Nor had any thinker before his time so emphasized the importance of liberty as the true end of government; even the placid Blackstone adopted the utterance from him in his inaugural lecture as Vinerian professor.

He insisted, too, on the danger of perversion to which political principle lies open; a feeling which found consistent utterance both in the debates of the Philadelphia Convention, and in the writings of Bentham and James Mill.

What, perhaps, is most immediately significant is his famous praise of the British Constitution--the secret of which he entirely misapprehended--and his discovery of its essence in the separation of powers.

The short sixth chapter of his eleventh book is the real keynote of Blackstone and De Lolme.

It led them to investigate, on principles of at least doubtful validity, an edifice never before described in detail.