One of the commonest subjects of conversation in our days is the state
of "political parties," and every child of school age can tell you
which is "the party in power." Three hundred years ago such
expressions would not have been understood at all, in their modern
sense, and "government by party" was a thing as yet undreamed of.
Usually the strongest man of his time, whether sovereign or subject,
was the real ruler in England. Elizabeth, for instance, was the sole
mistress in her own realm, though even she was greatly helped by the
famous minister Burleigh. In later times a Strafford, a Laud, an
Oliver Cromwell, a Clarendon presided over the destinies of England.
But in the second half of the seventeenth century there began that
division of politicians into two sides or parties which has continued
ever since. This division sprang, no doubt, from the civil wars
between King and Parliament, between Cavalier and Roundhead. By the
times of Queen Anne the terms Whig and Tory, replaced in our days for
the most part by Liberal and Conservative, had come into common use,
and no one who desires to understand the history of her reign can
wholly neglect the movements of these two opposing parties in
politics. For Marlborough--with his wife--may be said to be the last
powerful statesman who ruled England without the formal and
acknowledged help of party.
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