ABSTRACT
Both Britain and France were constitutional monarchies; their parliamentary institutions were similar; French scholars wrote about the lessons that France could learn from British political history; Queen Victoria and Louis-Philippe exchanged visits; and there were flickerings of something that was called an 'entente cordiale'. The Anti-Corn Law League was flourishing in a public sphere such as France had never experienced a world of political rallies where mass movements raised funds, deluged the country with publications and launched great petitioning campaigns. It sought out like-minded reformers in Europe to join them in a series of peace congresses where they could build on the Brussels precedent and devise a system of international relations to replace the bellicose activities of governments. Britain was the land of 'pacific agitations'; it was a 'school' where moral force was allied with reason; and now it was offering France a movement where political economy could show that the interests of humankind tended towards harmony.
