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diff --git a/12845-h/12845-h.htm b/12845-h/12845-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb52ded --- /dev/null +++ b/12845-h/12845-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10122 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <title>The World's Greatest Books Vol XII</title> + <style type="text/css"> + + body + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + p + {text-align: justify;} + + blockquote + {text-align: justify;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 + {text-align: center;} + + hr + {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + + html>body hr + {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + + hr.full + {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full + {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + + pre + {font-size: 0.7em; color: #000; background-color: #FFF;} + + .poetry + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 0%; + text-align: left;} + + .footnote + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em;} + + .index + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + text-align: center;} + + .figure + {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; + text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;} + .figure img + {border: none;} + + .date + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + text-align: right;} + + span.rightnote + {position: absolute; left: 92%; right: 1%; + font-size: 0.7em; border-bottom: solid 1px;} + + span.leftnote + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 92%; + font-size: 0.7em; border-bottom: solid 1px;} + + span.linenum + {float:right; + text-align: right; font-size: 0.7em;} + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12845 ***</div> + +<center> <h1>THE WORLD'S</h1> <h1>GREATEST</h1> <h1>BOOKS</h1> + +<h2>JOINT EDITORS</h2> + +<h3>ARTHUR MEE</h3> +<h4>Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge</h4> + +<h3>J.A. HAMMERTON</h3> +<h4>Editor of Harmsworth a Universal Encyclopaedia</h4> + +<h2>VOL. XII</h2> <h2>MODERN HISTORY</h2> +</center> + +<hr /> + + +<h1><i>Table of Contents</i></h1> + + +MODERN HISTORY<br /> +<br /> +AMERICA<br /> + <a href='#SAMUEL_ELIOT'>ELIOT, SAMUEL</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_the_United_States'>History of the United Stales</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#WILLIAM_HICKLING_PRESCOTT'>PRESCOTT, W. H.</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_the_Conquest_of_Mexico'>History of the Conquest of Mexico</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_the_Conquest_of_Peru'>History of the Conquest of Peru</a><br /> +<br /> +ENGLAND<br /> + <a href='#EDWARD_HYDE'>EDWARD HYDE, E. OF CLARENDON</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_History_of_the_Rebellion'>History of the Rebellion</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#LORD_MACAULAY'>MACAULAY, LORD</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_England'>History of England</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#HENRY_BUCKLE'>BUCKLE, HENRY</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_Civilisation_in_England'>History of Civilization in +England</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#WALTER_BAGEHOT'>BAGEHOT, WALTER</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_English_Constitution'>English Constitution</a><br /> +<br /> +FRANCE<br /> + <a href='#VOLTAIRE1'>VOLTAIRE</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_Age_of_Louis_XIV'>Age of Louis XIV</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#DE_TOCQUEVILLE'>TOCQUEVILLE, DE</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_Old_Regime'>Old Régime</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#FRANCOIS_MIGNET'>MIGNET, FRANCOIS</a><br +/> + <a +href='#History_of_the_French_Revolution1'>History of the French +Revolution</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#THOMAS_CARLYLE1'>CARLYLE, THOMAS</a><br +/> + <a +href='#History_of_the_French_Revolution2'>History of the French +Revolution</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#LAMARTINE'>LAMARTINE, A.M.L. DE</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_the_Girondists'>History of the Girondists</a><br /> +<br /> + <a href='#HIPPOLYTE_ADOLPHE_TAINE'>TAINE, +H.A.</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_Modern_Regime'>Modern Régime</a><br /> +<br /> +GERMANY<br /> + <a href='#THOMAS_CARLYLE2'>CARLYLE, THOMAS</a><br +/> + <a +href='#Frederick_the_Great'>Frederick the Great</a><br /> +<br /> +GREECE<br /> + <a href='#GEORGE_FINLAY'>FINLAY, GEORGE</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_Greece'>History of Greece</a><br /> +<br /> +HOLLAND<br /> + <a href='#JL_MOTLEY'>MOTLEY, J.L.</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_Rise_of_the_Dutch_Republic'>Rise of the Dutch Republic</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_the_United_Netherlands'>History of the United +Netherlands</a><br /> +<br /> +INDIA<br /> + <a href='#MOUNTSTUART_ELPHINSTONE'>ELPHINSTONE, +MOUNTSTUART</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_History_of_India'>History of India</a><br /> +<br /> +RUSSIA<br /> + <a href='#VOLTAIRE2'>VOLTAIRE</a><br /> + <a +href='#Russia_Under_Peter_the_Great'>Russia under Peter the Great</a><br /> +<br /> +SPAIN<br /> + <a href='#WH_PRESCOTT'>PRESCOTT, W.H.</a><br /> + <a +href='#The_Reign_of_Ferdinand_and_Isabella'>Reign of Ferdinand and +Isabella</a><br /> +<br /> +SWEDEN<br /> + <a href='#VOLTAIRE3'>VOLTAIRE</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_Charles_XII'>History of Charles XII</a><br /> +<br /> +PAPACY<br /> + <a href='#HENRY_MILMAN_DD'>MILMAN, HENRY</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_Latin_Christianity'>History of Latin Christianity</a><br +/> +<br /> + <a href='#LEOPOLD_VON_RANKE'>VON RANKE, +LEOPOLD</a><br /> + <a +href='#History_of_the_Popes'>History of the Popes</a><br /> + +<p>A Complete Index of THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS will be found at the end +of Volume XX.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h1><i>Acknowledgment</i></h1> + +<blockquote><p> Acknowledgment and thanks for permitting the use of the +selection by H.A. Taine on "Modern Régime," appearing in this +volume, are hereby tendered to Madame Taine-Paul-Dubois, of Menthon St. +Bernard, France, and Henry Holt & Co., of New York. </p></blockquote> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='SAMUEL_ELIOT'></a>SAMUEL ELIOT</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_United_States'></a>History of the United +States</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Samuel Eliot, a historian and educator, was born in Boston +in 1821, graduated at Harvard in 1839, was engaged in business for two +years, and then travelled and studied abroad for four years more. On his +return, he took up tutoring and gave gratuitous instruction to classes of +young workingmen. He became professor of history and political science in +Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., in 1856, and retained that chair until +1864. During the last four years of that time, he was president of the +institution. From 1864 to 1874 he lectured on constitutional law and +political science. He lectured at Harvard from 1870 to 1873. He was +President of the Social Science Association when it organised the movement +for Civil Service reform in 1869. His history of the United States appeared +in 1856 under the title of "Manual of United States History between the +Years 1792 and 1850." It was revised and brought down to date in 1873, +under the title of "History of the United States." A third edition appeared +in 1881. This work gained distinction as the first adequate textbook of +United States history and still holds the place it deserves in popular +favor. The epitome is supplemented by a chronicle compiled from several +sources. </p></blockquote> + + +<p>The first man to discover the shores of the United States, according to +Icelandic records, was an Icelander, Leif Erickson, who sailed in the year +1000, and spent the winter somewhere on the New England coast. Christopher +Columbus, a Genoese in the Spanish service, discovered San Salvador, one of +the Bahama Islands, on October 12, 1492. He thought that he had found the +western route to the Indies, and, therefore, called his discovery the West +Indies. In 1507, the new continent received its name from that of Amerigo +Vespucci, a Florentine who had crossed the ocean under the Spanish and +Portuguese flags. The middle ages were Closing; the great nations of Europe +were putting forth their energies, material and immaterial; and the +discovery of America came just in season to help and be helped by the men +of these stirring years.</p> + +<p>Ponce de Leon, a companion of Columbus, was the first to reach the +territory of the present United States. On Easter Sunday, 1512, he +discovered the land to which he gave the name of Florida or Flower Land. +Numberless discoverers succeeded him. De Soto led a great expedition +northward and westward, in 1539-43, with no greater reward than the +discovery of the Mississippi. Among the French explorers to claim Canada +under the name of New France, were Verrazzano, 1524, and Cartier, 1534-42. +Champlain began Quebec in 1608. The oldest town in the United States, St. +Augustine, Florida, was founded September 8, 1565, by Menendez de Aviles, +who brought a train of soldiers, priests and negro slaves. The second +oldest town, Santa Fe, was founded by the Spaniards in 1581.</p> + +<p>John Cabot, a Venetian residing in Bristol, was the first person sailing +under the English flag, to come to these shores. He sailed in 1497, with +his three sons, but no settlement was effected. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was +lost at sea in 1583, and Walter Raleigh, his cousin, took up claims that +had been made to him by Queen Elizabeth, and crossed to the shores of the +present North Carolina. Sir Richard Grenville left one hundred and eighty +persons at Roanoke Island, in 1585. They were glad to escape at the +earliest opportunity. Fifteen persons left there later were murdered by the +Indians. Still a third settlement, consisting of one hundred and eighteen +persons, disappeared, leaving no trace. Raleigh was discouraged and made +over his patent to others, who were still less successful.</p> + +<p>The Plymouth Colony and London Colony were formed under King James I. as +business enterprises. The parties to the patents were capitalists, who had +the right to settle colonists and servants, impose duties and coin money, +and who were to pay a share of the profits in the enterprise to the +Crown.</p> + +<p>The London company, under the name of Jamestown, established the +beginning of the first English town in America, May 13, 1607, with one +hundred colonists. Captain John Smith was the genius of the colony, and it +enjoyed a certain prosperity while he remained with it. A curious incident +of its history was the importation of a large number of young women of good +character, who were sold for one hundred and twenty, or even one hundred +and fifteen, pounds of tobacco (at thirteen shillings a pound) to the +lonely settlers. The Company failed, with all its expenditures, some +half-million dollars, in 1624, and at that time, numbered only two thousand +souls--the relics of nine thousand, who had been sent out from England.</p> + +<p>Though the Plymouth Company had obtained exclusive grants and +privileges, they never achieved any actual colony. A band of independents, +numbering one hundred and two, whose extreme principles led to their exile, +first from England and then from Holland, landed at a place called New +Plymouth, in 1620. Half died within a year. Nevertheless, the Pilgrims, as +they were called, extended their settlement. The distinction of the +Pilgrims at Plymouth is that they relied upon themselves, and developed +their own resources. Salem was begun in 1625, and for three years was +called Naumkeag. In 1628, John Endicott came from England with one hundred +settlers, as Governor for the Massachusetts Colony, extending from the +Charles to the Merrimac river. A royal charter was procured for the +Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and one thousand +colonists, led by John Winthrop, settled Boston, 1630. These colonists were +Puritans, who wished to escape political and religious persecution. They +brought over their own charter and developed a form of popular government. +The freemen of the town elected the governor and board of assistants, but +suffrage was restricted to members of the church. Representative government +was granted in other colonies, but in the royal colonies of Virginia and +New York, the executive officers and members of the upper branch of the +legislature were appointed by the Crown. In Maryland, appointments were +made in the same way by the Proprietor. Maryland was founded 1632, by royal +grant to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore.</p> + +<p>The English colonies were divided in the middle by the Dutch at New +Amsterdam and the Swedes on the Delaware. The claim of the prior discovery +of Manhattan was raised by the English, who took New Amsterdam, in 1664. +Charles II. presented a charter to his brother, James, Duke of York. East +and west Jersey were formed out of part of the grant.</p> + +<p>The patent for the great territory included in the present state of +Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn in 1681. Penn laid the foundations +for a liberal constitution. Patents for the territory of Carolina were +given in 1663. Carolina reached the Spanish possessions in the South.</p> + +<p>The New England settlers spread westward and northward. Connecticut +adopted a written constitution in 1639. The charter of Rhode Island, 1663, +confirmed the aim of its founder, Roger Williams, in the separation of +civil and religious affairs.</p> + +<p>The English predominated in the colonies, though other nationalities +were represented on the Atlantic seaboard. The laws were based on English +custom, and loyalty to England prevailed. The colonists united for mutual +support during the early Indian wars. The United Colonies of New England, +comprised Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven. This +union was formed in 1643, and lasted nearly forty years. The "Lord of +Trade" caused the colonies to unite later, at the time of the French and +Indian War, 1754.</p> + +<p>The colonies, nevertheless, were too far apart to feel a common +interest. Communication between them was slow, and commerce was almost +entirely carried on with the English. The boundaries were frequently a +cause of conflict between them. The plan of a constitution was devised by +Franklin, but even the menace of war could not make the colonies adopt +it.</p> + +<p>While the English were establishing themselves firmly on the coast, the +French were all the time quietly working in the interior. Their explorers +and merchants established posts to the Great Lakes, the northwest and the +valley of the Mississippi. The clash with the English came in 1690. King +William's War, Queen Anne's War and the French and Indian War, were all +waged before the difficulties were settled in the rout of the French from +the continent. The so-called French and Indian War (1701-13) was the +American counterpart of the Seven Years' War of Europe. The chief events of +this war were: the surrender of Washington at Fort Necessity, 1754; removal +of the Arcadian settlers, 1755; Braddock's defeat, July 9, 1755; capture of +Oswego by Montcalm, 1756; the capture of Louisburg and Fort Duquesne, 1758; +the capture of Ticonderoga and Niagara in 1759; battle of Quebec, September +13, 1759; surrender of Montreal, 1760.</p> + +<p>At the Peace of Paris, 1763, the French claims to American territory +were formally relinquished. Spain, however, got control of the territory +west of the Mississippi, in 1762. This was known as Louisiana, and extended +from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains.</p> + +<p>At this period the relations of the colonies with the home government +became seriously strained. The demands that goods should be transported in +English ships, that trade should be carried on only with England, that the +colonies should not manufacture anything in competition with home products, +were the chief causes of friction. The navigation laws were evaded without +public resistance, and smuggling became a common practice.</p> + +<p>The Stamp Act, in 1765, required stamps to be affixed to all public +documents, newspapers, almanacs and other printed matter. All of the +colonies were taxed at the same time by this scheme, which was contrary to +their belief that they should be taxed only by their legislatures; although +the proceeds of the taxes were to have been devoted to the defence of the +colonies. Delegates, protesting against the Act, were sent to England by +nine colonies. The Stamp Act Congress, October 7, 1765, passed measures of +protest. The people never used the stamps, and the Act was repealed the +next year. As a substitute, the English government established, in 1767, +duties on paper, paint, glass and tea. The colonies replied by renewing the +agreement which they made in 1765, not to import any English goods. The +sending of troops to Boston aggravated the trouble. All the duties but that +on tea were then withdrawn. Cargoes of tea were destroyed at Boston and +Charleston, and a bond of common sympathy was slowly forged between the +colonies.</p> + +<p>In 1774, the harbour of Boston was closed, and the Massachusetts charter +was revoked. Arbitrary power was placed in the hands of the governor. The +colonies mourned in sympathy. The assembly of Virginia was dismissed by its +governor, but merely reunited, and proceeded to call a continental +congress.</p> + +<p>The first continental congress was held at Capitol Hall, Philadelphia, +September 5, 1774. All the colonies but Georgia were represented. The +congress appealed to George III. for redress. They drafted the Declaration +of Rights, and pledged the colonies not to use British importations and to +export no American goods to Great Britain or to its colonies.</p> + +<p>The battles of Lexington and Concord were precipitated by the attempt of +the British to seize the colonists' munitions of war. The immediate result +was the assembling of a second continental congress at Philadelphia, May +10, 1775. The second congress was in a short time organising armies and +assuming all the powers of government.</p> + +<p>On November 1, 1775, it was learned that King George would not receive +the petition asking for redress, and the idea of the Declaration of +Independence was conceived. On May 15, 1776, the congress voted that all +British authority ought to be suppressed. Thomas Jefferson, in December, +drafted the Constitution, and it was adopted on July 4, 1776.</p> + +<p>The leading events of the Revolution were the battles of Lexington and +Concord, April 19, 1775; capture of Ticonderoga, May 10; Bunker Hill, June +17; unsuccessful attack on Canada, 1775-1776; surrender of Boston, March +17, 1776; battle of Long Island, August 27; White Plains, October 28; +retreat through New Jersey, at the end of 1776; battle of Trenton, December +26; battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777; Bennington, August 16; +Brandywine, September 11; Germantown, October 4; Saratoga, October 7; +Burgoyne's surrender, October 17; battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778; +storming of Stony Point, July 15, 1779; battle of Camden, August 16, 1780; +battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781; surrender of Cornwallis, October 19, +1781.</p> + +<p>The surrender of Cornwallis terminated the struggle. The peace treaty +was signed in 1783. The financial situation was very deplorable. One of the +greatest difficulties that confronted the colonists, was the limited power +of Congress. The states could regulate commerce and exercise nearly all +authority. But disputes regarding their boundaries prevented their +development as a united nation.</p> + +<p>Congress issued an ordinance in 1784 under which territories might +organise governments, send delegates to Congress, and obtain admission as +states. This was made use of in 1787 by the Northwest Territory, the region +lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. The states +made a compact in which it was agreed that there should be no slavery in +this territory.</p> + +<p>The critical period lasted until 1789. In the absence of strong +authority, economic and political troubles arose. Finally, a commission +appointed by Maryland and Virginia to settle questions relating to +navigation on the Potomac resulted in a convention to adjust the navigation +and commerce of the whole of the United States, called the Annapolis +Convention from the place where it met, May 1, 1787. Rhode Island was the +only state that failed to send delegates. Instead of taking up the +interstate commerce questions the convention formulated the present +Constitution. A President, with power to carry out the will of the people, +was provided, and also, a Supreme Court.</p> + +<p>Washington was elected first President, his term beginning March 4, +1789. A census was taken in 1790. The largest city was Philadelphia, with a +population of 42,000--the others were New York, 33,000, and Boston, 18,000. +The total population of the United States was 4,000,000. The slaves +numbered 700,000; free negroes, 60,000, and the Indians, 80,000.</p> + +<p>The Federalists, who believed in centralised government, were the most +influential men in Congress. Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson +Secretary of State, Knox Secretary of War, Hamilton Secretary of the +Treasury, Osgood Postmaster General, and Jay Chief Justice of the Supreme +Court.</p> + +<p>The first tariff act was passed with a view of providing revenue and +protection, in 1789. The national debt amounted to $52,000,000.00--a +quarter of which was due abroad. The states had incurred an expense of +$25,000,000.00 more, in supporting the Revolution. The country suffered +from inflated currency. The genius of Hamilton saved the situation. He +persuaded Congress to assume the whole obligation of the national +government and of the states. Washington selected the site of the capitol +on the banks of the Potomac. But the government convened at Philadelphia +for ten years. Vermont and Kentucky were admitted as states by the first +Congress.</p> + +<p>In Washington's administration, a number of American ships were captured +by British war vessels. England was at war with France and claimed the +right of stopping American vessels to look for possible deserters. War was +avoided by the Jay Treaty, November 19, 1794.</p> + +<p>Washington retired, in 1796, at the end of two terms. John Adams, who +had been Ambassador to France, Holland and England, became second +President. The Democratic-Republican party, originated at this time, stood +for a strict construction of the constitution and favoured France rather +than England. Its leader was Thomas Jefferson. Adams proved but a poor +party leader, and the power of the Federalists failed after eight years. He +had gained some popularity in the early part of his first term when France +began to retaliate for the Jay Treaty by seizing American ships, and would +not receive the American minister. He appointed Charles Coatesworth +Pinckney, with John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, as a commission to treat +with the French. The French commissioners who met them demanded +$24,000,000.00 as a bribe to draw up a treaty. The names of the French +commissioners were referred to in American newspapers as X, Y and Z. Taking +advantage of the popular favour gained in the conduct of this affair, the +Federalists succeeded in passing the Alien and Sedition Laws.</p> + +<p>Napoleon seized the power in France and made peace with the United +States. In the face of impending war between France and England, Napoleon +gave up his plans of an empire in America and sold Louisiana to the United +States for $15,000,000.00. The territory included 1,500,000 square miles. +The Lewis and Clarke Expedition, sent out by Jefferson, started from St. +Louis May 14, 1804, crossed the Rocky Mountains and discovered the Oregon +country.</p> + +<p>Aaron Burr was defeated for Governor of New York, and in his +Presidential ambitions, and in revenge killed Hamilton in a duel. He fled +the Ohio River country and made active preparations to carry out some kind +of a scheme. He probably intended to proceed against the Spanish +possessions in the Southwest and Mexico, and set himself up as a ruler. He +was betrayed by his confidante, Wilkinson, and was tried for treason and +acquitted in Richmond, Va., in 1807.</p> + +<p>The momentous question of slavery in the territories came up in +Jefferson's administration. The institution was permitted in Mississippi, +but the ordinance of 1787 was maintained in Indiana. The importation of +slaves was prohibited after January 1, 1808.</p> + +<p>James Madison, a Republican, became President, in 1809. The Indians, +under Tecumseh, attacked the Western settlers, but were defeated at +Tippecanoe by William Henry Harrison in 1811. In the same year, Congress +determined to break with England. Clay and Calhoun led the agitation. +Madison acceded, and war was declared June 18, 1812. The Treaty of Ghent +was signed on December 24, 1814. British commerce had been devastated. A +voyage even from England to Ireland was made unsafe.</p> + +<p>The leading events of the War of 1812 were the unsuccessful invasion of +Canada and surrender at Detroit, August 12, 1812; sea fight in which the +"Constitution" took the "Guerriere," August 19th; sea fight in which the +"United States" took the "Macedonian," October 25, 1813; defeat at +Frenchtown, January 22nd; victory on Lake Erie, September 10th; loss of the +"Chesapeake" to the "Shannon," June 1st; victory at Chippewa, July 5, 1814; +victory at Lundy's Lane, July 15th; Lake Champlain, September 11th; British +burned public buildings in Washington, August 25th; American defeated +British at Baltimore, September 13th; American under Jackson defeated the +British at New Orleans, December 23rd and 28th.</p> + +<p>Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, were admitted as states, in 1792, 1796, +and 1803, respectively. In 1806, the federal government began a wagon road, +from the Potomac River to the West through the Cumberland Gap. New York +State finished the Erie Canal, in 1825. The population increased so +rapidly, that six new states, west and south of the Allegheny Mountains, +were admitted between 1812 and 1821. A serious conflict arose in 1820 over +the admission of Missouri. The Missouri Compromise resulted in the +prohibition of slavery in the Louisiana Purchase, north of 36° and 30' +north latitude. Missouri was admitted in 1831, and Maine, as a free state, +in 1820.</p> + +<p>With the passing of protective tariff measures in 1816 a readjustment of +party lines took place. Protection brought over New England from Federalism +to Republicanism. Henry Clay of Kentucky was the leading advocate of +protection. Everybody was agreed upon this point in believing that tariff +was to benefit all classes. This time was known as "The Era of Good +Feeling."</p> + +<p>Spain ceded Florida to the United States for $5,000,000.00, throwing in +claims in the Northwest, and the United States gave up her claim to Texas. +The treaty was signed in 1819.</p> + +<p>The Monroe Doctrine was contained in the message that President Monroe +sent to Congress December 2, 1823. The colonies of South America had +revolted from Spain and had set up republics. The United States recognised +them in 1821. Spain called on Europe for assistance. In his message to +Congress, Monroe declared, "We could not view any interposition for the +purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their +destiny by any European power, in any other light than as a manifestation +of an unfriendly feeling toward the United States....The American +Continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future +colonisation by any European power." Great Britain had previously suggested +to Monroe that she would not support the designs of Spain.</p> + +<p>Protective measures were passed in 1824 and 1828. Around Adams and Clay +were formed the National-Republican Party, which was joined by the +Anti-Masons and other elements to form the Whig Party. Andrew Jackson was +the centre of the other faction, which came to be known as the Democratic +Party and has had a continuous existence ever since. South Carolina checked +the rising tariff for a while by declaring the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 +null and void.</p> + +<p>The region which now forms the state of Texas had been gradually filling +up with settlers. Many had brought slaves with them, although Mexico +abolished slavery in 1829. The United States tried to purchase the country. +Mexican forces under Santa Anna tried to enforce their jurisdiction in +1836. Texas declared her independence and drew up a constitution, +establishing slavery. Opposition in the United States to the increase of +slave territory defeated a plan for the annexation of this territory.</p> + +<p>The New England Anti-Slavery Society was formed 1832, and the American +Anti-Slavery Society was founded in Philadelphia in 1833. William Lloyd +Garrison was the leader of abolition as a great moral agitation.</p> + +<p>John C. Calhoun, Tyler's Secretary of State, proposed the annexation of +Texas in 1844, but the scheme was rejected by the Senate. The election of +Polk changed the complexion of affairs and Congress admitted Texas, which +became a state in December, 1845.</p> + +<p>The boundaries had never been settled and war with Mexico followed. +Taylor defeated the Mexican forces at Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, at Resaca de +la Palma, May 9th, and later at Monterey and Buena Vista. Scott was sent to +Vera Cruz with an expedition, which fought its way to the City of Mexico by +September 14, 1846. The United States troops also seized New Mexico. +California revolted and joined the United States. The Gadsden Purchase of +1853 secured a further small strip of territory from Mexico.</p> + +<p>The Boundary Treaty with Great Britain, in June, 1846, established the +northern limits of Oregon at 49th parallel north latitude.</p> + +<p>The plans for converting California into a slave state were frustrated +by the discovery of gold. Fifty thousand emigrants poured in. The men +worked with their own hands, and would not permit slaves to be brought in +by their owners. Five bills, known as the Compromise of 1850, provided that +New Mexico should be organised as a territory out of Texas; admitted +California as a free state; established Utah as a territory; provided a +more rigid fugitive slave law; and abolished slavery in the District of +Columbia.</p> + +<p>Cuba was regarded as a promising field for the extension of the slave +territory when the Democratic Party returned to power in 1853 with the +administration of Franklin Pierce. The ministers to Spain, France and Great +Britain met in Belgium, at the President's direction, and issued the Ostend +Manifesto, which declared that the United States would be justified in +annexing Cuba, if Spain refused to sell the island. This Manifesto followed +the popular agitation over the Virginius affair. The Spaniards had seized a +ship of that name, which was smuggling arms to the Cubans, and put to death +some Americans. War was averted, and Cuba remained in the control of the +Spaniards.</p> + +<p>The Supreme Court in 1857, in the Dred Scott decision, held that a slave +was not a citizen and had no standing in the law, that Congress had no +right to prohibit slavery in the territories, and that the constitution +guaranteed slave property.</p> + +<p>The Presidential campaign in 1858, which was signalised by the debates +between Douglass and Lincoln, resulted in raising the Republican power in +the House of Representatives, to equal that of the Democrats.</p> + +<p>A fanatic Abolitionist, John Brown, with a few followers, seized the +Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859, defended it heroically against +overpowering numbers, but was finally taken, tried and condemned for +treason. This incident served as an argument in the South for the necessity +of secession to protect the institution of slavery.</p> + +<p>In the Presidential election of 1860, the Republican convention +nominated Lincoln. Douglass and John C. Breckenridge split the Democratic +vote, and Lincoln was elected President. This was the immediate cause of +the Civil War. The first state to secede was South Carolina. A state +convention, called by the Legislature, met on December 20, 1860, and +declared that the union of that state and the other states was dissolved. +Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana, followed in the first +month of 1861, and Texas seceded February 1st. They formed a Confederacy +with a constitution and government at a convention at Montgomery, Alabama, +February, 1861. Jefferson Davis was chosen President, and Alexander H. +Stephens, Vice-President.</p> + +<p>Sumter fell on April 14th, and the following day Lincoln called for +75,000 volunteers. The demand was more than filled. The Confederacy, also, +issued a call for volunteers which was enthusiastically received. Four +border states went over to the Confederacy, Arkansas, North Carolina, +Virginia and Tennessee. Three went over, in May, and the last, June 18.</p> + +<p>The leading events of the Civil War were, the battle of Bull Run, July +21, 1861; Wilson's Creek, August 2; Trent Affair, November 8, 1862; Battle +of Mill Spring, January 19; Ft. Henry, February 6; Ft. Donelson, February +13-16: fight between the "Monitor" and "Merrimac," March 9; Battle of +Shiloh, April 6-7; capture of New Orleans, April 25; battle of +Williamsburgh, May 5; Fair Oaks, May 31-June 1; "Seven Days' +Battle"--Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mill, Frazier's Farm, Malvern Hill, June +25-July 1; Cedar Mountain, August 9; second battle of Bull Run, August 30; +Chantilly, September 1; South Mountain, September 14; Antietam, September +17; Iuka, September 19; Corinth, October 4; Fredericksburg, December 13; +Murfreesboro, December 31-January 2, 1863. Emancipation Proclamation, +January 1; battle of Chancellorsville, May 1-4; Gettysburg, July 1-3; fall +of Vicksburg, July 4; battle of Chickamauga, September 19-20; Chattanooga, +November 23-25; 1864--battles of Wilderness and Spottsylvania, May 5-7; +Sherman's advance through northern Georgia, in May and June; battle of Cold +Harbor, June 1-3; the "Kearsarge" sank the "Alabama," June 19; battles of +Atlanta, July 20-28; naval battle of Mobile, August 5; battle of +Winchester, September 19; Cedar Creek, October 19; Sherman's march through +Georgia to the sea, November and December; battle of Nashville, December +15-16; 1865--surrender of Fort Fisher, January 15; battle of Five Forks, +April 1; surrender of Richmond, April 3; surrender of Lee's army at +Appomattox, April 9; surrender of Johnston's army, April 26; surrender of +Kirby Smith, May 26.</p> + +<p>Lincoln, who had been elected for a second term, was assassinated on +April 14, 1865, in Ford's Theatre, Washington.</p> + +<p>The United States expended $800,000,000 in revenue, and incurred a debt +of three times that amount during the war.</p> + +<p>The Reconstruction Period lasted from 1865 to 1870. The South was left +industrially prostrate, and it required a long period to adjust the change +from the ownership to the employment of the negro.</p> + +<p>Alaska was purchased from Russia, in 1867, for $7,200,000.00.</p> + +<p>An arbitration commission was called for by Congress to settle the +damage claims of the United States against Great Britain, on account of +Great Britain's failure to observe duties of a neutral during the war. The +conference was held at Geneva, at the end of 1871, and announced its award +six months later. This was $15,000,000.00 damages, to be paid to the United +States for depredations committed by vessels fitted out by the Confederates +in British ports. The chief of these privateers was the "Alabama."</p> + +<p>One of the first acts of President Hayes, in 1877, was the withdrawal of +the Federal troops of the South. The new era of prosperity dates from the +resumption of home rule.</p> + +<p>The Bland Bill of 1878 stipulated that at least $2,000,000, and not more +than $4,000,000, should be coined in silver dollars each month, at the +fixed ratio of 16-1.</p> + +<p>Garfield, the twentieth President of the United States, was elected +1880, and was assassinated on July 2, 1881, in Washington, by an insane +office-seeker, and died September 19th.</p> + +<p>The Civil Service Act of 1833 provided examinations for classified +service, and prohibited removal for political reasons. It also forbade +political assessments by a government official, or in the government +buildings.</p> + +<p>The Interstate Commerce Commission was established in 1877 with very +limited powers, based on the clause in the constitution, drawn up in 1787, +giving Congress the power to regulate domestic commerce.</p> + +<p>Harrison was elected 1888. Both Houses were Republican, and the tariff +was increased. In 1890, the McKinley Bill raised the duties to an average +of 50 per cent, but reciprocity was provided for.</p> + +<p>The Sherman Bill superseded the Bland Bill, and provided that 4,500,000 +ounces of silver bullion must be bought and stored in the Treasury each +month. This measure failed to sustain the price of silver, and there was a +great demand, in the South and West, for the free coinage of that +metal.</p> + +<p>The tariff was made the issue of the next Presidential election, in +1892, when Cleveland defeated Harrison by a large majority of electoral +votes. Each received a popular vote of 5,000,400. The Populist Party, which +espoused the silver cause, polled 1,000,000 votes.</p> + +<p>Congress was called in special session, and repealed the Silver Purchase +Bill, and devised means of protection for the gold reserve which was +approaching the vanishing point.</p> + +<p>Cleveland forced Great Britain to arbitrate the boundary dispute with +Venezuela in 1895, by a defiant enunciation of the Monroe doctrine. +Congress supported him and voted unanimously for a commission to settle the +dispute.</p> + +<p>Free coinage of silver was the chief issue of the Presidential election, +in 1896. McKinley defeated Bryan by a great majority. The Dingley Tariff +Bill maintained the protective theory.</p> + +<p>The blowing up of the "Maine," in the Havana Harbor, in 1898, hastened +the forcible intervention of the United States, in Cuba, where Spain had +been carrying on a war for three years.</p> + +<p>On May 1st, Dewey entered Manila Bay and destroyed a Spanish fleet. The +more powerful and stronger Spanish fleet was destroyed while trying to +escape from the Harbour of Santiago de Cuba, on July 3.</p> + +<p>By the Treaty of Paris, December 10, Porto Rico was ceded, and the +Philippine Islands were made over on a payment of $20,000,000, and a +republic was established in Cuba, under the United States protectory.</p> + +<p>Hawaii had been annexed, and was made a territory, in 1900.</p> + +<p>A revolt against the United States in the Philippine Islands was put +down, in 1901, after two years.</p> + +<p>McKinley was elected to a second term, with a still more overwhelming +majority over Bryan.</p> + +<p>McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901, at the Pan-American +Exposition at Buffalo, by an Anarchist. Theodore Roosevelt, the +Vice-President, succeeded him, and was re-elected, in 1904, defeating Alton +B. Parker.</p> + +<p>Roosevelt intervened in the Anthracite Coal Strike, in 1902, recognised +the revolutionary Republic of Panama, and in his administration, the United +States acquired the Panama Canal Zone, and began work on the inter-oceanic +canal. Great efforts were made, during his administration, to repress the +big corporations by prosecutions, under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The +conservation of natural resources was also taken up as a fixed policy.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='WILLIAM_HICKLING_PRESCOTT'></a>WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_Conquest_of_Mexico'></a>History of the Conquest +of Mexico</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> The "Conquest of Mexico" is a spirited and graphic +narrative of a stirring episode in history. To use his own words, the +author (see p. 271) has "endeavoured to surround the reader with the spirit +of the times, and, in a word, to make him a contemporary of the 16th +century." </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I. The Mexican Empire</i></h3> + + +<p>Of all that extensive empire which once acknowledged the authority of +Spain in the New World, no portion, for interest and importance, can be +compared with Mexico--and this equally, whether we consider the variety of +its soil and climate; the inexhaustible stores of its mineral wealth; its +scenery, grand and picturesque beyond example; the character of its ancient +inhabitants, not only far surpassing in intelligence that of the other +North American races, but reminding us, by their monuments, of the +primitive civilisation of Egypt and Hindostan; and lastly, the peculiar +circumstances of its conquest, adventurous and romantic as any legend +devised by any Norman or Italian bard of chivalry. It is the purpose of the +present narrative to exhibit the history of this conquest, and that of the +remarkable man by whom it was achieved.</p> + +<p>The country of the ancient Mexicans, or Aztecs as they were called, +formed but a very small part of the extensive territories comprehended in +the modern Republic of Mexico. The Aztecs first entered it from the north +towards the beginning of the thirteenth century, but it was not until the +year 1325 that, led by an auspicious omen, they laid the foundations of +their future city by sinking piles into the shallows of the principal lake +in the Mexican valley. Thus grew the capital known afterwards to Europeans +as Mexico. The omen which led to the choice of this site--an eagle perched +upon a cactus--is commemorated in the arms of the modern Mexican +Republic.</p> + +<p>In the fifteenth century there was formed a remarkable league, +unparallelled in history, according to which it was agreed between the +states of Mexico, Tezcuco, and the neighbouring little kingdom of Tlacopan, +that they should mutually support each other in their wars, and divide the +spoil on a fixed scale. During a century of warfare this alliance was +faithfully adhered to and the confederates met with great success. At the +beginning of the sixteenth century, just before the arrival of the +Spaniards, the Aztec dominion reached across the continent, from the +Atlantic to the Pacific. There was thus included in it territory thickly +peopled by various races, themselves warlike, and little inferior to the +Aztecs in social organisation. What this organisation was may be briefly +indicated.</p> + +<p>The government of the Aztecs, or Mexicans, was an elective monarchy, the +sovereign being, however, always chosen from the same family. His power was +almost absolute, the legislative power residing wholly with him, though +justice was administered through an administrative system which +differentiated the government from the despotisms of the East. Human life +was protected, except in the sense that human sacrifices were common, the +victims being often prisoners of war. Slavery was practised, but strictly +regulated. The Aztec code was, on the whole, stamped with the severity of a +rude people, relying on physical instead of moral means for the correction +of evil. Still, it evinces a profound respect for the great principles of +morality, and as clear a perception of those principles as is to be found +in the most cultivated nations. One instance of their advanced position is +striking; hospitals were established in the principal cities, for the cure +of the sick, and the permanent refuge of the disabled soldier; and surgeons +were placed over them, "who were so far better than those in Europe," says +an old chronicler, "that they did not protract the cure, in order to +increase the pay."</p> + +<p>In their religion, the Aztecs recognised a Supreme Creator and Lord of +the universe, "without whom man is as nothing," "invisible, incorporeal, +one God, of perfect perfection and purity," "under whose wings we find +repose and a sure defence." But beside Him they recognised numerous gods, +who presided over the changes of the seasons, and the various occupations +of man, and in whose honour they practised bloody rites. Such were the +people dwelling in the lovely Mexican valley, and wielding a power that +stretched far beyond it, when the Spanish expedition led by Hernando Cortes +landed on the coast. The expedition was the fruit of an age and a people +eager for adventure, for gain, for glory, and for the conversion of +barbaric peoples to the Christian faith. The Spaniards were established in +the West Indian Islands, and sought further extension of their dominions in +the West, whence rumours of great treasure had reached them. Thus it +happened that Velasquez, the Spanish Governor of Cuba, designed to send a +fleet to explore the mainland, to gain what treasure he could by peaceful +barter with the natives, and by any means he could to secure their +conversion. It was commanded by Cortes, a man of extraordinary courage and +ability, and extraordinary gifts for leadership, to whose power both of +control and inspiration must be ascribed, in a very great degree, the +success of his amazing enterprise.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Invasion of the Empire</i></h3> + + +<p>It was on the eighteenth of February, 1519, that the little squadron +finally set sail from Cuba for the coast of Yucatan. Before starting, +Cortes addressed his soldiers in a manner both very characteristic of the +man, and typical of the tone which he took towards them on several +occasions of great difficulty and danger, when but for his courageous +spirit and great power of personal influence, the expedition could only +have found a disastrous end. Part of his speech was to this effect: "I hold +out to you a glorious prize, but it is to be won by incessant toil. Great +things are achieved only by great exertions, and glory was never the reward +of sloth. If I have laboured hard and staked my all on this undertaking, it +is for the love of that renown, which is the noblest recompense of man. +But, if any among you covet riches more, be but true to me, as I will be +true to you and to the occasion, and I will make you masters of such as our +countrymen have never dreamed of! You are few in number, but strong in +resolution; and, if this does not falter, doubt not but that the Almighty, +who has never deserted the Spaniard in his contest with the infidel, will +shield you, though encompassed by a cloud of enemies; for your cause is a +<i>just cause</i>, and you are to fight under the banner of the Cross. Go +forward then, with alacrity and confidence, and carry to a glorious issue +the work so auspiciously begun."</p> + +<p>The first landing was made on the island of Cozumel, where the natives +were forcibly converted to Christianity. Then, reaching the mainland, they +were attacked by the natives of Tabasco, whom they soon reduced to +submission. These made presents to the Spanish commander, including some +female slaves. One of these, named by the Spaniards Marina, became of great +use to the conquerors in the capacity of interpreter, and by her loyalty, +her intelligence, and, not least, by her distinguished courage became a +powerful influence in the fortunes of the Spaniards.</p> + +<p>The next event of consequence in the career of the Conquerors was the +foundation of the first colony in New Spain, the town of Villa Rica de Vera +Cruz, on the sea-shore. Following this, came the reduction of the warlike +Republic of Tlascala, and the conclusion of an alliance with its +inhabitants which proved of priceless value to the Spaniards in their long +warfare with the. Mexicans.</p> + +<p>More than one embassy had reached the Spanish camp from Montezuma, the +Emperor of Mexico, bearing presents and conciliatory messages, but +declining to receive the strangers in his capital. The basis of his conduct +and of that of the bulk of his subjects towards the Spaniards was an +ancient tradition concerning a beneficent deity named Quetzalcoatl who had +sailed away to the East, promising to return and reign once more over his +people. He had a white skin, and long, dark hair; and the likeness of the +Spaniards to him in this respect gave rise to the idea that they were his +representatives, and won them honour accordingly; while even to those +tribes who were entirely hostile a supernatural terror clung around their +name. Montezuma, therefore, desired to conciliate them while seeking to +prevent their approach to his capital. But this was the goal of their +expedition, and Cortes, with his little army, never exceeding a few hundred +in all, reinforced by some Tlascalan auxiliaries, marched towards the +capital. Montezuma, on hearing of their approach, was plunged into +despondency. "Of what avail is resistance," he is said to have exclaimed, +"when the gods have declared themselves against us! Yet I mourn most for +the old and infirm, the women and children, too feeble to fight or to fly. +For myself and the brave men round me, we must bare our breasts to the +storm, and meet it as we may!"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Spaniards marched on, enchanted as they came by the beauty +and the wealth of the city and its neighbourhood. It was built on piles in +a great lake, and as they descended into the valley it seemed to them to be +a reality embodying in the fairest dreams of all those who had spoken of +the New World and its dazzling glories. They passed along one of the +causeways which constituted the only method of approach to the city, and as +they entered, they were met by Montezuma himself, in all his royal state. +Bowing to what seemed the inevitable, he admitted them to the capital, gave +them a royal palace for their quarters, and entertained them well. After a +week, however, the Spaniards began to be doubtful of the security of their +position, and to strengthen it Cortes conceived and carried out the daring +plan of gaining possession of Montezuma's person. With his usual audacity +he went to the palace, accompanied by some of his cavaliers, and compelled +Montezuma to consent to transfer himself and his household to the Spanish +quarters. After this, Cortes demanded that he should recognise formally the +supremacy of the Spanish emperor. Montezuma agreed, and a large treasure, +amounting in value to about one and a half million pounds sterling, was +despatched to Spain in token of his fealty. The ship conveying it to Spain +touched at the coast of Cuba, and the news of Cortes's success inflamed +afresh the jealousy of Velasquez, its governor, who had long repented of +his choice of a commander. Therefore, in March, 1520, he sent Narvaez at +the head of a rival expedition, to overcome Cortes and appropriate the +spoils. But he had reckoned without the character of Cortes. Leaving a +garrison in Mexico, the latter advanced by forced marches to meet Narvaez, +and took him unawares, entirely defeating his much superior force. More +than this, he induced most of these troops to join him, and thus, +reinforced also from Tlascala, marched back to Mexico. There his presence +was greatly needed, for news had reached him that the Mexicans had risen, +and that the garrison was already in straits.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Retreat from Mexico</i></h3> + + +<p>It was indeed in a serious position that Cortes found his troops, +threatened by famine, and surrounded by a hostile population. But he was so +confident of his ability to overawe the insurgents that he wrote to that +effect to the garrison of Vera Cruz, by the same dispatches in which he +informed them of his safe arrival in the capital. But scarcely had his +messenger been gone half an hour, when he returned breathless with terror, +and covered with wounds. "The city," he said, "was all in arms! The +drawbridges were raised, and the enemy would soon be upon them!" He spoke +truth. It was not long before a hoarse, sullen sound became audible, like +that of the roaring of distant waters. It grew louder and louder; till, +from the parapet surrounding the enclosure, the great avenues which led to +it might be seen dark with the masses of warriors, who came rolling on in a +confused tide towards the fortress. At the same time, the terraces and flat +roofs in the neighbourhood were thronged with combatants brandishing their +missiles, who seemed to have risen up as if by magic. It was a spectacle to +appall the stoutest.</p> + +<p>But this was only the prelude to the disasters that were to befall the +Spaniards. The Mexicans made desperate assaults upon the Spanish quarters, +in which both sides suffered severely. At last Montezuma, at the request of +Cortes, tried to interpose. But his subjects, in fury at what they +considered his desertion of them, gave him a wound of which he died. The +position became untenable, and Cortes decided on retreat. This was carried +out at night, and owing to the failure of a plan for laying a portable +bridge across those gaps in the causeway left by the drawbridges, the +Spaniards were exposed to a fierce attack from the natives which proved +most disastrous. Caught on the narrow space of the causeway, and forced to +make their way as best they could across the gaps, they were almost +overwhelmed by the throngs of their enemies. Cortes who, with some of the +vanguard, had reached comparative safety, dashed back into the thickest of +the fight where some of his comrades were making a last stand, and brought +them out with him, so that at last all the survivors, a sadly stricken +company, reached the mainland.</p> + +<p>The story of the reconstruction by Cortes of his shattered and +discouraged army is one of the most astonishing chapters in the whole +history of the Conquest. Wounded, impoverished, greatly reduced in numbers +and broken in spirit by the terrible experience through which they had +passed, they demanded that the expedition should be abandoned and +themselves conveyed back to Cuba. Before long, the practical wisdom and +personal influence of Cortes had recovered them, reanimated their spirits, +and inspired them with fresh zeal for conquest, and now for revenge. He +added to their numbers the very men sent against him by Velasquez at this +juncture, whom he persuaded to join him; and had the same success with the +members of another rival expedition from Jamaica. Eventually he set out +once more for Mexico, with a force of nearly six hundred Spaniards, and a +number of allies from Tlascala.</p> + + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Siege and Capture of Mexico</i></h3> + + + +<p>The siege of Mexico is one of the most memorable and most disastrous +sieges of history. Cortes disposed his troops so as to occupy the three +great causeways leading from the shore of the lake to the city, and thus +cut off the enemy from their sources of supply. He was strong in the +possession of twelve brigantines, built by his orders, which swept the lake +with their guns and frequently defeated the manoeuvres of the enemy, to +whom a sailing ship was as new and as terrible a phenomenon as were +firearms and cavalry. But the Aztecs were strong in numbers, and in their +deadly hatred of the invader, the young emperor, Guatemozin, opposed to the +Spaniards a spirit as dauntless as that of Cortes himself. Again and again, +by fierce attack, by stratagem, and by their indefatigable labours, the +Aztecs inflicted checks, and sometimes even disaster, upon the Spaniards. +Many of these, and of their Indian allies, fell, or were carried off to +suffer the worse fate of the sacrificial victim. The priests promised the +vengeance of the gods upon the strangers, and at one point Cortes saw his +allies melting away from him, under the power of this superstitious fear. +But the threats were unfulfilled, the allies returned, and doom settled +down upon the city. Famine and pestilence raged with it, and all the worst +horrors of a siege were suffered by the inhabitants.</p> + +<p>But still they remained implacable, fighting to their last breath, and +refusing to listen to the repeated and urgent offers of Cortes to spare +them and their property if they would capitulate. It was not until the 15th +of August, 1521, that the siege, which began in the latter part of May, was +brought to an end. After a final offer of terms, which Guatemozin still +refused, Cortes made the final assault, and carried the city in face of a +resistance now sorely enfeebled but still heroic. Guatemozin, attempting to +escape with his wife and some followers to the shore of the lake, was +intercepted by one of the brigantines and carried to Cortes. He bore +himself with all the dignity that belonged to his courage, and was met by +Cortes in a manner worthy of it. He and his train was courteously treated +and well entertained.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, at Guatemozin's request, the population of Mexico were +allowed to leave the city for the surrounding country; and after this the +Spaniards set themselves to the much-needed work of cleansing the city. +They were greatly disappointed in their hope of treasure, which the Aztecs +had so effectively hidden that only a small part of the expected riches was +ever discovered. It is a blot upon the history of the war that Cortes, +yielding to the importunity of his soldiers, permitted Guatemozin to be +tortured, in order to gain information regarding the treasure. But no +information of value could be wrung from him, and the treasure remained +hidden.</p> + +<p>At the very time of his distinguished successes in Mexico, the fortunes +of Cortes hung in the balance in Spain. His enemy Velasquez, governor of +Cuba, and the latter's friends at home, made such complaint of his conduct +that a commissioner was sent to Vera Cruz to apprehend Cortes and bring him +to trial. But, as usual, the hostile effort failed, and the commissioner +sailed for Cuba, having accomplished nothing. The friends of Cortes, on the +other hand, made counter-charges, in which they showed that his enemies had +done all in their power to hinder him in what was a magnificent effort on +behalf of the Spanish dominion, and asked if the council were prepared to +dishonour the man who, in the face of such obstacles, and with scarcely +other resources than what he found in himself, had won an empire for +Castile, such as was possessed by no European potentate. This appeal was +irresistible. However irregular had been the manner of proceeding, no one +could deny the grandeur of the results. The acts of Cortes were confirmed +in their full extent. He was constituted Governor, Captain General, and +Chief Justice of New Spain, as the province was called, and his army was +complimented by the emperor, fully acknowledging its services.</p> + +<p>The news of this was received in New Spain with general acclamation. The +mind of Cortes was set at ease as to the past, and he saw opening before +him a noble theatre for future enterprise. His career, ever one of +adventure and of arms, was still brilliant and still chequered. He fell +once more under suspicion in Spain, and at last determined to present +himself in person before his sovereign, to assert his innocence and claim +redress. Favourably received by Charles V., he subsequently returned to +Mexico, pursued difficult and dangerous voyages of discovery, and +ultimately returned to Spain, where he died in 1547.</p> + +<p>The history of the Conquest of Mexico is the history of Cortes, who was +its very soul. He was a typical knight-errant; more than this, he was a +great commander. There is probably no instance in history where so vast an +enterprise has been achieved by means apparently so inadequate. He may be +truly said to have effected the conquest by his own resources. It was the +force of his genius that obtained command of the co-operation of the Indian +tribes. He arrested the arm that was lifted to smite him, he did not desert +himself. He brought together the most miscellaneous collection of +mercenaries who ever fought under one standard,--men with hardly a common +tie, and burning with the spirit of jealousy and faction; wild tribes of +the natives also, who had been sworn enemies from their cradles. Yet this +motley congregation was assembled in one camp, to breathe one spirit, and +to move on a common principle of action.</p> + +<p>As regards the whole character of his enterprise, which seems to modern +eyes a bloody and at first quite unmerited war waged against the Indian +nations, it must be remembered that Cortes and his soldiers fought in the +belief that their victories were the victories of the Cross, and that any +war resulting in the conversion of the enemy to Christianity, even as by +force, was a righteous and meritorious war. This consideration dwelt in +their minds, mingling indeed with the desire for glory and for gain, but +without doubt influencing them powerfully. This is at any rate one of the +clues to this extraordinary chapter of history, so full of suffering and +bloodshed, and at the same time of unsurpassed courage and heroism on every +side.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_Conquest_of_Peru'></a>History of the Conquest +of Peru</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> The "History of the Conquest of Peru," which appeared in +1847, followed Prescott's "History of the Conquest of Mexico." It is a +vivid and picturesque narrative of one of the most romantic, if also in +some ways one of the darkest, episodes in history. It is impossible in a +small compass to convey a tithe of the astonishing series of hairbreadth +escapes, of conquest over tremendous odds, and of rapid eventualities which +make up this kaleidoscopic story. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--The Realm of the Incas</i></h3> + + +<p>Among the rumours which circulated among the ambitious adventurers of +the New World, one of the most dazzling was that of a rich empire far to +the south, a very El Dorado, where gold was as abundant as were the common +metals in the Old World, and where precious stones were to be had, almost +for the picking up. These rumours fired the hopes of three men in the +Spanish colony at Panama, namely, Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, +both soldiers of fortune, and Hernando de Luque, a Spanish priest. As it +was primarily from the efforts of these three that that astonishing +episode, the Spanish conquest of Peru, came to pass.</p> + +<p>The character of that empire which the Spaniards discovered and +undertook to conquer may be briefly sketched.</p> + +<p>According to the traditions of Peru, there had come to that country, +then lying in barbarism and darkness, two "Children of the Sun." These had +taught them wise customs and the arts of civilisation, and from them had +sprung by direct descent the Incas, who thus ruled over them by a divine +right. Besides the ruling Inca, whose person and decrees received an honour +that was almost worship, there were numerous nobles, also of the royal +blood, who formed a ruling caste. These were held in great honour, and were +evidently of a race superior to the common people, a fact to which the very +shape of their skulls testifies.