ment, and even of trouble. There came a new
revolution in France--only a dynastic revolution, to be sure, and not a
national upheaval, but still it was a change which dethroned the newly
restored legitimate line of sovereigns. The elder branch of the
Bourbons was torn away and flung aside. There were to be no more kings
of France, but only kings of the French. Charles the Tenth was
deposed, and Louis Philippe, son of Philippe Egalite, was placed on the
throne. Charles the Tenth was the last of the legitimate kings of
France so far, and there does not {99} seem much chance in the
immediate future for any restoration of the fallen dynasty.

The overthrow of legitimacy in France had a strong effect on popular
opinion in England. It was plain that Charles the Tenth and his system
had come to ruin because the sovereign and his ministers would not move
with the common movement of the times over the greater part of the
European continent, and popular reformers in England took care that the
lesson should not be thrown away over here. Great changes had been
accomplished by popular movements even during the enfeebling and
disheartening reign of George the Fourth. Great progress had been made
towards the establishment of religious equality, or at all events
towards the removal of religious disqualifications among the Dissenters
and the Roman Catholics. There was a loud cry almost everywhere for
some measure of political reform. The conditions of the country had
been gradually undergoing a great change. England had been becoming
less and less dependent for her prosperity on her mere agricultural
resources, and had been growing more and more into a great
manufacturing community. Huge towns like Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds,
Birmingham, and Sheffield were arising in the Northern and Midland
regions. Liverpool was superseding Bristol as the great seaport of
commercial traffic. Yet in most cases the old-fashioned principle
still prevailed which in practice confined the Parliamentary
representation of the country to the members who sat for the counties,
and for what were called the pocket boroughs. The theory of the
Constitution, as it was understood, held that the sovereign summoned at
his own discretion and pleasure the persons whom he thought best
qualified to form a House of Commons, to consult with him as to the
government of the empire. The sovereign for this purpose conferred the
right of representation on this or