Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 5.djvu/121

 Author:Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill

HIS "TRUST THE PEOPLE" SPEECH

(1884)

is the great and wide difference which distinguishes the two great political parties who endeavor to attract the support of the English people? It has been well and wisely said—but I do not think it can be too often repeated—that the Tory party cling with veneration and affection to the institutions of our country. The Radicals regard them with aversion and distrust and will always give multitudinous and specious reasons for their destruction.

But can we, the Tory party, give no good convincing reasons to the people for the faith which is in us? We do not defend the Constitution from mere sentiment for the past, or from any infatuated superstition about divine right or hereditary excellence. We defend the Constitution solely on the ground of its utility to the