[69] "Here and there we find an eminent man, whose public services were so notorious that it was impossible to avoid rewarding them; but putting aside those who were in a manner forced upon the Sovereign, it would be idle to deny that the remainder and, of course, the overwhelming majority, were marked by a narrowness and illiberality of sentiment, which, more than anything else, brought the whole order into contempt. No great thinkers, no great writers, no great orators, no great statesman, none of the true nobility of the land, were to be found among those spurious nobles created by George III. Nor were the material interests of the country better represented. Among the most important men in England those engaged in banking and commerce held a high place; since the end of the seventeenth century their influence had rapidly increased.... But in the reign of George III. claims of this sort were little heeded."--BUCKLE, _History of Civilisation_. [70] "They, the friars, and especially the Franciscans, largely influenced politics. The conception of individual freedom, upon which the life of St. Francis was built, went far to instil the idea of civic freedom into men's minds.... It was the ideas of the friars that found expression in the Baron's War." The Song of the Battle of Lewes "set forth unmistakably the conception of the official position of the King, and affirmed the right of his subjects to remove evil counsellors from his neighbourhood, and to remind him of his duty--ideas due to the political influence of the Franciscans."--CREIGHTON, _Historical Lectures and Addresses_. [71] The late Lord Acton pointed out that St. Thomas Aquinas was really the first Whig. [72] See Introduction to Rousseau's _Social Contract_, by H. J. Tozer. [73] "That which distinguishes the French Revolution from other political movements is that it was directed by men who had adopted certain speculative a priori conceptions with the fanaticism and proselytising fervour of a religious belief, and the Bible of their Creed was the _Contrat Social_ of Rousseau."--LECKY, _England in Eighteenth Century_, Vol. V. "The original contract seized on as a watchword by Rousseau's enthusiasm grew from an arid fiction into a great and dangerous deceit of nations."--Sir F. POLLOCK, _History of the Science of Politics_. [74] Mr. H.J. Tozer. Introduction to Rousseau's _Social Contract_. [75] See Conway's _Life of Paine_, Vol. I. [76] Professor T.F. Tout, _England from 1689_. [77] Tout, _ibid._ [78] Tout, _ibid._ [79] R.G. Gammage, _History of the Chartist Movement_.