Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/18

4 further growth. At the same time, the development which had taken place at the other end of the scale, and which produced the Radicalism of the republic, although nipped and checked, was not killed. The old form was gone, but the seeds of life still existed, and, under more temperate and natural surroundings, the idea has grown in spite of, or perhaps in consequence of, difficulties which have called into being its strongest faculties, and have led to its survival in the political struggle.

During the period which immediately followed the Restoration, that struggle continued to be one between two old parties. In 1688 the triumph remained with the Liberals, and it was not unnatural that the methods and instruments by which it had been accomplished should be formulated, and regarded as the only possible conditions of Liberal life, and thus Whiggism became a sort of creed. But the hardening of creeds is the death of religions, and the life of Liberalism had to find for itself some new form. The idea of popular rights could not be permanently embodied in a group of noble houses, nor in a definite parliamentary system of limited constituencies. To some extent—to a great extent indeed—this spirit infused itself, in the course of time, in nearly all sections of the Liberal party; but it was forced upon the attention of the old Whigs by the left wing of the party, and there were always some of the acknowledged leaders by whom it was not accepted. It must be borne in mind that this new spirit affected not only the methods of government—the legislative machinery—but also the objects to be aimed at, the legislation to be achieved. The two things, indeed, are inseparably connected. Freedom and self-government are essential elements in the happiness and nobility of a people, and the supposed interests of the governing class—be that class large or small—will affect the character of its legislation.

If, then, there is any reality or any usefulness in the existence of a Radical party, it will employ its energies in two directions—in the endeavour to extend political rights and