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the working of the political machinery, and yet his highest ambition was
to rise to be himself a member of the class, and to found a family which
might flourish in the upper atmosphere. The industrial classes were
inclined to favour political progress within limits. They were
dissenters because the church was essentially part of the aristocracy;
and they were readiest to denounce the abuses from which they did not
profit. The agitators who supported Wilkes, solid aldermen and rich
merchants, represented the view which was popular in London and other
great cities. They were the backbone of the Whig party when it began to
demand a serious reform. Their radicalism, however, was not thoroughly
democratic. Many of them aspired to become members of the ruling class,
and a shopkeeper does not quarrel too thoroughly with his customers. The
politics of individuals were of course determined by accidents. Some of
them might retain the sympathy of the class from which they sprang, and
others might adopt an even extreme version of the opinions of the class
to which they desired to rise. But, in any case, the divergence of
interest between the capitalists and the labourers was already making
itself felt. The self-made man, it is said, is generally the hardest
master. He approves of the stringent system of competition, of which he
is himself a product. It clearly enables the best man to win, for is he
not himself the best man? The class which was the great seat of movement
had naturally to meet all the prejudices which are roused by change. The
farmers near London, as Adam Smith tells us,[32] petitioned against an
extension of turnpike roads, which would enable more distant farmers to
compete in their market. But the farmers were not the only prejudiced
persons. All the great inventors of machinery, Kay and Arkwright and
Watt, had constantly to struggle against the old workmen who were
displaced by their inventions. Although, therefore, the class might be
Whiggish, it did not share the strongest revolutionary passions. The
genuine revolutionists were rather the men who destroyed the
manufacturer's machines, and were learning to regard him as a natural
enemy. The manufacturer had his own reasons for supporting government.
Our foreign policy during the century was in the long run chiefly
determined by the interests of our trade, however much the trade might
at times be hampered by ill-conceived regulations. It is remarkable that
Adam S