THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMER 171 



Tories ; and in doing this, let us divest ourselves for 

 the moment of any prejudices which we may be in the 

 habit of cherishing against either Liberals or Tories. 



In England the chief characteristic of the Tory 

 party has been its support of measures which tend 

 to strengthen the crown and the aristocracy, and to 

 enlarge and tighten the control exercised by the 

 community over its individual members. The chief 

 characteristic of the Liberal party has been its sup- 

 port of measures which tend to weaken the crown 

 and the aristocracy, and to diminish and relax the 

 control exercised by the community over its individ- 

 ual members. In all times and countries there has 

 been such a division between parties, and in the 

 nature of things it is the only sound and abiding 

 principle of division. Ephemeral parties rise and 

 fall over special questions of temporary importance, 

 but this grand division endureth 'forever. Where- 

 ever there are communities of men, a certain por- 

 tion of the community is marked off, in one way 

 or another, to exercise authority over the whole 

 and perform the various functions of government. 

 The question always is how much authority shall 

 this governing portion of the community be allowed 

 to exercise, to how great an extent shall it be per- 

 mitted to interfere with private affairs, to take 

 people's money in the shape of taxes, whether direct 

 or indirect, and in other ways to curb or restrict 

 the freedom of individuals. All people agree that 

 government must have some such powers, or else 

 human society would be resolved into a chaos in 

 which every man's hand would be raised against 

 every other man. The political question is as to how 



