y
education, enacted statutes to safeguard the public health, removed
the disabilities of dissenters, and assisted in the overthrow of the
protective system. But if the Conservatives of the period 1830-1870
played, in general, the role implied by their party designation, their
attitude none the less was by no means always that of obstructionists,
and in the days of the Disraelian leadership they became scarcely less
a party of reform than were their opponents. Beginning with the Reform
Act of 1867, a long list of progressive and even revolutionizing
measures must be credited to them, and in late years they and the
Liberals have vied in advocating old age pensions, factory
legislation, accident insurance, housing laws, and other sorts of
advanced and remedial governmental action. The differences which
separate the two parties are not so much those of principle or of (p. 163)
political dogma as those of policy respecting immediate and particular
measures, and especially those of attitude toward certain important
organizations and interests. The Liberals assert themselves to be more
trustful of the people and more concerned about the popular welfare,
but the Conservatives enter a denial which possesses plausibility. It
is probably true that the Liberals have fostered peace and economy
with more resoluteness than have their rivals, yet so far as
expenditures go the Liberal administration to-day is laying out more
money than was ever laid out by a Conservative government in time of
peace. The Liberals are seemingly more regardful of the interests of
Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, but the difference is not so large as is
sometimes supposed.

[Footnote 230: A recent and important work on party
history is F. H. O'Donnell, A History of the Irish
Parliamentary Party, 2 vols. (London, 1910). See
Earl of Crewe, Ireland and the Liberal Party, in
_New Liberal Review_, June, 1901; E. Porritt,
Ireland's Representation in Parliament, in _North
American Review_, Aug., 1905; J. E. Barker, The
Parliamentary Position of the Irish Party, in
_Nineteenth Century_, Feb., 1910; and P. Sheehan,
William O'Brien and the Irish Centre Party, in
_Fortnightly Review_, Dec, 1910.]

*170. Present-day Issues.*--Aside from the tariff question (and t