Cornell University Library arV1660 Century of continental history 1780-1880 3 1924 031 187 804 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031187804 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY 1780—1880 BY ■tyN J/ H.^ROSE, M.A. (formerly classical scholar of Christ's college, Cambridge) ' The history of this age will no longer be only a relation of the lives of great men and of princes, but a biography of nations." — Gervinus. LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD 26 & 27 COCKSPUR STREET, CHARING CROSS, S.W. 1889 aid fi.fi U PREFACE. This work is intended for the Upper Forms of Schools, as well as for all who desire to have a clearer knowledge of the course of events on the Continent. It is, in fact, designed as a help and book of reference for readers of that complex pro- duction — the daily newspaper.- Most newspaper readers have no clear knowledge of what is meant by the " Eastern Question," the " Dual System " of Austria-Hungary, nor even of the momentous series of events which have brought unity to Germany and to Italy. This book therefore aims at giving an outline of the main events which have brought the Continent of Europe to its present political condition. The development of the States of Europe can be traced in a continuous outline since the fusion brought about by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. So I have striven to describe the break-up of the old systems and the formation, amid many con- VI PREFACE. vulsions, of Continental States on the basis of the Treaties of Frankfurt and Berlin. The Peninsular and Crimean Wars have been described with less detail than other equally important events which are less familiar to English readers. J. H. R. March 1889. CONTENTS. i. Causes of the French Revolution 2. The Revolution . ... 3. The Constituent and Legislative Assemblies 4. Central Europe . 5. France — Triumph of the Revolutionists 6. The First French Republic 7. The Reign of Terror . 8. Successes of the Convention . 9. Wars of the Directory 10. The Egyptian Expedition 11. Reverses of the Directory 12. The Consulate 13. Europe, 1801-1804 . 14. The French Empire TAGE I 17 26 34 39 44 SO 56 65 69 74 78 S6 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE 15. The Continental System . • • 93 16. The New Feeling of Nationality . . .98 17. Wagram — Final Annexations (1809-1811) . no 18. The French Empire at its Height (1811-1812) . 119 19. Moscow ...... 127 20. The War of Liberation . . . 134 21. The Restoration ... . 143 22. Reconstruction of Europe . . 150 23. France (1815-1830) ... . 163 24. Germany (1815-1830) . . .173 25. Southern Europe . . 179 26. Turkey and Russia . . . . .188 27. -The Movements of 1830 in Central Europe 195 28. France— Louis Philippe (1830-1848) . 205 29. Central Europe (1831-1848) . . 218 30. Spain and Portugal .... 225 31. The Movements of 1848-1849 . . . 229 32. Europe (1849-1880). France (1849-1852) . 250 33. The Second Empire . . . 257 34. The Third Republic . . . . .269 CONTENTS. 35. The Third Republic [continued) 36. The Rise of Prussia 37. The Unity of Germany . 38. Austria-Hungary 39. The Unity of Italy 40. The Unity of Italy {continued) . 41. Russia and Turkey 42. The Eastern Question 43. The Lesser Powers Appendix I — Rulers of Europe Appendix II. — Constitutions of the Continent Appendix III — National Debts Appendix IV — The Nations of Europe . PAGE 278 286 300 320 327 339 347 359 373 387 3S9 390 39i Index 392 MAPS. i. Central Europe in 1812 . 2. „ „ AFTER 1S15 3. The Campaigns of 1859-1871 To face page 119 ISO .. 3°o PLANS 1. The Battle of Austerlitz 2. „ Wagram 3. The Battle of Gravelotte 4. The Environs of Paris . 5. The Environs of Sevastopol PAGE 90 "5 3°4 312 352 GENEALOGICAL TREES. The Bourbon House (Elder Branch) The Bonaparte Family The Bourbon House (Younger Branch) H3 149 217 AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. Taine, Mignet, Michelet, Morse Stephens, and Carlyle's Histories of the French Revolution; Lamartine's "Girondists"; Thiers' "Con- sulate " ; Lanfrey and Seeley's Lives of Napoleon I ; Life of Madame de Stael ; Memoirs of Madame de Remusat ; Guizot's Memoirs ; Ducoudray's " Histoire Contemporaine " ; Nassau Senior's Journals in France and Italy ; Lamartine's Revolution of 1848 ; D. Jerrold's Life of Napoleon III ; Weber's Weltgeschichte ; Jager and Miiller's His- tories of Nineteenth Century ; Menzel's History of Germany ; Seeley's " Life and Times of Stein " ; Lecky's History of England in Eighteenth Century; Lowe's Life of Bismarck; Busch's "Our Chancellor ' ; Metternich's Memoirs ; Coxe's Memorials of the House of Austria ; Fyffe's Modern Europe (vols. i. and ii.); Lives of Deak, Garibaldi, Mazzini, and Cavour ; Gallenga's History of Piedmont and " Pope and King"; Life of Alexander II ; Wallace's "Russia"; Creasy's History of the Ottoman Turks ; The Statesman's Year Book. CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. " In proportion as the power of the monarch becomes boundless and immense, his security diminishes." — Montesquieu. The French Revolution, the most terrible and momentous series of events in all history, is the real starting-point for the history of the nineteenth century; for that great up- heaval has profoundly affected the political and, still more, the social life of the Continent of Europe. The English student must, at the outset, lay aside all comparisons with the English Revolution of 1688, which, by the substitution of William III for James II, and by a clearer limitation of the powers of the Crown, peacefully introduced the era of constitutional governments ; whereas 'in France, a century later, a terrible social upheaval accom- panied the political changes, and inaugurated the era of new societies on the Continent. The peacefulness of the transition in England, and the violence of the rupture between the old and new eras in France, were caused by influences long at work in both countries. As far back as 1709 the learned and devout Archbishop Fe'ne'lon had said of the social life of France, "The old machine will break up at the first shock.'' He saw that the seeds of the Revolution were being sown during the B 2 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. longand brilliant reign of LOUIS XIV(ib42,-^1 is)- Owing to the exhaustion of the nobles in the long religious and civil wars (1562-1653), that imperious young monarch was able to strip them of their political power. The Provincial "Parlements" were never summoned; and for fifty-eight years the "Grand Monarque " could truly boast, "I am the State.'' In the old feudal times the French nobles (as elsewhere in Europe) had almost absolute powers over their own feudal dependants, whom they were bound to protect against pillage ; but the splendours of Versailles attracted them as submissive courtiers to the king's court, there to lead a frivolous life and squander the revenues of estates which they rarely visited. Thus the absolutism of Louis XIV led to a perilous concentration of power and wealth at Versailles, against which the great French political thinker, Montesquieu, in 1748, uttered this warning : "Monarchy is destroyed when the prince, directing everything entirely to himself, calls the State to his capital, the capital to his court, and the court to his person." Louis XIV's religious intolerance drove at least 100,000 Protestants, his most industrious subjects, to seek a refuge in England, Holland, and Prussia (1685- 1690) j 1 and his ambition brought three long wars on France, in the last of which she suffered crushing defeats from Marlborough and Prince Eugene. Thus during the last eleven years of his reign the population of France con- siderably diminished. After a troubled regency the reign of his indolent and worthless grandson L O UIS XV (17 23-1774) was even more 1 Thus French liberty and commerce were paralysed at the very time when the English nation was regaining its old constitutional rights. i] CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 3 disastrous for France, both at home and abroad. In the great Seven Years' War (1756-1763) France gained nothing in Europe, while she lost nearly all her North American and East Indian possessions. The "double effort" of carrying on war in Europe and beyond the seas had ex- hausted France. At home extravagance and bad govern- ment were ruining trade and agriculture : famine followed famine; and in "1739 and 1740, more people died from want than in all the wars of Louis XIV." "This will last my time," and "After me the deluge," were the replies of the old king to the signs of discontent which could not be hidden from him. At last this worth- less monarch died, despised and deserted even by the courtiers whom he had enriched. Louis XVI (177 4- 1793).' — The destinies of France rested on his grandson, the amiable, moral, and generous Louis, now barely twenty years of age. The wild hopes cherished at his accession soon faded away. France needed a reforming monarch of keen foresight and iron will : she gained instead a ruler who would have been a model coun- try squire. Devoted to the chase, and endowed with the stout frame and huge appetite of the Bourbons, Louis XVI yet lacked the strength of mind to overpower the opposition of his queen and court to the reforms which he felt to be necessary. In fact, his good qualities were of that passive type which cannot mould men and circumstances, but is moulded by them. His was a courage which could calmly resist the threats of a mob (as on June 20, 1792, in the Tuileries), but could not inspire men to fling prudence to the winds and rally to the defence of a doomed cause. Yet the popular instinct was right in regarding the simple- minded king as a friend of the people, though thwarted by the queen and his youngest brother the Comte dArtois. 4 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Marie Antoinette was a complete contrast to her royal spouse : lively, graceful, and fascinating, she possessed the spirit and ability to rule of her mother Maria Theresa, without the prudence and wisdom of the Empress-queen. Cruelly slandered in the extraordinary scandal of the Diamond Necklace, she early lost the esteem of the people, whom she thenceforth scorned to propitiate ; and her love of gaiety and splendour led her to side with the courtiers against the economies of Turgot and Necker : so she was soon hated as " L'Autrichienne " or " Madame Deficit." Turgot and Necker. — Turgot, during his control of the finances (17 74-1 7 76), attempted to carry out this sen- sible policy : " No loan, no increased taxes, no bankruptcy." He sought to improve agriculture by abolishing the "corve'es" (forced labour claimed by feudal lords), and by proclaiming the freedom of internal trade; but his economies were so unpopular at Versailles that the king dismissed him, though he said, " Nobody loves my people but M. Turgot and myself." He was succeeded as finance minister by Necker, a banker of Geneva (1777-1781), who published a balance- sheet, which showed many of the abuses of the government. For a short time he succeeded in making the state revenue meet the expenditure ; but the armed assistance which France gave to the American colonists (1778-1783) hastened on the bankruptcy of the national treasury. He also tried to introduce social reforms, such as the abolition of the remains of serfdom ; but the anger of the queen and courtiers alarmed Louis, and Necker retired. With his resignation vanished the last hope of peaceful reform ; for each of the next two finance ministers, Calonne and Brienne, only strove to keep up the appearance of solvency during his own tenure of office. i] CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 5 Such were the persons on whom was cast the fate of guiding the ship of State down the rapids. We shall now see that the craft was leaky, top-heavy, and unfit to stand any strain. Taxation. — Duringthefirstfifteen yearsof his reign Louis XVI had, in spite of difficulties in his way, abolished torture before trial, compulsory labour on the roads, and serfdom on the royal domains : he had conceded civil rights to the Protestants, and established a system of provincial and parochial self-government. Yet the root of the financial difficulty remained untouched, viz. that the nobles and clergy paid scarcely any taxes, while the middle classes and peasants paid nearly all. The immunity of nobles and clergy from taxation dates from the times when the clergy were quite poor, and when the feudal lords were charged with the defence of the realm. As it was said, " The nobles fight, the clergy pray, and the people pay." But the clergy had now become a rich order, and a royal standing army had taken the place of the feudal military system ; yet still the nobles, who in France had sunk to the position of courtiers, remained free from taxation, as if they still defended the realm at their own expense. The number of the clergy, nobles, and privileged persons is said to have reached 270,000; for it constantly increased by the sale of official sinecures, which carried with them this privilege of nobility. Thus the crushing weight of taxation lay on the shoulders of the peasantry and the comparatively small middle class. It has been computed that the peasant farmers had to pay about half of their annual profits in taxes to the State ; and that when tithes and feudal dues had been discharged, only about one-fifth of the fruits of toil remained to the toiler. The capitation, or poll tax, was levied even on the poorest ; 6 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the tax on salt raised the price to eight times the present price ; and bread was made artificially dear in one pro- vince, and cheap in another, by provincial customs duties on the internal trade in corn ; while endless dues, tolls, and privileges impeded trade and agriculture. Land Tenure. — By far the larger portion of the land in France at the accession of Louis XVI was held under the feudal system. Besides fixed annual payments by tenants to their lords, there were in many cases annual tributes of wine, corn, or fowls, and specified duties when a farm changed hands. The landowners also levied tolls on markets, bridges, or roads, and claimed a fixed number of days' gratuitous labour {corvee). These conditions thwarted improvements in agriculture, and became more and more vexatious when the noble no longer resided among his dependants as a feudal protector, but was looked upon merely as a rent-receiver at Versailles. The estates of the clergy were better looked after ; and no small part of- the land was practically in the possession of the peasants who tilled it. In spite of harsh game laws and of the scandalous injustice of the taxation, the condition of the peasantry in France was probably not worse than it was in central and eastern Europe ; and the " old machine " might have survived the financial strain of the American expedition, but ■ that new ideas of equality were becoming generally familiar among a populace which saw nothing but inequality around. Voltaire and Rousseau. — The wit and sarcasm of Voltaire (1694-1778) had long been undermining the reverence of the cultured classes for the old monarchical and religious ideas ; and into the void thus created the sentimentalism of Rousseau (17 12-17 7 8) found a ready entrance. In that age Rousseau proclaimed a much i] CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 7 needed, if exaggerated, truth, when he referred man's conduct and the constitution of society to what it would be in a state of nature. Starting with this vague assump- tion, he, in his Contrat Social, sketched out a state of society in which men, being all free and equal, would form themselves by common consent into a free state. He approved of a republican form of government, modified by a stern dictatorship in grave crises ; but he believed that in such a state all citizens would dwell together in love. This sketch of an ideal state had a profound effect on the whole course of the Revolution. It made the deputies of the Third Estate from the first indisposed to accept at once the practicable reforms which court, nobles, and clergy were ready (May 1789) to concede; whereas it led the commoners to insist at the outset on a fusion of the three orders which the other two were determined to refuse. Moreover, the application of Rousseau's teaching seemed so simple that all his disciples deemed themselves at once fitted to exercise equal political powers ; and his admission that a dictatorship might be necessary to enforce the will of the people against anti- social recusants received a frightful application in the dictatorship of Robespierre. The sentimental novels of Rousseau were very popular with the wealthy classes, and the courtiers for a time played at being shepherds and shepherdesses ; but his social speculations soon produced on the poor an effect which the philosophers and the wealthy had not expected. The "Parlements." — Though the privileged classes coquetted with the new ideas, they, up to 1788, opposed their practical application in the equalisation of taxation ; and they used their power in the Paris and twelve provincial "Parlements" to thwart the king's reforming efforts. These bodies consisted, not of elected repre- 8 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. sentatives, but of nominees appointed by the king for life ; and their duty was, not to initiate legislation, but to register royal decrees and administer justice. In 1787 the Paris " Parlement " registered royal edicts establishing provincial assemblies, decreeing free trade, and the right of redeeming the corvie, or feudal labour system, by a money payment ; but when it refused to register a new land tax which would affect the wealthy (1787), Louis compelled it to do so in a special sitting, called " a bed of justice," and then exiled it to Troyes. Soon in the provinces, especially in Dauphine", there was also active opposition to the finance minister Brienne, more particularly when he proposed to suppress all the " Parlements " and replace them by a central plenary court for all France. So sharp was the opposition in Dauphin^, headed by the reformer Mounier, that Louis XVI decided to cancel Brienne's proposal, to accept his resignation, and convoke the States-General of France for May 1789. The States -General. — Lafayette, the commander of the French forces in the American War of Independence, had in 1787 suggested that this assembly should be convoked ; and all men now caught at it as the only plan for rescuing France from her difficulties. The States- General consisted of deputies of the three orders — nobles, clergy, and the Commons or Third Estate. They had not met for 173 years; so the mode of their election and the scope of their powers had been almost forgotten. Louis, however, had given a double representation to the Third Estate, so that its members should be equal in numbers to those of the other two orders combined ; and this seemed to foreshadow the union of the three orders in one Assembly. But in the inaugural processsion and first sitting (May 4 and 5) the old distinctions of dress and i] CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. g etiquette were seen to survive. The Third Estate, before verifying the returns of its own members, notified that it awaited the arrival of the other two orders ; and when these finally declared that they would vote as separate orders, the Third Estate defiantly declared itself to be the National Assembly of France (June 17, T789). CHAPTER II. THE REVOLUTION. " Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive But to be young was very heaven ! " Wordsworth. " When France in wrath her giant limbs uprear'd, And with that oath which smote air, earth, and sea, Stamped her strong foot, and said she would be free, Bear witness for me, how I hoped and feared ! ' ' Coleridge. This bold innovation marks the revolutionary spirit which had spread among the people and its representatives. Nature herself seemed to conspire to overthrow the old regime; for the harvest of 1788 had been ruined by an extraordinary hailstorm in July, and the unwonted severity of the succeeding winter was so destructive to the mulberry trees that the silk trade was paralysed. An unwise system of public relief-works in Paris attracted starving peasants to the capital ; so that all the materials for an outbreak were ready at Paris and Versailles. The queen and courtiers, enraged at the attitude of the self-styled National Assembly, persuaded the king to over- awe it by troops, annul its declarations, and occupy its hall. Nothing daunted, the deputies repaired to the Tennis Court, and in that bare building they swore, with uplifted hands, chap, n] THE REVOLUTION. II that " they would meet in all places, and under all circum- stances, till they have made the Constitution" (June 20). In two days they were joined by 149 deputies of the clergy, and the rebuke of the king, in a " royal session," for their conduct fell unheeded. After the king, nobles, and most of the clergy had left the hall, the remaining deputies were summoned to disperse by the king's usher ; but a bold voice thundered out, " Go, sir, and tell those who sent you that we are here at the command of the people, and that nothing but the bayonet shall drive us hence." The speaker was Count Mirabeau, a man of wild habits, but of vast energy and indomitable will, who hence- forth wielded the chief personal authority in the Assembly and in Paris. The court, again foiled, continued to mass soldiers around Paris and Versailles, until -at last it felt itself strong enough to procure the banishment of Necker, reinstated as finance minister August 1789, who disapproved of a reactionary policy. This news aroused fierce excitement in Paris. The famous regiment of the French Guards at once protected the people from the mercenary regiments assembled to overawe them ; and in a short time the court could rely only on the Bodyguard, composed of nobles, and on the mercenary Swiss and German regiments. Many of the French soldiers had brought back with them new ideas from the American War of Independence, and none of them would any longer tolerate the scanty and irregular pay, and harsh treatment by officers who belonged entirely to the order of the nobility. The Bastille. — With no fear of the soldiery, therefore, the Paris mob, on the morning of the famous 14th July 1789, burst into the "Hotel des Invalides " and seized cannons, swords; and 28,000 muskets. A committee of 12 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. defence hastily formed at the Town Hall ordered the manufacture of 50,000 pikes. The populace, now furnished with firearms, rushed to the entrance court of that grim hated fortress, the Bastille, whose cannons commanded the Faubourg St. Antoine, a populous quarter of the city. It had long been a State prison where men might be hurried without trial by a sealed letter (lettre de cachet) ; but under the milder rule of Louis XVI it now held only seven prisoners, and these not for political reasons. The governor, De Launay, refused to surrender, though his garrison numbered only forty Swiss and eighty pensioners. Two bold men at once sprang forth from the crowd to strike at the chains of the drawbridge ; this fell before their strokes, and the victorious crowd rushed over it to attack the next barrier; but they were kept off for four hours by the fire of the garrison. At last the arrival of the French Guards, with cannon to force the gates, dis- heartened the defenders, and they forced the governor to surrender on condition that the lives of all should be spared ; but the excited mob massacred the governor and several of the garrison. Soon afterwards the " Provost of the Merchants " fell a victim to the suspicions of the people that he had trifled with their demand for weapons. The same night the king at Versailles was informed of the outbreak. " Why, it is a revolt ! " he said. " No, sire," rejoined the liberal Due de Liancourt, "it is a Revolution. " Indeed few great victories have had results so far-reaching as those of the 14th July, which the French celebrate as the birthday of new France. The withdrawal from Paris of the troops which were to have overawed the capital showed that the attempted coup detat of the court had failed. Necker was recalled, and received an enthusiastic welcome in Paris ; and when Louis himself visited his capital, and n] THE REVOLUTION. 13 donned the new tricolour cockade, the rejoicing was unbounded. Bailly, the newly-elected mayor, said, " Henri IV reconquered the people of Paris : now the people have reconquered their king." On the other hand, many of the reactionary nobles and the king's younger brother (afterwards Charles X) left the country : this was called the " first emigration." Lafayette. — The disorders of the capital during the next three months showed the need of new organisations. A new democratic municipality was established, and some order was restored by the enrolment of a citizen guard — afterwards the National Guard — under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette. This young noble had distinguished himself at the head of the French forces in the American War of Independence, and throughout his long career he retained the devotion to constitutional government and orderly liberty which he had there learned. It was Lafayette who had lately united the Bourbon white with the Paris colours, red and blue, on the national flag, as a sign that the monarchy was now constitutional. Though his chivalrous nature was marred by defects of vanity and weakness, yet the devotion of his citizen guards enabled him to do more than any one else towards stemming the tide of anarchy during the next two years. The "Jacqueries." 1 — The news of the Revolution in Paris aroused vague fears and hopes in the peasantry. An insane panic seized them that "the brigands were coming"; and it is thought that this panic was spread by the vicious and designing Duke of Orleans, the king's cousin, who hoped that anarchy would pave the way for his accession. 1 Jacques Bonhomme is the national name for the French peasant, just as John Bull is for the British farmer ; hence risings of the peasants were called Jacqueries. 14 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. At any rate the peasants everywhere armed themselves ; and when no brigands came, they followed the example of Paris on the 14th July, by attacking the castles of their feudal lords. Many castles were burned and some lives taken ; but in most cases only the hated title-deeds, which specified the feudal dues, were destroyed. The National Guards of the towns were almost helpless to stop these dis- orders; and even in Paris streets the hated minister Foullon, who had said that the peasants " might eat grass," was snatched away from his escort, and his head was carried through Paris on a pike, with grass thrust into the mouth. Legislation. — The National Assembly prefaced its practical work by a theoretic declaration of the Rights of Man — viz. individual liberty and equality, freedom of speech and opinion, trial by jury, and the sovereign power of the people over taxation and legislation. It then turned its attention to the anarchy of the provinces ; and on the 4th August, in a fit of generous enthusiasm — a " St. Bartholo- mew of Privileges " — swept away all the feudal privileges in one long sitting. Feudal dues and tithes, compulsory gra- tuitous labour, and the harsh game laws were abolished ; so also were all local immunities from taxation, first fruits, and the local courts where laws had been administered by the lord of the manor. The first of these had, however, been practically abolished by the burning of the title-deeds by the peasants themselves. Next the Assembly decided that it would remain one Chamber (as opposed to the English plan of two Houses of Parliament), and that the king should have a right of sus- pensive veto — which was suggested by Lafayette after the American model — so that, though the king might have . vetoed a bill, yet it became law in six months if the Assembly passed it again before that time. u] THE REVOLUTION. IS In general the action of the Assembly was far too slow to cope with the needs of France. Its members, nearly 1 200 in number, kept no order in debate, procedure, or voting ; and the fatal mistake was made of allowing a large number of spectators present in the gallery ; for in a short time these interfered with debates and intimidated the moderate members. The Insurrection of "Women. — If the queen and the reactionary nobles could have learnt by experience, they would have seen that the Revolution, like a swollen torrent, only became more destructive with every attempt to turn it back ; whereas by being guided in its natural course, its force might have become even beneficial. But a momentary flush of triumph turned the heads of the courtiers. The regiment of the Bodyguards was enter- taining the " Royal Flanders," just summoned to Versailles. The king and queen passed through the hall; and after Blondel's song, " O Richard, O mon roi ! L'univers t'abandonne," had been played, the excited young officers donned the white Bourbon cockade and trampled on the tricolour. This foolish scene, repeated on October 3, 1789, aroused fierce excitement in Paris. There the poor were still on the verge of starvation ; for the relief-works only attracted more famished creatures from the country districts, again afflicted by a miserable harvest ; and in the towns trade had been paralysed by the disorders. On the 5 th October women assembled in thousands, crying " Bread ! Bread ! " and at last started for Versailles, followed by an excited armed rabble. The king's palace was at first almost at their mercy, until Lafayette and the National Guards arrived. 1 6 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap, ii Rain, darkness, and fatigue put an end to conflicts with the Bodyguards, who were ordered by the king not to fight ; and so this strange night passed quietly, until at daybreak some of the mob found, or forced, a way into a wing of the palace. The king and queen had barely time to escape with their lives. Lafayette and the French Guards at last restored some order ; but the mob insisted that the king and queen should be brought to Paris, and they shouted for the hated " Austrian " to appear on a balcony alone. " No children," was the cry ; but when Lafayette, kneeling down, kissed her hand, their murderous threats changed to enthu- siastic cheers. Then, safely but ignominiously, the royal family was escorted into Paris, followed by the Swiss and Bodyguards, now adorned with the lately insulted tricolour. The vast crowds danced with joy, for they were bringing back also fifty cartloads of corn ; and pointing to the royal carriage, they shouted that they were bringing " the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's boy." Thus, the proces- sion moved slowly towards the long-uninhabited palace of the Tuileries. The National Assembly "soon moved to the Riding School close by ; and so court and Assembly were practi- cally in the power of an excitable populace numbering some 800,000. Paris had indeed conquered its king now ; and it shows the strong monarchical instinct of the French that monarchy could exist for nearly three years after the scenes of October 6, 1789. CHAPTER III. THE CONSTITUENT AND LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES. 1 Legislation (1789-1790). — The old provincial "Parle- ments " had long since regretted their short-sighted opposi- tion to the king's reforming efforts, and now strove to excite the provinces against the capital and the Assembly which they had unwittingly called into being ; but they had no popular support, and the Assembly easily swept away the old provincial system. The new division into Departments of equal size or population, and the substitution of natural features for the old historic nomenclature, carried out the spirit of Rousseau's doctrine of natural equality. Further- more, it aided the growth of national unity ; for men now prided themselves only in being Frenchmen, and no longer in the name of Norman, Gascon, or Burgundian. Each of the eighty-three new Departments was divided into nine districts, each district into ten cantons, and each canton into ten rural municipalities ; and these last had local powers so considerable that for a time France may be said to have been divided into 74,700 little republics. Meanwhile, bankruptcy was paralysing the State, which could not raise money at ten per cent, though the clergy 1 The first Assembly was called the Constituent, because its work was to pave the way for, and to form, the new Constitution ; so also after the Revolution of 1848 the first Assembly was called the Constituent, the second Legislative. C 1 8 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. could borrow at four per cent on the Church lands. The needs of the treasury and jealousy of the clergy as a powerful order led the Assembly to decree the Confiscation of Church lands for the service of the State (December 2, 1789). Tithes had already been abolished; and now, to facilitate the sale of Church lands, paper-notes, called assignats, were issued with forced circulation; but public confidence in them grew less and less, and they fell rapidly in money value. But the worst blow was to follow; for, after abolishing monastic orders in France, the Assembly decreed in July 1790 the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. By this decree the clergy were to take an oath of obedience to the State, of which they were henceforth to be the salaried officers, elected by the people. This subordination to the electorate was indignantly renounced by two-thirds of the clergy, who were thereupon deprived of their benefices. In Alsace and La Vendue the villagers would not attend the services of the new " Constitutionals,'' but travelled far to attend secret meetings of the orthodox "nonjuring" priests. These two decrees caused the beginnings of a reaction against the Revolution. The reform of the law-courts was conceived in a wiser and juster spirit. Trial by jury, which in very early times had been wide -spread in Europe, but had survived feudalism only in England, was now appointed for the trial of criminal cases ; while for civil -law cases, judges were nominated by the Assembly. Rousseau's levelling doctrines received a further application in the abolition (June 20, 1790) of titles, liveries, and orders of knight- hood — a decree which was practically ignored save by Jacobins during their ascendency. The Constitution. — Popular enthusiasm for the new constitution, which was slowly taking shape, was shown in in] THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 19 the splendid national celebration of the 14th July 1790, the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. Four hundred thousand spectators, ranged on seats of turf, which had been raised with vast effort around the immense Champ de Mars, rapturously joined in the oath of fidelity to the constitution, repeated aloud by Lafayette and the federates representing the National Guards, then by the National Assembly, and lastly by the king himself. The joyous fetes which followed were crowned by dancing on the site of the once terrible Bastille, the stones of which were now being formed into the new bridge, " Louis XVI." The constitution, when completed in the autumn of next year (17 91), left very little beside the suspensive veto and mere executive duties to the king ; and the king's ministers were almost reduced to the position of clerks to the all-powerful Assembly. Its labours came to a close with the reluctant acceptance of the new constitution by the king, after the flight to Varennes ; but, with a foolish display of self-denial, it decreed that none of its members could sit in the next Assembly ; and thus another set of untried men soon came up to gain experience at the expense of the nation's welfare. Spread of Anarchy. — Meanwhile civil strife had soon succeeded to the fraternal "Feast of pikes " of July 14, 1790; only six weeks afterwards two regiments at Nancy demanded the arrears of their pay, and seized the town. The brave old general Bouille" was ordered by the Assembly to bring them to obedience ; and with some faithful troops and National Guards he retook the town after desperate street fighting. With the exception of the southern cities, where religious feuds had been excited between Roman Catholics 20 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. and Protestants, the financial distress was the main cause of the wide- spread disorders of France in 1790-1791. The finance minister, Necker, having no means to enforce the payment of taxes, in despair fled to Geneva; and many wealthy people also fled from the disorders, taking their money with them. Bread riots were of daily occurrence in the next two winters; corn-merchants and bakers were in some places hanged for selling dear corn or bad bread, and, as a natural result, corn became scarcer and bread dearer ; yet all this was attributed by the insane populace to " aristocrats." As Taine says, "Distress increased tumult, and tumult increased distress." The Clubs. — In Paris itself the national workshops became so expensive to the city, and so demoralising to the workmen, that they had to be closed. Amid the distress the extreme party had become more active and powerful, especially through its powerful organisation in the Cordeliers' Club, and in the still more famous Jacobins' Club. 1 By its hold on the Paris mob, and by its network of branches in the departments, the latter soon possessed power enough to overawe the Assembly ; and able men, being excluded by Robespierre's motion from seats in the second or Legislative Assembly, came to the " Jacobins " ; so that its debates were more business-like than those of the new legislators. Robespierre. — The favourite speaker in the Jacobins' Club was a thin, wiry little advocate, whose neatness of dress always contrasted with the slovenliness affected by other demagogues : Maximilien Robespierre, the son of a poor advocate at Arras, early showed signs of that 1 So called because it met in the church of the old Jacobins' Convent at Paris : hence the name Jacobin as applied to revolutionists. in] THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 21 austerity, perseverance, and intense belief in Rousseau's theories, by which he forced himself to the front. At Arras he had resigned his judgeship rather than condemn a criminal to death ; yet, amidst the warfare of parties at Paris, his resolve to force Rousseau's system of society on the world drew him ever farther into paths of bloodshed ; so that he now stands pilloried in history as a monster of cruelty which he never believed himself to be. In the night when the September massacres began, Robespierre said to his disciple St. Just, " I have not slept : I have watched like remorse or crime; but Danton — he has slept." Significant words of self-pity, and hatred for his daring accomplice in the massacres ! In the first Assembly his puny figure, livid complexion, and persistent self- assertion exposed him to constant ridicule ; but he had his revenge on his opponents. Vain and envious himself, he set himself to move the envy of the Paris mob against men of note — Mirabeau, Lafayette, Dumouriez, the Girondists, and finally against his powerful rival Danton. Thus the convulsions of revolution at last brought him uppermost over the corpses of rivals, whose wider sweep of talents or sympathies, had exposed them to popular suspicion. To the Paris mob he seemed the one invincible champion of the Revolution, the one trusty guide to the millennium of Rousseau. It cast him down also when it found itself to have been guided, not to a millennium, but to a massacre. Danton. — The president of the " Cordeliers," a small club of extremists, was a masterful advocate, Danton. A man of burly frame, unbridled passions, and vast energy, he could excite a mob to laughter by his coarse wit, or to frenzy by his wild harangues. It was Danton who, from a safe distance, was to excite the Parisians to the attack 22 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. on the Tuileries (August 10, 1792), to the September massacres, and to the levee en masse against the invaders. Yet after the crisis was over at the end of 1793, even Danton's ferocity, uninspired by the same rigid belief in Rousseau's system which nerved Robespierre, shrank from a continuous policy of judicial murder applied by the latter. Danton's weak side was his corruptibility ; as Lamartine says, "He only opened his mouth to have it stuffed with gold." Thus in his collision with the smaller but more compact personality of Robespierre his vaster bulk was to fall shattered. Other secondary figures are the witty journalist Camille Desmoulins in the Cordeliers ; in the Jacobins the young Louis Philippe d'Orleans, the eccentric Anarcharsis Clootz, together with Barnave and the two Lameths, who find themselves at last left high and dry as constitutionalists and royalists. Mirataeau. — Most noteworthy of all is Mirabeau, who soon began to devise great schemes for rescuing France from the approaching deadlock. He saw that the new constitution would prove unworkable with so weak an executive, and that nothing was to be hoped from a coup d'itat in favour of the quasi-democratic Duke of Orleans, whose vice and weakness were unredeemed by the king's good qualities. Early in the spring of 1 7 9 1 Mirabeau had a secret interview with the strong-willed Marie Antoinette at St. Cloud, to devise means for the king's flight to Rouen, and for raising the provinces against Paris and the Assembly. But a mortal disease saved Mirabeau from the disgrace of failing or of causing a civil war. ' ' I carry in my heart the death dirge of the French monarchy," was his proud and true prophecy on his deathbed (April 2, 1791). m] THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 23 Varennes. — On June 20, 1 791, the royal family secretly left the Tuileries in disguise to join the royalist general Bouille at Metz ; but the slow and ill-arranged flight failed, for a village postmaster, who had recognised the king through his slight disguise, galloped on to Varennes, the next halting- place, roused the National Guards, and barricaded the bridge. Surrounded by troops, the phlegmatic king and his scornful consort re-entered Paris amid gloomy and silent crowds ; for the people thought that the king meant to put himself at the head of the emigrant nobles at Coblentz and invade France. Yet even now only thirty extreme members of the Con- stituent Assembly, led by Robespierre, demanded the king's deposition ; and when in September 1 7 9 1 Louis accepted the new constitution, Lafayette, the conciliator, moved and passed an amnesty for mutual forgiveness of the faults on both sides. But the divisions were too serious to be thus patched up, and they broke out again during the distress and anarchy of the winter months. These feuds were in- flamed by Marat, a clever but crossgrained fanatic, who from his hiding-places in cellars or garrets preached to the people in his newspaper hatred of every one who was not a sans- culotte (ragamuffin). Avignon. — In the papal town and county of Avignon terrible struggles between the papal and democratic parties had not been stopped by annexation to France; and on October 16, 1791, they culminated in a frightful massacre of papal aristocrats by the democratic extremists, headed by the " brigand " Jourdan. One hundred and thirty bodies were found in the Ice Tower by the constitutional troops which marched in to restore order. In this same terrible autumn came news from San Domingo. There the new levelling theories were put into 24 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. practice by the blacks against their masters, amid massacres and savage reprisals which wrecked the prosperity of the most flourishing colony of France. The Legislative Assembly, which met in October 1 791, contained 136 revolutionists, whose fierce energy, backed up by threats from the gallery, often prevailed over the remaining 509 constitutional and royalist members. The revolutionists themselves soon split into two parties — the "Mountain" and the "Gironde." The former, so called because it occupied the top benches in the Assembly and in the Jacobins' Club, intended to enforce its extreme theories by methods no less violent ; the latter, so called because many of its leaders came from the Gironde, wished to see its more moderate counsels prevail by constitutional methods. The support of many of the moderates (called the " Plain " because they occupied the lowest benches) placed the Girondists in power. The chiefs of this enthusiastic band of young theorists were the talented journalist Brissot, the philosopher Condorcet, the eloquent Vergniaud, the popular Potion, and the austere and upright Roland, whose brave and gifted wife was their inspiring genius. In the same way Madame d,e Stael at her salon guided and en- couraged the moderates. 1 Among the two thousand decrees which the Legislative Assembly evolved in its first year, two only are noteworthy. The first confiscated the property of all emigrants without distinction ; the second declared that all nonjuring priests were suspects liable to imprisonment. These harsh measures finally became law in spite of the king's suspensive veto, 1 These two remarkable women exercised great influence even down to the Reign of Terror, when the former was guillotined, and the latter barely escaped to Switzerland. in] THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 25 and they added to the bitterness of the wealthy classes abroad, and of the clergy and orthodox Catholics at home, against the Revolution. Still more infatuated, however, were these brilliant theorists of the Gironde in their foreign policy. CHAPTER IV. CENTRAL EUROPE. The abolition of the old feudal rights of German nobles in the French districts of Alsace in 1789 had been made a matter of complaint against the French Assembly by Leopold II, who was both King of Austria and the Emperor. 1 The King of Prussia joined him in the Declaration of Pillnitz (August 1 791), threatening the French government with armed in- tervention if any violence were offered to Louis and Marie Antoinette, who was Leopold's sister. On its side the French Assembly complained of the intrigues against France of the emigrant nobles assembling at Coblentz to the number of some 3000. On the dispersal of these bands, and on the supposed withdrawal of the Pillnitz Declaration, peace seemed assured; for both Austria and Prussia had domestic difficulties, and designs on a weak eastern neigh- bour; and Leopold II, dying after a short reign, was succeeded by his son Francis II early in 1792. The Girondists, however, who at this time still held the reins of power in France, believed that a crusade against monarchy abroad was in itself a holy cause, likely also to further the Revolution at home by diverting attention from internal con- flicts of factions ; also, as their leader Brissot afterwards said, they " sought in the war an opportunity to set traps for Louis XVI, and to expose his relations with the emigrant nobles.'' 1 i.e. the elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. chap, iv] CENTRAL EUROPE. 27 A threatening despatch sent by Leopold shortly before his death gave to the Girondist ministry the desired oppor- tunity. Louis XVI was compelled to declare war against Austria, his eyes filled with tears and his voice faltering as he spoke the fatal words. He knew that during this war the revolutionists would be accounted the only patriots, and that all royalists would be branded as traitors for their supposed sympathy with the invading nobles and foreigners. At the other extreme of French thought, Robespierre and the " Mountain " opposed the war from a wise presentiment that it would end by giving France a military dictator in place of a weak nominal ruler. League against Prance. — In a short time Prussia declared war against France. Catherine, Czarina of Russia, was ready to side against the revolutionists if there were need ; and the chivalrous Gustavus of Sweden sought to league the whole continent in a crusade to rescue the fair Marie Antoinette. The King of Sardinia placed an army of observation on the south-eastern frontier of the distracted country, which was thus beset, except on the Swiss frontier, with a line of foes from the Austrian Netherlands on the north down to the Mediterranean. But the desperate energy of the French peasants in defence of their newly-won rights was destined to repel and then to crush a coalition which possessed a formidable appearance rather than real solidity. Gustavus was soon to fall by a bullet from Ankarstrom, an accomplice of the nobles whom he had dispossessed of power. Catherine of Russia wished to busy Austria and Prussia on the Rhine, so that she might be free to seize more of Poland ; and suspicions of this retarded the allied powers, who thought Poland might soon be more important for them than France. It will next be seen how the new ideas undermined the old 28 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. societies of central Europe, which were only fitted to with- stand the direct blows of warfare. The Empire. — The imposing structure of the Holy Roman Empire had long been crumbling to decay. At the end of the disastrous Thirty Years' War (1619-1648) the Empire definitely lost the two confederations of Switzer- land, and the United Provinces, or Netherlands ; and, beside other concessions to its own component States and free cities, it gave up the right to control their foreign policy. Henceforth its great council, the Diet, by its slow and pompous trifling mismanaged the little power left to it. The "Emperor" (for up to 1804 this title was always limited to the modern representative of the Caesars) was still elected, but the reigning monarch of the House of Haps- burg was always chosen. The medley of States, which in 1792 was still dignified by the historic name of the "Em- pire," consisted. of electorates, principalities, bishoprics, free cities, and a crowd of petty States hardly larger than a manorial estate. It has been well described as a "chaos upheld by Providence." Neither were the individual States the seats of vigorous local life; for though in Bavaria, Baden, and in some of the Protestant States of North Ger- many, reforms had been initiated, yet the States as a whole were sunk in the torpor of the Middle Ages ; and in the bishoprics of the rich Rhineland, " out of every thousand inhabitants, on the average fifty were priests or monks, and 260 were beggars." Thus the weakest and most divided part of Germany was the first to bear the brunt of French invasion ; while the real defence of the Empire lay with its two chief component states, Austria and Prussia, the main terri- tories of which were 200 and 300 miles away from those of France. iv] CENTRAL EUROPE. 29 Austria consisted of a collection of peoples and dis- tricts which, by hereditary succession, contracts of marriage, peaceful election, or conquest, had come under the sceptre of the House of Hapsburg. This may be shown most clearly by a table : — , ( Bequeathed in fief by the Emperor Austria proper, Styria, and ^ , ,, . , . ' , „ c „ r t- > 1 Rudolf to his sons the Counts Carniola . . . , TT , V of Hapsburg, 1279. Carinthia, Tyrol . . . ( Be 1 ueathed to the Hapsburgs, I J33S. l Z 6 9- Bohemia . . . Election, 1526. Hungary and its Crown lands — 1 Croatia, Sclavonia, and > Election, 1526. Dalmatia . . . ) Spanish Netherlands and Na- 1 _ ples, Milan, and Kingdom of peaty of Rastatt after War of Sardinia . " ) S P anish Succession, 1714. East Galicia . . . First partition of Poland, 1772. West Galicia . . Third partition of Poland, 1795. In these dominions no less than eleven distinct languages were spoken, without reckoning dialects. When most of these districts accepted the rule of the Hapsburgs they still retained their local rights, customs, and laws. Consequently this unwieldy group of States could not withstand the im- pact of the smaller but highly-organised power of Prussia when wielded by Frederick the Great. Taught by the mis- fortunes of the Seven Years' War (175 6-1 763), the great queen Maria Theresa did much' towards centralising the government at Vienna ; she also abridged the privileges of the nobles and clergy, abolished the Inquisition, reformed the monastic system, and relieved the peasants from many feudal burdens and from the rigour of the game laws ; but her reforms were too gradual to satisfy her generous but impetuous son Joseph. 30 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Joseph II (1780-1790). — Animated by the philo- sophic reforming spirit of the eighteenth century, this royal Rousseau desired to sweep away all distinctions of provin- cial laws and customs, so that his motley dominions should form one vast family. He abolished all provincial govern- ments, so as to concentrate all power in his own hands at Vienna. In Hungary and its crown lands, which formed half of his dominions, he alienated the dominant Magyar race by enforcing the use of German as the official language, and by removing the sacred crown of St. Stephen from Presburg to Vienna. This centralising policy was accom- panied by rash but well-meaning reforms. Thus Joseph . II did away with all monasteries, all feudal vassalage, tithes, and forced labour, without compensation ; on the other hand, his pedantry descended to such petty tyranny as the regulation of funerals, and the repetition by children at school of a new political catechism. These changes pleased no one; his reforms enraged the nobles and clergy, while his centralising decrees and other hasty changes aroused successful armed resistance in Hun- gary and in the Austrian Netherlands. The rash but well- meaning monarch was in the end compelled to undo all his work — good and bad alike ; but this victory for provincial rights was also a victory for the privileged classes, who regained most of their feudal rights over the now discon- tented peasants. His failures as a legislator, and also as a general in the Turkish war, so preyed on the monarch's mind that he died (1790) lamenting that "all his under- takings had miscarried." Leopold II (1 790-1 792), his brother, found half of his dominions in revolt. The Netherlanders had expelled Austrian troops from all the Austrian Netherlands except Luxemburg ; but Leopold's tact and his understanding with iv] CENTRAL EUROPE. 31 Prussia caused the withdrawal of Prussian support from the insurgents ; and the Austrian troops regained a temporary hold on those distant and dissatisfied provinces. Leopold's conciliatory policy helped to allay the ferment in his Austrian and Hungarian dominions ; but for all government purposes they were as weak and disunited as in the days of Maria Theresa. Jealousy between Austria and Prussia was still the dominant force in central Europe. Each power feared to see the other extend its influence in the Netherlands or in Poland ; and only the cause of monarchy against revolu- tion brought the two monarchs Leopold II and Frederick William II to a temporary accord at Pillnitz. Francis (1 792-1835). — Leopold's sudden death early in 1792 brought his son Francis II to the hereditary throne of Austria and to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, which was, in name, still elective. With a change of title made in 1804, as Francis I, Hereditary Emperor of Austria, he was to see his realm three times crushed by Napoleon, but reinstated in its old power long before his death in 1835- Prussia. — The sudden rise of Prussia to the rank of a great power had been due to the unconquerable energy with which Frederick the Great had wielded the resources of his small kingdom during the Seven Years' War (1756- 1763). Aided by the intermittent support of England, Frederick had defied the might of Austria, France, and Russia, and retained the valuable province of Silesia, which he had unjustly seized. Until his death (1786) he laboured to develop the resources of his kingdom by encouraging trade and agriculture, and by the construction of roads, canals, and harbours. By the acquisition of Silesia, part of Poland, and East Frisia on the North Sea, Frederick left to 32 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, chap. his successor a kingdom of about 4,000,000 inhabitants, and a redoubtable army of 200,000 men. The rigours of the feudal system, however, remained unchecked ; nobles, citizens, and peasants were still separated in three distinct classes ; and Frederick's partiality for French literature blinded him to the progress of his own citizens in " enlight- enment," which was due to the revival of German literature under Lessing ; so he still excluded the burgher class from all offices in the army and administration. Frederick's patronage of Voltaire, as court wit and favourite at Berlin, set the rage for the new French ideas all through Prussia and Germany : they were almost as destructive of the old reverence and morality as they had been in France. The secret society of the Illuminati (the " enlightened ") was founded in Bavaria in 1776; and under the name of the German Union spread the new atheistic and revolutionary doctrines through the corrupt societies, of the Rhineland bishoprics. The death of the great Fred- erick in 1786 was another misfortune for Prussia, in bringing to the throne his weak and luxurious nephew. Frederick William II (1 786-1 797) soon squandered on unworthy favourites the treasure which his frugal uncle had collected for the needs of the State; and the same autocratic system which had been so powerful under Fred- erick the Great was now a source of weakness in the nerve- less hands of his nephew : the best administration in Europe suddenly sank into one of the worst : State documents lay scattered about the royal apartments, to which favourites of both sexes had free ingress. Mirabeau, who was then French agent at the Berlin court, thus describes it : "A decreased revenue, increased expenditure, genius neglected, fools at the helm — never was any State nearer ruin." The forms of the old vigorous system survived the reality : the iv] CENTRAL EUROPE. 33 severe drill and frequent use of the cane by officers took the heart out of soldiers who had shown their heroism on many a battlefield of Silesia and Saxony. Still the weakness of all its neighbours made the Prussian State seem powerful by comparison, and the distracted state of the Dutch Netherlands, or United Provinces, seemed to offer an easy field of triumph to the ambitious Frederick William II. The Dutch Netherlands. — In the war with England (17 80-1 783) the Dutch colonies and foreign commerce had suffered severely ; and William V, the young stadholder, or hereditary president of the United Provinces, increased the public confusion by open attempts to gain monarchical power. His party was upheld by England and Prussia ; consequently the Dutch democrats were aided by the French court. At last in 1786 the burghers proclaimed his depo- sition, and he at once appealed to his brother-in-law the Prussian king. The Duke of Brunswick at the head of Prussian troops easily overcame all opposition : the Orange, or stadholder's, party triumphed, and many Dutch demo- crats sought refuge in France, soon to return in the triumph- ant invasion of the French revolutionists (1795). The independent bishopric of Liege, which then sepa- rated the two parts of the Austrian Netherlands, was also the scene of a civic revolt against the oppressive rule of the bishop (1789) : it too was occupied by Prussian troops until an agreement was made with Austria. Thus all over central Europe there was social and poli- tical unrest, which was soon increased by the declaration of the " Rights of Man," and the resolution of the French Assembly — " Peace to peoples : war against governments." CHAPTER V. FRANCE TRIUMPH OF THE REVOLUTIONISTS. The weak and distracted state of the Austrian Netherlands seemed to invite a French attack on their unprotected frontier ; but two columns of young French levies were seized by a blind panic, retreated from their posts, and hanged their commander. The Austrians, however, were not sure enough of their hold on these provinces to take a bold offensive, and it was the end of June 1792 before the Duke of Brunswick advanced with the Prussian forces against the eastern frontier of France. The King of Prussia drew up an insolent manifesto, which Brunswick against his own better judgment issued, stating that, unless the French reinstated Louis in all his rights, Paris would be subjected to martial law. This manifesto, which played into the hands of the Paris revolutionists, was only equalled in folly by the slowness of Brunswick's move- ments. Instead of concerting with the Austrians two rushes on Paris, he proceeded with methodical slowness, while the devastations of the emigrant nobles in his ranks nerved all Frenchmen to a desperate resistance. Meanwhile the fruits of this policy of loitering and braggadocio were but too evident in Paris. Even before the manifesto roused the revolutionists to fury, the danger to the country had caused a fresh revolutionary outburst. chap, v] TRIUMPH OF THE REVOLUTIONISTS. 35 Popular demonstrations had been made against the exercise of the royal veto on two decrees, for banishing nonjuring priests and for forming a camp of 20,000 pikemen near Paris. These riots culminated on June 20, 1792, the anniversary of the Tennis Court oath, when a violent crowd burst into the Tuileries and for four hours thronged around the defenceless monarch demanding the withdrawal of his veto. " This is neither the time nor the place,'' calmly replied Louis ; " I will do what the constitution requires." Baffled by his quiet dignity, the rabble was at last persuaded by the Mayor Potion to depart. Lafayette, indignant at this outrage, came from his command on the Flemish frontier to attempt to crush anarchy at its source, the Jacobins' Club ; but the petty spite of the court against him, and the cowardice of the orderly citizens, left him without support, and he only lost influence by the attempt. The extremists were further encouraged by the arrival of 500 Marseillais, w.ho, as they marched through France " to strike down the tyrant," sang the new national hymn, thence called the "Marseillaise." 1 Fall of the Monarchy. — A new terrible revolutionary power had just sprung full- armed into existence. The "Commune," claiming to represent the "sections" of Paris, and supported by armed ruffians, ousted the lawful municipality (August 9), and organised an attack on the Tuileries. Headed by the Marseillais, vast crowds of armed men surrounded the palace to the sound of the tocsin on the night before the 10th of August 1792 ; and soon after dawn of that fatal day, Louis found that he had only some 900 Swiss and a few National Guards on whom 1 Composed by Rouget de Lisle, a. French officer, who was afterwards imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, and only saved by the Thermidorian reaction. 36 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. he could rely ; for Mandat, their popular royalist com- mander, had been decoyed away and murdered by the Commune at the Hotel de Ville. Ever loth to shed French blood, Louis quietly refused the pistols which his proud and warlike consort handed to him, and decided to entrust himself and his family to the protection of the National Assembly. They reached its shelter in safety ; but two shots fired, probably by the mob, after their departure opened a desperate conflict at the Tuileries with the Swiss, who had not been told to leave their posts : these devoted troops stood their ground and even captured cannons turned on them by the National Guards. In vain the king sent word that they should cease firing ; for at last the infuriated mob cut down those who remained in the palace, not sparing even the unarmed servants. A mere handful of the hated Swiss reached the shelter of the Assembly. Only three years before Louis had used these troops to overawe the Assembly at Versailles. During a long and exciting sitting, the royal family listened to discussions which ended by decreeing the temporary deposition of the king for his own safety ; but this did not satisfy the victorious Commune, led by the violent Danton and the miscreant Marat. It compelled the Legislative Assembly to "reconstitute" itself by purging away all royalist and moderate members ; it now called itself the National Convention. A revolutionary ministry, with Danton as its minister of Justice, ousted the legally constituted powers : lastly the Commune ordered that the king should be confined in the " Temple " prison " for his own security." Bad news from all sides poured in on distracted Paris : that Lafayette, refusing to acknowledge the new revolu- tionary powers, had fled across the Flemish frontier ; that v] TRIUMPH OF THE REVOLUTIONISTS. 37 the Prussians had taken Longwy (August 24) and Verdun (September 1) ; that the Austrians were besieging Thion- ville ; while from the west came tidings that the peasants of La Vendee were rising in arms for king and religion. The September Massacres. — In these straits Danton thrilled the Convention by his masterful words, " We must dare, dare, always dare " ; and the desperadoes of the Commune listened to his dark threats, "We must strike terror into the royalists.'' The prisons of Paris were suddenly filled with royalist suspects ; and a band of hired ruffians, after a brief form of trial, slaughtered every one who was not proved to be favourable to the revolution. In this systematic three days' massacre, between 3000 and 5000 suspects perished by the pike (September 2, 3, 4, 1792); and it has been proved that Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and the committee of the Commune organised this horrible deed. The pay given to the gang of murderers still stands in the Paris archives as expenses " for rendering the prisons more salubrious." Valmy (September 20, 1792).; — France was not saved by these murderers, but by the valour of her troops, and the skill of Dumouriez, the successor of Lafayette. The Prussians were slowly advancing towards the hilly, wooded country on the upper course of the Aisne in Champagne, a few miles south of Varennes, so fatal to the royalists. Dumouriez and Kellermann drew up their young troops, who had lately shown signs of panic and mutiny, on the commanding heights of Valmy. In the mists of a September morning the Prussians opened the attack with a heavy cannonade. The French, animated by their generals, stubbornly held their ground ; and when the Prussian columns, led by their king, advanced up the 38 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap, v heights, they were met by a great shout of "Vive la nation," and by deadly volleys which threw them back. The Prussians were drawn off by the cautious Duke of Brunswick, and France was saved. The. allies had been suffering from sickness during the early autumn rains, and in a few days they all retreated beyond the French frontiers. Brunswick thought that a temporary retreat might save Louis's life at Paris ; but Valmy cowed the Prussian soldiery just as much as it inspirited the French recruits. This effect was doubled when the daring French General Custine penetrated as far as Mainz on the Rhine, where the populace welcomed him, and even to the rich city of Frankfurt-on-the-Main (October 1792). "Valmy influenced the course of history far more than many vaster conflicts. For on the Flemish frontier at Jemappes (November 6, 1792) Dumouriez led his inspirited troops, chanting the Marseillaise, to a brilliant victory, in spite of terrible charges of the Austrian cavalry. Mons, Brussels, and Antwerp fell before the French, everywhere welcomed as deliverers from the Austrian yoke. CHAPTER VI. THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC. All Europe expected that two disciplined armies would scatter to the winds the disorderly bands of revolutionists. Valmy and Jemappes made heroes of the young French conscripts, and convinced the courts of Vienna and Berlin that Poland would be a more profitable field for their intervention. The revolutionists had also triumphed in the south-east ; the army of the King of Sardinia was easily put to flight, and the people of Savoy, French in language and sympathy, desired to join the new French republic. But just as the brilliant successes of the French troops led them too far afield, and exposed them to imminent danger from a vigorous attack, so in Paris the overweening confidence which succeeded the panic of September led the revolutionists on to further deeds of folly and violence. The cannons which proclaimed at Paris the victory of Valmy celebrated also the first meeting of the Conven- tion and the establishment of the republic (September 21, 1792). It then divided itself into executive committees charged with the administration of war, finance, internal affairs, etc. 1 1 In order to break with the past, the Convention adopted a new calendar, so that the declaration of the republic on the autumnal equinox 40 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. At first the Girondists gained the chief power in the committees. Most of these men had desired a moderate Republic, and despite the September massacres they believed that the revolution was now finished. Their speeches were full of references to ancient Greece and Rome ; and both they and the moderate men of the " Plain," relying on the support of the departments, were swept along by the tide of revolution. The men of the " Mountain," relying on the support of the Jacobins' Club and of the Paris mob, soon overpowered the Girondists and the "Plain"; these last soon helplessly followed rather than guided the course of events ; while the men of the " Mountain " determined to put into practice all the principles of Rousseau with a violence which made their downfall only a question of time. The Girondists hastened to accuse Robespierre of aiming at a dictatorship ; and after this failed the " Moun- tain " charged the Girondists with seeking to split up France into federal republics ; finally they sought to entrap these generous men by proposing the death of Louis as necessary for the safety of the republic. Execution of Louis XVI. — The Girondists were in of 1792 might date as the beginning of year 1 of the new era. The year was to be divided into twelve equal months, beginning from September 21, 1792, each month into three decades or periods of ten days called primidi, duodi, tridi, etc. The remaining five of the 365^ days were to be festivals called " Sansculottides " (September 17-21), with an extra one each leap year. The months were called after the season of the year: — Vendemiaire (September 22 -October 21), Brumaire, and Frimaire ; Nivose (December 22 -January 21), Pluviose, and Ventose • Germinal" (March 20-April 19), Floreal, and Prairial ; Messidor (June 19-July 18), Thermidor, and Fructidor (August 18-September 16). This calendar was discarded on January ±, 1806 ; but the metrical and decimal systems of measures and weights adopted by the revolution are still in general use over central Europe. vi] THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC. 41 favour of mercy, and sought to gain time by proposing an appeal to the nation on this trial ; but when they had to vote before a hostile crowd they too voted for death. Even Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who had taken his seat in the Convention under the name of Philippe Egalit6, voted for the death of his royal relative — to the horror of all the deputies. The decree for the execution was carried by a large majority. On the same day Louis took an affecting farewell of his wife and children ; and on the morrow (January 21, 1793), after sleeping peacefully in the Temple prison, he was conveyed to the guillotine in the executioner's cart through streets lined with troops. On the scaffold he began to say to the crowds, " I pray Heaven that the blood you are going to shed may not be on the head of France ; " but the drummers drowned his words, and the fall of the knife ended his well-meaning but unhappy career. His execution was a crime and a blunder of the first magnitude — a crime, because he had many times sacrificed his own chances of safety rather than employ force against his enemies ; a blunder, because it at once leagued all the undecided powers against France, and added fuel to the flames of internal revolt. In fact, the Convention hence- forth represented, not France, but only the extreme revolutionists of Paris ; but their activity and their possession of power overawed the departments. Many of these were ready to rise against the regicides at Paris, but only La Vendee and the Gironde were wholly united against them ; for in most towns, as at Marseilles and Lyons, the rabble had overpowered the bourgeoisie and had the control of the National Guard in its own hands ; and the south of France had been distracted by religious feuds, which caused much bloodshed. These divisions 42 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. enabled the revolutionists in Paris to take a bold tone, and by an aggressive foreign policy to identify themselves with the name and honour of France, so that all royalists were made to seem traitors to their country. Danton carried the Convention with him by his daring words, " Hurl down to the kings the head of a king as gage of battle." The First Coalition. — Many Englishmen had viewed with delight the fall of the Bastille and the setting up of a constitutional monarchy in France ; but the subse- quent atrocities excited as lively an indignation, which Burke stimulated by his eloquence. The British Govern- ment, under the lead of Pitt, up to the end of 1792 desired to preserve a neutral policy ; but in November and December 1792 the French Convention passed two aggressive decrees, the first throwing open the navigation of the Scheldt up to Antwerp, though the Dutch had been, with our guarantee, constituted guardians of it ; and the second declaring that France would aid all peoples which desired to overthrow their governments. These aggressive movements at last forced Pitt from his policy of neutrality. The news of the execution of Louis XVI still further enraged the British people ; while the French Jacobins thought they had the sympathies of the English, and only had to overthrow the English Government. In fact, the revolutionists had been intoxicated by their easy victories in the last autumn ; and now the Convention madly declared war against Great Britain (February 1, I 793)> against Holland and Spain (March 9), and re- ceived the declaration of war from the Empire (March 2 2). Thus the headlong folly of the Convention brought France into collision with nearly all Europe at a time when the execution of the king had excited to revolt all vi] THE FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC. 43 the districts between the Gironde and the English Channel. The peasants in those remote districts, especially in La Vendee, loved their lords and their priests, who lived among them in a simple patriarchal life ; and when their sons began to be drafted off to fight for the hated revolution, they took up arms against it. Bordeaux and Caen offered an ineffectual resistance to the Paris govern- ment ; but the peasants of La Vendee routed army after army sent against them in their densely-wooded country. Defection of Dumouriez. — Matters went no better on the frontier. The successes of the French arms, especially the raid on Frankfort, had spurred on the Austrians and Prussians to new efforts. The loss of the battle of Neerwinden (March 19, 1793) obliged Dumouriez to evacuate Belgium. This talented general, who had hitherto occupied a position midway between the Girondists and the " Mountain " in French politics, now hated the Convention as much as he was suspected by it, and arrested the commissioners sent from Paris to depose him. Failing, however, to excite his troops against the Convention, he fled to the Austrians, followed by the young Philippe of Orleans, afterwards King Louis Philippe (April 3, 1792). This defection of Dumouriez still further discredited the Girondists, formerly his friends. In Germany the small French force under Custine had been driven from Frankfort by German troops, and part of his army was soon invested in Mainz (Mayence) by Prussian forces ; after an heroic resistance of four months by Kldber, the French were allowed to march out with the honours of war on condition that they should not serve for one year against any army of the Coalition. They were, however, of almost equal use inside France in helping to stem the Vendeun insurrection. CHAPTER VII. THE REIGN OF TERROR. " . . . the fierce and drunken passions wove A dance more wild than e'er was maniac's dream." Coleridge. At this time the military position of France seemed desperate. The fortress of Valenciennes had to surrender to the Austrians after a terrible bombardment, July 28, 1793; and the English forces under the Duke of York besieged Dunkirk. France was only saved from successful invasion by the incompetence of the Austrian and English commanders, and by the departure from Mainz of most of the Prussian troops for Poland to put down the rising of Kosciusko. In the interior the Vendeans were triumphant, and Lyons was successfully resisting the domination of Paris; in the south the royalists of Toulon had put that stronghold into the hands of the English (August 20) ; but each dis- aster only spurred on the extremists of the " Mountain " at Paris to more desperate energy. Fall of the Girondists. — On the 2nd of June 1793 the men of the " Mountain " had crushed their Girondist opponents in the Convention. Twenty thousand armed men, raised by the Jacobin " sections " of Paris, surrounded the Convention and forced the deputies to proscribe twenty- two Girondists who had sought the overthrow of Marat and the Commune. After this victory of the Paris rabble over chap, vn] THE REIGN OF TERROR. 45 the national representatives, power passed from the coerced and mutilated Convention to nine members, who formed the Committee of Public Safety. The signature of three members rendered a decree of this committee valid. Such was the terrible instrument which replaced the unfortunate government of the Girondists. Their comrades fled to raise the departments against this new central despotism ; but at Caen the rising was easily crushed, and the only practical outcome of their effort was that a young girl named Charlotte Corday, of twenty-four years of age, set out for Paris with a secret resolve to stab the bloodthirsty Marat. She forced her way to his room and stabbed him in his bath (July 13, 1793). "I have killed one man to save a hundred thousand " was her only defence, and she calmly perished by the guillotine. This act was fatal to the Girondist leaders. They fled through Brittany, and then to the Gironde, where they were hunted down one after another during the Reign of Terror, which lasted from Sep- tember 1793 to July 1794. In the Convention it was resolved that " Terror shall be the order of the day"; a " levee en masse" provided more than 1,000,000 soldiers; forced loans, and confiscations of property of all suspects, and fresh issue of assignats furnished money for the State, which further decreed a maximum price for all kinds of wares (September to October 1793). Turning against the royalist suspects, the Committee of Public Safety first struck down the widowed Marie Antoinette. The common cart of the executioner con- veyed her amid the insults of the Paris populace; but her eyes sought only for the disguised figure of an orthodox priest, who from an upper window was secretly to give her his blessing. On the scaffold, gazing at the 46 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. towers of the Temple prison, she said, "Adieu, my child- ren ; I go to rejoin your father." Thus her queenly dignity triumphed over all attempts to degrade her 1 (October 16, 1793). The ex-queen was soon followed to the guillotine by the enthusiastic republican Madame Roland, who exclaimed as she looked at the statue of Liberty near by, " O Liberty, what things are done in thy name !" Next the laws were violated in order to hurry to death the surviving twenty-two Girondists remaining in Paris ; on the scaffold they sang the " Marseillaise " 2 till their voices were, one after the other, silenced by the fall of the knife. The Duke of Orleans, though an avowed republican, did not escape the fate which he had voted for his cousin the king. Still more bloody were the deeds of the com- mittee in the provinces. Lyons, held by the moderates and royalists, was re-taken by the extremists, who shot down the garrison in batches and re-named the town " Commune Affranchi " (Freetown). In the west the Vendeans were gradually beaten down after desperate fighting ; and platoon firings and drownings went on at Nantes in December 1793, ■ until the victors themselves were sick of the work of loath- some revenge. On the south coast a young artillery lieu- tenant, Napoleon Bonaparte, by retaking a fort rendered the town and harbour of Toulon untenable ; so Howe, taking with him some royalists, had to abandon Toulon to the vengeance of the extremists. 