Part 49 (1/2)

GREAT ENGLISH INFLUENCE ON FRANCE In 1715 the English language was alress were unknown there, and the English were looked down upon and hated Half a century later English was spoken everywhere by the scholars of the tilish were looked upon as the political and scientific leaders of Europe; and the scholars of France visited England to study English political, econo advocate of political and religious liberty; Hobbes, the speculative reat scientist Neere the teachers of Voltaire

More than any other single ht in France [16] Numerous French writers of importance--Helvetius, Diderot, Morellet, Voltaire, Rousseau, to lish writers In the eighteenth century England became the school for political liberty for France [17]

The effect of the work of Isaac Newton (p 388), as popularized by the writings of Voltaire, was revolutionary on a people who had been so tyrannized over by the clergy as had the French during the reign of Louis XIV An interest in scientific studies before unknown in France now flaeneration of French scientists arose Physics, chereat new iy were raised to the rank of sciences Popular scientific lectures became very common The classics were almost abandoned for the new studies

Econoan to be discussed, such as questions of overnlishman, Adam Smith, laid the foundations of the new science of political economy by the publication of his _Wealth of Nations_, and this was at once translated into French and eagerly read In 1781 a French banker by the name of Necker published his _Compte Rendu_, a statistical report on the finances of France So feverishly eager were overnment that six thousand copies were sold the day it was published, and eighty thousand had to be printed before the demand for it was satisfied A half-century earlier it would have been read scarcely at all

In the meantiance of the clergy and nobility showed no signs of diriculture declined, the lot of the corew increasingly resentful and rebellious As national affairs continued to drift fros on the Athese events, however, ish to sketch briefly the rise of governland--the first great democratic nation of the western world

III ENGLAND THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC NATION

EARLY BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH LIBERTY The first western nation created from the wreck of the Roland Better civilized thantribes, at the tiles, Saxons, and Jutes early accepted Christianity (p 120) and settled down to an agricultural life On English shores they soon built up a for-the-tiely destroyed by the pillaging Danes, but with characteristic energy the English set to work to assimilate the newcomers and build up civilization anew The work of Alfred (p 146) in reestablishi+ng law and order, at a time when law and order scarcely existed anywhere in western Europe, will long remain famous Later on, and at a time when German and Hun and Slav had only recently accepted Christianity in naovern the eastern Baltic were still offering hulish barons were extorting _Magna Charta_ frolish constitutional liberty In the meadow at Runnyovernan to shape itself once more in the western world Of the sixty-three articles of this Charter of Liberties, three possess imperishable value

These provided:

1 That no free ainst except by his peers, or the law of the land, which secured trial by jury

2 That justice should neither be sold, denied, nor delayed

3 That dues fro could be imposed only with the consent of the National Council (after 1246 known as Parliament)

So i people as the English have always been, and so bitterly did kings resent its has had been forced to confirm it no less than thirty-seven times

By 1295 the first complete Parliament, representative of the three orders of society--Lords, Clergy, and Coht to sit by itself Fro the people, has gradually broadened its powers, working, as Tennyson has said, [18] ”frolish nation In 1376 the Co's rants of overnmental purpose Centuries ahead of other nations, this insured an al of the national asses andcontinental European precedents, proclais” to rule, [19] and a struggle at once set in which carried the English into Civil War (1642- 49); led to the beheading of Charles I (1649); the overthrow and banishment of James II (1688); and the ultiht of the coe when the autocratic power and the divine right of kings to rule was allish people conize that he could rule over them only when he ruled in their interests and as they wished hile later on with the Geres (I, II, and III), and especially with the honest but stupid George III, England has, since 1688, been a government of and by the people [21] France did not rid itself of the ”divine-right” conception until the French Revolution (1789), and Germany, Austria, and Russia not until 1918

