men's personal motives in them; a
shorter sketch may be best suited to show the chief characters, as
well as the main purport of the events in their full light.

But then, through the connexion of England with Scotland, and the
accession of a new dynasty, a state of things ensued under which the
continued maintenance of the position taken up in home and foreign
politics was rendered doubtful. The question arose whether the policy
of England would not differ from that of Great Britain and be
compelled to give way to it. The attempt to decide this question, and
the reciprocal influence of the newly allied countries, brought on
conflicts at home which, though they in the main arose out of foreign
relations, yet for a long while threw those relations into the
background.

If we were required to express in the most general terms the
distinction between English and French policy in the last two
centuries, we might say that it consisted in this, that the glory of
their arms abroad lay nearest to the heart of the French nation, and
the legal settlement of their home affairs to that of the English. How
often have the French, in appearance at least, allowed themselves to
be consoled for the defects of the home administration by a great
victory or an advantageous peace! And the English, from regard to
constitutional questions of apparently inferior importance, have not
seldom turned their eyes away from grievous perils which hung over
Europe.

The two great constitutional powers in England, the Crown and the
Parliament, dating back as they did to early times, had often
previously contended with each other, but had harmoniously combined in
the religious struggle, and had both gained strength thereby; but
towards the middle of the seventeenth century we see them first come
into collision over ecclesiastical regulations, and then engage in a
war for life and death respecting the constitution of the realm.
Elements originally separate unite in attacking the monarchy;
meanwhile the old system breaks up, and energetic efforts are made to
found a new one on its ruins. But none of them succeed; the
deeply-felt need of a life regulated by law and able to trust its own
future is not satisfied; after long storms men seek safety in a return
to the old and approved historic forms so characteristic of the
German, and especially of the English, race. But in this there is
clearly no solution of the original controversies, no reconciliation
o