1 In the records of the Madeleine is this entry, "Seven francs for the coffin of Widow Capet." 2 They laid stress on the words — ' ' Contre nous de la tyrannie L'£tendard sanglant est leve\ The composer of the words and music of the Marseillaise, Rouget de Lisle, was a prisoner at this time, and only saved by Robespierre's fall. vii ] THE REIGN OF TERROR. 47 Repulse of the Invaders. — Commissioners from Paris accompanied every French general with a guillotine, and death was the penalty for failure, or, as in Custine's case, for retreat. Indeed General Houchard, who by his success at Hondschoote obliged the Duke of York to raise the siege of Dunkirk, was guillotined for not pushing his advantage to the utmost. This frightful rule, which at any rate ensured the survival of the fittest, soon brought to the front vigorous young generals like Jourdan, who on the north hurled back the Austrian invaders at Wattignies (October 16, 1793); also Pichegru and Hoche, who on Christmas Day of 1793 stormed the oft-contested lines of Weissenburg in Alsace, and drove back Austrians and Prussians to the Rhine. In the south Kellermann easily overran Savoy, whose inhabitants, French by race, again welcomed the republicans. With the exception of failure in the Pyrenees against the Spaniards, the year 1793 closed with victory everywhere for the Convention. The first part of the revolutionary wars had now closed with victory for the French arms after the series of reverses in the spring of. 1793 and 1794 respect- ively; the battles in the autumn of 1793 and 1794 had in each case more than made up for the earlier failures. Pall of the He"bertists and Dantonists. — In the year 1794 the calculating Robespierre was able to triumph over his remaining rivals the H^bertists and the Dantonists. The former were the atheistic party led by Hubert, who had for a time succeeded in suppressing religious worship. Bishops and priests had been deposed, churches pillaged, the sacred vessels melted down into money, and the church bells into cannon. The worship of Reason had been inaugurated on December 20, 1793, by an actress, who in the cathedral of Notre Dame ignited a huge torch symbolic of the light of philosophy. In the orgies which followed the 48 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. bodies of kings and heroes of France were torn up from their sepulchres at St. Denis, and cast into a common pit. From this depth of obscenity the philosophic Robespierre was determined to rescue the republic. He charged Hebert and his followers with seeking to degrade the republic, and hurried this obscene and delirious set of men to the guillo- tine (March 24, 1794). Next he turned against Danton and his followers, who were by this time counted moderate men for wishing to send to the guillotine only those who had been clearly proved guilty. " You condemn to death your own enemies," said Danton. "No," replied Robes- pierre, " and the proof is that you still live." A meeting of the two secret committees gave effect to Robespierre's enmity ; and Danton, who twenty months before had over- thrown Louis XVI in the Tuileries, now saw himself aban- doned by the Paris populace. With him fell Westermann, who had led the mob to storm the Tuileries, and the witty journalist Camille Desmoulins, whose devoted wife soon followed him to the guillotine on the charge of trying to rescue her husband. Robespierre now wielded dictatorial power without a rival. A convinced follower of Rousseau's theories, he decreed the worship of the Supreme Being, which he, as high priest, inaugurated by a public festival in the Tuileries garden (June 8, 1794). In spite of this he demanded greater rigour against suspects ; they were accused at ten in the morning, sentenced at two, executed at four. Death of Robespierre. — But the Parisian mob was growing tired of bloodshed, and also alarmed, for no one felt safe, however poor. So the remaining members of the Convention, emboldened by their fears, at last combined to shout down the dictator ; he and twenty -one of his devotees were hurried to the guillotine amidst general vn] THE REIGN OF TERROR. 49 rejoicings. Thus fell the inflexible tyrant of the revolution, who, with the pitilessness of a fanatic, had waded through seas of blood to attain "the republic one and indivisible '' (July 28 [10th Thermidor], 1794). This " Thermidorian " reaction further suppressed the terrible Commune of Paris, the two secret committees, and the Jacobins' Club, so that power was now resumed by the Convention. CHAPTER VIII. SUCCESSES OF THE CONVENTION. The massacres of September 1792 have often been excused on the ground of the frenzy of terror caused by the invasion of foreigners and emigrant nobles, and by the Vend6an rebellion ; but no such excuse can be urged for the con- tinuance of the Reign of Terror into 1 7 94, for the successes of the French arms everywhere in 1793 were followed up, with but few checks, in 1 7 94. Pichegru routed British and Austrians at Tournay, May 22, and Jourdan gained over the latter the great victory of Fleurus, June 26, 1794, which laid Belgium a second time at the feet of the French. On the Alsatian frontier the French arms, after a check at Kaiserslautern in May, were successful at the same place in July; and in October 1794 three victorious French armies had occupied all Austrian, Prussian, and German lands up to the bank of the Rhine. In the south the republicans had at last driven the Spaniards back as far as the Ebro, so that Spain, joining in the Peace of Basle, ceded San Domingo, 1 and soon became the ally of the republic. On the sea alone were the French unsuccessful in an important engagement with Lord Howe (June i, 1794); but on the Alpine frontier the Committee of Public Safety so far forgot its title as to plan the invasion of Italy. These successes on land were continued in 1795. Pichegru having in the pre- 1 Part of this large island had been under Spanish rule. chap, vni] SUCCESSES OF THE CONVENTION. 51 ceding autumn reduced the strongholds of Holland in face of the inefficient Duke of York, rapidly overran the whole country during the severe frost of January 1795 ; and the Dutch fleet was seized at its anchorage off the Helder by a squadron of French cavalry. The stadholder fled to England, and Holland was declared a republic allied to France. 1 The spoils of Belgium and of the Rhine provinces fur- nished treasure to the French Republic, which was soon lured away from its early determination not to annex territory; but a far worse example of territorial greed had been set in Eastern Europe, which directly contributed to the Peace of Basle. Partitions of Poland. — The Czarina Catherine had no sooner seen Prussia and Austria occupied with the French war than she undermined the new constitution of Poland, and made her influence paramount in that unhappy state. In this predicament Frederick William II, perfidiously abandoning the Polish constitution and alliance, secretly joined Catherine in a second partition of Poland (1793), behind the back of the new Austrian monarch Francis II. Russia absorbed Lithuania, Podolia, and the Ukraine, while Prussia gained Posen, Thorn, and the long-coveted port of Danzig. Disgusted at her exclusion from the spoliation, Austria intrigued secretly with Russia for a third partition of the remains of Poland. The Prussian king, suspecting this, hastened to make peace with France (Treaty of Basle, 1795), so that he might have his hands free for more profitable designs on his eastern neighbour. The Polish patriot Kosciusko had made a last desperate stand for liberty near Warsaw ; but the capital was stormed and sacked by the brutal Russian general Suwarroff, who 1 This alliance was followed by the ultimate loss of Ceylon, Cape Colony, and Demerara to the British Empire, which was then growing also by the gradual settlement of New South Wales. 52 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. put 18,000 of the inhabitants to the sword. Russia gained all Poland up to the banks of the Niemen and the Bug ; Austria received West Galicia, while Prussia acquired New East Prussia and Warsaw. This was a profitable bargain for Frederick William II ; for by abandoning his Austrian allies in the French war, in the Treaty of Basle (April 5, 1795) he had ceded to France the small and scattered portions of Prussia on . the left (west) bank of the Rhine, and allowed France to occupy the German States west of the Rhine, while he himself gained land about equal in extent to the modern province of Poland. Close of the French Convention. — In Paris the extreme party made a last desperate effort to excite the sansculottes of the suburb St. Antoine against the Con- vention ; and for hours they thronged and menaced the deputies, until about midnight the troops of the moderate " sections " (quarters) of Paris drove out the rioters (May 20, 1795). After this triumph of order the law against suspects was repealed, the Revolutionary Tribunal sup- pressed, and the name of the Place de la Revolution changed to Place de la Concorde. In the departments the terrorism of the Jacobins had only gained a brief triumph over the majority ; and now at Toulon, Marseilles, and elsewhere, many terrorists met their just fate. The Convention was equally successful against a last royalist attempt on the coast of Brittany. After the fall of Robespierre the valiant young general Hoche, who had been imprisoned by the jealous dictator, was sent to pacify La Vendee and Brittany. In July 1795 a British fleet brought 1500 emigrant nobles to raise the country against the republic ; but the skilful • Hoche blocked them in the small peninsula of Quiberon, and half of them were shot down when captured. vni] SUCCESSES OF THE CONVENTION. 53 The Convention now sought to terminate its labours but perpetuate their results. Accordingly it annulled the democratic constitution of 1793, and entrusted the executive power to a Directory of five members, of whom the best known were Barras and Carnot, who "organised victory" for the armies of 1793. It further entrusted legislative powers to two councils, one of 500 members to propose laws, and the other of 250 older members to examine and pass them ; and it decreed that two-thirds of these councils must be members of the Convention. This last clause aroused the opposition of royalists and Jacobins alike — in fact, of all who hoped to seize the reins of government." The Convention was, on October 5, 1795, menaced by 40,000 men from the sections of Paris ; but the young Bonaparte, who was charged with the defence of the Convention by Barras, swept the approaches to the Tuileries with volleys of grape-shot from the cannons which he skilfully placed there. The speedy dispersal of these malcontents marks the close of the period of street fights. The volcanic forces had exhausted them- selves, and the material thrown up to the surface was being gradually clothed with verdure. The vast majority of Parisians wished for peace and quietness, and the million or thereabouts of new peasant proprietors soon gave to France that stability which she has since enjoyed in spite of Paris revolutions. Thus on October 26, 1795, the Con- vention was able quietly to dissolve itself, and hand on the executive powers to the Directory. Legislation of the Convention. — Amidst all the turmoil of civil and foreign wars the Convention had found time to introduce the famous metric system of weights and measures, which is now used by so many countries on the continent, to organise a system of national education, to 54 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. consolidate the public debt, and to prepare the Civil Code : this, among other things, decreed that heirs must share equally the property left to them — a law which has aided the distribution of wealth, but checked the growth of population, in France. PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTION May 5- June 17 ,, 20. " 23- , , 27. July 11. .. 14. Aug. 4- ,, 12. Oct. 1789. Assembly of States- General. Called National As- sembly. Oath of the Tennis Court. Royal sitting : Mirabeau's defiance. Fusion in one Chamber. Dismissal of Necker. Capture of Bastille. Feudal privileges abolished. Declaration of the Rights of Man. Insurrection of women. King and Assembly come to Paris. 1790. Jan. 15. France divided into De- partments. March. Judicial and commercial reforms. July 12. Civil constitution of the clergy. , , 14. Feast of Pikes. Aug. 31. Fighting at Nancy. Sept. Anarchy. , , Flight of Necker. 1791. April is. Death of Mirabeau. June 20. Flight to Varennes. July 17. Martial law enforced by Lafayette. Aug. 27. Declaration of Pillnitz. Sept. 14. Louis accepts new Con- stitution. ,, 30. Close of the Constituent Assembly. Oct. 1. Legislative Assembly meets. ,, Massacres at Avignon. 1792. Feb. Terror in rural districts. , , Camp at Jales. League against France. March. Girondist Ministry. April 20. France declares war on Austria. June 20. First invasion of Tuileries. July 26. Manifesto of Duke of Brunswick. , , 29. Marseillais arrive in Paris. Aug. 9. Commune ousts Munici- pality. ,, 10. Massacre of Swiss. VIIl] SUCCESSES OF THE CONVENTION. 55 1792 {continued), Aug. 10. Fall of the Monarchy. ,, 23. Prussians take Longwy. Sept. 2-6. Massacres in prisons of Paris. 20. Valmy. ,, 21. Opening of Convention, and Republic pro- claimed. Nov. 6. Victory of Jemappes. Dec. Trial of Louis XVI. 1793* Jan, 21. Death of Louis XVI. Feb. First Coalition against France. March. Vendean rising. ,, 19. Defeat of Neerwinden. April 3. Desertion of Dumouriez. June \*. The twenty-two Girondists arrested. July 13. Assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday. ,, 26. Surrender of Valenciennes. , , Toulon delivered to the English. Oct. Reign of Terror begins. ,, 9. Lyons captured by Jaco- bins. ,, 16. Victory of Wattignies, an d death of Marie Antoinette. 1793 [continued), Oct. 31. Death of the twenty-two Girondists. Nov. 10. Goddess of Reason. Dec. 19. Toulon retaken. , , Defeats of the Vend£ans : massacres at Nantes. , , 25. Victory of Weissenburg. 1794. March 24. Execution of theHe'bertists. April 5. , , of the Dantonists. June 10. Terror increases in Paris. , , 26. Victory of Fleurus. July 28. Execution of Robespierre (Thermidorian reaction). Oct. 6. French enter Cologne. Dec. Conquest of Holland by Pichegru. 1795- April 5. Peace of Basle. May 20. Jacobin rising crushed (1st Prairial). July 20. Royalists crushed at Qui- beron. Oct. 5. Malcontents scattered by Bonaparte. ,, 26. Convention -hands on its powers to Directory. CHAPTER IX. WARS OF THE DIRECTORY. The five Directors entered (October 25, 1795) on their duties of governing France in the Luxemburg palace, where there was not even a writing-table left : the two councils, or Chambers of Deputies, occupied the Tuileries. The assignats had sunk to nearly a thousandth part of their nominal value ; the masses were furious that, after all the revolutionary struggles, bread was still dear ; and the Directory soon had to face royalist and Jacobin attempts. Hoche put down a last rising by the Venddan chief Charette in March 1796; and a communistic conspiracy headed by Babceuf to assassinate the Directors, and divide all property equally, was also nipped in the bud in the following May. The vigour of the Directors, especially of Barras at the head of the police, and of Carnot, who had organised victory in 1792-93, soon made itself felt in the improve- ment of trade and finance. Meanwhile on the Rhine the inactivity of Pichegru had brought reverses to the French arms, and Jourdan had to retreat behind the Rhine before the superior forces of the Austrians and Imperialists. But in 1796 Jourdan and the able Moreau, who had replaced Pichegru, with two large armies overcame all resistance, and penetrated into the chap, ix] WARS OF THE DIRECTORY. 57 heart of Bavaria. Jourdan, however, neglected to join Moreau on the Upper Danube ; and, being suddenly overpowered by an able strategist, the Archduke Charles, at Amberg, and again at Wurzburg (September 1796), he was forced to lead his army back beyond the Rhine, badly harassed by the peasantry. Moreau, who had captured and requisitioned Munich, hereupon made a skilful retreat through the passes of the Black Forest, and so saved his army from serious disaster ; but, as another young general said, "It was only a retreat." In fact, though Hoche replaced Jourdan and in the next year gained the victory of Heddersdorf over the Austrians, the decisive blows of the war were to be struck, not on the Rhine, but in Italy, by the young general who sneered at Moreau. Bonaparte. — Born in 1769 at Ajaccio, Bonaparte was an Italian on his father's side and a Corsican through his mother's family. In spite of his education at the military school of Brienne, he at first joined the patriotic Corsicans who sought to drive out the French ; but dazzled by the career which the French republican armies offered to enterprising officers, he threw in his lot with the Paris Jacobins, to whom he rendered signal service by aiding in the capture of Toulon (December 1 9, 1 7 9 3). His connection with the Robespierres brought him into danger after the Thermidorian reaction; but he was set at liberty, and proceeded to Paris, where he saved the Convention by his whiff of grape-shot (October 5, 1795). These eminent services, and his marriage with the young widow Josephine Beauharnais, helped to gain him the important command of the French army in Italy. Joining to his splendid military talents the shrewdness of a born diplomatist, the young general saw that the kingdom of Sardinia, after the loss of Savoy and Nice, could easily be detached from the 58 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Austrian alliance, and that the latter cumbrous power could then soon be stripped of her rich Italian province of Milan. Italy in 1796. — The well-known sarcasm of Metternich uttered after 1815, that Italy was "only a geographical expression," would have been still more applicable in the time of peace which succeeded the Austrian War of Succession (1748 -1792). The district between Lake Maggiore and the fortress of Mantua (called the province of Milan) was held by the Austrians directly, and the Duchy of Tuscany was ruled by an Austrian prince. The rich kingdom of Naples, held by a descendant of the younger branch of the Spanish Bourbons, was, both socially and politically, sunk in the torpor of the Middle Ages ; while the feeble opposition which the French were to meet in the States of the Church soon revealed the corruption and helplessness of the Papal rule. The governments of north Italy could be called good only by contrast with central and south Italy. The King of Sardinia, who ruled over Piedmont as well as the island of Sardinia, had easily lost his hold of Savoy, from which his family took its name ; and the P'rench occupation of Nice left him with little desire to fight them. The republics of Venice and Genoa were but the shadows of their ancient strength and glory; the former, arbitrarily ruled by its Doge, had no naval or military strength, though it possessed the eastern half of the present province of Lombardy, as well as all "Venetia." A brother of the Bourbon King of Naples was Duke of Parma. The Duchy of Modena and the tiny republics of Lucca and San Marino completed the motley picture of the map of " Italy." It was the field where France and Austria, Bourbon and Hapsburg, had for centuries striven for predominance. Campaign in Italy (April 1796-April 1797). — The ix] WARS OF THE DIRECTORY. 59 young adventurer determined that the conquest of this group of ill-organised provinces should be his stepping- stone to power. The French armies were everywhere in want of money to carry on the war, but they had, what their opponents lacked, enthusiasm ; and Bonaparte in his proclamation openly held out to them the rich spoils of Lombardy to inflame their courage. Received by his officers at first with pity for his youth and pallor, he at once roused their confidence and astonishment by his daring plan of campaign. Suddenly crossing from the Italian Riviera over the Maritime Alps near Savona, he defeated the astonished Austrians three times in five days (April 1796); and then falling on the Sardinian army he twice routed it also. " Soldiers," said the young general in one of his pithy proclamations, " you have won five victories in a fortnight ; but you have done nothing yet." The kingdom of Sardinia cut in half, and separated from its Austrian allies by this irruption, now definitively yielded up Nice and Savoy, as well as the district of Coni. Again Bonaparte pitted the vigour of his twenty-seven years against his Austrian antagonist Beaulieu, who was seventy years old. With all the dash of their youthful general the French troops attacked the bridge of Lodi, three hundred paces long, and defended by twenty cannons. Their cavalry, sent up the river, found a ford and attacked the Austrians at a time when the carnage on the bridge left victory hanging in the balance. Equal success crowned Bonaparte's attack on the next Austrian line of defence on the Mincio river above Mantua, for Beaulieu had to leave Milan to its fate and fall back on the Mincio. The bridge over this river was stormed, and the shattered Austrian army hurled back into the Tyrolese valley. Mantua was invested, and Bonaparte was master of North Italy (May 60 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. 1796). Though he had proclaimed that he came to liberate the Italians, yet he now enriched the Paris treasury and his own soldiers at their expense ; he also began the practice of sending the best pictures, sculptures, and manuscripts to enrich the recently -formed museums of Paris. The government of Vienna, anxious to save Mantua at all costs, sent an Austrian army, under Wiirmser, from the Rhine into Italy. He divided his forces by Lake Garda ; and though he revictualled Mantua, yet Bonaparte routed the two divisions one after the other, at Lonato and Castiglione. Another defeat at Bassano shut up Wiirmser in Mantua. In October 1796 the Austrians sent yet another army under Allvinzi to rescue this fortress. A night attack on this relieving force as it lay protected by marsh and river near Areola was at first repulsed (November 1796); Bonaparte himself was hurled from the bridge and barely saved by his men. Two days of hard fighting, however, inflicted on this newly-raised army a loss of 20,000 men. In January 1797 Allvinzi, collecting all available forces, again attempted to relieve the principal fortress of Italy ; but he was entirely defeated at Rivoli on the Adige with the loss of 20,000 prisoners (January 1797) ; another Austrian corps under Provera laid down its arms ; and finally Wiirmser surrendered at Mantua with 21,000 men (February 2, 1797). Between April 1796 and April 1797 Bonaparte in sixty- seven conflicts and eighteen pitched battles had crushed the Austrian power in North Italy. By opposing his youthful energy to their hesitation and routine, Bonaparte had routed four Austrian generals with forces more than twice his own. His rapid concentrations overcame their scattered forces one after the other, as brilliantly as Fred- ix] WARS OF THE DIRECTORY. 61 erick the Great had crushed the allies in his best Silesian campaigns. But this first Italian campaign was the cause of all the future woes to Europe. Seeing the ease with which the old political and military systems were pulverised by the concentrated power of the new era, the young general formed plans of continental conquest, which he after- wards nearly realised. If he himself wielded the new power which the Revolution was consolidating in his adopted country, could he not extend the new ideas of government over all the continent, in place of the old systems crumbling to decay ? Such was the horizon widening out with each victory to the ambition of a clear-sighted, powerful, and unscrupulous nature. His requisitions in a rich country roused many revolts of peasants and citizens against their " deliverers " ; but this same system made the officers and soldiers devoted to him instead of to the Republic, and he assumed a bold and independent tone towards the Directory in Paris. Entering the States of the Church, he met with the tamest opposition from the Papal troops, and by the treaty of Tolentino (February i, 1797) he gained the cession of Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romagna. These last-named districts also allied themselves to France under the name of the Cispadane Republic. Lombardy became the Transpa- dane Republic. Tuscany, though it was an ally of the French Republic, was overrun, and all English property at the port of Leghorn was seized : this was followed up by the delivery of Corsica from the British, and by an alliance with the Genoese. Everywhere the art treasures of Italy were sent to enrich the galleries and museums of Paris. Treaties with the Pope and the King of Sardinia having secured his rear, Bonaparte in March 1797 traversed Vene- tia with 50,000 men to attack Austria from the south. 62 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. On the banks of the Tagliamento the best general of Austria, the Archduke Charles, at first inflicted a check on the French ; but he was afterwards surprised and thrown back across the Carnic Alps. The daring young Bonaparte, pressing across this natural barrier, then carried the gorges of the Noric Alps, and his advanced posts reached Semmer- ing, only some fifty miles from Vienna. He was unsup- ported by the French armies on the Rhine, which ought to have invaded Austria by the valley of the Danube, and the Tyrolese peasants, infuriated by pillage, had checked his lieutenant Joubert. A bold resistance might have entrapped the adventurous Bonaparte in the Alps, but the timid Viennese cabinet agreed to the preliminaries of peace at Leoben (April 18, 1797). Meanwhile on the Rhine the badly-equipped republican army under Hoche was burning with impatience to rival the deeds of Bonaparte's troops ; but Hoche, after gaining the fight of Heddersdorf and throwing the Austrians back on the Maine, was stopped by the news of the peace. His death in September left Moreau as Bonaparte's only rival in the confidence of the French soldiery. Before peace was ratified at Campo Formio in the autumn, the people of Verona rose against the French troops who occupied this and other cities of the Venetian Republic ; and though the Venetian senate offered repara- tion, Bonaparte declared war, and his troops easily occupied Venice. While her Ionian islands went to France, her rich main- land territory with Istria and Dalmatia was offered by Bona- parte as a bribe to Austria in the shameful treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797). Austria in return ceded her distant and troublesome Netherlands to France, but gained Salzburg and a small piece of Bavaria. Thus Austria re- ix] WARS OF THE DIRECTORY. 63 couped herself at the cost of the German Empire, Bavaria, and Venetia ; but her gains only roused the jealousy of Prussia and Bavaria. So skilfully did Bonaparte sow dis- cord in central Europe ; and as he said, " I have only lent Venice to the Emperor." Curses on France were hurled forth by the Venetians ; and when the ex-doge Manin was to take the oath of alle- giance to Austria, he fell senseless to the ground. A congress was also to assemble at Rastatt to reorganise the " Empire," and the "Emperor" bound himself by a secret clause in the treaty of Campo Formio to use his endeavours to secure to France the Rhine boundary. Disorder in Paris. — In the preceding September (Fructidor 1797) a coup d'etat had taken place in Paris. The renewal of the Councils of State at the late elections had brought in a royalist majority to Paris. But Hoche and Bonaparte, the former from conviction, the latter from policy, determined to "purge" the councils of the royalists ; and General Augereau, sent by the latter, surrounded the councils with 12,000 soldiers and arrested many royalists; large numbers were sent to die at Cayenne, journals were suppressed and elections were annulled. Thus the royalist reaction was crushed, but in a manner fatal to the republic — as Bonaparte soon showed. In fact, France was still in the utmost disorder ; and the Directory had been obliged to acknowledge a bankruptcy, allowing only one-third of their nominal value for the paper assignats ! (1796). French Interventions. — The young conqueror ot Austria had acquired for the. French Republic what no one of its monarchs had ever gained — the Rhine frontier ; but money was needed for the grand plans of Eastern conquest which Bonaparte was revolving. It was found by the pillage of Switzerland and of Rome. Such was the change which 64 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. had come over the policy of France and the spirit of the republican armies. The murder of the French General Duphot was the pretext for the occupation of Rome, which furnished rich treasures in art and specie, and sealed the doom of the Papal States as a territorial power. Switzerland. — The constitution of the thirteen Swiss cantons l had always been republican ; and their independ- ence of the " Empire " had been finally recognised at the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The councillors who governed Berne were, however, chosen from only a few patrician families, and Berne had rule over Vaud and part of Aargau. The former of these now (1798) rose against the Bernese rule, and the death of a few Frenchmen gave the Directory the desired opportunity for interfering. The internal divisions favoured the French invaders, and General Brune occupied Berne after brave but unavailing resistance. The Swiss Confederation then embraced nineteen cantons enjoying equal privileges under a constitution framed on the French model with five Direct- ors. The opposition of the "forest" cantons was overcome after a gallant defence. Geneva and Miihlhausen with their districts were added to France, and specie and stores worth 40,000,000 francs were seized at Berne. Much of this was sent straight to Toulon for Bonaparte's expedition to the East ; and Bernese coins were long afterwards in circulation in Egypt. 1 The Confederacy had grouped itself around the three " forest " can- tons — Schwytz, Uri, and Unterwalden. In 1798 Miihlhausen, Geneva, and Neufchatel were only allies of the Confederacy. The King of Prussia had since 1707 always been Prince of Neufchatel. CHAPTER X. THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. The French armies had crushed all opposition in southern and central Europe, but there was one power against which even Bonaparte was helpless — Great Britain. Our armies had failed miserably in Holland, owing to the incompetence of the Duke of York ; but our fleets had never before been so superior to the French, and the command of the sea had enabled them to reduce the Dutch and French colonies except San Domingo. The Convention had equipped with great effort a fleet of twenty-six large ships at Brest ; but Lord Howe's fleet encountered it off the Breton coast, broke its line, and sank or captured over a third of its number (1794). England was not only secure from French attack, but could by her subsidies arm and support the forces of the Coalition against France. Thus in 1795 Pitt had granted a loan of five millions sterling to the Emperor to enable him to continue the war on the Rhine against France ; and henceforth England was the paymaster of the Coalitions against France. English attempts against the French coast, as at Quiberon, and the French attempts to raise Ireland, were alike unsuccessful. The Directory determined, however, again to struggle for the command of the sea, and compelled Spain, as well as hard-pressed Holland, to join in a naval war 66 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. against England. It hoped that this naval Coalition would humble the mistress of the seas, and so break up the Coali- tion on land, of which she was the mainspring. The hope was vain. Jervis and Nelson scattered the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape St. Vincent, and Duncan de- feated the Dutch off Camperdown (1797). Bonaparte had conceived a bitter hatred of the only- Power which now defied the might of France, and menaced her borders. With his keen insight he saw that he must crush England in order to crush the Coalition, and must cut off her foreign trade so as to ruin a Power which could not be directly attacked. His Egyptian expedition is the first of his repeated attempts to conquer Europe through England, and to conquer England by starving her trade. Many reasons impelled Bonaparte towards the East. Visions of Alexander the Great haunted his imagination — "I will conquer Egypt and India ; then attacking Turkey, I will take Europe in the rear." His calmer judgment assured him that France would be hard pressed during his absence, and could then be rescued by the return of the conqueror of the East. The mutinies on the English fleets at Spithead and the Nore for a time paralysed his foes, and the spoils of the Bernese treasury helped to build a great fleet at Toulon. So in the spring of 1798 Bonaparte set sail with 25,000 picked troops. He reduced Malta, without any opposition from the degenerate knights of St. John ; and by good fortune escaped Nelson's fleet, which sailed from Alexandria only the day before the French flotilla arrived. Egypt was in 1798 nominally dependent on Turkey; but real power rested with the Mamelukes, a military order governed by twenty-four Beys; subject to these were Copts, Arabs, and Turks. Hoping to win over these subject races, x] THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITION. 67 the versatile adventurer now gave out that he was a Mohammedan. "Is it not we who have destroyed the Pope, who said that men ought to make war on the Mussulmans ? " but the Mohammedans were not deceived. Advancing on Cairo, the French came in sight of the Pyramids. " Think,'' said their general, " that forty centuries are looking down on you from the top of these Pyramids " (July 21, 1798.) The Mameluke cavalry dashed in vain on the French squares, which finally drove hundreds of them into the Nile. Cairo surrendered, and Bonaparte treated the in- habitants with the tact which he knew so well how to employ. The band of learned men chosen to accompany the expedition conducted valuable researches, and his engineers prepared to open up the country to European inventions. But he was soon imprisoned in his new conquest. Nelson's search for the French fleet had led him to the Syrian coast, but at last finding it at anchor (August 1, 1798) in Aboukir Bay, he thrust some of his ships between it and the shore, while the French rear line could not engage in battle. The explosion on the French flag- ship L'Orient decided the most dramatic sea-fight of modern times, by which the French fleet was destroyed or dispersed. Undaunted by this blow, Bonaparte was spurred on by his devouring activity to attack Syria ; but he suffered a severe check at Acre, which was defended by the English fleet and by the Turkish garrison under Sir Sydney Smith. A relieving army of Turks was beaten by Generals Kleber and Junot in the battle of " Mount Tabor," but several desperate assaults on Acre failed ;* and, after a siege of sixty days, Bonaparte was forced to renounce further imitation of Alexander. Sore stricken by the plague, the 68 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap, x French army retraced its steps across the desert to Egypt, which had twice revolted. Never did his genius triumph over greater obstacles than now. With an army enfeebled by plague, defeat, and desert march, he yet drove a Turkish army from its entrenchments at Aboukir into the sea. During the exchange of prisoners which followed, Sir Sydney Smith sent to Bonaparte a packet of French news- papers, containing news of the French defeats in Italy and of the waning power of the Directory. Leaving Kl£ber in command of the weakened French forces, he success- fully evaded the English cruisers and landed at Frejus (October 9, 1799). After gaining the battle of Heliopolis (March 20, 1800) Kl£ber was assassinated by a fanatic. His successor Menou was beaten by British troops at Aboukir Bay (March 1800), Cairo, and Alexandria ; and after capitulation the surviving forces were brought back to France on British vessels. Malta also fell into British hands (September 1801). CHAPTER XL REVERSES OF THE DIRECTORY. Bonaparte's wonderful good fortune brought him back to France (October 9, 1799) at a time when her affairs at home and abroad had fallen into dire confusion. In Italy the indolent King of Naples, alarmed at French advances, joyfully received the English squadron, which had returned victorious from Egypt (1798). Entrusting his ill- organised forces to the incompetent and ill-starred Austrian General Mack, he at first drove out the French army under Championnet from Rome. The Directory, knowing the secret hostility of the King of Sardinia, sent French troops into Turin, whence the king fled with his family and treasure to Sardinia ; and Championnet, now feeling his communications with France safe, resumed the offensive. He drove the Neapolitan army before him from Rome to Naples, where a popular revolution put an end to the effete and helpless rule of Ferdinand IV. The French forced their way into Naples despite the obstinate and patriotic defence of the lazzaroni; and under the name of the Parthenopean Republic, the south of Italy became practi- cally subject to the French Directory (January 24, 1799). The Grand Duke of Tuscany was also deposed ; and his duchy was declared a republic allied to that of France. Rastatt. Second Coalition. — These enterprises were 70 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. extending the military responsibilities of France at a time when Austria, Russia, and England meditated an attack on the Directory. The discussion on German affairs had been long protracted. The astute French plenipotentiary, Talley- rand, succeeded in playing on the traditional rivalry of Austria and Prussia, and on the cupidity of the smaller German princes ; while threats to revolutionise their States extorted servile obedience or lavish bribes. Gustavus Adolphus IV, who, after the murder of his father Gustavus III, 1 had ascended the throne of Sweden in 1796, in his capacity of Duke of Pomerania urged the German States to united action against France ; but patriotism seemed extinct, for the German princes looked on while the French crossed the Rhine from Coblentz and reduced by starvation the Imperial fortress of Ehrenbreitstein in time of peace. In the Netherlands the young men rose against the French conscription; but Prussia (1798) gave them no help, and an English force only destroyed the sluices of the canal at Bruges. At last the news of Nelson's victory of the Nile encouraged the allies to attack the disturbers of Italy and Germany. Russia occupied the Ionian Islands in the hope of attacking Turkey from the west as well as the north, and Austria, supported now, as always, by English subsidies, prepared for war. The horrible assassination by Austrian hussars of the French ambassadors, as they were leaving Rastatt, embittered the whole course of the succeeding struggle. At first the French line of defence, extending from 1 Gustavus III had by a bold appeal to the people overthrown the power of the Swedish nobility, while he opened up all honours and employ- ments to the citizen class ; but he could not wrest from Russia Sweden's earlier possessions, and he was stabbed by Ankerstrom, an accomplice of the nobles (March 1792). xi] REVERSES OF THE DIRECTORY. 71 Amsterdam to Naples, with Switzerland as a natural entrenched camp in the centre, was broken in by serious defeats. By a newly-organised system of conscription, which has since become such a curse to all continental States, France raised armies of 440,000 men for this line of defence. But these young levies were at first no match for the numerous armies of Austria and Russia. Jourdan, who had ventured through the Black Forest, was routed by the Arch- duke Charles at Stockach, and thrown back on the Rhine. In Italy Sch6rer was beaten by the Austrians at Magnano (April 5, 1799); and the skilful Moreau could not stay the onset of the Austro-Russian forces under the terrible Suwarroff, who entered Milan in triumph (April 28, 1799). Another French army, marching up from Naples and Rome, was crushed by Suwarroff on the historic banks of the Trebbia (June 1799) and thrown back into Tuscany; while Moreau fell back on Genoa. The Italians meanwhile regarded with indifference the return of their old masters in place of the French spoliators. These were further crushed at Novi and Genola (November 1799). The mush- room republics forthwith collapsed at Naples, Florence, and Milan, before the Austrian reaction. Only in Holland was the French defence successful in keeping at bay an Anglo-Russian army under the command of the helpless Duke of York, who was compelled to re- embark his forces. Campaign in Switzerland. — In Switzerland mean- while the French under Masseha had been driven from Zurich by the Archduke Charles, and the mountaineers avenged themselves on their French " liberators " ; but the jealousy of Austria for the Russian successes and policy brought about the withdrawal of the victorious Archduke 72 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Charles from Switzerland down the Rhine to the support of the Duke of York, where no help was likely to be of any service. In furtherance of this insane policy Suwarroff was obliged to quit the Italian plains to join a Russian force already operating in the north of Switzerland. The French, who, owing to the apathetic defence of the Austrians, had secured the mountain passes of the Alps, were driven from an apparently unassailable position behind the Devil's Bridge, which they had destroyed; and the Russian troops, victorious, but in a sore plight, pressed down towards the Lake of Lucerne. Unable to cross this without boats, Suwarroff's men toiled painfully across the Swiss mountains to the valley of the Upper Rhine, where they arrived (October 10, 1799) shoeless and starving, with the loss of all their artillery. In seventeen days men accustomed only to level plains had crossed five chains of mountains, in order to support their countrymen in the north cantons around Zurich. But after the Archduke Charles had marched down the Rhine, and before the arrival of Suwarroff, the isolated Russian force under Korsakoff had sustained a terrible defeat from Massena. The latter after being reinforced hurled his 70,000 men against the smaller forces in and around Zurich, and shut Korsakoff in that town. The Russians with difficulty broke away with the loss of all their artillery and stores (September 17, 1799). Both Russian armies fell back on Germany, and the Czar Paul, who had ascended the throne, disgusted with his Austrian and English allies, closed the campaign, and soon came to an understanding with Bonaparte. Thus the insane jealousy of the allies had paralysed their attack on the centre of the French line of defence when success seemed within their grasp ; but in Italy the xi] REVERSES OF THE DIRECTORY. 73 Austrian Melas utterly crushed Championnet, who was attempting to save Genoa ; and the Austrians invaded the county of Nice. Italy seemed quite lost to France when Bonaparte landed. In domestic affairs the Directory was in an equally critical condition : the disasters of its armies were visited on it, and the last coup d'tiat against the royalists had been followed by the ascendency of the Jacobin faction. The two Councils next revenged themselves on the Directory for its usurpation of sole power by declaring themselves permanent, and forcing three of the five Directors to resign (June 1799). The beaten French armies could now no longer live on conquered foes ; and the Directory, in spite of progressive taxation which ruined the rich, had little money to send for the pay and equip- ment of its troops. The new hard law of conscription provoked a fresh outbreak (called the " chouannerie " ) in Brittany, which the Directory sought to crush by the odious custom of taking hostages from mutinous villages. France was as disturbed and miserable as she had been at any time since the Reign of Terror. CHAPTER XII. THE CONSULATE. The Coup d'etat of Brumaire. — Everything was thus ripe for Bonaparte's designs when he returned to France as the "conqueror of Egypt." Taking counsel with one of the five Directors, Sieyes, the framer of more constitutions than any other man in all history, Bonaparte appeared before the Council of Ancients, or Senate, at St. Cloud. Sieyes and Barras had announced the resignation of their office ; and the other three Directors were compelled to follow (November 9, or 18 Brumaire, 1799). Alarmed at the approaching dictatorship, the Jacobin majority of the Council of Five Hundred refused on the next day to modify the constitution of the year III (1795); and Bonaparte was thrust out of the hall with cries of " outlaw ! " " Down with the new Cromwell ! " In this predicament Bonaparte was saved by the address of his brother Lucien Bonaparte, president of this Council. He, under pretence that the Jacobins were paid by England, persuaded the very troops whose duty it was to guard the Council to file in and disperse it. A few deputies assembled in the evening and nominated Bonaparte with Sieyes and another nonentity as consuls ; for Bonaparte still wished to figure as a republican, and had selected these two as tools whom he could at any time cast aside. chap, xn] THE CONSULATE. 75 Only five years had elapsed since the Reign of Terror had struck down every individual who had become prominent ; but never in the whole of human history was the power of one will to triumph so completely over the mediocrity of the many. The revolutionary enthusiasm of 1789 had been exhausted by the insane jealousies of the Reign of Terror ; and the somewhat vulgar tyranny of the " lawyers " of the Directory made men long for a government which would efficiently repel foreign foes, while retaining and consolidating the principles of 1789. Bonaparte skilfully availed himself of the interest inspired by his extraordinary career to rise above all competitors for power, whether civil or military ; and France gladly acquiesced in the violence done to her republican constitution. Bonaparte was soon elected Consul for ten years. The two other Consuls retired to make way for two others who accepted the predominance of Bonaparte. Sieyes' new and complicated constitution soon showed itself to be the mere shadow which Bonaparte intended it to be, whereas he used his extensive powers to conciliate important classes who had been crushed by the Directory. Priests were now allowed only to promise obedierice to the constitution, the odious law of hostages was repealed, and La Vendee and Brittany were at last pacified ; while the victims of the Directory were recalled from Cayenne. The new order of things had been accepted by an immense majority of votes in a plebiscite. The military situation offered Bonaparte a still readier means of distinction. Marengo. — The victorious Austrian general Melas was investing the French forces of Massena in the city of Genoa, where they were at last obliged by hunger to capitulate. Bonaparte, at the head of 40,000 men in Switzerland in May 1800, determined to stop their 76 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. successes, and was in a position to make a dramatic stroke. After secret and careful preparations he led his forces over the Great St. Bernard pass. The cannons, placed in the hollowed-out trunks of trees, were dragged over the snowy slopes by a hundred men each. Other French divisions crossed the St. Gothard and Mont Cenis passes, and the combined forces fell on the astonished Austrians. The main body of Austrians was marching from Genoa to rally other scattered forces against this sudden irruption from the Alps ; but Bonaparte spread out his troops so that they were forced back on all sides by 'the Austrian attack. When the day seemed lost 1 Desaix arrived with 6000 fresh men, and their onset, followed by the brilliant cavalry charge of Kellermann on the Austrian flank, turned a defeat into a great victory. The honours of the day properly belong to Kellermann and to Desaix, who fell at the head of his men. A whole Austrian division laid down its arms, and Melas hurriedly signed at Alessandria a convention by which he yielded Genoa, Piedmont, and Milan, while he retired beyond the Mincio. North Italy was regained at Marengo. Hohenlinden. — Meanwhile in Bavaria, Moreau, though hampered by Bonaparte's instructions, had gained some unimportant successes on the Upper Danube. These he crowned by the great victory of Hohenlinden, near Munich, gained in a snowstorm on December 3, 1800. His 60,000 troops, occupying the difficult forest passes around Hohenlinden, were attacked in the front by 70,000 Austrians at the same time that a flank movement of a French column enclosed the Austrians in the rear. 1 Desaix on his arrival said to Bonaparte : ' ' One battle is lost, but it is only three o'clock : there is time to gain another." xn] THE CONSULATE. 77 The latter, now attacked in front and rear in this narrow passage, fled into the forest with terrible losses in men, artillery, and stores. Moreau followed up these brilliant manoeuvres by a successful march, which brought him within seventy miles of Vienna itself. Bonaparte after his triumph hurried to Paris to receive homage as the " victor of Marengo " ; but the French army in Italy, left by him under General Brune, was soon in difficulties, so Bonaparte ordered General Macdonald to cross the Spliigen pass in the middle of December. Avalanches carried away whole squadrons, but the suffering troops at last joined their comrades in Italy, after difficulties which eclipse those encountered in the passage of the St. Bernard by Bonaparte in May. The armies of Macdonald and Brune penetrated the Tyrolese valleys ; and Austria, hard pressed in Tyrol and on the Danube, sued for peace. By the treaty of Luneville (February 9, 1801) that of Campo Formio was practically renewed. Thus Austrian domination in Italy, lost in 1796 and regained in 1799, was again overthrown in 1800, save that Venetia was still subject to it ; Tuscany went to the house of Parma, and Ferdinand was allowed to reign at Naples. CHAPTER XIII. EUROPE, 1 801-1804. The Armed Neutrality League. — The British con- tention that an enemy's goods might be seized on a neutral ship was met by a coalition of the Baltic powers. Nelson silenced the Danish fleet and batteries at Copenhagen and forced Denmark to retire from the league (April 2, 1801). The news of the assassination of the eccentric and tyrannical Czar Paul I. caused the dissolution of the league. His son Alexander returned to the British alli- ance, stipulating, however, that the chief Russian exports, hemp, flax, and timber, should not be counted contraband, and that no port should be considered in a state of blockade unless it were blockaded by a reasonably large force. These concessions restored the equilibrium of Europe and the isolation of France. A further disadvantage to France was the capitulation of the French army left by Bonaparte in Egypt, which, however, by generous terms was brought back to France on English ships (September 1801). Peace of Amiens. — These events led to the well- known Peace of Amiens (March 1802), by which England retained only Trinidad and Ceylon, but was to cede Malta to the Knights ; while France was to recognise the inde- pendence of the Ionian Isles under the protection of chap, xin] EUROPE, 1801-1804. 79 Russia. On her part France was to retain all the Austrian Netherlands, Dutch Flanders, all the German States on the left bank of the Rhine, together with Savoy, Geneva, Nice, and Avignon. Yet Bonaparte was not satisfied. French troops con- tinued to occupy Holland, and he soon meddled with the affairs of Switzerland and Italy ; so that all Europe felt that the power and ambition of the First Consul might at any time provoke a war with the weak and disunited central powers. In Austria the Archduke Charles sought to introduce beneficial reforms in the war administration which had so often proved its incapacity; but the failure of the hasty reforms of Joseph II had prejudiced Leopold II and the reigning monarch Francis II against all improvements ; so this opportunity of strengthening the State afforded by these years of peace was lost. Austria had entered on the period of dull administrative routine which was undisturbed by the disasters of 1805 and 1848, by the death of Francis in 1835, and was only renounced in 1867. Frederick William. Ill (1797-1840). — The miser- able Frederick William II had died in 1797, deep in disgrace and in debt. His eldest son Frederick William III removed many of the scandals of the court and government; but he continued the alliance with, and dependence on, France. As yet without experience, though soon to gain it in the darkest hour of Prussia's history, the young king retained his father's ministers and policy until the lessons of his long and eventful reign led him to choose men like Stein and Hardenberg, So Prussia had stood selfishly apart from the wars in which Austria and Germany were struggling for existence. Frederick William III hoped that their difficulties would be his opportunity, and he gained Miinster, Paderborn, and 80 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Erfurt. This selfish spirit was outdone by the smaller German States, which all sought for compensation in a special committee of the Imperial Diet. Bavaria gained the bishoprics of Bamberg, Augsburg, and Wiirzburg. 1 Hanover gained Osnabriick ; Baden gained the Eastern Palatinate with the northern parts of Constance and Basle ; Wiirtemberg acquired both Hesses (Cassel and Darmstadt). Thus the suppression of the ecclesiastical States furnished booty in compensation for the losses of the smaller States on the west of the Rhine ; all the old imperial free cities were suppressed except Hamburg, Liibeck, Bremen, Frankfurt, Augsburg, and Nuremberg, and all ecclesiastical land was handed over to the States. The German provinces secured by France were divided into four departments organised on the French model. So low had German national feeling sunk in these States and bishoprics, that the French connection was soon popular on account of the improved laws and equal justice which it brought. The same tendency was observable in the Belgic Netherlands, now divided into nine French departments. Outside the French dominions the Treaty of Luneville had guaranteed the independence of the Batavian, Helvetic, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics, and "liberty to their inhabitants to adopt what form of government they think fit " ; but the masterful temper of the First Consul imposed on these States a form of government similar to his own. Taking advantage of the strife of Swiss parties, Bonaparte soon ventured on sending a large army under Ney into the Helvetic Republic, which he " reorganised," at the same time that he wrested from it the canton Valais, so that he might have the Simplon 1 These gains of Bavaria at the expense of the Franconian bishoprics have ever since been retained by Bavaria (see page 138, footnote). xm] EUROPE, 1801-1S04. 81 route to Milan in his own hands. The federal system was imposed on the nineteen cantons and Bonaparte was styled "Mediator." Still more arbitrary was his conduct among the yielding Italians. He caused the Cisalpine Republic to remodel its constitution (September 1801) in the same reactionary way in which he was intending to prepare for rule in France. Four hundred and fifty repre- sentative Italians were invited to Lyons, where they humbly offered Bonaparte the presidency of their State, which he now named the Italian Republic. In a short time (1802) he definitely annexed Piedmont to France, and secured his hold over Genoa and Parma. Pope Pius VI had been taken as a prisoner to France, where he had died (August !799)- Reorganisation of Prance. — In France the First Consul had by his successes silenced all opposition from enraged Jacobins, discontented royalists, and disappointed friends ; and he soon paved the way for personal rule. Over each department he placed a prefect and sub- prefect ; while a council nominated by the prefect for the discussion of local grievances was subject to the decisions of the Council of State in Paris. This new centralisation, useful though it was in promoting the unity of law over France, was soon to prove fatal to liberty. A new system of taxation and the foundation of the bank of France (1800) soon restored the national credit, while the famous Civil Code of 1803 for the first time brought law and its procedure within the comprehension of all citizens. Laws relating • to the family, to property, and to contracts were rendered clear and precise in place of the chaos of musty precedents which had hitherto obscured justice. The four lawyers who drew up this code of thirty-six laws may indeed be said to have consolidated he principles of 1789 ; 82 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. but the honour of this great work soon passed from them : in 1809 the code was renamed the " Code Napoleon;" and in truth it was designed to exalt the central power at Paris, soon to be wielded by an emperor. But on the whole its influence was most beneficial, not only throughout France, but in all the countries -which came under her influence. Indeed the Rhine province and some of the south German States retained many of its provisions till our own days. It may be said to have inaugurated a new era of law in all civilised continental States, for many rulers were compelled by popular pressure to copy its provisions. Concordat. — Of a much more questionable character was Bonaparte's famous "Concordat" (1802), by which he put an end to the schism in the French clergy caused by the foolish policy of 1790. Both nonjuring and consti- tutional bishops were now summoned to resign their sees into the hand of the Pope, and only a few nonjurors refused. Bonaparte's nominees were then reinstated by the Pope. This compromise enlisted the support of the new bishops and priests for Bonaparte's policy, although in the end it reduced the Roman Catholic Church in France to more complete dependence on the will of the Pontiff than had ever been acknowledged by the old national Church of France. Its present effect, however, was to give Bonaparte a firm supporter in every village priest. He also secured the support of the wealthy by allowing the return of the emigrant nobles and gentry, except their principal chiefs, and the restoration of those estates which had not been sold. A further pledge of the support of the wealthy was the institution of a "Legion of Honour" (1802). This distinction was given in reward for conspicuous service to nearly 7,000 persons. The organisation xih] EUROPE, 1801-1804. 83 of public schools (lyc'ees) completed the reforms by which a new France arose out of the wreck of the old regime. An attack on the First Consul's life by an infernal machine heightened his popularity, and an appeal to all electors of France resulted in the extension of his Consulate for his life, with power to nominate his successor. This was monarchy in everything but name. Bonaparte's schemes in the New World.- — Bona- parte had determined to extend his influence in the New World, where he had regained from Spain the vast territory of Louisiana in exchange for the dukedom of Etruria. The French army of the Rhine, still devoted to re- publicanism, was mostly drafted off to reconquer San Domingo. There the remarkable negro statesman Tous- saint l'Ouverture had founded a republic in imitation ot France. The island was easily overrun by the French, and the Spanish portion also seized. Toussaint was sent to France to perish in a cold dungeon ; but the yellow fever nearly annihilated the French force, and the island was regained by the negroes. "War with England (1803). — The annexation of Piedmont in time of peace, and the meddling of Bonaparte in the affairs of Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, had con- vinced the peace-loving Addington Cabinet that peace could not long be preserved. The exclusion also of British goods, not only from France, but from all countries under her influence, as Holland, North Italy, and even Spain, pro- voked savage attacks on the First Consul in the English press, which enraged his overbearing temper. On his side he complained that the English had not quitted Malta in accordance with that Treaty of Amiens which he had him- self violated by not evacuating Holland, Piedmont, and Switzerland. 84 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. The immediate arrest of nearly 10,000 English persons travelling or resident in France showed the rancour of the First Consul against his foes. He raised money by the sale of the vaguely defined region of Louisiana to the United States for an insignificant sum, thus gaining the friendship of those growing communities, whose expansion up to and beyond the Mississippi was now assured. With his vehement and untiring activity the First Consul assembled in January 1804, at Boulogne, a vast flotilla of light vessels and flat -bottomed craft from the coasts of France and Holland. He sent Mortier with a powerful army to overrun Hanover, to the great alarm of the Prussians, who dared not protest. The neutrality of Naples was no bar to its invasion by another French corps, which it was compelled to support; while the friendly Batavian Republic was obliged to maintain a French army of occupation, and to furnish several hundred small vessels. Spain was forced, under pretence of the treaty of alliance with France, signed in 1796 (Treaty of St. Ildefenso), to pay 6,000,000 francs a month as subsidy ; and thus the French war preparations were paid for by the forced tributes of friendly States. On the other hand, Bonaparte unsuccessfully offered Hanover to Prussia as a bribe for her alliance against England. Murder of the Duo d'Bnghien. — In France Bona- parte met only with adulation from the masses ; the few who, like the courageous Madame de Stael, dared to criticise his conduct were exiled ; and a conspiracy of the celebrated Breton leader Georges Cadoudal with the royalist suspect Pichegru to murder Bonaparte was made the excuse for a horrible reprisal. Because some of the old royalist nobles were mixed up with this unsuccessful plot, Bonaparte sent a troop of cavalry rapidly across the Rhine into Baden, xm] EUROPE, 1801-1804. 85 where the young Due d'Enghien (Prince of the Bourbon family) was awaiting the outbreak of war. This young man was seized on German soil, hurried before a midnight tribunal at Vincennes, near Paris, and in an hour was shot by the side of a grave already dug to receive him (March 20, 1804). Soon afterwards Pichegru was found dead in prison, probably by suicide; Georges Cadoudal suffered death ; and Moreau, who was thought to be implicated in the attempts against Bonaparte, was exiled to the United States, whence he returned to take part in the Third Coalition against France. CHAPTER XIV. the french empire. (May i 8, 1804.) ' ' Another year — another deadly blow ! Another mighty Empire overthrown ! And we are left, or shall be left alone." Wordsworth (1806). Immediately after the first of these tragedies, the memory of which he desired to efface by a new excitement, Bona- parte caused the servile Senate to request that he would assume imperial honours with the title of Napoleon I, and this was ratified by a plebiscite. 1 This was only the natural outcome of the consulship for life. "I found the crown of France lying on the ground," he said, "and I picked it up with my sword." The new emperor, who had all along desired to imitate the Caesars, was at once recog- nised by the other Powers. The man who thus terminated the revolutionary period and appropriated its forces to his own aggrandisement in Europe had, at thirty-five years of age, developed those wonderful powers of organisation which so long enabled him to triumph over the chaotic systems and armies of the continent. His cold and passionless intellect showed him every weak point of those around him ; and he attached men 1 Votes of all citizens : 3,572,000 votes were given. chap, xiv] THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 87 to his service by the fear which he inspired as well as by the dog-like affection which a powerful nature often inspires in the weaker. He was essentially a Corsican in his aggrandisement of his family, his disregard of political principles, and in his moody humours. His outbursts of passion were generally calculated with a view to effect ; and once he admitted that he did not allow it to " mount higher than this" — pointing to his chin. After his Russian campaign he sought to terrify the crafty Metter- nich during an interview by the words, "A man like me cares little about the life of a million of men.'' Yet the same man could win the admiration of the great German poet Goethe by the lucidity of his views on literature and art. Even during his consulship Bonaparte had absorbed all real power from Senate, Tribunate, and Corps L^gislatif, while his ministers were no more than his head clerks. But several external changes were now made. The republican " citoyen " was replaced by the old " monsieur " and "madame," and the republican calendar was soon abolished. Napoleon's relatives were made "grand digni- taries,'' and fourteen generals were raised to the rank of " marshals." Among these were Jourdan, the victor of Fleurus ; Massdna, victor at Ziirich ; Kellermann, of Ma- rengo ; Ney, soon to be known as " bravest of the brave " ; Napoleon's brother-in-law Murat, the "beau sabreur"; Soult, the staunch opponent of Wellington ; Augereau, the tactician; Davoust, the victor of Auerstadt; and Bernadotte, who was soon to be King of Sweden. Such was the galaxy of talent which Napoleon's genius now devoted to his own service. His coronation at Paris (December 2, 1804) in Notre Dame was graced by the presence of Pope Pius VII. 88 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. When the Pontiff was about to crown him, Napoleon stopped him, and himself taking the crown from the altar, placed it on his own head. He soon, as King of Italy, received at Milan (May 1805) the iron crown of the Lombard kings ; and his further revision of the French constitution distracted attention from the failure of his designs on England. The blame of this was laid on Admiral Villeneuve. The Third Coalition. — Having bereft Frenchmen of liberty at home, Napoleon had to dazzle them by glory abroad. The opportunity was soon found ; for though he had failed against England, yet his power on land was greater than ever. Austria and Russia had been alarmed and annoyed by the annexation of Genoa to France, and by the conquest of Hanover. The Austrian king, Francis II, tired of the empty title of elective Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, now answered Napoleon by proclaiming himself Francis I, Hereditary Emperor of Austria ; 1 and English subsidies hastened the preparations for the Third Coalition of Austria, Russia, England, Sweden, and Naples. Prussia still held aloof, though the conquest of Hanover by Marshal Bernadotte was a thorn in her side; and the Southern German States, Bavaria, Baden, and Wiirtemberg, irritated as they were by Prussian and Austrian aggrandise- ment, had been gained over by Napoleon. Ulm — Trafalgar. — Taking advantage of the scattered position of the Austrian forces, Napoleon prepared a master stroke which should overshadow his failure at Boulogne. Breaking up his camp in the autumn of 1805, he hurled a compact and well -organised host of 200,000 men against the 80,000 Austrians who were invading Bavaria. The latter were under the incompetent and ill-starred Mack, 1 This title he kept down to his death in 1835. xiv] THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 89 who, bewildered by suddenly finding Napoleon's troops before and behind him, shut himself up in the fortress of Ulm. After the loss of more than half his army in the field, he was compelled to surrender with the remaining 30,000 men and 200 cannons (October 20, 1805). This great victory on land was counterbalanced on the next day by Nelson's crushing defeat of the French and Spanish fleets in the glorious battle of Trafalgar, where the French lost no less than 7000 men. Despairing of the French navy, Napoleon was more than ever convinced that he must conquer England through the continent; but 40,000 Russians had come to the aid of their distressed Austrian allies, and the Archduke Charles, foiled in Italy by Ney and Masse'na, was advancing through Hungary to the defence of the capital. He was, however, not in time to cover Vienna, which Francis had determined to evacuate, so as to avoid a useless slaughter of the citizens. Meanwhile French armies from Italy, marching by the valleys of the Inn and Salza, had given Napoleon on the Danube a force able to meet the , allies, even if they should be joined by Prussia. For this cautious Power had been irritated by the passage of Bernadotte's troops across part of her territory, and 180,000 Prussians might soon menace his communications with France ; but the danger was only a spur to Napoleon to deal one of those lightning strokes by which he so often turned the course of history. Austerlitz. — The Russians, now numbering 80,000 men, aided by 15,000 Austrians, were lured on by Napo- leon's inferiority in numbers to a hazardous attack on his right flank, which was protected by a lake. The allied centre, thus weakened, was furiously attacked by Soult with the main body of the French. Victorious here, Napoleon's troops wheeled round to the relief of their hard-pressed 90 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. right, and caught the Russians between two fires. These fled in utter rout across the ice of the lake, but it gave way under the fire of the French artillery, and thousands of fugitives were engulfed. On their left the French were RUSSIANS & AUSTRIANS equally successful; and the loss of 15,000 killed and wounded, and of 20,000 prisoners, brought the Emperor Francis on the next day a humble suppliant to Napoleon for an armistice. The Russians were to retire from Austria. , The Treaty of Presburg — Fall of the Empire. — In the Treaty of Presburg which followed (December 26, 1805) the humbled Francis ceded Venetia to the kingdom of North Italy, besides Dalmatia and Istria, which Napoleon retained for the French Empire. Tyrol and Suabia were to go to Bavaria, which was raised to the rank of a king- dom, as was its ally Wiirtemberg. The Holy Roman Empire, built up by Charlemagne, was now at last laid low by the greatest conqueror of modern times, who xiv] THE FRENCH EMPIRE. 9i often compared himself with the mediaeval hero. This venerable structure was replaced by a new group of states called the Confederation of the Rhine, under the protectorate of Napoleon. Austerlitz had changed the map of Europe. It placed the central and south German States, the whole of North Italy, and the eastern shores of the Adriatic, practically in the hands of one man. The King of Naples was dethroned to give place to Napoleon's brother Joseph; Holland was raised to the rank of a kingdom for his brother Louis ; and his brother-in-law Murat received the duchy of Berg in North Germany. "War with Prussia. — Jena. — Pitt, the very soul of the Third Coalition, died of despair; 1 and the terrified Prussian court hastily changed its threatening front. Fred- erick William III was for a time satisfied by the bait of Hanover, which Napoleon held out as a return for the cession of Ansbach and the principality of Neufchatel. But his beautiful and spirited consort Louisa roused a spirit of chivalry in the Prussian army, which hoped to renew its glorious deeds under Frederick the Great ; but its arms, drill, and discipline were utterly unfitted to withstand Napo- leon's blows, and the spirit of the soldiers was dulled by long peace and barbarous drill. Stung to action at last by Napoleon's repeated insults and overbearing conduct, Fred- erick William III declared war. The old Duke of Bruns- wick was slowly concentrating his troops by the Thuringian valleys on Erfurt, when Napoleon, marching from Bavaria by the valley of the Saal, fell on the smaller part of the Prussian army at Jena (October 14, 1806), and broke it at once ; meanwhile Marshal Davoust, sent by the emperor 1 On hearing of Austerlitz Pitt said : " Roll up that map of Europe : it will not be wanted these ten years." 92 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xiv. to outflank these same troops, had fallen in with the greatly superior forces of the Duke of Brunswick at Auerstadt. So feeble, however, were the tactics of the aged strategist that 20,000 Prussians never came into action at all until Davoust had overcome the isolated charges made on him, and forced the main body to retreat. The fugitives from the two Prussian armies fled in utmost panic to the fortresses on the river Oder. The strongholds Magdeburg, Spandau, Stettin, Kiistrin, Breslau, and Brieg were surrendered- by cowardly or unpatriotic commanders ; the Prussian king fled from Berlin, which Napoleon entered amid acclamations only thirteen days after the great battle. So low had Prussian courage and loyalty fallen during the enfeebling reigns of Frederick William II and III. On the other hand, the brave defence of Colberg by Gneisenau, and the courage of Bliicher and Schill, soon shed some light on this darkest page of Prussian history; but all Prussia seemed lost except the districts beyond the Vistula. Napoleon's demands were so exorbitant that the humiliated king was emboldened to keep on the struggle. CHAPTER XV. THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM The Berlin Decrees. — Now was the opportunity to "con- quer England upon the continent,'' and by these decrees Napoleon hoped to starve England into surrender. No port under the power of the French Emperor was to admit any British ship or British goods, and all such goods were confiscated. Thus all the ports of the continent from Danzig to Venice (with the exception of Danish and Portu- guese ports) were closed to ships and produce from Great Britain and her colonies. In retaliation the British Govern- ment soon prevented all neutral ships from entering any of the ports where the continental blockade was in force. Thus France and her subject States were almost deprived of all colonial produce, while, in the words of a French historian, 1 "the result of these decrees was to place in English hands the monopoly of trade all over the world." The reprisals of the British Government, however, em- broiled it in a sad war with the United States, 1812. So far-reaching was the influence of these despotic decrees. Prussian Reforms. — The disgraceful capitulations of Prussian fortresses at last showed the necessity for reforms ; the cowardice of so many noble officers led the king to throw open all posts in the army to the citizen class ; the 1 Lanfrey. 94 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. inconvenient uniform and firearms were improved. The King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus IV, courageously gave refuge to the Prussians at Stralsund and in the island of Riigen, which then belonged to Sweden ; and solid aid was given by the Russian Czar Alexander, who sent a powerful army under the capable Bennigsen. Bylau. — In February 1807 he offered battle at Eylau. The stubborn valour of the Russians was being overcome by the tactics of Napoleon, when the arrival of a Prussian force turned his victory into a drawn battle. Fearful losses compelled both armies to retire into winter-quarters ; but this was the first check which Napoleon had received. If at this time Austria had joined the allies, and England had landed a powerful force at Stettin instead of wasting her strength in paltry and distant expeditions, Napoleon's ad- vance might have been arrested ; but his enemies were not to learn the need of combined resistance to his concentrated power until after six more years of disunion and disaster. Poland. — Napoleon's statecraft could not overlook the advantage of exciting the once powerful Polish nation against its despoilers, and he had gained thousands of Polish soldiers after his triumphant entry into Warsaw, January 1807; but he never intended to mortally wound the powerful Alexander by restoring the ancient kingdom of Poland, though after Friedland he carved the duchy of Warsaw out of the Prussian provinces taken from the old Polish kingdom. With the object of further weakening Russia, he encouraged the Sultan of Turkey to declare war against Russia, which he did in spite of the presence of an English fleet. Friedland. — On the anniversary of Marengo (June 14, 1807) Napoleon gained the momentous victory of Fried- land. The Russian general Bennigsen, hoping to surprise xv] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 95 detached divisions of the French, crossed the bridge of Friedland; but the latter, by swift concentration and attack, crowned by Ney's heroic charge into the town of Friedland, cut off the allies from the bridge which was their only means of retreat. Thousands were drowned or taken prisoners. With the loss of baggage and artillery, the wrecks of the army fled to Tilsit, leaving Konigsberg open to the French. Tilsit. — War was at an end, for the Czar Alexander, disgusted at the lukewarm support of the English Cabinet, and charmed by the promises of the great conqueror, came to terms in the disgraceful Treaty of Tilsit. Abandoning his Prussian allies, he consented to the establishment by Napoleon of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which was carved out of Prussian Poland; and, as the price of his consent, he received the Prussian borderland of Bialystock. The dukedom was given to the elector, now King of Saxony, because the former electors of Saxony had several times been kings of Poland. Thus the friendship of Saxony was further secured by Napoleon, and the province of Silesia was nearly sundered from the rest of Prussia by the wide- reaching frontiers of Saxony and the new Polish duchy. Prussia was further to lose all her lands west of the Elbe, which, with Brunswick and parts of Hanover and Hesse, went to form a new vassal kingdom of Westphalia for Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome. A crushing war in- demnity of 140,000,000 francs, and the limitation of its army to 42,000 men, completed the misery of the unfortunate Prussian State, now reduced to less than half its extent. Alexander on his side lost nothing in this treaty, for Napoleon sawthat the active friendship of the facile and gener- ous young Czar was necessary to complete the continental blockade, and to overawe Prussia and Austria from the east. 96 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. The Scandinavian Powers. — The courageous but obstinate king Adolphus IV of Sweden refused to bow down to the conqueror; but after the Treaty of Tilsit a French division under Mortier drove the Swedes back upon Stralsund, the only considerable town in Swedish Pomerania, a fortress which the new system of warfare rendered unten- able, and forced them to surrender. Great Britain, Sweden, and Turkey were now to be the prey of the two mighty potentates, for Napoleon, ever intent on conquering England on the continent, held out the acquisition by Alexander of the Swedish provinces of Finland, and of Turkish Moldavia and Wallachia, as a bribe for Alexander's hostility to Great Britain. The continental blockade against the mistress of the seas was to be extended to the ports of Russia and Prussia, while a secret understanding was arrived at to seize the neutral Danish fleet for employment against England. This be- coming known to the English ministers, they determined to anticipate the blow by means equally unjustifiable. The bombardment of Copenhagen and the seizure of the Danish fleet (September 1807) alienated the sympathy of the con- tinent from England. Gustavus IV alone remained true to the English alliance. But the Russians soon overran Finland; and the Danes, declaring war against England and Sweden, overpowered the latter country with the help of Napoleon's troops. This collapse of the Swedish power, once so formidable, was mainly due to the foolish obstinacy of Gustavus IV; for though Russia was invading Finland, yet he went out of his way to attack Norway, then a pos- session of the Danish crown ; finally, two Swedish regiments on the Norwegian frontier, marching back to Stockholm, arrested Gustavus in his palace. The Swedish Parliament declared that he and his heirs had forfeited the throne, and xv] THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. 