"Unlike most of Europe, Britain had no censorship and its political press was both more sophisticated and more widely distributed than that of any other European nation – few continental periodicals ever approached the extensive circulation of the Gentleman's Magazine, even Paris had no daily press before 1777 and certainly the obscenity and scurrility found daily in English cartoons, ballads, plays and pamphlets would never have been tolerated by continental rulers. Moreover London had a political significance quite unlike that of any other European capital. Europe's largest urban community – dominating the nation to the extent that one-sixth of the population spent part of their working life there – was endowed (unlike Paris, its nearest rival) with an autonomous and surprisingly democratic municipal government and within its parliamentary constituencies with a very broad electorate, both of which were the seed-grounds of political education and urban radicalism. The extent of political liberty enjoyed in England (as its natives were proud of reminding themselves) and the degree of political sophistication – even if largely, though by no means completely, confined to the metropolis – were greater than in any other European nation."