British popular liberalism was never sufficiently committed to classical liberalism, says Martin George Holmes. When a misguided humanitarian impulse arose, it created a statist trend that ultimately destroyed the movement.
Not surprisingly, neoconservatives have tried to rehabilitate the British Empire, calling it benign and a civilizing force in Africa and Asia. Like all other empires, however, it was held together by violence and subjugation.
British popular Liberalism was insufficiently committed to classical-liberal principles and this waywardness explains why it became increasingly interventionist as of the mid-nineteenth century.
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