The contest had not been one of theory, but of facts; for the war had not been for revolution, but for conservation, so far as political rights were concerned.

In religion, the provinces had advanced from one step to another, till they now claimed the largest liberty--freedom of conscience--for all.

Religion, they held, was God's affair, not man's, in which neither people nor king had power over each other, but in which both were subject to God alone.

In politics it was different.

Hereditary sovereignty was acknowledged as a fact, but at the same time, the spirit of freedom was already learning its appropriate language.