Editing July Monarchy (section)

==== Final years (1846–1848) ====
The 1846 harvest was poor, in France as elsewhere (especially [[Great Irish Famine|Ireland]], but also [[Famines in Austrian Galicia|Galicia]] and [[Famines in the Czech lands|Bohemia]]). A rise in the price of wheat, the dietary staple of the common people, provoked a [[Economic shortage|food shortage]], while [[purchasing power]] decreased. The resulting fall in domestic consumption led to a crisis of industrial [[overproduction]]. This in turn immediately led to massive [[lay-off]]s, and thus to a large withdrawal of savings, leading to a banking crisis. Bankruptcies multiplied, and stock prices on the [[stock exchange]]s collapsed. The government reacted by [[Russian grain exports|importing Russian wheat]], which created a negative [[balance of trade]]. The program of [[public works]] therefore stopped, including attempts to improve France's [[crenellated guardhouse, 1846 model|coastal defenses]].

[[Robert Peel]]'s government in Britain collapsed in 1846 after disputes over the Corn Laws, bringing the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]] back into government led by [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord John Russell]] and [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]]. The appointment of Lord Palmerston was regarded as a threat to France. Guizot's effort to bring about rapprochement with Britain in the early 1840s was virtually undone by the [[Affair of the Spanish Marriages]], which broke out that year after Palmerston attempted to wed the Spanish queen to a member of the [[House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]] rather than to a member of the House of Orléans, as {{lang|fr|Guizot|italic=no}} and his British counterparts had agreed to earlier in the 1840s.

Henceforth, there was an increase in workers' demonstrations, with riots in the {{lang|fr|[[Buzançais]]|italic=no}} in 1847. In {{lang|fr|[[Roubaix]]|italic=no}}, a city in the industrial north, 60% of the workers were [[unemployment|unemployed]]. At the same time, the regime was marred by several [[French political scandals|political scandals]] ({{lang|fr|[[Jean-Baptiste Teste|Teste]]–[[Amédée Despans-Cubières|Cubières]]|italic=no}} corruption scandal, revealed in May 1847, or {{lang|fr|[[Charles de Choiseul-Praslin]]|italic=no}}'s suicide after having murdered his wife, daughter of {{lang|fr|[[Horace Sébastiani]]|italic=no}}).

Since the [[right of association]] was strictly restricted, and public meetings prohibited after 1835, the Opposition was paralyzed. In order to sidestep this law, political dissidents used civil funerals of their comrades as occasions of public demonstrations. Family celebrations and banquets also served as pretexts for gatherings. At the end of the regime, the {{lang|fr|[[campagne des banquets]]}} took place in all of the big cities of France. {{lang|fr|Louis-Philippe|italic=no}} firmly reacted to this threat, and prohibited the final banquet, which was to be held on 14 January 1848. Postponed to 22 February, this banquet would provoke the [[February 1848 Revolution (France)|February 1848 Revolution]].