far behind. The Industrial Revolution, which was to turn us
from a nation of peasants and traders into a nation of
manufacturers, had begun; but its chief fruits as yet were
increased materialism and greed, and politically the period was
one of blackest reaction. Alone of European peoples we had
been untouched by the tide of Napoleon's conquests, which, when
it receded from the Continent, at least left behind a framework
of enlightened institutions, while our success in the
Napoleonic wars only confirmed the ruling aristocratic families
in their grip of the nation which they had governed since the
reign of Anne. This despotism crushed the humble and
stimulated the high-spirited to violence, and is the reason why
three such poets as Byron, Landor, and Shelley, though by birth
and fortune members of the ruling class, were pioneers as much
of political as of spiritual rebellion. Unable to breathe the
atmosphere of England, they were driven to live in exile.

It requires some effort to reconstruct that atmosphere to-day.
A foreign critic [Dr. George Brandes, in vol. iv. of his 'Main
Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature'] has summed it up by
saying that England was then pre-eminently the home of cant;
while in politics her native energy was diverted to oppression,
in morals and religion it took the form of hypocrisy and
persecution. Abroad she was supporting the Holy Alliance,
throwing her weight into the scale against all movements for
freedom. At home there was exhaustion after war; workmen were
thrown out of employment, and taxation pressed heavily on high
rents and the high price of corn, was made cruel by fear; for
the French Revolution had sent a wave of panic through the
country, not to ebb until about 1830. Suspicion of republican