PREFACE
The rules of the Royal Institution forbid (and wisely) religious or
political controversy. It was therefore impossible for me in these
Lectures, to say much which had to be said, in drawing a just and
complete picture of the Ancien Regime in France. The passages inserted
between brackets, which bear on religious matters, were accordingly not
spoken at the Royal Institution.
But more. It was impossible for me in these Lectures, to bring
forward as fully as I could have wished, the contrast between the
continental nations and England, whether now, or during the eighteenth
century. But that contrast cannot be too carefully studied at the present
moment. In proportion as it is seen and understood, will the fear of
revolution (if such exists) die out among the wealthier classes; and the
wish for it (if such exists) among the poorer; and a large extension of the
suffrage will be looked on as--what it actually is--a safe and harmless
concession to the wishes--and, as I hold, to the just rights--of large portion
of the British nation