POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 149 



soil. As Montesquieu remarks, in his Esprit des Lois, 

 " It is not fertility, but liberty, which cultivates a 

 country." 



Liberty has been all the more influential in England, 

 owing to its not having been accompanied by those dis- 

 orders which have too often tarnished and disgraced it 

 elsewhere. Notwithstanding those apparent agitations 

 which, with the most sober-minded people, the exercise 

 of political rights always involves, the basis of English 

 society remained tranquil. Changes which time brings 

 about, and which constitute the life of nations, have 

 been effected imperceptibly, and without any of those 

 violent shocks which are always destructive to capital : 

 even the event of 1688 had the least possible of a revolu- 

 tionary character. This national moderation is usually 

 ascribed to aristocratic influence. No doubt aristocracy 

 had its weight in the matter, but so far only as its influ- 

 ence in society extends. For a long time past the British 

 Government has seemed to be more aristocratic than it 

 really was, but now even the appearance diminishes 

 daily. 



The true ballast of the body politic the salt of society, 

 that which holds it together is the country feeling. 

 This feeling, no doubt, is of an aristocratic kind, 

 but it is not aristocracy itself ; both may exist inde- 

 pendently. British aristocracy has made common cause 

 with the country feeling, and this is what constitutes its 

 strength ; French aristocracy holds itself aloof from it, 

 and herein lies its weakness. In England, the country 

 life of the upper classes has, in the first place, produced 

 energetic and high-minded habits, out of which the con- 

 stitution has taken its rise ; and then, owing to these very 

 habits, liberty has been prevented from running into 



