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diff --git a/old/10627.txt b/old/10627.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8577133 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10627.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8586 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Beacon Lights of History, Volume VIII, by +John Lord + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + + + + +Title: Beacon Lights of History, Volume VIII + +Author: John Lord + +Release Date: January 8, 2004 [eBook #10627] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME +VIII*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +LORD'S LECTURES + +BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME VIII + +GREAT RULERS. + +BY JOHN LORD, LL.D., + +AUTHOR OF "THE OLD ROMAN WORLD," "MODERN EUROPE," +ETC., ETC. + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +ALFRED THE GREAT. + +THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND. + +The early Saxons +Their conquest of England +Division of England into petty kingdoms +Conversion of the Saxons +The Saxon bishoprics +Early distinguished men +Isadore, Caedmon, and Baeda, or Bede +Birth and early life of Alfred +Succession to the throne of Wessex +Danish invasions +Humiliation and defeat of Alfred +His subsequent conquests +Final settlement of the Danes +Alfred fortifies his kingdom +Reorganizes the army and navy +His naval successes +Renewed Danish invasions +The laws of Alfred +Their severity +Alfred's judicial reforms +Establishment of shires and parishes +Administrative reforms +Financial resources of Alfred +His efforts in behalf of education +His literary labors +Final defeat of the Danes +Death and character of Alfred +His services to civilization +Authorities + + +QUEEN ELIZABETH. + +WOMAN AS A SOVEREIGN. + +The reign of Queen Elizabeth associated with progress +Her birth and education +Her trials of the heart +Her critical situation during the reign of Mary +Her expediences +Her dissembling +State of the kingdom on her accession to the throne +Rudeness and loyalty of the people +Difficulties of the Queen +The policy she pursued +Her able ministers +Lord Burleigh +Archbishop Parker +Favorites of Elizabeth +The establishment of the Church of England +Its adaptation to the wants of the nation +Religious persecution +Development of national resources +Pacific policy of the government +Administration of justice +Hatred of war +Glory of Elizabeth allied with the prosperity of England +Good government +Royal economy +Charge of tyranny considered +Power of Parliament +Mary, Queen of Scots +Palliating circumstances for her execution +Character of Mary Stuart +Her plots and intrigues +The execution of Essex +Other charges against Elizabeth +Her coquetry +Her defects +Her virtues +Her public services +Her great fame +Her influence contrasted with power +Verdict of Lord Bacon +Elizabethan era +Constellation of men of genius + + +HENRY OF NAVARRE. + +THE HUGUENOTS. + +The Cause and the Hero +The sixteenth century contrasted with the nineteenth +A New Spirit in the world +Differences of progress +Religious, civil, and social upheavals +John Calvin +Reformed doctrines in France +Persecution of the Huguenots +They arm in self-defence to secure religious liberty +Henry of Navarre +Jeanne D'Albret +Education of Henry +Coligny +Slaughter of St. Bartholomew +The Duke of Guise, Catherine de Medicis, and Charles IX. +Effects of the massacre +Responsibility for it +Stand taken by the Protestants +They retire to La Rochelle +Bravery and ability of Henry +Battle of Coutras +Battle of Ivry +Abjuration of Henry IV +His motives +The ceremony +Edict of Nantes +Henry's service to France +Effects of the Abjuration of Henry IV. on the Huguenots +Character of Henry + + +GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. + +THIRTY YEARS' WAR. + +The Thirty Years' War a political necessity +Agitation which succeeded the death of Luther +Brilliancy of the period +Persecution of the Protestants +Ferdinand II +Bohemia +Its insurrection +Renewed persecution +Its success +Elector Count Palatine +Rallying of German princes against the Emperor +Wallenstein +His successful warfare +Consternation of Germany +Gustavus Adolphus comes to its relief +Character of Gustavus Adolphus +His brilliant exploits +Balance of power +Dismissal and recall of Wallenstein +The contending forces +Battle of Lutzen +Death of Gustavus Adolphus +Peace of Westphalia +Its political consequences +Ultimate effects of the Thirty Years' War + + +CARDINAL RICHELIEU. + +ABSOLUTISM. + +State of France in the 17th Century +Elevation of Richelieu +He perceives the great necessities of the State +Makes himself necessary to Louis XIII. +His aims as Prime Minister +His executive ability +His remorseless tyranny +His warfare on the Huguenots +Aims of the Huguenots +La Rochelle +Fall of the Huguenots +Character of the Nobility; their decimation +The Queen-Mother +The Duke of Orleans +The justification of Richelieu +The Parliaments +Their hostilities +Their humiliation +The policy of Richelieu +His services to the Crown +His internal improvements +His defects of character +Necessity of absolutism amid treasons and anarchies +Abuse of absolutism + + +OLIVER CROMWELL. + +ENGLISH REVOLUTION. + +The Puritans +Their peculiarities +Love of Civil Liberty +Charles I. and his ministers +Laud +Strafford +Tyranny of the King +Persecution of the Puritans +Petition of Right +Reforms +The Parliament +Contest between the King and Parliament +War and Revolution +Characteristics of the Age +Rise of Cromwell +His military genius +Battle of Naseby +Of Preston +Conquest of Scotland +Execution of Charles I. +A war measure +The Independents gain ascendency +Conquest of Ireland +Cromwell made Protector of the army +Military despotism +Motives of Cromwell +His great abilities as a ruler +His services to England +Greatness of England under Cromwell +Cromwell contrasted with Louis XIV. +His intellectual defects +His death +Cromwell as an instrument of Providence +Occasional necessity of absolutism +Ultimate effect of Cromwell's rule + + +LOUIS XIV. + +THE FRENCH MONARCHY. + +Illustrious men on the accession of Louis XIV. +State of France +Ambition of Louis XIV. +His love of military glory +His character +His inherited greatness +His alliance with the Church +His unbounded power +His great ministers +Colbert +Aims of Colbert +His great services +Louvois +His great executive abilities +The first war of Louis XIV. +Conquest of Flanders +Its iniquity +Invasion of Holland +Easy victories +Rise of William of Nassau +Prevents the conquest of Holland +Peace of Nimeguen +Louis in the zenith of power +His aggrandizement +His palaces +His court +His mistresses +His friendship with Madame de Maintenon +Elevation of Maintenon +Religious persecution +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes +Coalition against Louis XIV. +Unfortunate wars +Humiliation +His death +Effects of his reign in France + + +LOUIS XV. + +REMOTE CAUSES OF REVOLUTION. + +Long reign of Louis XV. +Decline of French military power +Loss of colonial possessions +Cardinal Fleury +Duke of Orleans +Derangement of the finances +Injustice of feudal privileges +John Law +Mississippi scheme +Bursting of the bubble +Excessive taxation +Worthlessness of the nobility +Their effeminacy and hypocrisy +Character of the King +Corruption of his court +The Jesuits +Death of the King +The reign of court mistresses +Madame de Pompadour +Extravagance of the aristocracy +Improvements of Paris +Fall of the Jesuits +The Philosophers and their writings,--Voltaire, Rousseau +Accumulating miseries and disgraceful government + + +PETER THE GREAT. + +HIS SERVICES TO RUSSIA. + +State of Russia on the accession of Peter the Great +The necessity for a great ruler to arise +Early days of the Czar Peter +Accession to the throne +Lefort +Origin of a navy +Seizure of Azof +Military reform +Peter sets out on his travels +Works as a carpenter in Holland +Mentchikof +Peter visits England +Visits Vienna +Completion of the apprenticeship of Peter +He abolishes the Streltzi +Various other reforms +Opposition of the clergy +War with Charles XII. of Sweden +Battle of Narva +Siege of Pultowa +Peter invades Turkey +His imprudence and rashness +Saved by the sagacity of his wife Catherine +Foundation of St. Petersburg +Second tour of Europe +Misconduct and fate of Alexis +Coronation of Catherine I. +Character of Peter +His great services to Russia + + +FREDERIC THE GREAT. + +THE PRUSSIAN POWER. + +Characteristics of the man +Education of Frederic II. +His character +Becomes King +Seizure of a part of Liege +Seizure of Silesia +Maria Theresa +Visit of Voltaire +Friendship between Voltaire and Frederic +Coalition against Frederic +Seven Years' War +Carlyle's History of Frederic +Empress Elizabeth of Russia +Decisive battles of Rossbach, Luthen, and Zorndorf +Heroism and fortitude of Frederic +Results of the Seven Years' War +Partition of Poland +Development of the resources of Prussia +Public improvements +General services of Frederic to his country +His character +His ultimate influence + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME VIII. + +Frederic the Great Reproaching his Generals at Koeben +_After the painting by Arthur Kampf_. + +Embarkation of Anglo-Saxons for the Conquest of England +_After the painting by H. Merte_. + +Queen Elizabeth +_After the "Ermine" portrait by F. Zucchero_. + +Last Moments of Queen Elizabeth +_After the painting by Paul Delaroche_. + +The Morning after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew +_After the painting by Ed. Debat-Ponsan_. + +Henry of Navarre and La Belle Fosseuse +_After the painting by A.P.E. Morlon_. + +The Imperial Counsellors are Thrown Out of the Window +by the Bohemian Delegates +_After the painting by V. Brozik_. + +Cardinal Richelieu +_After the painting by Ph. de Champaign, National Gallery, London_. + +Richelieu Watches the Siege Operations from the Dam +at Rochelle +_After the painting by Henri Motte_. + +Oliver Cromwell +_After the painting by Pieter van der Picas_. + +Louis XIV. and Mlle. de la Valliere +_After the painting by A.P.E. Morlon_. + +Peter the Great +_After a Contemporaneous Engraving_. + +Peter the Great Learns the Trade of Ship-Carpentry at Zaardam +_After the painting by Felix Cogen_. + +Frederic the Great +_After the painting by W. Camphausen_. + + + + +ALFRED THE GREAT. + + +A.D. 849-901. + +THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND. + + +Alfred is one of the most interesting characters in all history for +those blended virtues and talents which remind us of a David, a Marcus +Aurelius, or a Saint Louis,--a man whom everybody loved, whose deeds +were a boon, whose graces were a radiance, and whose words were a +benediction; alike a saint, a poet, a warrior, and a statesman. He ruled +a little kingdom, but left a great name, second only to Charlemagne, +among the civilizers of his people and nation in the Middle Ages. As a +man of military genius he yields to many of the kings of England, to say +nothing of the heroes of ancient and modern times. + +When he was born, A.D. 849, the Saxons had occupied Britain, or England, +about four hundred years, having conquered it from the old Celtic +inhabitants soon after the Romans had retired to defend their own +imperial capital from the Goths. Like the Goths, Vandals, Franks, +Burgundians, Lombards, and Heruli, the Saxons belonged to the same +Teutonic race, whose remotest origin can be traced to Central +Asia,--kindred, indeed, to the early inhabitants of Italy and Greece, +whom we call Indo-European, or Aryan. These Saxons--one of the fiercest +tribes of the Teutonic barbarians;--lived, before the invasion of +Britain, in that part of Europe which we now call Schleswig, in the +heart of the peninsula which parts the Baltic from the northern seas; +also in those parts of Germany which now belong to Hanover and +Oldenburg. It does not appear from the best authorities that these +tribes--called Engle, Saxon, and Jute--wandered about seeking a +precarious living, but they were settled in villages, in the government +of which we trace the germs of the subsequent social and political +institutions of England. The social centre was the homestead of the +_oetheling_ or _corl_, distinguished from his fellow-villagers by his +greater wealth and nobler blood, and held by them in hereditary +reverence. From him and his brother-oethelings the leaders of a warlike +expedition were chosen. He alone was armed with spear and sword, and his +long hair floated in the wind. He was bound to protect his kinsmen from +wrong and injustice. The land which inclosed the village, whether +reserved for pasture, wood, or tillage, was undivided, and every free +villager had the right of turning his cattle and swine upon it, and also +of sharing in the division of the harvest. The basis of the life was +agricultural. Our Saxon ancestors in Germany did not subsist exclusively +by hunting or fishing, although these pursuits were not neglected. They +were as skilful with the plough and mattock as they were in steering a +boat or hunting a deer or pursuing a whale. They were coarse in their +pleasures, but religious in their turn of mind; Pagans, indeed, but +worshipping the powers of Nature with poetic ardor. They were born +warriors, and their passion for the sea led to adventurous enterprise. +Before the close of the third century their boats, driven by fifty oars, +had been seen in the British waters; and after the Romans had left the +Britons to defend themselves against the Scots and Picts, the harassed +rulers of the land invoked the aid of these Saxon pirates, and, headed +by two ealdormen,--Hengist and Horsa,--they landed on the Isle of Thanet +in the year 449. + +These two chieftains are the earliest traditionary heroes of the Saxons +in England. Their mercenary work was soon done, and after it was done +they had no idea of retiring to their own villages in Germany. They cast +their greedy eyes on richer pastures and more fruitful fields. +Brother-pirates flocked from the Elbe and Rhine to their settlement in +Thanet. In forty-five years after Hengist and Horsa landed, Cerdic with +a more formidable band had taken possession of a large part of the +southern coast, and pushed his way to Winchester and founded the +kingdom of Wessex. But the work of conquest was slow. It took seventy +years for the Saxons to become masters of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, +Essex, and Wessex. + +A stout resistance to the invading Saxons had been made by the native +Britons, headed by Arthur,--a legendary hero, who is thought to have +lived near the close of the fifth century. His deeds and those of the +knights of the Round Table form the subject of one of the most +interesting romances of the Middle Ages, probably written in the +brightest age of chivalry, and by a monk very ignorant of history, since +he gives many Norman names to his characters. But all the valor of the +Celtic hero and his chivalrous followers was of no avail before the +fierce and persistent attacks of a hardier race, bent on the possession +of a fairer land than their own. + +We know but little of the details of the various conflicts until Britain +was finally won by these predatory tribes of barbarians. The stubborn +resistance of the Britons led to their final retreat or complete +extermination, and with their disappearance also perished what remained +of the Roman civilization. The resistance of the Britons was much more +obstinate than that of any of the other provinces of the Empire; but, as +the forces arrayed against them were comparatively small, the work of +conquest was slow. "It took thirty years to win Kent alone, and sixty +to complete the conquest of south Britain, and nearly two hundred to +subdue the whole island." But when the conquest was made it was +complete, and England was Saxon, in language, in institutions, and in +manners; while France retained much of the language, habits, and +institutions of the Romans, and even of the old Gaulish elements of +society. England became a German nation on the complete wreck of +everything Roman, whose peculiar characteristic was the freedom of those +who tilled the land or gathered around the military standard of their +chieftains. It was the gradual transfer of a whole German nation from +the Elbe and Rhine to the Thames and the Humber, with their original +village institutions, under the rule of their _eorls_, with the simple +addition of kings,--unknown in their original settlements, but brought +about by the necessities which military life and conquest produced. + +After the conquest we find seven petty kings, who ruled in different +parts of the island. Jealousies, wars, and marriages soon reduced their +number to three, ruling over Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria. All the +people of these kingdoms were Pagan, the chief deity of whom was Woden. +It was not till the middle of the seventh century that Christianity was +introduced into Wessex, although Kent and Northumbria received Christian +missionaries half-a-century earlier. The beautiful though well-known +tradition of the incidents which led to the introduction of the +Christian religion deserves a passing mention. About the middle of the +sixth century some Saxons taken in war, in one of the quarrels of rival +kings, and hence made slaves, were exposed for sale in Rome. Gregory the +Great, then simply deacon, passing by the market-place, observed their +fair faces, white bodies, blue eyes, and golden hair, and inquired of +the slave-dealer who they were. "They are English, or Angles." "No, not +Angles," said the pious and poetic deacon; "they are angels, with faces +so angelic. From what country did they come?" "From Deira." "_De Ira!_ +ay, plucked from God's wrath. What is the name of their king?" "Ella." +"Ay, let alleluia be sung in their land." It need scarcely be added that +when this pious and witty deacon became pope he remembered these Saxon +slaves, and sent Augustin (or Austin,--not to be confounded with +Augustine of Hippo, who lived nearly two centuries earlier), with forty +monks as missionaries to convert the pagan Saxons. They established +themselves in Kent A.D. 597, which became the seat of the first English +bishopric, through the favor of the king, Aethelbert, whose wife +Clotilda, a French princess, had been previously converted. Soon after, +Essex followed the example of Kent; and then Northumbria. Wessex was the +last of the Saxon kingdoms to be converted, their inhabitants being +especially fierce and warlike. + +It is singular that no traces of Christianity seem to have been left in +Britain on the completion of the Saxon conquest, although it had been +planted there as early as the time of Constantine. Helena was a +Christian, and Pelagius and Celestine were British monks. But the Saxon +conquest eradicated all that was left of Roman influence and +institutions. + +When Christianity had once acquired a foothold among the Saxons its +progress was rapid. In no country were monastic institutions more firmly +planted. Monasteries and churches were erected in the principal +settlements and liberally endowed by the Saxon kings. In Kent were the +great sees of Canterbury and Rochester; in Essex was London; in East +Anglia was Norwich; in Wessex was Winchester; in Mercia were Lichfield, +Leicester, Worcester, and Hereford; in Northumbria were York, Durham, +and Ripon. Each cathedral had its schools and convents. Christianity +became the law of the land, and entered largely into all the Saxon +codes. There was a constant immigration of missionaries into Britain, +and the great sees were filled with distinguished ecclesiastics, +frequently from the continent, since a strong union was cemented between +Rome and the English churches. Prince and prelate made frequent +pilgrimages to the old capital of the world, and were received with +distinguished honors. The monasteries were filled with princes and +nobles and ladies of rank. As early as the eighth century monasteries +were enormously multiplied and enriched, for the piety of the Saxons +assumed a monastic type. What civilization existed can be traced chiefly +to the Church. + +We read of only three great names among the Saxons who impressed their +genius on the nation, until the various Saxon kingdoms were united under +the sovereignty of Ecgberht, or Egbert, king of Wessex, about the middle +of the ninth century. These were Theodore, Caedmon, and Baeda. The first +was a monk from Tarsus, whom the Pope dispatched in the year 668 to +Britain as Archbishop of Canterbury. To him the work of church +organization was intrusted. He enlarged the number of the sees, and +arranged them on the basis which was maintained for a thousand years. +The subordination of priest to bishop and bishop to primate was more +clearly defined by him. He also assembled councils for general +legislation, which perhaps led the way to national parliaments. He not +only organized the episcopate, but the parish system, and even the +system of tithes has been by some attributed to him. The missionary who +had been merely the chaplain of a nobleman became the priest of the +manor or parish. + +The second memorable man was born a cowherd; encouraged to sing his +songs by the abbess Hilda, a "Northumbrian Deborah." When advanced in +life he entered through her patronage a convent, and sang the +marvellous and touching stories of the Hebrew Scriptures, fixing their +truths on the mind of the nation, and becoming the father of +English poetry. + +The third of these great men was the greatest, Baeda,--or Bede, as the +name is usually spelled. He was a priest of the great abbey church of +Weremouth, in Northumbria, and was a master of all the learning then +known. He was the life of the famous school of Jarrow, and it is said +that six hundred monks, besides strangers, listened to his teachings. +His greatest work was an "Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation," +which extends from the landing of Julius Caesar to the year 731. He was +the first English historian, and the founder of mediaeval history, and +all we know of the one hundred and fifty years after the landing of +Augustin the missionary is drawn from him. He was not only historian, +but theologian,--the father of the education of the English nation. + +It was one hundred and fourteen years after the death of the "venerable +Bede" before Alfred was born, A.D. 849, the youngest son of Aethelwulf, +king of Wessex, who united under his rule all the Saxon kingdoms. The +mother of Alfred was Osburgha, a German princess of extraordinary force +of character. From her he received, at the age of four, the first +rudiments of education, and learned to sing those Saxon ballads which +he afterwards recited with so much effect in the Danish camp. At the +age of five Alfred was sent to Rome, probably to be educated, where he +remained two years, visiting on his return the court of Charles the +Bald,--the centre of culture in Western Europe. The celebrated Hincmar, +Archbishop of Rheims,--the greatest churchman of the age,--was the most +influential minister of the king; at whose table also sat John Erigena, +then engaged in a controversy with Gotteschalk, the German monk, about +the presence of Christ in the eucharist,--the earliest notable +theological controversy after the Patristic age. Alfred was too young to +take an interest in this profound discussion; but he may perhaps have +received an intellectual impulse from his visit to Rome and Paris, which +affected his whole subsequent life. + +About this time his father, over sixty years of age, married a French +princess of the name of Judith, only fourteen years of age,--even in +that rude age a great scandal, which nearly resulted in his +dethronement. He lived but two years longer; and his youthful widow, to +the still greater scandal of the realm and Church, married her late +husband's eldest son, Ethelbald, who inherited the crown. It was through +this woman, and her subsequent husband Baldwin, called _Bras de Fer_, +Count of Flanders, that the English kings, since the Conqueror, trace +their descent from Alfred and Charlemagne; for her son, the second +Count of Flanders, married Elfrida, the daughter of Alfred. From this +union descended the Conqueror's wife Matilda. Thus the present royal +family of England can trace a direct descent through William the +Conqueror, Alfred, and Charlemagne, and is allied by blood, remotely +indeed, with most of the reigning princes of Europe. + +The three elder brothers of Alfred reigned successively over Wessex,--to +whom all England owned allegiance. It was during their short reigns that +the great invasion of the Danes took place, which reduced the whole +island to desolation and misery. These Danes were of the same stock as +the Saxons, but more enterprising and bold. It seems that they drove the +Saxons before them, as the Saxons, three hundred years before, had +driven the Britons. In their destructive ravages they sacked and burned +Croyland, Peterborough, Huntington, Ely, and other wealthy abbeys,--the +glory of the kingdom,--together with their valuable libraries. + +It was then that Alfred (already the king's most capable general) began +his reign, A.D. 871, at the age of twenty-three, on the death of his +brother Ethelred,--a brave and pious prince, mortally wounded at the +battle of Merton. + +It was Alfred's memorable struggle with the Danes which gave to him his +military fame. When he ascended the throne these barbarians had gained +a foothold, and in a few years nearly the whole of England was in their +hands. Wave followed wave in the dreadful invasion; fleet after fleet +and army after army was destroyed, and the Saxons were driven nearly to +despair; for added to the evils of pillage and destruction were +pestilence and famine, the usual attendants of desolating wars. In the +year 878 the heroic leader of the disheartened people was compelled to +hide himself, with a few faithful followers, in the forest of Selwood, +amid the marshes of Somersetshire. Yet Alfred--a fugitive--succeeded at +last in rescuing his kingdom of Wessex from the dominion of Pagan +barbarians, and restoring it to a higher state of prosperity than it had +ever attained before. He preserved both Christianity and civilization. +For these exalted services he is called "the Great;" and no prince ever +more heroically earned the title. + +"It is hard," says Hughes, who has written an interesting but not +exhaustive life of Alfred, "to account for the sudden and complete +collapse of the West Saxon power in January, 878, since in the campaign +of the preceding year Alfred had been successful both by sea and land." +Yet such seems to have been the fact, whatever may be its explanation. +No such panic had ever overcome the Britons, who made a more stubborn +resistance. No prince ever suffered a severer humiliation than did the +Saxon monarch during the dreary winter of 878; but, according to Asser, +it was for his ultimate good. Alfred was deeply and sincerely religious, +and like David saw the hand of God in all his misfortunes. In his case +adversity proved the school of greatness. For six months he was hidden +from public view, lost sight of entirely by his afflicted subjects, +enduring great privations, and gaining a scanty subsistence. There are +several popular legends about his life in the marshes, too well known to +be described,--one about the cakes and another about his wanderings to +the Danish camp disguised as a minstrel, both probable enough; yet, if +true, they show an extraordinary depth of misfortunes. + +At last his subjects began to rally. It was known by many that Alfred +was alive. Bodies of armed followers gradually gathered at his retreat. +He was strongly intrenched; and occasionally he issued from his retreat +to attack straggling bands, or to make reconnoissance of the enemy's +forces. In May, 878, he left his fortified position and met some brave +and faithful subjects at Egbert's Stone, twenty miles to the east of +Selwood. The gathering had been carefully planned and secretly made, and +was unknown to the Danes. His first marked success was at Edington, or +Ethandune, where the Pagan host lay encamped, near Westbury. We have no +definite knowledge of the number of men engaged in that bloody and +desperate battle, in which the Saxons were greatly outnumbered by the +Danes, who were marshalled under a chieftain called Guthrun. But the +battle was decisive, and made Alfred once more master of England south +of the Thames. Guthrun, now in Alfred's power, was the ablest warrior +that the Northmen had as yet produced. He was shut up in an inland fort, +with no ships on the nearest river, and with no hope of reinforcements. +At the end of two weeks he humbly sued for peace, offering to quit +Wessex for good, and even to embrace the Christian religion. Strange as +it may seem, Alfred granted his request,--either, with profound +statesmanship, not wishing to drive a desperate enemy to extremities, or +seeking his conversion. The remains of the discomfited Pagan host +crossed over into Mercia, and gave no further trouble. Never was a +conquest attended with happier results. Guthrun (with thirty of his +principal nobles) was baptized into the Christian faith, and received +the Saxon name of Athelstan. But East Anglia became a Danish kingdom. +The Danes were not expelled from England. Their settlement was +permanent. The treaty of Wedmore confirmed them in their possessions. +Alfred by this treaty was acknowledged as undisputed master of England +south of the Thames; of Wessex and Essex, including London, Hertford, +and St. Albans; of the whole of Mercia west of Watling Street,--the +great road from London to Chester; but the Danes retained also one half +of England, which shows how formidable they were, even in defeat. The +Danes and the Saxons, it would seem, commingled, and gradually became +one nation. + +The great Danish invasion of the ninth century was successful, since it +gave half of England to the Pagans. It is a sad thing to contemplate. +Civilization was doubtless retarded. Whole districts were depopulated, +and monasteries and churches were ruthlessly destroyed, with their +libraries and works of art. This could not have happened without a +fearful demoralization among the Saxons themselves. They had become +prosperous, and their wealth was succeeded by vices, especially luxury +and sloth. Their wealth tempted the more needy of the adventurers from +the North, who succeeded in their aggressions because they were stronger +than the Saxons. So slow was the progress of England in civilization. As +soon as it became centralized under a single monarch, it was subjected +to fresh calamities. It would seem that the history of those ages is +simply the history of violence and spoliations. There was the perpetual +waste of human energies. Barbarism seemed to be stronger than +civilization. Nor in this respect was the condition of England unique. +The same public misfortunes happened in France, Germany, Italy, and +Spain. For five hundred years Europe was the scene of constant strife. +Not until the Normans settled in England were the waves of barbaric +invasion arrested. + +The Danish conquest made a profound impression on Alfred, and stimulated +him to renewed efforts to preserve what still remained of Christian +civilization. His whole subsequent life was spent in actual war with the +Northmen, or in preparations for war. It was remarkable that he +succeeded as well as he did, for after all he was the sovereign of +scarcely half the territory that Egbert had won, and over which his +grandfather and father had ruled. He preserved Wessex; and in preserving +Wessex he saved England, which would have been replunged in barbarism +but for his perseverance, energy, and courage. That Danish invasion was +a chastisement not undeserved, for both the clergy and the laity had +become corrupt, had been enervated by prosperity. The clergy especially +were lazy and ignorant; not one in a thousand could write a common +letter of salutation. They had fattened on the contributions of princes +and of the credulous people; they saw the destruction of their richest +and proudest abbeys, and their lands seized by Pagan barbarians, who +settled down in them as lords of the soil, especially in Northumbria. +But Alfred at least arrested their further progress, and threw them on +the defensive. He knew that the recovery of the conquests which the +Saxons had made was a work of exceeding difficulty. It was necessary to +make great preparations for future struggles, as peace with the Danes +was only a truce. They aimed at the complete conquest of the island, and +they sought to rouse the hostility of the Welsh. + +Alfred showed a wise precaution against future assaults in constructing +fortresses at the most important points within his control. Before his +day the Saxons had but few fortified positions, and this want of forts +had greatly facilitated the Danish conquest. But the Danes, as soon as +they gained a strong position, fortified it, and were never afterwards +ejected by force. Probably Alfred took the hint from them. He rebuilt +and strengthened the fortresses along the coast, as he had four precious +years of unmolested work; and for this his small kingdom was doubtless +severely taxed. He imported skilled workmen, and adopted the newest +improvements. He made use of stone instead of timber, and extended his +works of construction to palaces, halls, and churches, as well as +castles. So well built were his fortifications, that no strong place was +ever afterwards wrested from him. In those times the defence of kingdoms +was in castles. They marked the feudal ages equally with monasteries and +cathedral churches. Castles protected the realm from invasion and +conquest, as much as they did the family of a feudal noble. The wisdom +as well as the necessity of fortified cities was seen in a marked manner +when the Northmen, in 885, stole up the Thames and Medway and made an +unexpected assault on Rochester. They were completely foiled, and were +obliged to retreat to their ships, leaving behind them even the spoil +they had brought from France. This successful resistance was a great +moral assistance to Alfred, since it opened the eyes of bishops and +nobles to the necessity of fortifying their towns, to which they had +hitherto been opposed, being unwilling to incur the expense. So it was +not long before Alfred had a complete chain of defences on the coast, as +well as around his cities and palaces, able to resist sudden +attacks,--which he had most to fear. His great work of fortification was +that of London, which, though belonging to him by the peace of Wedmore, +was neglected, fallen to decay, filled with lawless bands of marauders +and pirates, and defenceless against attack. In 886 he marched against +this city, which made no serious resistance; rebuilt it, made it +habitable, fortified it, and encouraged people to settle in it, for he +foresaw its vast commercial importance. Under the rule of his son +Ethelred, it regained the pre-eminence it had enjoyed under the Romans +as a commercial centre. + +Having done what he could to protect his dominion from sudden attacks, +Alfred then turned his attention to the reorganization of his army and +navy. Strictly speaking he had no regular army, or standing force, which +he could call his own. When the country was threatened the freemen flew +to arms, under their eorls and ealdormen; and on this force the king was +obliged to rely. They sometimes acted without his orders, obeying the +calls of their leaders when danger was most imminent. On the men in the +immediate neighborhood of danger the brunt of the contest fell. Nor +could levies be relied upon for any length of time; they dwindled after +a few weeks, in order to attend to their agricultural interests, for +agriculture was the only great and permanent pursuit in the feudal ages. +Everything was subordinate to labors in the field. The only wealth was +in land, except what was hoarded by the clergy and nobles. + +How well Alfred paid his soldiers it is difficult to determine. His own +private means were large, and the Crown lands were very extensive. +One-third of his income was spent upon his army. But it is not probable +that a large force was under pay in time of peace; yet he had always one +third of his forces ready to act promptly against an enemy. The burden +of the service was distributed over the whole kingdom. The main feature +of his military reform seems to have been in the division of his forces +into three bodies, only one of which was liable to be called upon for +service at a time, except in great emergencies. In regard to tactics, or +changes in armor and mode of fighting, we know nothing; for war as an +art or science did not exist in any Teutonic kingdom; it was lost with, +the fall of the Roman Empire. How far Alfred was gifted with military +genius we are unable to say, beyond courage, fertility of resources, +activity of movement, and a marvellous patience. His greatest qualities +were moral, like those of Washington. It is his reproachless character, +and his devotion to duty, and love of his people which impress us from +first to last. As has been said of Marcus Aurelius, Alfred was a Saint +Anselm on a throne. He had none of those turbulent and restless +qualities which we associate with mediaeval kings. What a contrast +between him and William the Conqueror! + +Alfred also gave his attention to the construction of a navy, as well as +to the organization of an army, knowing that it was necessary to resist +the Northmen on the ocean and prevent their landing on the coast. In 875 +he had fought a naval battle with success, and had taken one of the +ships of the sea-kings, which furnished him with a model to build his +own ships,--doing the same thing that the Romans did in their early +naval warfare with the Carthaginians. In 877 he destroyed a Danish fleet +on its way to relieve Exeter. But he soon made considerable improvement +on the ships of his enemies, making them twice as long as those of the +Danes, with a larger number of oars. These were steadier and swifter +than the older vessels. As the West Saxons were not a seafaring people, +he employed and munificently rewarded men from other nations more +accustomed to the sea,--whether Frisians, Franks, Britons, Scots, or +even Danes. The result was, he was never badly beaten at sea, and before +the end of his reign he had swept the coast clear of pirates. Within two +years from the treaty of Wedmore his fleet was ready for action. He was +prepared to meet the sea-kings on equal terms, and in 882 he had gained +an important naval battle over a fleet that was meditating an invasion. + +In the year 885 the Danes again invaded England and laid siege to +Rochester, but fled to their ships on the approach of Alfred. They were +pursued by the Saxon king and defeated with great slaughter, sixteen +Danish vessels being destroyed and their crews put to the sword. Nor had +Guthrun Athelstan, the ex-viking, been true to his engagements. He had +allowed two additional settlements of Danes on the East Anglian coasts, +and had even assisted Alfred's enemies. Their defeat, however, induced +him to live peaceably in East Anglia until he died in 890. These +successes of Alfred secured peace with the Danes for eight more years, +during which he pursued his various schemes for the improvement of his +people, and in preparations for future wars. He had put his kingdom in a +state of defence, and now turned his attention to legislation,--the +supremest labor of an enlightened monarch. + +The laws of Alfred wear a close resemblance to those which Moses gave to +the Hebrews, and moreover are pervaded with Christian ideas. His aim +seems to have been to recognize in his jurisprudence the supreme +obedience which is due to the laws of God. In all the laws of the +converted Teutonic nations, from Charlemagne down, we notice the +influence of the Christian clergy in modifying the severity of the old +Pagan codes. Alfred did not aim to be an original legislator, like Moses +or Solon, but selected from the Mosaic code, and also from the laws of +Ethelbert, Ina, Offa, and other Saxon princes, those regulations which +he considered best adapted to the circumstances of the people whom he +governed. He recognized more completely than any of his predecessors the +rights of property, and attached great sanctity to oaths. Whoever +violated his pledge was sentenced to imprisonment. He raised the dignity +of ealdormen and bishops to that of the highest rank. He made treason +against the royal authority the gravest offence known to the laws, and +all were deemed traitors who should presume to draw the sword in the +king's house. He made new provisions for personal security, and severely +punished theft and robbery of every kind, especially of the property of +the Church. He bestowed freedom on slaves after six years of service. +Some think he instituted trial by jury. Like Theodosius and Charlemagne, +he gave peculiar privileges to the clergy as a counterpoise to the +lawlessness of nobles. + +One of the peculiarities of his legislation was compensation for +crime,--seen alike in the Mosaic dispensation and in the old customs of +the Germanic nations in their native forests. On conviction, the culprit +was compelled to pay a sum of money to the relatives of the injured, and +another sum to the community at large. This compensation varied +according to the rank of the injured party,--and rank was determined by +wealth. The owner of two hydes of land was ranked above a ceorl, or +simple farmer, while the owner of twelve hydes was a royal thane. In the +compensation for crime the gradation was curious: twelve shillings would +pay for the loss of a foot, ten for a great toe, and twenty for a thumb. +If a man robbed his equal, he was compelled to pay threefold; if he +robbed the king, he paid ninefold; and if he robbed the church, he was +obliged to return twelvefold: hence the robbery of ecclesiastical +property was attended with such severe penalties that it was unusual. In +some cases theft was punished with death. + +The code of Alfred was severe, but in an age of crime and disorder +severity was necessary. He also instituted a vigorous police, and +divided the country into counties, and these again into hundreds or +parishes, each of which was made responsible for the maintenance of +order and the detection of crime. He was severe on judges when they +passed sentence irrespective of the rights of jurors. He did not +emancipate slaves, but he ameliorated their condition and limited their +term of compulsory service. Burglary in the king's house was punished by +a fine of one hundred and twenty shillings; in an archbishop's, at +ninety; in a bishop's or ealdorman's, at sixty; in the house of a man of +twelve hydes, at thirty shillings; in a six-hyde man's, at fifteen; in a +churl's, at five shillings,--the fine being graded according to the rank +of him whose house had been entered. There was a rigorous punishment for +working on Sunday: if a theow, by order of his lord, the lord had to pay +a penalty of thirty shillings; if without the lord's order, he was +condemned to be flogged. If a freeman worked without his lord's order, +he had to pay sixty shillings or forfeit his freedom. If a man was found +burning a tree in a forest, he was obliged to pay a fine of sixty +shillings, in order to protect the forest; or if he cut down a tree +under which thirty swine might stand, he was obliged to pay a fine of +sixty shillings. These penalties seem severe, but they were inflicted +for offences difficult to be detected and frequently committed. We infer +from these various fines that burglary, robbery, petty larcenies, and +brawls were the most common offences against the laws. + +One of the greatest services which Alfred rendered to the cause of +civilization in England was in separating judicial from executive +functions. The old eorls and ealdormen were warriors; and yet to them +had been committed the administration of justice, which they often +abused,--frequently deciding cases against the verdicts of jurors, and +sometimes unjustly dooming innocent men to capital punishment. Alfred +hanged an ealdorman or alderman, one Freberne, for sentencing Haspin to +death when the jury was in doubt. He even hanged twenty-four inferior +officers, on whom judicial duties devolved, for palpable injustice. + +The love of justice and truth was one of the main traits of Alfred's +character, and he painfully perceived that the ealdormen of shires, +though faithful and valiant warriors, were not learned and impartial +enough to administer justice. There was scarcely one of them who could +read the written law, or who had any extensive acquaintance with the +common law or the usages which had been in force from time +immemorial,--as far back as in the original villages of Germany. +Moreover, the poor and defenceless had need of protection. They always +had needed it, for in Pagan and barbarous countries their rights were +too often disregarded. When brute force bore everything before it, it +became both the duty and privilege of the king, who represented central +power, to maintain the rights of the humblest of his people,--to whom +he was a father. To see justice enforced is the most exalted of the +prerogatives of sovereigns; and no one appreciated this delegation of +sovereign power from the Universal Father more than Alfred, the most +conscientious and truth-loving of all the kings of the Middle Ages. + +So, to maintain justice, Alfred set aside the ignorant and passionate +ealdormen, and appointed judges whose sole duty it was to interpret and +enforce the laws, and men best fitted to represent the king in the royal +courts. They were sent through the shires to see that justice was done, +and to report the decisions of the county courts. Thus came into +existence the judges of assize,--an office or institution which remains +to this day, amid all the revolutions of English thought and life, and +all the changes which politics and dynasties have wrought. + +Nor did Alfred rest with a reform of the law courts. He defined the +boundaries of shires, which divisions are very old, and subdivided them +into parishes, which have remained to this day. He gave to each hundred +its court, from which appeals were made to a court representing several +hundreds,--about three to each county. Each hundred was subdivided into +tythings, or companies of ten neighboring householders, who were held as +mutual sureties or frank (free) pledges for each other's orderly +conduct; so that each man was a member of a tything, and was obliged to +keep household rolls of his servants. Thus every liegeman was known to +the law, and was taught his duties and obligations; and every tything +was responsible for the production of its criminals, and obliged to pay +a fine if they escaped. Every householder was liable to answer for any +stranger who might stop at his house. "This mutual liability or +suretyship was the pivot of all Alfred's administrative reform, and +wrought a remarkable change in the kingdom, so that merchants and +travellers could go about without armed guards. The forests were emptied +of outlaws, and confidence and security succeeded distrust and +lawlessness.... The frank pledge-system, which was worked in country +districts, was supplied in towns by the machinery of the +guilds,--institutions combining the benefit of modern clubs, insurance +societies, and trades-unions. As a rule, they were limited to members of +one trade or calling." + +Mr. Pearson, in his history of England, as quoted by Hughes, thus sums +up this great administrative reform for the preservation of life and +property and order during the Middle Ages:-- + +"What is essential to remember is, that life and property were not +secured to the Anglo-Saxon by the State, but by the loyal union of his +fellow-citizens; the Saxon guilds are unmatched in the history of their +times as evidences of self-reliance, mutual trust, patient +self-restraint, and orderly love of law among a young people, + +"To recapitulate the reforms of Alfred in the administration of justice +and the resettlement of the country, the old divisions of shires were +carefully readjusted, and divided into hundreds and tythings. The +alderman of the shire still remained the chief officer, but the office +was no longer hereditary. The king appointed the alderman, or eorl, who +was president of the shire gemot, or council, and chief judge of the +county court as well as governor of the shire, but was assisted and +probably controlled in his judicial capacity by justices appointed by +the king, and not attached to the shire, or in any way dependent on the +alderman. The vice-domini, or nominees of the alderman, were abolished, +and an officer substituted for them called the reeve of the shire, or +sheriff, who carried out the decrees of the courts. The hundreds and +tythings were represented by their own officers, and had their +hundred-courts and courts-leet, which exercised a trifling criminal +jurisdiction, but were chiefly assemblies answering to our grand juries +and parish vestries. All householders were members of them, and every +man thus became responsible for keeping the king's peace." + +In regard to the financial resources of Alfred we know but little. +Probably they were great, considering the extent and population of the +little kingdom over which he ruled, but inconsiderable in comparison +with the revenues of England at the present day. To build fortresses, +construct a navy, and keep in pay a considerable military force,--to say +nothing of his own private expenditure and the expense of his court, +his public improvements, the endowment of churches, the support of +schools, the relief of the poor, and keeping the highways and bridges in +repair,--required a large income. This was derived from the public +revenues, crown lands, and private property. The public revenue was +raised chiefly by customs, tolls, and fines. The crown lands were very +extensive, as well as the private property of the sovereign, as he had +large estates in every county of his kingdom. + +But whatever his income, he set apart one quarter of it for religious +purposes, one-sixth for architecture, and one-eighth for the poor, +besides a considerable sum for foreigners, whom he liberally patronized. +He richly endowed schools and monasteries. He was devoted to the Church, +and his relations with the Pope were pleasant and intimate, although +more independent than those of many of his successors. + +All the biographers of Alfred speak of his zealous efforts in behalf of +education. He established a school for the young nobles of his court, +and taught them himself. His teachers were chiefly learned men drawn +from the continent, especially from the Franks, and were well paid by +the king. He made the scholarly Asser--a Welsh monk, afterwards bishop +of Sherborne, from whose biography of Alfred our best information is +derived--his counsellor and friend, and from his instructions acquired +much knowledge. To Asser he gave the general superintendence of +education, not merely for laymen, but for priests. In his own words, he +declared that his wish was that all free-born youth should persevere in +learning until they could read the English Scriptures. For those who +desired to devote themselves to the Church, he provided the means for +the study of Latin. He gave all his children a good education. His own +thirst for knowledge was remarkable, considering his cares and public +duties. He copied the prayer-book with his own hands, and always carried +it in his bosom, Asser read to him all the books which were then +accessible. From an humble scholar the king soon became an author. He +translated "Consolations of Philosophy" from the Latin of Boethius, a +Roman senator of the sixth century,--the most remarkable literary effort +of the declining days of the Roman Empire, and highly prized in the +Middle Ages. He also translated the "Chronicle of the World," by +Orosius, a Spanish priest, who lived in the early part of the fifth +century,--a work suggested by Saint Augustine's "City of God." The +"Ecclesiastical History" of Bede was also translated by Alfred. He is +said to have translated the Proverbs of Solomon and the Fables of Aesop. +His greatest literary work, however, was the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the +principal authority of the reign of Alfred. No man of his day wrote the +Saxon language so purely as did Alfred himself; and he was +distinguished not only for his knowledge of Latin, but for profound +philosophical reflections interspersed through his writings, which would +do honor to a Father of the Church. He was also a poet, inferior only to +Caedmon. Nor was his knowledge confined to literature alone; it was +extended to the arts, especially architecture, ship-building, and +silver-workmanship. He built more beautiful edifices than any of his +predecessors. He also had a knowledge of geography beyond his +contemporaries, and sent a Norwegian ship-master to explore the White +Sea. He enriched his translation of Orosius by a sketch of the new +geographical discoveries in the North. In fact, there was scarcely any +branch of knowledge then known in which Alfred was not well +instructed,--being a remarkably learned man for his age, and as +enlightened as he was learned. + +But in the midst of his reforms and wise efforts to civilize his people, +the war-clouds gathered once more, and he was obliged to put forth all +his energies to defend his realm from the incursions of his old enemies. +The death of Charles the Bald in the year 877 left France in a very +disordered state, and the Northmen under Hasting, one of the greatest of +their vikings, recommenced their ravages. In 893 they crossed the +Channel in two hundred and fifty vessels, and invaded England, followed +soon after by Hasting with another large detachment, and strongly +intrenched themselves near Winchester. Alfred at the same time strongly +fortified his own position, about thirty miles distant, and kept so +close a watch over the movements of his enemies that they rarely +ventured beyond their own intrenchments. A sort of desultory warfare +succeeded, and continued for a year without any decisive results. At +last the Danes, getting weary, broke up their camps, and resolved to +pass into East Anglia. They were met by Alfred at Farnham and forced to +fight, which resulted in their defeat and the loss of all the spoils +they had taken and all the horses they had brought from France. The +discomfited Danes retreated, by means of their ships, to an island in +the Thames, at its junction with the Colne, where they were invested by +Alfred. They would soon have been at the mercy of the Saxon king, had it +not unfortunately happened that the Danes on the east coast, from Essex +to Northumbria, joined the invaders, which unlooked-for event compelled +Alfred to raise the blockade, and send Ethelred his son to the west, +where the Danes were again strongly intrenched at Banfleet, near London. +Their camp was successfully stormed, and much booty was taken, together +with the wife and sons of Hasting. The Danish fleet was also captured, +and some of the vessels were sent to London. But Hasting still held out, +in spite of his disaster, and succeeded in intrenching himself with the +remnants of his army at Shoebury, ten miles from Banfleet, from which +he issued on a marauding expedition along the northern banks of the +Thames, carrying fire and sword wherever he went, thence turned +northward, making no halt until he reached the banks of the Severn, +where he again intrenched himself, but was again beaten. Hasting saved +himself by falling back on a part of East Anglia removed from Alfred's +influence, and appeared near Chester. Alfred himself had undertaken the +task of guarding Exeter and the coasts of Devonshire and South Wales, +where he wintered, leaving Ethelred to pursue Hasting. + +Thus a year passed in the successful defence of the kingdom, the Danes +having gained no important advantage. At the end of the second campaign +Hasting still maintained his ground and fortified himself on the Thames, +within twenty miles of London. At the close of the third year, Hasting, +being driven from his position on the Thames, established himself in +Shropshire. "In the spring of 897 Hasting broke up his last camp on the +English soil, being foiled at every point, and crossed the sea with the +remnant of his followers to the banks of the Seine." The war was now +virtually at an end, and the Danes utterly defeated. + +The work for which Alfred was raised up was at last accomplished. He had +stayed the inundations of the Northmen, defended his kingdom of Wessex, +and planted the seeds of a higher civilization in England, winning the +love and admiration of his subjects. The greatness of Alfred should not +be measured by the size of his kingdom. It is not the bigness of a +country that gives fame to its illustrious men. The immortal heroes of +Palestine and Greece ruled over territories smaller and of less +importance than the kingdom of Wessex. It is the greatness of their +characters that preserves their name and memory. + +Alfred died in the year 901, at the age of fifty-two, worn out with +disease and labors, leaving his kingdom in a prosperous state; and it +had rest under his son Edward for nine years. Then the contest was +renewed with the Danes, and it was under the reign of Edward that Mercia +was once more annexed to Wessex, as well as Northumbria. Edward died in +925, and under the reign of his son Aethelstan the Saxon kingdom reached +still greater prosperity. The completion of the West Saxon realm was +reserved for Edmund, son of Aethelstan, who ascended the throne in 940, +being a mere boy. He was ruled by the greatest statesman of that age, +the celebrated Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury and Archbishop of +Canterbury,--a great statesman and a great Churchman, like Hincmar +of Rheims. + +Thus the heroism and patience of Alfred were rewarded by the restoration +of the Saxon power, and the absorption of what Mr. Green calls +"Danelagh," after a long and bitter contest, of which Alfred was the +greatest hero. In surveying his conquests we are reminded of the long +contest which Charlemagne had with the Saxons. Next to Charlemagne, +Alfred was the greatest prince who reigned in Europe after the +dissolution of the Roman Empire, until the Norman Conquest. He fought +not for the desire of bequeathing a great empire to his descendants, but +to rescue his country from ruin, in the midst of overwhelming +calamities. It was a struggle for national existence, not military +glory. In the successful defence of his kingdom against the ravages of +Pagan invaders he may be likened to William the Silent in preserving the +nationality of Holland. No European monarch from the time of Alfred can +be compared to him in the service he rendered to his country. The +memorableness of a war is to be gauged not by the number of the +combatants, but by the sacredness of a cause. It was the devotion of +Washington to a great cause which embalms his memory in the heart of the +world. And no English king has left so hallowed a name as Alfred: it was +because he was a benefactor, and infused his energy of purpose into a +discouraged and afflicted people. How far his saint-like virtues were +imitated it is difficult to tell. Religion was the groundwork of his +character,--faith in God and devotion to duty. His piety was also more +enlightened than the piety of his age, since it was practical and not +ascetic. His temper was open, frank, and genial. He loved books and +strangers and travellers. There was nothing cynical about him, in spite +of his perplexities and discouragements. He had a beautifully balanced +character and a many-sided nature. He had the power of inspiring +confidence in defeat and danger. His judgment and good sense seemed to +fit him for any emergency. He had the same control over himself that he +had over others. His patriotism and singleness of purpose inspired +devotion. He felt his burdens, but did not seek to throw them off. +"Hardship and sorrow," said he, "not a king but would wish to be without +these if he could; but I know he cannot." "So long as I have lived I +have striven to live worthily." "I desire to leave to the men that come +after me a remembrance of me in good works." These were some of his +precious utterances, so that the love which he won a thousand years ago +has lingered around his name from that day to this. + +It was a strong sense of duty, quickened by a Christian life, which gave +to the character of Alfred its peculiar radiance. He felt his +responsibilities as a Christian ruler. He was affable, courteous, +accessible. His body was frail and delicate, but his energies were never +relaxed. Pride and haughtiness were unknown in his intercourse with +bishops or nobles. He had no striking defects. He was the model of a man +and a king; and he left the impress of his genius on all the subsequent +institutions of his country. "The tree," says Dr. Pauli, one of his +ablest biographers, "which now casts its shadow far and near over the +world, when menaced with destruction in its bud, was carefully guarded +by Alfred; but at the period when it was ready to burst forth into a +plant, he was forced to leave it to the influence of time. Many great +men have occupied themselves with the care of this tree, and each in his +own way has advanced its growth. William the Conqueror, with his iron +hand, bent the tender branches to his will; Henry the Second ruled the +Saxons with true Roman pride, but in _Magna Charta_ the old German +nature became aroused and worked powerfully, even among the barons. It +became free under Edward the Third,--that prince so ambitious of +conquest: the old language and the old law, the one somewhat altered, +the other much softened, opened the path to a new era. The nation stood +like an oak in the full strength of its leafy maturity; and to this +strength the Reformation is indebted for its accomplishment. Elizabeth, +the greatest woman who ever sat upon a throne, occupied a central +position in a golden age of power and literature. Then came the Stuarts, +who with their despotic ideas outraged the deeply-rooted Saxon +individuality of the English, and by their fall contributed to the sure +development of that freedom which was founded so long before. The stern +Cromwell and the astute William the Third aided in preparing for the now +advanced nation that path in which it has ever since moved. The +Anglo-Saxon race has already attained maturity in the New World, and, +founded on these pillars, it will triumph in all places and in every +age. Alfred's name will always be placed among those of the great +spirits of this earth; and so long as men regard their past history with +reverence they will not venture to bring forward any other in comparison +with him who saved the West Saxon nation from complete destruction, and +in whose heart all the virtues dwelt in such harmonious concord." + +AUTHORITIES. + +Asser's Life of Alfred; the Saxon Chronicle; Alfred's own writings; +Bede's Ecclesiastical History; Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of +England; Kemble's Saxons in England; Sir F. Palgrave's History of the +English Commonwealth; Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons; +Green's History of the English People; Dr. Pauli's Life of Alfred; +Alfred the Great, by Thomas Hughes. Freeman, Pearson, Hume, Spelman, +Knight, and other English historians may be consulted. + + + +QUEEN ELIZABETH. + + + +A.D. 1533-1603. + +WOMAN AS A SOVEREIGN. + +I do not present Queen Elizabeth either as a very interesting or as a +faultless woman. As a woman she is not a popular favorite. But it is my +object to present her as a queen; to show with what dignity and ability +a woman may fill one of the most difficult and responsible stations of +the world. It is certain that we associate with her a very prosperous +and successful reign; and if she was lacking in those feminine qualities +which make woman interesting to man, we are constrained to admire her +for those talents and virtues which shed lustre around a throne. She is +unquestionably one of the links in the history of England and of modern +civilization; and her reign is so remarkable, considering the +difficulties with which she had to contend, that she may justly be +regarded as one of the benefactors of her age and country. It is a +pleasant task to point out the greatness, rather than the defects, of so +illustrious a woman. + +It is my main object to describe her services to her country, for it is +by services that all monarchs are to be judged; and all sovereigns, +especially those armed with great power, are exposed to unusual +temptations, which must ever qualify our judgments. Even bad men--like +Caesar, Richelieu, and Napoleon--have obtained favorable verdicts in +view of their services. And when sovereigns whose characters have been +sullied by weaknesses and defects, yet who have escaped great crimes and +scandals and devoted themselves to the good of their country, have +proved themselves to be wise, enlightened, and patriotic, great praise +has been awarded to them. Thus, Henry IV. of France, and William III. of +England have been admired in spite of their defects. + +Queen Elizabeth is the first among the great female sovereigns of the +world with whose reign we associate a decided progress in national +wealth, power, and prosperity; so that she ranks with the great men who +have administered kingdoms. If I can prove this fact, the sex should be +proud of so illustrious a woman, and should be charitable to those +foibles which sullied the beauty of her character, since they were in +part faults of the age, and developed by the circumstances which +surrounded her. + +She was born in the year 1533, the rough age of Luther, when Charles V. +was dreaming of establishing a united continental military empire, and +when the princes of the House of Valois were battling with the ideas of +the Reformation,--an earnest, revolutionary, and progressive age. She +was educated as the second daughter of Henry VIII. naturally would be, +having the celebrated Ascham as her tutor in Greek, Latin, French, and +Italian. She was precocious as well as studious, and astonished her +teachers by her attainments. She was probably the best-educated woman in +England next to Lady Jane Grey, and she excelled in those departments of +knowledge for which novels have given such distaste in these more +enlightened times. + +Elizabeth was a mere girl when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed for +infidelities and levities to which her husband could not be blind, had +he been less suspicious,--a cruel execution, which nothing short of +high-treason could have justified even in that rough age. Though her +birth was declared to be illegitimate by her cruel and unscrupulous +father, yet she was treated as a princess. She was seventeen when her +hateful old father died; and during the six years when the government +was in the hands of Somerset, Edward VI. being a minor, Elizabeth was +exposed to no peculiar perils except those of the heart. It is said that +Sir Thomas Seymour, brother to the Protector, made a strong impression +on her, and that she would have married him had the Council consented. +By nature, Elizabeth was affectionate, though prudent. Her love for +Seymour was uncalculating and unselfish, though he was unworthy of it. +Indeed, it was her misfortune always to misplace her affections,--which +is so often the case in the marriages of superior women, as if they +loved the image merely which their own minds created, as Dante did when +he bowed down to Beatrice. When we see intellectual men choosing weak +and silly women for wives, and women of exalted character selecting +unworthy and wicked husbands, it does seem as if Providence determines +all matrimonial unions independently of our own wills and settled +purposes. How often is wealth wedded to poverty, beauty to ugliness, and +amiability to ill-temper! The hard, cold, unsocial, unsympathetic, +wooden, scheming, selfish man is the only one who seems to attain his +end, since he can bide his time,--wait for somebody to fancy him. + +Elizabeth had that mixed character which made her life a perpetual +conflict between her inclinations and her interests. Her generous +impulses and affectionate nature made her peculiarly susceptible, while +her prudence and her pride kept her from a foolish marriage. She may +have loved unwisely, but she had sufficient self-control to prevent a +mesalliance. While she may have resigned herself at times to the +fascinations of accomplished men, she yet fathomed the abyss into which +imprudence would bury her forever. + +On the accession of Mary, her elder sister, daughter of Catharine of +Aragon, Elizabeth's position was exceedingly critical, exposed as she +was to the intrigues of the Catholics and the jealousy of the Queen. And +when we remember that the great question and issue of that age was +whether the Catholic or Protestant religion should have the ascendency, +and that this ascendency seemed to hinge upon the private inclinations +of the sovereign who in the furtherance of this great end would scruple +at nothing to accomplish it, and that the greatest crimes committed for +its sake would be justified by all the sophistries that religious +partisanship could furnish, and be upheld by all bigots and statesmen as +well as priests, it is really remarkable that Elizabeth was spared. For +Mary was not only urged on to the severest measures by Gardiner and +Bonner (the bishops of Winchester and London), and by all the influences +of Rome, to which she was devoted body and soul,--yea, by all her +confidential advisers in the State, to save themselves from future +contingencies,--but she was also jealous of her sister, as Elizabeth was +afterwards jealous of Mary Stuart. And it would have been as easy for +Mary to execute Elizabeth as it was for Elizabeth to execute the Queen +of Scots, or Henry VIII. to behead his wives; and such a crime would +have been excused as readily as the execution of Somerset or of the Lady +Jane Grey, both from political necessity and religious expediency. +Elizabeth was indeed subjected to great humiliations, and even compelled +to sue for her life. What more piteous than her letter to Mary, begging +only for an interview: "Wherefore I humbly beseech your Majesty to let +me answer before yourself; and, once again kneeling with humbleness of +heart, I earnestly crave to speak to your Highness, which I would not be +so bold as to desire if I knew not myself most clear, as I know myself +most true." Here is a woman pleading for her life to a sister to whom +she had done no wrong, and whose only crime was in being that sister's +heir. What an illustration of the jealousy of royalty and the bitterness +of religious feuds; and what a contrast in this servile speech to that +arrogance which Elizabeth afterward assumed towards her Parliament and +greatest lords! Ah, to what cringing meanness are most people reduced by +adversity! In what pride are we apt to indulge in the hour of triumph! +How circumstances change the whole appearance of our lives! + +Elizabeth, however, in order to save her life, was obliged to dissemble. +If her true Protestant opinions had been avowed, I doubt if she could +have escaped. We do not see in this dissimulation anything very lofty; +yet she acted with singular tact and discretion. It is creditable, +however, to Mary that she did not execute her sister. She showed herself +more noble than Elizabeth did later in her treatment of the Queen of +Scots. History calls her the "Bloody Mary;" and it must be admitted that +she was the victim and slave of religious bigotry, and that she +sanctioned many bloody executions. And yet it would appear that her +nature was, after all, affectionate, which is evinced in the fact that +she did spare the life of Elizabeth. Here her better impulses gained the +victory over craft and policy and religious intolerance, and rescued her +name from the infamy to which such a crime would have doomed her, and +which her Church would have sanctioned, and in which it would have +rejoiced as much as it did in the slaughter of Saint Bartholomew. + +The crocodile tears which Elizabeth is said to have shed when the death +of her sister Mary was announced to her at Hatfield were soon wiped away +in the pomps and enthusiasms which hailed her accession to the throne. +This was in 1558, when she was twenty-five, in the fulness of her +attractions and powers. Great expectations were formed of her wisdom and +genius. She had passed through severe experiences; she had led a life of +study and reflection; she was gifted with talents and graces. "Her +accomplishments, her misfortunes, and her brilliant youth exalted into +passionate homage the principle of loyalty, and led to extravagant +panegyrics." She was good-looking, if she was not beautiful, since the +expression of her countenance showed benignity, culture, and vivacity. +She had piercing dark eyes, a clear complexion, and animated features. +She was in perfect health, capable of great fatigue, apt in business, +sagacious, industrious, witty, learned, and fond of being surrounded +with illustrious men. She was high-church in her sympathies, yet a +Protestant in the breadth of her views and in the fulness of her +reforms. Above all, she was patriotic and disinterested in her efforts +to develop the resources of her kingdom and to preserve it from +entangling wars. + +The kingdom was far from being prosperous when Elizabeth assumed the +reins of government, and it is the enormous stride in civilization which +England made during her reign, beset with so many perils, which +constitutes her chief claim to the admiration of mankind. Let it be +borne in mind that she began her rule in perplexities, anxieties, and +embarrassments. The crown was encumbered with debts; the nobles were +ambitious and factious; the people were poor, dispirited, unimportant, +and distracted by the claims of two hostile religions. Only one bishop +in the whole realm was found willing to crown her. Scotland was +convulsed with factions, and was a standing menace, growing out of the +marriage of Mary Stuart with a French prince. Barbarous Ireland was in +a state of chronic rebellion; France, Spain, and Rome were decidedly +hostile; and all Catholic Europe aimed at the overthrow of England. +Philip II. had adopted the dying injunction of his father to extinguish +the Protestant religion, and the princes of the House of Valois were +leagued with Rome for the attainment of this end. At home, Elizabeth had +to contend with a jealous Parliament, a factious nobility, an empty +purse, and a divided people. The people generally were rude and +uneducated; the language was undeveloped; education was chiefly confined +to nobles and priests; the poor were oppressed by feudal laws. No great +work in English history, poetry, or philosophy had yet appeared. The +comforts and luxuries of life were scarcely enjoyed even by the rich. +Chimneys were just beginning to be used. The people slept on mats of +straw; they ate without forks on pewter or wooden platters; they drank +neither tea nor coffee, but drank what their ancestors did in the +forests of Germany,--beer; their houses, thatched with straw, were dark, +dingy, and uncomfortable. Commerce was small; manufactures were in their +infancy; the coin was debased, and money was scarce; trade was in the +hands of monopolists; coaches were almost unknown; the roads were +impassable except for horsemen, and were infested with robbers; only the +rich could afford wheaten bread; agricultural implements were of the +most primitive kind; animal food, for the greater part of the year, was +eaten only in a salted state; enterprise of all kinds was restricted +within narrow limits; beggars and vagrants were so numerous that the +most stringent laws were necessary to protect the people against them; +profane swearing was nearly universal; the methods of executing capital +punishments were revolting; the rudest sports amused the people; the +parochial clergy were ignorant and sensual; country squires sought +nothing higher than fox-hunting; it took several days for letters to +reach the distant counties; the population numbered only four millions; +there was nothing grand and imposing in art but the palaces of nobles +and the Gothic monuments of mediaeval Europe. + +Such was "Merrie England" on the accession of Elizabeth to the +throne,--a rude nation of feudal nobles, rural squires, and ignorant +people, who toiled for a mere pittance on the lands of cold, +unsympathetic masters; without books, without schools, without +privileges, without rights, except to breathe the common air and indulge +in coarse pleasures and religious holidays and village fetes. + +On the other hand, it must be admitted that the people were loyal, +religious, and brave; that they had the fear of God before their eyes, +and felt personal responsibility to Him, so that crimes were uncommon +except among the lowest and most abandoned; that family ties were +strong; that simple hospitalities were everywhere exercised; that +healthy pleasures stimulated no inordinate desires; that the people, if +poor, had enough to eat and drink; that service was not held to be +degrading; that churches were not deserted; that books, what few there +were, did not enervate or demoralize; that science did not attempt to +ignore the moral government of God; that laws were a terror to +evil-doers; that philanthropists did not seek to reform the world by +mechanical inventions, or elevate society by upholding the majesty of +man rather than the majesty of God,--teaching the infallibility of +congregated masses of ignorance, inexperience, and conceit. Even in +those rude times there were the certitudes of religious faith, of +domestic endearments, of patriotic devotion, of respect for parents, of +loyalty to rulers, of kindness to the poor and miserable; there were the +latent fires of freedom, the impulses of generous enthusiasm, and +resignation to the ills which could not be removed. So that in England, +in Elizabeth's time, there was a noble material for Christianity and art +and literature to work upon, and to develop a civilization such as had +not existed previously on this earth,--a civilization destined to spread +throughout the world in new institutions, inventions, laws, language, +and literature, binding hostile races together, and proclaiming the +sovereignty of intelligence,--the [Greek: nous kratei] of the old Ionian +philosophers,--with that higher sovereignty which Moses based upon the +Ten Commandments, and that higher law still which Jesus taught upon +the Mount. + +Yet with all this fine but rude material for future greatness, it was +nevertheless a glaring fact that the condition of England on the +accession of Elizabeth was most discouraging,--a poor and scattered +agricultural nation, without a navy of any size, without a regular army, +with factions in every quarter, with struggling and contending religious +parties, with a jealous parliament of unenlightened country squires; yet +a nation seriously threatened by the most powerful monarchies of the +Continent, who detested the doctrines which were then taking root in the +land. Against the cabals of Rome, the navies of Spain, and the armies of +France,--alike hostile and dangerous,--England could make but a feeble +show of physical forces, and was protected only by her insular position. +The public dangers were so imminent that there was needed not only a +strong hand but a stout heart and a wise head at the helm. Excessive +caution was necessary, perpetual vigilance was imperative; a single +imprudent measure might be fatal in such exigencies. And this accounts +for the vacillating policy of Elizabeth, so often condemned by +historians. It did not proceed from weakness of head, but from real +necessity occasioned by constant embarrassments and changing +circumstances. According to all the canons of expediency, it was the +sign of a sagacious ruler to temporize and promise and deceive in that +sad perplexity. Governments, thus far in the history of nations, have +been carried on upon different principles from those that bind the +conduct of individuals, especially when the weak contend against the +strong. This, abstractly, is not to be defended. Governments and +individuals alike are bound by the same laws of immutable morality in +their general relations; but the rules of war are different from the +rules of peace. Governments are expediencies to suit peculiar crises and +exigencies. A man assaulted by robbers would be a fool to fall back on +the passive virtues of non-resistance. + +Elizabeth had to deal both with religious bigots and unscrupulous kings. +We may be disgusted with the course she felt it politic to pursue, but +it proved successful. A more generous and open course might have +precipitated an attack when she was unprepared and defenceless. Her +dalliances and expediencies and dissimulations delayed the evil day, +until she was ready for the death-struggle; and when the tempest of +angry human forces finally broke upon her defenceless head, she was +saved only by a storm of wind and rain which Providence kindly and +opportunely sent. Had the "Invincible Armada" been permitted to invade +England at the beginning of her reign, there would probably have been +another Spanish conquest. What chance would the untrained militia of a +scattered population, without fortresses or walled cities or military +leaders of skill, have had against the veteran soldiers who were +marshalled under Philip II., with all the experiences learned in the +wars of Charles V. and in the conquest of Peru and Mexico, aided, too, +by the forces of France and the terrors of the Vatican and the money of +the Flemish manufacturers? It was the dictate of self-preservation which +induced Elizabeth to prevaricate, and to deceive the powerful monarchs +who were in league against her. If ever lying and cheating were +justifiable, they were then; if political jesuitism is ever defensible, +it was in the sixteenth century. So that I cannot be hard on the +embarrassed Queen for a policy which on the strict principles of +morality it would be difficult to defend. It was a dark age of +conspiracies, rebellions, and cabals. In dealing with the complicated +relations of government in that day, there were no recognized principles +but those of expediency. Even in our own times, expediency rather than +right too often seems to guide nations. It is not just and fair, +therefore, to expect from a sovereign, in Queen Elizabeth's time, that +openness and fairness which are the result only of a higher national +civilization. What would be blots on government to-day were not deemed +blots in the sixteenth century. Elizabeth must be judged by the standard +of her age, not of ours, in her official and public acts. + +We must remember, also, that this great Queen was indorsed, supported, +and even instructed by the ablest and wisest and most patriotic +statesmen that were known to her generation. Lord Burleigh, her prime +minister, was a marvel of political insight, industry, and fidelity. If +he had not the commanding genius of Thomas Cromwell or the ambitious +foresight of Richelieu, he surpassed the statesmen of his day in +patriotic zeal and in disinterested labors,--not to extend the +boundaries of the empire, but to develop national resources and make the +country strong for defence. He was a plodding, wary, cautious, +far-seeing, long-headed old statesman, whose opinions it was not safe +for Elizabeth to oppose; and although she was arbitrary and opinionated +herself, she generally followed Burleigh's counsels,--unwillingly at +times, but firmly when she perceived the necessity; for she was, with +all her pertinacity, open to conviction of reason. I cannot deny that +she sometimes headed off her prime-minister and deceived him, and +otherwise complicated the difficulties that beset her reign; but this +was only when she felt a strong personal repugnance to the state +measures which he found it imperative to pursue. After all, Elizabeth +was a woman, and the woman was not utterly lost in the Queen. It is +greatly to her credit, however, that she retained the services of this +old statesman for forty years, and that she filled the great offices in +the State and Church with men of experience, genius, and wisdom. She +made Parker the Archbishop of Canterbury,--a man of remarkable +moderation and breadth of mind, whose reforms were carried on without +exciting hostilities, and have survived the fanaticisms and hostile +attacks of generations. Walsingham, her ambassador at Paris, and +afterwards her secretary of state, ferreted out the plots of the Jesuits +and the intrigues of hostile courts, and rendered priceless service by +his acuteness and diligence. Lord Effingham, one of the Howards, +defeated the "Invincible Armada." Sir Thomas Gresham managed her +finances so ably that she was never without money. Coke was her +attorney. Sir Nicholas Bacon--the ablest lawyer in the realm, and a +stanch Protestant--was her lord-keeper; while his illustrious son, the +immortal Francis Bacon, though not adequately rewarded, was always +consulted by the Queen in great legal difficulties. I say nothing of +those elegant and gallant men who were the ornaments of her court, and +in some instances the generals of her armies and admirals of her +navies,--Sackville, Raleigh, Sidney, not to mention Essex and +Leicester, all of whom were distinguished for talents and services; men +who had no equals in their respective provinces; so gifted that it is +difficult to determine whether the greatness of her reign was more owing +to the talents of the ministers or to the wisdom of the Queen herself. +Unless she had been a great woman, I doubt whether she would have +discerned the merits of these men, and employed them in her service and +kept them so long in office. + +It was by these great men that Elizabeth was ruled,--so far as she was +ruled at all,--not by favorites, like her successors, James and Charles. +The favorites at the court of Elizabeth were rarely trusted with great +powers unless they were men of signal abilities, and regarded as such by +the nation itself. While she lavished favors upon them,--sometimes to +the disgust of the old nobility,--she was never ruled by them, as James +was by Buckingham, and Louis XV. by Madame de Pompadour. Elizabeth was +not above coquetry, it is true; but after toying with Leicester and +Raleigh,--never, though, to the serious injury of her reputation as a +woman,--she would retire to the cabinet of her ministers and yield to +the sage suggestions of Burleigh and Walsingham. At her council-board +she was an entirely different woman from what she was among her +courtiers: _there_ she would tolerate no flattery, and was controlled +only by reason and good sense,--as practical as Burleigh himself, and +as hard-working and business-like; cold, intellectual, and clear-headed, +utterly without enthusiasm. + +Perhaps the greatest service which Elizabeth rendered to the English +nation and the cause of civilization was her success in establishing +Protestantism as the religion of the land, against so many threatening +obstacles. In this she was aided and directed by some of the most +enlightened divines that England ever had. The liturgy of Cranmer was +re-established, preferments were conferred on married priests, the +learned and pious were raised to honor, eminent scholars and theologians +were invited to England, the Bible was revised and freely circulated, +and an alliance was formed between learning and religion by the great +men who adorned the universities. Though inclined to ritualism, +Elizabeth was broad and even moderate in reform, desiring, according to +the testimony of Bacon, that all extremes of idolatry and superstition +should be avoided on the one hand, and levity and contempt on the other; +that all Church matters should be examined without sophistical niceties +or subtle speculations. + +The basis of the English Church as thus established by Elizabeth was +half-way between Rome and Geneva,--a compromise, I admit; but all +established institutions and governments accepted by the people are +based on compromise. How can there be even family government without +some compromise, inasmuch as husband and wife cannot always be expected +to think exactly alike? + +At any rate, the Church established by Elizabeth was signally adapted to +the wants and genius of the English people,--evangelical, on the whole, +in its creed, though not Calvinistic; unobtrusive in its forms, easy in +its discipline, and aristocratic in its government; subservient to +bishops, but really governed by the enlightened few who really govern +all churches, Independent, Presbyterian, or Methodist; supported by the +State, yet wielding only spiritual authority; giving its influence to +uphold the crown and the established institutions of the country; +conservative, yet earnestly Protestant. In the sixteenth century it was +the Church of reform, of progress, of advancing and liberalizing +thought. Elizabeth herself was a zealous Protestant, protecting the +cause whenever it was persecuted, encouraging Huguenots, and not +disdaining the Presbyterians of Scotland. She was not as generous to the +Protestants of Holland and Trance as we could have wished, for she was +obliged to husband her resources, and hence she often seemed +parsimonious; but she was the acknowledged head of the reform movement +in Europe. Her hostility to Rome and Roman influence was inexorable. She +may not have carried reforms as far as the Puritans desired, and who +can wonder at that? Their spirit was aggressive, revolutionary, bitter, +and, pushed to its logical sequences, was hostility to the throne +itself, as proved by their whole subsequent history until Cromwell was +dead. And this hostility Burleigh perceived as well as the Queen, which, +doubtless led to severities that our age cannot pretend to justify. + +The Queen did dislike and persecute the Puritans, not, I think, so much +because they made war on the surplice, liturgy, and divine right of +bishops, as because they were at heart opposed to all absolute authority +both in State and Church, and when goaded by persecution would hurl even +kings from their thrones. It is to be regretted that Elizabeth was so +severe on those who differed from her; she had no right to insist on +uniformity with her conscience in those matters which are above any +human authority. The Reformation in its severest logical consequences, +in its grandest deductions, affirms the right of private judgment as the +mighty pillar of its support. All parties, Presbyterian as well as +Episcopalian, sought uniformity; they only differed as to its standard. +With the Queen and ministers and prelates it was the laws of the land; +with the Puritans, the decrees of provincial and national synods. Hence, +if Elizabeth insisted that her subjects should conform to her notions +and the ordinances of Parliament and convocations, she showed a spirit +which was universal. She was superior even in toleration to all +contemporaneous sovereigns, Catholic or Protestant, man or woman. +Contrast her persecutions of Catholics and Puritans with the persecution +by Catherine de Medicis and Charles IX. and Philip II. and Ferdinand +II.; or even with that under the Regent Murray of Scotland, when +churches and abbeys were ruthlessly destroyed. Contrast her Archbishop +of Canterbury with the religious dictator of Scotland. She kindled no +_auto-da-fe,_ like the Spaniards; she incited no wholesale massacre, +like the demented fury of France; she had a loving care of her subjects +that no religious bigotry could suppress. She did not seek to +exterminate Catholics or Puritans, but simply to build up the Church of +England as the shield and defence and enlargement of Protestantism in +times of unmitigated religious ferocity,--a Protestantism that has +proved the bulwark of European liberties, as it was the foundation of +all progress in England. In giving an impulse to this great emancipating +movement, even if she did not push it to its remote logical end, +Elizabeth was a benefactor of her country and of mankind, and is not +unjustly called a nursing-mother of the Church,--being so regarded by +Protestants, not in England merely, but on the Continent of Europe. When +was ever a religious revolution effected, or a national church +established, with so little bloodshed? When have ever such great changes +proved so popular and so beneficial, and, I may add, so permanent? After +all the revolutions in English thought and life for three hundred years, +the Church as established by Elizabeth is still dear to the great body +of English people, and has survived every agitation. And even many +things which the Puritans sought to sweep away--the music of the choir, +organs, and chants, even the holidays of venerated ages--are now revived +by the descendants of the Puritans with ancient ardor; showing how +permanent are such festivals as Christmas and Easter in the heart of +Christendom, and how hopeless it is to eradicate what the Church and +Christianity, from their earliest ages, have sanctioned and commended. + +The next great service which Elizabeth rendered to England was a +development of its resources,--ever a primal effort with wise statesmen, +with such administrators as Sully, Colbert, Richelieu. The policy of her +Government was not the policy of aggrandizement in war, which has ever +provoked jealousies and hatreds in other nations, and led to dangerous +combinations, and sowed the seed of future wars. The policy of Napoleon +was retaliated in the conquests of Prussia in our day; and the policy of +Prussia may yet lead to its future dismemberment, in spite of the +imperial realm shaped by Bismarck. "With what measure ye mete, it shall +be measured to you again,"--an eternal law, binding both individuals and +nations, from which there is no escape. The government of Elizabeth did +not desire or aim at foreign conquests,--the great error of European +statesmen on the Continent; it sought the establishment of the monarchy +at home, and the development of the various industries of the nation, +since in these industries are both power and wealth. Commerce was +encouraged, and she girt her island around with those "wooden walls" +which have proved England's impregnable defence against every subsequent +combination of tyrants and conquerors. The East India Company was +formed, and the fisheries of Newfoundland established. It was under +Elizabeth's auspices that Frobisher penetrated to the Polar Sea, that +Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe, that Sir Walter Raleigh +colonized Virginia, and that Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempted to discover +'a northwestern passage to India. Manufactories were set up for serges, +so that wool was no longer exported, but the raw material was consumed +at home. A colony of Flemish weavers was planted in the heart of +England. The prosperity of dyers and cloth-dressers and weavers dates +from this reign, although some attempts at manufactures were made in the +reign of Edward III. A refuge was given to persecuted foreigners, and +work was found for them to do. Pasture-land was converted to +tillage,--not, as is now the case, to parks for the wealthy classes. +Labor was made respectable, and enterprise of all kinds was stimulated. +Wealth was sought in industry and economy, rather than in mines of gold +and silver; so that wealth was doubled during this reign, and the +population increased from four millions to six millions. All the old +debts of the Crown were paid, both principal and interest, and the +debased coin was called in at a great sacrifice to the royal revenue. +The arbitrary management of commerce by foreign merchants was broken up, +and weights and measures were duly regulated. The Queen did not revoke +monopolies, it is true; the principles of political economy were not +then sufficiently understood. But even monopolies, which disgraced the +old Roman world, and are a disgrace to any age, were not so gigantic and +demoralizing in those times as in our own, under our free institutions; +they were not used to corrupt legislation and bribe judges and prevent +justice, but simply to enrich politicians and favorites, and as a reward +for distinguished services. + +Justice in the courts was impartially administered; there was security +to property and punishment for crime. No great culprits escaped +conviction; nor, when convicted, were they allowed to purchase, with +their stolen wealth, the immunities of freedom. The laws were not a +mockery, as in republican Borne, where demagogues had the ascendency, +and prepared the way for usurpation and tyranny. All the expenses of the +government were managed economically,--so much so that the Queen herself +received from Parliament, for forty years, only an average grant of +L65,000 a year. She disliked to ask money from the Commons, and they +granted subsidies with extreme reluctance; the result was that between +the two the greatest economy was practised, and the people were not +over-burdened by taxation. + +Elizabeth hated and detested war as the source of all calamities, and +never embarked upon it except under compulsion. All her wars were +virtually defensive, to maintain the honor, safety, and dignity of the +nation. She did not even seek to recover Calais, which the French had +held for three hundred years; although she took Havre, to gain a +temporary foothold for her troops. She did not strive for military +_eclat_ or foreign possessions in Europe, feeling that the strength of +England, like the ancient Jewish commonwealth, was in the cultivation of +the peaceful virtues; and yet she made war when it became imperative. +She gave free audience to her subjects, paid attention to all petitions, +and was indefatigable in business. She made her own glory identical with +the prosperity of the realm; and if she did not rule _by_ the people, +she ruled _for_ the people, as enlightened and patriotic monarchs ever +have ruled. It is indisputable that the whole nation loved her and +honored her to the last, even when disappointments had saddened her and +the intoxicating delusions of life had been dispelled. She bestowed +honors and benefits with frankness and cordiality. She ever sought to +base her authority on the affections of the people,--the only support +even of absolute thrones. She was ever ready with a witticism, a smile, +and a pleasant word. Though she gave vent to peevishness and +irritability when crossed, and even would swear before her ministers and +courtiers in private, yet in public she disguised her resentments, and +always appeared dignified and graceful; so that the people, when they +saw her majestic manners, or heard her loving speeches, or beheld her +mounted at the head of armies or shining unrivalled in grand festivals, +or listened to her learning on public occasions,--such as when she +extemporized Latin orations at Oxford,--were filled with pride and +admiration, and were ready to expose their lives in her service. + +The characteristic excellence of Elizabeth's reign, as it seems to me, +was good government. She had extraordinary executive ability, directed +to all matters of public interest. Her government was not marked by +great and brilliant achievements, but by perpetual vigilance, humanity, +economy, and liberal policy. There were no destructive and wasting +wars, no passion for military glory, no successions of court follies, no +extravagance in palace-building, no egotistical aims and pleasures such +as marked the reign of Louis XIV., which cut the sinews of national +strength, impoverished the nobility, disheartened the people, and sowed +the seeds of future revolution. That modern Nebuchadnezzar spent on one +palace L40,000,000; while Elizabeth spent on all her palaces, +processions, journeys, carriages, servants, and dresses L65,000 a year. +She was indeed fond of visiting her subjects, and perhaps subjected her +nobles to a burdensome hospitality. But the Earl of Leicester could well +afford three hundred and sixty-five hogsheads of beer when he +entertained the Queen at Kenilworth, since he was rich enough to fortify +his castle with ten thousand men; nor was it difficult for the Earl of +Derby to feast the royal party, when his domestic servants numbered two +hundred and forty. She may have exacted presents on her birthday; but +the courtiers who gave her laces and ruffs and jewelry received +monopolies in return. + +The most common charge against Elizabeth as a sovereign is, that she was +arbitrary and tyrannical; nor can she be wholly exculpated from this +charge. Her reign was despotic, so far as the Constitution would allow; +but it was a despotism according to the laws. Under her reign the people +had as much liberty as at any preceding period of English history. She +did not encroach on the Constitution. The Constitution and the +precedents of the past gave her the Star Chamber, and the High +Commission Court, and the disposal of monopolies, and the absolute +command of the military and naval forces; but these great prerogatives +she did not abuse. In her direst necessities she never went beyond the +laws, and seldom beyond the wishes of the people. + +It is expecting too much of sovereigns to abdicate their own powers +except upon compulsion; and still more, to increase the political power +of the people. The most illustrious sovereigns have never parted +willingly with their own prerogatives. Did the Antonines, or Theodosius, +or Charlemagne, or 'Frederic II.? The Emperor of Russia may emancipate +serfs from a dictate of humanity, but he did not give them political +power, for fear that it might be turned against the throne. The +sovereign people of America may give political equality to their old +slaves, and invite them to share in the legislation of great interests: +it is in accordance with that theory of abstract rights which Rousseau, +the creator of the French Revolution, propounded,--which gospel of +rights was accepted by Jefferson and Franklin, The monarchs of the world +have their own opinions about the political rights of those whom they +deem ignorant or inexperienced. Instead of proceeding to enlarge the +bounds of popular liberties, they prefer to fall back on established +duties. Elizabeth had this preference; but she did not attempt to take +away what liberties the people already had. In encouraging the +principles of the Reformation, she became their protector against +Catholic priests and feudal nobles. + +It is not quite just to stigmatize the government of Elizabeth as a +despotism, A despotism is a regime supported by military force, based on +an army, with power to tax the people without their consent,--like the +old rule of the Caesars, like that of Louis XIV. and Peter the Great, +and even of Napoleon. Now, Elizabeth never had a standing army of any +size. When the country was threatened by Spain, she threw herself into +the arms of the militia,--upon the patriotism and generosity of her +people. Nor could she tax the people without the consent of +Parliament,--which by a fiction was supposed to represent the people, +while in reality it only represented the wealthy classes. Parliament +possessed the power to cripple her, and was far less generous to her +than it was to Queen Victoria. She was headed off both by the nobles and +by the representatives of the wealthy, powerful, and aristocratic +Commons. She had great prerogatives and great private wealth, palaces, +parks, and arbitrary courts; but she could not go against the laws of +the realm without endangering her throne,--which she was wise enough +and strong enough to keep, in spite of all her enemies both at home and +abroad. Had she been a man, she might have turned out a tyrant and a +usurper: she might have increased the royal prerogatives, like +Richelieu; she might have made wars, like Louis XIV.; she might have +ground down the people, like her successor James. But she understood the +limits of her power, and did not seek to go beyond: thereby proving +herself as wise as she was mighty. + +By most historical writers Elizabeth is severely censured for the +execution of Mary Queen of Scots, and I think with justice. I am not +making a special plea in favor of Elizabeth,--hiding her defects and +exaggerating her virtues,--but simply seeking to present her character +and deeds according to the verdict of enlightened ages. It was a cruel +and repulsive act to take away the life of a relative and a woman and a +queen, under any pretence whatever, unless the sparing of her life would +endanger the security of the sovereign and the peace of the realm. Mary +was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, and was +the lawful successor of Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII. On the +principle of legitimacy, she had a title to the throne superior to +Elizabeth herself, and the succession of princes has ever been +determined by this. But Mary was a Catholic, to say nothing of her +levities or crimes, and had been excluded by the nation for that very +reason. If there was injustice done to her, it was in not allowing her +claim to succeed Mary. That she felt that Elizabeth was a usurper, and +that the English throne belonged by right to her, I do not doubt. It was +natural that she should seek to regain her rights. If she should survive +Elizabeth, her claims as the rightful successor could not be well set +aside. That in view of these facts Elizabeth was jealous of Mary I do +not doubt; and that this jealousy was one great cause of her hostility +is probable. + +The execution of Mary Stuart because she was a Catholic, or because she +excited fear or jealousy, is utterly indefensible. All that the English +nation had a right to do was to set her succession aside because she was +a Catholic, and would undo the work of the Reformation. She had a right +to her religion; and the nation also had a right to prevent its religion +from being overturned or jeopardized. I do not believe, however, that +Mary's life endangered either the throne or the religion of England, so +long as she was merely Queen of Scotland; hence I look upon her +captivity as cruel, and her death as a crime. She was destroyed as the +male children of the Hebrews were destroyed by Pharaoh, as a sultan +murders his nephews,--from fear; from a cold and cruel state policy, +against all the higher laws of morality. + +The crime of Elizabeth doubtless has palliations. She was urged by her +ministers and by the Protestant part of the nation to commit this great +wrong, on the plea of necessity, to secure the throne against a Catholic +successor, and the nation from embarrassments, plots, and rebellions. It +is an undoubted fact that Mary, even after her imprisonment in England, +was engaged in perpetual intrigues; that she was leagued with Jesuits +and hostile powers, and kept Elizabeth in continual irritation and the +nation in constant alarm. And it is probable that had she succeeded +Elizabeth, she would have destroyed all that was dear to the English +heart,--that glorious Reformation, effected by so many labors and +sacrifices. Therefore she was immolated to the spirit of the times, for +reasons of expediency and apparent state necessity. That she conspired +against the government of Elizabeth, and possibly against her life, was +generally supposed; that she was a bitter enemy cannot be questioned. +How far Elizabeth can be exculpated on the principle of self-defence +cannot well be ascertained. Scotch historians do not generally accept +the reputed facts of Mary's guilt. But if she sought the life of +Elizabeth, and was likely to attain so bloody an end,--as was generally +feared,--then Elizabeth has great excuses for having sanctioned the +death of her rival. + +So the beautiful and interesting Mary dies a martyr to her cause,--a +victim of royal and national jealousy, paying the penalty for alleged +crimes against the state and throne. Had Elizabeth herself, during the +life of her sister Mary, been guilty of half they proved against the +Queen of Scots, she would have been most summarily executed. But +Elizabeth was wise and prudent, and waited for her time. Mary Stuart was +imprudent and rash. Her character, in spite of her fascinations and +accomplishments, was full of follies, infidelities, and duplicities. She +is supposed to have been an adulteress and a murderess. She was +unfortunate in her administration of Scotland. She was ruled by wicked +favorites and foreign influence. She was not patriotic, or lofty, or +earnest. She did what she could to root out Protestantism in Scotland, +and kept her own realm in constant trouble. She had winning manners and +graceful accomplishments; she was doubtless an intellectual woman; she +had courage, presence of mind, tact, intelligence; she could ride and +dance well: but with these accomplishments she had qualities which made +her dangerous and odious. If she had not been executed, she would have +been execrated. But her sufferings and unfortunate death appeal to the +heart of the world, and I would not fight against popular affections and +sympathies. Though she committed great crimes and follies, and was +supposed to be dangerous to the religion and liberties of England, she +died a martyr,--as Charles I. died, and Louis XVI.,--the victim of great +necessities and great animosities. + +The execution of Essex is another of the popular rather than serious +charges against Elizabeth. He had been her favorite; he was a generous, +gifted, and accomplished man,--therefore, it is argued, he ought to have +been spared. But he was caught with arms in his hands. He was a traitor +to the throne which enriched him and the nation which flattered him. He +was at the head of foolish rebellion, and therefore he died,--died like +Montmorency in the reign of Henry IV., like Bassompierre, like Norfolk +and Northumberland, because he had committed high-treason and defied the +laws. Why should Elizabeth spare such a culprit? No former friendship, +no chivalrous qualities, no array of past services, ever can offset the +crime of treason and rebellion, especially in unsettled times; and +Elizabeth would have been worse than weak had she spared so great a +criminal, both according to the laws and precedents of England and the +verdict of enlightened civilization. We may compassionate the fate of +Essex; but he was rash, giddy, and irritated, and we feel that he +deserved his punishment. + +The other charges brought against Elizabeth pertain to her as a woman +rather than a sovereign. They say that she was artful, dissembling, +parsimonious, jealous, haughty, and masculine. Very likely,--and what +then? Who claimed that she was perfect, any more than other great +sovereigns whom on the whole we praise? These faults, too, may have been +the result of her circumstances, rather than native traits of character. +Surrounded with spies and enemies, she was obliged to hide her thoughts +and her plans. Irritated by treason and rebellions, she may have given +vent to unseemly anger. Flattered beyond all example, she may have been +vain and ostentatious. Possessed of great powers, she may have been +arbitrary. Crippled by Parliament, she may have nursed her resources. +Compelled to give to everything, she may have been parsimonious. +Slandered by her enemies, she may have been resentful. Annoyed by +wrangling sects, she may have too strenuously paraded her high-church +principles. + +But all these things we lose sight of in the undoubted virtues, +abilities, and services of this great Queen. Historians have other work +than to pick out spots on the sun. The dark spot, if there is one upon +Elizabeth's character, was her coquetry in private life. It is +impossible to tell whether or not she exceeded the bounds of womanly +virtue. She was probably slandered and vilified by treacherous, +gossiping ambassadors, who were foes to her person and her kingdom, and +who made as ugly reports of her as possible to their royal masters. I am +sorry that these malicious accusations have been raked out of the ashes +of the past by modern historians, whose literary fame rests on bringing +to light what is _new_ rather than what is _true_. The character of a +woman and a queen so admired and honored in her day, should be sacred +from the stings of sensational writers who poison their darts from the +archives of bitter foreign enemies. + +The gallant men of genius whom Elizabeth admired and honored--as a +bright and intellectual woman naturally would, especially when deprived +of the felicities of wedded life--never presumed, I have charity to +believe, beyond an undignified partiality and an admiring friendship. +When Essex stood highest in her favor, she was nearly seventy years of +age. There are no undoubted facts which criminate her,--nothing but +gossip and the malice of foreign spies. What a contrast her private life +was to that of her mother Anne Boleyn, or to that of Mary, Queen of +Scots, or even to that of the great Catherine of Russia! She had, +indeed, great foibles and weaknesses. She was inordinately fond of +dress; she was sensitive to her own good looks; she was jealous of +pretty women; she was vain, and susceptible to flattery; she was +irritable when crossed; she gave way to sallies of petulance and anger; +she occasionally used language unbecoming her station and authority; she +could dissimulate and hide her thoughts: but her nature was not +hypocritical, or false, or mean. She was just, honest, and +straightforward in her ordinary dealings; she was patriotic, +enlightened, and magnanimous; she loved learning and learned men; she +had at heart the best interests of her subjects; she was true to her +cause. Surely these great virtues, which it is universally admitted she +possessed, should more than balance her defects and weaknesses. See how +tender-hearted she was when required to sign death-warrants, and what +grief she manifested when Essex proved unworthy of her friendship! See +her love of children, her readiness of sympathy, her fondness for +society,--all feminine qualities in a woman who is stigmatized as +masculine, as she perhaps was in her mental structure, in her habits of +command, and aptitude for business: a strong-minded woman at the worst, +yet such a woman as was needed on a throne, especially in stormy times +and in a rude state of society. + +And when we pass from her private character to her public services, by +which the great are judged, how exalted her claims to the world's +regard! Where do we find a greater or a better queen? Contrast her with +other female sovereigns,--with Isabella, who with all her virtues +favored the Inquisition; with her sister Mary, who kindled the fires of +Smithfield; with Catherine de Medicis, who sounded the tocsin of St. +Bartholomew; with Mary of Scotland, who was a partner in the murder of +her husband; with Anne of Austria, who ruled through Italian favorites; +with Christiana of Sweden, who scandalized Europe by her indecent +eccentricities; with Anne of Great Britain, ruled by the Duchess of +Marlborough. There are only two great sovereigns with whom she can be +compared,--Catherine II. of Russia, and Maria Theresa of Germany, +illustrious, like Elizabeth, for courage and ability. But Catherine was +the slave of infamous passions, and Maria Theresa was a party to the +partition of Poland. Compared with these even, the English queen appears +immeasurably superior; they may have wielded more power, but their moral +influence was less. It is not the greatness of a country which gives +greatness to its exalted characters. Washington ruled our empire in its +infancy; and Buchanan, with all its majestic resources,--yet who is +dearest to the heart of the world? No countries ever produced greater +benefactors than Palestine and Greece, when their limits were scarcely +equal to one of our States. The fame of Burleigh burns brighter than +that of the most powerful of modern statesmen. The names of Alexander +Hamilton and Daniel Webster may outshine the glories of any statesmen +who shall arise in this great country for a hundred years to come. +Elizabeth ruled a little island; but her memory and deeds are as +immortal as the fame of Pericles or Marcus Aurelius. + +And the fame of England's great queen rests on the influence which +radiated from her character, as well as upon the power she wielded with +so much wisdom and ability. Influence is greater than power in the lapse +of ages. Politicians may wield power for a time; but the great +statesmen, like Burke and Canning, live in their ideas. Warriors and +kings, and ministers of kings, have power; but poets and philosophers +have influence, for their ideas go coursing round the world until they +have changed governments and institutions for better or for worse,--like +those of Paul, of Socrates, of Augustine, of Dante, of Shakspeare, of +Bacon, yea, of Rousseau. Some few favored rulers and leaders of men have +had both power and influence, like Moses, Alfred, and Washington; and +Elizabeth belongs to this class. Her influence was for good, and it +permeated English life and society, like that of Victoria, whose power +was small. + +As a queen, however, more than a woman, Elizabeth is one of the great +names of history. I have some respect for the critical verdict of +Francis Bacon, the greatest man of his age,--if we except +Shakspeare,--and one of the greatest men in the history of all nations. +What does he say? He knew her well, perhaps as well as any modern +historian. He says:-- + +"She was a princess, that, if Plutarch were now alive to write by +parables, it would puzzle him to find her equal among women. She was +endowed with learning most singular and rare; and as for her government, +I do affirm that England never had forty-five years of better times, and +this, not through the calmness of the season, but the wisdom of her +regimes. When we consider the establishment of religion, and the +constant peace of the country, the good administration of justice, the +flourishing state of learning, the increase of wealth, and the general +prosperity, amid differences in religion, the troubles of neighboring +nations, the ambition of Spain, and the opposition of Home, I could not +have chosen a more remarkable combination of learning in the prince with +felicity of the people." + +I can add nothing to this comprehensive verdict: it covers the whole +ground. So that for virtues and abilities, in spite of all defects, I +challenge attention to this virgin queen. I love to dwell on her +courage, her fortitude, her prudence, her wisdom, her patriotism, her +magnanimity, her executive ability, and, more, on the exalted services +she rendered to her country and to civilization. These invest her name +with a halo of glory which shall blaze through all the ages, even as the +great men who surrounded her throne have made her name illustrious. + +The Elizabethan era is justly regarded as the brightest in English +history; not for the number of its great men, or the magnificence of its +great enterprises, or the triumphs of its great discoveries and +inventions, but because there were then born the great ideas which +constitute the strength and beauty of our proud civilization, and +because then the grandest questions which pertain to religion, +government, literature, and social life were first agitated, with the +freshness and earnestness of a revolutionary age. The men of that period +were a constellation of original thinkers. We still point with +admiration to the political wisdom of Cecil, to the sagacity of +Walsingham, to the varied accomplishments of Raleigh, to the chivalrous +graces of Sidney, to the bravery of Hawkins and Nottingham, to the bold +enterprises of Drake and Frobisher, to the mercantile integrity and +financial skill of Gresham, to the comprehensive intellect of Parker, to +the scholarship of Ascham, to the eloquence of Jewel, to the profundity +of Hooker, to the vast attainments and original genius of Bacon, to the +rich fancy of Spenser, to the almost inspired insight of Shakspeare, +towering above all the poets of ancient and of modern times, as fresh +to-day as he was three hundred years ago, the greatest miracle of +intellect that perhaps has ever adorned the world. By all these +illustrious men Queen Elizabeth was honored and beloved. All received no +small share of their renown from her glorious appreciation; all were +proud to revolve around her as a central sun, giving life and growth to +every great enterprise in her day, and shedding a light which shall +gladden unborn generations. + +It is something that a woman has earned such a fame, and in a sphere +which has been supposed to belong to man alone. And if men shall here +and there be found to decry her greatness, let no woman be found who +shall seek to dethrone her from her lofty pedestal; for in so doing she +unwittingly becomes a detractor from that womanly greatness in which we +should all rejoice, and which thus far has so seldom been seen in +exalted stations. For my part, the more I study history the more I +reverence this great sovereign; and I am proud that such a woman has +lived and reigned and died in honor. