at any price had rapidly thrown themselves into the movement, and be came hourly more influential and exacting. The great body of the bourgeoisie entered almost with one accord into the contest with unconstitutional power, although they had everything to lose by the spread of anarchy. On the 28th there was fighting throughout the day in almost every quarter of Paris. From daybreak, multitudes had begun to assemble, armed with sticks and pikes, old guns and sabres. They unpaved the streets; they threw up barricades of timber and of carts filled with the paving-stones; they seized the Hôtel de Ville; they hoisted the tricoloured flag on its roof, and on the towers of Nôtre-Dame. Paris that morning had been declared by the government to be in a state of siege. There were ten thousand soldiers in the city under the command of Marmont, who, however, had not began to act before the insurgents were in possession of the chief part of the capital. He finally formed his troops in four columns, which were directed upon different points. It was not long before the sanguinary conflict began. When night came on, the firing was still continued; the tocsin was rung from every church; the lamps were extinguished in the streets. Neither mail nor diligence left Paris. The communication with the provinces by telegraph was cut off. On the morning of the 29th, hostilities again commenced by seven o'clock. On the previous day the working classes had almost exclusively borne the brunt of the battle. National Guards, young students, and even deputies, were now at the barricades. The Faubourg St. Germain joined with the dingy Faubourg St. Antoine. At an early hour some royalists endeavoured "to bring about an arrangement between the inert royalty at St. Cloud and the boiling revolution at Paris." From Charles X., whose inconsistency in this trying hour of his destiny was as remarkable as in all his previous actions, they at last extorted a promise for the dismissal of the Polignac ministry, the appointment of the duke de Mortémart as President of the Council, and for other appointments which would be a guarantee for constitutional government. In the meantime the battle was raging all around Marmont at the Tuileries. The Swiss were driven from the Louvre. Some of the troops went over to the side of the insurgents. The spread of defection in the army proclaimed to Marmont that it was impossible to continue this contest. The insurrection had become a revolution. He hastily quitted the Tuileries with his troops to repair to St. Cloud. The populace as quickly broke into the palace. The deputies who had met in the morning had determined to establish a provisional government. Lafayette, who had received from them the command of the forces in Paris, had gone to take possession of the Hôtel de Ville. A municipal commission, that had been formed by ballot, with authority to take all measures that the public safety might require, installed themselves at the Hôtel de Ville, surrounded by dead bodies heaped up on the Place. In a few hours the National Guard was organized; the administration of finance was provided for; the post-office was again set in action; the mails and the diligences left Paris bearing the tri-colour flag. When the Royalists who had been at St. Cloud came to negotiate for the preservation of the Crown to

Guizot.

A. D. 1830.

LOUIS PHILIPPE KING OF THE FRENCH.

851

Charles X., they were interrupted by cries of "It is too late!" The sovereignty of France had vanished from the grasp of the elder branch of the Bourbons.

On the 30th of July, forty deputies came to a resolution of soliciting the duke of Orleans to assume the functions of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom. On the 1st of August the duke was at the Palais Royal, had accepted the office, and proceeded on horseback to the Hôtel de Ville, as a mark of courtesy to the National Guard, and to their commander Lafayette. The deputies accompanied the duke on foot across the barricades. Women and children surrounded them, dancing and singing the Marseillaise. In the Great Hall the proclamation of the deputies was read, and received with cheers. The Lieutenant-General of the kingdom advanced to the window, holding Lafayette by the hand and waving the tri-colour flag. He then appointed provisional ministers, of whom M. Guizot was Minister of the Interior. On the 2nd of August, Charles X. addressed a letter to the duke of Orleans, inclosing a formal act of abdication in favour of his grandson, the duke of Bordeaux. Three commissioners were sent to confer with Charles at Rambouillet, and to urge him to depart. Their recommendations were backed by the presence of six thousand of the National Guard, and by vast numbers of Parisians on foot and in vehicles of every description. The king consented to leave, and to proceed to Cherbourg, escorted by the Garde-du-Corps. He and his family embarked for England on the 16th, and were carried to the coast of Devonshire, the king having decided that England should be his place of refuge. For a short time he resided at Lulworth Castle. He subsequently occupied Holyrood House.

