Historical 's 1745 painting and its romanticised interpretation of
Jacobitism. The High Tory view in the 18th century preferred lowered taxation and deplored
Whig support for a standing army, an expanding empire and navy, and overseas commerce. The main reason was that these were paid for or subsidised by the new
English Land Tax that had started in 1692. On religious issues, the High Tories usually rallied under the banner of "
Church in Danger", preferred
High church Anglicanism, and many covertly supported
Jacobitism. The long and generally productive Whig premierships of
Sir Robert Walpole and
William Pitt the Elder, and the continuance of the
Hanoverian dynasty, caused opinions to change gradually in line with what is now called "
Whig history". The change was noticeable from the 1760s with the premierships of
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute and
William Pitt the Younger. The Land Tax Perpetuation Act 1798 reduced the impact of that tax, though the
landed gentry's privileges were reduced by the
Reform Act 1832. In the reign of
Queen Victoria, High Tories now supported the empire and navy, and were personified by the Prime Ministers
Lord Derby and
Lord Salisbury.
Modern High Tories prefer the values of the historical landed gentry and
aristocracy, with their
noblesse oblige and their self-imposed sense of duty and responsibility to all of society, including the lower classes. Whilst not against private enterprise, they reject the values of the modern commercial business class, which they see as a pursuit of individualistic, unchecked selfishness and greed that destroys a sense of community and holds no regard for religious or high cultural values. Their focus is on maintaining a traditional, rooted society and way of life, which is often as much threatened by modern
capitalism as by
state socialism. A High Tory also favours a strong organic community, in contrast to Whig, liberal and
neoconservative individualism.
One-nation conservatism, as influenced by Disraeli and epitomised in leaders such as Balfour, favoured social cohesion, and its adherents support social institutions that maintain harmony between different interest groups and classes. Examples of British High Tory views from the 20th century onward would be those of the novelists
Evelyn Waugh and
Anthony Powell, poet
T. S. Eliot, philosopher
Sir Roger Scruton and Members of Parliament such as
Sir John Biggs-Davison,
Lord Amery,
Alan Clark,
Enoch Powell,
Sir Peter Tapsell and
Hugh Fraser. The leading pressure-group of High Toryism was possibly the
Conservative Monday Club, described by Labour Prime Minister
Harold Wilson as "The Conscience of the Tory Party", having been founded in 1961 as a group to support
apartheid-era
South Africa and
Southern Rhodesia, following
Harold Macmillan's opposition to
white minority rule in these countries; from the early 1980s, the group has been dominated by the
Thatcherite wing which opposed traditionalist High Tories. The journal
The Spectator is associated with modern High Toryism. The modern High Tory faction within the British Conservative Party would be the
Cornerstone Group. ==Positioning and religious affiliation==