</p> + +<p>The government was developed to an extraordinary pitch of control over +even the private lives of the people. The whole land and produce of the +country were divided into three parts, one for the Sun, the supreme +national deity; one for the Inca, and the third for the people. This last +was divided among them according to their needs, especially according to +the size of their families, and the distribution of land was made afresh +each year. On this principle, no one could suffer from poverty, and no one +could rise by his efforts to a higher position than that which birth and +circumstances allotted to him. The government prescribed to every man his +local habitation, his sphere of action, nay, the very nature and quality of +that action. He ceased to be a free agent; it might almost be said, that it +relieved him of personal responsibility. Even his marriage was determined +for him; from time to time all the men and women who had attained +marriageable age were summoned to the great squares of their respective +towns, and the hands of the couples joined by the presiding magistrate. The +consent of parents was required, and the preference of the parties was +supposed to be consulted, but owing to the barriers imposed by the +prescribed age of the parties, this must have been within rather narrow +limits. A dwelling was prepared for each couple at the charge of the +district, and the prescribed portion of land assigned for their +maintenance.</p> + +<p>The country as a whole was divided into four great provinces, each ruled +by a viceroy. Below him, there was a minute subdivision of supervision and +authority, down to the division into decades, by which every tenth man was +responsible for his nine countrymen.</p> + +<p>The tribunals of justice were simple and swift in their procedure, and +all responsible to the Crown, to whom regular reports were forwarded, and +who was thus in a position to review and rectify any abuses in the +administration of the law.</p> + +<p>The organisation of the country was altogether on a much higher level +than that encountered by the Spaniards in any other part of the American +continent. There was, for example, a complete census of the people +periodically taken. There was a system of posts, carried by runners, more +efficient and complete than any such system in Europe. There was, lastly, a +method of embodying in the empire any conquered country which can only be +compared to the Roman method. Local customs were interfered with as little +as possible, local gods were carried to Cuzco and honoured in the pantheon +there, and the chiefs of the country were also brought to the capital, +where they were honoured and by every possible means attached to the new +<i>régime</i>. The language of the capital was diffused everywhere, +and every inducement to learn it offered, so that the difficulty presented +by the variety of dialects was overcome. Thus the Empire of the Incas +achieved a solidarity very different from the loose and often unwilling +cohesion of the various parts of the Mexican empire, which was ready to +fall to pieces as soon as opportunity offered. The Peruvian empire arose as +one great fabric, composed of numerous and even hostile tribes, yet, under +the influence of a common religion, common language, and common government, +knit together as one nation, animated by a spirit of love for its +institutions and devoted loyalty to its sovereign. They all learned thus to +bow in unquestioning obedience to the decrees of the divine Inca. For the +government of the Incas, while it was the mildest, was the most searching +of despotisms.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--First Steps Towards Conquest</i></h3> + + +<p>It was early in the sixteenth century that tidings of the golden empire +in the south reached the Spaniards, and more than one effort was made to +discover it. But these proved abortive, and it was not until after the +brilliant conquest of Mexico by Cortes that the enterprise destined for +success was set on foot. Then, in 1524, Francisco Pizarro, Almagro, and +Father Luque united their efforts to pursue the design of discovering and +conquering this rich realm of the south. The first expedition, sailing +under Pizarro in 1524, was unable to proceed more than a certain distance +owing to their inadequate numbers and scanty outfit, and returned to Panama +to seek reinforcements. Then, in 1526, the three coadjutors signed a +contract which has become famous. The two captains solemnly engaged to +devote themselves to the undertaking until it should be accomplished, and +to share equally with Father Luque all gains, both of land and treasure, +which should accrue from the expedition. This last provision was in +recognition of the fact that the priest had supplied by far the greater +part of the funds required, or apparently did so, for from another document +it appears that he was only the representative of the Licentiate Gaspar de +Espinosa, then at Panama, who really furnished the money.</p> + +<p>The next expedition met with great vicissitudes, and it was only the +invincible spirit of Pizarro which carried them as far as the Gulf of +Guayaquil and the rich city of Tumbez. Hence they returned once more to +Panama, carrying this time better tidings, and again seeking +reinforcements. But the governor of the colony gave them no encouragement, +and at last it was decided that Pizarro should go to Spain and apply for +help from the Crown. He did so, and in 1529 was executed the memorable +"Capitulation" which defined the powers and privileges of Pizarro. It +granted to Pizarro the right of discovery and conquest in the province of +Peru, (or New Castile as it was then called,) the title of Governor, and a +salary, with inferior honours for his associates; all these to be enjoyed +on the conquest of the country, and the salaries to be derived from its +revenues. Pizarro was to provide for the good government and protection of +the natives, and to carry with him a specified number of ecclesiastics to +care for their spiritual welfare.</p> + +<p>On Pizarro's return to America, he had to contend with the discontent of +Almagro at the unequal distribution of authority and honours, but after he +had been somewhat appeased by the efforts of Pizarro the third expedition +set sail in January, 1531. It comprised three ships, carrying 180 men and +27 horses--a slender enough force for the conquest of an empire.</p> + +<p>After various adventures, the Spaniards landed at Tumbez, and in May, +1532, set out from there to march along the coast. After founding a town +some thirty leagues south of Tumbez, which he named San Miguel, he marched +into the interior with the bold design of meeting the Inca himself. He came +at a moment when Peru was but just emerging from a civil conflict, in which +Atahuallpa had routed the rival and more legitimate claimant to the throne +of the Incas, Huascar. On his march, Pizarro was met by an envoy from the +Inca, inviting him to visit him in his camp, with, as Pizarro guessed, no +friendly intent. This coincided, however, with the purpose of Pizarro, and +he pressed forward. When his soldiers showed signs of discouragement in +face of the great dangers before them, Pizarro addressed them thus:</p> + +<p>"Let every one of you take heart and go forward like a good soldier, +nothing daunted by the smallness of your numbers. For in the greatest +extremity God ever fights for His own; and doubt not He will humble the +pride of the heathen, and bring him to the knowledge of the true faith, the +great end and object of the Conquest." The enthusiasm of the troops was at +once rekindled. "Lead on!" they shouted as he finished his address. "Lead +on wherever you think best! We will follow with goodwill; and you shall see +that we can do our duty in the cause of God and the king!"</p> + +<p>They had need of all their daring. For when they had penetrated to +Caxamalca they found the Inca encamped there at the head of a great host of +his subjects, and knew that if his uncertain friendliness towards them +should evaporate, they would be in a desperate case. Pizarro then +determined to follow the example of Cortes, and gain possession of the +sovereign's person. He achieved this by what can only be called an act of +treachery; he invited the Inca to visit his quarters, and then, taking them +unawares, killed a large number of his followers and took him prisoner. The +effect was precisely what Pizarro had hoped for. The "Child of the Sun" +once captured, the Indians, who had no law but his command, no confidence +but in his leadership, fled in all directions, and the Spaniards remained +masters of the situation.</p> + +<p>They treated the Inca at first with respect, and while keeping him a +prisoner, allowed him a measure of freedom, and free intercourse with his +subjects. He soon saw a door of hope in the Spaniards' eagerness for gold, +and offered an enormous ransom. The offer was accepted, and messengers were +sent throughout the empire to collect it. At last it reached an amount, in +gold, of the value of nearly three and a half million pounds sterling, +besides a quantity of silver. But even this ransom did not suffice to free +the Inca. Owing partly to the malevolence of an Indian interpreter, who +bore the Inca ill-will, and partly to rumours of a general rising of the +natives instigated by the Inca, the army began to demand his life as +necessary to their safety. Pizarro appeared to be opposed to this demand, +but to yield to his soldiers, and after a form of trial the Inca was +executed. But Pizarro cannot be acquitted of responsibility for a deed +which formed the climax of one of the darkest chapters in Spanish colonial +history, and it is probable that the design coincided only too well with +his aims.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--Triumph of Pisarro; his Assassination</i></h3> + + +<p>There was nothing now to hinder the victorious march of the Spaniards to +Cuzco, the Peruvian capital. They now numbered nearly five hundred, having +been reinforced by the arrival of Almagro from Panama.</p> + +<p>In Cuzco they found great quantities of treasure, with the natural +result that the prices of ordinary commodities rose enormously as the value +of gold and silver declined, so that it was only those few who returned +with their present gains to their native country who could be called +wealthy.</p> + +<p>All power was now in the hands of the Spaniards. Pizarro indeed placed +upon the throne of the Incas the legitimate heir, Manco, but it was only in +order that he might be the puppet of his own purposes. His next step was to +found a new capital, which should be near enough to the sea-coast to meet +the need of a commercial people. He determined upon the site of Lima on the +festival of Epiphany, 1535, and named it "Ciudad de los Reyes," or City of +the Kings, in honour of the day. But this name was before long superseded +by that of Lima, which arose from the corruption of a Peruvian name.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Hernando Pizarro, the brother of Francisco, had sailed to +Spain to report their success. He returned with royal letters confirming +the previous grants to Francisco and his associates, and bestowing upon +Almagro a jurisdiction over a given tract of country, beginning from the +southern limit of Pizarro's government. This grant became a fruitful source +of dissension between Almagro and the Pizarros, each claiming as within his +jurisdiction the rich city of Cuzco, a question which the uncertain +knowledge of distances in the newly-explored country made it difficult to +decide.</p> + +<p>But the Spaniards had now for a time other occupation than the pursuit +of their own quarrels. The Inca Manco, escaping from the captivity in which +he had lain for a time, put himself at the head of a host of Indians, said +to number two hundred thousand, and laid siege to Cuzco early in February, +1536. The siege was memorable as calling out the most heroic displays of +Indian and European valour, and bringing the two races into deadlier +conflict with each other than had yet occurred in the conquest of Peru. The +Spaniards were hard pressed, for by means of burning arrows the Indians set +the city on fire, and only their encampment in the midst of an open space +enabled the Spaniards to endure the conflagration around. They suffered +severely, too, from famine. The relief from Lima for which they looked did +not come, as Pizarro was in no position to send help, and from this they +feared the worst as to the fate of their companions. Only the firm +resolution of the Pizarro, brothers and the other leaders within the city +kept the army from attempting to force a way out, which would have meant +the abandoning of the city. At last they were rewarded by the sight of the +great host around them melting away. Seedtime had come, and the Inca knew +it would be fatal for his people to neglect their fields, and thus prepare +starvation for themselves in the following year. Thus, though bodies of the +enemy remained to watch the city, the siege was virtually raised, and the +most pressing danger past.</p> + +<p>While these events were passing, Almagro was engaged upon a memorable +expedition to Chili. His troops suffered great privations, and hearing no +good tidings of the country further south, he was prevailed upon to return +to Cuzco. Here, claiming the governorship, he captured Hernando and Gonzalo +Pizarro, though refusing the counsel of his lieutenant that they should be +put to death. Then, proceeding to the coast, he met Francisco Pizarro, and +a treaty was concluded between them by which Almagro, pending instructions +from Spain, was to retain Cuzco, and Hernando Pizarro was to be set free, +on condition of sailing for Spain. But Francisco broke the treaty as soon +as made, and sent Hernando with an army against Almagro, warning the latter +that unless he gave up Cuzco the responsibility of the consequences would +be on his own head. The two armies met at Las Salinas, and Almagro was +defeated and imprisoned in Cuzco. Before long Hernando brought him to trial +and to death, thus ill requiting Almagro's treatment of him personally. +Hernando, on his return to Spain, suffered twenty years' imprisonment for +this deed, which outraged both public sentiment and sense of justice.</p> + +<p>Francisco Pizarro, though affecting to be shocked at the death of +Almagro, cannot be acquitted of all share in it. So, indeed, the followers +of Almagro thought, and they were goaded to still further hatred of the +Pizarros by the poverty and contempt in which they now lived, as the +survivors of a discredited party. The house of Almagro's son in Lima formed +a centre of disaffection, to whose menace Pizarro showed remarkable +blindness. He paid dearly for this excessive confidence, for on Sunday, the +26th of June, 1541, he was attacked while sitting in his own house among +his friends, and killed.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--Later Fortunes of the Conquerors</i></h3> + + +<p>The death of Pizarro did not prove in any sense a guarantee of peace +among the Spaniards in Peru. At the time of his death, indeed, an envoy +from the Spanish court was on his way to Peru, who from his integrity and +wisdom might indeed have given rise to a hope that a happier day was about +to dawn. He was endowed with powers to assume the governorship in the event +of Pizarro's death, as well as instructions to bring about a more peaceful +settlement of affairs. He arrived to find himself indeed the lawful +governor, but had before him the task of enforcing his authority. This +brought him into collision with the son of Almagro, at the head of a strong +party of his father's followers. A bloody battle took place on the plains +of Chupas, in which Vaca de Castro was victorious. Almagro was arrested at +Cuzco and executed.</p> + +<p>The history of the Spanish dominion now resolves itself into the history +of warring factions, the chief hero of which was Gonzalo Pizzaro, one of +the brothers of the great Pizarro. The Spaniards in Peru felt themselves +deeply injured by the publication of regulations from Spain, by which a +sudden check was put upon their spoliation and oppression of the natives, +which had reached an extreme pitch of cruelty and destructiveness. They +called upon Gonzalo to lead them in vindication of what they regarded as +their privileges by right of conquest and of their service to the Spanish +crown. His hands were strengthened by the rash and high-handed behaviour +of, Blasco Nuñez Vela, yet another official sent out from Spain to +deal with this turbulent province. Pizarro himself was an able and daring +leader, and, at least in his earlier years, of a chivalrous spirit which +made him beloved of his soldiers. He had great personal courage, and, as +says one who had often seen him, "when mounted on his favourite charger, +made no more account of a squadron of Indians than of a swarm of flies." He +was soon acclaimed as governor by the Spaniards, and was actually supreme +in Peru. But in the following year, 1545, the Spanish government selected +an envoy who was to bring the now ascendant star of Pizarro to eclipse. +This was an ecclesiastic named Pedro de la Gasea, a man of great +resolution, penetration, and knowledge of affairs. After varying fortunes, +in which Pizarro for some time held his own, he was routed by the troops of +Gasea, largely through the defection of a number of his own soldiers, who +marched over to the enemy. Pizarro surrendered to an officer, and was +carried before Gasea. Addressing him with severity, Gasea abruptly +inquired, "Why had he thrown the country into such confusion; raising the +banner of revolt; usurping the government; and obstinately refusing the +offer of grace that had been repeatedly made to him?" Gonzalo defended +himself as having been elected by the people. "It was my family," he said, +"who conquered the country, and as their representative here, I felt I had +a right to the government." To this Gasea replied, in a still severer tone, +"Your brother did, indeed, conquer the land; and for this the emperor was +pleased to raise both him and you from the dust. He lived and died a true +and loyal subject; and it only makes your ingratitude to your sovereign the +more heinous." A sentence of death followed, and thus passed the last of +Pizarro's name to rule in Peru.</p> + +<p>Under the wise reforms instituted by Gasea, Peru was somewhat relieved +of the disastrous effects of the Spanish occupation, and under the mild yet +determined policy inaugurated by him, the ancient distractions of the +country were permanently healed. With peace, prosperity returned within the +borders of Peru, and this much-tried land settled down at last to a +considerable measure of tranquillity and content.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='EDWARD_HYDE'></a>EDWARD HYDE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_History_of_the_Rebellion'></a>The History of the +Rebellion</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, who was born February 18, +1608; at Dinton, Wilts, and who died at Rouen, 1674, was son of a private +gentleman and was educated at Oxford, afterwards studying law under Chief +Justice Nicholas Hyde, his uncle. Early in his career he became +distinguished in political life in a stormy period, for, as a prominent +member of the Long Parliament, he espoused the popular cause. The outbreak +of the Civil War, however, threw his sympathies over to the other side, and +in 1642 King Charles knighted him and appointed him Chancellor of the +Exchequer. When Charles, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Charles II., fled +to Jersey after the great defeat of his father at Naseby, he was +accompanied by Hyde, who, in the island, commenced his great work, "The +History of the Rebellion," and also issued a series of eloquently worded +papers which appeared in the king's name as replies to the manifestoes of +Parliament. After the Restoration he was appointed High Chancellor of +England and ennobled with the title of Earl of Clarendon. But the ill +success of the war with Holland brought the earl into popular disfavour, +and his unpopularity was increased by the sale of Dunkirk to the French. +Court intrigues led to the loss of his offices and he retreated to Calais. +An apology which he sent to the Lords was ordered to be burnt by the common +hangman. For six years, till his death in Rouen, he lived in exile, but he +was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey. His private character in a +dissolute age was unimpeachable. Anne Hyde, daughter of the earl, became +Queen of England, as wife of James II., and was mother of two queens, Anne +and Mary. The "History of the Rebellion" is a noble and monumental work, +invaluable as written by a contemporary. </p></blockquote> + + +<p>King James, in the end of March, 1625, died, leaving his majesty that +now is, engaged in a war with Spain, but unprovided with money to manage +it, though it was undertaken by the consent and advice of Parliament; the +people being naturally enough inclined to the war (having surfeited with +the uninterrupted pleasures and plenty of 22 years of peace) and +sufficiently inflamed against the Spaniard, but quickly weary of the charge +of it. Therefore, after an unprosperous attempt by sea on Cadiz, and a +still more unsuccessful one on France, at the Isle of Rhé (for some +difference had also begotten a war with that country), a general peace was +shortly concluded with both kingdoms.</p> + +<p>The exchequer was exhausted by the debts of King James and the war, so +that the known revenue was anticipated and the king was driven into straits +for his own support. Many ways were resorted to for supply, such as selling +the crown lands, creating peers for money, and other particulars which no +access of power or plenty could since repair.</p> + +<p>Parliaments were summoned, and again dissolved: and that in the fourth +year after the dissolution of the two former was determined with a +declaration that no more assemblies of that nature should be expected, and +all men should be inhibited on the penalty of censure so much as to speak +of a parliament. And here I cannot but let myself loose to say, that no man +can show me a source from whence these waters of bitterness we now taste +have probably flowed, than from these unseasonable, unskilful, and +precipitate dissolutions of parliaments. And whoever considers the acts of +power and injustice in the intervals between parliaments will not be much +scandalised at the warmth and vivacity displayed in their meetings.</p> + +<p>In the second parliament it was proposed to grant five subsidies, a +proportion (how contemptible soever in respect of the pressures now every +day imposed) never before heard of in Parliament. And that meeting being, +upon very unpopular and implausible reasons immediately dissolved, those +five subsidies were exacted throughout the whole kingdom with the same +rigour as if in truth an act had passed to that purpose. And very many +gentlemen of prime quality, in all the counties, were for refusing to pay +the same committed to prison.</p> + +<p>The abrupt and ungracious breaking of the first two parliaments was +wholly imputed to the Duke of Buckingham; and of the third, principally to +the Lord Weston, then high treasurer of England. And therefore the envy and +hatred that attended them thereupon was insupportable, and was visibly the +cause of the murder of the first (stabbed to the heart by the hand of an +obscure villain).</p> + +<p>The duke was a very extraordinary person. Never any man in any age, nor, +I believe, in any nation, rose in so short a time to such greatness of +honour, fame, and fortune, upon no other advantage or recommendation, than +that of the beauty and gracefulness of his person. He was the younger son +of George Villiers, of Brookesby, Leicestershire. After the death of his +father he was sent by his mother to France, where he spent three years in +attaining the language and in learning the exercises of riding and dancing; +in the last of which he excelled most men, and returned to England at the +age of twenty-one.</p> + +<p>King James reigned at that time. He began to be weary of his favourite, +the Earl of Somerset, who, by the instigation and wickedness of his wife, +became at least privy to the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. For this +crime both he and his wife, after trial by their peers, were condemned to +die, and many persons of quality were executed for the same.</p> + +<p>While this was in agitation, Mr. Villiers appeared in court and drew the +king's eyes upon him. In a few days he was made cupbearer to the king and +so pleased him by his conversation that he mounted higher and was +successively and speedily knighted, made a baron, a viscount, an earl, a +marquis, lord high admiral, lord warden of the cinque ports, master of the +horse, and entirely disposed of all the graces of the king, in conferring +all the honours and all the offices of the kingdom, without a rival. He was +created Duke of Buckingham during his absence in Spain as extraordinary +ambassador.</p> + +<p>On the death of King James, Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to the +crown, with the universal joy of the people. The duke continued in the same +degree of favour with the son which he had enjoyed with the father. But a +parliament was necessary to be called, as at the entrance of all kings to +the crown, for the continuance of supplies, and when it met votes and +remonstrances passed against the duke as an enemy to the public, greatly to +his indignation.</p> + +<p>New projects were every day set on foot for money, which served only to +offend and incense the people, and brought little supply to the king's +occasions. Many persons of the best quality were committed to prison for +refusing to pay. In this fatal conjuncture the duke went on an embassy to +France and brought triumphantly home with him the queen, to the joy of the +nation, but his course was soon finished by the wicked means mentioned +before. In the fourth year of the king, and the thirty-sixth of his own +age, he was assassinated at Portsmouth by Felton, who had been a lieutenant +in the army, to whom he had refused promotion.</p> + +<p>Shortly after Buckingham's death the king promoted Dr. Laud, Bishop of +Bath and Wells, to the archibishopric of Canterbury. Unjust modes of +raising money were instituted, which caused increasing discontent, +especially the tax denominated ship-money. A writ was directed to the +sheriff of every county to provide a ship for the king's service, but with +the writ were sent instructions that, instead of a ship, he should levy +upon his county a sum of money and send it to the treasurer of the navy for +his majesty's use.</p> + +<p>After the continued receipt of the ship-money for four years, upon the +refusal of Mr. Hampden, a private gentleman, to pay thirty shillings as his +share, the case was solemnly argued before all the judges of England in the +exchequer-chamber and the tax was adjudged lawful; which judgment proved of +more advantage and credit to the gentleman condemned than to the king's +service.</p> + +<p>For the better support of these extraordinary ways the council-table and +star-chamber enlarged their jurisdictions to a vast extent, inflicting +fines and imprisonment, whereby the crown and state sustained deserved +reproach and infamy, and suffered damage and mischief that cannot be +expressed.</p> + +<p>The king now resolved to make a progress into the north, and to be +solemnly crowned in his kingdom of Scotland, which he had never seen from +the time he first left it at the age of two years. The journey was a +progress of great splendour, with an excess of feasting never known before. +But the king had deeply imbibed his father's notions that an Episcopal +church was the most consistent with royal authority, and he committed to a +select number of the bishops in Scotland the framing of a suitable liturgy +for use there. But these prelates had little influence with the people, and +had not even power to reform their own cathedrals.</p> + +<p>In 1638 Scotland assumed an attitude of determined resistance to the +imposition of the liturgy and of Episcopal church government. All the +kingdom flocked to Edinburgh, as in a general cause that concerned their +salvation. A general assembly was called and a National Covenant was +subscribed. Men were listed towards the raising of an army, Colonel Leslie +being chosen general. The king thought it time to chastise the seditious by +force, and in the end of the year 1638 declared his resolution to raise an +army to suppress their rebellion.</p> + +<p>This was the first alarm England received towards any trouble, after it +had enjoyed for so many years the most uninterrupted prosperity, in a full +and plentiful peace, that any nation could be blessed with. The army was +soon mustered and the king went to the borders. But negotiations for peace +took place, and civil war was averted by concessions on the part of the +king, so that a treaty of pacification was entered upon. This event +happened in the year 1639.</p> + +<p>After for eleven years governing without a parliament, with Archbishop +Laud and the Earl of Strafford as his advisers, King Charles was +constrained, in 1640, to summon an English parliament, which, however, +instead of at once complying with his demands, commenced by drawing up a +list of grievances. Mr. Pym, a man of good reputation, but better known +afterwards, led the remonstrances, observing that by the long intermission +of parliaments many unwarrantable things had been practiced, +notwithstanding the great virtue of his majesty. Disputes took place +between the Lords and Commons, the latter claiming that the right of supply +belonged solely to them.</p> + +<p>The king speedily dissolved Parliament, and, the Scots having again +invaded England, proceeded to raise an army to resist them. The Scots +entered Newcastle, and the Earl of Strafford, weak after a sickness, was +defeated and retreated to Durham. The king, with his army weakened and the +treasury depleted, was in great straits. He was again constrained to call a +parliament, which met on November 3, 1640. It had a sad and melancholic +aspect. The king himself did not ride with his accustomed equipage to +Westminster, but went privately in his barge to the parliament stairs. The +king being informed that Sir Thomas Gardiner, not having been returned a +member, could not be chosen to be Speaker, his majesty appointed Mr. +Lenthall, a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. In this parliament also Mr. Pym began +the recital of grievances, and other members followed with invectives +against the Earl of Strafford, accusing him of high and imperious and +tyrannical actions, and of abusing his power and credit with the king.</p> + +<p>After many hours of bitter inveighing it was moved that the earl might +be forthwith impeached of high treason; which was no sooner mentioned than +it found a universal approbation and consent from the whole House. With +very little debate the peers in their turn, when the impeachment was sent +up to them, resolved that he should be committed to the custody of the +gentleman usher of the black-rod, and next by an accusation of high treason +against him also the Archbishop of Canterbury was removed from the king's +council.</p> + +<p>The trial of the earl in Westminster Hall began on March 22, 1641, and +lasted eighteen days. Both Houses passed a bill of attainder. The king +resolved never to give his consent to this measure, but a rabble of many +thousands of people besieged Whitehall, crying out, "Justice, justice; we +will have justice!" The privy council being called together pressed the +king to pass the bill of attainder, saying there was no other way to +preserve himself and his posterity than by so doing; and therefore he ought +to be more tender of the safety of the kingdom than of any one person how +innocent soever. No one counsellor interposed his opinion, to support his +master's magnanimity and innocence.</p> + +<p>The Archbishop of York, acting his part with prodigious boldness and +impiety, told the king that there was a private and a public conscience; +that his public conscience as a king might not only dispense with, but +oblige him to do that which was against his private conscience as a man; +and that the question was not whether he should save the earl, but whether +he should perish with him. Thus in the end was extorted from the king a +commission from some lords to sign the bill. This was as valid as if he had +signed it himself, though they comforted him even with that circumstance, +"that his own hand was not in it."</p> + +<p>The earl was beheaded on May 12, on Tower Hill. Together with that of +the attainder of this nobleman, another bill was passed by the king, of +almost as fatal consequences to him and the kingdom as that was to the +earl, "the act for perpetual parliament," as it is since called. Thus +Parliament could not be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved, without its +consent.</p> + +<p>Great offence was given to the Commons by the action of the king in +appointing new bishops to certain vacant sees at the very time when they +were debating an act for taking away bishops' votes. And here I cannot but +with grief and wonder remember the virulence and animosity expressed on all +occasions from many of good knowledge in the excellent and wise profession +of the common law, towards the church and churchmen. All opportunities were +taken uncharitably to improve mistakes into crimes.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately the king sent to the House of Lords a remonstrance from +the bishops against their constrained absence from the legislature. This +led to violent scenes in the House of Commons, which might have been +beneficial to him, had he not been misadvised by Lord Digby. At this time +many of his own Council were adverse to him. Injudiciously, the king caused +Lord Kimbolton and five members of the Commons to be accused of high +treason, advised thereto by Lord Digby. The king's attorney, Herbert, +delivered to Parliament a paper, whereby, besides Lord Kimbolton, Denzil +Hollis, Sir Arthur Haslerig, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, and Mr. Strode, stood +accused of conspiring against the king and Parliament.</p> + +<p>The sergeant at arms demanded the persons of the accused members to be +delivered to him in his majesty's name, but the Commons refused to comply, +sending a message to the king that the members should be forthcoming as +soon as a legal charge should be preferred against them. The next day the +king, attended by his own guard and a few gentlemen, went into the House to +the great amazement of all; and the Speaker leaving the chair, the king +went into it. Asking the Speaker whether the accused members were in the +House, and he making no answer, the king said he perceived that the birds +had flown, but expected that they should be sent to him as soon as they +returned; and assured them in the word of a king that no force was +intended, but that he would proceed against them in a fair and legal way; +and so he returned to Whitehall.</p> + +<p>The next day the king went to the City, where the accused had taken +refuge. He dined with the sheriffs, but many of the rude people during his +passage through the City flocked together, pressed very near his coach, and +cried out, "Privilege of Parliament; privilege of Parliament; to your +tents, O Israel!" The king returned to Whitehall and next day published a +proclamation for the apprehension of the members, forbidding any person to +harbour them.</p> + +<p>Both Houses of Parliament speedily manifested sympathy with the accused +persons, and a committee of citizens was formed in the City for their +defence. The proceedings of the king and his advisers were declared to be a +high breach of the privileges of Parliament. Such was the temper of the +populace that the king thought it convenient to remove from London and went +with the queen and royal children to Hampton Court. The next day the +members were brought in triumph to Parliament by the trained bands of +London. The sheriffs were called into the House of Commons and thanked for +their extraordinary care and love shown to the Parliament.</p> + +<p>Though the king had removed himself out of the noise of Westminster, yet +the effects of it followed him very close, for printed petitions were +pressed on him every day. In a few days he removed from Hampton Court to +Windsor, where he could be more secure from any sudden popular attempt, of +which he had reason to be very apprehensive.</p> + +<p>After many disagreements with Parliament the king in 1642 published a +declaration, that had been long ready, in which he recapitulated all the +insolent and rebellious actions which Parliament had committed against him: +and declared them "to be guilty; and forbade all his subjects to yield any +obedience to them": and at the same time published his proclamation; by +which he "required all men who could bear arms to repair to him at +Nottingham by August 25, on which day he would set up his royal standard +there, which all good subjects were obliged to attend."</p> + +<p>According to the proclamation, on August 25 the standard was erected, +about six in the evening of a very stormy day. But there was not yet a +single regiment levied and brought there, so that the trained bands drawn +thither by the sheriff was all the strength the king had for his person, +and the guard of the standard. There appeared no conflux of men in +obedience to the proclamation. The arms and ammunition had not yet come +from York, and a general sadness covered the whole town, and the king +himself appeared more melancholy than he used to be. The standard was blown +down the same night it had been set up.</p> + +<p>Intelligence was received the next day that the rebel army, for such the +king had declared it, was horse, foot, and cannon at Northampton, whereas +his few cannon and ammunition were still at York. It was evident that all +the strength he had to depend upon was his horse, which were under the +command of Prince Rupert at Leicester, not more than 800 in number, whilst +the enemy had, within less than twenty miles of that place, double the +number of horse excellently well armed and appointed, and a body of 5,000 +foot well trained and disciplined.</p> + +<p>Very speedily intelligence came that Portsmouth was besieged by land and +sea by the Parliamentary forces, and soon came word that it was lost to the +king through the neglect of Colonel Goring. The king removed to Derby and +then to Shrewsbury. Prince Rupert was successful in a skirmish at +Worcester. The two universities presented their money and plate to King +Charles, but one cause of his misfortunes was the backwardness of some of +his friends in lending him money.</p> + +<p>Banbury Castle surrendered to Charles, and, marching to Oxford, he there +experienced a favourable reception and recruited his army. At the battle of +Edghill neither side gained the advantage, though altogether about +<i>5,000</i> men fell on the field. Negotiations were entered into between +the king and the Parliament, and these were renewed again and again, but +never with felicitous issues.</p> + +<p>On June 13, 1645, the king heard that General Fairfax was advanced to +Northampton with a strong army, much superior to the numbers he had +formerly been advised of. The battle began at ten the next morning on a +high ground about Naseby. The first charge was given by Prince Rupert, with +his usual vigour, so that he bore down all before him, and was soon master +of six pieces of cannon. But though the king's troops prevailed in the +charge they never rallied again in order, nor could they be brought to make +a second charge. But the enemy, disciplined under such generals as Fairfax +and Cromwell, though routed at first, always formed again. This was why the +king's forces failed to win a decisive victory at Edghill, and now at +Naseby, after Prince Rupert's charge, Cromwell brought up his troops with +such effect that in the end the king was compelled to quit the field, +leaving Fairfax, who was commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary army, +master of his foot, cannon, and baggage.</p> + +<p>It will not be seasonable in this place to mention the names of those +noble persons who were lost in this battle, when the king and the kingdom +were lost in it; though there were above one hundred and fifty officers, +and gentlemen of prime quality, whose memories ought to be preserved, who +were dead on the spot. The enemy left no manner of barbarous cruelty +unexercised that day; and in the pursuit thereof killed above one hundred +women, whereof some were officers' wives of quality. The king and Prince +Rupert with the broken troops marched by stages to Hereford, where Prince +Rupert left the king to hasten to Bristol, that he might put that place in +a state of defence.</p> + +<p>Nothing can here be more wondered at than that the king should amuse +himself about forming a new army in counties that had been vexed and worn +out with the oppressions of his own troops, and not have immediately +repaired into the west, where he had an army already formed. Cromwell +having taken Winchester and Basing, the king sent some messages to +Parliament for peace, which were not regarded. A treaty between the king +and the Scots was set on foot by the interposition of the French, but the +parties disagreed about church government. To his son Charles, Prince of +Wales, who had retired to Scilly, the king wrote enjoining him never to +surrender on dishonourable terms.</p> + +<p>Having now no other resource, the king placed himself under the +protection of the Scots army at Newark. But at the desire of the Scots he +ordered the surrender of Oxford and all his other garrisons. Also the +Parliament, at the Scots' request, sent propositions of peace to him, and +these proposals were promptly enforced by the Scots. The Chancellor of +Scotland told him that the Parliament, after the battles that had been +fought, had got the strongholds and forts of the kingdom into their hands, +that they had gained a victory over all, and had a strong army to maintain +it, so that they might do what they would with church and state, that they +desired neither him nor any of his race to reign any longer over them, and +that if he declined to yield to the propositions made to him, all England +would join against him to depose him.</p> + +<p>With great magnanimity and resolution the king replied that they must +proceed their own way; and that though they had all forsaken him, God had +not. The Scots began to talk sturdily in answer to a demand that they +should deliver up the king's person to Parliament. They denied that the +Parliament had power absolutely to dispose of the king's person without +their approbation; and the Parliament as loudly replied that they had +nothing to do in England but to observe orders. But these discourses were +only kept up till they could adjust accounts between them, and agree what +price should be paid for the delivery of his person, whom one side was +resolved to have, and the other as resolved not to keep. So they quickly +agreed that, upon payment of £200,000 in hand, and security for as +much more upon days agreed upon, they would deliver up the king into such +hands as Parliament should appoint to receive him.</p> + +<p>And upon this infamous contract that excellent prince was in the end of +January, 1647, wickedly given up by his Scottish subjects to those of the +English who were trusted by the Parliament to receive him. He was brought +to his own house at Holmby, in Northants, a place he had taken much delight +in. Removed before long to Hampton Court, he escaped to the Isle of Wight, +where he confided himself to Colonel Hammond and was lodged in Carisbrooke +Castle. To prevent his further escape his old servants were removed from +him.</p> + +<p>In a speech in Parliament Cromwell declared that the king was a man of +great parts and a great understanding (faculties they had hitherto +endeavoured to have thought him to be without), but that he was so great a +dissembler and so false a man, that he was not to be trusted. He concluded +therefore that no more messages should be sent to the king, but that they +might enter on those counsels which were necessary without having further +recourse to him, especially as at that very moment he was secretly treating +with the Scottish commissioners, how he might embroil the nation in a new +war, and destroy the Parliament. The king was removed to Hurst Castle after +a vain attempt by Captain Burley to rescue him.</p> + +<p>A committee being appointed to prepare a charge of high treason against +the king, of which Bradshaw was made President, his majesty was brought +from Hurst Castle to St. James's, and it was concluded to have him publicly +tried. From the time of the king's arrival at St. James's, when he was +delivered into the custody of Colonel Tomlinson, he was treated with much +more rudeness and barbarity than ever before. No man was suffered to see or +speak to him but the soldiers who were his guard.</p> + +<p>When he was first brought to Westminster Hall, on January 20, 1649, +before their high court of justice, he looked upon them and sat down +without any manifestation of trouble, never stirring his hat; all the +impudent judges sitting covered and fixing their eyes on him, without the +least show of respect. To the charges read out against him the king replied +that for his actions he was accountable to none but God, though they had +always been such as he need not be ashamed of before all the world.</p> + +<p>Several unheard-of insolences which this excellent prince was forced to +submit to before that odious judicatory, his majestic behaviour, the +pronouncing that horrible sentence upon the most innocent person in the +world, the execution of that sentence by the most execrable murder ever +committed since that of our blessed Saviour, and the circumstances thereof, +are all so well-known that the farther mentioning it would but afflict and +grieve the reader, and make the relation itself odious; and therefore no +more shall be said here of that lamentable tragedy, so much to the +dishonour of the nation and the religion professed by it.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='LORD_MACAULAY'></a>LORD MACAULAY</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_England'></a>History of England</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Thomas Babington Macaulay was born October 25, 1800, and +died December 28, 1859. He was the son of Zachary Macaulay, a West Indian +merchant and noted philanthropist. He brilliantly distinguished himself as +a prizeman at Cambridge, and on leaving the University devoted himself +enthusiastically to literary pursuits. Fame was speedily won by his +contributions to the "Edinburgh Review," especially by his article on +Milton. Though called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, in 1826, Macaulay never +practised, but through his strong Whig sympathies he was drawn into +politics, and in 1830 entered Parliament for the pocket-borough of Calne. +He afterwards was elected M.P. for Edinburgh. Appointed Secretary of the +Board of Control for India, he resided for six years in that country, +returning home in 1838. In 1840 he was made War Secretary. It was during +his official career that he wrote his magnificent "Lays of Ancient Rome." +An immense sensation was produced by his remarkable "Essays," issued in +three volumes; but even greater was the popularity achieved by his "History +of England." Macaulay was one of the most versatile men of his time. His +easy and graceful style was the vehicle of extraordinary acquisitions, his +learning being prodigious and his memory phenomenal. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>England in Earlier Times</i></h3> + + +<p>I purpose to write the History of England from the accession of King +James II. down to a time within the memory of men still living. I shall +recount the errors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and +priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that +revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and +their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and the +title of the reigning dynasty.</p> + +<p>Unless I greatly deceive myself, the general effect of this chequered +narrative, faithfully recording disasters mingled with triumphs, will be to +excite thankfulness in all religious minds, and hope in the breasts of all +patriots. For the history of our country during the period concerned is +eminently the history of physical, of moral, and of intellectual +improvement.</p> + +<p>Nothing in the early existence of Britain indicated the greatness she +was destined to attain. Of the western provinces which obeyed the Caesars, +she was the last conquered, and the first flung away. Though she had been +subjugated by the Roman arms, she received only a faint tincture of Roman +arts and letters. No magnificent remains of Roman porches and aqueducts are +to be found in Britain, and the scanty and superficial civilisation which +the islanders acquired from their southern masters was effaced by the +calamities of the 5th century.</p> + +<p>From the darkness that followed the ruin of the Western Empire Britain +emerges as England. The conversion of the Saxon colonists to Christianity +was the first of a long series of salutary revolutions. The Church has many +times been compared to the ark of which we read in the Book of Genesis; but +never was the resemblance more perfect than during that evil time when she +rode alone, amidst darkness and tempest, on the deluge beneath which all +the great works of ancient power and wisdom lay entombed, bearing within +her that feeble germ from which a second and more glorious civilisation was +to spring.</p> + +<p>Even the spiritual supremacy of the Pope was, in the dark ages, +productive of far more good than evil. Its effect was to unite the nations +of Western Europe in one great commonwealth. Into this federation our Saxon +ancestors were now admitted. Learning followed in the train of +Christianity. The poetry and eloquence of the Augustan age was assiduously +studied in the Mercian and Northumbrian monasteries. The names of Bede and +Alcuin were justly celebrated throughout Europe. Such was the state of our +country when, in the 9th century, began the last great migration of the +northern barbarians.</p> + +<p>Large colonies of Danish adventurers established themselves in our +island, and for many years the struggle continued between the two fierce +Teutonic breeds, each being alternately paramount. At length the North +ceased to send forth fresh streams of piratical emigrants, and from that +time the mutual aversion of Danes and Saxons began to subside. +Intermarriage became frequent. The Danes learned the religion of the +Saxons, and the two dialects of one widespread language were blended. But +the distinction between the two nations was by no means effaced, when an +event took place which prostrated both at the feet of a third people.</p> + +<p>The Normans were then the foremost race of Christendom. Originally +rovers from Scandinavia, conspicuous for their valour and ferocity, they +had, after long being the terror of the Channel, founded a mighty state +which gradually extended its influence from its own Norman territory over +the neighbouring districts of Brittany and Maine. They embraced +Christianity and adopted the French tongue. They renounced the brutal +intemperance of northern races and became refined, polite and chivalrous, +their nobles being distinguished by their graceful bearing and insinuating +address.</p> + +<p>The battle of Hastings, and the events which followed it, not only +placed a Duke of Normandy on the English throne, but gave up the whole +population of England to the tyranny of the Norman race. The subjugation of +a nation has seldom, even in Asia, been more complete. During the century +and a half which followed the Conquest, there is, to speak strictly, no +English history. Had the Plantagenets, as at one time seemed likely, +succeeded in uniting all France under their government, it is probable that +England would never have had an independent existence. England owes her +escape from dependence on French thought and customs to separation from +Normandy, an event which her historians have generally represented as +disastrous. The talents and even the virtues of her first six French kings +were a curse to her. The follies and vices of the seventh, King John, were +her salvation. He was driven from Normandy, and in England the two races +were drawn together, both being alike aggrieved by the tyranny of a bad +king. From that moment the prospects brightened, and here commences the +history of the English nation.</p> + +<p>In no country has the enmity of race been carried further than in +England. In no country has that enmity been more completely effaced. Early +in the fourteenth century the amalgamation of the races was all but +complete: and it was soon made manifest that a people inferior to none +existing in the world has been formed by the mixture of three branches of +the great Teutonic family with each other, and with the aboriginal Britons. +A period of more than a hundred years followed, during which the chief +object of the English was, by force of arms, to establish a great empire on +the Continent. The effect of the successes of Edward III. and Henry V. was +to make France for a time a province of England. A French king was brought +prisoner to London; an English king was crowned at Paris.</p> + +<p>The arts of peace were not neglected by our fathers during that period. +English thinkers aspired to know, or dared to doubt, where bigots had been +content to wonder and to believe. The same age which produced the Black +Prince and Derby, Chandos and Hawkwood, produced also Geoffrey Chaucer and +John Wycliffe. In so splendid and imperial a manner did the English people, +properly so called, first take place among the nations of the world. But +the spirit of the French people was at last aroused, and after many +desperate struggles and with many bitter regrets, our ancestors gave up the +contest.</p> + + +<h3><i>The First Civil War</i></h3> + + +<p>Cooped up once more within the limits of the island, the warlike people +employed in civil strife those arms which had been the terror of Europe. +Two aristocratic factions, headed by two branches of the royal family, +engaged in the long and fierce struggle known as the Wars of the White and +Red Roses. It was at length universally acknowledged that the claims of all +the contending Plantagenets were united in the House of Tudor.</p> + +<p>It is now very long since the English people have by force subverted a +government. During the 160 years which preceded the union of the Roses, +nine kings reigned in England. Six of those kings were deposed. Five lost +their lives as well as their crowns. Yet it is certain that all through +that period the English people were far better governed than were the +Belgians under Philip the Good, or the French under that Louis who was +styled the Father of his people. The people, skilled in the use of arms, +had in reserve that check of physical force which brought the proudest king +to reason.</p> + +<p>One wise policy was during the Middle Ages pursued by England alone. +Though to the monarch belonged the power of the sword, the nation retained +the power of the purse. The Continental nations ought to have acted +likewise; as they failed to conserve this safeguard of representation with +taxation, the consequence was that everywhere excepting in England +parliamentary institutions ceased to exist. England owed this singular +felicity to her insular situation.</p> + +<p>The great events of the reigns of the Tudors and the Stuarts were +followed by a crisis when the crown passed from Charles II. to his brother, +James II. The new king commenced his administration with a large measure of +public good will. He was a prince who had been driven into exile by a +faction which had tried to rob him of his birthright, on the ground that he +was a deadly enemy to the religion and laws of England. He had triumphed, +he was on the throne, and his first act was to declare that he would defend +the Church and respect the rights of the people.</p> + +<p>But James had not been many hours king when violent disputes arose. The +first was between the two heads of the law, concerning customs and the +levying of taxes. Moreover, the time drew near for summoning Parliament, +and the king's mind was haunted by an apprehension, not to be mentioned, +even at this distance of time, without shame and indignation. He was afraid +that by summoning his Parliament he might incur the displeasure of the King +of France. Rochester, Godolphin, and Sunderland, who formed the interior +Cabinet, were perfectly aware that their late master, Charles II., had been +in the habit of receiving money from the court of Versailles. They +understood the expediency of keeping Louis in good humour, but knew that +the summoning of the legislature was not a matter of choice.</p> + +<p>As soon as the French king heard of the death of Charles and of the +accession of James, he hastened to send to the latter a munificent donation +of £35,000. James was not ashamed to shed tears of delight and +gratitude. Young Lord Churchill was sent as extraordinary ambassador to +Versailles to assure Louis of the gratitude and affection of the King of +England. This brilliant young soldier had in his 23rd year distinguished +himself amongst thousands of brave men by his serene intrepidity when +engaged with his regiment in operations, together with French forces +against Holland. Unhappily, the splendid qualities of John Churchill were +mingled with alloy of the most sordid kind.</p> + + +<h3><i>Subservience to France</i></h3> + + +<p>The accession of James in 1685 had excited hopes and fears in every +Continental court. One government alone, that of Spain, wished that the +trouble that had distracted England for three generations, might be +eternal. All other governments, whether republican or monarchical, +Protestant or Romanist, wished to see those troubles happily terminated. +Under the kings of the House of Stuart, she had been a blank in the map of +Europe. That species of force which, in the 14th century, had enabled her +to humble France and Spain, had ceased to exist. The Government was no +longer a limited monarchy after the fashion of the Middle Ages; it had not +yet become one after the modern fashion. The chief business of the +sovereign was to infringe the privileges of the legislature; that of the +legislature was to encroach on the prerogatives of the sovereign.</p> + +<p>The king readily received foreign aid, which relieved him from the +misery of being dependent on a mutinous Parliament. The Parliament refused +to the king the means of supporting the national honour abroad, from an +apprehension, too well founded, that those means might be employed in order +to establish despotism at home. The effect of these jealousies was that our +country, with all her vast resources, was of as little weight in +Christendom as the duchy of Savoy or the duchy of Lorraine, and certainly +of far less weight than the small province of Holland. France was deeply +interested in prolonging this state of things. All other powers were deeply +interested in bringing it to a close. The general wish of Europe was that +James should govern in conformity with law and with public opinion. From +the Escurial itself came letters expressing an earnest hope that the new +King of England would be on good terms with his Parliament and his people. +From the Vatican itself came cautions against immoderate zeal for the +Catholic faith.</p> + +<p>The king early put the loyalty of his Protestant friends to the proof. +While he was a subject he had been in the habit of hearing mass with closed +doors in a small oratory which had been fitted up for his wife. He now +ordered the doors to be thrown open, in order that all who came to pay him +their duty might see the ceremony. Soon a new pulpit was erected in the +palace, and during Lent sermons were preached there by Popish divines, to +the great displeasure of zealous churchmen.</p> + +<p>A more serious innovation followed. Passion week came, and the king +determined to hear mass with the same pomp with which his predecessors had +been surrounded. The rites of the Church of Rome were once more, after an +interval of 127 years, performed at Westminster on Easter Sunday with regal +splendour.</p> + + +<h3><i>Monmouth and his Fate</i></h3> + + +<p>The English exiles in Holland induced the Duke of Monmouth, a natural +son of Charles II., to attempt an invasion of England, and on June 11, +1685, he landed with about 80 men at Lyme, where he knelt on the shore, +thanked God for having preserved the friends of liberty and pure religion +from the perils of the sea, and implored the divine blessing on what was +yet to be done by land. The little town was soon in an uproar with men +running to and fro, and shouting "A Monmouth! a Monmouth! the Protestant +religion!" An insurrection was inaugurated and recruits came in rapidly. +But Parliament was loyal, and the Commons ordered a bill of attainder +against Monmouth for high treason. The rebel army was defeated in a fight +at Sedgmore, and Monmouth in his misery complained bitterly of the evil +counsellors who had induced him to quit his happy retreat in Brabant. +Fleeing from the field of battle the unfortunate duke was found hidden in a +ditch, was taken to London, lodged in the Tower, and beheaded, with the +declaration on his lips, "I die a Protestant of the Church of England."</p> + +<p>After the execution of Monmouth the counties that had risen against the +Government endured all the cruelties that a ferocious soldiery let loose on +them could inflict. The number of victims butchered cannot now be +ascertained, the vengeance being left to the dissolute Colonel Percy Kirke. +But, a still more cruel massacre was schemed. Early in September Judge +Jeffreys set out on that circuit of which the memory will last as long as +our race or language. Opening his commission at Winchester, he ordered +Alice Lisle to be burnt alive simply because she had given a meal and a +hiding place to wretched fugitives entreating her protection. The clergy of +Winchester remonstrated with the brutal judge, but the utmost that could be +obtained was that the sentence should be commuted from burning to +beheading.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Brutal Judge</i></h3> + + +<p>Then began the judicial massacre known as the Bloody Assizes. Within a +few weeks Jeffreys boasted that he had hanged more traitors than all his +predecessors together since the Conquest. Nearly a thousand prisoners were +also transported into slavery in the West Indian islands. No English +sovereign has ever given stronger proofs of a cruel nature than James II. +At his court Jeffreys, when he had done his work, leaving carnage, +mourning, and terror behind him, was cordially welcomed, for he was a judge +after his master's own heart. James had watched the circuit with interest +and delight. At a later period, when all men of all parties spoke with +horror of the Bloody Assizes, the wicked judge and the wicked king +attempted to vindicate themselves by throwing the blame on each other.</p> + +<p>The king soon went further. He made no secret of his intention to exert +vigorously and systematically for the destruction of the Established Church +all the powers he possessed as her head. He plainly declared that by a wise +dispensation of Providence, the Act of Supremacy would be the means of +healing the fatal breach which it had caused. Henry and Elizabeth had +usurped a dominion which rightfully belonged to the Holy See. That dominion +had, in the course of succession, descended to an orthodox prince, and +would by him be held in trust for the Holy See. He was authorised by law to +suppress spiritual abuses; and the first spiritual abuse which he would +suppress would be the liberty which the Anglican clergy assumed of +defending their own religion, and of attacking the doctrines of Rome.</p> + +<p>No course was too bold for James. To confer a high office in the +Established Church on an avowed enemy of that Church was indeed a bold +violation of the laws and of the royal word. The Deanery of Christchurch +became vacant. It was the head of a Cathedral. John Massey, notoriously a +member of the Church of Rome, and destitute of any other recommendation, +was appointed. Soon an altar was decked at which mass was daily celebrated. +To the Pope's Nuncio the king said that what had thus been done at Oxford +should very soon be done at Cambridge.</p> + +<p>The temper of the nation was such as might well make James hesitate. +During some months discontent steadily and rapidly rose. The celebration of +Roman Catholic worship had long been prohibited by Act of Parliament. +During several generations no Roman Catholic clergyman had dared to exhibit +himself in any public place with the badges of his office. Every Jesuit who +set foot in this country was liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.</p> + +<p>But all disguise was now thrown off. Roman Catholic chapels arose all +over the land. A society of Benedictine monks was lodged in St. James's +Palace. Quarrels broke out between Protestant and Romanist soldiers. Samuel +Johnson, a clergyman of the Church of England, who had issued a tract +entitled "A humble and hearty Appeal to all English Protestants in the +Army," was flung into gaol. He was then flogged and degraded from the +priesthood. But the zeal of the Anglican clergy displayed. They were Jed by +a united Phalanx, in the van of which appeared a rank of steady and +skillful veterans, Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Prideaux, Patrick, Tenison, +Wake. Great numbers of controversial tracts against Popery were issued by +these divines.</p> + +<p>Scotland also rose in anger against the designs of the king, and if he +had not been proof against all warning the excitement in that country would +have sufficed to admonish him. On March 18, 1687, he took a momentous step. +He informed the Privy Council that he had determined to prorogue Parliament +till the end of November, and to grant, by his own authority, entire +liberty of conscience to all his subjects. On April 4th appeared the +memorable Declaration of Indulgence. In this document the king avowed that +it was his earnest wish to see his people members of that Church to which +he himself belonged. But since that could not be, he announced his +intention to protect them in the free exercise of their religion. He +authorised both Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to perform their +worship publicly.</p> + +<p>That the Declaration was unconstitutional is universally agreed, for a +monarch competent to issue such a document is nothing less than an absolute +ruler. This was, in point of fact, the most audacious of all attacks of the +Stuarts on public freedom. The Anglican party was in amazement and terror, +for it would now be exposed to the free attacks of its enemies on every +side. And though Dissenters appeared to be allowed relief, what guarantee +was there for the sincerity of the Court? It was notorious that James had +been completely subjugated by the Jesuits, for only a few days before the +publication of the Indulgence, that Order had been honoured with a new mark +of his confidence, by appointing as his confessor an Englishman named +Warner, a Jesuit renegade from the Anglican Church.</p> + + +<h3><i>Petition of the Seven Bishops and their Trial</i></h3> + + +<p>A meeting of bishops and other eminent divines was held at Lambeth +Palace. The general feeling was that the king's Declaration ought not to be +read in the churches. After long deliberation, preceded by solemn prayer, a +petition embodying the general sense, was written by the Archbishop with +his own hand. The king was assured that the Church still was, as she had +ever been, faithful to the throne. But the Declaration was illegal, for +Parliament had pronounced that the sovereign was not constitutionally +competent to dispense with statutes in matters ecclesiastical. The +Archbishop and six of his suffragans signed the petition. The six bishops +crossed the river to Whitehall, but the Archbishop, who had long been +forbidden the Court, did not accompany them. James directed that the +bishops should be admitted to the royal presence, and they found him in +very good humour, for he had heard from his tool Cartwright that they were +disposed to obey the mandate, but wished to secure some little +modifications in form.</p> + +<p>After reading the petition the king's countenance grew dark and he +exclaimed, "This is the standard of rebellion." In vain did the prelates +emphasise their protests of loyalty. The king persisted in characterising +their action as being rebellious. The bishops respectfully retired, and +that evening the petition appeared in print, was laid out in the +coffeehouses and was cried about the streets. Everywhere people rose from +their beds, and came out to stop the hawkers, and the sale was so enormous +that it was said the printer cleared a thousand pounds in a few hours by +this penny broadside.</p> + +<p>The London clergy disobeyed the royal order, for the Declaration was +read in only four churches in the city, where there were about a hundred. +For a short time the king stood aghast at the violence of the tempest he +had raised, but Jeffreys maintained that the government would be disgraced +if such transgressors as the seven bishops were suffered to escape with a +mere reprimand. They were notified that they must appear before the king in +Council. On June 8 they were examined by the Privy Council, the result +being their committal to the Tower. From all parts of the country came the +report that other prelates had signed similar petitions and that very few +of the clergy throughout the land had obeyed the king. The public +excitement in London was intense. While the bishops were before the Council +a great multitude filled the region all round Whitehall, and when the Seven +came forth under a guard, thousands fell on their knees and prayed aloud +for the men who had confronted a tyrant inflamed with the bigotry of +Mary.</p> + +<p>The king learned with indignation that the soldiers were drinking the +health of the prelates, and his officers told him that this could not be +prevented. Before the day of trial the agitation spread to the furthest +corners of the island. Scotland sent letters assuring the bishops of the +sympathy of the Presbyterians, hostile though they were to prelacy. The +people of Cornwall were greatly moved by the danger of Bishop Trelawney, +and the peasants chanted a ballad of which the burden is still +remembered:</p> + +<blockquote> +"And shall Trelawney die, and shall Trelawney die?<br /> +Then thirty thousand Cornish boys will know the reason why."<br /> +</blockquote> + +<p>The miners from their caverns re-echoed the song with a variation:</p> + +<blockquote> +"Then twenty thousand underground will know the reason why."<br /> +</blockquote> + +<p>The bishops were charged with having published a false, malicious, and +seditious libel. But the case for the prosecution speedily broke down in +the hands of the crown lawyers. They were vehemently hissed by the +audience. The jury gave the verdict of "Not Guilty." As the news spread all +London broke out into acclamation. The bishops were greeted with cries of +"God bless you; you have saved us all to-day." The king was greatly +disturbed at the news of the acquittal, and exclaimed in French, "So much +the worse for them." He was at that moment in the camp at Hounslow, where +he had been reviewing the troops. Hearing a great shout behind him, he +asked what the uproar meant. "Nothing," was the answer; "the soldiers are +glad that the bishops are acquitted." "Do you call that nothing?" exclaimed +the king. And then he repeated, "So much the worse for them." He might well +be out of temper. His defeat had been complete and most humiliating.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Prince of Orange</i></h3> + + +<p>In May, 1688, while it was still uncertain whether the Declaration would +or would not be read in the churches, Edward Russell had repaired to the +Hague, where he strongly represented to the Prince of Orange, husband of +Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., the state of the public mind, and had +advised His Highness to appear in England with a strong body of troops, and +to call the people to arms. William had seen at a glance the whole +importance of the crisis. "Now or never," he exclaimed in Latin. He quickly +received numerous assurances of support from England. Preparations were +rapidly made, and on November I, 1688, he set sail with his fleet, and +landed at Torbay on November 4. Resistance was impossible. The troops of +James's army quietly deserted wholesale, many joining the Dutch camp at +Honiton. First the West of England, and then the North, revolted against +James. Evil news poured in upon him. When he heard that Churchill and +Grafton had forsaken him, he exclaimed, "Est-il possible?" On December 8 +the king fled from London secretly. His home in exile was at Saint +Germains.</p> + +<p>William and Mary were proclaimed King and Queen of the United Kingdom, +and thus was consummated the English Revolution. It was of all revolutions +the least violent and yet the most beneficent.</p> + + +<h3><i>After the Great Revolution</i></h3> + + +<p>The Revolution had been accomplished. The rejoicings throughout the land +were enthusiastic. Still more cordial was the rejoicing among the Dutch +when they learned that the first minister of their Commonwealth had been +raised to a throne. James had, during the last year of his reign, been even +more hated in England by the Tories than by the Whigs; and not without +cause; for to the Whigs he was only an enemy; and to the Tories he had been +a faithless and thankless friend.</p> + +<p>One misfortune of the new king, which some reactionaries imputed to him +as a crime, was his bad English. He spoke our language, but not well. Our +literature he was incapable of enjoying or understanding. He never once +appeared in the theatre. The poets who wrote Pindaric verse in his praise +complained that their flights of sublimity were beyond his comprehension. +But his wife did her best to supply what was wanting. She was excellently +qualified to be the head of the Court. She was English by birth and also in +her tastes and feelings. The stainless purity of her private life and the +attention she paid to her religious duties discourages scandal as well as +vice.</p> + +<p>The year 1689 is not less important in the ecclesiastical than in the +civil history of England, for in that year was granted the first legal +indulgence to Dissenters. And then also the two chief sections within the +Anglican communion began to be called the High Church and Low Church +parties. The Low Churchmen stood between the nonconformists and the rigid +conformists. The famous Toleration Bill passed both Houses with little +debate. It approaches very near the ideal of a great English law, the sound +principle of which undoubtedly is that mere theological error ought not to +be punished by the civil magistrate.</p> + + +<h3><i>The War in Ireland</i></h3> + + +<p>The discontent of the Roman Catholic Irishry with the Revolution was +intense. It grew so manifestly, that James, assured that his cause was +prospering in Ireland, landed on March 12, 1689, at Kinsale. On March 24 he +entered Dublin. This event created sorrow and alarm in England. An Irish +army, raised by the Catholics, entered Ulster and laid siege to +Londonderry, into which city two English regiments had been thrown by sea. +The heroic defence of Londonderry is one of the most thrilling episodes in +the history of Ireland. The siege was turned into a blockade by the +construction of a boom across the harbour by the besiegers. The citizens +endured frightful hunger, for famine was extreme within the walls, but they +never quailed. The garrison was reduced from 7,000 to 3,000. The siege, +which lasted 105 days, and was the most memorable in the annals of the +British Isles, was ended by the breaking of the boom by a squadron of three +ships from England which brought reinforcements and provisions.</p> + +<p>The Irish army retreated and the next event, a very decisive one, was +the defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, where William and James commanded +their respective forces. The war ended with the capitulation of Limerick, +and the French soldiers, who had formed a great part of James's army, left +for France.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Battle of La Hogue</i></h3> + + +<p>The year 1692 was marked by momentous events issuing from a scheme, in +some respects well concerted, for the invasion of England by a French +force, with the object of the restoration of James. A noble fleet of about +80 ships of the line was to convey this force to the shores of England, and +in the French dockyards immense preparations were made. James had persuaded +himself that, even if the English fleet should fall in with him, it would +not oppose him. Indeed, he was too ready to believe anything written to him +by his English correspondents.</p> + +<p>No mightier armament had ever appeared in the English Channel than the +fleet of allied British and Dutch ships, under the command of Admiral +Russell. On May 19 it encountered the French fleet under the Count of +Tourville, and a running fight took place which lasted during five fearful +days, ending in the complete destruction of the French force off La Hogue. +The news of this great victory was received in England with boundless joy. +One of its happiest effects was the effectual calming of the public +mind.</p> + + +<h3><i>Creation of the Bank of England</i></h3> + + +<p>In this reign, in 1694, was established the Bank of England. It was the +result of a great change that had developed in a few years, for old men in +William's reign could remember the days when there was not a single banking +house in London. Goldsmiths had strong vaults in which masses of bullion +could lie secure from fire and robbers, and at their shops in Lombard +Street all payments in coin were made. William Paterson, an ingenious +speculator, submitted to the government a plan for a national bank, which +after long debate passed both Houses of Parliament.</p> + +<p>In 1694 the king and the nation mourned the death from small-pox, a +disease always working havoc, of Queen Mary. During her illness William +remained day and night at her bedside. The Dutch Envoy wrote that the sight +of his misery was enough to melt the hardest heart. When all hope was over, +he said to Bishop Burnet, "There is no hope. I was the happiest man on +earth; and I am the most miserable. She had no faults; none; you knew her +well; but you could not know, none but myself could know, her goodness." +The funeral was remembered as the saddest and most august that Westminister +had ever seen. While the queen's remains lay in state at Whitehall, the +neighbouring streets were filled every day, from sunrise to sunset, by +crowds that made all traffic impossible. The two Houses with their maces +followed the hearse, the Lords robed in scarlet and ermine, the Commons in +long black mantles. No preceding sovereign had ever been attended to the +grave by a Parliament: for till then the Parliament had always expired with +the sovereign. The gentle queen sleeps among her illustrious kindred in the +southern aisle of the Chapel of Henry the Seventh.</p> + +<p>The affection of her husband was soon attested by a monument the most +superb that was ever erected to any sovereign. No scheme had been so much +her own, and none so dear to her heart, as that of converting the palace at +Greenwich into a retreat for seamen. As soon as he had lost her, her +husband began to reproach himself for neglecting her wishes. No time was +lost. A plan was furnished by Wren; and soon an edifice, surpassing that +asylum which the magnificent Louis had provided for his soldiers, rose on +the margin of the Thames. The inscription on the frieze ascribes praise to +Mary alone. Few who now gaze on the noble double edifice, crowned by twin +domes, are aware that it is a memorial of the virtues of the good Queen +Mary, of the love and sorrow of William, and of the greater victory of La +Hogue.</p> + +<p>On the Continent the death of Mary excited various emotions. The +Huguenots, in every part of Europe to which they had wandered, bewailed the +Elect Lady, who had retrenched her own royal state in order to furnish +bread and shelter to the persecuted people of God. But the hopes of James +and his companions in exile were now higher than they had been since the +day of La Hogue. Indeed, the general opinion of politicians, both here and +on the Continent, was that William would find it impossible to sustain +himself much longer on the throne. He would not, it was said, have +sustained himself so long but for the help of his wife, whose affability +had conciliated many that were disgusted by his Dutch accent and habits. +But all the statesmen of Europe were deceived: and, strange to say, his +reign was decidedly more prosperous after the decease of Mary than during +her life.</p> + +<p>During the month which followed her death the king was incapable of +exertion. His first letter was that of a brokenhearted man. Even his +martial ardour had been tamed by misery. "I tell you in confidence," he +wrote to Heincius, "that I feel myself to be no longer fit for military +command. Yet I will try to do my duty: and I hope that God will strengthen +me." So despondingly did he look forward to the most brilliant and +successful of his many campaigns.</p> + +<p>All Europe was looking anxiously towards the Low Countries. A great +French army, commanded by Villeroy, was collected in Flanders. William +crossed to the Continent to take command of the Dutch and British troops, +who mustered at Ghent. The Elector of Bavaria, at the head of a great +force, lay near Brussels. William had set his heart on capturing Namur. +After a siege hard pressed, that fortress, esteemed the strongest in +Europe, splendidly fortified by Vauban, surrendered to the allies on August +26, 1695.</p> + + +<h3><i>The Treaty of Ryswick</i></h3> + + +<p>The war was ended by the signing of the treaty of Ryswick by the +ambassadors of France, England, Spain, and the United Provinces on +September 10, 1697. King William was received in London with great popular +rejoicing. The second of December was appointed a day of thanksgiving for +peace, and the Chapter of St. Paul's resolved that on that day their new +Cathedral, which had long been slowly rising on the ruins of a succession +of pagan and Christian temples, should be opened for public worship. There +was indeed reason for joy and thankfulness. England had passed through +severe trials, and had come forth renewed in health and vigour.</p> + +<p>Ten years before it had seemed that both her liberty and her +independence were no more. Her liberty she had vindicated by a just and +necessary revolution. Her independence she had reconquered by a not less +just and necessary war. All dangers were over. There was peace abroad and +at home. The kingdom, after many years of ignominious vassalage, had +resumed its ancient place in the first rank of European powers. Many signs +justified the hope that the Revolution of 1688 would be our last +Revolution. Public credit had been re-established; trade had revived; the +Exchequer was overflowing; and there was a sense of relief everywhere, from +the Royal Exchange to the most secluded hamlets among the mountains of +Wales and the fens of Lincolnshire.</p> + +<p>Early in 1702 alarming reports were rife concerning William's state of +health. Headaches and shivering fits returned on him almost daily, and it +soon became evident that the great king's days were numbered. On February +20 William was ambling on a favourite horse, named Sorrel, through the park +of Hampton Court. The horse stumbling on a mole-hill went down on his +knees. The king fell off and broke his collar-bone. The bone was set, and +to a young and vigorous man such an accident would have been a trifle. But +the frame of William was not in a condition to bear even the slightest +shock. He felt that his time was short, and grieved, with such a grief as +only noble spirits feel, to think that he must leave his work but half +finished. On March 4 he was attacked by fever, and he was soon sinking +fast. He was under no delusion as to his danger. "I am fast drawing to my +end," said he. His end was worthy of his life. His intellect was not for a +moment clouded. His fortitude was the more admirable because he was not +willing to die. From the words which escaped him he seemed to be frequently +engaged in mental prayer. The end came between seven and eight in the +morning. When his remains were laid out, it was found that he wore next to +his skin a small piece of black silk riband. The lords in waiting ordered +it to be taken off. It contained a gold ring and a lock of the hair of +Mary.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='HENRY_BUCKLE'></a>HENRY BUCKLE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_Civilisation_in_England'></a>History of +Civilisation in England</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Henry Thomas Buckle was born at Lee, in Kent, England, Nov. +24, 1821. Delicate health prevented him from following the ordinary school +course. His father's death in 1840 left him independent, and the boy who +was brought up in Toryism and Calvinism, became a philosophic radical and +free-thinker. He travelled, he read, he acquired facility in nineteen +languages and fluency in seven. Gradually he conceived the idea of a great +work which should place history on an entirely new footing; it should +concern itself not with the unimportant and the personal, but with the +advance of civilisation, the intellectual progress of man. As the idea +developed, he perceived that the task was greater than could be +accomplished in the lifetime of one man. What he actually accomplished--the +volumes which bear the title "The History of Civilisation in England"--was +intended to be no more than an introduction to the subject; and even that +introduction, which was meant to cover, on a corresponding scale, the +civilisation of several other countries, was never finished. The first +volume was published in 1857, the second in 1861; only the studies of +England, France, Spain, and Scotland were completed. Buckle died at +Damascus, on May 29, 1862. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.---General Principles</i></h3> + + +<p>The believer in the possibility of a science of history is not called +upon to hold either the doctrine of predestination or that of freedom of +the will. The only positions which at the outset need to be conceded are +that when we perform an action we perform it in consequence of some motive +or motives; that those motives are the result of some antecedents; and +that, therefore, if we were acquainted with the whole of the precedents and +with all the laws of their movements we could with unerring certainty +predict the whole of their immediate results.</p> + +<p>History is the modification of man by nature and of nature by man. We +shall find a regularity in the variations of virtuous and vicious actions +that proves them to be the result of large and general causes which, +working upon the aggregate of society, must produce certain consequences +without regard to the decision of particular individuals.</p> + +<p>Man is affected by purely physical agents--climate, food, soil, +geographical conditions, and active physical phenomena. In the earliest +civilisations nature is more prominent than man, and the imagination is +more stimulated than the understanding. In the European civilisations man +is the more prominent, and the understanding is more stimulated than the +imagination. Hence the advance of European civilisation is characterised by +a diminishing influence of physical laws and an increasing influence of +mental laws. Clearly, then, of the two classes of laws which regulate the +progress of mankind the mental class is more important than the physical. +The laws of the human mind will prove to be the ultimate basis of the +history of Europe. These are not to be ascertained by the metaphysical +method of studying the inquirer's own mind alone, but by the historical +method of studying many minds. And this whether the metaphysician belongs +to the school which starts by examining the sensations, or to that which +starts with the examination of ideas.</p> + +<p>Dismissing the metaphysical method, therefore, we must turn to the +historical, and study mental phenomena as they appear in the actions of +mankind at large. Mental progress is twofold, moral and intellectual, the +first having relation to our duties, the second to our knowledge. It is a +progress not of capacity, but in the circumstances under which capacity +comes into play; not of internal power, but of external advantage. Now, +whereas moral truths do not change, intellectual truths are constantly +changing, from which we may infer that the progress of society is due, not +to the moral knowledge, which is stationary, but to the intellectual +knowledge, which is constantly advancing.</p> + +<p>The history of any people will become more valuable for ascertaining the +laws by which past events were governed in proportion as their movements +have been least disturbed by external agencies. During the last three +centuries these conditions have applied to England more than to any other +country; since the action of the people has there been the least restricted +by government, and has been allowed the greatest freedom of play. +Government intervention is habitually restrictive, and the best legislation +has been that which abrogated former restrictive legislation.</p> + +<p>Government, religion, and literature are not the causes of civilisation, +but its effects. The higher religion enters only where the mind is +intellectually prepared for its acceptance; elsewhere the forms may be +adopted, but not the essence, as mediæval Christianity was merely an +adapted paganism. Similarly, a religion imposed by authority is accepted in +its form, but not necessarily in its essence.</p> + +<p>In the same way literature is valuable to a country in proportion as the +population is capable of criticising and discriminating; that is, as it is +intellectually prepared to select and sift the good from the bad.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.---Civilisation in England</i></h3> + + +<p>It was the revival of the critical or sceptical spirit which remedied +the three fundamental errors of the olden time. Where the spirit of doubt +was quenched civilisation continued to be stationary. Where it was allowed +comparatively free play, as in England and France, there has arisen that +constantly progressive knowledge to which these two great nations owe their +prosperity.</p> + +<p>In England its primary and most important consequence is the growth of +religious toleration. From the time of Elizabeth it became impossible to +profess religion as the avowed warrant for persecution. Hooker, at the end +of her reign, rests the argument of his "Ecclesiastical Polit" on reason; +and this is still more decisively the case with Chillingworth's "Religion +of Protestants" not fifty years later. The double movement of scepticism +had overthrown its controlling authority.</p> + +<p>In precisely the same way Boyle--perhaps the greatest of our men of +science between Bacon and Newton--perpetually insists on the importance of +individual experiments and the comparative unimportance of what we have +received from antiquity.</p> + +<p>The clergy had lost ground; their temporary alliance with James II. was +ended by the Declaration of Indulgence. But they were half-hearted in their +support of the Revolution, and scepticism received a fresh encouragement +from the hostility between them and the new government; and the brief rally +under Queen Anne was overwhelmed by the rise of Wesleyanism. Theology was +finally severed from the department both of ethics and of government.</p> + +<p>The eighteenth century is characterised by a craving after knowledge on +the part of those classes from whom knowledge had hitherto been shut out. +With the demand for knowledge came an increased simplicity in the literary +form under which it was diffused. With the spirit of inquiry the desire for +reform constantly increased, but the movement was checked by a series of +political combinations which demand some attention.</p> + +<p>The accession of George III. changed the conditions which had persisted +since the accession of George I. The new king was able to head reaction. +The only minister of ability he admitted to his counsels was Pitt, and Pitt +retained power only by abandoning his principles. Nevertheless, a +counter-reaction was created, to which England owes her great reforms of +the nineteenth century.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--Development of France</i></h3> + + +<p>In France at the time of the Reformation the clergy were far more +powerful than in England, and the theological contest was much more severe. +Toleration began with Henry IV. at the moment when Montaigne appeared as +the prophet of scepticism. The death of King Henry was not followed by the +reaction which might have been expected, and the rule of Richelieu was +emphatically political in its motives and secular in its effects. It is +curious to see that the Protestants were the illiberal party, while the +cardinal remained resolutely liberal.</p> + +<p>The difference between the development in France and England is due +primarily to the recognition in England of the fact that no country can +long remain prosperous or safe in which the people are not gradually +extending their power, enlarging their privileges, and, so to say, +incorporating themselves with the functions of the state. France, on the +other hand, suffered far more from the spirit of protection, which is so +dangerous, and yet so plausible, that it forms the most serious obstacle +with which advancing civilisation has to contend.</p> + +<p>The great rebellion in England was a war of classes as well as of +factions; on the one side the yeomanry and traders, on the other the nobles +and the clergy. The corresponding war of the Fronde in France was not a +class war at all; it was purely political, and in no way social. At bottom +the English rebellion was democratic; the leaders of the Fronde were +aristocrats, without any democratic leanings.</p> + +<p>Thus in France the protective spirit maintained its ascendancy +intensified. Literature and science, allied to and patronised by +government, suffered demoralisation, and the age of Louis XIV. was one of +intellectual decay. After the death of Louis XIV. the French discovered +England and English literature. Our island, regarded hitherto as barbarous, +was visited by nearly every Frenchman of note for the two succeeding +generations. Voltaire, in particular, assimilated and disseminated English +doctrines.</p> + +<p>The consequent development of the liberal spirit brought literature into +collision with the government. Inquiry was opposed to the interests of both +nobles and clergy. Nearly every great man of letters in France was a victim +of persecution. It might be said that the government deliberately made a +personal enemy of every man of intellect in the country. We can only +wonder, not that the revolution came, but that it was still so long +delayed; but ingrained prejudices prevented the crown from being the first +object of attack. The hostility of the men of letters was directed first +against the Church and Christianity. Religious scepticism and political +emancipation did not advance hand in hand; much that was worst in the +actual revolution was due to the fact that the latter lagged behind.</p> + +<p>In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries some progress had been made +in the principles of writing history. Like everything else, history +suffered from the rule of Louis XIV. Again the advance was inaugurated by +Voltaire. His principle is to concentrate on important movements, not on +idle details. This was not characteristic of the individual author only, +but of the spirit of the age. It is equally present in the works of +Montesquieu and Turgot. The defects of Montesquieu are chiefly due to the +fact that his materials were intractable, because science had not yet +reduced them to order by generalising the laws of their phenomena. In the +second half of the eighteenth century the intellectual movement began to be +turned directly against the state. Economical and financial inquiries began +to absorb popular attention. Rousseau headed the political movement, +whereas the government in its financial straits turned against the clergy, +whose position was already undermined, and against whom Voltaire continued +to direct his batteries.</p> + +<p>The suppression of the Jesuits meant a revival of Jansenism. Jansenism +is Calvinistic, and Calvinism is democratic; but the real concentration of +French minds was on material questions. The foundations of religious +beliefs had been undermined, and hence arose the painful prevalence of +atheism. The period was one of progress in the study of material laws in +every field. The national intellect had taken a new bent, and it was one +which tended to violent social revolt. The hall of science is the temple of +democracy. It was in these conditions that the eyes of Frenchmen were +turned to the glorious revolt in the cause of liberty of the American +people. The spark was set to an inflammatory mass, and ignited a flame +which never ceased its ravages until it had destroyed all that Frenchmen +once held dear.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.---Reaction in Spain</i></h3> + + +<p>I have laid down four propositions which I have endeavoured to +establish--that progress depends on a successful investigation of the laws +of phenomena; that a spirit of scepticism is a condition of such +investigation; that the influence of intellectual truths increases thereby +relatively to that of moral truths; and that the great enemy of his +progress is the protective spirit. We shall find these propositions +verified in the history of Spain.</p> + +<p>Physically, Spain most closely resembles those non-European countries +where the influence of nature is more prominent than that of man, and whose +civilisations are consequently influenced more by the imagination than by +the understanding. In Spain, superstition is encouraged by the violent +energies of nature. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Spain was first +engaged in a long struggle on behalf of the Arianism of the Goths against +the orthodoxy of the Franks. This was followed by centuries of struggle +between the Christian Spaniard and the Mohammedan Moors. After the conquest +of Granada, the King of Spain and Emperor, Charles V., posed primarily as +the champion of religion and the enemy of heresy. His son Philip summarised +his policy in the phrase that "it is better not to reign at all than to +reign over heretics."</p> + +<p>Loyalty was supported by superstition; each strengthened the other. +Great foreign conquests were made, and a great military reputation was +developed. But the people counted for nothing. The crown, the aristocracy, +and the clergy were supreme--the last more so than ever in the seventeenth +century. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Bourbon replaced +the Hapsburg dynasty. The Bourbons sought to improve the country by +weakening the Church, but failed to raise the people, who had become +intellectually paralysed. The greatest efforts at improvement were made by +Charles III.; but Charles IV., unlike his predecessors, who had been +practically foreigners, was a true Spaniard. The inevitable reaction set +in.</p> + +<p>In the nineteenth century individuals have striven for political reform, +but they have been unable to make head against those general causes which +have predetermined the country to superstition. Great as are the virtues +for which the Spaniards have long been celebrated, those noble qualities +are useless while ignorance is so gross and so general.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.--The Paradox of Scottish History</i></h3> + + +<p>In most respects Scotland affords a complete contrast to Spain, but in +regard to superstition, there is a striking similarity. Both nations have +allowed their clergy to exercise immense sway; in both intolerance has +been, and still is, a crying evil; and a bigotry is habitually displayed +which is still more discreditable to Scotland than to Spain. It is the +paradox of Scotch history that the people are liberal in politics and +illiberal in religion.</p> + +<p>The early history of Scotland is one of perpetual invasions down to the +end of the fourteenth century. This had the double effect of strengthening +the nobles while it weakened the citizens, and increasing the influence of +the clergy while weakening that of the intellectual classes. The crown, +completely overshadowed by the nobility, was forced to alliance with the +Church. The fifteenth century is a record of the struggles of the crown +supported by the clergy against the nobility, whose power, however, they +failed to break. At last, in the reign of James V., the crown and Church +gained the ascendancy. The antagonism of the nobles to the Church was +intensified, and consequently the nobles identified themselves with the +Reformation.</p> + +<p>The struggle continued during the regency which followed the death of +James; but within twenty years the nobles had triumphed and the Church was +destroyed. There was an immediate rupture between the nobility and the new +clergy, who united themselves with the people and became the advocates of +democracy. The crown and the nobles were now united in maintaining +episcopacy, which became the special object of attack from the new clergy, +who, despite the extravagance of their behaviour, became the great +instruments in keeping alive and fostering the spirit of liberty.</p> + +<p>When James VI. became also James I. of England, he used his new power to +enforce episcopacy. Charles I. continued his policy; but the reaction was +gathering strength, and became open revolt in 1637. The democratic movement +became directly political. When the great civil war followed, the Scots +sold the king, who had surrendered to them, to the English, who executed +him. They acknowledged his son, Charles II., but not till he had accepted +the Covenant on ignominious terms.</p> + +<p>At the restoration Charles II. was able to renew the oppressive policy +of his father and grandfather. The restored bishops supported the crown; +the people and the popular clergy were mercilessly persecuted. Matters +became even worse under James II., but the revolution of 1688 ended the +oppression. The exiled house found support in the Highlands not out of +loyalty, but from the Highland preference for anarchy; and after 1745 the +Highlanders themselves were powerless. The trading spirit rose and +flourished, and the barbaric hereditary jurisdictions were abolished. This +last measure marked but did not cause the decadence of the power of the +nobility. This had been brought about primarily by the union with England +in 1707. In the legislature of Great Britain the Scotch peers were a +negligible and despised factor. The <i>coup de grace</i> was given by the +rebellion of 1745. The law referred to expressed an already accomplished +fact.</p> + +<p>The union also encouraged the development of the mercantile and +manufacturing classes, which, in turn, strengthened the democratic +movement. Meanwhile, a great literature was also arising, bold and +inquiring. Nevertheless, it failed to diminish the national +superstition.</p> + +<p>This illiberality in religion was caused in the first place by the power +of the clergy. Religion was the essential feature of the Scotch war against +Charles I. Theological interests dominated the secular because the clergy +were the champions of the political movement. Hence, in the seventeenth +century, the clergy were enabled to extend and consolidate their own +authority, partly by means of that great engine of tyranny, the kirk +sessions, partly through the credulity which accepted their claims to +miraculous interpositions in their favour. To increase their own +ascendancy, the clergy advanced monstrous doctrines concerning evil spirits +and punishments in the next life; painted the Deity as cruel and jealous; +discovered sinfulness hateful to God in the most harmless acts; punished +the same with arbitrary and savage penalties; and so crushed out of +Scotland all mirth and nearly all physical enjoyment.</p> + +<p>Scottish literature of the eighteenth century failed to destroy this +illiberality owing to the method of the Scotch philosophers. The school +which arose was in reaction against the dominant theological spirit; but +its method was deductive not inductive. Now, the inductive method, which +ascends from experience to theory is anti-theological. The deductive +reasons down from theories whose validity is assumed; it is the method of +theology itself. In Scotland the theological spirit had taken such firm +hold that the inductive method could not have obtained a hearing; whereas +in England and France the inductive method has been generally followed.</p> + +<p>The great secular philosophy of Scotland was initiated by Hutchinson. +His system of morals was based not on revealed principles, but on laws +ascertainable by human intelligence; his positions were in fiat +contradiction to those of the clergy. But his method assumes intuitive +faculties and intuitive knowledge.</p> + +<p>The next and the greatest name is that of Adam Smith, whose works, "The +Theory of Moral Sentiments" and "Wealth of Nations," must be taken in +conjunction. In the first he works on the assumption that sympathy is the +mainspring of human conduct. In the "Wealth of Nations" the mainspring is +selfishness. The two are not contradictory, but complementary. Of the +second book it may be said that it is probably the most important which has +ever been written, whether we consider the amount of original thought which +it contains or its practical influence.</p> + +<p>Beside Adam Smith stands David Hume. An accomplished reasoner and a +profound thinker, he lacked the invaluable quality of imagination. This is +the underlying defect of his history. Important and novel as are Hume's +doctrines, his method was also deductive, and, like Adam Smith, he rests +little on experience. After these two, Reid was the most eminent among the +purely speculative thinkers of Scotland, but he stands far below them both. +To Hume the spirit of inquiry and scepticism is essential; to Reid it is a +danger.</p> + +<p>The deductive method was no less prevalent in physical philosophy. Now, +induction is more accessible to the average understanding than deduction. +The deductive character of this Scottish literature prevented it from +having popular effect, and therefore from weakening the national +superstition, from which Scotland, even to-day, has been unable to shake +herself free.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='WALTER_BAGEHOT'></a>WALTER BAGEHOT</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_English_Constitution'></a>The English Constitution</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Walter Bagehot was born at Langport in Somerset, England, +Feb. 3, 1826, and died on March 24, 1877. He was educated at Bristol and at +University College, London. Subsequently he joined his father's banking and +ship-owning business. From 1860 till his death, he was editor of the +"Economist." He was a keen student not only of economic and political +science subjects, which he handled with a rare lightness of touch, but also +of letters and of life at large. It is difficult to say in which field his +penetration, his humour, and his charm of style are most conspicuously +displayed. The papers collected in the volume called "The English +Constitution" appeared originally in the "Fortnightly Review" during 1865 +and 1866. The Reform Bill, which transferred the political centre of +gravity from the middle class to the artisan class had not yet arrived; and +the propositions laid down by Bagehot have necessarily been in some degree +modified in the works of more recent authorities, such as Professor Dicey +and Mr. Sidney Low. But as a human interpretation of that exceedingly human +monument, the British Constitution, Bagehot's work is likely to remain +unchallenged for all time. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.---The Cabinet</i></h3> + + +<p>No one can approach to an understanding of English institutions unless +he divides them into two classes. In such constitutions there are two +parts. First, those which excite and preserve the reverence of the +population, the dignified parts, if I may so call them; and, next, the +efficient parts, those by which it, in fact, works and rules. Every +constitution must first win the loyalty and confidence of mankind, and then +employ that homage in the work of government.</p> + +<p>The dignified parts of government are those which bring it force, which +attracts its motive power. The efficient parts only employ that power. If +all subjects of the same government only thought of what was useful to +them, the efficient members of the constitution would suffice, and no +impressive adjuncts would be needed. But it is not true that even the lower +classes will be absorbed in the useful. The ruder sort of men will +sacrifice all they hope for, all they have, themselves, for what is called +an idea. The elements which excite the most easy reverence will be not the +most useful, but the theatrical. It is the characteristic merit of the +English constitution that its dignified parts are imposing and venerable, +while its efficient part is simple and rather modern.</p> + +<p>The efficient secret of the English constitution is the nearly complete +fusion of the executive and legislative powers. The connecting link is the +cabinet. This is a committee of the legislative body, in choosing which +indirectly but not directly the legislature is nearly omnipotent. The prime +minister is chosen by the House of Commons, and is the head of the +efficient part of the constitution. The queen is only at the head of its +dignified part. The Prime Minister himself has to choose his associates, +but can only do so out of a charmed circle.</p> + +<p>The cabinet is an absolutely secret committee, which can dissolve the +assembly which appointed it. It is an executive which is at once the +nominee of the legislature, and can annihilate the legislature. The system +stands in precise contrast to the presidential system, in which the +legislative and executive powers are entirely independent.</p> + +<p>A good parliament is a capital choosing body; it is an electoral college +of the picked men of the nation. But in the American system the president +is chosen by a complicated machinery of caucuses; he is not the choice of +the nation, but of the wirepullers. The members of congress are excluded +from executive office, and the separation makes neither the executive half +nor the legislative half of political life worth having. Hence it is only +men of an inferior type who are attracted to political life at all.</p> + +<p>Again our system enables us to change our ruler suddenly on an +emergency. Thus we could abolish the Aberdeen Cabinet, which was in itself +eminently adapted for every sort of difficulty save the one it had to meet, +but wanted the daemonic element, and substitute a statesman who had the +precise sort of merit wanted at the moment. But under a presidential +government you can do nothing of the kind. There is no elastic element; +everything is rigid, specified, dated. You have bespoken your government +for the time, and you must keep it. Moreover, under the English system all +the leading statesmen are known quantities. But in America a new president +before his election is usually an unknown quantity.</p> + +<p>Cabinet government demands the mutual confidence of the electors, a calm +national mind, and what I may call rationality--a power involving +intelligence, yet distinct from it. It demands also a competent +legislature, which is a rarity. In the early stages of human society the +grand object is not to make new laws, but to prevent innovation. Custom is +the first check on tyranny, but at the present day the desire is to adapt +the law to changed conditions. In the past, however, continuous +legislatures were rare because they were not wanted. Now you have to get a +good legislature and to keep it good. To keep it good it must have a +sufficient supply of business. To get it good is a precedent difficulty. A +nation in which the mass of the people are intelligent, educated, and +comfortable can elect a good parliament. Or what I will call a deferential +nation may do so--I mean one in which the numerical majority wishes to be +ruled by the wiser minority.</p> + +<p>Of deferential countries England is the type. But it is not to their +actual heavy, sensible middle-class rulers that the mass of the English +people yield deference, but to the theatrical show of society. The few rule +by their hold, not over the reason of the multitude, but over their +imaginations and their habits.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Monarchy</i></h3> + + +<p>The use of the queen in a dignified capacity is incalculable. The best +reason why monarchy is a strong government is that it is an intelligible +government; whereas a constitution is complex. Men are governed by the +weakness of their imagination. To state the matter shortly, royalty is a +government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one +person doing interesting actions. A republic is a government in which that +attention is divided between many who are all doing uninteresting actions. +Secondly, if you ask the immense majority of the queen's subjects by what +right she rules, they will say she rules by God's grace. They believe they +have a mystic obligation to obey her. The crown is a visible symbol of +unity with an atmosphere of dignity.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, the queen is the head of society. If she were not so, the prime +minister would be the first person in the country. As it is the House of +Commons attracts people who go there merely for social purposes; if the +highest social rank was to be scrambled for in the House of Commons, the +number of social adventurers there would be even more numerous. It has been +objected of late that English royalty is not splendid enough. It is +compared with the French court, which is quite the most splendid thing in +France; but the French emperor is magnified to emphasise the equality of +everyone else. Great splendour in our court would incite competition. +Fourthly, we have come to regard the crown as the head of our morality. +Lastly, constitutional royalty acts as a disguise; it enables our real +rulers to change without heedless people knowing it. Hence, perhaps, the +value of constitutional royalty in times of transition.</p> + +<p>Popular theory regards the sovereign as a co-ordinate authority with the +House of Lords and the House of Commons. Also it holds that the queen is +the executive. Neither is true. There is no authentic explicit information +as to what the queen can do. The secrecy of the prerogative is an anomaly, +but none the less essential to the utility of English royalty. Let us see +how we should get on without a queen. We may suppose the House of Commons +appointing the premier just as shareholders choose a director. If the +predominant party were agreed as to its leader there would not be much +difference at the beginning of an administration. But if the party were not +agreed on its leader the necessity of the case would ensure that the chief +forced on the minority by the majority would be an exceedingly capable man; +where the judgment of the sovereign intervenes there is no such security. +If, however, there are three parties, the primary condition of a cabinet +polity is not satisfied. Under such circumstances the only way is for the +moderate people of every party to combine in support of the government +which, on the whole, suits every party best. In the choice of a fit +minister, if the royal selection were always discreetly exercised, it would +be an incalculable benefit, but in most cases the wisest course for the +monarch would be inaction.</p> + +<p>Now the sovereign has three rights, the right to be consulted, the right +to encourage, and the right to warn. In the course of a long reign a king +would acquire the same advantage which a permanent under-secretary has over +his superior, the parliamentary secretary. But whenever there is discussion +between a king and the minister, the king's opinion would have its full +weight, and the minister's would not. The whole position is evidently +attractive to an intelligent, sagacious and original sovereign. But we +cannot expect a lineal series of such kings. Neither theory nor experience +warrant any such expectations. The only fit material for a constitutional +king is a prince who begins early to reign, who in his youth is superior to +pleasure, is willing to labour, and has by nature a genius for +discretion.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The House of Lords and the House of Commons</i></h3> + + +<p>The use of the order of the lords in its dignified capacity is very +great. The mass of men require symbols, and nobility is the symbol of mind. +The order also prevents the rule of wealth. The Anglo-Saxon has a natural +instinctive admiration of wealth for its own sake; but from the worst form +of this our aristocracy preserves us, and the reverence for rank is not so +base as the reverence for money, or the still worse idolatry of office. But +as the picturesqueness of society diminishes, aristocracy loses the single +instrument of its peculiar power.</p> + +<p>The House of Lords as an assembly has always been not the first, but the +second. The peers, who are of the most importance, are not the most +important in the House of Peers. In theory, the House of Lords is of equal +rank with the House of Commons; in practice it is not. The evil of two +co-equal houses is obvious. If they disagree, all business is suspended. +There ought to be an available decisive authority somewhere. The sovereign +power must be comeatable. The English have made it so by the authority of +the crown to create new peers. Before the Reform Act the members of the +peerage swayed the House of Commons, and the two houses hardly collided +except on questions of privilege. After the Reform Bill the house ceased to +be one of the latent directors and palpable alterers.</p> + +<p>It was the Duke of Wellington who presided over the change, and from the +duke himself we may learn that the use of the House of Lords is not to be a +bulwark against revolution. It cannot resist the people if the people are +determined. It has not the control of necessary physical force. With a +perfect lower house, the second chamber would be of scarcely any value; but +beside the actual house, a revising and leisured legislature is extremely +useful. The cabinet is so powerful in the commons that it may inflict minor +measures on the nation which the nation does not like. The executive is +less powerful in the second chamber, which may consequently operate to +impede minor instances of parliamentary tyranny.</p> + +<p>The House of Lords has the advantage: first, of being possible; +secondly, of being independent. It is accessible to no social bribe, and it +has leisure. On the other hand, it has defects. In appearance, which is the +important thing, it is apathetic. Next, it belongs exclusively to one +class, that of landowners. This would not so greatly matter if the House of +Lords <i>could</i> be of more than common ability, but being an hereditary +chamber, it cannot be so. There is only one kind of business in which our +aristocracy retain a certain advantage. This is diplomacy. And aristocracy +is, in its nature, better suited to such work. It is trained to the +theatrical part of life; it is fit for that if it is fit for anything. +Otherwise an aristocracy is inferior in business. These various defects +would have been lessened if the House of Lords had not resisted the +creation of life peers.</p> + +<p>The dignified aspect of the House of Commons is altogether secondary to +its efficient use. Its main function is to choose our president. It elects +the people whom it likes, and it dismisses whom it dislikes, too. The +premier is to the house what the house is to the nation. He must lead, but +he can only lead whither they will follow. Its second function is +<i>expressive</i>, to express the mind of the English people. Thirdly, it +ought to teach the nation. Fourthly, to give information, especially of +grievances--not, as in the old days, to the crown, but to the nation. And, +lastly, there is the function of legislation. I do not separate the +financial function from the rest of the legislative. In financial affairs +it lies under an exceptional disability; it is only the minister who can +propose to tax the people, whereas on common subjects any member can +propose anything. The reason is that the house is never economical; but the +cabinet is forced to be economical, because it has to impose the taxation +to meet, the expenditure.</p> + +<p>Of all odd forms of government, the oddest really is this government by +public meeting. How does it come to be able to govern at all? The principle +of parliament is obedience to leaders. Change your leader if you will, but +while you have him obey him, otherwise you will not be able to do anything +at all. Leaders to-day do not keep their party together by bribes, but they +can dissolve. Party organisation is efficient because it is not composed of +warm partisans. The way to lead is to affect a studied and illogical +moderation.</p> + +<p>Nor are the leaders themselves eager to carry party conclusions too far. +When an opposition comes into power, ministers have a difficulty in making +good their promises. They are in contact with the facts which immediately +acquire an inconvenient reality. But constituencies are immoderate and +partisan. The schemes both of extreme democrats and of philosophers for +changing the system of representation would prevent parliamentary +government from working at all. Under a system of equal electoral districts +and one-man vote, a parliament could not consist of moderate men. Mr. +Hare's scheme would make party bands and fetters tighter than ever.</p> + +<p>A free government is that which the people subject to it voluntarily +choose. If it goes by public opinion, the best opinion which the nation +will accept, it is a good government of its kind. Tried by this rule, the +House of Commons does its appointing business well. Of the substantial part +of its legislative task, the same may be said. Subject to certain +exceptions, the mind and policy of parliament possess the common sort of +moderation essential to parliamentary government. The exceptions are two. +First, it leans too much to the opinions of the landed interest. Also, it +gives too little weight to the growing districts of the country, and too +much to the stationary. But parliament is not equally successful in +elevating public opinion, or in giving expression to grievances.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--Changes of Ministry</i></h3> + + +<p>There is an event which frequently puzzles some people; this is, a +change of ministry. All our administrators go out together. Is it wise so +to change all our rulers? The practice produces three great evils. It +brings in suddenly new and untried persons. Secondly, the man knows that he +may have to leave his work in the middle, and very likely never come back +to it. Thirdly, a sudden change of ministers may easily cause a mischievous +change of policy. A quick succession of chiefs do not learn from each +other's experience.</p> + +<p>Now, those who wish to remove the choice of ministers from parliament +have not adequately considered what a parliament is. When you establish a +predominant parliament you give over the rule of the country to a despot +who has unlimited time and unlimited vanity. Every public department is +liable to attack. It is helpless in parliament if it has no authorised +defender. The heads of departments cannot satisfactorily be put up for the +defence; but a parliamentary head connected by close ties with the ministry +is a protecting machine. Party organisation ensures the provision of such +parliamentary heads. The alternative provided in America involves changing +not only the head but the whole bureaucracy with each change of +government.</p> + +<p>This, it may be said, does not prove that this change is a good thing. +It may, however, be proved that some change at any rate is necessary to a +permanently perfect administration. If we look at the Prussian bureaucracy, +whatever success it may recently have achieved, it certainly does not +please the most intelligent persons at home. Obstinate officials set at +defiance the liberal initiations of the government. In conflicts with +simple citizens guilty officials are like men armed cap-a-pie fighting with +the defenceless. The bureaucrat inevitably cares more for routine than for +results. The machinery is regarded as an achieved result instead of as a +working instrument. It tends to be the most unimproving and shallow of +governments in quality, and to over-government in point of quantity.</p> + +<p>In fact, experience has proved in the case of joint-stock banks and of +railways that they are best conducted by an admixture of experts with men +of what may be, called business culture. So in a government office the +intrusion of an exterior head of the office is really essential to its +perfection. As Sir George Lewis said: "It is not the business of a cabinet +minister to work his department; his business is to see that it is properly +worked."</p> + +<p>In short, a presidential government, or a hereditary government are +inferior to parliamentary government as administrative selectors. The +revolutionary despot may indeed prove better, since his existence depends +on his skill in doing so. If the English government is not celebrated for +efficiency, that is largely because it attempts to do so much; but it is +defective also from our ignorance. Another reason is that in the English +constitution the dignified parts, which have an importance of their own, at +the same time tend to diminish simple efficiency.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.--Checks, Balances, and History</i></h3> + + +<p>In every state there must be somewhere a supreme authority on every +point. In some states, however, that ultimate power is different upon +different points. The Americans, under the mistaken impression that they +were imitating the English, made their constitution upon this principle. +The sovereignty rested with the separate states, which have delegated +certain powers to the central government. But the division of the +sovereignty does not end here. Congress rules the law, but the president +rules the administration. Even his legislative veto can be overruled when +two-thirds of both houses are unanimous. The administrative power is +divided, since on international policy the supreme authority is the senate. +Finally, the constitution itself can only be altered by authorities which +are outside the constitution. The result is that now, after the civil war, +there is no sovereign authority to settle immediate problems.