INTRODUCTION 



THE author of this book shares with 

 many thoughtful and public-spirited 

 men the hope that we may see the 

 formation of a National Party, which 

 will cut itself adrift from worn-out political 

 controversies and shape its course with a single 

 eye to the general welfare. That fine ideal has 

 all my sympathy, and yet I find it very difficult 

 to imagine how it is to be realised in practice. 

 But if a National Party is out of the question, 

 there is nevertheless urgent need for a National 

 Policy, by which I mean a body of political 

 doctrine, having some basis of principle, some 

 inner unity, which will take account of all the 

 great needs of our national life, internal and 

 external, and propound an orderly and coherent 

 plan for dealing with them as a whole. Cer- 

 tainly no such policy will ever be accepted in 

 its entirety by any political party. But if it 

 gains an ascendency over the intellect of the 

 nation, as other systems of political thought 

 have done in the past, it will influence the 

 action of all parties, and make them its more 

 or less conscious, more or less willing instru- 



