commercial jealousy, and then to unconcealed alarm for our national
safety. All the powers of society were bent on lavish naval expenditure,
and of imposing the idea of compulsory service on a reluctant people.
The disciplined nation was needed no longer to dominate the world, but
to maintain its own territory.

Now, we are not concerned here to follow up the devious windings of
modern Conservatism. We have to note only that what modern democracy has
to face is no mere inertia of tradition. It is a distinct reactionary
policy with a definite and not incoherent creed of its own, an ideal
which in its best expression--for example, in the daily comments of the
_Morning Post_--is certain to exercise a powerful attraction on many
generous minds--the ideal of the efficient, disciplined nation, centre
and dominating force of a powerful, self-contained, militant empire.
What concerns us more particularly is the reaction of Conservative
development upon the fortunes of democracy. But to understand this
reaction, and, indeed, to make any sound estimate of the present
position and prospects of Liberalism, we must cast a rapid glance over
the movement of progressive thought during the last generation. When
Gladstone formed his second Government in 1880 the old party system
stood secure in Great Britain. It was only a band of politicians from
the other side of St. George's Channel who disowned both the great
allegiances. For the British political mind the plain distinction of
Liberal and Conservative held the field, and the division was not yet a
class distinction. The great Whig families held their place, and they of
the aristocratic houses divided the spoil. But a new leaven was at work.
The prosperity which had culminated in 1872 was passing away. Industrial
progress slowed down; and, though the advance from the "Hungry 'Forties"
had been immense, men began to see the limit of what they could
reasonably expect from retrenchment and Free Trade. The work of Mr.
Henry George awakened new interest in problems of poverty, and the
idealism of William Morris gave new inspiration to Socialist propaganda.
Meanwhile, the teaching of Green and the enthusiasm of Toynbee were
setting Liberalism free from the shackles of an individualist conception
of liberty and paving the way for the legislation of our own time.
Lastly, the Fabian Society brought Socialism down from heaven and
established a contact with practical politics and municipal gove