97 that his uncle should succeed with the title of Charles XIII. The monarch was to surrender to the Parliament and the upper classes much of his power ; but these changes were too late to save Sweden's Finnish provinces from the grasp of Russia. Sweden received back her small Pomeranian territory only at the price of hostility to England and the exclusion of English goods. Thus fell to pieces the once great Third Coalition. 1 Bernadotte. — As Charles XIII had no heirs, the choice of a successor to the throne fell on the French marshal Bernadotte, who had won many friends among the Swedish troops by his well-timed acts of kindness in the Prussian campaign. The grudging consent which Napoleon at last gave to his marshal's acceptance of this new dignity, and the vigorous enforcement of the continental system on Sweden, soon estranged Bernadotte from his former master. The refusal of Sweden to break off all intercourse with England soon led to the occupation by Napoleon of Swedish Pomerania, and during Napoleon's Russian cam- paign Bernadotte joined Russia and England. He thus secured for himself the Swedish crown, to which he suc- ceeded in 1 818, with the addition of Norway from the grate- ful allies. Thus, in Sweden alone the dynastic changes brought about by the Napoleonic wars took permanent root. The semi-feudal character of the Swedish government was, however, little affected by this curious change of dynasty. 1 The Coalitions are variously divided, but, omitting smaller combina- tions, four great Coalitions maybe thus enumerated : (1) Austria, Prussia, Spain, etc. , ended by Peace of Basle, 1795. (2) England, Austria, Russia, etc., broken up after Battle of Hohenlinden, 1800. (3) England, Sweden, Russia, Austria (after retirement of Austria joined by Prussia), ended by Peace of Tilsit, 1807. (4) Russia, Prussia, England, joined by Austria and Sweden (1813-1814). CHAPTER XVI. THE NEW FEELING OF NATIONALITY. In striking contrast to the easy overthrow of the old dynasty of Sweden by Napoleon's troops and allies was the ever -increasing national resistance which Napoleon aroused in the south-western corner of Europe ; and yet at first the collapse of the old Portuguese and Spanish dynasties was even more sudden and humiliating than that of Sweden had been. Portugal was the only door left by which British products could enter the continent ; this was a sufficient reason for Napoleon to order Junot to march through Spain on Lisbon. Permission for the passage of his troops was gained from the abject court of Madrid by the bribe of sharing in the spoils of Portugal. Junot's soldiers were worn out by fatigue before they reached Lisbon, but the renown of the French name was enough to create a panic there ; and the Regent, taking away the royal treasures, embarked on English ships for Brazil a few hours before Junot's exhausted bands entered the unresist- ing capital. It seemed as though the Iberian peninsula would submit without a struggle to Napoleon's domination, for 80,000 of Napoleon's troops poured into Spain and secured a number of the strongest places. The struggle .seemed to be over, but it had not yet begun. Spain. — By a strange law which seems to regulate the chap, xvi] THE NEW FEELING OF NATIONALITY. 99 powers of families, as of nations, the sovereigns of the Austrian and Bourbon houses who ruled Spain after Philip II degenerated in capacity for ruling ; and the realm which under Philip II was the terror of Europe had become little more than a province of France. Charles III (1759-1788) had introduced reforms inspired by the philosophic spirit of the eighteenth century, 1 but, like those of Joseph in Austria, they had taken no root ; and his successor, Charles IV, was too indolent to awaken the nation from its degeneracy. He weakly followed the policy of Godoy, the queen's favourite, who supported the French alliance. The heir to the throne, Prince Ferdinand, opposed this degrading alliance, which had lost Trinidad to England and ruined the Spanish navy at Trafalgar ; and his opposition was more and more espoused by the Spanish nation. The palace intrigues which followed gave Napoleon the wished-for excuse for interference, and a popular outbreak in Madrid against the hated Godoy terrified Charles IV and his queen into a sudden abdica- tion in favour of their son, who was proclaimed king as Ferdinand VII. The Treachery of Bayonne. — Murat at the head of a French column soon entered Madrid, and would not recognise the new monarch ; for Napoleon had hoped to terrify the whole of the Spanish royal family into a flight to their American colonies, as he had scared away the Portuguese regent. The popular outbreak at Madrid thwarted this design ; and it only remained to Napoleon to play off father against son at Bayonne, where the deposed and reigning monarchs of Spain had foolishly put them- selves in his power. A rising of the populace at Madrid against the French occupation was sternly quelled by 1 " All for the people : nothing by the people. " ioo A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Murat ; and on hearing this welcome news Napoleon bullied Ferdinand into an abdication of the crown in favour of his father, who had previously been coaxed into a renun- ciation of all his rights, in return for two French estates and a pension (May 1808). By this mean trickery Napoleon imagined that his title to the crown of Spain and its vast colonies was secured beyond dispute ; but the Spanish nation was not so dependent on the decrepit Madrid government as tamely to be bartered away to one of Napoleon's brothers ; and the news of the treachery ot Bayonne set the whole peninsula in a blaze. Spanish War of Liberation. — The provincial privi- leges had long accustomed the Spaniards to act inde- pendently of Madrid, and the Junta (council) of the small northern province of Asturias, with sublime audacity, de- clared war against the master of Western Europe. It sent requests for aid to London, all the other Spanish provinces at once followed, and the French were only masters of the ground their troops stood on. Napoleon, having experi- enced hitherto only the opposition of governments and regular armies, thought that his complaisant brother Joseph, whom he transferred from Naples to Madrid, would soon wield the resources of Spain and of its American colonies for the aggrandisement of France and the ruin of England. After realising the position of Charlemagne as ruler of France, Germany, and Italy, Napoleon now aimed at rivalling Alexander by the conquest of the vast Spanish and Portuguese colonies, and by the overthrow of the British Empire; but, so far from leading to these results, the Emperor's Spanish policy aroused the first of that series of national reactions against his rule which led to his over- throw. The importance of the Spanish rising must not be xvi] THE NEW FEELING OF NATIONALITY. 101 measured merely by the fact that it detained a quarter of a million French soldiers during the next four years to hold down Spain and face Wellington, but by its tearing away once and for all the mast of popular championship from the " heir to the Revolution," and by its hastening on the national movement in Germany. That Napoleon intended to have his own way in Spain was at once evident by his transferring his bold and ambitious brother-in-law, Murat, from the capital which he so much coveted to the quieter realm of Naples ; while he summoned his own complaisant brother Joseph from Naples to the perils and splendour of Madrid. Baylen. — On the very day when the unhappy Joseph entered his new capital (July 20, 1808) a disaster befell the French army of the south of Spain. Seville, the capital of the rich and populous province of Andalusia, formed the headquarters of the Spanish national army and of the revolutionary Junta which claimed to represent the councils of the provinces. Marching into Andalusia, the French marshal Dupont took and sacked Cordova; but he was soon obliged to fall back before superior numbers, and he found his communications cut off at Baylen. There his 20,000 troops, surrounded by superior numbers, and over- come by heat and thirst, were compelled to surrender. At the news of this disaster Joseph at once fled from Madrid, and the other French armies fell back on the Ebro. The news of the capitulation of a French army to Spanish irregular troops sent a thrill of excitement through all those continental States which had seen their independence lost as soon as their regular troops were beaten. Baylen taught them that national resistance might succeed even after the regular armies had been shattered. The example was soon to be followed in Prussia. 102 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Convention of Cintra. — Its immediate effect was that Portugal rose against Junot's forces ; and an English corps under Sir Arthur Wellesley, landing at the mouth of the Mondego, defeated the French at Vimiero. This led to the evacuation of Portugal in the Convention of Cintra (August 30, 1808), by which Sir Harry Burrard,the successor of Wellesley, generously undertook to convey back the 20,000 French troops to France in English ships. This much -censured convention delivered Portugal from the French army just when the success of the Spanish patriots cut off its communication with France. Erfurt. — Napoleon, alarmed at these events, drew closer to Alexander, so that the latter might keep Austria in check while he went to chastise the Spaniards. In the little town of Erfurt the two "Masters of Europe," sur- rounded by a crowd of vassal kings 1 and princes, enter- tained each other with fetes, balls, and with a hare-hunt on the neighbouring battle-field of Jena. Napoleon humoured Alexander's desire for the Danubian provinces, in return for his moral support in Spain ; and the two vowed eternal friendship, but they never met again-. At Erfurt Napoleon charmed Goethe and Wieland by his remarks on literature, and conferred on them the order of the Legion of Honour ; their acceptance of this forms one of the least pleasing episodes in this time of German humiliation. Second Occupation of Spain (November-December 1808). — Feeling sure of his rear, Napoleon now hurried to Spain with his best troops and generals to crush the 130,000 ill-organised Spanish troops. These were at once 1 It was here that a French sergeant, who called to the watch to give a grand salute, was rebuked by his superior officer with the words, "It is only a king ! " xvi] THE NEW FEELING OF NATIONALITY. 103 overcome at Burgos, Espinosa, and Tudela ; and the threat of a bombardment deterred the citizens of Madrid from a street-to-street resistance, such as was soon to be seen at Saragossa. The capital surrendered (November 13, 1808), and Napoleon made an effort to win over the Spaniards for his brother Joseph by the following useful measures of reform : — Abolition of the Inquisition, of feudal rights, of the provincial customs dues, and indemnities to the provinces for the expenses of the French occupation. But the Spanish people estimated these reforms at their true value, as bribes for national submission ; and Napoleon soon hurried off to crush the English column which Moore had brought into the heart of Leon to assist the defeated Spaniards. The well-known pursuit of the English to Corunna was left to Soult to conduct, for Napoleon had heard threatening news of the war preparations of Austria (January 1, 1809) j 1 and, regarding the Spanish rising as crushed, he hurried off for the Austrian war. But the spirit of the Spaniards still held out against the dis- cipline and superior numbers of French armies ; and in the street-to-street and house-to-house defence of Saragossa women vied with men in keeping the French troops at bay. The heroic inhabitants, decimated by artillery, bayonet, and pestilence, surrendered their city half in ruins (Feb- ruary 21, 1809) after a siege and assault of seven weeks. In the open country, however, the Spanish irregulars were no match for the French forces. In the autumn of 1809 the Spanish army of Andalusia, numbering 50,000 men, in its advance on Madrid was utterly crushed by Soult's brave and well-trained troops, with the loss of half its number as prisoners ; and Joseph was soon master of all southern Spain up to Cadiz. The central Junta 1 See page no. 104 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. (council) of Seville, which had shown more energy in declamation than in management of business, was forced to flee amid the derision of its countrymen. In a short time Napoleon informed the Madrid Ministry that he wished to extend the frontier of France from the Pyrenees to the Ebro "as an indemnity for all that Spain had cost." This threat was not carried out. The French general Suchet in 1810 and 181 1 waged two brilliant campaigns in the eastern provinces of Catalonia and Valencia, against the Spaniards under Blake ; and by his humane and able administration he consolidated his conquests. Napoleon said of him afterwards: "If I had had two marshals like Suchet, I should not only have conquered Spain, but kept it." "Wellington's Campaigns. — In fact, the war would have become merely a guerilla struggle in the mountain districts but for the assistance of English forces under Sir Arthur Wellesley and Graham. The details of these campaigns are too well known to need more than sum- marising here. In the spring of 1809 Wellesley surprised Soult by a masterly passage of the Douro, and drove him out of Portugal ; and in July he defeated Marshal Victor in the well-contested battle of Talavera ; but the concentration of other French armies obliged a retreat by Badajoz into Portugal. In 18 10 the peace of Schonbrunn freed Napoleon's troops in Germany ; and a great French army under Massdna drove Wellington back on the celebrated triple lines of Torres Vedras, against which Massdna flung his troops in vain (October-November 1810). Early in 181 1 Massena, forced by want of supplies to retreat on Spain, was defeated at Fuentes d'Onoro; Graham was victorious at Barossa, and Beresford in the desperate xvi] THE NEW FEELING OF NATIONALITY. 105 struggle of Albuera over the French forces of the south of Spain. In 1812 Wellington was able to assume a vigorous offensive. After completely defeating Marmont at Sala- manca (June 22, 1812) he entered Madrid; but the con- centration of French armies compelled a retreat yet again on Portugal. In May 181 3 he rapidly advanced by Valladolid and utterly overthrew King Joseph and Marshal Victor in the great battle of Vittoria (June 21, 1813). The French were driven across the Pyrenees, and the fall of San Sebastian and Pampeluna (October 18 13) freed Spain from its invaders. The Spanish Constitution of 1812. — The new activity of life and government which invigorated the Spanish people in the midst of its trials was shown in the new constitution promulgated by the Spanish Cortds at Cadiz in 1 8 1 2 : this declared the monarchy to be con- stitutional, and the suffrage to be extended to every Spaniard, one deputy being elected for every 70,000 inhabitants ; lastly, it abolished entails with all feudal privileges and prerogatives. 1 In 1 8 14, however, Ferdinand VII, when restored to his kingdom, refused to acknowledge the new constitution, restored the feudal customs, and inaugurated the period of reaction, which was only checked in 1820; but amidst all this turmoil the Spanish nation entered on a new period of national life. GERMANY. — The humiliations of 1806 and 1808 aroused through Prussia and North Germany a desire for national regeneration, which it was felt must precede a successful struggle for freedom. 1 This Constitution embodied the aspirations of Spanish and also of Italian patriots far into this century (see page 182). 106 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. All patriotic Germans were thrilled by the example of Spain, where the successful rising of the people in 1808 contrasted painfully with the flattery of the vassal princes of Germany to their protector at Erfurt. Moreover, the military execution of Palm, a bookseller of Nuremberg (August 25, 1806), whose only crime was that he had refused to declare the name of the author of a patriotic pamphlet, roused a horror of Napoleon among peace-loving German citizens. In addition to the sense of wrong must be added the material want caused by Napoleon's continental system, which had ruined Germany's foreign trade ; coffee, tobacco, sugar, 1 and all colonial produce, had become the rarest and dearest of luxuries. The river-trade on the Rhine had almost ceased ; for in the Confederation of the Rhine, as in Holland too, the people had been ruined by the expense of supporting French armies. The Prussian revenue was confiscated by the French from 1806 to 1808, and the forced contributions made on some Prussian towns were so crushing that the resulting debts have only been paid off in our own times. NEW PRUSSIA. — Already on October 9, 1807, the great patriotic statesman Stein, as soon as he came into office, carried the measures known as the Memel decrees, which began the regeneration of the Prussian realm. (1) The edict of Emancipation abolished all feudal servitude ; henceforth Prussia relied on freedmen for her liberation. (2) The barriers which separated the callings of nobles, citizens, and peasants, were also swept away. (3) The middle class received the right of owning land, which 1 In France cane-sugar was partly replaced by beet-sugar ; the source of a new European industry is thus traceable to the ' ' continental blockade." xvi] THE NEW FEELING OF NATIONALITY. 107 could previously be held only by nobles. (4) The towns gained the right to choose their own municipal councils. In 1 81 1 the Prussian statesman Hardenberg, who succeeded Stein when the latter was driven from office by Napoleon's interference, freed the peasant from all feudal obligations towards his lord, and made him owner of two- thirds of his holding, the other third going to the lord in return for the loss of feudal dues. Tugendbund. — Side by side with these legislative reforms, Stein initiated a social regeneration of equal importance by founding a secret society called the Tugend- bund, by which the manlier virtues were cultivated with a view to the liberation of the Fatherland. German literature breathed a national spirit very different from the colourless cosmopolitanism of earlier days. The brave young poet Korner, before he fell in a fight against the French, stirred military ardour by his " sword song," and the patriotic professor and poet, Arndt, soon thrilled Germans everywhere to a new sense of national unity by his song, " What is the German's Fatherland ? " The national system of education in Prussia, which has brought such wonderful results to a land naturally poor, was commenced by the learned and patriotic minister Humboldt. He reformed the "gymnasia" or public schools, and founded the University of Berlin. Thus Prussia in the days of her adversity laid the foundations of her future greatness. France, while torn by her revolution, and Prussia while crushed under the heel of Napoleon, reorganised their internal systems, and drew strength from their days of calamity. Stein. — The Hanoverian minister Scharnhorst, called to reorganise the Prussian army, evaded the terms of the treaty limiting it to 40,000 men by rapidly passing men 108 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. through the ranks, and by his skill and activity he prepared the means of liberation, though hampered by an almost bankrupt treasury. A letter of Stein's was intercepted in August 1808, in which he stated that the affairs of Spain were making a profound impression ; and Napoleon ordered Frederick William III to replace his patriotic minister by the more pliable Hardenberg. Stein's- property was confiscated by Napoleon. The undaunted patriot repaired to Vienna, and lastly to St. Petersburg : at both capitals he strengthened the party opposed to Napoleon's despotism. Stein seemed to be completely worsted in the unequal struggle of one mind against the master of western and central Europe ; but in reality he had paved the way for a truly national movement which was to prove stronger than Napoleon I, and, when aroused to its full strength by Napoleon III, was to crush the nephew even more completely. It is Stein's great achievement that he saw the secret of the new strength which France acquired in 1789, and Spain in 1808, viz. the strength of a nation's resistance. It is thus possible to point out the years in which five of the great peoples of Europe awoke to a new and fuller sense of national life and unity. France found it in the Revolution of 1789; Spain and Prussia in the disasters of 1807 and 1808; while Napoleon's levelling policy in Italy was leading more gradually, through the years 1 797-1 810, to a desire for Italian unity ; and his attack on Russia first roused that power to a sense of its great strength (18 12). The league of the allies in 1792 compelled France to organise her great military resources ; and now Napoleon, wielding the forces of France, Germany, and Italy, was compelling the rest of Europe to organise itself to resist him; and the national forces resisting Napoleon, xv'i] THE NEW FEELING OF NATIONALITY. 109 strengthened by his very tyranny, eventually overthrew him. Providence was using Napoleon I. as an unconscious agent to set in motion the two greatest currents of events of this century on the continent — the unity of Germany and the unity of Italy — events which were to be at last successfully completed owing to the short-sighted policy of Napoleon III. CHAPTER XVII. WAGRAM FINAL ANNEXATIONS (1809-1811). Austria declares war. — In Austria the reforming efforts of Count Stadion produced little effect beyond the re- organisation of the army, and the formation of a national militia, in which the people enrolled themselves with an enthusiasm new to that artificial state : for the danger of the Franco-Russian alliance had bound together the races of the Hapsburg Empire ; also the old jealousy between Austria and Prussia was dormant. The humiliations and dangers of 1805 and 1806 had prepared the way for the rise of a stronger State on a new and more solid basis. At present, however, the precipitation of Austria ruined her prospects. The chief Prussian fortresses were still held by French troops, and Frederick William III had to promise an army of 15,000 men against Austria, should she declare war against Napoleon ; and the rivalry between Alexander and Napoleon had not yet broken out. At the end of 1808 Alexander had not established himself firmly in Finland, where his badly commanded troops had been several times beaten ; nor yet in the Danubian provinces, which the Turks were preparing to vigorously contest. So Alexander still clung to the Napoleonic alliance. Moreover, the princes of the Rhenish Confederation only thought of preying on Prussia and Austria; only in chap, xvn] WAGRAM— FINAL ANNEXATIONS. in Westphalia was there any wish to shake off the Napoleonic yoke. Nevertheless, lured on by the example of Spain and encouraged by England, the Austrian Emperor, Francis I, determined to risk another war while Napoleon was engaged in Spain ; for the armed peace which followed the treaty of Presburg was almost worse than war itself. So Francis declared war in March 1809. Bckmuhl. — Napoleon soon had 800,000 men under arms : his German contingents at first might have been crushed by Austrian troops, if these had moved with any rapidity. But Napoleon arrived in time to inspirit his German allies ; and mainly by their aid he defeated the Austrians in five battles on five successive days, the most important of which were the last two at Eckmiihl and Ratisbon. Napoleon's genius had thus changed a retro- grade movement of the French and Confederate troops into a powerful offensive one, which cut the large Austrian army in two parts and separated it by the Danube. In Italy, however, Eugene Beauharnais, whom Bonaparte had adopted as his son, was defeated by the Austrian Archduke John. Rising in Tyrol. — Tyrol was formerly governed by its own Diet, with little interference from Vienna : taxes were light and the free-born peasants lived happily under their patriarchal system, loving their nobles and clergy, each commune having its own laws and customs. When these people, proud and independent as the Swiss, were handed over by Napoleon to Bavaria, they rose against the military conscription and the religious changes ordered by the en- lightened Bavarian monarch. The mountaineers, under the gallant Hofer, broke down bridges, and cut off the French and Bavarian regulars in the valleys by their deadly rifle 112 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. aim, or by rolling down rocks from the heights above. Napoleon sent a French column which retook Innspriick, but after the check of Aspern it had to rejoin Napoleon. The disaster of Wagram, however, compelled Austria to desert the faithful Tyrolese ; but even then these devoted mountaineers, wearing the peacock's plumes of the house of Hapsburg, struggled bravely on against great odds. At last they were dispersed, and their brave leader Hofer was captured and shot as a rebel by Napoleon's orders (February 1810). Aspern (May 21, 22, 1809). — Napoleon, however, re- garding the Italian and Tyrolese campaigns as side-issues, determined to strike at the heart of Austria. Overcoming an obstinate resistance at the river Traun, 1 his troops appeared before Vienna, which was compelled to submit after a short bombardment (May 13, 1809). He tried to win over the Hungarians by promising to free them from Austria, but not one Hungarian trusted him. His position at Vienna was not safe until he had defeated the Austrian army on the north bank of the Danube, which threatened him near Vienna. Napoleon, master of the south bank, determined to cross the network of channels into which the Danube divides near Vienna ; he easily seized the large Lobau Island, below Vienna ; but when he had thrown his forces across the narrow northern channel of the river, he failed after two days' sharp fighting to dislodge the Austrians from the villages of Essling and Aspern. At a critical time, too, his pontoon bridges were swept away by the trees which the Austrians cast above into the flooded stream of the Danube, and a more daring commander than the Archduke Charles might have cut off the French troops now isolated on the 1 A southern affluent of the Danube flowing into it just below Linz. xvn] WAGRAM — FINAL ANNEXATIONS. 113 northern bank. Five times the Austrians carried the village of Essling ; five times they were driven out by the intrepid French. The brave and skilful Marshal Lannes fell and, after inflicting and receiving fearful losses, Napoleon was obliged under cover of the darkness to withdraw his troops by the repaired bridge into the isle of Lobau. This terrible check in the heart of an enemy's country would have crushed an ordinary general : it only served to show the immense superiority of Napoleon over all continental commanders. He gave out that the Austrians would have been crushed but for the succour of " General" Danube ; he fortified the Lobau island with cannons which swept the northern bank ; he kept his hold on the south side and on Vienna itself, whose workmen were compelled to aid in the construction of a bridge of boats and of two solid bridges built on piles. He also ordered all available troops to his support ; Prince Eugene, his adopted son, was with the French army of Italy to drive the Archduke John before him and join Napoleon. Macdonald and Mortier were to hurry northwards from Styria and Dalmatia ; the troops engaged in fighting the Tyrolese were to withdraw and only leave guards at the ends of the river valleys to seal up the revolt ; lastly, his Bavarian, Wiirtemberg, and Saxon allies were hurried down the Danube to assist in riveting the chains of Europe. Supineness of the Allies.— During the five weeks in which Napoleon was preparing for a second spring, what were all his enemies doing? The Archduke Charles, surprised at his own good fortune in checking the man whose genius he revered, was occupied in entrenching himself on the heights around Essling and Wagram. His brother, the Archduke John, with an army inferior in numbers and efficiency, gave battle 1 U4 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. at Raab to Prince Eugene, who was now following him through Eastern Hungary. The Austrian and Hungarian levies were completely routed ; so his army, which the Archduke Charles had ordered to march up the Danube to strengthen him, fled down its banks to Komorn, while Prince Eugene's victorious troops reinforced Napoleon. Schill. — In Prussia the chivalrous young Schill had in April 1809 made a quixotic attempt against Westphalia, but he was driven north to Wismar and Stralsund by Westphalian and Dutch troops in Napoleon's service. He and his comrades, valiantly fighting, were cut to pieces in the streets of Stralsund. Other isolated risings in North Germany were easily crushed ; and yet England was during all this spring preparing a vast expedition which might have roused all North Germany against Napoleon. Instead of landing at the mouth of the Elbe, the English forces made a feeble attempt to seize Antwerp, and finally wasted away on the unhealthy shores of Walcheren ; isolated attacks on the coast-line of the kingdom of Naples also frittered away England's energies, with the sole result of keeping Murat in a state of alarm. Napoleon gained his victories by keenly discerning the weakest point of his foes, and by crushing them with an irresistible concentration of force ; while his foes so scattered their forces as to offer every advantage to a master in the art of concentration. Never did Napoleon show his daring genius more than in the crossing of the Danube, which was effected on the night of July 3, 1809. Misleading the enemy by a violent cannonade on Aspern, he swiftly threw across his 180,000 men by six movable boat bridges' lower down the stream, and outflanking the Austrian fortified positions, rendered their possession of no importance. xvn] WAGRAM FINAL ANNEXATIONS. "Wagram. — On the 5th July the great battle of Wagram was fought within sight of Vienna. The towers of the capital were thronged with citizens who watched from afar the fluctuations in this gigantic struggle on which depended the fate of Europe. At first the Austrian centre drove back on the Danube the somewhat scattered French forces under Massena, who commanded, though nearly dis- abled by a wound ; but a heavy column under Macdonald, WAGRAM AUSTRIAN — 1 FRENCH I ENCLISH MILES well supported by artillery, forced it back ; at the same time the French right under Davoust outflanked the strong defen- sive position on the Archduke Charles's left wing, which ought to have been supported by the Archduke John's army marching from Pressburg. The delay of his arrival caused a general retreat of the Austrians, which was conducted steadily under cover of a formidable artillery fire. The Austrians lost nearly 30,000 men in killed and wounded, and the French about 20,000 men. This terrible day ended the war; and the retreat which Wellesley had had to make on Portugal after the battle of Talavera further decided Austria to sue for peace. n6 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. The Treaty of Vienna or Schonbrunn (signed October 14, 1809) deprived Austria of 3,000,000 inhabit- ants : she had to give up to France Carniola, parts of Carinthia and Croatia, with the districts and ports of Trieste and Fiume. These new possessions were, under the name of the Illyrian provinces, added to the province of Dalmatia gained by France after the Treaty of Press- burg. Tyrol and Salzburg went to Bavaria ; Western Galicia to Warsaw, and East Galicia to Russia. The Vienna Treasury 1 soon had to own a bankruptcy in 181 1, and again in 18 14; but the faithful allegiance of Hungary, Bohemia, and of the German population in Austria proper, did not waver amid all the disasters of the Hapsburg monarchy. Napoleon in 1809 sought to entice the Hungarians from their allegiance to the Hapsburgs, but the revolutionary ideas had taken no deep root in Hungary ; for the democratic conspiracy of 1795 had been promptly crushed by the government with the aid of the powerful Hungarian nobility. After the disasters of Austerlitz and Wagram Francis saw the need of conciliating the Hungarians by all possible means. He gained all his requests from the Hungarian Diet, provided that he came to sue for it clad in the national Hungarian costume. So Napoleon's proclamations produced little effect — especially when his troops invaded the country and subjected it to the usual crushing exactions. But Austria's policy of opposition to Napoleon was soon to be abandoned for a pretence of friendship. Stadion was succeeded as chief adviser at Vienna by the astute Metternich, who was afterwards such a power in Europe. " From the day when peace is signed," wrote Metternich, " we must confine our system to tacking and turning and flattering. Thus alone may we possibly preserve our ex- 1 It could pay only 20 per cent and 40 per cent on its own notes ; and this too in spite of constant subsidies from London. xvn] WAGRAM — FI.VAL ANNEXATIONS. 117 istence till the day of general deliverance." In pursuance of this ignoble aim the Tyrolese were abandoned. The Austrian Marriage. — Soon it was rumoured that Napoleon meant to divorce his wife Josephine Beauharnais, because by her he had no heir to succeed .him ; and, only four months after the disastrous peace of Vienna was signed, Francis betrothed his daughter, the Archduchess Marie Louise, to his conqueror. By this extraordinary match the " parvenu of the French Revolution " wedded a near relative of Marie Antoinette, who had perished by the guillotine ; but this alliance with the old and powerful Hapsburg dynasty gave him immense power in central Europe, and when a son was born to him, it seemed that the Napoleonic dynasty had for ever ousted the Bourbons from France. Yet this son, called the King of Rome, though twice named by Napoleon as his successor, was never to wield the imperial power. After 18 14 he lived at Vienna, bearing the title of Duke of Reichstadt, and died in 1831. Annexations of the Papal States, Holland, etc. — Areola, Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland — these were the victories which had marked Napoleon's rise to power. Wagram and the Austrian marriage seemed to consolidate it. After the battle of Aspern, Napoleon had annexed the States of the Church to the French Empire, which thus stretched beyond the Tiber. On the day before Wagram was fought, the French general Miollis arrested Pope Pius VII in his palace at Rome, and he was conducted as a prisoner to Fontainebleau by order of the man who had received the Imperial crown at his hands. In Spain Napoleon had not ventured to annex the land between the Pyrenees and the Ebro, being satisfied with controlling the country through his puppet king Joseph. But Napoleon's position in the north of Europe had been greatly strengthened n8 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch.xvii by the miserable failure of the British Walcheren expedition under the incapable Earl of Chatham (November 1809); and he now felt strong enough to venture on further annexations there. In Holland Napoleon incessantly pressed his brother Louis, king of that unfortunate little land, to apply the continental blockade against English goods with its full rigour. This was most distasteful to the more liberal- minded and sentimental Louis, who really had the welfare of his new subjects at heart. After enduring many vehement reproaches from his all-powerful brother, Louis finally abdicated (July 3, 18 10); and five days later Holland was absorbed in the French Empire. With the same object in view, viz. the extension of the continental blockade against England, Napoleon in 1 8 10 annexed all the country between Holland and the mouth of the Elbe. All these annexations, together with that of the Hanse towns, Hamburg, Bremen, Liibeck, and of Lauenburg and Oldenburg, were intended to seal up Europe against English goods (December 18 10). These extensions of the French Empire to the Baltic led to a more important result than the absorption of part of the mush- room kingdom of Westphalia and of the three northern Hanseatic free cities ; for the Duke of Oldenburg, whose duchy was sacrificed to Napoleon's desire to strangle English commerce, was a relative of the Czar Alexander. The Russian czar had long been chafing under the commercial tyranny of the continental system. Enraged at these last annexations, made by Napoleon in a time of peace, he resolved to arm in self-defence against a system which all Europe was every month finding more and more unbear- able. CENTRAL EUROPE IN 1812 AND CAMPAIGNS OF 1792 - 1BIO Lijnefxtude hiijtt London: Edward Stanford. .itov&brd* O a 3 i> -> 3 d •0 s > ~£ £' a > S-o tJ° U1 J .3 o> rf M 0) — "3 'E 3 3 a < (3h § 2 2 w bo CD u z<" 3 •og S'S 5 O ' — " a' 3 Q <« ^ a OJ r-1 3 £.«# CHAPTER XXII. RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. When the allied troops again entered Paris, Bliicher was with difficulty restrained by the calmer judgment of his king and of Wellington from blowing up the bridge of Jena. The wrath of the old " Marshal Forwards," as he was called by his soldiers, who had seen his own country for seven years crushed by France, was further expressed in his desire to partition France as Germany had been parcelled out by Napoleon ; and his views were shared by many of the Prussian " patriots." Less extreme views were held by the Prussian king ; and the practical good sense of the Duke of Wellington, who had been named Generalissimo of the allied armies in Paris, soon achieved as great a success in diplomacy as his skill and foresight had won in baffling all the best French marshals in Spain. Alexander — The Holy Alliance. — The allies in Paris were soon joined by a monarch, whose pre-eminent services in the overthrow of Napoleon gave overpowering weight to the party of moderation. The Czar Alexander, as the generous and powerful rival and conqueror of Napoleon, was almost worshipped by the royalists of Paris ; and his chivalrous nature was shown by his accord with Wellington not to press hard on France now that she was freed from Napoleon. His devout but somewhat dreamy and un- CENTRAL EUROPE AFTER 1815 o SO 4° Long. R. of Greenwich 8' London: Edward Stanford. Stanfords Geographical Estab chap, xxn] RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. 151 practical mind soon suggested to him a scheme of apply- ing Christian principles to politics ,as a protest against the gospel of force which had prevailed since the Treaty of Campo Formio ; but under the skilful management of Metternich this so-called " Holy Alliance " (September 2 6, 1 8 15), concluded between the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, was soon to become a means of thwarting Liberal principles all over the continent of Europe ; for Metternich himself has described the Alliance as a " loud- sounding nothing"; and it was this "pillar of order" (as he called himself) who was soon the leading spirit in the reactionary policy of the continental States. The destinies of Europe were to be moulded by a second congress, in which England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia took the chief part ; and it was soon seen that the high ideals of the Holy Alliance were not to have any practical application. A more definite policy was set forth in the Quadruple Alliance (Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain), which bound these Powers to the support of the Bourbons in France, and to the perpetual exclusion of Napoleon. The following were the results of the Congress of Vienna : — France. — The old difficulties about Poland and Saxony had been increased by the demand of Prussia that Central Europe should disarm France by the cession to Prussia and Germany of the north-eastern frontier fortresses and of the entire provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Against this the Czar Alexander and the English envoys wisely urged that such a terrible loss would weaken the new Bourbon ruler in France, and cause his people to risk everything for the recovery of provinces taken from Germany so long ago ; 1 1 Metz, Toul, and Verdun were taken by Henri II in 1552. Strass- burg was seized by Louis XIV in 1681 in time of peace, when Germany was weak. 152 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. and finally, that a still divided Germany was not strong enough to hold them against permanent French hostility. Wellington himself admitted that "France was left in too great strength for the peace of Europe," and Hardenberg vainly protested with prophetic foresight, "If we let slip this opportunity streams of blood will flow to attain this object." But Russia's interest in the "Eastern Question" was best served by leaving France as a strong power to counter- balance Prussia and Austria. So in the end France gained slightly on her old territories of 1789 by the addition of Avignon and small parts of Savoy and Alsace, which last province ceased to have any connection with Germany. Prussia. — Scarcely less important was the dispute about Saxony. Austria, Russia, England, and the smaller Ger- man States protested against the complete absorption of Saxony by Prussia. After bringing the Powers to the very verge of war this dispute was settled by Prussia receiving nearly half of the enlarged realm of Saxony, which was thus reduced to its present size. Prussia also gained the rich and populous Rhine province, with a population of over a million, mostly Roman Catholics. Of the duchy of War- saw, which had been Prussian territory from 1793 to 1807, she regained only the district of Thorn and the duchy of Posen,. which gave her the gradually rounded frontier, con- necting East Prussia with Silesia, which she still holds. By the acquisition of Swedish Pomerania, Rugen, 1 and a great part of Jerome's kingdom of Westphalia, Prussia further gained a large German population which more than com- pensated in numbers and patriotism for her loss of the Poles in the East. Henceforth she became the natural guardian of Germany against Russia and France, for she now 1 She gained Swedish Pomerania and Riigen by a complicated series of exchanges. xxn] RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. 153 touched France on the south-west. And though her new subjects in the western provinces were sundered from her main territory by Hesse and Hanover, and, as Catholics long subject to the Code Napoleon, were for some time lukewarm in their patriotism, yet these difficulties and responsibilities only served in the end to develop the vigour of Prussian statesmen in their championship of Germany. Thus Prussia, after being nearly crushed out of existence by Napoleon, rose to a position of greater power than she held at the death of Frederick the Great in 1786. Austria. — Austria, on the contrary, had long desired to give up her distant Flemish subjects, who were disaffected towards her and could at any time embroil her with France; by also relinquishing her old rights in Alsace and South Baden, she no longer touched France ; but by thus limiting her responsibilities in the defence of Germany she virtually handed over to her vigorous northern rival the championship of the new German Confederation. For these losses Austria recouped herself by gaining the provinces of Illyria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Salzburg, together with her newer posses- sions, also wrested from her by Napoleon — viz. the Lom- bardo- Venetian kingdom, Dalmatia in the south, and the part of Galicia ceded to the duchy of Warsaw. Thus, with the exception of the Tyrolese provinces, Austria's gains were in Sclavonic and Italian peoples. Her territorial gains, which seemed to the clever but superficial Metternich to involve little danger, again raised her to the dignity from which Austerlitz and Wagram had hurled her ; but she was now not so much a German as a Sclavonic power, and the paternal despotism of the emperor at Vienna was soon to find more and more difficulty in holding together his diverse peoples. The German Confederation. — After wearisome dis- 154 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. putes on this tangled question, the thirty-nine States which had survived the ruin of the Holy Roman Empire were formed into a German Confederation, which was well-nigh as cumbrous in its constitution as its venerable predecessor had been. Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Wurtemberg, Baden, the two Hesses, Brunswick, Mecklen- burg, and other smaller States, with the free cities Liibeck, Frankfurt -on -the -Main, Bremen, and Hamburg, composed this vast Confederation. It numbered 54,000,000 in- habitants. Denmark, on account of her king's rights over the German duchy of Holstein, and Holland, on account of her king's duchy of Luxemburg, had a voice in its affairs. Austria held the permanent presidency ; but both she and Prussia were altogether outvoted by the petty princes, each of whom had one vote. The thirteenth article of the con- stitution declared that each State should grant a constitu- tion to its people, but it was soon seen that this vague promise was to be cancelled in the general tide of reaction which from Vienna spread over the continent ; and the bitter disappointment felt by the Prussian and German patriots who had fought for king and country in the belief that a liberal constitution would be granted, gave for many years a bitter tone to German thought and feeling, culmi- nating in 1830 and 1848. Of the smaller German States Hanover was raised to the rank of a kingdom for its ruler George III of England, with the addition of East Frisia, which had formed Prussia's north sea-coast line. Bavaria, thanks to her timely defection from Napoleon, received the Rhenish Palatinate; while Baden gained in the south. Throughout the greater part of West Germany and the Rhine province of Prussia the Napoleonic code continued in force, and all the " mediatised " counts and princes remained as in the time of the Rhenish Confederation. xxn] RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. 155 Italy — Pall of Murat. — Murat had ended his acts of duplicity by preparing to invade Northern Italy with his Neapolitan troops, giving out that he came to attack the French Bourbons who wished to restore Ferdinand to his former throne of Naples. The Austrians attacked Murat in April 1815, as he advanced northwards after hearing of Napoleon's successful landing in France. He aroused some enthusiasm by pro- claiming the unity and independence of Italy ; but after reaching Bologna he was obliged to retreat, and soon fled to join Napoleon, who would have nothing to do with him. An English squadron and Austrian troops restored the detested Ferdinand to his throne of Naples in May 18 15. Meanwhile Murat had taken refuge in Corsica, and after Waterloo he made a second attempt to rouse Italy in his favour ; but on his landing he was seized and shot — an ignominious end for the bravest and most brilliant of Napoleon's relatives (October 13, 1815). For two centuries French or Austrian influence had striven for the mastery in Italy. The downfall of Napoleon and his representatives in the north and south, Eugene Beauharnais and Murat, seemed to be quite naturally fol- lowed by the ascendency of Austria. 1 She now added to her old province of Milan the whole of the rich province of Venetia, first handed over to her by Napoleon at Campo Formio and then retaken by the treaty of Presburg. The duchies of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, were also restored to the younger branches of the House of Hapsburg. Met- 1 In fact, Austria bore a mandate from the Powers assembled at Vienna, to oust French influence from the distracted Italian peninsula, somewhat similar to that with which she was commissioned by the Berlin Congress in 1878 to counteract Russian influence in the Balkan peninsula ; but her conduct in the latter case has been more constitutional. 156 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. ternich's policy was all-powerful in the States of Central and South Italy. The restoration of the kings of Sardinia and Naples to their realms, and of the imprisoned Pope Pius VII to his States, completed the triumph of reaction in Italy ; and this was especially seen — firstly, in the forcible annexation of the republic of Genoa to the kingdom of Sardinia, which was in nowise strengthened by the addition of a coast line and city hostile to Piedmont and a hotbed of revolutionary intrigue ; secondly, by the speedy suppression of the free Sicilian constitution which had been forced by Lord Ben- tinck on King Ferdinand while he was a refugee in Sicily, protected by the British fleet. Thus it was no chance result that Genoa and Sicily were soon in the van of the struggle for Italian unity and liberty. Genoa was ever urging on the ruler of Sardinia to a " for- ward " policy, and she supplied many of the leaders in the struggle ; while Sicily was rightly judged by Mazzini to be the best starting-point for the attack on the despotism of South Italy (i860). Russia. — This power had been advancing with giant strides ever since the conquest of the Crimea (1774) had opened the Black Sea to her influence. The first partition of Poland in 1772 had extended her western frontier from Smolensk to Witepsk ; the second, in 1793, to Vilna ; the third, in 1795, to the rivers Niemen and Bug. The treaty of Tilsit gave her the district of Bialystock out of Prussia's share of the booty, and now the peace of 181 5, besides assuring to her all her recent acquisitions in Finland, Poland, and Bessarabia, handed over to her all the grand-duchy of Warsaw, except the districts of Posen and Thorn. Thus she now acquired the solid block of territory which divides East Prussia from Galicia ; and the xxii] RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. 157 tiny republic of Cracow was all that remained of the once great Polish kingdom. In the east, Russia was fast becoming a great Asiatic Power by the conquest of Siberia and Georgia, which brought her near to the borders of China and Persia respectively. Well might Napoleon say, " In fifty years Europe will be republican or Cossack." Great Britain. — In Europe itself Great Britain had gained less than any of the successful allies, viz. Malta, Heligoland, and a protectorate over the Ionian Isles ; but she had been growing during these years of strife into a world-wide power, in spite of all Napoleon's efforts to con- quer or starve her. The capture of Seringapatam, of Delhi (1803), and the Mahratta war were completing the conquest of India. The easy conquest of the Dutch and French colonies gave her new power in every sea ; while the gradual settlement of New South Wales was ensur- ing a peaceful conquest of the great southern " isle of continent." Indeed, it is a curious comment on the instability of mere military triumphs that those very Powers against which Napoleon directed all his might in the end gained most largely from France and her allies. The New World. — The financial needs of Napoleon furthered the progress of the other great branch of the English race, for in 1803 he sold to the United States the vast territory called Louisiana at a cost of little more than a penny per acre, and thus opened to our kinsmen the vast prairies up to and beyond the Mississippi. It will be seen also x that the Napoleonic wars hastened the severance of Central and South America from Spain and Portugal. 1 Pages 184-186. 158 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. The Scandinavian Countries.- — As compensation for the loss of Finland and her small part of Pomerania, Sweden received Norway, which had formerly belonged to the Danish crown. Norway had been thus bargained away by the allies as the price of Swedish assistance in the War of Liberation, when the Danish ruler unwisely adhered to Napoleon's fortunes. The transfer of a democratic country like Norway to the Swedish feudal monarchy was not effected without much resistance, which was overcome by a demonstration of a British fleet (1814); but this forced union of Norway and Sweden was to lead to much friction. Denmark received a petty compensation for her losses in the annexation of Lauenburg, a small duchy north of the Elbe : she retained her old supremacy in Schleswig- Holstein, and also her hold over Iceland and the Faroe Isles, which had been regarded as dependencies of Norway. The Netherlands. — The Belgians, united to the French by ties of religion, language, and twenty years of common rule, desired to remain united to France, or to form an independent republic ; but the allies determined to compensate Holland for her terrible losses 1 at home and abroad by adding on the Belgian Netherlands : they hoped thus to build up against France a strong barrier on the north. So they united the Catholic Flemish provinces to Protestant Holland, which had recently been raised to the rank of a kingdom under the son of its former hereditary stadholder, William of Orange. This forcible union was not to last more than fifteen years. Switzerland (continued from pages 64, 120), by regain- 1 Holland lost Ceylon and the Cape ; for the latter she received two millions sterling as compensation. xxn] RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. 159 ing Geneva, Valais, and Neufchatel, now consisted of twenty- two cantons, and the Confederation was now declared by the Congress of Vienna to be placed under the guarantee of perpetual neutrality; but the King of Prussia 1 again became Prince of Neufchatel, until the disputes of 1857 put an end to this anomaly of a principality forming part of a republican Confederacy. The Bernese oligarchs, who had lost their supremacy in 1798 by the establishment of the Helvetic Republic, now made an effort to regain all their powers and privileges over the cantons once subject to them. The new "Federal Act" of 18 15 loosened the union of the cantons and enacted that the cantonal constitutions should be recognised by the central Diet, the presidency of which was to belong to the head cantons of Berne, Zurich, and Lucerne in turns. Napoleon's act had abo- lished cantonal customs dues ; they were now re-estab- lished, and cantonal governments reappeared in their patriarchal form, though the social changes wrought by Napoleon remained. Recapitulation. — Although hampered by previous bargains and beset by dynastic traditions, the Congress of Vienna made a great advance towards the settlement of Europe on its modern basis. The terrible convulsions of the last twenty years had overthrown many unnatural com- binations of States and peoples ; and now, in spite of obvious and glaring mistakes, these were remodelled in a more natural manner. Thus France ceased to have any German subjects, except those in her old possessions of Alsace and Lorraine. The organisation of Germany was now less cum- 1 After Jena, Napoleon had given Neufchatel to his own general, Berthier. 160 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap- brous, and its divisions less minute, than under the old empire. Prussia approached more nearly to her natural limits by becoming the chief German power, while she lost her Eastern Polish possessions gained in 1772. Russia had now become a vast Sclavonic power. Great Britain, though gaining next to nothing in Europe, had acquired the empire of the seas. Sweden and Denmark lost their European lands across the Baltic and the Cattegat respectively, and were now limited to their own peninsulas. The statesmen at Vienna were, however, too much bound by the bargains of the allies in 181 3 and 18 14 to give due weight to the rising feeling of nationality ; indeed the superficial Metternich, ready as he was to barter away peoples like so much live stock from one owner to another, could not see that the arrangements in Italy, Belgium, Schleswig-Holstein, Poland, and in the Germanic Con- federation, were mere makeshifts, certain to be swept away by popular risings. The Congress closed by declaring the freedom of navigation of European rivers, and by condemning the slave trade. England had abolished her slave trade in 1807, and the French republicans in 1790 had aimed a blow at the infamous traffic by proclaiming the liberty and equality of all mankind. Now, in 1815, sterner measures against slave-owners were only waived by the Powers on the strenuous opposition of Spain and Portugal. France definitely abolished her slave trade in 1815. The Peace. — For the next forty years Europe enjoyed comparative freedom from war, except in Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands, Poland, and Hungary. xxu] RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. 161 After nearly twenty years of the most tremendous wars known in all history, it might be expected that undisturbed repose would follow for a like period ; but the years of war had also been years of social upheaval and change, so the ensuing peace resembled the exhaustion which follows fever rather than the calm repose of healthy toil. Even our own country, which had passed through the tempest without invasion or revolution, was completely exhausted by its financial efforts as paymaster of the coalitions ; and our subsequent history has been overshadowed by the crushing burden of debt and taxation. 1 Still greater was the distress on the continent, which had been in nearly every part devastated by war. Even the few districts, as Western France, South Italy, East Hun- gary, the south and north of Russia, which had not been the scenes of regular warfare, were drained of men to fight for or against Napoleon. The disbanding of armies threw numbers of men on the labour-market ; while the new conditions of industry caused by the gradual extension of labour-saving machinery began to ruin many cottage industries and concentrate artisans in large National Debt. Great Britain France Germany . Russia Austria Dates. I 793- 1816. ^370,000,000 32,000,000 30,000,000 20,000,000 ^841,000,000 140,000,000 53,000,000 50,000,000 99,000,000 Mulhall. M 162 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xxn manufactories and crowded towns. So the new era brought discontent, which reached its climax where men had been promised the privileges of constitutional govern- ment, and where those promises were now deliberately set aside. CHAPTER XXIII FRANCE (1815-1830). Louis XVIII (1815-1824). Charles X (1824-1830). Louis XVIII re-entered his capital only twenty days after the battle of Waterloo. The satisfaction of the well-to-do citizens was cooled by the terms of the new treaty of peace ; yet the allies did not press severely on France. After Leipzig they had offered Napoleon the Rhine frontier, after his first abdication they left France with frontiers slightly in advance of those of 1789, and now she was left with practically the same frontiers as before Waterloo ; but she had to pay a war indemnity of .^40,000,000, to submit to the occupation of her northern and eastern provinces by 150,000 of the allied troops for a period not exceeding five years, and also to restore the works of art of which Napoleon had rifled the cities of Italy and Germany. Thus France was defeated but not crushed. Indeed she had gained Avignon and some districts of Alsace since 1792, and she had gained social and political stability by having millions of peasants as small proprietors -in the soil ; moreover, as Napoleon always waged his wars at the expense of his conquered foes, the French national debt was after all the wars only one-sixth of the debt of Great Britain. 1 So France soon rose to a position of strength and prosperity 1 See p. 161. 164 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. hardly equalled in all Europe, in spite of bad harvests, political unrest, and the foreign occupation which ended in 1818. 1 Reactionary Measures. — The royalists, after a quarter of a century of repression, now revenged themselves with truly French vehemence. In France a victorious party generally crushes its opponents ; and the elections, held during the full swing of the royalist reaction, sent up to Paris a Legislative Assembly " more royalist than the king himself." Before it assembled, Louis XVIII, in spite of his promise only to punish those who were declared by the Assembly to be traitors, proscribed fifty-seven persons who had deserted to Napoleon in the " Hundred Days." This list was drawn up by Fouche", who had in 1793 voted for the death of Louis XVI, and now showed the zeal of a renegade in the service of the new monarch : of the proscribed men thirty-eight were banished and a few were shot. Among the latter the most illustrious was Marshal Ney, whose past bravery did not shield him from the ex- treme penalty for the betrayal of the military oath. Con- demned to death by the Chamber of Peers, he met his fate like the hero of Friedland and of the Russian campaign : "Soldiers, aim straight at the heart," were his last words. This impolitic execution rankled deep in the breasts of all Napoleon's old soldiers, but for the present all opposition was swept away in the furious tide of reaction. Brune, one of Napoleon's marshals, was killed by the royalist populace of Avignon ; and the Protestants of the south, 1 The celebrated words that Louis would occupy his chair of state on the Pont de Jena when Blucher intended to blow it up, were invented for the king by the Comte de Beugnot, who also placed in the mouth of the Corate d'Artois on his return to France the patriotic phrase, ' ' There is one Frenchman more." xxm] FRANCE (1815-1830). 165 who were suspected of favouring Napoleon's home policy, suffered terrible outrages at Nimes and Uzes in this " white terror." 1 The restored monarchy had far stronger executive powers than the old system wielded before 1789, for it now drew into its hands the centralised powers which, under the Directory and the Empire, had replaced the old cumbrous provincial system ; but even this gain of power did not satisfy the hot-headed royalists of the Chamber. They instituted judicial courts under a pro- vost (prevot), which passed severe sentences without right of appeal. Dismissing the comparatively Liberal ministers Talley- rand and Fouche, Louis in September 1816 summoned a more royalist ministry under the Due de Richelieu, which was itself hurried on by the reactionaries. Chateaubriand fanned the flames of royalist passion by his writings, until the king even found it necessary to dissolve this mischievous Chamber, and the new deputies who assembled (February 181 7) showed a more moderate spirit. France was soon delivered from the foreign armies of occupation, for the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, meeting at Aix-la-Chapelle (September 181 8) in order to combat revolutionary attempts, decided that an early evacuation of French territory would strengthen the Bourbon rule in France ; and they renewed the Quadruple Alliance, 2 which aimed at upholding existing treaties. 1 So called because the white fleur-de-lys flag of the Bourbons now everywhere replaced the tricolour of the republic and empire. These two flags represent the policy of the State in France. Thus the refusal of the Comte de Chambord to accept the tricolour showed his determination to reject constitutional principles even down to his death in 1883. 2 See p. 151. 166 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. The discontent in Germany 1 and Italy 2 awakened a sympathetic echo in France, which showed itself in the retirement of the Due de Richelieu and the accession of a more progressive minister, Decazes (November 1819). This check to the royalist reaction was soon swept away by an event of sinister import. The Due de Berry, second son of the Comte d'Artois, was assassinated (February 1820), as he was leaving the opera-house, by a fanatic who aimed at cutting off the direct Bourbon line 3 (February 1820). His design utterly failed, for a posthumous son, the celebrated Comte de Chambord, was born in September 1820; and the only result was a new outburst of royalist fury. Liberty of the press was suspended, and a new complicated electoral system re- stricted the franchise to those who paid at least 1000 francs a year in direct taxation : the Chamber of Deputies, a fifth part of which was renewed every year by an elect- orate now representing only the wealthy, became every year more reactionary, while the Left i saw its numbers decline. Conspiracies. — The ultra-royalist ministry of Villele soon in its turn aroused secret conspiracies, for the death of Napoleon (May 5, 182 1) was now awakening a feeling of regret for the comparative liberty enjoyed in France during the Empire. Military conspiracies were formed, only to be discovered and crushed, and the veteran republican Lafayette was thought to be concerned in a great attempt projected in the eastern departments with its headquarters at Belfort ; and the terrible society of the 1 See p. 175. - See p. 181. » See p. 143. 4 In the French Chamber the side on the right of the president is occupied by the Conservatives, that on the left by the Liberals and Radicals, while on the connecting benches opposite the president sit the more moderate men of both parties, hence called Right Centre, and Left Centre. xxm] FRANCE (1815-1830). 167 Carbonari secretly spread its arms through the south of France, where it found soil as favourable as in Italy itself. Protective System. — In the midst of her political unrest France entered on the path of financial " protec- tion." The government of Louis XVI had encouraged trade with England, but the stern hand of Napoleon had confined the trade of France to her vassal and allied States on the continent. Though Louis XVIII had of course swept away the Berlin and Milan decrees, yet protective ideas had taken deep root in France ; and the agriculturists now called out for import duties arranged on a sliding scale according to the price of corn in the country. This had been adopted in England in 181 5 in the interests of the landowners, who feared the sudden fall in the price of corn threatened by the peace. It was first adopted in France in December 18 14, but was made much more stringent in 181 9 in the interests of landowners. Further protective duties were imposed in 1826 on iron, steel, silks, and even on sugar. Intervention in Spain. — A revolution in Spain held Ferdinand a prisoner in his palace at Madrid. Louis determined to uphold the throne of his Bourbon relative, and sent an army which quickly effected its object (1823). 1 " The Pyrenees no longer exist," exclaimed Louis XVIII. In fact, everywhere in Europe absolutism seemed to be triumphant, and the elections of December 1823 sent up a further reinforcement to the royalist party ; also the approaching end of the sensible old king foreshadowed a period of still more violent reaction under his hot-headed brother Charles. Louis XVIII died on September 16, 1824. At his death the restoration seemed firmly established. Trade and commerce were prospering, the 1 See p. 185. 1 68 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Chambers were more royalist than the king, and the army seemed to have worked off its discontents in the Spanish campaign. France had quickly recovered from twenty years of warfare, and was thought to have the strongest government in Europe. Charles X (1824-1830). — Always the chief of the reactionary nobles, Charles had said, " It is only Lafayette and I who have not changed since 1789." Honest, sincere, and affahle as the new king was, yet his popularity soon vanished when it was seen how entirely he was under the control of his confessor ; and the ceremonies of his coronation at Rheims showed that he intended to revive the almost forgotten past. In Guizot's words, " Louis XVIII was a moderate of the old system and a liberal-minded inheritor of the eighteenth century : Charles X was a true emigre, and a submissive bigot.'' Legislation. — Among the first bills which Charles proposed to the Chambers was one to indemnify those who had lost their lands in the Revolution. To give these lands back would have caused general unsettlement among thousands of small cultivators ; but the former landowners received an indemnity of a milliard of francs, which they exclaimed against for its insufficiency just as loudly as the radicals did for its extravagance : by this tardy act of justice the State endeavoured to repair some of the unjust confiscations of the revolutionary era. Less justifiable were Charles' proposals to reinforce the old terrible penalties for sacrilege, and to renew the law of primogeniture in families paying 300 francs a year as land tax : the latter of these was rejected by the Chamber of Peers, as tending to re-establish a privileged class. The attempts made by the Jesuits to regain their legal status in France, in spite of the prohibition dating from before xxni] FRANCE (i 815-1830). 169 the fall of the old rkgime, aroused further hostility to the king, who was well known to favour their cause. Nothing, however, so strengthened the growing opposition in the Chambers and in the country at large as a rigorous measure aimed at the newspapers, pamphlets, and books which combated the clerical reaction. These publications were to pay a stamp duty per page, while crushing fines were devised to ruin the offending critics. One of the leaders of the opposition, Casimir Perier, exclaimed against this measure as ruinous to trade: "Printing would be sup- pressed in France and transferred to Belgium." The king persevered in his mad enterprise : he refused to receive a petition from the most august literary society in Europe, the Academie Francaise, and cashiered its promoters as if they were clerks under his orders. Strange to say, the Chamber of Deputies passed the measure, while that of the Peers rejected it — an event greeted by illuminations all over Paris (April 1827). A few days afterwards, at a review of the National Guards in Paris, the troops raised cries for the liberty of the press and for the charter granted in 18 15. The next day they were disbanded by royal command, but were foolishly allowed to retain their arms, which were soon to be used against the government. Charles next created seventy-six new peers to outvote his opponents in the Upper House. He also dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, but found the new members less pliable. Finally, Charles had to give way for the time, and accept a more moderate ministry under Martignac in place of the reactionary Villele Cabinet. The new Cabinet gave effect to its views by joining England in the expedition sent to support the Greeks, whom the two great western nations had long desired to liberate. 1 1 See p. 191. 170 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. But neither progressists, reactionaries, nor Charles him- self desired a policy of colourless moderation in home affairs, which has too often been taken for weakness by the logic-loving French. So Charles was soon able to dismiss this ministry, the last hope of conciliation, and formed (August 1829) a ministry under Count Polignac, one of whose colleagues was the General Bourmont who had deserted to the allies the day before Waterloo. The king's speech at the opening of the next session (March 1830) was curt and threatening, and the Chamber was soon prorogued. Reform banquets, a custom which the French borrowed from English reformers, increased the agitation, which the Polignac ministry vainly sought to divert by ambitious projects of invasion and partition of some neighbouring States. Capture of Algiers. — The only practical outcome of these projects was the conquest of the pirate stronghold of Algiers. This powerful fortress had been bombarded and reduced by Lord Exmouth with the British fleet in 181 6, and the captives, mostly Italians, were released from that den of slave-dealers ; but the Dey of Algiers had resumed his old habits, complaints from the French were met by defiance, and at last the French envoy quitted the harbour amid a shower of bullets. A powerful expedition effected a landing near the strongly-fortified harbour, and easily beat back the native attack ; and then from the land side soon battered down the defences of the city. Thus the city which had long been the terror of Mediterranean sailors became the nucleus of the important French colony of Algeria (July 4, 1830). The Ordinances — The July Revolution. — The design of Charles X and of his reactionary Polignac ministry to divert the French people from domestic xxm] FRANCE (1815-1830). 171 grievances to foreign conquest needed the genius and strength of a Napoleon to ensure success. The mere fact of the expedition being under the command of the hated General Bourmont had made it unpopular ; and as the French people had seen through the design, they gave less attention to the capture of Algiers than it really deserved. So although the victory was triumphantly announced throughout France, yet the elections sent up a majority hostile to the king. Nevertheless, with his usual blind obstinacy, Charles on the 25th July 1830 issued the famous ordinances which brought matters to a crisis. The first suspended the liberty of the press, and placed books under a strict censorship ; the second dissolved the newly-elected Chamber of Deputies ; the third excluded licensed dealers (patentes) from the franchise ; the fourth summoned a new Chamber under the new conditions, every one of which violated the charter granted by the late king. The Parisians at once 'flew to arms, and raised barricades in the many narrow streets which then favoured street-defence. Marmont, hated by the people as being the first of Napoleon's marshals who had treated with the allies, was to quell the disturbances with some 20,000 troops of the line ; but on the second day's fighting (July 28) the insurgents, aided by the disbanded National Guards, and veterans of the empire, beat back the troops ; and on the third day the royal troops, cut off from food and supplies, and exhausted by the heat, gave way before the tricolour flag ; the defection of two line regiments left the Louvre unguarded ; a panic spread among other regiments, and soon the tricolour floated above the Tuileries. Charles thereupon set the undignified example, soon to 172 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xxm be followed by so many kings and princes, of giving way when it was too late. He offered to withdraw the hated ordinances, but was forced to flee from St. Cloud. He then tried the last expedient, also doomed to failure, of abdicating in favour of his little grandson the Due de Bordeaux, since better known as the Comte de Chambord. Retiring slowly with his family to Cherbourg, the baffled monarch set out for a second and last exile, spent first at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and ended at Goritz in Bohemia. More than 5000 civilians and 700 soldiers were killed or wounded in these terrible "three days" of July 1830, which ended all attempts to re-establish the tyranny of the old regime. The victims were appropriately buried in the Place de la Bastille. They freed not France alone, but dealt a fierce blow at the system of Metternich. Like echoes of a thunderstorm in the mountains came reports of one revolution after another in central Europe before the end of 1830; for the' political atmosphere of the continent was surcharged with electricity from causes which we must now describe. CHAPTER XXIV. GERMANY (i 8 I 5-1 830). Austria. Prussia. Francis I. (1804-1835). Frederick William III (1797-1840). Bavaria. Maximilian I. (1805-1825). Louis I. (1825-1848). After twenty years of devastating wars, Germany needed repose to develop the new national life which had sprung up during the conflicts. Instead of peaceful development she found irksome restraints imposed by the Germanic Confederation formed at Vienna in 1 8 1 5 ; for, helpless as the new- Confederation was in its foreign relations, it soon proved itself powerful to restrain the aspirations of Germans for political liberty and unity. An article of the Confederation, drawn up at the first Congress of Vienna in 1 8 1 4, contained a recommendation that the people should have a voice " in questions of taxation, public expenditure, redress of public grievances, and general legislation," but in the second Congress at Vienna this was changed to the vague promise, " A representative constitution shall be adopted in the federative States " ; and even this was not to be fulfilled ■ without long and bitter struggles. Prussia now numbered more Germans in her population than Austria, for the former grew up to and beyond the Rhine, while the latter power receded. 174 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Prussia had emerged victorious from the great struggle ; but she too had difficult work before her to consolidate her finances, her new military system, arid to weld together her new districts, taken from the French Empire, Sweden, the duchy of Warsaw, Saxony, Westphalia, Berg, Danzig, Darmstadt, and Nassau. The rich and populous Rhine province, together with the Western States of Germany, retained for very many years most of the new laws introduced by Napoleon ; but bitter disappointment was felt by the German patriots when the King of Prussia and the princes of North and Central Germany evaded their pro- mises of constitutional governments. The one honourable exception was the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who was for so long the large-hearted patron of the great German poet Goethe. The opposite extreme was seen in the old Prince of Hesse, who, after spending eight years in banishment, now recalled to their quarters the troops sent on furlough after Jena; they reappeared soon in the old-fashioned powder and pigtails. True to his whimsical saying, " I have slept during the last seven years," he restored all the old abuses, and again appropriated the crown lands sold during Jerome's reign, when Hesse formed part of the kingdom of Westphalia. In South Germany the traditions of alliance with France, and antipathy to Prussia and Austria, were strong enough to cause the potentates to grant constitutions somewhat like that granted by Louis XVIII. The French code of laws was continued, and two Chambers, one of peers, the other of deputies, were established in Bavaria, Baden, Wiirtemberg, and the small Thuringian States ; but in every case the harsh game-laws, restrictions on the press, and the maintenance of old social wrongs, kept up a smouldering discontent. xxiv] GEHMJJVY (1S15-1S50). 175 Metternioh. — The political history of Austria, from the peace which followed the disaster of Wagram up to the revolution of 1848, may be summed up in the career of Metternich. For thirty^three years after the fall of Napoleon this clever man controlled the destinies of the continent. Endowed with courtly tact, tenacity of purpose, and great fertility of resource, he yet lived to see his work shattered in 1848. 1 As Napoleon shrewdly said of him, "He mis- took intrigue for statesmanship " ; so his life-work of re- establishing absolutism in Central and Southern Europe was finally to be swept away in a few days, for it never had any firm foundation in facts. Yet his ascendency over his own master Francis, then over Frederick William of Prussia, and lastly over the impressionable Czar Alexander, gave him enormous weight in the councils of Europe for a third of a century. He proudly says in his memoirs, " I have made history, therefore I have not had time to write it." By his system of spies, by the terror which his vindictiveness inspired, and by cleverly diverting the principles of the Holy Alliance into a channel of repression, he made Vienna the centre of European politics between 181 5 and 1848. His policy was soon furthered by the lamentable murder of the German poet Kotzebue. Fete at the Wartburg — Murder of Kotzebue. — ■ The students of the German universities were among the staunchest of the patriots who longed for German unity and liberty as heartily as they had striven for deliverance from Napoleon. Under the protection of the liberal Duke of Saxe- Weimar the Burschenschaft, or Students' Club of the University of Jena, met at the Wartburg (October 18, 181 7) to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the great battle of Leipzig, and the tercentenary of Luther's efforts 1 The German Liberals nicknamed him Mitternacht (midnight). 