22 TUB RESTLESS SPIRIT OF REVOLUTION. 



tionally keen interest, and he preserved an independence 

 of judgment which kept him free from the trammels of 

 mere party politics. There was much to excite the mind 

 of an intelligent man in those days, when the air was thick 

 with the dark Spirit of Insurrection, and Revolution 

 threatened every country in Europe. They were anxious 

 times. In London and every large town in England the 

 Chartists were maintaining a dangerous agitation. In 

 Ireland popular irritation was even more demonstrative. 

 Insurrectionary rifle clubs were formed, and the passions of 

 poor Pat were inflamed by violent leaders. 



Political agitation on the Continent excited a baleful 

 influence everywhere. The supporters of old-world despotism 

 and the champions of liberty were face to face. Italy was 

 making its first feeble effort to throw off the Austrian yoke, 

 and men were lashed into fury by political antagonism. 

 The Lombardo- Venetian provinces were in open revolt, and 

 Marshal Radetzky, in command of the Austrian troops, 

 cheered on the Imperial soldiers by the assurance that 

 " The efforts of fanatics and a false spirit of innovation 

 would be shivered against their courage and fidelity like 

 glass striking against a rock." 



At Berlin the people were restless and threatening. More 

 than a hundred men and women were shot down at the 

 gates of the royal palace, and the work of slaughter was> 



