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 singular coincidence, sixty years later (1875), it was England and Russia who for the second time intervened to destroy the malignant designs of Prussia.

Thus, in 1815, the nation was confronted with the same problem as in 1814 — the foundation of a Constitutional Monarchy. But the lamentable episode of the Hundred Days had rendered almost useless the tools it possessed for accomplishing this work. Abroad, the situation was altogether modified, nothing, or almost nothing remained of the conquests of the Revolution. Europe, leagued against France, held her under a humiliating yoke, her governors saw for her no honourable alliance, no means of playing an effective rôle in the concert of the Powers. At home, her loss in material and moral forces was enormous. The mere money loss, perhaps, might have been repaired by good administration and wise economy ; but prestige compromised, confidence shaken, old antagonisms revived — these things could only be wiped away after many years, if ever.

Louis XVIII. and his ministers set themselves courageously to the interrupted work, bringing to it a most laudable spirit of