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Fronde's History of England; Hume's History of England; Agnes +Strickland's Queens of England; Mrs. Jameson's Memoirs of Queen +Elizabeth; E. Lodge's Sketch of Elizabeth; G.P.R. James's Memoir of +Elizabeth; Encyclopaedia Britannica, article on England: Hallam's +Constitutional History of England; "Age of Elizabeth," in Dublin Review, +lxxxi.; British Quarterly Review, v. 412; Aikin's Court of Elizabeth; +Bentley's Elizabeth and her Times; "Court of Elizabeth," in Westminster +Review, xxix. 281; "Character of Elizabeth," in Dublin University +Review, xl. 216; "England of Elizabeth," in Edinburgh Review, cxlvi. +199; "Favorites of Queen Elizabeth," in Quarterly Review, xcv. 207; +Reign of Elizabeth, in London Quarterly Review, xxii. 158; "Youth of +Elizabeth," in Temple Bar Magazine, lix. 451, and "Elizabeth and Mary +Stuart," x. 190; Blackwood's Magazine, ci. 389. + + + +HENRY OF NAVARRE. + + +A. D. 1553-1610. + +THE HUGUENOTS. + +In this lecture I shall confine myself principally to the connection of +Henry IV. with that memorable movement which came near making France a +Protestant country. He is identified with the Huguenots, and it is the +struggles of the Huguenots which I wish chiefly to present. I know he +was also a great king, the first of the Bourbon dynasty, whose heroism +in war was equalled only by his enlightened zeal in the civilization of +France,--a king who more deeply impressed himself upon the affections of +the nation than any monarch since Saint Louis, and who, had he lived to +execute his schemes, would have raised France to the highest pitch of +glory. Nor do I forget, that, although he fought for a great cause, and +reigned with great wisdom and ability, and thus rendered important +services to his country, he was a man of great defects of character, +stained with those peculiar vices which disgraced most of the Bourbon +kings, especially Louis XIV. and Louis XV.; that his court was the +scene of female gallantries and intrigues, and that he was more under +the influence of women than was good for the welfare of his country or +his own reputation. But the limits of this lecture will not permit me to +dwell on his acts as a monarch, or on his statesmanship, his services, +or his personal defects of character. I am obliged, from the magnitude +of my subject, and from the necessity of giving it unity and interest, +to confine myself to him as a leader of the Huguenots alone. It is not +Henry himself that I would consider, so much as the struggles of the +brave men associated with him, more or less intimately, in their attempt +to secure religious liberty in the sixteenth century. + +The sixteenth century! What a great era that was In comparison with the +preceding centuries since Christianity was declared! From a religious +and heroic point of view it was immeasurably a greater period than the +nineteenth century, which has been marked chiefly for the triumphs of +science, material progress, and social and political reforms. But in +earnestness, in moral grandeur, and in discussions which pertain to the +health and life of nations, the sixteenth century was greater than our +own. Then began all sorts of inquiries about Nature and about mind, +about revelation and Providence, about liberty of worship and freedom of +thought; all of which were discussed with an enthusiasm and patience +and boldness and originality to which our own times furnish no parallel. +And united with this fresh and original agitation of great ideas was a +heroism in action which no age of the world has equalled. Men risked +their fortunes and their lives in defence of those principles which have +made the enjoyment of them in our times the greatest blessing we +possess. It was a new spirit that had arisen in our world to break the +fetters which centuries of fraud and superstition and injustice had +forged,--a spirit scornful of old authorities, yet not sceptical, with +disgust of the past and hope for the future, penetrating even the +hamlets of the poor, and kindling the enthusiasm of princes and nobles, +producing learned men in every country of Europe, whose original +investigations should put to the blush the commentators and compilers of +this age of religious mediocrity and disguised infidelity. Such +intellectual giants in the field of religious inquiry had not appeared +since the Fathers of the Church combated the paganism of the Roman +world, and will not probably appear again until the cycle of changes is +completed in the domain of theological thought, and men are forced to +meet the enemies of divine revelation marshalled in such overwhelming +array that there will be a necessity for reformers, called out by a +special Providence to fight battles,--as I regard Luther and Calvin and +Knox. The great difference between the sixteenth and nineteenth +centuries, outside of material aspects, is that the former recognized +the majesty of God, and the latter the majesty of man. Both centuries +believed in progress; but the sixteenth century traced this progress to +first, and the nineteenth to second, causes. The sixteenth believed that +human improvement was owing directly to special divine grace, and the +nineteenth believes in the necessary development of mankind. The school +of the sixteenth century was spiritual, that of the nineteenth is +material; the former looked to heaven, the latter looks to earth. The +sixteenth regarded this world as a mere preparation for the next, and +the nineteenth looks upon this world as the future scene of indefinite +and completed bliss. The sixteenth century attacked the ancient, the +nineteenth attacks the eternal. The sixteenth destroyed, but +reconstructed; the nineteenth also destroys, but would substitute +nothing instead. The sixteenth reminds us of audacious youth, still +clinging to parental authority; the nineteenth reminds us of cynical and +irreverent old age, believing in nothing but the triumphs of science and +art, and shaking off the doctrines of the ages as exploded +superstitions. + +The sixteenth century was marked not only by intensely earnest religious +inquiries, but by great civil and social disorders,--showing a +transition period of society from the slaveries and discomforts of the +feudal ages to the liberty and comforts of highly civilized life. In +the midst of religious enthusiasm we see tumults, insurrections, +terrible animosities, and cruel intolerance. War was associated with +inhuman atrocities, and the acceptance of the reformed faith was +followed by bitter and heartless persecution. The feudal system had +received a shock from standing armies and the invention of gunpowder and +the central authority of kings, but it was not demolished. The nobles +still continued to enjoy their social and political distinctions, the +peasantry were ground down by unequal laws, and the nobles were as +arrogant and quarrelsome as the people were oppressed by unjust +distinctions. They were still followed by their armed retainers, and had +almost unlimited jurisdiction in their respective governments. Even the +higher clergy gloried in feudal inequalities, and were selected from the +noble classes. The people were not powerful enough to make combinations +and extort their rights, unless they followed the standards of military +chieftains, arrayed perhaps against the crown and against the +parliaments. We see no popular, independent political movements; even +the people, like all classes above them, were firm and enthusiastic in +their religious convictions. + +The commanding intellect at that time in Europe was John Calvin (a +Frenchman, but a citizen of Geneva), whom we have already seen to be a +man of marvellous precocity of genius and astonishing logical powers, +combined with the most exhaustive erudition on all theological subjects. +His admirers claim a distinct and logical connection between his +theology and civil liberty itself. I confess I cannot see this. There +was nothing democratic about Calvin. He ruled indeed at Geneva as +Savonarola did in Florence, but he did not have as liberal ideas as the +Florentine reformer about the political liberties of the people. He made +his faith the dearest thing a man could have, to be defended unto death +in the face of the most unrelenting persecution. It was the tenacity to +defend the reformed doctrines, of which, next to Luther, Calvin was the +greatest champion, which kindled opposition to civil rulers. And it was +opposition to civil rulers who proved themselves tyrants which led to +the struggle for civil liberty; not democratic ideas of right. These may +have been the sequence of agitations and wars, but not their animating +cause,--like the ideas of Rousseau on the French revolutionists. The +original Puritans were not democratic; the Presbyterians of Scotland +were not, even when Cromwell led the armies, but not the people, of +England. The Huguenots had no aspirations for civil rights; they only +aspired for the right of worshipping God according to the dictates of +conscience. There was nothing popular in their notions of government +when Henry IV. headed the forces of the Huguenots; he only aimed at the +recognition of religious rights. The Huguenots never rallied around +popular leaders, but rather under the standards of princes and nobles +fighting for the right of worshipping God according to the dictation or +ideas of Calvin. They would preserve their schools, their churches, +their consistories, and their synods; they would be unmolested in their +religious worship. + +Now, at the time when Henry IV. was born, in the year 1553, when Henry +II. was King of France and Edward VI. was King of England, the ideas of +the Reformation, and especially the doctrines of Calvin, had taken a +deep and wide hold of the French people. The Calvinists, as they were +called, were a powerful party; in some parts of France they were in a +majority. More than a third of the whole population had enthusiastically +accepted the reformed doctrines. They were in a fair way toward triumph; +they had great leaders among the highest of the nobility. But they were +bitterly hated by the king and the princes of the house of Valois, and +especially by the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine,--the most +powerful famlies in France,--because they meditated to overturn, not the +throne, but the old established religion. The Pope instigated the most +violent proceedings; so did the King of Spain. It was resolved to +suppress the hated doctrines. The enemies of the Calvinists resorted to +intrigues and assassinations; they began a furious persecution, as they +held in their hands the chief political power. Injustice succeeded +injustice, and outrage followed outrage. During the whole reigns of the +Valois Princes, treachery, assassinations, and bloody executions marked +the history of France. Royal edicts forbid even the private assemblies +of the Huguenots, on pain of death. They were not merely persecuted but +calumniated. There was no crime which was not imputed to them, even that +of sacrificing little children; so that the passions of the people were +aroused against them, and they were so maltreated that all security was +at an end. From a condition of hopeful progress, they were forced back +and beaten down. Their condition became insupportable. There was no +alternative but desperate resistance or martyrdom, for the complete +suppression of Protestantism was resolved upon, on the part of the +government. The higher clergy, the parliaments, the University of Paris, +and the greater part of the old nobility supported the court, and each +successive Prince of the house of Valois adopted more rigorous measures +than his predecessor. Henry II. was more severe than Francis I.; and +Francis II. was more implacable than Henry II., who was killed at a +tournament in 1559. Francis II., a feeble prince, was completely ruled +by his mother, Catherine de Medicis, an incarnated fiend of cruelty and +treachery, though a woman of pleasing manners and graceful +accomplishments,--like Mary of Scotland, but without her levities. Under +her influence persecution assumed a form which was truly diabolical. The +Huguenots, although supported by the King of Navarre, the Prince of +Conde, Coligny (Admiral of France), his brother the Seigneur d' Andelot, +the Count of Montgomery, the Duke of Bouillon, the Duke of Soubise, all +of whom were nobles of high rank, were in danger of being absolutely +crushed, and were on the brink of despair. What if a third part of the +people belonged to their ranks, when the whole power of the crown and a +great majority of the nobles were against them; and these supported by +the Pope and clergy, and stimulated to ferocity by the Jesuits, then +becoming formidable? + +At last the Huguenots resolved to organize and arm in their own defence, +for there is a time when submission ceases to be a virtue. If ever a +people had cause for resistance it was this persecuted people. They did +not rise up against their persecutors with the hope of overturning the +throne, or producing a change of dynasties, or gaining constitutional +liberty, or becoming a political power hostile to the crown, like the +Puritans under Cromwell or Hampden, but simply to preserve what to them +was more precious than life. All that they demanded was a toleration of +their religion; and as their religion was dearer to them than life, they +were ready to undergo any sacrifices. Their resistance was more +formidable than was anticipated; they got possession of cities and +fortresses, and were able to defy the whole power of the crown. It was +found impossible to suppress a people who fought with so much heroism, +and who defied every combination. So truces and treaties were made with +them, by which their religious rights were guaranteed. But these +treaties were perpetually broken, for treachery is no sin with religious +persecutors, since "the end justified the means." + +This Huguenotic contest, attended with so much vicissitude, alternate +defeat and victory, and stained by horrid atrocities, was at its height +when Henry IV. was a boy, and had no thought of ever being King of +France. His father, Antoine de Bourbon, although King of Navarre and a +prince of the blood, being a lineal descendant from Saint Louis, was +really only a great noble, not so powerful as the Duke of Guise or the +Duke of Montmorency; and even he, a leader of the rebellion, was finally +won over to the court party by the seductions brought to bear on him by +Roman priests. He was either bribed or intimidated, and disgracefully +abjured the cause for which he at first gallantly fought. He died from a +wound he received at the siege of Rouen, while commanding one of the +armies of Charles IX., who succeeded his brother Francis II., in 1560. + +The mother of the young prince, destined afterwards to be so famous, +was one of the most celebrated women of history,--Jeanne D'Albret, niece +of Francis L; a woman who was equally extolled by men of letters and +Calvinistic divines. She was as beautiful as she was good; at her castle +in Pau, the capital of her hereditary kingdom of Navarre, she diffused a +magnificent hospitality, especially to scholars and the lights of the +reformed doctrines. Her kingdom was small, and was politically +unimportant; but she was a sovereign princess nevertheless. The +management of the young prince, her son, was most admirable, but +unusual. He was delicate and sickly as an infant, and reared with +difficulty; but, though a prince, he was fed on the simplest food, and +exposed to hardships like the sons of peasants; he was allowed to run +bareheaded and barefooted, exposed to heat and rain, in order to +strengthen his constitution. Amid the hills at the base of the Pyrenees, +in the company of peasants' children, he thus acquired simple and +natural manners, and accustomed himself to fatigues and dangers. He was +educated in the reformed doctrines, but was more distinguished as a boy +for his chivalric graces, physical beauty, and manly sports than for +seriousness of character or a religious life. He grew up a Protestant, +from education rather than conviction. At twelve, in the year 1565, he +was intrusted by his mother, the Queen of Navarre, to the care of his +uncle, the Prince of Conde, and, on his death, to Admiral Coligny, the +acknowledged leader of the Protestants. He thus witnessed many bloody +battles before he was old enough to be intrusted with command. At +eighteen he was affianced to Marguerite de Valois, sister of Charles +IX., in spite of differences of religion. + +It was amid the nuptial festivities of the young King of Navarre,--his +mother had died the year before,--when all the prominent leaders of the +Protestants were enticed to Paris, that preparations were made for the +blackest crime in the annals of civilized nations,--even the treacherous +and hideous massacre of St. Bartholomew, perpetrated by Charles IX., who +was incited to it by his mother, the ever-infamous Catherine de Medicis, +and the Duke of Guise. + +The Protestants, under the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny, had +fought so bravely and so successfully in defence of their cause that all +hope of subduing them in the field was given up. The bloody battles of +Montcontour, of St. Denis, and of Jarnac had proved how stubbornly the +Huguenots would fight; while their possession of such strong fortresses +as Montauban and La Rochelle, deemed impregnable, showed that they could +not easily be subdued. Although the Prince of Conde had been slain at +the battle of Jarnac, this great misfortune to the Protestants was more +than balanced by the assassination of the great Duke of Guise, the +ablest general and leader of the Catholics. So when all hope had +vanished of exterminating the Huguenots in open warfare, a deceitful +peace was made; and their leaders were decoyed to Paris, in order to +accomplish, in one foul sweep, by wholesale murder, the +diabolical design. + +The Huguenot leaders were completely deceived. Old Admiral Coligny, with +his deeper insight, hesitated to put himself into the power of a bigoted +and persecuting monarch; but Charles IX. pledged his word for his +safety, and in an age when chivalry was not extinguished, his promise +was accepted. Who could believe that his word of honor would be broken, +or that he, a king, could commit such an outrageous and unprecedented +crime? But what oath, what promise, what law can bind a man who is a +slave of religious bigotry, when his church requires a bloody and a +cruel act? The end seemed to justify any means. I would not fix the +stain of that infamous crime exclusively on the Jesuits, or on the Pope, +or on the councillors of the King, or on his mother. I will not say that +it was even exclusively a Church movement: it may have been equally an +apparent State necessity. A Protestant prince might mount the throne of +France, and with him, perhaps, the ascendency of Protestantism, or at +least its protection. Such a catastrophe, as it seemed to the +councillors of Charles IX., must somehow be averted. How could it be +averted otherwise than by the assassination of Henry himself, and his +cousin Conde, and the brave old admiral, as powerful as Guise, as +courageous as Du Gueslin, and as pious as Godfrey? And then, when these +leaders were removed, and all the Protestants in Paris were murdered, +who would remain to continue the contest, and what Protestant prince +could hope to mount the throne? But whoever was directly responsible for +the crime, and whatever may have been the motives for it, still it was +committed. The first victim was Coligny himself, and the slaughter of +sixty thousand persons followed in Paris and the provinces. The Admiral +Coligny, Marquis of Chatillon, was one of the finest characters in all +history,--brave, honest, truthful, sincere, with deep religious +convictions, and great ability as a general. No Englishman in the +sixteenth century can be compared with him for influence, heroism, and +virtue combined. It was deemed necessary to remove this illustrious man, +not because he was personally obnoxious, but because he was the leader +of the Protestant party. + +It is said that as the fatal hour approached to give the signal for the +meditated massacre, Aug. 24, 1572, the King appeared irresolute and +disheartened. Though cruel, perfidious, and weak, he shrank from +committing such a gigantic crime, and this too in the face of his royal +promises. But there was one person whom no dangers appalled, and whose +icy soul could be moved by no compassion and no voice of conscience. At +midnight, Catherine entered the chamber of her irresolute son, in the +Louvre, on whose brow horror was already stamped, and whose frame +quivered with troubled chills. Coloring the crime with the usual +sophistries of all religious and political persecution, that the end +justifies the means, and stigmatizing him as a coward, she at last +extorted from his quivering lips the fatal order; and immediately the +tocsin of death sounded from the great bell of the church of St. Germain +de Auxerrois. At once the slaughter commenced in every corner of Paris, +so well were the horrid measures concerted. Screams of despair were +mingled with shouts of vengeance; the cries of the murdered were added +to the imprecations of the murderers; the streets flowed with blood, the +dead rained from the windows, the Seine became purple. Men, women, and +children were seen flying in every direction, pursued by soldiers, who +were told that an insurrection of Protestants had broken out. No sex or +age or dignity was spared, no retreat afforded a shelter, not even the +churches of the Catholics. Neither Alaric nor Attila ever inflicted such +barbarities. No besieged city taken by assault ever saw such wanton +butcheries, except possibly Jerusalem when taken by Titus or Godfrey, +or Magdeburg when taken by Tilly. And as the bright summer sun +illuminated the city on a Sunday morning the massacre had but just +begun; nor for three days and three nights did the slaughter abate. A +vulgar butcher appeared before the King and boasted he had slain one +hundred and fifty persons with his own hand in a single night. For seven +days was Paris the scene of disgraceful murder and pillage and violence. +Men might be seen stabbing little infants, and even children were known +to slaughter their companions. Nor was there any escape from these +atrocities; the very altars which had once protected Christians from +pagans were polluted by Catholic executioners. Ladies jested with +unfeeling mirth over the dead bodies of murdered Protestants. The very +worst horrors of which the mind could conceive were perpetrated in the +name of religion. And then, when no more victims remained, the King and +his court and his clergy proceeded in solemn procession to the cathedral +church of Notre Dame, amidst hymns of praise, to return thanks to God +for the deliverance of France from men who had sought only the privilege +of worshipping Him according to their consciences! + +Nor did the bloody work stop here; orders were sent by the Government to +every city and town of France to execute the like barbarities. The utter +extermination of the Protestants was resolved upon throughout the +country. The slaughter was begun in treachery and was continued in the +most heartless cruelty. When the news of it reached Borne, the Holy +Father the Pope caused a medal to be struck in commemoration of the +event, illuminated his capital, ordained general rejoicings, as if for +some signal victory over the Turks; and, assisted by his cardinals and +clergy, marched in glad procession to St. Peter's Church, and offered up +a solemn Te Deum for this vile and treacherous slaughter of sixty +thousand Protestants. + +In former lectures I have passed rapidly and imperfectly over this awful +crime, not wishing to stimulate passions which should be buried, and +thinking it was more the fault of the age than of Catholic bigots; but I +now present it in its naked deformity, to be true to history, and to +show how cruel is religious intolerance, confirmed by the history of +other inhumanities in the Catholic Church,--by the persecution of +Dominican monks, by the slaughter of the Albigenses, by inquisitions, +gunpowder plots, the cruelties of Alva, and that trail of blood which +has marked the fairest portions of Europe by the hostilities of the +Church of Borne in its struggles to suppress Protestant opinions. I +mention it to recall the fact that Protestantism has never been stained +by such a crime. I mention it to invoke gratitude that such a misguided +zeal has passed away and is never likely to return. Catholic historians +do not pretend to deny the horrid facts, but ascribe the massacre to +political animosities rather than religious,--a lame and impotent +defence of their persecuting Church in the sixteenth century. + +But this atrocity had such a demoniacal blackness and perfidy about it +that it filled the whole Protestant world with grief and indignation, +especially England, and had only the effect of binding together the +Huguenots in a solid phalanx of warriors, resolved on making no peace +with their perfidious enemies until their religious liberties were +guaranteed Though decimated, they were not destroyed; for the provincial +governors and rural magistrates generally refused to execute the royal +decrees,--their hearts were moved with pity. The slaughter was not +universal, and Henry himself had escaped, his life being spared on +condition of his becoming a Catholic, which as a matter of form he did. + +Nevertheless, all Protestant eyes were now directed to him as their +leader, since Coligny had perished by daggers, and Conde on the field of +battle. Henry was still a young man, only twenty years of age, but able, +intrepid, and wise. He and his cousin, the younger Conde, were still +held as hostages, while the Huguenots again rallied and retired to their +strong fortress of La Rochelle. Their last hopes centred in this +fortress, defended by only fifteen thousand men, under the brave La +None, while the royal army embraced the flower of the French nobility, +commanded by the Dukes of Anjou and Alencon. But these royal dukes were +compelled to raise the siege, 1573, with a loss of forty thousand men. I +regard the successful defence of this fortress, at this crisis, as the +most fortunate event in the whole Huguenot contest, since it enabled the +Huguenots to make a stand against the whole power of the monarchs. It +did not give them victory, but gave them a place to rally; and it +proclaimed the fact that the contest would not end until the Protestants +had achieved their liberties or were utterly annihilated. + +Soon after this successful and glorious defence of La Rochelle, Charles +IX. died, at the age of twenty-four, in awful agonies,--the victim of +remorse and partial insanity, in the hours of which the horrors of St. +Bartholomew were ever present to his excited imagination, and when he +beheld wild faces of demons and murdered Huguenots rejoicing in his +torments, and heard strange voices consigning his name to infamy and his +body to those never-ending physical torments in which both Catholics and +Protestants equally believed. His mother however remained cold, +inflexible, and unmoved,--for when a woman falls under the grip of the +Devil, then no man can equal her in shamelessness and reckless sin. + +Charles IX. was succeeded, in 1574, by his brother the King of Poland, +under the name of Henry III., who was equally under the control of his +mother Catherine. + +Two years afterward the King of Navarre succeeded in making his escape, +and joined the Huguenot army at Tours. He was now twenty-three. He +astonished the whole kingdom by his courage and intrepidity,--winning +the hearts of the soldiers, and uniting them by strict military +discipline. His friend and counsellor was Rosny, afterwards Duke of +Sully, to whose wise counsels his future success may be in a great +measure traced. Fortunate is the prince who will listen to frank and +disagreeable advice; and that was one of the virtues of Henry,--a +magnanimity which has seldom been equalled by generals. + +The Huguenots were now able to make a stand in the open country, partly +from additions to their numbers and partly from the mistakes and +frivolities of Henry III., who alienated stern Catholics and his best +friends. It was then that Bouillon, father of the illustrious Turenne, +joined the standard of Henry of Navarre. Soon after this, Henry became +heir-apparent of the French throne, by the death of the Duke of Alencon, +1584. Only the King, Henry III., a man without children, and the last of +the male line of the house of Valois, stood between Henry of Navarre and +the throne. The possibility that he, a Protestant, might wield the +sceptre of Saint Louis, his ancestor, increased the bitterness and +animosity of the Catholics. All the forces which the Government could +raise were now arrayed against him and his party. The Pope, Sixtus V., +in a papal bull, took away his hereditary rights; but fortune favored +him. The Duke of Guise, who aspired to the throne, was himself +assassinated, as his father had been; and now, by the orders of his +jealous sovereign, his brother, the Cardinal of Guise, nephew of the +Cardinal of Lorraine,--a man who held three archbishoprics, six +bishoprics, and five abbeys, and these the richest in the +kingdom,--shared the same fate. And Providence removed also, soon after, +the most guilty and wicked of all the perpetrators of the massacre of +St. Bartholomew, even Catherine de Medicis,--who would be regarded as a +female monster, an incarnate fiend, a Messalina, or a Fredegunda, had +she not been beautiful, with pleasing and gracious manners, a great +fondness for society and music and poetry and art,--the most +accomplished woman of her day, and so attractive as to be compared by +the poets of her court to Aurora and Venus. Her life only shows how much +heartlessness, cruelty, malignity, envy, and selfishness may be +concealed by the mask of beauty and agreeable manners and artistic +accomplishments. + +The bloody battle of Coutras enabled Henry of Navarre to take a stand +against the Catholics; but after the death of Henry III. by +assassination, in 1589, his struggles for the next five years were more +to secure his hereditary rights as King of France than to lead the +Huguenots to victory as a religious body. It might have been better for +them had Henry remained the head of their party rather than become King +of France, since he might not have afterwards deserted them. But there +was really no hope of the Huguenots gaining a political ascendency at +any time; they composed but a third part of the nation; their only hope +was to secure their religious liberties. + +The most brilliant part of the military career of Henry IV. was when he +struggled for his throne, supported of course by the Huguenots, and +opposed by the whole Catholic party, the King of Spain, and the Pope of +Rome. The Catholics, or the "Leaguers" as they were called, were led by +the Duke of Mayenne. I need not describe the successes of Henry, until +the battle of Ivry, March 14, 1590, made him really the monarch of +France. On that eventful day both armies, having performed their +devotions, were drawn out for action. Both armies knew that this battle +would be decisive; and when all the arrangements were completed, Henry, +completely covered with mail except his hands and head, mounted upon a +great bay charger, galloped up and down the ranks, giving words of +encouragement to his soldiers, and assuring them that he would either +conquer or die. "If my standard fail you," said he, "keep my plume in +sight: you will always see it in the face of glory and honor." So +saying, he put on his helmet, adorned with three white plumes, gave the +order of battle, and, sword in hand, led the charge against the enemy. +For some time the issue of the conflict was doubtful, for the forces +were about equal; but at length victory inclined to the Protestants, who +broke forth in shouts as Henry, covered with dust and blood, appeared at +the head of the pursuing squadrons. + + "Now, God be praised, the day is ours! Mayenne hath turned + his rein, + D'Aumale hath cried for quarter, the Flemish count is slain. + Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale; + The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven + mail; + And then we thought on vengeance, and all along our van + 'Remember St. Bartholomew' was passed from man to man. + But out spake gentle Henry then: 'No Frenchman is my foe; + Down, down with every foreigner, but let your brethren go!' + Oh, was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war, + As our sovereign lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre?" + +The battle of Ivry, in which the forces of the League met with a +complete overthrow, was followed by the siege of Paris, its memorable +defence, and the arrival of the Duke of Parma, which compelled Henry to +retire. Though he had gained a great victory, and received great +accessions, he had to struggle four years longer, so determined were the +Catholics; and he might have had to fight a still longer time for his +throne had he not taken the extraordinary resolution of abjuring his +religion and cause. His final success was not doubtful, even as a +Protestant king, since his title was undisputed; but he wearied of war. +The peace of the kingdom and the security of the throne seemed to him a +greater good than the triumph of the Huguenots. In that age great power +was given to princes; he doubtless could have reigned as a Protestant +prince had he persevered for a few years longer, and Protestantism would +have been the established religion of France, as it was of England under +Elizabeth. Henry as a Protestant king would have had no more enemies, or +difficulties, or embarrassments than had the Virgin Queen, who on her +accession found only one bishop willing to crown her. He had all the +prestige of a conqueror, and was personally beloved, besides being a man +of ability. His prime minister, Sully, was as able a man as Burleigh, +and as good a Protestant; and the nation was enthusiastic. The Huguenots +had deeper convictions, and were more logical in their creed, than the +English Episcopalians. Leagued with England and Holland and Germany, +France could have defied other Catholic powers,--could have been more +powerful politically. Protestantism would have had the ascendency +in Europe. + +But it was not to be. To the mind of the King he had nothing before him +but protracted war, unless he became a Catholic; and as all the +Huguenots ever struggled for was religious toleration, he would, as +king, grant this toleration, and satisfy all parties. He either had no +deep religious convictions, like Coligny and Dandelot, or he preferred +an undisturbed crown to the ascendency of the religion for which he had +so bravely fought. What matter, the tempter said, whether he reigned as +a Catholic or Protestant monarch, so long as religious liberty was given +to his subjects? Could he have reigned forever, could he have been +assured of the toleration of his successors, this plea might have had +some force; but it was the dictate of expediency, and no man can predict +its ultimate results. He was not a religious man, although he was the +leader of the Protestant party. He was far from being even moral in his +social relations; still less had he the austerity of manners and habits +that then characterized the Huguenots, for they were Calvinists and +Presbyterians. He was gallant, brave, generous, magnanimous, and +patriotic,--the model of a gentleman, the impersonation of chivalry, the +charm of his friends, the idol of his army, the glory of his country; +but there his virtues stopped. He was more of a statesman than the +leader of a party. He wanted to see France united and happy and +prosperous more than he wanted to see the ascendency of the Huguenots. +He was now not the King of Navarre,--a small country, scarcely thirty +miles long,--but the King of France, ruling, as he aspired, from the +Pyrenees to the Rhine. So it is not strange that he was governed by the +principles of expediency, as most monarchs are. He wished to aggrandize +his monarchy; that aim was dearer to him than the reformed faith. +Coligny would have fought to the bitter end to secure the triumph of the +Protestant cause; but Henry was not so lofty a man as the Admiral,--he +had not his religious convictions, or stern virtues, or incorruptible +life. He was a gallant monarch, an able general, a far-reaching +statesman, yet fond of pleasure and of the glories of a court. + +So Henry made up his mind to abjure his faith. On Sunday the 25th of +July, 1593, clad not in helmet and cuirass and burnished steel, as at +Ivry, but in a doublet of white satin, and a velvet coat ornamented with +jewels and orders and golden fleurs de lis, and followed by cardinals +and bishops and nobles, he entered the venerable Abbey of St. Denis, +where reposed the ashes of all his predecessors, from Dagobert to Henry +III, and was received into the bosom of the Catholic Church. A solemn Te +Deum was then chanted by unnumbered priests; and the lofty pillars, the +marble altars, the storied effigies, the purple windows, and the vaulted +roof of that mediaeval monument re-echoed to the music of those glorious +anthems which were sung ages before the most sainted of the kings of +France was buried in the crypt. The partisans of the Catholic faith +rejoiced that a heretic had returned to the fold of true believers; +while the saddened, disappointed, humiliated members of the reformed +religion felt, and confessed with shame, that their lauded protector had +committed the most lamentable act of apostasy since the Emperor Julian +abjured Christianity. It is true they palliated his conduct and remained +faithful to his standard; but they felt he had committed a great +blunder, if it were not a great crime. They knew that their cause was +lost,--lost by him who had been their leader. Truly could they say, "Put +not your trust in princes." To the irreligious, but worldly-wise, Henry +had made a grand stroke of policy; had gained a kingdom well worth a +Mass, had settled the disorders of forty years, had united both +Catholics and Protestants in fealty to his crown, and was left at +leisure to develop the resources of the nation, and lay a foundation for +its future greatness. + +I cannot here enumerate Henry IV.'s services to France, after the long +civil war had closed; they were very great, and endeared him to the +nation. He proved himself a wise and beneficent ruler; with the aid of +the transcendent abilities of Sully, whose counsels he respected, he +reduced taxation, founded schools and libraries, built hospitals, dug +canals, repaired fortifications, restrained military license, punished +turbulence and crime, introduced useful manufactures, encouraged +industry, patronized learning, and sought to perpetuate peace. He aimed +to be the father of his people, and he was the protector of the poor. +His memorable saying is still dear to the hearts of Frenchmen: "I hope +so to manage my kingdom that the poorest subject of it may eat meat +every day in the week, and moreover be enabled to put a fowl into the +pot every Sunday." I should like to point out his great acts and his +enlightened policy, especially his effort to create a balance of power +in Europe. The settlement of the finances and the establishment of +various industries were his most beneficial acts. The taxes were reduced +one half, and at his death he had fifty millions in the treasury,--a +great sum in those days,--having paid off a debt of three hundred +millions in eight years. + +These and other public services showed his humane nature and his +enlightened mind, until, after a glorious reign of twenty-one years, he +was cut off, in the prime of his life and in the midst of his +usefulness, by the assassin's dagger, May, 1610, in the fifty-eighth +year of his age,--the greatest of all the French kings,--leaving five +children by his second wife, Marie de Medicis, four of whom became kings +or queens. + +But to consider particularly Henry's connection with the Huguenots. If +he deserted their ranks, he did not forget them. He gave them religious +toleration,--all they originally claimed. In 1598 was signed the +memorable edict of Nantes, by which the Protestants preserved their +churches, their schools, their consistories, and their synods; and they +retained as a guarantee several important cities and fortresses,--a sort +of _imperium in imperio_. They were made eligible to all offices. They +were not subjected to any grievous test-act. They enjoyed social and +political equality, as well as unrestricted religious liberty, except in +certain cities. They gained more than the Puritans did in the reign of +Charles II. They were not excluded from universities, nor degraded in +their social rank, nor annoyed by unjust burial laws. The two religions +were placed equally under the protection of the government. By this +edict the Huguenots gained all that they had struggled for. + +Still, the abjuration of Henry IV. was a great calamity to them. They +lost their prestige; they were in a minority; they could count no longer +on the leadership of princes. They were deprived gradually of the +countenance of powerful nobles and all the potent influences of fashion; +and when a reaction against Calvinism took place in the seventeenth +century, the Huguenots had dwindled to a comparatively humble body of +unimportant people. They lost heart and men of rank to defend them when +the persecution of Richelieu overtook them in the next reign. They were +then unfit to contend successfully with that centralized monarchy of +which Henry IV. had laid the foundation, and which Richelieu cemented by +fraud and force. Louis XIV., educated by the Jesuits and always under +their influence, repealed the charter which Henry IV. had given them. +The persecution they suffered under Louis XIV. was more dreadful than +that they suffered under Charles IX., since they had neither arms, nor +organization, nor leaders, nor fortresses. Under the persecution of the +Valois princes they had Conde and the King of Navarre and Coligny for +leaders; they were strong enough to fight for their liberties,--they had +enthusiasm and prestige and hope. Under the iron and centralized +government of Louis XIV. they were completely defenceless, like lambs +before wolves; they had no hopes, they could make no defence; they were +an obnoxious, slandered, unimportant, unfashionable people, and their +light had gone out. They had no religious enthusiasm even; they were +small farmers and tradesmen and servants, and worshipped God in dingy +chapels. No great men arose among them, as among the Puritans of +England. They were still evangelical in their creed, but not earnest in +defending it; so persecution wiped them out--was terribly successful. +Eight hundred thousand of them perished in prisons and galleys or on +scaffolds, and there was no help. + +Henry IV., when he gave toleration to the Huguenots, never dreamed that +his successors would undo his work. Had he foreseen that concession to +the unchanged and unchangeable enemies of human freedom would have ended +as it did, I believe his noble heart would have revolted from any peace +until he could have reigned as a Protestant king. Oh, had he struggled a +little longer for his crown, how different might have been the +subsequent history of France, and even Europe itself! How much greater +would have been his own fame! Even had he died as the defender of +Protestant liberties, a greater glory than that of Gustavus would have +been his forever. The immediate results of his abjuration were doubtless +beneficial to himself, to the Huguenots, and to his country. Expediency +gives great rewards; but expediency cannot control future events,--it is +short-sighted, and only for the time successful. Ask you for the +ultimate results of the abjuration of Henry IV., I point to the +demolition of La Rochelle, under Richelieu, and the systematic +humiliation of the Huguenots; I point to the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes, by Louis XIV., and the bitter and cruel and wholesale +persecution which followed; I point to the atrocities of the dragonnades +and the exile of the Huguenots to England and America and Holland; I +point to the extinction of civil and religions liberty in France,--to +the restoration of the Jesuits,--to the prevalence of religious +indifference under the guise of Roman Catholicism, until at last it +threw off the mask and defied all authority, both human and divine, and +invoked all the maddening passions of Revolution itself. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Histoire de Thou; L'Estoile; Memoires de la Reine Marguerite; Histoire +de Henri le Grand, par Madame de Genlis; Memoires de Sully; D'Aubigne; +Matthien; Brantome's Vie de Charles IX.; Henri Martin's History of +France; Mezerai; Perefixe; Sismondi. + + + +GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. + + +1594-1632. + +THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR (1618-1648). + +The Thirty Years' War, of which Gustavus Adolphus was the greatest hero, +was the result of those religious agitations which the ideas of Luther +produced. It was the struggle to secure religious liberty,--a warfare +between Catholic and Protestant Germany. It differed from the Huguenot +contest in this,--that the Protestants of France took up arms against +their king to extort religious privileges; whereas the Protestants of +Germany were marshalled by independent princes against other independent +princes of a different religion, who sought to suppress Protestantism. +In this warfare between Catholic and Protestant States, there were great +political entanglements and issues that affected the balance of power in +Europe. Hence the Thirty Years' War was political as well as religious. +It was not purely a religious war like the crusades, although religious +ideas gave rise to it. Nor was it an insurrection of the people against +their rulers to secure religious rights, so much as a contest between +Catholic and Protestant princes to secure the recognition of their +religious opinions in their respective States. + +The Emperor of Germany in the time of Luther was Charles V.,--the most +powerful potentate of Europe, and, moreover, a bigoted Catholic. On his +abdication,--one of the most extraordinary events in history,--the +German dominions were given to his brother Ferdinand; Spain and the Low +Countries were bestowed on his son Philip. Ferdinand had already been +elected King of the Romans. There was a close alliance between these +princes of the House of Austria to suppress Protestantism in Europe. The +new Austrian emperor was not, indeed, so formidable as his father had +been, but was still one of the greatest monarchs of Europe; and so +powerful was the House of Austria that it excited the jealousy of the +other European powers. It was to prevent the dangerous ascendency of +Austria that Henry IV. of France raised a great army with a view of +invading Germany, but was assassinated before he could carry his scheme +into execution. He had armed France to secure what is called the +"balance of power;" and it was with the view of securing this balance of +power that Cardinal Richelieu, though a prince of the Church, took the +side of the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War. This famous contest +may therefore be regarded as a civil war, dividing the German nations; +as a religious war, to establish freedom of belief; and as a war to +prevent the ascendency of Austria, in which a great part of Europe +was involved. + +The beginning of the contest, however, was the result of religious +agitation. The ideas of Luther created universal discussion. Discussion +led to animosities. All Germany was in a ferment; and the agitation was +not confined to those States which accepted the Reformation, but to +Catholic States also. The Catholic princes resolved to crush the +Reformation, first in their own dominions, and afterwards in the other +States of Germany. Hence, a bloody persecution of the Protestants took +place in all Catholic States. Their sufferings were unendurable. For a +while they submitted to the cruel lash, but at last they resolved to +defend the right of worshipping God according to their consciences. They +armed themselves, for death seemed preferable to religious despotism. +For more than fifty years after the death of Luther, Germany was the +scene of commotions ending in a fiery persecution. At that time Germany +was in advance of the rest of Europe in wealth and intelligence; the +Protestants especially were kindled to an enthusiasm, pertaining to +theological questions, which we in these times can but feebly realize; +and the Germans were doubtless the most earnest and religious people in +Europe. In those days there was neither religious indifference nor +scepticism nor rationalism. The faith of the people was simple, and they +were resolved to maintain it at any cost. But there were religious +parties and asperities, even among the Protestants. The Lutherans would +not unite with the Calvinists, and the Calvinists would not accede to +the demands of the Lutherans. + +After a series of struggles with the Catholics, the Lutherans succeeded, +by the treaty of Augsburg (1555), in securing toleration; and this +toleration lasted during the reigns of Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II. +Indeed, Germany enjoyed tranquillity until the reign of Matthias, in +1612. This usurping emperor, who had delivered Germany from the Turks, +abolished in his dominions the Protestant religion, so far as edicts and +persecution could deprive the Protestants of their religious liberties. +Matthias died in 1619, and was succeeded by Ferdinand II., a bigoted +prince, who had been educated by the Jesuits. This emperor was an +inveterate enemy of the Protestants. He forbade their meetings, deprived +them even of civil privileges, pulled down their churches and schools, +erected scaffolds in every village, appointed only Catholic magistrates, +and inflicted unsparing cruelties on all who seceded from the +Catholic church. + +It was under this Austrian emperor, seventy-three years from the death +of Luther, that the first act of the bloody tragedy which I am to +describe was opened by an insurrection in Bohemia, one of the hereditary +possessions of the House of Austria. + +In this kingdom, isolated from the rest of Germany, separated on every +side from adjoining States by high mountains of volcanic origin, peopled +with the descendants of the ancient Sclavonians, who were characterized +by impulse and impetuosity, the reformed doctrines had taken a powerful +hold of the affections and convictions of the people. The followers of +John Huss and Jerome of Prague were something like the Lollards of +England, in their spirit and sincerity. But they were persecuted by +their Catholic rulers with a rigor and cruelty never seen among the +Lollards; for Ferdinand II. was the hereditary king of Bohemia as well +as emperor of Germany. + +At last his tyranny and cruelties became unendurable, and in a violent +burst of passionate indignation his deputies were thrown out of the +windows of the chamber of the Council of Regency at Prague. This act of +violence was the signal of a general revolt, not in Bohemia merely, but +in Silesia, Moravia, Hungary, and Austria. The celebrated Count +Mansfeld, a soldier of fortune, with only four thousand troops, dared to +defy the whole imperial power; and for a while he was successful. The +Bohemians renounced their allegiance to Ferdinand, and chose for their +king Frederick V.,--Elector Palatine of the Rhine, son-in-law of James +I. of England, and head of the Protestant party in Germany. He unwisely +abandoned his electoral palace at Heidelberg, to grasp the royal sceptre +at Prague. But he was no match for the Austrian emperor, who, summoning +from every quarter the allies and adherents of imperial power, and +making peace with other enemies, poured into Bohemia such overwhelming +forces under Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, that his authority was +established more firmly than before. The battle of Prague (1620) decided +the fate of Bohemia, and the Elector Palatine became a fugitive, and his +possessions were given to the Duke of Bavaria. + +Then followed a persecution which has had no parallel since the +slaughter of the Albigenses and the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The +unhappy kingdom of Bohemia was abandoned to inquisitions and executions; +all liberties were suppressed, the nobles were decimated, ministers and +teachers were burned or beheaded, and Protestants of every rank, age, +and condition were prohibited from acting as guardians to children, or +making wills, or contracting marriages with Catholics, or holding any +office of trust and emolument. They were outlawed as felons, and +disfranchised as infidels. The halls of justice were deserted, the Muses +accompanied the learned in their melancholy flight, and all that +remained of Bohemian gallantry and heroism forsook the land. Strange to +say, the land of Huss and Jerome became henceforth the strongest hold of +Austrian despotism and papal superstition. + +This is one of those instances where persecution proved successful. It +is a hackneyed saying that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the +Church;" and it is true that lofty virtues have been generally developed +by self-sacrifice and martyrdom, and that only through great tribulation +have permanent blessings been secured. The Hollanders, by inundating +their fields and fighting literally to the "last ditch," preserved their +liberties and secured ultimate prosperity. The fires of Smithfield did +not destroy the reformed religion in England in the time of Mary, and +the jails and judicial murders of later and better times did not prevent +the progress of popular rights, or the extension of Puritanism in the +wilds of the American continent. But in the history of society the +instances are unfortunately numerous when bigotry and despotism have +kindled their infernal fires and erected their bloody scaffolds, not to +purify the Church and nourish the principles of Christian progress, but +to destroy what is good as well as what is evil. What availed the +struggles of the Waldenses in the Middle Ages? Who came to the rescue of +Savonarola when he attempted to reform the lives of degenerate +Florentines? What beneficial effects resulted ultimately from the +Inquisition in Spain? How was the revocation of the edict of Nantes +overruled for the good of the Huguenots of France? + +And yet the unfortunate suppression of religious liberty in Bohemia, and +the sufferings of those who came to her rescue, especially the +misfortunes of the Elector Palatine, arrayed the Protestant princes of +Germany against the Emperor, and created general indignation throughout +Europe. Austria became more than ever a hated and dreaded power, not +merely to the States of Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and England, but to +Catholic France herself, then ruled by that able and ambitious statesman +Cardinal Richelieu, before whose tomb in an after age the czar Peter +bowed in earnest homage from the recollection and admiration of his +transcendent labors in behalf of absolutism. Even Richelieu, a prince of +the Church and the persecutor of the Huguenots, was alarmed at the +encroachments of Austria, and intrigued with Protestant princes to +undermine her dangerous ascendency. + +Then opened the second act of the bloody drama of the seventeenth +century, when the allied Protestant princes of Germany, assisted by the +English and the Dutch, rallied under the leadership of Christian, King +of Denmark, and resolved to recover what they had lost; while Bethlen +Gabor, a Transylvanian prince, at the head of an army of robbers, +invaded Hungary and Austria. The Emperor, straitened in his finances, +was in no condition to meet this powerful confederacy, although the +illustrious Tilly was the commander of his forces. + +But the demon of despotism, who never sleeps, raised up to his +assistance a great military genius. This was Wallenstein, Duke of +Friedland, the richest noble in Bohemia. The person whom he most +resembled, in that age of struggle and contending forces, when despotism +sought unscrupulous agents, was Thomas Wentworth, Earl of +Strafford,--the right hand of Charles I., in his warfare against the +liberties of England. Like Stratford, he was an apostate from the +principles in which he had been educated; like him, he had arisen from a +comparatively humble station; like him, his talents were as commanding +as his ambition,--devoted first to his own exaltation; and, secondly, to +the cause of absolutism, with which he sympathized with all the +intensity that a proud and domineering spirit may be supposed to feel +for the struggles of inexperienced democracy. Like the English +statesman, the German general was a Jesuit in the use of tools, jealous +of his authority, liberal in his rewards, and fearful in his vengeance. +Though greedy of admiration and fond of display, he surrounded himself +with mystery and gloom. Like Strafford, he was commanding in his person, +dignified, reserved, and sullen; with an eye piercing and melancholy, a +brow lowering with thought and care, and a lip compressed into +determination and twisted into a smile of ironical disdain. + +This nobleman had fought with distinction as a colonel at the battle of +Prague, when Bohemian liberties had been prostrated, and had signally +distinguished himself in his infamous crusade against his own +countrymen. He offered, at his own expense, to raise and equip an army +of fifty thousand men in the service of the Emperor; but demanded as a +condition, that he should have the appointment of all his officers, and +the privilege of enriching himself and army from the spoils and +confiscations of conquered territories. These terms were extraordinary +and humiliating to an absolute sovereign, yet, at the crisis in which +Ferdinand was placed, they were too tempting to be refused. + +Wallenstein fulfilled his promises, and raised in an incredibly short +time an immense army, composed of outlaws and robbers and adventurers +from all nations. He advanced rapidly against the allied Protestant +forces, levying enormous contributions wherever he appeared; as +imperious to friends as to foes, mistrusted and feared by both, yet +supremely indifferent to praise or censure; resting on the power of +brute force and his ability to enrich his soldiers. Possessing a fine +military genius, unbounded means, and unscrupulous rapacity, and +assisted by such generals as Tilly, Pappenheim, and Piccolomini, +seconded by Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, he soon reduced his enemies to +despair. The King of Denmark was unequal to the contest, and sued for +peace. The Elector Frederic again became a fugitive, the Duke of +Brunswick was killed, and the intrepid Mansfeld died. The Electors of +Saxony and Brandenburg, the natural defenders of Protestantism and the +leading princes of the league, were awed into an abject neutrality. The +old protectors of Lutheranism were timid and despairing. The monarchs of +Europe trembled. Germany lay prostrate and bleeding. Christendom stood +aghast at the greatness of the calamities which afflicted Germany and +threatened neighboring nations. + +But the Emperor at Vienna was overjoyed, and swelled with arrogance and +triumph. He divided among the members of his imperial house the rich +benefices of the Church, and bestowed upon his victorious general the +revenues of provinces. He now resolved to pursue the King of Denmark +into his remotest territories, to dethrone the King of Sweden, to give +away the crown of Poland, to aid the Spaniards in the recovery of the +United Provinces, to exterminate the Protestant religion, to subvert the +liberties of the German nations, and reign as a terrible incarnation of +imperial tyranny. He would even revive the dreams of Charlemagne and +Charles V., and make Vienna the centre of that power which once emanated +from Borne. He would ally himself more strongly with the Pope, and +extend the double tyranny of priests and kings over the whole continent +of Europe. Fines, imprisonments, tortures, banishments, and executions +were now added to the desolations which one hundred and fifty thousand +soldiers inflicted on villages and cities that had been for generations +increasing in wealth and prosperity. + +In that dark hour of calamity and fears, Providence raised up a greater +hero than Wallenstein, a noble protector and intrepid deliverer, even +Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden; and the third act of the political +tragedy opens with his brilliant career. + +Carlyle has somewhere said: "Is not every genius an impossibility until +he appear?" This is singularly true of Gustavus Adolphus. It was the +last thing for contemporaries to conjecture that the deliverer of +Germany, and the great hero of the Thirty Years' War, would have arisen +in the ice-bound regions of northern Europe. No great character had +arisen in Sweden of exalted fame, neither king nor poet, nor +philosopher, nor even singer. The little kingdom, to all appearance, was +rich only in mines of iron and hills of snow. It was not till the middle +of the sixteenth century that Sweden was even delivered from base +dependence on Denmark. + +But Gustavus before he was thirty-five years of age had made his +countrymen a nation of soldiers; had freed his kingdom from Danish, +Russian, and Polish enemies; had made great improvements in the art of +war, having introduced a new system of tactics never materially improved +except by Frederic II.; had reduced strategy to a science; had raised +the importance of the infantry, had increased the strictness of military +discipline, had trained up a band of able generals, and inspired his +soldiers with unbounded enthusiasm. + +And he had raised in the camp a new tone of moral feeling. Not even +Cromwell equalled him in divesting war of its customary atrocities, and +keeping alive the spirit of religion. The worship of God formed one of +the most important duties of the Swedish army wherever located. "Twice +every day the roll of the drum assembled the soldiers to prayer. The +usual vices of soldiers, like profanity and drunkenness and gambling, +were uniformly punished. Death was inflicted on any soldier who +assaulted a citizen in his house. Even a certificate was required of the +chief citizens of any place where troops were quartered, that their +conduct had been orderly. He never allowed, under any provocation, a +city to be taken by assault,--a striking contrast to the imperial +generals." + +Nor amid the toils and dangers of war was Gustavus unmindful of his +duties as a king. He was one of the most enlightened statesmen that had +appeared since Charlemagne and Alfred. He established schools and +colleges, founded libraries, reformed the codes of law, introduced wise +mercantile regulations, rewarded eminent merit, respected the voice of +experience, and developed the industries of the country. What Richelieu +and Colbert did for France, what Burleigh and Cromwell did for England, +Gustavus did for Sweden. His prime minister is illustrious for wisdom +and ability, the celebrated Oxenstiern, through whose labors and genius +the country felt no impoverishment from war. He laid the foundation of +that prosperity which made a little kingdom great. + +But all his excellences as a general, a statesman, and a ruler paled +before the exalted virtues of his private life. His urbanity, his +gentleness, his modesty, his meekness, his simplicity, and his love won +all hearts, and have never been exceeded except by Alfred the Great. He +was a Saint Louis on a throne, in marked contrast with the suspicion, +duplicity, roughness, and egotism of Oliver Cromwell,--the only other +great man of the century who equalled Gustavus in the value of public +services and enlightened mind. It is not often that Christian graces and +virtues are developed amid the tumults of war. David lost nothing of his +pious fervor and reliance on God when pursuing the Philistines, nor +Marcus Aurelius when fighting barbarians on the frozen Danube. The +perils and vicissitudes of war, with the momentous interests involved, +made Lincoln shine, amid all his jokes, a firm believer in the +overruling power that Napoleon failed to see. And so of Washington: he +was a better man and firmer Christian from the responsibilities that +were thrust upon him. Not so with Frederic the Great, and the marshals +of Louis XIV., with the exception of Turenne: war seemed rather to +develop their worst qualities. It usually makes a man unscrupulous, +hard, and arrogant. Military life is anything but interesting in the +usual bearing of Prussian officers. In our own Revolutionary war, +generals developed pride and avarice and jealousy. War turned Tilly into +a fiend. How cold and sullen and selfish it made Napoleon! How grasping +and greedy it made Marlborough! How unscrupulous it made Clive and +Hastings! How stubborn and proud it made Wellington! How vain and +pompous it made Scott! How overbearing it made Belle-Isle and Villars! +How reckless and hard it made Ney and Murat! The dangers and miseries of +war develop sternness, hardness, and indifference to suffering. It is +violence; and violence does not naturally produce the peaceful virtues. +It produces courage, indeed, but physical rather than moral,--least of +all, that spiritual courage which makes martyrs and saints. It makes +boon companions, not friends. It gives exaggerated ideas of +self-importance. It exalts the outward and material, not the spiritual +and the real. The very tread of a military veteran is stately, proud, +and conscious,--like that of a procession of cardinals, or of +railway kings. + +So that when a man inured to camps and battles shines in the modest +unconsciousness of a Christian gentleman or meditative sage, we feel +unusual reverence for him. We feel that his soul is unpolluted, and that +he is superior to ordinary temptations. + +And nothing in war develops the greatness of the higher qualities of +heart and soul but the sacredness of a great cause. This takes a man out +of himself, and binds his soul to God. He learns to feel that he is +merely an instrument of Almighty power. It was the sacredness of a great +cause that shed such a lustre on the character of Washington. How +unimpressible the victories of Charlemagne, disconnected with that work +of civilization which he was sent into the world to reconstruct! How +devoid of interest and grandeur were the battles of Marston Moor and +Worcester, without reference to those principles of religious liberty +which warmed the soul of Cromwell! The conflicts of Bunker Hill and +Princeton were insignificant when compared with the mighty array of +forces at Blenheim or Austerlitz; but when associated with ideas of +American independence, and the extension of American greatness from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, their sublime results are impressed upon the +mind with ever-increasing power. Even French soldiers have seldom been +victorious unless inspired by ideas of liberty or patriotism. It is ever +the majesty of a cause which makes not only great generals but good men. +And it was the greatness of the cause with which Gustavus Adolphus was +identified that gave to his character such moral beauty,--that same +beauty which exalted William the Silent and William of Orange amid the +disasters of their country, and made them eternally popular. After all, +the permanent idols of popular idolatry are not the intellectually +great, but the morally beautiful,--and all the more attractive when +their moral excellence is in strong contrast with the prevailing vices +of contemporaries. It was the moral greatness of Gustavus which has +given to him his truest fame. Great was he as a military genius, but +greater still as a benefactor of oppressed peoples. + +Surely it was no common hero who armed himself for the deliverance of +Germany, which prostrate and bleeding held out her arms to be rescued +from political