h was congenial to the prevalent spirit of
improvement must be noted.

It might be stated as a paradox that, whereas in France the most
palpable evils arose from the excessive power of the central government,
and in England the most palpable evils arose from the feebleness of the
central government, the French reformers demanded more government and
the English reformers demanded less government. 'Everything for the
people, nothing by the people,' was, as Mr. Morley remarks,[73] the
maxim of the French economists. The solution seems to be easy. In
France, reformers such as Turgot and the economists were in favour of an
enlightened despotism, because the state meant a centralised power which
might be turned against the aristocracy. Once 'enlightened' it would
suppress the exclusive privileges of a class which, doing nothing in
return, had become a mere burthen or dead weight encumbering all social
development. But in England the privileged class was identical with the
governing class. The political liberty of which Englishmen were
rightfully proud, the 'rule of law' which made every official
responsible to the ordinary course of justice, and the actual discharge
of their duties by the governing order, saved it from being the objects
of a jealous class hatred. While in France government was staggering
under an ever-accumulating resentment against the aristocracy, the
contemporary position in England was, on the whole, one of political
apathy. The country, though it had lost its colonies, was making
unprecedented progress in wealth; commerce, manufactures, and
agriculture were being developed by the energy of individuals; and Pitt
was beginning to apply Adam Smith's principles to finance. The cry for
parliamentary reform died out: neither Whigs nor Tories really cared for
it; and the 'glorious spirit of improvement' showed itself in an energy
which had little political application. The nobility was not an incubus
suppressing individual energy and confronted by the state, but was
itself the state; and its individual members were often leaders in
industrial improvement. Discontent, therefore, took in the main a
different form. Some government was, of course, necessary, and the
existing system was too much in harmony, even in its defects, with the
social order to provoke any distinct revolutionary sentiment. Englishmen
were not only satisfied with their main institutions, but regarded them
with exaggerated complacency. But, th