and. Conditional obedience and the
right of resistance became the law. Authority was limited and
regulated and controlled. The Whig theory of government was
substituted for the Tory theory on the fundamental points of political
science. The great achievement is that this was done without
bloodshed, without vengeance, without exclusion of entire parties,
with so little definiteness in point of doctrine that it could be
accepted, and the consequences could be left to work themselves
out. The Act itself was narrow, spiritless, confused, tame, and
unsatisfactory. It was perfectly compatible with the oppression of
class by class, and of the country by the State, as the agent of a
class. It was strangely imperfect.

The consequences ripened slowly, and a time came, under George III,
when it seemed that they were exhausted. It was then that another and
a more glorious Revolution, infinitely more definite and clear-cut,
with a stronger grasp of principle, and depending less on conciliation
and compromise, began to influence England and Europe.

XIV

LEWIS THE FOURTEENTH

WHILST ENGLAND was traversing the revolutionary period on its arduous
course towards free government, France completed, with universal
applause, the structure of absolute monarchy. Neither Henry IV nor
Richelieu had done enough to secure the country against conspiracy,
disorder, and invasion. There was a relapse into civil war during
each minority, under Lewis XIII and Lewis XIV; the nobles and the
magistrates turned against the crown, and a prince of the blood,
Conde, commanded the Spaniards in a campaign on French soil against
the royal army. With the aid of Turenne, Mazarin triumphed over every
danger, and the young king was anointed in the Cathedral of Rheims.

In 1659, by the Peace of the Pyrenees, the cardinal terminated
victoriously the long war with Spain, which began in the middle of the
Thirty Years' War, and outlasted it, and established the supremacy of
France over the Continent. The one desire of France was the
concentration of power, that there might be safety abroad and order at
home. To ensure this, more was required than the genius of even the
most vigorous and astute ministers in the world. Neither Richelieu,
who was a bishop, nor Mazarin, who was a foreigner, could be
identified with the State. What was wanted had been wanting in France
for half a century--the personality of the king, monarchy personified,
with as much