Evolutionary liberalism in Britain

1. The initial concepts of liberalism There is a variety of meanings with which the term "liberalism" is used, having little in common except for describing openness to new ideas. Some of these meanings are directly opposed to those which were originally designated by it during the nineteenth and the earlier parts of the twentieth centuries. What will alone be considered in this chapter is the set of political ideals which operated during that period, as …

…the last liberal government of the old type, while under his successor, H. H. Asquith, new experiments in social policy were undertaken which were only doubtfully compatible with the older liberal principles. But on the whole it can be said that the liberal era of British policy lasted until the outbreak of the First World War, and that the dominating influence of liberal ideas in Britain was terminated only by the effects of this war.