176 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. for religious freedom, so closely associated with that historic castle. Religious, patriotic, and reforming enthusiasm thus combined to make this Wartburg fete famous. The black, gold, and red colours of the ancient German Empire were worn by the students, and were combined on a German tricolour flag ; books which favoured absolute rule were burnt. The students' union spread through Germany, and the government set spies to watch the students and professors. A reactionary journalist and play-writer, Kotzebue, was known to be an agent of the Russian Government in Thuringia and South Germany; and so violent was the hatred against him that a divinity student named Sand, a youth of enthusiastic temperament, went to Kotzebue's house at Mannheim and stabbed him to the heart (March 23, 1 81 9). "Now a constitution is impossible," was the exclamation of the Prussian prime minister, Hardenberg, who was not without constitutional sympathies. Metter- nich saw his opportunity, and found it easy to persuade the pliable Frederick William III that dangerous principles were growing up, and that his vague promise of a Constitu- tion could not now be fulfilled. Blow after blow was dealt from Vienna and Berlin. Many patriot professors, among them Arndt at Bonn, were summarily dismissed, the Burschenschaft and the gymnastic societies suppressed, many students imprisoned, and all these measures were directed and enforced by a federal committee sitting at Mainz (Mayence) in order to repress the aspirations of the German people. Moreover, a final act of the Congress at Vienna declared that the German Confederation could interfere in the affairs of any of its States where order was menaced, even if aid were not asked by its ruler. The Zollverein. — The only bright feature of this xxiv] GERMANY (1815-1830). 177 troublous time is the formation of the Zollverein or Customs Union. The German States had resembled, as was said by a French writer, a menagerie, where the subjects watched each other through gratings. Each State had its own coinage and customs dues, so that goods sent by barge up to the upper part of the Rhine had to pay numerous dues. The most enlightened of the German rulers, King Louis of Bavaria (1825-1840), who had already beautified Munich and made it a centre of art and literature, now sought to improve the material prosperity of his people by a com- mercial union with the neighbouring realm of Wiirtemberg. This sensible example was followed by Prussia and Hesse Darmstadt ; soon Hesse Nassau, Hanover, and Saxony- formed a central German union for trade purposes, Prussia thus gained a commercial supremacy over Austria in German trade, which greatly benefited her and the smaller German States. Foreign goods were now to be once taxed on a uniform scale, and the duty (Zoll) was to be divided among the States of the union in proportion to their population. Heavy protective duties were now levied at the frontiers, but German trade expanded so much under its freer conditions that these duties soon produced double the amount which they first yielded. Thus the commercial union of Germany under theWead of Prussia preceded the political union by forty-three years. Metternich's Interventions. — In German politics, however, Austria still had the upper hand. Not only did Metternich rule the Council of the German Confederation, but he laid down the principle that "no part of Europe should depart from the status quo, and that the divine right of princes must be defended against all attempts of innovators." Frederick William III had become, since N 178 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xxiv Kotzebue's murder, a docile follower of Metternich; but the generous enthusiasm of the Czar Alexander had long remained proof against his arguments, until that wily statesman was able to announce to him at Troppau the news of disaffection among the czar's Imperial Guards. The representatives of the great Powers were assembled at Troppau in Austrian Silesia, when Metternich with secret joy made known to the czar this, for him, most opportune event. " I see that you are right," said the disappointed czar to Metternich ; " it is a malady of human nature which we must cure." The sensitive and volatile Alexander went over to the ranks of the despots, and nothing more was heard of the constitution promised for Poland. He further took part in the conferences of Laybach (January 182 1) and Verona (1822), which aimed at repressing the liberties of Germany, and the military movements in Italy and Spain, which must now claim our attention. CHAPTER XXV. SOUTHERN EUROPE. ' ' Yet, Freedom, yet thy banner torn but flying, Streams like a thunderstorm against the wind." Byron. MONARCHS. Spain. — Ferdinand VII (restored) 1814-1843. Naples. — Ferdinand I. (King of the "Two Sicilies ") Sardinia. — Victor Emmanuel I. (restored) 1814-1821. Charles Felix (1821-1831). POPES. Pius VII, 1800. Pius VIII, 1829. Leo XII, 1823. Gregory XVI, 1 83 1. Pius IX, 1846. Italy. — No part of the continent had undergone so many changes between 1797 and 18 15 as the north of Italy. Delivered from Austrian rule, or from native potentates almost as unpopular, it had formed part of the Cisalpine Republic ; then it had been merged into the kingdom of Italy, first under Napoleon, then under his popular step-son Eugene Beauharnais, while the western part went to swell the French Empire. In 18 15 the former part fell mainly under Austrian rule, while the latter regained a nominal independence under the divided rule of the House of Savoy, the pope, and the Dukes of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena. k The hopes of a constitution and even of 180 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. national independence which Lord William Bentinck had excited by his proclamation in 1814 were soon disappointed, for this nobleman, who had won great popularity in Sicily as its protector and the founder of a free constitution, had exceeded his powers in proclaiming such a sweeping change. The vague promises of Italian independence by which the Austrians had sought to enlist Italian patriots to the overthrow of Beauharnais and Murat were still more illusory ; for after Napoleon's abdication Austrian garrisons at once occupied the fortresses of Lombardy, and soon Austrian judges and professors came to displace natives in the law-courts and universities. By furthering the material interests of the peasantry of Lombardo-Venetia, the Viennese court hoped soon to overcome their hatred to foreign rule, and to the strict police and spy systems. Kingdom of Sardinia. — Then, as now, the most prosperous part of Italy was the north. The small king- dom of Sardinia stretched from the Ticino westwards to the Maritime Alps, and from the southern shore of the Lake of Geneva to the town of SpezziaJ which one day Cavour was to make the strongest naval station in Italy. This territory, together with the poor and backward island which gave its name to the monarchy, was in 18 14 restored to Victor Emmanuel I, the son of its former king, Victor Amadeus. The Austrians had pressed hard on the small realm in return for their help in driving out the French ; and now the restored House of Savoy added to the difficulties of its small kingdom by sweeping away all laws passed since 1800. Primogeniture, the privileges of the nobles, ecclesiastical tribunals, torture, and secret inquisi- tions, were all restored ; so the reaction was here more violent than even in the neighbouring Austrian provinces. Well might the Genoese republicans resent and resist the xxv] SOUTHERN EUROPE. 181 fusion of their ancient republic in the realm of such a despot. Central Italy. — In the various duchies of Central Italy, and in the Papal States, the restored rulers also regarded the late years as a nightmare to be forgotten. The old governments were re-established. The pope, Pius VII, abolished secular rule in his own States, and even asked the Powers for the restitution of the ecclesiastical States and alienated Church lands in Germany — a demand which was quietly passed over. The Inquisition was restored in Italy as in Spain, and the long proscribed order of the Jesuits thronged into Spain and Germany as well as over all Italy. In this general recoil towards medisevalism the duchies of Tuscany and Modena, ruled respectively by Ferdinand III and by Napoleon's second wife Marie Louise, suffered the least oppression. Naples. — It was in the kingdom of Naples, including Sicily and all of Italy south of the Papal States, that the violence of the reaction was to provoke the first outbreak. Ferdinand IV of Naples, on his restoration after the fall of Murat, called himself Ferdinand I, King of the "Two Sicilies " ; the revival of this ancient name from the time of the crusades showed what might be expected from the obstinate old monarch. He at once cancelled the free constitution granted to Sicily under the influence of the English general, Lord Bentinck, and restored the old absolute monarchy , in the island as on the mainland. Murat's old troops were neglected, and disorder spread fast, until 30,000 brigands — that plague of South Italy — infested the country, and the helpless government had to pay black-mail to many of their chiefs. The Carbonari. — Under this weak and exasperating government, the old secret society of the Carbonari again 1 82 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. sprang up and spread all over Italy, until some 60,000 members looked to Naples as their headquarters. This society of the Carbonari, or charcoal-burners, was one of the old trade associations, like the Freemasons, who also became 1 mixed up with political and even revolutionary attempts. The Carbonari now spread into Spain and the south of France. They aimed at political liberty and equality of the most advanced type, and often struck terror by their daring acts of revenge. At last, on the news of the successful revolt of the Spanish troops against the tyrannical Ferdinand II of Spain, the Neapolitan troops also took up arms against their King Ferdinand, whom they compelled to take a most solemn oath that he would grant a constitution like the democratic Spanish con- stitution proclaimed in 181 2. 2 So in October 1820 a " Junta " was elected, mainly of the old followers of Murat ; but this Junta soon had its hands full, for the Sicilian democrats had also risen in revolt to claim a separate administration like that to which they had for some years been accustomed — a secession which the Neapolitans would not hear of. The mob at Palermo routed the troops sent by the Junta of Naples, and soon Sicily was in a state of anarchy which gave Metternich a good excuse for inter- vention. The Neapolitan king was invited to the Congress of the Powers held at Laybach in January 1821, was readily persuaded to break his oath to the new constitution, and was conducted back again at the head of an Austrian army. 1 On the continent, but not in England. 2 This constitution remained for many years both in Spain and Italy the goal at which the people aimed. There was at this time much com- munication between Italy and Spain, both by the secret intercourse between the Carbonari of both lands, and by the official relations of the courts ; for Ferdinand of Naples was next heir to the Spanish throne. xxv] SOUTHERN EUROPE. 183 The Neapolitan popular forces, partly engaged in Sicily, could not withstand the onset of the 40,000 Austrians under Frimont. Pepd and many patriots escaped on a Spanish ship ; while the perjured Ferdinand entered his capital in triumph (May 1821), withdrew the new con- stitution, enacted stringent laws against personal liberty, and in the next four years threw nearly 16,000 persons into prison for their supposed connection with the con- stitutionalists. The Austrians also subdued Sicily. Charles Felix in Piedmont. — Meanwhile the people and soldiery in Piedmont had successfully imitated the military movements in Spain and Naples. The Genoese regiment stationed at Alessandria had given the sign of revolt (March 18 21), and the people and troops followed their example with cries for the constitution and war with Austria. Victor Emmanuel I hastened to abdicate in favour of his brother Charles Felix ; but the latter, not feeling himself safe, fled from Turin to Modena, to await the expected Austrian intervention, and handed over to his nephew, Charles Albert, the regency in his absence. This young Jman, the son of Victor Emmanuel I, was the ■ hope of the reformers of North Italy ; but the orders of Charles Felix led him, in spite of his sympathy with the con- stitutionalists, to join the Austrian invaders. These, aided by a few royalist Piedmontese, easily overcame the popular forces on the field of Novara (April 9, 182 1). Charles Felix, supported at Turin by Austrian bayonets for a year, introduced absolute rule. Thus the revolt which had threatened the rear of the Austrian army in the south was easily quelled, and the authority of Metternich was again paramount throughout Italy. Piedmont, which had now for the first time raised the banner of Italian liberty and unity, was again at the foot of the Austrians ; 1 84 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. and Charles Albert ruled his kingdom with a severity not far short of that of the Neapolitan despot. The Austrians punished the restlessness of the people of Milan by cruel imprisonments in the notorious dungeons of the Spielberg. Congress of Verona — Canning. — Elated by his success in Italy, Metternich, at the Congress of the Powers held at Verona (October 1822), proposed to intervene in the affairs of Spain ; but he met with an able and de- termined opponent in the English foreign secretary, Canning. During the previous seven years the British Government had confined itself to a few mild protests against Metternich's policy ; but after the suicide of Castle- reagh, his successor Canning determined to break up the European " concert " formed to repress liberty. So alarmed were the continental potentates at the " red spectre," that Metternich even convinced the czar that the Greek patriotic risings 1 against the Turks were the outcome of the Carbonari movements ! The great question, however, discussed at Verona was the condition of Spain. Spain. — The restoration of Ferdinand VII to his throne at Madrid in 18 14 had soon led to events as shameful as those at Naples, Turin, and Darmstadt. ' The restored king, after taking the oath to the Liberal Spanish con- stitution of 181 2, violated it on the first opportunity, arrested many patriots who had fought for his restoration, and, after Waterloo, handed over to a knot of favourites (camarilla) the small share of government which he did not reserve for himself. This oppressive rule made a recon- ciliation impossible with the Spanish American colonies, which had for six years been practically independent. Ferdinand was foolish enough to insist on the old yearly 1 See pp. 188-190. xxv] SOUTHERN EUROPE. 185 tribute of two millions sterling from them. With the greatest difficulty 17,000 soldiers were drawn together at Cadiz for a last effort to reduce the rebellious colonies. The effort was more fatal to the king than to the colonies ; for the troops, whose pay was sixteen months in arrear, detesting the service in the tropics, broke into revolt, (January 1, 1820). This spread rapidly from Cadiz all through Spain, so that in March 1820 the terrified Ferdinand signed decrees for the liberty of the press, banishment of the Jesuits, suppression of the Inquisition, and restitution of the national constitution of 1812. 1 Ferdinand's supporters, who called themselves the Army of the Faith, were soon driven into France, where they were received with open arms by the clergy and royalists. Ferdinand, after many contemptible changes of front, remained almost a prisoner in his palace at Madrid. French Intervention in Spain. — In such a troubled state of the Peninsula it was a triumph for Canning to prevent the united intervention of all the great Powers, and thus to break up the Quadruple Alliance. But though he thus dealt at Verona a heavy blow at the Holy Alliance and its manager Metternich, yet he could not prevent the intervention of Louis XVIII on behalf of his captive royal relative. To the delight of the French clergy and royalists, a French army under the Due dAngouleme crossed the frontier, and by the free use of money reached Madrid without opposition (May 24, 1823). The Cortes removed to Seville, and finally to Cadiz, taking Ferdinand with it ; but the French force soon overpowered the Spanish troops which defended the Trocadero peninsula commanding Cadiz (August 31, 1823), and the Cortes declared itself dissolved. The north-eastern province, Catalonia, always 1 See. p. 105. 1 86 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, chap. foremost in defending its rights, was the last to succumb (November 1823). Ferdinand VII, restored to power, this time by French arms, behaved as after his first restoration. The constitu- tion was abolished, all the acts of the Cortes annulled, the Inquisition re-established, and the Jesuits recalled. The continental Powers then proposed to bring back the Spanish colonies to their allegiance, but here Canning intervened with effect, by causing the British Government to recognise the independence of the Spanish American mainland colonies. " I resolved," he afterwards said, " that if France had Spain, it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called in. the new world to redress the balance of the old." Portugal. — After the death of the insane Queen Maria in 1 8 16, her son, who had acted as regent, was proclaimed king, as John VI of Brazil and Portugal. Lord Beres- ford, who had commanded the Portuguese troops during the Peninsular War, had then nearly all power in Lisbon ; but the rising discontent forced him to go to Brazil to arrange for the king's return thence to Portugal. Finally, King John VI was obliged to leave his ambitious son Don Pedro as his viceroy in Brazil, while on landing at Lisbon he himself swore to observe the new democratic constitution (October 1822), to which he also compelled the assent of his absolutist second son, Don Miguel. The success of the reaction in Spain, however, favoured the absolutists, headed by the queen and Don Miguel ; and the king, threatened by his overbearing son, applied to England for help against the absolutists. In pursuance of Canning's championship of nationalities, an English fleet was sent to protect the king, who finally died, leaving his country with no definite constitution, with a disputed succession, and with the loss of her vast colony of Brazil ; for during these troubles Don xxv] SOUTHERN EUROPE. 187 Pedro had been declared Emperor of Brazil. He now de- termined that his daughter should, when of age, marry Don Miguel, so as to avoid disputes ; but the latter seized on power. Canning hereupon sent troops to defend the young queen's rights, and threatened war to the Powers which should interfere ; but after his lamented death (August 1827) the influence of Wellington caused the withdrawal of the British force from Lisbon. Don Miguel seized the throne, and ruled for some time with a truly mediaeval tyranny. 1 1 For continuation see p. 225. CHAPTER XXVI. TURKEY AND RUSSIA. Russia. Turkey. Alexander I (1801-1825). Mahmoud II (1808-1839). Nicholas I (1825-1855). Between the years 1820 and 1827 all the struggles for liberty on the continent seemed to have hopelessly failed, except in one corner, on which the eyes of all thoughtful men were riveted. The Turks, once the terror of south-eastern Europe, had not regained their old power even during the exhaustion of Austria and Russia in the Napoleonic wars. Driven back from the Crimea and the Dnieper (1783) in the reign of the powerful Czarina Catherine II, and as far back as the Dniester in 1792, the Turks were -on the point of losing Moldavia and Wallachia to her successor Alexander, when the Russian troops had to retire to defend their land against Napoleon ; and even then the Ottomans, by the Treaty of Bucharest (1812), lost all their land between the Dniester and the Pruth, and had to admit the local independence of Moldavia and Wallachia, now ruled by their own Hospo- dars. This decay of the once dreaded Turkish power, and the rising feeling of nationality all over Europe, aroused hopes in the long oppressed Greeks that they too might become a nation again ; and the revolt of Ali Pacha, the chap, xxvi] TURKEY AND RUSSIA. 189 Turkish satrap of Epirus, seemed to favour their aspirations. This able but ferocious man, called the " lion of Epirus,'' or "the modern Pyrrhus," long withstood the power of the Porte, 1 until treachery at last ensnared this would-be ruler of Epirus and Greece (1822). Many other things had con- spired to arouse the Greeks. Byron had in 18 13 thrilled Europe by the spirited lines in " Childe Harold," ' ' Hereditary bondsmen ! know ye not Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?" And the Greek poet Koraes had breathed new life into his countrymen by setting vividly before them the glories of their ancient literature. Besides this, the Ionian Isles were now a refuge for all Greek patriots, and Greek seamen had profited by the neutrality of the Turkish flag during the blockade when the Berlin decrees were in force (1806-1814) to rapidly extend their commerce, and they were now the best sailors in the Mediterranean. The first attempt of the Greek patriots 2 at Jassy in Mol- davia was an utter failure. The Czar's dread of secret societies, and the jealousy shown by the Roumanian and Sclavonic peoples towards the Greeks (which still compli- cates the Eastern Question), showed that Byron's words were literally true. A savage uprising of the Greek race in the place most fitted for it — the Morea — swept away all the Turks except those who took refuge in the strong places like Patras and Tripolitza. The infuriated Turks retaliated by massacring the Greeks at Constantinople, together with their " Patri- arch," the head of the Greek Church. Henceforth the whole struggle became a pitiless crusade between the two races 1 The Porte is the entrance to the Turkish Council of State. 2 They called their association hetaeria, or comradeship. 190 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. and the two religions. The capture and sack of Tripolitza by the Greeks was avenged by wholesale massacres in the peaceful and prosperous island of Chios by a Turkish force ; but before this departed, laden with spoil, it was partly destroyed by Greek fire-ships skilfully sent in by Canaris. Early in 1822 two Turkish armies were set free by the capture of the rebel Ali Pacha at Janina, but the one was stopped by the stout defence of Missolonghi at the northern entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, and the other, marching on the Morea, was foiled by that of Argos near the head of the Gulf of Nauplia. In despair, the Sultan Mahmoud called on his powerful vassal Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt, to crush the Greeks. The latter, paralysed by discords, soon lost Navarino and Tripolitza (1825), and the whole of the Morea was given up to systematic massacre, so that it might be re-peopled by Moslems. Missolonghi had defied all the attempts of the Turkish forces. Its swampy climate had caused the death of Lord Byron in 1824; but still its defenders held out, until in 1826 an Egyptian force reduced them to the direst straits. At last men, women, and even children, made by night a desperate attempt to cut their way through their besiegers rather than die of famine, or fall prisoners. Many forced their way through, while the rest, retreating into their town, prepared to blow up the powder magazine. When their foes were upon them, their bishop fired the train with a last prayer, "Lord, remember us" (April 22, 1826). The capture of the Acropolis of Athens by the Moslems seemed the last blow to the hopes of the Greeks, but their heroism had moved the heart of all Europe. Death of the Czar Alexander. — In Russia the whole people called for war in support of their co-religionists ; but Alexander, still held in the toils of Metternich's diplomacy, xxvi] TURKEY AND RUSSIA. 191 refused to act. Shutting himself off from his people, he fell a prey to deep melancholy at the vanity of his early hopes. He, the foremost among the conquerors of Napoleon, now saw himself reduced to impotence by Metternich's statecraft. He, the champion of Liberal principles in 1 8 1 5 , now found himself the dupe of the man who was repressing those aspirations everywhere. Sick at heart, the Czar suc- cumbed to a mysterious disease at Taganrog (December 1, 1825), only four years after the death of his great rival Napoleon. Both had in turn seen the continent at their feet, and both died in middle life, disappointed, deserted, and powerless. Navarino. — In the second year after Alexander's death the British and French Governments, fearing lest Russia, under the new Czar Nicholas, might alone reap the result of the Greek rising, resolved on a joint intervention with Russia. Fighting was to be stopped in the Morea, and Greece was to be made autonomous, but under the suze- rainty of the Sultan, just as Roumania afterwards was. This last triumph of Canning's foreign policy was embodied in the Treaty of London just before his death (August 8, 1827); but an accident hastened the inevitable collision. A demonstration was made by the allied fleets in the harbour of Navarino, to stop Ibrahim's devastation of the Morea. An English row-boat was fired on by the obstinate Turks ; the action became general, and by evening the Moslems had lost all their fleet and 5000 sailors. Navarino freed Greece. Wellington, however, referred to it in the royal speech as an " untoward event" ; and it would have increased the power of Russia, if she was left to act alone, as the English Cabinet now foolishly allowed. The French, however, sent 14,000 men under General 192 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Maison, who compelled the Egyptians to sail away ; and the complete independence of Greece was decided in March 1829 by England, France, and Russia, which again acted in concert for this end. Greece. — The first Greek president was Capodistrias, long the adviser of the Czar ; but his harsh rule was cut short by his assassination, and civil war was barely averted by the election, at the conference of London, of Prince Otho of Bavaria, as the first King of Greece. This also fixed the boundary of Greece along the line between the gulfs of Arta and Volo. The Greek districts of Thessaly were not added to the small kingdom till 1881, in accordance with the Treaty of Berlin. The progress of Greece, retarded by internal dissensions and habits of brigandage, has disap- pointed the extravagant expectations of idealists who fixed their gaze on the times of Pericles ; but its commerce and prosperity have made steady progress. Russo-Turkish War, 182 8-1 829. — The Greek cause had also been furthered by a declaration of war against Turkey by the powerful Czar Nicholas, who feared a general military rising if he did not lead his army against the Moslems. The resolute but ill-starred Sultan Mahmoud, whose reign (1808-1839) was one long succession of dis- asters, was at that time almost helpless after the destruction of his privileged guards, the Janissaries. This tyrannical corps resisted his reforms and defied his authority.' These lawless Praetorians, as they rushed to attack his palace, were cut down by artillery, and then bombarded in their barracks ; everywhere throughout the empire they were cut down, and the young recruits were being drilled with European weapons, when the Czar declared war. Men said after Navarino : " The Sultan had destroyed his own army, and now his allies destroyed his navy." xxvi] TURKEY AND RUSSIA. 193 Still the Turks surprised the world by their stout resist- ance to foes of double their strength on land, and who had complete command of the sea. In the first campaign (1828) the Russians, long stopped by the defence of Ibrail (or Brai- low) on the lower Danube, were baffled by that of Shumla, and took Varna only through the treachery of a Turkish pacha; but in Asia the genius of Paskievitch gained Kars and Erzeroum. In 1829 the Russian general Diebitsch made a sudden dash at the Balkan passes with 30,000 light troops, and met the Russian fleet in the Bay of Bourgas. Then, with forces diminished by the plague, the daring general struck inland towards Adrianople. By the capture of this, the second city of Turkey in Europe, and by skil- fully concealing the weakness of his force, Diebitsch so terrified the Porte that the Sultan signed the Treaty of Adrianople (August 1829). Turkish Losses. — By this the Sultan definitely acknow- ledged the independence of Greece, and ceded to Russia the territory as far south as the middle, or Sulina, mouth of the Danube, as well as the province of Kars on the Asiatic frontier. Moldavia and Wallachia owned hence- forth only a nominal sovereignty to the Porte, with an annual subsidy. Diebitsch then retired from Adrianople with a force reduced by disease to 13,000 men. Such were the results won by the daring and adroitness of one man against supine and ill-informed foes. Indeed, only the threatened intervention of the Western Powers saved Turkey from severer losses. The internal reforms of the brave and intelligent Sultan Mahmoud seemed to bring nothing but disaster ; and in three years his fortitude was tried by the successful revolt of his powerful vassal Mehemet Ali of Egypt. The Sultan, o 194 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [ch. xxvi in despair, turned to Russia for help, and signed the humi- liating Treaty of Unkiar Iskelessi (1833) with the Czar Nicholas. Turkey seemed helpless under the heel of Russia ; but events were to prove that her vitality, if torpid, was tougher than that of many highly organised States. CHAPTER XXVII. THE MOVEMENTS OF 1830 IN CENTRAL EUROPE. "Revolts, republics, revolutions, most No graver than a schoolboys' barring-out." Tennyson. Belgian Independence. — The earliest result of the French Revolution of July 1830 was seen in the Belgian provinces of the" Netherlands. Except during Napoleon's rule the Belgian provinces had been under a different rule from that of Holland ever since 1579. Holland had been a republic ; the Belgians had been under Spanish, and then under Austrian rule, and their sympathies were French. Moreover, they outnumbered the Dutch by more than one- fourth. Thus the greatest care was needed to weld the artificial creation of 18 15, these United Netherlands, into a really united country. But the Dutch king, William L, contrived to annoy all classes of Belgians. He discouraged the use of the French language, and sought to extend the use of the Dutch tongue. He irritated the Catholics by placing education under the care of^the State, and alien- ated their Liberal opponents also by limiting the freedom of the press, and by imposing Dutch laws and officials ; also, the Belgians were to contribute towards the .interest on the heavy Dutch debt by taxes on food. At last the news of the July Revolution in Paris brought 196 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. matters to a crisis on August 26, 1830. The people of Brussels, excited by an opera in which the revolt of the Neapolitans under the fisherman Masaniello is repre-' sented, assailed the palace of the^hated Dutch minister van Maanen, and threw up barricades. They demanded a separation of government between the Dutch and Belgian provinces, with a personal union under the same crown, as in the case of Sweden and Norway. But the pride of the Dutch king and people, and their belief that the great Powers would not allow a State formed by them to be thus sundered, brought matters to arms. Prince Frederick forced his way into Brussels, only to be driven out again after five days' house-to-house fighting by the citizens (October 5, 1830), who now proclaimed the complete in- dependence of Belgium. In a short time only Maestricht, Luxemburg, and the citadel of Antwerp remained to the Dutch troops. Meanwhile a conference of the great Powers at London, to whom King William had applied, imposed a truce, and in January 1831 began to draw up a plan of separation. Indeed, everything favoured the Belgians ; for Russia was too much occupied with the Poles, and Austria with the Italians, to intervene in the West. Palmerston, the new English Foreign Secretary, followed in the steps of Canning, as a champion of small nationalities ; and Louis Philippe, placed on the throne by a revolution, declared that he would resist any intervention by Prussia. He was also prudent enough to decline for his son the honour of the Belgian throne to which he had been elected, because it would alienate the sympathy of England. Finally, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, related by his first marriage to our royal house, and soon about to marry a daughter of the French king, was elected King of the Belgians (June 26, 1 831). The London Conference fixed the boundary as it xxvn] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1830. 197 now stands ; and King William retained the distant duchy of Luxemburg, which he had received in return for the loss of his family lands in Germany. This duchy, however, still formed part of the German Confederation ; but the western part of Luxemburg, which had fallen away from all connection with Germany, went to the new Belgian State. Meanwhile the Dutch king, enraged at the decision of the Powers, determined to recover Belgium in spite of them. At the head of a large Dutch army he routed the Belgian forces under Leopold near Louvain. To enforce their decision England and France sent, the former a fleet to blockade the Scheldt, the latter an army of 50,000 men to drive back the Dutch. Antwerp citadel was bombarded by the French, and the Dutch garrison forced to surrender (December 23, 1832). After long and wearisome nego- tiations the Dutch king at last recognised the independence of Belgium (1838). [In spite of their long and bitter ■ strife these two little countries soon regained their prosperity through the indus- trial and commercial enterprise of their peoples. In 1841 the Dutch king, William I, voluntarily abdicated in favour of his son, William II.] The Movements in Germany (1830). — Just as the revolution had spread from Paris to Brussels, so thence it set Germany in a flame which was fiercest in Brunswick, Saxony, Hanover, and Hesse. The Duke of Brunswick had so enraged his people that, on hearing the news from Paris, they stormed his palace and drove him forth as a fugitive. His brother, who took his place, soon pacified his subjects by granting a new constitution. At the same time the people of Leipzig rose against their government, and the town-hall of Dresden was sacked by a mob indignant at the municipal corruption. There- 198 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. upon the King of Saxony named his nephew Frederick, who was much beloved by the people, as co-regent, and reformed the constitution. In Hesse fruitless struggles were made by the over-taxed peasantry. In Hanover the citizens were pacified through the mediation of the king's brother, the Duke of Cambridge. The revolutionary spirit seemed to have lost its force as it proceeded east, and in Poland it met with a crushing defeat. Poland. — In 1815 this unhappy land had seemed to be at the end of its troubles; for the sovereigns, who had again absorbed all but the tiny republic of Cracow, promised to accord a " constitution useful and suitable " to the portions under their sway. The Czar Alexander, who held the lion's share, proclaimed himself King of Poland and opened the session of two Chambers returned by the propertied classes; but his brother Constantine, who was left as his represent- ative at Warsaw, gave full play to his brutal and despotic feelings towards the Poles. After Alexander's conversion to absolutism in 1820 the Polish constitution was a mere laughing-stock to the Russian officials at Warsaw. Though Constantine's brutal nature incapacitated him from suc- ceeding Alexander, yet he was thought good enough to govern the Poles, while his younger brother Nicholas held the reins of power at St. Petersburg. The exciting news from Paris and Brussels was therefore sufficient to cause an explosion at Warsaw. On the night of November 29, 1830, Constantine had to flee from his palace, and beat a retreat from Poland with all the Russian troops. In eight days Poland was free from the Russians. Two evils have always weakened Poland — the entire want of natural , defences, and still more the intestine feuds which wrecked its old constitution. 1 These sources 1 In the old General Assembly of Polish nobles the liherum veto, or the xxvn] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1830. 199 of weakness again paralysed the Polish defence. One hundred thousand Russians under the famous General Diebitsch soon overran Poland, overpowering the Poles at Grochow (February 1831) and at Ostrolenska (May 1 831). Meanwhile, in the out-lying Polish districts of Lithuania in the north and Volhynia in the south, the revolts had failed through real or suspected treachery on the part of incompetent leaders. None of the great Powers sent any help in answer to entreaties from Warsaw. Prussia gained Russian favour by provisioning the Russian forces from her territory. Louis Philippe, anxious to win the regard of the great eastern Power, only offered his mediation ; and the British Whig ministry, involved in the struggle for reform, could only send energetic protests through its foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston. In Warsaw the jealousy of the democrats for the Polish nobles was leading to fearful scenes. Maddened by the news that the Russians were marching on their capital, the mob overthrew the government, broke open the prisons, and hanged all those who were suspected of being favourable to the Russians (August 183 1). Thus when, in September, Paskiewitch, the hero of the Asiatic campaign of 1827, appeared before the distracted city, division and distrust paralysed the defence ■ and at last the Polish army evacuated the capital. 1 Two Polish corps crossed over right of one voice to veto any measure, brought the State to an utter dead- lock. This love of dissidence became almost an hereditary defect in the Polish character. 1 Diebitsch had died of the cholera, which was decimating the Russian armies. This fearful plague was spreading from Asia, through Russia, to Germany and all Western Europe. The ignorant peasants of Russia and Hungary massacred the doctors who tried to cure them. Few years have been so terrible for Europe as 1830-1832. 200 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the Prussian and Austrian frontiers, and again Poland perished. " Order reigns at Warsaw : " thus the French minister, Sebastiani, with unconscious irony described the sequel to its surrender. Exile to Siberia, or to the newly-won pro- vince of the Caucasus, crushed the spirit of the Poles ; and Paskiewitch, created Duke of Warsaw, governed Poland as a conquered province. But all these events aroused in England and France a hatred of the Czar Nicholas, which was to burst forth in 1855. Switzerland. — The revolutionary excitement of 1830 aroused fierce strife in Switzerland — a land which we now consider so peaceable, but which was (down to 1848) in constant commotion. The small towns and villages in 1830 and 1 83 1 rose against the somewhat oppressive rule of the head towns, and new cantonal institutions were everywhere founded on a wider democratic basis, except in Neufchatel, where the Prussian party, and in Basle, where the old oligarchy successfully resisted ; yet the government of Basle had to allow the country districts of that canton to form a more democratic cantonal division. The strife was embittered by religious disputes. The Jesuits had settled in several of the cantons, had founded convents, and soon they tried to gain control of education. On the other hand, the Liberal cantons wished to place education under government control, and to make marriage a civil contract. The strife lasted many years, and the " forest " cantons, joined by Basle and Neufchatel, formed a Catholic League called the " Sarnerbund." In 1843 the canton of Aargau disestablished the convents in spite of the fierce opposition of its Ultramontane subjects, aided by volunteers of Catholic cantons. On their side the Jesuits strove to get the upper hand in Schwyz and Lucerne. xsvu] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1830. 201 Troops of volunteers from Liberal cantons, especially Berne and Zurich, attacked the Ultramontanes of Lucerne, who then with six other Catholic cantons formed a powerful league called the Sonderbund, which was supported by Metternich and (strange to say) by the Protestant French minister Guizot. In fact, the latter would have actively in- tervened in its favour but for the diplomatic opposition of Lord Palmerston, who secretly counselled the Swiss Federal Government to " strike quick and strike hard " at this armed league. So it gathered a large force which at once over- powered the troops of the league, and occupied Lucerne (November 1847). The Sonderbund was suppressed, and the danger of civil war passed away. Italy. — Metternich's desire to intervene in Switzerland was due to his determination to prevent the success of any democratic movement on the frontiers of Italy, which he regarded as his special preserve. His championship of absolutism in Central and Southern Europe had, up to 1830, everywhere succeeded except in Belgium and Greece ; for the risings of 1 820-1 825 in Southern Europe were mainly military risings, and no able patriots had then come forward who could touch the hearts of the people. Soon, however, two such champions were to appear — Mazzini in Italy and Kossuth in Hungary. In 1830 it was the centre of Italy which rose in revolt, for the north and the south then had prospects of better government. The death of Francis I. of Naples, whose rule (1825-1830) had been as harsh as that of his detested predecessor Ferdinand, now brought to the throne of South Italy the young Ferdinand II, who for some time bade fair to head the Liberals of Italy. Similar hopes were excited in the north by the accession to the throne of Sardinia of Charles Albert in 1831, in place of 202 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the despotic Charles Felix, for Charles Albert had in 182 1 shown some desire to shield the patriots of the north. The sequel was to show that Metternich knew how to bring back the young rulers to the absolutist policy of their dynasties ; but, for the present, it was the misrule in the Papal States which provoked an outbreak in Central Italy. The Papal States.- — These comprised not only the river basin of the Tiber, but also the districts known as the " Legations," between the Apennines and the Adriatic, as far north as Ferrara on the Po. Two popes had now succeeded the Pius VII whose persecution by Napoleon had won him so much sympathy; and since 1823 an era of strict repression had caused numerous outbreaks. So when Gregory XVI, well known for his reactionary views, was elected to the Papal See, the people of Bologna at once drove out the pope's legate, and the Papal Government was at once renounced by Ancona and almost every town in the States except Rome itself. The Prince of Modena and the Duchess of Parma, Marie Louise (Napoleon's widow), also had to flee from their respective capitals, and the growth of a national feeling was seen in the assembly of a Parliament at Bologna, which issued a provisional con- stitution for the " united Italian provinces." These poten- tates were soon restored by Austrian troops, who then marched towards Ancona to restore the papal authority. They overthrew the Italian patriots at Rimini, close by the stream once called the Rubicon j 1 but the representatives of the five great Powers demanded of the pope in a memo- randum that he should secularise his government by 1 A strange inversion of ancient history that at this classic stream the descendants of the Germani and Norici should have helped the Roman Government to reduce its rebellious Italian subjects to obedience. xxvn] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1830. 203 admitting laymen to public offices. The pope, sure of Austrian aid, refused; and when the insurrection again burst forth, the Austrians were only stopped from occupying Ancona by a dramatic stroke of the French Government. The French minister, Casimir Perier, took the first vigorous step of the reign of Louis Philippe by sending an expedition to occupy Ancona almost in the face of the Austrians and in spite of the pope's protest (February 1832). Yet this occupation, though it lasted till 1838, did not prevent the return of absolutism to the Papal States and North Italy. Mazzini. — It was against this reaction that Mazzini started the newspaper and the movement of " Young Italy " at Marseilles in 1832. The son of a professor of medicine in the University of Genoa, he soon outgrew the French doctrines of the rights of man, and became still more alienated from the method employed by the Carbonari. The young idealist believed in, and worked for, the unity of Italy as religious duty, and as promoting the ideal for which each nation existed. This teaching of the duties of man as well as the rights of man gained him the lifelong devo- tion of noble-minded Italians ; but he, like many other idealists, was less fortunate in his choice of the means to be adopted. Mazzini had attempted to assist the people of Bologna, but Louis Philippe's half-promised aid was not forthcoming, and the young advocate fled to Corsica, which was still Italian in feeling. On the accession of Charles Albert, Mazzini urged the young ruler to put himself at the head of a war of Italian independence. "Rest assured that posterity will either hail your name as the greatest of men or as the last of Italian tyrants." But the events at Bologna had alarmed Charles Albert, and the prisons of Piedmont were soon full of Italian patriots. Thenceforth Mazzini was a republican, with a passionate belief in the 204 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch.xxvii mission of Rome, as the Italian capital, to elevate the character of his countrymen. In spite of his lofty ideals, Mazzini did not scruple to mix himself up with designs for the assassination of Charles Albert. Then, taking refuge in Switzerland, he, with about a thousand other Italian and Polish exiles, attempted an invasion of Savoy, which proved a ludicrous failure. Mazzini fell down in a fit just before a skirmish, in which his fol- lowers were scattered (1833). For several years he lived in exile at London, and this attempt only drove Charles Albert to a policy of repression which only began to cease in 1843. Thus all the movements of 1830 led to no direct suc- cess except in France and Belgium, and in most cases to worse oppression than before. They were of too isolated a character to effect their object, and no champion had hitherto arisen to command widespead sympathy. CHAPTER XXVIII. FRANCE LOUIS PHILIPPE (183O-I There is a superficial resemblance between the Bourbon restoration of 1815 and the Stuart restoration in 1660. In both cases, after the kings Louis XVI and our Charles L had been beheaded, military dictatorships followed ; then, after the tolerant monarchs of the direct royal lines had been restored and had reigned in comparative quiet, their bigoted younger brothers, Charles X and James II, brought about the fall of the direct Bourbon and Stuart dynasties, and were succeeded by constitutional sovereigns elected from the younger branches of their families. 1 In fact, Guizot, the Protestant statesman who supported Louis Philippe for so many years, afterwards wrote : "In 1830 our minds were full of the English revolution of 1688, of its success, of the noble and free government it had founded, and of the glorious prosperity it had purchased for the nation. . . . For our revolution of 1830 we had neither the same profound causes nor the same varied supports." On the 31st July 1830, only two days after the victory of the citizens over the troops, the Chamber of Deputies invited the Due d'Orleans to be Lieutenant-General of the realm. He rode on horseback through the barricaded 1 See Genealogical Tree, p. 217. 206 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. streets to the Hotel de Ville as a mark of courtesy to the National Guards and their commander the aged Lafayette, who now at last, after a lapse of thirty-eight years, saw his ideal of constitutional monarchy about to be realised. As the duke passed the barricades there was no enthusiasm shown, except towards the deputies who accompanied him ; but on August 1 1 he accepted the crown offered to him by 210 out of the small number of 250 deputies then present in the Chamber. His had been a strange career. Son of the Philippe Egalite' whose schemes only brought him to the guillotine, the young republican had figured as a doorkeeper at the Jacobins' Club, had fought with great bravery at Valmy and Jemappes, then fled with Dumouriez to the Austrians in 1793, and for a long time taught mathematics in a small Swiss town. After his return to France in 18 14 he had, in the Chamber of Peers, steadfastly opposed every reac- tionary tendency on the part of his royal relatives. Now that he was elected king he maintained an almost repub- lican simplicity in his manners, and his rule was said by his supporters to be " the best of republics." His character had been hardened by nearly a quarter of a century of exile, and now, at fifty-seven years of age, inspired none of the enthusiasm which he had called forth at Jemappes. Yet his firmness and sagacity secured to France a continu- ous government for eighteen years in spite of the three parties, Republicans, Bonapartists, and Legitimists. These last were those who supported the Due de Bordeaux, grand- son of the exiled Charles X, who just before his departure had named the boy as his successor under the regency of Louis Philippe. The new Charter and Electoral Law. — The Cham- ber of Deputies had already swept away the fatal ordinances xxvin] FRANCE — LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-1848). 207 of Charles X, and had remodelled the charter of Louis XVIII, so as now to ensure the equality before the law of all forms of religion, and the extension of trial by jury to political charges. Departmental and municipal bodies were also formed on an electoral basis. After the popular triumph in July the people hoped that the franchise would be extended to at least the majority of a'dult citizens, and great irritation was aroused when the franchise was merely extended from those who paid 300 francs in direct annual taxation to those who paid 200 francs. This only raised the total number of electors to 184,000 out of a total population of over 30,000,000 persons. The power which every government has always had in France and in Southern Europe to control the elections was seen also in the return of 216 government officials as deputies in the new Chamber, of which they formed rather more than half. Hence arose a system of jobbery which finally disgraced the whole of public life under Louis Philippe. Discontent in France. — With the growth of com- merce and manufactures, the artisan class grew more powerful : easily excited in times of want, this class was then in a continual ferment, for it looked upon Louis Philippe as foisted on France by a trick of the Chambers. It had won the street fights of July, yet now saw all power kept in the hands of the rich bourgeoisie which had placed Louis Philippe on the throne. Moreover, the king's un- popularity increased when he asked for an annual civil list of 18,000,000 francs, though at his accession he had said, " 6,000,000 are more than enough for a citizen king." The Chamber finally voted 12,000,000 francs a year; and the country saw avarice take firmer hold on the king with every increase of his wealth. 208 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. So unpopular was the king's first ministry under Lafayette that the king soon willingly dismissed that too liberal con- stitutionalist. The next ministry, which entered office in March 1831 under Casimir Pener, was still more resolute in repressing tumults. The premier was a man of com- manding talents and firmness. He declared that while France would not herself interfere in the affairs of other nations, neither would she allow others to do so ; but the French artisans, barely satisfied by intervention in Belgium and Italy, were exasperated by the king's refusal to intervene in favour of Poland, and the arrival of hundreds of Polish exiles at Paris in the end of 1831 again roused their anger. At Lyons the silk trade was hard pressed by the compe- tition of other countries which since 1 8 1 5 had entered into commercial rivalry with France. Disputes arose between the Lyons manufacturers and the silk weavers, who at that time worked in their own homes, not in workshops. Finally the artisans took up arms in November 1831, and after two days' fighting drove the troops out of their town ; but a large force under Marshal Soult soon overawed them. There were disturbances also at Marseilles, Toulon, and Toulouse. The cholera in the next year created a terrible panic ; and, as in Hungary and Russia, the peasants, believing the wells to have been poisoned, often murdered the physicians themselves. The most illustrious victim was the premier, Casimir Perier, whose firm hand was never more needed (May 1832). Amid these troubles the legitimists and republicans sought to overthrow the government. The Duchesse de Berri, widow of the son of Charles X, attempted to raise La Vende'e, where a strong attachment to the old monarchy still existed ; but this sentiment was not strong enough to excite a revolt. The duchess was captured, and soon liberated. xxvin] FRANCE— LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-1848). 209 More serious were the street rights with the Paris repub- licans in June 1832. Barricades were thrown up after the funeral of a popular deputy, and were with difficulty carried by the troops. At Lyons too, which had become' more and more republican, the workmen, in April 1834, fought against the troops more desperately than even in 1831. Before they could be crushed the Paris republicans again rose, irritated by new decrees against political clubs and conspirators. Cavaignac escaped to England, but other leaders were imprisoned after trials which shook the credit of the government. The Doctrinaires. — After the death of Casimir Pener a ministry was formed, with Marshal Soult as president of the council, or "premier," in English phrase. His col- leagues were Thiers, the vivacious genius who was to sound forth the glories of the first Empire, and thus unconsciously help the imperialists again to power ; the Due de Broglie, who from the first to the second Empire was a firm expo- nent of moderate Liberal principles; and the historian Guizot, a devoted student and admirer of the English constitution. The last two were the leaders of the doctrinaires, a group of politicians who strove to conduct politics in a philosophic spirit. " It was our endeavour " (wrote Guizot) " to bestow sound philosophy on politics." The difference between their principles and their conduct often exposed them to ridicule; but in truth Louis Philippe's ministers had a difficult task to cope with the malcontents at home and to avoid a rupture with the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian sovereigns, who viewed the July revolution and its results with alarm and dislike. So Louis Philippe's constant desire was to keep a good understanding with England. Infernal Machine — Repressive Laws. — The waning popularity of Louis Philippe was revived by a mad attempt 210 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. on his life. During the previous nine months no less than seven such plots had been discovered ; yet a Corsican named Fieschi arranged an infernal machine to fire from a window on the king as he rode to the review of the National Guards on July 28, 1835, the anniversary of the revolution of 1830. A shower of bullets struck down many spectators and soldiers, among the latter Mortier, one of Napoleon's old marshals. But amid all the slaughter the king himself escaped unscathed, and, with the courage which he had shown at Jemappes, proceeded to the review. Fieschi and two other miscreants were executed. The consequences fell upon the republican opposition. In September laws were passed forbidding all discussion on the form of government, facilitating the trial of political crimes by secret voting of juries, and decreeing that news- paper criticisms on the king's acts were treasonable. None the less there were five more unsuccessful attempts on the king's life, and one on that of his son, the Due d'Aumale, between 1835 and 1842 ; and in 1839 the Paris republicans again threw up barricades, under the lead of Blanqui, the disturber of so many governments down to our own day. Thiers and Guizot. — French ministries were made and unmade almost as quickly in the middle of Louis Philippe's reign as they have been since 1871. In 1836 the coalition of Thiers and Guizot broke up after popular disturbances seemed for the time to be crushed. Thiers formed a more progressist ministry, but fell from power owing to a proposal to intervene in Spain, which the prudent king opposed. The king then confided the guidance of affairs to a doctrinaire ministry under Mold, who admitted the royal intervention in parliamentary affairs more than had been allowed by Thiers or even by Guizot, though the xxvin] FRANCE — LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-1848). 211 latter was always favourable to the exercise of the royal pre- rogative. These two statesmen again united to overthrow Mole, and after a period of shortlived ministries Thiers finally resigned because the king would not support his menacing tone on the Egyptian question in 1840. Guizot then was called to the throne of State, and remained there till the crash of 1848. Louis Napoleon. — In 1833 Louis Philippe had re- placed the statue of the Emperor Napoleon on the Vendome column (that oft- changing barometer of French political feeling), and in 1836 he had completed the great Arc de Triomphe. In 1840, during the shortlived ministry of Thiers, Louis Philippe had also agreed that the bones of the emperor should be brought from St. Helena to rest " among the French people whom he so much loved." His remains were brought to Cherbourg and thence to Paris with imposing pomp, to rest under the dome of the Invalides, or Hospital for Old Soldiers (December 1840). Four years previously the emperor's nephew, Louis Napoleon, son of Louis, ex-King of Holland, and Hortense Beauharnais, had crossed over from Switzerland to Strassburg. Dressed in imitation of" le petit caporal," he there attempted to gain over the troops, but was speedily arrested. Taken by a French war-ship to America, he soon returned to Constance ; but on the threats of Louis Philippe to the Swiss cantons he retired to London. In 1840 he declared that the bones of the emperor ought to rest only in an imperial and " regenerated " France, and attired in the uniform of Napoleon's Guards he and some friends dis- embarked at Boulogne from a steamer which they had secretly chartered in the Thames. The sequel did not resemble the triumphant procession of his uncle to Paris after his escape from Elba. At Boulogne in 1840 the French 212 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. troops remained true to the government. The boat in which Louis Napoleon sought to escape to the steamer capsized, and he was dragged out of the water half-drowned. This time he was condemned by the Chamber of Peers at Paris to imprisonment for life ; but in 1846 he escaped from the castle at Ham in the disguise of a workman during some alterations. These events seemed fatal to his cause with a people so keenly alive to a sense of the ridiculous as the French, but " in France it is the unexpected which happens.'' In six years after his escape he was Emperor of the French. The Egyptian Question. — Louis Philippe was in a dilemma as to foreign affairs all through his reign. Either he must please his own people by supporting the popular movements which began in 1830, or conciliate the con- tinental Powers by showing that he was not another Napoleon carried into power on the crest of a revolution. He wavered between these two policies, and only intervened in Belgium and Portugal when he had the support of England. Yet the traditions of the Empire often made the French yearn for a more spirited policy against Germany, Austria, and even against England. After 1840 this feeling was strong enough in France to urge Thiers to run the risk of war with England in support of Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt. This question, which was one of secondary importance for the two western Powers, was brought into the front rank by the eager rivalry of. Thiers and Palmerston. Mehemet Ali, the able soldier and administrator of Egypt, had defied the Sultan's authority and defeated his troops in every pitched battle, while a treacherous Turkish admiral had taken over a Turkish fleet to what seemed the winning side (1839). The French believed that they saw in xxvin] FRANCE — LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-1848). 213 Mehemet Ali the regenerator of the Turkish power ; for the same reason Russia (always hostile to France) detested him as a dangerous rebel against authority ; while England, Prussia, and Austria dreaded his power to weaken Turkey by civil war. Suddenly Palmerston disclosed the signature of a secret treaty with Russia and Prussia which was to isolate France, and reserve only Egypt and Southern Syria to the victorious pacha. In spite of the menaces of Thiers, Palmerston sent a powerful fleet, which, joined by Austrian and Turkish war-ships, laid Acre in ruins, and forced Mehemet to with- draw from his Syrian conquests by a threat to bombard Alexandria (November 1840). Louis Philippe did not support Thiers in his desire for armed intervention ; and, after his fall from office, France finally joined the other Powers in a treaty called the " treaty of the straits." By this Egypt was again brought under the suzerainty of the Sultan, but the hereditary right of Mehemet Ali and his heirs to the Pachalic of Egypt was recognised. Turkey also escaped from the humiliating terms of the treaty of Unkiar Iskelessi of 1833, 1 which had placed her at the foot of Russia. The Sultan now refused to admit any ships of war through the narrow waters of the Bosporus (July 1841). Russian interests thus sustained a worse check than that suffered by French diplomacy. The latter was soon forgotten after Palmerston and Thiers had fallen from power ; and the old friendship was renewed when Queen Victoria visited Louis Philippe at the Orleanist domain, the Chateau d'Eu, near Dieppe (1843). The sudden death of the king's eldest son after a carriage accident in Paris also concentrated French attention on home affairs and on the prospects of the Orleanist dynasty, which were thus overclouded. 1 See p. 194. 214 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Tahiti. — A quarrel soon arose, however, about Tahiti. The French, outstripped in the race to annex New Zealand, had taken advantage of some trifling injuries done to French residents in Tahiti to expel an English missionary named Pritchard. They then frightened the native Christian queen, Pom are, into a request for a French protectorate, which was turned later on, after a spirited resistance by the natives, into actual possession. In the burning question of the Spanish marriage, Louis Philippe was held to have shown love of family aggrandise- ment at the cost of his kingly honour. So the entente cordiale with England was never quite restored down to the overthrow of the Orleanist dynasty. Conquest of Algeria. — This was the one solid achieve- ment of Louis Philippe in foreign affairs. In the first troublous years of his reign it was often debated whether the recently conquered town of Algiers should not be abandoned ; but the advantage of having a naval station on the south of the Mediterranean ensured its retention, and two French captains in 1832 seized the port of Bona, near the frontier of Tunis. The difficulties of conquest in so rugged a country were only found out by degrees, but they served as a welcome diversion for the excitable French youth. The Arab hero was Abd-el-Kader, Emir of Mascara, near Oran, on the Morocco border. Combining the fanati- cism of a Moslem with the activity, cunning, and bravery of a Jugurtha, he for a long time set the invaders of his country at defiance. This land, traversed by two main ranges of the Atlas mountains with numerous offshoots, and merging on the south into the burning desert of the Sahara, was as difficult for French troops to conquer, and to hold when conquered, as it was for the Romans. In 1834 the Arabs several times checked the French, and in 1836 xxvm] FRANCE — LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-1848). 215 hurled them back from a daring attack on the city of Constantine, perched on a rock above a roaring torrent. Clauzel and the young Changarnier led back their intrepid troops, though harassed by clouds of Arabs. Lamoriciere took the city next year after a terrible struggle. Abd-el-Kader was often beaten by the dash and energy of the French commander-in-chief, Bugeaud ; but he only retired into the mountains or desert, to reappear where least expected, and once he made a raid almost to the walls of Algiers itself. As a reply to this act of bravado the king's fourth son, the dashing young Due dAumale, at the head of a flying column surprised and captured the chiefs moving encampment, and Abd-el-Kader himself had to flee into Morocco. A short war against the Moors obliged the chief to return and struggle on against superior forces, until on Christmas Day 1847 he surrendered to the Due d'Aumale, who promised that he should be free to retire to Turkey; but Louis Philippe refused to ratify this promise, and ungenerously kept his foe a prisoner in France. He was liberated by Louis Napoleon in 1852. Though the conquest of Algeria occupied the whole of Louis Philippe's reign, its colonisation has taken longer still. As Marshal Bugeaud said, "That is a work of giants and of centuries." In spite of droughts and locusts its exports of dates and grain are considerable ; but it must still rank as the most costly and unprofitable of colonies. Arab soldiers in French pay, called Zouaves, did good service in the Crimean war; and the following generals won their spurs in Algeria — Changarnier, Cavaignac, Saint-Arnaud, Canrobert, Macmahon, and Pelissier. The last raised a storm of execration in Europe by lighting fires at the mouth of a cave to suffocate numbers of Arabs who with their wives and children had 216 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. taken refuge there — an act defended by Soult, then Minister for War. In fact, the cruelties of this savage warfare brutalised many French generals and soldiers, and so made possible the events of 185 1 in Paris. Home Affairs. — In 1840 the present fortifications round Paris were begun. At a cost of six millions sterling a huge wall was raised with a ring of detached forts, which might defend or overawe the citizens. The regular army was also largely increased. Up to 1842 France had only one railway, viz. at St. Etienne ; but the main lines were then planned and slowly commenced. Guizot's greatest work in office was a system of elementary education, passed in 1833. By 1848 the population of France was over 34,000,000. Discontent in Prance. — In spite of the increase of comfort and luxury among the people, there was increasing discontent at the somewhat sordid rule of Louis Philippe. The king in 1847 was seventy-four years of age; and, in spite of his great private wealth, he was constantly coming to the Chamber for grants and " portions " for his children. After devolving his private property on his eight children he claimed and received half a million sterling for his private income. The king and Guizot had outlived their early progressist policy. The absorption of Cracow by Austria in 1846 with a slight protest from Paris seemed to French Liberals a disgraceful surrender of the championship of the Polish cause. The heir to the throne, the Comte de Paris, was only four years old, and the prince who was to be regent after the king's death was his second son, the Due de Nemours, who was hated for his absolutist tendencies. And yet the 184,000 "electors" of France, the "pays legal," in 1 846 sent up a large majority of servile place- hunters, whose support strengthened Guizot in his policy xxvm] FRANCE— LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-1848). 217 of resistance to reform. The bad harvests of 1845 to 1847 caused deficits in the national revenue, though expenditure went on as ever. For once the French opposition borrowed their method from England in the shape of reform banquets ; but the folly of the government changed these peaceful protests into bloody affrays. Genealogical Tree of the House of Orleans. Louis XIII. I Louis XIV. ! (Elder Branch of the Bourbons). Philippe, Due d' Orleans. I Philippe (Regent 1715-1722). I Louis. Ferdinand (died 1842). Louis- Philippe. Louis-Philippe (Egalite) (guillotined 1793). I Louis-Philippe I. I Due de Nemours. Prince de Joinville. Due d'Aumale. Louis-Philippe, Comte de Paris. Robert, Due de Chartres. Due de Montpensier. CHAPTER XXIX. CENTRAL EUROPE (183I-1848). " Hamlet is Germany." (Gervinus. — Shakespeare Commentaries). ' ' Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt. " Virgil. Germany. — The passage of swarms of Polish refugees through Germany after the fall of Warsaw in 1831 renewed the disturbances of 1830 in a way which showed the un- practical character of German reforms then. Decked with the black, red, and gold colours of the old Empire, some 20,000 enthusiasts assembled around the ruins of an old castle in Rhenish Bavaria, and shouted, "Down with the princes ! " : yet the whole district was pacified by a few troops. A similar demonstration in Frankfurt -on- the- Main just gave to Metternich the wished-for opportunity of a similar cheap victory. A commission sat at this city, the federal capital, and some 1800 democrats were im- prisoned. Even the progressist kings, Louis of Bavaria and William of Wiirtemberg, adopted similar means of repression. In Hanover more stringent measures were soon adopted. The accession of Victoria to the British throne in 1837 severed the connection of Hanover with Great Britain, for, according to the Salic law, no woman could reign in Chap, xxix] CENTRAL EUROPE (1831-1848). 219 Hanover in her own right. So Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, the best hated man in England, received the crown of Hanover. He at once annulled a Liberal constitution granted in 1833, and restored the reactionary measures of 1819. By this stroke he regained the crown lands of Hanover, which in 1833 had been declared State property. Seven professors, among them Ewald, Gervinus, and Grimm, refused to take the new oath and were dismissed from Gottingen University. For the present the king conquered. Prussia. — The years between 1830 and 1848 were dull and uneventful in Prussia, save for the completion of the Zollverein or Customs Union. 1 In fact, Prussia was slowly storing up the resources which she used afterwards between 1862 and 1872 with terrible effect. Religious disputes between Roman Catholics and Protestants on the matter of mixed marriages embittered the last years of Frederick William's reign ; and those between various Protestant sects and Rationalists were hardly less exasperating. The king sought to weld the orthodox Protestants into one Church, on which he bestowed a liturgy. Several Lutherans who refused to accept this State religion were banished. Frederick "William IV (1840-1861). — In 1840 Frederick William III ended his long reign of forty-two years, so fraught with strange contrasts for Prussia and him- self. He had been a fugitive before Napoleon at Memel, had entered Paris as a conqueror, and had since reigned for a quarter of a century of quiet, only broken by the upheaval of 1830. His successor, Frederick William IV, was an impression- able being who looked batek to the mediasval ideas of 1 With the exception of the northern "Free Cities," which have just recently (October 1888) joined the Zollverein. 220 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [chap. monarchy too much to satisfy the desires of his subjects. At his coronation at KSnigsberg he declared that he reigned by the grace of God, and " would never do homage to the idea of a general popular representation, but would pursue a course based upon historical progression, suitable to German nationality." The provincial Estates, or Assemblies, were summoned to meet; but the system of national representation promised to Prussia and Hanover in 1 8 14 remained a promise. In fact, the new king clung to the old eighteenth-century policy, "All for the people, nothing by the people." The people were most carefully educated, but under the strict control of the State ; they were free, within fixed limits, to manage their local and provincial affairs, but were not deemed worthy of national representation, and yet the defence of Prussia was en- trusted to them, for every man was then liable to serve in the Landwehr up to his thirty-ninth year. An attempt on the king's life in 1844 injured the democratic cause, which was at that time in bad repute owing to the extravagances of the rationalising philo- sophers like Strauss. The Parliament. — In 1847 Frederick William IV sought to satisfy his subjects by convening an Assembly with the grand title of United Prussian Parliament. Its Upper Chamber consisted of princes and nobles ; the other of deputies elected by the knights, municipalities, and rural assemblies. Its powers were as limited as was its repre- sentative character. Permission was given to it to advise the king in the framing of new laws and redressing grievances, if the majority comprised two -thirds of the deputies ; its consent was necessary for the imposition of new taxes, except in time of war. It was, in fact, merely a central committee of the Provincial xxix] CENTRAL EUROPE (1831-1848). 221 Estates of Prussia, for it was to meet only when summoned by the king. At its opening session the king said with his fatal facility of speech : " Never will I allow a sheet of paper, like a second revelation, to intervene between God in heaven and this people. . . . The Crown can, and must, govern according to the laws of God and of the land, not according to the will of majorities." Naturally enough, the new Prussian Parliament had a short and feverish existence : in four months it was dis- solved by the irate monarch (June 1847). The hopes of the Prussian people gave way to bitter disgust. Henceforth the king had the support only of the strictest Protestants, and of the nobles and Junkers, 1 or squires. Strauss in a pamphlet dubbed him "The romanticist on the throne of the Caesars." Such was Prussia's prelude to the excitement of 1848. Austria (1815-1848). — The Emperor Francis I, who had taken that title in 1804, but had reigned over the Austrian dominions since 1792, had seen the same ex- tremes of fortune as his neighbour Frederick William III of Prussia; and after the triumph of 18 14 he too settled down to twenty years of peace, broken only by the interventions of Metternich in affairs of neighbouring states. Such was the influence of the Austrian Chancellor that Vienna between 18 14 and 1848 was the centre of European diplomacy. The homely Francis I, however, retained almost entire control over Austrian affairs, and even kept his ministers at a distance. Hence arose a laborious system of correspondence which wearied monarch, ministers, and officials alike, and resulted in a slow and pedantic routine. This patriarchal system accounts for the inefficiency of the Austrian Government down to 1866 in 1 Derived from Jung Herr. 222 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. everything except the repression of liberty. Metternich himself complained of the " mania for details which would destroy the spirit of the highest administration ; '' and he proposed that the provincial Diets should be formed into an Imperial Diet (Reichsrath) composed of landed proprietors selected by the emperor. This proposal to strengthen, not to reform the government, was never carried into effect by Francis I. So the aristocracy and clergy continued to exert great influence, though their power over legislation in the provincial Diets, except in Hungary, was very small. They were under the influence of the court, which bestowed favours on them for work in the army and government ; and the clergy were almost as dependent on Vienna as on Rome. Commerce. — The patriarchal government of Francis I, seen at its worst in the treatment of Italian patriots in the dungeons of the Spielberg, was yet enlightened enough to develop the commerce of his dominions. Trade with other nations had been almost non-existent owing to the heavy customs dues ; but now Francis encouraged steam traffic on the Danube, and also from Trieste to the East. In the next reign, in 1838, a treaty of commerce was framed with England. So what Austria had lost by being shut out from the German Zollverein she partly regained by the expansion of her trade on the lower Danube. In the case of Prussia as well as of Austria the growth of political power has followed the line of least resistance first marked out by commercial expansion. Ferdinand I. (1835- 1848). — The death of Francis brought to the throne his eldest son Ferdinand ; but the bodily and mental weakness of the new sovereign assured to Metternich as much control as before over foreign xxix] CENTRAL EUROPE (1831-1848). 223 affairs. Education was neglected, and at the universities 1 the exact sciences were alone studied — to the exclusion of subjects which might spread new ideas. The Viennese were encouraged to lead lives of heedless pleasure, while misery often reigned on the estates of the nobles, who spent their revenues in the capital. Cracow. — In 1846 a Polish insurrection burst forth in Galicia, which was Austria's share of the booty of Poland. The rising was confined to the old Polish nobility, who oppressed their serfs in the old days much more than the Austrian laws now allowed them to do ; so the Polish peasants of Galicia rose against their lords in a terrible " Jacquerie," and the rebellion came to an igno- minious end. In fact it only gave to Austria, Russia, and Prussia the desired opportunity of extinguishing the last relic of the once great Polish kingdom. The small re- public of Cracow was by them declared to be annexed to Austria (1846). Poland had perished owing to its civil discords ; but nearer Vienna Metternich was met by a united national resistance. Hungary. — Amidst the exhaustion which followed the Napoleonic wars Hungary for some few years raised no protest against the suspension of her ancient system. This required that the Hungarian Diet should be convened at Presburg, the ancient capital, every three years ; but it was not till 1825 that Francis I. gave way before the now unanimous demand of the Hungarian people. Resistance to the Viennese bureaucracy was spreading in Hungary along with reviving strength. The enlightened patriot Szechenyi gave his money, his labour, and his genius to found the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and he aided the great national work of rendering the Danube navigable, 1 As now in Russia. 