FLIGHT OF CHARLES X.—The desertion of Charles X. by his troops would have rendered an armed contest on his part impracticable. The dexterous management of Louis Philippe was made effectual by the favoring circumstances. On Aug. 2 the king abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux, and was compelled to fly from the kingdom. The volunteer army had been stirred up to go out to Rambouillet to drive him away. The angry old king did not wait for their coming.
LOUIS PHILIPPE MADE KING.—The Chamber of Deputies declared the throne vacant. They altered the charter,—putting all religious bodies on a level, giving freedom to the press, limiting the powers of the king, and giving to the Chambers, as well as to him, the initiative in framing laws. They chose Louis Philippe "King of the French." He owed his elevation to the middle classes, and claimed to be the "citizen king."
SEPARATION OF BELGIUM.—The effect of the new revolution was to set in motion the elements of discontent in the other European countries. Belgium was the first to feel the shock. The Belgians were restless under the rule of William I., whose treatment of them aggravated the disaffection which their political relation to Holland constantly occasioned. A revolt broke out at Brussels. The offer of a legislative and administrative separation of Belgium from Holland, with one king over both, might have been accepted if it had been made earlier; but it followed unsuccessful efforts to quell the insurrection by force. A provisional government was created at Brussels, which proclaimed the independence of Belgium (Oct. 4), and convoked a national congress. France confined itself to preventing the interference of foreign powers. A conference of ministers at London (Jan., 1831) recognized the new state, which adopted a liberal constitution. Leopold I. of Saxe-Coburg was chosen king. He was aided by the forces of the French; but the war with Holland lasted until 1833, and it was not until 1839 that Holland definitely accepted the action of the London congress.
POLAND.—Poland was harshly ruled for the Czar by the Grand Duke Constantine. The revolution in France was the signal for a Polish rising, that began in an unsuccessful attempt of students and others to seize the person of the grand duke. The insurrection spread: men of talents and distinction, as well as Polish soldiers, joined the cause of the people. The Czar, Nicholas, would make no terms with the insurgents, and the Diet (Jan. 25, 1831) declared him to have forfeited the Polish crown. The Poles fought with desperate valor in a series of bloody battles, only to be overwhelmed by superiority of numbers. They were defeated at Ostrolenka by Diebitsch (May 26). After his death, Warsaw surrendered to Paskievitch (Sept. 8), and another Russian general entered Cracow. Poland was now reduced, as far as it could be, to a Russian province. The army was merged in the Russian forces; the university was suppressed; the Roman Catholic religion, the prevailing faith, was persecuted; and it was computed that in one year (1832) eighty thousand Poles were sent to Siberia.
GERMANY: HUNGARY.—In Saxony and in the minor states of Germany, disturbances were consequent on the tidings of the revolution at Paris. Prussia and Austria were little affected by it; but the demands of the Diet in Hungary, when Ferdinand, the son of Francis I. was crowned king of that country, were an augury of a far greater commotion to arise at a later day. In the Diet of 1832 Louis Kossuth first appeared as a member. Between the years 1828 and 1834, the German states (not including Austria), under the guidance of Prussia and Bavaria, formed a Zollverein, or customs-union, which was an important step in the direction of German unity, and one which Austria looked on with disfavor.
ITALY.—In 1831, there were signs of revolt in different states of Italy. At Modena, a provisional government was erected. The same thing was done at Bologna. Maria Louisa was driven out of Parma. Among those who joined the insurgents in the Papal Kingdom were Napoleon and his younger brother Louis Bonaparte, sons of Louis Bonaparte king of Holland. The elder of the sons died soon after at Forli. The Italians relied on the help of Louis Philippe, but the citizen king had no disposition to engage in war with Austria. The uprisings were put down with the assistance of Austrian troops. Charles Albert, after April, 1831, king of Sardinia, did a good work in the discipline of his army. Without any esteem for Austria, he refused to further the plans of the revolutionary party, and thus incurred the hostility of Mazzini, who was organizing the movement of "Young Italy" for independence and unity. Mazzini, a man of elevated spirit and disinterested aims, was long to be known as the head of the republican patriots and plotters.
ENGLAND.—In England, reform went forward peacefully. The middle class gradually obtained its demands. The national debt, at the close of the wars with Napoleon, amounted to nearly eight hundred millions of pounds. In 1823, with the accession of Mr. Huskisson to office, began the movement for a more free commercial policy, which led in the end to the repeal of the corn-laws. The question of "Catholic disabilities" was agitated from time to time, and something had been done to lighten them. Yet in 1828 Catholics were still shut out by law from almost every office of trust and distinction. They could not sit in either house of Parliament. The endeavors of liberal statesmen for their relief were defeated by the Tory majorities. The agitation was increased by the "Catholic Association" formed in Ireland by the Irish leader and orator, Daniel O'Connell. A Tory ministry was formed by the Duke of Wellington, with Mr. (afterwards Sir) Robert Peel for its chief supporter in the House of Commons (1829). Yet, to avert the danger of civil war, the ministry introduced, and with aid of the Whigs carried, the "Catholic Emancipation Bill."
THE REFORM BILL.—On the death of George IV., William IV., his brother (1830-1837), succeeded to the throne. He was favorable to parliamentary reform. The ferment on this subject caused the resignation of the Wellington ministry, which was succeeded by the ministry of Earl Grey. A bill for reform was presented to Parliament, depriving eighty-eight "rotten or decayed" boroughs, where there were very few inhabitants, of a hundred and forty-three members of the House of Commons, who were given to counties or to large towns, such as Birmingham and Manchester, which had no representation. At the same time the franchise was greatly extended. The bill was strenuously resisted by the Tories, who now began to be called Conservatives. Its repeated rejection by the House of Lords caused a violent agitation. Finally, in 1832, when it was understood that the king would create new peers enough to pass the measure, it was carried in the upper house, and became a law.
SLAVERY ABOLISHED.—In 1833 the system of slavery in the British colonies was abolished, twenty million pounds being paid as a compensation to the slave-owners. This measure was the result of an agitation in which Wilberforce, Clarkson, and Buxton had been foremost.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, a strong feeling arose against the slave-trade. Granville Sharp (1734-1813) was one of the earliest promoters of its abolition. By his agency, in the case of a negro,—Somerset,—claimed as a slave, the decision was obtained from Lord Mansfield, that a slave could not be held in England, or carried out of it. The Quakers were early in the field in opposition to the traffic in slaves. In the House of Commons, Wilberforce, a man of earnest religious convictions and one of the most eloquent orators of his time, contended against it for years. His friend Pitt, and Fox, joined him in 1790. The measure of abolition was carried in 1807. Then followed the agitation for the abolition of slavery itself. The slave-trade was made illegal by France in 1819. It had been condemned by the Congress of Vienna. In the French colonies, slavery continued until 1848.