degradation, and for the preservation of liberties dearer +to good men than life itself. All Protestant Europe responded to the +cry; for great interests were now at stake, not in Germany merely, but +in the neighboring nations. It was to deliver his Lutheran brethren in +danger of extermination, and to raise a barrier against the overwhelming +power of Austria, that Gustavus Adolphus lent his armies to the +Protestant princes of Germany. Other motives may have entered into his +mind; his pride had been piqued by the refusal of the Emperor Ferdinand +to acknowledge his title as King; his dignity was wounded by the +contemptuous insolence shown to this ambassadors; his fears were excited +that Austria might seek to deprive him of his throne. The imperial +armies had already conquered Holstein and Jutland,--provinces that +belonged to Sweden. Unless Austria were humbled, Sweden would be ruined. +Gustavus embarked in the war against Austria, as William III. afterwards +did against Louis XIV. Wars to preserve the "balance of power" have not +generally been deemed offensive, when any power has become inordinately +aggrandized. Pitt opposed Napoleon, to rescue Europe from +universal monarchy. + +So Gustavus, deeply persuaded of the duties laid upon him, assembled +together the deputies of his kingdom,--the representatives of the three +estates,--and explained to them his intentions and motives. "I know," +said he, "the dangers I am about to encounter; I know that it is +probable I shall never return; I feel convinced that my life will +terminate on the field of battle. Let no one imagine that I am actuated +by private feelings or fondness for war. My object is to set bounds to +the increasing power of a dangerous empire before all resistance becomes +impossible. Your children will not bless your memory if, instead of +civil and religious freedom, you bequeath to them the superstitions of +monks and the double tyranny of popes and emperors. We must prevent the +subjugation of the Continent before we are reduced to depend upon a +narrow sea as the only safeguard of our liberties; for it is delusion to +suppose that a mighty empire will not be able to raise fleets, if once +firmly established on the shores of the ocean." Then taking his infant +daughter Christiana in his arms, he recommended her to the protection of +the nation, and bade adieu to the several orders of the State. Amid +their tears and sobs, he invoked upon them and his enterprise the +blessing of Almighty God. Then, hastening his preparations, he embarked +his forces for the deliverance of Germany. It was on the 24th of June, +1630, just one hundred years after the confession of Augsburg, that +Gustavus Adolphus landed on the German soil. + +If ever the ruler of a nation is to be justified for going to war when +his country is not actually invaded, it was doubtless Gustavus Adolphus. +Had he withheld his aid, the probability is that all Germany would have +succumbed to the Austrian emperor, and have been incorporated with his +empire; and not only Germany, but Denmark and Sweden. The Protestant +religion would have been suppressed in northern Germany, as it was in +France by Louis XIV. There would have been no Protestant country in +Europe, but England, and perhaps Holland. A united German Empire, with +the restoration of the Catholic religion, would have been a most +dangerous power,--much more so than at the present day. Some there are, +doubtless, who would condemn Gustavus for the invasion of Germany, and +think he ought to have stayed at home and let his unfortunate neighbors +take care of themselves the best way they could. Perhaps the peace +societies would take this ground, and the apostles of thrift and +material prosperity. But I confess, when I see a man like the King of +Sweden, with all the temptations of luxury and ease, encountering all +sorts of perils and fatigues,--yea, offering up his life in battle in +order to emancipate suffering humanity,--then every generous impulse and +every dictate of enlightened reason urge me to add my praises with those +of past generations in honor of such exalted heroism. + +According to the authors of those times, signs and prodigies appeared, +to warn mankind of the sanguinary struggle which was now to take place. +"In the dead of night, on wild heaths, in solitary valleys, the clang of +arms was heard. Armies were seen encountering each other in the heavens, +marshalled by aerial leaders, while monstrous births, mock suns, and +showers of fire filled the minds of the superstitious with fear and +dread. It would be puerile to believe these statements, yet if the +stupendous framework of external nature ever could exhibit sympathy with +the brief calamities of man, it may well be supposed to have been +displayed when one of the fairest portions of the earth was again to be +ravaged with fire and sword; and when the melancholy lesson, so often +exemplified before, was to receive still further confirmation,--that of +all the evils with which Divine wisdom permits this world to be visited, +none can be compared to those which the wrath of man is so often eager +to inflict upon his fellows." + +I need not detail the various campaigns of the Swedish hero, his +marchings and counter-marchings, his sieges and battles and victories, +until the power of Austria was humbled and northern Germany was +delivered. The history of all war is the same. There is no variety +except to the eye of a military man. Military history is a dreary record +of dangers, sufferings, mistakes, and crimes; occasionally it is +relieved by brilliant feats of courage and genius, which create +enthusiastic admiration, but generally it is monotonous. It has but +little interest except to contemporaries. Who now reads the details of +our last great war? Who has not almost forgotten the names of its +ordinary generals? How sickening the description of the Crusades! The +mind cannot dwell on the conflagrations, the massacres, the starvations, +the desolations, of an invaded country. Few even read a description of +the famous battles of the world, which decided the fate of nations. When +battles and marches are actually taking place, and all is uncertainty, +then there is a vivid curiosity to learn immediate results; but when +wars are ended, we forget the intense excitements which we may have felt +when they were taking place. We gaze with eager interest on a game of +football, but when it is ended we care but little for the victors. It is +only when the remote consequences of great wars are traced by +philosophical historians, revealing the ways of Providence, retribution, +and eternal justice, that interest is enkindled. No book to me is more +dreary and uninteresting than the campaigns of Frederic II., though +painted by the hand of one of the greatest masters of modern times. Even +interest in the details of the battles of Napoleon is absorbed in the +interest we feel in the man,--how he was driven hither and thither by +the Providence he ignored, and made to point a moral to an immortal +tale. All we care about the histories of wars is the general results, +and the principles to be deduced as they bear on the cause of +civilization. + +It was fortunate for the fame and the cause of Gustavus that at the very +outset of his career, when he landed in Pomerania, with his small army +of twenty thousand men, the Emperor had been prevailed upon by a +pressure he could not resist, and the intrigues of all the German +princes, to dispense with the services of Wallenstein. Spain, France, +Bavaria,--the whole Electoral College, Catholic as well as +Protestant,--clamored for the discharge of the most unscrupulous general +of modern times. He was detested and feared by everybody. Humanity shed +tears over his exactions and cruelties, while general fears were aroused +that his influence was dangerous to the public peace. Most people +supposed that the war was virtually ended, and that he was therefore no +longer needed. + +Loath was Ferdinand to part with the man to whom he was indebted for the +establishment of his throne; and it seems he was also personally +attached to him. Long did he resist expostulations and threats. He felt +as poor Ganganelli felt when called upon by the Bourbon courts of Europe +to annul the charter of the Jesuits. Wallenstein would probably have +been retained by Ferdinand, had this been possible; but the Emperor was +forced to yield to overwhelming importunities. So the dismissal of the +general was decreed at the diet of Worms, and a messenger of the Emperor +delivered to the haughty victor the decree of his sovereign. + +Wallenstein was then at the head of one hundred thousand men. Would he +obey the order? Would he retire to private life? Ambitious and +unscrupulous as he was, he knew that no one, however powerful, could +resist an authority universally conceded to be supreme and legitimate. +It was like the recall of a proconsul by the Roman Emperor and Senate: +he could resist for a time, but resistance meant ultimate ruin. He also +knew that he would be recalled, for he was necessary to the Emperor. He +anticipated the successes of Gustavus. He was not prepared to be a +traitor. He would wait his time. + +So he resigned his command without a moment's hesitation, and with +apparent cheerfulness. He even loaded the messenger with costly gifts. +He appeared happy to be relieved from labor and responsibility, and +retired at once to his vast Bohemian estates to pursue his favorite +studies in the science of the stars, to enshroud himself in mystery and +gloom, and dazzle his countrymen by the splendor of his life. "His table +was never furnished with less than one hundred covers; none but a noble +of ancient family was intrusted with the office of superintending his +household; an armed guard of fifty men waited in his antechamber; the +ramparts of his castle were lined with sentinels; six barons and as many +knights constantly attended on his person; sixty pages were trained and +supported in his palace, which was decorated with all the wonders of +art, and almost realized the fictions of Eastern luxury." In this +splendid retirement Wallenstein brooded on his wrongs, and waited for +the future. + +The dismissal of this able general was a great mistake on the part of +the Emperor. There were left no generals capable of opposing Gustavus. +The supreme command had devolved on Tilly, able but bigoted, and best +known for his remorseless cruelty when Magdeburg was taken by +assault,--the direst tragedy of the war. This city was one of the first +to welcome the invasion of the King of Sweden, and also to adopt the +Protestant religion. It was the most prosperous city in northern +Germany; one of the richest and most populous. Against this mercantile +fortress Tilly directed all his energies, for he detested the spirit of +its people. It was closely invested by the imperial troops, and fell +before Gustavus could advance to relieve it. It was neglected by the +electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, who were timid and pusillanimous, +and it was lulled into false security by its strong position and +defences. Not sufficient preparation for defence had been made by the +citizens, who trusted to its strong walls, and knew that Gustavus was +advancing to relieve it. But unexpectedly it was assaulted in the most +daring and desperate manner, and all was lost. On a Sabbath morning, the +sudden toll of alarm bells, the roar of artillery, the roll of drums +beating to quarter, and the piercing cries of women and children, +mingled with the shouts and execrations of brutal and victorious +soldiers, announced the fate of Magdeburg. Forty thousand people--men, +women, and children--were inhumanly butchered, without necessity, +quarter, compassion, or remorse. So cold and hard is war! This was the +saddest massacre in the history of Germany, and one of the greatest +crimes that a successful general ever committed. History has no +language, and painting no colors to depict the horrors of that dreadful +scene; and the interval of more than two hundred years has not weakened +the impression of its horrors. The sack of Magdeburg stands out in the +annals of war like the siege of Tyre and the fall of Jerusalem. + +But it roused the Protestants as from a trance. It united them, as the +massacre of St. Bartholomew united the Huguenots. They marched under the +standard of Gustavus with the same enthusiasm that the Huguenots showed +under Henry IV. at the battle of Ivry. There was now no limit to the +successes of the heroic Swede. The decisive battle of Leipsic, the +passage of the Lech, the defence of Nuremberg, and the great final +victory at Lutzen raised the military fame of Gustavus to a height +unknown since Hannibal led his armies over the Alps, or Caesar +encountered the patrician hosts at the battle of Pharsalia. No victories +were ever more brilliant than his; and they not only gave him a +deathless fame, but broke forever the Austrian fetters. His reputation +as a general was fairly earned. He ranks with Conde, Henry IV., Frederic +the Great, Marlborough, and Wellington; not, perhaps, with Alexander, +Caesar, and Napoleon,--those phenomena of military genius, the exalted +trio who shine amid the glories of the battlefield, as Homer, Dante, and +Shakspeare loom up in fame above other immortal poets. + +In two years from the landing of Gustavus Adolphus on the island of +Ruden, near the southern extremity of the Baltic, he expelled a +triumphant enemy from Pomerania, traversed the banks of the Oder, +overran the Duchy of Mecklenburg, ascended the Elbe, delivered Saxony +from the armies of Tilly, crossed the Thuringian forest, entered +Frankfort in triumph, restored the Palatinate to its lawful sovereign, +took possession of some of the strongest fortresses on the Rhine, +overran Bavaria, occupied its capital, crossed the Danube, and then +returned to Saxony, to offer up his life on the plains of Lutzen. There, +on that memorable battlefield, where the descending sun of victory in +later times shed a delusive gleam on the eagles of Napoleon before his +irremediable ruin, did Gustavus encounter the great antagonist of German +liberties, whom the necessities of the Emperor had summoned from +retirement. Wallenstein once more commanded the imperial armies, but +only on conditions which made him virtually independent of his master. +He was generalissimo, with almost unlimited authority, so long as the +war should last; and the Emperor agreed to remove neither the general +himself nor his officers, and gave him principalities and spoils +indefinitely. He was the most powerful subject in Europe, and the +greatest general next to Gustavus. I read of no French or English +general who has been armed with such authority. Cromwell and Napoleon +took it; it was not conferred by legitimate and supreme power. Had +Wallenstein been successful to the end, he might have grasped the +imperial sceptre. Had Gustavus lived, he might have been the dictator +of Germany. + +Impatient were both commanders to engage in the contest which each knew +would be decisive. Long did they wait for opportunities. At last, on the +16th of November, 1632, the defenders and the foes of German liberties +arrayed themselves for the great final encounter. The Protestants gained +the day, but Gustavus fell, exclaiming to the murderous soldiers who +demanded his name and quality, "I am the King of Sweden! And I seal this +day, with my blood, the liberties and religion of the German nation." + +The death of Gustavus Adolphus in the hour of victory was a shock which +came upon the allies like the loss of the dearest friend. The victory +seemed too dearly purchased. The greatest protector which Protestantism +ever knew had perished, as he himself predicted. Pappenheim, the bravest +of the Austrian generals, also perished; and with him, the flower of +Wallenstein's army. Schiller thinks that Gustavus died fortunately for +his fame; that had he survived the decisive battle of Lutzen, he not +only could have dictated terms to the Emperor, but might have yielded to +the almost irresistible temptation of giving laws to the countries he +had emancipated. But he did not live to be tried. That rarest of all +trials was reserved alone for our Washington to pass through +triumphantly,--to set an example to all countries and ages of the +superiority of moral to intellectual excellence. Gustavus might have +triumphed like Washington, and he might have yielded like Cromwell. We +do not know. This only we know,--that he was not merely the great hero +of the Thirty Years' War, but one of the best men who ever wore a crown; +that he conferred on the Protestants and on civilization an immortal and +inestimable service, and that he is to be regarded as one of the great +benefactors of the world. + +The Thirty Years' War loses its dramatic interest after the battle of +Lutzen. The final issue was settled, although the war was carried on +sixteen years longer. It was not till 1648 that the peace of Westphalia +was signed, which guaranteed the liberties of Germany, and established +the balance of power. That famous treaty has also been made the +foundation of all subsequent treaties between the European nations, and +created an era in modern history. It took place after the death of +Richelieu, when Mazarin ruled France in the name of Louis XIV., and +when Charles I. was in the hands of Cromwell. + +With the death of Gustavus we also partially lose sight of Wallenstein. +He never afterwards gained victories commensurate with his reputation. +He remained, after the battle of Lutzen, unaccountably inactive in +Bohemia. But if his military fame was tarnished, his pride and power +remained. His military exactions became unendurable, and it is probable +he was a traitor. So unpopular did he become, and so suspicious was the +Emperor, who lost confidence in him, that he was assassinated by the +order of his sovereign. He was too formidable to be removed in any other +way. He probably deserved his fate. Although it was difficult to bring +this great culprit to justice, yet his death is a lesson to traitors. +"There are many ways," said Cicero, "in which a man may die,"--referring +to the august usurper of the Roman world. + +I will not dwell on the sixteen remaining years of the Thirty Years' +War. It is too horrible a picture to paint. The desolation and misery +which overwhelmed Germany were most frightful and revolting. The war was +carried on without system or genius. "Expeditions were undertaken +apparently with no other view than to desolate hostile provinces, till +in the end provisions and winter quarters formed the principal object of +the summer campaigns." "Disease, famine, and want of discipline swept +away whole armies before they had seen an enemy." Soldiers deserted the +ranks, and became roving banditti. Law and justice entirely vanished +from the land. Germany, it is asserted by Mitchell, lost probably twelve +millions of people. Before the war, the population was sixteen millions; +at the close of the war, it had dwindled to four millions. The city of +Augsburg at one time had eighty thousand inhabitants; at the close of +the war, it had only eighteen thousand. "No less than thirty thousand +villages and hamlets were destroyed. Peaceful peasants were hunted for +mere sport, like the beasts of the forest. Citizens were nailed up and +fired at like targets. Women were collected into bands, driven like +slaves into camp, and exposed to indignities worse than death. The +fields were allowed to run waste, and forests sprung up and covered +entire districts which before the war had been under full cultivation." +Amid these scenes of misery and ruin, vices were more marked than +calamities. They were carried to the utmost pitch of vulgarity. Both +Austrian and Swedish generals were often so much intoxicated, for days +together, as to be incapable of service. Never was a war attended by so +many horrors. Never was crime more general and disgusting. So terrible +were the desolations, that it took Germany one hundred years to recover +from her losses. It never recovered the morality and religion which +existed in the time of Luther. That war retarded civilization in all the +countries where it raged. It was a moral and physical conflagration. + +But there is a God in this world, and the evils were overruled. It is +certain that Protestantism was rescued from extermination on the +continent of Europe. It is clear also that a barrier was erected against +the aggressions of Austria. The Catholic and the Protestant religions +were left unmolested in the countries where they prevailed, and all +religious sects were tolerated. Religious toleration, since the Thirty +Years' War, has been the boast and glory of Germany. + +We should feel a sickening melancholy if something for the ultimate good +of the world were not to come from such disasters as filled Germany with +grief and indignation for a whole generation; for the immediate effects +of the Thirty Years' War were more disastrous than those of any war I +have read of in the history of Europe since the fall of the Roman +Empire. In the civil wars of France and England, cities and villages +were generally spared. Civilization in those countries has scarcely ever +been retarded for more than a generation; but it was put back in Germany +for a century. Yet the enormous sacrifice of life and property would +seem to show the high value which Providence places on the great rights +of mankind, in comparison with material prosperity or the lives of men. +What is spiritual is permanent; what is material is transient. The +early history of Christianity is the history of martyrdom. Five millions +of Crusaders perished, that Europe might learn liberality of mind. It +took one hundred years of contention and two revolutions to secure +religious toleration in England. France passed through awful political +hurricanes, in order that feudal injustice might be removed. In like +manner, twelve millions of people perished in Germany, that despotism +might be rebuked. + +Fain would we believe that what little was gained proved a savor of life +unto life; that seeds of progress were planted in that unhappy country +which after a lapse of one hundred years would germinate and develop a +higher civilization. What a great Protestant power has arisen in +northern Germany to awe and keep in check not Catholicism merely, but +such a hyperborean giant as Russia in its daring encroachments. But for +Prussia, Russia might have extended her conquests to the south as well +as to the west. But for the Thirty Years' War, no such empire as Prussia +would have been probable, or perhaps possible. But for that dreadful +contest, there might have been to-day only the Catholic religion among +the descendants of the Teutonic barbarians on the continent of Europe. +But for that war, the Austrian Empire might have retained a political +ascendency in Europe until the French Revolution; and such countries as +Sweden and Denmark might have been absorbed in it, as well as Saxony, +Brandenburg, and Hanover. What a terrible thing for Germany would have +been the unbroken and iron despotism of Austria, extending its Briarean +arms into every corner of Europe where the German language is spoken! +What a blow such a despotism would have been to science, literature, and +philosophy! Would Catholic Austria, supreme in Germany, have established +schools, or rewarded literary men? The Jesuits would have flourished and +triumphed from Pomerania to Wallachia; from the Baltic to the Danube. + +It may have taken one hundred years for Germany to rally after such +miseries and disasters as I have had time only to allude to, and not +fully to describe; but see how gloriously that country has at last +arisen above all misfortunes! Why may we not predict a noble future for +so brave and honest a people,--the true descendants of those Teutonic +conquerers to whom God gave, nearly two thousand years ago, the +possessions and the lands of the ancient races who had not what the +Germans had,--a soul; the soul which hopes, and the soul which conquers? +The Thirty Years' War proved that liberty is not a dream, nor truth a +defeated power. Liberty cannot be extinguished among such peoples, +though "oceans may overwhelm it and mountains may press it down." It is +the boon of one hundred generations, the water of life distilled from +the tears of unnumbered millions,--the precious legacy of heroes and +martyrs, who in different nations and in different ages, inspired by the +contemplation of its sublime reality, counted not their lives dear unto +them, if by the sacrifice of life this priceless blessing could be +transmitted to posterity. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Hallenberg's History of Gustavus Adolphus; Fryxell's History of Sweden, +translated by Mary Howitt; Dreysen's Life of Gustavus Adolphus; S.R. +Gardiner's Thirty Years' War; Schiller's Thirty Years' War; Schiller's +Wallenstein, translated by Coleridge; Dr. Foster's Life of Wallenstein; +Colonel Mitchell's Life of Gustavus Adolphus; Lord F. Egerton's Life and +Letters of Wallenstein; Chapman's History of Gustavus Adolphus; +Biographie Universelle; Article in Encyclopaedia Britannica on Sweden; +R.C. Trench's Social Aspects of the Thirty Years' War; Heydenreich's +Life of Gustavus Adolphus. + + + +CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. + + +A. D. 1585-1642. + +ABSOLUTISM. + +Cardinal de Richelieu is an illustration of what can be done for the +prosperity and elevation of a country by a man whom we personally abhor, +and whose character is stained by glaring defects and vices. If there +was a statesman in French history who was pre-eminently unscrupulous, +selfish, tyrannical, and cruel, that statesman was the able and wily +priest who ruled France during the latter years of Louis XIII. And yet +it would be difficult to find a ruler who has rendered more signal +services to the state or to the monarch whom he served. He extricated +France from the perils of anarchy, and laid the foundation for the +grandeur of the monarchy under Louis XIV. It was his mission to create a +strong government, when only a strong government could save the kingdom +from disintegration; so that absolutism, much as we detest it, seems to +have been one of the needed forces of the seventeenth century. It was +needed in France, to restrain the rapacity and curtail the overgrown +power of feudal nobles, whose cabals and treasons were fatal to the +interests of law and order. + +The assassination of Henry IV. was a great calamity. The government fell +into the hands of his widow, Marie de Medicis, a weak and frivolous +woman. Under her regency all kinds of evils accumulated. So many +conflicting interests and animosities existed that there was little +short of anarchy. There were not popular insurrections and rebellions, +for the people were ignorant, and were in bondage to their feudal +masters; but the kingdom was rent by the rivalries and intrigues of the +great nobles, who, no longer living in their isolated castles but in the +precincts of the court, fought duels in the streets, plundered the royal +treasury, robbed jewellers and coachmakers, paid no debts, and treated +the people as if they were dogs or cattle. They claimed all the +great offices of state, and all high commands in the army and +navy; sold justice, tampered with the law, quarrelled with the +parliaments,--indeed, were a turbulent, haughty, and powerful +aristocracy, who felt that they were above all law and all restraint. +They were not only engaged in perpetual intrigues, but even in +treasonable correspondence with the enemies of their country. They +disregarded the honor of the kingdom, and attempted to divide it into +principalities for their children. "The Guises wished to establish +themselves in Provence, the Montmorencies in Languedoc, the Longuevilles +in Picardy. The Duke of Epernon sought to retain the sovereignty of +Guienne, and the Duke of Vendome to secure the sovereignty of Brittany." +One wanted to be constable, another admiral, a third to be governor of a +province, in order to tyrannize and enrich themselves like Roman +proconsuls. Every outrage was shamelessly perpetrated by them with +impunity, because they were too powerful to be punished. They +assassinated their enemies, filled the cities with their armed +retainers, and made war even on the government; so that all central +power was a mockery. The Queen-regent was humiliated and made +contemptible, and was forced, in her turn and in self-defence, to +intrigues and cabals, and sought protection by setting the nobles up +against each other, and thus dividing their forces. Even the +parliaments, which were courts of law, were full of antiquated +prejudices, and sought only to secure their own privileges,--at one time +siding with the Queen-regent, and then with the factious nobles. The +Huguenots were the best people of the land; but they were troublesome, +since they possessed cities and fortresses, and erected an _imperium in +imperio._ In their synods and assemblies they usurped the attributes of +secular rulers, and discussed questions of peace and war. They entered +into formidable conspiracies, and fomented the troubles and +embarrassments of the government The abjuration of Henry IV. had thinned +their ranks and deprived them of court influence. No great leaders +remained, since they had been seduced by fashion. The Huguenots were a +disappointed and embittered party, hard to please, and hard to be +governed; full of fierce resentments, and soured by old recollections. +They had obtained religious liberty, but with this they were not +contented. Their spirit was not unlike that of the Jacobins in England +after the Stuarts were expelled from the throne. So all things combined +to produce a state of anarchy and discontent. Feudalism had done its +work. It was a good thing on the dissolution of the Roman Empire, when +society was resolved into its original elements,--when barbarism on the +one hand, and superstition on the other, made the Middle Ages funereal, +dismal, violent, despairing. But commerce, arts, and literature had +introduced a new era,--still unformed, a vast chaos of conflicting +forces, and yet redeemed by reviving intelligence and restless daring. +The one thing which society needed in that transition period was a +strong government in the hands of kings, to restore law and develop +national resources. + +Now amid all these evils Richelieu grew up. Under the guise of levity +and pleasure and good-nature, he studied and comprehended all these +parties and factions, and hated them all. All alike were hostile to the +central power, which he saw was necessary to the preservation of law and +to the development of the resources of the country. + +Moreover, he was ambitious of power himself, which he loved as Michael +Angelo loved art, and Palestrina loved music. Power was his +master-passion, and consumed all other passions; and he resolved to gain +it in any way he could,--unscrupulously, by flatteries, by duplicities, +by sycophancies, by tricks, by lies, even by services. That was his end. +He cared nothing for means. He was a politician. + +The progress of his elevation is interesting, but hideous. Armand Jean +Duplessis was born in 1585, of a noble family of high rank. He was +designed for the army, but a bishopric falling to the gift of his +family, he was made a priest. He early distinguished himself in his +studies, for he was precocious and had great abilities. At twenty he was +doctor of the Sorbonne, and before he was twenty-one he received from +the Pope, Paul V., the emblems of spiritual power as a prelate of the +Church. But he was too young to be made a bishop, according to the +canons,--a difficulty, however, which he easily surmounted: he told a +lie to the Pope, and then begged for an absolution. He then attached +himself to the worthless favorite of the Queen-regent, Concini, one of +her countrymen; and through him to the Queen herself, Marie de Medicis, +who told him her secrets, which he betrayed when it suited his +interests. When Louis XIII. attained his majority, Richelieu paid his +court to De Luynes, who was then all-powerful with the King, and who +secured him a cardinal's hat; and when this miserable favorite +died,--this falconer, this keeper of birds, yet duke, peer, governor, +and minister,--Richelieu wound himself around the King, Louis XIII., the +most impotent of all the Bourbons, made himself necessary, and became +minister of foreign affairs; and his great rule began (1624). + +During all these seventeen years of office-climbing, Richelieu was to +all appearance the most amiable man in France; everybody liked him, and +everybody trusted him. He was full of amenities, promises, bows, smiles, +and flatteries. He always advocated the popular side with reigning +favorites; courted all the great ladies; was seen in all the fashionable +salons; had no offensive opinions; was polite to everybody; was +non-committal; fond of games and spectacles; frivolous among fools, +learned among scholars; grave among functionaries, devout among +prelates; cunning as a fox, brave as a lion, supple as a dog; all things +to all men; an Alcibiades, a Jesuit; with no apparent animosities; +handsome, witty, brilliant; preacher, courtier, student; as full of +hypocrisy as an egg is of meat; with eyes wide open, and thoughts +disguised; all eyes and no heart; reserved or communicative as it suited +his purpose. This was that arch-intriguer who was seeking all the while, +not the sceptre of the King, but the power of the King. Should you say +that this non-committal, agreeable, and amiable politician--who +quarrelled with nobody, and revealed nothing to anybody; who had cheated +all parties by turns--was the man to save France, to extricate his +country from all the evils to which I have alluded, to build up a great +throne (even while he who sat upon it was utterly contemptible) and make +that throne the first in Europe, and to establish absolutism as one of +the needed forces of the seventeenth century? + +Yet so it was; and his work was all the more difficult when the +character of the King is considered. Louis XIII. was a different kind of +man from his father Henry IV. and his grandson Louis XIV. He had no +striking characteristics but feebleness and timidity and love of ignoble +pleasures. He had no ambitions or powerful passions; was feeble and +sickly from a child,--ruled at one time by his mother, and then by a +falconer; and apparently taking but little interest in affairs of state. + +But if it was difficult to gain ascendency over such a frivolous and +inglorious Sardanapalus, it was easy to retain it when this ascendency +was once acquired. For Richelieu made him comprehend the dangers which +menaced his life and his throne; that some very able man must be +intrusted with supreme delegated power, who would rule for the benefit +of him he served,--a servant, and yet a master; like Metternich in +Austria, after the wars of Napoleon,--a man whose business and aim were +to exalt absolutism on a throne. Moreover, he so complicated public +affairs that his services were indispensable. Nobody could fill +his place. + +Also, it must be remembered that the King was isolated, and without +counsellors whom he could trust. After the death of De Luynes he had no +bosom friend. He was surrounded with perplexities and secret enemies. +His mother, who had been regent, defied his authority; his brothers +sought to wear his crown; the nobles conspired against his throne; the +Protestants threatened another civil war; the parliaments thought only +of retaining their privileges; the finances were disordered; the +treasures which Henry IV. had accumulated had been squandered in bribing +the great nobles; foreign enemies had invaded the soil of France; evils +and dangers were accumulating on every side, with such terrific force as +to jeopardize the very existence of the monarchy; and one necessity +became apparent, even to the weak mind of the King,--that he must +delegate his power to some able man, who, though he might rule +unscrupulously and tyrannically, would yet be faithful to the crown, and +establish the central power for the benefit of his heirs and the welfare +of the state. + +Now Richelieu was just the man he needed, just such a man as the times +required,--a man raised up to do important work, like Cromwell in +England, like Bismarck in Prussia, like Cavour in Italy: doubtless a +great hypocrite, yet sincere in the conviction that a strong government +was the great necessity of his country; a great scoundrel, yet a +patriotic and wise statesman, who loved his country with the ardor of a +Mirabeau, while nobody loved him. Besides, he loved absolutism, both +because he was by nature a tyrant, and because he was a member of the +Roman Catholic hierarchy. He called to mind old Rome under the Caesars, +and mediaeval Rome under the popes, and what a central authority had +effected for civilization in times of anarchy, and in times of darkness +and superstition; and the King to him was a sort of vicegerent of divine +power, clothed in authority based on divine right,--the idea of kings in +the Middle Ages. The state was his, to be managed as a man manages his +farm,--as a South Carolinian once managed his slaves. The idea that +political power properly emanates from the people,--the idea of Rousseau +and Jefferson,--never once occurred to him; nor even political power in +the hands of aristocrats, fettered by a constitution and amenable to the +nation. A constitutional monarchy existed nowhere, except perhaps in +England. Unrestricted and absolute power in the hands of a king was the +only government he believed in. The king might be feeble, in which case +he could delegate his power to ministers; or he might be imbecile, in +which case he might be virtually dethroned; but his royal rights were +sacred, his authority incontestable, and consecrated by all usage and +precedent. + +Yet while Richelieu would uphold the authority of the crown as supreme +and absolute, he would not destroy the prestige of the aristocracy; for +he was a nobleman himself,--he belonged to their class. He believed in +caste, in privileges, in monopolies; therefore he would not annul either +rank or honor. The nobles were welcome to retain their stars and orders +and ribbons and heraldic distinctions, even their parks and palaces and +falcons and hounds. They were a favored class, that feudalism had +introduced and ages had indorsed; but even they must be subservient to +the crown, from which their honors emanated, and hence to order and law, +of which the king was the keeper. They must be subjects of the +government, as well as allies and supporters. The government was royal, +not aristocratic. The privileges of the nobility were social rather +than political, although the great offices of state were intrusted to +them as a favor, not as a right,--as simply servants of a royal master, +whose interests they were required to defend. Some of them were allied +by blood with the sovereign, and received marks of his special favor; +but their authority was derived from him. + +Richelieu was not unpatriotic. He wished to see France powerful, united, +and prosperous; but powerful as a monarchy, united under a king, and +prosperous for the benefit of the privileged orders,--not for the +plebeian people, who toiled for supercilious masters. The people were of +no account politically; were as unimportant as slaves,--to be protected +in life and property, that they might thrive for the benefit of those +who ruled them. + +So when Richelieu became prime minister, and felt secure in his +seat,--knowing how necessary to the King his services were,--he laid +aside his amiable manners as a politician, and determined as a statesman +to carry out remorselessly and rigidly his plans for the exaltation of +the monarchy. And the moment he spoke at the council-board his genius +predominated; all saw that a great power had arisen, that he was a +master, and would be obeyed, and would execute his plans with no +sentimentalities, but coldly, fixedly, like a man of blood and iron, +indifferent to all obstacles. He was a man who could rule, and +therefore, on Carlyle's theory, a man who ought to rule, because he +was strong. + +There is something imposing, I grant, in this executive strength; it +does not make a man interesting, but it makes him feared. Every +ruler,--in fact every man intrusted with executive power, especially in +stormy times,--should be resolute, unflinching, with a will dominating +over everything, with courage, pluck, backbone, be he king or prime +minister, or the superintendent of a railway, or director of a lunatic +asylum, or president of a college. No matter whether the sphere be large +or small, the administration of power requires energy, will, promptness +of action, without favor and without fear. And if such a person rules +well he will be respected; but if he rules unwisely,--if capricious, +unjust, cruel, vindictive,--he may be borne for a while, until patience +is exhausted and indignation becomes terrible: a passion of vengeance, +like that which overthrew Strafford. Wise tyrants, like Peter and +Frederic the Great, will be endured, from their devotion to public +interests; but unwise tyrants, ruling for self-interest or pleasure, +will be hurled from power, or assassinated like Nero or Commodus, as the +only way to get rid of the miseries they inflict. + +Now of the class of wise and enlightened tyrants was Richelieu. His +greatness was in his will, sagacity, watchfulness, and devotion to +public affairs. Factions could not oust him, because he was strong; the +King would not part with him, because he was faithful; posterity will +not curse him, because he laid the foundation of the political greatness +of his country. + +I do not praise his system of government. On abstract principles I feel +that it is against the liberties of mankind; nor is it in accordance +with the progress of government in our modern times. All the successive +changes which reforms and revolutions have wrought have been towards +representative and constitutional governments,--as in England and France +in the nineteenth century. Absolutism or Caesarism is only adapted to +people in primitive or anarchical states of society,--as in old Rome, or +Rome under the popes. It is at the best a necessary tyranny, made so by +the disorders and evils of life. It can be commended only when men are +worse than governments; when they are to be coerced like wild beasts, or +lunatics, or scoundrels. When there is universal plunder, lying, +cheating, and murdering; when laws are a mockery, and when demagogues +reign; when all public interests are scandalously sacrificed for private +emolument,--then absolutism may for a time be necessary; but only for a +time, unless we assume that men can never govern themselves. + +In that state of society into which France was plunged during the +regency of Marie de Medicis, and at which I have glanced, absolutism +was perhaps a needed force. Then Richelieu, its great modern +representative, arose,--a model statesman in the eyes of Peter +the Great. + +But he was not to reign, and trample all other powers beneath his feet, +without a memorable struggle. Three great forces were arrayed against +him. These were the Huguenots, the nobles, and the parliaments,--the +Protestant, the feudal, and the legal elements of society in France. The +people,--at least the peasantry,--did not rise up against him; they were +powerless and too unenlightened. The priests sustained him, and the +common people acquiesced in his rigid rule, for he established law +and order. + +He began his labors in behalf of absolutism by suppressing the +Huguenots. That was the only political party which was urgent for its +rights. They were an intelligent party of tradesmen and small farmers; +they were plebeian, but conscientious and aspiring. They were not +contented alone to worship God according to the charter which Henry IV. +had granted, but they sought political power; and they were so +unfortunate as to be guilty of cabals and intrigues inconsistent with a +central power. They were factious, and were not disposed to submit to +legitimate authority. They had declined in numbers and influence; they +had even degenerated in religious life; but they were still powerful +and dangerous foes. They had retreated to their strong fortress of La +Rochelle, resolved, if attacked, to fight once again the whole power of +the monarchy. They put themselves in a false position; they wanted more +than the Edict of Nantes had guaranteed. + +Unfortunately for them they had no leaders worthy to marshal their +forces. Fashion and the influence of the court had seduced their men of +rank; nor had they the enthusiasm which had secured victory at Ivry. Nor +could they contend openly in the field; they were obliged to intrench +themselves in an impregnable fortress: there they deemed they could defy +their enemy. They even invoked the aid of England, and thus introduced +foreign enemies on the soil of France, which was high-treason. They put +themselves in the attitude of rebels against the government; and so long +as English ships, with supplies, could go in and out of their harbor, +they could not be conquered. Richelieu, clad in mail, a warrior-priest, +surveyed with disgust their strong defences and their open harbor. His +artillery was of no use, nor his lines of circumvallation. So he put his +brain in motion, and studied Quintus Curtius. He remembered what +Alexander did at the siege of Tyre; he constructed a vast dyke of stone +and timber and iron across the harbor, in some places twelve hundred +feet deep, and thus cut off all egress and ingress. The English under +Buckingham departed, unable to render further assistance. The capture +then was only a work of time; genius had hemmed the city in, and famine +soon did the rest. Cats, dogs, and vermin became luxuries. The starving +women beseeched the inexorable enemy for permission to retire: they +remembered the mercy that Henry IV. had shown at the siege of Paris. But +war in the hands of masters has no favors to grant; conquerors have no +tears. The Huguenots, as rebels, had no hope but in unconditional +submission. They yielded it reluctantly, but not until famine had done +its work. And they never raised their heads again; their spirit was +broken. They were conquered, and at the mercy of the crown; destined in +the next reign to be cruelly and most wantonly persecuted; hunted as +heretics by dragonnades and executioners, at the bidding of Louis XIV., +until four hundred thousand were executed or driven from the kingdom. + +But Richelieu was not such a bigot as Louis XIV.; he was a statesman, +and took enlightened views of the welfare of the country. Therefore he +contented himself with destroying the fortifications of La Rochelle, +filling up its ditches, and changing its government. He continued, in a +modified form, the religious privileges conceded by the Edict of Nantes; +but he kept a strict watch, humiliated the body by withholding civil +equalities and offices in the army and navy, treating with disdain their +ministers, and taking away their social rank, so that they became +plebeian and unimportant. He pursued the same course that the English +government adopted in reference to Dissenters in the eighteenth century, +when they were excluded from Oxford and Cambridge and church +burial-grounds. So that Protestantism in France, after the fall of La +Rochelle, never asserted its dignity, in spite of Bibles, consistories, +and schools. Degraded at court, deprived of the great offices of the +state, despised, rejected, and persecuted, it languished and declined. + +Having subdued the Huguenots, Richelieu turned his attention to the +nobles,--the most worthless, arrogant, and powerful of all the nobility +of Europe; men who made royalty a mockery and law a name. I have alluded +to their intrigues, ambition, and insolence. It was necessary that they +should be humiliated, decimated, and punished, if central power was to +be respected. So he cut off their towering heads, exiled and imprisoned +them whenever they violated the laws, or threatened the security of the +throne or the peace of the realm. As individuals they hated him, and +conspired against his rule. Had they combined, they would have been more +powerful than he; but they were too quarrelsome, envious, and +short-sighted to combine. + +The person who hated Richelieu most fiercely and bitterly was the +Queen-mother,--widow of Henry IV., regent during the minority of Louis +XIII. And no wonder, for he had cheated her and betrayed her. She was a +very formidable enemy, having a great ascendency over the mind of her +son the King; and once, it is said, she had so powerfully wrought upon +him by her envenomed sarcasms, in the palace of the Luxembourg where she +lived in royal state, that the King had actually taken the parchment in +his hand to sign the disgrace of his minister. But he was watched by an +eye that never slept; Richelieu suddenly appearing, at the critical +moment, from behind the tapestries where he had concealed himself, +fronted and defied his enemy. The King, bewildered, had not nerve enough +to face his own servant, who however made him comprehend the dangers +which surrounded his throne and person, and compelled him to part with +his mother,--the only woman he ever loved,--and without permitting her +to imprint upon his brow her own last farewell. "And the world saw the +extraordinary spectacle of this once powerful Queen, the mother of a +long line of kings, compelled to lead a fugitive life from court to +court,--repulsed from England by her son-in-law, refused a shelter in +Holland, insulted by Spain, neglected by Rome, and finally obliged to +crave an asylum from Rubens the painter, and, driven from one of his +houses, forced to hide herself in Cologne, where, deserted by all her +children, and so reduced by poverty as to break up the very furniture of +her room for fuel, she perished miserably between four empty walls, on a +wretched bed, destitute, helpless, heartbroken, and alone." Such was the +power and such was the vengeance of the cardinal on the highest +personage in France. Such was the dictation of a priest to a king who +personally disliked him; such was his ascendency, not by Druidical +weapons, but by genius presenting reasons of state. + +The next most powerful personage in France was the Duke of Orleans, +brother of the King, who sought to steal his sceptre. As he was detected +in treasonable correspondence with Spain, he became a culprit, but was +spared after making a humiliating confession and submission. But Conde, +the first prince of the blood, was shut up in prison, and the powerful +Duke of Guise was exiled. Richelieu took away from the Duke of Bouillon +his sovereignty of Sedan; forced the proud Epernon to ask pardon on his +knees; drove away from the kingdom the Duke of Vendome, natural brother +of the King; executed the Duke of Montmorency, whose family traced an +unbroken lineage to Pharamond; confined Marshal Bassompierre to the +Bastile; arrested Marshal Marillac at the head of a conquering army; cut +off the head of Cinq-Mars, grand equerry and favorite of the King; and +executed on the scaffold the Counts of Chalais and Bouteville. All these +men were among the proudest and most powerful nobles in Europe; they all +lived like princes, and had princely revenues and grand offices, but had +been caught with arms in their hands, or in treasonable correspondence. +What hope for ordinary culprits when the proudest feudal nobles were +executed or exiled, like common malefactors? Neither rank nor services +could screen them from punishment. The great minister had no mercy and +no delay even for the favorites of royalty. Nay, the King himself became +his puppet, and was forced to part with his friends, his family, his +mistresses, and his pleasures. Some of the prime ministers of kings have +had as much power as Richelieu, but no minister, before or since, has +ruled the monarch himself with such an iron sway. How weak the King, or +how great the minister! + +The third great force which Richelieu crushed was the parliament of +Paris. It had the privilege of registering the decrees of the King; and +hence was a check, the only check, on royal authority,--unless the King +came in person into the assembly, and enforced his decree by what was +called a "bed of justice." This body, however, was judicial rather than +legislative; made up of pedantic and aristocratic lawyers, who could be +troublesome. We get some idea of the humiliation of this assembly of +lawyers and nobles from the speech of Omer Talon,--the greatest lawyer +of the realm,--when called upon to express the sentiments of his +illustrious body to the King, at a "bed of justice": "Happy should we +be, most gracious sovereign, if we could obtain any favor worthy of the +honor which we derive from your majesty's presence; but the entry of +your sacred person into our assembly unfits us for our functions. And +inasmuch as the throne on which you are seated is a light that dazzles +us, bow, if it please you, the heavens which you inhabit, and after the +example of the Eternal Sovereign, whose image you bear, condescend to +visit us with your gracious mercy." + +What a contrast to this servile speech was the conduct of the English +parliament about this time, in its memorable resistance to Charles I.; +and how different would have been the political destinies of the English +people, if Stratford, just such a man as Richelieu, had succeeded in his +schemes! But in England the parliament was backed by the nation,--at +least by the middle classes. In France the people had then no political +aspirations; among them a Cromwell could not have arisen, since a +Cromwell could not have been sustained. + +Thus Richelieu, by will and genius, conquered all his foes in order to +uphold the throne, and thus elevate the nation; for, as Sir James +Stephen says, "the grandeur of the monarchy and the welfare of France +with him were but convertible terms." He made the throne the first in +Europe, even while he who sat upon it was personally contemptible. He +gave lustre to the monarchy, while he himself was an unarmed priest. It +was a splendid fiction to make the King nominally so powerful, while +really he was so feeble. But royalty was not a fiction under his +successor. How respectable did Richelieu make the monarchy! What a deep +foundation did he lay for royalty under Louis XIV.! What a magnificent +inheritance did he bequeath to that monarch! "Nothing was done for forty +years which he had not foreseen and prepared. His successor, Mazarin, +only prospered so far as he followed out his instructions; and the star +of Louis XIV. did not pale so long as the policy which Richelieu +bequeathed was the rule of his public acts." The magnificence of Louis +was only the sequel of the energy and genius of Richelieu; Versailles +was really the gift of him who built the Palais Royal. + +The services of Richelieu to France did not end with centralizing power +around the throne. He enlarged the limits of the kingdom and subdued her +foreign enemies. Great rivers and mountains became the national +boundaries, within which it was easy to preserve conquests. He was not +ambitious of foreign domination; he simply wished to make the kingdom +impregnable. Had Napoleon pursued this policy, he could never have been +overthrown, and his dynasty would have been established. It was the +policy of Elizabeth and of Cromwell. I do not say that Richelieu did not +enter upon foreign wars; but it was to restore the "balance of power," +not to add kingdoms to the empire. He rendered assistance to Gustavus +Adolphus, in spite of the protests of Rome and the disgust of Catholic +powers, in order to prevent the dangerous ascendency of Austria; thus +setting an example for William III., and Pitt himself, in his warfare +against Napoleon. In these days we should prefer to see the "balance of +power" maintained by a congress of nations, rather than by vast military +preparations and standing armies, which eat out the resources of +nations; but in the seventeenth century there was no other way to +maintain this balance than by opposing armies. Nor did Richelieu seek to +maintain the peace of Europe by force alone. Never was there a more +astute and profound diplomatist. His emissaries were in every court, +with intrigues very hard to be baffled. He equalled Metternich or +Talleyrand in his profound dissimulation, for European diplomacy has +ever been based on this. While he built up absolutism in France, he did +not alienate other governments; so that, like Cromwell, he made his +nation respected abroad. His conquest of Roussillon prepared the way for +the famous Treaty of the Pyrenees, under the administration of Mazarin. +While vigorous in war, his policy was on the whole pacific,--like that +of all Catholic priests who have held power in France. He loved glory +indeed, but, like Sully and Colbert, he also wished to develop the +national resources; and, as indeed all enlightened statesmen from Moses +downward have sought to do, he wished to make the country strong for +defence rather than offence. + +He showed great sagacity as well as an enlightened mind. The ablest men +were placed in office. The army and navy were reorganized. Corruption +and peculation on the part of officials were severely punished. The +royal revenue was increased. Roads, bridges, canals were built and +repaired, and public improvements were made. The fine arts were +encouraged, and even learning was rewarded. It was he who founded the +French Academy,--although he excluded from it men of original genius +whose views he did not like. Law and order were certainly restored, and +anarchy ceased to reign. The rights of property were established, and +the finances freed from embarrassments. + +So his rigid rule tended to the elevation of France; absolutism proved +necessary in his day, and under his circumstances. When arraigned at the +bar of posterity, he claims, like Napoleon, to be judged for his +services, and not for his defects of character. These defects will +forever make him odious in spite of his services. I hardly know a more +repulsive benefactor. He was vain, cold, heartless, rigid, and proud. He +had no amiable weakness. His smile was a dagger, and his friendship was +a snare. He was a hypocrite and a tyrant. He had no pity on a fallen +foe; and even when bending under the infirmities of age, and in the near +prospect of death, his inexorable temper was never for a moment subdued. +The execution of Cinq-Mars and De Thou took place when he had one foot +in his grave. He deceived everybody, sent his spies into the bosom of +families, and made expediency the law of his public life. + +But it is nothing to the philosophic student of history that he built +the Palais Royal, or squandered riches with Roman prodigality, or +rewarded players, or enriched Marion Delorme, or clad himself in mail +before La Rochelle, or persecuted his early friends, or robbed the +monasteries, or made a spy of Father Joseph, or exiled the Queen-mother, +or kept the King in bondage, or sent his enemies to the scaffold: these +things are all against him, and make him appear in a repulsive light. +But if he brought order out of confusion, and gave a blow to feudalism, +and destroyed anarchies, and promoted law, and developed the resources +of his country, making that country formidable and honorable, and +constructed a vast machinery of government by which France was kept +together for a century, and would have fallen to pieces without +it,--then there is another way to survey this bad man; and we view him +not only as a great statesman and ruler, but as an instrument of +Providence, raised up as a terror to evil-doers. We may hate absolutism, +but must at the same time remember that there are no settled principles +of government, any more than of political economy. That is the best +government which is best adapted to the exigency of that human society +which at the time it serves. Republicanism would not do in China, any +more than despotism in New England. Bad men, somehow or other, must be +coerced and punished. The more prevalent is depravity, so much the more +necessary is despotic vigor: it will be so to the end of time. It is all +nonsense to dream of liberty with a substratum of folly and vice. Unless +evils can be remedied by the public itself, giving power to the laws +which the people create, then physical force, hard and cold tyranny, +must inevitably take the place. No country will long endure anarchy; and +then the hardest characters may prove the greatest benefactors. + +It is on this principle that I am reconciled to the occasional rule of +despots. And when I see a bad man, like Richelieu, grasping power to be +used for the good of a nation, I have faith to believe it to be ordered +wisely. When men are good and honest and brave, we shall have +Washingtons; when they are selfish and lawless, God will send +Richelieus and Napoleons, if He has good things in store for the future, +even as He sends Neros and Diocletians when a nation is doomed to +destruction by incurable rottenness. + +And yet absolutism in itself is not to be defended; it is what +enlightened nations are now striving to abolish. It is needed only under +certain circumstances; if it were to be perpetuated in any nation it +would be Satanic. It is endurable only because it may be destroyed when +it has answered its end; and, like all human institutions, it will +become corrupted. It was shamefully abused under Louis XIV. and Louis +XV. But when corrupted and abused it has, like slavery, all the elements +of certain decay and ruin. The abuse of power will lead to its own +destruction, even as undue haste in the acquisition of riches tendeth +to poverty. