





Transcribed from the 1902 "Historical Lectures and Essays" Macmillan and
Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk





THE ANCIEN REGIME
by Charles Kingsley


PREFACE


The rules of the Royal Institution forbid (and wisely) religious or
political controversy.  It was therefore impossible for me in these
Lectures, to say much which had to be said, in drawing a just and
complete picture of the Ancien Regime in France.  The passages inserted
between brackets, which bear on religious matters, were accordingly not
spoken at the Royal Institution.

But more.  It was impossible for me in these Lectures, to bring forward
as fully as I could have wished, the contrast between the continental
nations and England, whether now, or during the eighteenth century.  But
that contrast cannot be too carefully studied at the present moment.  In
proportion as it is seen and understood, will the fear of revolution (if
such exists) die out among the wealthier classes; and the wish for it