Liberalism of To-day and Yesterday
The. British Liberal Party. By Hamilton Fyfe. (George Allen
and Unwin. 10s. 6d.) .
Ma. HAMILTON FryE has written a useful little volume op the history .of the Liberal Party. He traces its rise in the middle of the last century, its struggle with the aristocratic Whig elements in the .party, its first great period of power
under Gladstone, its fall into opposition. at the end of the .century, its brilliant recovery in the decade before the War, and its apparent eclipse in recent years : however, he seems to think that it may have a future..
" The failure of the Party to .wirt...more than. forty seats:at the .1924 elections_ suggested to many that its day was done. Within three years came another of the curious. quick turns that have marked the history of the Party all through. Liberals bed once more a programme, a huge -sum -of money for election- purposes, a
• united organisation. Political medicine-men who had been speculating as to the date of the funeral now pronounced the 'patient to be recovering. PiOphets who had foretold the disappear- ance of the Liberal Party at an early date now predicted that it would gain many seats when a General Election came."
The book adds little or nothing to our knowledge of Liberal history, but it is usefid to have the story thus told consecutively down to the present time. _ • On one point of fact, however, we must really question Mr. Fyfe. For some reason 'he insists on calling Cobden a
-Whig. This, of course, is a matter of opinion. But when he goes on : " while he [Cobden] was for Peace and Public Economy,
he cared nothing about Reform. Vainly did his close friend 'Bright try to lure him into the campaign for a wider Franchise. He would not even pretend to be interested in it. He was not a Liberal. He had no faith in the collective wisdom . of the mass of people," we feel he is in direct contradiction to the facts. Did not Cobden write to Bright particularly advocating a Franchise agitation Y 'This is a minor point perhaps, and 'Mr. Fyfe'S volume may be useful to students of political history, even if he has erred in this matter.
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