too high a price.
Other nations have not had fewer troubles, have not shed less blood; but
the blood they have shed in the cause of their liberty has but cemented
their servitude.

This happy concert of King, Lords, and Commons in the government of
England has not always existed. England was for ages a country sorely
oppressed. But in the clashes of kings and nobles, it fortunately
happens that the bonds of the peoples are more or less relaxed. English
liberty was born of the quarrels of tyrants. The chief object of the
famous Magna Charta, let it be admitted, was to place the kings in
dependence upon the barons; but the rest of the nation was favoured also
in some degree in order that it might range itself on the side of its
professed protectors. The power of the nobility was undermined by Henry
VII., and the later kings have been wont to create new peers from time
to time with the idea of preserving the order of the peerage which they
formerly feared so profoundly, and counterbalancing the steadily-growing
strength of the Commons.

A man is not, in this country, exempt from certain taxes because he is a
noble or a priest; all taxation is controlled by the House of Commons,
which, although second in rank, is first in power.

The House of Lords may reject the bill of the Commons for taxation;
but it may not amend it; the Lords must either reject it or accept it
entire. When the bill is confirmed by the Lords and approved by the
King, then everybody pays--not according to his quality (which is
absurd), but according to his revenue. There are no poll-taxes or other
arbitrary levies, but a land tax, which remains the same, even although
the revenues from lands increase, so that nobody suffers extortion, and
nobody complains. The peasant's feet are not tortured by sabots; he eats
white bread; he dresses well; he need not hesitate to increase his stock
or tile his roof, for fear that next year he will have to submit to new
exactions by the tax-gatherer.

_IV.--Commerce_

Commerce, which has enriched the citizens in England, has contributed to
make them free, and freedom has in its turn extended commerce. Thereby
has been erected the greatness of the State. It is commerce which has
gradually established the naval forces through which the English are
masters of the sea.

An English merchant is quite justly proud of himself and his occupation;
he likes to compare himself, not without some warrant, with a Roman
citize