the middle classes, to whose prosperity, peace abroad and tranquillity at home were essentially necessary, rallied round the monarchy, and the republicans were forced to remain silent, until some new excitement of the public mind would afford an opportunity for disseminating mischievous falsehoods.

An insurrection of the Carlists, as the partisans of the exiled family were called, in the south of France, injured the cause it was designed to serve. It was easily suppressed, but the government learned that the dutchess de Berri, whose son, the duke of Bourdeaux, was the legitimate heir to the crown, had made arrangements for landing in La Vendée, and heading the royalists in the province. Such preparations were made, that when the dutchess landed, she found her partisans disheartened, and their movements so closely watched, that it was scarcely possible for them to assemble in any force. Still she resolved to persevere, but the enterprise degenerated into a series of isolated and Insignificant attacks, made by small bodies in a strong country, and the proceedings of the royalists, consequently, resembled those of brigands. The dutchess continued five months in the country, though actively pursued by the military and police; she was at length betrayed by one of her associates, and made prisoner. The government of Louis Philippe treated the royal captive with great clemency; she had not been long in prison when it was discovered that she was pregnant, having been privately married some time before her arrest. This unfortunate circumstance threw such an air of ridicule over the entire enterprise, that the royalists abandoned all further efforts against the government.

While the south of France was thus agitated by the royalists, Paris narrowly escaped the perils of a republican revolution. The funeral of General Lamarque afforded the opportunity for this outbreak, which lasted about five hours, and was attended with great loss of life. The entire body of the military and all the respectable citizens supported the cause of monarchy and good order, or else the consequence would have been a new revolution. The revolt had the effect of strengthening the ministerial influence in the chambers; when they met, the opposition could not muster more than half the number of votes that supported the cabinet.

A treaty had been concluded by the representative of the five great powers, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England, arranging the conditions on which Belgium should be separated from Holland; to these terms the Belgians had acceded, but they were declined by the Dutch, who still retained the citadel of Antwerp. A French army entered Belgium, and proceeded to besiege this fortress; it was taken after a sharp siege, and was immediately given up to a Belgian garrison, the French retiring within their own frontiers in order to avert the jealousies and suspicions of the European powers.

Turkey was exposed to the greatest danger, by the rebellion of its powerful vassal, the pacha of Egypt. Mohammed Ali was anxious to annex Syria to his territories, a dispute with the governor of Acre furnished him a pretext for invading the country; the sultan commanded him to desist, and on his refusal treated him as a rebel; Mohammed Ali was so indignant, that he extended his designs to the whole empire ; his forces routed the Turkish armies in every battle; Syria and a great

part of Asia Minor were subdued with little difficulty, and Constantinople itself would have fallen but for the prompt interference of Russia. The sultan was thus saved from his rebellious vassal, but the independence of his empire was fearfully compromised.

The declining health in King Ferdinand directed attention to the law of succession in Spain: his only child was an infant daughter, and the Salic law, introduced by the Bourbon dynasty, excluded females from the throne. Ferdinand had repealed this law, but when he was supposed to be in his mortal agonies, the partisans of his brother, Don Carlos, who was looked upon as the surest support of the priesthood and of arbitrary power, induced him to disinherit his daughter, and recognise Don Carlos as heir to the crown. The very next day Ferdinand was restored to consciousness and understanding; the queen instantly brought before him the injustice he had been induced to commit, and the king was so indignant that he not only dismissed his minsters but threw himself into the arms of the liberal party. A general amnesty was published; those who had been exiled for supporting the constitution were invited home, and the Carlist party was so discouraged that it sank without resistance. Don Carlos himself, his wife, and his wife's sister, the princess of Beira, were compelled to quit Madrid; they sought and found shelter with Don Miguel, the usurper of Portugal. On the 20th of September, 1833, Ferdinand died: his daughter was proclaimed at Madrid, but Carlist insurrections broke out in several parts of Spain, and have continued, with little interruption, almost ever since.

