lation is rather that of the orator
in the tribune than of the thinker in his study. He never forgot his
party, and he wrote always in that House of Commons atmosphere which
makes a man unjust to the argument and motives of his opponent. Yet,
when the last word of criticism has been made, the balance of
illumination is immense. He illustrates at its best the value of that
party-system the worth of which made so deep an impression on all he
wrote. He showed that government by discussion can be made to illuminate
great principles. He showed also that allegiance to party is never
inconsistent with the deeper allegiance to the demand of conscience.
When he came to the House of Commons, the prospects of representative
government were very dark; and it is mainly to his emphasis upon its
virtues that its victory must be attributed. Institutional change is
likely to be more rapid than in his generation; for we seem to have
reached that moment when, as he foresaw, "they who persist in opposing
that mighty current will appear rather to resist the decrees of
Providence itself than the mere designs of men." The principles upon
which we proceed are doubtless different from those that he commended;
yet his very challenge to their wisdom only gives to his warning a
deeper inspiration for our effort.

CHAPTER VII

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMIC LIBERALISM

I

The Industrial Revolution is hardly less a fundamental change in the
habits of English thought than in the technique of commercial
production. Alongside the discoveries of Hargreaves and Crompton, the
ideas of Hume and Adam Smith shifted the whole perspective of men's
minds. The Revolution, indeed, like all great movements, did not
originate at any given moment. There was no sudden invention which made
the hampering system of government-control seem incompatible with
industrial advance. The mercantilism against which the work of Adam
Smith was so magistral a protest was already rather a matter of external
than internal commerce when he wrote. He triumphed less because he
suddenly opened men's eyes to a truth hitherto concealed than because he
represented the culmination of certain principles which, under various
aspects, were common to his time. The movement for religious toleration
is not only paralleled in the next century by the movement for economic
freedom, but is itself in a real sense the parent of the latter. For it
is not without significance that the pre-Ad