READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 43 



Between the two political parties, Tory and 

 Whig, the only important difference was as to 

 what interests and classes should be preferred; 

 neither contemplated a political or economic 

 system in which preference should have no 

 place. This latter idea found expression, how 

 ever, through the radical reformers who began 

 about 1820 to exert a perceptible influence on 

 British thought. Between that date and 1850 

 a far-reaching transformation was effected in 

 economic and political conditions, chiefly by 

 the Whigs. Much as this party detested the 

 Radicals, the general character of the reforms 

 that it effected followed the lines laid out by 

 the acute reasoning of the Benthamite school 

 the two Mills, Ricardo, Grote, Joseph Hume, 

 Austin, and Molesworth. 



In America the conditions which the British 

 approached as far-distant ideals were conspic 

 uous facts. Within the vast region controlled 

 by the United States commercial and industrial 

 freedom was complete. No legal barriers re 

 stricted a man s choice among the opportuni 

 ties for self-betterment that beckoned in every 

 direction. Whether he devoted his energies to 

 farming or to manufacturing or to trade was 

 determined solely by his judgment as to the 