The excitement produced by the French revolution extended beyond the Atlantic. Don Pedro, emperor of Brazil, was compelled by his subjects to abdicate the throne in favor of his infant son; an event the more singular, as he had some time before resigned the crown of Portugal in favor of his daughter, Donna Maria de Gloria. When Pedro returned to Europe, he resolved to assert his daughter's rights, which had been usurped by Don Miguel; soldiers were secretly enlisted in France and England, the refugees from Portugal and Brazil were formed into regiments, and, after some delay, a respectable armament was collected in the Azores, which had remained faithful to Donna Maria. Pedro resolved to invade the north of Portugal; he landed near Oporto, and ma le himself master of that city; but his further operations were cramped by the want of money, and of the munitions of war; Oporto was invested by Don Miguel, and for several months the contest between the two brothers was confined to the desultory operations of a siege. At length, in the summer of 1833, Don Pedro intrusted the command of his naval force to Admiral Napier; this gallant officer, after having landed a division of the army in the province, sought Don Miguel's fleet; though superior in number of ships, men, and weight of metal, he attacked it with such energy, that in a short time all the large vessels belonging to the usurper struck their colors. This brilliant success, followed by the capture of Lisbon, which yielded to Pedro's forces with little difficulty, and the recognition of the young queen by the principal powers of Europe, proved fatal to Miguel's cause. After some faint attempts at protracted resistance, he abandoned the struggle, and sought shelter in Italy.

Don Pedro's death, which soon followed his triumph, did little injury to the constitutional cause. His daughter retains the crown; she was married first to the prince at Leuchtenberg, who did not long survive his nuptials; her second husband is Prince Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg, nearly allied to the queen of Great Britain.

Several disturbances in the papal states gave the French a pretext for seizing the citadel of Ancona, which gave just grounds of offence to Austria. But neither party wished to hazard the perils of war. The pope excommunicated all the liberals in his dominions, but was mortified to find that ecclesiastical censures, once so formidable, were now ridiculous. When the French evacuated Ancona, he was obliged to hire a body of Swiss troops for his personal protection, and the pay of these mercenaries almost ruined his treasury. To such a low estate is the papal power now reduced, which was once supreme in Europe, and exercised unlimited sway over the consciences and conduct of potentates and nations.

The attention of the first reformed parliament of Great Britain was chiefly engrossed by domestic affairs. In consequence of the continued agrarian disturbances in Ireland, a coercive statute was passed, containing many severe enactments; but at the same time, the Irish church was forced to make some sacrifices, a tax for ecclesiastical purposes was levied on its revenues, and the number of bishoprics was diminished.

But measures of still greater importance soon occupied the attention of parliament; the charter of the bank of England was renewed, on terms advantageous to the country; the East India company was deprived of its exclusive commercial privileges, and the trade to Hindústan and China thrown open; but the company was permitted to retain its territorial sovereignty. Finally, a plan was adopted for the abolition of West India slavery; the service of the negro was changed into apprenticeship for a limited period, and a compensation of twenty millions was voted to the planters. There was a very active though not a very large section of the house of commons dissatisfied with the limited extent of change produced by the reform bill; they demanded much greater innovations, and they succeeded in exciting feelings of discontent in the lower classes of the community. Popular discontent was not confined to England, it was general throughout Europe, but fortunately no serious efforts were made to disturb the public tranquillity.

The second session of the reformed parliament was rendered memorable by the passing of an act for altering the administration of the poor laws, which was very fiercely attacked outside the walls of parliament. It was, however, generally supported by the leading men of all parties; though its enactment greatly weakened the popularity of the ministers. The cabinet was itself divided respecting the policy to be pursued toward Ireland, and the dissensions respecting the regulation of the church, and the renewal of the Coercion bill, in that country, arose to such a height, that several of the ministry resigned. Lord Melbourne succeeded Earl Grey as premier, but it was generally believed that the king was by no means pleased with the change; and that on the Irish church question, he was far from being satisfied with the line of con

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duct pursued by his ministers. In the month of November, the death of Earl Spencer removed Lord Althorp, the chancellor of the exchequer, to the house of lords, and rendered some new modifications necessary. The king took advantage of the opportunity to dismiss the ministers, an express was sent to summon Sir Robert Peel from the continent, to assume the office of premier; and the duke of Wellington, who had administered the government in the interim, was appointed foreign secretary. Parliament was immediately dissolved, and the three kingdoms were agitated by a violent explosion of party spirit. A titheaffray in Ireland, which ended with the loss of life, supplied the opponents of the ministry with a pretext for rousing the passions of the peasantry in that country, and of this they availed themselves so effectually, that the ministerial candidates were defeated in almost every election.