GROWTH OF TOLERANCE AMONG THE ENGLISH The results of the long struggle of the English for liberty under laed itself inthe people of the English nation At a time when other nations were bound down in blind obedience to king and priest, and when dissenting lish people had becoulated by law, and to the toleration of opinions hich they did not agree These characteristically English conceptions of liberty under law and of the toleration of minorities have found expression in overnreat strength in England's colonial policy One of the ilish showed itself was in the extension of a larger freedoion

Though the Reforland, as on the Continent, the English were a the first of European peoples to show tolerance of opposition in religious lish State Church, which had succeeded the Rolishled to secure a simplification of the church service and the introduction of(p 359), and in the seventeenth century the organization of three additional dissenting sects, which became known as Unitarians, Baptists, and Quakers, took place These sects divided off rather quietly, and their separation resulted only in the enact

During the latter half of the seventeenth century, after the execution of Charles I (1649), the Puritans had te their control of affairs had imposed their strict Calvinistic standards as to Sabbath observance and piety on the nation This was very distasteful to many, and from such strict observances the people in tilish in personal inning of the eighteenth century were not especially high, and in the reaction froreat ion and gross immorality Drunkenness, rowdyism, robbery, blasphemy, brutality, lewdness, and prostitution became very coland seemed powerless to arrest

[Illustration: FIG 151 JOHN WESLEY (1707-82) Founder of Methodisun under the able leadershi+p of a young Oxford student by the nae Whitefield (1714-70), with a view to reaching the classes so co over the country and preaching a gospel of repentance, personal faith, and better living, these two younghold on the poorer and norant classes of the people Forbidden to preach in Anglican churches, and at times threatened with personal violence, these two ainst the Established Church Finally they founded a new Church, which becaanization bore the salican Church two hundred years before had borne to the Church of Rome Thus was accoland, and one destined in time to spread to the colonies and deeply affect the lives of a large portion of the English people [23]

That such a well-organized sect could arise, such a moral reformation be preached, and the power of the Established Church be challenged so openly and without serious persecution, speaks lish people since the days of the great Elizabeth

In 1778 the Ro ministers and schoolmasters were relieved fro reious tolerance on the part of the English nation [24]

NEW EMANcipaTING AND EDUCATIVE INFLUENCES In 1662 the first regular newspaper outside of Italy was established in England, and in 1702 the first daily paper Small in size, printed on but one side of the sheet, and dealing wholly with local s of that daily expression of popular opinion hich we are now so familiar [25] After about 1705 the cheap political pamphlet made its appearance, and after 1710, instead of an the discussion of political questions

By 1735 a revolution had been effected in England, and papers and presses began to be established in the chief cities and towns outside of London; the freedoe way completed, and newspapers, for the first time in the history of the world, were land in consequence becareat intellectual and political ieneral systeht to publish the debates in Parliament was finally won, over the strenuous objections [26] of George III In 1780 the first Sunday newspaper appeared, ”on the only day the lower orders had tiious bodies to suppress it, the Sunday paper has continued to the present and has contributed its quota to the education and enlightenan to appear In thesocieties for the consideration of public questions arose, and in 1769 ”the first public land, in which it was attehts” was held, and such s soon became of almost daily occurrence All these influences stiree, and contributed not only to a desire for still larger political freedoeneral diffusion of the ability to read as well (R 250)

Still other ihteenth century, each of which tended to awaken new desires for schools and learning In 1678 the first riress_, appeared from the press Written, as it had been, by a man of the people, its si, its picture of the journey of a pilgrih a world of sin and tee hich the common people had now become familiar--all these elely to all who read or heard it read, and sti the masses a desire to read colish Bible in the churches a century before (R 170) In 1719 the first great English novel, Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_, and in 1726 _Gulliver's Travels_, added new stimulus to the desires awakened by Bunyan's book All three were books of the common people, whereas the dramas, plays, essays, and scholarly works previously produced had appealed only to a small educated class In 1751 as probably the first circulating library of ham, and soon thereafter silish cities