Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/691

 CHAPTER XLI GREAT BRITAIN AND HER EMPIRE I. THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION 949. English Political Parties. The English constitution, al- though unwritten, has long been a source of pride to those who live under it and has served as the model for a number of consti- tutions drawn up on the Continent since the French Revolution. In the eighteenth century England had already greatly reduced and restricted the powers of her monarch and put the control into the hands of Parliament. We must now briefly consider her sys- tem of party government and the responsibility of her king's ministers to Parliament. 950. Party Government. After the Civil War, in the seven- teenth century (606), two great political parties appeared in England the Tories and the W T higs. The Tories, in recent times called Conservatives, 1 were the successors of the Cavaliers, as the supporters of Charles I were named. They believed in defend- ing the powers claimed by the king and the English Church. The Whigs, or Liberals, were the successors of the Roundhead, or parliamentary, party of Charles I's time. This party had over- thrown the Stuarts, gained the Bill of Rights, and in the nine- teenth century won the name of Reform party, from the kind of laws which it advocated. Only recently has the Labor party become important. The party which happens to have the majority of votes in the House of Commons claims the right to manage the government of the country as long as it retains its majority. The leader I 1 When Gladstone introduced his Home Rule Bill for Ireland in 1886, many Liberals who opposed his policy deserted to join the Conservatives, who have since generally been called Unionists. ,