rnment.
Had Great Britain been an island in the mid-Pacific the onward movement
would have been rapid and undeviating in its course. As it was, the new
ideas were reflected in the parliament and the cabinet of 1880-1885, and
the Radicalism of Birmingham barely kept on terms with the Whiggery of
the clubs. A redistribution of social forces which would amalgamate the
interests of "property" on the one side and those of democracy on the
other was imminent, and on social questions democracy reinforced by the
enfranchisement of the rural labourers in 1884 stood to win. At this
stage the Irish question came to a head. Mr. Gladstone declared for Home
Rule, and the party fissure took place on false lines. The upper and
middle classes in the main went over to Unionism, but they took with
them a section of the Radicals, while Mr. Gladstone's personal force
retained on the Liberal side a number of men whose insight into the
needs of democracy was by no means profound. The political fight was for
the moment shifted from the social question to the single absorbing
issue of Home Rule, and the new Unionist party enjoyed twenty years of
almost unbroken supremacy. Again, had the Home Rule issue stood alone it
might have been settled in 1892, but meanwhile in the later 'eighties
the social question had become insistent. Socialism, ceasing to be a
merely academic force, had begun to influence organized labour, and had
inspired the more generous minds among the artisans with the
determination to grapple with the problem of the unskilled workmen. From
the Dockers' strike of 1889 the New Unionism became a fighting force in
public affairs, and the idea of a Labour party began to take shape. On
the new problems Liberalism, weakened as it already had been, was
further divided, and its failure in 1892 is to be ascribed far more to
this larger cause than to the dramatic personal incident of the Parnell
divorce. In office without legislative power from 1892 to 1895, the
Liberal party only experienced further loss of credit, and the rise of
Imperialism swept the whole current of public interest in a new
direction. The Labour movement itself was paralyzed, and the defeat of
the Engineers in 1897 put an end to the hope of achieving a great social
transformation by the method of the strike. But, in the meanwhile,
opinion was being silently transformed. The labours of Mr. Charles Booth
and his associates had at length stated the problem of poverty in
sc