On the 3rd of August the duke of Orleans opened the legislative session in the Chamber of Deputies. The Charter of Louis XVIII. received some alterations, and then it was declared by a large majority, that, subject to the acceptance of the modified Charter, the universal and urgent interests of the French nation called to the throne the duke of Orleans. On the 9th of August the duke of Orleans in the Chamber of Deputies declared his acceptance of the Crown, with the title King of the French, and took an oath, "To observe faithfully the constitutional charter, and to act in all things only with a view to the interest, the happiness, and the glory of the French people."

The Revolution of France necessarily produced a great effect upon the popular feeling throughout Europe, and especially in the kingdom of the Netherlands. The union with Holland, effected by the settlement of Europe at the Congress of Vienna, had imparted an extraordinary impulse to the commerce and manufactures of Belgium, but this material prosperity could not blend the two peoples into one nation. For fifteen years there had been constant dissensions between the Belgian and Dutch subjects of William Frederick I. In April, 1830, Messrs. Potter, Tielmans, Bartells, and others, were tried at Brussels on a charge of conspiring against the government of the Netherlands. The three named were found guilty, and sentenced to be banished. On the 25th of August, and again in September, the populace of Brussels were in insurrection. The contest went on in various sanguinary conflicts, until the five great Powers imposed a cessation of

arms on both nations, and recognized the independence of Belgium by s protocol of the 4th of November.

The autumn of 1830 witnessed in England the most remarkable contrast between the disgraces of ignorance and the triumphs of intellect. In the Southern Agricultural Counties there was a war of the labourer against the farmer, in the shape of the destruction of barns and corn-stacks, and of all implements of industry beyond the commonest tools. On the 15th of September, the first Railway for the conveyance of passengers was opened,

On the 2nd of March, 1825, there had been a debate in the House of Commons on the motion for the second reading of the Bill for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The subscribers to this undertaking were the bankers, merchants, traders, and manufacturers of Liverpool and Manchester, whose great object was the increase of commerce. The Bill passed in spite of the most strenuous opposition from canal companies, and from proprietors of land through or near which the line was intended to run. For four years the works went on, under the superintendence of George Stephenson, by whose skill and perseverance difficulties were overcome which then appeared insuperable. Stephenson persuaded the directors of the railway to offer a prize for the best locomotive. The Rocket engine, constructed by him, with the aid of his son Robert, won the prize. The old modes of transit were from the hour of that experiment changed throughout the whole civilized world. The railway was opened with a magnificent ceremonial. Eight locomotive engines with their attached carriages formed a procession to proceed from Liverpool to Manchester. On quitting the tunnel at Liverpool the Northumbrian engine, which drew the three carriages containing the directors and their most distinguished visitors, took the south line of the railway, the seven other engines with their carriages proceeding along the north line. At Parkside there was a stoppage, and many of the gentlemen in the Northumbrian carriages got out, Mr. Huskisson amongst the number. Suddenly a cry was heard— "Get in-get in.' The Rocket was coming. Mr. Huskisson lost his presence of mind; fell upon the north rail as he attempted to escape; and his right leg being crushed by the Rocket, he felt at once that the injury was fatal. He died that night after nine hours of agony; and was buried in the cemetery at Liverpool, followed to the grave by thousands of his sorrowing constituents.

On the 2nd of November, King William the Fourth opened the Parliament in person. The sympathy of the British population with the revolution of France was too manifest to be set at nought by the government of this country, and "the ready manner in which ministers recognized the new government of France" was cordially approved by earl Grey. In the Royal Speech it was indirectly but unmistakeably intimated, that a reform in parliament, for whose necessity public opinion had been so loudly expressed in the recent elections, would have no sanction from the government. All possible doubt on this head was soon dissipated by the announcement of the duke of Wellington that "He was not only not prepared to bring forward any measure of this nature, but he would at once declare that as far as he was concerned, as long as he held any station in the government

A.D. 1831.

EARL GREY APPOINTED PREMIER.

$53

of the country, he should always feel it his duty to resist such measures when proposed by others." In the House of Commons not a moment was lost by Mr. Brougham in declaring his determination to bring the great question of reform to an immediate practical issue. Men's minds in the metropolis and throughout the country were in a most unusual and in some respects alarming state of ferment. In Parliament it was sufficiently evident that upon the first important question the government would be in a minority.