</p> + +<p>In England, on the other hand, we have the typical constitution, in +which the ultimate power upon all questions is in the hands of the same +person. The ultimate authority in the English constitution is a +newly-elected House of Commons. Whatever the question on which it decides, +a new House of Commons can despotically and finally resolve. No one can +doubt the importance of singleness and unity. The excellence in the British +constitution is that it has achieved this unity. This is primarily due to +the provision which places the choice of the executive in "the people's +house." But it could not have been effected without what I may call the +"safety valve" and "the regulator." The "safety valve" is the power of +creating peers, the "regulator" is the cabinet's power of dissolving. The +defects of a popular legislature are: caprice in selection, the +sectarianism born of party organisation, which is the necessary check on +caprice, and the peculiar prejudices and interests of the particular +parliament. Now the caprice of parliament in the choice of a premier is +best checked by the premier himself having the power of dissolution. But as +a check on sectarianism such an extrinsic power as that of a capable +constitutional king is more efficient. For checking the peculiar interests +our colonial governors seem almost perfectly qualified. But the +intervention of a constitutional monarch is only beneficial if he happens +to be an exceptionally wise man. The peculiar interests of a specific +parliament are seldom in danger of overriding national interests; hence, on +the whole, the advantage of the premier being the real dissolving +authority.</p> + +<p>The power of creating peers, vested in the premier, serves constantly to +modify the character of the second chamber. What we may call the +catastrophe creation of peers is different. That the power should reside in +the king would again be beneficial only in the case of the exceptional +monarch. Taken altogether, we find that hereditary royalty is not essential +to parliamentary government. Our conclusion is that though a king with high +courage and fine discretion, a king with a genius for the place, is always +useful, and at rare moments priceless, yet a common king is of no use at a +crisis, while, in the common course of things, he will do nothing, and he +need do nothing.</p> + +<p>All the rude nations that have attained civilisation seem to begin in a +consultative and tentative absolutism. The king has a council of elders +whom he consults while he tests popular support in the assembly of freemen. +In England a very strong executive was an imperative necessity. The +assemblies summoned by the English sovereign told him, in effect, how far +he might go. Legislation as a positive power was very secondary in those +old parliaments; but their negative action was essential. The king could +not venture to alter the law until the people had expressed their consent. +The Wars of the Roses killed out the old councils. The second period of the +constitution continues to the revolution of 1688. The rule of parliament +was then established by the concurrence of the usual supporters of royalty +with the usual opponents of it. Yet the mode of exercising that rule has +since changed. Even as late as 1810 it was supposed that when the Prince of +Wales became Prince Regent he would be able to turn out the ministry.</p> + +<p>It is one of our peculiarities that the English people is always +antagonistic to the executive. It is their natural impulse to resist +authority as something imposed from outside. Hence our tolerance of local +authorities as instruments of resistance to tyranny of the central +authority.</p> + +<p>Our constitution is full of anomalies. Some of them are, no doubt, +impeding and mischievous. Half the world believes that the Englishman is +born illogical. As a matter of fact, I am inclined to believe that the +English care more even than the French for simplicity; but the constitution +is not logical. The complexity we tolerate is that which has grown up. Any +new complexity, as such, is detestable to the English mind. Let anyone try +to advocate a plan of suffrage reform at all out of the way, and see how +many adherents he can collect.</p> + +<p>This great political question of the day, the suffrage question, is made +exceedingly difficult by this history of ours. We shall find on +investigation that so far from an ultra-democratic suffrage giving us a +more homogeneous and decided House of Commons it would give us a less +homogeneous and more timid house. With us democracy would mean the rule of +money and mainly and increasingly of new money working for its own +ends.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='VOLTAIRE1'></a>VOLTAIRE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_Age_of_Louis_XIV'></a>The Age of Louis XIV</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Voltaire's "History of the Age of Louis XIV.," was +published when its author (see p. 259), long famous, was the companion of +Frederick the Great in Prussia--from 1750 to 1753. Voltaire was in his +twentieth year when the Grand Monarque died. Louis XIV. had succeeded his +father at the age of five years, in 1643; his nominal reign covered +seventy-one years, and throughout the fifty-three years which followed +Mazarin's death his declaration "L'État c'est moi" had been +politically and socially a truth. He controlled France with an absolute +sway; under him she achieved a European ascendency without parallel save in +the days of Napoleon. He sought to make her the dictator of Europe. But for +William of Orange, Marlborough, and Eugene, he would have succeeded. +Politically he did not achieve his aim; but under him France became the +unchallenged leader of literary and artistic culture and taste, the +universal criterion. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--France Under Mazarin</i></h3> + + +<p>We do not propose to write merely a life of Louis XIV.; our aim is a far +wider one. It is to give posterity a picture, not of the actions of a +single man, but of the spirit of the men of an age the most enlightened on +record. Every period has produced its heroes and its politicians, every +people has experienced revolutions; the histories of all are of nearly +equal value to those who desire merely to store their memory with facts. +But the thinker, and that still rarer person the man of taste, recognises +only four epochs in the history of the world--those four fortunate ages in +which the arts have been perfected: the great age of the Greeks, the age of +Cæsar and of Augustus, the age which followed the fall of +Constantinople, and the age of Louis XIV.; which last approached perfection +more nearly than any of the others.</p> + +<p>On the death of Louis XIII., his queen, Anne of Austria, owed her +acquisition of the regency to the Parlement of Paris. Anne was obliged to +continue the war with Spain, in which the brilliant victories of the young +Duc d'Enghein, known to fame as the Great Condé, brought him sudden +glory and unprecedented prestige to the arms of France.</p> + +<p>But internally the national finances were in a terribly unsatisfactory +state. The measures for raising funds adopted by the minister Mazarin were +the more unpopular because he was himself an Italian. The Paris Parlement +set itself in opposition to the minister; the populace supported it; the +resistance was organised by Paul de Gondi, afterwards known as the Cardinal +de Retz. The court had to flee from Paris to St. Germain. Condé was +won over by the queen regent; but the nobles, hoping to recover the power +which Richelieu had wrenched from them, took the popular side. And their +wives and daughters surpassed them in energy. A very striking contrast to +the irresponsible frivolity with which the whole affair was conducted is +presented by the grim orderliness with which England had at that very +moment carried through the last act in the tragedy of Charles I. In France +the factions of the Fronde were controlled by love intrigues.</p> + +<p>Condé was victorious. But he was at feud with Mazarin, made +himself personally unpopular, and found himself arrested when he might have +made himself master of the government. A year later the tables were turned; +Mazarin had to fly, and the Fronde released Condé. The civil war was +renewed; a war in which no principles were at stake, in which the popular +party of yesterday was the unpopular party of to-day; in which there were +remarkable military achievements, much bloodshed, and much suffering, and +which finally wore itself out in 1653, when Mazarin returned to undisputed +power. Louis XIV. was then a boy of fifteen.</p> + +<p>Mazarin had achieved a great diplomatic triumph by the peace of +Westphalia in 1648; but Spain had remained outside that group of treaties; +and, owing to the civil war of the Fronde, Condé's successes against +her had been to a great extent made nugatory--and now Condé was a +rebel and in command of Spanish troops. But Condé, with a Spanish +army, met his match in Turenne with a French army.</p> + +<p>At this moment, Christina of Sweden was the only European sovereign who +had any personal prestige. But Cromwell's achievements in England now made +each of the European statesmen anxious for the English alliance; and +Cromwell chose France. The combined arms of France and England were +triumphant in Flanders, when Cromwell died; and his death changed the +position of England. France was financially exhausted, and Mazarin now +desired a satisfactory peace with Spain. The result, was the Treaty of the +Pyrenees, by which the young King Louis took a Spanish princess in +marriage, an alliance which ultimately led to the succession of a grandson +of Louis to the Spanish throne. Immediately afterwards, Louis' cousin, +Charles II., was recalled to the throne of England. This closing +achievement of Mazarin had a triumphant aspect; his position in France +remained undisputed till his death in the next year (1661). He was a +successful minister; whether he was a great statesman is another question. +His one real legacy to France was the acquisition of Alsace.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.---The French Supremacy in Europe</i></h3> + + +<p>On Mazarin's death Louis at once assumed personal rule. Since the death +of Henry the Great, France had been governed by ministers; now she was to +be governed by the king--the power exercised by ministers was precisely +circumscribed. Order and vigour were introduced on all sides; the finances +were regulated by Colbert, discipline was restored in the army, the +creation of a fleet, was begun. In all foreign courts Louis asserted the +dignity of France; it was very soon evident that there was no foreign power +of whom he need stand in fear. New connections were established with +Holland and Portugal. England under Charles II. was of little account.</p> + +<p>To the king on the watch for an opportunity, an opportunity soon +presents itself. Louis found his when Philip IV. of Spain was succeeded by +the feeble Charles II. He at once announced that Flanders reverted to his +own wife, the new king's elder sister. He had already made his bargain with +the Emperor Leopold, who had married the other infanta.</p> + +<p>Louis' armies were overrunning Flanders in 1667, and +Franche-Comté next year. Holland, a republic with John de Witt at +its head, took alarm; and Sir William Temple succeeded in effecting the +Triple Alliance between Holland, England, and Sweden. Louis found it +advisable to make peace, even at the price of surrendering +Franche-Comté for the present.</p> + +<p>Determined now, however, on the conquest of Holland, Louis had no +difficulty in secretly detaching the voluptuary Charles II. from the Dutch +alliance. Holland itself was torn between the faction of the De Witts and +the partisans of the young William of Orange. Overwhelming preparations +were made for the utterly unwarrantable enterprise.</p> + +<p>As the French armies poured into Holland, practically no resistance was +offered. The government began to sue for peace. But the populace rose and +massacred the De Witts; young William was made stadtholder. Ruyter defeated +the combined French and English fleets at Sole Bay. William opened the +dykes and laid the country under water, and negotiated secretly with the +emperor and with Spain. Half Europe was being drawn into a league against +Louis, who made the fatal mistake of following the advice of his war +minister Louvois, instead of Condé and Turenne.</p> + +<p>In every court in Europe Louis had his pensioners intriguing on his +behalf. His newly created fleet was rapidly learning its work. On land he +was served by the great engineer Vauban, by Turenne, Condé, and +Condé's pupil, Luxembourg. He decided to direct his own next +campaign against Franche-Comté. But during the year Turenne, who was +conducting a separate campaign in Germany with extraordinary brilliancy, +was killed; and after this year Condé took no further part in the +war. Moreover, the Austrians were now in the field, under the able leader +Montecuculi.</p> + +<p>In 1676-8 town after town fell before Vauban, a master of siege work as +of fortification; Louis, in many cases, being present in person. In other +quarters, also, the French arms were successful. Especially noticeable were +the maritime successes of Duquesne, who was proving himself a match for the +Dutch commanders. Louis was practically fighting and beating half Europe +single-handed, as he was now getting no effective help from England or his +nominal ally, Sweden. Finally, in 1678, he was able practically to dictate +his own terms to the allies. The peace had already been signed when William +of Orange attacked Luxembourg before Mons; a victory, on the whole, for +him, but entirely barren of results. With this peace of Nimeguen, Louis was +at the height of his power.</p> + +<p>By assuming the right of interpreting for himself the terms of the +treaty, he employed the years of peace in extending his possessions. No +other power could now compare with France, but in 1688 Louis stood alone, +without any supporter, save James II. of England. And he intensified the +general dread by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the expulsion of +the French Huguenots.</p> + +<p>The determination of James to make himself absolute, and to restore +Romanism in England, caused leading Englishmen to enter on a +conspiracy--kept secret with extraordinary success--with William of Orange. +The luckless monarch was abandoned on every hand, and fled from his kingdom +to France, an object of universal mockery. Yet Louis resolved to aid him. A +French force accompanied him to Ireland, and Tourville defeated the united +fleets of England and Holland. At last France was mistress of the seas; but +James met with a complete overthrow at the Boyne. The defeated James, in +his flight, hanged men who had taken part against him. The victorious +William proclaimed a general pardon. Of two such men, it is easy to see +which was certain to win.</p> + +<p>Louis had already engaged himself in a fresh European war before +William's landing in England. He still maintained his support of James. But +his newly acquired sea power was severely shaken at La Hogue. On land, +however, Louis' arms prospered. The Palatinate was laid waste in a fashion +which roused the horror of Europe. Luxembourg in Flanders, and Catinat in +Italy, won the foremost military reputations in Europe. On the other hand, +William proved himself one of those generals who can extract more advantage +from a defeat than his enemies from a victory, as Steinkirk and Neerwinden +both exemplified. France, however, succeeded in maintaining a superiority +over all her foes, but the strain before long made a peace necessary. She +could not dictate terms as at Nimeguen. Nevertheless, the treaty of +Ryswick, concluded in 1697, secured her substantial benefits.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.---The Spanish Succession</i></h3> + + +<p>The general pacification was brief. North Europe was soon aflame with +the wars of those remarkable monarchs, Charles XII. and Peter the Great; +and the rest of Europe over the Spanish succession. The mother and wife of +Louis were each eldest daughters of a Spanish king; the mother and wife of +the Emperor Leopold were their younger sisters. Austrian and French +successions were both barred by renunciations; and the absorption of Spain +by either power would upset utterly the balance of power in Europe. There +was no one else with a plausible claim to succeed the childless and dying +Charles II. European diplomacy effected treaties for partitioning the +Spanish dominions; but ultimately Charles declared the grandson of Louis +his heir. Louis, in defiance of treaties, accepted the legacy.</p> + +<p>The whole weight of England was then thrown on to the side of the +Austrian candidate by Louis' recognition of James Edward Stuart as rightful +King of England. William, before he died, had successfully brought about a +grand alliance of European powers against Louis; his death gave the conduct +of the war to Marlborough. Anne was obliged to carry on her +brother-in-law's policy. Elsewhere, kings make their subjects enter blindly +on their own projects; in London the king must enter upon those of his +subjects.</p> + +<p>When Louis entered on the war of the Spanish Succession he had already, +though unconsciously, lost that grasp of affairs which had distinguished +him; while he still dictated the conduct of his ministers and his generals. +The first commander who took the field against him was Prince Eugene of +Savoy, a man born with those qualities which make a hero in war and a great +man in peace. The able Catinat was superseded in Italy by Villeroi, whose +failures, however, led to the substitution of Vendôme.</p> + +<p>But the man who did more to injure the greatness of France than any +other for centuries past was Marlborough--the general with the coolest head +of his time; as a politician the equal, and as a soldier immeasurably the +superior, of William III. Between Marlborough and his great colleague +Eugene there was always complete harmony and complete understanding, +whether they were campaigning or negotiating.</p> + +<p>In the Low Countries, Marlborough gained ground steadily, without any +great engagement. In Germany the French arms were successful, and at the +end of 1703 a campaign was planned with Vienna for its objective. The +advance was intercepted in 1704 by the junction of Eugene and the forces +from Italy with Marlborough and an English force. The result was the +tremendous overthrow of Hochstedt, or Blenheim. The French were driven over +the Rhine.</p> + +<p>Almost at the same moment English sailors surprised and captured the +Rock of Gibraltar, which England still holds. In six weeks, too, the +English mastered Valencia and Catalonia for the archduke, under the +redoubtable Peterborough. Affairs went better in Italy (1705); but in +Flanders, Villeroi was rash enough to challenge Marlborough at Ramillies in +1706. In half an hour the French army was completely routed, and lost +20,000 men; city after city opened its gates to the conqueror; Flanders was +lost as far as Lille. Vendôme was summoned from Italy to replace +Villeroi, whereupon Eugene attacked the French in their lines before Turin, +and dispersed their army, which was forced to withdraw from Italy, leaving +the Austrians masters there.</p> + +<p>Louis seemed on the verge of ruin; but Spain was loyal to the Bourbon. +In 1707 Berwick won for the French the signal victory of Almanza. In +Germany, Villars made progress. Louis actually designed an invasion of +Great Britain in the name of the Pretender, but the scheme collapsed. He +succeeded in placing a great army in the field in Flanders; it was defeated +by Marlborough and Eugene at Oudenarde. Eugene sat down before Lille, and +took it. The lamentable plight of France was made worse by a cruel +winter.</p> + +<p>Louis found himself forced to sue for peace, but the terms of the allies +were too intolerably humiliating. They demanded that Louis should assist in +expelling his own grandson from Spain. "If I must make war, I would rather +make it on my enemies than on my children," said Louis. Once more an army +took the field with indomitable courage. A desperate battle was fought by +Villars against Marlborough and Eugene at Malplaquet. Villars was defeated, +but with as much honour to the French as to the allies.</p> + +<p>Louis again sued for peace, but the allies would not relax their +monstrous demands. Marlborough, Eugene, and the Dutch Heinsius all found +their own interest in prolonging the war. But with the Bourbon cause +apparently at its last gasp in Spain, the appearance there of Vendôme +revived the spirit of resistance.</p> + +<p>Then the death of the emperor, and the succession to his position of his +brother, the Spanish claimant, the Archduke Charles, meant that the allies +were fighting to make one dominion of the Spanish and German Empires. The +steady advance of Marlborough in the Low Countries could not prevent a +revulsion of popular sentiment, which brought about his recall and the +practical withdrawal from the contest of England, where Bolingbroke and +Oxford were now at the head of affairs. Under Villars, success returned to +the French standards in Flanders.</p> + +<p>Hence came in 1713 the peace of Utrecht, for the terms of which England +was mainly responsible. It was fair and just, but the English ministry +received scant justice for making it. The emperor refused at first to +accept it; but, when isolated, he agreed to its corollary, the peace of +Rastadt. Philip was secured on the throne of Spain.</p> + +<p>Never was there a war or a peace in which so many natural expectations +were so completely reversed in the outcome. What Louis may have proposed to +himself after it was over, no one can say for he died the year after the +treaty of Utrecht.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Court of the Grand Monarque</i></h3> + + +<p>The brilliancy and magnificence of the court, as well as the reign of +Louis XIV., were such that the least details of his life seem interesting +to posterity, just as they excited the curiosity of every court in Europe +and of all his contemporaries. Such is the effect of a great reputation. We +care more to know what passed in the cabinet and the court of an Augustus +than for details of Attila's and Tamerlane's conquests.</p> + +<p>One of the most curious affairs in this connection is the mystery of the +Man with the Iron Mask, who was placed in the Ile Sainte-Marguerite just +after Mazarin's death, was removed to the Bastille in 1690, and died in +1703. His identity has never been revealed. That he was a person of very +great consideration is clear from the way in which he was treated; yet no +such person disappeared from public life. Those who knew the secret carried +it with them to their graves.</p> + +<p>Once the man scratched a message on a silver plate, and flung it into +the river. A fisherman who picked it up brought it to the governor. Asked +if he had read the writing, he said, "No; he could not read himself, and no +one else had seen it." "It is lucky for you that you cannot read," said the +governor. And the man was detained till the truth of his statement had been +confirmed.</p> + +<p>The king surpassed the whole court in the majestic beauty of his +countenance; the sound of his voice won the hearts which were awed by his +presence; his gait, appropriate to his person and his rank, would have been +absurd in anyone else. In those who spoke with him he inspired an +embarrassment which secretly flattered an agreeable consciousness of his +own superiority. That old officer who began to ask some favour of him, lost +his nerve, stammered, broke down, and finally said: "Sire, I do not tremble +thus in the presence of your enemies," had little difficulty in obtaining +his request.</p> + +<p>Nothing won for him the applause of Europe so much as his unexampled +munificence. A number of foreign savants and scholars were the recipients +of his distinguished bounty, in the form of presents or pensions; among +Frenchmen who were similarly benefited were Racine, Quinault, +Fléchier, Chapelain, Cotin, Lulli.</p> + +<p>A series of ladies, from Mazarin's niece, Marie Mancini, to Mme. la +Vallière and Mme. de Montespan, held sway over Louis' affections; +but after the retirement of the last, Mme. de Maintenon, who had been her +rival, became and remained supreme. The queen was dead; and Louis was +privately married to her in January, 1686, she being then past fifty. +Françoise d'Aubigné was born in 1635, of good family, but +born and brought up in hard surroundings. She was married to Scarron in +1651; nine years later he died. Later, she was placed, in charge of the +king's illegitimate children. She supplanted Mme. de Montespan, to whom she +owed her promotion, in the king's favour. The correspondence in the years +preceding the marriage is an invaluable record of that mixture of religion +and gallantry, of dignity and weakness, to which the human heart is so +often prone, in Louis; and in the lady, of a piety and an ambition which +never came into conflict. She never used her power to advance her own +belongings.</p> + +<p>In August, 1715, Louis was attacked by a mortal malady. His heir was his +great-grandson; the regency devolved on Orleans, the next prince of the +blood. His powers were to be limited by Louis' will but the will could not +override the rights which the Paris Parliament declared were attached to +the regency. The king's courage did not fail him as death drew near.</p> + +<p>"I thought," he said to Mme. de Maintenon, "that it was a harder thing +to die." And to his servants: "Why do you weep? Did you think I was +immortal?" The words he spoke while he embraced the child who was his heir +are significant. "You are soon to be king of a great kingdom. Above all +things, I would have you never forget your obligations to God. Remember +that you owe to Him all that you are. Try to keep at peace with your +neighbours. I have loved war too much. Do not imitate me in that, or in my +excessive expenditure. Consider well in everything; try to be sure of what +is best, and to follow that."</p> + + +<h3><i>V.--How France Flourished Under Louis XIV.</i></h3> + + +<p>At the beginning of the reign the genius of Colbert, the restorer of the +national finances, was largely employed on the extension of commerce, then +almost entirely in the hands of the Dutch and English. Not only a navy, but +a mercantile marine was created; the West India and East India companies +were both established in 1664. Almost every year of Colbert's ministry was +marked by the establishment of a new industry.</p> + +<p>Paris was lighted and paved and policed, almost rebuilt. Louis had a +marked taste for architecture, for gardens, and for sculpture. The law owed +many reforms to this monarch. The army was reorganised; merit, not rank, +became the ground of promotion: the bayonet replaced the pike, and the +artillery was greatly developed. When Louis began to rule there was no +navy. Arsenals were created, sailors were trained, and a fleet came into +being which matched those of Holland and England.</p> + +<p>Even a brief summary shows the vast changes in the state accomplished by +Louis. His ministers seconded his efforts admirably. Theirs is the credit +for the details, for the execution; but the scheme, the general principles, +were due to him. The magistrates would not have reformed the laws, order +would not have been restored in the finances, discipline in the army, +police throughout the kingdom; there would have been no fleets, no +encouragement of the arts; none of all those improvements carried out +systematically, simultaneously, resolutely, under various ministers, had +there not been a master, greater than them all, imbued with the general +conceptions and determined on their fulfilment.</p> + +<p>The spirit of commonsense, the spirit of criticism, gradually +progressing, insensibly destroyed much superstition; insomuch that simple +charges of sorcery were excluded from the courts in 1672. Such a measure +would have been impossible under Henry IV. or Louis XIII. Nevertheless, +such superstitions were deeply rooted. Everyone believed in astrology; the +comet of 1680 was regarded as a portent.</p> + +<p>In science France was, indeed, outstripped by England and Florence. But +in eloquence, poetry, literature, and philosophy the French were the +legislators of Europe. One of the works which most contributed to. forming +the national taste was the "Maxims" of La Rochefoucauld. But the work of +genius which in itself summed up the perfections of prose and set the mould +of language was Pascal's "Lettres Provinciales." The age was characterised +by the eloquence of Bossuet. The "Télémaque" of +Fénelon, the "Caractères" of La Bruyère, were works of +an order entirely original and without precedent.</p> + +<p>Racine, less original than Corneille, owes a still increasing reputation +to his unfailing elegance, correctness, and truth; he carried the tender +harmonies of poetry and the graces of language to their highest possible +perfection. These men taught the nation to think, to feel, and to express +itself. It was a curious stroke of destiny that made Molière the +contemporary of Corneille and Racine. Of him I will venture to say that he +was the legislator of life's amenities; of his other merits it is needless +to speak.</p> + +<p>The other arts--of music, painting, sculpture and architecture--had made +little progress in France before this period. Lulli introduced an order of +music hitherto unknown. Poussin was our first great painter in the reign of +Louis XIII.; he has had no lack of successors. French sculpture has +excelled in particular. And we must remark on the extraordinary advance of +England during this period. We can exhaust ourselves in criticising Milton, +but not in praising him. Dryden was equalled by no contemporary, surpassed +by no predecessor. Addison's "Cato" is the one English tragedy of sustained +beauty. Swift is a perfected Rabelais. In science, Newton and Halley stand +to-day supreme; and Locke is infinitely the superior of Plato.</p> + + +<h3><i>VI.--Religion Under Louis XIV.</i></h3> + + +<p>To preserve at once union with the see of Rome and maintain the +liberties of the Gallican Church--her ancient rights; to make the bishops +obedient as subjects without infringing on their rights as bishops; to make +them contribute to the needs of the state, without trespassing on their +privileges, required a mixture of dexterity which Louis almost always +showed. The one serious and protracted quarrel with Rome arose over the +royal claim to appoint bishops, and the papal refusal to recognise the +appointments. The French Assembly of the Clergy supported the king; but the +famous Four Resolutions of that body were ultimately repudiated by the +bishops personally, with the king's consent.</p> + +<p>Dogmatism is responsible for introducing among men the horror of wars of +religion. Following the Reformation, Calvinism was largely identified with +republican principles. In France, the fierce struggles of Catholics and +Huguenots were stayed by the accession of Henry IV.; the Edict of Nantes +secured to the former the privileges which their swords had practically +won. But after his time they formed an organisation which led to further +contests, ended by Richelieu.</p> + +<p>Favoured by Colbert, to Louis the Huguenots were suspect as rebels who +had with difficulty been forced to submission. By him they were subjected +to constantly increasing disabilities. At last the Huguenots disobeyed the +edicts against them. Still harsher measures were adopted; and the climax +came in 1685 with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, following on the +"dragonnades" in Alsace. Protestantism was proscribed. The effect was not +the forcible conversion of the Calvinists. but their wholesale emigration; +the transfer to foreign states of an admirable industrial and military +population. Later, the people of the Cévennes rose, and were put +down with great difficulty, though Jean Cavalier was their sole leader +worthy the name. In fact, the struggle was really ended by a treaty, and +Cavalier died a general of France.</p> + +<p>Calvinism is the parent of civil wars. It shakes the foundations of +states. Jansenism can excite only theological quarrels and wars of the pen. +The Reformation attacked the power of the Church; Jansenism was concerned +exclusively with abstract questions. The Jansenist disputes sprang from +problems of grace and predestination, fate and free-will--that labyrinth in +which man holds no clue.</p> + +<p>A hundred years later Cornells Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, revived these +questions. Arnauld supported him. The views had authority from Augustine +and Chrysostom, but Arnauld was condemned. The two establishments of Port +Royal refused to sign the formularies condemning Jansen's book, and they +had on their side the brilliant pen of Pascal. On the other were the +Jesuits. Pascal, in the "Lettres Provinciales," made the Jesuits ridiculous +with his incomparable wit. The Jansenists were persecuted, but the +persecution strengthened them. But full of absurdities as the whole +controversy was to an intelligent observer, the crown, the bishops, and the +Jesuits were too strong for the Jansenists, especially when Le Tellier +became the king's confessor. But the affair was not finally brought to a +conclusion, and the opposing parties reconciled, till after the death of +Louis. Ultimately, Jansenism became merely ridiculous. The fall of the +Jesuits was to follow in due time.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='DE_TOCQUEVILLE'></a>DE TOCQUEVILLE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_Old_Regime'></a>The Old Régime</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Born at Paris on July 29, 1805, Alexis Henri Charles +Clérel de Tocqueville came of an old Norman family which had +distinguished itself both in law and in arms. Educated for the Bar, he +proceeded to America in 1831 to study the penitentiary system. Four years +later he published "De la Démocratie en Amérique" (see +Miscellaneous Literature), a work which created an enormous sensation +throughout Europe. De Tocqueville came to England, where he married a Miss +Mottley. He became a member of the French Academy; was appointed to the +Chamber of Deputies, took an important part in public life, and in 1849 +became vice-president of the Assembly, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. His +next work, "L'Ancien Régime" ("The Old Régime"), translated +under the title "On the State of Society in France before the Revolution of +1789; and on the Causes which Led to that Event," appeared in 1856. It is +of the highest importance, because it was the starting point of the true +conception of the Revolution. In it was first shown that the centralisation +of modern France was not the product of the Revolution, but of the old +monarchy, that the irritation against the nobility was due, not to their +power, but to their lack of power, and that the movement was effected by +masses already in possession of property. De Tocqueville died at Cannes on +April 16, 1859. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.---The Last Days of Feudal Institutions</i></h3> + + +<p>The French people made, in 1789, the greatest effort which was ever +attempted by any nation to cut, so to speak, their destiny in halves, and +to separate by an abyss that which they had heretofore been from that which +they sought to become hereafter.</p> + +<p>The municipal institutions, which in the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries had raised the chief towns of Germany into rich and enlightened +small republics, still existed in the eighteenth; but they were a mere +semblance of the past.</p> + +<p>All the powers of the Middle Ages which were still in existence seemed +to be affected by the same disease; all showed symptoms of the same languor +and decay.</p> + +<p>Wherever the provincial assemblies had maintained their ancient +constitution unchanged, they checked instead of furthering the progress of +civilisation.</p> + +<p>Royalty no longer had anything in common with the royalty of the Middle +Ages; it enjoyed other prerogatives, occupied a different place, was imbued +with a different spirit, and inspired different sentiments; the +administration of the state spread in all directions upon the ruin of local +authorities; the organised array of public officers superseded more and +more the government of the nobles.</p> + +<p>This view of the state of things, which prevailed throughout Europe as +well as within the boundaries of France, is essential to the comprehension +of what is about to follow, for no one who has seen and studied France only +can ever, I affirm, understand anything of the French Revolution.</p> + +<p>What was the real object of the revolution? What was its peculiar +character? For what precise reason was it made, and what did it effect? The +revolution was not made, as some have supposed, in order to destroy the +authority of religious belief. In spite of appearances, it was essentially +a social and political revolution; and within the circle of social and +political institutions it did not tend to perpetuate and give stability to +disorder, or--as one of its chief adversaries has said--to methodise +anarchy.</p> + +<p>However radical the revolution may have been, its innovations were, in +fact, much less than have been commonly supposed, as I shall show +hereafter. What may truly be said is that it entirely destroyed, or is +still destroying--for it is not at an end--every part of the ancient state +of society that owed its origin to aristocratic and feudal +institutions.</p> + +<p>But why, we may ask, did this revolution, which was imminent throughout +Europe, break out in France rather than elsewhere? And why did it display +certain characteristics which have appeared nowhere else, or, at least, +have appeared only in part?</p> + +<p>One circumstance excites at first sight surprise. The revolution, whose +peculiar object it was, as we have seen, everywhere to abolish the remnant +of the institutions of the Middle Ages, did not break out in the countries +in which these institutions, still in better preservation, caused the +people most to feel their constraint and their rigour, but, on the +contrary, in the countries where their effects were least felt; so that the +burden seemed most intolerable where it was in reality least heavy.</p> + +<p>In no part of Germany, for instance, at the close of the eighteenth +century, was serfdom as yet completely abolished. Nothing of the kind had +existed in France for a long period of time. The peasant came, and went, +and bought and sold, and dealt and laboured as he pleased. The last traces +of serfdom could only be detected in one or two of the eastern provinces +annexed to France by conquest; everywhere else the institution had +disappeared. The French peasant had not only ceased to be a serf; he had +become an owner of land.</p> + +<p>It has long been believed that the subdivision of landed property in +France dates from the revolution of 1789, and was only the result of that +revolution. The contrary is demonstrable by all the evidence.</p> + +<p>The number of landed proprietors at that time amounted to one-half, +frequently to two-thirds, of their present number. Now, all these small +landowners were, in reality, ill at ease in the cultivation of their +property, and had to bear many charges, or easements, on the land which +they could not shake off.</p> + +<p>Although what is termed in France the old régime is still very +near to us, few persons can now give an accurate answer to the +question--How were the rural districts of France administered before +1789?</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century all the affairs of the parish were managed by +a certain number of parochial officers, who were no longer the agents of +the manor or domain, and whom the lord no longer selected. Some of these +persons were nominated by the intendant of the province, others were +elected by the peasants themselves. The duty of these authorities was to +assess the taxes, to repair the church, to build schools, to convoke and +preside over the vestry or parochial meeting. They attended to the property +of the parish, and determined the application of it; they sued, and were +sued, in its name. Not only the lord of the domain no longer conducted the +administration of the small local affairs, but he did not even superintend +it. All the parish officers were under the government or control of the +central power, as we shall show in a subsequent chapter. Nay, more; the +seigneur had almost ceased to act as the representative of the crown in the +parish, or as the channel of communication between the king and his +subjects.</p> + +<p>If we quit the parish, and examine the constitution of the larger rural +districts, we shall find the same state of things. Nowhere did the nobles +conduct public business either in their collective or their individual +capacity. This was peculiar to France.</p> + +<p>Of all the peculiar rights of the French nobility, the political element +had disappeared; the pecuniary element alone remained, in some instances +largely increased.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.---A Shadow of Democracy</i></h3> + + +<p>Picture to yourself a French peasant of the eighteenth century. Take him +as he is described in the documents--so passionately enamoured of the soil +that he will spend all his savings to purchase it, and to purchase it at +any price. To complete his purchase he must first pay a tax, not to the +government, but to other landowners of the neighbourhood, as unconnected as +himself with the administration of public affairs, and hardly more +influential than he is. He possesses it at last; his heart is buried in it +with the seeds he sows. This little nook of ground, which is his own in +this vast universe, fills him with pride and independence. But again these +neighbours call him from his furrow, and compel him to come to work for +them without wages. He tries to defend his young crops from their game; +again they prevent him. As he crosses the river they wait for his passage +to levy a toll. He finds them at the market, where they sell him the right +of selling his own produce; and when, on his return home, he wants to use +the remainder of his wheat for his own sustenance--of that wheat which was +planted by his own hands, and has grown under his eyes--he cannot touch it +till he has ground it at the mill and baked it at the bakehouse of these +same men. A portion of his little property is paid away in quit-rents to +them also, and these dues can neither be extinguished nor redeemed.</p> + +<p>The lord, when deprived of his former power, considered himself +liberated from his former obligations; and no local authority, no council, +no provincial or parochial association had taken his place. No single being +was any longer compelled by law to take care of the poor in the rural +districts, and the central government had boldly undertaken to provide for +their wants by its own resources.</p> + +<p>Every year the king's council assigned to each province certain funds +derived from the general produce of the taxes, which the intendant +distributed.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the king's council insisted upon compelling individuals to +prosper, whether they would or no. The ordinances constraining artisans to +use certain methods and manufacture certain articles are innumerable; and, +as the intendants had not time to superintend the application of all these +regulations, there were inspectors general of manufactures, who visited in +the provinces to insist on their fulfilment.</p> + +<p>So completely had the government already changed its duty as a sovereign +into that of a guardian.</p> + +<p>In France municipal freedom outlived the feudal system. Long after the +landlords were no longer the rulers of the country districts, the towns +still retained the right of self-government.</p> + +<p>In most instances the government of the towns was vested in two +assemblies. All the great towns were thus governed, and some of the small +ones. The first of these assemblies was composed of municipal officers, +more of less numerous according to the place. These municipal officers +never received any stipend, but they were remunerated by exemptions from +taxation and by privileges.</p> + +<p>The second assembly, which was termed the general assembly, elected the +corporation, wherever it was still subject to election, and always +continued to take a part in the principal concerns of the town.</p> + +<p>If we turn from the towns to the villages, we meet with different powers +and different forms of government.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century the number and the name of the parochial +officers varied in the different provinces of France. In most of the +parishes they were, in the eighteenth century, reduced to two persons--the +one named the "collector," the other most commonly named the "syndic." +Generally, these parochial officers were either elected, or supposed to be +so; but they had everywhere become the instruments of the state rather than +the representatives of the community. The collector levied the +<i>taille</i>, or common tax, under the direct orders of the intendant. The +syndic, placed under the daily direction of the sub-delegate of the +intendant, represented that personage in all matters relating to public +order or affecting the government. He became the principal agent of the +government in relation to military service, to the public works of the +state, and to the execution of the general laws of the kingdom.</p> + +<p>Down to the revolution the rural parishes of France had preserved in +their government something of that democratic aspect which they had +acquired in the Middle Ages. The democratic assembly of the parish could +express its desires, but it had no more power to execute its will than the +corporate bodies in the towns. It could not speak until its mouth had been +opened, for the meeting could not be held without the express permission of +the intendant, and, to use the expression of those times, which adapted +language to the fact, "<i>under his good pleasure</i>."</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Ruin of the Nobility</i></h3> + + +<p>If we carefully examine the state of society in France before the +revolution, we may see that in each province men of various classes, those, +at least, who were placed above the common people grew to resemble each +other more and more, in spite of differences of rank.</p> + +<p>Time, which had perpetuated, and, in many respects, aggravated the +privileges interposed between two classes of men, had powerfully +contributed to render them alike in all other respects.</p> + +<p>For several centuries the French nobility had grown gradually poorer and +poorer. "Spite of its privileges, the nobility is ruined and wasted day by +day, and the middle classes get possession of the large fortunes," wrote a +nobleman in a melancholy strain in 1755-Yet the laws by which the estates +of the nobility were protected still remained the same, nothing appeared to +be changed in their economical condition. Nevertheless, the more they lost +their power the poorer they everywhere became in exactly the same +proportion.</p> + +<p>The non-noble classes alone seemed to inherit all the wealth which the +nobility had lost; they fattened, as is were, upon its substance. Yet there +were no laws to prevent the middle class from ruining themselves, or to +assist them in acquiring riches; nevertheless, they incessantly increased +their wealth--in many instances they had become as rich, and often richer, +than the nobles. Nay, more, their wealth was of the same kind, for, though +dwelling in the towns, they were often country landowners, and sometimes +they even bought seignorial estates.</p> + +<p>Let us now look at the other side of the picture, and we shall see that +these same Frenchmen, who had so many points of resemblance among +themselves, were, nevertheless, more completely isolated from each other +than perhaps the inhabitants of any other country, or than had ever been +the case before in France.</p> + +<p>The fact is, that as by degrees the general liberties of the country +were finally destroyed, involving the local liberties in their ruin, the +burgess and the noble ceased to come into contact with public life.</p> + +<p>The system of creating new nobles, far from lessening the hatred of the +<i>roturier</i> to the nobleman, increased it beyond measure; it was +envenomed by all the envy with which the new noble was looked upon by his +former equals. For this reason the <i>tiers état,</i> in all their +complaints, always displayed more irritation against the newly ennobled +than against the old nobility.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century the French peasantry could no longer be preyed +upon by petty feudal despots. They were seldom the object of violence on +the part of the government; they enjoyed civil liberty, and were owners of +a portion of the soil. But all the other classes of society stood aloof +from this class, and perhaps in no other part of the world had the +peasantry ever lived so entirely alone. The effects of this novel and +singular kind of oppression deserve a very attentive consideration.</p> + +<p>This state of things did not exist in an equal degree among any other of +the civilised nations of Europe, and even in France it was comparatively +recent. The peasantry of the fourteenth century were at once oppressed and +more relieved. The aristocracy sometimes tyrannised over them, but never +forsook them.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century a French village was a community of persons, +all of whom were poor, ignorant, and coarse; its magistrates were as rude +and as contemned as the people; its syndic could not read; its collector +could not record in his own handwriting the accounts on which the income of +his neighbour and himself depended.</p> + +<p>Not only had the former lord of the manor lost the right of governing +this community, but he had brought himself to consider it a sort of +degradation to take any part in the government of it. The central power of +the state alone took any care of the matter, and as that power was very +remote, and had as yet nothing to fear from the inhabitants of the +villages, the only care it took of them was to extract revenue.</p> + +<p>A further burden was added. The roads began to be repaired by forced +labour only--that is to say, exclusively at the expense of the peasantry. +This expedient for making roads without paying for them was thought so +ingenious that in 1737 a circular of the Comptroller-General Orry +established it throughout France.</p> + +<p>Nothing can better demonstrate the melancholy fate of the rural +population; the progress of society, which enriches all the other classes, +drives them to despair, and civilisation itself turns against that class +alone.</p> + +<p>The system of forced labour, by becoming a royal right, was gradually +extended to almost all public works. In 1719 I find it was employed to +build barracks. "Parishes are to send their best workmen," said the +ordinance, "and all other works are to give way to this." The same forced +service was used to escort convicts to the galleys and beggars to the +workhouse; it had to cart the baggage of troops as often as they changed +their quarters--a burthen which was very onerous at a time when each +regiment carried heavy baggage after it. Many carts and oxen had to be +collected for the purpose.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--Reform and Destruction Inevitable</i></h3> + + +<p>One further factor, and that the most important, remains to be noted: +the universal discredit into which every form of religious belief had +fallen, at the end of the eighteenth century, and which exercised without +any doubt the greatest influence upon the whole of the French Revolution; +it stamped its character.</p> + +<p>Irreligion had produced an enormous public evil. The religious laws +having been abolished at the same time that the civil laws were overthrown, +the minds of men were entirely upset; they no longer knew either to what to +cling or where to stop. And thus arose a hitherto unknown species of +revolutionists, who carried their boldness to a pitch of madness, who were +surprised by no novelty and arrested by no scruple, and who never hesitated +to put any design whatever into execution. Nor must it be supposed that +these new beings have been the isolated and ephemeral creation of a moment, +and destined to pass away as that moment passed. They have since formed a +race of beings which has perpetuated itself, and spread into all the +civilised parts of the world, everywhere preserving the same physiognomy, +the same character.</p> + +<p>From the moment when the forces I have described, and the added loss of +religion, matured, I believe that this radical revolution, which was to +confound in common ruin all that was worst and all that was best in the +institutions and condition of France, became inevitable. A people so +ill-prepared to act for themselves could not undertake a universal and +simultaneous reform without a universal destruction.</p> + +<p>One last element must be remembered before we conclude. As the common +people of France had not appeared for one single moment on the theatre of +public affairs for upwards of 140 years, no one any longer imagined that +they could ever again resume their position. They appeared unconscious, and +were therefore believed to be deaf. Accordingly, those who began to take an +interest in their condition talked about them in their presence just as if +they had not been there. It seemed as if these remarks could only be heard +by those who were placed above the common people, and that the only danger +to be apprehended was that they might not be fully understood by the upper +classes.</p> + +<p>The very men who had most to fear from the fury of the people declaimed +loudly in their presence on the cruel injustice under which the people had +always suffered. They pointed out to each other the monstrous vices of +those institutions which had weighed most heavily upon the lower orders; +they employed all their powers of rhetoric in depicting the miseries of the +people and their ill-paid labour; and thus they infuriated while they +endeavoured to relieve them.</p> + +<p>Such was the attitude of the French nation on the eve of the revolution, +but when I consider this nation in itself it strikes me as more +extraordinary than any event in its own annals. Was there ever any nation +on the face of the earth so full of contrasts and so extreme in all its +actions; more swayed by sensations, less by principles; led therefore +always to do either worse or better than was expected of it, sometimes +below the common level of humanity, sometimes greatly above it--a people so +unalterable in its leading instincts that its likeness may still be +recognised in descriptions written two or three thousand years ago, but at +the same time so mutable in its daily thoughts and in its tastes as to +become a spectacle and an amazement to itself, and to be as much surprised +as the rest of the world at the sight of what it has done--a people beyond +all others the child of home and the slave of habit, when left to itself; +but when once torn against its will from the native hearth and from its +daily pursuits, ready to go to the end of the world and to dare all +things.</p> + +<p>Such a nation could alone give birth to a revolution so sudden, so +radical, so impetuous in its course, and yet so full of reactions, of +contradictory incidents and of contrary examples. Without the reasons I +have related the French would never have made the revolution; but it must +be confessed that all these reasons united would not have sufficed to +account for such a revolution anywhere else but in France.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='FRANCOIS_MIGNET'></a>FRANÇOIS MIGNET</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_French_Revolution1'></a>History of the French +Revolution</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> François Auguste Alexis Mignet was born at Aix, in +Provence, on May 8, 1796, and began life at the Bar. It soon became +apparent that his true vocation was history, and in 1818 he left his native +town for Paris, where he became attached to the "Courier Français," +in the meantime delivering with considerable success a series of lectures +on modern history at the Athénée. Mignet may be said to be +the first great specialist to devote himself to the study of particular +periods of French history. His "History of the French Revolution, from 1789 +to 1814," published in 1824, is a strikingly sane and lucid arrangement of +facts that came into his hands in chaotic masses. Eminently concise, exact, +and clear, it is the first complete account by one other than an actor in +the great drama. Mignet was elected to the French Academy in 1836, and +afterwards published a series of masterly studies dealing with the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, among which are "Antonio Perez and +Philip II.," and "The History of Mary, Queen of Scots," and also +biographies of Franklin and Charles V. He died on March 24, 1884. +</p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--The Last Resort of the Throne</i></h3> + + +<p>I am about to take a rapid review of the history of the French +Revolution, which began the era of new societies in Europe, as the English +revolution had begun the era of new governments.</p> + +<p>Louis XVI. ascended the throne on May 11, 1774. Finances, whose +deficiencies neither the restorative ministry of Cardinal de Fleury, nor +the bankrupt ministry of the Abbé Terray had been able to make good, +authority disregarded, an imperious public opinion; such were the +difficulties which the new reign inherited from its predecessors. And in +choosing, on his accession to the throne, Maurepas as prime minister, Louis +XVI. eminently contributed to the irresolute character of his reign. On the +death of Maurepas the queen took his place with Louis XVI., and inherited +all his influence over him. Maurepas, mistrusting court ministers, had +always chosen popular ministers; it is true he did not support them; but if +good was not brought about, at least evil did not increase. After his +death, court ministers succeeded the popular ministers, and by their faults +rendered the crisis inevitable which others had endeavoured to prevent by +their reforms. This difference of choice is very remarkable; this it was +which, by the change of men, brought on the change of the system of +administration. <i>The revolution dates front this epoch;</i> the +abandonment of reforms and the return of disorders hastened its approach +and augmented its fury.</p> + +<p>After the failure of the queen's minister the States-General had become +the only means of government, and the last resources of the throne. The +king, on August 8, 1788, fixed the opening for May 1, 1789. Necker, the +popular minister of finance, was recalled, and prepared everything for the +election of deputies and the holding of the States.</p> + +<p>A religious ceremony preceded their installation. The king, his family, +his ministers, the deputies of the three orders, went in procession from +the Church of Nôtre Dame to that of St. Louis, to hear the opening +mass.</p> + +<p>The royal sitting took place the following day in the Salle des Menus. +Galleries, arranged in the form of an amphitheatre, were filled with +spectators. The deputies were summoned, and introduced according to the +order established in 1614. The clergy were conducted to the right, the +nobility to the left, and the commons in front of the throne at the end of +the hall. The deputations from Dauphiné, from +Crépy-en-Valois, to which the Duke of Orleans belonged, and from +Provence, were received with loud applause. Necker was also received on his +entrance with general enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>Barentin, keeper of the seals, spoke next after the king. His speech +displayed little knowledge of the wishes of the nation, or it sought openly +to combat them. The dissatisfied assembly looked to M. Necker, from whom it +expected different language.</p> + +<p>The court, so far from wishing to organise the States-General, sought to +annul them. No efforts were spared to keep the nobility and clergy separate +from and in opposition to the commons; but on May 6, the day after the +opening of the States, the nobility and clergy repaired to their respective +chambers, and constituted themselves. The Third Estate being, on account of +its double representation, the most numerous order, had the Hall of the +States allotted to it, and there awaited the two other orders; it +considered its situation as provisional, its members as presumptive +deputies, and adopted a system of inactivity till the other orders should +unite with it. Then a memorable struggle began, the issue of which was to +decide whether the revolution should be effected or stopped.</p> + +<p>The commons, having finished the verification of their own powers of +membership on June 17, on the motion of Sieyès, constituted +themselves the National Assembly, and refused to recognise the other two +orders till they submitted, and changed the assembly of the States into an +assembly of the people.</p> + +<p>It was decided that the king should go in state to the Assembly, annul +its decrees, command the separation of the orders as constitutive of the +monarchy, and himself fix the reforms to be effected by the States-General. +It was feared that the majority of the clergy would recognise the Assembly +by uniting with it; and to prevent so decided a step, instead of hastening +the royal sittings, they and the government closed the Hall of the States, +in order to suspend the Assembly till the day of that royal session.</p> + +<p>At an appointed hour on June 20 the president of the commons repaired to +the Hall of the States, and finding an armed force in possession, he +protested against this act of despotism. In the meantime the deputies +arrived, and dissatisfaction increased. The most indignant proposed going +to Marly and holding the Assembly under the windows of the king; one named +the Tennis Court; this proposition was well received, and the deputies +repaired thither in procession.</p> + +<p>Bailly was at their head; the people followed them with enthusiasm, even +soldiers volunteered to escort them, and there, in a bare hall, the +deputies of the commons, standing with upraised hands, and hearts full of +their sacred mission, swore, with only one exception, not to separate till +they had given France a constitution.</p> + +<p>By these two failures the court prefaced the famous sitting of June +23.</p> + +<p>At length it took place. A numerous guard surrounded the hall of the +States-General, the door of which was opened to the deputies, but closed to +the public. After a scene of authority, ill-suited to the occasion, and at +variance with his heart, Louis XVI. withdrew, having commanded the deputies +to disperse. The clergy and nobility obeyed. The deputies of the people, +motionless, silent, and indignant, remained seated.</p> + +<p>The grand-master of the ceremonies, finding the Assembly did not break +up, came and reminded them of the king's order.</p> + +<p>"Go and tell your master," cried Mirabeau, "that we, are here at the +command of the people, and nothing but the bayonet shall drive us +hence."</p> + +<p>"You are to-day," added Sieyès calmly, "what you were yesterday. +Let us deliberate."</p> + +<p>The Assembly, full of resolution and dignity, began the debate +accordingly.</p> + +<p>On that day the royal authority was lost. The initiative in law and +moral power passed from the monarch to the Assembly. Those who, by their +counsels, had provoked this resistance did not dare to punish it Necker, +whose dismissal had been decided on that morning, was, in the evening, +entreated by the queen and Louis XVI. to remain in office.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.---"À la Bastille!"</i></h3> + + +<p>The court might still have repaired its errors, and caused its attacks +to be forgotten. But the advisers of Louis XVI., when they recovered from +the first surprise of defeat, resolved to have recourse to the use of the +bayonet after they had failed in that of authority.