Excerpt from The History of Party, Vol. 1: From the Rise the Whig and Tory Factions, in the Reign of Charles to the Passing of the Reform The conduct and revolutions of our two national parties occur but incidentally, even in the most comprehensive of the general Histories of England it is the object of the following work to separate them from the mass of circumstances with which they are mingled, and weave them into a connected and detailed narrative. A review of the principles and practice of the two classes of statesmen which alternately govern a mighty empire, must, under any circumstances, be interesting. A contrast of the opposing theories of government which they profess, of the opportuni ties which have occurred to each for the develop ment of these theories, and of the results obtained, must, in all cases, be instructive. But to a citizen of the state, where these principles of government are still in active contest, and where these parties still are struggling, such knowledge is indispensable without it he can look only to the events of the present moment, he can trust only to the fallacious professions of individuals; with it he can deduce inferences from the more certain testimony of series of events, and he can contrast the results of the principles between which he is called upon to judge. Eminently important as such knowledge is, and\. Forming as it does, the most important reward of accurate historical study, its particular cultivation is very far from being general. The organs of the different factions put forth, without hesitation, the most extraordinary propositions upon this subject, and rely with confidence upon the credulity of their readers. In a recent number of the Quarterly Review (vol. Liv., p. 370) it is said, We talk now as we did then (in the reigns of Anne and George I.) of Whig and Tory, but the tenets of the two parties have been so completely counter changed (as the heralds express it) that a Whig of that day very much resembled a Tory of ours, and vice verse. The reader who contrasts this passage with the authorities cited in the following pages, will be inclined to wonder whether it proceeded from deplorable ignorance in the reviewer, or from his assumption of ignorance in his readers; but he will admit that, in either case, no attempt to dispel such ignorance can be unworthy of attention. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.