ont gave peculiar significance: "Whenever the government comes
to deal with the corn laws, the precedent formed by the present occasion
will be appealed to." The reform measure, as at last adopted, swept away
142 seats in the Commons. It gave to the counties sixty-five additional
representatives and conferred the right of sending members to Parliament on
Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and thirty-nine other large towns hitherto
unrepresented. The King showed his disapproval of the reform by
peremptorily declining to give his assent to the bill in person. The
Crown's sanction was given by commission. This ended all agitation for the
time being.

[Sidenote: Otto, King of Greece]

It was in May that the great Powers, in response to another appeal from
Greece, suggested Prince Otto of Wittelsbach, the second son of the
Philhellene King of Bavaria, for the vacant throne. This choice was
ratified in October amid general rejoicings by the population of Greece.

[Sidenote: Foreign intervention in Italy]

In Italy, early in the year, the Pope's failure to carry out his promise of
reform created new troubles. An amnesty, which had been granted by the
legate Benvenuti, was disregarded and the papal soldiery practiced all
manner of repression. Another revolt broke out and once more the Austrians,
at the Pope's request, crossed the frontier. They restored order so well
that they were actually welcomed as protectors against the ruthless
condottieri of the papal troops. Austria's intervention was resented by
France as a breach of the peace. Casimir Perier, now on his deathbed,
despatched a French force to Ancona. The town was seized before the
Austrians could approach it. Austria accepted the situation, and both
powers in Italy remained face to face jealously watching each other. Had
Casimir Perier lived he might have made Ancona a lever for effecting the
desired reforms at Rome. As it was, the French garrison at Ancona remained
merely as a balancing point between the contending parties in Italy.

[Sidenote: Death of Cuvier]

[Sidenote: Cuvier's Works]

France in the same year lost one of its distinguished men of science, by
the death of Baron Cuvier, the great naturalist. Georges Leopold Cuvier was
born in 1769 at Montbeliard. After studying at Stuttgart he became private
tutor in the family of Count D'Hericy in Normandy, where he was at liberty
to devote his leisure to natural science and in particular to zoology. A
natural cla