But Constantinople still remained the capital of Turkey.  The “sick man” would not die.  From jealousy of Russia the western Powers continued to nurse him.  Without their aid he was not long to live; but his existence was deemed necessary to maintain the “balance of power,” and they came to his assistance in the Crimean War, twenty-six years later, and gave him a new lease of life.

This is the “Eastern Question,”—­How long before the Turks will be driven out of Europe, and who shall possess Constantinople?  That is a question upon which it would be idle for me to offer speculations.  Another aspect of the question is, How far shall Russia be permitted to make conquests in the East?  This is equally insoluble.

AUTHORITIES.

Finlay’s Greece under Ottoman Domination; Leake’s Travels in Northern
Greece; Gordon’s Greek Revolution; Metternich’s Memoirs; Howe’s Greek
Revolution; Mendelssohn’s Graf Capo d’Istrias; Ann.  Hist.  Valentini;
Alison’s Europe; Fyffe’s History of Modern Europe; Mueller’s Political
History of Recent Times.

LOUIS PHILIPPE.

1773-1850.

THE CITIZEN KING.

A new phase in the development of French revolutionary history took place on the accession of Louis Philippe to the throne.  He became King of the French instead of King of France.

Louis XVIII., upon his coming to the throne at Napoleon’s downfall, would not consent to reign except by divine right, on principles of legitimacy, as the brother of Louis XVI.  He felt that the throne was his by all the laws of succession.  He would not, therefore, accept it as the gift of the French nation, or of foreign Powers.  He consented to be fettered by a Constitution, as his brother had done; but that any power could legally give to him what he deemed was already his own, was in his eyes an absurdity.

This was not the case with Louis Philippe, for he was not the legitimate heir.  He belonged to a younger branch of the Bourbons, and could not be the legitimate king until all the male heirs of the elder branch were extinct; and yet both branches of the royal family were the lineal descendants of Henry IV.  This circumstance pointed him out as the proper person to ascend the throne on the expulsion of the elder branch; but he was virtually an elective sovereign, chosen by the will of the nation.  So he became king, not “by divine right,” but by receiving the throne as the gift of the people.

There were other reasons why Louis Philippe was raised to the throne.  He was Duke of Orleans,—­the richest man in France, son of that Egalite who took part in the revolution, avowing all its principles; therefore he was supposed to be liberal in his sentiments.  The popular leaders who expelled Charles X., among the rest Lafayette,—­that idol of the United States, that “Grandison Cromwell,” as Carlyle called him,—­viewed the Duke of Orleans