THE CONSERVATIVE APPROACH TO POLITICS.

POLITICAL affiliation; POLITICAL science; TAX reform; PRIME ministers; HARCOURT, William Vernon, Sir, 1827-1904; ARISTOCRACY (Social class); ARISTOCRACY (Political science)

The article presents an evaluation of the conservative approach to politics in Great Britain. The collapse of the British landed aristocracy in 1894, through the tax reform initiated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir William V. Harcourt, has been highlighted. The vitality of the old ruling class as shown by its long tenure of power, and the British record of two and a half centuries without revolution, take on new significance for Americans in the present international situation. The various approaches adopted by different statesmen have been discussed in detail. The actual possibility of a rapid succession of civil wars on a world scale in that time is the new factor which throws a fresh light backward on Harcourt's era, on which so many assumptions concerning both revolutionary and parliamentary methods have been based. Perhaps the willingness to believe that man should find comfort and happiness on this earth is the weakness that Harcourt spoke of in his early letter of self-examination. Some in every age will say so.