ABSTRACT
The English conservative tradition (which includes those who were not native-born Englishmen) is perhaps the richest in the whole of conservative political thought. Although England has produced great political philosophers (Hobbes, Locke, Bentham, Mill, etc.), the country's political tradition is equally important for its long line of conservative thinkers who have reflected on politics, not from a rationalistic and metaphysical position, but from the perspective of history, religion, and the common law and custom. Although a divinely based natural law has inspired much English conservative thought its most notable contribution to politics is a profound scepticism about rational schemes for social improvement. It is secular at least in comparison to much of European conservative thought.