</p> + +<p>The troops arrived in great numbers; Versailles assumed the aspect of a +camp; the Hall of the States was surrounded by guards, and the citizens +refused admission. Paris was also encompassed by various bodies of the army +ready to besiege or blockade it, as the occasion might require; when the +court, having established troops at Versailles, Sèvres, the Champ de +Mars, and St. Denis, thought it able to execute its project. It began on +July 11, by the banishment of Necker, who received while at dinner a note +from the king enjoining him to leave the country immediately.</p> + +<p>On the following day, Sunday, July 12, about four in the afternoon, +Necker's disgrace and departure became known in Paris. More than ten +thousand persons flocked to the Palais Royal. They took busts of Necker and +the Duke of Orleans, a report also having gone abroad that the latter would +be exiled, and covering them with crape, carried them in triumph. A +detachment of the Royal Allemand came up and attempted to disperse the mob; +but the multitude, continuing its course, reached the Place Louis XV. Here +they were assailed by the dragoons of the Prince de Lambese. After +resisting a few moments they were thrown into confusion; the bearer of one +of the busts and a soldier of one of the French guards were killed.</p> + +<p>During the evening the people had repaired to the Hôtel de Ville, +and requested that the tocsin might be sounded. Some electors assembled at +the Hôtel de Ville, and took the authority into their own hands. The +nights of July 12 and 13 were spent in tumult and alarm.</p> + +<p>On July 13 the insurrection took in Paris a more regular character. The +provost of the merchants announced the immediate arrival of twelve thousand +guns from the manufactory of Charleville, which would soon be followed by +thirty thousand more.</p> + +<p>The next day, July 14, the people that had been unable to obtain arms on +the preceding day came early in the morning to solicit some from the +committee, hurried in a mass to the Hôtel des Invalides, which +contained a considerable depot of arms, found 28,000 guns concealed in the +cellars, seized them, took all the sabres, swords, and cannon, and carried +them off in triumph; while the cannon were placed at the entrance of the +Faubourgs, at the palace of the Tuileries, on the quays and on the bridges, +for the defence of the capital against the invasion of troops, which was +expected every moment.</p> + +<p>From nine in the morning till two the only rallying word throughout +Paris was "À la Bastille! A la Bastille!" The citizens hastened +thither in bands from all quarters, armed with guns, pikes, and sabres. The +crowd which already surrounded it was considerable; the sentinels of the +fortress were at their posts, and the drawbridges raised as in war. The +populace advanced to cut the chains of the bridge. The garrison dispersed +them with a charge of musketry. They returned, however, to the attack, and +for several hours their efforts were confined to the bridge, the approach +to which was defended by a ceaseless fire from the fortress.</p> + +<p>The siege had lasted more than four hours when the French guards arrived +with cannon. Their arrival changed the appearance of the combat. The +garrison itself begged the governor to yield.</p> + +<p>The gates were opened, the bridge lowered, and the crowd rushed into the +Bastille.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--"Bread! Bread!"</i></h3> + + +<p>The multitude which was enrolled on July 14 was not yet, in the +following autumn, disbanded. And the people, who were in want of bread, +wished for the king to reside at Paris, in the hope that his presence would +diminish or put a stop to the dearth of provisions. On the pretext of +protecting itself against the movements in Paris, the court summoned troops +to Versailles, doubled the household guards, and sent in September (1789) +for the dragoons and the Flanders regiment.</p> + +<p>The officers of the Flanders regiment, received with anxiety in the town +of Versailles, were fêted at the château, and even admitted to +the queen's card tables. Endeavours were made to secure their devotion, and +on October 1, a banquet was given to them by the king's guards. The king +was announced. He entered attired in a hunting dress, the queen leaning on +his arm and carrying the dauphin. Shouts of affection and devotion arose on +every side. The health of the royal family was drunk with swords drawn, and +when Louis XVI. withdrew the music played "O Richard! O mon roi! L'univers +t'abandonne." The scene now assumed a very significant character; the march +of the Hullans and the profusion of wine deprived the guests of all +reserve. The charge was sounded; tottering guests climbed the boxes as if +mounting to an assault; white cockades were distributed; the tri-colour +cockade, it is said, was trampled on.</p> + +<p>The news of this banquet produced the greatest sensation in Paris. On +the 4th suppressed rumours announced an insurrection; the multitude already +looked towards Versailles. On the 5th the insurrection broke out in a +violent and invincible manner; the entire want of flour was the signal. A +young girl, entering a guardhouse, seized a drum and rushed through the +streets beating it and crying, "Bread! Bread!" She was soon surrounded by a +crowd of women. This mob advanced towards the Hôtel de Ville, +increasing as it went. It forced the guard that stood at the door, and +penetrated into the interior, clamouring for bread and arms; it broke open +doors, seized weapons, and marched towards Versailles. The people soon rose +<i>en masse</i>, uttering the same demand, till the cry "To Versailles!" +rose on every side. The women started first, headed by Maillard, one of the +volunteers of the Bastille. The populace, the National Guard, and the +French guards requested to follow them.</p> + +<p>During this tumult the court was in consternation; the flight of the +king was suggested, and carriages prepared. But, in the meantime, the rain, +fatigue, and the inaction of the household troops lessened the fury of the +multitude, and Lafayette arrived at the head of the Parisian army.</p> + +<p>His presence restored security to the court, and the replies of the king +to the deputation from Paris satisfied the multitude and the army.</p> + +<p>About six next morning, however, some men of the lower class, more +enthusiastic than the rest, and awake sooner than they, prowled round the +château. Finding a gate open, they informed their companions, and +entered.</p> + +<p>Lafayette, apprised of the invasion of the royal residence, mounted his +horse and rode hastily to the scene of danger. On the square he met some of +the household troops surrounded by an infuriated mob, who were on the point +of killing them. He threw himself among them, called some French guards who +were near, and having rescued the household troops and dispersed their +assailant, he hurried to the château. But the scene was not over. The +crowd assembled again in the marble court under the king's balcony, loudly +called for him, and he appeared. They required his departure for Paris. He +promised to repair thither with his family, and this promise was received +with general applause. The queen was resolved to accompany him, but the +prejudice against her was so strong that the journey was not without +danger. It was necessary to reconcile her with the multitude. Lafayette +proposed to her to accompany him to the balcony. After some hesitation, she +consented. They appeared on it together, and to communicate by a sign with +the tumultuous crowd, to conquer its animosity and to awaken its +enthusiasm, Lafayette respectfully kissed the queen's hand. The crowd +responded with acclamations.</p> + +<p>Thus terminated the scene; the royal family set out for Paris, escorted +by the army, and its guards mixed with it.</p> + +<p>The autumn of 1789 and the whole of the year 1790 were passed in the +debate and promulgation of rapid and drastic reforms, by which the +Parliament within eighteen months reduced the monarchy to little more than +a form. Mirabeau, the most popular member, and in a sense the leader of the +Parliament, secretly agreed with the court to save the monarchy from +destruction; but on his sudden death, on April 2, 1791, the king and queen, +in terror at their situation, determined to fly from Paris. The plan, which +was matured during May and June, was to reach the frontier fortress of +Montmédy by way of Chalons, and to take refuge with the army on the +frontier.</p> + +<p>The royal family made every preparation for departure; very few persons +were informed of it, and no measures betrayed it. Louis XVI. and the queen, +on the contrary, pursued a line of conduct calculated to silence suspicion, +and on the night of June 20 they issued at the appointed hour from the +château, one by one, in disguise, and took the road to Chalons and +Montmédy.</p> + +<p>The success of the first day's journey, the increasing distance from +Paris, rendered the king less reserved and more confident. He had the +imprudence to show himself, was recognised, and arrested at Varennes on the +21st.</p> + +<p>The king was provisionally suspended--a guard set over him, as over the +queen--and commissioners were appointed to question him.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--Europe Declares War on the Revolution</i></h3> + + +<p>While this was passing in the Assembly and in Paris, the emigrants, whom +the flight of Louis XVI. had elated with hope, were thrown into +consternation at his arrest. Monsieur, who had fled at the same time as his +brother, and with better fortune, arrived alone at Brussels with the powers +and title of regent. The emigrants thenceforth relied only on the +assistance of Europe; the officers quitted their colours; 290 members of +the Assembly protested against its decrees; in order to legitimatise +invasion, Bouillé wrote a threatening letter, in the inconceivable +hope of intimidating the Assembly, and at the same time to take up himself +the sole responsibility of the flight of Louis XVI.; finally the emperor, +the King of Prussia, and the Count d'Artois met at Pilnitz, where they made +the famous declaration of August 27, 1791, preparatory to the invasion of +France.</p> + +<p>On April 20, 1792, Louis XVI. went to the Assembly, attended by all his +ministers. In that sitting war was almost unanimously decided upon. Thus +was undertaken against the chief of confederate powers that war which was +protracted throughout a quarter of a century, which victoriously +established the revolution, and which changed the whole face of Europe.</p> + +<p>On July 28, when the allied army of the invaders began to move from +Coblentz, the Duke of Brunswick, its commander-in-chief, published a +manifesto in the name of the emperor and the King of Prussia. He declared +that the allied sovereigns were advancing to put an end to anarchy in +France, to arrest the attacks made on the altar and the throne. He said +that the inhabitants of towns <i>who dared to stand on the defensive</i> +should instantly be punished as rebels, with the rigour of war, and their +houses demolished or burned; and that if the Tuileries were attacked or +insulted, the princes would deliver Paris over to military execution and +total subversion.</p> + +<p>This fiery and impolitic manifesto more than anything else hastened the +fall of the throne, and prevented the success of the coalition.</p> + +<p>The insurgents fixed the attack on the Tuileries for the morning of +August 10. The vanguard of the Faubourgs, composed of Marseillese and +Breton Federates, had already arrived by the Rue Saint Honoré, +stationed themselves in battle array on the Carrousel, and turned their +cannon against the Tuileries, when Louis XVI. left his chamber with his +family, ministers, and the members of the department, and announced to the +persons assembled for the defence of the palace that he was going to the +National Assembly. All motives for resistance ceased with the king's +departure. The means of defence had also been diminished by the departure +of the National Guards who escorted the king. The Swiss discharged a +murderous fire on the assailants, who were dispersed. The Place du +Carrousel was cleared. But the Marseillese and Bretons soon returned with +renewed force; the Swiss were fired on by the cannon, and surrounded; and +the crowd perpetrated in the palace all the excesses of victory.</p> + +<p>Royalty had already fallen, and thus on August 10 began the dictatorial +and arbitrary epoch of the revolution.</p> + +<p>During three days, from September 2, the prisoners confined in the +Carmes, the Abbaye, the Conciergerie, the Force, etc., were slaughtered by +a band of about three hundred assassins. On the 20th, the in itself almost +insignificant success of Valmy, by checking the invasion, produced on our +troops and upon opinion in France the effect of the most complete +victory.</p> + +<p>On the same day the new Parliament, the Convention, began its +deliberations. In its first sitting it abolished royalty, and proclaimed +the republic. And already Robespierre, who played so terrible a part in our +revolution, was beginning to take a prominent position in the debates.</p> + +<p>The discussion on the trial of Louis XVI. began on November 13. The +Assembly unanimously decided, on January 20, 1793, that Louis was guilty; +when the appeal was put to the question, 284 voices voted for, 424 against +it; 10 declined voting. Then came the terrible question as to the nature of +the punishment. Paris was in a state of the greatest excitement; deputies +were threatened at the very door of the Assembly. There were 721 voters. +The actual majority was 361. The death of the king was decided by a +majority of 26 votes.</p> + +<p>He was executed at half-past ten in the morning of January 21, and his +death was the signal for an almost universal war.</p> + +<p>This time all the frontiers of France were to be attacked by the +European powers.</p> + +<p>The cabinet of St. James, on learning the death of Louis XVI., dismissed +the Ambassador Chauvelin, whom it had refused to acknowledge since August +10 and the dethronement of the king. The Convention, finding England +already leagued with the coalition, and consequently all its promises of +neutrality vain and illusive, on February 1, 1793, declared war against the +King of Great Britain and the stadtholder of Holland, who had been entirely +guided by the cabinet of St. James since 1788.</p> + +<p>Spain came to a rupture with the republic, after having interceded in +vain for Louis XVI., and made its neutrality the price of the life of the +king. The German Empire entirely adopted the war; Bavaria, Suabia, and the +Elector Palatine joined the hostile circles of the empire. Naples followed +the example of the Holy See, and the only neutral powers were Venice, +Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Turkey.</p> + +<p>In order to confront so many enemies, the Convention decreed a levy of +300,000 men.</p> + +<p>The Austrians assumed the offensive, and at Liège put our army +wholly to the rout.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, partial disturbances had taken place several times in La +Vendée. The Vendéans beat the gendarmerie at Saint Florens. +The troops of the line and the battalions of the National Guard who +advanced against the insurgents were defeated.</p> + +<p>At the same time tidings of new military disasters arrived, one after +the other. Dumouriez ventured a general action at Neerwinden, and lost it. +Belgium was evacuated, Dumouriez had recourse to the guilty project of +defection. He had conference with Colonel Mack, and agreed with the +Austrians to march upon Paris for the purpose of re-establishing the +monarchy, leaving them on the frontiers, and having first given up to them +several fortresses as a guarantee. He proceeded to the execution of his +impractical design. He was really in a very difficult position; the +soldiers were very much attached to him, but they were also devoted to +their country. He had the commissioners of the Convention arrested by +German hussars, and delivered them as hostages to the Austrians. After this +act of revolt he could no longer hesitate. He tried to induce the army to +join him, but was forsaken by it, and then went over to the Austrian camp +with the Duc de Chartres, Colonel Thouvenot, and two squadrons of Berchiny. +The rest of his army went to the camp at Famars, and joined the troops +commanded by Dampierre.</p> + +<p>The Convention on learning the arrest of the commissions, established +itself as a permanent assembly, declared Dumouriez a traitor, authorised +any citizen to attack him, set a price on his head, and decreed the famous +Committee of Public Safety.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.---The Committee of Public Safety</i></h3> + + +<p>Thus was created that terrible power which first destroyed the enemies +of the Mountain, then the Mountain and the commune, and, lastly, itself. +The committee did everything in the name of the Convention, which it used +as an instrument. It nominated and dismissed generals, ministers, +representatives, commissioners, judges, and juries. It assailed factions; +it took the initiative in all measures. Through its commissioners, armies +and generals were dependent upon it, and it ruled the departments with +sovereign sway.</p> + +<p>By means of the law touching suspected persons, it disposed of men's +liberties; by the revolutionary tribunal, of men's lives; by levies and the +maximum, of property; by decrees of accusation in the terrified Convention, +of its own members. Lastly, its dictatorship was supported by the multitude +who debated in the clubs, ruled in the revolutionary committees; whose +services it paid by a daily stipend, and whom it fed with the maximum. The +multitude adhered to a system which inflamed its passions, exaggerated its +importance, assigned it the first place, and appeared to do everything for +it.</p> + +<p>Two enemies, however, threatened the power of this dictatorial +government. Danton and his faction, whose established popularity gave him +great weight, and who, as victory over the allies seemed more certain, +demanded a cessation of the "Terror," or martial law of the committee; and +the commune, or extreme republican municipal government of Paris.</p> + +<p>The Committee of Public Safety was too strong not to triumph over the +commune, but, at the same time, it had to resist the moderate party, which +demanded the cessation of the revolutionary government and the dictatorship +of the committees. The revolutionary government had only been created to +restrain, the dictatorship to conquer; and as Danton and his party no +longer considered restraint within and further victory abroad essential, +they sought to establish legal order. Early in 1794 it was time for Danton +to defend himself; the proscription, after striking the commune, threatened +him. He was advised to be on his guard and to take immediate steps. His +friends implored him to defend himself.</p> + +<p>"I would rather," said he, "be guillotined than be a guillotiner; +besides, my life is not worth the trouble, and I am sick of the world!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, thou shouldst depart."</p> + +<p>"Depart!" he repeated, curling his lip disdainfully, "Depart! Can we +carry your country away on the sole of our shoe?"</p> + +<p>On Germinal 10, as the revolutionary calendar went (March 31, 1796), he +was informed that his arrest was being discussed in the Committee of Public +Safety. His arrest gave rise to general excitement, to a sombre anxiety. +Danton and the rest of the accused were brought before the revolutionary +tribunal. They displayed an audacity of speech and a contempt of their +judges wholly unusual. They were taken to the Conciergerie, and thence to +the scaffold.</p> + +<p>They went to death with the intrepidity usual at that epoch. There were +many troops under arms, and their escort was numerous. The crowd, generally +loud in its applause, was silent. Danton stood erect, and looked proudly +and calmly around. At the foot of the scaffold he betrayed a momentary +emotion. "Oh, my best beloved--my wife!" he cried. "I shall not see thee +again!" Then suddenly interrupting himself: "No weakness, Danton!"</p> + +<p>Thus perished the last defender of humanity and moderation; the last who +sought to promote peace among the conquerors of the revolution and pity for +the conquered. For a long time no voice was raised against the dictatorship +of terror. During the four months following the fall of the Danton party, +the committee exercised their authority without opposition or restraint. +Death became the only means of governing, and the republic was given up to +daily and systematic executions.</p> + +<p>Robespierre, who was considered the founder of a moral democracy, now +attained the highest degree of elevation and of power. He became the object +of the general flattery of his party; he was the <i>great man</i> of the +republic. At the Jacobins and in the Convention his preservation was +attributed to "the good genius of the republic" and to the <i>Supreme +Being</i>, Whose existence he had decreed on Floréal 18, the +celebration of the new religion being fixed for Prairial 20.</p> + +<p>But the end of this system drew near. The committees opposed Robespierre +in their own way. They secretly strove to bring about his fall by accusing +him of tyranny.</p> + +<p>Naturally sad, suspicious, and timid, he became more melancholy and +mistrustful than ever. He even rose against the committee itself. On +Thermidor 8 (July 25, 1794), he entered the Convention at an early hour. He +ascended the tribunal, and denounced the committee in a most skilful +speech. Not a murmur, not a mark of applause welcomed this declaration of +war.</p> + +<p>The members of the two committees thus attacked, who had hitherto +remained silent, seeing the Mountain thwarted and the majority undecided, +thought it time to speak. Vadier first opposed Robespierre's speech and +then Robespierre himself. Cambon went further. The committees had also +spent the night in deliberation. In this state of affairs the sitting of +Thermidor 9 (July 27) began.</p> + +<p>Robespierre, after attempting to speak several times, while his voice +was drowned by cries of "Down with the tyrant!" and the bell which the +president, Thuriot, continued ringing, now made a last effort to be heard. +"President of assassins," he cried, "for the last time, will you let me +speak?"</p> + +<p>Said one of the Mountain: "The blood of Danton chokes you!" His arrest +was demanded, and supported on all sides. It was now half-past five, and +the sitting was suspended till seven. Robespierre was transferred to the +Luxembourg. The commune, after having ordered the gaolers not to receive +him, sent municipal officers with detachments to bring him away. +Robespierre was liberated, and conducted in triumph to the Hôtel de +Ville. On arriving, he was received with the greatest enthusiasm. "Long +live Robespierre! Down with the traitors!" resounded on all sides. But the +Convention marched upon the Hôtel de Ville.</p> + +<p>The conspirators, finding they were lost, sought to escape the violence +of their enemies by committing violence on themselves. Robespierre +shattered his jaw with a pistol shot. He was deposited for some time at the +Committee of Public Safety before he was transferred to the Conciergerie; +and here, stretched on a table, his face disfigured and bloody, exposed to +the looks, the invectives, the curses of all, he beheld the various parties +exulting in his fall, and charging upon him all the crimes that had been +committed.</p> + +<p>On Thermidor 10, about five in the evening, he ascended the death-cart, +placed between Henriot and Couthon, mutilated like himself. His head was +enveloped in linen, saturated with blood; his face was livid, his eyes were +almost visionless. An immense crowd thronged round the cart, manifesting +the most boisterous and exulting joy. He ascended the scaffold last. When +his head fell, shouts of applause arose in the air, and lasted for some +minutes.</p> + +<p>Thermidor 9 was the first day of the revolution it which those fell who +attacked. This indication alone manifested that the ascendant revolutionary +movement had reached its term. From that day the contrary movement +necessarily began.</p> + +<p>From Thermidor 9, 1794, to the summer of 1795, the radical Mountain, in +its turn, underwent the destiny it had imposed on others--for in times when +the passions are called into play parties know not how to come to terms, +and seek only to conquer. From that period the middle class resumed the +management of the revolution, and the experiment of pure democracy had +failed.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='THOMAS_CARLYLE1'></a>THOMAS CARLYLE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_French_Revolution2'></a>History of the French +Revolution</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Carlyle's "History of the French Revolution" appeared in +1837, some three years after the author had established himself in London. +Never has the individuality of a historian so completely permeated his +work; it is inconceivable that any other man should have written a single +paragraph, almost a single sentence, of the history. To Carlyle, the story +presents itself as an upheaval of elemental forces, vast elemental +personalities storming titanically in their midst, vividly picturesque as a +primeval mountain landscape illumined by the blaze of lightning, in a night +of storms, with momentary glimpses of moon and stars. Although it was +impossible for Carlyle to assimilate all the wealth of material even then +extant, the "History," considered as a prose epic, has a permanent and +unique value. His convictions, whatever their worth, came, as he himself +put it, "flamingly from the heart." (Carlyle, biography: see vol. ix.) +</p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.---The End of an Era</i></h3> + + +<p>On May 10, 1774, "with a sound absolutely like thunder," has the +horologe of time struck, and an old era passed away. Is it the healthy +peace or the ominous unhealthy, that rests on France for the next ten +years? Dubarrydom and its D'Aiguillons are gone for ever. There is a young, +still docile, well-intentioned king; a young, beautiful and bountiful, +well-intentioned queen; and with them all France, as it were, become young. +For controller-general, a virtuous, philosophic Turgot. Philosophism sits +joyful in her glittering salons; "the age of revolutions approaches" (as +Jean Jacques wrote), but then of happy, blessed ones.</p> + +<p>But with the working people it is not so well, whom we lump together +into a kind of dim, compendious unity, monstrous but dim, far off, as the +<i>canaille</i>. Singular how long the rotten will hold together, provided +you do not handle it roughly. Visible in France is no such thing as a +government. But beyond the Atlantic democracy is born; a sympathetic France +rejoices over the rights of man. Rochambeaus, Lameths, Lafayettes have +drawn their swords in this sacred quarrel; return, to be the missionaries +of freedom. But, what to do with the finances, having no Fortunatus +purse?</p> + +<p>For there is the palpablest discrepancy between revenue and expenditure. +Are we breaking down, then, into the horrors of national bankruptcy? +Turgot, Necker, and others have failed. What apparition, then, could be +welcomer than that of M. de Calonne? A man of indisputable genius, even +fiscal genius, more or less; of intrinsically rich qualities! For all +straits he has present remedy. Calonne also shall have trial! With a genius +for persuading--before all things for borrowing; after three years of +which, expedient heaped on expedient, the pile topples perilous.</p> + +<p>Whereupon a new expedient once more astonishes the world, unheard of +these hundred and sixty years--<i>Convocation of the Notables</i>. A round +gross of notables, meeting in February, 1787; all privileged persons. A +deficit so enormous! Mismanagement, profusion, is too clear; peculation +itself is hinted at. Calonne flies, storm-driven, over the horizon. To whom +succeeds Loménie-Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse--adopting Calonne's +plans, as Calonne had proposed to adopt Turgot's; and the notables are, as +it were, organed out in kind of choral anthem of thanks, praises, +promises.</p> + +<p>Loménie issues conciliatory edicts, fiscal edicts. But if the +Parlement of Paris refuse to register them? As it does, entering complaints +instead. Loménie launches his thunderbolt, six score <i>lettres de +cachet;</i> the Parlement is trundled off to Troyes, in Champagne, for a +month. Yet two months later, when a royal session is held, to have edicts +registered, there is no registering. Orleans, "Equality" that is to be, has +made the protest, and cut its moorings.</p> + +<p>The provincial parlements, moreover, back up the Paris Parlement with +its demand for a States-General. Loménie hatches a cockatrice egg; +but it is broken in premature manner; the plot discovered and denounced. +Nevertheless, the Parlement is dispersed by D'Agoust with Gardes +Françaises and Gardes Suisses. Still, however, will none of the +provincial parlements register.</p> + +<p>Deputations coming from Brittany meet to take counsel, being refused +audience; become the <i>Breton Club</i>, first germ of the <i>Jacobins' +Society</i>. Loménie at last announces that the States-General shall +meet in the May of next year (1789). For the holding of which, since there +is no known plan, "thinkers are invited" to furnish one.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.---The States-General</i></h3> + + +<p>Wherewith Loménie departs; flimsier mortal was seldom fated to do +as weighty a mischief. The archbishop is thrown out, and M. Necker is +recalled. States-General will meet, if not in January, at least in May. But +how to form it? On the model of the last States-General in 1614, says the +Parlement, which means that the <i>Tiers Etat</i> will be of no account, if +the noblesse and the clergy agree. Wherewith terminates the popularity of +the Parlement. As for the "thinkers," it is a sheer snowing of pamphlets. +And Abbé Sieyès has come to Paris to ask three questions, and +answer them: <i>What is the Third Estate? All. What has it hitherto been in +our form of government? Nothing. What does it want? To become +something</i>.</p> + +<p>The grand questions are: Shall the States-General sit and vote in three +separate bodies, or in one body, wherein the <i>Tiers Etat</i> shall have +double representation? The notables are again summoned to decide, but +vanish without decision. With those questions still unsettled, the election +begins. And presently the national deputies are in Paris. Also there is a +sputter; drudgery and rascality rising in Saint-Antoine, finally repressed +by Gardes Suisses and grapeshot.</p> + +<p>On Monday, May 4, is the baptism day of democracy, the extreme unction +day of feudalism. Behold the procession of processions advancing towards +Notre--our commons, noblesse, clergy, the king himself. Which of these six +hundred individuals in plain white cravat might one guess would become +their king? He with the thick black locks, shaggy beetle-brows and +rough-hewn face? Gabriel Honoré Riqueti de Mirabeau, the +world-compeller, the type Frenchman of this epoch, as Voltaire of the last. +And if Mirabeau is the greatest, who of these six hundred may be the +meanest? Shall we say that anxious, slight, ineffectual-looking man, under +thirty, in spectacles; complexion of an atrabiliar shade of pale sea-green, +whose name is Maximilien Robespierre?</p> + +<p>Coming into their hall on the morrow, the commons deputies perceive that +they have it to themselves. The noblesse and the clergy are sitting +separately, which the noblesse maintain to be right; no agreement is +possible. After six weeks of inertia the commons deputies, on their own +strength, are getting under way; declare themselves not <i>Third +Estate</i>, but <i>National Assembly</i>. On June 20, shut out of their +hall "for repairs," the deputies find refuge in the tennis court! take +solemn oath that they will continue to meet till they have made the +constitution. And to these are joined 149 of the clergy. A royal session is +held; the king propounds thirty-five articles, which if the estates do not +confirm he will himself enforce. The commons remain immovable, joined now +by the rest of the clergy and forty-eight noblesse. So triumphs the Third +Estate.</p> + +<p>War-god Broglie is at work, but grapeshot is good on one condition! The +Gardes Françaises, it seems, will not fire; nor they only. Other +troops, then? Rumour declares, and is verified, that Necker, people's +minister, is dismissed. "To arms!" cries Camille Desmoulins, and +innumerable voices yell responsive. Chaos comes. The Electoral Club, +however, declares itself a provisional municipality, sends out parties to +keep order in the streets that night, enroll a militia, with arms collected +where one may. Better to name it <i>National Guard</i>! And while the +crisis is going on, Mirabeau is away, sad at heart for the dying, crabbed +old father whom he loved.</p> + +<p>Muskets are to be got from the Invalides; 28,000 National Guards are +provided with matchlocks. And now to the Bastile! But to describe this +siege perhaps transcends the talent of mortals. After four hours of +world-bedlam, it surrenders. The Bastile is down. "Why," said poor Louis, +"that is a revolt." "Sire," answered Liancourt, "it is not a revolt; it is +a revolution."</p> + +<p>On the morrow, Louis paternally announces to the National Assembly +reconciliation. Amid enthusiasm, President Bailly is proclaimed Maire of +Paris, Lafayette general of the National Guard. And the first emigration of +aristocrat irreconcilables takes place. The revolution is sanctioned.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, see Saint-Antoine, not to be curbed, dragging old Foulon +and Berthier to the lantern, after which the cloud disappears, as +thunder-clouds do.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.---Menads and Feast of Pikes</i></h3> + + +<p>French Revolution means here the open, violent rebellion and victory of +disemprisoned anarchy against corrupt, worn-out authority; till the frenzy +working itself out, the uncontrollable be got harnessed. A transcendental +phenomenon, overstepping all rules and experience, the crowning phenomenon +of our modern time.</p> + +<p>The National Assembly takes the name Constituent; with endless debating, +gets the rights of man written down and promulgated. A memorable night is +August 4, when they abolish privilege, immunity, feudalism, root and +branch, perfecting their theory of irregular verbs. Meanwhile, seventy-two +châteaus have flamed aloft in the Maçonnais and Beaujolais +alone. Ill stands it now with some of the seigneurs. And, glorious as the +meridian, M. Necker is returning from Bâle.</p> + +<p>Pamphleteering, moreover, opens its abysmal throat wider and wider, +never to close more. A Fourth Estate of able editors springs up, increases +and multiplies, irrepressible, incalculable.</p> + +<p>No, this revolution is not of the consolidating kind. Lafayette +maintains order by his patrols; we hear of white cockades, and, worse +still, black cockades; and grain grows still more scarce. One Monday +morning, maternity awakes to hear children weeping for bread, must forth +into the streets. <i>Allons</i>! Let us assemble! To the Hôtel de +Ville, to Versailles, to the lantern! All women gather and go; crowds storm +all stairs, force out all women; there is a universal "press of women." Who +will storm the Hôtel de Ville, but for shifty usher Maillard, who +snatches a drum, beats his Rogues' March to Versailles! And after them the +National Guard, resolute in spite of <i>Mon Général,</i> who, +indeed, must go with them--Saint-Antoine having already gone. Maillard and +his menads demand at Versailles bread; speech with the king for a +deputation. The king speaks words of comfort. Words? But they want "bread, +not so much discoursing!"</p> + +<p>Towards midnight comes Lafayette; seems to have saved the situation; +gets to bed about five in the morning. But rascaldom, gathering about the +château, breaks in. One of the royal bodyguard fires, whereupon the +deluge pours in, would deal utter destruction but for the coming of the +National Guard. The bodyguard mount the tri-colour. There is no choice now. +The king must from Versailles to Paris, in strange procession; finally +reaches the long-deserted Palace of the Tuileries. It is Tuesday, October +6, 1789.</p> + +<p>And so again, on clear arena under new conditions, with something even +of a new stateliness, we begin a new course of action. Peace of a father +restored to his children? Not only shall Paris be fed, but the king's hand +be seen in that work--<i>King Louis, restorer of French liberty!</i></p> + +<p>Alone of men, Mirabeau may begin to discern clearly whither all this is +tending. Patriotism, accordingly, regrets that his zeal seems to be getting +cool. A man stout of heart, enigmatic, difficult to unmask! Meanwhile, +finances give trouble enough. To appease the deficit we venture on a +hazardous step, sale of the clergy's lands; a paper-money of +<i>assignats</i>, bonds secured on that property is decreed; and young +Sansculottism thrives bravely, growing by hunger. Great and greater waxes +President Danton in his Cordeliers section. This man also, like Mirabeau, +has a natural <i>eye</i>.</p> + +<p>And with the whole world forming itself into clubs, there is one club +growing ever stronger, till it becomes immeasurably strong; which, having +leased for itself the hall of the Jacobins' Convent, shall, under the title +of the Jacobins' Club, become memorable to all times and lands; has become +the mother society, with 300 shrill-tongued daughters in direct +correspondence with her, has also already thrown off the mother club of the +Cordeliers and the monarchist Feuillans.</p> + +<p>In the midst of which a hopeful France on a sudden renews with +enthusiasm the national oath; of loyalty to the king, the law, the +constitution which the National Assembly shall make; in Paris, repeated in +every town and district of France! Freedom by social contract; such was +verily the gospel of that era.</p> + +<p>From which springs a new idea: "Why all France has not one federation +and universal oath of brotherhood once for all?" other places than Paris +having first set example or federation. The place for it, Paris; the scene +to be worthy of it. Fifteen thousand men are at work on the Champs de Mars, +hollowing it out into a national amphitheatre. One may hope it will be +annual and perennial; a feast of pikes, notable among the high tides of the +year!</p> + +<p>Workmen being lazy, all Paris turns out to complete the preparations, +her daughters with the rest. From all points of the compass federates are +arriving. On July 13, 1790, 200,000 patriotic men and 100,000 patriotic +women sit waiting in the Champs de Mars. The generalissimo swears in the +name of armed France; the National Assembly swears; the king swears; be the +welkin split with vivats! And the feast of pikes dances itself off and +becomes defunct.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The End of Mirabeau</i></h3> + + +<p>Of journals there are now some 133; among which, Marat, the People's +Friend, unseen, croaks harsh thunder. Clubbism thrives and spreads, the +Mother of Patriotism, sitting in the Jacobins, shining supreme over all. +The pure patriots now, sitting on the extreme tip of the left, count only +some thirty, Mirabeau not among the chosen; a virtuous Pétion; an +incorruptible Robespierre; conspicuous, if seldom audible, Philippe +d'Orleans; and Barnave triumvirate.</p> + +<p>The plan of royalty, if it have any, is that of flying over the +frontiers; does not abandon the plan, yet never executes it. Nevertheless, +Mirabeau and the Queen of France have met, have parted with mutual trust. +It is strange, secret as the mysterious, but indisputable. "Madame," he has +said, "the monarchy is saved." Possible--if Fate intervene not. Patriotism +suspects the design of flight; barking this time not at nothing. Suspects +also the repairing of the castle of Vincennes; General Lafayette has to +wrestle persuasively with Saint-Antoine.</p> + +<p>On one royal person only can Mirabeau place dependence--the queen. Had +Mirabeau lived one other year! But man's years are numbered, and the tale +of Mirabeau's is complete. The giant oaken strength of him is wasted; +excess of effort, of excitement of all kinds; labour incessant, almost +beyond credibility. "When I am gone," he has said, "the miseries I have +held back will burst from all sides upon France." On April 2 he feels that +the last of the days has risen for him. His death is Titanic, as his life +has been. On the third evening is solemn public funeral. The chosen man of +France is gone.</p> + +<p>The French monarchy now is, in all human probability, lost. Many things +invite to flight; but if the king fly, will there not be aristocrat +Austrian invasion, butchery, replacement of feudalism, wars more than +civil? The king desires to go to St. Cloud, but shall not; patriots will +not let the horses go. But Count Fersen, an alert young Swedish soldier, +has business on hand; has a new coach built, of the kind called Berline; +has made other purchases. On the night of Monday, June 20, certain royal +individuals are in a glass coach; Fersen is the coachman; out by the +Barrier de Clichy, till we find the waiting Berline; then to Bondy, where +is a chaise ready; and deft Fersen bids adieu.</p> + +<p>With morning, and discovery, National Assembly adopts an attitude of +sublime calm; Paris also; yet messages are flying. Moreover, at Sainte +Menehould, on the route of the Berline, suspicious patriots are wondering +what certain lounging dragoons mean; while the Berline arrives not. At last +it comes; but Drouet, village postmaster, seeks a likeness; takes horse in +swift pursuit. So rolls on the Berline, and the chase after it; till it +comes to a dead stop in Varennes, where Drouet finds it--in time to stop +departure. Louis, the poor, phlegmatic man, steps out; all step out. The +flight is ended, though not the spurring and riding of that night of +spurs.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.---Constitution Will Not March</i></h3> + + +<p>In the last nights of September, Paris is dancing and flinging +fireworks; the edifice of the constitution is completed, solemnly proffered +to his majesty, solemnly accepted by him, to the sound of cannon salvoes. +There is to be a new Legislative Assembly, biennial; no members of the +Constituent Assembly to sit therein, or for four years to be a minister, or +hold a court appointment. So they vanish.</p> + +<p>Among this new legislative see Condorcet, Brissot; most notable, Carnot. +An effervescent, well intentioned set of senators; too combustible where +continual sparks are flying, ordered to make the constitution march for +which marching three things bode ill--the French people, the French king, +the French noblesse and the European world.</p> + +<p>For there are troubles in cities of the south. Avignon, where Jourdan +<i>coupe-tête</i> makes lurid appearance; Perpignan, northern Caen +also. With factions, suspicions, want of bread and sugar, it is verily what +they call <i>déchiré,</i> torn asunder, this poor country. +And away over seas the Plain of Cap Français one huge whirl of smoke +and flame; one cause of the dearth of sugar. What King Louis is and cannot +help being, we already know.</p> + +<p>And, thirdly, there is the European world. All kings and kinglets are +astir, their brows clouded with menace. Swedish Gustav will lead coalised +armies, Austria and Prussia speak at Pilnitz, lean Pitt looks out +suspicious. Europe is in travail, the birth will be WAR. Worst feature of +all, the emigrants at Coblentz, an extra-national Versailles. We shall have +war, then!</p> + +<p>Our revenue is assignats, our army wrecked disobedient, disorganised; +what, then, shall we do? Dumouriez is summoned to Paris, quick, shifty, +insuppressible; while royalist seigneurs cajole, and, as you turn your +legislative thumbscrew, king's veto steps in with magical paralysis. Yet +let not patriotism despair. Have we not a virtuous Pétion, Mayor of +Paris, a wholly patriotic municipality? Patriotism, moreover, has her +constitution that can march, the mother-society of the Jacobins; where may +be heard Brissot, Danton, Robespierre, the long-winded, incorruptible +man.</p> + +<p>Hope bursts forth with appointment of a patriot ministry, this also his +majesty will try. Roland, perchance Wife Roland, Dumouriez, and others. +Liberty is never named with another word, Equality. In April poor Louis, +"with tears in his eyes," proposes that the assembly do now decree war. Let +our three generals on the frontier look to it therefore, since Duke +Brunswick has his drill-sergeants busy. We decree a camp of twenty thousand +National Volunteers; the hereditary representative answers <i>veto</i>! +Strict Roland, the whole Patriot ministry, finds itself turned out.</p> + +<p>Barbaroux writes to Marseilles for six hundred men who know how to die. +On June 20 a tree of Liberty appears in Saint-Antoine--a procession with +for standard a pair of black breeches---pours down surging upon the +Tuileries, breaks in. The king, the little prince royal, have to don the +cap of liberty. Thus has the age of Chivalry gone, and that of Hunger come. +On the surface only is some slight reaction of sympathy, mistrust is too +strong.</p> + +<p>Now from Marseilles are marching the six hundred men who know how to +die, marching to the hymn of the Marseillaise. The country is in danger! +Volunteer fighters gather. Duke Brunswick shakes himself, and issues his +manifesto; and in Paris preternatural suspicion and disquietude. Demand is +for forfeiture, abdication in favour of prince royal, which Legislature +cannot pronounce. Therefore on the night of August 9 the tocsin sounds; of +Insurrection.</p> + +<p>On August 18 the grim host is marching, immeasurable, born of the night. +Of the squadrons of order, not one stirs. At the Tuileries the red Swiss +look to their priming. Amid a double rank of National Guards the royal +family "marches" to the assembly. The Swiss stand to their post, peaceable +yet immovable. Three Marseillaise cannon are fired; then the Swiss also +fire. One strangest patriot onlooker thinks that the Swiss, had they a +commander, would beat; the name of him, Napoleon Bonaparte. Having +none----Honour to you, brave men, not martyrs, and yet almost more. Your +work was to die, and ye did it.</p> + +<p>Our old patriot ministry is recalled; Roland; Danton Minister of +Justice! Also, in the new municipality, Robespierre is sitting. Louis and +his household are lodged in the Temple. The constitution is over! +Lafayette, whom his soldiers will not follow, rides over the border to an +Austrian prison. Dumouriez is commander-in-chief.</p> + + +<h3><i>VI.--Regicide</i></h3> + + +<p>In this month of September 1792 whatsoever is cruel in the panic frenzy +of twenty-five million men, whatsoever is great in the simultaneous +death-defiance of twenty-five million men, stand here in abrupt contrast; +all of black on one side, all of bright on the other. France crowding to +the frontiers to defend itself from foreign despots, to town halls to +defend itself from aristocrats, an insurrectionary improvised Commune of +Paris actual sovereign of France.</p> + +<p>There is a new Tribunal of Justice dealing with aristocrats; but the +Prussians have taken Longwi, and La Vendée is in revolt against the +Revolution. Danton gets a decree to search for arms and to imprison +suspects, some four hundred being seized. Prussians have Verdun also, but +Dumouriez, the many-counseled, has found a possible Thermopylæ--if we +can secure Argonne; for which one had need to be a lion-fox and have luck +on one's side.</p> + +<p>But Paris knows not Argonne, and terror is in her streets, with defiance +and frenzy. From a Sunday night to Thursday are a hundred hours, to be +reckoned with the Bartholomew butchery; prisoners dragged out by sudden +courts of wild justice to be massacred. These are the September massacres, +the victims one thousand and eighty-nine; in the historical <i>fantasy</i> +"between two and three thousand"--nay, six, even twelve. They have been put +to death because "we go to fight the enemy; but we will not leave robbers +behind us to butcher our wives and children." Horrible! But Brunswick is +within a day's journey of us. "We must put our enemies in fear." Which has +plainly been brought about.</p> + +<p>Our new National Convention is getting chosen; already we date First +Year of the Republic. And Dumouriez has snatched the Argonne passes; +Brunswick must laboriously skirt around; Dumouriez with recruits who, once +drilled and inured, will one day become a phalanxed mass of fighters, +wheels, always fronting him. On September 20, Brunswick attacks Valmy, all +day cannonading Alsatian Kellerman with French Sansculottes, who do +<i>not</i> fly like poultry; finally retires; a day precious to France!</p> + +<p>On the morrow of our new National Convention first sits; old legislative +ending. Dumouriez, after brief appearance in Paris, returns to attack +Netherlands, winter though it be.</p> + +<p>France, then, has hurled back the invaders, and shattered her own +constitution; a tremendous change. The nation has stripped itself of the +old vestures; patriots of the type soon to be called Girondins have the +problem of governing this naked nation. Constitution-making sets to work +again; more practical matters offer many difficulties; for one thing, lack +of grain; for another, what to do with a discrowned Louis Capet--all +things, but most of all fear, pointing one way. Is there not on record a +trial of Charles I.?</p> + +<p>Twice our Girondin friends have attacked September massacres, +Robespierre dictatorship; not with success. The question of Louis receives +further stimulus from the discovery of hidden papers. On December 11, the +king's trial has <i>emerged</i>, before the Convention; fifty-seven +questions are put to him. Thereafter he withdraws, having answered--for the +most part on the simple basis of <i>No</i>. On December 26, his advocate, +Deséze, speaks for him. But there is to be debate. Dumouriez is back +in Paris, consorting with Girondins; suspicious to patriots. The outcome, +on January 15--Guilty. The sentence, by majority of fifty-three, among them +Egalité, once Orleans--Death. Lastly, no delay.</p> + +<p>On the morrow, in the Place de la Revolution, he is brought to the +guillotine; beside him, brave Abbé Edgeworth says, "Son of St. +Louis, ascend to Heaven"; the axe clanks down; a king's life is shorn away. +At home, this killing of a king has divided all friends; abroad it has +united all enemies. England declares war; Spain declares war; they all +declare war. "The coalised kings threaten us; we hurl at their feet, as +gage of battle, the head of a king."</p> + + +<h3><i>VII.--Reign of Terror</i></h3> + + +<p>Five weeks later, indignant French patriots rush to the grocers' shops; +distribute sugar, weighing it out at a just rate of eleven-pence; other +things also; the grocer silently wringing his hands. What does this mean? +Pitt has a hand in it, the gold of Pitt, all men think; whether it is Marat +he has bought, as the Girondins say; or the Girondins, as the Jacobins say. +This battle of Girondins and Mountain let no man ask history to +explicate.</p> + +<p>Moreover, Dumouriez is checked; Custine also in the Rhine country is +checked; England and Spain are also taking the field; La Vendée has +flamed out again with its war cry of <i>God and the King</i>. Fatherland is +in danger! From our own traitors? "Set up a tribunal for traitors and a +Maximum for grain," says patriot Volunteers. Arrest twenty-two +Girondins!--though not yet. In every township of France sit revolutionary +committees for arrestment of suspects; notable also is the <i>Tribunal +Révolutionnaire</i>, and our Supreme Committee of Public Safety, of +nine members. Finally, recalcitrant Dumouriez finds safety in flight to the +Austrian quarters, and thence to England.</p> + +<p>Before which flight, the Girondins have broken with Danton, ranged him +against them, and are now at open war with the Mountain. Marat is attacked, +acquitted with triumph. On Friday, May 31, we find a new insurrectionary +general of the National Guard enveloping the Convention, which in three +days, being thus surrounded by friends, ejects under arrestment thirty-two +Girondins. Surely the true reign of Fraternity is now not far?</p> + +<p>The Girondins are struck down, but in the country follows a ferment of +Girondist risings. And on July 9, a fair Charlotte Corday is starting for +Paris from Caen, with letters of introduction from Barbaroux to Dupernet, +whom she sees, concerning family papers. On July 13, she drives to the +residence of Marat, who is sick--a citoyenne who would do France a service; +is admitted, plunges a knife into Marat's heart. So ends Peoples'-Friend +Marat. She submits, stately, to inevitable doom. In this manner have the +beautifulest and the squalidest come into collision, and extinguished one +another.</p> + +<p>At Paris is to be a new feast of pikes, over yet a new constitution; +statue of Nature, statue of Liberty, unveiled! <i>Republic one and +indivisible</i>--<i>Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death</i>! A new +calendar also, with months new-named. But Toulon has thrown itself into the +hands of the English, who will make a new Gibraltar of it! We beleaguer +Toulon; having in our army there remarkable Artillery-Major Napoleon +Bonaparte. Lyons also we beleaguer.</p> + +<p>Committee of Public Safety promulgates levy <i>en masse;</i> heroically +daring against foreign foes. Against domestic foes it issues the law of the +suspects--none frightfuller ever ruled in a nation of men. The guillotine +gets always quicker motion. Bailly, Brissot, are in prison. Trial of the +"Widow Capet"; whence Marie Antoinette withdraws to die--not wanting to +herself, the imperial woman! After her, the scaffold claims the twenty-two +Girondins.</p> + +<p>Terror is become the order of the day. Arrestment on arrestment follows +quick, continual; "The guillotine goes not ill."</p> + + +<h3><i>VIII.--Climax and Reaction</i></h3> + + +<p>The suspect may well tremble; how much more the open rebels--the +Girondin cities of the south! The guillotine goes always, yet not fast +enough; you must try fusillading, and perhaps methods still frightfuller. +Marseilles is taken, and under martial law. At Toulon, veteran Dugommier +suffers a young artillery officer whom we know to try his plan--and Toulon +is once more the Republic's. Cannonading gives place to guillotining and +fusillading. At Nantes, the unspeakable horror of the <i>noyades</i>.</p> + +<p>Beside which, behold destruction of the Catholic religion; indeed, for +the time being, of religion itself; a new religion promulgated of the +Goddess of Reason, with the first of the Feasts of Reason, ushered in with +carmagnole dance.</p> + +<p>Committee of Public Salvation ride this whirlwind; stranger set of +cloud-compellors Earth never saw. Convention commissioners fly to all +points of the territory, powerfuller than king or kaiser; frenzy of +patriotism drives our armies victorious, one nation against the whole +world; crowned by the <i>Vengeur</i>, triumphant in death; plunging down +carrying <i>vive la République</i> along with her into eternity, in +Howe's victory of the First of June. Alas, alas! a myth, founded, like the +world itself, on <i>Nothing</i>!</p> + +<p>Of massacring, altar-robbing, Hébertism, is there beginning to be +a sickening? Danton, Camille Desmoulins are weary of it; the +Hébertists themselves are smitten; nineteen of them travel their +last road in the tumbrils. "We should not strike save where it is useful to +the Republic," says Danton; quarrels with Robespierre; Danton, Camille, +others of the friends of mercy are arrested. At the trial, he shivers the +witnesses to ruin thunderously; nevertheless, sentence is passed. On the +scaffold he says, "Danton, no weakness! Thou wilt show my head to the +people--it is worth showing." So passes this Danton; a very man; +fiery-real, from the great fire-bosom of nature herself.</p> + +<p>Foul Hébert and the Hébertists, great Danton and the +Dantonists, are gone, swift, ever swifter, goes the axe of Samson; Death +pauses not. But on Prairial 20, the world is in holiday clothes in the +Jardin National. Incorruptible Robespierre, President of the Convention, +has decreed the existence of the Supreme Being; will himself be priest and +prophet; in sky-blue coat and black breeches! Nowise, however, checking the +guillotine, going ever faster.</p> + +<p>On July 26, when the Incorruptible addresses the Convention, there is +dissonance. Such mutiny is like fire sputtering in the ship's powder-room. +The Convention then must be purged, with aid of Henriot. But next day, amid +cries of <i>Tyranny! Dictatorship</i>! the Convention decrees that +Robespierre "is accused"; with Couthon and St. Just; decreed "out of law"; +Paris, after brief tumult, sides with the Convention. So on July 28, 1794, +the tumbrils go with this motley batch of outlaws. This is the end of the +Reign of Terror. The nation resolves itself into a committee of mercy.</p> + +<p>Thenceforth, writ of accusation and legal proof being decreed necessary, +Fouquier's trade is gone; the prisons deliver up suspects. For here was the +end of the revolution system. The keystone being struck out, the whole +arch-work of Sansculottism began to crack, till the abyss had swallowed it +all.</p> + +<p>And still there is no bread, and no constitution; Paris rises once +again, flowing towards the Tuileries; checked in one day with two blank +cannon-shots, by Pichegru, conqueror of Holland. Abbé Sieyès +provides yet another constitution; unpleasing to sundry who will not be +dispersed. To suppress whom, a young artillery officer is named commandant; +who with whiff of grapeshot does very promptly suppress them; and the thing +we specifically call French Revolution is blown into space.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='LAMARTINE'></a>LAMARTINE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_Girondists'></a>History of the Girondists</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine, poet, historian, +statesman, was born at Macon, in Burgundy, on October 21, 1790. Early in +the nineteenth century he held a diplomatic appointment at Naples, and in +1820 succeeded after many difficulties, in finding a publisher for his +first volume of poems, "Nouvelles Méditations." The merits of the +work were at once recognised, and the young author soon found himself one +of the most popular of the younger generation of French poets. He next +adopted politics, and, with the Revolution of February, became for a brief +time the soul of political life in France. But the triumph of imperialism +and of Napoleon III. drove him into the background, whereupon he retired +from public life, and devoted his remaining years to literature. He died on +March I, 1869. The publication, in 1847, of his "History of the Girondists, +or Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution, from +Unpublished Sources," was in the nature of a political event in France. +Brilliant in its romantic portraiture, the work, like many other French +histories, served the purposes of a pamphlet as well as those of a +chronicle. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--The War-Seekers of the South</i></h3> + + +<p>The French Revolution had pursued its rapid progress for two full years. +Mirabeau, the first democratic leader, was dead. The royal family had +attempted flight and failed. War with Europe threatened and, in the autumn +of 1791, a new parliament was elected and summoned.</p> + +<p>At this juncture the germ of a new opinion began to, display itself in +the south, and Bordeaux felt its full influence. The department of the +Gironde had given birth to a new political party in the twelve citizens who +formed its deputies. This department, far removed from the <i>centre</i>, +was at no distant period to seize on the empire alike of opinion and of +eloquence. The names (obscure and unknown up to this period) of Ducos, +Gaudet, Lafondladebat, Grangeneuve, Gensonné, Vergniaud, were about +to rise into notice and renown with the storms and the disasters of their +country; they were the men who were destined to give that impulse to the +revolution that had hitherto remained in doubt and indecision, which was to +precipitate it into a republic.</p> + +<p>In the new parliament Brissot, the inspirer of the Gironde, the dogmatic +statesman of a party which needed ideas and a leader, ascended the tribune +in the midst of anticipated plaudits which betokened his importance in the +new Assembly. His voice was for war, as the most efficacious of laws.</p> + +<p>It was evident that a party, already formed, took possession of the +tribune, and was about to arrogate to itself the dominion of the assembly. +Brissot was its conspirator, Condorcet its philosopher, Vergniaud its +orator. Vergniaud mounted the tribune, with all the prestige of his +marvellous eloquence. The eager looks of the Assembly, the silence that +prevailed, announced in him one of the great actors of the revolutionary +drama, who only appear on the stage to win themselves popularity, to +intoxicate themselves with applause, and--to die.</p> + +<p>Vergniaud, born at Limoges, and an advocate of the Bar of Bordeaux, was +now in his thirty-third year, for the revolutionary movement had seized on +and borne him along with its currents when very young. His dignified, calm, +and unaffected features announced the conviction of his power. Facility, +that agreeable concomitant of genius, had rendered alike pliable his +talents, his character, and even the position he assumed.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the tribune he was loved with familiarity; as he ascended +it each man was surprised to find that he inspired him with admiration and +respect; but at the first words that fell from the speaker's lips they felt +the immense distance between the man and the orator. He was an instrument +of enthusiasm, whose value and whose place was in his inspiration.</p> + +<p>Pétion was the son of a procureur at Chartres, and a townsman of +Brissot; was brought up in the same way as he, in the same studies, same +philosophy, same hatreds. They were two men of the same mind. The +revolution, which had been the ideal of their youth, had called them on the +scene on the same day, but to play very different parts. Brissot, the +scribe, political adventurer, journalist, was the man of theory; +Pétion, the practical man. He had in his countenance, in his +character, and his talents, that solemn mediocrity which is of the +multitude, and charms it; at least he was a sincere man, a virtue which the +people appreciate beyond all others in those who are concerned in public +affairs.</p> + +<p>The nomination of Pétion to the office of <i>maire</i> of Paris +gave the Girondists a constant <i>point d'appui</i> in the capital. Paris, +as well as the Assembly, escaped from the king's hands.</p> + +<p>A report praised by Brissot in his journal, and by the Girondists in the +Assembly, afforded no longer any pretext for delaying the war. France felt +that her strength was equal to her indignation, and she could be restrained +no longer. The increasing unpopularity of the king augmented the popular +excitement. Twice had he already arrested, by his royal veto, the energetic +measures of the Assembly--the decree against the <i>emigres</i> and the +decree against the priests who had not taken the oath. These two vetoes, +the one dictated by his honour, the other by his conscience, were two +terrible weapons placed in his hand by the constitution, yet which he could +not wield without wounding himself. The Girondists revenged themselves for +this resistance by compelling him to make war on the princes, who were his +brothers, and the emperor, whom they believed to be his accomplice.