4. IRELAND

82. JOHN BRIGHT: Speech at Dublin, 30 October 1866

Now, if it were possible, would it not be worth while to change the sentiments and improve the condition of the Irish cultivators of the soil? If we were to remove the State Church, there would still be a Church, but it would not be a supremacy Church. The Catholics of Ireland have no idea of saying that Protestantism in its various forms shall not exist in their island. There would still be a Church, but it would be a free Church of a section of a free people. . . .

PART V

THE NEW LIBERALISM

1. THE PHILOSOPHY OF STATE INTERFERENCE

86. T. H. GREEN: Liberal Legislation or Freedom of Contract, a Lecture given at Leicester, 1881

[T. H. Green (1836-82), the leading representative of the English idealist school of philosophy, was a Fellow of Balliol, 1860-78, and then, until his death in 1882, Whyte Professor of Moral Philosophy.]

2. THE EXTENSION OF DEMOCRACY

91. HERBERT SAMUEL: Liberalism (1902)

For how can there be true self-government if restrictions, whether formal or informal, written or unwritten, are allowed to limit the people’s free choice of their representatives?

3. SOCIAL REFORM

96. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN: Speech at Hengler’s Circus, Hull, 5 August 1885

Everywhere the reforms to which the resolution has made reference are casting their shadows before; everywhere in the country I see a quickening of political life; everywhere there is discussion and hope and expectation. Gentlemen, it will be dangerous to disappoint that hope.

4. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

104. H. H. ASQUITH: Speech at Cinderford, 8 October 1903

I should very much like to know how you are going to raise nine millions by a tax on foreign manufactures unless you treat as manufactures for the purpose of the tax articles like paper, leather, cement, and many forms of unwrought iron, which are just as much the raw materials of industries as iron ore or raw wood. All roads converge to the same point.

5. IMPERIALISM AND THE BOER WAR

109. SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT: Speech at West Monmouthshire, 31 May 1899

What is this Imperialism which, in the slang of the day, is paraded as the highest form of patriotism? I laugh sometimes when I hear myself and others denounced as ‘Little Englanders.’ I confess I did not know that there was a ‘Little England’ to belong to.

6. ARMAMENTS

113. SIR HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN: Speech at the Albert Hall, 21 December 1905

We Liberals, let us not forget it, are the heirs of a great and inspiring tradition. That tradition was founded in days when public opinion was opposed to any attempt to regulate differences by an appeal to the reason and conscience of mankind. Mr. Gladstone defied the public opinion of his day. He took his stand on higher ground, and by referring the Alabama dispute to arbitration he established a precedent of priceless value to mankind. . . .

7. FOREIGN POLICY

118. Debate on the Foreign Office Estimates, House of Commons, 22 July 1909

(A)

J. M. ROBERTSON (Tyneside). If the policy of the Foreign Secretary has committed this country to an alliance with France in a European war, irrespective of the merits of the case, I think that would be a departure from Liberal traditions. A great deal has been said on the traditions of Liberal foreign policy. What is the Liberal tradition as to foreign policy?

PART VI

LIBERALISM AFTER 1918