Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/23

Rh overpower an institution which was strong only by its traditions, and not by its representative character. And when openly set to work, in 1762, to buy a majority in favour of the treaty which closed the war, it became evident that the old barrier against despotic power was not calculated to resist the new weapons which were directed against it. All real Liberals, therefore, came to see that some change was necessary, and it is in the choice of methods by which the alteration was to be effected that the process of differentiation of Whigs and Radicals is to be traced. The difference is discernible in more than one great question, but it was not at the time recognized as making a distinct division in the party. Neither at that early period, nor for a long time afterwards, did any set of men announce that they held opinions which separated them from the rest of the Liberals, and that they intended to form a new party. A political party, let us repeat, cannot be created in that manner; it must grow, and it is because it has silently and gradually been developed in this manner, that the Radical party is at length seen to be an operative power in the State.

In some way or other actual entities get themselves distinctive names, but it was long after the first signs of its existence were manifested that the name of Radical was given to the party. Harriet Martineau, writing of the year 1819, says, "It is stated to have been now that the reformers first assumed the name of Radicals." The name was certainly given, or taken, in immediate connection with an agitation for parliamentary reform, but it has from time to time been used, and properly used, to designate those who not only sought directly to increase the power of the democratic element in the government, but who tried to utilize existing institutions for obtaining some material, intellectual, or social advantages for the unrepresented masses of the people.

The fixing of a name was not only in itself a proof of the public recognition of distinctive aims and methods, but it led