Page:The coronation of Edward the Seventh - a chapter of European and imperial history.djvu/16

 republic. In the first place, the war with France, which had diverted the nation from theoretical sympathy with the French Revolution, while enriching certain classes of the community, soon caused lasting distress among the people. Economic trouble has always been a more potent factor of sedition than the propagation of doctrine. Even the French Revolution, in the earlier stages of which ideas played a most important part, would not have attained sufficient force to sweep away the monarchy, but for its economic causes. In England, where the genius of the people is not doctrinaire, the governing institutions have never, since 1688, been menaced at times of well-distributed national prosperity. To the popular distress was added the discontent inspired in all classes by certain members of the family of the sovereign, himself disabled by mental disorder, which had first temporarily afflicted him on the eve of the French Revolution. When the malady of George III. became chronic and necessitated a permanent regency, even highly-placed Englishmen became lukewarm in their attachment to the royal house. Colonel Wardle, as mover of the appointment of the parliamentary committee to investigate the conduct of the Duke of York, which brought about that prince's resignation as