Liberalism, Democracy and the State in Britain

"Primary Sources in Political Thought" makes available a number of important but, until now, inaccessible texts in the history of political thought. Many of these have been overshadowed by longer or more famous works by the same authors, lost in the obscurity of periodical publication, never translated into English, or overlooked or neglected by modern scholars. The series aims to present definitive editions of these texts. The five pieces reprinted here are part of the polemical literature in the last four decades of the 19th century. They illustrate a creed whose adherents were acutely aware of its recent achievements and further potential in shaping British society and politics.