Whigs

Whigs, name given at the end of the 17th century to the Covenanters of Scotland, and afterwards extended to the Liberal party in England from the leniency with which they were disposed to treat the whole Nonconformist body, to which the persecuted Scottish zealots were of kin; they respected the constitution, and sought only to reform abuses.

Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)