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Petitot's Memoires sur le Regne de Louis XIII.; Secret History of the +French Court, by Cousin; Le Clerc's Vie de Richelieu; Henri Martin's +History of France; Memoires de Richelieu, by Michaud and Poujoulat; Life +of Richelieu, by Capefigue, and E.E. Crowe, and G.P.R. James; Lardner's +Cabinet Cyclopaedia; Histoire du Ministere du Cardinal de Richelieu, by +A. Jay; Michelet's Life of Henry IV. and Richelieu; Biographie +Universelle; Sir James Stephen's Lectures on the History of France. + + + +OLIVER CROMWELL. + + +A.D. 1599-1658. + +ENGLISH REVOLUTION. + +The most difficult character in history to treat critically, and the +easiest to treat rhetorically, perhaps, is Oliver Cromwell; after two +centuries and more he is still a puzzle: his name, like that of +Napoleon, is a doubt. Some regard him with unmingled admiration; some +detest him as a usurper; and many look upon him as a hypocrite. Nobody +questions his ability; and his talents were so great that some bow down +to him on that account, out of reverence for strength, like Carlyle. On +the whole he is a popular idol, not for his strength, but for his cause, +since he represents the progressive party in his day in behalf of +liberty,--at least until his protectorate began. Then new issues arose; +and while he appeared as a great patriot and enlightened ruler, he yet +reigned as an absolute monarch, basing his power on a standing army. + +But whatever may be said of Cromwell as statesman, general, or ruler, +his career was remarkable and exceedingly interesting. His character, +too, was unique and original; hence we are never weary of discussing +him. In studying his character and career, we also have our minds +directed to the great ideas of his tumultuous and agitated age, for he, +like Napoleon, was the product of revolution. He was the offspring of +mighty ideas,--he did not create them; original thinkers set them in +motion, as Rousseau enunciated the ideas which led to the French +Revolution. The great thinkers of the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries were divines, the men whom the Reformation produced. It was +Luther preaching the right of private judgment, and Calvin pushing out +the doctrine of the majesty of God to its remotest logical sequence, and +Latimer appealing to every man's personal responsibility to God, and +Gustavus Adolphus fighting for religious liberty, and the Huguenots +protesting against religious persecution, and Thomas Cromwell sweeping +away the abominations of the Papacy, and the Geneva divines who settled +in England during the reign of Elizabeth,--it was all these that +produced Oliver Cromwell. + +He was a Puritan, and hence he was a reformer, not in church matters +merely, but in all those things which are connected with civil +liberty,--for there is as close a connection between Protestantism and +liberty as between Catholicism and absolutism. The Puritans intensely +hated everything which reminded them of Rome, even the holidays of the +Church, organs, stained-glass, cathedrals, and the rich dresses of the +clergy. They even tried to ignore Christmas and Easter, though +consecrated by the early Church. They hated the Middle Ages, looked with +disgust upon the past, and longed to try experiments, not only in +religion, but in politics and social life. The only antiquity which had +authority to them was the Jewish Commonwealth, because it was a +theocracy, and recognized God Almighty as the supreme ruler of the +world. Hence they adhered to the strictness of the Jewish Sabbath, and +baptized their children with Hebrew names. + +Now to such a people, stern, lofty, ascetic, legal, +spiritual,--conservative of whatever the Bible reveals, yet progressive +and ardent for reforms,--the rule of the Stuarts was intolerable. It was +intolerable because it seemed to lean towards Catholicism, and because +it was tyrannical and averse to changes. The King was ruled by +favorites; and these favorites were either bigots in religion, like +Archbishop Laud, or were tyrannical or unscrupulous in their efforts to +sustain the King in despotic measures and crush popular agitations, like +the Earl of Strafford, or were men of pleasure and vanity like the Duke +of Buckingham. Charles I. was detested by the Puritans even more than +his father James. They looked upon him as more than half a Papist, a +despot, utterly insincere, indifferent to the welfare of the country, +intent only on exalting himself and his throne at the expense of the +interests of the people, whose aspirations he scorned and whose rights +he trampled upon. In his eyes they had no _rights_, only _duties_; and +duties to him as an anointed sovereign, to rule as he liked, with +parliaments or without parliaments; yea, to impose taxes arbitrarily, +and grant odious monopolies: for the State was his, to be managed as a +man would manage a farm; and those who resisted this encroachment on the +liberties of the nation were to be fined, imprisoned, executed, as +pestilent disturbers of the public peace. He would form dangerous +alliances with Catholic powers, marry his children to Catholic princes, +appoint Catholics to high office, and compromise the dignity of the +nation as a Protestant State. His ministers, his judges, his high +officials were simply his tools, and perpetually insulted the nation by +their arrogance, their venality, and their shameful disregard of the +Constitution. In short, he seemed bent on imposing a tyrannical yoke, +hard to be endured, and to punish unlawfully those who resisted it, or +even murmured against it. He would shackle the press, and muzzle the +members of parliament. + +Thus did this King appear to the Puritans,--at this time a large and +influential party, chiefly Presbyterian, and headed by many men of rank +and character, all of whom detested the Roman Catholic religion as the +source of all religious and political evils, and who did not scruple to +call the Papacy by the hardest names, such as the "Scarlet Mother," +"Antichrist," and the like. They had seceded from the Established Church +in the reign of Elizabeth, and became what was then called +Non-conformists. Had they been treated wisely, had any respect been +shown to their opinions and rights,--for the right of worshipping God +according to individual conscience is the central and basal pillar of +Protestantism,--had this undoubted right of private judgment, the great +emancipating idea of that age, been respected, the Puritans would have +sought relief in constitutional resistance, for they were conservative +and loyal, as English people ever have been, even in Canada and +Australia. They were not bent on _revolution_; they only desired +_reform_. So their representatives in Parliament framed the famous +"Petition of Right," in which were reasserted the principles of +constitutional liberty. This earnest, loyal, but angry Parliament, being +troublesome, was dissolved, and Charles undertook for eleven years to +reign without one,--against all precedents,--with Stafford and Laud for +his chief advisers and ministers. He reigned by Star Chamber decrees, +High-commission courts, issuing proclamations, resorting to forced +loans, tampering with justice, removing judges, imprisoning obnoxious +men without trial, insulting and humiliating the Puritans, and openly +encouraging a religion of "millineries and upholsteries," not only +illegally, but against the wishes and sentiments of the better part of +the nation,--thus undermining his own throne; for all thrones are based +on the love of the people. + +The financial difficulties of the King--for the most absolute of kings +cannot extort _all_ the money they want--compelled him to assemble +another Parliament at an alarming crisis of popular indignation which he +did not see, when popular leaders began to say that even kings must rule +_by_ the people and not _without_ the people. + +This new Parliament, with Hampden and Pym for leaders, though fierce and +aggressive, would have been contented with constitutional reform, like +Mirabeau at one period. But the King, ill-advised, obstinate, blinded, +would not accept reform; he would reign like the Bourbons, or not at +all. The reforms which the Parliament desired were reasonable and just. +It would abolish arbitrary arrests, the Star Chamber decrees, taxes +without its consent, cruelty to Non-conformists, the ascendency of +priests, irresponsible ministers, and offensive symbols of Romanism. If +these reforms had been granted,--and such a sovereign as Elizabeth would +have yielded, however reluctantly,--there would have been no English +revolution. Or even if the popular leaders had been more patient, and +waited for their time, and been willing to carry out these reforms +constitutionally, there would have been no revolution. But neither the +King nor Parliament would yield, and the Parliament was dissolved. + +The next Parliament was not only angry, it was defiant and unscrupulous. +It resolved on revolution, and determined to put the King himself aside. +It began with vigorous measures, and impeached both Laud and +Strafford,--doubtless very able men, but not fitted for their times. It +decreed sweeping changes, usurped the executive authority, appealed to +arms, and made war on the government. The King also on his part appealed +to the sword, which now alone could settle the difficulties. The contest +was inevitable. The nation clamored for reform; the King would not grant +it; the Parliament would not wait to secure it constitutionally. Both +parties were angry and resolute; reason departed from the councils of +the nation; passion now ruled, and civil war began. It was not, at +first, a question about the form of government,--whether a king or an +elected ruler should bear sway; it was purely a question of reforms in +the existing government, limiting of course the power of the King,--but +reforms deemed so vital to the welfare of the nation that the best +people were willing to shed their blood to secure them; and if reason +and moderation could have borne sway, that angry strife might have been +averted. But people will not listen to reason in times of maddening +revolution; they prefer to fight, and run their chances and incur the +penalty. And when contending parties appeal to the sword, then all +ordinary rules are set aside, and success belongs to the stronger, and +the victors exact what they please. The rules of all deadly and +desperate warfare seem to recognize this. + +The fortune of war put the King into the hands of the revolutionists; +and in fear, more than in vengeance, they executed him,--just what he +would have done to _their_ leaders if _he_ had won. "Stone-dead," said +Falkland, "hath no fellow." In a national conflagration we lose sight of +laws, even of written constitutions. Great necessities compel +extraordinary measures, not such as are sustained either by reason or +precedents. The great lesson of war, especially of civil war, is, that +contending parties might better make great concessions than resort to +it, for it is certain to demoralize a nation. Heated partisans hate +compromise; yet war itself generally ends in compromise. It is +interesting to see how many constitutions, how many institutions in both +Church and State, are based on compromise. + +Now, it was amid all the fierce contentions of that revolutionary +age,--an age of intense earnestness, when the grandest truths were +agitated; an age of experiment, of bold discussions, of wild +fanaticisms, of bitter hatreds, of unconquerable prejudices, yet of +great loftiness and spiritual power,--that the star of Oliver Cromwell +arose. He was born in the year 1599, of a good family. He was a country +squire, a gentleman farmer, though not much given to fox-hunting or +dinner hilarities, preferring to read political pamphlets, or to listen +to long sermons, or to hold discussions on grace, predestination, +free-will, and foreknowledge absolute. His favorite doctrine was the +second coming of Christ and the reign of the saints, the elect,--to whom +of course he belonged. He had visions and rhapsodies, and believed in +special divine illumination. Cromwell was not a Presbyterian, but an +Independent; and the Independents were the most advanced party of his +day, both in politics and religion. The progressive man of that age was +a Calvinist, in all the grandeur and in all the narrowness of that +unfashionable and misunderstood creed. The time had not come for +"advanced thinkers" to repudiate a personal God and supernatural +agencies. Then an atheist, or even a deist, and indeed a materialist of +the school of Democritus and Lucretius, was unknown. John Milton was one +of the representative men of the Puritans of the seventeenth +century,--men who colonized New England, and planted the germs of +institutions which have spread to the Rocky Mountains, + +Cromwell on his farm, one of the landed gentry, had a Cambridge +education, and was early an influential man. His sagacity, his +intelligence, his honesty, and his lofty religious life marked him out +as a fit person to represent his county in parliament. He at once became +the associate of such men as Hampden and Pym. He did not make very +graceful speeches, and he had an ungainly person; but he was eloquent in +a rude way, since he had strong convictions and good sense. He was +probably violent, for he hated the abuses of the times, and he hated +Rome and the prelacy. He represented the extreme left; that is, he was a +radical, and preferred revolution to tyranny. Yet even he would probably +have accepted reform if reform had been possible without violence. But +Cromwell had no faith in the King or his ministers, and was inclined to +summary measures. He afterwards showed this tendency of character in his +military career. He was one of those earnest and practical people who +could not be fooled with. So he became a leader of those who were most +violent against the Government During the Long Parliament, Cromwell sat +for Cambridge; which fact shows that he was then a marked man, far from +being unimportant. This was the Parliament, assembled in 1640, which +impeached Strafford and Laud, which abolished the Star Chamber, and +inaugurated the civil war, that began when Charles left Whitehall, +January, 1642, for York. The Parliament solicited contributions, called +out the militia, and appointed to the command of the forces the Earl of +Essex, a Presbyterian, who established his headquarters at Northampton, +while Charles unfurled the royal standard at Nottingham. + +Cromwell was forty-two when he buckled on his sword as a volunteer. He +subscribed five hundred pounds to the cause of liberty, raised a troop +of horse, which gradually swelled into that famous regiment of one +thousand men, called "Ironsides," which was never beaten. Of this +regiment he was made colonel in the spring of 1643. He had distinguished +himself at Edgehill in the first year of the war, but he drew upon +himself the eyes of the nation at the battle of Marston Moor, July, +1644,--gained by the discipline of his men,--which put the north of +England into the hands of Parliament. He was then lieutenant-general, +second in command to the Earl of Manchester. The second battle of +Newbury, though a success, gave Cromwell, then one of the most +influential members of Parliament, an occasion to complain of the +imbecility of the noblemen who controlled the army, and who were +Presbyterians. The "self-denying ordinance," which prohibited members of +Parliament from command in the army, was a blow at Presbyterianism and +aristocracy, and marked the growing power of the Independents. It was +planned by Cromwell, although it would have deprived him also of his +command; but he was made an exception to the rule, and he knew he would +be, since his party could not spare him. + +Then was fought the battle of Naseby, June 14, 1645, in which Cromwell +commanded the right wing of the army, Fairfax (nominally his superior +general) the centre, and Ireton the left; against Prince Rupert and +Charles. The battle was won by the bravery of Cromwell, and decided the +fortunes of the King, although he was still able to keep the field. +Cromwell now became the foremost man in England. For two years he +resided chiefly in London, taking an important part in negotiations with +the King, and in the contest between the Independents and +Presbyterians,--the former of which represented the army, while the +latter still had the ascendency in Parliament. + +On the 16th of August, 1648, was fought the battle of Preston, in which +Cromwell defeated the Scotch army commanded by the Duke of Hamilton, +which opened Edinburgh to his victorious troops, and made him +commander-in-chief of the armies of the Commonwealth. The Presbyterians, +at least of Scotland, it would seem, preferred now the restoration of +the King to the ascendency of Cromwell with the army to back him, for it +was the army and not the Parliament which had given him supreme command. + +Then followed the rapid conquest of the Scots, the return of the +victorious general to London, and the suppression of the liberty of +Parliament, for it was purged of its Presbyterian leaders. The +ascendency of the Independents began; for though in a minority, they +were backed by an army which obeyed implicitly the commands and even the +wishes of Cromwell. + +The great tragedy which disgraced the revolution was now acted. The +unfortunate King, whose fate was sealed at the battle of Naseby, after +various vicissitudes and defeats, put himself into the hands of the +Scots and made a league with the Presbyterians. After Edinburgh was +taken, they virtually sold him to the victor, who caused him to be +brought in bitter mockery to Hampton Court, where he was treated with +ironical respect. In his reverses Charles would have made _any_ +concessions; and the Presbyterians, who first took up arms against him, +would perhaps have accepted them. But it was too late. Cromwell and the +Independents now reigned,--a party that had been driven into violent +measures, and which had sought the subversion of the monarchy itself. + +Charles is brought to a mock trial by a decimated Parliament, is +condemned and executed, and the old monarchy is supplanted by a military +despotism. "The roaring conflagration of anarchies" is succeeded by the +rule of the strongest man. + +Much has been written and said about that execution, or martyrdom, or +crime, as it has been variously viewed by partisans. It simply was the +sequence of the revolution, of the appeal of both parties to the sword. +It may have been necessary or unnecessary, a blunder or a crime, but it +was the logical result of a bitter war; it was the cruel policy of a +conquering power. Those who supported it were able men, who deemed it +the wisest thing to do; who dreaded a reaction, who feared for +themselves, and sought by this means to perpetuate their sway. As one of +the acts of revolution, it must be judged by the revolution itself. The +point is, not whether it was wrong to take the life of the King, if it +were a military necessity, or seemed to be to the great leaders of the +day, but whether it was right to take up arms in defence of rights which +might have been gained by protracted constitutional agitation and +resistance. The execution proved a blunder, because it did not take away +the rights of Charles II., and created great abhorrence and indignation, +not merely in foreign countries, but among a majority of the English +people themselves,--and these, too, who had the prestige of wealth and +culture. I do not believe the Presbyterian party, as represented by +Hampden and Pym, and who like Mirabeau had applied the torch to +revolutionary passions, would have consented to this foolish murder. +Certainly the Episcopalians would not have executed Charles, even if +they could have been induced to cripple him. + +But war is a conflagration; nothing can stop its ravages when it has +fairly begun. They who go to war must abide the issue of war; they who +take the sword must be prepared to perish by the sword. Thus far, in the +history of the world, very few rights have been gained by civil war +which could not have been gained in the end without it. The great rights +which the people have secured in England for two hundred years are the +result of an appeal to reason and justice. The second revolution was +bloodless. The Parliament which first arrayed itself against the +government of Charles was no mean foe, even if it had not resorted to +arms. It held the purse-strings; it had the power to cripple the King, +and to worry him into concessions. But if the King was resolved to +attack the Parliament itself, and coerce it by a standing army, and +destroy all liberty in England, then the question assumed another shape; +the war then became defensive, and was plainly justifiable, and Charles +could but accept the issue, even his own execution, if it seemed +necessary to his conquerors. They took up arms in self-defence, and war, +of course, brought to light the energies and talents of the greatest +general, who as victor would have his reward. Cromwell concluded to +sweep away the old monarchy, and reign himself instead; and the +execution of the King was one of his war measures. It was the penalty +Charles paid for making war on his subjects, instead of ruling them +according to the laws. His fate was hard and sad; we feel more +compassion than indignation. In our times he would have been permitted +to run away; but those stern and angry old revolutionists demanded +his blood. + +For this cruel or necessary act Cromwell is responsible more than any +man in England, since he could have prevented it if he pleased. He ruled +the army, which ruled the Parliament. It was not the nation, or the +representatives of the nation, who decreed the execution of Charles. It +was the army and the purged Parliament, composed chiefly of +Independents, who wanted the subversion of the monarchy itself. +Technically, Charles was tried by the Parliament, or the judges +appointed by them; really, Cromwell was at the bottom of the affair, as +much as John Calvin was responsible for the burning of Servetus, let +partisans say what they please. There never has a great crime or blunder +been committed on this earth which bigoted, or narrow, or zealous +partisans have not attempted to justify. Bigoted Catholics have +justified even the slaughter of St. Bartholomew. Partisans have no law +but expediency. All Jesuits, political, religious, and social, in the +Catholic and Protestant churches alike, seem to think that the end +justifies the means, even in the most beneficent reforms; and when +pushed to the wall by the logic of opponents, will fall back on the +examples of the Old Testament. In defence of lying and cheating they +will quote Abraham at the court of Pharaoh. There is no insult to the +human understanding more flagrant, than the doctrine that we may do evil +that good may come. And yet the politics and reforms of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries seem to have been based on that miserable form +of jesuitism. Here Machiavelli is as vulnerable as Escobar, and Burleigh +as well as Oliver Cromwell, who was not more profound in dissimulation +than Queen Elizabeth herself. The best excuse we can render for the +political and religious crimes of that age is, that they were in +accordance with its ideas. And who is superior to the ideas of his age? + +On the execution of the King, the supreme authority was nominally in the +hands of Parliament. Of course all kinds of anarchies prevailed, and all +government was unsettled. Charles II. was proclaimed King by the Scots, +while the Duke of Ormond, in Ireland, joined the royal party to seat +Charles II. on the throne. In this exigency Cromwell was appointed by +the Parliament Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. + +Then followed the conquest of Ireland, in which Cromwell distinguished +himself for great military abilities. His vigorous and uncompromising +measures, especially his slaughter of the garrison of Drogheda (a +retaliatory act), have been severely commented on. But war in the hands +of masters is never carried on sentimentally: the test of ability is +success. The measures were doubtless hard and severe; but Cromwell knew +what he was about: he wished to bring the war to a speedy close, and +intimidation was probably the best course to pursue. Those impracticable +Irish never afterwards molested him. In less than a year he was at +leisure to oppose Charles II. in Scotland; and on the resignation of +Fairfax he was made Captain-General of all the forces in the empire. The +battle of Dunbar resulted in the total defeat of the Scots; while the +"crowning mercy" at Worcester, Sept. 3, 1651, utterly blasted the hopes +of Charles, and completely annihilated his forces. + +The civil war, which raged nine years, was now finished, and Cromwell +became supreme. But even the decimated Parliament was jealous, and +raised an issue,--on which Cromwell dissolved it with a file of +soldiers, and assembled another, neither elective nor representative, +composed of his creatures, without experience, chiefly Anabaptists and +Independents; which he soon did away with. He then called a council of +leading men, who made him Lord Protector, December 13, 1653. Even the +shadow of constitutional authority now vanishes, and Cromwell rules with +absolute and untrammelled power, like Julius Caesar or Napoleon +Bonaparte. He rules on the very principles which he condemned in Charles +I. The revolution ends in a military despotism. + +If there was ever a usurpation, this was one. Liberty gave her last sigh +on the remonstrance of Sir Harry Vane, and a military hero, by means of +his army, stamps his iron heel on England. He dissolves the very body +from which he received his own authority he refuses to have any check on +his will; he imposes taxes without the consent of the people,--the very +thing for which he took up arms against Charles I.; he reigns alone, on +despotic principles, as absolute as Louis XIV.; he enshrouds himself in +royal state at Hampton Court; he even seeks to bequeath his absolute +power to his son. And if Richard Cromwell had reigned like his father +Oliver, then the cause of liberty would have been lost. + +All this is cold, unvarnished history. We cannot get over or around +these facts; they blaze out to the eyes of all readers, and will blaze +to the most distant ages. Cromwell began as a reformer, but ended as a +usurper. Whatever name he goes by, whatever title he may have assumed, +he became, by force of his victories and of his army, the absolute ruler +of England,--as Caesar did of Rome, and Napoleon of Paris. We may +palliate or extenuate this fact; we may even excuse it on the ground +that the State had drifted into anarchy; that only he, as the stronger +man, could save England; that there was no other course open to him as a +patriot; and that it was a most fortunate thing for England that he +seized the reins, and became a tyrant to put down anarchies. But +whatever were the excuses by which Cromwell justified himself, or his +admirers justify him, let us not deny the facts. It may have been +necessary, under his circumstances, to reign alone, by the aid of his +standing army. But do not attempt to gloss over the veritable fact that +he did reign without the support of Parliament, and in defiance of all +constitutional authorities. It was not the nation which elevated him to +supreme power, but his soldiers. At no time would any legitimate +Parliament, or any popular voice, have made him an absolute ruler. He +could not even have got a plebiscitum, as Louis Napoleon did. He was not +liked by the nation at large,--not even by the more enlightened and +conservative of the Puritans, such as the Presbyterians; and as for the +Episcopalians, they looked upon him not only as a usurper but as a +hypocrite. + +It is difficult to justify such an act as usurpation and military +tyranny by the standard of an immutable morality. If the overturning of +all constitutional authority by a man who professed to be a reformer, +yet who reigned illegally as a despot, can be defended, it is only on +the principle of expediency, that the end justifies the means,--the plea +of the Jesuits, and of all the despots who have overturned constitutions +and national liberties. But this is rank and undisguised Caesarism. The +question then arises, Was it necessary that a Caesar should reign at +Hampton Court? Some people think it was; and all admit that after the +execution of the King there was no settled government, nothing but +bitter, intolerant factions, each of which wished its own ascendency, +and all were alike unscrupulous. Revolution ever creates factions and +angry parties, more or less violent. It is claimed by many that a good +government was impossible with these various and contending parties, and +that nothing but anarchy would have existed had not Cromwell seized the +reins, and sustained himself by a standing army, and ruled despotically. +Again, others think that he was urged by a pressure which even he could +not resist,--that of the army; that he was controlled by circumstances; +that he could do no otherwise unless he resigned England to her +fate,--to the anarchy of quarrelling and angry parties, who would not +listen to reason, and who were too inexperienced to govern in such +stormy times. The Episcopalians certainly, and the Presbyterians +probably, would have restored Charles II.,--and this Cromwell regarded +as a great possible calamity. If the King had been restored, all the +fruit of the revolution would have been lost; there would have been a +renewed reign of frivolities, insincerities, court scandals, venalities, +favorites, and disguised Romanism,--yea, an alliance would have been +formed with the old tyrants of Europe. + +Cromwell was no fool, and he had a great insight into the principles on +which the stability and prosperity of a nation rested. He doubtless felt +that the nation required a strong arm at the helm, and that no one could +save England in such a storm but himself. I believe he was sincere in +this conviction,--a conviction based on profound knowledge of men and +the circumstances of the age. I believe he was willing to be aspersed, +even by his old friends, and heartily cursed by his enemies, if he could +guide the ship of state into a safe harbor. I am inclined to believe +that he was patriotic in his intentions; that he wished to save the +country even, if necessary, by illegal means; that he believed there was +a higher law _for him_, and that an enlightened posterity would +vindicate his name and memory. He was not deceived as to his abilities, +even if he were as to his call. He knew he was the strongest man in +England, and that only the strongest could rule. He was willing to +assume the responsibility, whatever violence he should do to his early +principles, or to the opinions of those with whom he was at first +associated. If there was anything that marked the character of Cromwell, +it was the abiding sense, from first to last, of his personal +responsibility to God Almighty, whose servant and instrument he felt +himself to be. I believe he was loyal to his conscience, if not to his +cause. He may have committed grave errors, for he was not infallible. It +may have been an error that he ruled virtually without a Parliament, +since it was better that a good measure should be defeated than that the +cause of liberty should be trodden under foot. It was better that +parliaments should wrangle and quarrel than that there should be no +representation of the nation at all. And it was an undoubted error to +transmit his absolute authority to his son, for this was establishing a +new dynasty of kings. One of the worst things which Napoleon ever did +was to seat his brothers on the old thrones of Europe. Doubtless, +Cromwell wished to perpetuate the policy of his government, but he had +no right to perpetuate a despotism in his own family: that was an insult +to the nation and to the cause of constitutional liberty. Here he was +selfish and ambitious, for, great as he was, he was not greater than the +nation or his cause. + +But I need not dwell on the blunders of Cromwell, if we call them by no +harsher name. It would be harsh to judge him for his mistakes or sins +under his peculiar circumstances, his hand in the execution of Charles +I., his Jesuitical principles, his cruelties in Ireland, his dispersion +of parliaments, and his usurpation of supreme power. Only let us call +things by their right names; we gain nothing by glossing over defects. +The historians of the Bible tell us how Abraham told lies to the King of +Egypt, and David caused Uriah to be slain after he had appropriated his +wife. Yet who were greater and better, upon the whole, than these +favorites of Heaven? + +Cromwell earned his great fame as one of the wisest statesmen and ablest +rulers that England ever had. Like all monarchs, he is to be judged by +the services he rendered to civilization. He was not a faultless man, +but he proved himself a great benefactor. Whether we like him or not, we +are compelled to admit that his administration was able and beneficent, +and that he seemed to be actuated by a sincere desire to do all the good +he could. If he was ambitious, his ambition was directed to the +prosperity and glory of his country. If he levied taxes without the +consent of the nation, he spent the money economically, wisely, and +unselfishly. He sought no inglorious pomps; he built no expensive +palaces; he gave no foolish fetes; nor did he seek to disguise his +tyranny by amusing or demoralizing the people, like the old Roman +Caesars. He would even have established a constitutional monarchy, had +it been practicable. The plots of royalists tempted him to appoint +major-generals to responsible situations. To protect his life, he +resorted to guards. He could not part with his power, but he used it for +the benefit of the nation. If he did not reign by or through the people, +he reigned _for_ the people. He established religious liberty, and +tolerated all sects but Catholics and Quakers. The Presbyterians were +his enemies, but he never persecuted them. He had a great regard for +law, and appointed the ablest and best men to high judicial positions. +Sir Matthew Hale, whom he made chief-justice, was the greatest lawyer in +England, an ornament to any country. Cromwell made strenuous efforts to +correct the abuses of the court of chancery and of criminal law. He +established trial by jury for political offences. He tried to procure +the formal re-admission of the Jews to England. He held conferences with +George Fox. He snatched Biddle, the Socinian, from the fangs of +persecutors. He fostered commerce and developed the industrial resources +of the nation, like Burleigh and Colbert. He created a navy, and became +the father of the maritime greatness of England. He suppressed all +license among the soldiers, although his power rested on their loyalty +to him. He honored learning and exalted the universities, placing in +them learned men. He secured the union between England and Scotland, and +called representatives from Scotland to his parliaments. He adopted a +generous policy with the colonies in North America, and freed them from +rapacious governors. His war policy was not for mere aggrandizement. He +succeeded Gustavus Adolphus as the protector of Protestantism on the +Continent. He sought to make England respected among all the nations; +and, as righteousness exalts a nation, he sought to maintain public +morality. His court was simple and decorous; he gave no countenance to +levities and follies, and his own private life was pure and +religious,--so that there was general admiration of his conduct as well +as of his government. + +Cromwell was certainly very fortunate in his regime. The army and navy +did wonders; Blake and Monk gained great victories; Gibraltar was +taken,--one of the richest prizes that England ever gained in war. The +fleets of Spain were destroyed; the trade of the Indies was opened to +his ships. He maintained the "balance of power." He punished the African +pirates of the Mediterranean. His glory reached Asia, and extended to +America. So great was his renown that the descendants of Abraham, even +on the distant plains of Asia, inquired of one another if he were not +the servant of the King of Kings, whom they were looking for. A learned +Rabbi even came from Asia to London for the purpose of investigating his +pedigree, thinking to discover in him the "Lion of the tribe of Judah." +If his policy had been followed out by his successors, Louis XIV. would +not have dared to revoke the Edict of Nantes; if he had reigned ten +years longer, there would have been no revival of Romanism. I suppose +England never had so enlightened a monarch. He was more like Charlemagne +than Richelieu. Contrast him with Louis XIV., a contemporaneous despot: +Cromwell devoted all his energies to develop the resources of his +country, while Louis did what he could to waste them; Cromwell's reign +was favorable to the development of individual genius, but Louis was +such an intolerable egotist that at the close of his reign all the great +lights had disappeared; Cromwell was tolerant, Louis was persecuting; +Cromwell laid the foundation of an indefinite expansion, Louis sowed the +seeds of discontent and revolution. Both indeed took the sword,--the one +to dethrone the Stuarts, the other to exterminate the Protestants. +Cromwell bequeathed to successors the moral force of personal virtue, +Louis paved the way for the most disgraceful excesses; Cromwell spent +his leisure hours with his family and with divines, Louis with his +favorites and mistresses; Cromwell would listen to expostulations, Louis +crushed all who differed from him. The career of the former was a +progressive rise, that of the latter a progressive fall. The ultimate +influence of Cromwell's policy was to develop the greatness of England; +that of Louis, to cut the sinews of national wealth, and poison those +sources of renovation which still remained. The memory of Cromwell is +dear to good men in spite of his defects; while that of Louis, in spite +of his graces and urbanities, is a watchword for all that is repulsive +in despotism. Hence Cromwell is more and more a favorite with +enlightened minds, while Louis is more and more regarded as a man who +made the welfare of the State subordinate to his own glory. In a word, +Cromwell feared only God; while Louis feared only hell. The piety of the +one was lofty; that of the other was technical, formal, and pharisaical. +The chief defect in the character of Cromwell was his expediency, or +what I call _jesuitism_,--following out good ends by questionable means; +the chief defect in the character of Louis was an absorbing egotism, +which sacrificed everything for private pleasure or interest. + +The difficulty in judging Cromwell seems to me to be in the imperfection +of our standards of public morality. We are apt to excuse in a ruler +what we condemn in a private man. If Oliver Cromwell is to be measured +by the standard which accepts expediency as a guide in life, he will be +excused for his worst acts. If he is to be measured by an immutable +standard, he will be picked to pieces. In regard to his private life, +aside from cant and dissimulation, there is not much to condemn, and +there is much to praise. He was not a libertine like Henry IV., nor an +egotist like Napoleon. He delighted in the society of the learned and +the pious; he was susceptible to grand sentiments; he was just in his +dealings and fervent in his devotions. He was liberal, humane, simple, +unostentatious, and economical. He was indeed ambitious, but his +ambition was noble. + +His intellectual defect was his idea of special divine illumination, +which made him visionary and rhapsodical and conceited. He was a +second-adventist, and believed that Christ would return, at no distant +time, to establish the reign of the saints upon the earth. But his +morals were as irreproachable as those of Marcus Aurelius. Like Michael +Angelo, he despised frivolities, though it is said he relished rough +jokes, like Abraham Lincoln. He was conscientious in the discharge of +what he regarded as duties, and seemed to feel his responsibility to God +as the sovereign of the universe. His family revered him as much as the +nation respected him. He was not indeed lovable, like Saint Louis; but +he can never lose the admiration of mankind, since the glory of his +administration was not sullied by those private vices which destroy +esteem and ultimately undermine both power and influence. He was one of +those world-heroes of whom nations will be proud as they advance in the +toleration of human infirmities,--as they draw distinction between +those who live for themselves and those who live for their country,--and +the recognition of those principles on which all progress is based. + +Cromwell died prematurely, if not for his fame, at least for his +usefulness. His reign as Protector lasted only five years, yet what +wonders he did in that brief period! He suppressed the anarchies of the +revolution, he revived law, he restored learning, he developed the +resources of his country; he made it respected at home and abroad, and +shed an imperishable glory on his administration,--but "on the threshold +of success he met the inexorable enemy." + +It was a stormy night, August 30, 1658, when the wild winds were roaring +and all nature was overclouded with darkness and gloom, that the last +intelligible words of the dying hero were heard by his attendants: "O +Lord! though I am a miserable sinner, I am still in covenant with Thee. +Thou hast made me, though very unworthy, an instrument to do Thy people +good; and go on, O Lord, to deliver them and make Thy name glorious +throughout the world!" These dying words are the key alike to his +character and his mission. He believed himself to be an instrument of +the Almighty Sovereign in whom he believed, and whom, with all his +faults and errors, he sought to serve, and in whom he trusted. + +And it is in this light, chiefly, that the career of this remarkable +man is to be viewed. An instrument of God he plainly was, to avenge the +wrongs of an insulted, an indignant, and an honest nation, and to +impress upon the world the necessity of wise and benignant rulers. He +arose to vindicate the majesty of public virtue, to rebuke the egotism +of selfish kings, to punish the traitors of important trusts. He arose +to point out the true sources of national prosperity, to head off the +troops of a renovated Romanism, to promote liberty of conscience in all +matters of religious belief. He was raised up as a champion of +Protestantism when kings were returning to Rome, and as an awful +chastiser of those bigoted and quarrelsome Irish who have ever been +hostile to law and order, and uncontrollable by any influence but that +of fear. But, above all, he was raised up to try the experiment of +liberty in the seventeenth century. + +That experiment unfortunately failed. All sects and parties sought +ascendency rather than the public good; angry and inexperienced, they +refused to compromise. Sectarianism was the true hydra that baffled the +energy of the courageous combatant. Parliaments were factious, +meddlesome, and inexperienced, and sought to block the wheels of +government rather than promote wholesome legislation. The people +hankered for their old pleasures, and were impatient of restraint; their +leaders were demagogues or fanatics; they could not be coerced by mild +measures or appeals to enlightened reason. Hence coercive measures were +imperative; and these could be carried only by a large standing +army,--ever the terror and menace of liberty; the greatest blot on +constitutional governments,--a necessity, but an evil, since the +military power should be subordinate to the civil, not the civil to the +military. The iron hand by which Cromwell was obliged to rule, if he +ruled at all, at last became odious to all classes, since they had many +rights which were ignored. When they clamored for the blood of an +anointed tyrant, they did not bargain for a renewed despotism more +irksome and burdensome than the one they had suppressed. The public +rejoicings, the universal enthusiasm, the brilliant spectacles and +fetes, the flattering receptions and speeches which hailed the +restoration of Charles II., showed unmistakably that the regime of +Cromwell, though needed for a time, was unpopular, and was not in +accordance with the national aspirations. If they were to be ruled by a +tyrant, they preferred to be ruled according to precedents and +traditions and hallowed associations. The English people loved then, as +they love now, as they ever have loved, royalty, the reign of kings +according to the principles of legitimacy. They have shown the +disposition to fetter these kings, not to dispense with them. + +So the experiment of Cromwell and his party failed. How mournful it +must have seemed to the original patriots of the revolution, that hard, +iron, military rule was all that England had gained by the struggles and +the blood of her best people. Wherefore had treasures been lavished in a +nine years' contest; wherefore the battles of Marston Moor and +Worcester; wherefore the eloquence of Pym and Hampden? All wasted. The +house which had been swept and garnished was re-entered by devils worse +than before. + +Thus did this experiment seem; teaching, at least, this useful and +impressive lesson,--that despotism will succeed unwise and violent +efforts for reform; that reforms are not to be carried on by bayonets, +but by reason; that reformers must be patient, and must be contented +with constitutional measures; that any violation of the immutable laws +of justice will be visited with unlooked-for retribution. + +But sad as this experiment seemed, can it be pronounced to be wholly a +failure? No earnest human experiment is ever thrown away. The great +ideas of Cromwell, and of those who originally took up arms with him, +entered into new combinations. The spirit remained, if the form was +changed. After a temporary reaction, the love of liberty returned. The +second revolution of 1688 was the logical sequence of the first. It was +only another act in the great drama of national development. The spirit +which overthrew Charles I. also overturned the throne of James II.; but +the wisdom gained by experience sent him into exile, instead of +executing him on the scaffold. Two experiments with those treacherous +Stuarts were necessary before the conviction became fastened on the mind +of the English people that constitutional liberty could not exist while +they remained upon the throne; and the spirit which had burst out into a +blazing flame two generations earlier, was now confined within +constitutional limits. But it was not suppressed; it produced salutary +reforms with every advancing generation. "It produced," says Macaulay, +"the famous Declaration of Right, which guaranteed the liberties of the +English upon their present basis; which again led to the freedom of the +press, the abolition of slavery, Catholic emancipation, and +representative reform," Had the experiment not been tried by Cromwell +and his party, it might have been tried by worse men, whose gospel of +rights would be found in the "social contract" of a Rousseau, rather +than in the "catechism" of the Westminster divines. It was fortunate +that revolutionary passions should have raged in the bosoms of +Christians rather than of infidels,--of men who believed in obedience to +a personal God, rather than men who teach the holiness of untutored +impulse, the infallibility of majorities, and the majesty of the +unaided intellect of man. And then who can estimate the value of +Cromwell's experience on the patriots of our own Revolution? His example +may even have taught the great Washington how dangerous and inconsistent +it would be to accept an earthly crown, while denouncing the tyranny of +kings, and how much more enduring is that fame which is cherished in a +nation's heart than that which is blared by the trumpet of idolatrous +soldiers indifferent to those rights which form the basis of social +civilization. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Bulstrode's Memoirs; Ludlow's Memoirs; Sir Edward Walker's Historical +Discourses; Carlyle's Speeches and Letters of Oliver Cromwell; +Macaulay's Essays; Hallam's Constitutional History; Froude's History of +England; Guizot's History of Cromwell; Lamartine's Essay on Cromwell; +Forster's Statesmen of the British Commonwealth; Clarendon's History of +the Rebellion; Hume and Lingard's Histories of England; Life of +Cromwell, by Russell; Southey's Protectorate of Cromwell; Three English +Statesmen, Goldwin Smith; Dr. Wilson's Life of Cromwell; D'Aubigne's +Life of Oliver Cromwell; Articles in North American, North British, +Westminster, and British Quarterlies on Cromwell. + + + +LOUIS XIV. + + +A.D. 1638-1715. + +THE FRENCH MONARCHY. + +The verdict of this age in reference to Louis XIV. is very different +from that which his own age pronounced. Two hundred years ago his +countrymen called him _Le Grand Monarque_, and his glory filled the +world. Since Charlemagne, no monarch had been the object of such +unbounded panegyric as he, until Napoleon appeared. He lived in an +atmosphere of perpetual incense, and reigned in dazzling magnificence. + +Although he is not now regarded in the same light as he was in the +seventeenth century, and originated no great movement that civilization +values,--in fact was anything but a permanent benefactor to his country +or mankind,--yet Louis XIV. is still one of the Beacon Lights of +history, for warning if not for guidance. His reign was an epoch; it was +not only one of the longest in human annals, but also one of the most +brilliant, imposing, and interesting. Whatever opinion may exist as to +his inherent intellectual greatness, no candid historian denies the +power of his will, the force of his character, and the immense influence +he exerted. He was illustrious, if he was not great; he was powerful, if +he made fatal mistakes; he was feared and envied by all nations, even +when he stood alone; and it took all Europe combined to strip him of the +conquests which his generals made, and to preserve the "balance of +power" which he had disturbed. With all Europe in arms against him, he, +an old and broken-hearted man, contrived to preserve, by his fortitude +and will, the territories he had inherited; and he died peacefully upon +his bed, at the age of seventy-six, still the most absolute king that +ever reigned in France. A man so strong, so fortunate until his latter +years; so magnificent in his court, which he made the most brilliant of +modern times; so lauded by the great geniuses who surrounded his throne, +all of whom looked up to him as a central sun of power and glory,--is +not to be flippantly judged, or ruthlessly hurled from that proud +pinnacle on which he was seated, amid the acclamations of two +generations. His successes dazzled the world; his misfortunes excited +its pity, except among those who were sufferers by his needless wars or +his cruel persecutions. His virtues and his defects both stand out in +bold relief, and will make him a character to meditate upon as long as +history shall be written. + +The reign of Louis XIV. would be remarkable for the great men who shed +lustre on his throne, if he had himself been contemptible. Voltaire +doubted if any age ever saw such an illustrious group, and he compares +it with the age of Pericles in Greece, with that of Augustus in Rome, +and that of the Medici in Italy,--four great epochs in intellectual +excellence, which have never been surpassed in brilliancy and variety of +talent. No such generals had arisen since the palmy days of Roman +grandeur as Conde, Turenne, Luxembourg, Vauban, Berwick, and Villars, if +we except Gustavus Adolphus, and those generals with whom the marshals +of Louis contended, such as William III., Marlborough, and Eugene. No +monarch was ever served by abler ministers than Colbert and Louvois; the +former developing the industries and resources of a great country, and +the latter organizing its forces for all the exigencies of vast military +campaigns. What galaxy of poets more brilliant than that which shed +glory on the throne of this great king!--men like Corneille, Boileau, +Fontanelle, La Fontaine, Racine, and Moliere; no one of them a Dante or +a Shakspeare, but all together shining as a constellation. What great +jurists and lawyers were Le Tellier and D'Aguesseau and Mole! What great +prelates and preachers were Bossuet, Fenelon, Bourdaloue, Massillon, +Flechier, Saurin,--unrivalled for eloquence in any age! What original +and profound thinkers were Pascal, Descartes, Helvetius, Malebranche, +Nicole, and Quesnel! Until the seventeenth century, what more +respectable historians had arisen than Dupin, Tillemont, Mabillon, and +Fleury; or critics and scholars than Bayle, Arnauld, De Sacy, and +Calmet! La Rochefoucauld uttered maxims which were learned by heart by +giddy courtiers. Great painters and sculptors, such as Le Brun, Poussin, +Claude Lorrain, and Girardon, ornamented the palaces which Mansard +erected; while Le Notre laid out the gardens of those palaces which are +still a wonder. + +It must be borne in mind that Louis XIV. had an intuitive perception of +genius and talent, which he was proud to reward and anxious to +appropriate. Although his own education had been neglected, he had a +severe taste and a disgust of all vulgarity, so that his manners were +decorous and dignified in the midst of demoralizing pleasures. Proud, +both from adulation and native disposition, he yet was polite and +affable. He never passed a woman without lifting his hat, and he +uniformly rose when a lady entered into his presence. But, with all his +politeness, he never unbent, even in the society of his most intimate +friends, so jealous was he of his dignity and power. Unscrupulous in his +public transactions, and immoral in his private relations with women, he +had a great respect for the ordinances of religion, and was punctilious +in the outward observances of the Catholic Church. The age itself was +religious; and so was he, in a technical and pharisaical piety and petty +ritualistic duties. He was a bigot and a persecutor, which fact endeared +him to the Jesuits, by whom, in matters of conscience, he was ruled, so +that he became their tool even while he thought he controlled +everything. He was as jealous of his power as he was of his dignity, and +he learned to govern himself as well as his subjects. He would himself +submit to the most rigid formalities in order to exact a rigorous +discipline and secure unconditional obedience from others. No one ever +dared openly to thwart his will or oppose his wishes, although he could +be led through his passions and his vanity: he was imperious in his +commands, and exacting in the services he demanded from all who +surrounded his person. He had perfect health, a strong physique, great +aptitude for business, and great regularity in his habits. It was +difficult to deceive him, for he understood human nature, and thus was +able to select men of merit and talent for all high offices in State +and Church. + +In one sense Louis XIV. seems to have been even patriotic, since he +identified his own glory with that of the nation, having learned +something from Richelieu, whose policy he followed. Hence he was +supported by the people, if he was not loved, because he was ambitious +of making France the most powerful nation in Christendom. The love of +glory ever has been one of the characteristics of the French nation, and +this passion the king impersonated, which made him dear to the nation, +as Napoleon was before he became intoxicated by power; and hence Louis +had the power of rallying his subjects in great misfortunes. They +forgave extravagance in palace-building, from admiration of +magnificence. They were proud of a despot who called out the praises of +the world. They saw in his parks, his gardens, his marble halls, his +tapestries, his pictures, and his statues a glory which belonged to +France as well as to him. They marched joyfully in his armies, whatever +their sacrifices, for he was only leading them to glory,--an empty +illusion, yet one of those words which has ruled the world, since it is +an expression of that vanity which has its roots in the deepest recesses +of the soul. Glory is the highest aspiration of egotism, and Louis was +an incarnation of egotism, like Napoleon after him. They both +represented the master passions of the people to whom they appealed. +"Never," says St. Simon, "has any one governed with a better grace, or, +by the manner of bestowing, more enhanced the value of his favors. Never +has any one sold at so high a price his words, nay his very smiles and +glances." And then, "so imposing and majestic was his air that those who +addressed him must first accustom themselves to his appearance, not to +be overawed. No one ever knew better, how to maintain a certain manner +which made him appear great." Yet it is said that his stature was small. +No one knew better than he how to impress upon his courtiers the idea +that kings are of a different blood from other men. He even knew how to +invest vice and immorality with an air of elegance, and was capable of +generous sentiments and actions. He on one occasion sold a gold service +of plate for four hundred thousand francs, to purchase bread for +starving troops. If haughty, exacting, punctilious, he was not cold. +Even his rigid etiquette and dignified reserve were the dictates of +statecraft, as well as of natural inclination. He seemed to feel that he +was playing a great part, with the eyes of the world upon him; so that +he was an actor as Napoleon was, but a more consistent one, because in +his egotism he never forgot himself, not even among his mistresses. As +_grand monarque_, the arbiter of all fortunes, the central sun of all +glory, was he always figuring before the eyes of men. He never relaxed +his habits of ceremony and ostentation, nor his vigilance as an +administrator, nor his iron will, nor his thirst for power; so that he +ruled as he wished until he died, in spite of the reverses of his sad +old age, and without losing the respect of his subjects, oppressed as +they were with taxes and humiliated by national disasters. + +Such were some of the traits which made Louis XIV. a great sovereign, if +not a great man. He was not only supported by the people who were +dazzled by his magnificence, and by the great men who adorned his court, +but he was aided by fortunate circumstances and great national ideas. He +was heir of the powers of Richelieu and the treasures of Mazarin. Those +two cardinals, who claimed equal rank with independent princes, higher +than that of the old nobility, pursued essentially the same policy, +although this policy was the fruit of Richelieu's genius; and this +policy was the concentration of all authority in the hands of the king. +Louis XIII. was the feeblest of the Bourbons, but he made his throne the +first in Europe. Richelieu was a great benefactor to the cause of law, +order, and industry, despotic as was his policy and hateful his +character. When he died, worn out by his herculean labors, the nobles +tried to regain the privileges and powers they had lost, and a miserable +warfare called the "Fronde" was the result, carried on without genius or +system. But the Fronde produced some heroes who were destined to be +famous in the great wars of Louis XIV. Mazarin, with less ability than +Richelieu, and more selfish, conquered in the end, by following out the +policy of his predecessor. He developed the resources of the kingdom, +besides accumulating an enormous fortune for himself,--about two hundred +millions of francs,--which, when he died, he bequeathed, not to the +Church or his relatives, but to the young King, who thus became +personally rich as well as strong. To have entered upon the magnificent +inheritance which these two able cardinals bequeathed to the monarchy +was most fortunate to Louis,--unrestricted power and enormous wealth. + +But Louis was still more fortunate in reaping the benefits of the +principle of royalty. We have in the United States but a feeble +conception of the power of this principle in Europe in the seventeenth +century; it was nursed by all the chivalric sentiments of the Middle +Ages. The person of a king was sacred; he was regarded as divinely +commissioned. The sacred oil poured on his head by the highest dignitary +of the Church, at his coronation, imparted to him a sacred charm. All +the influences of the Church, as well as those of Feudalism, set the +king apart from all other men, as a consecrated monarch to rule the +people. This loyalty to the throne had the sanction of the Jewish +nation, and of all Oriental nations from the remotest ages. Hence the +world has known no other form of government than that of kings and +emperors, except in a few countries and for a brief period. Whatever the +king decreed, had the force of irresistible law; no one dared to disobey +a royal mandate but a rebel in actual hostilities. Resistance to royal +authority was ruin. This royal power was based on and enforced by the +ideas of ages. Who can resist universally accepted ideas? + +Moreover, in France especially, there was a chivalric charm about the +person of a king; he was not only sacred, of purer blood than other +people, but the greatest nobles were proud to attend and wait upon his +person. Devotion to the person of the prince became the highest duty. It +was not political slavery, but a religious and sentimental allegiance. +So sacred was this allegiance, that only the most detested tyrants were +in personal danger of assassination, or those who were objects of +religious fanaticism. A king could dismiss his most powerful minister, +or his most triumphant general at the head of an army, by a stroke of +the pen, or by a word, without expostulation or resistance. To disobey +the king was tantamount to defiance of Almighty power. A great general +rules by machinery rather than devotion to his person. But devotion to +the king needed no support from armies or guards. A king in the +seventeenth century was supposed to be the vicegerent of the Deity. + +Another still more powerful influence gave stability to the throne of +Louis: this was the Catholic Church. Louis was a devout Catholic in +spite of his sins, and was true to the interests of the Pope. He was +governed, so far as he was governed at all, by Jesuit confessors. He +associated on the most intimate terms with the great prelates and +churchmen of the day, like Bossuet, Fenelon, La Chaise, and Le Tellier. +He was regular at church and admired good sermons; he was punctilious in +all the outward observances of his religion. He detested all rebellion +from the spiritual authority of the popes; he hated both heresy and +schism. In his devotion to the Catholic Church he was as narrow and +intolerant as a village priest. His sincerity in defence of the Church +was never questioned, and hence all the influences of the Church were +exerted to uphold his domination. He may have quarrelled with popes on +political grounds, and humiliated them as temporal powers, but he stood +by them in the exercise of their spiritual functions. In Louis' reign +the State and Church were firmly knit together. It was deemed necessary +to be a good Catholic in order to be even a citizen,--so that religion +became fashionable, provided it was after the pattern of that of the +King and court. Even worldly courtiers entered with interest into the +most subtile of theological controversies. But the King always took the +side devoted to the Pope, and he hated Jansenism almost as much as he +hated Protestantism. Hence the Catholic Church ever rallied to +his support. + +So, with all these powerful supports Louis began his long reign of +seventy-six years,--which technically began when he was four years old, +on the death of his father Louis XIII., in 1643, when the kingdom was +governed by his mother, Anne of Austria, as regent, and by Cardinal +Mazarin as prime minister. During the minority of the King the +humiliation of the nobles continued. Protestantism was only tolerated, +and the country distracted rather than impoverished by the civil war of +the Fronde, with its intrigues and ever-shifting parties,--a giddy maze, +which nobody now cares to unravel; a sort of dance of death, in which +figured cardinals, princes, nobles, bishops, judges, and generals,--when +"Bacchus, Momus, and Moloch" alternately usurped