The king having promised to dine with the Lord Mayor on Tuesday, the 9th of November, the Lord Mayor elect wrote to the duke of Wellington to suggest the propriety of his grace coming strongly and sufficiently guarded. The king was advised upon this warning to decline fulfilling the promise which he had made to the Lord Mayor. The most industrious attempts had been made to inflame the public mind against the new police, and the ministers feared that this force would not have been sufficient to keep the peace in the event of his majesty visiting the city. It was contended in Parliament that the unpopularity of the duke of Wellington, produced chiefly by his declaration against reform, ought not to have cast a doubt upon the universal popularity of the king.

On the 15th of November, in a debate on the Civil List, the government was in a minority of twenty-nine, in a house of four hundred and thirtyseven members. The next day the resignations of the Ministers were formally announced in both Houses. "I was defeated," the duke subseI admit I resigned next

quently said, on the Civil List. morning because I did not wish to expose his Majesty and the country to the consequences that might result from the government going out on the success of the question of Parliamentary Reform." Earl Grey was sent for by the king. His administration was readily completed when Mr. Brougham had been, with great difficulty, induced to accept the Great Seal. Lord Grey, in the House of Lords, made his statement, as Prime Minister, of the principles which would determine the conduct of his government. Moderate Reform; Economy and Retrenchment; repression of Outrage and Relief of Distress; the preservation of Peace with Foreign Powers. In the course of a fortnight all the minor offices were filled up, and were printed in the Gazette. On the 23rd of December, earl Grey, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, moved the adjournment of the Houses to the 3rd of February.

CHAPTER LXIII.

WHEN the Legislature re-assembled on the 3rd of February, 1831, nume. rous petitions were presented to the House of Commons praying for Reform of Parliament. Lord Althorp, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, then informed the House that on Tuesday the 1st of March, the government

plan for the improvement of the representative system would be brought forward by lord John Russell. In the House of Lords earl Grey made a corresponding announcement. A Committee of four members of the government-lord Durham, sir James Graham, lord John Russell, and viscount Duncannon,-had been selected by lord Grey to consider the manifold details connected with so large a change, and to prepare a Bill The measure, which was finally adopted by the Cabinet, was submitted to the king on the 30th of January. In the interval between the announcement of the 3rd of February, and the bringing forward the Reform Bill, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had introduced his budget. The duties on newspapers and advertisements were to be reduced; those on coals, on candles, and on printed cottons were to be abolished. The propositions to reduce the duty on glass and the duty on tobacco were withdrawn ; for some of the taxes offered as substitutes had been strenuously opposed.

During the month of February the scope of the Reform Bill had been kept profoundly secret. On the 1st of March, in a remarkably full House, with every empty seat bearing a label of the name of its proposed occupant. not a dozen of that crowd had the slightest conception of the nature of the measure which they might be called upon to support or to oppose. The speech with which lord John Russell introduced the proposition of the government was lucid, slightly argumentative, entirely free from rhetorical ornament. It caused both wonder and ridicule when it was proposed to a House of Commons, of which one hundred and sixty-eight members for England were returned by boroughs, that sixty boroughs should be wholly disfranchised, as having each less than two thousand inhabitants. Fortyseven boroughs, having less than four thousand inhabitants each, were to return one member instead of two; and a single borough which had formerly returned four members was to be reduced to half its number of representatives. The existing number of six hundred and fifty-eight members was to be curtailed to five hundred and ninety-six. Seven unrepresented large towns were to have the right of returning two members each; twenty smaller towns unrepresented were to return one member each. London was to be divided into four districts, each having two members. Fifty-four members were to be added to the county representation. Instead of the old rights of election in boroughs, a household franchise of 107. was substituted. Corporations were deprived of the exclusive privileges which some possessed of returning members. The duration of elections was to be reduced to two days by a previous registration. When lord John Russell proceeded to read the names of the boroughs to be disfranchised wholly or in part, then indeed was the excitement of the House at an unprecedented height. For many members it was a personal question of the last importance. Statesmen, too, who looked beyond individual interests were aghast at a proposal so sweeping, so revolutionary as they were warranted in believing. Sir Robert Inglis, the member for the University of Oxford, was the first to reply to the arguments of lord John Russell. His speech was an able one, anticipating most of the arguments which were employed for the seven wearisome nights of debate on the introduction of the Bill. He maintained the impossibility of the co