purlieus of the French Revolution.

The reason for the outbreak of the Chartist reform was the fact that
the Reform Bill of 1832 had proved a signal failure. For six years the
English Middle Classes had sought by the agency of that act to gain
their rights, but they had sought in vain. The people now began to
follow popular leaders, who always arise under such conditions. One of
these, by the name of Thorn, a bankrupt brewer and half madman, who
called himself Sir William Courtenay, appeared in Canterbury. He said
that he was a Knight of Malta and King of Jerusalem--this when he was
only a knight of malt and a king of shreds and patches. Delusion broke
out on every hand. One great leader was Feargus O'Connor. Another was
Thomas Cooper, a poet, and a third was the orator Henry Vincent,
afterward well known in America.

The agitation for reform spread far and wide. The people seemed to be
about to rise _en masse_. The powers of British society were shaken
and alarmed. The authorities put out their hands and the Chartist
meetings in many places were broken up. The leading spirits were
seized and thrown into prison for nothing. Three of the agitators were
sent to the penal colonies, for no other offence than the delivery of
democratic speeches. For several years the movement was in abeyance,
but in 1848, in the month of April, the agitation broke out afresh and
rose to a formidable climax. A great meeting was appointed for the
Kensington common, and there, on the tenth of the month just named, a
monster demonstration was held. A petition had meanwhile been drawn
up, praying for reform, and was _signed by nearly two million
Englishmen_!

After this the Chartist agitation ebbed away. The movement was said to