No study of relations between Montesquieu and England would be complete without an examination of the famous chapters in L'Esprit des lois where Montesquieu describes England's constitution before going on to show how this constitution affects the morals, manners and national character of the English population. These passages have been extensively discussed by commentators who have typically sought to identify the exact sources of Montesquieu's information on English institutions or to confront his perceptions with the political and social realities of life in eighteenth-century England. Yet to appreciate fully the significance of Montesquieu's representation of England and the English in L'Esprit des lois a different approach to these chapters is required. Not merely their content but their grounding in a particular historical, political and ideological context must be taken into account. Keith Michael Baker's detailed analysis of the evolution of French political culture in the second half of the eighteenth century promotes this contextual understanding of the role played by England in L'Esprit des lois. Baker's research shows that England – both the nature of the nation's politics and its relations with France – was a recurring theme in French constitutional debates of the 1740s and 50s. In Baker's view, this was a symptom of growing conflict within the ancien régime. He argues that the mid-eighteenth century saw the development of a politically active public sphere in France, with growing awareness of political issues among the general public and mounting opposition to absolutism from within the governing classes. In short, France was embracing political practices ‘that many contemporaries associated with that turbulent state across the Channel’. Touching briefly on L'Esprit des lois,Baker demonstrates that in this period French thinkers attempting to grapple with the tensions in their own absolutist regime frequently turned to England as a reference point. At the same time, the increasing similarities between the political cultures of France and England challenged traditional assumptions regarding the ideological and cultural differences between the two nations.