raise their voice. As a result, the slave system prevailed in the British nation. According to Shaw, independence was meaningless unless people of the country understood that freedom.
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