increasing; that it was greater under the
Tudors than under the Plantagenets; that it was greater under the
Stuarts than under the Tudors; that, in spite of battles, sieges,
and confiscations, it was greater on the day of the Restoration
than on the day when the Long Parliament met; that, in spite of
maladministration, of extravagance, of public bankruptcy, of two
costly and unsuccessful wars, of the pestilence and of the fire,
it was greater on the day of the death of Charles the Second than
on the day of his Restoration. This progress, having continued
during many ages, became at length, about the middle of the
eighteenth century, portentously rapid, and has proceeded, during
the nineteenth, with accelerated velocity. In consequence partly
of our geographical and partly of our moral position, we have,
during several generations, been exempt from evils which have
elsewhere impeded the efforts and destroyed the fruits of
industry. While every part of the Continent, from Moscow to
Lisbon, has been the theatre of bloody and devastating wars, no
hostile standard has been seen here but as a trophy. While
revolutions have taken place all around us, our government has
never once been subverted by violence. During more than a hundred
years there has been in our island no tumult of sufficient
importance to be called an insurrection; nor has the law been
once borne down either by popular fury or by regal tyranny:
public credit has been held sacred: the administration of justice
has been pure: even in times which might by Englishmen be justly
called evil times, we have enjoyed what almost every other nation
in the world would have considered as an ample measure of civil
and religious freedom. Every man has felt entire confidence that
the state would protect him in the possession of what had been
earned by his diligence and hoarded by his selfdenial. Under the
benignant influence of peace and liberty, science has flourished,
and has been