1660 - 1714 67

stimulant is applied to the whole post-Revolution era in a
collection of analytical essays edited by Holmes.402

However, it is in this era that we strike the first serious
controversy to have arisen in seventeenth-century political his-
tory, the debate over the nature of party and politics. In his
analysis of factions and groupings under Anne, Walcott applied
a crudely schematic version of Namier's interpretation which
was carefully criticized by Horwitz.403 Criticism of Walcott
also appeared, at perhaps too great length, in the important
study which Plumb devoted to his demonstration that between
Exclusion and Excise English politics moved from party-
dominated strife to a deliberately contrived peace without
parties.404 Rubini attempts to show, with a fair measure of
success, that at least in William's reign the old distinction be-
tween court and country offers a better scheme than the new
distinction between whig and tory; on the other hand, for the
reign of Anne Holmes demonstrates the active and central
position of true party.405 I am not altogether persuaded that
the case has been finally made: clearly, there were times when
court-country attitudes are more readily discerned than whig-
tory ones. But the most important thing to emerge from the
debate is the fact that, though quite genuine and coherent
parties existed down to 1 7 14, they did not determine the making
of administrations. The next step, therefore, is to study the
managerial persons. A start has been made on Harley, perhaps
the|Cnost significant politician of his age: Hamilton has written

402 Geoffrey S. Holmes, ed., Britain after the Glorious Revolution. L:

Macmillan: 1969. Pp. ix, 245.
»» Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century. O:

Clarendon: 1956. Pp. viii, 291. Rev: EHR 72, is6ff. -Henry

Horwitz, *Parties, connections and parliamentary politics, 1689-

1714% JBS 6 (1966), 45-69.

*°* John H. Plumb, The Growth of Political Stability in England, 1675 -
L: Macmillan: 1967. Pp. xi, 206. Rev: EHR 83, 57orL;

*°* Denis Rubini, Court and Country, 1688 - 7702, L: Hart-Davis: 1968.
Pp. 304. Rev: EHR 85, i75f.; Hist 54, iO4f. - Geoffrey S. Holmes,
British Politics in the Age of Anne* L: Macmillan: 1967* Pp* xiv,
546. Rev: EHR 84, ssSff.; JMH 41, 928*.