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tone of Empire is to be heard everywhere now, strong, clear
and unmistakeable, and it has grown and spread and obtained
its mastery during the reign of household suffrage. '" (1)
opinion waa reinforced by the Conservative returntD power
in 1900, which disproved the notion that the partioe would
alternate in government. Prophecies followed an to the domino
of the Liberal Party and it was triumphantly asserted that
"The "stroot-bred people" who know no more of England than
that they only England know, are an right an I. 7r. Kipling in
their Imperial instincts'
(2)
The move away from free trade Liberalism was
contemporaneous with the Imperial revival and wan identified
with it. In fact for the greater part of the time the
mass of voters were more concerned with domestic than with
Imperial matteres and more with the immediate Imperial
question of the union with Ireland than with far off Africa.
Interest in tropical Africa for instance was almost wholly
confined to a few minority pressure croupn Some attempts
Thin
were made to imperialice the working man, The Primrose LeaGuc
a Dicraolian cult,, founded by the Fourth Party in 9883,
put Imperialism laich in its priorities, equal to preserving the
(1) Tbc
(2) Fortnightly feviewt 11ovembor 1900, Edward Dicey, "The
downfall
of
ber lism" pp, C03-1k.