398 PARLIAMENTARY COLBERTISM 
L050 when that party was in power. It is worth while, by way of 
retrospect, to indicate the line which had been taken by the 
Tories. Though the various points in the policy of the party 
have been indicated in contradistinction to the Whigs, no 
attempt has been made to show the strength of their 
position, and the coherence of Tory policy as a whole. 
Their dissent from Whig measures was not the mere 
negative criticism of an irresponsible opposition. The Tory 
policy had a definite character of its own, and may be easily 
contrasted with that of the party who held the reins of 
land as power for so long. While the Whigs relied on industry as 
the main ip 3 . . 
factor in the main factor in material prosperity, the Tories looked to 
eoseriy, the land as the element on which the sound political life 
and desired of the community depended. They were prepared to protect 
its burdens, agriculburists from hostile competition’, but they did not go 
further. Their main object, so far as the agricultural interest 
was concerned, was to lighten the pressure of the taxation 
which fell upon the landed proprietors; they were not con- 
vinced that the expenses of government must necessarily be 
Jefrayed, directly or indirectly, by the owners of the soil, and 
shey had little sympathy with the policy of stimulating 
agriculture so that it might sustain this heavy weight. 
They had no desire to keep the burden and the control of 
national policy in their own hands. In old days the King 
had been accustomed to live of his own, with occasional 
assistance from the subjects, for many centuries; and the 
Tories saw no valid objection to the continuance of that 
system. If he could develop a crown domain in Ireland, or 
in the lands beyond the sea, so much the better, so long as 
she bonds of political attachment were really strong. The 
Tories did not share the jealousy of monarchical influence 
which actuated the country party in their measures towards 
Ireland. 
Nor is it difficult to discern a difference in the position 
taken by leading men of the two parties, in regard to the 
American colonies. The Whigs were chiefly concerned with 
building up the wealth of the mother country, and cared for the 
colonies in so far as they served this object, but no further. 
I Compare C. Smith's Tracts on the Corn Laws, p. 11. 
ut were 
wot jealous 
of the 
Crown,