Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century | Page 5

for ten years. He
referred the army to the neglect which it had received at the hands of
former governments, and promised that the soldiery of France should
rewin its ancient renown.

As soon as those members of the Assembly who had not been arrested
could realize the thing which was done, they ran together and attempted
to stay the tide of revolution by passing a vote deposing the President
from office. But the effort was futile. A republican insurrection, under
the leadership of Victor Hugo and a few other distinguished Liberals,
broke out in the city. But there was in the nature of the case no concert
of action, no resources behind the insurrection, and no military
leadership. General Canrobert, Commandant of the Guards, soon put
down the revolt in blood. Order was speedily restored throughout Paris,
and the victory of the President was complete. It only remained to
submit his usurpation to the judgment of the people, and the decision in
that case could, under existing conditions, hardly be a matter of doubt.
In accordance with the President's proclamation, a popular election was
held throughout France, on the twentieth and twenty-first of December,
at which the Coup d'Etat was signally vindicated. Louis Napoleon was
triumphantly elected President, for a period of ten years. Out of eight
millions of votes, fewer than one million were cast against him. He
immediately entered upon office, backed by this tremendous majority,
and became Dictator of France. In January of 1852, sharp on the heels
of the revolution which he had effected, he promulgated a new
constitution. The instrument was based upon that of 1789, and
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:
(1) We demand Universal Suffrage--by which was meant rather
Manhood Suffrage than what is now known as universal suffrage,
meaning the ballot in the hands of both sexes. This the Chartists did not
demand.
(2) We demand an Annual Parliament--by which was meant the
election of a new House of Commons each year by the people.
(3) We demand the right to Vote by Ballot--by which was meant the
right of the people to employ a secret ballot at the elections instead of
the method viva voce.
(4) We demand the abolition of the Property Qualification now
requisite as a condition of eligibility to Membership in the House of
Commons.
(5) We demand that the Members of