224 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [ch. xxix and in reclaiming more than 100 square miles from the marshes of the Theiss. His younger rival in the affections of the people was Louis Kossuth, who by his oratorical power and popular sympathies became the champion of Hungarian liberty against the press censorship of Metter- nich. Thrown into prison for publishing newspaper reports of the sessions of the Diet and of the county assemblies, he was at last, in 1840, released on the urgent demands of the Diet, and again published a newspaper at Pesth. Even peace-loving people in Hungary saw at last that the Viennese government intended to conquer them, when it incited the Croats and Slavonians of the Hungarian crown lands against the Magyar or Hungarian race. The time for Szechenyi's conciliatory policy was felt to be past, and the democratic leaders, Kossuth and the more moderate Deak, henceforth swayed the Hungarian people. CHAPTER XXX. PORTUGAL Queen Maria (1826-1853). — Don Pedro, the ambitious but constitutional Emperor of Brazil, had never acquiesced in the exclusion of his daughter, the young Queen Maria, from the throne of Portugal by his absolutist brother Don Miguel. Leaving a regent to govern in Brazil, he brought over a force to restore his daughter to her throne. Aided by the movements of 1830-1831, and strengthened by the help of the English captain Napier on sea, and of the French general Villafior on land, he drove Don Miguel's supporters from Oporto and Lisbon, and dethroned the usurper. Finally, in 1834 a new Quadruple Alliance was con- cluded between England, France, and the constitutional governments of Spain and Portugal, to support Queen Christina of Spain and Queen Maria of Portugal against the pretenders Don Carlos and Don Miguel. This alliance of the constitutional sovereigns of the west of Europe was some counterpoise to that of the eastern Powers on the side of despotism ; but General Bourmont and many other legitimists came to aid the cause of the "pretenders." Driven from Santarem on the Tagus, these took refuge in the mountains of Alemtejo in the south-west of Portugal ; and Don Miguel signed a capitulation at Evora, by which 226 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. he undertook to leave the country. Before Don Pedro returned victorious to Brazil, he, in 1836, proclaimed a constitution, and abolished all monasteries. The young queen married, after the speedy decease of her first husband, Prince Ferdinand of Coburg. Their second son, with the title of Luiz I, still sits on the throne of Portugal. This land has made little progress in wealth despite its excellent soil and climate, owing to the indolence of its people and the careless financing which has over- burdened it with a crushing national debt. 1 Spain. Christina (Regent), 1833-1843. Isabella II, 1843-1868. The Carlist Wars. — Though Portugal seemed at the end of its troubles in 1836, Spain was then at the threshold of civil wars which have convulsed her down to recent years. On the death of King Ferdinand VII of Spain in September 1833, strife at once began between the supporters of the widowed queen Christina, who was de- clared regent for her daughter Isabella, and Don Carlos, the brother of the late king. As it had been in France and Portugal, so also in Spain, the younger brother of the late king was in each case a zealot in the cause of ab- solutism. Don Carlos found his support especially among the Basque provinces of the north of Spain. These provinces, especially Navarre and Aragon, long separated from the kingdom of Castile, had always resisted attempts to fuse them with the united kingdom of Spain ; and they still clung with the proud tenacity of their race to their " fueros " or local privileges, which the constitutional party had foolishly hesitated to ratify. So they now joined the 1 See Appendix, p. 390. xxx] SPAIN 227 Carlists, while the queen -regent was compelled to throw in her lot with the constitutionalists. Don Carlos, after escaping from Evora, appeared in Navarre ; and a merciless guerilla warfare was waged by the Carlist chief Zumala-Carreguy, until he lost his life at the siege of Bilbao in 1835. Meanwhile the constitutional party had split into two sections at Madrid ; and the extreme section, discontented at the ill success of their armies, proclaimed for the young Isabella, and demanded the restoration of the democratic constitution of 1812. The murder of monks and nuns and other violent excesses disgraced this party and em- bittered the civil war. In the midst of this anarchy a Carlist chief, Gomez, marched boldly through a great part of Spain ; but when the leadership of the constitutional forces was given to the ambitious but able leader Espartero, the aspect of affairs changed. A British legion was enrolled on the side of Isabella, and a British force aided Espartero in raising the siege of Bilbao ; but Don Carlos still held the mountain districts of the north, and in 1837 he made a sudden raid near to Madrid. Driven back by Espartero, he finally in 1839 sought refuge in France ; but his general Cabrera for two years more continued the savage warfare in Aragon and Catalonia. These eight years of civil war inflicted on the unhappy land a total loss, it is reckoned, of nearly two millions of people — far more than in its struggles against Napoleon. Military movements at Madrid overthrew first the authority of the Queen-Regent Christina, .then of the suc- cessful Espartero ; and at last the Cortes proclaimed Isabella of age though she was only thirteen years old (1843). Before the accession of Isabella II one more con- stitution was promulgated. The sovereign was to share 228 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xxx the governing power with two Chambers called collect- ively the Cortes. The members of the Senate were to be chosen from a list of three candidates sent up by each province ; the deputies of the lower Chamber were to be elected, one for every 50,000 inhabitants. Liberty of the press and equality of each citizen before the law were declared ; but all these promising schemes have always miscarried in Spain, owing to the corruption of the whole government from top to bottom. When the young Isabella grew up and married her cousin Francis of Assis, she left the government to go on its old way, and the scandals of her private life were reflected in the corruption of the officials. Ministry followed ministry in quick succession, but the country was no better governed. The proud isolation of the Spanish character kept the pen- insula free from the movements of 1848, which shook the thrones of many better rulers ; and Spain entered upon a time, of moral, political, and commercial torpor, which only ended in 1868. CHAPTER XXXI. THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 1 ' The movements of this age have proceeded from the instincts of the masses : the influence of individuals is scarcely perceptible." Gervinus. Just as the shrinking of the earth's crust now and again produces terrible earthquakes along the line of weakest resistance, so the silent but potent changes in a nation's life, brought about by the application of science to manu- factures and locomotion, will sometimes burst through the framework of a society which cramps and resists them. In England, France, Germany, Prussia, Austria, and even in Italy, the artisan class had been growing more numerous and better organised in the great towns. Every- thing was favouring the concentration of population in great centres. Railways and steamboats were opening up all parts of the world to commerce, and the ensuing competition brought about a sharp fall in prices, with a consequent financial crisis. Bad harvests in 1847 au g- mented the misery and discontent. Also the prosperity of the United States and of the British colonies threw into dark contrast the systems of the continent. In England the Reform Bill of 1832 and subsequent measures, especially the repeal of the Corn Laws which began in 1846, had so strengthened the government that it easily 230 A CENTUR V OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [chap. put down the Chartists' feeble imitation of the French Revolution of February 1848. On the continent it was far otherwise. The first outbreaks occurred in Milan, then in Sicily and Naples ; but it was from Paris that the great impulse came. 1 There the socialist teachings of Saint-Simon, Fourier, and the far more violent Proudhon, whose dictum was "Property is theft," had made much stir; they naturally gained some hold in a land where the government then was of the rich bourgeoisie and for it alone. Overthrow of Louis Philippe. — A reform banquet was announced to take place in the Champs-Elys^es for February 22, 1848. The Guizot ministry forbade it; but the sympathy of the National Guard with its object, and the pillage of a gunsmith's shop, showed the temper of the Parisians. The king, at last aware that a crisis had come, received the resignation of the unpopular Guizot, and on the night between the 23d and 24th February sent for the more progressist Thiers, but it was then too late. A crowd of Parisians, marching joyously along with torches and a red flag, had found their way barred by troops opposite the Foreign Office ; in the confusion a shot was fired by the crowd, and the soldiers in a panic answered with a volley. Several persons fell dead or wounded, and in the words of Lamartine, an apologist of this revolution, " the survivors found waggons perfectly prepared even at this hour of the night, as if they had been previously obtained, in order to exhibit through Paris those lifeless bodies and rekindle the fury of the people." The 1 So sudden were these movements in 1848 that passengers by sailing- ships leaving England for India in January 1848 found on their arrival at Calcutta telegraphic news that half the monarchs of Europe had been deposed or compelled to grant constitutions. xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 231 Parisians, excited by this theatrical display, would hear of no compromise, and plundered the Palais Royal, the private palace of the Orleans family. The progressist Thiers ministry, still hoping that its accession would calm the populace, gave orders to Marshal Bugeaud that his troops should not fire. Thus by the 24th February, when they were urgently needed to protect the king, the discouraged troops everywhere gave way before the aggressive crowds. As the king was breakfasting in the Tuileries, a message came that the dragoons were surrendering their swords, and the soldiers their muskets, to the people. The king rode out to restore their confidence ; but his hesitation, or desire to shed no French blood, had ruined his chances. The crowds were every- where victorious and were besieging the Tuileries. Amidst this confusion Thiers resigned and recommended the more radical Odillon Barrot as his successor ; but the excited mob pressed on, and in a few minutes Girardin, the well- known editor of a paper friendly to the king, rushed in. " Sire," said he, " the abdication of the king or the abdication of the monarchy : such is the dilemma." The king wrote, " I abdicate in favour of my grandson the Comte de Paris." As the mob drew near to the palace, the king and royal family (except the Duchesse d'Orleans and her son the young Comte de Paris) hurried through the palace gardens to a vehicle waiting in the Place de la Concorde. Under the sobriquet of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the royal pair, often in danger of their lives in spite of their disguise, at last reached England. Guizot followed them, to add one more to the crowd of exiled potentates and statesmen who fled to our shores in 1848. The king died at Claremont in August 1850. Lamartine. — Few men have been so quickly raised to 232 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the height of power as Lamartine. He was a graceful poet, and his vivid history, " The Girondists" had done much to prepare for this outbreak. His brilliant oratory held the Chamber, or rioters alike, spell-bound ; but he lacked that tenacity of purpose and that masterful power which the French prefer even to the sensibility of genius. On the flight of Louis Philippe, the Duchesse d'Orleans with her two boys entered the Chamber ; but the irruption of an armed mob terrified her into flight with the young king and his little brother. 1 Hereupon Lamartine ascended the tribune, and, after a frantic tumult, names were read out of men who should form a provisional government until a republic could be constituted. Among these were Lamartine, Arago, and Ledru-Rollin, the advocate of universal suffrage. Afterwards the mob added Louis Blanc, the revolutionist, to the list. These men, taking possession of the plundered town-hall, in a room bare of all furniture drew up decrees, such as the abolition of death for political crimes, and of slavery in French colonies : these they at once proclaimed to the mob below. On March 2, 1848, the committee proclaimed universal suffrage, and summoned all Frenchmen to elect a Constituent Assembly to or- ganise the republic. National "Workshops. — To appease the "red" re- publicans and the many workmen who were starving amid the stoppage of trade, the committee started State-work- shops {ateliers nationaux) for men without work. Light work and fairly good pay soon attracted as many as 120,000 men away from ordinary trade to idle away their time in 1 As usual the Paris mob made or unmade governments ; and when the highly -centralised government was once paralysed at its heart, it collapsed everywhere. The passive provinces accepted the changes from Paris with some grumbling about receiving their revolutions by post. xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848- 1849. 233 these State -workshops. Thus trade was still more dis- organised, while the provisional government could barely pay the men out of its scanty resources ; for the finances were in a desperate state, in spite of the doubling of the land tax. The Second Republic— The "Four Days." — The new Assembly, elected April 23, 1848, had scarcely pro- claimed the republic when a mob of socialists and "reds" invaded the Chamber, only to be driven out by National Guards (May 15, 1848). At last it became necessary to close the State-workshops, but this was the signal for a civil war in Paris streets (June 23-26, 1848). General Cavaignac, at the head of regular troops, and the National Guards of Paris and Rouen, crushed the rising after four days of desperate barricade fighting. The Archbishop of Paris lost his life during his efforts at mediation ; and not till eleven generals and vast numbers of soldiers and work- men had fallen was order restored : about 100,000 muskets were taken from the populace. The Chamber decreed the thanks of the country to Cavaignac, and named him temporary president of the republic till the new constitution should be completed. At a terrible cost the young republic had triumphed over the extremists. It was to succumb to a more insidious foe. 1 As in 1830, so again in 1848, the Paris Revolution fanned into a flame all the smouldering discontent in Italy, Austria, Germany, and Prussia. Italy in 1 848-1 849 Pius IX. — The Papal States and all Italy had been stirred to new life and hope by some trifling reforms 1 See p. 254. 234 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR V. [chap. granted by the newly-elected Pope Pius IX, and soon the cry "Viva Pio Nono " rang through Italy. When Metternich ventured on sending Austrian troops to occupy Ferrara in 1847, he was constrained to withdraw them on the representations of Lord Palmerston. So the Italians were full of hope. The Smoking Riots at Milan. — The Austrian Government had not only wounded Italian , feelings by appointing Austrians as judges, professors, and governors in Lombardy-Venetia, but had cut off by custom-houses these two rich provinces from trade with the rest of Italy. Moreover, the sale of tobacco was a monopoly of the Austrian Government ; so the patriots of Lombardy on the first day of 1848 resolved to buy no tobacco. 1 Thereupon Radetzky, the Austrian governor of Milan, ordered his sol- diers ostentatiously to smoke in the streets. On January 2 and 3, 1848, the "smoking riots'' began in Milan, and soon in Pavia and Padua. So when the news of the revo- lutions at Naples, Paris, and Vienna reached Milan, the Italians rose against their oppressors, who now at last seemed to be helpless in their own capital. Naples. — Meanwhile Sicily, on January 12, 1848, began to struggle for its free constitution of 1 8 1 2 ; and a few street demonstrations at Naples terrified Ferdinand II into suddenly granting a constitution which he might earlier in his reign have gracefully conceded (January 29, 1848). This, however, did not satisfy the ardent Sicilians, who pro- claimed their complete independence of Naples. This schism in the constitutional party of the south was again fatal to its success. Ferdinand in May 1848 triumphed over the Neapolitan patriots, and in September his troops 1 As in 1670 the North American colonists refused to buy tea, which was a monopoly of the English Government. xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 235 regained Messina for the Bourbons. His victory was soon followed by the withdrawal of the Constitution, and by wholesale imprisonments in dungeons too foul for the prison doctors to venture into. Palermo surrendered in May 1849. / The "Five Days" at Milan — No vara. — The spring of 1848 was in fact all through Italy a spring-tide of hopes too bright to last. Pope Pius IX, the Duke of Tus- cany, and Charles Albert granted a share in the government to their citizens ; and the Milanese, excited by the first rising of the Viennese against the Austrian Government (March 13), took up arms against Radetzky's troops, and after five days of desperate street-fighting drove them out of their city (March 18-22). At Venice too the crowd broke Into the prison to rescue the patriot advocate Manin, and then expelled the Austrian troops, which also had to retire from Cremona. Finally, Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, emboldened by the difficulties of Austria and by the clamour of his own subjects, declared war against her. Success seemed indeed to be certain, for volunteers poured in from Tuscany and Naples to help drive out the hated foreigners. But after a trifling success at Gorto, the patriots were defeated at Cus- tozza (July 24) by Radetzky, who was then unhampered by having to hold down several towns. In the next year Charles Albert again hazarded a campaign against Austria (March 12, 1849); but on the 23d of the same month he was utterly beaten at Novara, in spite of the bravery of his troops. In despair he abdicated in favour of his eldest son Victor Emmanuel, and for some years he wandered about western Europe a forlorn exile. Brescia was punished for its desperate resistance to the Austrians under Haynau by terrible vengeance. Venice was the last city to succumb 236 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. to the reaction of 1849. After the fall of Rome and of the Hungarian cause, the island city still held out against the Austrian cannon without, and the ravages of cholera within, its walls. Not until their defences were in ruins did Pepd and Manin surrender (August 25, 1849). Rome. — To Rome also these years 1848 and 1849 brought the like extremes of hope and despair. Pope Pius IX had appointed Count Rossi, a moderate reformer, to head the new constitutional government ; but this states- man, hated by jealous cardinals and raging democrats alike, was stabbed just after the first session of the new Parliament (November 15, 1848). The excited Roman populace then overpowered the Swiss Guard at the Quirinal, and com- pelled the pope to dismiss his foreign troops. The terrified pontiff fled secretly to Gaeta for the protection of Ferdinand of Naples. The Roman Republic. — Now at last Mazzini found his ideal within his grasp. A Constituent Assembly at Rome declared the temporal power of the pope abolished, to make way for a Roman Republic (February 1849). Tuscany also declared itself a republic united to Rome ; and its duke joined the pope in exile at Gaeta ; but soon the triumph of the Austrians enabled the duke's partisans to restore his power. Rome would have succumbed in the same way to the tide of reaction in 1849, na d it not been for the presence of a born leader of men. Garibaldi. — Hardened in his boyhood by a seafaring life at his birthplace, Genoa, the young patriot had given his indomitable courage to the cause of liberty in the South American Republics. On his return to Italy he was rap- turously welcomed, and after the disaster of Custozza he still harassed the Austrians in the hill-country around the Italian lakes; but at last he retreated into Switzerland, xxxr] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 237 worn out with marsh-fever. Such was the man whom Mazzini called to aid in the defence of Rome against the troops sent by the sister republic of France. Garibaldi inspired the Romans with courage like his own, and they beat back the troops of General Oudinot from the walls. The French president, Louis Napoleon, though he had in 1 83 1 fought for the sake of Roman freedom, now sent reinforcements to Oudinot in spite of the opposition of all true French republicans. Succour also came to the pope's cause from the Bourbons of Naples and Madrid ; but Fer- dinand's troops were hurled back at Palestrina and Velletri by half of their number of Romans ; whereupon the Spaniards declined a combat with the " red republic." Oudinot with 35,000 men and an artillery train now advanced a second time on the Eternal City, which was defended by some 15,000 Garibaldians. Though the French captured an outpost under cover of a truce, yet a week of cannonade and assaults only made one practicable breach in the walls. On the night of the 30th June 1849 three French columns pressed in on the Roman barricades, defended by the red-shirted Garibaldians. These at last gave way before the weight of numbers ; and Garibaldi, stained with blood but unwounded, himself admitted that defence was now impossible, unless Rome followed the example of Saragossa. He then said to his devoted band, " Soldiers ! I offer you hunger, thirst, cold, heat, no pay, no rations ; whoever loves Italy, follow me." Nearly 4000 followed him across the Apennines ; but they were hunted down by the Austrians near Rimini, where his brave wife died. Finally he reached New York, there to join Ledru- Rollin, Louis Blanc, Felix Pyat, Lamartine, Kossuth, and many other exiled democrats. Temporal Power restored. — Pope Pius IX on his 238 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. return to Rome in the spring of 1850 revoked the constitution, and handed over the government to the cardinals. Soon the prisons of Rome were filled with republicans. The failure of the Italian patriots in 1848-49 was due to their internal divisions and want of due preparation. Sicily acted independently of Naples, and Central Italy of North Italy. But though French troops remained in Rome to prop up the temporal power of the pope, yet French jealousy of Austrian predominance soon gave the Italians another opportunity ; and their cause had found two stalwart champions in Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II. Austria (1 848-1 849). The rise of national feeling among the Hungarian, Slavonic, and Italian subjects of the House of Hapsburg was not the only difficulty of the Emperor Ferdinand I. Vienna was then the gayest and the dearest centre of fashion and luxury in Europe, but side by side with wealth there seethed a mass of wretched poverty ; and the protective trade system of Austria so increased the price of the necessaries of life that bread-riots were frequent. During the distress of the end of 1847 a rumour spread that a widow in the capital had killed one of her own children to provide food for the others. The university students were foremost in the demand for a constitution and for the removal of the rigid censorship of the press and of all books. So when the news came of the flight of Louis Philippe from Paris, the students as well as the artisans of Vienna rose in revolt (March 13, 1848), the latter breaking machinery and attacking the houses of unpopular employers. A deputation of citizens clamoured for the xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 239 resignation of the hated Metternich : his house was burnt down, and he fled to England. A second outbreak of the excited populace (May 15, 1848) sent the Emperor Ferdinand in helpless flight to Innspriick in Tyrol ; but he returned when they avowed their loyalty to his person, though they detested the old bureaucratic system. Far more complicated, however, were the race jealousies of the Empire. Bohemia. — The Slavs of Bohemia, though cut off from their brethren in the south of the Empire by the German and Hungarian races, were at this time enthusiastic for their race. They had demanded of Ferdinand the union of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia in Estates for those provinces, and that the Slavs should enjoy equal privileges with the Germans. After an unsatisfactory answer had been received, they convoked a Slavonic Congress at Prague. Hither came deputies from the Poles and Ruthenians of Galicia, from the Croats and Serbs of the Turkish frontier, from the Moravians, and the Slovaks of North Hungary ; but while this Babel of tongues was seeking for a means of fusion, Prince Windischgratz was assembling Austrian troops around the Bohemian capital. Fights in the streets led to a bombardment of the city, which Windischgratz soon entered in triumph. This has left a bitterness between the Tsechs or Bohemians and the Germans, which still divides Bohemia socially and politically; the Slavonic races of the Empire, which far outnumber either the Germans or the Magyars singly, still demand a federal representation of the races of the Empire. The dual system of 1867 has not met their aspirations.' Hungary. — The exciting news of the spring of 1848 had made the hot Asiatic blood of the Magyars boil ; yet even Kossuth and the democrats at first only demanded 2 4 o A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the abolition of Metternich's system in favour of a repre- sentative government, for they were attached to Ferdinand as the lawfully-elected King of Hungary, crowned with the iron crown of St. Stephen, and they only wished to rid him of bad advisers. On the news of the first Viennese outbreak the democrats in the Hungarian Diet were able to compensate the nobles for the abolition of all vestiges of feudal dependence among their peasants, and to enact freedom of the press and universal military service (March 1848). Unfortunately Kossuth claimed that the Magyar laws and language must now be supreme not only in Hungary proper, but also in the Hungarian " crown lands " of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia, 1 and the enthusiastic Magyars wished also to absorb the ancient principality of Transylvania ; but this again was stoutly resisted by the Roumanians, Slavs, and Saxons of that little-known corner of Europe, and their discontent was fanned by the court of Vienna. Jellachich, the Ban or Governor of Croatia, headed this movement, which aimed at making Agram the capital of the southern Slavs. Their revolt against the Hungarian ministry of Batthyanyi was at first disavowed in June 1848, but in October was encouraged, by the per- fidious government of Vienna. A conference between Batthyanyi and Jellachich ended with words of defiance : " Theri we must meet on the Drave,'' said the Hungarian. " No, on the Danube," retorted the champion of the Slavs. Civil "War. — The vacillating Ferdinand annulled his acceptance of the new Hungarian constitution and declared Jellachich dictator of Hungary. His tool was unfortunate. After crossing the Drave the Slavs were defeated by the brave Hungarian "honveds" (defenders); and as many as 1 Belonging to Hungary by right of ancient conquest. xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 241 9000 were made prisoners. Unable to subdue Hungary, Jellachich turned aside towards Vienna to crush the popular party there. For the democrats, exasperated by the perfidious policy of the government, had on October 6, 1848, risen a third time: the war-minister, Latour, had been hanged on a lamp-post, and the emperor again fled from his turbulent capital to the ever-faithful Tyrolese. But now Jellachich and Windischgratz bombarded the rebellious capital. It was on the point of surrendering when the Hungarians appeared to aid the city; but the levies raised by the exertions of Kossuth were this time outmanoeuvred by the imperialists at Schwechat (October 30, 1848), and on the next day Vienna surrendered. Blum, a delegate from Saxony, and some other democrats were shot. By this clever but unscrupulous use of race-jealousy the Viennese Government seemed to have overcome Bohemians, Italians, Hungarians, and the citizens of its own capital, in turn ; while it had diverted the southern Slavonians from hostility to actual service on its side. So strong is the binding power which the House of Hapsburg has exerted over the diverse races of the Empire ! It has been often said, " If the Austrian Empire did not exist it would be necessary to create it." Never was that truth more clearly shown than amid the disruptive forces of 1848. Francis Joseph I. — The weak health and vacillating spirit of Ferdinand did not satisfy the knot of courtiers at Vienna, who now, flushed by success, sought to concentrate all power in the Viennese Cabinet. Worn out by the ex- citements of the year and by the demands of these men, Ferdinand, on December 2, 1848, yielded up the crown, not to his rightful successor, his brother, but to his nephew R 242 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Francis Joseph. He, a youth of eighteen, ascended the throne so rudely shaken, and still, in spite of almost uni- form disaster in war, holds sway over an empire larger and more powerful than he found it in 1848. 1 The Hungarians refused to recognise the young sovereign thus forced upon them; and the fact that he was not crowned at Presburg with the sacred iron crown of St. Stephen showed that he did not intend to recognise the Hungarian constitution. 2 Austrian troops under Windisch- gratz entered Buda-Pesth, but the Hungarian patriots - withdrew from their capital to organise a national resistance ; and when the Austrian Government proclaimed the Hun- garian constitution abolished and the complete absorption of Hungary in the Austrian Empire, Kossuth and his colleagues retorted by a Declaration of Independence (April 24, 1849). The House of Hapsburg was declared banished from Hungary, which was to be a republic. The Hungarian Wars. — Kossuth, the first governor of the new republic, and Gorgei, its general, raised armies which soon showed their prowess. They beat the Austrians at Godollo, Waitzen, and Nagy-Salo, and finally drove them out of Buda-Pesth. In Transylvania, too, the Hungarians, under the talented Polish general Bern, overcame the Austrians, Slavonians, and Roumanians in many brilliant encounters. But the proclamation of a republic had alienated those Hungarians who had only striven for their old constitutional rights, so quarrels arose between Gorgei and the ardent democrat Kossuth. Worse still, the Czar Nicholas, dread- 1 Another proof of the necessity that some one power should exist to bind together the races of S. E. Europe. 2 In fact he was not crowned till 1868, after the dual system was adopted, and not till then was he the constitutional sovereign of Hungary. xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 243 ing the formation of a republic near his Polish provinces, sent the military aid which Francis Joseph in May 1849 implored. Soon 80,000 Russians under Paskiewitch poured over the northern Carpathians to help the beaten Austrians, while others overpowered the gallant Bern in Transylvania. Jellachich with his Croats again invaded South Hungary, and Haynau, the scourge of Lombardy, marched on the strongest Hungarian fortress, Komorn, on the Danube. In despair Kossuth handed over his dictatorship to his rival Gorgei, who soon surrendered at Vilagos with all his forces to the Russians (August 13, 1849). About 5000 men with Kossuth, Bern, and other leaders escaped to Turkey. Even there Russia and Austria sought to drive them forth ; but the Porte, upheld by the Western Powers, maintained its right to give sanctuary according to the. Koran. Kossuth and many of his fellow -exiles finally sailed to England, where his majestic eloquence aroused deep sympathy for the afflicted country. Many Hungarian patriots suffered death. All rebels had their property confiscated, and the country was for years ruled by armed force, and its old rights were abolished. The passive resistance of the Hungarian nation, guided by the prudent Deak, in time produced its result. Hungarian discontent, and the necessity of holding down so large a country by military force, was one of the main causes of the unexpected weakness which Austria showed in the wars of 1859 and 1866. Germany (1848-1849) The smaller States of Germany again presented the ludicrous spectacles shown to the world in 1830. On the 244 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. news of the Paris Revolution of February 1848 several of the rulers hastened to grant to their excited subjects the constitutional rights which for eighteen years they had refused. Then after the panic was over things generally resumed their old course. The excitement swept from Cologne to Mannheim, Munich, Carlsruhe, Darmstadt, Hanover, and Dresden, to Berlin itself. 1 It thus shook comparatively well-governed States like Baden, Wiirtemberg, and Saxony, as well as despotic Hesse and Hanover. In Bavaria King Louis, once a supporter of the Greeks and an opponent of Metternich, had become his tool, and now handed over much of the court patronage to a famous danseuse. Having thus lost the respect of his people, he abdicated on March 20, 1848, in favour of his eldest son Maximilian II, who reigned over Bavaria till 1864. The Baden democrats, not content with a constitution which was the envy of the rest of Germany, rose with demands for a free press, a citizen army, and a united Par- liament which should represent the citizens of all Germany and Prussia. Their success led to similar demands being made and hastily granted in Hanover, Wiirtemberg, and the two Hesses. The First German Parliament. — The combined impulse towards national unity and reform was so powerful that a Parliament was elected by universal suffrage in pro- portion to the population of the German States and of Prussia. It was recognised by the old Confederate Diet (Bundestag), and met at Frankfurt -on -Main (May 15, 1848) ; but the theorisings of its deputies soon disgusted the electors. After devising a constitution, which was in deri- sion called "a transcript of the parchment of Magna 1 The troubles in Schleswig-Holstein will be considered with that com- plicated question as a whole. See p. 291. xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1 848- 1 849. 245 Charta on continental blotting-paper," the young Parlia- ment came to a ludicrous end, for it failed to find any sovereign in Germany who would consent to rule over the new State which it claimed to have created. It vainly offered the new imperial crown to Frederick William IV of Prussia, who at once refused to make himself the "serf of the revolution." In fact, he had already had his hands full in Berlin. Thus ended the only chance of Prussia being absorbed in a democratic Germany. Instead of that, Prussia, after a lapse of twenty-three eventful years, was to absorb the German States, to form a compact military empire. Berlin in 1848-1849. — The excited Berliners at a monster meeting had demanded freedom of speech, of the press, and of the right of meeting, full equality in civil and political rights, and the establishment of trial by jury. When the king refused to see a deputation of citizens bearing these requests, the people rose in revolt, excited as they were by the downfall of absolutism at Vienna three days earlier. The impressionable king, overcome by these events, then granted all their demands. But as the Berliners were expressing their delight before the royal residence two shots were fired, either by the troops, or, as at Paris, by revolutionists. In a moment the crowd was charged . before the king's eyes by a squadron of dragoons. The infuriated populace flew to arms, and defended barricades with desperation. After a terrible night of carnage the distracted monarch told his "dear Berliners" that the collision was due to a "deplorable misunderstanding," and he ordered all his troops to leave the capital. He himself stood with head uncovered on the balcony of his palace while a vast procession followed the funeral cortlge of the men slain in the fight. The Prussian United Diet 246 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. (Landtag) was convened on April 2, 1848, to pave the way for a Constituent Assembly which should prepare a constitu- tion for Prussia. This first Assembly was ultra-democratic. Titles of nobility were to be abolished, and unpopular officers to be dismissed from the army ; but the collapse of the democratic cause at Vienna was followed by as sudden a reaction at Berlin. The Assembly was ordered to Bran- denburg, while General Wrangel received the royal com- mand to march into Berlin to put down mob rule. The " rump " of the Assembly still persisted in meeting in Berlin; but, like the unfortunate Frankfurt Parliament, it had become merely a violent debating club, and it was finally dissolved on December 5, 1848. A new constitution was then pro- claimed by the king. It established a government by two elective Chambers which were to meet on February 26, 1849 ; but the king now felt himself strong enough not only to dissociate himself from the national movement by refusing the German crown, but also to dissolve the new Prussian Parliament when it disagreed with him (April 27, 1849), and in May to recall the Prussian deputies from the Frank- furt Parliament. Finally the Prussian king and a new- Parliament came to an understanding after mutual con- cessions ; and in February 1850 the king swore to maintain the new constitution, which placed Prussia among the ranks of self-governing States. Collapse of the German Movement (1849). — The successes of the Hungarians over the Austrian Government in the spring of 1849 rekindled all the discontent of Ger- many, from Posen through Saxony and the Rhine towns down to the south-west corner, where the democrats were strongest; but 15,000 Prussian troops overpowered the brave levies of Baden and of the Palatinate, which fought for a German republic ; and Baden was for a time occupied xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848- 1 849. 247 by Prussian troops. Meanwhile the German Parliament had been weakened by the withdrawal of the Prussian deputies and the resignation of many Germans. The "rump" of this Parliament then removed to Stuttgart, and was finally dispersed by the Wiirtemberg soldiery (June 18, 1848). Switzerland. — The Baden democrats had matured their designs on Swiss soil, where the cause of freedom in 1848 won a more lasting success than in the great countries of Europe. It has been shown 1 how the Liberal cantons had defeated the league of the Ultramontane cantons known as the Sonderbund, and had occupied its central town Lucerne (November 1847). This was followed by the dissolution of the league, the expulsion of the Jesuits, the alteration of the cantonal governments, and in 1 848 by the closer union of all the cantons in an organised con- federation. One Chamber (Senate) was to be elected by the several cantonal councils, the other by the people as a whole. By these two Assemblies the Federal Council is chosen, at whose head stands the President. Elsewhere in Europe the constitutional cause had gained solid results only in Prussia, Bavaria, and Hanover. In Italy, France, and Austria its triumphs were brief though brilliant. France and Hungary 2 had, however, started the movements of 1848 and 1849, as tms synopsis will show : — 1 Page 201. " In Hungary about 9,000,000 serfs received their freedom (1848) by the unanimous vote of the Hungarian Diet, the nobles of their own free will sacrificing these rights. Religious freedom, trial by jury, and propor- tionate taxation were also enthusiastically carried in a veritable ' ' St. Bar- tholomew of privileges " like that of Aug. 4, 1789, at Versailles (seep. 14). 248 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. 1 n. m H en C3 4) ?> « 7-* rf ^rt coCJ.O 5 « W 3 .5 « f B J 3 h O s£,a s - S3 Z U " 1> ■a 5 -d — s-43 "■Oa: 5 1* " c - cd 1 — 1 5J <* ^-"43 ~ t" 1 si 43 s a 2 ■a a •9 O 43 B V ■ 2 o i-< — - U fa u S in - 1?. J3 \r IT M. e x > 3—3 bo — X c ■o •a B ft ^3; 43 O C 4J k. 05 tu |^8 -J 1 1 55 m 53 pu 43 k. *• ■ iS — ■ u r «j »> 03 "° c la 5 rt O 03 m > E « E « 12 o f.8 £ o . •a n s *»> .2 s *-» >. c 3 ^ s-. a g" « p-5i 5 >v ■• ^ ■° S e a 3.2 8 S |S i £& g § (/> 3 oS in O 0) ^ 43 M c?« IS. s § v ■ — ' 03 cu £"43 3id xxxi] THE MOVEMENTS OF 1848-1849. 249 > ^-. o o -si 1 1 S .2 -s M -s .B u n •5 -a S, OS CO CQ < So»J S-^B ■s:§; CO CO p4 tt'C < V, > 00 fa o E-i z fa > fa fa C-i fa O fa o ■a 3 M 8 § O . ed 3J3 (/) " -1 ^ -fa -fa ■si's I S.i=B° «S« Tt-T3 M 3 . W IX < rrt (\i 3 TJ C a c 0) <" -B ^ aj -c a, s & o < B ~ B O '55 r CHAPTER XXXII. EUROPE (l 849-I 880). We now come to a period characterised, not so much by local movements and revolutions as by well -organised national efforts for unity. The difference is due to the gradual growth of representative government, and to the extension of railways and telegraphs. The former satisfied the aspirations of the provinces, the latter gave to the govern- ment power to crush local insurrections before they could gather head. The reconstruction of Europe effected after Waterloo had already been" modified before 1849. Belgium was separated from Holland. The Bourbons, both of the elder and younger lines, were driven out of France, and a Napo- leon was soon again to be Emperor of the French. Yet though the treaty of Vienna had failed to make a lasting settlement, it at any rate secured to exhausted Europe forty years of peace broken only by the Russo-Turkish war (1828) and by civil conflicts. By the autumn of 1849 the last of the isolated struggles for liberty seemed to have failed. Only Greece and Bel- gium had gained their independence. Italy, Poland, Hun- gary, Bohemia, with Schleswig-Holstein and many more of the German States, seemed to be as far as ever from the goal of their efforts. On the other hand, Prussia, Bavaria, chap, xxxn] EUROPE (1849- 1 880). 251 Piedmont, and Switzerland were being governed more in accordance with their peoples' desires ; and all over the continent the forty years of comparative peace so strength- ened the mercantile and operative classes, that they gained more and more control over the governments. After the disappointments of the Crimean War, English Governments have intervened less and less in the affairs of the continent ; but Lord Palmerston gave most effective diplomatic support to King Victor Emmanuel and Cavour after the preliminaries of peace at Villafranca. In fact, it was the support of the British Government which then de- cided the union of the central Italian duchies with the king- dom of Sardinia ; and it also informally aided Garibaldi in his overthrow of the Neapolitan Government. In the Schleswig-Holstein question, however, Lord Pal- merston's threats of intervention in favour of the Danish claims only had the unfortunate effect of impelling the Danes to the extreme assertion of those claims, and to a conflict with the far superior forces of Prussia and Austria. Since then the British Government, except in 1878, has been a passive spectator of the great events which led to the completion of German and Italian unity — the two greatest events of the century in Europe. The result of the Crimean War had served to discredit the maintenance of the "Balance of Power," which before 1855 seemed threatened by the Czar Nicholas ; but the events of. 1870, and the formation of the Central Alliance, have read- justed the " Balance of Power," which seems necessary now that might rather than right is the mainspring of action. The astonishing triumphs which Prussia achieved by her highly- trained citizen army led all the continental Powers to adopt universal military service, which, year by year, has been made more rigorous. In order to meet the great strain on their 252 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. finances, all these countries strive to make the most of their resources, and even to stimulate them by artificial methods such as protective tariffs and bounties on exports ; but their expenditure increases faster than revenue. They thus follow the policy of the first Napoleon in increasing their resources in order to expend them upon preparations for war. Side by side with this waste of national energy, socialism has steadily increased. Centralised governments can now easily crush local revolts, but they have hitherto failed to cope with a secret but widespread discontent which shows itself in crude socialistic theories. In the large towns of Russia, Austria, Germany, France, and Spain, the revolu- tionists now and again attempt to terrify the authorities by individual deeds of violence, and it seems probable that the nineteenth century, like the eighteenth, may end in widespread wars and scenes of revolutionary violence. France — The Second Republic. The New Constitution. — General Cavaignac had been invested with a temporary dictatorship to protect the Constituent Assembly during the excitements of the summer and autumn of 1848. In November the new constitution was promulgated. It proclaimed manhood suffrage, a single Chamber of 750 delegates, from which all paid officers of the State were excluded. The executive power was to be entrusted to a president, the extent of whose powers showed how much the need of a strong controlling arm was then believed in. He was to share with the Chamber the right of initiating laws and ratifying treaties. He re- presented the State in foreign affairs, and could be re-elected after an interval of four years. xxxn] FRANCE— THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 253 Louis Napoleon. — When the exiled Prince Louis Napoleon heard of the February revolution he said to a friend, "Within a year I shall be head of the French State." Hastening to France, he was soon elected by three departments as deputy to the Constituent Assembly ; and the glamour of his name quite eclipsed the services which Cavaignac had just rendered to the State. In the election for the presidency Napoleon gained more than 5,000,000 votes, while Cavaignac received less than 1,500,000, Ledru-Rollin 370,000, and Lamartine only 17,900 votes! Such is popularity in revolutionary crises ! The new President solemnly swore to remain true to the Republic, and was installed in the Elys£e. He formed his first ministry of moderate men of all parties, as the voting had shown the small numbers of the " red " republicans. He next gained over the clergy, and through them the peasants, by supporting the French expedition to Rome in the spring of 1849 to restore the pope's temporary power. This step was approved by the new Legislative Assembly, which met in May 1849 ; it further showed its reactionary character by a law against political clubs after some riots had broken out at Lyons, Bordeaux, and Dijon. Every unpopular step taken by the Assembly was at once taken advantage of by the President, even though he might have agreed to it. This was the case with the electoral law of May 31, 1850, which deprived of their votes those who had not been registered as three years' residents at the place of voting. This law took away votes from 3,000,000 voters, especially from the ever-moving artisans of the large towns. The factions of the Assembly, especially the legitimists, Orlean- ists, and socialists, gave the president an enormous advan- tage over it, which he sedulously improved by promoting 254 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the material interests of the people, and by numerous State- progresses in the provinces. He often changed his minis- tries ; and when the Assembly in July 1851 refused to revise the constitution so as to make the President at once eligible for re-election, Napoleon began to prepare a coup d'etat, to which numerous cries of " Vive l'Empereur ! " seemed to invite him. He dismissed his ministers for refusing to repeal the unpopular electoral law, and so placed the army under a new war minister, General St. Arnaud, entirely devoted to him; and on November 4, 185 1, the President proposed the re-establishment of universal suffrage, but the Conservative and monarchist majority rejected the proposal. Coup d'Etat (Dec. 2, 185 1). — All his plans had been secretly concocted with the war minister St. Arnaud, and De Maupas, the chief of police. During the night printers were compelled to print the President's manifesto ; before daylight the police had arrested all the chiefs of the opposi- tion, whether monarchists, as Thiers, Changarnier, and Lamoriciere, or republicans, as Cavaignac and Victor Hugo. The poet soon had to spend some years of exile in Belgium and the Channel Isles. 1 Troops occupied the strategic points of the city, and also the place of meeting of the Assembly. Napoleon's manifesto, posted early all over Paris, proposed (1) his tem- porary dictatorship, (2) the dissolution of the Assembly, (3) universal suffrage, and (4) a constitution similar to that of 1800 (year VIII). Little opposition was offered, so much were the people disgusted with the Chamber, which they 1 Napoleon's apologists urge as an excuse for the violation of his oath to the constitution that the monarchists had made government impossible, and that Changarnier was plotting to overthrow the Republic and set the Due de Joinville on the throne of his father. xxxn] FRANCE — THE SECOND REPUBLIC. 255 called "The national workshop with twenty-five francs a day pay." 1 A pretence of resistance in Paris drew down murder- ous volleys from the easily excited troops (December 4, 1 851). Sixty-six republicans and a few monarchist depu- ties were banished ; and France ratified the President's act by a plebiscite of 7,500,000 votes in his favour: (only 650,000 votes were against him). The New Constitution. — Louis Napoleon modelled all his actions and policy on that of his uncle. Just as the latter had, after the coup d'etat of 1799, made a constitu- tion which kept all real power in his own hands, so now the nephew gave little more than pretence of government to the people. Ministers were to be responsible only to the head of the State ; a Council of State was privately to prepare laws and submit them to the Legislative Body {Corps Legislatif\ which, though elected by universal suffrage, could not initiate laws, nor amend them save in accord with- the Council of State. The Senate, con- sisting of illustrious men chosen for life by the chief of the State, was to revise the laws sent up by the lower Chamber, especially in relation to their bearing on the constitution, religion, morality, and national de- fence. A copy of the debates of these two bodies, officially revised, was the only form of publication at first permitted. The Prince President completed his popularity by pushing on public works on every hand ; the funds for many of these were found by annulling the transfer by Louis Philippe of his estate to his children — an act of personal revenge which was disapproved by many of Napoleon's friends. Soon at Bordeaux he calmed the fears of Europe and of the peace-loving peasants of France by 1 The daily salary of each deputy. 256 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [ch. xxxn saying, "The Empire is peace," and a senatus consultum of November 7, 1852, re-established the imperial dignity. A plebiscite showed that France wished for the Empire, for more than 8,000,000 votes threw a cloak of legality over the usurpation. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE SECOND EMPIRE. On December 2, 1852, the anniversary of Austerlitz, of the coronation of his uncle, and of his own coup d'etat, Louis Napoleon was proclaimed Napoleon III. 1 He was soon recognised by the Powers ; in fact, the English Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, had hastened to recognise the coup d'etat, without the consent of his colleagues. But the haughty Czar Nicholas now patronisingly addressed Napoleon as "my good friend," instead of "cousin and brother," the usual greeting among monarchs. In January 1853 Napoleon married Euge'nie de Montijo, a talented Spanish countess, of Scottish descent on her mother's side, whose grace lent lustre to the imperial court and made Paris the brilliant centre of European gaiety. Their son was the brave but ill-fated Louis, Prince Imperial. The obsequious Senate made the necessary changes in the constitution, giving the Emperor the right to make treaties of commerce and to modify tariffs, while a civil list of over a million sterling a year was voted to him. A new municipal law soon gave to the Emperor the right of appointing the mayors in all towns of any size, and to the prefects of departments the same right in small towns. 1 Napoleon II had been named as his successor by Napoleon I, but never reigned. S 258 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Thus power was concentrated in the Emperor's hands to a perilous extent. But he and the empress sought to dazzle the country by the display and brilliance of their court, though it was always shunned by the old nobility. Napoleon also pushed on public works and railways, the latter of which were to revert to the State after ninety-nine years. He encouraged commerce by holding a great Universal Exhibition at Paris in 1855, to which every great country except Russia sent exhibits. In this same eventful year Napoleon and the Empress Eugenie visited our queen in London ; this and the return visit of Queen Victoria to Paris in August marked Napoleon's admission into the circle of the old monarchies of Europe. In spite of the distress in France caused by the Crimean War and by three bad harvests, the country showed its wealth by eagerly subscribing to every State loan; and in 1856 France supported an army of 600,000 men. Foreign Policy. — With such resources at his command, Napoleon sought to divert the attention of his people from the loss of constitutional liberty by an aggressive foreign policy, which belied his former words, "The Empire is peace.'' The difficulties between Russia and Turkey seemed as though they could be settled when Napoleon's diplomatic action helped to precipitate a conflict, though the two western Powers had really smaller interests at stake than Austria, which remained neutral. 1 The war was concluded by the Peace of Paris (March 30, 1856), which also settled questions of maritime warfare. An enemy's goods hence- forth could not be seized under a neutral's flag, nor a neutral's goods under an enemy's flag; and privateering was also abolished. The United States refused to join in this agreement. 1 For the war, see page 348. xxxin] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 259 The Italian question was brought home to all French- men by an attempt on the life of Napoleon. A miscreant named Orsini and an accomplice hurled three bombs at the carriage of the Emperor as he was driving to the opera (January 14, 1858). Napoleon escaped uninjured, though 156 others were killed or wounded. The miscreant Orsini before his execution wrote urging Napoleon to favour the Italian cause, or at least to prevent Prussia helping Austria in case Italy rose against the latter Power. Cavour's skilful diplomacy, however, soon brought Napoleon to a more active intervention in favour of Italy than the miscreant Orsini had demanded. His plot had other results. Some French colonels used menacing words against England as the home of all conspirators, and these threats were answered by the revival of the volunteer movement of 1 804. Our jealousy for the right of sanctuary on our shores was further shown by the rejection of Lord Palmerston's Bill, which proposed that men conspiring in England against the life of a foreign sovereign should be guilty of a felony. Hereupon Lord Palmerston resigned, but soon afterwards ousted Lord Derby, who was thought to be hostile to Italy's aspirations. War with Austria. — The Orsini attempt, following close upon two other plots to assassinate Napoleon, led to strict repressive measures. France was divided into five military districts governed by five marshals, and many suspects were summarily imprisoned or banished to Algeria. Napoleon desired to distract public attention from these home troubles by a war which would be popular with all Frenchmen. He further wished to figure as the champion of an oppressed nationality for which he had fought in his youth, and also to overthrow the old rival of France on 260 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the plains of Lombardy — the scene of his uncle's most brilliant campaigns. These desires were fully gratified, though the aspirations of the Italians were cruelly dis- appointed after Napoleon's declaration that he would free " all Italy from the Alps to the Adriatic." * After gaining the two brilliant victories of Magenta and Solferino, Napoleon affected to fear a Prussian attack on Alsace, and concluded the preliminaries of the Peace of Villafranca (July ii, 1859). In return for his services in gaining Lombardy for the Italians, he required the cession of Savoy, which was French in language and sympathy, as well as of Nice, which was distinctly Italian. The French people, however, rejoiced at regaining what they called their natural boundaries in the south-east, and Napoleon increased his popularity in France by granting a complete amnesty to the political offenders and suspects (August 1859)- Commercial Treaties. — The next surprise which the Emperor had for his people was the declaration that France must now enter on the path of Free Trade. He had been convinced by the arguments of Cobden, who together with the French economist Chevalier prepared a commercial treaty with England (January 22, i860). British duties were to be lessened on French wines, silks, jewellery, and "articles de Paris," while France was to withdraw her prohibition on imports of cotton and woollen goods, wrought iron and cutlery, subjecting them to a duty of about one-fourth of their value ; and the French tariff on coal, coke, pig-iron, and steel was to be reduced. France has since made commercial treaties with Belgium, the German Zollverein, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria; but the resistance of the northern and central manufacturing 1 For the war, see page 330. xxxni] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 261 towns has prevented any further progress towards Free Trade ; and the Third Republic has in this respect shown itself more reactionary than the Empire, and has accorded to England only the so-called " most- favoured nation " scale of tariffs. During the distress of the spring of 1861 Napoleon abolished the " sliding scale " duty on corn, and in July of the same year he allowed French colonies to trade directly with other nations. The distress which accom- panies all economic changes was enhanced by the stoppage of cotton imports from the United States during the civil war. Intervention in Syria. — After the restoration of Syria to Turkey, the corrupt or helpless pachas allowed the fierce Moslems, called Druses, to rob and murder their peace- able Christian neighbours the Maronites • and the Turks of Damascus fell on the Christians with fire and sword. A few French regiments, acting on behalf of Europe, restored comparative calm ; and the Maronites began to till their lands and rebuild their huts during the nine months of the French occupation in Syria, ending June 1861. American Civil War. — In fact, the years 186 0-1866 were marked by wars all over the world ; but all the rest together did not equal in magnitude the terrible struggle between the North and the South, the free and the slave States, of North America. Space will not permit any account of this vastest of all civil wars, in which the genius of Jackson and Lee shed lustre on a cause doomed to failure. The seeming prostration of the great republic lured on Napoleon to the fatal Mexican Expedition, which prevented him from crushing the rising power of Prussia. The Mexican Expedition. — The Central American 262 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. States after their separation from Spain went through years of war and confusion, during which the United States seized California and New Mexico ( 1 845-1 846). In i860 two rival generals, Miramon and Juarez, strove for power in the still great republic of Mexico, and the latter, victorious after some seventy fights, molested European residents in Mexico. England, Spain, and France sent a force to chastise him ; but after the first two had their claims satisfied, Napoleon, urged on by interested schemers at his court, sought to conquer that great country, and to found there a Catholic empire side by side with the great Protestant republic. The Austrian Archduke Maximilian was to be the emperor of this new State. A French force marched up from Vera Cruz to Puebla, which they took after a stout resistance, and then on to the city of Mexico (1863). The new emperor was upheld in his new dignity by the French troops, but the grave events of 1866 in Central Europe and a threatening despatch from Washington decided Napoleon to withdraw his troops. Maximilian, refusing to return with the French troops, was soon captured and shot by the Mexicans, who re-established the republic (June 1867). This miserable failure, when contrasted with the brilliant triumph of Prussia over Austria, shook Napoleon's throne ; for he had not his troops ready to be able to aid Austria and South Germany against Prussia, and his^ secret bargain- ing with Prussia for the Rhine frontier for France met with a stern refusal. 1 Reforms. — The Emperor sought to cover this failure by a brilliant Universal Exhibition at Paris in 1867, and by beating back Garibaldi's attempt on Rome, which the French 1 See p. 297. xxxi n] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 263 troops again occupied. Napoleon's Minister of Justice, the burly and overbearing Rouher, proudly declared that France would " never " allow Italy to take Rome. To satisfy the growing strength of French Liberalism Napoleon also gave greater freedom of discussion to the press and to the deputies in the Chambers. The imperial government had been fiercely assailed by a group of eloquent and energetic republicans, most of whom were barristers and deputies in the Corps Legislatif. They declaimed against its liberty as a sham, its reforms as a mockery, and its plebiscites as mere tricks manipulated by officials and village priests. Of these radicals the best known were Rochefort, Picard, Favre, Ferry, Simon, and after 1868 Gambetta, a fiery young orator whose family was of Italian origin. The government had also to face the opposition of the monarchists led by the Due de Broglie and Thiers, as also of the moderate republicans led by the barrister Ollivier. The poet Victor Hugo, from his exile in Guernsey, also assailed Napoleon "the Little" with his powerful invective and satire. Finally in 1869 Napoleon sought to regain his waning popularity by conceding something like the power of a Parliament to the Corps Legislatif and Senate. Ollivier was now won over by the reforms already granted or promised ; and he now replaced in the ministry the brusque and reactionary Rouher, who was made president of the Senate. So in July 1869 a " senatus-consultum," emanating from Napoleon, declared the responsibility of the ministry to the Chambers, and gave to the deputies the right of initiating or amending laws and of freely interpellating ministers ; also the debates of the Senate were now to be fully published. This was a fit opportunity for appealing to the nation to express its approval of the 264 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. imperial government. Seven and a half millions voted "Yes," and one and a half millions "No'' (May 1870). The Luxemburg Question. — This electoral success encouraged Napoleon to believe that a successful war against the hated Prussians would firmly establish his dynasty. He would doubtless have declared war in 1867 over the Luxemburg dispute if his army had been quite ready then. Luxemburg was still a personal possession of the Dutch king, but its connection with the German Confederation had ceased on its dissolution (1866). So the Dutch king, who wanted money, agreed to sell the duchy to Napoleon, who sought to buy off Prussian hostility by offering to favour the union of North and South Germany in a new Confederation. Thereupon Bismarck suddenly made public the secret treaty of offensive and defensive alliance made between Prussia and the South German States in the preceding year. So the dispute was hushed up in a Conference of the Powers held at London (May 1867). Prussia agreed to withdraw her troops from the fortress of Luxemburg. The duchy was to remain as a possession of the King of Holland, and was declared neutral ground by all the Powers. Franco -German War. 1 — At Mentana (November 1867) the new Chassepot rifles had given terrible proof of their accuracy and rapidity of fire. By the law of 1868 the time of military service was raised from seven to nine years, of which four were to be with the reserves. Those who were for- tunate enough to " draw a lucky number " and so escape the conscription, together with those who bought substitutes to take their place, were formed into a militia, or Garde Mobile. So Napoleon thought he possessed a regular army and 1 For details of the war, see pp. 301-312. xxxm] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 265 militia as powerful as the Prussian army and Landwehr, and better armed ; for the quick-firing mitrailleuse or machine- gun was more destructive than any field-gun of the Prussians, and Napoleon hoped that the South German States would join him, or at least remain neutral. The French have often remarked that their intervention in Spanish affairs has been disastrous to themselves. It certainly was in 1870. On the 4th of July Napoleon's Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Due de Gramont, sent a despatch to Berlin, saying that unless the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern for the Spanish throne was withdrawn, war might ensue between France and Prussia ; and he aroused wild excitement in the Corps Legislatif by protesting against this Prussian plan to revive the empire of Charles V under a Hohenzollern. The French Chambers and the French people were carried away by this idea of Prussia, Germany, and Spain united under a hostile dynasty, and Gramont telegraphed to Benedetti to " insist " that the candidature should never be renewed. This of course meant war, for Napoleon's government believed itself sure of the support of all France, though the opposi- tion, led by Thiers, Favre, Ferry, and Gambetta, voted against the war. The French Minister of War, Marshal Lebceuf, had boastingly declared that army and stores were all ready, so that " at the end of a campaign we need not buy a gaiter- button." But the first week of the war, which was declared on July 15, 1870, disposed of this boast. Confusion reigned everywhere, and the rotten state of the administra- tion was now revealed. Dishonest officials and contractors had robbed the army of its supplies. The forces were not nearly up to their paper strength, and the Garde Mobile had to be drilled before it could take the field. Metz and 266 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y [chap. Strassburg were not provisioned for a siege, and the former not fully armed. MacMahon was overpowered at Worth and hurled back on the Chalons camp, while Bazaine was shut up in Metz by a series of terrible battles. Napoleon, oppressed by feeble health in the midst of these disasters, relinquished to Bazaine the supreme command and barely escaped to Chalons. Fall of the Empire. — Napoleon had sent to the Empress Eugenie, who was in Paris as regent, a despatch, "All may yet be set right"; but the Ollivier ministry had fallen before the wrath and ridicule of the Chambers. Paris was declared in a state of siege, that is, under military rule ; and a new ministry was formed by the aged Count Palikao, which vigorously strove to stem the tide. MacMahon's advice now was to concentrate the available French forces inside the forts of Paris for the defence of the capital, but the Empress and Count Palikao knew that such a retreat would be the signal for a revolution in Paris. So they ordered MacMahon to rescue Bazaine's great army in Metz. The result of this imprudent order was the surrender of Napoleon and 83,000 troops at Sedan (Septem- ber 2, 1870). When this terrible news reached Paris the Empire helplessly collapsed before a street demonstration. The troops sympathised with the people, a crowd rushed into the hall of the Corps Legislatif, which suspended its sittings. Favre led the people to the Hotel de Ville, where the Republic was proclaimed without any bloodshed, and on the same day it was also proclaimed in many large towns of France. The opposition deputies for Paris installed them- selves at the Hotel de Ville as the "Government of National Defence. The Empress and Prince Imperial escaped to England. xxxm] THE SECOND EMPIRE. 267 Napoleon, after remaining a short time as prisoner at Wilhelmshohe, near Cassel, was allowed to proceed to his seat at Chiselhurst, Kent, where he died January 9, 1873, in his sixty-fifth year; and the death of his son Louis, gallantly fighting alone against a rush of Zulus (1879), extinguished the hopes of this branch of the Bonaparte family. Napoleon III was a diligent student of history, and especially of his uncle's career. He professed a deep belief in his own destiny and in that of the Napoleonic family, both to free oppressed nations and to give to French- men that enlightened autocratic rule which he thought most suited to the national character ; but he had not his uncle's genius and strength, and was quite unable to cope with the democratic spirit in France, to keep the Italians in leading- strings, or to "check the German movement towards national unity. In fact, his attempted compromises with these movements, alternating with short-sighted opposition to them, gave to his opponents at home and abroad successes the most complete where his opposition was the most pro- nounced. His early life, spent in exile or imprisonment, had made him reserved and suspicious, like all conspirators. Hence he delighted in intrigues and surprises during his reign, for he never thoroughly trusted his own ministers, and often sought to hoodwink them. Bismarck, when ambassador at Paris, wrote of him : " The impulse to do precisely what no one expects is almost a disease with him, and is daily encouraged by the empress." In his complex character he had several generous qualities which gained him many faithful friends ; but the gifts which he showered on all who helped him to power drew to his court a set of worthless adventurers, who lowered the tone of French public life by 268 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xxxm their dishonesty and profligacy. The most enduring part of Napoleon's fame will be his regard for the material well- being of his subjects. Legislation and Public Works of the Empire. — During Napoleon's reign many of the severities of the penal code were mitigated, and in 1864 a bill was passed to insure free discussion in wage disputes between employers and employed. Elementary education was extended by a law obliging every commune of more than 500 inhabitants to provide free education for boys and girls. Between 185 1 and 1865 the sums expended on such education in France were doubled. Under Napoleon's energetic supervision, roads, telegraphs, and railways were made or extended in all parts of France. The sandy heaths, or Landes, of the south-west coast were planted with firs and pines, to stop the inroads of the sea and provide a new source of wealth on those desolate plains. Canals opened up commerce between river systems, and several harbours were improved. Many of the old narrow streets of Paris made way for splendid avenues laid out by M. Haussmann, of whom it was said that what he found brick he left marble. Paris between 1852 and 1870 became more and more the great pleasure centre of the world. Provident and charitable institutions were also founded by the imperial government. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE THIRD REPUBLIC. The Government of National Defence had been (September 6) installed by the acclamation of the Parisians, though it was not constitutionally elected. It consisted of the radical deputies for Paris in the Corps Legislatif, which was now indefinitely prorogued. The best known of the self - constituted ministers were Jules Favre for Foreign Affairs, Jules Simon for Public Instruction, Gambetta for the Interior, and General Trochu, an imperialist general who joined the new government : the last was named Governor of Paris, with full power in military affairs. Jules Ferry and Henri Rochefort also joined the government ; but the liberal-minded monarchist, Thiers, held aloof from it, as did most moderate men. It had effected a bloodless revolution, and now it declared that as the republic had expelled the Prussians in 1792, so it would do again. " Not a foot of our land, or a stone of our fortresses " was Favre's retort to the German claim for Alsace. The Prussian King had declared that he waged war on the Emperor, not on the French nation ; but the defiant atti- tude of the new government left small chance of a speedy peace. The Germans marched on Paris, into which some 400,000 French refugees from the provinces came for refuge. The town was provisioned, good order was kept, the walls 270 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. were armed, and a levke en masse of able-bodied citizens was held. They were enrolled as National Guards, which soon reached the number of 200,000, but were too undisciplined to be of much avail against the well -drilled Germans. More serviceable were the 130,000 men of the Garde Mobile ; but the pick of the defending force consisted of the 80,000 regulars, especially the marines and sailors of the fleet, who worked the guns in the forts. On the 18th September the Germans arrived before Paris ; and the capital was soon cut off from all news of the outer world except by carrier-pigeons. Trochu had not enough con- fidence in the discipline of his men to make any determined sorties at first, and waited for relieving armies from the provinces to help him to break through the iron circle. Negotiations. — Three days after the siege commenced Favre had an interview with Bismarck at Ferrieres, near Paris. He requested an armistice, so that a National Assembly might be elected. Bismarck replied that an armistice was unfavourable to the Germans now, unless Strassburg, Toul, and Bitsche were surrendered. Favre would not hear of this, and soon commissioned the veteran statesman Thiers to visit the neutral Powers to induce them to intervene in favour of France. Although the new gov- ernment was not representative of France, Thiers received a welcome in London and Vienna; the British and Austrian Governments, though friendly to France, were resolved on a neutral policy; Russia had been definitely gained over by Prussia before the war, and had held back Austria from joining France against Prussia. Italy re- membered Prussia's help in 1866 as more disinterested than that of France in 1859 ; but the aged Garibaldi came from Caprera to place his sword at the service of the young republic. After the failure of this mission Thiers strove to xxxiv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 271 gain from Bismarck (November 1) a month's armistice during which elections might be held ; but as he insisted on a full re-provisioning of Paris, he too failed, and the siege was continued. Gambetta. — Meanwhile the Minister of the Interior, the impetuous young Gambetta, who scorned all nego- tiations, had escaped from the besieged capital in a balloon (October 6) to rouse all France to the rescue of Paris. After numerous adventures he reached Tours, where he was made Minister of War as well as of the Interior. This self- constituted Government of National Defence at Tours, soon driven by the advancing Germans to Bordeaux, was a provincial delegation of the central committee or government at Paris. Gambetta, who was looked upon as the dictator of France, called to arms all men under forty years of age, to be drilled in large camps and then formed into five large' army corps. Not even the fall of Metz daunted his fiery spirit. He branded Bazaine as a traitor, and soon gathered a large force on the Loire under General Aurelle de Paladines, which at Coulmiers, near Or- leans, won the only French victory of the war (November 9, 1870). When this was beaten and divided, Gambetta placed Chanzy at the head of the northern part ; and it was the dictator's call to arms which reinforced the southern part by levies from the south and hurled it against the Vosges in the mad hope of invading South Germany. His fiery eloquence, however, only prolonged the struggle and brought further suffering on France ; but it was owing to Gambetta that she fell with honour. Disorders in Paris. — If Gambetta had been governor of Paris, its defence might have been more creditable. Its governor, General Trochu, was not an inspiriting leader, and he distrusted his troops since several thousand National 272 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Guards broke away in a panic at Chatillon, south of Paris (September 19). When one of his officers drove the Germans from Le Bourget on the north-east of Paris, Trochu did not support him at that advanced post, so the village was lost (October 30). This was the opportunity for the " red " republicans to inflame the workmen of the Belleville district against the " traitors " who were betraying them to the Germans. They first besieged the Hotel de Ville with a demand for the election of a Commune or Town Council to share with the government "the responsibility under which it was bending.'' Soon a mob of Belleville National Guards, led by the socialist Flourens, burst into the Council Chamber, and for hours threatened the ministers with death. At last they were driven out by an orderly regiment of National Guards ; and a plebiscite of all the men of Paris showed 557,000 votes for, and only 62,000 against, the ministry. At last the failure of all the sorties, the miseries of the siege in that gloomy bitter winter weather, and the bom- bardment (January 6-2 8) exhausted the endurance of Paris. The south-west side of Paris was much injured by the German shells. For four months the capital had been cut off from all communication with the outer world save by carrier-pigeon and balloon. There was no gas, owing to scarcity of fuel ; and the Parisians were soon reduced to horse-flesh, dogs, cats, and rats, as their only animal food. By the middle of January 187 1 fat rats fetched one and a half francs apiece. On January 2 1 Trochu, yielding to the outcry against him for his half-hearted sorties, resigned the office of Governor of Paris, which was abolished ; but he remained president of the government, while Vinoy was made commander-in-chief. The mob saw in this a trick for xxxiv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 273 surrendering Paris,, for the late governor had said that he would never surrender. So a crowd of National Guards on the 2 2d January again threatened the government, but was scattered by the orderly Mobiles. These excesses of hungry and desperate men decided Favre to go secretly to Versailles, where he had to consent to the following severe terms : — (1) An armistice of three weeks (except in the three eastern departments, where Bourbaki's force was being entrapped) ; (2) The fifteen great and ten smaller forts round Paris to be occupied by the Germans ; (3) Paris to be reprovisioned at once and pay a war contribution of 200 million francs on its own account ; (4) A National Assembly to be elected to accept or refuse the terms of peace ; (5) The defending forces to be prisoners of war remaining in Paris, but all giving up their arms, except 12,000 regulars and all the National Guards. This last exception gained by Favre from Bismarck left arms in the hands of the disorderly elements in Paris. Gambetta, still wishing to resist in spite of Bourbaki's disaster, resigned his office in the Government of National Defence, which soon handed over its powers to the legally constituted Assembly. The National Assembly. — The elections of February 1 87 1 sent to Bordeaux a majority of deputies desirous of peace. Grevy, an able and consistent republican, was elected President of the Assembly, which at first did not concern itself with drawing up a constitution. In fact, the monarchists and Bonapartists formed the majority, in which Thiers, the Due de Broglie, and Rouher- were the best known. Dufaure, the eminent lawyer, soon to be Minister of Justice, with Casimir Perier and Picard the financiers, sat among the Left Centre or moderate republicans ; while T 274 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Favre, Gambetta, Victor Hugo, Rochefort the journalist, and Louis Blanc the revolutionist, sat on the Left and Extreme Left. The genius, practical sense, and diplomatic ability of Thiers singled him out as the only man who could now save France. He was elected President of the French Republic, which was at once recognised by England and the other Powers. He and Favre conducted the negotiations with Bis- marck at Versailles, and succeeded in gaining back the first-class fortress of Belfort for France ; but in return they had to submit to the occupation of the part of Paris south- west of the Seine by 30,000 German troops for three days (March 1-3). The veteran statesman was overpowered by his emotion when he announced this and the other terms of peace to the Assembly at Bordeaux, for it was he who long years ago had proclaimed that the Alps, Pyrenees, Ocean, and the Rhine, were the natural boundaries of France ; and now he had to advise the acceptance of terms which pushed back the French frontier to where it was before 1552. In a tumult of passion the Assembly voted the deposition of the Bonaparte dynasty; then by a major- ity of five to one it accepted the German terms (February 29). These were embodied in the Treaty of Frankfurt 1 (May 10), which was ratified by the National Assembly, now removed to Versailles. The loss of all Alsace (except Belfort) and of the third part of Lorraine severed from France one and a half million inhabitants who, in spite of their German language and descent, had long been devoted to France. The comparative ease with which the war indemnity of ^200,000,000 was paid off astonished Europe. It 1 See p. 314. xxxiv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 275 showed the vast wealth which France possessed in her fertile soil, tilled by millions of hard-working peasant-pro- prietors. The financial skill and energy of Thiers and his colleagues, aided by the patriotism of all Frenchmen, raised loan after loan; and by the autumn of 1873 the five milliards were paid off, and the last German troops left French soil. Thiers' efforts gained him the title of " Libera- tor of the territory.'' This success, too, he had gained in spite of a frightful revolt in Paris. The Commune. — After the Revolutions of 1789 and 1848, the "reds" of Paris had been repressed after terrible struggles, and now in 1871 it was so again. Paris had sent to the National Assembly radical deputies like Victor Hugo, Gambetta, Lockroy, Floquet, Louis Blanc, Garibaldi (who, as an Italian, was not allowed to sit in the Assembly), Rochefort, Delescluze, and Felix Pyat. The departments, however, sent a large majority of reactionaries, nicknamed " rurals " by the Paris "reds," who soon defied the Assembly. On February 27 the men of Belleville and Montmartre plundered the powder magazines ; and a central committee of the National Guards ordered cannon to be captured and dragged up the heights of Montmartre under the pretence of guarding them from the Prussians, who were in the southern quarters of Paris. Finally, over 300 cannons were planted on these heights to threaten Paris. On the 18th March the revolt burst forth. The regulars sent by General Vinoy to occupy Montmartre fraternised with the communists, and soon Paris was lost to the government, which withdrew its officials and faithful troops to Versailles. The generals Lecomte and Thomas, who fell into the com- munists' hands, were at once shot. All the war material of Paris, and all the southern and western forts, except Mont Valerien, were gained by the rebels. 