Annexation of Cracow--Political unrest in Europe--Charles Albert and Pius IX.--Enthusiasm in Italy--Attitude of French government--Revival of French and British rivalry--Guizot sends a secret agent to Vienna--Metternich realizes the danger in Italy--The Roman plot and occupation of Ferrara--Palmerston's despatch of September 11, 1847--Minto's mission--Prince Consort's _Memorandum_--The situation in Switzerland--Sympathies of the absolute Courts with the _Sonderbund_--Palmerston's attitude--Probable reason of Morier's recall--Palmerston's despatch of October 29, 1847--The French proposal--Palmerston's counter-proposal--Palmerston master of the situation--Battle of Lucerne and dissolution of the _Sonderbund_--Crafty designs imputed to Palmerston--Policy of the Swiss Radicals--Stratford Canning at Berne--The absolute Courts and France present the _identic note_--Haughty reply of the Swiss Diet--Alarm of the absolute Courts--Coloredo and Radowitz in Paris--Revolution in Paris, Berlin and Vienna--Charles Albert in Lombardy--_Une revolution de mépris_--Why the rupture of "the cordial understanding" displeased the French middle-classes--Effect of M. Guizot's _rapprochement_ with Austria--Palmerston and Thiers--Palmerston's policy substantially the same as Aberdeen's--Why "the cordial understanding" failed to justify expectations 406-444
The spontaneous rising of the French people to expel their King, Charles X., who had ventured to infringe the Constitution, aroused the enthusiasm of Liberals all over Europe. But the real character of the movement which brought about the downfall of the elder branch of the Bourbons was, at the time, very imperfectly understood. It was not a determination to preserve at all costs the parliamentary system which animated the combatants in the "glorious days of July." "Long live the Charter" was the watchword of the peaceful _bourgeois_. "Down with the Bourbons" was the war cry of the men of the barricades.
Outside the limited circle of the old Royalist families the restored monarchy had never been popular. Yet it was unquestionably the best and freest form of government which the country had ever enjoyed. The reason of the unpopularity of the Bourbons lay in the circumstances which had attended their return to France. By the large majority of Frenchmen their restoration was deeply resented, as one of the humiliating conditions imposed upon their country by the allied sovereigns, after Waterloo.