The liberty of unlicensed printing--less admirable than they accounted it--the difference between a Habeas Corpus and a lettre de cachet, the regular succession of Parliaments, all these impressed them, who knew the meaning of their absence, as a magnificent achievement.
Laski discusses how various aspects of English law impressed French thinkers who were familiar with their own oppressive systems.
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More from Harold J. Laski
The intolerance may be Catholic, when it insists that a unity of outlook is essential for the preservation of society; or it may be Protestant when, as with Calvin and the Socinians, it holds that the blasphemous nature of the belief…
He is able, accordingly, to indulge in the twofold luxury not only of preserving his own authority, but also of assisting the persons attacked to enter, if they so choose, the way of truth.
We grant it in religion to deny it in politics; we grant it in politics, to deny it in economic matters.
When attacks on liberty are political or economic, it is their motive rather than their nature that changes.
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