16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



extremes, thus failed to protect them against one another, it was active 

 in regulating their private lives and labors. Religion was dictated to 

 the extent that Protestants were imprisoned, sent to the galleys, or 

 whipped, and their ministers hanged. The quantity of salt (on which 

 there was a heavy tax) to be consumed by each person was prescribed ; 

 as were also the modes of its use. Industry of every kind was super- 

 vised. Certain crops were prohibited ; and vines grown on soils con- 

 sidered unfit were destroyed. The wheat that might be bought at 

 market was limited to two bushels ; and sales took place in presence 

 of dragoons. Manufacturers were regulated in their processes and 

 products to the extent that there was destruction of improved appli- 

 ances and of goods not made according to law, as well as penalties 

 upon inventors. Regulations succeeded one another so rapidly that 

 amid their multiplicity government agents found it difficult to carry 

 them out ; and with the increasing official orders came increasing 

 swarms of public functionaries. Turning now to England at the same 

 period, we see that along with progress toward the industrial type of 

 political structure, carried to the extent that the House of Commons 

 had become the predominant power, there had gone on a progress 

 toward the accompanying social system. Though the subjection of 

 the individual to the state was considerably greater than now, it was 

 far less than in France. His private rights were not sacrificed in the 

 same unscrupulous way ; and he was not in danger of a lettre de 

 cachet. Though justice was very imperfectly administered, still it was 

 not administered so wretchedly ; there was a fair amount of personal 

 security, and aggressions on property were kept within bounds. The 

 disabilities of Protestant dissenters were diminished early in the cen- 

 tury ; and, later on, those of Catholics. Considerable freedom of the 

 press was acquired, showing itself in the discussion of political ques- 

 tions as well as in the publication of parliamentaiy debates ; and, 

 about the same time, there came free speech in public meetings. 

 While thus the state aggressed upon the individual less and pro- 

 tected him more, it interfered to a smaller extent with his daily trans- 

 actions. Though there was much regulation of commerce and indus- 

 try, yet it was pushed to no such extreme as that which in France 

 subjected agriculturists, manufacturers, and merchants, to an army of 

 officials who directed their acts at every turn. In brief, the contrast 

 between our state and that of France was such as to excite the sur- 

 prise and admiration of various French writers of the time, from whom 

 Mr. Buckle quotes numerous passages showing this. 



Most significant of all, however, are the changes in England itself, 

 Brsl retrogressive and then progressive, that occurred during the war 

 period which extended from 1775 to 1815, and during the' subsequent 

 period of peace. At the end of the last century and the beginning of 

 (his, reversion toward ownership of the individual by the society had 

 gone a long way. " To statesmen, the state, as a unit, was all in all, 