276 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. A demonstration of the " friends of order " in Paris was dispersed by a volley from the " red " National Guards, and henceforth there was almost a reign of terror. On March 26 the central committee of the National Guards held elections for the election of a municipal govern- ment or " Commune" Their candidates were all elected by the insignificant total of 120,000 votes from all Paris. Under the scheme of having a free Commune or muni- cipality in every town or district of France, the Paris communists or federalists enforced the most extreme doctrines. Religion, the institution of marriage, the rights of family and of property, were all to be swept away, and the central government, or "despotism," as they called it, was to give way to local and federal institutions. The Commune was also proclaimed at Lyons, Marseilles, and St. Etienne, but was speedily put down there. It was only in the capital that this socialistic federalism made a serious fight, for there it had arms, soldiers, and money in abund- ance. It paid its soldiers one and a half francs a day with the money pillaged from banks and railway companies, and it abolished all rent for three-quarters of a year. Before it had come to the end of its course, it pulled down the Vendome Column, suppressed all newspapers, even Rochefort's revolutionary print, which criticised its acts, turned the churches into clubs or barracks, arrested many of the higher clergy and officials as hostages, and compelled all men under forty years of age to remain in Paris and bear arms. The government at Versailles had to wait for the French prisoners to come back from Germany, and formed them into an army under Marshal MacMahon. He could attack the communists only on the west and south of Paris, for the Germans still occupied the northern and eastern forts. Soon the regular troops and artillery silenced the southern xxxiv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 277 forts, repelled every sortie, and forced an entrance near the gate leading to St. Cloud (May 21, 187 1). The maddened communists for seven days more fought on desperately from barricade to barricade ; and by formal decrees the " central committee " ordered the public buildings of Paris to be set on fire, and the clerical " hostages " to be shot. The Archbishop of Paris and nearly seventy other priests and officials were shot in a street of Belleville. All Paris was ablaze for days and nights with flames kindled by male and female miscreants, who fed them with petroleum. Parts of the Tuileries, the Louvre library, the Hotel de Ville, and Palais Royal were burnt down, beside many public build- ings, churches, theatres, banks, warehouses, and railway stations. At last the regular troops, after storming barri- cades and shooting down opponents, cooped up the last of them in the Pere la Chaise cemetery, and there made an end of the most senseless and bloodthirsty revolt of this century. Hundreds of the communist chiefs and officers were afterwards shot, and thousands of the rest transported to New Caledonia. Just as wind acting against tide will for a time trouble the surface, but leave the deep under-current unmoved, so too in France the gusts of revolutionary passion in 1830, 1848, and 187 1 have been powerless to stir up the mass of the rural population, however much they may have excited the floating population of the large towns. It is the contest between the small but noisy party in the great towns, and the large but usually passive class of peasant proprietors which has led to spasmodic risings, quickly followed by powerful reactions. Since 1871 the increasing intelligence and political power of the " rurals " have hitherto acted as effective ballast to restrain the vagaries of the " reds " in the towns. CHAPTER XXXV. the third republic (continued). Thiers' Presidency. — Thiers, though seventy -four years of age, kept erect through these varied disasters, which would have crushed most younger men. He had chosen on February 18 a ministry of moderate republicans like Dufaure (Justice), Favre (Foreign Affairs), Picard (Interior), and Jules Simon (Education), which now set about re- organising the army, finances, and executive power. Thiers' difficulties with the National Assembly were great His own sympathies had been for a monarchy, and two-thirds of the National Assembly at Versailles were opposed to a republic. Thiers, however, found that the whole course of events required a conservative republic ; and when the monarchists reproached him with violating the " Compact of Bordeaux," which placed him at the head of a republic as a merely provisional form of government, he retorted angrily — " I found the republic already made. A monarchy is impos- sible, since there are three dynasties for a single throne." Against the advanced republicans he said, " The Republic will be conservative, or it will not live ; '' for he knew that the bourgeoisie and also the peasants, terrified by the Commune, would not allow the laws of property to be tampered with. So he held on, overawing the discordant factions by his force of will and by occasional threats of resignation. The Assembly caused a municipal council to be elected chap, xxxv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 279 for Paris. It also increased the taxes and import dues, so as to meet the enormous expenditure caused by the war and by the reorganisation of the French army after the Prussian system. The Mobile and National Guards were now disbanded, and military service in the regular army for five years was made compulsory for every Frenchman under forty years of age. At a critical time in these debates Thiers said, " Vote the five years, or I will leave you to your- selves,'' and the law was passed (July 1872). By 1875 the French army was half as large again as it was in 1870. On every question except the army the Assembly seemed hopelessly divided. In May 1873 Thiers recon- structed his Cabinet mainly from the Left Centre or moderate republicans. Thereupon the monarchists, or Right, combined to overthrow Thiers, when they found that he meant to consolidate the Republic. Thiers at once resigned his office of President, and MacMahon was im- mediately appointed his successor (May 24, 1873). MacMahon's Presidency. — MacMahon appointed the liberal monarchist the Due de Broglie as his Vice-President of the Council of Ministers (or Premier in our phrase). Even this Orleanist ministry did not openly attempt to restore the Comte de Paris, but contented itself with a law appointing reactionary officials and mayors, and en- couraging the Roman Catholic pilgrimages to the signs and miracles at Paray-le-Monial and Lourdes. The Legitimists and Orleanists (1873). — The Comte de Chambord, an upright but bigoted man of fifty- three years of age, prided himself on preserving intact in his solitary exile near Vienna the ideas of his grandfather Charles X. In his manifesto of July 1871 he preached the duty of France to submit to himself, her lawful king, Henri 280 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. V. The able and courageous Monseigneur Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, strove earnestly to bring a fusion be- tween this obstinate adherent to the old monarchy and the Orleanist prince, the Comte de Paris. The latter was at this time a vigorous soldierly man of thirty-five, who had served in the army of the North in the American civil war, and had taken an enlightened interest in English social and economic questions during his long residence in England (1862-1870). He and his uncle, the Due d'Aumale, returned to Paris when the laws against the Orleanist princes were repealed in 1871, and in 1873 he offered to waive his claims to the French throne if the Comte de Chambord would accept a Liberal monarchical programme and the tricolour as its sign and pledge; but at the last moment, when all seemed settled, the count refused to become the "King of the Revolution" and to accept its flag (October 30, 1873). The Septennate. — So the monarchist parties fell asunder ; and as the Bonapartists had been also disconcerted by the death of Napoleon III in January 1873, all three parties joined to prolong the era of unsettled government by voting that Marshal MacMahon should be President of the Republic for seven years. The legitimist deputies even coalesced with the republican opposition to overthrow the Due de Broglie's Orleanist ministry. The French Constitution. — It has been often said that the Republic was founded by its enemies; and certainly the intrigues and discords of the monarchist majority in the National Assembly convinced France that a legitimist, Orleanist, or Bonapartist restoration was impracticable. In July 1874 Casimir Perier (son of the statesman of 1 831) carried a general motion for the organisation of the Republic; and in February 1875, aft e r l° n g and heated xxxv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 281 debates, the framework of the French constitution was constructed. With later modifications, made in 1879 and 1884, it now consists of two elective Chambers, and a President as head of the Republic. The President is elected for seven years by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies in a joint sitting at Versailles. Any French citizen is eligible except a member of the families which have reigned in France. The President represents the State in its relations with foreign Powers. He can invite the Chambers to reconsider a law, but cannot refuse his consent to it. In accordance with the votes of the Chambers he may dismiss a ministry, and appoint a member to form a new one ; but his orders are not valid unless signed by his ministers, who thus are responsible for them. There are Cabinet ministers for Justice, Foreign Affairs, Interior, Finance, War, Navy, Colonies, Education, Fine Arts and Public Worship, Agriculture, Public Works and Trade. Each one is responsible to the Chambers for the acts of his own department, and for the general policy of the government. The administrative power is far more concentrated than it is in England, and the lower officials are only responsible to their superiors, by whom alone they can be prosecuted. The Parliament consists of two Chambers, the first of which is chosen by indirect suffrage. The Senate consists of 300 members, elected for nine years, a third of them being renewed every third year. The senators are elected by an electoral council in each department, which consists of departmental officials and delegates of the local communes ; so the Senate has been called the " Grand Council of the Communes of France." The Chamber of Deputies consists of 584 members, 282 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. elected by universal suffrage according to the plan known as " scrutin de liste " — i.e. each citizen may vote for as many names on the list as the department has candi- dates ; and it is believed that deputies elected on this system will think less of their local ties than of the good of the State. The alternative plan which previously pre- vailed was that of " scrutin d'arrondissement," where one candidate only can be elected for each " arrondissement " or division of a department. 1 Each senator or deputy receives 9000 francs (^360) a year for his services. The National Assembly, after finishing its labours, was dissolved (December 1875). The elections of February 1876 sent up a strong republican majority, which led to the formation of the Dufaure ministry of a moderate republican type. The opposition between the Chambers and President MacMahon became keener and keener, till at last he was forced to resign (1879). Free untrammelled government began under the presidency of Jules Grevy. The great man whose advice had guided France from the disasters of 1871 to comparative calm and prosperity lived to see the new constitution at work. After eighty years of life, commensurate almost with that of New France, Adolphe Thiers died, firmly upholding to the end the cause of the Conservative Republic. The other great man who breathed new life into France amidst her troubles, Ldon Gambetta, had for a short time headed a ministry ; but after his defeat and resignation on the question of " scrutin de liste," he was cut off by a sudden and violent death (December 31, 1882). His funeral was as imposing as that of Mirabeau, the great Tribune of the First French Revolution, whom he resembled in his im- petuosity and masterful power. 1 This system has again been adopted, 1889. xxxv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 283 After the decease of these two great men there has appeared no statesman in France who could form a stable government. In the nineteen years since the fall of the Empire there have been in all twenty-four ministries. 1 Most of them have been constructed from the Left or Left Centre, and have generally been overthrown by coalitions of the Extreme Left or radicals with the Right or monarchical and imperialist parties ; but as these have not been able to form a united ministry, the new Cabinet has generally been reconstructed out of the minority. The republican party has sought to strengthen itself by suppressing all convents in France, and expelling their inmates, as well as by discountenancing religious teaching in the State schools (1880). In the same year it passed an Act of Amnesty allowing the exiled revolutionists to come back from New Caledonia and Cayenne. In 1879 the Republic was freed from Bonapartist intrigues for a time by the death of Prince Louis Napoleon in Zululand ; but Prince Napoleon-Joseph, of the Jerome branch (nicknamed Plon-Plon), and his own son Prince Victor, are the rival heirs to the " Napoleonic idea." The republicans in 1886 exiled the Comte de Paris, but it is 1 1870 Favre. 1880 Ferry (1). 1871 Dufaure (1). 1881 Gambetta. 1873 De Broglie (1). 1882 De Freycinet (2). 1874 De Cissey. 1882 Duclerc. 1875 Buffet. 1883 Fallieres. 1876 Dufaure (2). 1883 Ferry (2). 1876 Simon. 1885 Brisson. 1877 De Broglie (2). 1886 De Freycinet (3). 1877 De Rochebouet. 1886 Goblet. 1877 Dufaure (3). 1887 Rouvier. 1879 Waddington. 1887 Tirard. 1879 De Freycinet (1). 1888 Floquet. 284 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. probable that they have weakened themselves by that and their persecuting clerical policy. The defenceless condition of the eastern frontier has been remedied by the construction of a long chain of forts from the Belgian frontier nearly to Belfort and a great entrenched camp at Rheims. Foreign Policy. — This was in pursuance of the national desire to be the equal of Germany, and to slowly prepare for a war of revenge. Meanwhile the Republic sought to gain prestige by extending its possessions in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. In Egypt, France and England both had important interests at stake ; and when Ismail Pacha, Khedive of Egypt, had drawn his State almost into bankruptcy by his extravagance, two representatives of the English and French bondholders were sent to control his finances. Soon Ismail was deposed by the Porte, to make way for his son Tewfik ; and the bondholders' representatives, at the wish of France, were recognised by England and France. Thus originated the Dual Control ; but when the military or quasi-national movement of Arabi Pacha burst forth, France, occupied in Tunis, would not join in the expedition to suppress it. After its suppression (1882) the British Government abolished the Dual Control, but France strove to regain the position which she had resigned by her own inaction. In Tunis French policy had been more decisive. Acting, it is believed, on an understanding arrived at at the Berlin Conference (1878), France made use of slight disturbances by the Kroumirs to invade Tunis. The French occupied Bizerta (May 1881), and on arriving before Tunis compelled the Bey of Tunis, a tributary of the Turkish power, to sign a treaty acknowledging the xxxv] THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 285 French protectorate. They had to bombard and storm the port of Sfax, and to make a long march to the sacred city of Kairouan, to bring the whole territory under their power. This protectorate, which is virtually actual posses- sion, greatly enraged Italy, who regarded herself as the heir to that part of the Ottoman empire. France also furbished up some musty claims to a protectorate over the island of Madagascar, bombarded Tamatave, imprisoned an English missionary, Mr. Shaw, and at last compelled the Queen of Madagascar to consent to a shadowy protectorate. In Indo-China the French had long laboured to found a great colony. In 1867 the kingdom of Annam, tributary to China, was compelled by the French to cede Cochin China at the mouth of the Mekon river; and now again (188 3- 1885) France renewed her efforts against Annam. Her troops suffered heavily before Langson, and were in- volved in a troublesome war with China ; but they occupied Kelung in Formosa, while her fleet routed the Chinese ships and bombarded the river forts. At last in April 1885 peace was made, France keeping Annam and Tonquin — unhealthy and dangerous possessions. In foreign policy generally France has been most un- successful. She lost the support of Austria, then alienated Italy and England by her high-handed colonial policy; and now she can count only on the uncertain support of Russia. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. The Erfurt Parliament. — The collapse of the "united German" movement in 1849 an d the difficulties of Austria left Prussia free to form plans for her own supremacy in Germany ; and soon Frederick William IV formed with the Kings of Saxony and Hanover a " Tri-regal alliance," which was joined by many of the smaller North German States ; but this so-called " German Union " fell to pieces when it was proposed to elect a German Parliament to meet at Erfurt ; for Hanover, Saxony, Wiirtemberg, and Bavaria, at the instigation of Austria, formed a new group of States opposed to Prussian supremacy. This new combination, and the narrow-mindedness of the Prussian Junker party, soon broke up the Erfurt Parliament. Austria, now again (September 1850) strong enough to resume her old position in German politics, revived the old German Confederation, in which she had always held the first place ; while Prussia refused to take her old place in it, but held fast to the "restricted union" at Erfurt. Thus Austria had cleverly regained her old position in Germany, and soon inflicted a further rebuff on the timid Manteuffel ministry at Berlin. Hesse. — The despotic Elector of Hesse Cassel had already nullified the constitution wrung from him in 1848; chap, xxxvi] THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 287 and on his further attempt in 1850 to levy taxes without the consent of the Chambers, he had to flee before a rising of the people of Cassel. He invoked the aid of the Frankfurt Diet ; and an Austro-Bavarian force was march- ing in to restore him, when Prussian troops occupied Fulda and Cassel. Civil war for the supremacy of Austria or Prussia in German affairs was only averted by the mediation of the powerful Czar Nicholas on the Austrian side. The Prussian king finally withdrew his troops from Hesse, but had to submit to further humiliation in a conference at Olmutz. Olmiitz. — These terms were that Prussia should abandon her " German union schemes " and should again take her place in the German Confederation as established in 1815 under the presidency of Austria; and that the disputes in Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein should be settled by this Frankfurt Diet, which met June 12, 185 1. So Hesse Cassel was again subjected to its duke, and Schles- wig-Holstein to the Danes. 1 Thus Prussia tamely yielded the first place to a Power which in 1849 seemed to have lost all influence in German affairs. Austrian arrogance showed itself in an attempt to gain control over the new fleet of the Confederation, in favouring the overthrow of the constitutions granted in 1848 in many of the smaller German States, and by attempting to force her way into the Zollverein (Customs Union) or break it up. After wearisome disputes Prussia held her ground against this last attempted encroachment; and in 1853 the old Zollverein was reconstructed for twelve years, with the option of Austria entering it in six years ; and meanwhile the two rivals mutually agreed to lower their protective tariffs. J See p. 291. 288 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. The slight opinion of the Prussian king may be seen in a letter of our Prince Consort written in 1854: "The King of Prussia is a reed shaken by the wind " ; but he finally kept a policy of neutrality favourable to Russia during the Crimean War. Friendly neutrality towards Russia during her difficulties in 1855, 1863, and 1877, and support of her claims in 1870, has been repaid by Russian neutrality during Prussia's struggles of 1866 and 1870. Regency of Prince William. — Between 1855 and 1857 changes in a reactionary direction were made in the Prussian constitution. Disturbances in Neufchatel led to the defeat and imprisonment of the Prussian or royalist party ; and eventually Frederick William IV renounced his feudal and sovereign rights over that distant fief. This and the varied disappointments of his reign preyed on his gifted but sensitive mind, which in October 1857 gave way. So his brother Prince William was appointed to a regency for three months. This was renewed from time to time, and in 1858, after his son's marriage with our Princess Victoria, he assumed the regency indefinitely. He took the oath to the constitution, and soon dismissed the timid Manteuffel ministry which had led to the Olmiitz convention. A new ministry under Prince Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen at once began to strengthen the Prussian army and navy. The new regent, who was one day to crown the edifice of German unity, had once been the most unpopular man in Prussia, owing to his strong aversion to constitutional rule. It was his palace and the adjoining arsenal which had been sacked by the Berlin mob in 1848, and it was he who, at the head of the Prussian troops, had crushed the last rising of the Baden democrats in 1849. Yet his mind was so open to argument, and withal so sturdy and xxxvi] THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 289 penetrating, thathe lived to become a constitutional sovereign and the idol of the entire German nation. In 1855 the king's government had bullied the electors into sending reactionary representatives; under the regency in 1859 government intimidation was forbidden, and the people sent up more progressive members. This at once encouraged the Liberals in all the other German States. The Smaller German States. — Austria's influence and popularity were still uppermost in the southern States. King Maximilian II kept Bavaria in peace and quietness, save for religious disputes which agitated all the south. Wiirtemberg and Baden also enjoyed better governments than most other German States ; but in Hesse the obstinate despotism of the Grand Duke was broken by the patient persistence of his people in 1862, when constitutional rule was restored. The " middle kingdoms," Saxony and Hanover, re- sisted Prussian influence — the former under the skilful lead of Count Beust, the latter under the obstinate, blind old king, George V. In the north the duchy of Mecklenburg was almost as badly governed as Hesse Cassel itself. King 'William I. — The death of Frederick William IV, worn out in mind and body, brought the regent to the throne (January 2, 1861). In October 1861 the new king (already sixty-four years old) at his own coronation showed his staunch adherence to the old monarchical principles of the house of Hohenzollern. He placed the crown on his own head, thus signifying that he received it only from God ; and he always insisted that he was king by the grace of God and not of his people alone. The political state of Europe was favourable to a revival of Prussia's prestige, so shaken at Olmiitz. Russia was ex- u 290 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. hausted by the Crimean war, and was soon to be occupied by the Polish rising of 1863 ; Austria, beaten by France and Sardinia, could not now browbeat her northern neighbour as Schwarzenberg had done at Olmiitz. King William I. was made of different stuff from his brother. He had the gift of seeing genius and of setting men in their right spheres of work. Thus in order to raise Prussia's power he doubled the number of infantry regiments and in- creased the cavalry by ten regiments ; and to organise this vast force he chose General von Roon, who is famed as the greatest army organiser since the first Napoleon. The Prussian Chamber acquiesced in this increase during the Austro- Italian war, but refused the subsidies when peace was again restored. At once the king bethought him of his Prussian ambassador at Paris, Otto von Bismarck-Schonhausen. Bismarck. — This remarkable man was born on April 1, 1815, at Schonhausen, about seventy miles east of Berlin. He came of a knightly family which had farmed its land there for generations, and had produced many fighting men. He himself was early known for his mad escapades, and then for his furious Junker speeches in the first Prussian Parliament. Thus he had flung out the words, "Let all questions to the king's ministers be answered by a roll of drums," and he sneered at the ballot-box as a mere dice-box. His ardent royalism made him defend his sovereign's surrender at Olmiitz ; but he determined soon, when he was sent as Prussia's representative to the resus- citated Frankfurt Diet, to prepare the way for Prussia's supremacy in Germany. His power, tact, and ability procured for him the post of Prussian ambassador, first at St. Petersburg (1859) and then at Paris (1862); but he had been there only just long enough to take the measure xxxvi] THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 291 of the Emperor and his ministers when a telegram recalled him in haste to Berlin, to " tame " the Prussian Parliament. He was made President of the Ministry ; for in Prussia the king's ministers are appointed by him, and need not be taken from the members of the Parliament. In fact, the constitution of 1850 left the king and the two Houses of Parliament with equal powers. So, when the Lower Chamber would not provide the war budget which the king and his ministers declared to be necessary, the latter ruled for four years without one. " It is not by speechifying and majorities that the great questions of the time will have to be decided — that was the mistake in 1848 and 1849 — but by blood and iron." Such were Bismarck's terrible words, which enraged the Prussian liberals and alarmed the neighbouring Powers. The king dissolved the Chambers and restricted the liberty of the press, so that even the Crown Prince Frederick protested publicly against so extreme a policy. The inflexible minister also braved the threats of France, Austria, and England, by aiding Russia in 1863 to put down the Polish insurrection; for the Prussian Government feared to see the revolt spread to its Polish province of Posen, which was and still is discon- tented. Schleswig-Holstein. — War seemed likely to break out between Austria and Prussia as to their position in Germany, when the news came that the King of Denmark had died (November 1863); and his death reopened the whole of the distracting Schleswig-Holstein question. The duchies of Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg belonged to the Danish crown, but Holstein was a member of the German Con- federation. Its population was entirely German ; that of Schleswig mainly German. This complicated position somewhat resembled that of Luxemburg and Hanover ; but 292 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. all the people of Holstein and most of those of Schleswig maintained that by an old treaty the two duchies must not be separated, and that when the male line of Denmark died out, the duchies must both fall to Germany. The death of the Danish king Christian VIII in 1848 had brought matters to a crisis ; the Germans in the duchies and the troops of Prussia and of the Confederation beat the Danes, but the latter were upheld by the other Powers; and in 1852 the Treaty of London guaranteed to the next king, Frederick VII of Denmark, the possession of the duchies, and after his death, and in default of male heirs, to Prince Christian August of Augustenburg. But neither the German Diet nor the duchies themselves recognised this treaty as binding. Soon the Danish king sought, in defiance of this treaty, to bind the duchies more closely to Denmark, and shortly before his death the Danish Parliament declared Schleswig incorporated with Denmark. His successor, Christian IX, yielding to the demands of the Copenhagen populace, ratified that act. At once the hereditary Prince Frederick of Augustenburg claimed to have the duchies, as these had not recognised the Treaty of London ; and most of the Schleswig-Holsteiners and all Germans ap- plauded his claim. So the German Confederation sent troops into Holstein to protect German interests. Mean- while Bismarck with artful diplomacy had persuaded Austria to join Prussia in occupying Schleswig-Holstein, which the Confederation had foolishly refused to do. So 20,000 Austrians and 25,000 Prussians crossed the Eider. The Danes evacuated their first line of defence, but made a brave stand against the Prussians in the fortified peninsula of Diippel. The ill-timed attempts at mediation of the English Government had only drawn the Danes on to resistance, which they hoped England would xxx vi] THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 293 support ; but the English Government gave only moral support, and Prussia had secured French neutrality by a favourable commercial treaty. A conference of the Powers at London, May 1864, produced no result. Bismarck was inflexible, and the Danes persisted in unreal hopes ; but when the Prussians captured the island of Alsen the Danish king gave way, and on October 30, 1864, in the Treaty of Vienna, sur- rendered the duchies to the rulers of Austria and Prussia. Thus skilfully had Bismarck used Austria to help Prussia draw the chestnuts out of the fire. He now with greater boldness requested the troops of the Germanic Confederation to leave Holstein. A quarrel about the division of the duchies was now imminent between the two victors ; but it was for the time patched up by the Gastein Convention (August 1865), by which Holstein was to be administered by Austria, Schleswig by Prussia, until the question of inheritance should be settled. Lauenburg was to go entirely to Prussia for a money payment Austria, however, supported the hereditary Prince of Augustenburg's claim to the two duchies, which was opposed by Prussia, unless he would make himself almost a vassal prince to Berlin. In fact, Bismarck (now raised to the rank of count) wished to force on soon the inevitable struggle with Austria for supremacy in Germany. The Prussian army was splendidly organised and armed with a new rifle, quick-firing for those days, called the "needle-gun." France was engaged in Mexico, and Napoleon III, still anxious to see Venetia freed from the Austrian yoke, was won over to neutrality by Count von Bismarck in secret interviews at Biarritz. Prussia had already concluded a secret offensive and defensive alliance with Italy, with 294 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. well-understood conditions as to territorial changes at the peace. The Prussian Chambers, however, still refused money supplies for the army ; but the Prussian Government, having defied the German Diet and the population of the two duchies by ignoring the strong claims of the Duke of Augustenburg, was not now likely to give way before its own Parliament. King William of Prussia had still so many scruples as to drawing the sword on Austria that Bismarck said he had to go to him every day to " wind him up like a clock"; for most of the Prussian court and nation longed for peace. When, however, Austria at last proposed to refer the rule of the duchies to the Frankfurt Diet, well known to be hostile to Prussia, the latter Power ordered General Manteuffel to occupy Holstein, from which the Austrian troops quickly withdrew. The Austro- Prussian War. — On June 14, 1866, the German Confederation decided to mobilise its forces for war against Prussia ; and Austria had long been massing her troops on her mountainous Bohemian frontier, though three-tenths of her available forces were needed in Venetia to fight the Italians, who declared war at the same time. The Prussian Government, opposed by its own Parliament and by a majority of its own people, seemed at great odds amidst a ring of foes, including Hanover, the two Hesses, the South German States, and Saxony, as well as the vast Austrian Empire, which alone then numbered more than 38,000,000 of people, or double those which Prussia then possessed. But though the Prussian people were enraged at their own overbearing government, they were yet all patriotically devoted to their country ; whereas in the motley dominions of Francis Joseph the Venetians were actively hostile, and the Hungarians and Slavs passively hostile, to the central government at Vienna. Moreover, their govern- xxxvi] THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 295 ment had in 185 1 withdrawn the much- vaunted constitution of 1849, and had only slightly modified the old helpless bureaucracy ; and, worst of all, Francis Joseph, with his Aulic Council at Vienna, often interfered with his generals in Bohemia. The vigour of the Prussian organiser, von Roon, and the strategist, von Moltke, was soon shown. In two days after the rulers of Hesse, Saxony, and Hanover had refused the Prussian summons for their neutrality, their capitals were in the hands of Prussian troops, and the tyrant of Hesse was soon on his way as a captive to Stettin. The Saxon troops hurried off south to join the Austrians in Bohemia, the Hessians to join the South German corps, and the Hanoverians soon marched off south-east towards Gotha to join the Bavarians. The Hanoverians beat off the attack on June 27 of half their number of Prussians, detached from General von Falckenstein's army, at Langen- salza, north of Gotha ; but two days later they were sur- rounded by 40,000 Prussian and Coburg troops and capitulated. The blind King George V was permitted to depart to Vienna. General von Falckenstein followed up this success by driving the two badly led South German armies before him, and entered Frankfurt July 1 6 ; but the main issue had already been decided in Bohemia. Events soon made it clear that Prussia had the best strategist in Europe to direct her armies. On the left the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick held 116,000 men on the Silesian frontier, in the centre 100,000 men were led by the king's nephew, Prince Frederick Charles (the Red Prince), and on the Elbe 40,000 men, by General Herwarth. Four days after the declaration of war all Saxony, except one small fortress, was overrun by these hosts, which then began to press through the mountain 296 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. passes against the 230,000 Austrians and 23,000 Saxons under the command of Count Benedek. His forces were spread out from Cracow to the Elbe defile in the Erz Gebirge, but were inferior in weapons, for the Prussian needle-gun fired six times as fast as the Austrian rifle. Besides, the Austrian soldiers had only served for one year in the ranks. Koniggratz (Sadowa). — Moltke's plan was for the Prussian armies to march separately, but to unite to strike the decisive blow. The Prussian Crown Prince, after feigning to invade Austrian Silesia, struck through the defiles of the Riesen Gebirge, and overthrew the Austrians at Nachod (June 27), and on the 29th joined at Gitschin the two other Prussian armies, which had driven back the Austrians at Miinchengratz (June 26). Benedek's forces had not been concentrated in time to prevent this junction at Gitschin, but he now chose a strong defensive position on a huge amphitheatre of wooded hills near Sadowa and the fortress of Koniggratz. Fortified villages and barricades of trees gave the Austrians at first an enormous superiority over the Prussian attacks, which up till noon were repulsed with great slaughter ; but the Crown Prince, distant some five leagues away on the Prussian extended front, came up and took the Austrians on their right flank. The Austrian centre, weakened to resist the new attack, was at once seized by a Prussian force under General Hiller, who stormed the heights of Chlum, the key of the Austrian position. The defeated army, hurled down the other sides of the hills, suffered terribly in its flight over the river Elbe, and then over the plain to the shelter of Koniggratz. The Austrians lost in this tremendous struggle 18,000 killed and wounded, 20,000 prisoners, and 174 cannons. The Prussian losses were over 8000. xxxvi] THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 297 The Vienna papers of July 4 truly said, " Our northern army no longer exists." Its shattered remains abandoned Bohemia, and halted under the walls of the fortress of Olmiitz in Moravia. After this unexampled " eight days' campaign" (June 26 to July 3), the Prussians pressed on towards Vienna. Cession of Venetia. — The Austrians had defeated the Italians at Custozza (June 24); but Francis Joseph, two days after the disaster in Bohemia, hurriedly offered to cede Venetia to the Emperor Napoleon, and through him to the Italians (as had also been done with Lombardy in 1859), in order to preserve Austrian supremacy in Germany through the mediation of France. Napoleon had hoped that the two central Powers would wear each other out, and that he would then gain the Rhine boundary from a helpless Germany. He now claimed this from Prussia in the hour of her triumph, but met with an indignant refusal. France would have declared war had she not been so in- volved in Mexico as to be unable then to face the Prussian forces armed with the needle-gun breechloader. Still, Napoleon hoped that Austria's peace with Italy would free some 100,000 of her soldiers for the defence of Vienna, and so prolong the war ; but the Prussian troops advanced on that capital so rapidly that on July 24 the preliminaries of peace were signed at Nikolsburg, close to. Vienna, and were embodied in the important Treaty of Prague (August 23). Treaty of Prague. — Austria was excluded from German affairs, and the old German Confederation (of 1815) was dis- solved. Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, the whole of Hesse Nassau (including Cassel), and the rich free city of Frankfurt were annexed to Prussia, which thus gained nearly 5,000,000 subjects. These soon became reconciled to her vigorous 298 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. but able rule ; and her realm, no longer cut in two parts by Hanover, now numbered 23,590,000 souls. The aged Prussian king desired the annexation of Bohemia, but was dissuaded by his prudent minister, who showed the impolicy of making Austria a permanent enemy to Prussia while she still had to deal with France. So Austria, though excluded from Germany, gave up no terri- tory to Prussia, but only paid a small indemnity x for this "eight days' war." Prussia also made separate treaties with the German States which she left independent. The Prussian Government was moved from its determination to annex Saxony by the urgent representations of the two emperors at the instance of the Saxon minister Count Beust. Furthermore, Saxony had to enter the new North German Confederation and pay an indemnity. The South German States appealed to Napoleon for a remission of the hard terms first proposed by Bismarck, and finally they all had to pay small war indemnities, while Bavaria and Hesse Darmstadt gave up small patches of frontier land. Prussia's greatest diplomatic success was a secret con- vention with the South German States, which was revealed to the astonished Napoleon when the Luxemburg affair threatened war (March 1867). By this convention all the South German States concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with Prussia, and, in case of war, placed their troops under the supreme command of the King of Prussia. Finally, the victorious king and minister asked for and obtained a bill of indemnity from the Prussian Parliament for their unconstitutional military expenditure during the last four years — an expenditure which it was now seen had saved Prussia in spite of her Parliament. 1 40,000,000 thalers. Saxony also had to hand over her post and telegraph system to Prussia. xxxvi] THE RISE OF PRUSSIA. 299 The North^German Confederation. — The new Con- federation comprised the whole of Prussia, Saxony, the grand duchies of Oldenburg, the two Mecklenburgs, Bruns- wick, and the part of Hesse Darmstadt north of the Main, together with the small Thuringian States and the free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck. A federal Parliament (Reichstag) and Council, elected by universal suffrage, were to meet at Berlin to make laws and ratify treaties for these States, which, however, retained their local laws and administrations. The federal forces were to be reorganised on the model of the Prussian army. A powerful political party, the National Liberals, was formed with the avowed object of aiding Bismarck to promote the unity of Germany ; but the opposition of Poles, Hanoverians, and Schleswig- Holsteiners through their deputies in the Reichstag still made it difficult for him to keep a majority favourable to the government. The ex-King George of Hanover, from his residence near Vienna, fomented intrigues and plots against the Prussian Government, which at last stopped the liberal pension that it had allotted to him. From its far-reaching influence on the history of Germany, Austria, and Italy, Koniggratz must rank among the decisive battles of the world. Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of history as to the way in which Bismarck brought on the wars of 1864 and 1866, it cannot be denied that these countries all gained by their results. North Germany now formed a vigorous Confederation with Prussia as its back- bone. Not the least of the changes was that the new State was founded on the democratic basis of universal suffrage, though much of the legislative and executive power lay with the King of Prussia. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE UNITY OF GERMANY. North Germany now formed a strong Confederation under the lead of Prussia ; but South Germany (i.e. the States south of the Main) was united to it by no open bond except a Customs Parliament for the whole of the German Zollverein. The southern States sent deputies to this Parliament at Berlin, which, however, could only legislate on commercial questions ; but the dread of a French invasion was always driving the South Germans into closer sympathy with their brethren north of the Main. The Luxemburg dispute was hushed up, but every small difficulty between France and Prussia caused angry articles in the papers of Paris and Berlin. Thus when North Germany, desiring to encourage trade with Italy, voted subsidies to support the St. Gothard tunnel through the Swiss Alps, the French paper's saw in it a scheme to divert traffic from their Mont Cenis route (May 1870). In fact, both nations felt war to be inevitable, but Napoleon declared war in a way which united all Germans as one man. The Hohenzollern Candidature. — Marshal Prim, acting on behalf of the Spanish nation, offered the crown of Spain to Prince Leopold, of the Roman Catholic branch of the Hohenzollerns, and a distant relative of the King of CAMPAIGNS 1859-71. London' Edward Stanford Sttmfartls Geographical Estab* chap, xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 301 Prussia. His acceptance of it was known by the French Government on July 4, 1870, and the French Foreign Minister, the Due de Gramont, inveighed against it as a scheme to revive the empire of Charles V under a Hohen- zollern dynasty. Thereupon King William, as head of the Hohenzollern family, prevailed on his relative to withdraw in the interests of peace ; but Benedetti, the French ambassador to Prussia, insisted that the king should give the " definite assurance that he would never give his consent should the candidature be renewed." . This insulting demand, urged with persistence on the public promenade at Ems, was refused by the king, who declined to see the ambassador again on the subject. France deemed herself insulted in the person of her ambassador, and war was declared at Paris on July 15, 1870. Franco-German War. — At Mainz King William on August 2 took command of the united German armies ; for the South Germans, on whom Napoleon counted, were now one in heart and soul with their northern brethren, and not merely bound by treaty engagements. Moltke hurled three great German armies, organised as armies never had been before, against the French frontier. General Steinmetz on the German right moved up the Moselle valley with 6 1,000 ; Prince Frederick Charles (the Red Prince) in the centre advanced from Mainz through the Palatinate, towards the Saar valley, with a host of 200,000 ; while the Prussian Crown Prince, at the head of 180,000 Prussian and South German troops, with whom he was very popular, moved up the left bank of the Rhine. Germany soon had in all 800,000 men under arms, for she needed an army in Silesia to keep Austria quiet, and forces on the north coast to keep off a French landing in Schleswig or in the Baltic ; but the French fleet could effect nothing on the shallow coasts of 302 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Prussia, which are her best protection' from heavy iron- clads. Confusion and indecision were rampant in the French armies from the first. The Emperor hoped at one time to invade Bavaria, and with the aid of Austrian troops to cut Germany in half, but he could gather barely 150,000 men round Metz under Bazaine, 50,000 round Strassburg, while 40,000 remained in reserve at a camp near Chalons-sur- Marne ; and Austria waited to see the turn of events before deciding for Napoleon. So the French incursion into South Germany went no farther than the occupation of Saarbriick after dislodging a small Prussian force (August 2). The Crown Prince was the first to break through the French line by crushing an inferior French force at Weissemburg (where battles were fought in 1793-94) and taking 1000 prisoners (August 4). "Worth (August 6), Spiohern (August 6). — MacMahon had taken a strong position on heights behind the village of Worth, his flanks protected by woods and his front by slopes swept by his cannon. His 40,000 men long maintained a desperate fight against successive charges of parts of the great German army of some 120,000 ; but not receiving the support of General de Failly, who had been hurriedly sent from Metz, the French were at last forced into a retreat which became a helpless flight. In the battle they lost 6000 and the victors no less than 10,000 killed and wounded ; but MacMahon had to flee through the Vosges Mountains, where he would otherwise have held the invaders at bay. On the same day Lorraine was thrown open to the successful invaders of the central German army. At Spichern, or Forbach as the French call the battle, General Frossard held a splendid position on heights which detachments of the German general Steinmetz attacked at xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 303 once in front, and, when reinforced, on both flanks. Against this haphazard sort of attack the French stubbornly resisted, and finally retreated on Metz after inflicting more losses than they received; but Lorraine was thrown open to the invaders, and the central German army marched straight on Metz. The French defence had been shattered by two hammer- like blows. Alsace was lost at Worth, for MacMahon, chased by the Crown Prince's terrible cavalry, fell back on Nancy, then on the great camp at Chalons ; and a small force only could be found ready to garrison Strassburg, which was soon invested by the South German corps under Werder. The Emperor, staggered by these disasters, still dreaded for political reasons to fall back on Chalons ; he had sent the telegram to Paris, " Tout peut se re'tablir." He resigned the supreme command to Bazaine, but remained with a large force at Metz, where he was nearly entrapped by the Germans. The battles round Metz. — Moltke's aim was now to shut up as many French troops as possible in Metz, which was known to be poorly provisioned and to have its forts unfinished. So the Germans under von der Goltz attacked at Borny a superior French force'retreating across the Moselle towards Metz (August 14). The attack, though beaten off, delayed the French around Metz. The Emperor and Bazaine, who was almost as undecided in his views as the Emperor himself, ought to have thrown a sufficient garrison into Metz, and then escaped with the rest of the army to Verdun and Chalons ; but the German Uhlans and a division of infantry began to circle round Metz to cut off the French retreat to Verdun ; and at Mars la Tour, or Vionville, these troops (August 1 6) pressed back the line of the retreating French. In one part of their desperate contest against superior foes six squadrons of German cavalry 304 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. charged dense masses of French horse and foot to check their movements till more Germans should come up. At the end of twelve hours' fighting, and after two more brilliant charges of the German cavalry, the French were edged back eastwards on Gravelotte, where the most deadly battle of the war was to be fought. Gravelotte (August 1 8). — The French left, under Fros- sard, held a formidable defensive position on entrenched GRAVELOTTE 2.45 P.M.. GERMAN ac FRENCH SNGL/6H MILES . heights, against which the impetuous General Steinmetz hurled masses of his men to almost certain death against the deadly chassepots and mitrailleuses. Up to seven in the evening the Germans had been repulsed with awful slaughter, but as darkness came on their superior forces xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 305 overlapped and turned the French right at St. Privat, so compelling all the army to fall back on Metz. The French, fighting under shelter, lost only 8000 and some 4000 prisoners; the Germans had lost at least 20,000 men killed and wounded, but the assailants had gained their object ; Bazaine with 173,000 troops (including National Guards) was shut up in Metz, whence the Emperor had escaped by the help of a strong escort. Sedan. — With health and energy shattered, Napoleon repaired to the great camp at Chalons, which was being organised by MacMahon. It numbered 130,000 men drawn from the wreck of a defeated army and from the " Garde Mobile " or national militia, which showed bravery but little discipline or cohesion. Against this ill-organised force came the Crown Prince of Prussia, after occupying Nancy and Bar-le-Duc, with a compact victorious force of 150,000 men. Political reasons overruled MacMahon's determination to retire on Paris. Against his own judgment he moved north from Chalons, hoping to rescue Bazaine by taking the road by Montm^dy and Thionville, though he knew this to be perilously near the Belgian frontier. The Germans, though surprised by this desperate move, plunged into the woody district of the Argonne, where Dumouriez and Kellermann had beaten back the Prussian invaders in 1792 ; but now all the energy and patriotism as well as skill was with the invaders, while carelessness and indecision paralysed the bravery of the French, for General de Failly's division was surprised in its bivouac by the Prussian Crown Prince at Beaumont (August 30), and thrown into utter rout. This compelled MacMahon's main force to fall back upon Sedan to concentrate. The mad attempt to rescue Bazaine had failed ; but worse was to follow. Sedan is a small old-fashioned for- x 306 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. tress, lying in the winding valley of the Meuse, surrounded by wooded hills, and distant some seven miles from the Belgian frontier. The French were roughly handled in the village of Bazeilles by the Bavarians on August 31, and lost command of the bridge of Donchdry below Sedan ; for neither this bridge nor the railway bridge over the Meuse at Bazeilles had been promptly blown up, in spite of orders to that effect. These losses edged the French into the death- trap, towards which political blindness and military careless- ness had led them. The fatal 1st of September began with a disaster. Early in the day MacMahon was badly wounded, so the command then devolved upon the brave but rash General de Wimpffen, who, after returning from Algeria, rushed to Paris, and came thence with a secret order that he was to succeed MacMahon if the latter were disabled. The impetuous new commander was determined not to continue the retreat west on Mezieres, but boldly to attack the Germans on the east or Metz side of Sedan. In Bazeilles, on the east of Sedan, the French infantry, mostly marines, aided by the villagers, made the stoutest resist- ance. The village was soon in flames, kindled by whom is still a matter of dispute ; but at last the French were driven back all along their east front towards Sedan, and were exposed to a pitiless fire from the German forces which had now worked round to the heights north and south of Sedan. Devoted charges of the French cavalry availed little against the ever-converging circle of foes, who now swept all the French positions with terrific shell-fire. At last Napoleon ordered the white flag to be hoisted over Sedan to put an end to the slaughter among the crowds of panic-stricken fugitives, and he sent the following note to the Prussian king : " Not having been able to die in the midst of my people, nothing remains for me but to place my sword in xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 307 the hands of your majesty.'' De Wimpffen strove to gain less rigorous terms from the iron von Moltke ; and the Emperor himself at a weaver's cottage in Donchiry vainly sought to induce Bismarck to modify the terms. These were, that the commissioned officers be released on giving their word of honour that they would not serve against Germany in this war, and that the non-commissioned officers and the rank and file, 83,000 in number, should go as prisoners to Germany. Only a week before MacMahon had set out with 1 50,000 troops from the Chalons camp to rescue Bazaine. Of this host only a few hundreds escaped to Mezieres and Paris, while some 3000 fugitives laid down their arms in Belgium ; those who survived the slaughter of Beaumont and Sedan were marched off into Germany. Four hundred and nineteen field guns and mitrailleuses, 139 garrison guns, and vast quantities of stores fell into the hands of the Germans. Siege of Paris. — The revolution at Paris 1 put an end to the Prussian king's hope of a speedy peace ; so the German troops marched on from Sedan by the valleys of the Aisne and Marne towards Paris. Augmented by rein- forcements from Germany, the invaders now numbered in all about 750,000 men. On the 18th September 150,000 Germans arrived before Paris, and by the end of October 240,000 men began to encircle the immense ring of fifteen outer detached forts. The governor Trochu's most vigorous sortie was made across the Marne towards Fontainebleau, where he hoped to join hands with the French relieving army of the Loire. Sixty thousand men under Ducrot succeeded in driving back the besiegers from Champigny and Villiers on November 30, 1 See p. 266. 308 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. but there he waited until on the 2d December the Germans, now reinforced, retook half of Champigny ; and the dis- couraged French withdrew, with the loss of 6000 men, under the shelter of the forts. From that date Trochu made no determined attempt to break through the lines of besiegers, though they had barely 250,000 men and 898 guns in open batteries. Fall of the Eastern Fortresses. — Meanwhile a ter- rible blow had dashed the hopes of the French, republicans. Bazaine, as we have seen, had taken refuge behind the forts of Metz with some 173,000 troops, of whom at least 50,000 were veterans. On the last day of August he made an effort to break out towards Thionville, where he expected to find MacMahon's relieving force. But he failed to dis- lodge a smaller German force from Noisseville, where it was entrenched, and henceforth- he only harassed the Germans by small attacks. In fact, he believed that the new French republican government would have only a short existence, and that after a speedy declaration of peace he, the head of the only regular army, might impose what government he pleased on France ; but the young Republic had decided to continue the hopeless struggle, so famine stared Bazaine and his troops in the face by the middle of October. On the 24th no bread was left, so on the 25th he opened negotiations with Prince Frederick Charles for surrender. On the 29th October three marshals, 6000 officers, and 170,000 troops (including the National Guards and the disabled), 540 field pieces, 800 garrison pieces, and about 300,000 muskets fell into the hands of the besiegers — the vastest military surrender ever recorded in the annals of civilised nations. Prince Frederick Charles was able to hurry off with 55,000 picked troops to crush the new levies on the Loire which were hoping to raise the siege of Paris, xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 309 while others of the besiegers marched to strengthen the grip which the Germans already had on the French capital. Toul had fallen on September 23 and Strassburg on September 27. The latter city, under the command of the gallant Uhrich, stoutly resisted General Werder's cruel and useless bombardment, which only embittered the inhabit- ants against their German kinsmen. At last, when pro- visions had run out and a breach was made in the walls, the brave garrison surrendered. Verdun and Thionville held out till November, Phalsburg till December, and Bitsch till the end of the war. Belfort was invested the 2d November, and offered a defence worthy of its fame. Thus the eastern fortresses, which were thought such an impenetrable barrier against invaders, had only delayed the overwhelming German forces. In fact, Sedan and Metz had proved to be traps in which defeated armies took refuge, only to be bombarded or starved into surrender. Campaign on the Loire. — Gambetta had escaped from Paris by a balloon (October 8) to rouse the south and west for the rescue of Paris. Regiments just landed from Algeria and others from the southern garrisons formed the backbone of this new army ; National Guards and volun- teers raised it to a total of about 150,000 men. These, led by General Aurelle de Paladines, obliged the Bavarian General von der Tann to evacuate Orleans, and defeated his much smaller force at Coulmiers,' near Orleans (No- vember 9). But this, the only pitched battle won by the French in all the war, was not vigorously followed up, and Prince Frederick Charles was already on the march from Metz to throw back the army of the Loire. Collecting the various German forces, Prince Frederick Charles, at the head of about 100,000 tried troops, threw back the French host from one position to another and retook Orleans. 310 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Gambetta, now dissatisfied with Aurelle de Paladines, gave the command of one part of the French army north of the Loire to General Chanzy, and the other, now re- organising at Bourges, to the ill-starred Bourbaki. The result was to be doubly disastrous. Chanzy was at first forced down the Loire, and at last, after fighting bravely at every strong position in bitter wintry weather, retired on Le Mans. A panic in the evening of January 1 1 seized hold of some raw French levies who had been disheartened by retreat and constant hard fighting, and next day Chanzy, evacuating this important town, retreated into Britanny, his army shattered by defeats and the loss of 18,000 prisoners. Still his was the bravest and most obstinate resistance made by any French general in this one-sided war. Bourbaki's Campaign. — Mystery hung over the move- ments of the smaller part of the army of the Loire, now under Bourbaki, till General Werder, whose forces had in- vested Belfort and were now threatening Dijon, heard that Bourbaki, reinforced by large contingents from the south of France, was advancing on Besancpn with some 150,000 men. Werder had only 37,000 men, with whom he had been pushing back a French column and Garibaldi's 20,000 irregulars. The Government of National Defence hoped that by throwing Bourbaki's host against the German front, where it was weakest, it might relieve Belfort, which was stoutly resisting, cut through the German communications in Alsace, and compel the siege of Paris to be raised. But Gambetta, as before on the Loire, looked to the number of troops rather than their efficiency, and he under- rated the marching and fighting power of the Germans. Werder, retiring hastily on Villersexel, there delayed Bourbaki's ill-clad, badly organised troops, as they were toiling painfully along in the bitter winter weather. Thus the xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 311 Germans gained time to receive reinforcements, and took up splendid defensive positions on the southern offshoots of the Vosges, so as to screen the German forces besieging Belfort. Werder's small army, entrenched on heights at Heri- court, near Belfort, withstood for three days (January 15-17) the attacks of Bourbaki's masses of men, till the latter hurried back towards Besangon on hearing that General Manteuffel was marching on his rear. Pressed on both sides in the snow-clad Jura near Pontarlier, and overcome by the sight of his demoralised bands of starving and half- frozen soldiery, Bourbaki tried to commit suicide. His successor, General Clinchant, appointed by the government at Bordeaux, succeeded in taking some 90,000 survivors across the Swiss frontier, where they laid down their arms and were well cared for in the different cantons. Such was the pitiable end of an army which might have co- operated with Chanzy on the Loire and Faidherbe in the north for raising the siege of Paris by combined efforts of the besieged and relieving forces ; but there was no master mind to move the French armies like parts of a great machine, as Moltke moved the Germans. There was plenty of individual bravery, as in the case of Garibaldi's irregulars, who defended Dijon from 12,000 Prussians (Jan. 20, 1871). Faidherbe's Campaign in the North. — The French forces in the north had not been strong enough to prevent the capture of Amiens and Rouen ; but when they were concentrated and placed under the command of the able General Faidherbe, maintained a stout resistance at Pont Noyelles (December 23) and Bapaume (January 3, 187 1), north of St. Quentin, and tried to menace the besiegers of Paris from the north. Manteuffel, who was sent south to crush Bourbaki, handed over the command of the German forces of the north to General Goben, who with some 30,000 312 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. men met the 50,000 French near St. Quentin (January 19), drove them from all their positions, and took 10,000 prisoners. Faidherbe's levies fled in utter rout to Cambrai. This finished the campaign in the north. Sorties from Paris. — The bravest of the defenders of Paris were the marines and sailors of the French fleet, which had proved so useless on the North Sea and Baltic PARIS ENGLISH MILES coasts that it had been ordered back. These and the regular troops bravely served the artillery of the fifteen large forts against the German batteries, which opened fire on the 6th January 187 1. This bombardment silenced the southern forts and inflicted much damage on the south- west parts of Paris on the left bank of the Seine. On December 2 1 and 2 2 Trochu had directed an ill-supported xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 313 and therefore useless sortie on the north side against Le Bourget. When food was nearly exhausted Trochu made a last attempt to force a way out on the west past St. Cloud (January 19). Supported by the guns of the powerful fort Mont Valerien, 100,000 French troops, mostly National Guards, led by Generals Ducrot and Vinoy, carried the village of Montretout ; but the late arrival of their right wing and the want of field artillery obliged the whole force to fall back. If the sortie had been vigorously made one day earlier it would at any rate have disturbed an extraordinary assembly in the palace of Versailles. Proclamation of the German Empire. — The as- tonishing victories of the united German forces had aroused through the whole of Germany a passionate desire for national as well as military union. King William and Bismarck, both before and after 1866, had wisely refrained from forcing on any premature act of political union. After the news of Sedan reached Berlin, a popular gather- ing made an appeal to the King of Prussia and to the German people for the unity of Germany, with the addition of Alsace-Lorraine. Similar meetings in Munich and Stutt- gart carried along the governments of South Germany. Baden and Hesse made no reservations (on entering the North German Confederation), though Bavaria, Wiirtem- berg, and Saxony procured the right of vetoing any sub- sequent change in the constitution of the new Empire. At last on the 10th December a deputation of the North German Parliament came from Berlin to Versailles, headed by President Simson, who before had offered the German crown to Frederick William IV. In the name of the Par- liament and of the princes of Germany, they begged King William to take the crown of the new l German Empire. 1 New, not revived. 3H A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. In the splendid mirror hall of Versailles palace, amidst the trophies of Louis XIV, the Prussian king at mid-day, January 18, was proclaimed William I, Emperor of Ger- many. The stalwart old Emperor had, before reaching his teens, seen Prussia crushed by Napoleon at Jena. Taught by his brave mother, the beautiful Queen Louisa of Prussia, he had not despaired, and now he had finally reversed the work of Napoleon I. by victories over Napoleon III. Jena had cut Germany in half. Sedan completed the work of reunion on a firmer basis than that divided land had known since the Middle Ages. The South German poten- tates, whose ancestors had aided Louis XIV and Napoleon I. against their fatherland, were now devoted to the cause of German unity, however much they might differ as to details of its constitution. The new Empire was now formed on Prussia as a back- bone, and was not a loose federation of States with an elective emperor. The King of Prussia was henceforth to be Emperor of Germany, and his son the Crown Prince of Germany. This was the most important result of the war of 1870-71. The Treaty of Frankfurt. — The defenders of Paris were now aware that Chanzy, Faidherbe, and Bourbaki had failed, and that forty departments were held by their foes. So negotiations led to an armistice, during which the forts round Paris were to be held by the German forces (January 28). Finally, the National Assembly, which met at Bor- deaux on February 13, ratified the preliminaries of peace which had been arranged, and afterwards ratified the treaty signed at Frankfurt, May 10. France had to cede Alsace (except Belfort) and German Lorraine, including the first- class fortresses Metz and Strassburg. She also had to pay a huge war indemnity of five milliards of francs (about xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 315 ^200,000,000), of which at least one million was to be paid in 1871. Paris and the forty departments were to be gradually relieved of the German forces of occupation as the milliards were paid. The German besieging army was to enter Paris in triumph, and the part of the capital south- west of the Seine was for three days to be occupied by 30,000 German troops. In this war of 180 days the Germans had won fifteen great victories, captured twenty-six fortresses, and made 363,000 French troops prisoners. Even the most brilliant of Napoleon Fs campaigns had achieved no such results as these ; and the German Empire is a more solid structure than the vast but ephemeral empire of the first Napoleon. The Prussian monarch and his able counsellor limited their aims to what was practicable, fought one foe at a time, and achieved an enduring success. On the 1 6th June the aged Emperor, surrounded by the Crown Prince, Moltke, and Bismarck, who had been made Prince of the Empire at the conclusion of peace, entered Berlin at the head of his victorious troops — the third time within seven years. The German Empire. — The Emperor and Prince Bismarck, Chancellor of the Empire, now desired peace, so that Germany might grow still stronger and more united under its new constitution. This was an extension of that of the North German Confederation, which it replaced. The Prussian King was to be Emperor, and the Prussian Crown Prince was to be the Crown Prince of the Empire. The Emperor was to represent the State in its relations with foreign Powers, and to declare war and peace. He also was to possess extensive legislative and executive powers. The Chancellor of the Empire is appointed by the Emperor, presides in the Federal Council, and has the 316 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. direct control of foreign affairs, and a general guidance of public business in the Parliament. The main legislative power resides with the Federal Council (Bundesrath) and the Imperial Diet or Parliament (Reichstag), both of which meet at Berlin. The Federal Council is composed of fifty- eight representatives. Prussia sent seventeen, Bavaria six, Saxony four, Wiirtemberg four, Baden three, Hesse three, and the smaller States the remainder. The States must give their votes as a whole. Any amendment of the im- perial constitution was to be rejected if fourteen votes (e.g. those of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg) were given against it. The Federal Council decides on ques- tions of peace or war. The Imperial Diet is elected triennially by universal suffrage, and by direct secret ballot, in proportion to the population of the States and districts. It can propose laws for the Empire, and these have pre- cedence over those of the separate States. The Empire has exclusive power over the army, navy, and also over the customs dues : (the free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck have since joined the Customs Union of the Empire, 1888). The troops of all the States were at once organised on the Prussian system of universal compulsory military service, and placed under the command of the Emperor, who has command of all fortresses. The stamps and coinage of all German States were unified, and the Empire acquired the control of all tele- graphs and post office receipts, except those of Bavaria. Later on, in 1879, Baden and the Palatinate abandoned the Code Napoleon for the German Imperial Code of Laws, which Bavaria, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg have also adopted in place of their old national codes. The Empire has also purchased many of the railways, and will probably acquire them all in time. So the Emperor and Bismarck sue- xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 317 ceeded in tightening the bonds which united the different German States. The old German Empire had fallen to pieces from its own divisions and from religious dissensions. Bismarck, not content with conquering the first difficulty, also deter- mined to overcome the influence of the Holy See in Ger- man affairs. So in July 1872 the Emperor signed a law expelling the Jesuits and similar orders from the German Empire ; and in the following May came the famous " May Laws," which aimed at reducing Roman Catholic priests to a position of dependence on the State. No priest was to enter on his duties without the sanction of the State, until he had passed an examination in a German '' gymnasium " (public school) in three faculties beside theology. The effect of this was that a boy destined for the priesthood had to pass at the age of five years in the government schools, and thence into the army, before he became a priest. This law was, however, not to affect Bavaria and Wiir- temberg. Henceforth even the moderate Roman Catholics became more and more Ultramontane, and in the Reichs- tag they combined with the discontented members from Posen, Schleswig, Hanover, and Alsace-Lorraine to form a troublesome opposition to Bismarck's centralising policy ; and eventually he had to submit to their repeal. The socialist movement for the equalisation of property and the management of all industry by the State was begun in Germany after 1862 by the orator Lasalle. The increase of individual fortunes, side by side with the domestic misery caused by the war and the financial crisis of 1878, in- creased the number and power of the socialists. In that year, after two attempts were made on the life of the aged Emperor, repressive measures were passed, which have failed to repress socialism, especially in Berlin, Hamburg, 318 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. and Leipzig. In fact, there are now twenty-four socialist members in the German Reichstag. Bismarck carried a bill for securing pensions to old artisans from the sale of State monopolies, in order to satisfy the working classes. Foreign Policy. — Bismarck also strove to make the new Empire unassailable by any war of revenge which France might meditate. So he brought about a meeting at Berlin of the three Emperors of Germany, Russia, and Austria. The Czar Alexander sincerely liked his uncle the Emperor of Germany, although the Russians were jealous of the new Empire. Francis Joseph also determined to forget Koniggratz, dismissed his anti-German chancellor, Count Beust, and summoned as his adviser the Hungarian Count Andrassy, who had advocated friendship with Germany. As a result of this Berlin meeting the Three Emperors' League was entered into — a defensive league, which also strove to combat the revolutionary excitement produced throughout Europe by the scenes of the Commune in Paris. Berlin was now the political centre of Europe, as Vienna had been from 1814 to 1848 and Paris up to 1870. Victor Emmanuel came to Berlin to show his friendship with the new Empire, and the Emperor William received an enthusiastic welcome in Milan in 1875. On October 15, 1879, Bismarck at Vienna brought about an Austro- German compact, which provided for a defensive alliance between the two central Powers in case either was attacked by Russia. So now Germany was to support Austria in the Eastern Question within certain limits. The French protectorate of Tunis alienated Italy from France, and King Humbert in a visit to Vienna (autumn of 1 881) seemed to ask an entrance to the Central European alliance. Thus the centre of Europe, which was once so xxxvn] THE UNITY OF GERMANY. 319 weak as to invite attack from the powerful extremities, now forms the most solid and powerful alliance of modern times. Prince Bismarck has also sought to extend the power of the Empire by annexations in the Cameroons, on the Gulf of Guinea, in Samoa, New Britain, New Ireland, on the north coast of New Guinea, and along the coast line of Zanzibar in East Africa. CHAPTER XXXVIII. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. The Austrian Empire has always managed to profit by its own misfortunes as well as by those of its neighbours ; and the present emperor, with the self-possession and prudence of the House of Hapsburg, has known how to strengthen his realm by the defeats of Solferino and Koniggratz. Thus after the loss of Lombardy in 1859, he sought to bind the rest of his dominions more closely by granting rights of local self-government in the " October Patent " (i860). By this reform the legislative power was to be exercised by the Emperor with the participation of the provincial Diets and of the imperial council. He also proclaimed the eligibility of citizens for all offices, the extension of electoral rights, and the abolition of com- pulsory feudal service and other similar burdens. A Chamber of Deputies was also formed, representing all parts of the Empire.' In February 1861 Francis Joseph granted a further step towards constitutional rule by making his ministers responsible ; but the complete constitution was postponed owing to the opposition of all Hungarians to its centralising tendencies. Their passive resistance, under the leadership of the prudent and law-abiding patriot Deak, led the Emperor in September 1865 to restore the powers of the chap, xxxvm] AUSTRIA- HUNGARY. 