The former's rise to power upon the floodtide of popular enthusiasm meant nothing so much as a protest against the cynical corruption of the previous generation.

Wilkes was a sign that the populace was slowly awaking to a sense of its own power.

The French creed was too purely logical, too obviously the outcome of alien conditions, to fit in its entirety the English facts; and, it must be admitted, memories of wooden shoes played not a little part in its rejection.

The rights of man made only a partial appeal until the miseries of Pitt's wars showed what was involved in that rejection; and then it was too late.

But no one could feel without being stirred the illumination of Montesquieu; and Rousseau's questions, even if they proved unanswerable, were stuff for thought.