Conservative Party

CONSERVATIVE PARTY. In Great Britain, the name of the successors of the Tories (see WHIG AND TORY). J. W. Croker popularized the term in an article in the Quarterly Review, Jan. 1830, but the name had already been used by Canning at a city dinner as early as 1824, and Greville had written in his diary on March 14, 1829, "Herries told Hyde Villiers that their policy was conservative, that of the Whigs subversive." For some time it was only used sporadically, and many of the old Tory regime disliked it. The term "Tory" has, in fact, never quite fallen out of use, and has been commonly retained by many modern Con servatives who wish to emphasize that theirs is a constructive and positive policy of constitutional as opposed to radical reform, and not merely one of letting things remain simply "as they are." After the Reform act of 1832 associations known as "Consti tutional" or "Conservative" multiplied throughout the country; and a "National Union of Conservative and Constitutional As sociations" formed a confederation in 1867, in alliance with the work of the central Conservative office under the Party whips. It was, however, unlike the similar Liberal "National Liberal Federation," under the control of influential people who were loyal to the central office. In this respect the Conserva tive Party, as an internally loyal party, had some advantage in organization; and such independent outbreaks as that of the "Fourth Party" (in the Parliament of 1880), while stimu lating to the central office, may be said to have applied a useful massage rather than to have led to any breaking of bones; while the Primrose League and any similar new bodies, acted as co operating agencies. Gladstone's proposal of home rule for Ire land in 1886 resulted in a great accession of strength to the party, owing to the splitting off of the Liberal Unionists from the Liberal Party. From this time the term "Unionists" began to come into use, to signify both the Conservative and the Liberal Unionist Parties; and, as the distinction between the two wings gradually grew smaller, to signify the whole party.

For ten years prior to 1906 the Conservatives, in close alliance with the Liberal Unionists, were continuously in power. In 1903, however, Joseph Chamberlain raised a new issue by promulgating his policy of tariff reform. Tariff reform split the Unionist Party, as home rule, 20 years before, had split the Liberal Party, though neither so fundamentally nor so permanently. Nevertheless at the general election of 1906 the Unionists suffered a crushing reverse, and the Liberals came into power, fettered only by the still co ordinate authority of the House of Lords. To curb the Lords they introduced (April 1910) the Parliament bill, which the Unionists stoutly but unavailingly opposed. In November 1911 the Conservative Party was compelled, by the resignation of Mr. Bal four, to elect a new leader. The industrialists and protectionists urged the claims of Mr. (now Sir) Austen Chamberlain; the old Tories, the churchmen, and the country folk, preferred Mr. Walter Long. Ultimately both stood aside in order to secure unanimity, and the choice of the party fell on Mr. Bonar Law.

Leadership of Bonar Law.

The choice proved a happy one, though the new leader's powers were displayed to much greater advantage in the House of Commons than on the platform. His leadership continued until his resignation of the premiership, after only a few months' tenure, in 1923. After the passage of the Par liament act in April 1912, Mr. Asquith introduced and ultimately, by the aid of the Parliament act, carried a home rule bill. Mean while Ulster was preparing to resist forcible disjunction from the United Kingdom, and behind Ulster stood the bulk of the Unionist Party. But by that time the issues of European peace and war were hanging in the balance. Party controversies were instantly put aside, and the Conservative leaders promised, in the event of war, the whole-hearted support of the party to the Government.

The War Period.

That promise was fulfilled in the letter and the spirit. In May 1915 Mr. Bonar Law and other Conservative leaders joined forces with the Liberals and Socialists in an admin istration formed to conduct the War to a successful issue. But the issue was not yet ; victory tarried ; public dissatisfaction grew ; in Dec. 1916 a political crisis supervened and Mr. Asquith resigned. Mr. Bonar Law was invited to form a government but declined, and chose instead to serve as chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons under Mr. Lloyd George as premier. A new coalition of the three parties ensued, and was maintained until the conclusion of the Armistice (Nov. 11 1918).

Post-War Changes.

The long parliament was at last dissolved (Nov. 1918) and Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Bonar Law jointly appealed, as leaders of the Coalition, to the new and vast elec torate created by the Reform act of 1918. The country gave them an overwhelming majority and, as spokesmen for the nation, they attended the Peace Conference at Paris. After the conclusion of peace the cohesion between the two wings of the Coalition mani festly weakened. A considerable section of the Conservative Party became increasingly restless under Mr. Lloyd George's leadership, and after the concession of dominion home rule to southern Ire land (1921), the "die-hards," as they were termed, decided that when the inevitable appeal to the country came, they would make it as Conservatives, sans phrase and under their own leaders. Mat ters reached a crisis on Oct. 19, when a meeting of Conservative M.P.'s held at the Carlton Club, decided by 187 to 87 votes, "that the Conservative Party, while willing to co-operate with the Liberals, should fight the election as an independent party, with its own leader and with its own programme." To this result two speeches largely contributed. One was a singularly direct, manly, and courageous speech by Mr. Stanley Baldwin; the other was a firm declaration by Mr. Bonar Law, who had been reluctantly persuaded to emerge from retirement and head the revolt against the Coalition. But it was a soldiers' battle ; the victory was that of the rank and file, who for the last two years had been increasingly suspicious of Mr. Lloyd George's policy.

The die was now cast. The Coalition was smashed ; Mr. Lloyd George resigned and Mr. Bonar Law became prime minister and the head of a purely Conservative ministry—the first since 1905. The electorate showed its confidence in the new administration by returning (Nov. 1922) 344 Conservatives as against 53 Asquithian Liberals and 61 National (or Lloyd George) Liberals, and 142 Labour-Socialist members. The parliament elected in Nov. 1922, on the cry of rest and recuperation, was short-lived. Mr. Bonar Law was compelled by illness to resign in May 1923. Who was to succeed him? Length and distinction of service, great experience, intellectual endowments—all pointed to Lord Curzon of Ked leston. The King, however, decided that a peer premier was, under the circumstances, impracticable, and his choice fell on Mr. Stanley Baldwin.

The new Government did not last long. Mr. Baldwin, convinced that only protection could provide a positive cure for unemploy ment, asked the country (Nov. 1923) to endorse that conviction. At the ensuing general election the country declined. The Liberals and Socialists combined to turn out Mr. Baldwin's Government ; the Labour Party took office on Liberal sufferance, but in the early autumn of 1924 became involved in irretrievable difficulties and appealed to the country. The country showed even less liking for Socialism than for protection, and Mr. Baldwin achieved a victory almost national in dimensions. The new parliament contained nearly 42o Conservatives and 151 Socialists, while the Liberal Parties were in the aggregate reduced to 4o. Mr. Baldwin, rightly interpreting the verdict of the country as a call to the union of all constitutionalists, included in his new ministry not only those Unionists who, like Sir Austen Chamberlain and Lord Birkenhead, had gone into temporary exile with Mr. Lloyd George, but Mr. Winston Churchill, who for nearly 20 years had been a member of the Liberal Party and now took office as chancellor of the Ex chequer. Though defeated in the 1929 election, the Conservatives and the National Government won a decisive majority in that of 1931 and again in (See ENGLISH HISTORY.) (J.A.R.M.)