George Cornewall Lewis
Encyclopedia
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet PC (21 April 1806 – 13 April 1863) was a British
statesman and man of letters.
, the son of Thomas Frankland Lewis of Harpton Court, Radnor
shire and his wife Harriet Cornewall. Thomas, after holding subordinate office in various administrations, became a poor-law commissioner, and was made a baronet
in 1846.
His maternal grandparents were Sir George Cornewall, 2nd Baronet
and Catherine Cornewall, daughter of Velters Cornewall.
and at Christ Church, Oxford
, where in 1828 he earned a first-class in classics and a second-class in mathematics. He then entered the Middle Temple
, and was called to the bar in 1831.
. In 1834 Lord Althorp included him in the commission to inquire into the state of church property and church affairs in Ireland
. To this fact we owe his work on Local Disturbances in Ireland, and the Irish Church Question (London, 1836), in which he condemned the existing connection between church and state, proposed a state provision for the Catholic clergy, and maintained the necessity of an efficient workhouse organization.
's doctrine of the predicables
, and soon afterward he assisted Connop Thirlwall
and Julius Charles Hare
in starting the Philological Museum. Its successor was the Classical Museum which he also supported "by occasional contributions.
In 1835 he published an Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages
(re-edited in 1862), the first effective criticism in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
of François Juste Marie Raynouard
's theory of a uniform romance tongue, represented by the poetry of the troubadour
s.
He also compiled a glossary of provincial words used in Herefordshire
and the adjoining counties. But the most important work of this earlier period was one to which his logical and philological tastes contributed. The Remarks on the Use and Abuse of some Political Terms (London, 1832) may have been suggested by Jeremy Bentham
's Book of Parliamentary Fallacies, but it shows all that power of clear, original thinking which marks his larger and later political works.
's Public Economy of Athens and Muller's History of Greek Literature, and he assisted Henry Tufnell
in the translation of Muller's Dorians. Some time afterward he edited a text of the Fables of Babrius.
While his friend Abraham Hayward
conducted the Law Magazine, he wrote in it frequently on such subjects as secondary punishments and the penitentiary system. In 1836, at the request of Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg
, he accompanied John Austin to Malta
, where they spent nearly two years reporting on the condition of the island and framing a new code of laws.
One leading object of both commissioners was to associate the Maltese in the responsible government of the island. On his return to Britain, Lewis succeeded his father as one of the principal poor-law commissioners. The Essay on the Government of Dependencies appeared in 1841, a systematic statement and discussion of the various relations in which colonies may stand towards the mother country.
and Theresa Parker and younger sister of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon
. She was the widow of novelist Thomas Henry Lister
and mother of three children by her previous marriage. Much of their married life was spent in Kent House, Knightsbridge
. They had no children.
, and Lord John Russell
appointed him Secretary to the Board of Control
, but a few months afterward he became Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs. In this capacity he introduced two important bills, one for the abolition of turnpike trust
s and the management of highways by a mixed county board, the other for the purpose of defining and regulating the law of parochial assessment.
In 1850 he succeeded Hayter as Financial Secretary to the Treasury
. About this time, his Essay on the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion was published. From 1853 to 1854 he sat on Royal Commission on the City of London
.
. He was defeated for Herefordshire and then for Peterborough
. Excluded from parliament he accepted the editorship of the Edinburgh Review
, and remained editor until 1855.
During this period he served on the Oxford commission, and on the commission to inquire into the government of London
. But its chief fruits were the Treatise on the Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics, and the Enquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History, in which he vigorously attacked the theory of epic lays and other theories on which Barthold Georg Niebuhr
's reconstruction of that history was based.
. He had a war loan to contract and heavy additional taxation to impose, but his industry, method and clear vision carried him safely through.
After the change of ministry in 1857 Sir George became Home Secretary under Lord Palmerston, and in 1861, much against his wish, he succeeded Sidney Herbert (Lord Herbert of Lea) at the War Office
. In that role he successfully argued against Russell's call for British mediation in the American Civil War
in the autumn of 1862.
life, the discussions on the Conspiracy Bill, and the trial of Bernard, had drawn general attention. He advocated the extension of extradition treaties, and condemned the principal idea of Weltrechtsordnung which Mohl of Heidelberg
had proposed.
