ABSTRACT
The Union of Associations demanded the dissolution of the Central Committee, and the transfer to itself of all the latter's powers. The official leaders, Lord Salisbury and Sir Stafford Northcote, were naturally not much inclined to part with their influence, especially in favour of the Fourth Party, which had seized on the Union. When the Tory party set to work to interrogate itself directly after the defeat of 1880, it was recognized that besides the reform of organization the party also needed a new clearly defined policy, of a positive and not merely negative character, a progressive policy capable of solving the rising problems of the day. The spirit of true Liberalism is not extinct, but it is a spirit without a body. The Conservative organization, in its turn, set its machinery going to retort upon the Radical Caucus, and Lord Salisbury hastened to co-operate in this campaign.