While the country was anxiously waiting the result of the struggle between the rival political parties, both houses of parliament were burned to the ground. This event at first excited some alarm, but it was soon allayed, for the cause of the fire was clearly proved to be accidental. When parliament met, Sir Robert Peel's cabinet was found to be in a minority in the house of commons. The premier, however, persevered in spite of hostile majorities, until he was defeated on the question of the Irish church, when he and his colleagues resigned. The Melbourne cabinet was restored, with the remarkable exception of Lord Brougham, whose place as chancellor was supplied by Lord Cottenham.

On the death of his brother, Don Carlos, after a vain attempt to assert his claims, was driven from Spain into Portugal, and so closely pursued that he was forced to take refuge on board an English ship-of-war. He came to London, where several abortive efforts were made to induce him to abandon his pretensions. But in the meantime his partisans in the Biscayan provinces had organized a formidable revolt, under a brave leader, Zumalacarregui, and a priest named Merino. Don Carlos secretly quitted London, passed through France in disguise, and appeared at the head of the insurgents. A quadrupartite treaty was concluded between Spain, Portugal, France, and England, for supporting the rights of the infant queen. It was agreed that France should guard the frontiers, to prevent the Carlists from receiving any aid by land; that England should watch the northern coasts; and that Portugal should aid the queen of Spain with a body of auxiliary troops if

necessary.

Notwithstanding these arrangements, the Carlists were generally successful, and, at length, the court of Madrid applied to England for direct assistance. This was refused; but permission was given to raise an auxiliary legion of ten thousand men in the United Kingdom, the command of which was intrusted to Colonel Evans. But the effect produced by this force was far inferior to what had been expected; in the dilapidated state of the Spanish finances, it was found difficult to supply the legion with pay, provisions, and the munitions of war. A revolution at Madrid, which rendered the form of government very democratic, alienated the king of the French from the cause of the Spanish queen, and the war lingered, without any prospect of restored

tranquillity. At the end of its second year of service, the British legion was disbanded, and the Spanish government and its auxiliary force parted with feelings of mutual dissatisfaction.

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After the departure of the legion, the Carlists, weary of the war, tered into negotiations with the queen regent, and returned to their allegiance. Carlos was again compelled to become an exile; but defeat could not break his spirit, and he continued to declare himself the rightful heir to the Spanish crown, though rejected by the people, and disavowed by the other sovereigns of Europe. Spain, however, was too disorganized for tranquillity to be easily restored; the queen regent endeavored, with more good will than ability, to reconcile contending factions; but her efforts proved unavailing, and, wearied of her situation, she resigned the regency in the summer of 1840.

The people of England generally felt little interest in the affairs of Spain; public attention was principally directed to the state of Ireland and Canada. The great Irish questions discussed in parliament were, the reform of the corporations on the same plan that had been adopted in the reform of the English and Scotch corporations; the regulation of tithes, and the establishment of a provision for the poor; but the different views taken by the majorities in the houses of commons and lords, prevented the conclusion of any final arrangements. In Canada, the descendants of the old French settlers, for the most part bigoted and ignorant, viewed with great dissatisfaction the superiority to which the English settlers had attained, in consequence of their knowledge, spirit, and enterprise; they attributed this pre-eminence to the partiality of the government, and, instigated by designing demagogues, clamored for constitutional changes, little short of a recognition of their independence. Their demands were refused, and the deluded Canadians were persuaded to hazard a revolt. After a brief struggle, the insurgents were reduced, and since the termination of the revolt, Upper and Lower Canada have been united into one province by an act of the British legisla

ture.

Great embarrassment was produced in the commercial world by the failure of the American banks, which rendered many leading merchants and traders unable to fulfil their engagements. The crisis was sensibly felt in England, where it greatly checked the speculations in railroads, which perhaps were beginning to be carried to a perilous ex tent; the manufacturing districts suffered most severely, but the pressure gradually abated, and trade began to flow in its accustomed channels. Parties were so nicely balanced in the British parliament, that no measure of importance could be arranged; a further gloom was thrown over the discussions by the increasing illness of the king, and the certainty that its termination must be fatal. William IV. died on the morning of the 20th of June, 1837, sincerely regretted by every class of his subjects. During the seven years that he swayed the sceptre, England enjoyed tranquillity both at home and abroad; it was the only reign in British history in which there was no execution for high treason, and no foreign war.

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