</p> + +<p>The war thus demanded by the ascendant Girondist party broke out in +April, 1792. Their enemies, the extreme radical party called "Jacobins," +had opposed the war, and when the campaign opened in disaster the beginning +of their ascendancy and the Girondin decline had appeared.</p> + +<p>These disasters were followed by a proclamation from the enemy that the +work of the revolution would be undone, and the town of Paris threatened +with military execution unless the king's power were fully restored. By way +of answer the populace of Paris stormed the royal palace, deposed the king, +and established a Radical government. Under this, a third parliament, the +most revolutionary of all, called the "Convention," was summoned to carry +on the war, the king was imprisoned, and on September 21, 1792, the day on +which the invading armies were checked at Valmy, a republic was +declared.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.---the Fall of La Gironde</i></h3> + + +<p>The proclamation of the republic was hailed with the utmost joy in the +capital, the departments, and the army; to philosophers it was the type of +government found under the ruins of fourteen ages of prejudice and tyranny; +to patriots it was the declaration of war of a whole nation, proclaimed on +the day of the victory of Valmy, against the thrones united to crush +liberty; while to the people it was an intoxicating novelty.</p> + +<p>Those who most exulted were the Girondists. They met at Madame Roland's +that evening, and celebrated almost religiously the entrance of their +creation into the world; and voluntarily casting the veil of illusion over +the embarrassments of the morrow and the obscurities of the future, gave +themselves up to the greatest enjoyment God has permitted man on earth--the +birth of his idea, the contemplation of his work, and the embodied +possession of his desires.</p> + +<p>The republic had at first great military successes, but they were not +long lived. After the execution of the king in January 1793, all Europe +banded together against France, the French armies were crushingly defeated, +their general, Dumouriez, fled to the enemy, and the Girondins, who had +been in power all this while, were fatally weakened. Moreover, their +attempt to save the king had added to their growing unpopularity when, +after Dumouriez's treason in March 1793 Danton attacked them in the +Convention.</p> + +<p>The Jacobins comprehended that Danton, at last forced from his long +hesitation, decided for them, and was about to crush their enemies. Every +eye followed him to the tribune.</p> + +<p>His loud voice resounded like a tocsin above the murmurs of the +Girondists. "It is they," he said, "who had the baseness to wish to save +the tyrant by an appeal to the people, who have been justly suspected of +desiring a king. It is they only who have manifestly desired to punish +Paris for its heroism by raising the departments against her; it is they +only who have supped clandestinely with Dumouriez when he was at Paris; +yes, it is they only who are the accomplices of this conspiracy."</p> + +<p>The Convention oscillated during the struggle between the Girondins and +their Radical opponents with every speech.</p> + +<p>Isnard, a Girondin, was named president by a strong majority. His +nomination redoubled the confidence of La Gironde in its force. A man +extravagant in everything, he had in his character the fire of his +language. He was the exaggeration of La Gironde--one of those men whose +ideas rush to their head when the intoxication of success or fear urges +them to rashness, and when they renounce prudence, that safeguard of +party.</p> + +<p>The strain between the Girondists, with their parliamentary majority, +and the populace of Paris, who were behind the Radicals, or Jacobins, +increased, until, towards the end of May, the mob rose to march on the +parliament. The alarm-bells rang, and the drums beat to arms in all the +quarters of Paris.</p> + +<p>The Girondists, at the sound of the tocsin and the drums, met for the +last time, not to deliberate, but to prepare and fortify themselves against +their death. They supped in an isolated mansion in the Rue de Clichy, +amidst the tolling of bells, the sound of the drums, and the rattling of +the guns and tumbrils. All could have escaped; none would fly. +Pétion, so feeble in the face of popularity, was intrepid when he +faced death; Gensonné, accustomed to the sight of war; Buzot, whose +heart beat with the heroic impressions of his unfortunate friend, Madame +Roland, wished them to await their death in their places in the Convention, +and there invoke the vengeance of the departments.</p> + +<p>Some hours later the armed mob, Henriot, their general, at their head, +appeared before the parliament. The gates were opened at the sight of the +president, Hérault de Séchelles, wearing the tricoloured +scarf. The sentinels presented arms, the crowd gave free passage to the +representatives. They advanced towards the Carrousel. The multitude which +were on this space saluted the deputies. Cries of "Vive la Convention! +Deliver up the twenty-two! Down with the Girondists!" mingled sedition with +respect.</p> + +<p>The Convention, unmoved by these shouts, marched in procession towards +the cannon by which Henriot, the commandant-general, in the midst of his +staff, seemed to await them. Hérault de Séchelles ordered +Henriot to withdraw this formidable array, and to grant a free passage to +the national representations. Henriot, who felt in himself the omnipotence +of armed insurrection, caused his horse to prance, while receding some +paces, and then said in an imperative tone to the Convention, "You will not +leave this spot until you have delivered up the twenty-two!"</p> + +<p>"Seize this rebel!" said Hérault de Séchelles, pointing +with his finger to Henriot. The soldiers remained immovable.</p> + +<p>"Gunners, to your pieces! Soldiers, to arms!" cried Henriot to the +troops. At these words, repeated by the officers along the line, a motion +of concentration around the guns took place. The Convention +retrograded.</p> + +<p>Barbaroux, Lanjuinais, Vergniaud, Mollevault, and Gardien remained, +vainly expecting the armed men who were to secure their persons, but not +seeing them arrive, they retired to their own homes.</p> + +<p>There followed the rising of certain parts of the country in favour of +the Girondins and against Paris. It failed. The Girondins were prisoners, +and after this failure of the insurrection the revolutionary government +proceeded to their trial. When their trial was decided on, this captivity +became more strict. They were imprisoned for a few days in the Carmelite +convent in the Rue de Vaugeraud, a monastery converted into a prison, and +rendered sinister by the bloody traces of the massacres of September.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Judges at the Bar</i></h3> + + +<p>On October 22, their <i>acte d'accusation</i> was read to them, and +their trial began on the 26th. Never since the Knights Templars had a party +appeared more numerous, more illustrious, or more eloquent. The renown of +the accused, their long possession of power, their present danger, and that +love of vengeance which arises in men's hearts at mighty reverses of +fortune, had collected a crowd in the precincts of the revolutionary +tribunal.</p> + +<p>At ten o'clock the accused were brought in. They were twenty-two; and +this fatal number, inscribed in the earliest lists of the proscription, on +May 31, at eleven o'clock, entered the <i>salle d'audience,</i> between two +files of <i>gens d'armes,</i> and took their places in silence on the +prisoners' bench.</p> + +<p>Ducos was the first to take his seat: scarcely twenty-eight years of +age, his black and piercing eyes, the flexibility of his features, and the +elegance of his figure revealed one of those ardent temperaments in whom +everything is light, even heroism.</p> + +<p>Mainveille followed him, the youthful deputy of Marseilles, of the same +age as Ducos, and of an equally striking but more masculine beauty than +Barbaroux. Duprat, his countryman and friend, accompanied him to the +tribunal. He was followed by Duchâtel, deputy of Deux Sévres, +aged twenty-seven years, who had been carried to the tribunal almost in a +dying state wrapped in blankets, to vote against the death of the "Tyrant," +and who was termed, from this act and this costume, the "Spectre of +Tyranny."</p> + +<p>Carra, deputy of Sâone and Loire at the Convention, sat next to +Duchâtel. His vulgar physiognomy, the stoop of his shoulders, his +large head and disordered attire contrasted with the beauty and stature of +Duchâtel Learned, confused, fanatic, declamatory, impetuous alike in +attack or resistance, he had sided with the Gironde to combat the excesses +of the people.</p> + +<p>A man of rustic appearance and garb, Duperret, the involuntary victim of +Charlotte Corday, sat next to Carra. He was of noble birth, but cultivated +with his own hands the small estate of his forefathers.</p> + +<p>Gensonné followed them: he was a man of five-and-thirty, but the +ripeness of his intellect, and the resolution that dictated his opinions +gave his features that look of energy and decision that belongs to maturer +age.</p> + +<p>Next came Lasource, a man of high-flown language and tragical +imagination. His unpowdered and closely-cut hair, his black coat, his +austere demeanour, and grave and ascetic features, recalled the minister of +the Holy Gospel and those Puritans of the time of Cromwell who sought for +God in liberty, and in their trial, martyrdom.</p> + +<p>Valazé seemed like a soldier under fire; his conscience told him +it was his duty to die, and he died.</p> + +<p>The Abbé Fauchet came immediately after Valazé. He was in +his fiftieth year, but the beauty of his features, the elevation of his +stature, and the freshness of his colour, made him appear much younger. His +dress, from its colour and make, befitted his sacred profession, and his +hair was so cut as to show the tonsure of the priest, so long covered by +the red bonnet of the revolutionist.</p> + +<p>Brissot was the last but one.</p> + +<p>Last came Vergniaud, the greatest and most illustrious of them all. All +Paris knew, and had beheld him in the tribune, and was now curious to gaze +not only on the orator on a level with his enemies, but the man reduced to +take his place on the bench of the accused. His prestige still followed +him, and he was one of those men from whom everything, even +impossibilities, are expected.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Banquet of Death</i></h3> + + +<p>The jury closed the debate on October 30, at eight o'clock in the +evening. All the accused were declared guilty of having conspired against +the unity and indivisibility of the republic, and condemned to death. One +of them, who had made a motion with his hand as though to tear his +garments, slipped from his seat on to the floor. It was Valazé.</p> + +<p>"What, Valazé, are you losing your courage?" said Brissot, +striving to support him.</p> + +<p>"No, I am dying," returned Valazé. And he expired, his hand on +the poignard with which he had pierced his heart.</p> + +<p>At this spectacle silence instantly prevailed, and the example of +Valazé made the young Girondists blush for their momentary +weakness.</p> + +<p>It was eleven o'clock at night. After a moment's pause, occasioned by +the unexpectedness of the sentence and the emotion of the prisoners, the +sitting was closed amidst cries of "Vive la République!"</p> + +<p>The Girondists, as they quitted their places, cried simultaneously. "We +die innocent! Vive la République!"</p> + +<p>They were all confined for this their last night on earth in the large +dungeon, the waiting room of death.</p> + +<p>The deputy Bailleul, their colleague at the Assembly, proscribed like +them, but who had escaped the proscription, and was concealed in Paris, had +promised to send them from without on the day of their trial a last repast, +triumphant or funeral, according to the sentence. Bailleul, though +invisible, kept his promise through the agency of a friend. The funeral +supper was set out in the large dungeon; the daintiest meats, the choicest +wines, the rarest flowers, and numerous flambeaux decked the oaken +table--prodigality of dying men who have no need to save aught for the +following day.</p> + +<p>The repast was prolonged until dawn. Vergniaud, seated at the centre of +the table, presided, with the same calm dignity he had presided at the +Convention on the night of August 10. The others formed groups, with the +exception of Brissot, who sat at the end of the table, eating but little, +and not uttering a word. For a long time nothing in their features or +conversation indicated that this repast was the prelude to death. They ate +and drank with appetite, but sobriety; but when the table was cleared, and +nothing left except the fruit, wine, and flowers, the conversation became +alternately animated, noisy and grave, as the conversation of careless men, +whose thoughts and tongues are freed by wine.</p> + +<p>Towards the morning the conversation became more solemn. Brissot spoke +prophetically of the misfortunes of the republic, deprived of her most +virtuous and eloquent citizens. "How much blood will it require to wash out +our own?" cried he. They were silent, and appeared terrified at the phantom +of the future evoked by Brissot.</p> + +<p>"My friends," replied Vergniaud, "we have killed the tree by pruning it. +It was too aged. Robespierre cuts it. Will he be more fortunate than +ourselves? No, the soul is too weak to nourish the roots of civic liberty; +this people is too childish to wield its laws without hurting itself. We +were deceived as to the age in which we were born, and in which we die for +the freedom of the world."</p> + +<p>A long silence followed this speech of Vergniaud's, and the conversation +turned from earth to heaven.</p> + +<p>"What shall we be doing to-morrow at this time?" said Ducos, who always +mingled mirth with the most serious subjects. Each replied according to his +nature.</p> + +<p>Vergniaud reconciled in a few words all the different opinions. "Let us +believe what we will," said he, "but let us die certain of our life and the +price of our death. Let us each sacrifice what we possess, the one his +doubt, the other his faith, all of us our blood, for liberty. When man +offers himself a victim to Heaven, what more can he give?"</p> + +<p>When all was ready, and the last lock of hair had fallen on the stones +of the dungeon, the executioners and <i>gens d'armes</i> made the condemned +march in a column to the court of the palace, where five carts, surrounded +by an immense crowd, awaited them. The moment they emerged from the +Conciergerie, the Girondists burst into the "Marseillaise," laying stress +on these verses, which contained a double meaning:</p> + +<blockquote> +<i>Contre nous de la tyrannie<br /> +L'étendard sanglant est levé.</i><br /> +</blockquote> + +<p>From this moment they ceased to think of themselves, in order to think +of the example of the death of republicans they wished to leave the people. +Their voices sank at the end of each verse, only to rise more sonorous at +the first line of the next verse. On their arrival at the scaffold they all +embraced, in token of community in liberty, life, and death, and then +resumed their funeral chant.</p> + +<p>All died without weakness. The hymn became feebler at each fall of the +axe; one voice still continued it, that of Vergniaud. Like his companions, +he did not die, but passed in enthusiasm, and his life, begun by immortal +orations, ended in a hymn to the eternity of the revolution.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='HIPPOLYTE_ADOLPHE_TAINE'></a>HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_Modern_Regime'></a>The Modern Régime</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> The early life of Hippolyte Adolphe Taine is notable for +its successes and its disappointments. Born at Vouziers, in Ardennes, on +April 21, 1838, he passed with great distinction through the Collège +de Bourbon and the École Normale. Until he was twenty-five he filled +minor positions at Toulon, Nevers, and Poitiers; and then, hopeless of +further promotion, he abandoned educational work, returned to Paris, and +devoted himself to letters. During 1863-64 he produced his "History of +English Literature," a work which, on account of Taine's uncompromising +determinist views, raised a clerical storm in France. About 1871 Taine +conceived the idea of his great life work, "Les Origines de la France +Contemporaine," in which he proposed to trace the causes and effects of the +revolution of 1789. The first of the series, "The Ancient Régime," +appeared in 1875; the second, "The Revolution," in 1878-81-85; and the +third, "The Modern Régime," in 1890-94. As a study of events arising +out of the greatest drama of modern times the supremacy of the last-named +is unquestioned. It stands apart as a trenchant analysis of modern France, +Taine's conclusions being that the Revolution, instead of establishing +liberty, destroyed it. Taine died on March 5, 1893. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--The Architect of Modern France</i></h3> + + +<p>In trying to explain to ourselves the meaning of an edifice, we must +take into account whatever has opposed or favoured its construction, the +kind and quality of its available materials, the time, the opportunity, and +the demand for it; but, still more important, we must consider the genius +and taste of the architect, especially whether he is the proprietor, +whether he built it to live in himself, and, once installed in it, whether +he took pains to adapt it to his own way of living, to his own necessities, +to his own use.</p> + +<p>Such is the social edifice erected by Napoleon Bonaparte, its architect, +proprietor, and principal occupant from 1799 to 1814. It is he who has made +modern France. Never was an individual character so profoundly stamped on +any collective work, so that, to comprehend the work, we must first study +the character of the man.</p> + +<p>Contemplate in Guérin's picture the spare body, those narrow +shoulders under the uniform wrinkled by sudden movements, that neck swathed +in its high, twisted cravat, those temples covered by long, smooth, +straight hair, exposing only the mask, the hard features intensified +through strong contrasts of light and shade, the cheeks hollow up to the +inner angle of the eye, the projecting cheek-bones, the massive, +protuberant jaw, the sinuous, mobile lips, pressed together as if +attentive; the large, clear eyes, deeply sunk under the broad arched +eyebrows, the fixed oblique look, as penetrating as a rapier, and the two +creases which extend from the base of the nose to the brow as if in a frown +of suppressed anger and determined will. Add to this the accounts of his +contemporaries who saw or heard the curt accent, or the sharp, abrupt +gesture, the interrogating, imperious, absolute tone of voice, and we +comprehend how, the moment they accosted him, they felt the dominating hand +which seizes them, presses them down, holds them firmly, and never relaxes +its grasp.</p> + +<p>Now, in every human society a government is necessary, or, in other +words, an organisation of the power of the community. No other machine is +so useful. But a machine is useful only as it is adapted to its purpose; +otherwise it does not work well, or it works adversely to that purpose. +Hence, in its construction, the prime necessity of calculating what work it +has to do, also the quantity of the materials one has at one's +disposal.</p> + +<p>During the French Revolution, legislators had never taken this into +consideration; they had constituted things as theorists, and likewise as +optimists, without closely studying them, or else regarding them as they +wished to have them. In the national assemblies, as well as with the +public, the task was deemed easy and ordinary, whereas it was extraordinary +and immense, for the matter in hand consisted in effecting a social +revolution and in carrying on a European war.</p> + +<p>What is the service which the public power renders to the public? The +principal one is the protection of the community against the foreigner, and +of private individuals against each other. Evidently, to do this, it must +<i>in all cases</i> be provided with indispensable means, namely, +diplomats, an army, a fleet, arsenals, civil and criminal courts, prisons, +a police, taxation and tax-collectors, a hierarchy of agents and local +supervisors, who, each in his place and attending to his special duty, will +co-operate in securing the desired effect. Evidently, again, to apply all +these instruments, the public power must have, <i>according to the +case</i>, this or that form of constitution, this or that degree of impulse +and energy; according to the nature and gravity of external or internal +danger, it is proper that it should be concentrated or divided, emancipated +from control or under control, authoritative or liberal. No indignation +need be cherished beforehand against its mechanism, whatever this may be. +Properly speaking, it is a vast engine in the human community, like any +given industrial machine in a factory, or any set of organs belonging to +the living body.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, in France, at the end of the eighteenth century, a bent +was taken in the organisation of this machine, and a wrong bent. For three +centuries and more the public power had unceasingly violated and +discredited spontaneous bodies. At one time it had mutilated them and +decapitated them. For example, it had suppressed provincial governments +<i>(états)</i> over three-quarters of the territory in all the +electoral districts; nothing remained of the old province but its name and +an administrative circumscription. At another time, without mutilating the +corporate body, it had enervated and deformed it, or dislocated and +disjointed it.</p> + +<p>Corporations and local bodies, thus deprived of, or diverted from, their +purpose, had become unrecognisable under the crust of the abuses which +disfigured them; nobody, except a Montesquieu, could comprehend why they +should exist. On the approach of the revolution they seemed, not organs, +but excrescences, deformities, and, so to say, superannuated monstrosities. +Their historical and natural roots, their living germs far below the +surface, their social necessity, their fundamental utility, their possible +usefulness, were no longer visible.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Body-Social of a Despot</i></h3> + + +<p>Corporations, and local bodies being thus emasculated, by the end of the +eighteenth century the principal features of modern France are traced; a +creature of a new and strange type arises, defines itself, and issues forth +its structure determining its destiny. It consists of a social body +organised by a despot and for a despot, calculated for the use of one man, +excellent for action under the impulsion of a unique will, with a superior +intelligence, admirable so long as this intelligence remains lucid and this +will remain healthy; adapted to a military life and not to civil life and +therefore badly balanced, hampered in its development, exposed to +periodical crises, condemned to precocious debility, but able to live for a +long time, and for the present, robust, alone able to bear the weight of +the new dominion and to furnish for fifteen successive years the crushing +labour, the conquering obedience, the superhuman, murderous, insensate +effort which its master, Napoleon, exacts.</p> + +<p>However clear and energetic the ideas of Napoleon are when he sets to +work to make the New Régime, his mind is absorbed by the +preoccupations of the sovereign. It is not enough for him that his edifice +should be monumental, symmetrical, and beautiful. First of all, as he lives +in it and derives the greatest benefit from it, he wants it habitable, and +habitable for Frenchmen of the year 1800. Consequently, he takes into +account the habits and dispositions of his tenants, the pressing and +permanent wants for which the new structure is to provide. These wants, +however, must not be theoretic and vague, but verified and defined; for he +is a calculator as close as he is profound, and deals only with positive +facts.</p> + +<p>To restore tranquillity, many novel measures are essential. And first, +the political and administrative concentration just decreed, a +centralisation of all powers in one hand, local powers conferred by the +central power, and this supreme power in the hands of a resolute chief +equal in intelligence to his high position; next, a regularly paid army, +carefully equipped, properly clothed, and fed, strictly disciplined, and +therefore obedient and able to do its duty without wavering or faltering, +like any other instrument of precision; an active police force and +<i>gendarmerie</i> held in check; administrators independent of those under +their jurisdiction--all appointed, maintained, watched and restrained from +above, as impartial as possible, sufficiently competent, and, in their +official spheres, capable functionaries; finally, freedom of worship, and, +accordingly, a treaty with Rome and the restoration of the Catholic +Church--that is to say, a legal recognition of the orthodox hierarchy, and +of the only clergy which the faithful may accept as legitimate--in other +words, the institution of bishops by the Pope, and of priests by the +bishops. This done, the rest is easily accomplished.</p> + +<p>The main thing now is to dress the severe wounds the revolution has +made--which are still bleeding--with as little torture as possible, for it +has cut down to the quick; and its amputations, whether foolish or +outrageous, have left sharp pains or mute suffering in the social +organism.</p> + +<p>Above all, religion must be restored. Before 1789, the ignorant or +indifferent Catholic, the peasant at his plough, the mechanic at his +work-bench, the good wife attending to her household, were unconscious of +the innermost part of religion; thanks to the revolution, they have +acquired the sentiment of it, and even the physical sensation. It is the +prohibition of the mass which has led them to comprehend its importance; it +is the revolutionary government which has transformed them into +theologians.</p> + +<p>From the year IV. (1795) the orthodox priests have again recovered their +place and ascendancy in the peasant's soul which the creed assigns to them; +they have again become the citizen's serviceable guides, his accepted +directors, the only warranted interpreters of Christian truth, the only +authorised dispensers and ministers of divine grace. He attends their mass +immediately on their return, and will put up with no other.</p> + +<p>Napoleon, therefore, as First Consul, concludes the Concordat with the +Pope and restores religion. By this Concordat the Pope "declares that +neither himself nor his successors shall in any manner disturb the +purchasers of alienated ecclesiastical property, and that the ownership of +the said property, the rights and revenues derived therefrom, shall +consequently remain incommutable in their hands or in those of their +assigns."</p> + +<p>There remain the institutions for instruction. With respect to these, +the restoration seems more difficult, for their ancient endowment is almost +entirely wasted; the government has nothing to give back but dilapidated +buildings, a few scattered investments formerly intended for the +maintenance of a college scholarship, or for a village schoolhouse. And to +whom should these be returned, since the college and the schoolhouse no +longer exist? Fortunately, instruction is an article of such necessity that +a father almost always tries to procure it for his children; even if poor, +he is willing to pay for it, if not too dear; only, he wants that which +pleases him in kind and in quality, and, therefore, from a particular +source, bearing this or that factory stamp or label.</p> + +<p>The state invites everybody, the communes as well as private persons, to +the undertaking. It is on their liberality that it relies for replacing the +ancient foundations; it solicits gifts and legacies in favour of new +establishments, and it promises "to surround these donations with the most +invariable respect." Meanwhile, and as a precautionary measure, it assigns +to each its eventual duty; if the commune establishes a primary school for +itself, it must provide the tutor with a lodging, and the parents must +compensate him; if the commune founds a college or accepts a +<i>lycée,</i> it must pay for the annual support of the building, +while the pupils, either day-scholars or boarders, pay accordingly.</p> + +<p>In this way the heavy expenses are already met, and the state, the +manager-general of the service, furnishes simply a very small quota; and +this quota, mediocre as a rule, is found almost null in fact, for its main +largess consists in 6,400 scholarships which it establishes and engages to +support; but it confers only about 3,000 of them, and it distributes nearly +all of these among the children of its military or civil employees, so that +the son's scholarship becomes additional pay for the father; thus, the two +millions which the state seems, under this head, to assign to the +<i>lycées,</i> are actually gratifications which it distributes +among its functionaries and officials. It takes back with one hand what it +bestows with the other.</p> + +<p>This being granted, it organises the university and maintains it, not at +its own expense, however, but at the expense of others, at the expense of +private persons and parents, of the communes, and, above all, at the +expense of rival schools and private boarding-schools, of the free +institutions, and all this in favour of the university monopoly which +subjects these to special taxation as ingenious as it is multifarious. +Whoever is privileged to carry on a private school, must pay from two to +three hundred francs to the university; likewise, every person obtaining +permission to lecture on literature or on science.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The New Taxation, Fiscal and Bodily</i></h3> + + +<p>Now, as to taxes. The collection of a direct tax is a surgical operation +performed on the taxpayer, one which removes a piece of his substance; he +suffers on account of this, and submits to it only because he is obliged +to. If the operation is performed on him by other hands, he submits to it +voluntarily or not; but if he has to do it himself, spontaneously and with +his own hands, it is not to be thought of. On the other hand, the +collection of a direct tax according to the prescriptions of distributive +justice is a subjection of each taxpayer to an amputation proportionate to +his bulk, or at least to his surface; this requires delicate calculation +and is not to be entrusted to the patients themselves; for not only are +they surgical novices and poor calculators, but, again, they are interested +in calculating falsely.</p> + +<p>To this end, Napoleon establishes two divisions of direct taxation: one, +the real-estate tax, which has no bearing on the taxpayer without any +property; and the other the personal tax, which does affect him, but +lightly. Such a system favours the poor; in other words, it is an +infraction of the principle of distributive justice; through the almost +complete exemption of those who have no property, the burden of direct +taxation falls almost entirely on those who own property. If they are +manufacturers, or in commerce, they support still another burden, that of +the license tax, which is a supplementary impost proportioned to their +probable gains. Finally, to all these annual and extra taxes, levied on the +probable or certain income derived from invested or floating capital, the +exchequer adds an eventual tax on capital itself, consisting of the +<i>mutation</i> tax, assessed on property every time it changes hands +through gift, inheritance, or by contract, obtaining its title under free +donation or by sale, and which tax, aggravated by the <i>timbre</i>, is +enormous, since, in most cases, it takes five, seven, nine, and up to ten +and one-half per cent, on the capital transmitted.</p> + +<p>One tax remains, and the last, that by which the state takes, no longer +money, but the person himself, the entire man, soul and body, and for the +best years of his life, namely, military service. It is the revolution +which has rendered this so burdensome; formerly it was light, for, in +principle, it was voluntary. The militia, alone, was raised by force, and, +in general, among the country people; the peasants furnished men for it by +casting lots. But it was simply a supplement to the active army, a +territorial and provincial reserve, a distinct, sedentary body of +reinforcements, and of inferior rank which, except in case of war, never +marched; it turned out but nine days of the year, and, after 1778, never +turned out again. In 1789 it comprised in all 75,260 men, and for eleven +years their names, inscribed on the registers, alone constituted their +presence in the ranks.</p> + +<p>Napoleon put this military system in order. Henceforth every male +able-bodied adult must pay the debt of blood; no more exemptions in the way +of military service; all young men who had reached the required age drew +lots in the conscription and set out in turn according to the order fixed +by their drafted number.</p> + +<p>But Napoleon is an intelligent creditor; he knows that this debt is +"most frightful and most detestable for families," that his debtors are +real, living men, and therefore different in kind, that the head of the +state should keep these differences in mind, that is to say, their +condition, their education, their sensibility and their vocation; that, not +only in their private interest, but again in the interest of the public, +not merely through prudence, but also through equity, all should not be +indistinguishably restricted to the same mechanical pursuit, to the same +manual labour, to the same indefinite servitude of soul and body.</p> + +<p>Napoleon also exempts the conscript who has a brother in the active +army, the only son of a widow, the eldest of three orphans, the son of a +father seventy-one years old dependent on his labour, all of whom are +family supports. He joins with these all young men who enlist in one of his +civil militias, in his ecclesiastical militia, or in his university +militia, pupils of the École Normale, seminarians for the +priesthood, on condition that they shall engage to do service in their +vocation, and do it effectively, some for ten years, others for life, +subject to a discipline more rigid, or nearly as rigid, as military +discipline.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Prefect Absolute</i></h3> + + +<p>Yet another institution which Napoleon gave to the Modern Régime +in France is the Prefect of a Department. Before 1870, when this prefect +appointed the mayors, and when the council general held its session only +fifteen days in the year, this Prefect was almost omnipotent; still, at the +present day, his powers are immense, and his power remains preponderant. He +has the right to suspend the municipal council and the mayor, and to +propose their dismissal to the head of the state. Without resorting to this +extremity, he holds them with a strong hand, and always uplifted over the +commune, for he can veto the acts of the municipal police and of the road +committee, annul the regulations of the mayor, and, through a skilful use +of his prerogative, impose his own. He holds in hand, removes, appoints or +helps appoint, not alone the clerks in his office, but likewise every kind +and degree of clerk who, outside his office, serves the commune or +department, from the archivist down to and comprising the lowest employees, +such as forest-guards of the department, policemen posted at the corner of +a street, and stone-breakers on the public highway.</p> + +<p>Such, in brief, is the system of local and general society in France +from the Napoleonic time down to the date 1889, when these lines are +written. After the philosophic demolitions of the revolution, and the +practical constructions of the consulate, national or general government is +a vast despotic centralised machine, and local government could no longer +be a small patrimony.</p> + +<p>The departments and communes have become more or less vast +lodging-houses, all built on the same plan and managed according to the +same regulations, one as passable as the other, with apartments in them +which, more or less good, are more or less dear, but at rates which, higher +or lower, are fixed at a uniform tariff over the entire territory, so that +the 36,000 communal buildings and the eighty-six department hotels are +about equal, it making but little difference whether one lodges in the +latter rather than in the former. The permanent taxpayers of both sexes who +have made these premises their home have not obtained recognition for what +they are, invincibly and by nature, a syndicate of neighbours, an +involuntary, obligatory association, in which physical solidarity engenders +moral solidarity, a natural, limited society whose members own the building +in common, and each possesses a property-right more or less great according +to the contribution he makes to the expenses of the establishment.</p> + +<p>Up to this time no room has yet been found, either in the law or in +minds, for this very plain truth; its place is taken and occupied in +advance by the two errors which in turn, or both at once, have led the +legislator and opinion astray.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='THOMAS_CARLYLE2'></a>THOMAS CARLYLE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='Frederick_the_Great'></a>Frederick the Great</h2> + +<blockquote><p> Frederick the Great, born on January 24, 1712, at Berlin, +succeeded to the throne of Prussia in 1740, and died on August 17, 1786, at +Potsdam, being the third king of Prussia, the regal title having been +acquired by his grandfather, whose predecessors had borne the title of +Elector of Brandenburg. Building on the foundations laid by his +great-grandfather and his father, he raised his comparatively small and +poor kingdom to the position of a first-class military power, and won for +himself rank with the greatest of all generals, often matching his troops +victoriously against forces of twice and even thrice their number. In +Thomas Carlyle he found an enthusiastic biographer, somewhat prone, +however, to find for actions of questionable public morality a +justification in "immutable laws" and "veracities," which to other eyes is +a little akin to Wordsworth's apology for Rob Roy. But whether we accept +Carlyle's estimate of him or no, the amazing skill, tenacity, and success +with which he stood at bay virtually against all Europe, while Great +Britain was fighting as his ally her own duel in France in the Seven Years' +War, constitutes an unparallelled achievement. "Frederick the Great" was +begun about 1848, the concluding volumes appearing in 1865. (Carlyle, see +LIVES AND LETTERS.) </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--Forebears and Childhood</i></h3> + + +<p>About the year 1780 there used to be seen sauntering on the terrace of +Sans-Souci a highly interesting, lean, little old man of alert though +slightly stooping figure, whose name among strangers was King Friedrich +II., or Frederick the Great of Prussia, and at home among the common people +was <i>Vater Fritz</i>--Father Fred. A king every inch of him, though +without the trappings of a king; in a Spartan simplicity of vesture. In +1786 his speakings and his workings came to <i>finis</i> in this world of +time. Editors vaguely account this man the creator of the Prussian +monarchy, which has since grown so large in the world.</p> + +<p>He was born in the palace of Berlin, about noon, on January 24, 1712; a +small infant, but of great promise and possibility. Friedrich Wilhelm, +Crown Prince of Prussia, father of this little infant, did himself make +some noise in the world as second king of Prussia.</p> + +<p>The founder of the line was Conrad of Hohenzollern, who came to seek his +fortune under Barbarossa, greatest of all the kaisers. Friedrich I. of that +line was created Elector of Brandenburg in 1415; the eleventh in succession +was Friedrich Wilhelm, the "Great Elector," who in 1640 found Brandenburg +annihilated, and left it in 1688 sound and flourishing, a great country, or +already on the way towards greatness; a most rapid, clear-eyed, active man. +His son got himself made King of Prussia, and was Friedrich I., who was +still reigning when his grandson, Frederick the Great, was born. Not two +years later Friedrich Wilhelm is king.</p> + +<p>Of that strange king and his strange court there is no light to be had +except from the book written by Frederick's little sister, Wilhelmina, when +she grew to size and knowledge of good and evil--a flickery wax taper held +over Frederick's childhood. In the breeding of him there are two elements +noticeable, widely diverse--the French and the German. Of his infantine +history the course was in general smooth. The boy, it was said, was of +extraordinary vivacity; only he takes less to soldiering than the paternal +heart could wish. The French element is in his governesses--good +Edict-of-Nantes ladies.</p> + +<p>For the boy's teachers, Friedrich Wilhelm has rules for guidance strict +enough. He is to be taught useful knowledge--history of the last hundred +and fifty years, arithmetic, fortification; but nothing useless of Latin +and the like. Spartan training, too, which shall make a soldier of him. +Whereas young Fritz has vivacities, a taste for music, finery, and +excursions into forbidden realms distasteful and incomprehensible to +Friedrich Wilhelm. We perceive the first small cracks of incurable division +in the royal household, traceable from Fritz's sixth or seventh year; a +divulsion splitting ever wider, new offences super-adding themselves. This +Fritz ought to fashion himself according to his father's pattern, and he +does not. These things make life all bitter for son and for father, +necessitating the proud son to hypocrisies very foreign to him had there +been other resource.</p> + +<p>The boy in due time we find (at fifteen) attached to the amazing +regiment of giants, drilling at Potsdam; on very ill terms with his father, +however, who sees in him mainly wilful disobedience and frivolity. Once, +when Prussia and Hanover seem on the verge of war over an utterly trivial +matter, our crown prince acquires momentary favour. The Potsdam Guards are +ordered to the front, and the prince handles them with great credit. But +the favour is transitory, seeing that he is caught reading French books, +and arrayed in a fashion not at all pleasing to the Spartan parent.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Crown Prince Leaves Kingship</i></h3> + + +<p>The life is indeed so intolerable that Fritz is with difficulty +dissuaded from running away. The time comes when he will not be dissuaded, +resolves that he will endure no longer. There were only three definite +accomplices in the wild scheme, which had a very tragical ending. Of the +three, Lieutenant Keith, scenting discovery, slipped over the border and so +to England; his brother, Page Keith, feeling discovery certain, made +confession, after vigilance had actually stopped the prince when he was +dressed for the flight. There was terrible wrath of the father over the +would-be "deserter and traitor," and not less over the other accomplice, +Lieutenant Katte, who had dallied too long. The crown prince himself was +imprisoned; court-martial held on the offenders; a too-lenient sentence was +overruled by the king, and Katte was executed. The king was near frenzied, +but beyond doubt thought honestly that he was doing no more than justice +demanded.</p> + +<p>As for the crown prince himself, deserting colonel of a regiment, the +court-martial, with two dissentients, condemned him to death; sentence +which the Junius Brutus of a king would have duly carried out. But +remonstrance is universal, and an autograph letter from the kaiser +seemingly decisive. Frederick was, as it were, retired to a house of his +own and a court of his own--court very strictly regulated--at Cüstrin; +not yet a soldier of the Prussian army, but hoping only to become so again; +while he studied the domain sciences, more particularly the rigidly +economical principles of state finance as practised by his father. The +tragedy has taught him a lesson, and he has more to learn. That period is +finally ended when he is restored to the army in 1732.</p> + +<p>Reconciliation, complete submission, and obedience, a prince with due +appreciation of facts has now made up his mind to; very soon shaped into +acceptance of paternal demand that he shall wed Elizabeth of +Brunswick-Bevern, insipid niece of the kaiser. In private correspondence he +expresses himself none too submissively, but offers no open opposition to +the king's wishes.</p> + +<p>The charmer of Brunswick turned out not so bad as might have been +expected; not ill-looking; of an honest, guileless heart, if little +articulate intellect; considerable inarticulate sense; after marriage, +which took place in June 1733, shaped herself successfully to the prince's +taste, and grew yearly gracefuller and better-looking. But the affair, +before it came off, gave rise to a certain visit of Friedrich Wilhelm to +the kaiser, of which in the long run the outcome was that complete distrust +of the kaiser displaced the king's heretofore determined loyalty to +him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile an event has fallen out at Warsaw. Augustus, the physically +strong, is no more; transcendent king of edacious flunkies, father of 354 +children, but not without fine qualities; and Poland has to find a new +king. His death kindled foolish Europe generally into fighting, and gave +our crown prince his first actual sight and experience of the facts of war. +Stanislaus is overwhelmingly the favourite candidate, supported, too, by +France. The other candidate, August of Saxony, secures the kaiser's favour +by promise of support to his Pragmatic Sanction; and the appearance of +Russian troops secures "freedom of election" and choice of August by the +electors who are not absent. August is crowned, and Poland in a flame. +Friedrich Wilhelm cares not for Polish elections, but, as by treaty bound, +provides 10,000 men to support the kaiser on the Rhine, while he gives +asylum to the fugitive Stanislaus. Crown prince, now twenty-two, is with +the force; sees something of warfare, but nothing big.</p> + +<p>War being finished, Frederick occupied a mansion at Reinsberg with his +princess, and things went well, if economically, with much correspondence +with the other original mind of those days, Voltaire. But big events are +coming now. Mr. Jenkins's ear re-emerges from cotton-wool after seven +years, and Walpole has to declare war with Spain in 1739. Moreover, +Friedrich Wilhelm is exceedingly ill. In May 1740 comes a +message--Frederick must come to Potsdam quickly if he is to see his father +again. The son comes. "Am not I happy to have such a son to leave behind +me?" says the dying king. On May 31 he dies. No baresark of them, nor +Odin's self, was a bit of truer stuff.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Silesian Wars</i></h3> + + +<p>Shall we, then, have the philosopher-king, as Europe dimly seems to half +expect? He begins, indeed, with opening corn magazines, abolishing legal +torture; will have freedom of conscience and the Press; encourage +philosophers and men of letters. In those days he had his first meeting +with Voltaire, recorded for us by the Frenchman twenty years later; for his +own reasons, vitriolically and with inaccuracies, the record amounting to +not much. Frederick was suffering from a quartan fever. Of which ague he +was cured by the news that Kaiser Carl died on October 20, and Maria +Theresa was proclaimed sovereign of the Hapsburg inheritance, according to +the Pragmatic Sanction.</p> + +<p>Whereupon, without delay, Frederick forms a resolution, which had sprung +and got to sudden fixity in the head of the young king himself, and met +with little save opposition from all others--to make good his rights in +Silesia. A most momentous resolution; not the peaceable magnanimities, but +the warlike, are the thing appointed for Frederick henceforth.</p> + +<p>In mid-December the troops entered Silesia; except in the hills, where +Catholics predominate, with marked approbation of the population, we find. +Of warlike preparation to meet the Prussians is practically none, and in +seven weeks Silesia is held, save three fortresses easy to manage in +spring. Will the hold be maintained?</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, France will have something to say, moved by a figure not much +remembered, yet notable, Marshal Belleisle; perhaps, after Frederick and +Voltaire, the most notable of that time. A man of large schemes, altogether +accordant with French interests, but not, unfortunately, with facts and law +of gravitation. For whom the first thing needful is that Grand Duke Franz, +husband of Maria Theresa, shall not be elected kaiser; who shall be is +another matter--why not Karl Albert of Bavaria as well as another?</p> + +<p>After brief absence, Frederick is soon back in Silesia, to pay attention +to blockaded Glogau and Brieg and Neisse; harassed, however, by Austrian +Pandours out of Glatz, a troublesome kind of cavalry. The siege of Neisse +is to open on April 4, when we find Austrian Neipperg with his army +approaching; by good fortune a dilatory Neipperg; of which comes the battle +of Mollwitz.</p> + +<p>In which fight victory finally rested with Prussians and Schwerin, who +held the field, Austrians retiring, but not much pursued; demonstration +that a new military power is on the scene (April 10). A victory, though, of +old Friedrich Wilhelm, and his training and discipline, having in it as yet +nothing of young Frederick's own.</p> + +<p>A battle, however, which in effect set going the conflagration +unintelligible to Englishmen, known as War of the Austrian Accession. In +which we observe a clear ground for Anglo-Spanish War, and Austro-Prussian +War; but what were the rest doing? France is the author of it, as an +Anti-Pragmatic war; George II. and Hanover are dragged into it as a +Pragmatic war; but the intervention of France at all was barefacedly unjust +and gratuitous. To begin with, however, Belleisle's scheming brings about +election to kaisership of Karl Albert of Bavaria, principal Anti-Pragmatic +claimant to the Austrian heritage.</p> + +<p>Brieg was taken not long after Mollwitz, and now many diplomatists come +to Frederick's camp at Strehlen. In effect, will he choose English or +French alliance? Will England get him what will satisfy him from Austria? +If not, French alliance and war with Austria--which problem issues in +treaty with France--mostly contingent. Diplomatising continues, no one +intending to be inconveniently loyal to engagements; so that four months +after French treaty comes another engagement or arrangement of Klein +Schnelendorf--Frederick to keep most of Silesia, but a plausible show of +hostilities--nothing more--to be maintained for the present. In consequence +of which Frederick solemnly captures Neisse.</p> + +<p>The arrangement, however, comes to grief, enough of it being divulged +from Vienna to explode it. Out of which comes the Moravian expedition; by +inertness of allies turned into a mere Moravian foray, "the French acting +like fools, and the Saxons like traitors," growls Frederick.</p> + +<p>Raid being over, Prince Karl, brother of Grand Duke Franz, comes down +with his army, and follows the battle of Chotusitz, also called of Czaslau. +A hard-fought battle, ending in defeat of the Austrians; not in itself +decisive, but the eyes of Europe very confirmatory of the view that the +Austrians cannot beat the Prussians. From a wounded general, too, Frederick +learns that the French have been making overtures for peace on their own +account, Prussia to be left to Austria if she likes, of which is +documentary proof.</p> + +<p>No need, then, for Frederick to be scrupulous about making his own +terms. His Britannic Majesty is urgent that Maria Theresa should agree with +Frederick. Out of which comes Treaty of Breslau, ceding Silesia to Prussia; +and exceeding disgust of Belleisle, ending the first Silesian War.</p> + +<p>With which Frederick would have liked to see the European war ended +altogether; but it went on, Austria, too, prospering. He tries vainly to +effect combinations to enforce peace. George of England, having at last +fairly got himself into the war, and through the battle of Dettingen, +valorously enough; operations emerging in a Treaty of Worms (September +1743), mainly between England and Austria, which does <i>not</i> guarantee +the Breslau Treaty. An expressive silence! "What was good to give is good +to take." Is Frederick, then, not secure of Silesia? If he must guard his +own, he can no longer stand aside. So the Worms Treaty begets an opposition +treaty, chief parties Prussia, France, and Kaiser Karl Albert of Bavaria, +signed at Frankfurt-on-Maine, May 1744.</p> + +<p>Before which France has actually declared war on England, with whose +troops her own have been fighting for a not inconsiderable time without +declaration of war; and all the time fortifications in Silesia have been +becoming realities. Frederick will strike when his moment comes.</p> + +<p>The imperative moment does come when Prince Karl, or, more properly, +Traun, under cloak of Prince Karl, seems on the point of altogether +crushing the French. Frederick intervenes, in defence of the kaiser; swoops +on Bohemia, captures Prag; in short, brings Prince Karl and Traun back at +high speed, unhindered by French. Thenceforward, not a successfully managed +campaign on Frederick's part, admirably conducted on the other side by +Traun. This campaign the king's school in the art of war, and M. de Traun +his teacher--so Frederick himself admits.</p> + +<p>Austria is now sure to invade Silesia; will Frederick not block the +passes against Prince Karl, now having no Traun under his cloak? Frederick +will not--one leaves the mouse-trap door open, pleasantly baited, moreover, +into which mouse Karl will walk. And so, three weeks after that remarkable +battle of Fontenoy, in another quarter, very hard-won victory of +Maréchal Saxe over Britannic Majesty's Martial Boy, comes battle of +Hohenfriedberg. A most decisive battle, "most decisive since Blenheim," +wrote Frederick, whose one desire now is peace.</p> + +<p>Britannic Majesty makes peace for himself with Frederick, being like to +have his hands full with a rising in the Scotch Highlands; Austria will +not, being still resolute to recover Silesia--rejects bait of Prussian +support in imperial election for Wainz, Kaiser Karl being now dead. What is +kaisership without Silesia? Prussia has no insulted kaiser to defend, +desires no more than peace on the old Breslau terms properly ratified; but +finances are low. Grand Duke Franz is duly elected; but the empress queen +will have Silesia. Battle of Sohr does not convince her. There must be +another surprising last attempt by Saxony and Austria; settled by battles +of Hennensdorf and Kesselsdorf.</p> + +<p>So at last Frederick got the Peace of Dresden--security, it is to be +hoped, in Silesia, the thing for which he had really gone to war; leaving +the rest of the European imbroglio to get itself settled in its own fashion +after another two years of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.</p> + +<p>Frederick now has ten years of peace before him, during which his +actions and salutary conquests over difficulties were many, profitable to +Prussia and himself. Frederick has now, by his second Silesian war, +achieved greatness; "Frederick the Great," expressly so denominated by his +people and others. However, there are still new difficulties, new perils +and adventures ahead.</p> + +<p>For the present, then, Frederick declines the career of conquering hero; +goes into law reform; gets ready a country cottage for himself, since +become celebrated under the name of Sans-Souci. General war being at last +ended, he receives a visit from Maréchal Saxe, brilliant French +field-marshal, most dissipated man of his time, one of the 354 children of +Augustus the Physically Strong.</p> + +<p>But the ten years are passing--there is like to be another war. Peace of +Aix-la-Chapelle, made in a hurry, had left some questions open in America, +answered in one way by the French, quite otherwise by English colonists. +Canada and Louisiana mean all America west of the Alleghanies? Why then? +Whomsoever America does belong to, it surely is not France. Braddock +disasters, Frenchmen who understand war--these things are ominous; but +there happens to be in England a Mr. Pitt. Here in Europe, too, King +Frederick had come in a profoundly private manner upon certain extensive +anti-Prussian symptoms--Austrian, Russian, Saxon--of a most dangerous sort; +in effect, an underground treaty for partitioning Prussia; knowledge +thereof extracted from Dresden archives.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Seven Years' War Opens</i></h3> + + +<p>Very curious diplomatisings, treaties, and counter-treaties are going +on. What counts is Frederick's refusal to help France against England, and +agreement with George of England--and of Hanover--to keep foreign troops +off German soil? Also Kaunitz has twirled Austrian policy on its axis; we +are to be friends with France. In this coming war, England and Austria, +hitherto allies, to be foes; France and Austria, hitherto foes, to be +allies.</p> + +<p>War starts with the French capture of Minorca and the Byng affair, well +known. What do the movements of Russian and Austrian troops mean? Frederick +asks at Vienna; answer is no answer. We are ready then; Saxony is the key +to Bohemia. Frederick marches into Saxony, demands inspection of Dresden +Archives, with originals of documents known to him; blockades the Saxons in +Pirna, somewhat forcibly requiring not Saxon neutrality, but Saxon +alliance. And meanwhile neither France nor Austria is deaf to the cries of +Saxon-Polish majesty. Austrian Field-Marshal Browne is coming to relieve +the Saxons; is foiled, but not routed, at Lobositz; tries another move, +executing admirably his own part, but the Saxons fail in theirs; the +upshot, capitulation, the Saxon troops forced to volunteer as +Prussians.</p> + +<p>For the coming year, 1757, there are arrayed against Frederick four +armies--French, Austrian, Russian, Swedish; help only from a Duke of +Cumberland on the Weser; the last two enemies not presently formidable. He +is not to stand on the defensive, but to go on it; startles the world by +suddenly marching on Prag, in three columns. Before Prag a mighty battle +desperately fought; old Schwerin killed, Austrian Browne wounded +mortally--fatal to Austria; Austrians driven into Prag, with loss of 13,000 +men. Not annihilative, since Prag can hold out, though with prospect of +famishing.</p> + +<p>But Daun is coming, in no haste--Fabius Cunctator about to be +named--with 60,000 men; does come to Kolin. Frederick attacks; but a +blunder of too-impetuous Mannstein fatally overturns the plan of battle; to +which the resulting disaster is imputed: disaster seemingly overwhelming +and irretrievable, but Daun does not follow up. The siege of Prag is raised +and the Prussian army--much smaller--retreats to Saxony. And on the west +Cumberland is in retreat seawards, after Hastenbeck, and French armies are +advancing; Cumberland very soon mercifully to disappear, Convention of +Kloster-Seven unratified. But Pitt at last has hold of the reins in +England, and Ferdinand of Brunswick gets nominated to succeed +Cumberland--Pitt's selection?</p> + +<p>In these months nothing comes but ill-fortune; clouds gathering; but all +leading up to a sudden and startling turning of tables. In October, Soubise +is advancing; and then--Rossbach. Soubise thinks he has Frederick +outflanked, finds himself unexpectedly taken on flank instead; rolled up +and shattered by a force hardly one-third of his own; loses 8,000 men, the +Prussians not 600; a tremendous rout, after which Frederick had no more +fighting with the French.</p> + +<p>Having settled Soubise and recovered repute, Frederick must make haste +to Silesia, where Prince Karl, along with Fabius Daun, is already +proclaiming Imperial Majesty again, not much hindered by Bevern. +Schweidnitz falls; Bevern, beaten at Breslau, gets taken prisoner; Prussian +army marches away; Breslau follows Schweidnitz. This is what Frederick +finds, three weeks after Rossbach. Well, we are one to three we will have +at Prince Karl--soldiers as ready and confident as the king, their hero. +Challenge accepted by Prince Karl; consummate manoeuvring, borrowed from +Epaminondas, and perfect discipline wreck the Austrian army at Leuthen; +conquest of Silesia brought to a sudden end. The most complete of all +Frederick's victories.</p> + +<p>Next year (1758) the first effective subsidy treaty with England takes +shape, renewed annually; England to provide Frederick with two-thirds of a +million sterling. Ferdinand has got the French clear over Rhine already. +Frederick's next adventure, a swoop on Olmütz, is not successful; the +siege not very well managed; Loudon, best of partisan commanders, is +dispatched by Daun to intercept a very necessary convoy; which means end of +siege. Cautious Daun does not strike on the Prussian retreat, not liking +pitched battles.</p> + +<p>However, it is now time to face an enemy with whom we have not yet +fought; of whose fighting capacity we incline to think little, in spite of +warnings of Marshal Keith, who knows them. The Russians have occupied East +Prussia and are advancing. On August 25, Frederick comes to hand-grips with +Russia--Theseus and the Minotaur at Zorndorf; with much ultimate slaughter +of Russians, Seidlitz, with his calvary, twice saving the day; the +bloodiest battle of the Seven Years' War, giving Frederick new views of +Russian obstinacy in the field. The Russians finally retire; time for +Frederick to be back in Saxony.</p> + +<p>For Daun has used his opportunity to invade Saxony; very cleverly +checked by Prince Henri, while Frederick is on his way back. To Daun's +surprise, the king moves off on Silesia. Daun moved on Dresden. Frederick, +having cleared Silesia, sped back, and Daun retired. The end of the +campaign leaves the two sides much as it found them; Frederick at least not +at all annihilated. Ferdinand also has done excellently well.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.--Frederick at Bay</i></h3> + + +<p>Not annihilated, but reduced to the defensive; best of his veterans +killed off by now, exchequer very deficient in spite of English subsidy. +The allies form a huge cordon all round; broken into at points during the +spring, but Daun finds at last that Frederick does not mean any invasion; +that he, Daun, must be the invader. But now and hereafter Fabius Cunctator +waits for Russia.</p> + +<p>In summer Russia is moving; Soltikoff, with 75,000 men, advancing, +driving back Dohna. Frederick's best captains are all gone now; he tries a +new one, Wedell, who gets beaten at Züllichau. Moreover, Haddick and +Loudon are on the way to join Soltikoff. Frederick plans and carries out +his movements to intercept the Austrians with extraordinary swiftness; +Haddick and Austrian infantry give up the attempted junction, but not so +swift-moving Loudon with his 20,000 horse; interception a partial failure, +and now Frederick must make straight for the Russians.