The Bourbon Restoration in France was the period from 1814-1830 which began when Napoleon gave up the throne for the first time on April 11, 1814. He regained control in the spring preceding the Battle of Waterloo in a period known as the Hundred Days, but abdicated the throne for a second time after the defeat. At this time, The House of Bourbon regained the control of France that it had lost when King Louis XVI of the House of Bourbon was overthrown and executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. The Bourbon Restoration, really the second Bourbon Restoration because the House briefly regained control before the Hundred Days in what was technically the first, was characterized by a moderate constitutional monarchy under Louis XVIII, followed by extreme conservatism under his brother, Charles X. Charles X was an ultraroyalist (often abbreviated to Ultra,) meaning that he opposed the egalitarian principles held by Benthamites like J.S. Mill, represented the interests of large landowners, restricted suffrage, and restored power to the Roman Catholic Church.
When J.S. Mill first went to live with the Bentham family in France in 1820, he was not yet a fully indoctrinated Benthamite, and Charles X was not yet on the throne. Even so, Mill appreciated the liberal sects of French culture during the early part of the Bourbon Restoration. He said “The chief fruit which I carried away from the society I saw, was a strong and permanent interest in Continental Liberalism, of which I ever afterwards kept myself au courant, as much as of English politics.” This liberalism was political, but it was also emotional . Mill was struck by the “habitual exercise of the feelings” in France as compared to England.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/event/Bourbon-Restoration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uKp4FHPjHU&ab_channel=CrashCourse
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/france-after-1815/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/napoleon-exiled-to-elba
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/two-traditions-of-liberalism/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/king-louis-xvi-executed
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095603589
Penguin Edition of Autobiography by J.S. Mill: Own summary as well as quotes drawn from the text, quotes from pages 63 and 64