possessed but few clauses to which any right-minded lover
of free institutions could object. On the twenty-eighth of March,
Napoleon resigned the dictatorship, which he had held since the Coup
d'Etat, and resumed the office of President of the Republic.

It was not long, however, until the _After That_ began to appear.
Already in the summer and autumn of 1852 it became evident that the
_Empire_ was to be re-established. In the season of the vintage the
President made a tour of the country, and was received with cries of
_Vive L'Empereur_! In his addresses, particularly in that which he
delivered at Bordeaux, the sentiment of Empire was cautiously offered
to the people. The consummation was soon reached. On the seventh of
November, 1852, a vote was passed by the French Senate for the
re-establishment of the imperial order, and for the submission of the
proposed measure to a popular vote.

The event showed conclusively that the French nation, as then
constituted, was Bonapartist to the core. Louis Napoleon was almost
unanimously elected to the imperial dignity. Of the eight millions of
suffrages of France, only a few scattering thousands were recorded in
the negative. Thus, in a blaze of glory that might well have satisfied
the ambition of the First Bonaparte, did he, who, only twelve years
before at Boulogne, had tried most ridiculously to excite a paltry
rebellion by the display of a pet-eagle to his followers, mount the
Imperial throne of France with the title of Napoleon III.

THE CHARTIST AGITATION IN ENGLAND.

One of the most important political movements of the present century
was the Chartist agitation in Great Britain. This agitation began in
1838. It was an effort of the under man in England to gain his rights.
In the retrospect, it seems to us astonishing that such rights as
those that were then claimed by the common people of England should
ever have been denied to the citizens of any free country. The period
covered by the excitement was about ten years in duration, and during
that period great and salutary reforms were effected, but they were
not thorough, and to this day the under man in Great Britain is mocked
with the _semblance_ of political liberty, the _substance_ of which he
does not enjoy; the same is true in America.

The name _Chartist_ arose from an article called the "People's
Charter," which was prepared by the famous Daniel O'Connell. The
document contained six propositions, follows: