Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 W DEGREEShat may be the result of the last revolution in France we of course cannot take upon ourselves definitely to prophesy. That we have seen the last of kingship there is, we think, beyond a question. When the idea of royalty had still so much of vitality in it that it was considered necessary to chop off the head -- the least valuable part -- of a poor bewildered monarch, it was not an impossible thing for the Holy Alliance to make another Bourbon adhere to the throne of France with the sacred paste of legitimacy. But when a king has been, not beheaded, but (we shudder to say it) kicked, what glue can the diplomatists invent strong enough to stick him in his seat again, or another in his stead? Louis Philippe extinguished the last sparks of loyalty in France as effectually as if that had been the one object of his eighteen years' reign. He had made monarchy contemptible. He had been a stockjobber, a family matchmaker. The French had seen their royalty gradually "melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a Jew." During a long and peaceful reign the king had in no way contrived to grow on to the people. He was in no sense of the word a head to them. A nation can be loyal to a man, or to the representative of an idea. Louis Philippe was neither. When all the royalty of France can be comfortably driven out of it in a street-cab, one would think the experiment of a republic might be safely ventured upon. To us the late events in Paris seem less a revolution than the quiet opening of a flower which, before it can blossom, must detrude the capsule which has hitherto enveloped and compressed it. We have not been surprised at the coolness with which the news of the liberation of the French people has been received by many...