ABSTRACT
England from the eighteen-eighties on had to face problems that America has been able down to the present time largely to disregard. England was developing increasing awareness of national and of imperial destiny. The country was becoming more and more a part of the rest of the world. The chief significance of the ‘eighties is marked the beginning of a new phase in the recurrent struggle for individual freedom. The particular concepts associated with freedom and those associated with authority as a result of the trends centering in the French Revolution. Remedies for lack of political vitality were sought in changes in Parliamentary procedure, in exchanging the ‘ins’ for the ‘outs’ in government, and in inducing better men to run for office. There was beginning to be disaffection with politics and with political parties altogether, an attitude of cynicism about political action which was to reach more complete expression in Chamberlain's ‘Patriotism before polities’ slogan of 1900.
