Introduction

Nonconformity played a part in the public affairs of the nineteenth century that no student of the period can ignore. Its traditional championship of civil and religious liberty gradually evolved into Gladstonian Liberalism. Tories in the early nineteenth century though Liberals at its end. The extent to which the Methodist laity were sympathetic to Liberalism is obscured by the 'no politics' rule that excluded the discussion of public affairs from connexional life. There were also those who repudiated all political concern as a diversion from the true work of the Christian. It was widely supposed, furthermore, that politics was not for women. Several issues were the preoccupation of a single denomination. Unitarians pressed successfully for legislation to secure their legal possession of meeting houses originally occupied by their orthodox ancestors.