His two latest works were the Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients, in which, without professing any knowledge of Oriental languages, he applied a sceptical analysis to the ambitious Egyptology
of Bunsen; and the Dialogue on the Best Form of Government, in which, under the name of Crito
, the author points out to the supporters of the various systems that there is no one abstract government which is the best possible for all times and places. An essay on the Characteristics of Federal, National, Provincial and Municipal Government does not seem to have been published.
. A large monument was built in memory of Sir George Cornewall Lewis in the small village of New Radnor
, Powys after he died and still stands today, as does a statue in front of the Shirehall in Hereford
. Lewis's large circle of friends included Sir E. Head, the Grotes
, the Austins, Lord Stanhope, John Stuart Mill
, Dean Milman, and the Duff Gordons. In public life he was described by Lord Aberdeen
as notable "for candour, moderation, love of truth". According to Geoffrey Madan
, although invited by Queeen Victoria
each year to stay at Balmoral
, he never accepted. Historian J. P. Parry argued that had Lewis lived he and not William Ewart Gladstone
might have come to lead the Liberal Party
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
statesman and man of letters.
Family
He was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the son of Thomas Frankland Lewis of Harpton Court, Radnor
Radnor
Radnor may refer to various places:United Kingdom* Radnorshire, Wales* New Radnor, Powys, Wales* Radnor Wood, Clun, Shropshire, EnglandUnited States* Radnor, Indiana* Radnor Township, Peoria County, Illinois* Radnor, Ohio...
shire and his wife Harriet Cornewall. Thomas, after holding subordinate office in various administrations, became a poor-law commissioner, and was made a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
in 1846.
His maternal grandparents were Sir George Cornewall, 2nd Baronet
Sir George Cornewall, 2nd Baronet
Sir George Cornewall, 2nd Baronet was a British politician, soldier and baronet.-Background:Born George Amyand, he was the older son of Sir George Amyand, 1st Baronet and his wife Anna Maria Korteen, daughter of John Abraham Korteen. In 1766, he succeeded his father as baronet...
and Catherine Cornewall, daughter of Velters Cornewall.
Education
Lewis was educated at Eton CollegeEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, where in 1828 he earned a first-class in classics and a second-class in mathematics. He then entered the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
, and was called to the bar in 1831.
Inquiry into Ireland
In 1833 he undertook his first public work as one of the commissioners to inquire into the condition of the poor Irish residents in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
. In 1834 Lord Althorp included him in the commission to inquire into the state of church property and church affairs in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. To this fact we owe his work on Local Disturbances in Ireland, and the Irish Church Question (London, 1836), in which he condemned the existing connection between church and state, proposed a state provision for the Catholic clergy, and maintained the necessity of an efficient workhouse organization.
Linguistics
During this period Lewis's mind was occupied with the study of language. Before leaving college he had published some observations on Richard WhatelyRichard Whately
Richard Whately was an English rhetorician, logician, economist, and theologian who also served as the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.-Life and times:...
's doctrine of the predicables
Predicables
Predicables is, in scholastic logic, a term applied to a classification of the possible relations in which a predicate may stand to its subject. It is not to be confused with 'praedicamenta', the schoolmen's term for Aristotle's ten Categories...
, and soon afterward he assisted Connop Thirlwall
Connop Thirlwall
Connop Thirlwall was an English bishop and historian.-Early life:Thirlwall was born at Stepney, London, of a Northumbrian family. He was a prodigy, learning Latin at three, Greek at four, and writing sermons at seven.He went to Charterhouse School, where George Grote and Julius Hare were among...
and Julius Charles Hare
Julius Charles Hare
Julius Charles Hare was an English theological writer.He was born at Valdagno, near Vicenza, in Italy. He came to England with his parents in 1799, but in 1804-1805 spent a winter with them at Weimar, Germany, where he met Goethe and Schiller, and took an interest in German literature which...
in starting the Philological Museum. Its successor was the Classical Museum which he also supported "by occasional contributions.
In 1835 he published an Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance Languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
(re-edited in 1862), the first effective criticism in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
of François Juste Marie Raynouard
François Juste Marie Raynouard
François Juste Marie Raynouard was a French dramatist and academic.He was born at Brignoles in Provence, trained for the bar, and practised at Draguignan. In 1791 he went to Paris as deputy to the Legislative Assembly, but after the fall of the Girondists, whom he followed, he went into hiding...
