This chapter identifies several different meanings of the term “liberalism” in nineteenth-century England and describes a debate that emerged in the 1880s over the correct meaning of this word. In the middle of the century, liberalism was generally understood to be a commitment to reforming English political and social institutions so as to increase the power of “the people.” But in the 1880s, Herbert Spencer and others argued that “liberalism” was originally understood to refer to what we would now call “libertarianism”: the view that the only proper function of government is to protect persons and property from assault, theft, breach of contract, and fraud. This claim of Spencer and his allies is partly responsible for the myth of classical liberalism, but it is contradicted by the available evidence.