</p> + +<p>Just about this time--August 1--Ferdinand has won the really splendid +victory of Minden, on the Weser, a beautiful feat of war; for Pitt and the +English in their French duel a mighty triumph; this is Pitt's year, but the +worst of all in Frederick's own campaigns. His attack now on the Russians +was his worst defeat--at Kunersdorf. Beginning victoriously, he tried to +drive victory home with exhausted troops, who were ultimately driven in +rout by Loudon with fresh regiments (August 9).</p> + +<p>For the moment Frederick actually despaired; intended to resign command, +and "not to revive the ruin of his country." But Daun was not capable of +dealing the finishing stroke; managed, however, to take Dresden, on terms. +Frederick, however, is not many weeks in recovering his resolution; and a +certain astonishing march of his brother, Prince Henri--fifty miles in +fifty-six hours through country occupied by the enemy--is a turning-point. +Soltikoff, sick of Daun's inaction, made ready to go home and England +rejoiced over Wolfe's capture of Quebec. Frederick, recovering, goes too +far, tries a blow at Daun, resulting in disaster of Maxen, loss of a force +of 12,000 men. On the other hand, Hawke finished the French fleet at +Quiberon Bay. A very bad year for Frederick, but a very good one for his +ally. Next year Loudon is to invade Silesia.</p> + +<p>It did seem to beholders in this year 1660 that Frederick was doomed, +could not survive; but since he did survive it, he was able to battle out +yet two more campaigns, enemies also getting worn out; a race between spent +horses. Of the marches by which Frederick carried himself through this +fifth campaign it is not possible to give an idea. Failure to bring Daun to +battle, sudden siege of Dresden--not successful, perhaps not possible at +all that it should have succeeded. In August a dash on Silesia with three +armies to face--Daun, Lacy, Loudon, and possible Russians, edged off by +Prince Henri. At Liegnitz the best of management, helped by good luck and +happy accident, gives him a decisive victory over London's division, +despite Loudon's admirable conduct; a miraculous victory; Daun's plans +quite scattered, and Frederick's movements freed. Three months later the +battle of Torgau, fought dubiously all day, becomes a distinct victory in +the night. Neither Silesia nor Saxony are to fall to the Austrians.</p> + +<p>Liegnitz and Torgau are a better outcome of operations than Kunersdorf +and Maxen; the king is, in a sense, stronger, but his resources are more +exhausted, and George III. is now become king in England; Pitt's power very +much in danger there. In the next year most noteworthy is Loudon's +brilliant stroke in capturing Schweidnitz, a blow for Frederick quite +unlooked for.</p> + +<p>In January, however, comes bright news from Petersburg: implacable +Tsarina Elizabeth is dead, Peter III. is Tsar, sworn friend and admirer of +Frederick; Russia, in short, becomes suddenly not an enemy but a friend. +Bute, in England, is proposing to throw over his ally, unforgivably; to get +peace at price of Silesia, to Frederick's wrath, who, having moved Daun +off, attacks Schweidnitz, and gets it, not without trouble. And so, +practically, ends the seventh campaign.</p> + +<p>French and English had signed their own peace preliminaries, to disgust +of Excellency Mitchell, the first-rate ambassador to Frederick during these +years. Austria makes proffers, and so at last this war ends with Treaties +of Paris and Hubertsburg; issue, as concerns Austria and Prussia, "as you +were before the war."</p> + + +<h3><i>VI.--Afternoon and Evening of Frederick's Life</i></h3> + + +<p>Frederick's Prussia is safe; America and India are to be English, not +French; France is on the way towards spontaneous combustion in 1789;--these +are the fruits of the long war. During the rest of Frederick's +reign--twenty-three years--is nothing of world history to dwell on. Of the +coming combustion Frederick has no perception; for what remains of him, he +is King of Prussia, interesting to Prussia chiefly: whereof no continuous +narrative is henceforth possible to us, only a loose appendix of papers, as +of the extraordinary speed with which Prussia recovered--brave Prussia, +which has defended itself against overwhelming odds. The repairing of a +ruined Prussia cost Frederick much very successful labour.</p> + +<p>Treaty with Russia is made in 1764, Frederick now, having broken with +England, being extremely anxious to keep well with such a country under +such a Tsarina, about whom there are to be no rash sarcasms. In 1769 a +young Kaiser Joseph has a friendliness to Frederick very unlike his +mother's animosity. Out of which things comes first partition of Poland +(1772); an event inevitable in itself, with the causing of which Frederick +had nothing whatever to do, though he had his slice. There was no +alternative but a general European war; and the slice, Polish Prussia, was +very desirable; also its acquisition was extremely beneficial to +itself.</p> + +<p>In 1778 Frederick found needful to interpose his veto on Austrian +designs in respect of Bavarian succession; got involved subsequently in +Bavarian war of a kind, ended by intervention of Tsarina Catherine. In 1780 +Maria Theresa died; Joseph and Kaunitz launched on ambitious adventures for +imperial domination of the German Empire, making overtures to the Tsarina +for dual empire of east and west, alarming to Frederick. His answer was the +"Fürstenbund," confederation of German princes, Prussia atop, to +forbid peremptorily that the laws of the Reich be infringed; last public +feat of Frederick; events taking an unexpected turn, which left it without +actual effect in European history.</p> + +<p>A few weeks after this Fürstenbund, which did very effectively stop +Joseph's schemes, Frederick got a chill, which was the beginning of his +breaking up. In January 1786, he developed symptoms concluded by the +physician called in to be desperate, but not immediately mortal. Four +months later he talked with Mirabeau in Berlin, on what precise errand is +nowise clear; interview reported as very lively, but "the king in much +suffering."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, after this he did again appear from Sans-Souci on +horseback several times, for the last time on July 4. To the last he +continued to transact state business. "The time which I have still I must +employ; it belongs not to me but to the state"--till August 15.</p> + +<p>On August 17 he died. In those last days it is evident that chaos is +again big. Better for a royal hero, fallen old and feeble, to be hidden +from such things; hero whom we may account as hitherto the last of the +kings.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='GEORGE_FINLAY'></a>GEORGE FINLAY</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_Greece'></a>History of Greece</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> George Finlay, the historian of Greece, was born on +December 21, 1799, at Faversham, Kent, England, where his father, Capt. J. +Finlay, R.E., was inspector of the Government powder mills. His early +instruction was undertaken by his mother, to whose training he attributed +his love of history. He studied law at Glasgow and Göttingen +universities, at the latter of which he became acquainted with a Greek +fellow-student, and resolved to take part in the struggle for Greek +independence. He proceeded to Greece, where he met Byron and the leaders of +the Greek patriotic forces, took part in many engagements with the Turks, +and conducted missions on behalf of the Greek provisional government until +the independence of Greece was established. Finlay bought an estate in +Attica, on which he resided for many years. The publication of his great +series of histories of Greece began in 1844, and was completed in 1875 with +the second edition, which brought the history of modern Greece down to +1864. It has been said that Finlay, like Machiavelli, qualified himself to +write history by wide experience as student, soldier, statesman, and +economist. He died on January 26, 1875. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--Greece Under the Romans</i></h3> + + +<p>The conquests of Alexander the Great effected a permanent change in the +political conditions of the Greek nation, and this change powerfully +influenced its moral and social state during the whole period of its +subjection to the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>Alexander introduced Greek civilisation as an important element in his +civil government, and established Greek colonies with political rights +throughout his conquests. During 250 years the Greeks were the dominant +class in Asia, and the corrupting influence of this predominance was +extended to the whole frame of society in their European as well as their +Asiatic possessions. The great difference which existed in the social +condition of the Greeks and Romans throughout their national existence was +that the Romans formed a nation with the organisation of a single city. The +Greeks were a people composed of a number of rival states, and the majority +looked with indifference on the loss of their independence. The Romans were +compelled to retain much of the civil government, and many of the financial +arrangements which they found existing. This was a necessity, because the +conquered were much further advanced in social civilisation than the +conquerors. The financial policy of Rome was to transfer as much of the +money circulating in the provinces, and the precious metals in the hands of +private individuals, as it was possible into the coffers of the state.</p> + +<p>Hence, the whole empire was impoverished, and Greece suffered severely +under a government equally tyrannical in its conduct and unjust in its +legislation. The financial administration of the Romans inflicted, if +possible, a severer blow on the moral constitution of society than on the +material prosperity of the country. It divided the population of Greece +into two classes. The rich formed an aristocratic class, the poor sank to +the condition of serfs. It appears to be a law of human society that all +classes of mankind who are separated by superior wealth and privileges from +the body of the people are, by their oligarchical constitution, liable to +rapid decline.</p> + +<p>The Greeks and the Romans never showed any disposition to unite and form +one people, their habits and tastes being so different. Although the +schools of Athens were still famous, learning and philosophy were but +little cultivated in European Greece because of the poverty of the people +and the secluded position of the country.</p> + +<p>In the changes of government which preceded the establishment of +Byzantium as the capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine, the Greeks +contributed to effect a mighty revolution of the whole frame of social life +by the organisation which they gave to the Church from the moment they +began to embrace the Christian religion. It awakened many of the national +characteristics which had slept for ages, and gave new vigour to the +communal and municipal institutions, and even extended to political +society. Christian communities of Greeks were gradually melted into one +nation, having a common legislation and a common civil administration as +well as a common religion, and it was this which determined Constantine to +unite Church and State in strict alliance.</p> + +<p>From the time of Constantine the two great principles of law and +religion began to exert a favourable influence on Greek society, and even +limited the wild despotism of the emperors. The power of the clergy, +however, originally resting on a more popular and more pure basis than that +of the law, became at last so great that it suffered the inevitable +corruption of all irresponsible authority entrusted to humanity.</p> + +<p>Then came the immigration and ravages of the Goths to the south of the +Danube, and that unfortunate period marked the commencement of the rapid +decrease of the Greek race, and the decline of Greek civilisation +throughout the empire. Under Justinian (527-565), the Hellenic race and +institutions in Greece itself received the severest blow. Although he gave +to the world his great system of civil law, his internal administration was +remarkable for religious intolerance and financial rapacity. He restricted +the powers and diminished the revenues of the Greek municipalities, closed +the schools of rhetoric and philosophy at Athens, and seized the endowments +of the Academy of Plato, which had maintained an uninterrupted succession +of teachers for 900 years. But it was not till the reign of Heraclius that +the ancient existence of the Hellenic race terminated.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Byzantine and Greek Empires</i></h3> + + +<p>The history of the Byzantine Empire divides itself into three periods +strongly marked by distinct characteristics. The first commences with the +reign of Leo III., the Isaurian, in 716, and terminates with that of +Michael III., in 867. It comprises the whole history of the predominance of +iconoclasm in the established church, of the reaction which reinstated the +Orthodox in power, and restored the worship of pictures and images.</p> + +<p>It opens with the effort by which Leo and the people of the empire saved +the Roman law and the Christian religion from the conquering Saracen. It +embraces the long and violent struggle between the government and the +people, the emperors seeking to increase the central power by annihilating +every local franchise, and to constitute themselves the fountains of +ecclesiastical as completely as of civil legislation.</p> + +<p>The second period begins with the reign of Bazil I., in 867, and during +two centuries the imperial sceptre was retained by members of his family. +At this time the Byzantine Empire attained its highest pitch of external +power and internal prosperity. The Saracens were pursued into the plains of +Syria, the Bulgarian monarchy was conquered, the Slavonians in Greece were +almost exterminated, Byzantine commerce filled the whole of the +Mediterranean. But the real glory of the period consisted in the respect +for the administration of justice which purified society more generally +than it had ever done at any preceding era of the history of the world.</p> + +<p>The third period extends from the accession of Isaac I., in 1057, to the +conquest of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders, in 1204. This is the +true period of the decline and fall of the Eastern Empire. The separation +of the Greek and Latin churches was accomplished. The wealth of the empire +was dissipated, the administration of justice corrupted, and the central +authority lost all control over the population.</p> + +<p>But every calamity of this unfortunate period sinks into insignificance +compared with the destruction of the greater part of the Greek race by the +savage incursions of the Seljouk Turks in Asia Minor. Then followed the +Crusades, the first three inflicting permanent evils on the Greek race; +while the fourth, which was organised in Venice, captured and plundered +Constantinople. A treaty entered into by the conquerors put an end to the +Eastern Roman Empire, and Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was elected emperor +of the East. The conquest of Constantinople restored the Greeks to a +dominant position in the East; but the national character of the people, +the political constitution of the imperial government, and the +ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Orthodox Church were all destitute of every +theory and energetic practice necessary for advancing in a career of +improvement.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the thirteenth century a small Turkish tribe made its +first appearance in the Seljouk Empire. Othman, who gave his name to this +new band of immigrants, and his son, Orkhan, laid the foundation of the +institutions and power of the Othoman Empire. No nation ever increased so +rapidly from such small beginnings, and no government ever constituted +itself with greater sagacity than the Othoman; but no force or prudence +could have enabled this small tribe of nomads to rise with such rapidity to +power if it had not been that the Greek nation and its emperors were +paralysed by political and moral corruption. Justice was dormant in the +state, Christianity was torpid in the Church, orthodoxy performed the +duties of civil liberty, and the priest became the focus of political +opposition. By the middle of the fourteenth century the Othoman Turks had +raided Thrace, Macedonia, the islands of the Aegean, plundered the large +town of Greece, and advanced to the shores of the Bosphorus.</p> + +<p>At the end of the fourteenth century John VI. asked for efficient +military aid from Western Europe to avert the overthrow of the Greek Empire +by the Othoman power, but the Pope refused, unless John consented to the +union of the Greek and Latin Churches and the recognition of the papal +supremacy. In 1438 the Council of Ferrara was held, and was transferred in +the following year to Florence, when the Greek emperor and all the bishops +of the Eastern Church, except the bishop of Ephesus, adopted the doctrines +of the Roman Church, accepted the papal supremacy, and the union of the two +Churches was solemnly ratified in the cathedral of Florence on July 6, +1439. But little came of the union. The Pope forgot to sent a fleet to +defend Constantinople; the Christian princes would not fight the battles of +the Greeks.</p> + +<p>Then followed the conquest, in May 1453, of Constantinople, despite a +desperate resistance, by Mohammed II., who entered his new capital, riding +triumphantly past the body of the Emperor Constantine. Mohammed proceeded +at once to the church of St. Sophia, where, to convince the Greeks that +their Orthodox empire was extinct, the sultan ordered a moolah to ascend +the Bema and address a sermon to the Mussulmans announcing that St. Sophia +was now a mosque set apart for the prayers of true believers. The fall of +Constantinople is a dark chapter in the annals of Christianity. The death +of the unfortunate Constantine, neglected by the Catholics and deserted by +the Orthodox, alone gave dignity to the final catastrophe.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--Othoman and Venetian</i></h3> + + +<p>The conquest of Greece by Mohammed II. was felt to be a boon by the +greater part of the population. The sultan's government put an end to the +injustices of the Greek emperors and the Frank princes, dukes, and signors +who for two centuries had rendered Greece the scene of incessant civil wars +and odious oppression, and whose rapacity impoverished and depopulated the +country. The Othoman system of administration was immediately organised. +Along with it the sultan imposed a tribute of a fifth of the male children +of his Christian subjects as a part of that tribute which the Koran +declared was the lawful price of toleration to those who refused to embrace +Islam. Under these measures the last traces of the former political +institutions and legal administration of Greece were swept away.</p> + +<p>The mass of the Christian population engaged in agricultural operations +were, however, allowed to enjoy a far larger portion of the fruits of their +labour under the sultan's government than under that of many Christian +monarchs. The weak spots in the Othoman government were the administration +of justice and of finance. The naval conquests of the Othomans in the +islands and maritime districts of Greece, and the ravages of Corsairs in +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, reduced and degraded the +population, exterminated the best families, enslaved the remnant, and +destroyed the prosperity of Greek trade and commerce.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the seventeenth century ecclesiastical corruption in +the Orthodox Church increased. Bishoprics, and even the patriarchate were +sold to the highest bidder. The Turks displayed their contempt for them by +ordering the cross which until that time had crowned the dome of the belfry +of the patriarchate to be taken down. There can be no doubt, however, that +in the rural district the secular clergy supplied some of the moral +strength which eventually enabled the Greeks successfully to resist the +Othoman power. Happily, the exaction of the tribute of children fell into +disuse; and, that burden removed, the nation soon began to fed the +possibility of improving its condition.</p> + +<p>The contempt with which the ambassadors of the Christian powers were +treated at the Sublime Porte increased after the conquest of Candia and the +surrender of Crete in 1669, and the grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, declared +war against Austria and laid siege to Vienna in 1683. This was the +opportune moment taken by the Venetian Republic to declare war against the +Othoman Empire, and Greece was made the chief field of military +operations.</p> + +<p>Morosini, the commander of the Venetian mercenary army, successfully +conducted a series of campaigns between 1684 and 1687, but with terrible +barbarity on both sides. The Venetian fleet entered the Piraeus on +September 21, 1687. The city of Athens was immediately occupied by their +army, and siege laid to the Acropolis. On September 25 a Venetian bomb blew +up a powder magazine in the Propylæa, and the following evening +another fell in the Parthenon. The classic temple was partially ruined; +much of the sculpture which had retained its inimitable excellence from the +days of Phidæas was defaced, and a part utterly destroyed. The Turks +persisted in defending the place until September 28, when, they +capitulated. The Venetians continued the campaign until the greater part of +Northern Greece submitted to their authority, and peace was declared in +1696. During the Venetian occupation of Greece through the ravages of war, +oppressive taxation, and pestilence, the Greek inhabitants decreased from +300,000 to about 100,000.</p> + +<p>Sultan Achmet III., having checkmated Peter the Great in his attempt to +march to the conquest of Constantinople, assembled a large army at +Adrianople under the command of Ali Cumurgi, which expelled the Venetians +from Greece before the end of 1715. Peace was concluded, by the Treaty of +Passarovitz, in July 1718. Thereafter, the material and political position +of the Greek nation began to exhibit many signs of improvement, and the +agricultural population before the end of the eighteenth century became, in +the greatest part of the country, the legal as well as the real proprietors +of the soil, which made them feel the moral sentiment of freemen.</p> + +<p>The increased importance of the diplomatic relations of the Porte with +the Christian powers opened a new political career to the Greeks at +Constantinople, and gave rise to the formation of a class of officials in +the Othoman service called "phanariots," whose venality and illegal +exactions made the name a by-word for the basest servility, corruption, and +rapacity.</p> + +<p>This system was extended to Wallachia and Moldavia, and no other +Christian race in the Othoman dominions was exposed to so long a period of +unmitigated extortion and cruelty as the Roman population of these +principalities. The Treaty of Kainardji which concluded the war with Russia +between 1768 and 1774, humbled the pride of the sultan, broke the strength +of the Othoman Empire, and established the moral influence of Russia over +the whole of the Christian populations in Turkey. But Russia never insisted +on the execution of the articles of the treaty, and the Greeks were +everywhere subjected to increased oppression and cruelty. During the war +from 1783 to 1792, caused by Catherine II. of Russia assuming sovereignty +over the Crimea, Russia attempted to excite the Christians in Greece to +take up arms against the Turks, but they were again abandoned to their fate +on the conclusion of the Treaty of Yassi in 1792, which decided the +partition of Poland.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the diverse ambitions of the higher clergy and the phanariots +at Constantinople taught the people of Greece that their interests as a +nation were not always identical with the policy of the leaders of the +Orthodox Church. A modern Greek literature sprang up and, under the +influence of the French Revolution, infused love of freedom into the +popular mind, while the sultan's administration every day grew weaker under +the operation of general corruption. Throughout the East it was felt that +the hour of a great struggle for independence on the part of the Greeks had +arrived.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Greek Revolution</i></h3> + + +<p>The Greek revolution began in 1821. Two societies are supposed to have +contributed to accelerating it, but they did not do much to ensure its +success. These were the Philomuse Society, founded at Athens in 1812, and +the Philiké Hetaireia, established in Odessa in 1814. The former was +a literary club, the latter a political society whose schemes were wild and +visionary. The object of the inhabitants of Greece was definite and +patriotic.</p> + +<p>The attempt of Alexander Hypsilantes, the son of the Greek Hospodar of +Wallachia, under the pretence that he was supported by Russia, to upset the +Turkish government in Moldavia and Wallachia was a miserable fiasco +distinguished for massacres, treachery, and cowardice, and it was +repudiated by the Tsar of Russia. Very different was the intensity of the +passion with which the inhabitants of modern Greece arose to destroy the +power of their Othoman masters. In the month of April 1821, a Mussulman +population, amounting to upwards of 20,000 souls, was living dispersed in +Greece employed in agriculture. Before two months had elapsed the greater +part--men, women, and children--were murdered without mercy or remorse. The +first insurrectional movement took place in the Peloponnesus at the end of +March. Kalamata was besieged by a force of 2,000 Greeks, and taken on April +4. Next day a solemn service of the Greek Church was performed on the banks +of the torrent that flows by Kalamata, as a thanksgiving for the success of +the Greek arms. Patriotic tears poured down the cheeks of rude warriors, +and ruthless brigands sobbed like children. All present felt that the event +formed an era in Greek history. The rising spread to every part of Greece, +and to some of the islands.</p> + +<p>Sultan Mahmud II. believed that he could paralyse the movements of the +Greeks by terrific cruelty. On Easter Sunday, April 22, the Patriarch +Gregorios and three other bishops were executed in Constantinople--a deed +which caused a thrill of horror from the Moslem capital to the mountains of +Greece, and the palaces of St. Petersburg. The sultan next strengthened his +authority in Thrace and in Macedonia, and extinguished the flames of +rebellion from Mount Athos to Olympus.</p> + +<p>In Greece itself the patriots were triumphant. Local senates were formed +for the different districts, and a National Assembly met at Piada, three +miles to the west of the site of the ancient Epidaurus, which formulated a +constitution and proclaimed it on January 13, 1822. This constitution +established a central government consisting of a legislative assembly and +an executive body of five members, with Prince Alexander Mavrocordato as +President of Greece.</p> + +<p>It is impossible here to go into the details of the war of independence +which was carried on from 1822 to 1827. The outstanding incidents were the +triple siege and capitulation of the Acropolis at Athens; the campaigns of +Ibrahim Pasha and his Egyptian army in the Morea; the defence of Mesolonghi +by the Greeks with a courage and endurance, an energy and constancy which +will awaken the sympathy of free men in every country as long as Grecian +history endures; the two civil wars, for one of which the Primates were +especially blamable; the dishonesty of the government, the rapacity of the +military, the indiscipline of the navy; and the assistance given to the +revolutionaries by Lord Byron and other English sympathisers. Lord Byron +arrived at Mesolonghi on January 5, 1824. His short career in Greece was +unconnected with any important military event, for he died on April 19; but +the enthusiasm he awakened perhaps served Greece more than his personal +exertions would have done had his life been prolonged, because it resulted +in the provision of a fleet for the Greek nation by the English and +American Philhellenes, commanded by Lord Cochrane.</p> + +<p>By the beginning of 1827 the whole of Greece was laid waste, and the +sufferings of the agricultural population were terrible. At the same time, +the greater part of the Greeks who bore arms against the Turks were fed by +Greek committees in Switzerland, France, and Germany; while those in the +United States directed their attention to the relief of the peaceful +population. It was felt that the intervention of the European powers +could alone prevent the extermination of the population or their submission +to the sultan. On July 6, 1827, a treaty Between Great Britain, France, and +Russia was signed at London to take common measures for the pacification of +Greece, to enforce an armistice between the Greeks and the Turks, and, by +an armed intervention, to secure to the Greeks virtual independence under +the suzerainty of the sultan. The Greeks accepted the armistice, but the +Turks refused; and then followed the destruction of the Othoman fleet by +the allied squadrons under Admiral Sir Edward Coddrington at Navarino, on +October 21, 1827.</p> + +<p>In the following April, Russia declared war against Turkey, and the +French government, by a protocol, were authorised to dispatch a French army +of 14,000 men under the command of General Maison. This force landed at +Petalidi, in the Gulf of Coron. Ibrahim Pasha withdrew his army to Egypt, +and the French troops occupied the strong places of Greece almost without +resistance from the Turkish garrisons.</p> + +<p>France thus gained the honour of delivering Greece from the last of her +conquerors, and she increased the debt of gratitude due by the Greeks by +the admirable conduct of her soldiers, who converted mediæval +strongholds into habitable towns, repaired the fortresses, and constructed +roads. Count John Capodistrias, a Corfiot noble, who had been elected +President of Greece in April 1827 for a period of seven years by the +National Assembly of Troezen, arrived in Greece in January 1828. He found +the country in a state of anarchy, and at once put a stop to some of the +grossest abuses in the army, navy, and financial administration.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.--The Greek Monarchy</i></h3> + + +<p>The war terminated in 1829, and the Turks finally evacuated continental +Greece in September of the same year. The allied powers declared Greece an +independent state with a restricted territory, and nominated Prince Leopold +of Saxe-Coburg (afterwards King of the Belgians) to be its sovereign. +Prince Leopold accepted the throne on February 11, but resigned it on May +17. Thereafter Capodistrias exercised his functions as president in the +most tyrannical fashion, and was assassinated on October 9, 1831; from +which date till February 1833 anarchy prevailed in the country.</p> + +<p>Agostino Capodistrias, brother of the assassinated president, who had +been chosen president by the National Assembly on December 20, 1831, was +ejected out of the presidency by the same assembly in April 1832, and +Prince Otho of Bavaria was elected King of Greece. Otho, accompanied by a +small Bavarian army, landed from an English frigate in Greece at Nauplia on +February 6, 1833. He was then only seventeen years of age, and a regency of +three Bavarians was appointed to administer the government during his +minority, his majority being fixed at June 1, 1835.</p> + +<p>The regency issued a decree in August 1833, proclaiming the national +Church of Greece independent of the patriarchate and synod of +Constantinople and establishing an ecclesiastical synod for the kingdom on +the model of that of Russia, but with more freedom of action. In judicial +procedure, however, the regency placed themselves above the tribunals. King +Otho, who had come of age in 1835, and married a daughter of the Duke of +Oldenburg in 1837, became his own prime minister in 1839, and claimed to +rule with absolute power. He did not possess ability, experience, energy, +or generosity; consequently, he was not respected, obeyed, feared, or +loved. The administrative incapacity of King Otho's counsellors disgusted +the three protecting powers as much as their arbitrary conduct irritated +the Greeks.</p> + +<p>A revolution naturally followed. Otho was compelled to abandon absolute +power in order to preserve his crown, and in March 1844 he swore obedience +to a constitution prepared by the National Assembly, which put an end to +the government of alien rulers under which the Greeks had lived for two +thousand years. The destinies of the race were now in the hands of the +citizens of liberated Greece. But the attempt was unsuccessful. The +corruption of the government and the contracted views of King Otho rendered +the period from the adoption of the constitution to his expulsion in 1862 a +period of national stagnation. In October 1862 revolt broke out, and on the +23rd a provisional government at Athens issued a proclamation declaring, in +his absence, that the reign of King Otho was at an end.</p> + +<p>When Otho and his queen returned in a frigate to the Piraeus they were +not allowed to land. Otho appealed to the representatives of the powers, +who refused to support him against the nation, and he and his queen took +refuge on board H.M.S. Scylla, and left Greece for ever.</p> + +<p>The National Assembly held in Athens drew up a new constitution, laying +the foundations of free municipal institutions, and leaving the nation to +elect their sovereign. Then followed the abortive, though almost unanimous, +election as king of Prince Alfred of England. Afterwards the British +Government offered the crown to the second son of Prince Christian of +Holstein-Glücksburg. On March 30, 1863, he was unanimously elected +King of Greece, and the British forces left Corfu on June 2, 1864.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='JL_MOTLEY'></a>J.L. MOTLEY</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_Rise_of_the_Dutch_Republic'></a>The Rise of the Dutch +Republic</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> John Lothrop Motley, historian and diplomatist, was born at +Dorchester, Massachusetts, now part of Boston, on April 15, 1814. After +graduating at Harvard University, he proceeded to Europe, where he studied +at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen. At the latter he became +intimate with Bismarck, and their friendly relations continued throughout +life. In 1846 Motley began to collect materials for a history of Holland, +and in 1851 he went to Europe to pursue his investigations. The result of +his labours was "The Rise of the Dutch Republic--a History," published in +1856. The work was received with enthusiasm in Europe and America. Its +distinguishing character is its graphic narrative and warm sympathy; and +Froude said of it that it is "as complete as industry and genius can make +it, and a book which will take its place among the finest stories in this +or any language." In 1861 Motley was appointed American Minister to +Austria, where he remained until 1867; and in 1869 General Grant sent him +to represent the United States in England. Motley died on May 29, 1877, at +the Dorsetshire house of his daughter, near Dorchester. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--Woe to the Heretic</i></h3> + + +<p>The north-western corner of the vast plain which extends from the German +Ocean to the Ural Mountains is occupied by the countries called the +Netherlands. The history of the development of the Netherland nation from +the time of the Romans during sixteen centuries is ever marked by one +prevailing characteristic, one master passion--the love of liberty, the +instinct of self-government. Largely compounded of the bravest Teutonic +elements--Batavian and Frisian--the race has ever battled to the death with +tyranny, and throughout the dark ages struggled resolutely towards the +light, wresting from a series of petty sovereigns a gradual and practical +recognition of the claims of humanity. With the advent of the Burgundian +family, the power of the commons reached so high a point that it was able +to measure itself, undaunted, with the spirit of arbitrary power. Peaceful +in their pursuits, phlegmatic by temperament, the Netherlanders were yet +the most belligerent and excitable population in Europe.</p> + +<p>For more than a century the struggle for freedom, for civic life, went +on, Philip the Good, Charles the Bold, Mary's husband Maximilian, Charles +V., in turn assailing or undermining the bulwarks raised age after age +against the despotic principle. Liberty, often crushed, rose again and +again from her native earth with redoubled energy. At last, in the +sixteenth century, a new and more powerful spirit, the genius of religious +freedom, came to participate in the great conflict. Arbitrary power, +incarnated in the second Charlemagne, assailed the new combination with +unscrupulous, unforgiving fierceness. In the little Netherland territory, +humanity, bleeding but not killed, still stood at bay, and defied the +hunters. The two great powers had been gathering strength for centuries. +They were soon to be matched in a longer and more determined combat than +the world had ever seen.</p> + +<p>On October 25, 1555, the Estates of the Netherlands were assembled in +the great hall of the palace at Brussels to witness amidst pomp and +splendour the dramatic abdication of Charles V. as sovereign of the +Netherlands in favour of his son Philip. The drama was well played. The +happiness of the Netherlands was apparently the only object contemplated in +the great transaction, and the stage was drowned in tears. And yet, what +was the Emperor Charles to the inhabitants of the Netherlands that they +should weep for him? Their interests had never been even a secondary +consideration with their master. He had fulfilled no duty towards them; he +had committed the gravest crimes against them; he was in constant conflict +with their ancient and dearly-bought political liberties.</p> + +<p>Philip II., whom the Netherlands received as their new master, was a man +of foreign birth and breeding, not speaking a word of their language. In +1548 he had made his first appearance in the Netherlands to receive homage +in the various provinces as their future sovereign, and to exchange oaths +of mutual fidelity with them all.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest measures of Philip's reign was to re-enact the dread +edict of 1550. This he did by the express advice of the Bishop of Arras. +The edict set forth that no one should print, write, copy, keep, conceal, +sell, buy, or give in churches, streets, or other places any book or +writing by Luther, Calvin, and other heretics reprobated by the Holy +Church; nor break, or injure the images of the Holy Virgin or canonised +saints; nor in his house hold conventicles, or be present at any such, in +which heretics or their adherents taught, baptised, or formed conspiracies, +against the Holy Church and the general welfare. Further, all lay persons +were forbidden to converse or dispute concerning the Holy Scriptures openly +or secretly, or to read, teach, or expound them; or to preach, or to +entertain any of the opinions of the heretics.</p> + +<p>Disobedience to this edict was to be punished as follows. Men to be +executed with the sword, and women to be buried alive if they do not +persist in their errors; if they do persist in them, then they are to be +executed with fire, and all their property in both cases is to be +confiscated to the crown. Those who failed to betray the suspected were to +be liable to the same punishment, as also those who lodged, furnished with +food, or favoured anyone suspected of being a heretic. Informers and +traitors against suspected persons were to be entitled on conviction to +one-half of the property of the accused.</p> + +<p>At first, however, the edict was not vigorously carried into effect +anywhere. It was openly resisted in Holland; its proclamation was flatly +refused in Antwerp, and repudiated throughout Brabant. This disobedience +was in the meantime tolerated because Philip wanted money to carry on the +war between Spain and France which shortly afterwards broke out. At the +close of the war, a treaty was entered into between France and Spain by +which Philip and Henry II. bound themselves to maintain the Catholic +worship inviolate by all means in their power, and to extinguish the +increasing heresy in both kingdoms. There was a secret agreement to arrange +for the Huguenot chiefs throughout the realms of both, a "Sicilian Vespers" +upon the first favourable occasion.</p> + +<p>Henry died of a wound received from Montgomery in a tournay held to +celebrate the conclusion of the treaty, and Catherine de Medici became +Queen-Regent of France, and deferred carrying out the secret plot till St. +Bartholomew's Day fourteen years after.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Netherlands Are, and Will Be, Free</i></h3> + + +<p>Philip now set about the organisation of the Netherlands provinces. +Margaret, Duchess of Parma, was appointed regent, with three boards, a +state council, a privy council, and a council of finance, to assist in the +government. It soon became evident that the real power of the government +was exclusively in the hands of the Consulta--a committee of three members +of the state council, by whose deliberation the regent was secretly to be +guided on all important occasions; but in reality the conclave consisted of +Anthony Perrenot, Bishop of Arras, afterwards Cardinal Granvelle. +Stadtholders were appointed to the different provinces, of whom only Count +Egmont for Flanders and William of Orange for Holland need be +mentioned.</p> + +<p>An assembly of the Estates met at Ghent on August 7, 1589, to receive +the parting instructions of Philip previous to his departure for Spain. The +king, in a speech made through the Bishop of Arras, owing to his inability +to speak French or Flemish, submitted a "request" for three million gold +florins "to be spent for the good of the country." He made a violent attack +on "the new, reprobate and damnable sects that now infested the country," +and commanded the Regent Margaret "accurately and exactly to cause to be +enforced the edicts and decrees made for the extirpation of all sects and +heresies." The Estates of all the provinces agreed, at a subsequent meeting +with the king, to grant their quota of the "request," but made it a +condition precedent that the foreign troops, whose outrages and exactions +had long been an intolerable burden, should be withdrawn. This enraged the +king, but when a presentation was made of a separate remonstrance in the +name of the States-General, signed by the Prince of Orange, Count Egmont, +and other leading patricians, against the pillaging, insults, and disorders +of the foreign soldiers, the king was furious. He, however, dissembled at a +later meeting, and took leave of the Estates with apparent cordiality.</p> + +<p>Inspired by the Bishop of Arras, under secret instructions from Philip, +the Regent Margaret resumed the execution of the edicts against heresies +and heretics which had been permitted to slacken during the French war. As +an additional security for the supremacy of the ancient religion, Philip +induced the Pope, Paul IV., to issue, in May, 1559, a Bull whereby three +new archbishoprics were appointed, with fifteen subsidiary bishops and nine +prebendaries, who were to act as inquisitors. To sustain these two +measures, through which Philip hoped once and for ever to extinguish the +Netherland heresy, the Spanish troops were to be kept in the provinces +indefinitely.</p> + +<p>Violent agitation took place throughout the whole of the Netherlands +during the years 1560 and 1561 against the arbitrary policy embodied in the +edicts, and the ruthless manner in which they were enforced in the new +bishoprics, and against the continued presence of the foreign soldiery. The +people and their leaders appealed to their ancient charters and +constitutions. Foremost in resistance was the Prince of Orange, and he, +with Egmont, the soldier hero of St. Quentin, and Admiral Horn, united in a +remarkable letter to the king, in which they said that the royal affairs +would never be successfully conducted so long as they were entrusted to +Cardinal Granvelle. Finally, Granvelle was recalled by Philip. But the +Netherlands had now reached a condition of anarchy, confusion, and +corruption.</p> + +<p>The four Estates of Flanders, in a solemn address to the king, described +in vigorous language the enormities committed by the inquisitors, and +called upon Philip to suppress these horrible practices so manifestly in +violation of the ancient charters which he had sworn to support. Philip, so +far from having the least disposition to yield in this matter, dispatched +orders in August, 1564, to the regent, ordering that the decrees of the +Council of Trent should be published and enforced without delay throughout +the Netherlands. By these decrees the heretic was excluded, so far as +ecclesiastical dogma could exclude him, from the pale of humanity, from +consecrated earth, and from eternal salvation. The decrees conflicted with +the privileges of the provinces, and at a meeting of the council William of +Orange made a long and vehement discourse, in which he said that the king +must be unequivocally informed that this whole machinery of placards and +scaffolds, of new bishops and old hangmen, of decrees, inquisitors and +informers, must once and for ever be abolished. Their day was over; the +Netherlands were free provinces, and were determined to vindicate their +ancient privileges.</p> + +<p>The unique effect of these representations was stringent instructions +from Philip to Margaret to keep the whole machinery of persecution +constantly at work. Fifty thousand persons were put to death in obedience +to the edicts, 30,000 of the best of the citizens migrated to England. +Famine reigned in the land. Then followed the revolt of the confederate +nobles and the episode of the "wild beggars." Meantime, during the summer +of 1556, many thousands of burghers, merchants, peasants, and gentlemen +were seen mustering and marching through the fields of every province, +armed, but only to hear sermons and sing hymns in the open air, as it was +unlawful to profane the churches with such rites. The duchess sent forth +proclamations by hundreds, ordering the instant suppression of these +assemblies and the arrest of the preachers. This brought the popular revolt +to a head.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Image-Breaking Campaign</i></h3> + + +<p>There were many hundreds of churches in the Netherlands profusely +adorned with chapels. Many of them were filled with paintings, all were +peopled with statues. Commencing on August 18, 1556, for the space of only +six or seven summer days and nights, there raged a storm by which nearly +every one of these temples was entirely rifled of its contents; not for +plunder, but for destruction.</p> + +<p>It began at Antwerp, on the occasion of a great procession, the object +of which was to conduct around the city a colossal image of the Virgin. The +rabble sacked thirty churches within the city walls, entered the +monasteries burned their invaluable libraries, and invaded the nunneries. +The streets were filled with monks and nuns, running this way and that, +shrieking and fluttering, to escape the claws of fiendish Calvinists. The +terror was imaginary, for not the least remarkable feature in these +transactions was that neither insult nor injury was offered to man or +woman, and that not a farthing's value of the immense amount of property +was appropriated. Similar scenes were enacted in all the other provinces, +with the exception of Limburg, Luxemburg, and Namur.</p> + +<p>The ministers of the reformed religion, and the chiefs of the liberal +party, all denounced the image-breaking. The Prince of Orange deplored the +riots. The leading confederate nobles characterised the insurrection as +insensate, and many took severe measures against the ministers and +reformers. The regent was beside herself with indignation and terror. +Philip, when he heard the news, fell into a paroxysm of frenzy. "It shall +cost them dear!" he cried. "I swear it by the soul of my father!"</p> + +<p>The religious war, before imminent, became inevitable. The duchess, +inspired by terror, proposed to fly to Mons, but was restrained by the +counsels of Orange, Horn, and Egmont. On August 25 came the crowning act of +what the reformers considered their most complete triumph, and the regent +her deepest degradation. It was found necessary, under the alarming aspect +of affairs, that liberty of worship, in places where it had been already +established, should be accorded to the new religion. Articles of agreement +to this effect were drawn up and exchanged between the government and Louis +of Nassau and fifteen others of the confederacy.</p> + +<p>A corresponding pledge was signed by them, that as long as the regent +was true to her engagement they would consider their previously existing +league annulled, and would cordially assist in maintaining tranquillity, +and supporting the authority of his majesty. The important "Accord" was +then duly signed by the duchess. It declared that the Inquisition was +abolished, that his majesty would soon issue a new general edict, expressly +and unequivocally protecting the nobles against all evil consequences from +past transactions, and that public preaching according to the forms of the +new religion was to be practised in places where it had already taken +place.</p> + +<p>Thus, for a fleeting moment, there was a thrill of joy throughout the +Netherlands. But it was all a delusion. While the leaders of the people +were exerting themselves to suppress the insurrection, and to avert ruin, +the secret course pursued by the government, both at Brussels and at +Madrid, may be condensed into the formula--dissimulation, procrastination, +and, again, dissimulation.</p> + +<p>The "Accord" was revoked by the duchess, and peremptory prohibition of +all preaching within or without city walls was proclaimed. Further, a new +oath of allegiance was demanded from all functionaries. The Prince of +Orange spurned the proposition and renounced all his offices, desiring no +longer to serve a government whose policy he did not approve, and a king by +whom he was suspected. Terrible massacres of Protestant heretics took place +in many cities.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--Alva the Terrible</i></h3> + + +<p>It was determined at last that the Netherland heresy should be conquered +by force of arms, and an army of 10,000 picked and veteran troops was +dispatched from Spain under the Duke of Alva. The Duchess Margaret made no +secret of her indignation at being superseded when Alva produced his +commission appointing him captain-general, and begging the duchess to +co-operate with him in ordering all the cities of the Netherlands to +receive the garrisons which he would send them. In September, 1567, the +Duke of Alva established a new court for the trial of crimes committed +"during the recent period of troubles." It was called the "Council of +Troubles," but will be for ever known in history as the "Blood Council." It +superseded all other courts and institutions. So well did this new and +terrible engine perform its work that in less than three months 1,800 of +the highest, the noblest, and the most virtuous men in the land, including +Count Egmont and Admiral Horn, suffered death. Further than that, the whole +country became a charnal-house; columns and stakes in every street, the +doorposts of private houses, the fences in the fields were laden with human +carcases, strangled, burned, beheaded. Within a few months after the +arrival of Alva the spirit of the nation seemed hopelessly broken.</p> + +<p>The Duchess of Parma, who had demanded her release from the odious +position of a cipher in a land where she had so lately been sovereign, at +last obtained it, and took her departure in December for Parma, thus +finally closing her eventful career in the Netherlands. The Duke of Alva +took up his position as governor-general, and amongst his first works was +the erection of the celebrated citadel of Antwerp, not to protect, but to +control the commercial capital of the provinces.</p> + +<p>Events marched swiftly. On February 16, 1568, a sentence of the +Inquisition condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as +heretics. From this universal doom only a few persons, especially named, +were excepted; and a proclamation of the king, dated ten days later, +confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into +instant execution, without regard to age, sex, or condition. This is +probably the most concise death-warrant ever framed. Three millions of +people, men, women, and children, were sentenced to the scaffold in three +lines.</p> + +<p>The Prince of Orange at last threw down the gauntlet, and published a +reply to the active condemnation which had been pronounced against him in +default of appearance before the Blood Council. It would, he said, be both +death and degradation to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the infamous +"Council of Blood," and he scorned to plead before he knew not what base +knaves, not fit to be the valets of his companions and himself.</p> + +<p>Preparations were at once made to levy troops and wage war against +Philip's forces in the Netherlands. Then followed the long, ghastly +struggle between the armies raised by the Prince of Orange and his brother, +Count Louis of Nassau, who lost his life mysteriously at the battle of +Mons, and those of Alva and the other governors-general who succeeded +him--Don Louis de Requesens, the "Grand Commander," Don John of Austria, +the hero of Lepanto, and Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. The records of +butcheries and martyrdoms, including those during the sack and burning of +Antwerp by the mutinous Spanish soldiery, are only relieved by the heroic +exploits of the patriotic armies and burghers in the memorable defences of +Haarlem, Leyden, Alkmaar, and Mons. At one time it seemed that the Prince +of Orange and his forces were about to secure a complete triumph; but the +news of the massacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris brought depression to the +patriotic army and corresponding spirit to the Spanish armies, and the +gleam faded. The most extraordinary feature of Alva's civil administration +were his fiscal decrees, which imposed taxes that utterly destroyed the +trade and manufactures of the country.</p> + +<p>There were endless negotiations inspired by the States-General, the +German Emperor, and the governments of France and England to secure peace +and a settlement of the Netherlands affairs, but these, owing mostly to +insincere diplomacy, were ineffective.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.--The Union of the Provinces</i></h3> + + +<p>In the meantime, the union of Holland and Zealand had been accomplished, +with the Prince of Orange as sovereign. The representatives of various +provinces thereafter met with deputies from Holland and Zealand in Utrecht +in January, 1579, and agreed to a treaty of union which was ever after +regarded as the foundation of the Netherlands Republic. The contracting +provinces agreed to remain eternally united, while each was to retain its +particular privileges, liberties, customs, and laws. All the provinces were +to unite to defend each other with life, goods, and blood against all +forces brought against them in the king's name, and against all foreign +potentates. The treaty also provided for religious peace and toleration. +The Union of Utrecht was the foundation of the Netherlands Republic, which +lasted two centuries.</p> + +<p>For two years there were a series of desultory military operations and +abortive negotiations for peace, including an attempt--which failed--to +purchase the Prince of Orange. The assembly of the united provinces met at +The Hague on July 26, 1581, and solemnly declared their independence of +Philip and renounced their allegiance for ever. This act, however, left the +country divided into three portions--the Walloon or reconciled provinces; +the united provinces under Anjou; and the northern provinces under +Orange.</p> + +<p>Early in February, 1582, the Duke of Anjou arrived in the Netherlands +from England with a considerable train. The articles of the treaty under +which he was elected sovereign as Duke of Brabant made as stringent and as +sensible a constitutional compact as could be desired by any Netherland +patriot. Taken in connection with the ancient charters, which they +expressly upheld, they left to the new sovereign no vestige of arbitrary +power. He was the hereditary president of a representative republic.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Anjou, however, became discontented with his position. Many +nobles of high rank came from France to pay their homage to him, and in the +beginning of January, 1583, he entered into a conspiracy with them to take +possession, with his own troops, of the principal cities in Flanders. He +reserved to himself the capture of Antwerp, and concentrated several +thousands of French troops at Borgehout, a village close to the walls of +Antwerp. A night attack was treacherously made on the city, but the +burghers rapidly flew to arms, and in an hour the whole of the force which +Anjou had sent to accomplish his base design was either dead or captured. +The enterprise, which came to be known as the "French Fury," was an +absolute and disgraceful failure, and the duke fled to Berghem, where he +established a camp. Negotiations for reconciliation were entered into with +the Duke of Anjou, who, however, left for Paris in June, never again to +return to the Netherlands.</p> + + +<h3><i>VI.--The Assassination of William of Orange</i></h3> + + +<p>The Princess Charlotte having died on May 5, 1582, the Prince of Orange +was married for the fourth time on April 21, 1583, on this occasion to +Louisa, daughter of the illustrious Coligny. In the summer of 1584 the +prince and princess took up their residence at Delft, where Frederick +Henry, afterwards the celebrated stadtholder, was born to them. During the +previous two years no fewer than five distinct attempts to assassinate the +prince had been made, and all of them with the privity of the Spanish +government or at the direct instigation of King Philip or the Duke of +Parma.</p> + +<p>A sixth and successful attempt was now to be made. On Sunday morning, +July 8, the Prince of Orange received news of the death of Anjou. The +courier who brought the despatches was admitted to the prince's bedroom. He +called himself Francis Guion, the son of a martyred Calvinist, but he was +in reality Balthazar Gérard, a fanatical Catholic who had for years +formed the design of murdering the Prince of Orange. The interview was so +entirely unexpected that Gérard had come unarmed, and had formed no +plans for escape. He pleaded to the officer on duty in the prince's house +that he wanted to attend divine service in the church opposite, but that +his attire was too shabby and travel-stained, and that, without new shoes +and stockings, he was unfit to join the congregation. Having heard this, +the prince ordered instantly a sum of money to be given to him. With this +fund Gérard the following day bought a pair of pistols and +ammunition. On Tuesday, July 10, the prince, his wife, family, and the +burgomaster of Leewarden dined as usual, at mid-day. At two o'clock the +company rose from table, the prince leading the way, intending to pass to +his private apartments upstairs. He had reached the second stair when +Gérard, who had obtained admission to the house on the plea that he +wanted a passport, emerged from a sunken arch and, standing within a foot +or two of the prince, discharged a pistol at his heart. He was carried to a +couch in the dining-room, where in a few minutes he died in the arms of his +wife and sister.</p> + +<p>The murderer succeeded in making his escape through a side door, and +sped swiftly towards the ramparts, where a horse was waiting for him at the +moat, but was followed and captured by several pages and halberdiers. He +made no effort to deny his identity, but boldly avowed himself and his +deed. Afterwards he was subjected to excruciating tortures, and executed on +July 14 with execrable barbarity. The reward promised by Philip to the man +who should murder Orange was paid to the father and mother of +Gérard. The excellent parents were ennobled and enriched by the +crime of their son, but, instead of receiving the 25,000 crowns promised in +the ban issued by Philip in 1580 at the instigation of Cardinal Granvelle, +they were granted three seignories in the Franche Comté, and took +their place at once among the landed aristocracy.</p> + +<p>The prince was entombed on August 3 at Delft amid the tears of a whole +nation. Never was a more extensive, unaffected and legitimate sorrow felt +at the death of any human being. William the Silent had gone through life +bearing the load of a people's sorrows upon his shoulders with a smiling +face. The people were grateful and affectionate, for they trusted the +character of their "Father William," and not all the clouds which calumny +could collect ever dimmed to their eyes the radiance of that lofty mind to +which they were accustomed in their darkest calamities to look for +light.</p> + +<p>The life and labours of Orange had established the emancipated +commonwealth upon a secure foundation, but his death rendered hopeless the +union of all the Netherlands at that time into one republic.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_United_Netherlands'></a>History of the United +Netherlands</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> "The History of the United Netherlands, 1584-1609," +published between 1860 and 1867, is the continuation of the "Rise of the +Dutch republic"; the narrative of the stubborn struggle carried on after +the assassination of William the Silent until the twelve years' truce of +1609 recognised in effect, though not in form, that a new independent +nation was established on the northern shore of Western Europe--a nation +which for a century to come was to hold rank as first or second of the sea +powers. While the great Alexander of Parma lived to lead the Spanish +armies, even Philip II. could not quite destroy the possibility of his +ultimate victory. When Parma was gone, we can see now that the issue of the +struggle was no longer in doubt, although in its closing years Maurice of +Nassau found a worthy antagonist in the Italian Spinola. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--After the Death of William</i></h3> + + +<p>William the Silent, Prince of Orange, had been murdered on July 10, +1584. It was natural that for an instant there should be a feeling as of +absolute and helpless paralysis. The Estates had now to choose between +absolute submission to Spain, the chance of French or English support, and +fighting it out alone. They resolved at once to fight it out, but to seek +French support, in spite of the fact that Francis of Anjou, now dead, had +betrayed them. For the German Protestants were of no use, and they did not +expect vigorous aid from Elizabeth. But France herself was on the verge of +a division into three, between the incompetent Henry III. on the throne, +Henry of Guise of the Catholic League, and Henry of Navarre, heir apparent +and head of the Huguenots.