espotism and the principle of
freedom.

England differed from other European countries in that the essential
diversity of European civilisation was more pronounced there than
anywhere else. Elsewhere, one element prevailed over the others until it
was overthrown; in England, even if one element was dominant, the others
were strong and important. Elizabeth had to be far more wary with her
nobles and commons than Louis XIV. with his. For this reason, Europe
lagged behind England in civil freedom. But there was another
reason--the influence of France.

During the seventeenth century, the French Government was the strongest
in Europe, and it was a despotic government. During the eighteenth
century, French thought was the most active and potent in Europe, and it
was unboundedly free thought. Louis XIV. did not, as is sometimes
supposed, adopt as his principles the propagation of absolutism; his aim
was the strength and greatness of France, and to this end he fought and
planned--just as William of Orange fought and planned, not against
despotism, but against France. France presented herself at that age as
the most redoubtable, skilful, and imposing Power in Europe.

Yet, after the death of Louis XIV., the government immediately
degenerated. This was inevitable. No system of government can be
maintained without institutions, and a despot dislikes institutions. The
rule of Louis XIV. was great, powerful, and brilliant, but it had no
roots. The decrepit remains of it were in the eighteenth century brought
face to face with a society in which free examination and free
speculation had been carried to lengths never imagined before. Freedom
of thought once came to grips with absolute power.

Of the stupendous consequence of that collision it is not for me to
speak here; I have reached the end. But let me, before concluding, dwell
upon the gravest and most instructive part that is revealed to us by
this grand spectacle of civilisation. It is the danger, the
insurmountable evil of absolute power in any form--whether in a form of
a despot like Louis XIV. or in that of the untrammelled human spirit
that prevailed at the Revolution. Each human power has in itself a
natural vice, a principle of weakness, to which there has to be assigned
a limit. It is only by general liberty of all rights, interests and
opinions that each power can be restrained within its legitimate bounds,
and intellectual freedom enabled to exist genuinely and to