CONTENTS OF VOL. I. INTRODUCTION. PROGRESS OF FREEDOM IN THE WORLD BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. § 1. Importance and magnificence of the subject, 2. Comparative view of the era of Napoleon with others in the world, 3. Splendour of its events, 4. Extraordinary varieties of character which it exhibited, 5. Character and virtues of the European nations which were exhibited, 6. Its intellectual efforts, 8. Causes of the early depression of the lower orders, 7. Causes of these characteristics, 9. Consequent universality of, and necessity for, slavery, 10. Difference in the condition of slaves in early and later times, 11. Causes which perpetuate slavery, 3 4 ib. 5 ib. 6 7 8 ib. 9 ib. 10 11 ib. 12 13 18. First irruption of the Northern nations. Its great effects, 19. Lamentable prostration of the vanquished, 20. Separation thence induced between the classes of society in modern times, 14 21. Entire prostration of the vanquished, 23. And in the Northern nations, on their first establishment in Europe, 24. Causes which led to representative governments in Modern Europe, 27. Great effects of hereditary succession and primogeniture in producing this result, § 34. It was only fitted for a barbarous age, 35. Opulence undermined the power of the nobles, 36. Progress of freedom in the south of Europe, 37. Rapid rise of the urban civilisation of Italy. Great and patrioti of these states, 38. Causes of their decline, 39. General defection of the subject states on disaster, 40. Decline of Flemish freedom, 41. Common conclusions as to the tendency to decay in all communi 42. Causes which restored liberty. Influence of Christianity, 43. Difference of European and Asiatic northern conquest, 44. Causes to which it is to be ascribed, 45. Great influence of religious enthusiasm on human affairs, 46. Art of printing. Its advantages, 48. Ultimate benefits of knowledge, 49. Discovery of gunpowder destroyed the power of the nobility, 50. Increase of luxury tended to the same effect, 51. Combination of these causes in inducing the French Revolution, 52. Vast effect of the revolt of armies on the cause of democracy, 53. Danger from popular license which now threatens society, 54. Slow growth of durable freedom, CHAPTER I. COMPARATIVE PROGRESS OF FREEDOM IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 1. Parallel between the French and English Revolutions, 2. Moderation in England, and violence in France after victory, 3. Great influence of religion in England, and of infidel principles in F 4. Moderation displayed in the English civil wars, and cruelty in Fran 5. Vast difference as regards the subsequent law in the two countries 6. And as regards the distribution of property, 7. Political weight in France since the Revolution, compared with En 8. And on the military and naval power of the two countries, 9. These diversities must have been owing to some general cause, 10. What that cause was, 11. Degraded state of the inhabitants of both Gaul and Britain under 12. Total prostration of the Britons and Gauls after the fall of Rome, 13. Effects of Anglo-Saxon conquests, 14. Effect of the insular situation of Britain, 15. And of the piratical incursions of the Danes, 16. Cause which was beginning to prove fatal to freedom, 17. Consequent aristocratic tendency of society among the Anglo-Saxon 18. Great effects of the Norman Conquest, 19. It gave origin to the Yeomanry of England, 20. Vast effect of the insular situation of England on the conquering rac 21. And on the early struggles for freedom, 22. And on the national wars of the English, 23. Total want of archery as a force, in France and Scotland, 24. Peculiar combination which produced these results in England, 25. Important effect of the loss of the English possessions in France, 26. Power of the crown under the Norman kings, 30 31 § 27. Insular situation, 28. Anglo-Saxon institutions, 29. Entire want of protection to the rural labourers, 30. Democratic spirit in the time of Richard II., 31. Wars of the Roses, 32. Decline of feudal liberty, 33. Revived by spirit of religious freedom and the Reformation, 63 64 ib. 65 66 67 35. Which is the result of long-established popular institutions, ib. 71 33 37, Savage character of the civil wars in Ireland, ib. 34 ib. 39. Cruelty of the civil wars of York and Lancaster, 35 40. Causes of the humanity of the Great Rebellion, 74 36 ib. 41. State of the Gauls in the decline of the Roman Empire, 37 ib. 44. Rois Fainéants, and early corruption of the empire of Charlemagne, 46. Courage of the inhabitants first restored by the private wars of the nobles, 78 47. Rise of the boroughs, 49 Fatal effects of want of Yeomanry, 50. Misery arising from the English wars, and its effects, 51. Rise of the democratic spirit in France, 52. Contrast of the French and English contests for freedom, 54. Effect of the English wars, 55. Effect of the standing armies of the Crown on public freedom, 57. Privileges of the nobility. Their pernicious effect, 59. His measures to carry these designs into effect, 60. Prodigious effects of these changes, 61. Real causes which brought it about, 79 80 ib. 81 82 83 84 67. Dreadful ultimate retribution to which it lead, 71. Slow growth and invaluable inheritance of real freedom, 100 54 CHAPTER II. GENERAL STATE OF FRANCE, AND CAUSES WHICH PREDISPOSED ITS PEOPLE TO REVOLUTION. ib. 62 5. General character of the French people, § 4. Remarkable disproportion between agriculturists and manufacturers in Page 105 106 10. Real force of France in 1792, 110 16. Slavery prevented this appearing in ancient times, and pressure from 13. Modification of Sully's opinion as to grievances alone producing revolu- tion. Universality of the disaffection, 14. The collision of the classes did not necessarily produce revolution, 21. Collision of the higher and lower orders is unavoidable in every advanc. 36. Cessation of the religious contests, and rise of the philosophical opinions, 131 ib. 49. Criminal irregularities of his youth, 50. His first essay in literature, 51. Heartlessness towards Madame Warens, § 54. Foundation of his philosophical principles, 55. Importance of the preceding detail as to these great men, 56. The new opinions are carried out still further by their successors, 63. Remarkable prophecies of the French Church on the effects of the irre- 157 158 84. Extreme inconsistency with which the Royal power had been exercised, 176 85. Terrible torture which was still continued in France, 88. Profligacy of the Regent Orleans and Louis XV., 89. Madame Pompadour and Madame du Barri, 90. Dissolute habits of young Egalité, 91. Contrast to the manners of the middle classes at that period, 93. Ineffectual efforts of preceding sovereigns to make up the deficit, 94. Contempt and weakness into which the nobility had fallen, 104. Mr Burke's reflections on this event, 99. The element of rural loyalty was wanting, or very weak in France, 100. Remarkable observation of Lord Chesterfield on the state of France, 101. Louis XV. foresaw the dangers of the French monarchy, |