[Anon.], The World’s Great Assembly ([1851])

The world is growing old. Yet no country has ever had so many foreign eyes looking upon her closely as old England will now have. Europe has just passed through a frightful series of convulsions, in the midst of which, England has stood erect in hale composure. The politician, eager to ascertain the secret of her stability; the merchant, athirst to find out the springs of her wealth; the patriot, instinct with the ambition of transplanting her freedom; the libertine, resolved to know if the reputed virtue of her homes is only an adroiter mask; the Mussulman, who never saw Christianity before, but in its connexion with the worship of images; the Romanist, curious to discover the real aspect of Protestantism: presently, all these will have their eyes inquisitively fixed on England, and no doubt will scan and scrutinize the life-springs of her moral and national existence.