In Great Britain
alone was there a constitutional monarchy, and in the early days of the
French Revolution, so long as British statesmen could flatter
themselves that their neighbors across the Channel were striving to
imitate their political system, these same public men sympathized with
the course of events. But when it became evident that the Revolution
was going further, that it aimed at a great social leveling, that it
was a movement of the masses in behalf of the lowest classes in the
community, then even British criticism assailed it. At the close of
1790 Edmund Burke published his _Reflections on the Revolution in
France_, a bitter arraignment of the newer tendencies and a
rhetorical panegyric of conservatism. Although Burke's sensational work
was speedily and logically answered by several forceful thinkers,
including the brilliant Thomas Paine, nevertheless it long held its
place as the classical expression of official Britain's horror of
social equality and of "mob violence." The book was likewise received
with such approval by the monarchs of continental Europe, who
interpreted it as a telling defense of their position, that Catherine
of Russia personally complimented the author and the puppet king of
Poland sent him a flamboyant glorification and a gold medal.
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