's theory of a uniform romance tongue, represented by the poetry of the troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s.
He also compiled a glossary of provincial words used in Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
and the adjoining counties. But the most important work of this earlier period was one to which his logical and philological tastes contributed. The Remarks on the Use and Abuse of some Political Terms (London, 1832) may have been suggested by Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
's Book of Parliamentary Fallacies, but it shows all that power of clear, original thinking which marks his larger and later political works.
Translations and reports
Moreover, he translated Philipp August BöckhPhilipp August Böckh
August Böckh was a German classical scholar and antiquarian.-Biography:He was born in Karlsruhe, and educated at the local gymnasium; in 1803 he left for the University of Halle, where he studied theology. F.A...
's Public Economy of Athens and Muller's History of Greek Literature, and he assisted Henry Tufnell
Henry Tufnell
Henry Tufnell was a British Whig politician. He entered the House of Commons in 1837 as a member for Ipswich, having previously been defeated in the North Essex election in 1835, but lost that seat a year later. He was returned for Devonport in a by-election in 1840 and held that seat until 1854...
in the translation of Muller's Dorians. Some time afterward he edited a text of the Fables of Babrius.
While his friend Abraham Hayward
Abraham Hayward
Abraham Hayward was an English man of letters.-Life:He was son of Joseph Hayward, and was born in Wilton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire....
conducted the Law Magazine, he wrote in it frequently on such subjects as secondary punishments and the penitentiary system. In 1836, at the request of Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg
Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg
Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg PC FRS was a Scottish politician and colonial administrator.-Background and education:...
, he accompanied John Austin to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, where they spent nearly two years reporting on the condition of the island and framing a new code of laws.
One leading object of both commissioners was to associate the Maltese in the responsible government of the island. On his return to Britain, Lewis succeeded his father as one of the principal poor-law commissioners. The Essay on the Government of Dependencies appeared in 1841, a systematic statement and discussion of the various relations in which colonies may stand towards the mother country.
Marriage
In 1844 Lewis married Lady Maria Theresa Villiers, a lady of literary tastes. She was a daughter of George VilliersGeorge Villiers (1759 - 1827)
George Villiers , styled The Honourable, was a British courtier and politician. The youngest son of the diplomat Lord Hyde , he was an intimate of Princess Amelia and personal supporter of her father, George III. His favour within the Royal Family and his father's influence brought him a number of...
and Theresa Parker and younger sister of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon
George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon
George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon KG, GCB, PC , was an English diplomat and statesman.-Background and education:...
. She was the widow of novelist Thomas Henry Lister
Thomas Henry Lister
Thomas Henry Lister was an English novelist and Registrar General.-Life and writings:Lister was the son of Thomas Lister of Armitage Park and his first wife Harriet Anne Seale. His maternal grandfather was John Seale...
and mother of three children by her previous marriage. Much of their married life was spent in Kent House, Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
. They had no children.
Government positions
In 1847 Lewis resigned his office. He was then returned for the county of HerefordHereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
, and Lord John Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
appointed him Secretary to the Board of Control
Secretary to the Board of Control
The Secretary to the Board of Control was a British government office in the late 18th and early 19th century, supporting the President of the Board of Control, who was responsible for overseeing the British East India Company and generally serving as the chief official in London responsible for...
, but a few months afterward he became Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs. In this capacity he introduced two important bills, one for the abolition of turnpike trust
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
s and the management of highways by a mixed county board, the other for the purpose of defining and regulating the law of parochial assessment.
In 1850 he succeeded Hayter as Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Financial Secretary to the Treasury is a junior Ministerial post in the British Treasury. It is the 4th most significant Ministerial role within the Treasury after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and the Paymaster General...
. About this time, his Essay on the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion was published. From 1853 to 1854 he sat on Royal Commission on the City of London
Royal Commission on the City of London
The Royal Commission on the Corporation of the City of London was a Royal Commission, established in 1853, which considered the local government arrangements of the City of London and the surrounding metropolitan area....
.
