DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 52 ) tion, the influence of a more general education, helped to form public opinion, which, no less than the deepening of religious feeling in the country, rendered public success impossible to men whose private life was blemished with such vices. As the reign of Elizabeth marked the turning- point in the history of England from the era of comparative barbarism to that of enlightenment and enrolment of the name of England among those of the Great Powers of Europe, so, the reign of George the Third marked the transition to the era of civili- sation and culture of modern days. Not the English language only but English society was refined by the polished manners and the literary culture of men like Lord Chesterfield and Sir Horace Walpole, and rescued from grossness by the brilliant wit of a Townshend, a George Selwyn, and a Sidney Smith. No greater orators ever lived than the statesmen of his time. Pitt, Fox, and Burke, paved the way for those reforms of the Par- liamentary system and those enlargements of popular liberty which we enjoy. The scientific discoveries which have been perfected in the Victorian age, date their conception from the days of George the Third. In his time Franklin began those experiments with the electric fluid which, continued by succeeding generations of men of science, have resulted in inventions in our own day which promise ultimately