388 History of the English Landed Interest. 



throne. The next phase in the strife is Pitt, once an ultra- 

 Whig, now posing as an absolutist, and Fox and the popular 

 party out of public favour. How long this condition of affairs 

 would, under ordinary circumstances, have existed, it is impos- 

 sible to say ; but ere the Radicals had time to rally, the 

 adverse influences of the French Revolution were upon them. 

 The country shrank with the greatest horror from their doc- 

 trines as though the events across the Channel had revealed 

 its close proximity to the giddy brink of a dangerous abyss. 

 Burke, though tainted with the tenets of Radicalism, now 

 found it his first duty to stem the tide of democracy, and to 

 sever his long connection with Fox. The remains of the 

 Whig party became disintegrated and scattered. The Govern- 

 ment brought in and carried without a division a somewhat 

 arbitrary measure against freedom of speech, only justified by 

 the necessity of the moment. 



Tliough for a time reforms were practicable in the systems 

 neither of land nor of Parliament, it will be well if we glance 

 first at what was simmering regarding our special subject in the 

 brains of the Radical at this period, and then, at the manner 

 in which the process was arrested by the excesses of a similar, 

 though more revolutionary, school of thought in Paris. 



It was natural that the Radical party, having once adopted 

 as its principles the championship of popular rights as op- 

 posed to those of the central authority, would come to take 

 up an antagonistic position with regard to seignorial powers 

 over the land. In thus acting, an addition to its strength was 

 acquired by the combination of all those interests which were 

 injuriously affected by the monopolies of the landlord. Owners 

 of landed property had nothing to gain, everything to lose in 

 the ensuing contest. Such rights as could be wrested from 

 the landed proprietor would go to swell the advantages already 

 possessed by the manufacturer and merchant. Thus regarded, 

 an explanation is forthcoming why, ultimately, the representa- 

 tives of the commercial interests with few exceptions joined the 

 ranks of the reformers, while a large majority of the country 

 gentry formed the nucleus of the future Conservative Party. 



In a history dealing with the Landed Interest, it is essential 



i 