Magazine editor
On the dissolution of parliament which followed the resignation of Lord John Russell's ministry in 1852, Lewis sought re-election in the United Kingdom general election, 1852United Kingdom general election, 1852
The July 1852 United Kingdom general election was a watershed election in the formation of the modern political parties of Britain. Following 1852, the Tory/Conservative party became, more completely, the party of the rural aristocracy, while the Whig/Liberal party became the party of the rising...
. He was defeated for Herefordshire and then for Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
. Excluded from parliament he accepted the editorship of the Edinburgh Review
Edinburgh Review
The Edinburgh Review, founded in 1802, was one of the most influential British magazines of the 19th century. It ceased publication in 1929. The magazine took its Latin motto judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur from Publilius Syrus.In 1984, the Scottish cultural magazine New Edinburgh Review,...
, and remained editor until 1855.
During this period he served on the Oxford commission, and on the commission to inquire into the government of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. But its chief fruits were the Treatise on the Methods of Observation and Reasoning in Politics, and the Enquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History, in which he vigorously attacked the theory of epic lays and other theories on which Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
Barthold Georg Niebuhr was a Danish-German statesman and historian who became Germany's leading historian of Ancient Rome and a founding father of modern scholarly historiography. Classical Rome caught the admiration of German thinkers...
's reconstruction of that history was based.
Return to government
In 1855 Lewis succeeded his father in the baronetcy. He was at once elected member for the Radnor boroughs, and Lord Palmerston made him Chancellor of the ExchequerChancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
. He had a war loan to contract and heavy additional taxation to impose, but his industry, method and clear vision carried him safely through.
After the change of ministry in 1857 Sir George became Home Secretary under Lord Palmerston, and in 1861, much against his wish, he succeeded Sidney Herbert (Lord Herbert of Lea) at the War Office
Secretary of State for War
The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
. In that role he successfully argued against Russell's call for British mediation in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
in the autumn of 1862.
Final works
In 1859 he published the Essay on Foreign Jurisdiction and the Extradition of Criminals, a subject to which the attempt on Napoleon III'sNapoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
life, the discussions on the Conspiracy Bill, and the trial of Bernard, had drawn general attention. He advocated the extension of extradition treaties, and condemned the principal idea of Weltrechtsordnung which Mohl of Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
had proposed.
His two latest works were the Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients, in which, without professing any knowledge of Oriental languages, he applied a sceptical analysis to the ambitious Egyptology
Egyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
of Bunsen; and the Dialogue on the Best Form of Government, in which, under the name of Crito
Crito
Crito is a short but important dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It is a conversation between Socrates and his wealthy friend Crito regarding justice , injustice , and the appropriate response to injustice. Socrates thinks that injustice may not be answered with injustice, and...
, the author points out to the supporters of the various systems that there is no one abstract government which is the best possible for all times and places. An essay on the Characteristics of Federal, National, Provincial and Municipal Government does not seem to have been published.
Legacy
A marble bust of Sir George, by Weekes, stands in Westminster AbbeyWestminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
. A large monument was built in memory of Sir George Cornewall Lewis in the small village of New Radnor
New Radnor
New Radnor is a village in Powys, mid Wales. It was the original county town of Radnorshire. The population today is around 400, a higher than normal proportion of which are pensioners...
, Powys after he died and still stands today, as does a statue in front of the Shirehall in Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
. Lewis's large circle of friends included Sir E. Head, the Grotes
George Grote
George Grote was an English classical historian, best known in the field for a major work, the voluminous History of Greece, still read.-Early life:He was born at Clay Hill near Beckenham in Kent...
, the Austins, Lord Stanhope, John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
, Dean Milman, and the Duff Gordons. In public life he was described by Lord Aberdeen
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen KG, KT, FRS, PC , styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a Scottish politician, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 until 1855.-Early life:Born in Edinburgh on 28 January 1784, he...
as notable "for candour, moderation, love of truth". According to Geoffrey Madan
Geoffrey Madan
Geoffrey Spencer Madan was an English belletrist and both a collector and a creator of aphorisms, many of which are recorded in his Notebooks.-Biography:...
, although invited by Queeen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
each year to stay at Balmoral
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
, he never accepted. Historian J. P. Parry argued that had Lewis lived he and not William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
might have come to lead the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...