Why the Reformers like Voltaire, Rousseau and Karl Marx got adverse response from the society?

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.

"Naturally, the master class, through its parliaments and schools and newspapers, make the most desperate attempt to prevent us from realising our slavery"--Explain.

Answer:  The statement is taken from George Bernard Shaw's essay 'Freedom'. Here Shaw tries to establish or convey the fact that the master class, i.e. the rulers, always try their best to prevent common people from realising that we are slave to them. Them make attempt to prove it through the parliaments, the educational institutions and the news media. Everywhere we learn from the childhood that our land (England) is the land of the free because our forefathers won for us our freedom when they forced King John to sign the Magna Charta. They protected our freedom when they defeated the Spanish Armada. They did the same when they cut off the head of the autocratic ruler King Charles. When they obliged King William to accept the Bill of Rights and thus they strengthened the rights and freedom of the people of England. Besides England defeated Napoleon in the battles of Trafalgar and Waterloo. In twentieth century many country like Germany, Austria, Russia got freedom and their countrymen believed that the people of those countries gained political freedom. But nothing of that kind happened. Only one set of rulers was replaced by another and the common man got no benefit. When the people protest against it, they are told that they themselves are the authors of their miseries for they have the right to vote. They elect the persons who rule the country. Not only that, the people have the factory Acts, the Wages Boards, free dole, free education etc. So, What more do they expect? The people are free but they do not know the proper use of their freedom. That is why they suffer. But the bitter truth is that the ruling class control all the will of common people. In this way the master class tries to hide the truth that the poor are subject to the wishes of the rich.