In the course of the next half century the Reform Bills of 1867 and 1884 extended the suffrage to the great majority of the population (S600).  A little more than twenty years later, in 1906, the combined Liberal and Labor parties gained an overwhelming victory at the polls.  This secured the workingmen fifty-four seats in Parliament (S628), whereas, up to that time, they had never had more than three or four.  It then became evident that a new power had entered the House of Commons.  From that date the nation has fully realized that although England is a monarchy in name, yet it is a republic in fact.  The slow progress of time has at length given to the British people—­ English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish—­the great gift of practical liberty; but along with it, it has imposed that political responsibility which is always the price which must be paid for the maintenance of liberty.

633.  Characteristics of English History; the Unity of the
     English-Speaking Race; Conclusion.

This rapid and imperfect sketch shows what has been accomplished by the people of Britain.  Other European peoples may have developed earlier, and made, perhaps, more rapid advances in certain forms of civilization, but none have surpassed, nay, none have equaled, the English-speaking race in the practical characer and permanence of its progress.

Guizot says[1] that the true order of national development in free government is, first, to convert the natural liberties of man into clearly defined political rights; and, next, to guarantee the security of those rights by the establishment of forces capable of maintaining them.

[1] Guizot’s “History of Representative Government,” lect. vi.

Nowhere do we find better illustrations of this truth than in the history of England, and of the colonies which England has planted.  For the fact cannot be too strongly emphasized that in European history England stands as the leader in the development of constitutional Government (SS199, 497).  Trial by jury (S176), the legal right to resist oppression (S261), legislative representation (SS213, 217), religious freedom (S496), the freedom of the press (S498), and, finally, the principle that all political power is a trust held for the public good,[1]—­these are the assured results of Anglo-Saxon growth, and the legitimate heritage of every nation of Anglo-Saxon descent.

[1] Macaulay’s “Essay on Sir Robert Walpole.”

It is no exaggeration to say that the best men and the best minds in England, without distinction of rank or class, are now laboring for the advancement of the people.  They see, what has never been so clearly seen before, that the nation is a unit, that the welfare of each depends ultimately on the welfare of all, and that the higher a man stands and the greater his wealth and privileges, so much the more is he bound to extend a helping hand to those less favored than himself.