dominion. Those +eighteen years of strife, folly, absurdity, and changing fortunes, when +Mazarin was twice compelled to quit the kingdom he governed; when the +queen-regent was forced also twice to fly from her capital; when +Cardinal De Retz disgraced his exalted post as Archbishop of Paris by +the vilest intrigues; when Conde and Conti obscured the lustre of their +military laurels; when alternately the parliaments made war on the +crown, and the seditious nobles ignobly yielded their functions merely +to register royal decrees,--these contests, rivalries, cabals, and +follies, ending however in the more solid foundations of absolute royal +authority, are not to be here discussed, especially as nobody can thread +that political labyrinth; and we begin, therefore, not with the +technical reign of the great King, but with his actual government, +which took place on the death of Mazarin, when he was twenty-two. + +It is said that when that able ruler passed away so reluctantly from his +pictures and his government, the ministers asked of the young +King,--thus far only known for his pleasures,--to whom they should now +bring their portfolios, "To me," he replied; and from that moment he +became the State, and his will the law of the land. + +I have already alluded to the talents and capacities of Louis for +governing, and the great aid he derived from the labors of Richelieu and +the moral sentiments of his age respecting royalty and religion; so I +will not dwell on personal defects or virtues, but proceed to show the +way in which he executed the task devolved upon him,--in other words, +present a brief history of his government, for which he was so well +fitted by native talents, fortunate circumstances, and established +ideas. I will only say, that never did a monarch enter upon his career +with such ample and magnificent opportunities for being a benefactor of +his people and of civilization. In his hands were placed all the powers +of good and evil; and so far as government can make a nation great, +Louis had the means and opportunities beyond those of any monarch in +modern times. He had armies and generals and accumulated treasures; and +all implicitly served him. His ministers and his generals were equally +able and supple, and he was at peace with all the world. Parliaments, +nobles, and Huguenots were alike submissive and reverential. He had +inherited the experience of Sully, of Richelieu, and of Mazarin. His +kingdom was protected by great natural boundaries,--the North Sea, the +ocean, the Mediterranean, the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the mountains +which overlook the Rhine. By nothing was he fettered but by the decrees +of everlasting righteousness. To his praise be it said, he inaugurated +his government by selecting Colbert as one of his prime ministers,--the +ablest man of his kingdom. It was this honest and astute servant of +royalty who ferreted out the peculations of Fouquet, whom Louis did not +hesitate to disgrace and punish. The great powers of Fouquet were +gradually bestowed on the merchant's son of Rheims. + +Colbert was a plebeian and a Protestant,--cold, severe, reserved, +awkward, abrupt, and ostentatiously humble, but of inflexible integrity +and unrivalled sagacity and forethought; more able as a financier and +political economist than any man of his century. It was something for a +young, proud, and pleasure-seeking monarch to see and reward the talents +of such a man; and Colbert had the tact and wisdom to make his young +master believe that all the measures which he pursued originated in the +royal brain. His great merit as a minister consisted in developing the +industrial resources of France and providing the King with money. + +Colbert was the father of French commerce, and the creator of the French +navy. He saw that Flanders was enriched by industry, and England and +Holland made powerful by a navy, while Spain and Portugal languished and +declined with all their mines of gold and silver. So he built ships of +war, and made harbors for them, gave charters to East and West India +Companies, planted colonies in India and America, decreed tariffs to +protect infant manufactures, gave bounties to all kinds of artisans, +encouraged manufacturing industry, and declared war on the whole brood +of aristocratic peculators that absorbed the revenues of the kingdom. He +established a better system of accounts, compelled all officers to +reside at their posts, and reduced the percentage of the collection of +the public money. In thirteen years he increased the navy from thirty +ships to two hundred and seventy-three, one hundred of which were ships +of the line. He prepared a new code of maritime law for the government +of the navy, which called out universal admiration. He dug the canal of +Languedoc, which united the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean. He +instituted the Academies of Sciences, of Inscriptions, of Belles +Lettres, of Painting, of Sculpture, of Architecture; and founded the +School of Oriental languages, the Observatory, and the School of Law. He +gave pensions to Corneille, Racine, Moliere, and other men of genius. He +rewarded artists and invited scholars to France; he repaired roads, +built bridges, and directed the attention of the middle classes to the +accumulation of capital. "He recognized the connection of works of +industry with the development of genius. He saw the influence of science +in the production of riches; of taste on industry; and the fine arts on +manual labor." For all these enlightened measures the King had the +credit and the glory; and it certainly redounds to his sagacity that he +accepted such wise suggestions, although he mistook them for his own. So +to the eyes of Europe Louis at once loomed up as an enlightened monarch; +and it would be difficult to rob him of this glory. He indorsed the +economical reforms of his great minister, and rewarded merit in all +departments, which he was not slow to see. The world extolled this +enlightened and fortunate young prince, and saw in him a second Solomon, +both for wisdom and magnificence. + +Another great genius ably assisted Louis as soon as he turned his +attention to war,--the usual employment of ambitious kings,--and this +was Le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois, the great war minister, who laid out +the campaigns and directed the movements of such generals as Conde, +Turenne, and Luxembourg. And here again it redounds to the sagacity of +Louis that he should select a man for so great a post whom he never +personally loved, and who in his gusts of passion would almost insult +his master. Louvois is acknowledged to have been the ablest war minister +that France ever had. + +Louis reigned peaceably and prosperously for six years before the +ambition of being a conqueror and a hero seized him. At twenty-eight he +burned to play the part of Alexander. Thenceforth the history of his +reign chiefly pertains to his gigantic wars,--some defensive, but mostly +offensive, aggressive, and unprovoked. + +In regard to these various wars, which plunged Europe in mourning and +rage for nearly fifty years, Louis is generally censured by historians. +They were wars of ambition, like those of Alexander and Frederic II., +until Europe combined against him and compelled him to act on the +defensive. The limits of this lecture necessarily prevent me from +describing these wars; I can only allude to the most important of them, +and then only to show results. + +His first great war was simply outrageous, and was an insult to all +Europe, and a violation of all international law. In 1667, with an +immense army, he undertook the conquest of Flanders, with no better +excuse than Frederic II. had for the invasion of Silesia,--because he +wanted an increase of territory. Flanders had done nothing to warrant +this outrage, was unprepared for war, and was a weak state, but rich and +populous, with fine harbors, and flourishing manufactures. With nearly +fifty thousand men, under Conde, Turenne, and Luxembourg, and other +generals of note, aided by Louvois, who provided military stores of +every kind, and all under the eye of the King himself, full of ideas of +glory, the issue of the conflict was not doubtful. In fact, there was no +serious defence. It was hopeless from the first. Louis had only to take +possession of cities and fortresses which were at his mercy. The +frontier towns were mostly without fortifications, so that it took only +about two or three days to conquer any city. The campaign was more a +court progress than a series of battles. It was a sort of holiday sport +for courtiers, like a royal hunt. The conquest of all Flanders might +have been the work of a single campaign, for no city offered a stubborn +resistance; but the war was prolonged for another year, that Louis might +more easily take possession of Franche-Comte,--a poor province, but +fertile in soil, well peopled, one hundred and twenty miles in length +and sixty in breadth. In less than three weeks this province was added +to France. "Louis," said the Spanish council in derision, "might have +sent his _valet de chambre_ to have taken possession of the country in +his name, and saved himself the trouble of going in person." + +This successful raid seems to have contented the King for the time, +since Holland made signs of resistance, and a league was forming against +him, embracing England, Holland, and Sweden. + +The courtiers and flatterers of Louis XIV. called this unheroic seizure +"glory." And it doubtless added to the dominion of France, inflamed the +people with military ambition, and caused the pride of birth for the +first time to yield to military talent and military rank. A marshal +became a greater personage than a duke, although a marshal was generally +taken from the higher nobility. + +Louis paid no apparent penalty for this crime, any more than prosperous +wickedness at first usually receives. "His eyes stood out with fatness." +To idolatrous courtiers "he had more than heart could wish." But the +penalty was to come: law cannot be violated with impunity. + +The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668 followed, which made Louis the most +prominent figure in Europe. He was then twenty-nine years of age, in the +pride of strength, devoted equally to pleasure and ambition. It was then +that he was the lover of the Duchesse de La Valliere, who was soon to be +supplanted by the imperious Montespan. Louis remained at peace for four +years, but all the while he was preparing for another war, aimed against +Holland, which had offended him because resolved to resist him. + +Vaster preparations were made for this war than that against Flanders, +five years before. The storm broke out in 1672, when this little state +saw itself invaded by one hundred and thirty thousand men, led by the +King in person, accompanied by his principal marshals, his war-minister +Louvois, and Vauban, to whom was intrusted the direction of siege +operations,--an engineer who changed the system of fortifications. This +was the most magnificent army that Europe had ever seen since the +Crusades, and much was expected of it. Against Conde, Turenne, +Luxembourg, and Vauban, all under the eye of the King, with a powerful +train of artillery, and immense sums of money to bribe the commanders of +garrisons, Holland had only to oppose twenty-five thousand soldiers, +under a sickly young man of twenty-two, William, Prince of Orange. + +Of course Holland was unable to resist such an overwhelming tide of +enemies, such vast and disproportionate forces. City after city and +fortress after fortress was compelled to surrender to the generals of +the French King. "They were taken almost as soon as they were invested." +All the strongholds on the Rhine and Issel fell. The Prince of Orange +could not even take the field. Louis crossed the Rhine without +difficulty, when the waters were low, with only four or five hundred +horsemen to dispute his passage. This famous passage was the subject of +ridiculous panegyrics by both painters and poets. It was generally +regarded as a prodigious feat, especially by the people of Paris, as if +it were another passage of the Granicus. + +Then rapidly fell Arnheim, Nimeguen, Utrecht, and other cities. The +wealthy families of Amsterdam prepared to embark in their ships for the +East Indies. Nothing remained to complete the conquest of Holland but +the surrender of Amsterdam, which still held out. Holland was in +despair, and sent ambassadors to the camp of Louis, headed by Grotius, +to implore his mercy. He received them, after protracted delays, with +blended insolence and arrogance, and demanded, as the conditions of +his mercy, that the States should give up all their fortified +cities, pay twenty millions of francs, and establish the Catholic +religion,--conditions which would have reduced the Hollanders to +absolute slavery, morally and politically. From an inspiration of +blended patriotism and despair, the Dutch opened their dykes, overflowed +the whole country in possession of the enemy, and thus made Amsterdam +impregnable,--especially as they were still masters of the sea, and had +just dispersed, in a brilliant naval battle under De Ruyter, the +combined fleets of France and England. + +It was this memorable resistance to vastly superior forces, and +readiness to make any sacrifices, which gave immortal fame to William of +Orange, and imperishable glory also to the little state over which he +ruled. What a spectacle!--a feeble mercantile state, without powerful +allies, bracing itself up to a life-and-death struggle with the +mightiest potentate of Europe. I know no parallel to it in the history +of modern times. Our fathers in the Revolutionary war could retreat to +forests and mountains; but Holland had neither mountains nor forests. +There was no escape from political ruin but by the inundation of fertile +fields, the destruction to an unprecedented degree of private property, +and the decimation of the male part of the population. Nor did the noble +defenders dream of victory; they only hoped to make a temporary stand. +William knew he would be beaten in every battle; his courage was moral +rather than physical. He lost no ground by defeat, while Louis lost +ground by victory, since it required a large part of his army to guard +the prisoners and garrison the fortresses he had taken. + +Some military writers say that Louis should have persevered until he had +taken Amsterdam. As well might Napoleon have remained in Russia after +the conflagration of Moscow. In May, Louis entered Holland; in July, all +Europe was in confederacy against him, through the negotiations of the +Prince of Orange. Louis hastened to quit the army when no more +conquests could be made in a country overflowed with water, leaving +Turenne and Luxembourg to finish the war in Franche-Comte. The able +generals of the French king were obliged to evacuate Holland. That +little state, by an act of supreme self-sacrifice, saved itself when all +seemed lost. I do not read of any military mistakes on the part of the +generals of Louis. They were baffled by an unforeseen inundation; and +when they were compelled to evacuate the flooded country, the Dutch +quietly closed their dykes and pumped the water out again into their +canals by their windmills, and again restored fertility to their fields; +and by the time Louis was prepared for fresh invasions, a combination +existed against him so formidable that he found it politic to make +peace. The campaigns of Turenne on the Rhine were indeed successful; but +he was killed in an insignificant battle, from a chance cannonball, +while the Prince of Conde retired forever from military service after +the bloody battle of Senif. On the whole, the French were victorious in +the terrible battles which followed the evacuation of Holland, and Louis +dictated peace to Europe apparently in the midst of victories at +Nimeguen, in 1678, after six years of brilliant fighting on both sides. + +At the peace of Nimeguen Louis was in the zenith of his glory, as +Napoleon was after the peace of Tilsit. He was justly regarded as the +mightiest monarch of his age, the greatest king that France had ever +seen. All Europe stood in awe of him; and with awe was blended +admiration, for his resources were unimpaired, his generals had greatly +distinguished themselves, and he had added important provinces to his +kingdom, which was also enriched by the internal reforms of Colbert, and +made additionally powerful by commerce and a great navy, which had +gained brilliant victories over the Dutch and Spanish fleets. Duquesne +showed himself to be almost as great a genius in naval warfare as De +Ruyter, who was killed off Aosta in 1676. In those happy and prosperous +days the Hotel de Ville conferred upon Louis the title of "Great," which +posterity never acknowledged. "Titles," says Voltaire, "are never +regarded by posterity. The simple name of a man who has performed noble +actions impresses on us more respect than all the epithets that can be +invented." + +After the peace of Nimeguen, in 1678, the King reigned in greater +splendor than before. There were no limits to his arrogance and his +extravagance. He was a modern Nebuchadnezzar. He claimed to be the +state. _L'etat, c'est moi!_ was his proud exclamation. He would bear no +contradiction and no opposition. The absorbing sentiment of his soul +seems to have been that France belonged to him, that it had been given +to him as an inheritance, to manage as he pleased for his private +gratification. "Self-aggrandizement," he wrote, "is the noblest +occupation of kings." Most writers affirm that personal aggrandizement +became the law of his life, and that he now began to lose sight of the +higher interests and happiness of his people, and to reign not for them +but for himself. He became a man of resentments, of caprices, of +undisguised selfishness; he became pompous and haughty and self-willed. +We palliate his self-exaggeration and pride, on account of the +disgraceful flatteries he received on every hand. Never was a man more +extravagantly lauded, even by the learned. But had he been half as great +as his courtiers made him think, he would not have been so intoxicated; +Caesar or Charlemagne would not thus have lost his intellectual balance. +The strongest argument to prove that he was not inherently great, but +made apparently so by fortunate circumstances, is his self-deception. + +In his arrogance and presumption, like Napoleon after the peace of +Tilsit, he now sets aside the rights of other nations, heaps galling +insults on independent potentates, and assumes the most arrogant tone in +all his relations with his neighbors or subjects. He makes conquests in +the midst of peace. He cites the princes of Europe before his councils. +He deprives the Elector Palatine and the Elector of Treves of some of +their most valuable seigniories. He begins to persecute the +Protestants. He seizes Luxembourg and the principality which belonged to +it. He humbles the republic of Genoa, and compels the Doge to come to +Versailles to implore his clemency. He treats with haughty insolence the +Pope himself, and sends an ambassador to his court on purpose to insult +him. He even insists on giving an Elector to Cologne. + +And the same inflated pride and vanity which led Louis to trample on the +rights of other nations, led him into unbounded extravagance in +palace-building. Versailles arose,--at a cost, some affirm, of a +thousand millions of livres,--unrivalled for magnificence since the fall +of the Caesars. In this vast palace did he live, more after the fashion +of an Oriental than an Occidental monarch, having enriched and furnished +it with the wonders of the world, surrounded with princes, marshals, +nobles, judges, bishops, ambassadors, poets, artists, philosophers, and +scholars, all of whom rendered to him perpetual incense. Never was such +a grand court seen before on this earth: it was one of the great +features of the seventeenth century. There was nothing censurable in +collecting all the most distinguished and illustrious people of France +around him: they must have formed a superb society, from which the proud +monarch could learn much to his enlightenment. But he made them all +obsequious courtiers, exacted from all an idolatrous homage, and +subjected them to wearisome ceremonials. He took away their intellectual +independence; he banished Racine because the poet presumed to write a +political tract. He made it difficult to get access to his person; he +degraded the highest nobles by menial offices, and insulted the nation +by the exaltation of abandoned women, who squandered the revenues of the +state in their pleasures and follies, so that this grand court, alike +gay and servile, intellectual and demoralized, became the scene of +perpetual revels, scandals, and intrigues. + +It was at this period that Louis abandoned himself to those adulterous +pleasures which have ever disgraced the Bourbons. Yet scarcely a single +woman by whom he was for a while enslaved retained her influence, but a +succession of mistresses arose, blazed, triumphed, and fell. Mancini, +the niece of Mazarin, was forsaken without the decency of the slightest +word of consolation. La Valliere, the only woman who probably ever loved +him with sincerity and devotion, had but a brief reign, and was doomed +to lead a dreary life of thirty-six years in penitence and neglect in a +Carmelite convent. Madame de Montespan retained her ascendency longer +for she had talents as well as physical beauty; she was the most +prodigal and imperious of all the women that ever triumphed over the +weakness of man. She reigned when Louis was in all the pride of manhood +and at the summit of his greatness and fame,--accompanying him in his +military expeditions, presiding at his fetes, receiving the incense of +nobles, the channel of court favor, the dispenser of honors but not of +offices; for amid all the slaveries to which women subjected the +proudest man on earth by the force of physical charms, he never gave to +them his sceptre. It was not till Madame de Maintenon supplanted this +beautiful and brilliant woman in the affections of the King, and until +he was a victim of superstitious fears, and had met with great reverses, +that state secrets were intrusted to a female friend,--for Madame de +Maintenon was never a mistress in the sense that Montespan was. + +During this brilliant period of ten years from the peace of Nimeguen, in +1678, to the great uprising of the nations to humble him, in 1688, +Versailles and other palaces were completed, works of art adorned the +capital, and immortal works of genius made his reign illustrious. + +While Colbert lived, I do not read of any extraordinary blunder on the +part of the Government. Perhaps palace-building may be considered a +mistake, since it diverted the revenues of the kingdom into monuments of +royal vanity. But the sums lavished on architects, gardeners, painters, +sculptors, and those who worked under them, employed thousands of useful +artisans, created taste, and helped to civilize the people. The people +profited by the extravagance of the King and his courtiers; the money +was spent in France, which was certainly better than if it had been +expended in foreign wars; it made Paris and Versailles the most +attractive cities of the world; it stimulated all the arts, and did not +demoralize the nation. Would this country be poorer, and the government +less stable, if five hundred millions were expended at Washington to +make it the most beautiful city of the land, and create an honest pride +even among the representatives of the West, perhaps diverting them from +building another capital on the banks of the Mississippi? Would this +country be richer if great capitalists locked up their money in State +securities, instead of spending their superfluous wealth in reclaiming +sterile tracts and converting them into gardens and parks? The very +magnificence of Louis impressed such a people as the French with the +idea of his power, and tended to make the government secure, until +subsequent wars imposed such excessive taxation as to impoverish the +people and drain the sources of national wealth. We do not read that +Colbert made serious remonstrances to the palace-building of the King, +although afterwards Louis regarded it as one of the errors of his reign. + +But when Colbert died, in 1685, another spirit seemed to animate the +councils of the King, and great mistakes were made,--which is the more +noteworthy, since the moral character of the King seemed to improve. It +was at this time that he fell under the influence of Madame de Maintenon +and the Jesuits. They made his court more decorous. Montespan was sent +away. Bossuet and La Chaise gained great ascendency over the royal +conscience. Louis began to realize his responsibilities; the love of +glory waned; the welfare of the people was now considered. Whether he +was _ennuied_ with pleasure, or saw things in a different light, or felt +the influence of the narrow-minded but accomplished and virtuous woman +whom he made his wife, or was disturbed by the storm which was gathering +in the political horizon, he became more thoughtful and grave, though +not less tyrannical. + +Yet it was then that he made the most fatal mistake of his life, the +evil consequences of which pursued him to his death. He revoked the +Edict of Nantes, which Henry IV. had granted, and which had secured +religious toleration. This he did from a perverted conscience, wishing +to secure the unanimity and triumph of the Catholic faith; to this he +was incited by the best woman with whom he was ever brought in intimate +relations; in this he was encouraged by all the religious bigots of his +kingdom. He committed a monstrous crime that good might come,--not +foreseeing the ultimate consequences, and showing anything but an +enlarged statesmanship. This stupid folly alienated his best subjects, +and sowed the seeds of revolution in the next reign, and tended to +undermine the throne. Richelieu never would have consented to such an +insane measure; for this cruel act not only destroyed veneration at +home, but created detestation among all enlightened foreigners. + +It is a hackneyed saying, that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the +Church." But it would seem that the persecution of the Protestants was +an exception to this truth,--and a persecution all the more needless and +revolting since the Protestants were not in rebellion against the +government, as in the tune of Charles IX. This diabolical persecution, +justified however by some of the greatest men in France, had its +intended results. The bigots who incited that crime had studied well the +principles of successful warfare. As early as 1666 the King was urged to +suppress the Protestant religion, and long before the Edict of Nantes +was revoked the Protestants had been subjected to humiliation and +annoyance. If they held places at court, they were required to sell +them; if they were advocates, they were forbidden to plead; if they were +physicians, they were prevented from visiting patients. They were +gradually excluded from appointments in the army and navy; little +remained to them except commerce and manufactures. Protestants could not +hold Catholics as servants; soldiers were unjustly quartered upon them; +their taxes were multiplied, their petitions were unread. But in 1685 +dragonnades subjected them to still greater cruelties; who tore up their +linen for camp beds, and emptied their mattresses for litters. The poor, +unoffending Protestants filled the prisons, and dyed the scaffolds with +their blood. They were prohibited under the severest penalties from the +exercise of their religion; their ministers were exiled, their children +were baptized in the Catholic faith, their property was confiscated, and +all attempts to flee the country were punished by the galleys. Two +millions of people were disfranchised; two hundred thousand perished by +the executioners, or in prisons, or in the galleys. All who could fly +escaped to other countries; and those who escaped were among the most +useful citizens, carrying their arts with them to enrich countries at +war with France. Some two hundred thousand contrived to fly,--thus +weakening the kingdom, and filling Europe with their execrations. Never +did a crime have so little justification, and never was a crime followed +with severer retribution. Yet Le Tellier, the chancellor, at the age of +eighty, thanked God that he was permitted the exalted privilege of +affixing the seal of his office to the act before he died. Madame de +Maintenon declared that it would cover Louis with glory. Madame de +Sevigne said that no royal ordinance had ever been more magnificent. +Hardly a protest came from any person of influence in the land, not even +from Fenelon. The great Bossuet, at the funeral of Le Tellier, thus +broke out: "Let us publish this miracle of our day, and pour out our +hearts in praise of the piety of Louis,--this new Constantine, this new +Theodosius, this new Charlemagne, through whose hands heresy is no +more." The Pope, though at this time hostile to Louis, celebrated a +Te Deum. + +Among those who fled the kingdom to other lands were nine thousand +sailors and twelve thousand soldiers, headed by Marshal Schomberg and +Admiral Duquesne,--the best general and the best naval officer that +France then had. Other distinguished people transferred their services +to foreign courts. The learned Claude, who fled to Holland, gave to the +world an eloquent picture of the persecution. Jurieu, by his burning +pamphlets, excited the insurrection of Cevennes. Basnage and Rapin, the +historians, Saurin the great preacher, Papin the eminent scientist, and +other eminent men, all exiles, weakened the supports of Louis. France +was impoverished in every way by this "great miracle" of the reign; "so +that," says Martin, "the new temple that Louis had pretended to erect to +unity fell to ruin as it rose from the ground, and left only an open +chasm in place of its foundations.... The nothingness of absolute +government by one alone was revealed under the very reign of the +great King." + +The rebound of the revocation overthrew all the barriers within which +Louis had intrenched himself. All the smothered fires of hatred and of +vengeance were kindled anew in Holland and in every Protestant country. +William of Orange headed the confederation of hostile states that +dreaded the ascendency and detested the policy of Louis XIV. All Europe +was resolved on the humiliation of a man it both feared and hated. The +great war which began in 1688, when William of Orange became King of +England on the flight of James II., was not sought by Louis. This war +cannot be laid to his military ambition; he provoked it indeed, +indirectly, by his arrogance and religious persecutions, but on his part +it was as truly defensive as were the wars of Napoleon after the +invasion of Russia. Whatever is truly heroic in the character of Louis +was seen after he was forty-eight. Whatever claims to greatness he may +have had are only to be sustained by the memorable resistance he made +to united Europe in arms against him, when his great ministers and his +best generals had died, Turenne died in 1675, Colbert in 1683, Conde in +1686, Le Tellier in 1687, and Louvois in 1691. Then it was that his +great reverses began, and his glory paled before the sun of the King of +England, These reverses may have been the result of incapacity, and +they may have been the result of the combined forces which outnumbered +or overmatched his own; certain it is that in the terrible contest to +which he was now doomed, he showed great force of character and great +fortitude, which command our respect. + +I cannot enter on that long war which began with the League of Augsburg +in 1686, and continued to the peace of Ryswick in 1697,--nine years of +desperate fighting, when successes and defeats were nearly balanced, and +when the resources of all the contending parties were nearly exhausted. +France, at the close of the war, was despoiled of all her conquests and +all the additions to her territory made since the Peace of Nimeguen, +except Strasburg and Alsace. For the first time since the accession of +Richelieu to power, France lost ground. + +The interval between this war and that of the Spanish succession--an +interval of three years--was only marked by the ascendency of Madame de +Maintenon, and a renewed persecution, directed not against Protestants, +but against those Catholics who cultivated the highest and freest +religious life, and in which Bossuet appears to a great disadvantage by +the side of his rival, the equally illustrious Fenelon. It was also +marked by the gradual disappearance of the great lights in literature. +La Fontaine died in 1695, Racine in 1699. Boileau was as good as dead; +Mesdames de la Sabliere and de la Fayette, Pellisson and Bussy-Rabutin, +La Bruyere and Madame Sevigne, all died about this time. The only great +men at the close of the century in France who made their genius felt +were Bossuet, who encouraged the narrow intolerance which aimed to +suppress the Jansenists and Quietists, and Fenelon, who protected them +although he did not join them,--the "Eagle of Meaux" and the "Swan of +Cambray," as they were called, offering in the realm of art "the eternal +duality of strength and grace," like Michael Angelo and Raphael; the one +inspiring the fear and the other the love of God, yet both seeing in the +Christian religion the highest hopes of the world. The internal history +of this period centres around those pious mystics of whom Madame Guyon +was the representative, and those inquiring intellectual Jansenists who +had defied the Jesuits, but were finally crushed by an intolerant +government. The lamentable dispute between Bossuet and Fenelon also then +occurred, which led to the disgrace of the latter,--as banishment to his +diocese was regarded. But in his exile his moral influence was increased +rather than diminished; while the publication of his "Telemaque," made +without his consent from a copy that had been abstracted from him, won +him France and Europe, though it rendered Louis XIV. forever +irreconcilable. Bossuet did not long survive the banishment of his +rival, and died in 1704, a month before Bourdaloue, and two years before +Bayle. France intellectually, under the despotic intolerance of the +King, was going through an eclipse or hastening to a dissolution, while +the material state of the country showed signs of approaching +bankruptcy. The people were exhausted by war and taxes, and all the +internal improvements which Colbert had stimulated were neglected. "The +fisheries of Normandy were ruined, and the pasture lands of Alsace were +taken from the peasantry. Picardy lost a twelfth part of its population; +many large cities were almost abandoned. In Normandy, out of seven +hundred thousand people, there were but fifty thousand who did not sleep +on straw. The linen manufactures of Brittany were destroyed by the heavy +duties; Touraine lost one-fourth of her population; the silk trade of +Tours was ruined; the population of Troyes fell from sixty thousand to +twenty thousand; Lyons lost twenty thousand souls since the beginning +of the war." + +In spite of these calamities the blinded King prepared for another +exhausting war, in order to put his grandson on the throne of Spain. +This last and most ruinous of all his wars might have been averted if he +only could have cast away his ambition and his pride. Humbled and +crippled, he yet could not part with the prize which fell to his family +by the death of Carlos II. of Spain. But Europe was determined that the +Bourbons should not be further aggrandized. + +Thus in 1701 war broke out with even intensified animosities, and lasted +twelve years; directed on the one part by Marlborough, Eugene, and +Heinsius, and on the other part by Villars, Vendome, and Catinat, during +which the finances of France were ruined and the people reduced to +frightful misery. It was then that Louis melted up the medallions of his +former victories, to provide food for his starving soldiers. He offered +immense concessions, which the allies against him rejected. He was +obliged to continue the contest with exhausted resources and a saddened +soul. He offered Marlborough four millions to use his influence to +procure a peace; but this general, venal as he was, preferred ambition +to money. The despair which once overwhelmed Holland now overtook +France. The French marshals encountered a greater general than William +III., whose greatness was in the heroism of his soul and his diplomatic +talents, rather than in his genius on the battlefield. But Marlborough, +who led the allies, never lost a battle, nor besieged a fortress he did +not take. His master-stroke was to transfer his operations from Flanders +to the Danube. At Blenheim was fought one of the decisive battles of the +world, in which the Teutonic nations were marshalled against the French. +The battle of Ramillies completed the deliverance of Flanders; and +Louis, completely humiliated, agreed to give up ten Flemish provinces to +the Dutch, and to surrender to the Emperor of Germany all that France +had gained since the peace of Westphalia in 1648. He also agreed to +acknowledge Anne, as Queen of Great Britain, and to banish the Pretender +from his dominions; England was to retain Gibraltar, and Spain to cede +to the Emperor of Germany her possessions in Italy and the Netherlands. +But France, with all her disasters, was not ruined; the treaty of +Utrecht, 1713, left Louis nearly all his inherited possessions, except +in America. + +Louis was now seventy-four,--an old man whose delusions were dispelled, +and to whom successive misfortunes had brought grief and shame. He was +deprived by death of his son and grandson, who gave promise of rare +virtues and abilities; only a feeble infant--his great-grandson--was the +heir of the monarchy. All his vast enterprises had failed. He suffered, +to all appearance, a righteous retribution for his early passion for +military glory. "He had invaded the rights of Holland; and Holland gave +him no rest until, with the aid of the surrounding monarchies, France +was driven to the verge of ruin. He had destroyed the cities of the +Palatinate; and the Rhine provinces became a wall of fire against his +armies. He had conspired against liberty in England; and it was from +England that he experienced the most fatal opposition." His wars, from +which he had expected glory, ended at last in the curtailment of his +original possessions. His palaces, which had excited the admiration of +Europe, became the monuments of extravagance and folly. His +persecutions, by which he hoped to secure religious unity, sowed the +seeds of discontent, anarchy, and revolution. He left his kingdom +politically weaker than it was when he took it; he entailed nothing but +disasters to his heirs. His very grants and pensions were subversive of +intellectual dignity and independence. At the close of the seventeenth +century the great lights had disappeared; he survived his fame, his +generals, his family, and his friends; the infirmities of age oppressed +his body, and the agonies of religious fears disturbed his soul. We see +no greatness but in his magnificence; we strip him of all claims to +genius, and even to enlightened statesmanship, and feel that his +undoubted skill in holding the reins of government must be ascribed to +the weakness and degradation of his subjects, rather than to his own +strength. But the verdicts of the last and present generation of +historians, educated with hatred of irresponsible power, may be again +reversed, and Louis XIV. may loom up in another age, if not as the +_grand monarque_ whom his contemporaries worshipped, yet as a man of +great natural abilities who made fatal mistakes, and who, like Napoleon +after him, alternately elevated and depressed the nation over which he +was called to reign,--not like Napoleon, as a usurper and a fraud, but +as an honest, though proud and ambitious, sovereign, who was supposed to +rule by divine right, of whom the nations of Europe were jealous, who +lived in fear and hatred of his power, and who finally conspired, not to +rob him of his throne and confine him to a rock, but to take from him +the provinces he had seized and the glory in which he shone. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Voltaire's Age of Louis XIV.; Henri Martin's History of France; Miss +Pardoe's History of the Court of Louis XIV.; Letters of Madame de +Maintenon; Memoires de Greville; Saint Simon; P. Clement; Le +Gouvernement de Louis XIV.; Memoires de Choisy; Oeuvres de Louis XIV.; +Limiers's Histoire de Louis XIV.; Quincy's Histoire Militaire de Louis +XIV.; Lives of Colbert, Turenne, Vauban, Conde, and Louvois; Macaulay's +History of England; Lives of Fenelon and Bossuet; Memoires de Foucault; +Memoires du Due de Bourgogne; Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes; Laire's +Histoire de Louis XIV.; Memoires de Madame de la Fayette; Memoires de +St. Hilaire; Memoires du Marechal de Berwick; Memoires de Vilette; +Lettres de Madame de Sevigne; Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier; +Memoires de Catinat; Life, by James. + + + +LOUIS XV. + + +A. D. 1710-1774. + +REMOTE CAUSES OF REVOLUTION. + +It is impossible to contemplate the inglorious reign of Louis XV. +otherwise than as a more complete development of the egotism which +marked the life of his immediate predecessor, and a still more fruitful +nursery of those vices and discontents which prepared the way for the +French Revolution. It is in fact in connection with that great event +that this reign should be considered. The fabric of despotism had +already been built by Richelieu, and Louis XIV. had displayed and +gloried in its dazzling magnificence, even while he undermined its +foundations by his ruinous wars and courtly extravagance. Under Louis +XV. we shall see even greater recklessness in profitless expenditures, +and more complete abandonment to the pleasures which were purchased by +the burdens and sorrows of his people; we shall see the monarch and his +court still more subversive of the prosperity and dignity of the nation, +and even indifferent to the signs of that coming storm which, later, +overturned the throne of his grandson, Louis XVI. + +And Louis XV. was not only the author of new calamities, but the heir of +seventy years' misrule. All the evils which resulted from the wars and +wasteful extravagance of Louis XIV. became additional perplexities with +which he had to contend. But these evils, instead of removing, he only +aggravated by follies which surpassed all the excesses of the preceding +reign. If I were asked to point out the most efficient though indirect +authors of the French Revolution, I would single out those royal tyrants +themselves who sat upon the throne of Henry IV. during the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries. I shall proceed to state the principal events +and features which have rendered that reign both noted and ignominious. + +In contemplating the long reign of Louis XV,--whom I present as a +necessary link in the political history of the eighteenth century, +rather than as one of the Beacon Lights of civilization,--we first +naturally turn our eyes to the leading external events by which it is +marked in history; and we have to observe, in reference to these, that +they were generally unpropitious to the greatness and glory of France, +Nearly all those which emanated from the government had an unfortunate +or disgraceful issue. No success attended the French arms in any quarter +of the world, with the exception of the victories of Marshal Saxe at +Fontenoy (1745); and the French lost the reputation they had previously +acquired under Henry IV., Conde, Turenne, and Luxembourg. Disgrace +attended the generals who were sent against Frederic II., in the Seven +Years' War, even greater than what had previously resulted from the +contests with the English and the Dutch, and which were brought to a +close by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. But it was not on the +fields of Germany that the greatest disasters happened; the French were +rifled of their possessions both in America and in India. Louisbourg +yielded to the bravery of New England troops, and finally Canada itself +was lost. All dreams of establishing a new empire on the Mississippi and +the Gulf of St. Lawrence vanished for ever, while Madras and Calcutta +fell into the hands of the English, with all the riches of Mahometan and +Mogul empires. During the regency of the Duke of Orleans,--for Louis XV. +was an infant five years of age when his great-grandfather died in +1715,--we notice the disgraceful speculations which followed the schemes +of Law, and which resulted in the ruin of thousands, and the still +greater derangement of the national finances. The most respectable part +of the reign of Louis XV. were those seventeen years when the +administration was hi the hands of Cardinal Fleury, who succeeded the +Duke of Bourbon, to whom the reins of government had been intrusted +after the death of the Duke of Orleans, two years before the young King +had attained his majority. Though the cardinal was a man of peace, was +irreproachable in morals, patriotic in his intentions, and succeeded in +restoring for a time the credit of the country, still even he only +warded off difficulties,--like Sir Robert Walpole,--instead of bravely +meeting them before it should be too late. His timid rule was a negative +rather than a positive blessing. But with his death ended all +prosperity, and the reign of mistresses and infamous favorites +began,--the great feature of the times, on which I shall presently speak +more fully, as one of the indirect causes of subsequent revolution. + +In singling out and generalizing the evils and public misfortunes of the +reign of Louis XV., perhaps the derangement of the finances was the most +important in its political results. But for this misfortune the King was +not wholly responsible: a vast national debt was the legacy of Louis +XIV. This was the fruit of his miserable attempt at self-aggrandizement; +this was the residuum of his glories. Yet as a national debt, according +to some, is no calamity, but rather a blessing,--a chain of loyalty and +love to bind the people together in harmonious action and mutual +interest, and especially the middle classes, upon whom it chiefly falls, +to the support of a glorious throne,--we must not waste time by +dwelling on the existence of this debt,--a peculiarity which has +attended the highest triumphs of civilization, an invention of honored +statesmen and patriotic ministers, and perhaps their benignant boon to +future generations,--but rather we will look to the way it was sought to +be discharged. + +Louis XIV. spent in wars fifteen hundred millions of livres, and in +palaces about three hundred millions more; and his various other +expenses, which could not be well defrayed by taxation, swelled the +amount due to his creditors, at his death, to nearly two thousand +millions,--a vast sum for those times. The regent, Duke of Orleans, who +succeeded him, increased this debt still more, especially by his +reckless and infamous prodigalities, under the direction of his prime +minister,--his old friend and tutor,--Cardinal Dubois. At last his +embarrassments were so great that the wheels of government were likely +to stop. His friend, the Due de Saint Simon, one of the great patricians +of the court, proposed, as a remedy, national bankruptcy,--affirming +that it would be a salutary lesson to the rich plebeian capitalists not +to lend their money. An ingenious Scotch financier, however, proposed a +more palatable scheme, which was, to make use of the credit of the +nation for a bank, the capital of which should be guaranteed by shares +in the Mississippi Company. John Law, already a wealthy and prosperous +banker, proposed to increase the paper currency, and supersede the use +of gold and silver. His offer was accepted, and his bank became a royal +one, its bills going at once into circulation. Now, as the most absurd +delusions existed as to the wealth of Louisiana, and the most boundless +faith was placed in Law's financiering; and as only Law's bills could +purchase shares in the Company which was to make everybody's +fortune,--gold and silver flowed to his bank. The shares of the Company +continued to rise in value, and bank-bills were indefinitely issued. In +a little while (1719), six hundred and forty millions of livres in these +bills were in circulation, and soon after nearly half of the national +debt was paid off'; in other words, people had been induced to exchange +government securities, to the amount of eight hundred millions, for the +Mississippi stock. They sold consols at Law's bank, and were paid in his +bills, with which they bought shares. The bills of the bank were of +course redeemable in gold and silver; but for a time nobody wanted gold +and silver, so great was the credit of the bank. Moreover, the bank +itself was guaranteed by the shares of the Company, which were worth at +one period twelve times their original value. John Law, of course, was +regarded as a national benefactor. His financiering had saved a nation; +and who had ever before heard of a nation being saved by stock-jobbing? +All sorts of homage and honors were showered upon so great a man. His +house was thronged with dukes and peers; he became controller-general of +the finances, and virtually prime-minister. He was elected a member of +the French Academy; his fame extended far and wide, for he was a +beneficent deity that had made everybody rich and no one poor. Surely +the golden age had come. Paris was crowded with strangers from all parts +of the world, who came to see a man whose wisdom surpassed that of +Solomon, and who made silver and gold to be as stones in the streets. As +everybody had grown rich, twelve hundred new coaches were set up; +nothing was seen but new furniture and costly apparel, nothing was felt +but universal exhilaration. So great was the delusion, that the stock of +the Mississippi Company reached the almost fabulous amount of three +thousand six hundred millions,--nearly twice the amount of the national +debt. But as Law's bank, where all these transactions were made, +revealed none of its transactions, the public were in ignorance of the +bills issued and stock created. + +At last, the Prince of Conti,--one of the most powerful of the nobles, +and a prince of the blood-royal, who had received enormous amounts in +bills as the price of his protection,--annoyed to find that his +ever-increasing demands were finally resisted, presented his notes at +the bank, and of course obtained gold and silver; then other nobles did +the same, and then foreign merchants, until the bank was drained. Then +came the panic, then the fall of stocks, then general ruin, then +universal despondency and rage. The bubble had burst! Four hundred +thousand families, who thought themselves rich, and who had been +comfortable, were hopelessly ruined; but the State had got rid of half +the national debt, and for a time was clear of embarrassment. The +people, however, had been defrauded and deceived by Government, and they +rendered in return their secret curses. The foundations of a throne are +only secured by the affections of a people; if these are destroyed, one +great element of regal power is lost. + +Under the administration of Cardinal Fleury (1726-1743) the finances +were somewhat improved, since he aimed at economical arrangements, +especially in the collection of taxes. He attempted to imitate Sully and +Colbert, but without their genius and boldness he effected but little. +He had an unfortunate quarrel with the Parliament of Paris, and was +obliged to repeal a favorite measure. After his death the country was +virtually ruled by the King's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who +displaced ministers at her pleasure, and who encouraged unbounded +extravagance. The public deficit increased continually, until it finally +amounted to nearly two hundred millions in a single year. In spite of +this increasing derangement of the finances, the court had not the +courage or will to face the difficulties, but resorted to new loans and +forced contributions, and every form of iniquitous taxation. If a great +functionary announced the necessity of economy or order, he was +forthwith disgraced. Nothing irritated the court more than any proposal +to reduce unnecessary expenses. Nor would any other order, either the +nobles or the clergy, consent to make sacrifices. + +In such a state of things, a most oppressive system of taxation was the +necessary result. In no country in modern times have the burdens of the +people been so great. Taxes were imposed to the utmost extent that they +were able to bear, without their consent; and upon the slightest +resistance or remonstrance they were imprisoned and treated as +criminals. So great were the taxes on land, that nearly two-thirds of +the whole gross produce, it has been estimated, went to the State, and +three-quarters of the remainder to the landlord. The peasant thus only +received about one-twelfth of the fruit of his labors; and on this +pittance his family was supported. Taxes were both direct and indirect, +levied upon every article of consumption, upon everything that was +imported or exported, upon income, upon capital, upon the transmission +of property, upon even the few privileges which were enjoyed. But not +one-half that was collected went to the royal treasury; it was wasted +by the different collectors and sub-collectors. In addition to the +ordinary burdens were enormous monopolies, granted to nobles and +courtiers, by which the income of the State was indirectly plundered. +The poor man groaned amid his heavy labors and great privations, without +exciting compassion or securing redress. + +And, in addition to his taxes, the laborer was deprived of all the +privileges of freedom. He was injured, downtrodden, mocked, and +insulted. The laws were unequal, and gave him no security; game of the +most destructive kind was permitted to run at large through the fields, +and yet the people were not allowed to shoot a hare or a deer upon their +own grounds. Numerous edicts prohibited hoeing and weeding, lest young +partridges should be destroyed. The people were bound to repair the +roads without compensation, to grind their corn at the landlord's mill, +bake their bread in his ovens, and carry their grapes to his wine-press. +They had not the benefit of schools, or of institutions which would +enable them to improve their minds. They could not rise above the +miserable condition in which they were born, or even make their +complaints heard. Feudalism, in all its social distinctions, and in all +its oppressive burdens, crushed them as with an iron weight, or bound +them as with iron fetters. This weight they could not throw off, these +fetters they could not break. There was no alternative but in +submission,--forced submission to overwhelming taxes, robberies, +insults, and injustice, both from landed proprietors and the officers of +the crown. + +Those, however, who lived upon the unrequited toil of the people lived +out of sight of their sorrows,--not in beautiful chateaux, as their +ancestors did, by the side of placid rivers and on the skirts of +romantic forests, or amid vineyards and olive-groves, but in the capital +or the court. Here, like Roman senators of old, they squandered the +money which they had obtained by extortion and corruption of every sort. +Amid the palaces of Versailles they displayed all the vanities of dress, +all the luxuries of their favored life. Here, as lesser stars, they +revolved around the great central orb of regal splendor, proud to belong +to another world than that in which the plebeian millions toiled and +suffered. At Versailles they attempted to ignore their own humanity, to +forget their most pressing duties, and to despise the only pursuits +which could have elevated their minds or warmed their hearts. + +But they were not great feudal nobles, like the Guises and the Epernons, +such as combined to awe even regal power under the House of Valois,--men +who could coin money and exercise judicial authority in their own +domain,--but timid and subservient courtiers, as embarrassed in their +affairs as was the King himself. Nevertheless, many of the ancient +privileges of feudalism were enjoyed by them. They were exempt from many +taxes which oppressed merchants and farmers; they alone were appointed +to command in the army and navy; they alone were made prelates and +dignitaries in the Church; they were comparatively free from arrest when +their crimes were against society and God rather than the government; +they were distinguished from the plebeian class by dress as well as by +privileges; and they only had access to court and a share in the plunder +of the kingdom. Craving greater excitements than that which even +Versailles afforded, they built, in the Faubourg St. Germain, those +magnificent hotels which are still the dreary but imposing monuments of +aristocratic pride; and here they plunged into every form of excess and +folly for which Paris has always been distinguished. But it was in their +splendid equipages, and in their boxes at the opera, that they displayed +the most striking contrast to the habits of the plebeian people with +whom they were surrounded. Their embroidered vests, their costly silks +and satins, their emerald and diamond buckles, their point-lace ruffles, +their rare furs, their jewelled rapiers, and their perfumed +handkerchiefs were peculiar to themselves,--for in those days wealthy +shopkeepers, and even the daughters of prosperous notaries, could ill +afford such luxuries, and were scarcely allowed to shine in them if +they would. A velvet coat then cost more than one thousand francs; while +the ruffs and frills, and diamond studs and knee-buckles, and other +appendages to the dress of a gentleman, swelled the amount to scarcely +less than forty thousand francs, or sixteen hundred louis-d'or. If a +distinguished advocate was admitted to the presence of royalty, he must +appear in simple black. Gorgeous dresses were reserved only for the +_noblesse_, some one hundred and fifty thousand privileged persons; all +the rest were _roturiers_, marked by some emblem of meanness or +inferiority, whatever might be their intellectual and moral worth. Never +were the _noblesse_ more enervated; and yet they always appeared in a +mock-heroic costume, with swords dangling at their sides, or hats cocked +after a military fashion on their heads. As the strength of Samson of +old was in his locks, so the degenerate nobles of this period guarded +with especial care these masculine ornaments of the person; and so great +was the contagion for wigs and hair-powder, that twelve hundred shops +existed in Paris to furnish this aristocratic luxury. The muses of Rome +in the days of her decline condescended to sing on the arts of cookery +and the sublime occupations of hunting and fishing; so in the heroic +times of Louis XV. the genius of France soared to comprehend the +mysteries of the toilet. One eminent _savant_, in this department of +philosophical wisdom, absolutely published a bulky volume on the +_principles_ of hair-dressing, and followed it--so highly was it +prized--by a no less ponderous supplement. This was the time when the +_cuisine_ of nobles was as famous as their toilets, and when recipes for +different dishes were only equalled in variety by the epigrams of ribald +poets. It was a period not merely of degrading follies, but of shameless +exposure of them,--when men boasted of their gallantries, and women +joked at their own infirmities; and when hypocrisy, if it was ever added +to their other vices, only served to make them more ridiculous and +unnatural. The rouge with which they painted their faces, and the powder +which they sprinkled upon their hair were not used to give them the +semblance of youthful beauty, but rather to impart the purple hues of +perpetual drunkenness, such as Rubens gave to his Bacchanalian deities, +united with the blanched whiteness of premature old age. Licentiousness +without shame, drunkenness without rebuke, gambling without honor, and +frivolity without wit characterized, alas, a great proportion of that +"upper class" who disdained the occupations and sneered at the virtues +of industrial life. + +But these dissipated courtiers had a model constantly before their eyes, +whose more excessive follies it were difficult to rival; and this was +the King himself, whom the whole nation was called upon to obey. If +Louis XIV. was a Nebuchadnezzar, unapproachable from pride, Louis XV. +was a Sardanapalus in effeminacy and insouciant revelries. The shameless +infamies of his life were too revolting to bear more than a passing +allusion; and I should blush to tear away the historic veil which covers +up his vices from the common eye. I shrink from showing to what depths +humanity can sink, even when clothed in imperial purple and seated on +the throne of state. The countless memoirs of that wicked age have +however, exposed to the indignant eye of posterity the regal +debaucheries of Versailles and the pollutions of the Pare aux +Cerfs,--that infamous seraglio which cost the State one hundred millions +of livres, at the lowest estimate. And this was but a part of the great +system of waste and folly. Five hundred millions of the national debt +were incurred for expenses too ignominious to be even named. The King, +however, was not fond of pomp; it was fatiguing for him to bear, and he +generally shut himself from the sight and intercourse of any but +convivial friends,--no, not friends, for to absolute monarchs the +pleasures of friendship are denied; I should have said, the panderers to +his degrading pleasures. Never did the Papal court at Avignon or Rome, +even in the worst ages of mediaeval darkness, witness more scandalous +enormities than those which disgraced the whole reign of Louis XV., +either in the days of his minority, when the kingdom was governed by +the Duke of Orleans, or in his latter years, when the Duke of Choiseul +was the responsible adviser of the crown. The Palais Royal, the Palais +Luxembourg, the Trianon, and Versailles were alternately scenes of +excesses which would have disgraced the reigns of the most degenerate of +Saracenic caliphs. So vile was the court, that a celebrated countess one +day said, at a public festival, that "God, after having formed man, took +the mud which was left, and made the souls of princes and footmen." + +And the King hated business as much as he hated pomp. Unlike his +predecessor, he left everything in the hands of his servants. Nothing +wearied him so much as an interview with a minister, or a dispatch from +a general. In the society of his mistresses he abnegated his duties as a +monarch, and the labors of his life were employed in gratifying their +resentments and humoring their caprices. Their complaints were more +potent than the suggestions of ministers, or the remonstrances of +judges. In idle frivolities his time was