It is a commonplace of British History that following the onset of the French Revolution and the publication of Burke'sReflections on the Revolution in Francea widespread debate on political principles took place. The ‘debate on France’—the trial of the French Revolution before the enlightened and independent tribunal of the English public, as James Mackintosh referred to it,—was, according to Alfred Cobban, ‘perhaps the last real discussion of the fundamentals of politics in this country’.