our liberties, and try to get up popular enthusiasm on its
behalf. The House of Lords would not long survive that treacherous
homage. It would be beaten in one campaign.

No: from whatever point of view we consider the question, it is plain
that the attempt to reconstruct the Tory party on a Democratic basis
cannot succeed. The open avowal of such an aim would deprive Toryism of
all backbone and reduce it to the condition of a moribund jelly-fish. It
is not given to any creature to change its nature and yet continue to
discharge its old functions. It is true that Toryism in order to get on
at all with the present age is obliged occasionally to act on Liberal
principles. The device gives no offence so long as it is adopted
quietly, and if suspicions are awakened a few heart-stirring speeches in
the old orthodox vein suffice to allay them. A formal repudiation of old
ideas is quite another thing. Just as Utopian is the project of
defending Tory institutions on Democratic principles. There are two
arsenals from which political combatants may choose their weapons, the
historical and the scientific. It is from the former that the champion
equips himself who offers battle on behalf of institutions that have
descended to us from hoar antiquity. Weapons taken from the latter are
unfit for such a service. Every blow would recoil upon the institution
which it was the champion's aim to defend. To abandon the Established
Church, the House of Lords, and the Crown to the uncovenanted mercies of
modern political criticism is a rash experiment. The hope which sees in
such an experiment a fresh lease of life and new chances of ascendency
for Toryism is absurd.

Yet there is, and always will be, room for a Conservative party in
English politics, only it must move along the historic lines, and not
needlessly renounce its old watchwords. We need two brooms to keep our
constitutional mansion in a tidy state, one in use, the other undergoing
repairs, or put in pickle, and ready to be brought in when wanted.
Government by party requires the existence of two parties, and demand is
apt to generate supply. It is not necessary that the two parties should
be separated by an impassable gulf. It is only necessary that materials
for two separate connections should be provided, and in this emergency
Nature does much to help us. There are opposite moods of mind in
politics as in literature and art; there are antithetical differences of
intellect and