WHIG AND TORY, the names which for the last two centuries have been popularly applied to two opposite political parties in Great Britain. Both were at first names of reproach. Whig was originally a nickname of the peasantry of the western lowlands of Scotland, said by some to be derived from a word or sound used by them in driving their horses; by others, from tally, acetous liquor subsiding from sour cream."—Jamieson. Its next application was to the bands of Covenanters, chiefly from the west of Scotland, who, subsequently to the murder of archbishop Sharpe; took up arms against the govern ment, and after gaining some successes in encounters with the king's troops, were defeated at Bothwell bridge. Thence the name wing (or whi.gamore) came to be fastened, first on the whole Presbyterian zealots of Scotland, and afterward on those English politicians who showed a disposition to oppose the court, and treat Protestant nonconformists with leniency. The word tory—said to be derived from Lora, tore, in Irish, " give, give," or " stand and deliver "—was first given to certain bands of out laws, half-robber, half-insurgent; professing the Roman Catholic faith, who harassed the English in Ireland; and was thence applied reproachfully to all who were supposed to be abettors of the imaginary popish plot; and then generally to persons who refused to concur in the exclusion of a Roman Catholic prince from the throne. These two nick names, which came into use about 1680, immediately became familiar words, and have since been retained as designation%of two opposite political sides—the tories being, gen erally speaking, the adherents of the ancient constitution of England without change, and the supporters of regal, ecclesiastical, and aristocratic authority; while the whigs have been the advocates of such changes in the constitution as tend in the direction of democracy. The most sweeping constitutional change of the present century which the whigs have carried is the reform bill of 1832., Each party, while preserving within cer
tain limits a general consistency of purpose, has undergone many changes in its prin ciples, professions, and modes of action with the altering circumstances of the country; and among persons who have been considered adherents of each side at'any given time, there have seldom been wanting a variety of more or less distinctive shades of opinion. A division in the ranks of either party has often led the more moderate section of that party to coalesce with the opposite side; and at other times, the extreme party of inno vation, drop'ping their connection with the whigs, have adopted another name, as when those politicians whose desire was to have the whole institutions of the country remodeled on a democratic basis, assumed the designation of radical reformers or radi cals. See also CHARTISM. For a considerable time after the reform bill, the governing section of the whig party were more disposed to maintain the principles of the changes already made, than to insist on further constitutional changes; and the principles main tained by whigs and tories sometimes approximated so closely that the difference seemed more one of men than of measures. Sometimes one party, sometimes the other, has appeared as the advocate of measures which have proved beneficial. In the agitation for the repeal of the corn-laws, which lasted from 1841 to 1846, the tories were ranked on the side of protection, and the whigs of free trade; but the relations of the two parties had been the reverse at a former period, when Mr. Pitt's advocacy of free trade between and Ireland was opposed by the manufacturers of Lancashire, who succeeded in getting his measure postponed. During the last thirty years, the names liberal and conservative have to a great extent superseded the former party designations of whig and tory.