When it comes to revolutions, the English ones are far superior in every aspect: no massacres, no plundering, no opposition against the laws of the country. One may ask how we could call this a revolution. Perhaps the people didn’t care too much.
‘However it may be the cant of some politicians to compare the present revolution in France with the most celebrated of other countries, he who has read, and reflected on what Englishmen properly call the Glorious Revolution of 1688, will find an amazing difference in favour of the latter. In our revolution, there were no massacres, plundering, or burning, no opposition of the people against the national assembly ; it was the whole country, almost to a man, receding from the chains of tyranny, in order to secure their laws, their liberty and their property ; and this they happily effected almost without bloodshed, and under the sanction of the laws of the country. The sacrifice of one Dutch officer, and a few private soldiers, who fell in an accidental skirmish, sealed this glorious convenant between Prince and people, and formed that constitutional basis which is the wonder and the envy of surrounding nations.’
Stamford Mercury, 7 August, 1789.