Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/38

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period to be dealt with in the present chapter is one full of interest to the political and social student. There was such fulness and activity of national life, such a wide diffusion of public spirit, such sympathy between the awakening energies of the people and the ablest and best of their leaders, as must have seemed most hopeful to those engaged in the work, and contrasts quite tragically with the gloomy close of the century, brought about by the influence of the French Revolution on English thought and feeling, and by the long and disastrous war to which it led. Nor was the time less important in view of the particular purpose of this inquiry. There were many signs which gave promise of the formation of a party in Parliament, answering to one actually existing in the country, which should have for its objects the promotion of the interests of the mass of the people rather than those of privileged persons and classes; and for its means such a diffusion of political power as would make popular legislation possible, and give it stability when obtained. In speaking of such a possible conflict of interests, it must not be assumed that there was even at that time any considerable number of persons who consciously and deliberately subordinated the welfare of the community generally, to that of the particular rank or class to which they belonged. A government so selfish in intention could not have been maintained; but there were political theories and fictions, adhesion to which produced