321 provincial Diets ; and he even showed a desire to treat Hungary according to the principles laid down in the "Pragmatic Sanction" (1724), which acknowledged the right of Hungary to control its own legislation and administration ; but even the moderate party in Hungary, guided by Dealt, demanded the restoration of their ancient constitution, abolished in 1848; yet he and his followers discountenanced the efforts of the ultra-nationalists to raise Hungary in revolt during the disastrous war of 1866. Three days after the disaster of Koniggratz the Emperor sent for Deik. "Well, Deik, what shall I do now?" he asked. " Your Majesty must first make peace, and then give Hungary her rights," replied the Hungarian statesman. After the Peace of Prague, Count Beust, unable to negotiate with the overbearing Bismarck, had to leave the diplomatic service of King John of Saxony, and became Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire; and. in 1867 he succeeded in inducing the Germans of Austria proper to accept a compromise advocated by Deak, known as the dual system of government. The chief opposition to this was offered by the extreme Magyar patriots and by the federalists : the latter party desired that the Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, Croatia, and Slavonia should join the Germans of the western provinces and the Magyars of Hungary in a triple federation ; but the Slavs, though superior in numbers to the Germans and Magyars together, were widely separated in locality, language, and sentiment, while the Magyars or Hungarians, though numbering only 5,700,000, were at least a united race. So in the com- promise of 1867 the Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, and Dalmatia remained with Austria, while those of Croatia and Slavonia fell under the sway of the re- Y 322 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. constituted Hungarian monarchy. The new system of government was proposed and carried in the year 1867. The Dual Government (1867). — The Austrian Emperor was to be crowned as Apostolical King of Hungary with the sacred crown of St. Stephen, thus showing that he adhered to the old Hungarian constitution, as distinct from that of Austria. In June 1868 the emperor and empress were crowned at Buda-Pesth, and a full amnesty was granted to all political offenders. The Austrian Empire was henceforth to consist of two States equal in every respect, each having its own form of government, but united under the same ruler, under a complicated mixed representation known as the " Delega- tions," and under joint ministries for Foreign Affairs, War, and Finance. Each half of the Empire was to have a separate ministry for Commerce, Finance, Justice, Public Worship, Agriculture, and National Defence. The Lower House of the Austrian Reichsrath, or Parliament, consists of 353 deputies, and the Hungarian Diet of 444, both elected by a somewhat limited electorate. The " Delegations '' from the Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments form the connecting link between their re- presentative Chambers. They are composed of sixty members elected from each Parliament, meeting alternately at Vienna and Pesth, but deliberating separately. If the two " Delegations " disagree, they exchange their views in writing, and if they still disagree, they decide the matter by individual votes, the emperor having the casting vote. Thus the two governments act together in affairs affect- ing foreign treaties, the army and navy, customs duties, coinage, the arrangements of railways, and all matters which directly concern the Empire as a whole. xxxvni] AUSTRIA- HUNGARY. 323 This cumbrous arrangement has worked unexpectedly well, owing to the loyalty with which Dealt and nearly all Hungarians have abided by the compromise. In most of the matters in dispute the advantage has rested with the Hungarians, especially in the customs duties. The chief discontent was, and is still, in Transylvania,- Croatia, and Bohemia. The ancient principality of Tran- sylvania, long independent of Hungary, was now in 1868 united with it, though less than a fourth of its people are of the Magyar stock. More than half the population of this little -known land is Roumanian, and desires union with its kindred south of the Carpathians ; while the Saxon descendants of the old German immigrants desire to keep their old laws and customs and not to have Hungarian government from Buda-Pesth. Much more serious, however, is the opposition of the Slavs of Croatia and Bohemia to fusion with Hungary and Austria respectively. The southern Slavs of Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, and Dalmatia wish to see Francis Joseph crowned at Agram as king of a greater Croatia. They detest the Magyar supremacy and tear down the official notices in the Magyar language ; and though they have a local Diet at Agram, subject to that of Buda-Pesth, they claim to have greater executive powers and independence of Magyar control. It is only the military prowess and patriotism of the Magyars which has won them their supremacy in their own monarchy, for they number less than 6,000,000, while their Slav subjects number about the same, the Roumanians about 2,900,000, and their German and other subjects about 2,000,000. There is the same anomaly in Austria, for there the dominant German race numbers 8,500,000, while there are 12,000,000 of the northern Slavs in Bohemia, Moravia, 324 .-I CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [chap. and Galicia, who claim to be united with Austria as a federation under the same ruler. Fortunately for Austrian statesmanship the Slavs of Bohemia (called Tsechs) cannot agree with the Poles of Galicia on any practical plan for this federation ; but the Tsechs have shown a bitter hostility to the German race ; and in the local Bohemian Diet at Prague they have so trampled upon German susceptibilities that the German deputies have recently retired from its sessions. In the south of Tyrol and along the coast-line of Istria and Dalmatia is an Italian population of some 500,000 ; but the Italian " Irredentist " agitation (i.e. for the union of these districts, together with Nice and Corsica from France, and the Ticino from Switzerland, with Italy) has lately been put down by Italian statesmen. Only the loyalty of all these diverse races towards the House of Hapsburg could keep them in union ; and Francis Joseph has merited more and more the regard of his subjects by promoting their interests and calming their mutual jealousies. Internal Policy. — It is impossible to describe briefly the complicated claims of the various provincial Diets, and the conflicts of the centralists and federalists in the Reichs- rath at Vienna. In 187 1 Count Beust was succeeded as chancellor by the former Hungarian premier, Count Andrassy, who advocated a good understanding with Germany and the repression of the federalist claims made by the provinces of Austria. The government had already abolished its concordat, or agreement with the Roman Catholic Church, and had claimed authority over the edu- cation of the young. Both halves of the monarchy were engaged in reorganising the army and founding the adminis- tration on a modern conststutional basis very different xxxvm] AUSTRIA- HUNGARY. 325 from that in vogue before 1867; and the dual system seemed finally completed when the military frontier along the river Save was handed over to Hungary, and when Tisza, the leader of the Hungarian left or opposition, declared that he and his party now (1875) loyally accepted the compromise of 1867. He now took office in a coali- tion ministry at Buda-Pesth, and has ever since increased his authority in the Hungarian Diet ; and he uses it to support Austria in her foreign policy. So in Hungary, as in France and Italy, those who had been the most furious opponents of their old governments have now come to be the steadfast supporters of the reformed systems. At Vienna a man of Irish descent, Count Taafe, who was a personal friend of Francis Joseph, headed a federalist ministry in 1879, and sought to appease the northern Slavs by every possible concession ; so the Bohemian deputies in 1879 took their places again in the Vienna Reichsrath, from which they had retired; but their success at Prague has at present only seemed to envenom them against the Germans of Bohemia. Foreign Policy. — There is little doubt that Count Beust in 1870 had arranged secretly with Napoleon III for Austria to help France against Germany, and so win back her place in German affairs ; but the Russian under- standing with Prussia prevented Austria from joining France. We have ' seen (p. 318) how Francis Joseph accepted the new order of things, and how he finally sought the support of Germany for a solution of the Eastern Question favourable to Austria. With the support of the English and German diplo- matists at the Berlin Conference (1878) Bosnia was to be occupied and administered by Austria, who thus became the sentinel on the Balkans as well as on her own Carpathian 326 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xxxvm range. The province had to be almost conquered by her troops, and a rising was put down in 1882. It is now incorporated with the Empire, but is a source of weakness to it. It not only increases the preponderance of the Slavonic race in the Empire, but its occupation annoys the Greeks, Servians, and Bulgarians, who think Austria means to advance to Salonica. Above all, Russia sees in Austria her great rival in the Eastern Question, and knows that if she reaches Constantinople by way of the Danube it must be against the forces of Austria- Hungary. A firm ad- herence to the alliance with Germany and Italy is the best security of the Dual Monarchy against its many domestic and foreign opponents ; and it has always gained as much strength from its difficulties as most other States have from times of prosperity. CHAPTER XXXIX. THE UNITY OF ITALY. " Peace, peace, peace, do you say? And this the Mincio ? Where's the fleet, And where's the sea? " Mrs. Browning, 1859. Popes Victor Emmanuel II ) ^"g of Sardinia (1849-1861). pius Jx ' ( King of Italy (1861-1878). jg g . Ferdinand II . King of the Two Sicilies (1830 1859). ' LeoXIII(i878). Francis II . Kingofthe Two Sicilies (1859- 1861). Sardinia. — The only hope for the divided and disap- pointed Italians after the collapse of 1849 seemed to be in the character of the young king, Victor Emmanuel II, who had so valiantly fought at Novara, and after that crushing defeat had received the crown at the hands of his heart- broken father. The young king, now in his twenty-eighth year, was of the bold dashing spirit characteristic of the House of Savoy, and, in spite of some coarseness in his tastes, was of a frank and generous nature, and intensely devoted to his country. His burly frame, martial bearing, and devotion to field sports soon made him popular with all Italians, though in speech and sentiment he was more a 328 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Savoyard than Italian. He called himself and was called Re Galantuomo (the honest king). He had to submit to hard terms from the victorious Radetzky, viz. 100,000,000 francs war indemnity, dis- missal of all foreign troops {i.e. other than Sardinian), and the temporary occupation of part of his land and of its chief fortress Alessandria. Further humiliations the young king scorned to undergo, with the words, "Our dynasty has been acquainted with misfortune, but it never stooped to dishonour," and Radetzky relented. The king called a Parliament at Turin, which ratified the terms of peace. He formed a Cabinet with the wise and prudent D'Azeglio first at its head, which began a course of prudent conciliation towards Austria and the French President, as well as the development of Pied- montese resources. Soon he called a remarkable man to take the helm of affairs as well as the ministry of finance, which sorely needed attention. Cavour. — The scion of an ancient Piedmontese family, Count Cavour early showed that resolute practical nature for which the Piedmontese have often been compared with Englishmen. Though the Sardinian kingdom had been exhausted by defeat and war indemnity, Cavour boldly spent money in furthering public works, and in the spread of popular education. A resolute free-trader himself ever since his residence in England, he abolished the corn duties and reformed the tariff of the State, which soon recovered from the first loss. Besides pushing on the construction of railroads and telegraphs, he strengthened the little kingdom by making Spezzia a powerful naval station. Thus at the London Exhibition of 1851 the tricolour green-white-and-red flag of the Sardinian kingdom was almost acknowledged as the Italian national colours. xxxix] THE UNITY OF ITAL Y. 329 The bluff king and his trusty, skilful counsellor were almost worshipped by all other Italians who longed for their en- lightened rule. Count Cavour was still bolder in his foreign policy. Anxious to win the entire support of the two western Powers for the Italian cause, he persuaded the Turin Parliament to join them in the Crimean War. So while Austria selfishly remained neutral, though her interests were involved, Sardinia sent 15,000 troops, afterwards increased to 25,000, to the Crimea, where they distinguished them- selves at the battle of the Tchernaya. At the Paris Congress Cavour was admitted as the representative of Savoy, and claimed that the " Legations," or northern provinces of the Papal States, should be administered separately from Rome by secular officials ; but this was refused by the congress as beyond its powers to grant. England and France, however, showed their sympathy by secretly causing Austrian troops to evacuate Tuscany and the Legations (1856). Meanwhile the king and Cavour had earned the hostility of Pope Pius IX by the Convent Bill. In Piedmont there was one priest to every 227 of the laity; 1 and of the 23,000 ecclesiastics in the kingdom of Sardinia, the few were rolling in wealth and ease, while the hard-worked village priests were often receiving only ^20 a year. The Ratazzi Bill proposed to suppress the useless convents and use their revenues for the relief of these hard cases. In spite of the frantic opposition of the pope and the clerical party, the Bill was passed on May 22, 1855. As the pope was under Austrian and French influence, there was from this time a growing hostility between the national party and the clerical party, which was jealous of any advance from Turin upon Rome. 1 The proportion in Austria was 1 to 600. 330 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. War of Liberation. — The sight of well-ordered free- dom in the Sardinian realm was having its effect not only on other Italians, but also on French Liberals, who longed for " liberty as it was in Piedmont ; " and Napoleon felt himself drawn by the democratic current to intervene in Italy against Austria, the champion of autocracy. He met Cavour at Plombieres in the autumn of 1858, and his cousin, Prince Jerome Napoleon, 1 married Clotilde, the daughter of Victor Emmanuel. His declaration to the Austrian ambassador on New Year's Day 1859, that he was on unfriendly terms with the Emperor Francis Joseph, was echoed by Victor Emmanuel's words to the Turin Parlia- ment, " I will not be deaf to my brethren beyond the Ticino." Austria's peremptory summons to Sardinia to disarm was met with a refusal ; and the wavering Napoleon finally sent over 100,000 troops across the Alps, or by sea to Genoa, to join the 65,000 Piedmontese. The 100,000 Austrians under Count Gyulay, after crossing the Ticino, waited to be attacked between it and the Po, instead of crushing the Piedmontese before they were joined by the French. At last Gyulay pushed forward a reconnoitring force, which was worsted at Montebello. The active Garibaldi with 3200 volunteers pressed into the north of Lombardy, occupied Como, and even threatened Milan ; but the French and Piedmontese governments were jealous of his volunteer force, and he accomplished little of importance. The Austrians retired across the Ticino before the main French and Piedmontese armies, and at Magenta they contested the crossing. For a time Napoleon 1 Born in 1822, a descendant of Jerome, once King of Westphalia, he was destined by Napoleon III for the throne of Central Italy ; nicknamed Plon-Plon by the French. xxxix] THE UNITY OF ITALY. 331 and his guards were hard pressed, but MacMahon (June 4, 1859), having crossed the river higher up, came in time to decide the day for the allies. For this he was created Due de Magenta. The allies lost 4000 men, but the Austrians, with a loss of 6000 men, hastily retired across the Mincio, thus handing over nearly all Lombardy to the allied armies, which entered Milan amidst wild rejoicings. This retreat of the Austrians inside their famous quad- rilateral of fortresses (Mantua, Peschiera, Verona, and Legnago) encouraged the Italians of Central Italy to strike for national unity. The Dukes of Tuscany and Modena and the Duchess Louisa of Parma fled from their capitals. In the Papal States the pope's legate had to retire from Bologna when the Austrians left, and the populace pro- claimed the dictatorship of Victor Emmanuel. Even in Umbria the Papal Swiss troops had to storm Perugia to keep that province for the pope. Solferino. — Francis Joseph himself now took command of the Austrians and determined not to act on the defensive inside the " Quadrilateral," but with his army, now raised to some 200,000 men, to meet the allied armies in Lombardy. He posted his army on an amphitheatre of hills near the south-west end of Lake Garda, with Solferino as his centre. The French, armed with better cannon and guns, were several times driven back, but in the afternoon they remained masters of the Austrian centre. The Piedmontese on the allied left seven times stormed the hill of San Martino, from which they were as often dislodged by its stubborn defender Benedek, till late in the evening he too was dislodged. The Austrians withdrew in good order over the Mincio with the loss of some 25,000 men and 6000 prisoners, but the allies had lost nearly as heavily. 332 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY. [chai>. Villafranca. — Prince Jerome Napoleon, who landed with a French force at Leghorn, had been received with little favour in Tuscany ; for it was suspected that the Emperor wished to create him ruler of Central Italy. In fact, Napoleon had wished to see Victor Emmanuel King of Piedmont, Lombardy, and Venetia, Joseph Napoleon sovereign of the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena, and of the Romagna, while the Two Sicilies were to go to the heir of Joachim Murat. With Rome occupied by French troops, this would have made Italy a federation under Napoleon's control. When the popular demonstra- tions at Florence, Parma, Modena, and Bologna, in favour of union with Sardinia, showed these partitions to be im- possible, Napoleon determined not to undertake the reduction of the " Quadrilateral." Demonstrations in South Germany in favour of Austria gave him the excuse of fearing an attack from Prussia, who was mobilising her forces. So at Villafranca, near Verona, Napoleon met Francis Joseph and arranged the preliminaries of peace without the presence of Victor Emmanuel (July n). Austria was to cede all Lombardy, except the fortress and district of Mantua, to Napoleon, by him to be transferred to Victor Emmanuel ; but she was still to retain Venetia and the fortress of Mantua. The potentates were to be restored to the central duchies on the vote of their subjects, but not by foreign intervention. These terms were ratified in the Treaty of Zurich (November 1859). Union with Central Italy — Loss of Savoy and Nice. — The news of this sudden change of front astonished Europe and maddened the Italians. Cavour resigned his ministry at Turin; but in January i860 he was recalled by Victor Emmanuel during the negotiations which ensued about the central duchies and an Italian Confederation. xxxix] THE UNITY OF ITALY. 333 The emperor proposed that the pope should be head of the federate and reformed Italian States which he wished to create. The pope refused to reform and secularise his government, and Napoleon now inclined to the severance of the Legations from the Papal States ; for by a plebiscite the central duchies and the Legations in August and September 1859 voted almost unanimously for union with Victor Emmanuel's realm. So finally (in March i860), with Napoleon's consent, and with the support of England to Cavour's diplomacy, all the central duchies and the Papal .Legations joined the Sardinian realm, which now extended from Mont Blanc to Rimini on the Adriatic, and included the rich duchy of Tuscany. In vain did the pope denounce his spoliators with excommunication. The sense of national unity was stronger than religious discipline. The Papal States 1 proper still barred the southward expansion of the Sardinian monarchy, and the king had been obliged to give Savoy and Nice to France. Victor Emmanuel and Cavour had in 1858 promised Savoy to Napoleon in return for the freedom of North Italy, and now the price for Napoleon's consent to the union of Central Italy under Victor Emmanuel's rule was the cession of Savoy and also Nice to him. The Turin Parliament by a large majority ratified this cession, in spite of a fiery protest from Garibaldi against the cession of Italian Nice. Victor Emmanuel said that he surrendered Savoy, the "glorious cradle of his race," 2 in return for Central Italy. In fact, he could not incur the enmity of France, as well 1 That is, the Roman territory, Umbria, and the Marches. 2 Savoy was a relic of the Burgundian territories of the old Counts of Savoy. The House of Savoy henceforth became entirely Italian, and no longer half French, half Piedmontese. At Vienna in 1 8 1 5 it had been under- stood that if Savoy went to any other Power, it would go to Switzerland. 334 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. as of Austria and the pope ; while Cavour saw that the North Italian State might, with the support of France, soon advance farther south ; for the French Emperor was open to generous enthusiasms, on? of them being that he would regenerate the Latin races and restore them to a level with the Teutonic races both in Europe and America. The regeneration of South Italy was, however, to be effected by a very different man. Garibaldi frees South Italy. — Mr. Gladstone, after a visit to Naples in 1851, had written to Lord Aberdeen's government a description of the state of things in the Two Sicilies. Prisoners were left in the State-prisons in the vilest surroundings for months without the pretence of a trial. The constitution which Ferdinand II (nicknamed King Bomba) gave in 1848 had been first evaded and then nullified. His son Francis II, who succeeded him in May 1859, persevered in this oppression with all the cruelty of fear, and all South Italy groaned under a dull despotic sway upheld by the priests. It had even been proposed to send the allied English and French fleets to Naples in 1856 on their return from the Crimea, to bring Ferdinand II to reason; and in i860 Lord John Russell said that the Neapolitan Government must take the consequences of " misgovernment which had no parallel in all Europe." The freedom-loving Sicilians were with difficulty kept down in April i860 on hearing the news from North and Central Italy. So Mazzini felt that the tyrant of South Italy could be best attacked in Sicily, and prepared a revolt at Palermo. Garibaldi and Crispi, a Sicilian, gathered together the famous " thousand " volunteers along the Italian Riviera, west of Genoa, secretly embarked them on two steamers, and landed them at Marsala on the west xxxix] THE UNITY OF ITALY. 335 coast of Sicily 1 (May 11, i860). His volunteers routed King Francis' troops in the streets of Palermo, so that they finally agreed to evacuate all Sicily except Milazzo and Messina. After the speedy capture of these two places Garibaldi prepared to deliver the mainland. Meanwhile Count Cavour had sent the Sardinian ad- miral Persano after Garibaldi, ostensibly to hinder him from his mad enterprise, but with secret instructions to help him ; so Garibaldi disregarded the request of Victor Emmanuel that he would content himself with freeing Sicily, and replied that he would not sheath his sword till the King of Sardinia was King of all Italy. Garibaldi was now at the head of some 25,000 men ; and, cleverly eluding the Neapolitan fleet, he conveyed the pick of these troops across the straits and captured Reggio by a night attack. From this fortress his march northward along the rugged Calabrian coast-line was one triumphal procession. The troops of the Bourbon sovereign refused to fight a man whom they feared as the devil incarnate, while the excited peasants hailed him as " our second Jesus Christ.'' At one place 7000 Bourbon troops laid down their arms on being summoned to surrender to Garibaldi. All resistance ceased as he advanced, and at Salerno he left his carriage and took the train for Naples with thirteen English com- rades. The only delay to his progress was caused by the enthusiasts, who even climbed on to the engine. In this extraordinary way Garibaldi entered Naples, which was mad with delight at his arrival, and the few Bourbon troops left in the fortress of St. Elmo soon threw up their caps for 1 Lord John Russell, in a letter to Hudson, our ambassador at Turin, compared this expedition to that of William of Orange to free England ; and Palmerston allowed English men-of-war to encourage and even help Garibaldi. 336 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [cHAr. Garibaldi. Francis II and his remaining 40,000 troops retired to the Volturno river, some twenty miles north of Naples. There Garibaldi with nearly the same numbers attacked, and after a sharp struggle routed, the Bourbon troops (October 1, i860). Francis II and his courageous young queen, who inspired the defenders of Gaeta by her example, after its surrender retired to Rome. So ended in Italy the rule of the Bourbons. This once powerful royal house now held only the throne of Spain. The Kingdom of Italy. — Gaeta had been besieged not by the Garibaldians, but by Victor Emmanuel's Pied- montese troops ; for the court of Turin had intervened to unite Southern with Northern Italy, and also to prevent the enthusiastic Garibaldi from rushing on Rome and thus causing a war with Napoleon. So Victor Emmanuel marched south, overthrew the Papal troops at Castelfidardo (September 18, i860), took Ancona, and issued a mani- festo to the people of South Italy, calling on them to proclaim their will. "I know that I close the era of revolution in Italy,'' were his proud and true words. Gari- baldi with noble self-effacement had joined constitutional royalists, thus separating himself from the republican Mazzini, who soon had to leave Italy. After the victory on the Volturno Garibaldi rode forward to meet Victor Emmanuel, and, clasping his hand, laid down the dictatorship of South Italy (October 10, i860). Never was a mad enterprise crowned by so brilliant a tri- umph and by so noble an act of self-renunciation. To Count Cavour belongs the credit of secretly guiding and aiding Garibaldi, and of securing the neutrality of Napoleon during Victor Emmanuel's march through the Papal States. This was no easy matter, for Napoleon's troops were supporting the pope in Rome, and the ambassadors of all the conti- xxxix] THE UNITY OF ITALY. 337 nental Powers left Turin ; only England showed its approval of these events in vigorous cheering words from Lord Pal- merston. Desire for friendship with England soon brought a reconciliation between Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel, especially when the plebiscite of South Italy showed the strength of the popular demand for a constitutional monarchy. 1,700,000 affirmative votes, with only 11,000 negatives, showed the desire of South Italy for unity with North Italy under the rule of Victor Emmanuel (October 21, i860). In the following month the Papal provinces of Umbria and the Marches voted almost unanimously for union with Victor Emmanuel's realm ; and in spite of renewed spiritual denunciations by the helpless pope, they formed the con- necting link between South and North Italy. Thus by the end of i860 Italy was a great nation of 22,000,000 inhabitants. On the 16th March 1861 Victor Emmanuel, according to a vote of the Turin Parliament, took the title of King of Italy. The new kingdom was at once recog- nised by England and more tardily by the continental Powers, which feared to offend their Catholic subjects. The liberator of South Italy had at once retired to his island home of Caprera, in order not to embarrass the new govern- ment by his presence at Naples ; and, indeed, the moral and intellectual torpor of South Italy made its union with the vigorous North a matter of great difficulty. The sup- porters of the fallen dynasty long encouraged brigandage, which was, and still is, the curse of South Italy. Even now Calabria is a century behind Piedmont in progress and civilisation. The statesman who had so skilfully directed Italian aspi- rations after unity did not live to see it quite completed. " Rome is the natural capital of Italy," he said in the Turin Parliament, and he longed to see there " a free Church in a z 338 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xxxix free State " ; but he succumbed to his great exertions, and died on June 6, 1861. His diplomatic skill had used Napoleon's autocratic power and had guided Garibaldi's republican zeal alike, towards the one object of uniting Italy under a constitutional monarchy. His successors at Turin, first Ricasoli, then Rattazzi, were unequal to the task of keeping Garibaldi from flying at the French troops which supported the pope at Rome. His energetic hand was needed to restore order to the finances, which for several years showed enormous deficits ; and Victor Emmanuel soon after his death had cause to say, " If Cavour had lived we should have been at Rome in six months." Aspromonte. — Napoleon had consented to the spoli- ation of the Papal States in 1859 and i860, and for this was abused by the clericals as " the new Pilate " ; but he was determined to support the pope at Rome and its im- mediate vicinity, because the French troops at Rome gave France preponderating power in the peninsula. But as Napoleon often changed his purposes the Rattazzi ministry formed at Turin in March 1862 allowed Garibaldi to start a campaign in Sicily which was to overthrow the pope if Napoleon allowed it. The cry of "Rome or death ! " rang through all Italy. The hero's progress through Sicily was one long triumph. He was allowed to cross the Strait of Messina ; but on the rugged Calabrian coast at Aspro- monte he was stopped by the Italian royal troops, himself wounded and captured, and his followers dispersed (August 29, 1862). He was imprisoned at Spezzia, and soon allowed to retire to the seclusion of Caprera. This double-dealing on the part of Rattazzi, due to Napoleon's duplicity, created violent emotion among all patriots, and caused his fall and the formation of the Minghetti ministry, which hoped to win over the unstable French Emperor by diplomacy. CHAPTER XL. THE UNITY OF ITALY. The September Convention (1864). — Napoleon had been stung by the taunts of Cardinal Antonelli, and, wishing to appease the wrath of all Liberals, he consented to with- draw the French troops from Rome within two years, pro- vided that the Italians showed their renunciation of Rome as the national capital by removing the seat of government from Turin to Florence. 1 After this proposal was laid before the Turin Parliament, blood flowed in the streets of Turin, which for four centuries had been a capital. Minghetti gave way to a ministry under General La Marmora. It was forcibly urged, however, that Florence was safer than Turin from a French or Austrian invasion ; and Florence was proclaimed the capital of Italy on April 26, 1865, an indemnity being paid to Turin for the loss it sustained. The French troops were gradually withdrawn from Rome to give the pope time to form a Papal army, composed of foreigners and officered mainly by Frenchmen, while the Italian kingdom was bound by the Convention not to attack the Papal territory. Liberation of Venetia.— Cavour had warned his 1 The Italians, however, regarded this removal as one stage on the road to Rome. History and geography pointed out Rome as the only possible capital for a united Italy, whatever the Convention might declare. 340 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. countrymen not to win any more territory by the aid of France, and the course of events pointed to Prussia as the ally which could aid Italy in driving out the Austrians from Venetia. The Italian Government had in 1865 made a favourable commercial treaty with the German Zollverein, and the hostility of both Prussia and Italy to Austria drew them together to an offensive and defensive alliance which was to bring salvation and unity to each of the allies (April 8, 1866). The La Marmora Cabinet, in spite of yearly deficits, borrowed 300,000,000 francs, and placed fleet and army on a war footing. The campaign in Venetia was a failure. La Marmora, called to be commander-in-chief, divided the 200,000 Italian troops, part under Cialdini to invade Venetia near the mouth of the Po, part to advance over the Mincio against the 100,000 Austrians under Archduke Albrecht in the Quadrilateral, and part as reserve in Lombardy. He himself led the main body across the Mincio ; but near the ill-omened field of Custozza, fatal to Italy in 1848, the Italians, superior in numbers, but wanting in steadiness and badly handled by La 'Marmora, were thoroughly beaten (June 23, 1866). All their forces had to retreat, and only a secret convention with Napoleon kept the Austrians from invading Lombardy. So a fort- night's truce ensued, during which Prussia won Venetia for Italy on the heights of Koniggratz. Garibaldi with his volunteers effected little in the hill country around the lakes, and in the Trent valley. He was defeated and wounded in a skirmish at Monte Suello. Finally, the Italian fleet under Persano, off the island of Lissa in the Adriatic, was defeated by a less powerful Austrian squadron under the brave old Tegetthof (July 20, 1866). Francis Joseph hastily ceded Venetia to Napoleon, by xl] THE UNITY OF ITALY. 341 him to be handed over to Victor Emmanuel. In this humiliating way Italy gained all Venetia ; but Garibaldi expressed the national feeling when he said, " Italy asks no veil to hide her dishonour." Yet Italy, by detaining 100,000 Austrian troops with their ablest general in Venetia, had aided Prussia's brilliant victories in Bohemia ; and the Austrian Emperor showed that he felt this by seek- ing to appease Italy in order to save Vienna from the Prussians. 1 La Marmora and Ricasoli had to resign, and Rattazzi again formed a ministry of radicals. Mentana. — By the end of 1866 Italy was entirely freed from foreign troops — for the first time since the old Roman Empire ; 2 but Garibaldi, smarting under the defeats of 1866, longed to make a dash at the Papal legion which now defended Rome. The king's government was in honour bound by the September Convention of 1864 to prevent this, and had the restless hero conveyed to Caprera and there watched. Garibaldi escaped in an open boat during a foggy night to Sardinia, thence he passed to Leghorn, and was soon at the head of enthusiastic volun- teers, so that the Rattazzi ministry feared, or pretended to fear, to arrest him while he was exciting the populace of Florence. Napoleon again intervened to protect the pope, and Rattazzi resigned office when French troops landed to protect Rome. These met and scattered the ill- armed Garibaldians at Mentana, near Rome (November 4, 1867). The Florence Government again arrested Garibaldi and soon allowed him to return to Caprera ; while the French troops remained at Rome, as Napoleon intended that they should. Soon the imperial minister Rouher declared to the Corps Ldgislatif that the Italians should "never" enter Rome. The active support of Prussia and the friendship 1 See p. 297. 2 Gallenga, " Pope and king." 342 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. of England were to avail more for Italy than Rouher's " never." The Papal Power. — The pope had always jealously excluded representative government from his territory ever since the events of 1848 and 1849 had dispelled his Liberalism. The government was conducted by the cardinals who advised the pope. The Jesuits, whom he had driven from Rome when he granted a constitution (1847), were now in favour and urged him to assert his spiritual and temporal power. In all times those who wished to extend the pope's power across the Alps {ultra monies) were called Ultramontanes. This party sought to revive the waning prestige of the Papacy by an (Ecume- nical Council — i.e. one representing the " inhabited globe." So, in December 1869, 722 prelates assembled in the Council Hall of the Vatican at Rome and — in spite of some opposition from the Old Catholics of Germany — affirmed the doctrine of Papal infallibility in religious matters. But though the Papacy thus gained firmer hold over the Catholics of France and Germany, it was soon to lose its temporal power in Italy. Rome the Capital. — The news of the Franco-German war and of the disaster of Sedan roused the " party of action " in Italy to a fever of excitement. The republicans in Rome and the followers of Mazzini, who had returned to Italy, threatened to expel the pope themselves. Victor Emmanuel's government arrested Mazzini, for it held itself bound by the September Convention of 1864 with Napoleon, though he had sent back French troops to occupy Rome. When these were withdrawn to France, and Napoleon's government collapsed in the street riot at Paris, the new French Foreign Minister, Jules Favre, a friend to Italy, did not oppose the king's march on Rome. xl] THE UNITY OF ITAL Y. 343 So Victor Emmanuel marched on Rome "to maintain order, and secure the safety of His Holiness." The pope ordered his 12,000 troops to resist, so as to show force was offered to the pontiff ; but on September 20, 1870, the Italian troops pressed into Rome through a breach near the Porta Pia, and Rome was won for Italy. The Papal troops, mostly French or Irish, were marched out of Rome and sent away by sea ; while the pope was to retain full power over the spacious Vatican and its precincts. What he lost in temporal power he gained in spiritual power, which was no longer associated with a despotic rule upheld by mercenary troops. Out of 175,000 voters in the Papal States only 1500 voted against union with Italy. A new National Assembly decreed that Rome should be the capital, and Victor Emmanuel took his residence in the Quirinal Palace, July 2, 187 1, the first ruler of a united Italy since the time of the old Roman Empire. Twelve years before he was only King of Sardinia: 1859-60 won Lombardy, the central duchies, and South Italy: 1866 saw Venetia freed : and now in 1870 the corner-stone was placed on the structure of Italian unity. The Italians only needed the prestige of Rome as capital to become one of the great Powers. They were now one nation of twenty-five millions united in patriotism, though divided by sharp differences of dialect and social well-being. Rome, Naples, and all Southern Italy needed education, public works, and railways, to bring them up to a level with industrious Piedmont and Lombardy. Italy had many difficulties to face — the bitter hostility of the pope, the jealousy which soon sprang up between South and North Italy, the brigandage and demoralisation of Sicily and South Italy, an enormous debt and yearly 344 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap deficit caused by lavish expenditure on the army and navy and on a crowd of new officials. 1 The first was the most serious. Victor Emmanuel, a good Catholic himself, had been forced by the popular demand to take Rome, or it would have been taken by Mazzini and have become a republic, as in 1848-49. But the king sincerely wished for a reconciliation with the Vatican. He engaged in his opening speech to the first Parliament in Rome (November 1871) to recognise "the fullest independence of the pope's spiritual authority." The pope, however, refused to withdraw his anathemas against his "spoliators," and to recognise the king's government at Rome. He even represented himself as a persecuted prisoner in the Vatican. The only really hostile act of the Italian Parliament at first was the .abolition of monasteries in the Roman territory (1873). The clerical party sought to influence first Thiers, then MacMahon, against the Italian Government, but this only drove Victor Emmanuel to friendship with Germany and then with Austria (1873). This friendship with the central Powers has since ripened into a formal alliance (1881). This was brought about by the aggressive action of France towards Italy in seizing Tunis, and by the fear of Italy that Russia may advance southward to the ^Egean and become a Mediterranean power. So Italy has spent vast sums on her army and navy. Compulsory military or naval service has been enforced, and eight huge ironclads built at vast expense ; but Italy's adhesion to the " League of Peace " has diminished the chances of aggressive war from France or Russia. The expenses of the new government were so enormous that the people were weighed down by grinding taxation, 1 At the ministry of Finance alone there was a staff of 4000 clerks. xl] THE UNITY OF ITALY. 345 such as the grist tax, the monopoly of salt and tobacco, the house tax, which in many towns was nearly half of the yearly rental, and by crushing import duties. In a few years the expenditure nearly doubled ; but as it was largely on education and public improvements, the revenue event- ually kept pace with it. The poverty of the peasants is still extreme, and brigandage, which was rife for many years in the south, has even now not disappeared in Sicily. In 1876 the moderate party which continued the traditions of Cavour was overthrown in the Parliament by the advanced democrats. Mazzini had died at Pisa in 1872; but Garibaldi, on his return from his unfortunate enterprises in France (1870-1871), degenerated more and more into a rabid demagogue whose utterances in the Chamber pained his best friends. He died in 1882 at Caprera. Of his early comrades in arms, Nicotera, Crispi the Sicilian, and Cairoli, who had lost two brothers at Mentana, have since formed democratic ministries which have quickly been dissolved or re-moulded. Depretis, Cairoli, or Crispi for many years headed a democratic ministry, which, however, has held fast to the central European alliance. 1 In other respects the Italian Chambers, founded on the French model, have followed French democrats in adopting almost universal suffrage and a sceptical attitude towards religion. But amidst many administrative blunders and much extravagance the Italian democrats have remained loyal to the House of Savoy. At the beginning of the year 1878 Italy and Europe were deeply moved by the decease of two potentates in 1 So these ministers did their best to stop the Italian "Irredentist" agitation for regaining all the Italian or south part of Tyrol and of the Dalmatian coast-line. 3+6 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [ch. xl Rome. On January 9 the sturdy King Victor Emmanuel suddenly died at the Quirinal. A month afterwards in the Vatican the waning life of the aged Pope Pius IX slowly flickered out. On his accession to the Papal chair in 1846 he had been the hope of all Italian patriots; he ended his days protesting against the acts of the king who had led Italy from the defeat of Novara (1849) t0 tne final triumph at Rome in 1870. In his public life Victor Emmanuel was the model of a constitutional sovereign. Brave and impetuous as he was, he loyally worked with his Parliament and ministers. Like King William of Prussia, he was a plain, straightforward man, who was carried along by the national impulse towards unity. By guiding this impulse, by cautiously attempting one thing at a time, and by gaining the help of foreign Powers, the " honest king " achieved a success which a more brilliant ruler might have missed. His eldest son Humbert found in the new pope, Leo XIII, a cautious but firm opponent, and the Vatican has never recognised the king's government in Rome. CHAPTER XLI. russia and turkey. Russia. Turkey. Nicholas, 1825-1855. Mahmoud II, 1808-1839. Alexander II, 1855-1881. Abdul Meschid, 1839-1861. Alexander III, 1881. Abdul Aziz, 1861-1876. Murad V, 1876. Abdul Hamid, 1876. The Czar Nicholas, who succeeded his brother Alexander in December 1825, soon showed his vigorous masterful spirit by crushing a military rising in Moscow and Kiev. He then conquered the Turks (1827) and reduced them to a state of dependence on Russia which the Treaty of Unkiar Iskelessi seemed to confirm. He had also in 1831 stamped out the Polish insurrection ; but in 1 840 the active intervention of Lord Palmerston in favour of the Sultan against his rebellious Egyptian vassal led to the " Treaty of the Straits" (1840), which freed the Sultan from the influence of Russia and confirmed him in possession of Syria. This had been brought about by the short-sighted adhesion of the Czar Nicholas to English intervention, which was backed by Austria and Prussia in a quadruple alliance. The semi-Asiatic character of the Russian State and people secured her from the convulsions of 1848, for Poland remembered 1831 with terror, and Turkey was in 34S A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. a comparative calm ; but the Eastern Question was soon to break out in one of its many phases. The Crimean "War. — In January 1853 the Czar Nicholas said in conversation with the English ambassador in St. Petersburg, in reference to Turkey, " We have a sick man on our hands, whom no doctor can cure," and he hinted that Moldavia and Wallachia might, after his speedy decease, come under a Russian protectorate, while Bul- garia, Servia, and Bosnia might become " independent " States (of course friendly to Russia). If England was inclined to take Egypt and Crete, he had no objection to her taking such compensation. In making these over- tures the czar knew that Lord Aberdeen's ministry was inclined to peace almost at any price, and had abandoned the vigorous support of Turkey which Palmerston had given. The English ambassador denied that Turkey was in such a desperate condition, and refused any share in the bargain. Nicholas had also offended Napoleon III by refusing to call him "my brother'' in his diplomatic addresses ; and the latter, impelled also by motives of policy, saw in the dispute about the " holy places " a means of slighting or overcoming the czar. The pilgrims of the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches had disputes as to their rights at Jerusalem, and Napoleon III proposed to the sultan that he should give the Romish pilgrims larger rights than to the more numerous pilgrims of the Greek Church, who were championed by the czar. Nicholas retorted by sending Prince Menschikoff to Constantinople to claim for Russia a religious protectorate over all Greek Christians in the Turkish dominions. The imperious Menschikoff came in overcoat and riding-boots to claim this from the Turkish Council of State (or Divan), and on a firm refusal being xli] RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 349 given he departed with threats, while the Sultan Abdul Meschid by a firman or decree confirmed his Christian subjects in their rights before the law. Nicholas at once marched 40,000 Russians across the Pruth to hold Moldavia and Wallachia as a " pledge " from the Porte. Thereupon the British ministry ordered its Mediterranean fleet to Besika Bay at the mouth of the Dardanelles, and placed it at the disposal of the British ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Stratford de Redcliffe; an able and ambitious man bitterly hated by the czar. The diplomatists of the great Powers assembled at Vienna to ward off war, but in vain : Russia and Turkey held to their extreme demands, for the czar believed that Austria and Prussia would certainly support him, while the Turks trusted to the active aid of England and France. Finally Turkey declared war in case the Russian troops did not evacuate its Danubian territory (October 4, 1853). Russia declared war on November 1. The -Turkish troops under Omar Pacha gained a success over the Russians at Oltenizza (November 4), but a Turkish squadron was attacked and destroyed by the Russian admiral Nakhimoff at Sinope (November 30, 1853). The people of England were now carried away by a generous enthusiasm to aid Turkey in her struggle against the overwhelming power of Russia, for they remembered how Russia had crushed the Poles in 1831 and the Hun- garians in 1849. They thought this to be the best oppor- tunity for curbing the power of the despot of Eastern Europe, and believed in the sincerity of the Turkish pro- mises of reform and good government. In March 1854 England and France declared war against Russia, in order to protect Turkey and restore the balance of power threat- ened by Russia. The unbending czar met with two other 350 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. disappointments — viz. the failure of the Christians of Tur- key to rise in support of their deliverers, and the inde- pendent attitude which the young Austrian emperor was taking. The Servians, Bulgarians, and Bosnians did not rise against the Turkish yoke, as they saw the Russians were beaten back by the Turks at Oltenizza, and again at Cetate, near Kalafat. The Turkish garrison at Silistria, supported by English and German officers, foiled the Russian general • Paskiewitch, who finally withdrew his troops across the Danube (June 21, 1854), and even across the Pruth. This was caused by the ravages of disease among his troops and by the threatening attitude of the Austrian troops in the Carpathians on the Russian rear ; and these now, to the chagrin of the czar, advanced through the Carpathian passes and occupied Moldavia and Wallachia. The young Austrian emperor had broken away from the tutelage of the czar, who, since his services in 1849, had said, "Whatever I say also holds good for Austria." In fact, Austria was deeply concerned in the Eastern Question, for she had over 3,000,000 Roumanians and Serbs in her southern border- lands, beside 18,000,000 Slavonians in the whole Empire. It seemed again that peace might be restored ; for though an English and French force had landed at Varna (July 1854) they found no foe but the cholera, which swept off their troops. But the French emperor, as well as the Eng- lish people, desired to cripple Russia. So the expedition made a sudden descent on the Crimea to destroy the fortress of Sevastopol, which menaced Turkey. The English forces were led by Lord Raglan, who lost an arm at Waterloo, whose calm courage and unfailing tact never failed him through all the troubles and disputes of this campaign. The French commander was St. Arnaud, who had aided xli] RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 351 Napoleon in the coup d'etat. He soon succumbed to cholera, and was succeeded by Canrobert. The allied forces, 25,000 English, 23,000 French, and some 5000 Turks, landed in the Crimea south of Eupatoria, and stormed the heights of the Alma, held by an almost equal force of Russians under Prince Menschikoff (Septem- ber 20, 1854). The latter now stopped up the mouth of Sevastopol harbour by sinking his war-ships, and prepared for a defence ; but the allies were hindered by divided counsels, insufficient stores, and above all by the cholera. A sudden dash would have seized the north side of Sevasto- ■ pol harbour, which was only defended by a few forts ; but the allied army made the dangerous march round to the southern side, so as to be near their ships in the harbour of Balaclava. Meanwhile the fortifications of Sevastopol had been strengthened by earthworks planned by the engineer Todleben, a German in the Russian service ; and as the north side was not besieged Russian reinforcements con- stantly came in : so that the might of Eastern and Western Europe was concentrated in this extraordinary siege. 1 Balaclava — Inkermann. — On the 17th October 1854 a bombardment of the Sevastopol forts by the allied fleets was repelled, and the Russians on the 25 th October sought to drive the allies back on their fleet at Balaclava. After a struggle marred by strange blunders on both sides, but redeemed on ours by two splendid charges of the Heavy Brigade and the Light Brigade of cavalry, the Russian attack was repulsed. In the early morning mist of the 5th Novem- ber, 50,000 Russians, swarming up the heights from the Inker- mann valley, pressed in on the English lines, and though our 6000 men stoutly contested every foot of ground, they 1 It was really an attack and defence, for the fortress was never invested on all sides. > 352 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. were being slowly driven back to their camp, when the French under Bosquet brought reinforcements. Then the Russians, taken in flank and decimated by artillery fire, were hurled back with the loss of 10,000 men. The allies lost nearly 5000. The winter was now the most terrible foe to the allies, who were badly provided with needful supplies, for their ships had been shattered in a terrible storm on November 14. The English public, indignant at official mismanage- ment, called for a more vigorous ministry, and Lord Pal- merston replaced the pacific Lord Aberdeen. Soon a rail- way was laid from Balaclava harbour to the allied camps. The Russian reinforcements, toiling painfully along to the south, lost heavily, and out of the quarter of a million men which Russia lost in this struggle, by far the most suc- cumbed to cold or disease. These troubles wore out the Czar Nicholas, who died (March 2, 1855), and was succeeded by his eldest son, the more peaceable Alexander II. xli] RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 353 Fall of Sevastopol. — The allied squadrons had effected nothing of importance in the Gulf of Finland except the bombardment of Bomarsund on the Aland island and of Sveaborg in August 1854; but in the Black Sea the English fleet silenced the forts at Kertch, forced the straits there, and destroyed Russian supplies and stores along the shores of the Sea of Azov (June 1855). Meanwhile Todleben had strengthened Sevastopol by numerous earthworks, especially by the great Malakoff work. The defenders now numbered some 150,000 men, and the allies 170,000, including 15,000 Sardinians. Moreover, Austria signed a defensive union with the allies. Canrobert, exhausted by the siege, resigned in favour of the more reso- lute Pelissier, and in June 1855 Lord Raglan's death by cholera placed General Simpson at the head of the English forces. His death had been accelerated by the failure on June 18 of the first attack on .the Malakoff and Redan works, which cost the allies some 6000 men ; but a Russian sortie along the valley of the Tchernaya was beaten back by the French and Sardinian troops ; and after a terrible bombardment by the allies the Malakoff was taken by the French under MacMahon, though our troops could not keep the Redan against the fearful fire poured into it. As the Malakoff tower, the key of the defence, had been taken, Gortschakoff, then governor, blew up the rest of his forts on the south side, sank his remaining ships, and retired to a strong position on the north side of the harbour (Septem- ber 8, 1855). The allies captured immense stores of war material, including 4000 cannons, and destroyed the capacious docks, hewn by the Russians at great cost out of the solid rock. In Asia General Muravieff forced Kars to surrender after a brilliant defence by the English general Williams ; 354 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. but Russia was exhausted by these conflicts at her extremi- ties, where alone she was most vulnerable, for she had to send vast armies by road thousands of miles. Her advance .down the Amour river on the Pacific coast of Siberia had been checked by an allied expedition, and her trade in the White, Baltic, and Black Seas had been stopped. Napoleon III had now revenged his uncle's memory, and England saw Turkey free to work out her own destiny. So a Con- ference of all the Powers, including also Sardinia, arranged the Peace of Paris (March 1856) : (1) Russia was to lose a strip of land north of the mouth of the Danube, the navi- gation of which was freed from her control ; (2) The Black Sea was declared neutral — that is, free to all merchant ships, but closed to all war-ships, and no warlike arsenal was to be erected on its shores ; (3) Russia renounced her protectorate over the Danubian States, and over the religion of the Greek Church in Turkey. On its side, Turkey renewed the privileges previously proclaimed (1839), but never practised, to Christians in Turkey ; but the equality before the law of all its subjects was as far from a reality as ever. The massacres of Christians at Damascus and in the Lebanon under the eyes of its pachas (i860) showed the worth of its promises. Roumania. — Abdul Meschid died, June 1861, a worn- out debauchee. His successor, Abdul Aziz, sought to strengthen his country by building a navy. On the pressure of the Powers he had to consent to the union of Moldavia and Wallachia, thence called the Principality of Roumania, from the name of its people, the Roumans (1861). 1 This 1 These people claim to be descended from the ancient Roman colonists planted there to keep back the Scythians. Their language is a corrupt Latin. xli] RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 355 State henceforth was ruled by one prince, or hospodar, and by one Assembly, with a free constitution. The first Prince of Roumania, Alexander Kusa, was deposed owing to his wilful extravagance. Then Prince Charles of Hohenzollern was elected and was recognised by the Porte as hereditary Prince of Roumania. Thus was founded another of those States which seem destined to fill the place of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. Alexander II — Liberation of the Serfs. — The new czar was thirty-seven years old when he succeeded his father Nicholas. His mother was the eldest daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia; and Alexander was always friendly with his uncles, Frederick William IV and William I. of Prussia. This family relationship kept Russian and Prussian policy in close accord down to 1877. As soon as peace was assured, Alexander sought to heal the distress caused by the war by building railroads (the want of which had cost Russia thousands of men in the war), by commercial treaties, and by improving the education of his subjects, whom he sought to divest of their semi-Asiatic habits. The great blot on Russia, however, was that out of a population of nearly 70,000,000 in European Russia over 25,000,000 were serfs, who were the property of their masters. There were many difficulties in Alexander's way. The whole country was discontented at the result of the Crimean War, and at the epidemics which the troops brought back. Many of the landowners were ruined by the war, and all were impoverished. The revolutionists, who desired to sweep away every vestige of the existing order of things, sought to undermine the government ; but Alex- ander held on his way in spite of the opposition of his own family and of the landowners. 356 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Alexander first freed the serfs on the imperial domains, and in March 1861 proclaimed the liberation of all serfs in Russia. The sum of ^100,000,000 was to be paid as compensation to the landowners, which they were expected to expend on improvements on their estates, but they spent much of it in France or Italy. Those landowners suffered most who had been harsh masters, for now their former serfs would not work for them as hired labourers. Four-fifths of the ^100,000,000 were raised by foreign loans, and the remaining one-fifth by a tax on the village communes, which henceforth were to govern themselves. The serfs could become the owners of their cottage and plot of land by paying a tax or by working two days a week for their former masters. Zemstvos, or local assemblies, were also established to accustom the peasants to self-government and pave the way for a constitution in the future. Alexander caused schools to be founded in all districts, and he increased the scope of the universities by throwing them open to all classes, but they soon became centres of agitation. He instituted trial by jury and a milder code of laws in 1863. All these reforms exasperated the nobles and filled the revolutionists with wild hopes. Incendiary fires raged in all large towns, and the czar's life was the object of many attacks. The Polish Revolt. — The dissensions in Russia encouraged the Poles to strike once more for their liberty. In 1 86 1 there had been bloody conflicts in Warsaw. Alex- ander still hoped to pacify that unhappy land by local institutions ; but a severe recruiting law caused a savage outbreak in January 1863. A National Committee in Warsaw appointed as dictator first General Mieroslawski, then, when he was defeated, Langiewicz, who fared no xli] RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 357 better. Lithuania also joined Poland in the struggle for their ancient liberties. But Prussia, for dynastic and State reasons, helped Russia. Thus the czar paid little heed to three representations which England, France, and Austria made on behalf of the Polish demands for local independ- ence under the rule of the czar. The Russian general Muravieff even set a price on the heads of the insurgents ; these were gradually scattered, slain, or driven over the Austrian frontier (October 1863). Then order was restored in Lithuania and Poland by imprisonments and fines, laid even on the Polish Catholic clergy, which had for the most part favoured the revolt. Expansion of Russia. — Alexander II still persevered with his reforms in Russia, though the freed peasants, finding their poverty as great as ever, showed their disappointment in many acts of violence. In April 1867 he sold Alaska, or Russian America, to the United States for $7,000,000, and strove by publishing the State Budget every year to improve Russian credit, which had been very low. The czar's good understanding with the Prussian monarch kept Russia at peace during the wars of 1866 and 1870; and in the latter he put secret pressure on Austria to pre- vent her joining France against Prussia. The Black Sea Conference. — Russia's rising power, her friendship with Prussia, and the overthrow of Napoleon, led her to seize 1870 as the time when she might regain her rights on the Black Sea surrendered in the Treaty of Paris (1856). Neither England nor France was in a condition to contest her claim ; and in a conference of the Powers held at London ( 1 8 7 1 ), Russia regained her rights to keep ships of war on the Black Sea (though not to pass through the Bosphorus) and to build dockyards and arsenals on its shores. In 1872 Bismarck's desire to weld Central and 358 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [ch. xli Eastern Europe against a French war of revenge brought the three Emperors of Germany, Russia, and Austria together at Berlin (September 1872) ; and the Czar, laying aside his dislike of Austria, which had lasted ever since her policy during the Crimean War, entered into a tacit understanding known as the " Three Emperors' League," which aimed mainly at combating Nihilistic and revolutionary ideas in the three empires. The czar also extended the elementary school system of Russia, adopted the system of compulsory military service (1874), and extended his conquests in Turkestan. General Kaufmann, with 14,000 men, sixty cannons, and some thousands of camels, overthrew the forces of the Khan of Khiva, and occupied his capital (June 1873). The khanate was made first a vassal State, and then soon annexed altogether, along with that of Khokand (1875). Since then an expedition under General Skobeloff took Geok Tepd, a stronghold of the Turcomans near the Persian frontier. The Russians pushed on to Merv in 1 88 1, and Sarrakhs. These advances towards Afghanistan had alarmed Lord Beaconsfield's government, which in 1879, and again in 1881, attempted to occupy that rugged country. Russia had also gained territory south of the Amour on the Pacific coast, where she constructed the port of Vladi- vostock. But it was from her hereditary foe, Turkey, that she had gained most. CHAPTER XLII. THE EASTERN QUESTION. ' ' O smallest among peoples ! rough rock-throne Of Freedom ! warriors beating back the swarm Of Turkish Islam for five hundred years." Tennyson, Ode to Montenegro. The " eternal " Eastern Question was revived by a serious revolt of the Herzegovinians, a warlike people who dwelt in a rugged part of Bosnia next to the Dalmatian frontier. The Eastern Question may be briefly described as the struggle of the Christian populations of Turkey, first to re- gain the lands and rights which the Turks wrested from them in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and then to range themselves with their Greek or Slavonic kinsmen. The question thus concerned not only the Christians of Turkey, but also Russia and Austria, who might gain or lose by these national movements. Greece had been the first to cut herself free from Turkish rule ; but the Greeks of Thessaly, Epirus, and South Macedonia were still under the Turkish yoke, and all Greeks longed to regain Constantinople as their capital, lost in 1453. North of the Balkans the question was far more complicated. There the Slavonic races were divided in language and sympathies. The Roumans, mainly 360 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY. [cHAr. Slavonic in descent, though they claimed to be descended from the Roman military colonists, had in 1861 achieved their unity and independence complete in all but name. They had also adopted a new democratic constitution, which soon influenced the other Slavonic races. Servia had for ages borne the brunt of Turkish attacks and tyranny. In 1 861 its Prince Michael, of the House of Obrenovitch, called a Skuptschina, or National Assembly, to organise a national militia and prepare a form of govern- ment like that which Ronmania was trying ; and Prince Michael persuaded the Skuptschina to declare the rule of his family hereditary. In June 1862 the Servians of Belgrade drove the Turks into the citadel, which then fired on the town. A Conference was held at Constanti- nople, according to which the Turkish troops left Belgrade. The excitement spread in 1862 to the Greek Christians of Herzegovina, in the south-east corner of Bosnia, and it needed a large Turkish force under their best general, Omar Pacha, to quell the discontent ; for in this remote and rugged district the rebels easily passed over into Dalmatia or Montenegro, and returned to renew the war when it seemed stamped out. The tiny State of Montenegro, inhabited by a fierce, hardy race, half patriot, half brigand, had always resisted the inroads of the Turks into its mountain gorges ; but the Turks in 1862 compelled the Prince Nikita to a peace. In Albania the half Greek, half Moslem population was always ready for revolt, as was seen in the days of Ali Pacha (1825). The Greek Christians of Bulgaria, cowed by the Turkish garrisons of Shumla, Silistria, Rust- chuk, and Widdin, had hitherto not shown such signs of a national awakening as the other Slavonic and Greek sub- jects of the Porte. The Bulgars originally came from the banks of the Volga, with which their name is connected. xlii] THE EASTERN QUESTION. 361 They are thought to have been of Asiatic descent, but have become completely Slavonic in language and senti- ment. Their perseverance in resisting Turkish oppression, and their subsequent bravery on the field of battle, have placed them high among the races of the Balkan Peninsula. Herzegovina — Servian War. — In the summer of 1875 tne Herzegovinians rose against the arbitrary and op- pressive Turkish taxation, and against the Turkish "Begs" or landowners. Servia and Montenegro fed the revolt, which Turkish troops could not repress before the bitter winter in those mountains stopped the operations. The Porte then sought to avert the intervention of the continental Powers by granting paper reforms in taxation and government ; but Austria, Germany, and Russia drew up what was called the Andrassy Note (from the name of the Austrian chan- cellor), which claimed local popular representation and the rights of citizenship. The Porte accepted it, but the in- surgent chiefs rejected it as containing no guarantees for enforcement of these rights. So the struggle went on. The fanaticism of the Moslems was seen in the massacre at Salonica of the French and German consuls. A week later (May 13, 1875) the continental Powers drew up the Berlin Note, requiring the Porte to put an end to this struggle by giving guarantees for the execution of its reforms ; but when Mr. Disraeli's Cabinet refused assent to this Note as derogatory to the Porte's authority over its own subjects, the well-meant intervention also unfortunately failed ; for the Turks believed Great Britain to be on their side, especially when our Mediterranean fleet was sent to Besika Bay, as it had been in 1854. Meanwhile the Bulgarians and Servians were deeply excited by all these events, and on May 4 the Bulgarians rose against their Turkish oppressors ; while Prince Milan 362 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. (entitled Prince of Servia in 1868) called Ristics, the head of the " party of action," to power, and prepared for war. Turkey seemed to have lost control of her lands north of the Balkans, but she sent fierce Circassians and Bashi- Bazouks and stamped out the Bulgarian revolt by massacres in which at least 12,000 peaceable men, women, and child- ren perished. The Servian army attempted to help the Bulgarians, but it was beaten back over its frontiers to the fortress of Alexinatz. In spite of swarms of Russian volunteers which poured in to help them, the Servians were worsted in contests of nine days. On October 2 1 Ignatief, the Russian ambassador at Constantinople, demanded a truce of six weeks in favour of the Servians ; and a Conference of the Powers met there to try to avert a European war. Changes in Constantinople. — A new impulse of national life seemed to have sprung up at Constantinople during these excitements. A demonstration of the Softas, or students of the Koran, compelled the lazy and spend- thrift Sultan Abdul Aziz to call the reformer Midhat Pacha to the highest office of the State; and on May 30, 1876, a palace revolution deposed the sultan to make way for Murad V, the son of his predecessor. A few days after, the deposed sultan committed suicide by opening his veins with scissors. But the new sovereign, being quite unequal to the burden placed on his shoulders, was deposed* in favour of his brother Abdul Hamid (August 31, 1876). An armistice had been declared, and the Conference had assembled at Constantinople (December 1876), when the Porte proclaimed a constitution with equal civil and religious rights for all its subjects ; and, encouraged by Lord Beaconsfield's speech at the Guildhall, London (November 1876), it refused the demands of the Conference, and assumed a warlike tone. xlii] THE EASTERN QUESTION. 363 Russo-Turkish "War. — Both countries now advanced their troops to the Danube, and Roumania joined Russia on condition of having the integrity of its country un- impaired, while Servia, lately rescued from the result of her rashness, was ready to renew her attack on Turkey. On April 29, 1877, Russia declared war. In Asia the Russians advanced rapidly on Kars, which they besieged, and even on Erzeroum. In May the Turks, reinforced, drove them back from Kars, but they in their turn advanced too far from their base, and were utterly defeated in October and lost Kars (November 1877). The Turkish ironclad fleet, from which so much was expected, effected next to nothing under the command of Hobart Pacha; but on the land the fluctuations in the contest were intensely exciting. The German strategist Moltke had said that the passage of the Danube would cost the Russians 60,000 men ; but owing to the carelessness and apathy of the Turks they crossed with trifling loss (June 21) near Galatz and Sistova, and at once seized Nicopolis. In order to rescue the Bulgarians from another massacre the Russians now made a rush with small forces to Tirnova, and General Gourko even seized the Shipka pass over the Balkans (July 13). Plevna. — All the Turkish generals had hitherto seemed helpless. Their forces were in two parts — the eastern part near the fortress of Shumla, the western near Widdin. Osman Pacha, in command of the latter force, had been out- witted on the Danube by the Russians, but he now marched east and fortified himself in a strong position at Plevna, on the Russian flank, with 20,000 men. The Russian Grand Duke Nicholas attacked him there, but was completely beaten; other attacks on the 2 2d July and 31st July were equally unsuccessful, for Osman had by this time been reinforced, and had thrown up formidable earthworks on 364 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the circle of hills round Plevna ; so the repeating rifles of his troops told with terrible effect on the dense masses of Russians. The aspect of the campaign changed at once. The Russian troops, which had pressed up to and across the Shipka pass, had now to struggle desperately to hold it against Suleiman Pacha. The czar had to call in the aid of the Roumanian troops, and to send for reinforcements from Russia. A new series of attacks by Russians and Roumanians on the Plevna redoubts only resulted in a loss of 16,000 men (September 7-14). The czar in despair sent for Todleben, the hero of the defence of Sevastopol, and soon Plevna was invested. Meanwhile the Russians kept their hold on the Shipka pass for four months in spite of Turkish attacks, and the Turkish army around Shumla did little to help the gallant Osman. The Russians, directed by Todleben and led by their fighting general Skobeloff, won point after point, and reduced the defenders almost to starvation ; till at last, after a five hours' fight with his 40,000 against 100,000 Russians and Roumanians, Osman had to surrender (December 10, 1877). The battles around Plevna were more sanguinary than even those round Metz, or than any one series of battles of the whole century. San Stefano. — Then the Russians poured across the Balkans, opposed only by the snowstorms of winter. Servia declared war, and Greece began to muster her troops against Turkey, while in Asia the Russians had captured Kars (November 18), and were now nearing Erzeroum, the capital of Armenia. On January 20, 1878, the Russians reached Adrianople, and on February 1 o were in sight of Constantinople. The British Government, alarmed at this advance, made in spite of an armistice signed at Kazanlik (January 2 9), hastily ordered its fleet up xlii] THE EASTERN QUESTION. 365 the Dardanelles for the defence of Constantinople. The panic-stricken Turks hastily signed the preliminaries of peace with Russia at San- Stefano, near Constantinople (March 1878), the principal terms of which were that Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria should be independent States, the latter extending from the Danube nearly to Adrianople and Salonica. Old Servia, or the upper part of the valley of the Morava, was to be added to Servia ; Bosnia was to be locally free under the suzerainty of the sultan. These terms would have left Turkey mistress only over Albania and a strip of land along the ^Egean Sea. England, with the support of Austria, protested energetically against this dismemberment, and until May 1878 it seemed that a European war would break forth. The English reserves were called out and Indian troops brought to Malta ; but Russia had lost heavily in men and money, and the peace-loving czar submitted to the remission of these terms at a Congress of the European Powers at Berlin, where Prince Bismarck had offered his services as the " honest broker " to bring about an understanding. Treaty of Berlin. — It needed all Prince Bismarck's diplomatic skill to bring Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury to terms with the Russian envoys at Berlin ; but eventually he induced both parties to remit something of their demands and objections, while Austria secured the post of guardian of the Balkan Peninsula. (1) Bosnia, including Herzegovina, was assigned to Austria for permanent occupation. Thus Turkey lost a great province of nearly 1,250,000 inhabitants. Of these about 500,000 were Christians of the Greek Church, 450,000 were Mohammedans, mainly in the towns, who offered a stout resistance to the Austrian troops, and 200,000 Roman Catholics. By the occupation of the Novi-Bazar district 366 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Austria wedged in her forces between Montenegro and Servia, and was also able to keep watch over the turbulent province of Macedonia. (2) Montenegro received less than the San Stefano terms had promised her, but secured the seaports of Antivari and Dulcigno. It needed a demonstration of the European fleets off the latter port, and a threat to seize Smyrna, to make the Turks yield Dulcigno to the Montenegrians (who alone of all the Christian races of the peninsula had never been conquered by the Turks). (3) Servia was proclaimed an independent Principality, and received the district of Old Servia on the upper valley of the Morava. (4) Roumania also gained her independence and ceased to pay any tribute to the Porte, but had to give up to her Russian benefactors the slice acquired from Russia in 1856 between the Pruth and the northern mouth of the Danube. In return for this sacrifice she gained the large but marshy Dobrudscha district from Bulgaria, and so acquired the port of Kustendje on the Black Sea. (5) Bulgaria, which, according to the San Stefano terms, would have been an independent State as large as Roumania, was by the Berlin Treaty subjected to the suzerainty of the sultan, divided into two parts, and confined within much narrower limits. Besides the Dobrudscha, it lost the northern or Bulgarian part of Macedonia, and the Bulgarians who dwelt between the Balkans and Adrianople were separated from their kinsfolk on the north of the Balkans, in a province called Eastern Roumelia, with Philippopolis as capital. The latter province was to remain Turkish, under a Christian governor nominated by the Porte with the con- sent of the Powers. Turkey was allowed to occupy the passes of the Balkans in time of war. xlii] THE EASTERN QUESTION. 367 (6) In Asia, Russia gained the districts of Kars and Batoum, in spite of the opposition of the British envoys to the acquisition of the last important port. Cyprus. — Scarcely had the Berlin Treaty been signed .(July 1878) when Europe was astonished by the publication of a secret convention made by the British Government with the Porte in the previous month. By this the former acquired the right to occupy Cyprus for as long a time as Russia retained possession of Kars and Batoum. It further agreed to aid the Porte in the defence of its Asiatic frontier against a Russian attack under certain conditions, and to pay to the Porte a yearly tribute for Cyprus equal to the then existing surplus of revenue over expenditure (,£90,000). The Danubian States. — Turkey, in addition to all these losses, had to pay a war indemnity which she was quite powerless to raise, and the Russian statesmen have been able to extort fresh sacrifices by demands for payment of arrears which amount to ^32,000,000. The States liberated from Turkish rule were to have taken their share of this huge Turkish debt, but they have paid little or no interest. The supine Turkish Government has made no efforts to carry into effect the reforms promised with such eclat ; but the Russian Government with equal folly contrived to alienate the Bulgarians and Roumanians by a meddling and over- bearing policy. The Bulgarian National Assembly or Sobranje chose Prince Alexander of Battenberg 1 as the first Prince of Bulgaria. The government was constitutional, so the Mohammedans in Bulgaria retained their liberty, though they lost their exclusive privileges. In 1881 the prince, 1 Son of Prince Alexander of Hesse Darmstadt, who was brother of the 368 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. finding the democratic constitution unworkable owing to the actions of the pro-Russian ministry and party, freed himself of these ministers, and succeeded in strengthening the princely authority, to which the Assembly agreed (1883). In September 1885 the South Bulgarians declared for a union with the State of Bulgaria, and after some demurring from the Powers which signed the Treaty of Berlin, the union was acknowledged ; but Servia, grudging her sister State this increase of territory, wantonly invaded Bulgaria, only to meet with an ignominious repulse by the troops of Prince Alexander, which nearly cost King Milan his throne. Russia did not forgive Prince Alexander for acting without her sanction, and her agents concocted a plot to kidnap and carry him away (August 1886). On his return to Sofia he received a hearty welcome from all his subjects, but his nerves were so shattered that he abdicated. Russia had so abused her influence over the affairs of the Danubian States that they soon began to turn to Austria and the Central Alliance. After visits to Berlin Prince Charles of Roumania and Prince Milan of Servia had taken the title of King in 1881 and 1882 respectively. In every other part of Europe, since the beginning of this century, the greatest political difficulties had been solved by peoples of the same great race drawing closer to each other ; but the Roumanians, who pride themselves on their descent from the Romans, separate the Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula from Russia ; and in spite of many internal jealousies and difficulties, it seems as if the ultimate solution of the Eastern Question in the lands north of the Balkans will be found in a confederation of Roumania, Bulgaria, and Servia. These would be strong enough both to resist Russian dictation and to stop her advance to Constantinople by way of the Danube, which they could defend with 300,000 troops. xlii] THE EASTERN QUESTION. 