THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMER 173 



of government. But this is an incomplete view of the 

 matter. In England, for the last three centuries, politi- 

 cal progress has consisted in limiting more and more 

 the power of the crown and in admitting a larger and 

 larger proportion of the people to a share in the gov- 

 ernment, and as the Tories have generally resisted 

 these progressive measures, they have come to be 

 somewhat discredited in the eyes of Americans. It 

 is not my purpose, however, to attach any stigma to 

 the followers of Hamilton, to the Federalists of 1800, 

 to the Whigs of 1840, or to the Republicans of 1880, 

 in comparing them to the Tories. Not only has Tory- 

 ism its uses in all ages of English history, but there 

 was once a time when it was desirable to strengthen 

 the crown, to increase the powers of the central gov- 

 ernment, and to subordinate the local governments as 

 represented by the great vassals. That was the time 

 when the English nationality was in process of forma- 

 tion, when the chief desideratum was to get a united 

 and orderly England. In the eleventh and twelfth 

 centuries it was a good thing to have such masterful 

 kings as William the Conqueror, and Henry I., and 

 Henry II. Even so late as the fifteenth century there 

 was a very good side to the overthrow of the old 

 baronage and the tightening of the grip of govern- 

 ment under Henry VII. National unity is something 

 that no people can afford to dispense with, for the 

 alternative is chaos. 



Now during the past hundred years the American 

 nationality has been in process of formation, and it 

 has been desirable to keep the central government 

 strong enough to preserve the Union. That has, in- 

 deed, been the paramount necessity, and therefore 



