ght years. There is
a tradition that when a Liberal government is defeated in Midlothian
the end of that government is not far distant. Prophecy in such
matters, however, is futile. Meanwhile the Unionists continue to be
divided upon the tariff, but in the main they are united in opposition
to the overturning of the ancient constitutional system, although they
no longer generally oppose a moderate reform of the House of Lords. In
a speech delivered at Leeds, November 16, 1911, the new parliamentary
leader of the party, Mr. Bonar Law,[235] enumerated as the immediate
Unionist purposes (1) to oppose the Government's Welsh Disestablishment
scheme, (2) to resist Home Rule, (3) to labor for tariff reform as the
only practicable means of solving the problem of unemployment, and (4)
to defend at all costs the unity of the Empire.

[Footnote 231: W. J. Laprade, The Present Status of
the Home Rule Question, in _American Political
Science Review_, Nov., 1912.]

[Footnote 232: See p. 90.]

[Footnote 233: See p. 127.]

[Footnote 234: H. Seton-Karr, The Radical Party and
Social Reform, in _Nineteenth Century_, Dec, 1910.]

[Footnote 235: Mr. Law was chosen Opposition leader
in the Commons November 13, 1911, upon the
unexpected retirement of Mr. Balfour from that
position.]

*171. Party Composition.*--Both of the great parties as constituted
to-day possess substantial strength in all portions of the kingdom
save Ireland, the Liberals being in the preponderance in Scotland,
Wales, and northern England, and the Conservatives in the south and
southwest. Within the Conservative ranks are found much the greater
portion of the people of title, wealth, and social position; nearly
all of the clergy of the Established Church, and some of the
Dissenters; a majority of the graduates of the universities[236] and
of members of the bar; most of the prosperous merchants,
manufacturers, and financiers; a majority of clerks and approximately
half of the tradesmen and shopkeepers; and a very considerable mass,
though not in these days half, of the workingmen. During the second
half of the nineteenth century the well-to-do and aristocratic (p. 165)
Whig element in the Liberal party was drawn over, in the main, to the
ranks of the Conser