passed, neglectful of the great +interests which were intrusted to him to guard; and the only attainment +of which he was proud was a knack of making tarts and bon-bons, with +which he frequently regaled his visitors. + +And yet, in spite of these ignoble tastes and pursuits, the King was by +no means deficient in natural abilities. He was much superior to even +Louis XIV. in logical acumen and sprightly wit. He was an agreeable +companion, and could appreciate every variety of talents. No man in his +court perceived more clearly than he the tendency of the writings of +philosophers which were then fermenting the germs of revolution. "His +sagacity kept him from believing in Voltaire, even when he succeeded in +deceiving the King of Prussia." He was favorable to the Jesuits, though +he banished them from the realm; perceiving and feeling that they were +his true friends and the best supports of his absolute throne,--and yet +he banished them from his kingdom. He was hostile too, in his heart, to +the very philosophers whom he invited to his table, and knew that they +sought to undermine his power. He simply had not the moral energy to +carry out the plans of that despotism to which he was devoted. +Sensuality ever robs a man of the advantages and gifts which reason +gives, even though they may be bestowed to an extraordinary degree. +There is no more impotent slavery than that to which the most gifted +intellects have been occasionally doomed. Self-indulgence is sure to sap +every element of moral strength, and to take away from genius itself all +power, except to sharpen the stings of self-reproach. "Louis XV. was not +insensible to the dangers which menaced his throne, and would have +despoiled the Parliament of the right of remonstrance; would have +imposed on the Jansenists the yoke of Papal supremacy; would have burned +the books of the philosophers, and have sent their authors to work out +their system within the gloomy dungeons of the Bastille;" but he had not +the courage, nor the moral strength, nor the power of will. He was +enslaved by his vices, and by those who pandered to them; and he could +not act either the king or the man. Seeing the dangers, but feeling his +impotence, he affected levity, and exclaimed to his courtiers _Apres +nous le deluge_,--a prediction which only uncommon sagacity could have +prompted. Immersed however in unworthy pleasures, he gave himself not +much concern for the future; and this career of self-abandonment +continued to the last, even after satiety and _ennui_ had deprived the +appetites of the power to please. His latter days were of course +melancholy, and his miseries resulted as much from the perception of the +evils to come as from the failure of the pleasures of sense. A languor, +from which he was with difficulty ever roused, oppressed his life. Deaf, +incapable of being amused, prematurely worn out with bodily infirmities, +hated and despised by the whole nation, he dragged out his sixty-fourth +year, and died of the small-pox, which he caught in one of his visits to +the Pare aux Cerfs; and his loathsome remains were hastily hurried into +a carriage, and deposited in the vaults of St. Denis. + +As, however, during this long reign of fifty-eight years, women were +the presiding geniuses of the court and the virtual directors of the +kingdom, I cannot give a faithful portrait of the times without some +allusion, at least, to that woman who was as famous in her day as Madame +de Montespan was during the most brilliant period of the reign of Louis +XIV. I single out Madame de Pompadour from the crowd of erring and +infirm females who bartered away their souls for the temporary honors of +Versailles. Not that proud peeress whom she displaced, the Duchesse de +Chateauroux; not that low-born and infamous character by whom she was +succeeded, Du Barry; not the hundreds of other women who were partners +or victims of guilty pleasures, and who descended unlamented and +unhonored to their ignominious graves, are here to be alluded to. But +Madame de Pompadour is a great historical personage, because with her +are identified the fall of the Jesuits in France, the triumph of +philosophers and economists, the disgrace of ministers, and the most +outrageous prodigality which ever scandalized a nation. Louis XV. was +almost wholly directed by this infamous favorite. She named and +displaced the controllers-general, and she herself received annually +nearly fifteen hundred thousand livres, besides hotels, palaces, and +estates. She was allowed to draw bills upon the treasury without +specifying the service, and those who incurred her displeasure were +almost sure of being banished from the court and kingdom, and perhaps +sentenced, by _lettre de cachet_, to the dreary cells of the Bastille. +She virtually had the appointment of the prelates of the Church and of +the generals of the army; and so great was her ascendency that all +persons, whatsoever their rank, found it expedient to pay their homage +to her. Even Montesquieu praised her intellect, and Voltaire her beauty, +and Maria Theresa wrote flattering letters to her. The prime minister +was her tool and agent, since royalty itself yielded to her sway; even +the proud ladies of the royal family condescended to flatter and to +honor her. Sprung only from the middle ranks of society, she yet assumed +the airs of a princess of the blood. + +From her earliest years, long before she was admitted to the court, it +had been the dream of this woman to seduce the King. Her father was +butcher to the Invalides, and she spent nearly all the money she could +command in a costly present to a great duchess, the Princess Conti, in +order to be presented. She played high, and won--not a royal heart, but +the royal fancy. Her dress, manners, and extraordinary beauty increased +the impression she had once before made at a hunting-party; and after +the levee she was sent for, and became virtually the minister of the +realm. She was unquestionably a woman of great intellect, as well as of +tact and beauty, and even manifested a sympathy with some sorts of +intellectual excellence. She was the patroness of artists, philosophers, +and poets; but she liked those best who were distinguished for their +infidel or licentious speculations. She was the friend of those +economists and philosophers who sapped the foundations of the social +system. An imperious and insolent hauteur and reckless prodigality were +her most marked peculiarities,--just such as were to be expected in an +unprincipled woman raised suddenly to high position. In spite of her +power, she did not escape the malignant stings of envenomed rivals or +anonymous satirists. "She was rallied on the baseness of her origin; she +avenged herself by making common cause with those philosophers who +overturned the ancient order." She was both mistress and politician, but +her politics and alliances subverted the throne which gave her all her +glory. Her ascendency of course rested on her power of administering to +the tastes and pleasures of the 'King, and she showed genius in the +variety of amusements which she invented. She reigned twenty years, and +lost her empire only by death. Madame de Maintenon had maintained her +ascendency over Louis XIV. by the exercise of those virtues which +extorted his respect, but Madame de Pompadour by the faculty of charming +the senses. It was by her that Versailles was enriched with the most +precious and beautiful of its countless wonders. Her own collection of +pictures, cameos, antiques, crystals, porcelains, vases, gems, and +articles of _vertu_ was esteemed the richest and most valuable in the +kingdom, and after her death it took six months to dispose of it. Her +library was valued at more than a million of francs, and contained some +of the rarest manuscripts and most curious books in France. The sums, +however, which she spent on literary curiosities or literary men were +small compared with the expenses of her toilet, of her _fetes_, her +balls, and her palaces. And all these expenses were open as the day in +the eyes of a nation suffering from ruinous taxation, from famine, and +the shame of unsuccessful war! + +We are impressed with the blind and suicidal measures which all those +connected with the throne instigated or encouraged in this reign,--from +the King to the most infamous of his mistresses. Whoever pretended to +give his aid to the monarchy helped to subvert it by the very measures +which he proposed. "The Duke of Orleans, when he patronized Law, gave a +shock to the whole economical system of the old regime. When this Scotch +financier said to the powerful aristocracy around him, 'Silver is only +to you the means of circulation, beyond this it belongs to the country,' +he announced the ruin of the glebe and the fall of feudal prejudices. +The bankruptcies which followed the bursting of his bubble weakened the +potent charm of the word 'honor,' on which was based the stability of +the throne." The courtiers, when they blazed in jewels, in embroidered +silks and satins, in sumptuous equipages, and in all the costly +ornaments of their times, gave employment and importance to a host of +shopkeepers and handicraftsmen, who grew rich, as those who bought of +them grew poor. The wealth of bankers, brokers, mercers, jewellers, +tailors, and coachmakers dates to these times,--those prosperous and +fortunate members of the middle-class who "inhabited the Place Vendome +and the Place des Victoires, as the nobles dwelt in the Rue de Grenelle +and the Rue St. Dominique. The nobles ruined themselves by the +extravagance into which they were led by the court, and their chateaux +and parks fell into the hands of financiers, lawyers, and merchants, +who, taking the titles of their new estates, became a parvenu +aristocracy which excited the jealousy of the old and divided its +ranks." The inferior, but still prosperous class, the shopkeepers, also +equally advanced in intelligence and power. In those dark and dingy +backrooms, in which for generations their ancestors had been immured, +they now discussed their rights, and retailed the scandals which they +heard. They read the sarcasms of the poets and the theories of the new +philosophers. Even the tranquillity which succeeded inglorious war was +favorable to the rise of the middle classes; and the Revolution was as +much the product of the discontent engendered by social improvements as +of the frenzy produced by hunger and despair. The court favored the +improvements of Paris, especially those designed for public amusements. +The gardens of the Tuileries were embellished, the Champs Elysees +planted with trees, and pictures were exhibited in the grand salon of +the Louvre. The Theatre Francais, the Royal Opera, the Opera Comique, +and various halls for balls and festivals were then erected,--those +fruitful nurseries of future clubs, those poisoned wells of popular +education. Nor were charities forgotten with the building of the +Pantheon and the extension of the Boulevards. The Hopital des +Enfants-Trouves allowed mothers, unseen and unheard, to bequeath their +children to the State. + +There were two events connected with the reign of Madame de Pompadour--I +do not say of the King, or his queen, or his ministers, for +philosophical history compels us to confine our remarks chiefly to great +controlling agencies, whether they be sovereigns or people; to such a +man as Peter the Great, when one speaks of a semi-barbarous nation, to +ideas, when we describe popular revolutions--which had a great influence +in unsettling the kingdom, although brought about in no inconsiderable +measure by this unscrupulous mistress of the King. These were the +expulsion of the Jesuits, and the triumph of the philosophers. + +In regard to the first, I would say, that Madame de Pompadour did not +like the Jesuits; not because they were the enemies of liberal +principles, not because they were the most consistent advocates and +friends of despotism in all its forms, intellectual, religious, and +political, or the writers of casuistic books, or the perverters of +educational instruction, or boastful missionaries in Japan and China, or +cunning intriguers in the courts of princes, or artful confessors of the +great, or uncompromising despots in the schools,--but because they +interfered with her ascendency. It is true she despised their +sophistries, ridiculed their pretensions, and detested their government; +but her hostility was excited, not because they aspired like her, like +the philosophers, like the popes, like the press in our times, to a +participation in the government of the world, but because they disputed +her claims as one of the powers of the age. The Jesuits were scandalized +that such a woman should usurp the reins of state, especially when they +perceived that she mocked and defied them; and they therefore refused to +pay her court, and even conspired to effect her overthrow. But they had +not sufficiently considered the potency of her wrath, or the desperate +means of revenge to which she could resort; nor had they considered +those other influences which had been gradually undermining their +influence,--even the sarcasms of the Jansenists, the ridicule of the +philosophers, and the invectives of the parliaments. Only one or two +favoring circumstances were required to kindle the smothered fires of +hatred into a blazing flame, and these were furnished by the attempted +assassination of the King, in his garden at Versailles, by Damiens the +fanatic, and the failure of La Valette the Jesuit banker and merchant at +Martinique. Then, when the nation was astounded by their political +conspiracies and their commercial gambling, to say nothing of the +perversion of their truth, did their arch-enemy, the King's mistress, +use her power over the King's minister, her own creature, the Due de +Choiseul, to decree the confiscation of their goods and their banishment +from the realm; nay, to induce the Pope himself, in conjunction with the +entreaties of all the Bourbon courts of Europe, to take away their +charter and suppress their order. The fall of the Jesuits has been +already alluded to in another volume, and I will not here enlarge on +that singular event brought about by the malice of a woman whom they had +ventured to despise. It is easy to account for her hatred and the +general indignation of Europe. It is not difficult to understand that +the decline of that great body in those virtues which originally +elevated them, should be followed by animosities which would undermine +their power. We can see why their moral influence should pass away, even +when they were in possession of dignities and honors and wealth. But it +is a most singular fact that the Pope himself, with whose interests they +were allied,--their natural protector, the head of the hierarchy which +they so constantly defended,--should have been made the main agent in +their temporary humiliation. Yet Clement XIV.--the weak and timid +Ganganelli--was forced to this suicidal act. Old Hildebrand would have +fought like a lion and died like a dog, rather than have stooped to such +autocrats as the Bourbon princes. A judicial and mysterious blindness, +however, was sent upon Clement; his strength for the moment was +paralyzed, and he signed the edict which dispersed the best soldiers +that sustained the interests of absolutism in Europe. + +The effect of the suppression of the order in France was both good and +ill. The event unquestionably led to the propagation of an impious +philosophy and all sorts of crude opinions and ill-digested theories, +both in government and religion, in the schools, the salons, and the +pulpits of France. The press, relieved of its most watchful and jealous +spies, teemed with pamphlets and books of the most licentious character. +The good and evil powers were both unchained and suffered to go free +about the land, and to do what work they could. There are many who feel +that this combat is necessary for the full development of human strength +and virtue; who maintain that the good is much more powerful than the +evil in any age of moral experiences; and who believe that angels of +light will, on our mundane arena, prevail over angels of darkness,--that +one truth is stronger than one thousand lies, and that two can put ten +thousand to flight. There are others, again, who think that there is a +vitality in error as well as a vitality in truth, as proved seemingly by +the prevalence of Pagan falsehoods, Mohammedan empires, and Papal +superstitions. But to whatever party clearness of judgment belongs, one +thing is historically certain,--that never was poor human nature more +puzzled by false guides, more tempted by appetites and passions, more +enslaved by the lust of the eye and the pride of life, than during the +latter years of the reign of Louis XV. Never was there a period or a +country in Christendom more frivolous, pleasure-seeking, sceptical, +irreligious, vain, conceited, and superficial than during the reign of +Madame de Pompadour. No; never was there a time of so little moral +elevation among the great mass, or when so few great enterprises were +projected for the improvement of society. + +And it was from society thus disordered, inexperienced, and godless that +all restraints were removed from the ancient and venerated guardians of +youth, of religion, and of literature. Judge what must have been the +effects; judge between these opposing theories, whether it were better +to have the institutions of society guarded by selfish, ambitious, and +narrow-minded priests, or to have the flood-gates of vastly +preponderating evil influences opened upon society already reeling in +the intoxication of the senses, or madly raving from the dethronement of +reason, the abnegation of religious duties, and the extinction of the +light of faith. I would not say that either one or the other of these +horrible alternatives is necessary or probable in these times, that _we_ +are compelled to choose between them, or that we ever shall be +compelled; but simply, that, in the middle of the eighteenth century, +and in France,--that semi-Catholic and semi-infidel nation,--there +existed on the one hand a most execrable spiritual despotism exercised +by the Jesuits, and on the other a boundless ferment of destructive and +revolutionary principles, operating on a people generally inclined, and +in some cases abandoned, to every folly and vice. This despotism, while +it was selfish and unwarrantable, still had in view the guardianship of +morals and literature,--to restrain men from crimes by working on their +fears; but society, while it sought to free itself from hypocritical and +oppressive leaders, also sought to remove all social and moral +restraints, and to plunge into reckless and dangerous experiments. It +was a war between these two social powers,--between unlawful despotism +and unsanctified license. We are to judge, not which was the better, but +which was the worse. + +One thing, however, is certain,--that Madame de Pompadour, in whom was +centred so much power, threw her influence against the Jesuits, and in +favor of those who were not seeking to build up literature and morals on +a sure and healthy foundation, but rather secretly and artfully to +undermine the whole intellectual and social fabric, under the plea of +liberty and human rights. Everybody admits that the writings of the +philosophers gave a great impulse to the revolutionary storm which +afterwards broke out. Ideas are ever most majestic, whether they are +good or evil. Men pass away, but principles are indestructible and of +perpetual power. As great and fearful agencies in the period we are +contemplating, they are worthy of our notice. + +Although the great lights which adorned the literature of the preceding +reign no longer shone,--such geniuses as Moliere, Boileau, Racine, +Fenelon, Bossuet, Pascal, and others,--still the eighteenth century was +much more intellectual and inquiring than is generally supposed. Under +Louis XIV. intellectual independence had been nearly extinguished. His +reign was intellectually and spiritually a gloomy calm between two +wonderful periods of agitation. All acquiesced in his cold, heartless, +rigid rule, being content to worship him as a deity, or absorbed in the +excitements of his wars, or in the sorrows and burdens which those wars +brought in their train. But under Louis XV. the people began to meditate +on the causes of their miseries, and to indulge in those speculations +which stimulated their discontents or appealed to their intellectual +pride. Not from La Rochelle, not from the cells of Port Royal, not from +remonstrating parliaments did the voices of rebellion come: the genius +of Revolution is not so poor as to be obliged to make use of the same +class of instruments, or repeat the same experiments, in changing the +great aspects of human society. Nor will she allow, if possible, those +who guard the fortresses which she wishes to batter down to be +suspicious of her combatants. Her warriors are ever disguised and +masked, or else concealed within some form of a protecting deity, such +as the fabled horse which the doomed Trojans received within their +walls. The court of France did not recognize in those plausible +philosophers, whose writings had such a charm for cultivated intellect, +the miners and sappers of the monarchy. Only one class of royalists +understood them, and these were the Jesuits whom the court had exiled. +Not even Frederic the Great, when he patronized Voltaire, was aware what +an insidious foe was domiciled in his palace, with all his sycophancy +of rank, with all his courtly flattering. In like manner, when the grand +seigneurs and noble dames of that aristocratic age wept over the sorrows +of the "New Heloise," or craved that imaginary state of untutored +innocence which Rousseau so morbidly described, or admired those +brilliant generalizations of laws which Montesquieu had penned, or +laughed at the envenomed ironies of Voltaire, or quoted the atheistic +doctrines of D'Alembert and Diderot, or enthusiastically discussed the +economical theories of Dr. Quesnay and old Marquis Mirabeau,--that stern +father of him who, both in his intellectual power and moral deformity, +was alike the exponent and the product of the French Revolution,--when +the blinded court extolled and diffused the writings of these new +apostles of human rights, they little dreamed that they would be still +more admired among the people, and bring forth the Brissots, the +Condoreets, the Marats, the Dantons, the Robespierres, of the next +generation. I would not say that their influence was wholly bad, for in +their attacks on the religion and institutions of their country they +subverted monstrous usurpations. But whatever was their ultimate +influence, they were doubtless among the most efficient agents in +overturning the throne; they were, in reality, the secret enemies of +those by whom they were patronized and honored. "They cannot, indeed, +claim the merit of being the first in France who opened the eyes of the +nation; for Fenelon had taught even to Louis XIV., in his immortal +'Telemaque,' the duties of a king; Racine, in his 'Germanicus,' had +shown the accursed nature of irresponsible despotism; Moliere, in his +'Tartuffe,' had exposed the vices of priestly hypocrisy; Pascal, in his +'Provincial Letters,' had revealed the wretched sophistries of the +Jesuits; Bayle even, in his 'Critical Dictionary,' had furnished +materials for future sceptics." + +But the hostilities of all these men were united in Voltaire, who in +nearly two hundred volumes, and with a fecundity of genius perfectly +amazing and unparalleled, in poetry, in history, in criticism,--yet +without striking originality or profound speculations,--astonished and +delighted his generation. This great and popular writer clothed his +attacks on ecclesiastical power, and upon Christianity itself, in the +most artistic and attractive language,--clear, simple, logical, without +pedantry or ostentation,--and enlivened it with brilliant sarcasms, +appealing to popular prejudices, and never soaring beyond popular +appreciation. Never did a man have such popularity; never did a famous +writer leave so little to posterity which posterity can value. + +While Voltaire was indirectly undermining the religious convictions of +mankind, the Encyclopedists more directly attacked the sources of +religious belief, and openly denied what Voltaire had doubted. But +neither Diderot nor D'Alembert made such shameless assaults as the +apostles of a still more atheistic school,--such men as Helvetius and +the Baron d'Holbach, who advocated undisguised selfishness, and +attributed all virtuous impulses to animal sensation. More dangerous +still than these ribald blasphemers were those sentimental and morbid +expounders of humanity of whom Rousseau was the type,--a man of more +genius perhaps than any I have named, but the most egotistical of that +whole generation of dreamers and sensualists who prepared the way for +revolution. He was the father of those agitating ideas which spread over +Europe and reached America. He gave utterance in his eloquent writings +to those mighty watch-words, "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," that +equally animated Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Jefferson. But the writings +of the philosophers will again be alluded to in the next lecture, as +among the efficient causes of the French Revolution. + +When we contemplate those financial embarrassments which arose from half +a century of almost universal war, and those awful burdens which bent to +the dust, in suffering and shame, the whole people of a great country; +when we consider the absurd and wicked distinctions which separated man +from man, and the settled hostility of the clergy to all means of +intellectual and social improvement; when we remember the unparalleled +vices of a licentious court, the ignominious negligence of the +government to the happiness and wants of those whom it was its duty to +protect, and the shameless insults which an infamous woman was allowed +to heap upon the nation; and then when we bear in mind all the elements +of disgust, of discontent, of innovation, and of reckless and impious +defiance,--can we wonder that a revolution was inevitable, if society is +destined to be progressive, and man ever to be allowed to break +his fetters? + +On that Revolution I cannot enter. I leave the subject as the winds +began to howl and the rains began to fall and the floods began to rise, +and all together to beat upon that house which was built upon the sand. + +AUTHORITIES. + +Lacretelle's Histoire de France; Anquetil; Henri Martin's History of +France; Dulaure's Histoire de Paris; Lord Brougham's Lives of Rousseau +and Voltaire; Memoires de Madame de Pompadour; Memoires de Madame Du +Barry; Revue des Deux Mondes, 1847; Chateau de Lucienne; L'Ami des +Hommes, par M. le Marquis de Mirabeau; Maximes Generales du +Gouvernement, par Le Docteur Quesnay; Histoire Philosophique du Regne de +Louis XV., par le Comte de Tocqueville; Memoires Secrets; Pieces +Inedites sous le Regne de Louis XV.; Anecdotes de la Cour de France +pendant la Faveur de Madame Pompadour; Louis XV. et la Societe du XVIII. +Siecle, par M. Capefigue; Alison's introductory chapter to the History +of Europe; Louis XV. et son Siecle, par Voltaire; Saint Simon; Memoires +de Duclos; Memoires du Duc de Richelieu. + + + +PETER THE GREAT. + + +A. D. 1672-1725. + +HIS SERVICES TO RUSSIA. + +If I were called upon to name the man who, since Charlemagne, has +rendered the greatest services to his country, I should select Peter the +Great. I do not say that he is one of the most interesting characters +that has shone in the noble constellations of illustrious benefactors +whom Europe has produced. Far otherwise: his career is not so +interesting to us as that of Hildebrand, or Elizabeth, or Cromwell, or +Richelieu, or Gustavus Adolphus, or William III., or Louis XIV., or +Frederic II., or others I might mention. I have simply to show an +enlightened barbarian toiling for civilization, a sort of Hercules +cleansing Augean stables and killing Nemean lions; a man whose labors +were prodigious; a very extraordinary man, stained by crimes and +cruelties, yet laboring, with a sort of inspired enthusiasm, to raise +his country from an abyss of ignorance and brutality. It would be +difficult to find a more hard-hearted despot, and yet a more patriotic +sovereign. To me he looms up, even more than Richelieu, as an instrument +of Divine Providence. His character appears in a double light,--as +benefactor and as tyrant, in order to carry out ends which he deemed +useful to his country, and which, we are constrained to admit, did +wonderfully contribute to its elevation and political importance. + +Peter the Great entered upon his inheritance as absolute sovereign of +Russia, when it was an inland and even isolated state, hemmed in and +girt around by hostile powers, without access to seas; a vast country +indeed, but without a regular standing army on which he could rely, or +even a navy, however small. This country was semi-barbarous, more +Asiatic than European, occupied by mongrel tribes, living amid snow and +morasses and forests, without education, or knowledge of European arts. +He left this country, after a turbulent reign, with seaports on the +Baltic and the Black seas, with a large and powerfully disciplined army, +partially redeemed from barbarism, no longer isolated or unimportant, +but a political power which the nations had cause to fear, and which, +from the policy he bequeathed, has been increasing in resources from his +time to ours. To-day Russia stands out as a first-class power, with the +largest army in the world; a menace to Germany, a rival of Great Britain +in the extension of conquests to the East, threatening to seize Turkey +and control the Black Sea, and even to take possession of Oriental +empires which extend to the Pacific Ocean. + +Nobody doubts or questions that the rise of Russia to its present proud +and threatening position is chiefly owing to the genius and policy of +Peter the Great. Peter was a descendant of a patriarch of the Greek +Church in Russia, whose name was Romanoff, and who was his +great-grandfather. His grandfather married a near relative of the Czar, +and succeeded him by election. His father, Alexis, was an able man, and +made war on the Turks. + +Peter was a child when his father died, and his half-brother Theodore +became the Czar. But Theodore reigned only a short time, and Peter +succeeded him at the age of ten (1682), the government remaining in the +hands of his half-sister, Sophia, a woman of great ability and +intelligence, but intriguing and unscrupulous. She was aided by Prince +Galitzin, the ablest statesman of Russia, who held the great office of +chancellor. This prince, it would seem, with the aid of the general of +the Streltzi (the ancient imperial guards) and the cabals of Sophia, +conspired against the life of Peter, then seventeen years of age, +inasmuch as he began to manifest extraordinary abilities and a will of +his own. But the young Hercules strangled the serpent,--sent Galitzin to +Siberia, confined his sister Sophia in a convent for the rest of her +days, and assumed the reins of government himself, although a mere +youth, in conjunction with his brother John. That which characterized +him was a remarkable precocity, greater than that of anybody of whom I +have read. At eighteen he was a man, with a fine physical development +and great beauty of form, and entered upon absolute and undisputed power +as Czar of Muscovy. + +In the years of the regency, when the government was in the hands of his +half-sister, he did not give promise of those remarkable abilities and +that life of self-control which afterwards marked his career. + +In his earlier youth he had been surrounded with seductive pleasures, as +Louis XIV. had been, by the queen-regent, with a view to _control_ him, +not oppose him; and he yielded to these pleasures, and is said to have +been a very dissipated young man, with his education neglected. But he +no sooner got rid of his sister and her adviser, Galitzin, than he +seemed to comprehend at once for what he was raised up. The vast +responsibilities of his position pressed upon his mind. To civilize his +country, to make it politically powerful, to raise it in the scale of +nations, to labor for its good rather than for his own private pleasure, +seems to have animated his existence. And this aim he pursued from first +to last, like a giant of destiny, without any regard to losses, or +humiliations, or defeats, or obstacles. + +Chance, or destiny, or Providence, threw in his path the very person +whom he needed as a teacher and a Mentor,--a young gentleman from +Geneva, whom historians love to call an adventurer, but who occupied the +post of private secretary to the Danish minister. Aristocratic pedants +call everybody an adventurer who makes his fortune by his genius and his +accomplishments. They called Thomas Becket an adventurer in the time of +Henry II., and Thomas Cromwell in the reign of Henry VIII. The young +secretary to the Danish minister seems to have been a man of remarkable +ability, insight, and powers of fascination, based on his intelligence +and on knowledge acquired in the first instance in a mercantile +house,--as was the success of Thomas Cromwell and Alexander Hamilton. + +It was from this young man, whose name was Lefort, whom Peter casually +met at dinner at the house of the Danish envoy, that he was made +acquainted with the superior discipline of the troops of France and +Germany, and the mercantile greatness of Holland and England,--the two +things which he was most anxious to understand; since, as he believed, +on the discipline of an army and the efficiency of a navy the political +greatness of his country must rest. A disciplined army would render +secure the throne of absolutism, and an efficient navy would open and +protect his ports for the encouragement of commerce,--one of the great +sources of national wealth. Without commerce and free intercourse with +other countries no nation could get money; and without money even an +absolute monarch could not reign as he would. + +So these two young men took counsel together; and the conviction was +settled in the minds of each that there could be no military discipline +and no efficient military power so long as the Streltzi--those +antiquated and turbulent old guards--could depose and set up monarchs. +They settled it, and with the enthusiasm of young men, that before they +could get rid of these dangerous troops,--only fit for Oriental or +barbaric fighting,--they must create a regiment after their own liking, +large enough to form the nucleus of a real European army, and yet not +large enough to excite jealousy,--for Sophia was then still regent, and +the youthful Peter was supposed to be merely amusing himself. The Swiss +"adventurer"--one of the most enlightened men of his age, and full of +genius--became colonel of this regiment; and Peter, not thinking he +knew anything about true military tactics, and wishing to learn,--and +not too proud to learn, being born with disdain of conventionalities and +precedents,--entered the regiment as drummer, in sight of his own +subjects, who perhaps looked upon the act as a royal freak,--even as +Nero practised fiddling, and Commodus archery, before the Roman people. +From drummer he rose to the rank of corporal, and from corporal to +sergeant, and so on through all the grades. + +That is the way Peter began,--as all great men begin, at the foot of the +ladder; for great as it was to be born a prince, it was greater to learn +how to be a general. In this fantastic conduct we see three things: a +remarkable sagacity in detecting the genius of Lefort, a masterly power +over his own will, and a willingness to learn anything from anybody able +and willing to teach him,--even as a rich and bright young lady, now and +then, when about to assume the superintendence of a great household, +condescends to study some of the details of a kitchen, those domestic +arts on which depend something of that happiness which is the end and +aim of married life. Many a promising domestic hearth is wrecked--such +is the weakness of human nature--by the ignorance or disdain of humble +acquirements, or what seem humble to fortunate women, and yet which are +really steps to a proud ascendency. + +We trace the ambition of Peter for commercial and maritime greatness +also to a very humble beginning. Whether it was a youthful sport, +subsequently directed into a great enterprise, or the plodding intention +to create a navy and open seaports under his own superintendence, it +would be difficult to settle. We may call this beginning a decree of +Providence, an inspiration of genius, or a passion for sailing a boat; +the end was the same, as it came about,--the entrance of Russia into the +family of European States. + +It would seem that one day, by chance, Peter's attention was directed to +a little boat laid up on the banks of a canal which ran through his +pleasure-grounds. It had been built by a Dutch carpenter for the +amusement of his father. This boat had a keel,--a new thing to him,--and +attracted his curiosity, Lefort explained to him that it was constructed +to sail against the wind. So the carpenter was summoned, with orders to +rig the boat and sail it on the Moskva, the river which runs through +Moscow. Peter was delighted; and he soon learned to manage it himself. +Then a yacht was built, manned by two men, and it was the delight of +Peter to take the helm himself. Shortly five other vessels were built to +navigate Lake Peipus; and the ambition of Peter was not satisfied until +a still larger vessel was procured at Archangel, in which he sailed on a +cruise upon the Frozen Ocean. His taste for navigation became a passion; +and once again he embarked on the Frozen Ocean in a ship, determined to +go through all the gradations of a sailor's life. As he began as drummer +in Lefort's regiment, so he first served as a common drudge who swept +the cabin in a Dutch vessel; then he rose to the rank of a servant who +kept up the fire and lighted the pipe of the Dutch skipper; then he was +advanced to the duty of unfurling and furling the sails,--and so on, +until he had mastered the details of a sailor's life. + +Why did he condescend to these mean details? The ambition was planted in +him to build a navy under his own superintendence. Wherefore a navy, +when he had no seaports? But he meant to have seaports. He especially +needed a fleet on the Volga to keep the Turks and Tartars in awe, and +another in the Gulf of Finland to protect his territories from the +Swedes. We shall see how subsequently, and in due time, he conquered the +Baltic from the Swedes and the Euxine from the Turks. He did not seem to +have an ambition for indefinite territorial aggrandizement, but simply +to extend his empire to these seas for the purpose of having a free +egress and ingress to it by water. He could not Europeanize his empire +without seaports, for unless Russia had these, she would remain a +barbarous country, a vast Wallachia or Moldavia. The expediency and the +necessity of these ports were most obvious. But how was he to get them? +Only by war, aggressive war. He would seize what he wanted, since he +could attain his end in no other way. + +Now, I do not propose to whitewash this enlightened but unscrupulous +robber. On no recognized principles of morality can he be defended, any +more than can Louis XIV. for the invasion of Flanders, or Frederic II. +for the seizure of Silesia. He first resolved to seize Azof, the main +port on the little sea of that name which opens out into the Black Sea, +and which belonged to the Turks. It was undoubted robbery; but its +possession would be an immense advantage to Russia. Of course, that +seizure could not be justified either by the laws of God or the laws of +nations. "Thou shalt not steal" is an eternally binding law for nations +and for individuals. Peter knew that he had no right to this important +city; but at the same time he knew that its possession would benefit +Russia. So we are compelled to view this monarch as a robber, taking +what was not his, as Ahab seized Naboth's vineyard; but taking it for +the benefit of his country, which Ahab did not. He knew it was a +political crime, but a crime to advance the civilization of his empire. +The only great idea of his life was the welfare of his country, by any +means. For his country he would sacrifice his character and public +morality. Some might call this an exalted patriotism,--I call it +unmitigated Jesuitism; which seems to have been the creed of +politicians, and even of statesmen, for the last three hundred years. +All that Peter thought of was _the end_; he cared nothing for the +_means_. I wonder why Carlyle or Froude has not bolstered up and +defended this great hyperborean giant for doing evil that good may come. +Casuistry is in their line; the defence of scoundrels seems to be +their vocation. + +Well, then, bear in mind that Peter, feeling that he must have Azof for +the good of Russia, irrespective of right or wrong, went straight +forward to his end. Of course he knew he must have a fight with Turkey +to gain this prize, and he prepared for such a fight. Turkey was not +then what it is now,--ripe fruit to be gobbled up by Russia when the +rest of Europe permits it; but Turkey then was a great power. At that +very time two hundred thousand Turks were besieging Vienna, which would +have fallen but for John Sobieski. But obstacles were nothing to Peter; +they were simply things to be surmounted, at any sacrifice of time or +money or men. So with the ships he had built he sailed down the River +Don and attacked Azof. He was foiled, not beaten. He never seemed to +know when he was beaten, and he never seemed to care. That hard, iron +man marched to his object like a destiny. What he had to do was to take +Azof against an army of Turks. So, having failed in the first campaign, +through the treachery of one Jacobs who had been employed in the +artillery, he tried it again the next year and succeeded, his army being +commanded by General Gordon, a Scotchman, while he himself served only +as ensign or lieutenant. This port was the key of Palus Maeotis, and +opened to him the Black Sea, on which he resolved to establish a navy. +He had now an army modelled after the European fashion, according to the +suggestions of Lefort, whose regiment became the model of other +regiments. Five thousand men were trained and commanded by General +Gordon. Lefort raised another corps of twelve thousand, from the +Streltzi chiefly. These were the forces, in conjunction with the navy, +with which he reduced Azof. He now returns to Moscow, and receives the +congratulations of the boyars, or nobles,--that class who owned the +landed property of Russia and cultivated it by serfs. He made heavy +contributions on these nobles, and also on the clergy,--for it takes +money to carry on a war, and money he must have somehow. + +These forced contributions and the changes which were made in the army +were not beheld with complacency. The old guard, the Streltzi, were +particularly disgusted. The various innovations were very unpopular, +especially those made in reference to the dress of the new soldiers. The +result of all these innovations and discontents was a conspiracy to take +his life; which, however, was seasonably detected and severely punished. + +An extraordinary purpose now seized the mind of the Czar, which was to +travel in the various countries of Europe, and learn something more +especially about ship-building, on which his heart was set. He also +wished to study laws, institutions, sciences, and arts; and in order to +study them effectually, he resolved to travel incognito. Hitherto he had +not been represented in the European courts; so he appointed an embassy +of extraordinary magnificence to proceed in the first instance to +Holland, then the foremost mercantile state of Europe. The retinue +consisted of four secretaries, at the head of whom was Lefort, twelve +nobles, fifty guards, and other persons,--altogether to the number of +two hundred. As they travelled through Prussia they were received with +great distinction, and the whole journey seems to have been a +Bacchanalian progress. There were nothing _lout, fetes_ and banquets to +his honor, and the Russians proved to have great capacity for drinking. +At Koenigsberg he left his semi-barbaric embassy to their revels, and +proceeded rapidly and privately to Holland, hired a small room--kitchen +and garret--for lodgings, and established himself as journeyman +carpenter, with a resolute determination to learn the trade of a +ship-carpenter. He dressed like a common carpenter, and lived like one, +with great simplicity. When he was not at work in the dock-yard with his +broad axe, he amused himself by sailing a yacht, dressed like a Dutch +skipper, with a red jacket and white trousers. He was a marked +personage, even had it not been known that he was the Czar,--a tall, +robust, active man of twenty-five, with a fierce look and curling brown +locks, free from all restraint, seeing but little of the ambassadors who +had followed him, and passing his time with ship-builders and merchants, +and adhering rigidly to all the regulations of the dock-yards. He spent +nine months in this way at hard labor, and at the end of that time +had mastered the art of ship-building in all its details, had +acquired the Dutch language, and had seen what was worth seeing of +Amsterdam,--showing an unbounded curiosity and indefatigable zeal, +frequenting the markets and the shops, attending lectures in anatomy and +surgery, learning even how to draw teeth; visiting museums and +manufactories, holding intercourse with learned men, and making +considerable proficiency in civil engineering and the science of +fortification. Nothing escaped his eager inquiries. "Wat is dat?" was +his perpetual exclamation. "He devoured every morsel of knowledge with +unexampled voracity." Never was seen a man on this earth with a more +devouring appetite for knowledge of every kind; storing up in his mind +everything he saw, with a view of introducing improvements into Russia. +To see this barbaric emperor thus going to school, and working with his +own hands, insensible to heat and cold and weariness, with the single +aim of benefiting his countrymen when he should return, is to me one of +the most wonderful sights of history. + +His chosen companion in these labors and visits and pleasures was also +one of the most remarkable men of his age. His name was +Mentchikof,--originally a seller of pies in the streets of Moscow, who +attracted, by his beauty and brightness, the attention of General +Lefort, and was made a page in his household, and was as such made known +to the Czar, who took a fancy to him, and soon detected his great +talents; so that he rose as rapidly as Joseph did in the court of +Pharaoh, and became general, governor, prince, regent, with almost +autocratic power. The whole subsequent reign of Peter, and of his +successor, became identified with Prince Mentchikof, who was prime +minister and grand vizier, and who forwarded all the schemes of his +master with consummate ability. + +After leaving Holland, Peter accepted an invitation of William III. to +visit England, and thither he went with his embassy in royal ships, yet +still affecting to travel as a private gentleman. He would accept no +honors, no public receptions, no state banquets. He came to England, not +to receive honors, but to add to his knowledge, and he wished to remain +unfettered in his sight-seeing. In England, the same insatiable +curiosity marked him as in Holland. He visits the dock-yards, and goes to +the theatre and the opera, and holds interviews with Quakers and attends +their meetings, as well as the churches of the Establishment. The +country-houses of nobles, with their parks and gardens and hedges, +filled him with admiration. He was also greatly struck with Greenwich +Hospital, which looked to him like a royal palace (as it was +originally), and he greatly wondered that the old seedy and frowsy +pensioners should be lodged so magnificently. The courts of Westminster +surprised him. "Why," said he, in reference to the legal gentlemen in +wigs and gowns, "I have but two lawyers in my dominions, and one of them +I mean to hang as soon as I return." But while he visited everything, +generally in a quiet way, avoiding display and publicity, he was most +interested in mechanical inventions and the dock-yards and mock naval +combats. It would seem that his private life was simple, although he is +accused of eating voraciously, and of drinking great quantities of +brandy and sack. If this be true, he certainly reformed his habits, and +learned to govern himself, for he was very temperate in his latter days. +Men who are very active and perform herculean labors, do not generally +belong to the class of gluttons or drunkards. I have read of but few +great generals, like Caesar, or Charlemagne, or William III., or +Gustavus Adolphus, or Marlborough, or Cromwell, or Turenne, or +Wellington, or Napoleon, who were not temperate in their habits. + +After leaving England, the Czar repaired to Vienna, _via_ Holland, +sending to Russia five hundred persons whom he took in his +employ,--navy captains, pilots, surgeons, gunners, boat-builders, +blacksmiths, and various other mechanics,--having an eye to the +industrial development of his country; which was certainly better than +driving out of his kingdom four hundred thousand honest people, as Louis +XIV. did because they were Protestants. But Peter did not tarry long in +Vienna, whose military establishments he came to study, being compelled +to return hastily to Moscow to suppress a rebellion. He returned a much +wiser man; I doubt if any person ever was more improved than he by his +travels. What an example to tourists in these times! All travelling +(except explorations) is a dissipation and waste of time unless +self-improvement is the main object. Pleasure-seeking is the greatest +vanity on this earth, for he who _seeks_ pleasure never finds it; but it +comes when it is a minor consideration. + +The apprenticeship of Peter is now completed, and he enters more +seriously upon those great labors which have given him an immortality. I +am compelled to be brief in stating them. + +The first thing he did, on his return, was finally to crush the +Streltzi, who fomented treasons and were hostile to reform. He had +wisely left General Gordon at Moscow with six thousand soldiers, +disciplined after the European fashion. In abolishing the turbulent and +prejudicial Streltzi, he is accused of great cruelties. He summarily +executed or imprisoned some four thousand of them caught in acts of +treason and rebellion, and drafted the rest into distant regiments. He +may have been unnecessarily cruel, as critics have accused Oliver +Cromwell of being in his treatment of the Irish. But, cruel or not, he +got rid of troops he could not trust, and organized soldiers whom he +could,--for he must have tools to work with if he would do his work. I +neither praise nor condemn his mode of working; I seek to show how he +performed his task. + +After disbanding rebellious soldiers, he sought to make his army more +efficient by changing the dress of the entire army. He did away with the +long coat reaching to the heels, something like that which ladies wear +in rainy days; and the drawers not unlike petticoats; and the long, +bushy beards. He found more difficulty in making this reform than in +taking Azof, although aided by Mentchikof, his favorite, +fellow-traveller, and prime minister. He was not content with cutting +off the beards of the soldiers and shortening their coats,--he wished to +make private citizens do the same; but the uproar and discontent were so +great that he was obliged to compromise the matter, and allow the +citizens to wear their beards and robes on condition of a heavy tax, +graded on ability to pay it. The only class he exempted from the tax +were the clergy and the serfs. + +Among other reforms he changed the calendar, making the year to begin +with January, and abolished the old laws with reference to marriage, by +which young people had no power of choice; but he decreed that no +marriage should take place unless an intimacy had existed between the +parties for at least six months. He instituted balls and assemblies, to +soften the manners of the people. He encouraged the theatre, protected +science, invited eminent men to settle in Russia, improved the courts of +justice, established posts and post-offices, boards of trade, a vigorous +police, hospitals, and alms-houses. He imported Saxony sheep, erected +linen, woollen, and paper mills, dug canals, suppressed gambling, and +fostered industry and art. He aimed to do for Russia what Richelieu and +Colbert did for France. + +The greatest opposition to his reforms came from the clergy, with the +Patriarch at their head,--a personage of great dignity and power, ruling +an _imperium in imperio_. Peter had no hostility to the Greek religion, +nor to the clergy. Like Charlemagne, he was himself descended from an +ecclesiastical family. But finding the clergy hostile to civil and +social reforms, he sought to change the organization of the Church +itself. He did not interfere with doctrines, nor discipline, nor rites, +nor forms of worship; but he unseated the Patriarch, and appointed +instead a consistory, the members of which were nominated by himself. +Like Henry VIII., he virtually made himself the head of the +Church,--that is, the supreme direction of ecclesiastical affairs was +given to those whom he controlled, and not to the Patriarch, whose power +had been supreme in religious matters,--more than Papal, almost +Druidical. In former reigns the Patriarch had the power of life and +death in his own tribunals; and when he rode to church on Palm Sunday, +in his emblazoned robes, the Czar walked uncovered at his side, and held +the bridle of his mule. It is a mark of the extraordinary power of Peter +that he was enabled to abolish this great dignity without a revolution +or bloodshed; and he not only abolished the patriarchal dignity, but he +seized the revenues of the Patriarch, taxed the clergy, and partially +suppressed monasteries, decreeing that no one should enter them under +fifty years of age; yea, he even decreed universal toleration of +religion, except to the Jesuits, whom he hated, as did William III. and +Frederic II. He caused the Bible to be translated into the Slavonic +language, and freely circulated it. And he prosecuted these reforms +while he was meditating, or was engaged in, great military enterprises. + +I approach now the great external event of Peter's life, his war with +Charles XII., brought about in part by his eagerness to get a seaport on +the Baltic, and in part by the mad ambition of the Swedish king, +determined to play the part of Alexander. The aggressive party in this +war, however, was Peter. He was resolved to take part of the Swedish +territories for mercantile and maritime purposes; so he invaded Sweden +with sixty thousand men. Charles, whose military genius was not +appreciated by the Czar, had only eight thousand troops to oppose the +invasion; but they were veterans, and fought on the defensive, and had +right on their side. This latter is a greater thing in war than is +generally supposed; for although war is in our own times a mechanism in +a great measure, still moral considerations underlie even physical +forces, and give a sort of courage which is hard to resist. The result +of this invasion was the battle of Narva, when Peter was disgracefully +beaten, as he ought to have been. But he bore his defeat complacently. +He is reported as saying that he knew the Swedes would have the +advantage at first, but that they would teach him how to beat them at +last. I doubt this. I do not believe a general ever went into battle +with a vastly overwhelming force when he did not expect victory. But the +great victory won by Charles (a mere stripling king, scarcely nineteen) +turned his head. Never was there a more intoxicated hero. He turned his +victorious army upon Poland, dethroned the king, invaded Saxony, and +prepared to invade Russia with an army of eighty thousand troops. His +cool adversary, who since his defeat at Narva had been prosecuting his +reforms and reorganizing his army and building a navy, was more of a +wily statesman than a successful general. He retreated before Charles, +avoided battles, tempted him in the pursuit to dreary and sparsely +inhabited districts, decoyed him into provinces remote from his base of +supplies; so that at the approach of winter Charles found himself in a +cold and desolate country (as Napoleon was afterwards tempted to _his_ +ruin), with his army dwindled down to twenty-five thousand men, while +Peter had one hundred thousand, with ample provisions and military +stores. The generals of Charles now implore him to return to Sweden, at +least to seek winter quarters in the Ukraine; but the monarch, +infatuated, lays siege to Pultowa, and gives battle to Peter, and is not +only defeated, but his forces are almost annihilated, so that he finds +the greatest difficulty in escaping into Turkey with a handful of +followers. That battle settled the fortunes of both Charles and Peter. +The one was hopelessly ruined; the other was left free to take as much +territory from Sweden as he wished, to open his seaports on the Baltic, +and to dig canals from river to river. + +But another enemy still remained, Turkey; who sought to recover her +territory on the Black Sea, and who had already declared war. Flushed +with conquest, Peter in his turn became rash. He advanced to the +Turkish territory with forty thousand men, and was led into the same +trap which proved the ruin of Charles XII. He suddenly finds himself in +a hostile country, beyond the Pruth, between an army of Turks and an +army of Tartars, with a deep and rapid river in his rear. Two hundred +thousand men attack his forty thousand. He cannot advance, he cannot +retreat; he is threatened with annihilation. He is driven to despair. +Neither he nor his generals can see any escape, for in three days he has +lost twenty thousand men,--one half his army. In all probability he and +his remaining men will be captured, and he conducted as a prisoner to +Constantinople, and perhaps be shown to the mocking and jeering people +in a cage, as Bajazet was. In this crisis he shuts himself up in his +tent, and refuses to see anybody. + +He is saved by a woman, and a great woman, even Catherine his wife, who +originally was a poor peasant girl in Livonia, and who after various +adventures became the wife of a young Swedish officer killed at the +battle of Marienburg, and then the mistress of Prince Mentchikof, and +then of Peter himself, who at length married her,--"an incident," says +Voltaire, "which fortune and merit never before produced in the annals +of the world," She suggested negotiation, when Peter was in the very +jaws of destruction, and which nobody had thought of. She collects +together her jewels and all the valuables she can find, and sends them +to the Turkish general as a present, and favorable terms are secured. +But Peter loses Azof, and is shut out from the Black Sea, and is +compelled to withdraw from the vicinity of the Danube. The Baltic is +however still open to him; and in the mean time he has transferred his +capital to a new city, which he built on the Gulf of Finland. + +It was during his Swedish war, about the year 1702, when he had driven +the Swedes from Ladoga and the Neva, that he fixed his eyes upon a +miserable morass, a delta, half under water, formed by the dividing +branches of the Neva, as the future seat of his vast empire. It was a +poor site for a capital city, inaccessible by water half the year, +without stones, without wood, without any building materials, with a +barren soil, and liable to be submerged in a storm. Some would say it +was an immense mistake to select such a place for the capital of an +empire stretching even to the Pacific ocean. But it was the only place +he could get which opened a water communication with Western Europe. He +could not Europeanize his empire without some such location for his new +capital. So St. Petersburg arose above the marshes of the Neva as if by +magic, built in a year, on piles, although it cost him the lives of one +hundred thousand men. "We never could look on this capital," says +Motley, "with its imposing though monotonous architecture, its colossal +squares, its vast colonnades, its endless vistas, its spires and +minarets sheathed in barbaric gold and flashing in the sun, and remember +the magical rapidity with which it was built, without recalling Milton's +description of Pandemonium:-- + + "'As bees + In spring time, when the sun with Taurus rides, + Pour forth their populous youth about the hive + In clusters: they among fresh dews and flowers + Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, + The suburb of their straw-built citadel, + Now rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer + Their state affairs: so thick the aery crowd + Swarm'd and were straighten'd; till, the signal given, + Behold a wonder!' + +"The transfer of the seat of government, by the removal of the senate +from Moscow, was effected a few years afterwards. Since that time, the +repudiated Oriental capital of the ancient Czars, with her golden tiara +and Eastern robe, has sat, like Hagar in the wilderness, deserted and +lonely in all her barbarian beauty. Yet even now, in many a backward +look and longing sigh, she reads plainly enough that she is not +forgotten by her sovereign, that she is still at heart preferred, and +that she will eventually triumph over her usurping and artificial rival." + +So writes a great historian; but to me it seems that the longing eyes of +the Emperor of Russia are not turned to the old barbaric capital, but +to a still more ancient capital,--that which Constantine, with +far-seeing vision, selected as the central city of the decaying empire +of the Romans, easily defended, resting on both Europe and Asia, with +access to the Mediterranean and Black seas; the most magnificent site +for the capital of a great empire on the face of the globe, which is +needed by Russia if she is to preserve her maritime power, and which +nothing but the jealousy of the Western nations has prevented her from +twice seizing within a single generation. We say, "Westward, the star of +empire takes its way." But an empire larger in its territories than all +Europe, and constantly augmenting its resources, although still Cossack, +still undeveloped, has its eye on Eastern, not Western extension, until +China herself, with her four thousand years of civilization and her four +hundred millions of people, may become a spoil to be divided between the +Emperor of Russia and the Empress of India; not as banded and united +robbers divide their spoil, but the one encroaching from the West and +North, and the other from the West and South. + +Peter, after having realized the great objects to which he early +aspired, after having founded a