Book Reviews the exclusive world of Westminster, preoccupied with party battles and aware of legislative complexities. The Alliance was for too long mesmerized by the example of the Anti-Corn Law League which had apparently coerced Westminster by force of popular agitation. After 1870, the era of the "Caucus", politics worked differently, yet the Alliance's leaders never managed to work successfully within the confines of the Liberal Party. The history therefore reveals much about the political

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... system of the time, so different from our own when Whitehall departments and interest groups dominate social legislation. Perhaps Dr. Dingle might have spread himself more in his conclusions in this direction. The liquor question reveals the relative autonomy of "High Politics" at Westminster at this period, with political leaders like Randolph Churchill and Sir William Harcourt able to take up social questions as weapons to embarrass both their colleagues and opponents.