It is hard to say where the present political generation
dates from, but it is safe to say that most of its members knew little of Francis Hirst, though his last book, a volume of reminiscences, was published as recently as 1948. But his career as author began more than fifty years earlier, with Essays in Liberalism, by Six Oxford Men. Hirst was one of the six contributors (Hilaire Belloc, Viscount Simon and J. L. Hammond being among the others) and one of the joint editors. From then on he devoted his life to the principles of Liberalism, particularly of its Left wing, with John Morley as his spiritual and political guide. Editor of The Economist in the days of great Liberal editors like Spender and Massingham and Gardiner, he kept the tenets of the Manchester School alive in the Press well after they had ceased to dominate the party. After the First War Hirst devoted himself more to literature than to journalism, but he tried editorship again with a rather curious little paper called Common Sense, as the mouthpiece of his individual political and economic views. Its life was not lengthy.
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