Politically, the government of the country was divided between the two
great parties of the Whigs and the Tories (S479), since uscceeded by
the Liberals and Conservatives. Though mutually hostile, each
believing that its rival's success meant national ruin, yet both were
sincerely opposed to despotism on the one hand, and to anarchy on the
other. The Whigs (S479), setting Parliament above the throne, were
pledged to maintain the Act of Settlement (S497) and the Protestant
succession; while the Tories (S479), insisting on a strict, unbroken
line of hereditary sovereigns, were anxious to set aside that act and
restore the excluded Stuarts (S494).
The Church of England was likewise divided into two parties, known as
High Church and Low Church. The first, who were generally Tories,
wished to exalt the power of the bishops and were opposed to the
toleration of Dissenters (S472); the second, who were Whigs as a rule,
believed it best to curtail the authority of the bishops, and to
secure to all Trinitarian Protestants entire liberty of worship and
all civil and political rights and privileges. Thus to the bitterness
of heated political controversy there was added the still more acrid
bitterness of theological dispute.
Addison illustrates the feeling that then prevailed by an amusing
story of an earlier occurrence. A boy who had lost his way in London
was called a "popish cur" by a Whig because he ventured to inquire for
Saint Anne's Lane, while he was cuffed for irreverence by a Tory when,
correcting himself, he asked bluntly for Anne's Lane.
The Queen, although she owed her crown mainly to the Whigs (S479),
sympathized with the Tories (S479) and the High Church, and did all in
her power to strengthen both. As for the leaders of the two parties,
they seem to have looked out first for themselves, and afterwards--
often a long way afterwards--for their country. During the whole
reign they were plotting and counterplotting, mining and undermining.
Their subtle schemes to secure office and destroy each other become as
incomprehensible and fathomless as those of the fallen angels in
Milton's vision of the bottomless pit.