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INTERESTS OF "GREAT BRITAIN. 499that the old allies of England should again rally around her;and historywill never forgetthe almost incredible exertionswhich she made from the years 1813 to 1815, 1which plainlyprovethat she did not think the liberation of Europe couldbe purchasedtoo dearly.Even Pitt, had he survived the glorious triumph of hisprinciples, could hardly have done more !Yet, all this couldonly succeed by a uniting of the various powersfor what;could gold, however indispensable, do alone ; iron, after all,was to decide the contest.England certainly prides herself, with justice, on beingthe only power that never bowed her neck during the wholecourse of that tempestuous period. But England shouldnot forgetthat she ismainly indebted for this to her insularposition. During that political storm, which periodically,as itwere, desolated the countries of the continent, she alonecould assure to herself that internal tranquillity,withoutwhich those peaceful arts, from which alone she derives resources for her great exertions, could not have been continued with such unexampled vigour and prosperity.Besides this, it was undoubtedly of peculiar advantage to allEurope, not only that the wooden walls of England renderedher impregnable,but that she was preciselythe state, aboveall others, fitted by her constitution to keep alive those political opinions,the decline of which could never have beenmore injurious and lamentable than at this particular period.By this, too, was prepared the amazing influence whichEngland has had, since the struggle for constitutional governments has become general in Europe. Her examplewas held forth, not in order that her constitution should headopted as a general model, (which heaven forfend,) but asone from which proper notions might be formed of liberalinstitutions of this kind ;such were now introduced intoFrance, the Netherlands, and several German states.England is now ranked as one of the five leading powerswho determine the relations of the European state-system.It has connected itself with them without any surrender onits own partit has therefore reserved to itself the; power of1 The aggregate of the loans advanced in the three years, amounted to noless than 142,000,000 according to the real, and 222,000,000 according tothe nominal value. Nebmius iiber den credit. Anhang, 5.2 K 2