worth the trouble to mention that the wars
against Louis XIV were purely wars of competition for the destruction
of French commerce and of French sea power; that under William III,
the rule of the financial middle class received its first sanction
through the establishment of the Bank of England, and the introduction
of the national debt; that a new upward impetus was given to the
manufacturing middle class through the consistent enforcement of the
protective fiscal system.

For him only political phrases have importance. He does not even
mention that under Queen Anne the ruling parties could only maintain
themselves and the constitutional monarchy by forcibly prolonging the
life of Parliament to seven years, thus almost entirely destroying
popular influence over the government.

Under the Hanoverian dynasty England had already progressed so far as
to be able to wage competitive war against France in the modern form.
England herself combated France only in America and the East Indies,
whilst on the Continent she was content to pay foreign princes like
Frederick II to wage war against France. When, therefore, foreign
politics assumed another aspect, M. Guizot says: "foreign policy
ceased to be a chief concern" and its place was taken by "the
maintenance of peace." The extent to which "the development and the
struggles of the parliamentary regime became the dominant
preoccupation of the Government and of the public" may be inferred
from the bribery stories about the Walpole ministry, which at any rate
bear a close resemblance to the scandals which came to light under M.
Guizot.

Why the English Revolution entered on a more prosperous career than
the French Revolution subsequently did is explained by M. Guizot from
two causes: first, from the fact that the English Revolution bore a
thoroughly religious character, and therefore broke in no way with the
traditions of the past, and secondly from the fact that from the
outset it did not wear a destructive, but a constructive aspect,
Parliament defending the old existing laws against the encroachments
of the Crown.

As regards the first point, M. Guizot forgets that the free thought of
the French Revolution, which makes him shudder so convulsively, was
imported into France from no other country than England. Locke was its
father, and in Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke it assumed that lively
form which later underwent such a brilliant development in France.

Thus we reach the