Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/498

 484 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1865- Opportunities have thus been afforded to the country to learn that it can rely not only upon the political principles, but on the administrative ability, of the Radicals. The result in practical legislation has amply justified the expectations which were formed. During the comparatively short time in which the united Liberals have been in office, since the Reform Act increased the Radical power, every department of national life religious, social, commercial, industrial, and intellectual- has been invigorated and improved. The Irish Church has been disestablished. The churchyards of England have been made national instead of sectarian property. A system of national education has been created, and the national univer- sities have been widened and popularized. The land laws of Ireland have been remodelled, by which the injustice of ages has been removed, and the foundation for national peace and unity has been laid. The laws affecting the combination of workmen have been changed, the relations between employer and employed have been placed upon fair and equitable terms, and protection has been given to the lives of the men. The army has been made national by the abolition of purchase. The game laws have been amended ; and the law of landlord and tenant improved by the recognition of the tenants' right in the improvement of their holdings. The protection of the ballot has been given to electors. Trade has been purified by the adoption of a sound bankruptcy law. A nearer approach to absolute freedom of commerce has been secured, and the last remains of the old corn law removed. There are, perhaps, none of these great works in which some defects may not be pointed out, which have been the result of a compromise, avowed or understood, between the two sections of the party, but in all of them is to be found the spirit of Radical policy and the ability of Radical statesmanship. These later triumphs are only the legitimate realization of hopes founded on old struggles carried on by the pioneers of political progress. For more than a century the way had been pointed out to all practical reforms by the advocacy of Radicals, before the indifference of Whigs and the opposi-