ed workingmen who started in a body for London
carrying blanket rolls and other necessaries. Their march was stopped by
the military. In April, seven members of the so-called society of Luddites
were hanged at Leicester for breaking labor-saving machinery. Shortly
afterward eighteen persons were hanged for forging notes on the Bank of
England. It was found that since the redemption of specie payments no less
than 17,885 forged notes had been presented. Nearly two hundred persons
were apprehended and tried in court for this offence. Shortly afterward
another insurrection which broke out in Derbyshire, and which was led by
Jeremiah Brandrett, was suppressed by soldiers.

[Sidenote: "The Revolt of Islam"]

[Sidenote: "Lalla Rookh"]

[Sidenote: John Keats]

[Sidenote: "Blackwood's"]

While the working classes of England and Ireland were thus struggling
against their miseries, English literature shone forth in new splendor.
Shelley brought out his "Revolt of Islam" and Tom Moore published his
"Lalla Rookh." John Keats at the age of barely twenty-one published his
first poems. The volume attracted little attention. The appearance of
Blackwood's new magazine in Edinburgh, on the other hand, was hailed as an
event in English letters.

[Sidenote: French letters]

[Sidenote: Beranger]

In France, likewise, the return of peace gave a new lease of life to
literature. The French Academy was reorganized to consist of forty members,
who were elected for life, and who were to be regarded as "the highest
authority on questions relating to language, grammar, rhetoric, poetry and
the publication of the French classics." Chateaubriand was the Academy's
foremost member. Beranger on the other hand, albeit his lyrics had reached
the height of their popularity, fell into official disfavor by reason of
his glorification of Napoleonic times, as exemplified in his ballads "La
Vivandiere," "La Cocarde Blanche," or "Le Juge de Charenton." The last
poem, with its veiled allusions to the Lavalette episode, was made the
subject of an interpellation in the Chamber of Deputies. While this was
still pending further offence was given by the publication of Beranger's
satirical piece on "The Holy Alliance." Beranger had to give up his
position as secretary at the University of France, and was soon afterward
arrested among his boon companions at Madame Saguet's near Le Moulin Vert.
He was placed on trial for the alleged blasphemies committed in his