to which the classes to which he wished to appeal would most
readily respond. The sequel showed that he was right. Nor as the
century went forward did this phenomenon change at all quickly.
For a long time in the nineteenth century the classes that were out-
side the aristocratic ring seem to have found it most easy to
achieve effective unity of purpose in movements which invoked
religious sanctions, which were directed towards objectives that
seemed to be endorsed by Christianity, and which could draw upon
the support of the Protestant nonconformist churches. It is quite
true that some of these movements were attacks on grievances that
seemed to be the direct result of the old aristocratic form of govern-
ment, as were the privileges of the Church of England; but the
arguments used were moral arguments, and the cause was always
conceived as a religious one.

It is therefore significant that in the sixties there was a great
deal of activity among the politically-minded Dissenters. The
election of 1868 probably brought into the House of Commons
more Dissenters and more men who were pledged to the dis-
establishment of the Church of England than ever before. Their
appetite was immediately whetted by an act for the disestablish-
ment and disendowment of the Church of Ireland promoted by
Gladstone.

In the circumstances they naturally felt that the day of reckoning
for the Church of England was at hand, that a breach in the curtain
wall of privilege had been effected at last.

In 1868, however, the apparent strength of the politically-
minded Dissenters was deceptive, for it depended on an alliance
with a man whose objects and principles they were likely at that
moment to misunderstand.

Indeed, it is relevant to suggest, at this point, how greatly the
development of British parties and the British party system had
been affected by the actions and idiosyncrasies of prominent in-
dividuals. At a critical moment Peel split the Conservative party
into two. The continued existence of Lord Palmerston delayed the
development of the Liberal party. By the same token after 1868 the
nature of the party system, and the way it was to work, owed much
to the character and behaviour of the two men who were to domin-

-xvi-