Note B — Chapter I · 1837–1838.

The Tory Party had by this time adopted the title of Conservatives, a term first applied to them by Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review for January 1830, wherein he mentions his attachment to “what is called the Tory, but which might, with more propriety, be called the Conservative Party.” The Charter of Conservatism was never more clearly defined than by Sir Robert Peel, who, speaking at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in 1838, said: “My object for some years past has been to lay the foundations of a great party which, existing in the House of Commons, and deriving its strength from the popular will, should diminish the risk and deaden the shock of collisions between the two branches of the legislature.”