In the result, an opposition in the classic sense was hardly needed; for the only question to be considered was the personalities who were to share in power.

The dominating temper of Walpole decided that issue; and he gave thereby to the political struggle the outlines in which it was encased for a generation.
It is a dull period, but complacent; for it was not an unprosperous time.

Agriculture and commerce both were abundant; and the increasing development of towns shows us that the Industrial Revolution loomed in the near distance.

The eager continuance of the deistic controversy suggests that there was something of novelty beneath the calm; for Tindal and Woolston and Chubb struck at the root of religious belief, and Shaftesbury's exaltation of Hellenism not only contributed to the _Aufklarung_ in Scotland, but suggested that Christian ideals were not to go unchallenged.

But the literature of the time is summarized in Pope; and the easy neatness of his verses is quaintly representative of the Georgian peace.