For generations the despised
and calumniated Whigs had maintained the cause of Freedom in their
peculiarly dogged though unemotional fashion, and had established
the political liberties of England on a strong foundation. But their
day was done, their work was accomplished, and their descendants
had made common cause with their hereditary opponents.

[Footnote *: I am speaking here of England only--not of Scotland,
Ireland, or Wales.]

After the great split of 1886 a genuine lover of Freedom in the upper
strata of society was so rare a character that people encountering
him instinctively asked, "Is he insincere? Or only mad?" Deserted
by the aristocracy, Liberty turned for her followers to the great
Middle Class; but there also the process of apostasy had begun;
and substantial people, whose fathers had fought and suffered for
Freedom, waxed reactionary as the claims of Labour became more
audible, and betook themselves to the side of Authority as being
the natural guardian of property. If you make the division
geographically, you may say, in the broadest terms, that the North
stood firm for Freedom; but that London and the South were always
unfriendly to it, and, after 1886, the Midlands joined the enemy.

If we apply a test which, though often illusory, cannot be regarded
as wholly misleading, the Metropolitan Press was, in a remarkable
degree, hostile to Freedom, and reflected, as one must suppose,
the sentiments of the huge constituency for whom it catered. How
many friends could Irish Nationalism count? How many could Greece,
in her struggle with Turkey? How many the Balkan States? How many
Armenia? How many, even in the ranks of professed Liberalism, opposed
the annexation of the South African Republics? At each extension
of the suffrage; at each tussle with the Lords; at each attempt
to place the burden of taxation on the shoulders best able to bear
it, few indeed were the friends of Freedom in the upper classes of
society; in the opulent Middle Class; in London and the Midlands
and the South; in the Church, alas!; in the Universities, the
Professions, and the Press.

And yet, at the present moment, from these unlikely quarters there
rises a diapason of liberty-loving eloquence which contrasts very
discordantly with the habitual language of five years ago. To-day
the friends of Freedom are strangely numerous and admirably vocal.
Our Lady of Liberty, one thinks, must marvel at the number and the
energy of her