ecy fulfilled to the letter.

* * * * *

The reader will have noticed with some surprise the statement of Burke
that Pitt and Grenville had not the slightest fear of the spread of
French principles in England. As we know, Burke vehemently maintained
the contrary, averring that the French plague, unless crushed at Paris,
would infect the world. In his survey of the European States he admitted
that we were less liable to infection than Germany, Holland, and Italy,
owing to the excellence of our constitution; but he feared that our
nearness to France, and our zeal for liberty, would expose us to some
danger. Why he should have cherished these fears is hard to say; for to
him the French Revolution was "a wild attempt to methodize anarchy," "a
foul, impious, monstrous thing, wholly out of the course of moral
nature."[19] Surely if British and French principles were so utterly
different, we were in no more danger of infection from the Jacobins than
of catching swine fever.

This was virtually the view of Pitt and Grenville; for there were no
premonitory symptoms of infection, but much the reverse. Londoners
showed the utmost joy at the first news of the escape of the King and
Queen from Paris, and were equally depressed by the news from Varennes.
As we shall presently see, it was with shouts of "Long live the King,"
"Church and State," "Down with the Dissenters," "No Olivers," "Down with
the Rump," "No false Rights of Man," that the rabble of Birmingham
wrecked and burnt the houses of Dr. Priestley and other prominent
Nonconformists of that town. Only by slow degrees did this loyal
enthusiasm give place to opinions which in course of time came to be
called Radical. It may be well to trace briefly the fluctuations of
public opinion, to which the career of Pitt stands in vital relation.

The growth of discontent in Great Britain may be ascribed to definite
evils in the body politic, and it seems to have arisen only secondarily
from French propaganda. The first question which kindled the fire of
resentment was that of the civic and political disabilities still
imposed on Nonconformists by the Corporation and Test Acts of the reign
of Charles II. Pitt's decision in the session of 1787 to uphold those
Acts ensured the rejection of Beaufoy's motion for their repeal of 176
votes to 98; but undeterred by his defeat, Beaufoy brought the matter
before the House on 8th May 1789, and, despite