THE NAME OF POLITICAL PARTIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 127, 1 June 1893, Page 4

THE NAME OF POLITICAL PARTIES.

C. li. Iloylance Kent, in Hacmillan's Magazine,

Names of ridicule form the first and largest class into which party names can be divided. They were meivlv the envenomed shafts ol

vulgar contumely. Such were the earliest party names iv England. Perhaps the very first of these was that of the Puritans. They sprang into existence in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and were distinguished by their uncompromising hostility to her masterful claims for prerogative in church and State; they were in short the lineal ances-ors of tho Whig and Liberal parties, Their enemies twitted them with aiming at superhuman purity and w r ith displaying fastidiousness in matters of detail, and dubbed them Puritans and sometimes Precisians. That there was probably ground enough for the charge, no one can doubt. And the Puritans, for good or for evil, have certainly left an indelible mark on the English character to the present hour. With the restoraiion a new set of names sprang into existence. First there were the Petitioners, who were always petitioning the King for something, and their opponents who styled themselves the Abhorrers. Then came perhaps the two most remarkable party names that the world has ever seen, not only for their absolute inanity, but also for their persistence and practical importance. These were the words Whig and Tory, which were originally nothing but terms of abusive ridicule. Yet they die hard. They occupy so large a space in English history that their origin deserves more than a passing notice. They were engendered in the ferment of a great political confusion, when feeling ran high, when the issues in debate were little understood, and when, in the words of a contemporary writer, " things were so entangled that liberty of language was almost lost." It was a time of conflict between the Court and Catholic party on the one hand, and the popular party on the other. The Duke of York found most of his supporters among the Catholic Irish, and it was for that reason that the Popular party, with a rough but graphic touch ; styled the w 7 hole of their

opponent the " wild Irish," and the " Bogtrotters." A more portable and euphonious name was found in the word Tory, the term for the

most lawless of the wild Irish. It is worth noting, as a remarkable coincidence, that the Italians use the word brig ante, or brigand, to designate a man who professes what were originally called Tory principles The Co art party retorted with the hardly less opprobrious term of Whig. It is Scotch in origin, but its real meaning is lost in obscurity, Its genesis may be traced to the rebellious Nonconformist zealots of the Western Lo .viands, and it is possible, as some haze thought, that it was the word there used for whey or sour milk, the acid qualities of which were thought to represent the dispositions of the Roundhead or Puritan party. A less fanciful derivation is from whiggant, the cry used to their horses by the Westland peasants who went every summer to buy corn at Leith. It is, at all events, a humiliating fact, that the great historic English parties should have been almost indelibly branded with contemptuous names of Scotch and Irish origin.

But if we extend our views to other countries we shall tincl no less remarkable examples. France, that laboratory of political experiments, is peculiarly rich in them. The French Protestants received opprobrious names. They were called Christodians, because they would talk about nothing else but Christ ; Parpaillots, after a small base coin ; and lastly Huguenots, after Hugon, the great hobgoblin of French superstition, because they were supposed to hide [themselves in secret places, and only wander out in the dark. Then again there were the Frondeurs, or the Slingers, sometimes called the Fronde, the name of the faction raised by Cardinal de Retz in opposition to Cardinal Mazarin. A wit observed that the faction in question were like schoolboys who threw stones and ran when a Gendarme appeared, and began again as soon as he had turned his back. Coined in mere pleasantry, the name soon became the contemptible nickname of a party. La Jacquerie, again was the name given to some rebellious peasants, and is due to the fact that the tyrannical nobles spoke of Jacques Bon Homme in terms of insolent cruelty. Jn England during the present century there has been only one term of ridicule employed, namely, that of the Adullamites, applied by Mr Bright in 1866 to a section of the Whigs who stood aloof on a reform Bill introduced by the Government of Lord John Russell. But it was a transient term which vanished with the incident that occasioned it, though the phrase a " Cave,"is still sometimes used to designate the dissentient section of a party. Perhaps the latest instance of all is the singular one of the Mugwumps in America, It is an Indian word denoting chief or aged man, and is used in a version of the Bible made ior the Algonquin Indians io translate the word Duke of | the English version. It was applied in ridicule by tho Republican party in i-SiSi to those members of their 1 1 arty who refused to vote i'or Mr Blame as a candidate for the Presi-

dency. NVhig and Tory arc Jess and Jess used, and have been almost entirely supplanted by Liberal and Conservative. Rut where material interests are concerned it matters little by what names parties are known. And in these days promises only are regarded, and an appeal to the eternal principles which make party differences and party combinations a reality is as little listened to as the empty tinkling of a symbol.

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