any hope of future improvement It was through this period of desolation and despair that the small band which rallied round Fox had to keep alive the fire which has happily never been quite extinguished in England. Engaged in such a struggle and against such odds, we must not too minutely examine by our present lights the prudence of every step they took, the wisdom of every word they uttered. It would have been strange indeed if, encountered by persecution and abuse, they had not replied in terms of passionate indignation; nor is it wonderful that in circumstances so unprecedented they should, like their opponents, mistake the meaning of some of the actors and the tendency of some of the events which were convulsing the whole of Europe. If their belief in the leaders of the French Revolution, and their trust in Napoleon, were shattered by the mad violence of the terror and the heartless ambition of the Emperor, they were at least inspired by sympathy with the aspirations of nations, and not by devotion to the power of monarchs and the interests of privileged classes.
It is a striking illustration of the continuity of history, a proof that the events of the life of a nation are not mere isolated incidents, but are links in the long chain of growth and evolution, that even in these evil times there was no positive reaction so far as the forms and institutions of government were concerned. The powers of the law were stretched to the utmost for the suppression even of free thought and speech, but the law itself was not overstept. Even the last bulwark, that created by Fox's Libel Act, was respected, although by increasing the powers of juries it preserved the liberties, if not the lives, of many men obnoxious to the Government. The protection afforded by the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended more than once, and the country prisons were filled with suspects; but the suspension was effected by the constitutional power of Parliament, and freedom of debate in the House of Commons itself was never denied. The old struggle on behalf of liberty against authority was indeed continued, but it was carried on under new forms. Authority spoke in
