ABSTRACT
The French Revolution transformed British political life. Its outbreak shocked the autocratic governments of central and eastern Europe. The prospect of democratic government was not only abhorrent in itself; it would lead to the abandonment of all civilized values. But Britain was not an autocracy. Many experienced political observers here took the patronizing view that, though it had taken the French a century to catch on, their Revolution was a variant of the English Glorious Revolution and would likewise produce a mixed constitution. Even William Pitt anticipated that ‘the present convulsions in France must … terminate in general harmony and regular order’.