369 South of the Balkans the Eastern Question is still un- settled, and the province of Macedonia is the most distracted part of all Europe. There the Bulgarians in the north and the Greeks in the south long for deliverance from the help- less and corrupt Turkish officials, who cannot, or will not, check brigandage. Expansion of Greece. — In 1862 a revolution broke out at Athens and King Otho abdicated. A Danish prince was then elected with the title of George I, and to consolidate his power England renounced her protectorate over the Ionian Isles, which were then added to the Grecian realm. The present democratic constitution was framed in 1864, and Greece in spite of its narrow limits and political strifes made steady progress, but the Greeks of Thessaly and Crete struggled vainly to throw off the Turkish yoke and unite with their brethren. In 1880 Greece armed to invade Thessaly, but the dispute was referred to the Powers, who prevailed on Turkey to evacuate Thessaly and a strip of land on the east of Epirus (1881). Greece now numbers nearly two millions of inhabitants, but she still longs for the whole coast of the ^Egean Sea, and hopes one day to recover Constantinople, to which she has the claim of historic right, while Russia's claim is only that of self-interest and ambition. Russian Nihilism. — The Berlin Treaty was a great blow to the Russian Panslavists, who wish to see the Slavonic inhabitants of Austria and the Danubian States welded on to Russia, so as to form one Panslavonic Empire, which would then comprise all Russia, all the Danubian States, together with Galicia, Moravia, Bohemia, Croatia, and Slavonia. Instead of this sweeping result Russia actually gained less than Austria, which had not fought at all. The Russian troops also had been astonished to find that the oppressed Bulgarians were living in greater comfort than the 2 B 370 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [chap. Russian peasants. So amidst the financial exhaustion caused by the late war the revolutionists again found their chance. The extremists were called nihilists, for their founder, Bakunin, had said in his manifesto of 1868, "Our first work must be the annihilation of everything as it now exists, for if but an atom of this old world remains the new will never be created." They were a small but determined band of enthusiasts, driven to frenzy by their loathing of the autocratic system. Even the good-natured Alexander II had not mitigated this, so they assassinated several officials, and many times aimed at his life. In their second attempt they nearly succeeded in blowing up the czar's train as it passed along an embankment near Moscow, and soon they actually blew up part of the czar's Winter Palace at St. Petersburg, though the czar and his family escaped the death which overtook many servants and guards (February 1880). The czar then appointed Loris Melikoff to a dictatorship for crushing out the nihilists ; but hangings, exile, imprison- ments, and the promises of reforms were equally useless. As the czar was driving along near the Winter Palace a bomb was thrown under his carriage, wounding one of his Cossacks and several bystanders. With his usual disregard of his own safety Alexander was inquiring about the wounded men, when a nihilist threw another bomb which shattered the czar's legs, so that he scarcely lived to reach his palace (March 13, 1881). So died the liberator of the serfs, in his sixty-third year, when he was intending to crown his reign by granting a constitution to Russia. Alexander III. — His son, Alexander III, remained long in seclusion till the nihilists were repressed, but he at once declared that he would maintain the prerogatives of the czar. He was at length crowned with Asiatic pomp in Moscow, May 1883, but Russia is still under despotic rule ; xlii] THE EASTERN QUESTION. 371 there is no liberty of the press, and no representative government save in strictly local affairs. The nihilists had only murdered the greatest benefactor Russia had ever known, and had not changed the evils of a patriarchal but despotic government. The Russian Government. — The will of the czar is absolute. His person is sacred, and he crowns himself at his accession. Nevertheless the different councils of government have much power in influencing his decisions and in carrying ■ out his ukases or laws. This powerful bureaucracy consists of — (1) The Imperial Council, which is concerned with legislative proposals and their execution when passed by the czar. (2) The Directing Senate, which controls the finances, and is the supreme court of appeal from the law courts. (3) The Holy Synod, superintending religious affairs. (4) The Council of Ministers, viz. of the Imperial House, Foreign Affairs, War, Navy, Interior, Education, Finance, Justice, Imperial Domains, Public Works and Rail- ways, and General Control. These councils may communicate with the czar only through the medium of his private Cabinet, which has the greatest influence on his decisions. The Baltic Provinces, Finland, and the Caucasian Province have local administrations, but the rest of Russia is governed direct from St. Petersburg. There are no representative institutions 1 except the Communal Mir and the departmental Zemstvo, which last has some control over education, police, and local enterprises. The Russian bureaucracy, like all similar governments, is extremely cor- 1 So eighty-seven millions of people in European Russia have no voice in the imperial laws by which they are governed. 372 A CENTUR Y OF CONTINENTAL HISTOR Y. [ch. xlii rupt, and no bill or public project can be passed without bribing all the officials who can further its passing. But for the abolition of serfdom, the adoption of the German system of military conscription, and the introduc- tion of steam locomotion, Russia cannot be said to have changed much during this century. In fact, railways and universal military service have only served hitherto to place greater power in the hands of the czar; but the mighty changes which have remoulded the rest of the continent cannot long be kept out of Russia by her police and spy system ; and the last and greatest phase of the Eastern Question must be in Russia itself. CHAPTER XLIII SPAIN. {Continued from page 2 2 8.) Isabella II (1833-1868). Alphonso XII (1874-1885). Amadeo I (1870-1873). Christina, Queen Regent (1885 ). The land which had set the example to Europe of a national rising against Napoleon's usurpation had soon sunk to a state of apathy, disturbed only by the Carlist wars. Exhausted by these terrible strifes, it fell again into a condition of torpor under the demoralising rule of the young Queen Isabella. Among the numerous ministries, those of Narvaez and O'Donnell were the least corrupt and inefficient. Under the latter a successful campaign was waged in Morocco (i860) to extend Spanish influence there ; but after the death of these two men in 1867 and 1868, one of many military risings succeeded in overthrowing Isabella's rule. General Prim and Marshal Serrano, returning from exile, were joined by most of the troops, and the people of Madrid, disgusted at the queen's private and public conduct, were soon masters of the capital. Queen Isabella, who was at San Sebastian, dared not return to Madrid, but fled across the French frontier (September 29, 1868), so Serrano was named regent of Spain till the Cortes could elect another sovereign. The Due de Montpensier's claims found no favour because he was a scion of the hated Bourbon House ; the Hohenzollern prince would have been elected but for the jealousy of France ; and a Portuguese prince, who would have united the peninsula under one ruler, declined the dangerous honour. Eventually Prince Amadeo, 374 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. the second son of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, was elected (November 1870), but Marshal Prim, his chief supporter, was murdered before the new king landed in Spain. He soon found all his efforts at reform and good government thwarted by the republicans, and by the intrigues of the nobles and officials, who longed for the old opportunities of bribe-talking. So he soon resigned a post which he could not fill with self- respect and benefit to his subjects (February 1873). Then a republic was declared by the Cone's, and the gifted and eminent statesman, Castelar, strove to give it a constitutional and conservative character. But during the disorders of the last few years the Basque provinces of Navarre and Biscay had been in a ferment, excited by the Carlists. The grandson of the Don Carlos who had troubled Spain from 1833 to 1839 appeared in those provinces which were still favourable to his cause, and this ardent young champion of divine right of course received the support of French legitimists. On the other hand, the doctrines of the Paris Commune had found in the south of Spain many adherents, who desired that their country should form a federation of provincial republics. Malaga, Seville, Cadiz, Cartagena, and Valencia* revolted, and were reduced only after sharp fighting. A group of generals then deter- mined to offer the crown to Alphonso, the young son of Isabella II, in whose favour she had abdicated in 1868. Castelar, the moderate republican statesman, reluctantly con- sented, and young Alphonso XII, on landing in Spain, 1874, received the support of most republicans and Carlists, disgusted by the, excesses of their extreme partisans. His generals gradually hemmed in the Carlists along the north coast by battles near Bilbao and Irun ; and when the rebels shot a German subject Prince Bismarck sent German ships to aid the Alphonsists. These in the spring of 1876 forced Don Carlos and most of his supporters to cross the French frontier. The Madrid Government now determined to put an end to the xliii] SPAIN. 375 fueros or local privileges of the Basque provinces, which they had misused in openly preparing this revolt. So Biscay and Navarre henceforth contributed to the general war expenses of Spain, and their conscripts were incorporated with the regular army of Spain. Thus the last municipal and provincial privileges of the old kingdom of Navarre vanished, and national unity became more complete in Spain, as in every other country of Europe except Austria and Turkey. The Basque provinces resisted the change which placed them on a level with the rest of Spain, and have not yet become reconciled to the Madrid Government. The young king, Alphonso XII, had many other difficulties to meet. The government was disorganised, the treasury empty, and the country nearly ruined ; but he had a trusty adviser in Canovas del Castillo, a man of great prudence and talent, who, whether prime minister or out of office, has really held power in his hands. He succeeded in unifying the public debt, and by lowering its rate of interest he averted State bank- ruptcy. He also strove to free the administration from the habits of bribe-taking which had long enfeebled and disgraced it ; but in this he met with less success, as also in striving for purity of parliamentary election. In fact, in Spain, and to a less extent in France and Italy, the government can control the elections in ways unknown in this country. This almost nullifies the effects of the constitution, which on paper is all that could be desired. The Senate is composed of (i) nobles, (2) deputies elected by the corporations and wealthy classes, and (3) of life senators appointed by the crown. The Chamber of Deputies is elected by universal suffrage, one deputy for every 50,000 inhabitants. The king or either House of Parliament has the right of proposing laws. In 1883 King Alphonso paid a visit to Berlin, and was made honorary colonel of a Uhlan regiment. For this he was hooted and threatened by the Parisians on his visit to the French capital ; and this reception increased the coldness of 376 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. Spain toward the French, who had aggrieved their southern neighbour by designs on Morocco. The good understanding between Spain and Germany was overclouded by a dispute about the Caroline Islands in the Pacific, which Spain rightly regarded as her own. This aggravated an illness of Alphonso, who died suddenly (November 25, 1885). His young widow, as queen-regent for her infant child, has hitherto .succeeded with marvellous tact ; and Spain may recover some of her old prosperity if she remain free from civil strifes. Since 1870 the trade of Spain with Great Britain has more than doubled. The Spanish colonial empire never recovered from the loss of its American mainland colonies. Its largest colony now is Cuba, which has twice revolted — in 1850 and 1874 — and is even now held with some difficulty. It, with Porto Rico and the Isle of Pines in the West Indies, alone remains to Spain in the New World ; Ceuta and Tetuan on the north coast of Morocco, the Philippine and Ladrone Isles in Oceania, with a protectorate over the neighbouring Pelew and Caroline Isles, complete the list. PORTUGAL. {Continued from page 286.) Maria (1834-1853). Pedro (1855-1861). Luiz (1861 ). After the establishment of constitutional government in 1836 there was a period of calm only disturbed by a small military rising which substituted one minister for another. In 1853 Queen Maria died, and the king-consort ruled as regent for his elder son Don Pedro, and when he died for his younger son Don Luiz. He on coming of age was proclaimed Don Luiz I. (1861), and married the daughter of Victor Emmanuel. This little land of 4,000,000 has had an uneventful history. Its xliii] SWITZERLAND. 377 position on the lower parts of three great Spanish rivers shows that it ought to be united with Spain politically, as it is geo- graphically, and it is one of the surprises of history that Spain could not keep and conciliate a people united by race and religion, and differing only in dialect. When Spain was looking for a king in 1870 the Portuguese prince and people declined the offer which would have soon united the two kingdoms. Portugal has managed to run up a public debt which weighs down its resources and occasions annual deficits. As in Spain, the population is indolent, makes little use of the fertility of the soil except for vine culture, and education is very backward. Of her once great colonial possessions, Portugal retains only the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde Islands off Africa, parts of Senegambia and Loanda on the west coast, with Mozambique on the east coast of Africa, Goa and three small ports in India, and Macao in China. Her colonies are poorly administered, and give no strength to the little kingdom, which has indeed fallen away from the traditions of Vasco de Gama and its other great voyagers. SWITZERLAND. {Continued from page 247.) The movements of 1848 on the continent, as we have seen, left no result so direct and practical as in Switzerland. The constitution of 1848 had left to the several cantons their special institutions and local governments, but they have had to give up many of their rights ; for here, as elsewhere in Europe, it was seen that a centralised government was able to manage the post-office, telegraph, money, weights and measures, and military matters, more efficiently than cantonal authorities. So the Federal Government has since 1874 acquired fuller powers over these matters and over the Roman Catholic 378 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. hierarchy. Universal military service raises the Swiss forces to the number of 115,000 men and 92,000 Landwehr, so that Switzerland is able to enforce respect for its neutrality, which also has the guarantee of all the Powers. Matters concerning the welfare of the whole State are referred to the votes of all the citizens in a " referendum " or mass veto. In the small "forest" cantons the citizens meet to nominate their magistrates, vote taxes, and even administer justice. In the other cantons, most of which are larger than the aforenamed, local government is not carried on by this primitive democratic method, but wholly or in part by repre- sentative councils. The opening of the St. Gothard tunnel in 1881 placed Switzerland on the main line of railway between Germany and Italy. By their energy and skill, especially in the manufacture of silk, cotton, and watches, the Swiss supplemented the resources of their rugged land, which has only half the area of Scotland, but four-fifths of its population. In elementary education Switzerland 1 ranks as the equal of Germany, and in advance of the rest of the continent. As a neutral State it has been the seat of international congresses, e.g. on the treatment of the wounded in war (1864), on the Alabama case, which met at Geneva (1870-71), and the International Postal Congress at Berne (1875). Switzerland has successfully solved the problem of welding three diverse races, German, French, and Italian (numbering 1,840,000, 640,000, and 140,000 respectively), into one con- federacy ; and her success is the more remarkable seeing that the religious differences were, and still are, keen. The Pro- testants number about 1,600,000, the Roman Catholics about 1,100,000, forming the majority only in the south and east and the " forest " cantons. Owing to their pride in Swiss traditions and their free 1 Except in the southern cantons, Grisons, Valais, and Tessino, which are far behind the northern cantons in everything. xliii] BELGIUM. 379 federal institutions, the three races have no desire to join Germany, France, or Italy. The nationalist aspirations which have wrought such changes in the rest of Europe since 1800 have been powerless to break up the Swiss Federation. BELGIUM. ( Continued from page 197.) Leopold I (1831-1865). Leopold II (1865 ). After winning its independence (1830) Belgium has also been free to work out its own career of prosperous development. King Leopold I. during his long reign showed himself the model of a constitutional sovereign in furthering its progress. The first railway on the continent was opened in 1835 between Brussels and Malines, and its railway system is now most com- plete. Its population between 1830 and 1880 increased by more than one-third, and now is the densest in all Europe, numbering 5,900,000 on an area only twice as large as Yorkshire. Thanks to its neutrality (guaranteed by all the Powers), Belgium supports only a small army, but it is being increased, and fortresses are being built along the Meuse to protect the great wealth of the land. When Napoleon III seized on power in France all Belgians feared that he would imitate his uncle by seizing Belgium and all land up to the Rhine ; but the close connection of King Leopold with the English royal house x and his skilful diplomacy averted the danger from Belgium. The chief internal trouble has been the strife between the liberal and clerical parties. In 1850 there were over 400 monasteries, with some 12,000 monks and nuns, in the land, and the Liberals made strenuous efforts for many years to abolish these and control education ; but neither party could command a firm and lasting majority. In the midst of these 1 He was brother of our Prince Consort. 380 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. eager disputes King Leopold I. died (1865), after seeing his kingdom firmly established in spite of ministerial crises every few months. His son Leopold II has also been a constitutional sovereign. In 1867 the Luxemburg question seemed to threaten the Bel- gian territory, for Napoleon III had . secretly proposed to Bismarck that France should take Belgium and Luxemburg, as well as all land up to the Rhine, as the price of his friend- ship to the new German Confederation. We have seen how that was repelled. Again in 1870 the Franco-German war threw a severe strain on Belgium to guard its neutrality, but after Sedan this danger vanished. The strife between the liberal and clerical parties went on as fiercely in Belgium as in France itself, and after the rise and fall of many ministries the Liberals succeeded in closing the convents and gaining control over State education. The constitution is that of a limited monarchy with respon- sible ministers, Senate, and Chamber of Deputies. The electorate up to 1884 was limited to citizens paying forty-two francs a year in direct taxes, but in 1884 it was extended by the clerical party acting for once in connection with the radicals. Like Switzerland and Holland, Belgium has always sheltered many political refugees, and Brussels has been the seat of international congresses, e.g. in 1856 on free trade, and in 1874 for improving the usages of warfare and treatment of the wounded. Belgium has no colonies,- but the king has taken a pro- minent part in the foundation of the Congo Free State, of which he is the president. xliii] HOLLAND. 381 HOLLAND. (Continued from page 197.) William I (1815-1840). William II (1840-1849). William III (1849 ). The revolt of the Belgian provinces from the kingdom of the United Netherlands in 1830 had been hastened by the over- bearing government of William I, who governed almost without the intervention of the States-General, and neglected Belgian interests. The constitution of 1 8 1 4 left him nearly all power, for his ministers were not responsible to the States-General. The Upper House consisted of members nominated by the king. At last, after he had been forced to recognise Belgian independence, William I. abdicated in favour of his son. The latter soon restored a good understanding with Belgium, and improved the finances of his kingdom ; so the upheavals of 1848 caused no revolution in Holland, and only led to a thorough reform of its constitution. The Upper House of the States-General consists of mem- bers chosen for nine years by the estates or councils of the provinces, those of the Lower House by electors having a property qualification. The king's ministers are now respon- sible to the Parliament. Liberty of the press and of public worship is recognised. The chief questions in Holland have been the reduction of its heavy debt, the increase of its army and navy, the improve- ment of agriculture and commerce, and the management of large and difficult colonial possessions. Like Belgium, Holland has not adopted universal military service ; but, un- like her neighbour, she has to manage 28,000,000 subjects over the seas, mostly in Malaysia. She there holds all Java, parts of Borneo, Sumatra, Timor, the Moluccas, Celebes, and the western half of New Guinea ; in South America, Dutch Guiana and the Isle of Curacoa. 382 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. It was not till 1862 that the Dutch at a great cost freed the slaves in their West Indian possessions ; but their rule in Malaysia is still conducted with the main purpose of secur- ing revenue by means of an oppressive labour system. The Dutch claims in Sumatra are contested by the people Of Acheen in the northern part of that great island ; and the Dutch colonial army has never gained any decided advantage over them. The chief prosperity of Holland has been gained by the energy of its people in reclaiming vast tracts from the sea. It is now proposed to reclaim half of the Zuyder Zee, which was inundated by the sea in 1282. Holland is about half the size of Portugal, but nearly equals it in population, while its foreign trade is fifteen times as great. Most of the Dutch imports and exports consist, however, of German goods conveyed on the Rhine. The Dutch dairy produce ranks side by side with that of Normandy and Den- mark as the best on the continent. There are import duties on nearly all articles ; but trade and revenue increase, owing to the frugality and industry of the people. DENMARK. ( Continued from page 158.) Frederick VI (1808-1839). Frederick VII (1846-1863). Christian VIII (1839-1846). Christian IX (1863 ). Denmark is a maritime State about the size of Holland, has also lost its richer southern provinces, but, like Holland, owing to the vigour and industry of its people, has not succumbed in the struggle for existence. It numbers just over 2,000,000 inhabitants, but these are prosperous owing to their hardi- hood as sailors and their skill and industry in farming their own land. At the commencement of this century Norway as well as xliii] SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 383 the Schleswig-Holstein duchies were united under the Danish crown, but the feudal system prevailed through Denmark and the duchies. The land belonged only to the nobles and gentry, who owned the peasants as serfs. But soon the serfs were freed, and by gradual reforms the feudal system was abolished. During the last half-century the leasehold farms have been changed into freeholds, owned by some 70,000 yeomen farmers, and by double the number of peasant pro- prietors. So, though Denmark has lost Norway and the duchies, she has partly made up for these losses by strengthen- ing the base of her social system. Between 1866 and 1876 the value • of dairy produce and of cattle exported nearly doubled. These and other reforms were not completed with- out sharp opposition. The democratic majority in the Folke- thing or House of Commons was resisted year after year by different conservative ministries, supported by the Landsthing (Senate) and the king. After the State was brought almost to a deadlock, matters were at last arranged by a compromise. On Napoleon's intervention, a clause was inserted in the Treaty of Prague, that if a majority of citizens in North Schleswig should vote for union with Denmark, they should be so united. In 1868 Prussia offered to cede the northern districts if extensive guarantees were given for the rights of the Germans dwelling there ; but Denmark refused these guarantees, and finally Austria agreed that the above-named clause of the Treaty of Prague should be cancelled. Denmark has large but valueless possessions — Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and three small West Indian islands. The Danish royal house has given a king to Greece, one of its daughters will be Queen of England, and another Czarina of Russia. 384 A CENTURY OF CONTINENTAL HISTORY, [chap. SWEDEN AND NORWAY. (Continued from page 1 5 8.) Charles XIII (1809-1818). Oscar I (1844-1859). Charles XIV (1818-1844). Charles XV (1859-1872). Oscar II (1872 ). No country seemed to collapse more easily before Napoleon I 's opposition than Sweden. This was partly because its feudal system was ripe for overthrow. The whole land was divided into 1200 large estates, on which the nobles lived, surrounded by serfs. There was then no middle class and no manu- factures, for these had been prohibited in order to encourage agriculture. But in 1828 the prohibitory duties were repealed, and the manufacture of iron, in which Sweden is rich, increased at once. The forcible union of democratic Norway with a feudal monarchy like Sweden had been effected with difficulty after a demonstration by the British fleet in 1814. Bernadotte, against Napoleon's desire, had been proclaimed heir to the Swedish crown, and in 18 18 he succeeded to it. In 1824 the difficulties with Norway led him to name his son Oscar as vice-king of Norway, which he succeeded in reconciling to the Swedish connection. Oscar came to the crown of both lands in 1844, and soon strengthened his kingdom and the Berna- dotte dynasty by wise reforms. Thus he conciliated Norway by granting her her own flag. Her government, her laws, and executive were, and still are, quite distinct from Sweden. In the latter country he abolished trade-guilds, and in other ways freed trade from its remaining fetters ; he also commenced railways, reformed the prisons, and placed restrictions on the sale of brandy, which was demoralising his people. So Sweden pursued her course of peaceful progress undisturbed by the movements of 1848, except that the cry for reform was strengthened. xliii] SWEDEN AND NORWA Y. 385 On the death of Oscar I (1859) his son Charles XV suc- ceeded him, and in the following year the patriarchal divisions of government and society called for reform. There were still four Orders or Estates, viz. Nobles, Clergy, Citizens, and Peasants. The division of Parliament into these four Chambers favoured the intervention of the Crown, which could generally oppose one Chamber to the others. Charles XV in i860 paved the way for a general reform by instituting provincial and communal assemblies. The sympathy of Sweden with its Danish kinsfolk in 1863 an d 1864 postponed the new con- stitution till 1865 ; but in that year Sweden modernised her Parliament, which henceforth consisted of two Chambers. The Upper House is composed of wealthy members elected by provincial assemblies ; the Lower House of members elected by all tax-paying citizens. The nobles and clergy lost their special privileges, and religious liberty was proclaimed. Thus the Swedes, of all entirely European peoples, were the last to gain constitutional government on a modern basis. Norway has jealously maintained all her constitutional rights against any infringement by Sweden, and the two lands are united only by the "golden link'' of the crown. Her shipping has increased enormously. There is as much comfort and well-balanced prosperity in the Scandinavian peninsula as in any part of Europe. In 1872 the death of Charles XV brought to the throne his brother, Oscar II, who still reigns. Sweden concerns her- self little with foreign affairs, though she is friendly to the Central European Alliance. Alone of almost all large conti- nental countries, her revenue equals her expenditure, and she is not burdened by a large debt. She has only one small colony, viz. St. Bartholomew in the West Indian Islands. APPENDIX I. RULERS OF EUROPE. FRANCE. Louis XVI 1 774- 1 792 (Louis XVII.) 1st Republic 1 792 -1 804 Napoleon I 1804-1814 Louis XVIII 1814-1824 Charles X . 1 824- 1 830 Louis Philippe 1 8 30- 1 848 2d Republic 1 848-! 85 3 Napoleon III 1853-1870 3d Republic 1870 •Bog o ^ S J AUSTRIA. /'Joseph II . 1765-1790 w a Leopold II 1 790- 1 792 1 792- 1804 1804- 1835 [3 ^> V. Francis II I"! S ( FrancisI ;3 2 5 J (the preceding). g p,J j Ferdinand IV 1835-18 ? I Francis Joseph 18 # 1—1 L> W X t— 1 n O & CO w O P* 1— ( H < 2; H a H / 13 \ 1 i O MS 00 *OMD J^. 1 1 £ *-- t|- a\ co ro o J 1 co to N m 1 > ( ^o N CO""> g g ^ N «^o < / ^VO 1 '-' ( f g lOvO 1^ "^t N t-" 1 1 o >0 r)- W hh co W 1 I ^ J > s KH H W H H rH < O O O Q O O o o OOOOOOOO o g o o 5 o o o^ o^ o o^ o n O o o oooooooo « ■2 o o^ oq^oooooo < ** -^>ON00 N ti rt O h Pi ~ -a c a o O 00 >0 00 w *•>. i-O M O N ^ m *tf- COCO O O a. oo co lon^o -d- Nhh « HH hi vO m co l-l w o c « .2 h N N "O in>sD •-« N O ^■N fn fOOO i^ »j^oo K 'i VO Oi "T*D "~i "*> W >-t MOO W CO 1-1 t-H O MM H Oh d •"" s ~' o H O Q O O O O O o o o o §§ oooooooo OOOOOOOO o o o o o o OOOOOOOO Q o o o o o o o o o o o o o doocToooo oooooooo j o o S NVO00 O ■^-^O « ■*■ t~* co G\ G** co cr> rovo i^itsio^ I-^OO 1-^vO « tJ-wn 'tH O ^f In co ro tj- moo M £ S S-l . O w o * • * % ■' ^i rt S . S T3 a> S * rt T3 Denmark Holland . Belgium . Switzerland Portugal . Greece Danubian St Turkey Unite Franc Germ Austr Russi; Italy CO C/3 •a « g 1 *e i-.a O OT3 H rt w INDEX. Aargau, 200. Abd-el-Kader, 214, 215. Abdul Aziz, 362. Abdul Meschid, Sultan, 349. Aberdeen, Lord, 334, 352. Aboukir Bay, 67. Aboukir, Battle of, 68. Acad^mie Francaise, 169. Acheen, 381. Acre, Battle at, 213. Addington Cabinet, 83. Adrianople, 364, 366. Adrianople, Treaty of, 193. Afghanistan, 358. Agram, 323. Aix-la-Chapelle, Conference at, 165. Alaska, 357. Albania, 360. Albuera, Battle of, 105. Alessandria, 183, 328. Alexander I, 78, 94, 96, no, 118, 126, 132, 137 (note), 150, 151, I7S. r 78, 198. Death of, 191. Alexander II, 352. Reforms of, 354-356. Death, 370. Alexander III, 370-372. Alexander, Prince, 367, 368. Alexandria, 66, 213. Alexinatz, Battle of, 362. Algeria, Conquest of, 214-216. Algiers, 170, 171, 215. Ali Pacha, 188, 190. Allvinzi, General, 60. Alma, Battle of the, 351. Alphonso XII (Spain), 374-376. Alsace, 18, 151, 153, 274, 303, 314, 3*5- Alsen, Isle of, 293. Amadeo I (Spain), 373, 374. Amberg, Battle of, 57. American War of Independence, 11. Amiens, 311 ; Peace of, 78, 79. Amnesty (1859), 260. (1880), 283. Ancients, Council of, 74. Ancona, 119, 202, 203, 338. Andrassy, Count, 324. Note, the, 361. Angouleme, Due d', 185. Ankerstrom murders Gustavus, 27. Antibes, 145. Antwerp, 38, 124, 196, 197. Arabi Pacha, 284. Arago, M., 232. Aragon, 226, 227. Archbishop of Paris, 233, 277. Archduke Charles, 57, 71, 79, 89. Arcis-sur-Aube, Battle of, 141. Areola, Battle of, 60. Argonne, the, 305. Armed Neutrality League, 78. Armistice (1870), 273. Arndt, 107, 176. Artois, Comte d', 144. Aspern, Battle of, 114. Assembly, Constituent, 17, 19. Assembly, Legislative, decrees of, 24. Foreign policy of, 26. Assignats, 18, 63. Asturias, 100. Athens, 190. INDEX. 393 Aube, R., 141. Auerstadt, Battle of, 92. Augereau, Marshal, 63, 87, 130. Augsburg, 80. Augustenburg, Prince of, 292, 293. Aumale, Due d', 210, 213, 217, 280. Aurelle de Paladines, General, 271, 309, 310. Austerlitz, 89. Austria, 29, 51, 77, 79, 88, no, 117, I3S-I39, 153. 154, i55> 221-224, 238-243, 258, 259, 261, 270, 286, 287, 292-297, 318. Austria- Hungary, 320-326. Austria, in Bosnia, 365, 366. in Italy, 328, 329. Avignon, 23, 79, 152, 164. Azeglio, Count d', 328. Azov, Sea of, 353. Badajoz, 104. Baden, 80, 88, 153, 174, 244, 246, 247, 289, 313, 316. Bailly, 12. Bakunin, 370. Balaclava, Battle of, 351. Balance of Power, 251. Balkans, the, 325, 364, 366, 368. Baltic Powers, the, 78. Bamberg, Battle of, 80. Bapaume, Battle of, 311. Barclay, General, 131. Bar-le-Duc, 305. Barnave, 22. Barossa, Battle of, 104. Barras, 53, 55, 74. Basle, 80, 141, 200; Peace of, 51, 52. Basque Provinces, 226, 374, 375. Bastille, n, 12, 19. Bastille, Place de la, 172. Batavian Republic (see Netherlands) . Batoum, 367. Batthyanyi, 240. Bautzen, 136. Bavaria, 62, 63, 80, 88, 90, in, 116, 138, 139, 174, 177. 244, 286, 298, 313, 316, 317. Baylen, Battle of, 101. Bayonne, treachery of, 99. Bazaine, Marshal, 266, 302, 303, 307-309. Bazeilles, 305, 306. Beaconsfield, Lord, 358, 361, 365. Beauharnais, Eugene, in, 113, 114, 130, 140. Beauharnais, Josephine, 57, 117. Beaulieu, General, 59. Beaumont, Battle of, 305. Bed of justice, 8. Belfort, 166, 274, 309, 310, 311. Belgium, 144, 145, 195, 197, 260, 379, 380. Belgrade, 360. Belleville, 272, 275, 277. Bern, General, 242. Benedek, General, 296, 331. Benedetti, Count, 265, 301. Bennigsen, General, 94. Bentinck, Lord, 156, 186, 181. Beresford, General, 104. Beresina, passage of, 132, 133. Berg, Duchy of, 91. Berlin, 134, 135, 137, 244, 246, 318; Conference, the, 325 ; decrees, 93 ; Note, the, 361 ; Treaty of, 365, 366 ; university of, 107. Bernadotte, 87, 88, 97, 128, 137, 138 ; reigns as Charles XIV, 384. Berne, 64, 159, 380. Berri, Due de, 166 ; Duchesse de, 208. Besancon, 310, 311. Besika Bay, 349, 361. Bessarabia, 128, 156. Bessieres, General, 130. Beust, Count, 289, 298, 318, 321, 324- Bialystock, 95, 156. Biarritz, 293. Bilbao, 227, 228, 374. Bismarck, 264, 270, 290, 299, 315- 3*9. 3 6 5- Bitsch, 270, 309. Bizerta, 284. Black Sea, the, 354 ; Conference, the, 357. Blucher, General, 138, 141, 146, 150. 394 INDEX. Blum, 241. Bohemia, 29, 239, 321, 323. Bohemian Campaign, the, 295, 296. Bologna, 61, 155, 202, 331, 332. Bomarsund, 353. Bona, 214. Bonaparte, 274. See Napoleon I. Bonaparte family, 149, 274. Bonaparte, Victor, 283. Bordeaux, 253. , , resists Jacobin rule, 43. Borny, Battle of, 303. Borodino, Battle of, 131. Bosnia, 323, 325, 326, 348, 330, 359. 305. 3 6 6. Bosphorus, 213. Bosquet, General, 352. Bouille, General, 19, 23. Boulogne, 88, 211, 212, Bourbaki, General, 310, 311. Bourbons, French (elder line), 3, 143 ; (younger line), 217. Bourges, 310. Bourmont, General, 170, 171, 225. Brazil, 186-187. Bremen, 80, 118, 136, 139, 154, 299, 316. Brescia, 235. Breslau, 92, 135. Brieg, 92. Brienne, Finance Minister, 4, 8. Brigandage, 181, 369. Brisson, M. , 283. Brissot, 24, 26. Britain, Great. See England. Brittany, 52, 310. Broglie, Due de, 273, 279, 280, 283. Bruges, 70. Brumaire, coup d'etat of, 74. Brune, General, 64, 77, 164. Brunswick, 154, 197, 299. Brunswick, Duke of, 34, 38, 91. Brussels, 38, 196. Bucharest, Treaty of, 188. Buda-Pesth, 322. Buffet, M., 283. Bug, river, 156. Bugeaud, Marshal, 215, 231. Bulgaria, 350, 360, 361, 366, 367, 368. Biilow, General, 138, 141. Byron, Lord, 189, 190. Cabrera, General, 227. Cadoudal, plot of, 84. Cadiz, 185, 374. Caen resists Jacobin rule, 43, 45. Cairoli, 345. Calabria, 335, 337. Calonne, 4. Camarilla, r84. Cambrai, 311. Camille Desmoulins, 22, 48. Camperdown, Battle of, 66. Campo Formio, Treaty of, 62. Canaris, 190. Canning, 184, 186, 187. Canovas, 375. Canrobert, Marshal, 215. Cantons, French, 17. Cape Colony, 51. Capodistrias, 192. Caprera, 337-338. Carbonari, the, 167, i8r, 182. Carlists, the, 227, 229, 374. Carlos, Don, 226. Carlsruhe, 244. Carnic Alps, 62. Carniola, 116. Carnot, 53, 55. Caroline Isles, the, 376. Cartagena, 374. Casimir Perier, 169, 203, 208, 273, 280. Cassel, 287, 297. Castelar, 374. Castelfidardo, Battle of, 336. Castiglione, Battle of, 60. Castlereagh, Lord, 184. Catalonia, 104, 185, 227. Catherine, Czarina, 27, 51. Caucasus, Province of, 200. Cavaignac, 209, 215, 233, 252, 253. 254. Cavour, Count, 259, 328-338. Cayenne, 283. Central Alliance, 318, 319. Cetate, Battle of, 350. Ceylon, 51, 78. Chalons, 266, 303, 305, 307. INDEX. 395 Chambord, Comte de, 166, 279, 280. Champigny, 307, 308. Championnet, General, 6g, 73. Chancellor, Austrian, 321. German, 316. Changarnier, General, 215, 254. Chanzy, General, 271, 310. Charette, 56. Charlemagne, go. Charles III (Spain), 99. Charles IV { „ ), 99. Charles, Archduke, 112-115. Charles X (France), 13, 144, 168- 172. Charles Felix (Sardinia), 183. Charles Albert ( ,, ), 201, 202, 204, 235. Charles XIII (Sweden), 97. Charles XV ( ,, ), 384. Charles, Prince (Roumania), 358. Charles, King ( ,, ), 368. Charter, the (of 1814), 143, 169. remodelled, 207. Chartres, Due de, 217. Chateaubriand, 122, 165. Chatham, Earl of, 118. Chatillon, 272. Cherbourg, 123, 171. Chevalier, M., 260. Chios, 190. Chlum, Heights of, 296. " Chouannerie, " 73. Christian VIII (Denmark), 292. Christian IX ( ,, ), 292. Christina, Queen (Spain), 226, 227, 376. Church Lands, 18. Cialdini, General, 340. Cintra, Convention of, 102. Cisalpine Republic, 80. Cissey, De, 283. Clergy, French, 6, 18, 124. Clinchant, General, 311. Clootz, Anacharsis, 22. Clotilde, Princess, 330. Club, Jacobins', 20, 24, 49. Cordeliers', 20, 21. Coalitions, 97 (note). Coalition, First (1793), 42. Coalition, Second, 69-78. Third, 88. Cobden, 260. Coblentz, Emigres at, 23. Cochin-China, 285. Code Napoleon, 123, 316. Colberg, 92. Commune of Paris (1792), 35, 36. organises massacres, 37. suppressed, 49. Commune, the (1871), 275-277. Como, Lake, 330. Comte d'Artois, 4. Comte de Paris, 216, 217, 231, 279, 280, 283. Concordat (French), 81. (Austrian), 324. Concorde, Place de la, 52, 231. Condorcet, 24. Confederation, German, 173-177, 291, 292, 293, 294. Confederation, North German, 298- 299. 3 I 3- 3*5- Conscription, 71, 251, 252. Constance, 80. Constantine (Algeria), 215. Constantine, Grand Duke, 198. Constantinople, 189, 362, 365. Constituent Assembly (1789), 17-24. (1848), 232, 252. (Prussian), 246. Constitution, Austrian, 320-323. Belgian, 380. Bulgarian, 368. Dutch, 381. French (1791), 18, 19 ; (1799). 74-76; (1814), 143; (1848), 252 ; (1851), 255- 26 3 I (1875), 281. German (1871), 315. North German (1866), 299. Portuguese (1822), 186 ; (1836), 226. Prussian (1850), 246. Sicilian, 180, 181. Spanish (1812), 105, 182, 185, 227, 228, 375. Swedish (1875), 384, 385. Swiss, 247, 377, 378. Consulate, Bonaparte's, 74-77. 396 INDEX. Continental System, 93, 97, 118, 140. Contrat Social, 7. Convent Bill, the, 329. Convention, French (1792), 39, 44. declares war (1792), 42. regains power, 49. successes of, 50, 53. the September, 337, 341. Copenhagen bombarded, 78, 96. Corday, Charlotte, 45. Cordova, 101. Corn Laws, the (France), 229. (Piedmont), 328. Corps Legislatif, 87, 255, 263, 266, 269. Corsica, 61. Cortes, the Spanish, 105, 184, 185, 227, 228, 373-375. Corunna, 103. Corvees, 4, 6, 8. Coulmiers, Battle of, 271, 309. Councils, Russian, 371. Coup d'etat (1799), 74 ; (1851), 254. 255- Cracow, 157, 198, 223. Cremona, 235. Crete, 348, 369. Crimea, 156. Crimean War, the, 348-354. Crispi, 334, 345. Croatia, 116, 224, 239, 240, 321, 3 2 3- Cuba, 376. Cumberland, Duke of, 218, 219. Custine, 38, 43. Custozza, first Battle of, 235. second Battle of, 340. Cyprus, 367. Dalmatia, 62, 90, 113, 321, 324. Damascus, 261. Danton, account of, 21, 22 ; Min- ister of Justice, 36 ; organises massacres, 37 ; executed, 48. Danube, River, 193, 222, 223. Danubian Provinces, no. Danubian States, the, 354. Danzig, 51, 139. Dardanelles, the, 365. Darmstadt, 244. Davoust, 115, 129, 130, 136, 137, 139- Davoust, Marshal, 87, 91. Deak, 224, 243, 320, 321, 323. Debts, National, 161, 390. Decazes, Minister of Louis XVIII, 166. De Launey, 12. Delegations, the Austro- Hungarian, 322. Delescluze, 275. Denmark, 78, 128, 140, 154, 382, 383- and the Duchies, 291-293. Dennewitz, Battle of, 138. Departments, French, 17. Depretis, 345. Deputies, Chamber of, 143, 282, 320. Derby, Lord, 259. Desaix, 76. Diebitsch, General, 193, 199. Dijon, 253, 311. Directory, French, the, 53, 56-64. Dniester, River, 188, 193. Dobrudscha, the, 366. Doctrinaires, the, 209. Donchery, 306, 307. Douro, Passage of the, 104. Drave, River, 240. Dresden, 197, 244. Dresden, Battle of, 138. Drissa, 130. Druses, the, 261. Dual Control, 284. Dual System, 321-324. Duclerc, M., 283. Ducrot, General, 307, 313. Dufaure, M. , 273, 278, 282, 283. Dulcigno, 366. Dumouriez at Valmy, 37 ; flies to Austrians, 43. Dunkirk, Siege of, 44, 47. Dupanloup, Bishop, 280. Diippel, Battle at, 292. Eastern Question, the, 152, 346, 359-374- Eckmiihl, Battle of, in. INDEX. 397 Education, Italian, 343, 345 ; Russian, 356 ; Swiss, 378. Electoral Law, (1820), 166 ; (1830), 207 ; (1850), 253. Egypt, 66, 68, 212, 284. Egyptian forces in Greece, 190, 192. Ehrenbreitstein taken by French, 70. Elba, 142 ; escape from, 145. Emancipation, Prussian, 106. Emperors' League, the three, 318. Emperor, the, Leopold, 26, 27, 28. Francis II, 26. Empire, the First. See Napoleon I. Empire, the Second French, 256- 268. Empire, Holy Roman, 28, 42, 90. Enghien, Due d', 84. England, 65, 88, 93, 126, 157, 251, 292, 293, 369. Epirus, 189, 3S9. 3°9- Erfurt, 80, 102, 286. Erzeroum, 193, 363, 364. Espartero, 227. Essling, Battle of, 112, 114. Eugenie, Empress, 257, 266. Evora, 225. Ewald, 219. Eylau, Battle of, 94. Faidherbe, General, 311. Failley, General de, 302, 305. Falckenstein, General von, 295. Fallieres, M., 283. Faroe Isles, 158. Favre, Jules, 263, 265, 269, 274, 278, 283. Federal Council, the German, 316. Ferdinand I (Austria), 222, 223, 238-241. Ferdinand IV (Naples), 69, 77. Ferdinand I (Two Sicilies), 155, 156, 181-183. Ferdinand II (Two Sicilies), 201, 234-237> 334- Ferdinand VII (Spain), 99, 105, 184-186, 226. Ferdinand (L. Philippe's heir), 213, 217. Ferrara, 61, 234. Ferry, Jules, 263, 265, 269, 283. Feudalism. See Appendix II in France, 4-6, 14. in Prussia, 106, 107. in Austria, 29, 30, 240, 247. in Spain, 103. in Denmark, 382. in Sweden, 384. Fieschi, 210. Finland, 127, 156, 371. Flanders, Dutch, 79. Fleurus, Battle of, 50. Floquet, M., 275, 283. Florence, 339. Flourens, 272. Fontainebleau, 124, 142. Forbach, Battle of, 302. Fouche, 147, 164, 165. Foullon, 14. Fourier, 230. France before Revolution, 1-9 ; dur- ing Revolution, 10-25, 34 - 38 ; the First Republic, 39-43 ; Reign of Terror, 44-49 ; Convention, 50-55 ; Directory, 56-64, 69-73 : Consulate, 74-77 ; First Empire, 86-97, 119-126 ; the Restoration, 143-148 ; under Bourbons, 163- 172 ; under Louis Philippe, 205-217, 231-233 ; the Second Republic, 252-254 ; the Second Empire, 257 - 267 ; the Third Republic, 269-285. Francis I, "The Emperor," 31. Francis II (the same as Hereditary Emperor of Austria), 88, 136, 221, 222. Francis Joseph (Austria), 241-243, 321-326. Francis I (Two Sicilies), 201. Francis II (Two Sicilies), 334-336. Franco-German War, the, 301-313. Frankfurt, 38, 43, 80, 154, 218, 244, 287, 295, 297 ; Treaty of, 3*4. 3 J S- Frederick the Great, reign of, 31, 32. Frederick William II, 32, 33, 51, 52. Frederick William III, 79, 91, no, 134, 135. I 37. 175. 176. 219. 398 INDEX. Frederick William IV, 219-221, 245-247, 286-289. Frederick (Crown Prince), 295, 296, 3°i. 3 J 4. 3!5- Frederick Charles, Prince, 295, 301, 308, 309. Free Cities, 80, 118, 299, 317. Free Trade (France), 260. (Piedmont), 328. French Guards, n, 12, 16. Freycinet, M. de, 283. Friedland, Battle of, 95. Frimont, General, 183. Frossard, General, 302, 304. Fuentes d'Onoro, 104. Fulda, 287. Gaeta, 236, 336. Galatz, 363. Galicia, 29, 52, 116, 153, 239, 321, 324- Gambetta, 263, 265, 269-271,273- 275. 283, 3Q9-3 11 - Garde Mobile, 264, 265, 273, 279. Garibaldi, 236-238, 270, 311, 330, 334-336, 340, 341, 345. Gastein Convention, the, 293. Geneva, 64, 79, 119, 159, 380. Genoa, 58, 71, 73, 75, 76, 121, 156, 180, 203. Genola, Battle of, 71. George V (Hanover), 289, 295, 299. George I (Greece), 369. Georgia, 157. Gervinus, 219. German Confederation (18 15), the, IS3. I S4. 297. German Empire, the, 313-319. Germany, 28-31, 105-109, 173-178, 218, 219, 243-247, 286-301, 314- 3 IQ - Girardin, M. , 231. Girondists, the, 24, 25, 27, 40, 43. Fall of, 44, 45, 46. Gitschin, 296. Gladstone, Mr., on Naples, 334. Gneisenau, 92. GSbens, General, 311. Goblet, M., 283. Godollo, Battle of, 242. Godoy, 99. Goltz, General von der, 303. Gomez, 227. Gorgei, 242, 243. Gottingen University, 219. Greece, 191-193, 359, 369. Greek risings, 184, 189-192. Goethe, 102. Gortschakoff, 353. Graham, General, 104. Gramont, Due de, 265, 301. Gravelotte, Battle of, 304. Gregory XVI, Pope, 202. Grenoble, 145. Grfvy, M. , 273, 282. Grimm, 219. Grochow, Battle of, 199. Grouchy, 146. Guizot, 201, 205, 209-211, 216, 230, 231. Gustavus III, of Sweden (1792), 27. Gustavus IV (Sweden), 70, 94, 96,97. Gymnasia, 107. Gyulay, Count, 330. Ham, Castle of, 212. Hamburg, 80, 118, 136, 139, 154, 2 99> 3*6, 3i7- Hanau, Battle of, 139. Hanover, 84, 153, 154, 177, 197, 198, 218, aig 244, 286, 289, 294, 295- annexed to Prussia, 297, 299, 3*7- Hapsburg, House of, 29, 112, 117, I5S. 2 4i, 242, 318. Hardenberg, 79, 107, 108, 152, 176. Haussmann, M., 268. Haynau, General, 235, 243. H^bertists, the, 47. Heddersdorf, Battle of, 57. Heligoland, 157. Heliopolis, Battle of, 68. Helvetic Republic, the, 80, 159. He>icourt, Battle of, 311. Herwarth, General, 295. Herzegovina, 359, 360, 361, 365. Hesse, 80, 153, 154, 174, 177, 197, 198, 244, 286-289, 2 95j 297, 298, 2 99> 313. 3i6. INDEX. 399 Hetaeria, Greek, 198. Hiller, General, 296. Hobart Pacha, 363. Hoche, Genera], 47, 52, 56, 57, 62, 63- Hofer, rouses Tyrol, in, 112. Hohenlinden, Battle of, 76. Hohenzollern, House of, 265. Candidature, the, 300, 301. Hohenzollern - Sigmaringen, Prince of, 288. Holland, see Netherlands. Holstein, 158,. 287, 291-297, 301, 3 r 7. 383- Holy Alliance, the, 151, 175, 185. Holy Places, the, 348. Hondschoote, Battle of, 47. Honveds, the Hungarian, 240. Hospodar (Roumanian), 188. Houchard, General, 47. Howe, Lord, 65. Hugo, Victor, 254, 263, 274, 275. Humbert, King, 346. Hundred Days, the, 145. Hungary, 29, 112, 114, 116, 222- 224, 239-243, 247 (note), 320- 325- Ibrahim, 191. Ibrail, 193. Iceland, 158. Ignatief, Count, 362. Ildefonso, St. , Treaty of, 84. Illuminati, Society of, 32. Illyria, 116, 153. Indemnity War, of 1807, 95 ; of 1866, 298 ; of 1871, 274, 315. Indo-China, 285. Inkermann, Battle of, 351, 352. Inn, Valley of, 89. Innspriick, 239. Inquisition, the, 103, 180, 181. Ionian Isles, 70, 78, 157, 369. Irredentist Agitation, the, 324. Isabella II (Spain), 226, 227, 373, 374- Istria, 62, 90, 324. Italy, before 1796, 58, 79. kingdom of (1805-1814), 87, 119, 121, 155. Italy, reconstructed, 155, 179-184, 201, 204, 233-238, 259, 260, 270, 294, 297, 318, 319, 327-345- kingdom of (from i860), 337- 347- Jacobins, the, 18, 40, 46, 49, 52, S3- Jacquerie, 13. Polish, 223. Janina, 190. Janissaries, 192. J assy, 189. Java, 381. Jellachich, 240, 241, 243. Jemappes, Battle of, 38. Jena, Battle of, 91. Jesuits, the, 185, 186, 200,317, 342. Jerome Bonaparte, 95, 140. Prince, 149, 283, 330, 332. Jervis, Admiral, 66. John, Archduke, in, 114, 115. John, King (Saxony), 321. John VI (Portugal), 186. Joinville, Prince de, 217. Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, 91. as King of Spain, 100, 101, 103, 149. Joseph II (Emperor), reforms of, 3°- Jourdan, General, 47, 50, 56, 71, 87. Junker, 221. Junot, General, 67, 98. Jura, Mts. , 311. Jury, trial by, 18. Kairouan, 285. Kaiserslautern, Battles at, 50. Kars, 193, 3S3, 363, 364, 367. Kaufmann, General, 358. Kellermaim, 37, 47, 76, 87. Kertch, 353. Khiva, 358. Kiel, Peace of, 140. Kleber, General, 43, 67, 68. Komorn, fortress of, 243. Kbniggratz, Battle of, 296. Konigsberg, 95, 219. 400 INDEX. Koraes, 189. Korner, 107. Korsakoff, General, 72. Kosciusko, rising of, 44, 51. Kossuth, 201, 224, 237, 239. Kotzebue, 176. Kovno, 130, 133. Kulm, Pass of, 138. Kusa, Alexander, 355. Kustendje, 366. Kiistrin, 92. Kutusoff, 131, 132. Lafayette, 8, 13, 16, 19, 23, 35, 36, 116, 208. La Marmora, General, 340, 341. Lamartine, 230-232, 237. Lameths, the, 22, 253. Lamoriciere, General, 215, 254. Landsturm, the, 134. Landwehr (Prussian), 134, 220. (Swiss), 379. Langensalza, Battle of, 295. Langiewicz, General, 356. Langson, French at, 285. Lannes, Marshal, 113. Laon, Battle at, 141. Lassalle, the Socialist, 317. Latour, Austrian War Minister, 241. Lauenburg, 118, 158, 291, 293. Laybach, Congress at, 178, 182. Leboeuf, Marshal, 265. Le Bourget, sortie to, 272. Lecomte, General, 275. Ledru-Rollin, 232, 237, 253. Legations, the, 202, 329. Legislative Assembly, the French, 24, 25. 33- Body, the, 122. (of 1851), 255, 263, 266. Legitimists, the, 253, 279, 280. Legnago, fortress of, 331. Leipzig, 197. Battle of, 138. Le Mans, Battle near, 310. Leo XIII, 346. Leoben, Armistice of, 62. Leopold II (Emperor), 31. Leopold I (Belgium), 196, 379. Leopold II (Belgium), 379. Leopold, Prince (Hohenzollern), 300. Liancourt, Due de, 12. Liberum Veto, the Polish, 198 (note). Liege, Bishopric of (in 1789), 33. Ligny, 146. Lisbon, 186, 225. Lissa, Battle off, 340. Lithuania, 51, 130, 199, 357. Lobau Island, 112, 113. Lockroy, M. , 275. Lodi, Battle of, 59. Loire, Campaign on the, 308-310. Lombardy, 153, 180, 234, 260. freed, 330-332. Lonato, Battle at, 60. London, Conference at (1830), 196. (1867), 264. London, Treaty of, 292. Longwy, fall of (1792), 37. Lorraine, 142, 151, 274, 303, 315. Louis XIV, 2. Louis XV, 3. Louis XVI, 3-5, 19; 35. Execution of, 41. Louis XVII, 143. Louis XVIII, 143-145, 163-168. Louis Philippe (Egalit£) 22, 217. Execution of, 46. Louis Philippe, 43, 196, 199, 205- 217. fall of, 230, 231. Louis I, King (Bavaria), 177, 218. Louis Napoleon, King of Holland, 91, 118, 149. Louis Blanc, 232, 237, 274, 275. Louisiana, 83, 84, 157. Louvain, Battle near, 197. Louvre, the, 171, 277. Lubeck, 80, 118, 139, 154, 299, 316. Lucca, 58, 121. Lucien Bonaparte, 74. Lucerne, 159, 200, 201, Luiz I (Portugal), 226, 376. Luneville, Treaty of, 77, 80. Ltitzen, Battle of, 135. Luxemburg, 30, 154, 196, 197. Question, the, 264. Lyons, 41, 44. INDEX. 401 Lyons renamed, 46. riots at, 208, 209, 253, 276. MACDONALD, General, 77, ri3, 115, *3°. 131. 138- Macedonia, 359, 366, 369. Mack, General, 69, 88. MacMahon, 215, 266, 276, 277. as President of Republic, 279-282. in Franco-German War, 302- 306. in Italy, 330, 331. Madagascar, 285. Madrid, 99-101, 105, 185. Maestricht, fortress of, 196. Magdeburg, taken by French, 92. Magenta, Battle of, 330, 331. Magnano, Battle of, 71. Magyars (see Hungary). Mahmoud, Sultan, 190-194. Maida, Battle of, 119. Mainz (Mayence), 38, 43, 176, 301. Maison, General, 192. Malaga, Communists at, 374. Malakoff Tower, the, 353. Malta, 66, 68, 83, 157-. Mamelukes, 66, 67. Manin, 63, 235, 236. Mannheim, 176, 244. Manteuffel, General, 294, 311. Mantua, fortress of, 58, 59, 61, 33i. 332- Marat, 23, 36, 45. Marches, the, 333, 337. Marengo, Battle of, 76. Maria Louisa, 117, 147. Maria, Queen (Portugal), 186, 225, 376. Maria Theresa, 4, 29. Marie Antoinette, 4, 26, 45. Marmont, 105, 142, 171. Marne, River, 141, 307. Maronites, the, 261. Marseilles, 41, 208, 276. Marseillais, march to Paris, 35. Marseillaise, national hymn, 35, 46. Mars La Tour, Battle of, 303. Mass^na, Marshal, 71, 87, 89, 104, "5- Maupas, de, 254. Maximilian, Archduke (in Mexico), 262. Maximilian II (Bavaria), 289. Maximum, law of, 45. May Laws, the German, 317. Mazzini, 201, 204, 236, 237, 334, 336, 342, 344, 345. Mecklenburg, Duchy of, 135, 154, 299. Mehemet Ali, 190, 193, 212, 213. Melas, General, 73,. 75, 76. Melikoff, Loris, 370. Memel, 134. the decrees of, 106. Menou, General, 68. Menschikoff, Prince, 348, 351. Mentana, fight at, 264, 341. Merv, gained by Russia, 358. Messina, 235, 335. Metternich, 116, 136, 151, 156, 175, 178, 201, [218, 221, 224, 2 34. 239. z 4°- Metz, 151 (note), 265, 266, 302, 303-30S. 308, 309, 3*5- Mexican Expedition, the, 261, 262. Midhat Pacha, 362. Mieroslawski, General, 356. Miguel, Don, 186, 225, 226. Milan, 58, 76, 119, 230, 234, 235, 33°. 33 1 - decrees, 123. Milan, Prince, 361. Milan, King, 368. Milazzo, 335. Mincio, River, 89, 331, 340. Minghetti, ministry of, 338. Mir, the, 371. Mirabeau, in clubs, n ; his plans, death, 22 ; his opinion of Prussian court, 32. Missolonghi, 190. Modena, 58, 121, 155, 179, 183, 202, 331-333. Moldavia, 96, 188, 189, 348, 349, 35o. Moltke, General von, 210, 211, 295, 296, 301-315. Mons, taken (1792), 38. Montebello, Battle of, 330. D 402 INDEX. Montenegro, 360, 366. Montereau, Battle at, 141. Montmartre, heights of, 142, 275. Montmgdy, 305. Montpensier, Due de, 217, 373. Montretout, 313. Moore, Sir John, 103. Morava, River, 365, 366. Moravia, 239, 297, 321, 323. Morea, the, 189, 190. Moreau, General, 56, 57, 71, 76, 77. 85, 137. 138. Morocco, 376. Mortier, 84, 96, 113, 142, 210. Moscow, 131, 132. Moselle, River, 301, 303. Mounier, 8. " Mountain," party in assembly, 24. oppose war (1792), 27, 40. Mt. Cenis Pass, 76, 123. Mt. Valerien, fort, 275, 313. Mtihlhausen annexed to France, 64. Miinchengratz, 296. Munich, 177, 244, 313. Miinster, 79. Murad V, 362. Murat, fall of, 87, 91, 100, 101, 119, 130, 131, 140, 155. Muravieff, General, 353, 357. Nachod, Battle of, 296. Nagy-Salo, Battle of, 242. Nakhimoff, Admiral, 349. Nancy, 19, 305. Naples, kingdom of, 88 ; goes to Joseph Bonaparte, 91 ; to Murat, 101, 114, 140 ; Bourbons re- stored, 181, 182 ; (in 1848), 230, 2 34' 2 3S I freed by Garibaldi, 232-234. Napoleon I, youth of, 46, 57 j Italian Campaign, 59-61 ; in Egypt, 66-68 ; consulate, 74-77, 80-84 I emperor, 86-88 ; conquers Austria; 89 ; and Prussia, 90-95 ; and Spain, 99-104; arouses Germany, 106 - 108 ; crushes Austria, 111-115 ; Austrian mar- riage, 116 ; system of, 1 18-126 ; in Russian War, 129-133; in War of Liberation, 134-142 ; the Hundred Days, 145, 146 ; abdi- cation and exile, 147 ; remarks on, 147, 148. Napoleon I, remains brought to Paris, 211. Napoleon II, 147, 149. Napoleon III, youth of, 211, 212 ; president of French Republic, 237. 2S3. 25S; emperor, 256- 266. and Italy, 330-337. in Franco-German War, 300- 306. fall of, 266, 267 ; remarks on, 267, 268. Napoleon - Joseph (see Jerome Napoleon). Narvaez, 373. National Assembly (of 1789), 9, 10, 14, 16, 19 ; (of 1871), 273-282. National Defence, Government of, 266, 269-273. National Guards (1789), 13, 15, 19; after Restoration, 169, 206, 230, 233, 270, 272, 273, 279. Navarino, Battle of, 190, 191. Navarre, 226, 227, 374, 375. Necker, 4, n, 20. Neerwinden, Battle of, 43. Nelson, 66. Nemours, Due de, 216, 217. Netherlands, Austrian, the, 30, 31, 33, 62, 79, 153. Netherlands, Dutch, 33, 42 ; con- quered by French, 51, 56, 70, 84; a kingdom (1806), 90 ; absorbed in French Empire, 118 ; House of Orange restored, 140, 145, I 54. J S 8 ; secession of Belgium, 1Q 5- IQ 7 ; since 1841, 380-382. Neufchatel, 64, 159, 200, 288. New Caledonia, 277. New Zealand, 214. Ney, Marshal, 80, 87, 89, 95, 130, 132, 133, 138, 145, 146 ; execu- tion of, 164. Nice, county of, 57-59, 79, 141, 144 ; to France, 260, 332, 333. INDEX. 4°3 Nicholas I, 198, 242, 2451' 257, 28 7. 347-3S 2 - Nicholas, Grand Duke, 363. Nicopolis, 363. Nicotera, 345. Niemen, River, 130, 133, 156. Nihilism, 358, 369-370. Nikita, Prince, 360. Nikolsburg, preliminaries of, 297. Nile, Battle of the, 67. Nlmes, white terror at, 165. Noisseville, sortie to, 308. Nonjuring priests, 18, 24. Noric Alps, forced by Napoleon, 62. Norway, under Danish crown, 96, 97, 98, 128 ; united with Sweden, 140, 158, 384-385. Novara, first Battle of, 183. second Battle of, 235. Novi, Battle of, 71. Novi-Bazar, to Austria, 365. Obrenovitch, House of, 360. October Patent, the, 320. Odillon Barrot, 23r. O'Donnell, 373. Oldenburg, 118, 299. Old Guard, the, 130, 131, 146. Ollivier, 263, 266. Olmiitz, 297. Olmiitz, conference at, 287. Oltenizza, Battle of, 349. Omar Pacha, 349, 360. Orange, Prince of, 140. William of, made king, 158. Ordinances, the (1830), 170, 171. Orleanists, the, 253, 279, 280. Orleans, 27 r, 309. Orleans, Duke of (see Louis Philippe). Orsini, 259. Oscar I (Sweden), 384. Oscar II (Sweden), 384,. 385. Osman Pacha, 363. Osnabriick, 80. Ostrolenska, Battle of, 199. Otho, King (Greece), 192, 369. Oudinot, General, 237. PADEEBORN, 79. Palais Royal, the, 23r, 277. Palatinate, the, 80, 154, 246. Palestrina, 237. Palermo, 182, 335. Palikao, Count, 266. Palm, execution of, 106. Palmerston, Lord, 196, 199, 201, 213, 251, 257, 259, 337, 352. Pampeluna, 105. Papal Infallibility decreed, 342. Papal States, 61, 117, 181, 202, 2 °3. 33 1 . 333. 336- Papal troops, 339, 343. Paray-le-Monial, 279. Paris, revolution at, 10-16, 19-22, 34-37 ; in reign of terror, 44-49 ; during Convention, 52, 53; direc- tory, 73-75 ; empire, 87, 142 ; under Bourbons, 145, 146 ; July Revolution, 171 ; riots in, 209, 210 ; in 1848-1851, 216, 230- 233, 252-255 ; fall of empire, 266 ; siege of 1870-1871, 308- 315 ; during commune, 275-277. Paris, Congress of, 329. Paris, Peace of, : 258, 354; Treaty of, 357- Parliaments, French, 2, 7, 8. Parliament (German), 244, 246, 247. Parma, 58, 121, 155, 179, 202, 331-333- Parthenopasan Republic, 69. Paskiewitch, General, 193, 199. Paul, Czar, 72, 78. Peace, the (1815-1854), 160. Pedro, Don (Portugal), 186, 225, 376. Peers, French, 143, 164, 169. Pepe, 183, 236. Perugia, 331. Peschiera, 331. Pesth, 224. Petion, 24, 35. Pelissier, Marshal, 215, 216. Phalsburg, 309. Philippe (fegalite) votes for death of Louis, 41 ; executed, 46. Philippopolis, 366. Picard, M. , 263, 273, 278. I Pichegru, General, 47, 50, 58, 85. 404 INDEX. Piedmont, 58, 76, 183, 184, 203, 328-332. (See also Sardinia. ) Pikes, feast of, 19. Pillnitz, declaration of, 26, 31. Pitt, 42, 91. Pius VII, 87, 124, 181. Pius IX, 233, 236, 327, 329, 337, 34 z . 343, 346. Pleiswitz, armistice of, 136. Plevna, 363, 364. Poland, partitions of, 27, 51, 52, 128, 129, 156 ; rising of 1830, 198, 200 ; of 1863, 356. Poles, the, 125, 239. Polignac, 170. Pomare, Queen, 214. Pomerania, Swedish, 97, 152. Pontarlier, 311. Pont Noyelles, Battle of, 311. Porte, the (see Turkey). Portugal, 98, 186, 187, 225, 226, 376. 377^ Posen, 51, 291, 317. Prague, 239. Congress at, 136. Treaty of, 297, 383. Prefects, French, 81, 257. Presburg, 90, 223. Prim, General, 373, 374. Privateering, 258. Protection, 167, 252. Protestants, French, 2, 5. Proudhon the Socialist, 230. Provera, General, 60. Provincial system of France, 6, 17. Prussia before 1792, 31 - 33 ; and French revolutionists, 34-38, 47 ; and partitions of Poland, 51, 52 ; gains of, 79, 80, 84 ; crushed by Napoleon, 90 - 95 ; reforms in, 93, 106-108 ; 129, 130 ; in war of liberation, 134 - 141 ; recon- structed, 151-154; 173-177,196; from 1831 to 1848, 219-221 ; in 1848-1849, 244-247. Prussia, rise of, 286-301 ; the back- bone of German Empire, 313- 317- Pruth, River, 349, 350, 366. Public Safety, Committee of, 45, 50. Puebla, 262. Pyramids, Battle of, 67. Pyat, Felix, 237, 275. Quatre Bras, fight at, 146. Quadruple alliance (of 1815), 151, 152, 165, 185 ; (of 1834), 225. Quiberon, expedition to, 52. Quirinal, the, 236. Radetzky, General, 234, 235, 328. Raglan, Lord, 350-353. Railways, spread of, 216, 258, 268, 3!6. 355. 379- Rastatt, Congress of, 63, 69, 70. Ratisbon, Battle at, in. Rattazzi ministry, the, 329, 338, 34i- Redan, the, 353. Redcliffe, Sir Stratford de, 349. 'Referendum,' the, 378. Reform Bill, the English, 229. Reggio, 335. Reichstadt, Due de, 117, 147, 149. Reichstag, German, 299, 316, 317, 318. Republic, first French (1792), 39. the second, 233, the third, 269-285. Republican calendar, 39, 40. Ricasoli Ministry, the, 338, 341. Richelieu, Due de, 165. Rights of Man, 14, 33. Rimini, 202, 237. Ristics, M. , 362. Rivoli, Battle of, 60. Rhine boundary, the, 50, 63, 79, 297. confederation of the, 91, 106, 119, 120. province, 140, 141, 144, 152. Robespierre, 7, 20, 21, 23, 27. organises massacres, 37. supremacy and fall of, 48. Rochebouet, De, 283. Rochefort, 147, 263, 269, 274, 275, 276. Roland, M., 24. Madame, executed, 46. INDEX. 405 Romagna, the, 61, 332. Romana, General, 125. Rome, 64, 236, 238, 336, 337, 338, 342. 343- Rome, King of, 117. Roon, General von, 290, 295. Rostopehin, Count, 132. Rouen, 311. Rouher, M. , 263, 273, 341. Roumania, 189, 240, 323, 354, 355, 359. 363. 3 68 - Roumelia, Eastern, 368. Rousseau, 7, 17, 18. Rouvier, M. , 283. Riigen, 94, 152. Russell, Lord John, 334, 335. Russia, in partitions of Poland, 51 ; wars with France, 88-90, 94-96 ; gains Finland, 96, 127 ; Moscow campaign, 128-133 ! m War of Liberation, 134-139 ; gains of, 156, 157, 188 ; war with Turkey, 192-194 ; crushes Polish rising, 198-200, 243, 270 ; and Turkey, 347 - 37° '1 government of, 371- 372. Rustchuk, 360. Ruthenians, the, 239. Saar, river, 135. Sadowa, Battle of, 296. Salamanca, Battle of, 105. Salonica, 361. Salzburg, 62, 116. San Domingo, 23, 50, 65, 83. San Martino, Battle of, 331. San Sebastian, 105. San Stefano, preliminaries of, 364, 305- Sardinia, kingdom of, in war with France, 27, 57-59, 61, 69, 76 ; Piedmont annexed to France, 81 ; reconstituted, 156, 180, 201-204; in 1848, 235 ; under Victor Emmanuel II, 326-337. Sarnerbund, the Swiss, 200, 201. Savona, 59, 124. Savoy, overrun, 39, 47 ; 57-59, I4 I > 144, 204, 260, 327, 328, 332, 333^ Savoy, the House of, 179, 180, 333 (note). Saxe-Weimar, Duke of, 174. Saxons, the, 240, 323, Saxony, 95, 129, 136, 138, 139, 140, 144, 145, 152, 177, 197, 198, 286, 294, 295, 298, 313, 316. Scharnhorst, 107, 135. Scheldt, river, thrown open, 42. Schill, 114. Schleswig, 158, 287, 291-297, 301, 3*7. 383- Schonbrunn, Treaty of, 116. Schwarzenberg, General, 130, 131, 141. Schwechat, Battle of, 241. Schwyz, canton, 200. Scrutin d' arrondissement, 282. Scrutin de liste, 282. Sedan, 266, 305-307. Semmering, 62. Senate, French, 87, 122, 145, 255, 257, 263, 281. September massacres (1792), 37. Septennate, the, 280. Serbs, the, 239. Serfdom, 247 (note), and Appendix II. Serfs, liberation of Russian, 355, 356. Danish, 382. Serrano, Marshal, 373. Servia, 348, 350, 360, 361, 362, 36S1 3 66 , 368. Sevastopol, siege of, 350-353. Seville, 185, 374. Junta of, 101, 104. Sfax, 285. Shipka Pass, the, 363, 364. Shumla, 193, 360, 363. Siberia, 157, 200, 354. Sicily, 119, 156, 180, 181, 230, 234. 235, 334. 335. 338. Sieyes, consul, 74. Silesia, 31, 95, 295, 301. Silistria, 360. siege of, 350. Simon, Jules, 263, 269, 283. Simplon Pass, 80, 123. Sinope, Battle off, 349. 4o6 INDEX. Sistova, 363. Skobeloff, General, 358, 364. Skuptschina, the, 358. Slavonia, 321, 323. Slavs, the, 189, 224, 238, 241, 321, 3 2 3. 3 2 4> 369. 37°- Smith, Sir Sydney, 67. Smolensk, 131, 132, 156. Sobranje, the, 367. Socialism, 252, 317, 318. Solferino, Battle of, 331. Sonderbund, the Swiss, 201. Soult, Marshal; 87, 103, 142, 216. Spandau, 92. Spain, War with France, 42,50, 65, 84 ; state of, 98-100 ; War of Liberation, 100-105, 120, 167 ; under Ferdinand VII, 184-186 ; Carlist Wars, 226-228 ; since 1868, 373-376. Spanish Marriage, the, 214. Colonies, 184-186, 378. Spezzia, 180, 328. Spielberg, dungeons of, 222. Splugen Pass, the, 77. St. Arnaud, 215, 254. St. Bernard Pass, 76. St. Cloud, 171, 277, 313. St. Cyr, General, 139. St. Denis, outrages at, 47. St. Etienne, 216, 276. St. Gothard Pass, 76, 378. tunnel, 300. St. Helena, 147. St. Just, 21. St. Privat (Gravelotte), 305. St. Quentin, Battle at, 311, 312. St. Simon, the socialist, 230. St. Vincent, Battle of Cape, 66. Stae'l, Madame de, exiled, 84. Stael, Madame de, 122. Stadion, Count, no. State Church (Prussian), 219. States General, the, 8. Stein, 79, 106-108, 134, 135, 137, (note). Steinmetz, General, 301, 302. Stettin, 92. Stockach, Battle of, 71. Stralsund, 94-96, 114, 128. Strassburg, 151 (note), 211, 266, 270, 302, 309, 315. Strauss, 221. Styria, 113. Suabia, goes to Bavaria, 90. Suchet, General, 104. Suleiman Pacha, 364. Sumatra, 381. Suwarroff, General, 51, 71, 72. Sveaborg, 353. Sweden loses Finland, 96. 88, 140, 158, 384-385- Swiss Mercenary Regiments, n, 16, 236. Switzerland in 1798, 64. campaign in, 71-72 ; 79, 80, 158, 159, 200, 201, 247, 260, 3". 377. 378- Syria, 67, 261. Szechenyi, Count, 223, 224. Taafe, Count, 325. Tabor, Battle of Mount, 67. Tagliamento, Battle at the, 62. Tahiti, 214. Talavera, Battle of, 104. Talleyrand, 70, 142, 144, 165. Tann, von der, General, 309. Tchernaya, Battle of the, 353. Tegetthof, Admiral, 340. Tennis Court oath, 10. Terror, reign of, 45-48. Thermidorian reaction, the, 49. Thessaly, 192, 359, 369. Thiers, M., 209, 213, 230, 231, 254, 265, 269, 270, 273, 275, 278, 282. Thionville, siege of, 37, 305, 308, 3°9- Thomas, General, 275. Thorn, district of, 51, 152, 156. Three days, the, of July (Paris), 171-172. Thuringia, 174, 176, 299. Ticino, river, 330. Tilsit, treaty of, 95. Tirard, M., 283. Tirnova, 363. Tisza, M., 325. Todleben, 351, 353, 364. INDEX. 407 Tolentino, Treaty of, 61. Torres Vedras, 104. Toul, 270, 309. Toulon, 44, 46, 208. Toulouse, 142, 208. Tournay, Battle of, 50. Tours, government at, 271. Toussaint l'Ouverture, 83. Trafalgar, Battle of, 89. Transylvania, 240, 242, 243, 323. Traun River, Battle at, 112. Treaties, commercial, 260. Treaty of the Straits, 213. Tribunate, French, 87, 121. Tricolour flag (French), 13, 172, 280. German, 176. Trieste, 116, 222. Trinidad, 78. Tripolitza, 190. Trocadero, the peninsula, 185. Trochu, General, 269, 271, 272, 307, 308, 313. Troppau, congress at, 178. Troyes, 141. Tsechs, the, 239, 324. Tugendbund, 107. Tuileries, 35, 36, 56, 124, 171, 231. 277. Tunis, 284, 344. Turgot, 4. Turin, 69, 183, 328, 329, 336-339. Turkey, 69, 188, 194, 348-354, 359-3°9- Tuscany, 96, 121, 155, 179, 235, 236, 329, 331-333. Tyrol, 90, in, 112, 116, 153, 239, 241, 324. Uhrich, General, 309. Ulm, capitulation at, 88. Ultramontanes, 200, 201, 247, 317, 342- Umbria, 331, 337. Unkiar Iskelessi, Treaty of, 194, 213. United States, 84, 157, 229, 258, 261, 262, 357. Uzes, " white terror " at, 165. Valais, Canton, 80, 119, 159. Valencia, 104, 374. Valenciennes taken, 44. Valladolid, 105. Valmy, Battle of, 37. Vandamme, General, 138. Van Maanen, 196. Varennes, flight to, 23. Varna, 193, 350. Vatican, the, 343, 344. Velletri, 237. Vendue, La, 18 ; rising in, 37, 41, 43; conquered, 46 ; pacified, 52, 75. Vendome column, the, 211, 276. Venetia, 61, 77, 90, 153, 180, 234, 297. 332. liberation of, 339-341. Venice, 58, 62, 119, 121, 235, 236. Verdun, 37, 303, 309. Vergniaud, 24. Verona, 62, 331, 332. congress at, 178, 184. Versailles, 2, 15, 273, 274, 275, 276, 313. 314- Veto, suspensive, 14, 19, 24. Victor Amadeus, 27, 180. Victor Emmanuel I, 180, 183. Victor Emmanuel II, 235, 327- 337 ; King of Italy, 337-346. Victor, Marshal, 104, 130, 132. Victoria, Princess, 288. Vienna, 112, 223, 238, 241, 297. Congress of, 144. Second Congress of, 151, 176. Vilagos, surrender at, 243. Villaflor, General, 225. Villafranca, the preliminaries of peace, 260, 332. Villele, ministry of, 166. Villersexel, fight at, 310. Vilna, 156. Vinoy, General, 272, 275, 313. Vionville, Battle of, 303. Vitebsk, 130. Vittoria, Battle of, 105, 136. Vladivostock, 358. Volhynia, 199. Voltaire, influence of, 6. Volturno, Battle at the, 336. Volunteer movement, the, 259. Vorarlberg, 153. Vosges Mountains, 302, 311. INDEX. Waddington, M. , 283. Wagram, Battle of, 115. Waitzen, Battle of, 242. Walcheren, 114, 116. Wallachia, 96, 126, 188, 193, 348, 349. 35°- Warsaw, City of, 129, 198, 199, 35<5- Warsaw, Grand-duchy of, 95, 119, 120, 144, 152. Wartburg, fete at the, 175. Waterloo, Battle of, 146. Wattignies, Battle of, 47. Weissemburg, Battles of, 47, 302. Wellington, 104-105, 142, 146, 150, 151, 187. Werder, General, 303, 309, 310, 3"- Westermann, 48. Westphalia, Kingdom of, 95, 111, 114, 118, 129, 138, 174. "White Terror," the, 165. Widdin, 363. Wieland, 102. Wilhelmshbhe, 267. William I (Holland), 195, 196, 197. 3 8 °. 381. William II (Holland), 380, 381. William III (Holland), 380, 381. William I (Prussia and Germany), 288, 289, 301, 307, 313-318. William (Wiirtemberg), 21.8. Williams, General, 353. Wimpffen, General de, 306, 307. Windischgratz, Prince, 239, 241, 242. Wismar, 114. Workshops, State, 20, 232, 233, Worth, Battle of, 266, 302. Wrangel, General, 246. Wrede, General, 139. Wiirmser, General, 60. Wiirtemberg, 80, 88, 90, 154, 174. 177, 286, 289, 313, 316. Wiirzburg, 57, 80. York, Duke of, 51, 65, 71, 72. York, General, 130, 134. Zanzibar, 319. Zemstvo, the. 356, 371. Zollverein, 177, 260, 287, 316. Zouaves, 215. Zumala-Carreguy, 227. Zurich, 71, 72, 159. Treaty of, 332. THE END. Printed by Edward Stanford, 26 & 1 27 Cockspur St. Charing Cross, Lonr'on,' S. W. EDWARD STANFORD'S BOOKS for Upper Forms in Schools and Colleges and for Private Reference. A PHYSICAL, HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. By KEITH JOHNSTON, F.E.G.S., Editor of the " Africa " Volume in " Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel ; " late Leader of the Royal Geographical Society's East African Expedition. Third Edition, revised and corrected by E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S. Large Post 8vo, cloth, with Illustrations and 21 Maps, price 12s. 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As what may be called a medium atlas for general use, something between the cheap but meagre school collections and the elaborate but rather costly and unwieldy library atlases, the ' London Atlas ' deserves hearty recommenda- tion." — Saturday Review. " In respect of size and price, it occupies a place about midway between the best school atlases hitherto published and the most costly and elaborate works of cartography ; but, as regards beauty and clearness of engraving and colouring, accuracy of detail, and recognition of the latest results of geogra- phical research, it will stand comparison with any of the latter. It contains in all forty-four maps, and has been planned with a special view of represent- ing the geographical features of those parts of the world which are most nearly connected with British interests. At the end of the atlas there is a compre- hensive index, containing more than 19,000 names of towns, villages, moun- tains, capes, islands, rivers, and other features shown on the maps. Altogether the Atlas is admirably designed for use, either as a work of reference or by the advanced student of geography." — Scotsman. LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 26 & 27 Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, S.W. OUTLINES OF GEOLOGY AN INTRODUCTION to the SCIENCE for JUNIOR STUDENTS AND GENERAL READERS B? JAMES GEIKIE, LL.D., F.E.S. Murcbison Professor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh, Formerly of Her Majesty's Geological Survey. author of "the great ice age," "prehistoric europe," &c. SECOND EDITION REVISED Large Post 8vo, with 400 Illustrations, cloth, price 12s. EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES OF THE PRESS "The style is clear, simple, and unpretending; the author has evidently striven, as a rule, to put the subject fairly before students rather than to express his own views, and has thus produced a hook which cannot fail to be of great service. " — Saturday Review. " Dr. James Geikie's new book is specially calculated for young beginners, and the patient; thoughtful manner in which he has laid himself out to fully explain those parts which beginners find it most difficult to understand, will earn him the gratitude of the latter. No better ' introduction ' to the science of geology exists in our language." — Science-Gossip. "Of recent years quite a number of large text-books of geology have appeared, all of them more or less well adapted to the needs of students who desire to make a specialty of the science. The works referred to, however, are rather advanced for beginners, and their bulkiness is apt to scare away general readers. In the present treatise Professor Geikie gives us a book of moderate size, designed for the use of junior students, and those who desire to attain only a general view of the scope and bearing of the science. He has avoided the mistake, so common in geological text-books, of presenting his readers at the very outset with a strong dose of mineralogy and petrology ; he carries his reader onward gradually from the simple to the complex, so that by the time the latter has been encountered it has been deprived of its terrors. We begin by studying the natural operations with which we are most familiar ; and then we compare the products of those operations with certain great groups of rocks which we at once see must have had precisely the same origin. . . . The work, which is illustrated with 400 woodcuts, is well printed ; and the general arrangement is admirably adapted to assist the reader to a clear grasp of the science. " — Scottish Geographical Magazine. LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 26 fe 27 Cookspue Stkeet, Chahing Cboss, S.W. THE PHYSICAL GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Br Sir ANDREW C. RAMSAY, LL.D., F.R.S. Fifth Edition, greatly enlarged, Post 8vo, with Geological Map printed in Colours, and numerous Illustrations of Fossils, Sections, and Landscapes. Price 15 s. "No better introduction to the principles of geology could possibly be re- commended to the English reader. It is a work of the highest value, and one worthy to take a foremost place among popular manuals of science." — Nature. By the same Author. GEOLOGICAL MAP OF THE BRITISH ISLES. Scale, 11^ miles to an inch ; size, 50 inches by 58. Mounted in Case, or on Roller, Varnished, 42s. By the same Author. GEOLOGICAL MAP OF ENGLAND AND WALES. This Map shows all the Railways, Roads, etc., and, when mounted in case, folds into a convenient pocket size, making an excellent Travelling Map. Scale, 12 miles to an inch; size, 36 inches by 42. Fourth Edition, with Corrections and Additions. Price, in Sheet, £1 : 5s. ; Mounted on Linen, in Case, £\ :.10s. ; or on Roller, Varnished, £1 : 12s. ROCK HISTORY: a Concise Note-Book of Geology, having special Reference to the English and Welsh Formations. By C. L. Barnes, M.A., late Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. With Coloured Maps of Strata and Illustrations of Fossils. Crown 8vo, 6 s. * ' The various formations are arranged in their stratigraphical order, and their chief characteristics mentioned not only on the same page, but. in the same horizontal line, so that at a glance one can read the name of a formation, its development in England and Wales (and, in certain cases, in foreign countries), its mineral character, chief fossils, and prominent features. In connection with each table is a map of England and Wales, in which only the strata under consideration are depicted, and a plate of fossils is added to illustrate the organisms belonging to each separate period." — Extract from, Preface. " It is long since we have come across an introductory work on Geology at once so practical and attractive." — Knowledge. LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 26 & 27 Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, S.W. POPULAR SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. By ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY (Mrs. Fisher). " The secret of Miss Buckley's success as a popular expounder of the abstruse results of the highest scientific research is her own mastery of the processes and results. She is content with no second-hand knowledge ; she has in all cases gone to the fountainhead. " — Times, A Short History of Natural Science, and the Progress of Discovery from the time of the Greeks to the present day. For the use of schools and young persons. Fourth Edition, Bevised and Rearranged. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt edges, 8s. 6d. In this Edition the Author has, in addition to giving the work a general revision, recast the last ten chapters. She has by this means been able to bring into proper chronological order, under each branch of Science, the most recent researches and discoveries, which in the Third Edition were added in a supplementary chapter. This will be found to give much additional coherence and interest to the narrative, and to make the book still more worthy of the high position it has attained among the best class of books for the young. By the same Author. The Fairyland of Science. Twentieth Thousand, post 8vo, with 74 Illustrations, cloth gilt, gilt edges, 6s. Life and her Children : Glimpses of Animal Life from the Amoeba to the Insects. Twelfth Thousand, post 8vo, with upwards of 100 Illustrations, cloth gilt, gilt edges, 6s. "Winners in Life's Race ; or, the Great Backboned Family. Fifth Thousand, post 8vo, with numerous Illustrations, cloth, gilt edges, 8s. 6d. New Edition, 2 vols, imperial 16mo (sold separately). Winners in Life's Race ; or, the Great Backboned Family. By Arabella. B. Buckley (Mrs. Fisher), Author of "-The Fairy- land of Science," &c. With numerous Illustrations, 2 vols., cloth gilt, gilt edges, 9s. ; or 4s. 6d. each volume. By the division of this popular work into Two Volumes — Vol. I, Fishes and Birds, and Vol. II, Mammalia — sold separately, it is hoped that the convenience and taste of purchasers may be better met. LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 26 & 27 Cooksptjk Street, Chakino Ceoss, S.W. STANFORD'S COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL FOR GENERAL READING. Based on Hellw alb's Die Erde und Ihre Volker. Translated by Professor A. H. Keane, M.A.I. A Series of Six Volumes descriptive of the Great Divisions of the Globe. Large Post 8vo, Cloth Gilt, with Maps, Ethnological Appendices, and several hundred Illustrations. Price £6 : 6s. the Set, or 21s. each Volume. I Europe. By ¥. W. Rudler, F.G.S., and G. G. Chisholm, B.Sc. Edited by Sir Andrew C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S. With Ethnological Appendix by Professor A. H. Keane, M.A.I. With 15 Maps and 60 Illustrations. II Asia. With Ethnological Appendix. By Professor A. H. Keane, M.A.I. Edited by Sir Richard Temple, Bart., G.C.S.I, D.C.L. Second Edition. With 12 Maps and 74 Illustrations. Ill Africa. Edited and Extended by Keith Johnston, E.R.G.S., late Leader of the Royal Geographical Society's East African Expedi- tion. With Ethnological Appendix by Professor A. H. Keane, M.A.I. Fourth Edition. Revised and Corrected by E. G. Raven- stein, F.R.G.S. With 16 Maps and 68 Illustrations. IV North America. UNITED STATES— Edited and Enlarged by Professor F. V. Hayden, of the United States Geological Survey. CANADA.— By Professor A. R. C. Selwyn, F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of Canada. With 16 Maps and 48 Illustrations. V Central and South America. Edited and Extended by H. W. Bates, Assistant- Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, Author of "The Naturalist on the River Amazon." With Ethno- logical Appendix by Professor A. H. Keane, M.A.I. Third Edition. With 12 Maps and 73 Illustrations. VI Australasia. Edited and Extended by Alfred R. Wallace, F.R.G.S., Author of "The Malay Archipelago," "Geographical Distribution of Animals," etc. With Ethnological Appendix by Professor A. H. Keane, M.A.I. Fifth Edition. With 20 Maps and 56 Illustrations. "The six volumes contain, on the whole, a more convenient and instruc- tive collection of facts in relation to physical and political geography than any other work of the kind published in England, and the apparatus of maps and diagrams with which they are furnished is extremely creditable to those concerned in its execution." — Saturday Hevieiv. LONDON : EDWARD STANFORD, 26 & 27 Cookspur Street, Charing Cross, S.W. STANDARD CLASS BOOKS. 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