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34 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1919)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry34 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume XXXIV] POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY EUROPEAN THEORIES OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOV- ERNMENT AFTER THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA i. The Struggle for Constitutions on the Continent WHILE Great Britain worked out in comparative calm the adaptation of her political system to the needs of the nineteenth century, progress in the same direction in the rest of Europe was attended with a long series of convulsions. From the fall of Napoleon's empire for full two-thirds of a century agitation was continuous and wars were not infrequent for the realization on the continent of political ideas that had been made prominent by the French Revolution. Until the middle of the century the history of the period is punctuated with insurrections; after 185o, the type of disturb- ance changes to international war. Insurrection made its first imposing appearance in the early twenties, when the Carbonari and the Free Masons rose in Italy and Spain respectively, and temporarily converted Bourbon despotisms into a semblance of constitutional governments. At the same time Portugal went through a similar experience, and the Greeks won the interest and sympathy of Christendom by throwing off the yoke of the sultan. Before the widespread ferment attending these movements had subsided, a more terrifying shock was given to conservatism by the reappearance of revolution in France. In July, 1830, the Bourbon Charles X was driven from the throne and the Orleanist Louis Philippe was put in his place. All Europe was filled with unrest and alarm lest these events should be the pre- lude to such developments as had followed the uprising against I March, 7979 [Number i