navy and reorganized his army, and added +provinces to his empire, and partially civilized it, and given to it a +new capital, now meditated a second tour of Europe, this time to be +accompanied by his wife. Thirteen years had elapsed since he worked as a +ship-carpenter in the dock-yards of Holland. He was now forty-three years +old, still manly, vigorous, and inquiring. In 1715, just as Louis had +completed his brilliant and yet unfortunate career, Peter first +revisited the scene of his early labors, where he was enthusiastically +received, and was afterwards entertained with great distinction at +Paris. He continued his studies in art, in science, and laws, saw +everything, and was particularly impressed with the tomb of Richelieu. +"Great man!" apostrophizes the Czar, "I would give half of my kingdom to +learn from thee how to govern the other half." Such remarks indicate +that he knew something of history, and comprehended the mission of the +great cardinal,--which was to establish absolutism as one of the needed +forces of the seventeenth century; for it was Richelieu, hateful as is +his character, who built up the French monarchy. + +From Paris, Peter proceeded to Berlin, where he was received with equal +attentions. He inspired universal respect, although his aspect was +fierce, his habits rough, and his manners uncouth. The one thing which +marked him as a great man was his force of character. He was undazzled +and unseduced; plain, simple, temperate, self-possessed, and +straightforward. He had not worked for himself, but for his country, and +everybody knew it. His wife Catherine, also a great woman, did not make +so good an impression as he did, being fat, vulgar, and covered with +jewels and orders and crosses. I suppose both of them were what we now +should call "plain people." Station, power, and wealth seem to have very +little effect on the manners and habits of those who have arisen by +extraordinary talents to an exalted position. Nor does this position +develop pride as much as is generally supposed. Pride is born in a man, +and will appear if he is ever so lowly; as also vanity, the more amiable +quality, which expends itself in hospitalities and ostentations. The +proud Gladstone dresses like a Methodist minister, and does not seem to +care what kind of a hat he wears. The vain Beaconsfield loved honors and +stars and flatteries and aristocratic insignia: if he had been rich he +would have been prodigal, and given great banquets. Peter made no +display, and saved his money for useful purposes. It would seem that +most of the Russian monarchs have retained simplicity in their +private lives. + +The closing years of Peter were saddened by a great tragedy, as were +those of David. Both these monarchs had the misfortune to have +rebellious and unworthy sons, who were heirs to the throne. Alexis was +as great a trial to Peter as Absalom was to David. He was hostile to +reforms, was in league with his father's enemies, and was hopelessly +stupid and profligate. He was not vain, ambitious, and beautiful, like +the son of David; but coarse, in bondage to priests, fond of the +society of the weak and dissipated, and utterly unfitted to rule an +empire. Had he succeeded Peter, the life-work of Peter would have been +wasted. His reign would have been as disastrous to Russia as that of +Mary Queen of Scots would have been to England, had she succeeded +Elizabeth. The patience of the father was at last exhausted. He had +remonstrated and threatened to no purpose. The young man would not +reform his habits, or abstain from dangerous intrigues. He got beastly +drunk with convivial friends, and robbed and cheated his father whenever +he got a chance. + +What was Peter to do with such a rebellious, undutiful, profligate, +silly youth as Alexis,--a sot, a bigot, and a liar? Should he leave to +him the work of carrying out his policy and aims? It would be weakness +and madness. It seemed to him that he had nothing to do but disinherit +him. In so doing, he would render no injustice. Alexis had no claim to +the throne, like the eldest son of Victoria. The throne belonged to +Peter. He had no fetters on him like a feudal sovereign; he could elect +whom he pleased to inherit his vast empire. It was not his son he loved +best, but his country. He had the right to appoint any successor he +pleased, and he would naturally select one who would carry out his plans +and rule ably. So he disinherited his eldest son Alexis, and did it in +virtue of the power which he imagined he had received, like an old +Jewish patriarch, from God Almighty. There was no law of Russia +designating the eldest son as the Czar's successor. No one can +reasonably blame Peter for disinheriting this worthless son, whom he had +ceased to love,--whom he even despised. + +Having disinherited him, out of regard to public interests more than +personal dislike, the question arises, what shall he do with him? Shall +he shut him in a state-prison, or confine him to a convent, or make way +with him? One of these terrible alternatives he must take. What +struggles of his soul to decide which were best! We pity a man compelled +to make such a choice. Any choice was bad, and full of perils and +calumnies. Whatever way he turned was full of obstacles. If he should +shut him up, the priests and humiliated boyars and other intriguing +rascals might make him emperor after Peter's death, and thus create a +counter reformation, and upset the work of Peter's life. If he should +make way with Alexis, the curses of his enemies and the execrations of +Europe and posterity would follow him as an unnatural father. David, +with his tender nature and deep affection, would have spared Absalom if +all the hosts of Israel had fallen and his throne were overturned. But +Peter was not so weak as David; he was stern and severe. He decided to +bring his son to trial for conspiracy and rebellion. The court found +him guilty. The ministers, generals, and senators of the empire +pronounced sentence of death upon him. Would the father have used his +prerogative and pardoned him? That we can never know. Some think that +Peter did not intend to execute the sentence. At any rate, he was +mercifully delivered from his dilemma. Alexis, frightened and apparently +contrite, was seized with a fit of apoplexy, and died imploring his +father's pardon. + +This tragedy is regarded as the great stain on the reign of Peter. It +shocked the civilized world. I do not wish to exculpate Peter from +cruelty or hardheartedness; I would neither justify him nor condemn him. +In this matter, I think, he is to be judged by the supreme tribunal of +Heaven. I do not know enough to acquit or condemn him. All I know is, +that his treatment of his son was both a misfortune and a stain on his +memory. The people to decide this point are those rich fathers who have +rebellious, prodigal, reckless, and worthless sons, hopelessly +dissipated, and rendered imbecile by self-indulgence and wasteful +revels; or those people who discuss the expediency and apparent state +necessity for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, when the welfare of +a great kingdom was set against the ties of blood. + +After the death of Alexis, a few more years are given to the Czar to +follow out his improvements, centralize his throne, and extend his +territories both on the Baltic and in the East. The death of Charles +XII. enabled him to take what Swedish provinces he needed to protect his +mercantile interests, and to snatch from Persia the southern coast of +the Caspian,--the original kingdom of Cyrus. "It is not land I want," +said he, "but water." This is the key to all his conquests. He wanted an +outlet to the sea, on both sides his empire. He did not aim at +territorial enlargement so much as at facilities to enrich and civilize +his empire. + +Having done his work,--the work, I think, for which he was raised +up,--he sets about the succession to his throne. Amid unprecedented pomp +he celebrates the coronation of his faithful and devoted wife, to whom +he also has been faithful. It is she only who understands and can carry +out his imperial policy. He himself at Moscow, 1724, amid unusual +solemnities, placed the imperial crown upon her brow, and proudly and +yet humbly walked before her in the gorgeous procession as a captain of +her guard. Before all the great dignitaries of his empire he gives the +following reasons for his course:-- + +"The Empress Catherine, our dearest consort, was an important help to us +in all our dangers, not in war alone, but in other expeditions in which +she voluntarily accompanied us; serving us with her able counsel, +notwithstanding the natural weakness of her sex, more particularly at +the battle of Pruth, when our army was reduced to twenty-two thousand +men, while the Turks were two hundred thousand strong. It was in this +desperate condition, above all others, that she signalized her zeal by a +courage superior to her sex. For which reasons, and in virtue of that +power which God has given us, we thus honor our spouse with the +imperial crown." + +Peter died in the following year, after a reign of more than forty +years, bequeathing a centralized empire to his successors, a large and +disciplined army, a respectable navy, and many improvements in +agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the arts,--yea, schools and +universities for the education of the higher classes. + +Whatever may have been the faults of Peter, history cannot accuse him of +ingratitude, or insincerity, or weak affections,--nothing of which is +seen in his treatment of the honest Dutchman, in whose yard he worked as +a common laborer; of Lefort, whom he made admiral of his fleet; or of +Mentchikof, whom he elevated to the second place in his empire. Peter +was not a great warrior, but he created armies. He had traits in common +with barbarians, but he bequeathed a new civilization, and dispelled the +night of hereditary darkness. He owed nothing to art; he looms up as a +prodigy of Nature. He cared nothing for public opinion; he left the +moral influence of a great example. He began with no particular aim +except to join his country to the sea; he bequeathed a policy of +indefinite expansion. He did not leave free institutions, for his +country was not prepared for them; but he animated thirty millions with +an intense and religious loyalty. He did not emancipate serfs; but he +bequeathed a power which enabled his successors to loosen fetters with +safety. He degraded nobles; but his nobles would have prevented if they +could the emancipation of the people. He may have wasted his energies in +condescending to mean details, and insisting on doing everything with +his own hands, from drummer to general, and cabin-boy to admiral, +winning battles with his own sword, and singing in the choir as head of +the Church; but in so doing he made the mistake of Charlemagne, whom he +strikingly resembles in his iron will, his herculean energies, and his +enlightened mind. He could not convert his subjects from cattle into +men, even had he wished, for civilization is a long and tedious process; +but he made them the subjects of a great empire, destined to spread from +sea to sea. Certainly he was in advance of his people; he broke away +from the ideas which enslaved them. He may have been despotic, and +inexorable, and hard-hearted; but that was just such a man as his +country needed for a ruler. Mr. Motley likens him to "a huge engine, +placed upon the earth to effect a certain task, working its mighty arms +night and day with ceaseless and untiring energy, crashing through all +obstacles, and annihilating everything in its path with the unfeeling +precision of gigantic mechanism." I should say he was an instrument of +Almighty power to bring good out of evil, and prepare the way for a +civilization the higher elements of which he did not understand, and +with which he would not probably have sympathized. + +Who shall say, as we survey his mighty labors, and the indomitable +energy and genius which inspired them, that he does not deserve the +title which civilization has accorded to him,--yea, a higher title than +that of Great, even that of Father of his country? + +AUTHORITIES. + +Journal de Pierre le Grand; History of Peter the Great, by Alexander +Gordon; John Bell's Travels in Russia; Henry Bruce's Memoirs of Peter; +Motley's Life of Peter I.; Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire +under Peter the Great; Voltaire's Life of Charles XII.; Biographic +Universelle; Encyclopaedia Britannica,--article "Russia;" Barrow's +Memoir of the Life of Peter the Great; Schuyler's History of Peter +the Great. + + + +FREDERIC THE GREAT. + + +A.D. 1712-1786. + +THE PRUSSIAN POWER. + +The history of Frederic the Great is simply that of a man who committed +an outrageous crime, the consequences of which pursued him in the +maledictions and hostilities of Europe, and who fought bravely and +heroically to rescue himself and country from the ruin which impended +over him as a consequence of this crime. His heroism, his fertility of +resources, his unflagging energy, and his amazing genius in overcoming +difficulties won for him the admiration of that class who idolize +strength and success; so that he stands out in history as a struggling +gladiator who baffled all his foes,--not a dying gladiator on the arena +of a pagan amphitheatre, but more like a Judas Maccabaeus, when hunted +by the Syrian hosts, rising victorious, and laying the foundation of a +powerful monarchy; indeed, his fame spread, irrespective of his cause +and character, from one end of Christendom to the other,--not such a +fame as endeared Gustavus Adolphus to the heart of nations for heroic +efforts to save the Protestant religion,--but such a fame as the +successful generals of ancient Rome won by adding territories to a +warlike State, regardless of all the principles of right and wrong. Such +a career is suggestive of grand moral lessons; and it is to teach these +lessons that I describe a character for whom I confess I feel but little +sympathy, yet whom I am compelled to respect for his heroic qualities +and great abilities. + +Frederic of Prussia was born in 1712, and had an unhappy childhood and +youth from the caprices of a royal but disagreeable father, best known +for his tall regiment of guards; a severe, austere, prejudiced, formal, +narrow, and hypochondriacal old Pharisee, whose sole redeeming +excellence was an avowed belief in God Almighty and in the orthodox +doctrines of the Protestant Church. + +In 1740, this rigid, exacting, unsympathetic king died; and his son +Frederic, who had been subjected to the severest discipline, restraints, +annoyances, and humiliations, ascended the throne, and became the third +King of Prussia, at the age of twenty-eight. His kingdom was a small +one, being then about one quarter of its present size. + +And here we pause for a moment to give a glance at the age in which he +lived,--an age of great reactions, when the stirring themes and issues +of the seventeenth century were substituted for mockeries, levities, +and infidelities; when no fierce protests were made except those of +Voltaire against the Jesuits; when an abandoned woman ruled France, as +the mistress of an enervated monarch; when Spain and Italy were sunk in +lethargic forgetfulness, Austria was priest-ridden, and England was +governed by a ring of selfish lauded proprietors; when there was no +marked enterprise but the slave-trade; when no department of literature +or science was adorned by original genius; and when England had no +broader statesman than Walpole, no abler churchman than Warburton, no +greater poet than Pope. There was a general indifference to lofty +speculation. A materialistic philosophy was in fashion,--not openly +atheistic, but arrogant and pretentious, whose only power was in sarcasm +and mockery, like the satires of Lucian, extinguishing faith, godless +and yet boastful,--an Epicureanism such as Socrates attacked and Paul +rebuked. It found its greatest exponent in Voltaire, the oracle and idol +of intellectual Europe. In short, it was an age when general cynicism +and reckless abandonment to pleasure marked the upper-classes; an age +which produced Chesterfield, as godless a man as Voltaire himself. + +In this period of religious infidelity, moral torpor, fashionable +mediocrity, unthinking pleasure-seeking, and royal orgies; when the +people were spurned, insuited and burdened,--Frederic ascends an +absolute throne. He is a young and fashionable philosopher. He professes +to believe in nothing that ages of inquiry and study are supposed to +have settled; he even ridicules the religious principles of his father. +He ardently adopts everything which claims to be a novelty, but is not +learned enough to know that what he supposes to be new has been exploded +over and over again. He is liberal and tolerant, but does not see the +logical sequence of the very opinions he indorses. He is also what is +called an accomplished man, since he can play on an instrument, and +amuse a dinner-party by jokes and stories. He builds a magnificent +theatre, and collects statues, pictures, snuff-boxes, and old china. He +welcomes to his court, not stern thinkers, but sneering and amusing +philosophers. He employs in his service both Catholics and Protestants +alike, since he holds in contempt the religion of both. He is free from +animosities and friendships, and neither punishes those who are his +enemies nor rewards those who are his friends. He apes reform, but +shackles the press; he appoints able men in his service, but only those +who will be his unscrupulous tools. He has a fine physique, and +therefore is unceasingly active. He flies from one part of his kingdom +to another, not to examine morals or education or the state of the +people, but to inspect fortresses and to collect camps. + +To such a man the development of the resources of his kingdom, the +reform of abuses, and educational projects are of secondary importance; +he gives his primary attention to raising and equipping armies, having +in view the extension of his kingdom by aggressive and unjustifiable +wars. He cares little for domestic joys or the society of women, and is +incapable of sincere friendship. He has no true admiration for +intellectual excellence, although he patronizes literary lions. He is +incapable of any sacrifice except for his troops, who worship him, since +their interests are identical with his own. In the camp or in the field +he spends his time, amusing himself occasionally with the society of +philosophers as cynical as himself. He has dreams and visions of +military glory, which to him is the highest and greatest on this earth, +Charles XII. being his model of a hero. + +With such views he enters upon a memorable career. His first important +public act as king is the seizure of part of the territory of the Bishop +of Liege, which he claims as belonging to Prussia. The old bishop is +indignant and amazed, but is obliged to submit to a robbery which +disgusts Christendom, but is not of sufficient consequence to set it +in a blaze. + +The next thing he does, of historical importance, is to seize Silesia, a +province which belongs to Austria, and contains about twenty thousand +square miles,--a fertile and beautiful province, nearly as large as his +own kingdom; it is the highest table-land of Germany, girt around with +mountains, hard to attack and easy to defend. So rapid and secret are +his movements, that this unsuspecting and undefended country is overrun +by his veteran soldiers as easily as Louis XIV. overran Flanders and +Holland, and with no better excuse than the French king had. This +outrage was an open insult to Europe, as well as a great wrong to Maria +Theresa,--supposed by him to be a feeble woman who could not resent the +injury. But in this woman he found the great enemy of his life,--a +lioness deprived of her whelps, whose wailing was so piteous and so +savage that she aroused Europe from lethargy, and made coalitions which +shook it to its centre. At first she simply rallied her own troops, and +fought single-handed to recover her lost and most valued province. But +Frederic, with marvellous celerity and ability, got possession of the +Silesian fortresses; the bloody battle of Mollwitz (1741) secured his +prey, and he returned in triumph to his capital, to abide the issue +of events. + +It is not easy to determine whether this atrocious crime, which +astonished Europe, was the result of his early passion for military +glory, or the inauguration of a policy of aggression and aggrandizement. +But it was the signal of an explosion of European politics which ended +in one of the most bloody wars of modern times. "It was," says Carlyle, +"the little stone broken loose from the mountain, hitting others, big +and little, which again hit others with their leaping and rolling, till +the whole mountain-side was in motion under law of gravity." + +Maria Theresa appeals to her Hungarian nobles, with her infant in her +arms, at a diet of the nation, and sends her envoys to every friendly +court. She offers her unscrupulous enemy the Duchy of Limberg and two +hundred thousand pounds to relinquish his grasp on Silesia. It is like +the offer of Darius to Alexander, and is spurned by the Prussian robber. +It is not Limberg he wants, nor money, but Silesia, which he resolves to +keep because he wants it, and at any hazard, even were he to jeopardize +his own hereditary dominions. The peace of Breslau gives him a temporary +leisure, and he takes the waters of Aachen, and discusses philosophy. He +is uneasy, but jubilant, for he has nearly doubled the territory and +population of Prussia. His subjects proclaim him a hero, with immense +paeans. Doubtless, too, he now desires peace,--just as Louis XIV. did +after he had conquered Holland, and as Napoleon did when he had seated +his brothers on the old thrones of Europe. + +But there can be no lasting peace after such outrageous wickedness. The +angered kings and princes of Europe are to become the instruments of +eternal justice. They listen to the eloquent cries of the Austrian +Empress, and prepare for war, to punish the audacious robber who +disturbs the peace of the world and insults all other nationalities. But +they are not yet ready for effective war; the storm does not at once +break out. + +The Austrians however will not wait, and the second Silesian war ensues, +in which Saxony joins Austria. Again is Frederic successful, over the +combined forces of these two powers, and he retains his stolen province. +He is now regarded as a world-hero, for he has fought bravely against +vastly superior forces, and is received in Berlin with unbounded +enthusiasm. He renews his studies in philosophy, courts literary +celebrities, reorganizes his army, and collects forces for a renewed +encounter, which he foresees. + +He has ten years of repose and preparation, during which he is lauded +and nattered, yet retaining simplicity of habits, sleeping but five +hours a day, finding time for state dinners, flute-playing, and operas, +of all which he is fond; for he was doubtless a man of culture, social, +well read if not profound, witty, inquiring, and without any striking +defects save tyranny, ambition, parsimony, dissimulation, and lying. + +It was during those ten years of rest and military preparation that +Voltaire made his memorable visit--his third and last--to Potsdam and +Berlin, thirty-two months of alternate triumph and humiliation. No +literary man ever had so successful and brilliant a career as this +fortunate and lauded Frenchman,--the oracle of all salons, the arbiter +of literary fashions, a dictator in the realm of letters, with amazing +fecundity of genius directed into all fields of labor; poet, historian, +dramatist, and philosopher; writing books enough to load a cart, and all +of them admired and extolled, all of them scattered over Europe, read by +all nations; a marvellous worker, of unbounded wit and unexampled +popularity, whose greatest literary merit was in the transcendent +excellence of his style, for which chiefly he is immortal; a great +artist, rather than an original and profound genius whose ideas form the +basis of civilizations. The King of Prussia formed an ardent friendship +for this king of letters, based on admiration rather than respect; +invited him to his court, extolled and honored him, and lavished on him +all that he could bestow, outside of political distinction. But no +worldly friendship could stand such a test as both were subjected to, +since they at last comprehended each other's character and designs. +Voltaire perceived the tyranny, the ambition, the heartlessness, the +egotism, and the exactions of his royal patron, and despised him while +he flattered him; and Frederic on his part saw the hollowness, the +meanness, the suspicion, the irritability, the pride, the insincerity, +the tricks, the ingratitude, the baseness, the lies of his +distinguished guest,--and their friendship ended in utter vanity. What +friendship can last without mutual respect? The friendship of Frederic +and Voltaire was hopelessly broken, in spite of the remembrance of +mutual admiration and happy hours. It was patched up and mended like a +broken vase, but it could not be restored. How sad, how mournful, how +humiliating is a broken friendship or an alienated love! It is the +falling away of the foundations of the soul, the disappearance forever +of what is most to be prized on earth,--its celestial certitudes. A +beloved friend may die, but we are consoled in view of the fact that the +friendship may be continued in heaven: the friend is not lost to us. But +when a friendship or a love is broken, there is no continuance of it +through eternity. It is the gloomiest thing to think of in this +whole world. + +But Frederic was too busy and pre-occupied a man to mourn long for a +departed joy. He was absorbed in preparations for war. The sword of +Damocles was suspended over his head, and he knew it better than any +other man in Europe; he knew it from his spies and emissaries. Though he +had enjoyed ten years' peace, he knew that peace was only a truce; that +the nations were arming in behalf of the injured empress; that so great +a crime as the seizure of Silesia must be visited with a penalty; that +there was no escape for him except in a tremendous life-and-death +struggle, which was to be the trial of his life; that defeat was more +than probable, since the forces in preparation against him were +overwhelming. The curses of the civilized world still pursued him, and +in his retreat at Sans-Souci he had no rest; and hence he became +irritable and suspicious. The clouds of the political atmosphere were +filled with thunderbolts, ready to fall upon him and crush him at any +moment; indeed, nothing could arrest the long-gathering storm. + +It broke out with unprecedented fury in the spring of 1756. Austria, +Russia, Sweden, Saxony, and France were combined to ruin him,--the most +powerful coalition of the European powers seen since the Thirty Years' +War. His only ally was England,--an ally not so much to succor him as to +humble France, and hence her aid was timid and incompetent. + +Thus began the famous Seven Years' War, during which France lost her +colonial possessions, and was signally humiliated at home,--a war which +developed the genius of the elder Pitt, and placed England in the proud +position of mistress of the ocean; a war marked by the largest array of +forces which Europe had seen since the times of Charles V., in which six +hundred thousand men were marshalled under different leaders and +nations, to crush a man who had insulted Europe and defied the law of +nations and the laws of God. The coalition represented one hundred +millions of people with inexhaustible resources. + +Now, it was the memorable resistance of Frederic II. to this vast array +of forces, and his successful retention of the province he had seized, +which gave him his chief claim as a hero; and it was his patience, his +fortitude, his energy, his fertility of resources, and the enthusiasm +with which he inspired his troops even after the most discouraging and +demoralizing defeats, that won for him that universal admiration as a +man which he lived to secure in spite of all his defects and crimes. We +admire the resources and dexterity of an outlawed bandit, but we should +remember he is a bandit still; and we confound all the laws which hold +society together, when we cover up the iniquity of a great crime by the +successes which have apparently baffled justice. Frederic II., by +stealing Silesia, and thus provoking a great war of untold and +indescribable miseries, is entitled to anything but admiration, whatever +may have been his military genius; and I am amazed that so great a man +as Carlyle, with all his hatred of shams, and his clear perceptions of +justice and truth, should have whitewashed such a robber. I cannot +conceive how the severest critic of the age should have spent the best +years of his life in apologies for so bad a man, if his own philosophy +had not become radically unsound, based on the abominable doctrine that +the end justifies the means, and that an outward success is the test of +right. Far different was Carlyle's treatment of Cromwell. Frederic had +no such cause as Cromwell; it was simply his own or his country's +aggrandizement by any means, or by any sword he could lay hold of. The +chief merit of Carlyle's history is his impartiality and accuracy in +describing the details of the contest: the cause of the contest he does +not sufficiently reprobate; and all his sympathies seem to be with the +unscrupulous robber who fights heroically, rather than with indignant +Europe outraged by his crimes. But we cannot separate crime from its +consequences; and all the reverses, the sorrows, the perils, the +hardships, the humiliations, the immense losses, the dreadful calamities +through which Prussia had to pass, which wrung even the heart of +Frederic with anguish, were only a merited retribution. The Seven Years' +War was a king-hunt, in which all the forces of the surrounding +monarchies gathered around the doomed man, making his circle smaller and +smaller, and which would certainly have ended in his utter ruin, had he +not been rescued by events as unexpected as they were unparalleled. Had +some great and powerful foe been converted suddenly into a friend at a +critical moment, Napoleon, another unscrupulous robber, might not have +been defeated at Waterloo, or died on a rock in the ocean. But +Providence, it would seem, who rules the fate of war, had some +inscrutable reason for the rescue of Prussia under Frederic, and the +humiliation of France under Napoleon. + +The brunt of the war fell of course upon Austria, so that, as the two +nations were equally German, it had many of the melancholy aspects of a +civil war. But Austria was Catholic and Prussia was Protestant; and had +Austria succeeded, Germany possibly to-day would have been united under +an irresistible Catholic imperialism, and there would have been no +German empire whose capital is Berlin. The Austrians, in this contest, +fought bravely and ably, under Prince Carl and Marshal Daun, who were no +mean competitors with the King of Prussia for military laurels. But the +Austrians fought on the offensive, and the Prussians on the defensive. +The former were obliged to manoeuvre on the circumference, the latter in +the centre of the circle. The Austrians, in order to recover Silesia, +were compelled to cross high mountains whose passes were guarded by +Prussian soldiers. The war began in offensive operations, and ended in +defensive. + +The most terrible enemy that Frederic had, next to Austria, was Russia, +ruled then by Elizabeth, who had the deepest sympathy with Maria +Theresa; but when she died, affairs took a new turn. Frederic was then +on the very verge of ruin,--was, as they say, about to be +"bagged,"--when the new Emperor of Russia conceived a great personal +admiration for his genius and heroism; the Russian enmity was converted +to friendship, and the Czar became an ally instead of a foe. + +The aid which the Saxons gave to Maria Theresa availed but little. The +population, chiefly and traditionally Protestant, probably sympathized +with Prussia more than with Austria, although the Elector himself was +Catholic,--that inglorious monarch who resembled in his gallantries +Louis XV., and in his dilettante tastes Leo X. He is chiefly known for +the number of his concubines and his Dresden gallery of pictures. + +The aid which the French gave was really imposing, so far as numbers +make efficient armies. But the French were not the warlike people in the +reign of Louis XV. that they were under Henry IV., or Napoleon +Bonaparte. They fought, without the stimulus of national enthusiasm, +without a cause, as part of a great machine. They never have been +successful in war without the inspiration of a beloved cause. This war +had no especial attraction or motive for them. What was it to Frenchmen, +so absorbed with themselves, whether a Hohenzollern or a Hapsburg +reigned in Germany? Hence, the great armies which the government of +France sent to the aid of Maria Theresa were without spirit, and were +not even marshalled by able generals. In fact, the French seemed more +intent on crippling England than in crushing Frederic. The war had +immense complications. Though France and England were drawn into it, yet +both France and England fought more against each other than for the +parties who had summoned them to their rescue. + +England was Frederic's ally, but her aid was not great directly. She did +not furnish him with many troops; she sent subsidies instead, which +enabled him to continue the contest. But these were not as great as he +expected, or had reason to expect. With all the money he received from +Walpole or Pitt he was reduced to the most desperate straits. + +One thing was remarkable in that long war of seven years, which strained +every nerve and taxed every energy of Prussia: it was carried on by +Frederic in hard cash. He did not run in debt; he' always had enough on +hand in coin to pay for all expenses. But then his subjects were most +severely taxed, and the soldiers were poorly paid. If the same economy +he used in that war of seven years had been exercised by our Government +in its late war, we should not have had any national debt at all at the +close of the war, although we probably should have suspended +specie payments. + +It would not be easy or interesting to attempt to compress the details +of a long war of seven years in a single lecture. The records of war +have great uniformity,--devastation, taxes, suffering, loss of life and +of property (except by the speculators and government agents), the +flight of literature, general demoralization, the lowering of the tone +of moral feeling, the ascendency of unscrupulous men, the exaltation of +military talents, general grief at the loss of friends, fiendish +exultation over victories alternated with depressing despondency in view +of defeats, the impoverishment of a nation on the whole, and the +sickening conviction, which fastens on the mind after the first +excitement is over, of a great waste of life and property for which +there is no return, and which sometimes a whole generation cannot +restore. Nothing is so dearly purchased as the laurels of the +battlefield; nothing is so great a delusion and folly as military glory +to the eye of a Christian or philosopher. It is purchased by the tears +and blood of millions, and is rebuked by all that is grand in human +progress. Only degraded and demoralized peoples can ever rejoice in war; +and when it is not undertaken for a great necessity, it fills the world +with bitter imprecations. It is cruel and hard and unjust in its nature, +and utterly antagonistic to civilization. Its greater evils are indeed +overruled; Satan is ever rebuked and baffled by a benevolent Providence. +But war is always a curse and a calamity in its immediate results,--and +in its ultimate results also, unless waged in defence of some +immortal cause. + +It must be confessed, war is terribly exciting. The eyes of the +civilized world were concentrated on Frederic II. during this memorable +period; and most people anticipated his overthrow. They read everywhere +of his marchings and counter-marchings, his sieges and battles, his +hair-breadth escapes, and his renewed exertions, from the occupation of +Saxony to the battle of Torgau. In this war he was sometimes beaten, as +at Kolin; but he gained three memorable victories,--one over the French, +at Rossbach; the second, over the Austrians, at Luthen; and the third, +over the Russians, at Zorndorf, the most bloody of all his battles. And +he gained these victories by outflanking, his attack being the form of a +wedge,--learned by the example of Epaminondas,--a device which led to +new tactics, and proclaimed Frederic a master of the art of war. But in +these battles he simply showed himself to be a great general. It was not +until his reverses came that he showed himself a great man, or earned +the sympathy which Europe felt for a humiliated monarch, putting forth +herculean energies to save his crown and kingdom. His easy and great +victories in the first year of the war simply saved him from +annihilation; they were not great enough to secure peace. Although thus +far he was a conqueror, he had no peace, no rest, and but little hope. +His enemies were so numerous and powerful that they could send large +reinforcements: he could draw but few. In time it was apparent that he +would be destroyed, whatever his skill and bravery. Had not the Empress +Elizabeth died, he would have been conquered and prostrated. After his +defeat at Hochkirch, he was obliged to dispute his ground inch by inch, +compelled to hide his grief from his soldiers, financially straitened +and utterly forlorn; but for a timely subsidy from England he would have +been desperate. The fatal battle of Kunnersdorf, in his fourth campaign, +when he lost twenty thousand men, almost drove him to despair; and evil +fortune continued to pursue him in his fifth campaign, in which he lost +some of his strongest fortresses, and Silesia was opened to his enemies. +At one time he had only six days' provisions: the world marvelled how he +held out. Then England deserted him. He made incredible exertions to +avert his doom: everlasting marches, incessant perils; no comforts or +luxuries as a king, only sorrows, privations, sufferings; enduring more +labors than his soldiers; with restless anxieties and blasted hopes. In +his despair and humiliation it is said he recognized God Almighty. In +his chastisements and misfortunes,--apparently on the very brink of +destruction, and with the piercing cries of misery which reached his +ears from every corner of his dominions,--he must, at least, have +recognized a Retribution. Still his indomitable will remained. His pride +and his self-reliance never deserted him; he would have died rather than +have yielded up Silesia until wrested from him. At last the battle of +Torgau, fought in the night, and the death of the Empress of Russia, +removed the overhanging clouds, and he was enabled to contend with +Austria unassisted by France and Russia. But if Maria Theresa could not +recover Silesia, aided by the great monarchies of Europe, what could she +do without their aid? So peace came at last, when all parties were +wearied and exhausted; and Frederic retained his stolen province at the +sacrifice of one hundred and eighty thousand men, and the decline of one +tenth of the whole population of his kingdom and its complete +impoverishment, from which it did not recover for nearly one hundred +years. Prussia, though a powerful military state, became and remained +one of the poorest countries of Europe; and I can remember when it was +rare to see there, except in the houses of the rich, either a silver +fork or a silver spoon; to say nothing of the cheap and frugal fare of +the great mass of the people, and their comfortless kind of life, with +hardly any physical luxuries except tobacco and beer. It is surprising +how, in a poor country, Frederic could have sustained such an exhaustive +war without incurring a national debt. Perhaps it was not as easy in +those times for kings and states to run into debt as it is now. One of +the great refinements of advancing civilization is that we are permitted +to bequeath our burdens to future generations. Time only will show +whether this is the wisest course. It is certainly not a wise thing for +individuals to do. He who enters on the possession of a heavily +mortgaged estate is an embarrassed, perhaps impoverished, man. Frederic, +at least, did not leave debts for posterity to pay; he preferred to pay +as he went along, whatever were the difficulties. + +The real gainer by the war, if gainer there was, was England, since she +was enabled to establish a maritime supremacy, and develop her +manufacturing and mercantile resources,--much needed in her future +struggles to resist Napoleon. She also gained colonial possessions, a +foothold in India, and the possession of Canada. This war entangled +Europe, and led to great battles, not in Germany merely, but around the +world. It was during this war, when France and England were antagonistic +forces, that the military genius of Washington was first developed in +America. The victories of Clive and Hastings soon after followed +in India. + +The greatest loser in this war was France: she lost provinces and +military prestige. The war brought to light the decrepitude of the +Bourbon rule. The marshals of France, with superior forces, were +disgracefully defeated. The war plunged France in debt, only to be paid +by a "roaring conflagration of anarchies." The logical sequence of the +war was in those discontents and taxes which prepared the way for the +French Revolution,--a catastrophe or a new birth, as men +differently view it. + +The effect of the war on Austria was a loss of prestige, the beginning +of the dismemberment of the empire, and the revelation of internal +weakness. Though Maria Theresa gained general sympathy, and won great +glory by her vigorous government and the heroism of her troops, she was +a great loser. Besides the loss of men and money, Austria ceased to be +the great threatening power of Europe. From this war England, until the +close of the career of Napoleon, was really the most powerful state in +Europe, and became the proudest. + +As for Prussia,--the principal transgressor and actor,--it is more +difficult to see the actual results. The immediate effects of the war +were national impoverishment, an immense loss of life, and a fearful +demoralization. The limits of the kingdom were enlarged, and its +military and political power was established. It became one of the +leading states of Continental Europe, surpassed only by Austria, Russia, +and France. It led to great standing armies and a desire of +aggrandizement. It made the army the centre of all power and the basis +of social prestige. It made Frederic II. the great military hero of that +age, and perpetuated his policy in Prussia. Bismarck is the sequel and +sequence of Frederic. It was by aggressive and unscrupulous wars that +the Romans were aggrandized, and it was also by the habits and tastes +which successful war created that Rome was ultimately undermined. The +Roman empire did not last like the Chinese empire, although at one +period it had more glory and prestige. So war both strengthens and +impoverishes nations. But I believe that the violation of eternal +principles of right ultimately brings a fearful penalty. It may be long +delayed, but it will finally come, as in the sequel of the wicked wars +of Louis XIV. and Napoleon Bonaparte. Victor Hugo, in his "History of a +Great Crime," on the principle of everlasting justice, forewarned +"Napoleon the Little" of his future reverses, while nations and +kingdoms, in view of his marvellous successes, hailed him as a friend of +civilization; and Hugo lived to see the fulfilment of his prophecy. +Moreover, it may be urged that the Prussian people,--ground down by an +absolute military despotism, the mere tools of an ambitious king,--were +not responsible for the atrocious conquests of Frederic II. The misrule +of monarchs does not bring permanent degradation on a nation, unless it +shares the crimes of its monarch,--as in the case of the Romans, when +the leading idea of the people was military conquest, from the very +commencement of their state. The Prussians in the time of Frederic were +a sincere, patriotic, and religious people. They were simply enslaved, +and suffered the poverty and misery which were entailed by war. + +After Frederic had escaped the perils of the Seven Years' War, it is +surprising he should so soon have become a party to another atrocious +crime,--the division and dismemberment of Poland. But here both Russia +and Austria were also participants. + + "Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime." + +And I am still more amazed that Carlyle should cover up this crime with +his sophistries. No man in ordinary life would be justified in seizing +his neighbor's property because he was weak and his property was +mismanaged. We might as well justify Russia in attempting to seize +Turkey, although such a crime may be overruled in the future good of +Europe. But Carlyle is an Englishman; and the English seized and +conquered India because they wanted it, not because they had a right to +it. The same laws which bind individuals also binds kings and nations. +Free nations from the obligations which bind individuals, and the world +would be an anarchy. Grant that Poland was not fit for self-government, +this does not justify its political annihilation. The heart of the world +exclaimed against that crime at the time, and the injuries of that +unfortunate state are not yet forgotten. Carlyle says the "partition of +Poland was an operation of Almighty Providence and the eternal laws of +Nature,"--a key to his whole philosophy, which means, if it means +anything, that as great fishes swallow up the small ones, and wild +beasts prey upon each other, and eagles and vultures devour other birds, +it is all right for powerful nations to absorb the weak ones, as the +Romans did. Might does not make right by the eternal decrees of God +Almighty, written in the Bible and on the consciences of mankind. +Politicians, whose primal law is expediency, may justify such acts as +public robbery, for they are political Jesuits,--always were, always +will be; and even calm statesmen, looking on the overruling of events, +may palliate; but to enlightened Christians there is only one law, "Do +unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." Nor can Christian +civilization reach an exalted plane until it is in harmony with the +eternal laws of God. Mr. Carlyle glibly speaks of Almighty Providence +favoring robbery; here he utters a falsehood, and I do not hesitate to +say it, great as is his authority. God says, "Thou shalt not steal; Thou +shalt not covet anything which is thy neighbor's, ... for he is a +jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the +third and fourth generation." We must set aside the whole authority of +divine revelation, to justify any crime openly or secretly committed. +The prosperity of nations, in the long run, is based on righteousness; +not on injustice, cruelty, and selfishness. + +It cannot be denied that Frederic well managed his stolen property. He +was a man of ability, of enlightened views, of indefatigable industry, +and of an iron will. I would as soon deny that Cromwell did not well +govern the kingdom which he had seized, on the plea of revolutionary +necessity and the welfare of England, for he also was able and wise. But +what was the fruit of Cromwell's well-intended usurpation?--a hideous +reaction, the return of the Stuarts, the dissipation of his visionary +dreams. And if the states which Frederic seized, and the empire he had +founded in blood and carnage had been as well prepared for liberty as +England was, the consequences of his ambition might have been far +different. + +But Frederic did not so much aim at the development of national +resources,--the aim of all immortal statesmen,--as at the growth and +establishment of a military power. He filled his kingdom and provinces +with fortresses and camps and standing armies. He cemented a military +monarchy. As a wise executive ruler, the King of Prussia enforced law +and order, was economical in his expenditures, and kept up a rigid +discipline; even rewarded merit, and was friendly to learning. And he +showed many interesting personal qualities,--for I do not wish to make +him out a monster, only as a great man who did wicked things, and things +which even cemented for the time the power of Prussia. He was frugal +and unostentatious. Like Charlemagne, he associated with learned men. He +loved music and literature; and he showed an amazing fortitude and +patience in adversity, which called out universal admiration. He had a +great insight into shams, was rarely imposed upon, and was scrupulous +and honest in his dealings as an individual. He was also a fascinating +man when he unbent; was affable, intelligent, accessible, and unstilted. +He was an admirable talker, and a tolerable author. He always +sympathized with intellectual excellence. He surrounded himself with +great men in all departments. He had good taste and a severe dignity, +and despised vulgar people; had no craving for fast horses, and held no +intercourse with hostlers and gamblers, even if these gamblers had the +respectable name of brokers. He punished all public thieves; so that his +administration at least was dignified and respectable, and secured the +respect of Europe and the admiration of men of ability. The great +warrior was also a great statesman, and never made himself ridiculous, +never degraded his position and powers, and could admire and detect a +man of genius, even when hidden from the world. He was a Tiberius, but +not a Nero fiddling over national calamities, and surrounding himself +with stage-players, buffoons, and idiots. + +But here his virtues ended. He was cold, selfish, dissembling, +hard-hearted, ungrateful, ambitious, unscrupulous, without faith in +either God or man; so sceptical in religion that he was almost an +atheist. He was a disobedient son, a heartless husband, a capricious +friend, and a selfish self-idolater. While he was the friend of literary +men, he patronized those who were infidel in their creed. He was not a +religious persecutor, because he regarded all religions as equally false +and equally useful. He was social among convivial and learned friends, +but cared little for women or female society. His latter years, though +dignified and quiet, an idol in all military circles, with an immense +fame, and surrounded with every pleasure and luxury at Sans-Souci, were +still sad and gloomy, like those of most great men whose leading +principle of life was vanity and egotism,--like those of Solomon, +Charles V., and Louis XIV. He heard the distant rumblings, if he did not +live to see the lurid fires, of the French Revolution. He had been +deceived in Voltaire, but he could not mistake the logical sequence of +the ideas of Rousseau,--those blasting ideas which would sweep away all +feudal institutions and all irresponsible tyrannies. When Mirabeau +visited him he was a quaking, suspicious, irritable, capricious, unhappy +old man, though adored by his soldiers to the last,--for those were the +only people he ever loved, those who were willing to die for him, those +who built up his throne: and when he died, I suppose he was sincerely +lamented by his army and his generals and his nobility, for with him +began the greatness of Prussia as a military power. So far as a life +devoted to the military and political aggrandizement of a country makes +a man a patriot, Frederic the Great will receive the plaudits of those +men who worship success, and who forget the enormity of unscrupulous +crimes in the outward glory which immediately resulted,--yea, possibly +of contemplative statesmen who see in the rise of a new power an +instrument of the Almighty for some inscrutable end. To me his character +and deeds have no fascination, any more than the fortunate career of +some one of our modern millionnaires would have to one who took no +interest in finance. It was doubtless grateful to the dying King of +Prussia to hear the plaudits of his idolaters, as he stood on the hither +shores of eternity; but his view of the spectators as they lined those +shores must have been soon lost sight of, and their cheering and +triumphant voices unheard and disregarded, as the bark, in which he +sailed alone, put forth on the unknown ocean, to meet the Eternal Judge +of the living and the dead. + +We leave now the man who won so great a fame, to consider briefly his +influence. In two respects, it seems to me, it has been decided and +impressive. In the first place, he gave an impulse to rationalistic +inquiries in Germany; and many there are who think this was a good +thing. He made it fashionable to be cynical and doubtful. Being ashamed +of his own language, and preferring the French, he encouraged the +current and popular French literature, which in his day, under the +guidance of Voltaire, was materialistic and deistical. He embraced a +philosophy which looked to secondary rather than primal causes, which +scouted any revelations that could not be explained by reason, or +reconciled with scientific theories,--that false philosophy which +intoxicated Franklin and Jefferson as well as Hume and Gibbon, and which +finally culminated in Diderot and D'Alembert; the philosophy which +became fashionable in German universities, and whose nearest approach +was that of the exploded Epicureanism of the Ancients. Under the +patronage of the infidel court, the universities of Germany became +filled with rationalistic professors, and the pulpits with dead and +formal divines; so that the glorious old Lutheranism of Prussia became +the coldest and most lifeless of all the forms which Protestantism ever +assumed. Doubtless, great critics and scholars arose under the stimulus +of that unbounded religious speculation which the King encouraged; but +they employed their learning in pulling down rather than supporting the +pillars of the ancient orthodoxy. And so rapidly did rationalism spread +in Northern Germany, that it changed its great lights into _illuminati_, +who spurned what was revealed unless it was in accordance with their +speculations and sweeping criticism. I need not dwell on this +undisguised and blazing fact, on the rationalism which became the +fashion in Germany, and which spread so disastrously over other +countries, penetrating even into the inmost sanctuaries of theological +instruction. All this may be progress; but to my mind it tended to +extinguish the light of faith, and fill the seats of learning with +cynics and unbelieving critics. It was bad enough to destroy the bodies +of men in a heartless war; it was worse to nourish those principles +which poisoned the soul, and spread doubt and disguised infidelities +among the learned classes. + +But the influence of Frederic was seen in a more marked manner in the +inauguration of a national policy directed chiefly to military +aggrandizement. If there ever was a purely military monarchy, it is +Prussia; and this kingdom has been to Europe what Sparta was to Greece. +All the successors of Frederic have followed out his policy with +singular tenacity. All their habits and associations have been military. +The army has been the centre of their pride, ambition, and hope. They +have made their country one vast military camp. They have exempted no +classes from military services; they have honored and exalted the army +more than any other interest. The principal people of the land are +generals. The resources of the kingdom are expended in standing armies; +and these are a perpetual menace. A network of military machinery +controls all other pursuits and interests. The peasant is a military +slave. The student of the university can be summoned to a military camp. +Precedence in rank is given to military men over merchant princes, over +learned professors, over distinguished jurists. The genius of the nation +has been directed to the perfection of military discipline and military +weapons. The government is always prepared for war, and has been rarely +averse to it. It has ever been ready to seize a province or pick a +quarrel. The late war with France was as much the fault of Prussia as of +the government of Napoleon. The great idea of Prussia is military +aggrandizement; it is no longer a small kingdom, but a great empire, +more powerful than either Austria or France. It believes in new +annexations, until all Germany shall be united under a Prussian Kaiser. +What Rome became, Prussia aspires to be. The spirit, the animus, of +Prussia is military power. Travel in that kingdom,--everywhere are +soldiers, military schools, camps, arsenals, fortresses, reviews. And +this military spirit, evident during the last hundred years, has made +the military classes arrogant, austere, mechanical, contemptuous. This +spirit pervades the nation. It despises other nations as much as France +did in the last century, or England after the wars of Napoleon. + +But the great peculiarity of this military spirit is seen in the large +standing armies, which dry up the resources of the nation and make war a +perpetual necessity, at least a perpetual fear. It may be urged that +these armies are necessary to the protection of the state,--that if they +were disbanded, then France, or some other power, would arise and avenge +their injuries, and cripple a state so potent to do evil. It may be so; +but still the evils generated by these armies must be fatal to liberty, +and antagonistic to those peaceful energies which produce the highest +civilization. They are fatal to the peaceful virtues. The great Schiller +has said:-- + + "There exists + An higher than the warrior's excellence. + Great deeds of violence, adventures wild, + And wonders of the moment,--these are not they + Which generate the high, the blissful, + And the enduring majesty." + +I do not disdain the virtues which are developed by war; but great +virtues are seldom developed by war, unless the war is stimulated by +love of liberty or the conservation of immortal privileges worth more +than the fortunes or the lives of men. A nation incapable of being +roused in great necessities soon becomes insignificant and degenerate, +like Greece when it was incorporated with the Roman empire; but I have +no admiration of a nation perpetually arming and perpetually seeking +political aggrandizement, when the great ends of civilization are lost +sight of. And this is what Frederic sought, and his successors who +cherished his ideas. The legacy he bequeathed to the world was not +emancipating ideas, but the policy of military aggrandizement. And yet, +has civilization no higher aim than the imitation of the ancient Romans? +Can nations progressively become strong by ignoring the spirit of +Christianity? Is a nation only to thrive by adopting the sentiments +peculiar to robbers and bandits? I know that Prussia has not neglected +education, or science, or industrial energy; but these have been made +subservient to military aims. The highest civilization is that which +best develops the virtues of the heart and the energies of the mind: on +these the strength of man is based. It may be necessary for Prussia, in +the complicated relations of governments, and in view of possible +dangers, to sustain vast standing armies; but the larger these are, the +more do they provoke other nations to do the same, and to eat out the +vitals of national wealth. That nation is the greatest which seeks to +reduce, rather than augment, forces which prey upon its resources and +which are a perpetual menace. And hence the vast standing armies which +conquerors seek to maintain are not an aid to civilization, but on the +other hand tend to destroy it; unless by civilization and national +prosperity are meant an ever-expanding policy of military +aggrandizement, by which weaker and unoffending states may be gradually +absorbed by irresistible despotism, like that of the Romans, whose final +and logical development proves fatal to all other nationalities and +liberties,--yea, to literature and art and science and industry, the +extinction of which is the moral death of an empire, however grand and +however boastful, only to be succeeded by new creations, through the +fires of successive wars and hateful anarchies. + +In one point, and one alone, I see the Providence which permitted the +military aggrandizement to which Frederic and his successors aimed; and +that is, in furnishing a barrier to the future conquests of a more +barbarous people,--I mean the Russians; even as the conquests of +Charlemagne presented a barrier to the future irruptions of barbarous +tribes on his northern frontier. Russia--that rude, demoralized, +Slavonic empire--cannot conquer Europe until it has first destroyed the +political and military power of Germany. United and patriotic, Germany +can keep at present the Russians at bay, and direct the stream of +invasion to the East rather than the south; so that Europe will not +become either Cossack or French, as Napoleon predicted. In this light +the military genius and power of Germany, which Frederic did so much to +develop, may be designed for the protection of European civilization and +the Protestant religion. + +But I will not speculate on the aims of Providence, or the evil to be +overruled for good. With my limited vision, I can only present facts and +their immediate consequences. I can only deduce the moral truths which +are logically to be drawn from a career of wicked ambition. These truths +are a part of that moral, wisdom which experience confirms, and which +alone should be the guiding lesson to all statesmen and all empires. Let +us pursue the right, and leave the consequences to Him who rules the +fate of war, and guides the nations to the promised period when men +shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and universal peace shall +herald the reign of the Saviour of the world. + +AUTHORITIES. + +The great work of Carlyle on the Life of Frederic, which exhausts the +subject; Macaulay's Essay on the Life and Times of Frederic the Great; +Carlyle's Essay on Frederic; Lord Brougham on Frederic; Coxe's History +of the House of Austria; Mirabeau's Histoire Secrete de la Cour de +Berlin; Oeuvres de Frederic le Grand; Ranke's Neuc Buecher Preussischer +Geschichte; Poellnitz's Memoirs and Letters; Walpole's Reminiscences; +Letters of Voltaire; Voltaire's Idee du Roi de Prusse; Life of Baron +Trenck; Gillies View of the Reign of Frederic II.; Thiebault's Memoires +de Frederic le Grand; Biographic Universelle; Thronbesteigung; Holden. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEACON LIGHTS OF HISTORY, VOLUME +VIII*** + + +******* This file should be named 10627.txt or 10627.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/2/10627 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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