[Sidenote: Differences between the French and English Revolutions]
At the outset, any idea of likening the French Revolution to the
English Revolution of the preceding century must be dismissed. Of
course the English had put one king to death and had expelled another,
and had clearly limited the powers of the crown; they had "established
parliamentary government." But the English Revolution did not set up
genuine representative government, much less did it recognize the
theory of democracy. Voting remained a special privilege, conferred on
certain persons, not a natural right to be freely exercised by all. Nor
was the English Revolution accompanied by a great social upheaval: it
was in the first instance political, in the second instance religious
and ecclesiastical; it was never distinctly social. To all intents and
purposes, the same social classes existed in the England of the
eighteenth century as in the England of the sixteenth century, and,
with the exception of the merchants, in much the same relation to one
another.
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