, 1840-08-22
From the Boston Statesman.
BRITISH WINGS.

The term uhig was fIst used IN Scotland,
and was applied to the western men, also
called Caneronians, who were engaged in
the famous insurrrection of Boutwell, Bridge,
against Charles II. According to Defoe, it
was derived from the name of ga Kind of
liquor Dhich the westcrn H~ighld1imen used
to drink, and so became common to those
who drank it." The Duke of Monmouth,
who was sent against those insurgents by
Charles, treated them with so much lenity
after their defeat, that he came to be suspect
ed at the English court of having secretly
favored their cause, and was openly accused
of being a whig himself. In a little time, the
friends and followers Of the Duke began to be
called Wings; and thus was the term intro
duced into England as a party name.
A. this period, all power was in the hands
possessed most of the landed property of the
realm. But another interest had been gradu-
ally growing up, the banking and commercial
interest, which soon became sufficiently pow
erful to struggle successfully for particip ftion
in the powers and privileges enjoyed BY the
nobility. This participation was sought in
an increase of the power of the House of
Commons, and in 4 modification of the terms
of administration to that House. They who
thus sought for the political recognition of
commercial capital, were by the court party
ranked withsthe discontinued friends OF the
Duke of Monmouth. and, with them, were
called whigs. The whig party, thus con-
stituted, was then the liberal party-inas-
much as it was more liberal than the court
and nobility, who commended for the doc
trines Of divine right and passive obedience,
to be enforced by the sword of the nobility.
But inasmuch as they did not seek to abrogate
the royal power, they were still monarchists,
and as they wished not to destroy the OBJ.
pressive powers or exclusive privileges, by
the admission Of a few wealthy commoners,
their policy, SO far from aiming at the anne
Iteration of the condition of the mass of the
people, tended to increase their burdens, by
charging the number Of those privileged to
Cypress them. Such were the views and
objects of the earliest British whigs.
The subsequent accession of the House
of Hanover divided England in two parties,
the wings, or friends Of the new establish
ment, and the tories and J~acobites, its secret
or ayowed opponents. As it was impossible
that either the tories or Jacobites could have
the confidence of the Hanoverian princes,
all places of power and profit were in the
hands Of the wings. "Ofthose two parties,'
says the Eding5urgh Review, 4" the tories and
Jacobites were the most numerous. They
included a certain number of the ancient no
bility and comprehended a very large por
ton OF the landed interest, and, what gave
them a prodigious influence in those days, a
vast majority of the parochial clergy. THE
STRENGTH OF THE WHIGS LAY
IN THE GREAT ARISTOCRACY IN
THE CORPORATIONS. AND in THE
TRADING AND MONlED INTER
ESTS."
Relying upon this strength, the wings en-
ployed measures. and sanctioned proceedings,
from which their ancestors would have re.
coiled. They armed the magistrates, with
additional, and, till then, unknown powers,
they maintained a standing army in time Of
peace, they passed the riot act, they repealed
the ~trienniai act, they suspended the habeas
corpus act they plunged the country mex
tricably into debt, and /" they introduced al
shameful system Of corruption and larity of
political principle, the whole extent Of Which
has but recently been exposed to public rieu."
Thus W see that the only practical result
of the success Of the wings, in England, was
to confer dignity and influence upon wealth,
to elevate the rich into an aristocracy, and