text:  However much a Prussian in his political sympathies Stein was essentially an Englishman in his principles; the tendency of all his measures as they were introduced by himself or followed out by Hardenberg was to temper the military and bureaucratic despotism of Frederick the Great by a wise admixture of popular influence; he wished a "constitution" after the English model as much as circumstances might permit not in form merely but in deed; he was not afraid of free discussion among a well-educated people like the Germans and was too noble-minded to imitate in Berlin or Maine the spy-system on which Napoleon had based his immoral monarchy of physical force at Paris