was provoked mainly
by the hostile attitude of the English people and government. At home
all reform propaganda was stamped out, and Tories and Whigs alike
throughout the quarter-century of international conflict pointed
habitually to the abuses by which the upheaval in France was
accompanied as indicative of what might be expected in England, or
anywhere, when once the way was thrown open for unrestrained
innovation.

The Tories were in power during most of the war period and in 1815
their position was seemingly impregnable. During the years covered by
the ministry of Lord Liverpool (1812-1827), however, their hold was
gradually relaxed. They sought to secure for themselves the support of
the masses and talked much of the aristocratic exclusiveness of the
Whigs, yet they made it their first concern to maintain absolutely
intact the constitution of the kingdom and the political and social
order by which it was buttressed. As long as England was engaged in a
life and death contest with Napoleon the staying of innovation was
easy, but after 1815 the task became one of rapidly increasing
difficulty. In the reign of George IV. (1820-1830) the more
progressive of the Tory leaders, notably Canning, Huskisson, and Peel,
recognized that the demands of the nation would have to be met at some
points, and a number of liberalizing measures were suffered to be
carried through Parliament, though none which touched directly the
most serious problems of the day. In 1830 the resignation of the
ministry of the Duke of Wellington marked the end of the prolonged
Tory ascendancy, and with a ministry presided over by Earl Grey the
Whigs returned to power. With the exception of a few brief intervals
they and their successors, the Liberals, held office thereafter until
1874.[212]

[Footnote 212: The party history of the period
1700-1792 is related admirably and in much detail
in W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in the
Eighteenth Century, 7 vols. (new ed., New York,
1903). Beginning with 1815, the best work on
English political history in the earlier nineteenth
century is S. Walpole, History of England from the
Conclusion of the Great War in 1815, 6 vols. (new
ed., London, 1902). A good general account is
contained in I. S. Leadam, The History of Englan