HISTORIC TORYISM.
A HISTORY of Toryism is long overdue, and in this brilliant and suggestive volume Mr. Maurice Woods sets it forth with much skill and force. He writes throUghout with immense verve and gusto and sometinies with real eloquence. To even the most threadbare topics—for example, the Treaty of Utrecht—he applies a fresh and original mind, and though- he has obviously fullY utilized the results of modern historical research, his views are by no means ready-made.
It is when Mr. Wbods deals specifically with Tory principles and the ' Tory Philosophy that • his analysia -becomes • inadeqUate and, it must be added,' soineivht superficial.' " Looking backwards to the origin of Toryism," he says, " as it emerges from the conffict'of the Civil War and traces its descent to the national polity of the Tudors; we can see' one central inspiration. Above all else stands the Crown— the visible symbol of patriotic unity and religious faith."- And in a later passage he declares " that the innermost belief of the party is in the unity of the State and the people, whether that union is symbolized in the personal crown, the Church or. the Empire—a conception gradually widening out until it embraces all classes and Dominions over which the King rules." Beyond this " innermost belief " Mr. Woods declines to find any permanent Tory principles, and for the reason that the Tory. is an Aristotelian, " always testing his past facts," while Whig or Liberal is a PlatOnist, to whom " truth once ascertained stands for ever." Thus the dis- tinguishing feature of Toryism is " fluidity," of Liberalism " rigidity." As a result, " the development of Tory policy stands solid and unbroken from end to end. And yet if it were necessary to affix one single predominant characteristic to the party . history of 260 years; that word would be Opportunism."
It is easy to see the error which finally lands Mr. Woods in the lame and impotent conclusion that .Toryism is Opportunism. He bases the Tory, view of the CrOwn on too narrow a foUndation. It was no mere symboleven of unity—that gave rise to the Tory feeling towards the Crown, whether that was expressed in the romantic and passionate loyalty of the Cavalier or in the political philosophy of Bolingbroke. Nor is a belief in any institution,- as a symbol, "t the innermost belief " of the Tory, either past or present. His innermost belief is and always was that stability -and- order are the fundamental and ultimate needs in the life of the community, the absolute sine qua non to its welfare. This conviction led inevitably to a profound sense of the importance of the Crown, because it was the Crown which, not as a symbol; but in hard historic fact, gave England stability and order. William I., Henry IL, Edviard III., Henry VII. and Elizabeth taught and enforced the blessings of " the King's Peace," good administration, stable con- ditions of life -for the people. And the personal monarchy's great legacy to the nation—the Church of England—was constructed, as an institution, for the purpose --(which in Tory eyes it well fulfilled) of ensuring further that very principle of stability and order.
Had the single permanent Tory belief been in the Crown— or the Church either—only as a symbol, Toryism would have. been left with nothing but a mystical and transcendental basis, would have been cut off from all relation with any principle of practical statesmanship. The Tory supported King and Church, in the days when these were subjects of political controversy, because he recognized one as the creator and the other as a great instrument of stability. The Crown is beyond all breath of controversy now ; the Church of England, as such. is under no threat, whereas stability is still one of the main objects of government. Toryism to-day • would be a laughing-stock if," its inner- most belief " were such as to make it, above all else, the defender of institutions on which there is no attack. For this is really to present to the twentieth century Toryism in fancy dress, complete with black-jack and churchwarden pipe. Far from Toryism being Opportunism, its thought, action and statesmanship are based on the most fundamental conception governing the organization of human society.
This once realized, Tory philosophy becomes intelligible and Tory policy consistent and logical. Take, for instance, the light thus thrown upon the underlying unity of the views of Bolingbroke and Disraeli—the two dominating minds of Toryism. It was the search for stability which made Bolingbroke call for the Patriot King and made Disraeli, imbued and thrice imbued as -he was with the_ views of Bolingbroke, reach forward towards Tory Democracy. An oligarchy is never stable, nor can it often achieve order and good administration. Only monarchical rule or democratic can produce stable conditions—democracy being, as Lord Salisbury once said, " the safest form of government." For democracy means actual representation of the nation as a whole. Failing it, no one can represent a nation except its king. Oligarchy, whether WhiggerY or Socialism, can
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