by them at the same time to the Duke of Orleans. This
revolution in France was followed by another in Belgium, where a
national congress declared Belgium an independent state, excluded the
house of Orange from the throne, and set themselves about the election
of a new king. These events were hailed in England by the Whigs with
applause, as the dawning of a new and glorious era in the history of
man. Public meetings were held to pass resolutions commending the spirit
with which the Parisians had shaken off encroaching despotism, and
deputations were sent to congratulate them on their triumph. The people
of England were especially called on to remark how little they had to
fear from military power, since the citizens of Paris and Brussels
had been able to set it at defiance. It was also stated that they were
clearly entitled to be heard in the government, since it was in their
power to make the government what they chose. The excitement produced
by these events, indeed, acted in the elections very unfavourably to
ministers; and it had also the effect of bringing forward the question
of parliamentary reform in a much more prominent and remarkable shape
than it had yet assumed. The force of example was now added to the
existing motives for change, and the notion of transferring the
privileges of a corrupt borough to an unrepresented place, or giving
the elective franchise to a populous town, was discarded. A wild and
indiscriminating change was abroad. Meetings, petitions, and addresses
were got up on every hand, advocating extensive alterations in our
representative system, all of which, however vague and indeterminate in
their respective conditions, tended to confer the elective rights on
a much larger proportion of the people than had hitherto enjoyed them.
Threats were even uttered that a refusal of these rights would lead to
a general convulsion, in which the privileged orders might possibly
be forced to yield more than was required. As a natural consequence
of these menaces and demands, disturbances took place throughout the
country. Lurking incendiaries wreaked their vengeance on property, the
destruction of which only tended to aggravate the prevailing distress.
Night after night they lighted up conflagrations, by which a large
quantity of grain, and even of live stock, was consumed. Bands of men,
also, still more daring than the incendiary, attacked machinery of
all kinds, particularly thrashing machines, the use of