er suspicion of disaffection, he once more retired to England and
did not reappear in France till 1817. During the remainder of the reign of
Louis he took no part in public affairs and lived in tranquillity at his
favorite villa of Neuilly. He was a "citizen king," only in so far as he
sent his children to the public schools and walked about the streets of
Paris with an umbrella under his arm. The most lasting effect in France of
the July revolution was the obliteration of clerical influences in the
administration and public education. The Royalist nobility likewise lost
what political ascendency they had regained during the Restoration.
Henceforth the party in power was that of the bourgeoisie or great middle
class of France, of which Louis Philippe himself was the self-constituted
representative.

[Sidenote: Revolution in Belgium]

[Sidenote: Bombardment of Antwerp]

[Sidenote: Talleyrand's last mission]

[Sidenote: Belgian Independence recognized]

Outside of France, on the contrary, the effects of the short revolution
were far-reaching. In the Netherlands ever increasing friction between the
Dutch-speaking Protestants of Holland and the French Catholics of Belgium
had excited the country to the point of revolution. Recent repressive
measures on the part of the Dutch Government made matters worse. On August
25, the performance, at the Brussels Opera House, of Auber's "La Muette di
Portici," with its representation of a revolutionary rising in Naples, gave
the signal for revolt. From the capital the insurrection spread throughout
Belgium. The King summoned the States-General to The Hague and agreed to an
administrative separation of Belgium and Holland; but the storm was not
quelled. On the appearance of Dutch troops in Brussels, barricades were
erected and the insurgents drove the soldiers out of the city. For several
days fighting continued in the outskirts. A provisional government declared
the independence of Belgium. Mediation by a conference in Holland was
frustrated by the bombardment of Antwerp by its Dutch garrison. The French
Liberals were burning to give assistance. Austria and Russia stood ready to
prevent their intervention by force of arms. Louis Philippe, while holding
the French war party in check, felt constrained to look about him for an
ally. In this extremity Prince Talleyrand, the old-time diplomat of the
Bourbons, the Republic, the Empire and the Restoration, now in his
eightieth year, was se