and Louis XV.

Holland, Switzerland, Italy, shall be French provinces, Egypt and the Indies shall be her satrapies, and _la grande nation_ may then rest on her glories.
Had these aims been known at Westminster, Ministers would have counted peace far more harmful than war.

But, while ambition reigned at Paris, dull common sense dictated the policy of Britain.

In truth, our people needed rest: we were in the first stages of an industrial revolution: our cotton and woollen industries were passing from the cottage to the factory; and a large part of our folk were beginning to cluster in grimy, ill-organized townships.

Population and wealth advanced by leaps and bounds; but with them came the nineteenth-century problems of widening class distinctions and uncertainty of employment.