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Political Nicknames

HE utmost difficulty exists in reconciling the various opinions expressed by different authors concerning the origin of the terms Whig and Tory. And yet, if we but consider the reasons why these nicknames were first bestowed upon the two great political factions of this country during the reign of Charles II., we may possibly attain a much-desired end. In the year 1648 (temp Charles I.) there occurred a rising, or sally, of the peasantry inhabiting the south-western districts of Scotland against the Royalists. This was known as the Whigamore Raid, the term whigamore being applied to the teamsters and ploughmen of those parts because they used the twin-syllabic cry of "Whi-gam!” to drive their horses. When, therefore, in the early days of the Restoration, the ultra-Protestant party opposed certain measures of the Government, the Catholics reproached them with favouring the fanatical opinions of the Scottish Covenanters and Whigamores, and styled them Whigs. In return the Protestants bestowed upon their opponents the nickname of Tories, the familiar designation of a band of Irish outlaws who sought refuge in the bog districts of IIO Ireland. The word Tory, or rather Toree, is Irish, signifying a robber. From that time down to the present Toryism has been considered to denote a steadfast adherence to constitutional principles and the maintenance of royalty and the peerage, as opposed to the progressive and more liberal views appertaining to Whiggism, which advocates constitutional reform and a moderate extension of democratical powers. The word Liberal was first employed by Lord Byron and his friends as the title of a periodical intended to set forth the political aims of the advanced Whig party in 1828. The term Conservative (derived from the Latin con, together, and servare, to keep, to preserve) first appeared in an article in The Quarterly Review, January, 1830, and was permanently adopted by the Tory party on the passing of the Reform Bill two years afterwards. The still more advanced section of the Whig party which came into prominence in 1816 were styled Radicals, or Radical Reformers, from their desire to institute a thorough reformation in the national policy. In our own day the Radicals and the Democrats may be set down as one and the same party; while the Socialists eminently carry out the principles of the primitive Radicals of the time of Charles I., who styled themselves Levellers because they strove to reduce society to a common level. The word Democrat is derived from the Greek demos, people, and kratein, to govern; therefore denoting one who upholds the principle of government by the people themselves, Political Nicknames. and diametrically opposed to an Aristocracy (Greek, aristos, best, and kratein, to govern), or government by the bravest and best. These terms were first brought into notice by the French Revolutionists of 1790.

Adverting to the protracted struggle between the Royalists under Charles I. and the Parliamentarians under the Cromwellian Parliament, no two nicknames could have been more suggestive of their origin than those respectively of the Cavaliers and the Roundheads. The latter arose out of the Puritan fashion of cropping the hair close round the head, the former from the cavalier manner in which a number of gentlemen offered themselves as a permanent escort to the King after he had been subjected to insult in December, 1641. The word Cavalier is synonymous with the French chevalier, a mounted knight, from cheval, a horse, derived from the Latin caballus, and the Greek kaballes, an inferior horse.