</p> + +<p>The Estates offered the sovereignty of the Netherlands to Henry; he +dallied with them, but finally rejected the offer. Meanwhile, there was an +increased tendency to a rapprochement with England; but Elizabeth had +excellent reasons for being quite resolved not to accept the sovereignty of +the Netherlands. In France, matters came to a head in March 1585, when the +offer of the Estates was rejected. Henry III. found himself forced into the +hands of the League, and Navarre was declared to be barred from the +succession as a heretic, in July.</p> + +<p>While diplomacy was at work, and the Estates were gradually turning from +France to England, Alexander of Parma, the first general, and one of the +ablest statesmen of the age, was pushing on the Spanish cause in the +Netherlands. Flagrantly as he was stinted in men and money, a consummate +genius guided his operations. The capture of Antwerp was the crucial point; +and the condition of capturing Antwerp was to hold the Scheldt below that +city, and also to secure the dams, since, if the country were flooded, the +Dutch ships could not be controlled in the open waters.</p> + +<p>The burghers scoffed at the idea that Parma could bridge the Scheldt, or +that his bridge, if built, could resist the ice-blocks that would come down +in the winter. But he built his bridge, and it resisted the ice-blocks. An +ingenious Italian in Antwerp devised the destruction of the bridge, and the +passage of relief-ships, by blowing up the bridge with a sort of floating +mines. The explosion was successfully carried out with terrific effect; a +thousand Spaniards were blown to pieces; but by sheer blundering the +opening was not at once utilised, and Parma was able to rebuild the +bridge.</p> + +<p>Then, by a fine feat of arms, the patriots captured the Kowenstyn dyke, +and cut it; but the loss was brilliantly retrieved, the Kowenstyn was +recaptured, and the dyke repaired. After that, Antwerp's chance of escape +sank almost to nothing, and its final capitulation was a great triumph for +Parma.</p> + +<p>The Estates had despaired of French help, and had opened negotiations +with England some time before the fall of Antwerp had practically secured +the southern half of the Netherlands to Spain. It was unfortunate that the +negotiations took the form of hard bargaining on both sides. The Estates +wished to give Elizabeth sovereignty, which she did not want; they did not +wish to give her hard cash for her assistance, which she did want, as well +as to have towns pawned to her as security. Walsingham was anxious for +England to give the Estates open support; the queen, as usual, blew hot and +cold.</p> + +<p>Walsingham and Leicester, however, carried the day. Leicester was +appointed to be general, and Philip Sidney was sent to be governor of +Flushing, at about the time when Drake was preparing for what is known as +the Carthagena Expedition. The direct intervention of the English +government in the Netherlands, where hitherto there had been no state +action, though many Englishmen were fighting as volunteers, was tantamount +to a declaration of war with Spain. But the haggling over terms had made it +too late to save Antwerp.</p> + +<p>Leicester had definite orders to do nothing contradictory to the queen's +explicit refusal of both sovereignty and protectorate. But he was satisfied +that a position of supreme authority was necessary; and he had hardly +reached his destination when he was formally offered, and accepted, the +title of Governor-General (January 1586). The proposal had the full support +of young Maurice of Nassau, second son of William the Silent, and destined +to succeed his father in the character of Liberator.</p> + +<p>Angry as Elizabeth was, she did not withdraw Leicester. In fact, Parma +was privately negotiating with her; negotiations in which Burghley and +Hatton took part, but which did not wholly escape Walsingham. Parma had no +intention of being bound by these negotiations; they were pure +dissimulation on his part; and, possibly, but not probably, on Elizabeth's. +Parma, in fact, was nervous as to possible French action. But their +practical effect was to paralyse Leicester, and their object to facilitate +the invasion of England.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--Leicester and the Armada</i></h3> + + +<p>In the spring, Parma was actively prosecuting the war. He attacked +Grave, which was valorously relieved by Martin Schenk and Sir John Norris; +but soon after he took it, to Leicester's surprise and disgust. The capture +of Axed by Maurice of Nassau and Sidney served as some balance. Presently +Leicester laid siege to Zutphen; but the place was relieved, in spite of +the memorable fight of Warnsfeld, where less than six hundred English +attacked and drove off a force of six times their number, for +reinforcements compelled their retreat. This was the famous battle of +Zutphen, where Philip Sidney fell.</p> + +<p>But Elizabeth persisted in keeping Leicester in a false position which +laid him open to suspicion; while his own conduct kept him on ill terms +with the Estates, and the queen's parsimony crippled his activities. In +effect, there was soon a strong opposition to Leicester. He was at odds +also with stout Sir John Norris, from which evil was to come.</p> + +<p>Now, the discovery of Babington's plot made Leicester eager to go back +to England, since he was set upon ending the life of Mary Stuart. At the +close of November he took ship from Flushing. But while Norris was left in +nominal command, his commission was not properly made out; and the +important town of Deventer was left under the papist Sir William Stanley, +with the adventurer Rowland York at Zutphen, because they were at feud with +Norris. Then came disaster; for Stanley and York deliberately introduced +Spanish troops by night, and handed over Deventer and Zutphen to the +Spaniards, which was all the worse, as Leicester had ample warning that +mischief was brewing. Every suspicion ever felt against Leicester, or as to +the honesty of English policy, seemed to be confirmed, and there was a wave +of angry feeling against all Englishmen. The treachery of Anjou seemed +about to be repeated.</p> + +<p>The Queen of Scots was on the very verge of her doom, and Elizabeth was +entering on that most lamentable episode of her career, in which she +displayed all her worst characteristics, when a deputation arrived from the +Estates to plead for more effective help. The news of Deventer had not yet +arrived, and the queen subjected them to a furious and contumelious +harangue, and advised them to make peace with Philip. But on the top of +this came a letter from the Estates, with some very plain speaking about +Deventer.</p> + +<p>Buckhurst, about the best possible ambassador, was despatched to the +Estates. He very soon found the evidence of the underhand dealings of +certain of Leicester's agents to be irresistible. He appealed vehemently, +as did Walsingham at home, for immediate aid, dwelling on the immense +importance to England of saving the Netherlands. But Leicester had the +queen's ear. Charges of every kind were flying on every hand. Buckhurst's +efforts met with the usual reward. The Estates would have nothing to do +with counsels of peace. At the moment they were appointing Maurice of +Nassau captain-general came the news that Leicester was returning with +intolerable claims.</p> + +<p>While this was going on, Parma had turned upon Sluys, which, like the +rest of the coast harbours, was in the hands of the States. This was the +news which had necessitated the appointment of Maurice of Nassau. The Dutch +and English in Sluys fought magnificently. But the dissensions of the +opposing parties outside prevented any effective relief. Leicester's +arrival did not, mend matters. The operations intended to effect a relief +were muddled. At last the garrison found themselves with no alternative but +capitulation on the most honourable terms. In the meanwhile, however, Drake +had effected his brilliant destruction of the fleet and stores preparing in +Cadiz harbour; though his proceedings were duly disowned by Elizabeth, now +zealously negotiating with Parma.</p> + +<p>This game of duplicity went on merrily; Elizabeth was intriguing behind +the backs of her own ministers; Parma was deliberately deceiving and +hoodwinking her, with no thought of anything but her destruction. In +France, civil war practically, between Henry of Navarre and Henry of Guise +was raging. In the Netherlands, the hostility between the Estates, led by +Barneveld and Leicester continued. When the earl was finally recalled to +England, and Willoughby was left in command, it was not due to him that no +overwhelming disaster had occurred, and that the splendid qualities shown +by other Englishmen had counter-balanced politically his own extreme +unpopularity.</p> + +<p>The great crisis, however, was now at hand. The Armada was coming to +destroy England, and when England was destroyed the fate of the Netherlands +would soon be sealed. But in both England and the Netherlands the national +spirit ran high. The great fleet came; the Flemish ports were held +blockaded by the Dutch. The Spaniards had the worse of the fighting in the +Channel; they were scattered out of Calais roads by the fireships, driven +to flight in the engagement of Gravelines, and the Armada was finally +shattered by storms. Philip received the news cheerfully; but his great +project was hopelessly ruined.</p> + +<p>Of the events immediately following, the most notable were in +France--the murder of Guise, followed by that of Henry III., and the claim +of Henry IV. to be king. The actual operations in the Netherlands brought +little advantage to either side, and the Anglo-Dutch expedition to Lisbon +was a failure. But the grand fact which was to be of vital consequence was +this: that Maurice of Nassau was about to assume a new character. The boy +was now a man; the sapling had developed into the oak-tree.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--Maurice of Nassau</i></h3> + + +<p>The crushing blow, then, had failed completely. But Philip, instead of +concentrating on another great effort in the Netherlands, or retrieval of +the Armada disaster, had fixed his attention on France. The Catholic League +had proclaimed Henry IV.'s uncle, the Cardinal of Bourbon, king as Charles +X. Philip, to Parma's despair, meant to claim the succession for his own +daughter; and Parma's orders were to devote himself to crushing the +Béarnais.</p> + +<p>And this was at the moment when Barneveld, the statesman, with young +Maurice, the soldier, were becoming decisively recognised as the chiefs of +the Dutch. Maurice had realised that the secret of success lay in +engineering operations, of which he had made himself a devoted student, and +in a reorganisation of the States army and of tactics, in which he was ably +seconded by his cousin Lewis William.</p> + +<p>While Parma was forced to turn against Henry, who was pressing Paris +hard, Breda was captured (March 1590) by a very daring stratagem carried +out with extraordinary resolution--an event of slight intrinsic importance, +but exceedingly characteristic. During the summer several other places were +reduced, but Maurice was planning a great and comprehensive campaign.</p> + +<p>The year gave triumphant proof of the genius of Parma as a general, and +of the soundness of his views as to Philip's policy. Henry was throttling +Paris; by masterly movements Parma evaded the pitched battle, for which +Béarnais thirsted, yet compelled his adversary to relinquish the +siege. Nevertheless, Henry's activity was hardly checked; and when Parma, +in December, returned to the Netherlands, he found the Spanish provinces in +a deplorable state, and the Dutch states prospering and progressing; while +in France itself Henry's victory had certainly been staved off, but had by +no means been made impossible.</p> + +<p>Throughout 1591, Maurice's operations were recovering strong places for +the States, one after another, from Zutphen and Deventer to Nymegen. Parma +was too much hampered by the bonds Philip had imposed on him to meet +Maurice effectively. And Henry was prospering in Normandy and Brittany, and +was laying siege to Rouen before the year ended.</p> + +<p>In the spring Parma succeeded in relieving Rouen. Then Henry manoeuvred +him into what seemed a trap; but his genius was equal to the occasion, and +he escaped. But while the great general was engaged in France, Maurice went +on mining and sapping his way into Netherland fortresses. In the meantime, +Philip's grand object was to secure the French crown for his own daughter, +whose mother had been a sister of the last three kings of France; the +present plan being to marry her to the young Duke of Guise--a scheme not to +the liking of Guise's uncle Mayenne, who wanted the crown himself. But +Philip's chief danger lay in the prospect of Henry turning Catholic.</p> + +<p>Parma's death, in December 1592, deprived Philip of the genius which had +for years past been the mainstay of his power. Henry's public announcement +of his return to the Holy Catholic Church, in the summer of 1593, deprived +the Spanish king of nearly all the support he had hitherto received in +France. Before this Maurice had opened his attack on the two great cities +which the Spaniards still held in the United Provinces, Gertruydenberg and +Groningen. His scientific methods secured the former in June. In similar +scientific style he raised the siege of Corwarden. A year after +Gertruydenberg, Groningen surrendered.</p> + +<p>In 1595, France and Spain were at open war again, and in spite of +Henry's apostasy he had drawn into close alliance with the United +Provinces. The inefficient Archduke Ernest, who had succeeded Parma, died +at the beginning of the year. Fuentes, nephew of Alva, was the new +governor, <i>ad interim</i>. His operations in Picardy were successfully +conducted. The summer gave an extraordinary example of human vigour +triumphing, both physically and mentally, over the infirmities of old age. +Christopher Mondragon, at the age of ninety-two, marched against Maurice, +won a skirmish on the Lippe, and spoilt Maurice's campaign. In January 1596 +the governorship was taken over by the Archduke Albert. A disaster both to +France and England was the Spaniards' capture of Calais, which Elizabeth +might have relieved, but offered to do so only on condition of it being +restored to England--an offer flatly declined.</p> + +<p>At the same time Henry and Elizabeth negotiated a league, but its +ostensible arrangements, intended to bring in the United Provinces and +Protestant German States, were very different from the real stipulations, +the queen promising very much less than was supposed. At the end of October +the Estates signed the articles.</p> + +<p>Before winter was over, Maurice, with 800 horse, cut up an army of 5,000 +men on the heath of Tiel, killing 2,000 and taking 500 prisoners, with a +loss of nine or ten men only. The enemy had comprised the pick of the +Spaniards' forces, and their prestige was absolutely wiped out. This was +just after Philip had wrecked European finance at large by publicly +repudiating the whole of his debts. The year 1697 was further remarkable +for the surprise and capture of Amiens by the Spaniards, and its siege and +recovery by Henry--a siege conducted on the engineering methods introduced +by Maurice. But the relations of the provinces with France were now much +strained; uncertainty prevailed as to whether either Henry or Elizabeth, or +both, might not make peace with Spain separately.</p> + +<p>The Treaty of Vervins did, in fact, end the war between France and +Spain. It was followed almost at once by the death of Philip, who, however, +had just married the infanta to the archduke, and ceded the sovereignty of +the Netherlands to them.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--Winning Through</i></h3> + + +<p>In 1600 the States-General planned the invasion of the Spanish +Netherlands, but the scheme proved impracticable, and was abandoned.</p> + +<p>Ostend was the one position in Flanders held by the United Provinces, +with a very mixed garrison. The archduke besieged Ostend (1601). Maurice +did not attack him, but captured the keys of the debatable land of Cleves +and Juliers. The siege of Ostend developed into a tremendous affair, and a +school in the art of war. Maurice, instead of aiming at a direct relief, +continued his operations so as to prevent the archduke from a thorough +concentration. In the summer of 1602 he was besieging Grave, and Ostend was +kept amply supplied from the sea, where the Dutch had inflicted a +tremendous defeat on the enemy. But early in 1603 the Spaniards succeeded +in carrying some outworks.</p> + +<p>The death of Elizabeth, and the accession of James I. to the throne of +England affected the European situation; but Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, +was the new king's minister. Nevertheless, no long time had elapsed before +James was entering upon alliance with the Spaniard.</p> + +<p>A new commander-in-chief was now before Ostend in the person of Ambrose +Spinola, an unknown young Italian, who was soon to prove himself a worthy +antagonist for Maurice. Spinola continued the siege of Ostend, where the +garrison were being driven inch by inch within an ever-narrowing circle. +This year, Maurice's counter-stroke was the investment of Sluys, which was +reduced in three months, in spite of a skilful but unsuccessful attempt at +its relief by Spinola. At length, however, the long resistance of Ostend +was finished when there was practically nothing of the place left. The +garrison marched out with the honours of war, after a siege of over three +years.</p> + +<p>The next year was a bad one for Maurice. Spinola was beginning to show +his quality. Maurice's troops met with one reverse, when what should have +been a victory was turned into a rout by an unaccountable panic. Spinola +had learnt his business from Maurice, and was a worthy pupil.</p> + +<p>All through 1606 the game of intrigue was going on without any great +advance or advantage to anyone. But while the Dutch had been campaigning in +the Netherlands, they had also been establishing themselves in the Spice +Islands, and in 1607 the rise of the United Provinces as a sea-power +received emphatic demonstration in a great fight off Gibraltar. The +disparity in size between the Spanish and Dutch vessels was enormous, but +the victory was overwhelming. Not a Dutch ship was lost, and the Spanish +fleet, which had viewed their approach with laughter, was annihilated. The +name of Heemskerk, the Dutch admiral who inspired the battle, and lost his +life at its beginning, is enrolled among those of the nation's heroes.</p> + +<p>This event had greatly stimulated the desire of the archduke for an +armistice, which had been in process of negotiation. With the old king +negotiation had been futile, since there was no prospect of his ever +conceding the minimum requirements of the provinces. Now, Spain had reached +a different position, and Spinola himself required a far heavier +expenditure than she was prepared for as the alternative to a peace on the +<i>uti possidetis</i> basis. In the provinces, however, Barneveld and +Maurice were in antagonism; but an armistice was established and extended, +while solemn negotiations went on at The Hague in the beginning of 1608. +The proposals accepted next year implied virtually the recognition of the +Dutch republic as an independent nation, though nominally there was only a +truce for twelve years. The practical effect was to secure not only +independence but religious liberty, and the form implied the independence +and security of the Indian trade and even of the West Indian trade. So, in +1609 the Dutch republic took its place among the European powers.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='MOUNTSTUART_ELPHINSTONE'></a>MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_History_of_India'></a>The History of India</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Mountstuart Elphinstone was born in October 1779, and +joined the Bengal service in 1795, some three years before the arrival in +India of Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquess Wellesley. He continued in +the Indian service till 1829, and was offered but refused the Governor +Generalship. The last thirty years of his life he passed in comparative +retirement in England, and died in November, 1859, at Hook Wood. He was one +of the particularly brilliant group of British administrators in India in +the first quarter of the last century. Like his colleagues, Munro and +Malcolm, he was a keen student of Indian History. And although some of his +views require to be modified in the light of more recent enquiry, his +"History of India" published in 1841 is still the standard authority from +the earliest times to the establishment of the British as a territorial +power. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--The Hindus</i></h3> + + +<p>India is crossed from East to West by a chain of mountains called the +Vindhyas. The country to the North of this chain is now called Hindustan +and that to the South of it the Deckan. Hindustan is in four natural +divisions; the valley of the Indus including the Panjab, the basin of the +Ganges, Rajputana and Central India. Neither Bengal nor Guzerat is included +in Hindustan power. The rainy season lasts from June to October while the +South West wind called the Monsoon is blowing.</p> + +<p>Every Hindu history must begin with the code of Menu which was probably +drawn up in the 9th century B.C. In the society described, the first +feature that strikes us is the division into four castes--the sacerdotal, +the military, the industrial, and the servile. The Bramin is above all +others even kings. In theory he is excluded from the world during three +parts of his life. In practice he is the instructor of kings, the +interpreter of the military class; the king, his ministers, and the +soldiers. Third are the Veisyas who conduct all agricultural and industrial +operations; and fourth the Sudras who are outside the pale.</p> + +<p>The king stands at the head of the Government with a Bramin for chief +Counsellor. Elaborate rules and regulations are laid down in the code as to +administration, taxation, foreign policy, and war. Land perhaps but not +certainly was generally held in common by village communities.</p> + +<p>The king himself administers justice or deputes that work to Bramins. +The criminal code is extremely rude; no proportion is observed between the +crime and the penalty, and offences against Bramins or religion are +excessively penalised. In the civil law the rules of evidence are vitiated +by the admission of sundry excuses for perjury. Marriage is indissoluble. +The regulations on this subject and on inheritance are elaborate and +complicated.</p> + +<p>The religion is drawn from the sacred books called the Vedas, compiled +in a very early form of Sanskrit. There is one God, the supreme spirit, who +created the universe including the inferior deities. The whole creation is +re-absorbed and re-born periodically. The heroes of the later Hindu +Pantheon do not appear. The religious observances enjoined are infinite; +but the eating of flesh is not prohibited. At this date, however, moral +duties are still held of higher account than ceremonial.</p> + +<p>Immense respect is enjoined for immemorial customs as being the root of +all piety. The distinction between the three superior or "Twice Born" +classes points to the conclusion that they were a conquering people and +that the servile classes were the subdued Aborigines. It remains to be +proved, however, that the conquerors were not indigenous. The system might +have come into being as a natural growth, without the hypothesis of an +external invasion.</p> + +<p>The Bramins claim that they alone now have preserved their lineage in +its purity. The Rajputs, however, claim to be pure Cshatriyas. In the main +the Bramin rules of life have been greatly relaxed. The castes below the +Cshatriyas have now become extremely mixed and extremely numerous; a +servile caste no longer exists. A man who loses caste is excluded both from +all the privileges of citizenship and all the amenities of private life. As +a rule, however, the recovery of caste by expiation is an easy matter. The +institution of Monastic Orders scarcely seems to be a thousand years +old.</p> + +<p>Menu's administrative regulations have similarly lost their uniformity. +The township or village community, however, has survived. It is a +self-governing unit with its own officials, for the most part hereditary. +In large parts of India the land within the community is regarded as the +property of a group of village landowners, who constitute the township, the +rest of the inhabitants being their tenants. The tenants whether they hold +from the landowners or from the Government are commonly called Ryots. An +immense proportion of the produce, or its equivalent, has to be paid to the +State. The Zenindars who bear a superficial likeness to English landlords +were primarily the Government officials to whom these rents were farmed. +Tenure by military service bearing some resemblance to the European feudal +system is found in the Rajput States. The code of Menu is still the basis +of the Hindu jurisprudence.</p> + +<p>Religion has been greatly modified. Monotheism has been supplanted by a +gross Polytheism, by the corruption of symbolism. At the head are the Triad +Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the preserver, Siva the destroyer. Fourteen more +principal deities may be enumerated. To them must be added their female +Consorts. Many of the Gods are held to be incarnations of Vishnu or Siva. +Further, there is a vast host of spirits and demons, good or evil. By far +the most numerous sect is that of the followers of Devi the spouse of Siva. +The religions of the Buddhists and the Jains though differing greatly from +the Hindu seemed to have the same origin.</p> + +<p>The five languages of Hindustan are of Sanscrit origin, belonging to the +Indo-European family. Of the Deckan languages, two are mixed, while the +other three have no connection with Sanscrit.</p> + +<p>From Menu's code it is clear that there was an open trade between the +different parts of India. References to the sea seemed to prove that a +coasting trade existed. Maritime trade was probably in the hands of the +Arabs. The people of the East Coast were more venturesome sailors than +those of the West. The Hindus certainly made settlements in Java. There are +ten nations in India which differ from each other as much as do the nations +of Europe, and also resemble each other in much the same degree. The +physical contrast between the Hindustanis and the Bengalis is complete; +their languages are as near akin and as mutually unintelligible as English +and German, yet in religion, in their notions on Government, in very much +of their way of life, they are indistinguishable to the European.</p> + +<p>Indian widows sometimes sacrifice themselves on the husband's funeral +pile. Such a victim is called Sati. It is uncertain when the custom was +first introduced, but, evidently it existed before the Christian era.</p> + +<p>A curious feature is that as there are castes for all trades, so there +are hereditary thief castes. Hired watchmen generally belong to these +castes on a principle which is obvious. The mountaineers of Central India +are a different race from the dwellers in the plain. They appear to have +been aboriginal inhabitants before the Hindu invasion. The mountaineers of +the Himalayas are in race more akin to the Chinese.</p> + +<p>Established Hindu chronology is found in the line of Magadha. We can fix +the King Ajata Satru, who ruled, in the time of Gotama, in the middle of +the sixth century B.C. Some generations later comes +Chandragupta--undoubtedly the Sandracottus of Diodorus. The early legend +apparently begins to give place to real history with Rama, who certainly +invaded the Deckan. He would seem to have been a king in Oudh. The next +important event is the war of the Maha Bharata, probably in the fourteenth +century B.C. Soon after the main seat of Government seems to have +transferred to Delhi. The kingdom of Magadha next assumes a commanding +position though its rulers long before Chandragupta were of low caste. Of +these kings the greatest is Asoka, three generations after Chandragupta. +There was certainly no lord paramount of India at the time of Alexander's +invasion. Nothing points to any effective universal Hindu Empire, though +such an empire is claimed for various kings at intervals until the +beginning of the Mahometan invasions.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Mahometan Conquest</i></h3> + + +<p>The wave of Mahometan conquest was, in course of time, to sweep into +India. By the end of the seventh century the Arabs were forcing their way +to Cabul 664 A.D. At the beginning of the next century Sindh was overrun +and Multan was captured; nevertheless, no extended conquest was as yet +attempted. After the reign of the Calif Harun al Raschid at Bagdad the +Eastern rulers fell upon evil days. Towards the end of the tenth century a +satrapy was established at Ghazni and in the year 1001 Mahmud of Ghazni, +having declared his independence, began his series of invasions. On his +fourth expedition Mahmud met with a determined resistance from a +confederacy of Hindu princes. A desperate battle was fought and won by him +near Peshawer. Mahmud made twelve expeditions into India altogether, on one +of which he carried off the famous gates of Somnat; but he was content to +leave subordinate governors in the Punjab and at Guzerat and never sought +to organise an empire. During his life Mahmud was incomparably the greatest +ruler in Asia.</p> + +<p>After his death the rulers of Ghazni were unable to maintain a +consistent supremacy. It was finally overthrown by Ala ud din of Ghor. His +nephew, Shahab ud din, was the real founder of the Mahometan Empire in +India. The princes of the house of Ghazni who had taken refuge in the +Punjab and Guzarat were overthrown and thus the only Mahometan rivals were +removed. On his first advance against the Rajput kingdom of Delhi, he was +routed; but a second invasion was successful, and a third carried his arms +to Behar and even Bengal.</p> + +<p>On the death of Shahab ud din, his new and vast Indian dominion became +independent under his general Kutb ud din, who had begun life as a slave. +The dynasty was carried on by another slave Altamish. Very soon after this +the Mongol Chief Chengiz Khan devastated half the world, but left India +comparatively untouched. Altamish established the Mahometan rule of Delhi +over all Hindustan. This series of rulers, known as the slave kings, was +brought to an end after eighty-two years by the establishment of the Khilji +dynasty in 1288 by the already aged Jelal ud din. His nephew and chief +Captain Ala ud din opened a career of conquest, invading the Deckan even +before he secured the throne for himself by assassinating his uncle. In +fact, he extended his dominion over almost the whole of India in spite of +frequent rebellions and sundry Mongol incursions all successfully repressed +or dispersed. In 1321 the Khilji dynasty was overthrown by the House of +Tughlak.</p> + +<p>The second prince of this house, Mahomet Tughlak, was a very remarkable +character. Possessed of extraordinary accomplishments, learned, temperate, +and brave, he plunged upon wholly irrational and inpracticable schemes of +conquest which were disastrous in themselves and also from the methods to +which the monarch was driven to procure the means for his wild attempts. +One portion after another of the vast empire broke into revolt and at the +end of the century the dynasty was overturned and the empire shattered by +the terrific invasion of Tamerlane the Tartar. It was not till the middle +of the seventeenth century that the Lodi dynasty established itself at +Delhi and ruled not without credit for nearly seventy years. The last ruler +of this house was Ibrahim, a man who lacked the worthy qualities of his +predecessors. And in 1526 Ibrahim fell before the conquering arms of the +mighty Baber, the founder of the Mogul dynasty.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--Baber and Aber</i></h3> + + +<p>Baber was a descendant of Tamerlane. He himself was a Turk, but his +mother was a Mongol; hence the familiar title of the dynasty known as the +Moguls. Succeeding to the throne of Ferghana at the age of twelve the great +conqueror's youth was full of romantic vicissitudes, of sharp reverses and +brilliant achievements. He was only four and twenty when he succeeded in +making himself master of Cabul. He was forty-four, when with a force of +twelve thousand men he shattered the huge armies of Ibrahim at Panipat and +made himself master of Delhi. His conquests were conducted on what might +almost be called principles of knight errantry. His greatest victories were +won against overwhelming odds, at the head of followers who were resolved +to conquer or die. And in three years he had conquered all Hindustan. His +figure stands out with an extraordinary fascination, as an Oriental +counterpart of the Western ideal of chivalry; and his autobiography is an +absolutely unique record presenting the almost sole specimen of real +history in Asia.</p> + +<p>But Baber died before he could organise his empire and his son Humayun +was unable to hold what had been won. An exceedingly able Mahometan Chief, +Shir Khan, raised the standard of revolt, made himself master of Behar and +Bengal, drove Humayun out of Hindustan, and established himself under the +title of Shir Shah. His reign was one of conspicuous ability. It was not +till he had been dead for many years that Humayun was able to recover his +father's dominion. Indeed, he himself fell before victory was achieved. The +restoration was effected in the name of his young son Akber, a boy of +thirteen, by the able general and minister, Bairam Khan, at the victory of +Panipat in 1556. The long reign of Akber initiates a new era.</p> + +<p>Two hundred years before this time the Deckan had broken free from the +Delhi dominion. But no unity and no supremacy was permanently established +in the southern half of India where, on the whole, Mahometan dynasties now +held the ascendancy. Rajputana on the other hand, which the Delhi monarchs +had never succeeded in bringing into complete subjection, remained purely +Hindu under the dominion of a variety of rajahs.</p> + +<p>The victory of Panipat was decisive. Naturally enough, Bairam assumed +complete control of the State. His rule was able, but harsh and arrogant. +After three years the boy king of a sudden coup d'état assumed the +reins of Government. Perhaps it was fortunate for both that the fallen +minister was assassinated by a personal enemy.</p> + +<p>Of all the dynasties that had ruled in India that of Baber was the most +insecure in its foundations. It was without any means of support throughout +the great dominion which stretched from Cabul to Bengal. The boy of +eighteen had a tremendous task before him. Perhaps it was this very +weakness which suggested to Akber the idea of giving his power a new +foundation by setting himself at the head of an Indian nation, and forming +the inhabitants of his vast dominion, without distinction of race or +religion, into a single community. Swift and sudden in action, the young +monarch broke down one after another the attempts of subordinates to free +themselves from his authority. By the time that he was twenty-five he had +already crushed his adversaries by his vigour or attached them by his +clemency. The next steps were the reduction of Rajputana, Ghuzerat and +Bengal; and when this was accomplished Akber's sway extended over the whole +of India north of the Deckan, to which was added Kashmir and what we now +call Afghanistan. Akber had been on the throne for fifty years before he +was able to intervene actively in the Deckan and to bring a great part of +it under his sway.</p> + +<p>But the great glory of Akber lies not in the conquests which made the +Mogul Empire the greatest hitherto known in India, but in that empire's +organisation and administration. Akber Mahometanism was of the most +latitudinarian type. His toleration was complete. He had practically no +regard for dogma, while deeply imbued with the spirit of religion. In +accordance with his liberal principles Hinduism was no bar to the highest +offices. In theory his philosophy was not new, though it was so in +practical application.</p> + +<p>None of his reforms are more notable than the revenue system carried out +by his Hindu minister, Todar Mal, itself a development of a system +initiated by Shir Shah. His empire was divided into fifteen provinces, each +under a viceroy under the control of the king himself. Great as a warrior +and great as an administrator Akber always enjoyed abundant leisure for +study and amusement. He excelled in all exercises of strength and skill; +his history is filled with instances of romantic courage, and he had a +positive enjoyment of danger. Yet he had no fondness for war, which he +neither sought nor continued without good reason.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Mogul Empire</i></h3> + + +<p>Akber died in 1605 and was succeeded by his son Selim, who took the +title of Jehan Gir. The Deckan, hardly subdued, achieved something like +independence under a great soldier and administrator of Abyssinian origin, +named Malik Amber. In the sixth year of his reign Jehan Gir married the +beautiful Nur Jehan, by whose influence the emperor's natural brutality was +greatly modified in practice. His son, Prince Khurram, later known as Shah +Jehan, distinguished himself in war with the Rajputs, displaying a +character not unworthy of his grandfather. In 1616 the embassy of Sir +Thomas Roe from James I visited the Court of the Great Mogul. Sir Thomas +was received with great honour, and is full of admiration of Jehan Gir's +splendour. It is clear, however, that the high standards set up by Akber +were fast losing their efficacy.</p> + +<p>Jehan Gir died in 1627 and was succeeded by Shah Jehan. Much of his +reign was largely occupied with wars in the Deckan and beyond the northwest +frontier on which the emperor's son Aurangzib was employed. Most of the +Deckan was brought into subjection, but Candahar was finally lost. Shah +Jehan was the most magnificent of all the Moguls. In spite of his wars, +Hindustan itself enjoyed uninterrupted tranquillity, and on the whole, a +good Government. It was he who constructed the fabulously magnificent +peacock throne, built Delhi anew, and raised the most exquisite of all +Indian buildings, the Taj Mahal or Pearl Mosque, at Agre. After a reign of +thirty years he was deposed by his son Aurangzib, known also as Alam +Gir.</p> + +<p>Aurangzib had considerable difficulty in securing his position by the +suppression of rivals; but our interest now centres in the Deckan, where +the Maratta people were organised into a new power by the redoubtable +Sivaji. Though some of the Marattas claim Rajput descent, they are of low +caste. They have none of the pride or dignity of the Rajput, and they care +nothing for the point of honour; but they are active, hardy, persevering, +and cunning. Sivaji was the son of a distinguished soldier named Shahji, in +the service of the King of Bijapur. By various artifices young Sivaji +brought a large area under his control. Then he revolted against Bijapur, +posing as a Hindu leader. He wrung for himself a sort of independence from +Bijapur. His proceedings attracted the attention of Aurangzib, who, +however, did not immediately realise how dangerous the Maratta was to +become. Himself occupied in other parts of the empire, Aurangzib left +lieutenants to deal with Sivaji; and since he never trusted a lieutenant, +the forces at their disposal were insufficient or were divided under +commanders who were engaged as much in thwarting each other as in +endeavouring to crush the common foe. Hence the vigorous Sivaji was enabled +persistently to consolidate his organisation.</p> + +<p>At the same time Aurangzib was departing from the traditions of his +house and acting as a bigoted champion of Islam; differentiating between +his Mussulman subjects and the Hindus so as completely to destroy that +national unity which it had been the aim of his predecessors to establish. +The result was a Rajput revolt and the permanent alienation of the Rajputs +from the Mogul Government.</p> + +<p>In spite of these difficulties Aurangzib renewed operations against +Sivaji, to which the Maratta retorted by raiding expeditions in Hindustan; +whereby he hoped to impress on the Mogul the advisability of leaving him +alone; his object being to organise a great dominion in the Deckan--a +dominion largely based on his championship of Hinduism as against +Mahometanism. When Sivaji died, in 1680, his son Sambaji proved a much less +competent successor; but the Maratta power was already established. +Aurangzib directed his arms not so much against the Marattas as to the +overthrow of the great kingdoms of the Deckan. When he turned against the +Marattas, they met his operations by the adoption of guerrilla tactics, to +which the Maratta country was eminently adapted. Most of Aurangzib's last +years were occupied in these campaigns. The now aged emperor's industry and +determination were indefatigable, but he was hopelessly hampered by his +constitutional inability to trust in the most loyal of his servants. He had +deposed his own father and lived in dread that his son Moazzim would treat +him in the same fashion. He died in 1707 in the eighty-ninth year of his +life and the fiftieth of his reign. In the eyes of Mahometans this +fanatical Mahometan was the greatest of his house. But his rule, in fact, +initiated the disintegration of the Mogul Empire. He had failed to +consolidate the Mogul supremacy in the Deckan, and he had revived the old +religious antagonism between Mahometans and Hindus.</p> + +<p>Prince Moazzim succeeded under the title of Bahadur Shah. Dissensions +among the Marattas enabled him to leave the Deckan in comparative peace to +the charge of Daud Khan. He hastened also to make peace with the Rajputs; +but he was obliged to move against a new power which had arisen in the +northwest, that of the Sikhs. Primarily a sort of reformed sect of the +Hindus the Sikhs were converted by persecution into a sort of religious and +military brotherhood under their Guru or prophet, Govind. They were too few +to make head against the power of the empire, but they could only be +scattered, not destroyed; and in later days were to assume a great +prominence in Indian affairs. A detailed account of the incompetent +successors of Bahadur Shah would be superfluous. The outstanding features +of the period was the disintegration of the central Government and the +development in the south of two powers; that of the Marattas and that of +Asaf Jah, the successor of Daud Khan, and the first of the Nizams of the +Deckan. The supremacy among the Marattas passed to the Peshwas, the Bramin +Ministers of the successors of Sivaji, who established a dynasty very much +like that of the Mayors of the Palace in the Frankish Kingdom of the +Merovingians. But the final blow to the power of the Moguls was struck by +the tremendous invasion of Nadir Shah the Persian, in 1739, when Delhi was +sacked and its richest treasures carried away; though the Persian departed +still leaving the emperor nominal Suzerian of India. Before twenty years +were past the greatest of all revolutions in India affairs had taken place; +and Robert Clive had made himself master of Bengal in the name of the +British East India Company.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='VOLTAIRE2'></a>VOLTAIRE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='Russia_Under_Peter_the_Great'></a>Russia Under Peter the +Great</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> François Marie Arouet, known to the world by the +assumed name of Voltaire (supposed to be an anagram of Arou[v]et l[e] +j[eun]), was born in Paris on November 21, 1694. Before he was twenty-two, +his caustic pen had got him into trouble. At thirty-one, when he was +already famous for his drama, "OEdipe," as well as for audacious lampoons, +he was obliged to retreat to England, where he remained some three years. +Various publications during the years following his return placed him among +the foremost French writers of the day. From 1750 to 1753 he was with +Frederick the Great in Prussia. When the two quarrelled, Voltaire settled +in Switzerland and in 1758 established himself at Ferney, about the time +when he published "Candide." His "Siècle de Louis Quatorze" (see +<i>ante</i>) had appeared some years earlier. In 1762 he began a series of +attacks on the Church and Christianity; and he continued to reign, a sort +of king of literature, till his death, in Paris on May 30, 1778. An +admirable criticism of him is to be found in Morley's "Voltaire"; but the +great biography is that of Desnoiresterres. His "Russia under Peter the +Great" was written after Voltaire took up his residence at Ferney in 1758. +This epitome is prepared from the French text. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--All the Russias</i></h3> + + +<p>When, about the beginning of the present century, the Tsar Peter laid +the foundations of Petersburg, or, rather, of his empire, no one foresaw +his success. Anyone who then imagined that a Russian sovereign would be +able to send victorious fleets to the Dardanelles, to subjugate the Crimea, +to clear the Turks out of four great provinces, to dominate the Black Sea, +to set up the most brilliant court in Europe, and to make all the arts +flourish in the midst of war--anyone expressing such an idea would have +passed for a mere dreamer. Peter the Great built the Russian Empire on a +foundation firm and lasting.</p> + +<p>That empire is the most extensive in our hemisphere. Poland, the Arctic +Ocean, Sweden, and China lie on its boundaries. It is so vast that when it +is mid-day at its western extremity it is nearly midnight at the eastern. +It is larger than all the rest of Europe, than the Roman Empire, than the +empire of Darius which Alexander conquered. But it will take centuries, and +many more such Tsars as Peter, to render that territory populous, +productive, and covered with cities, like the northern lands of Europe.</p> + +<p>The province nearest to our own realms is Livonia, long a heathen +region. Tsar Peter conquered it from the Swedes.</p> + +<p>To the north is the province of Revel and Esthonia, also conquered from +the Swedes by Peter. The Gulf of Finland borders Esthonia; and here at this +junction of the Neva and Lake Ladoga is the city of Petersburg, the +youngest and the fairest of the cities of the empire, built by Peter in +spite of a mass of obstacles. Northward, again, is Archangel, which the +English discovered in 1533, with the result that the commerce fell entirely +into their hands and those of the Dutch. On the west of Archangel is +Russian Lapland. Then, ascending the Dwina from the coast, we arrive at the +territories of Moscow, long the centre of the empire. A century ago Moscow +was without the ordinary amenities of civilisation, though it could display +an Oriental profusion on state occasions.</p> + +<p>West of Moscow is Smolensk, recovered from the Poles by Peter's father +Alexis. Between Petersburg and Smolensk is Novgorod; south of Smolensk is +Kiev or Little Russia; and Red Russia, or the Ukraine, watered by the +Dnieper, the Borysthenes of the Greeks--the country of the Cossacks. +Between the Dnieper and the Don northwards is Belgorod; then Nischgorod, +then Astrakan, the march of Asia and Europe with Kazan, recovered from the +Tartar empire of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane by Ivan Vasilovitch. Siberia is +peopled by Samoeides and Ostiaks, and its southern regions by hordes of +Tartars--like the Turks and Mongols, descendants of the ancient Scythians. +At the limit of Siberia is Kamschatka.</p> + +<p>Throughout this vast but thinly populated empire the manners and customs +are Asiatic rather than European. As the Janissaries control the Turkish +government, so the Strelitz Guards used to dispose of the throne. +Christianity was not established till late in the tenth century, in the +Greek form, and liberated from the control of the Greek Patriarch, a +subject of the Grand Turk, in 1588.</p> + +<p>Before Peter's day, Russia had neither the power, the cultivated +territories, the subjects, nor the revenues which she now enjoys. She had +no foothold in Livonia or Finland, little or no control over the Cossacks +or in Astrakan. The White, Black, Baltic, and Caspian seas were of no use +to a nation which had not even a name for a fleet. She had to place herself +on a level with the cultivated nations, though she was without knowledge of +the science of war by land or sea, and almost of the rudiments of +manufacture and agriculture, to say nothing of the fine arts. Her sons were +even forbidden to learn by travel; she seemed to have condemned herself to +eternal ignorance. Then Peter was born, and Russia was created.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--At the School of Europe</i></h3> + + +<p>It was owing to a series of dynastic revolutions and usurpations that +young Michael Romanoff, Peter's grandfather, was chosen Tsar at the age of +fifteen, in 1613. He was succeeded in 1645 by his son, Alexis +Michaelovitch. Alexis, in his wars with Poland, recovered from her +Smolensk, Kiev, and the Ukraine. He waged war with the Turk in aid of +Poland, introduced manufactures, and codified the laws, proving himself a +worthy sire for Peter the Great; but he died in 1677 too soon--he was but +forty-six--to complete the work he had begun. He was succeeded by his +eldest son, Feodor. There was a second, Ivan; and Peter, not five years +old, the child of his second marriage. Dying five years later, Feodor named +Peter his successor. An elder sister, Sophia, intrigued to place the +incapable Ivan on the throne instead, as her own puppet, by the aid of the +turbulent Strelitz Guard. After a series of murders, the Strelitz +proclaimed Ivan and Peter joint sovereigns, associating Sophia with them as +co-regent.</p> + +<p>Sophia ruled with the aid of an able minister, Gallitzin. But she formed +a conspiracy against Peter, who, however, made his escape, rallied his +supporters, crushed the conspiracy, and secured his position as Autocrat of +the Russias, being then in his seventeenth year (1689).</p> + +<p>Peter not only set himself to repair his neglected education by the +study of German and Dutch, and an instinctive horror of water by resolutely +plunging himself into it; he developed an immediate interest in boats and +shipping, and promptly set about organising a disciplined force, destined +for use against the Strelitz. The nucleus was his personal regiment, called +the Preobazinsky. He had already a corps of foreigners, under the command +of a Scot named Gordon. Another foreigner, Le Fort, on whom he relied, +raised and disciplined another corps, and was made admiral of the infant +fleet which he began to construct on the Don for use against the Crim +Tartars.</p> + +<p>His first political measure was to effect a treaty with China, his next +an expedition for the subjugation of the Tartars of Azov. Gordon and Le +Fort, with their two corps and other forces, marched on Azov in 1695. Peter +accompanied, but did not command, the army. Unsuccessful at first, his +purpose was effected in 1696; Azov was conquered, and a fleet placed on its +sea. He celebrated a triumph in Roman fashion at Moscow; and then, not +content with despatching a number of young men to Italy and elsewhere to +collect knowledge, he started on his travels himself.</p> + +<p>As one of the suite of an embassy he passed through Livonia and Germany +till he arrived at Amsterdam, where he worked as a hand at shipbuilding. He +also studied surgery at this time, and incidentally paid a visit to William +of Orange at The Hague. Early next year he visited England, formally, +lodging at Deptford, and continuing his training in naval construction. +Thence, and from Holland, he collected mathematicians, engineers, and +skilled workmen. Finally, he returned to Russia by way of Vienna, to +establish satisfactory relations with the emperor, his natural and +necessary ally against the Turk.</p> + +<p>Peter had made his arrangements for Russia during his absence. Gordon +with his corps was at Moscow; the Strelitz were distributed in Astrakan and +Azov, where some successful operations were carried out. Nevertheless, +sedition raised its head. Insurrection was checked by Gordon, but +disaffection remained. Reappearing unexpectedly, he punished the mutinous +Strelitz mercilessly, and that body was entirely done away with. New +regiments were created on the German model; and he then set about +reorganising the finances, reforming the political position of the Church, +destroying the power of the higher clergy, and generally introducing more +enlightened customs from western Europe.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--War with Sweden</i></h3> + + +<p>In 1699, the sultan was obliged to conclude a peace at Carlovitz, to the +advantage of all the powers with whom he had been at war. This set Peter +free on the side of Sweden. The youth of Charles XII. tempted Peter to the +recovery of the Baltic provinces. He set about the siege of Riga and Narva. +But Charles, in a series of marvellous operations, raised the siege of +Riga, and dispersed or captured the very much greater force before Narva in +November 1700.</p> + +<p>The continued successes of Charles did not check Peter's determination +to maintain Augustus of Saxony and Poland against him. It was during the +subsequent operations against Charles's lieutenants in Livonia that +Catherine--afterwards to become Peter's empress--was taken prisoner.</p> + +<p>The Tsar continued to press forward his social reforms at Moscow, and +his naval and military programmes. His fleet was growing on Lake Ladoga. In +its neighbourhood was the important Swedish fortress of Niantz, which he +captured in May 1703; after which he resolved to establish the town which +became Petersburg, where the Neva flows into the Gulf of Finland; and +designed the fortifications of Cronstadt, which were to render it +impregnable. The next step was to take Narva, where he had before been +foiled. The town fell on August 20, 1704; when Peter, by his personal +exertions, checked the violence of his soldiery.</p> + +<p>Menzikoff, a man of humble origin, was now made governor of Ingria. In +June 1705, a formidable attempt of the Swedes to destroy the rapidly rising +Petersburg and Cronstadt was completely repulsed. A Swedish victory, under +Lewenhaupt, at Gemavers, in Courland, was neutralised by the capture of +Mittau. But Poland was now torn from Augustus, and Charles's nominee, +Stanislaus, was king. Denmark had been forced into neutrality; exaggerated +reports of the defeat at Gemavers had once more stirred up the remnants of +the old Strelitz. Nevertheless, Peter, before the end of the year, was as +secure as ever.</p> + +<p>In 1706, Augustus was reduced to a formal abdication and recognition of +Stanislaus as King of Poland; and Patkul, a Livonian, Peter's ambassador at +Dresden, was subsequently delivered to Charles and put to death, to the +just wrath of Peter. In October, the Russians, under Menzikoff, won their +first pitched battle against the Swedes, a success which did not save +Patkul.</p> + +<p>In February 1708, Charles himself was once more in Lithuania, at the +head of an army. But his advance towards Moscow was disputed at +well-selected points, and even his victory at Hollosin was a proof that the +Russians had now learned how to fight.</p> + +<p>When Charles reached the Dnieper, he unexpectedly marched to unite with +Mazeppa in the Ukraine, instead of continuing his advance on Moscow. +Menzikoff intercepted Lewenhaupt on the march with a great convoy to join +Charles, and that general was only able to cut his way through with 5,000 +of his force. Mazeppa's own movement was crushed, and he only joined +Charles as a fugitive, not an ally. Charles's desperate operations need not +be followed. It suffices to say that in May 1709, he had opened the siege +of Pultawa, by the capture of which he counted that the road to Moscow +would lie open to him.</p> + +<p>Here the decisive battle was fought on July 12. The dogged patience with +which Peter had turned every defeat into a lesson in the art of war met +with its reward. The Swedish army was shattered; Charles, prostrated by a +wound, was himself carried into safety across the Turkish frontier. Peter's +victory was absolutely decisive and overwhelming; and what it meant was the +civilising of a territory till then barbarian. Its effects in other +European countries, including the recovery of the Polish crown by Augustus, +are pointed out in the history of Charles XII. The year 1710 witnessed the +capture of a series of Swedish provinces in the Baltic provinces; and the +Swedish forces in Pomerania were neutralised.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Expansion of Russia</i></h3> + + +<p>Now the Sultan Ahmed III. declared war on Peter; not for the sake of his +guest, Charles XII., but because of Peter's successes in Azov, his new port +of Taganrog, and his ships on the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. He +outraged international law by throwing the Russian envoy and his suite into +prison. Peter at once left his Swedish campaign to advance his armies +against Turkey.</p> + +<p>Before leaving Moscow he announced his marriage with the Livonian +captive, Catherine, whom he had secretly made his wife in 1707. Apraksin +was sent to take the supreme command by land and sea. Cantemir, the +hospodar of Moldavia, promised support, for his own ends.</p> + +<p>The Turkish vizier, Baltagi Mehemet, had already crossed the Danube, and +was marching up the Pruth with 100,000 men. Peter's general Sheremetof was +in danger of being completely hemmed in when Peter crossed the Dnieper, +Catherine stoutly refusing to leave the army. No help came from Cantemir, +and supplies were running short. The Tsar was too late to prevent the +passage of the Pruth by the Turks, who were now on his lines of +communication; and he found himself in a trap, without supplies, and under +the Turkish guns. When he attempted to withdraw, the Turkish force +attacked, but were brilliantly held at bay by the Russian rear-guard.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the situation was desperate. It was Catherine who saved +it. At her instigation, terms--accompanied by the usual gifts--were +proposed to the vizier; and, for whatever reason, the vizier was satisfied +to conclude a peace then and there. He was probably unconscious of the +extremities to which Peter was reduced. Azov was to be retroceded, +Taganrog, and other forts, dismantled; the Tsar was not to interfere in +Poland, and Charles was to be allowed a free return to his own dominions. +The hopes of Charles were destroyed, and he was reduced to intriguing at +the Ottoman court.</p> + +<p>Peter carried out some of the conditions of the Pruth treaty. The more +important of them he successfully evaded for some time. The treaty, +however, was confirmed six months later. But the Pruth affair was a more +serious check to the Tsar than even Narva had been, for it forced him to +renounce the dominion of the Black Sea. He turned his attention to +Pomerania, though the injuries his health had suffered drove him to take +the waters at Carlsbad.</p> + +<p>His object was to drive the Swedes out of their German territories, and +confine them to Scandinavia; and to this end he sought alliance with +Hanover, Brandenburg, and Denmark. About this time he married his son +Alexis (born to him by his first wife) to the sister of the German Emperor; +and proceeded to ratify by formal solemnities his own espousal to +Catherine.</p> + +<p>Charles might have saved himself by coming out of Turkey, buying the +support of Brandenburg by recognising her claim on Stettin, and accepting +the sacrifice of his own claim to Poland, which Stanislaus was ready to +make for his sake. He would not. Russians, Saxons, and Danes were now +acting in concert against the Swedes in Pomerania. A Swedish victory over +the Danes and Gadebesck and the burning of Altona were of no real avail. +The victorious general not long after was forced to surrender with his +whole army. Stettin capitulated on condition of being transferred to +Prussia. Stralsund was being besieged by Russians and Saxons; Hanover was +in possession of Bremen and Verden; and Peter was conquering Finland, when, +at last, Charles suddenly reappeared at Stralsund, in November 1715. But +the brilliant naval operation by which Peter captured the Isle of Aland had +already secured Finland.</p> + +<p>During the last three years a new figure had risen to prominence, the +ingenious, ambitious and intriguing Baron Gortz, who was now to become the +chief minister and guide of the Swedes. Under his influence, Charles's +hostility was now turned in other directions than against Russia, and Peter +was favourably inclined towards the opening of a new chapter in his +relations with Sweden, since he had made himself master of Ingria, Finland, +Livonia, Esthonia, and Carelia. The practical suspension of hostilities +enabled Peter to start on a second European tour, while Charles, driven at +last from Weimar and Stralsund--all that was left him south of the +Baltic--was planning the invasion of Norway.</p> + +<p>During this tour the Tsar passed three months in Holland, his old school +in the art of naval construction; and while he was there intrigues were on +foot which threatened to revolutionise Europe. Gortz had conceived the +design of allying Russia and Sweden, restoring Stanislaus in Poland, +recovering Bremen and Verden from Hanover, and finally of rejecting the +Hanoverian Elector from his newly acquired sovereignty in Great Britain by +restoring the Stuarts. Spain, now controlled by Alberoni, was to be the +third power concerned in effecting this <i>bouleversement</i>, which +involved the overthrow of the regency of Orleans in France.</p> + +<p>The discovery of this plot, through the interception of some letters +from Gortz, led to the arrest of Gortz in Holland, and of the Swedish +ambassador, Gyllemborg, in London. Peter declined to commit himself. His +reception when he went to Paris was eminently flattering; but an attempt to +utilise it for a reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches was a complete +failure. The Gortz plot had entirely collapsed before Peter returned to +Russia.</p> + + +<h3><i>V.--Peter the Great</i></h3> + + +<p>Peter had been married in his youth to Eudoxia Feodorovna Lapoukin. With +every national prejudice, she had stood persistently in the way of his +reforms. In 1696 he had found it necessary to divorce her, and seclude her +in a convent. Alexis, the son born of this marriage in 1690, inherited his +mother's character, and fell under the influence of the most reactionary +ecclesiastics. Politically and morally the young man was a reactionary. He +was embittered, too, by his father's second marriage; and his own marriage, +in 1711, was a hideous failure. His wife, ill-treated, deserted, and +despised, died of wretchedness in 1715. She left a son.</p> + +<p>Peter wrote to Alexis warning him to reform, since he would sooner +transfer the succession to one worthy of it than to his own son if +unworthy. Alexis replied by renouncing all claim to the succession. +Renunciation, Peter answered, was useless. Alexis must either reform, or +give the renunciation reality by becoming a monk. Alexis promised; but when +Peter left Russia, he betook himself to his brother-in-law's court at +Vienna, and then to Naples, which at the time belonged to Austria. Peter +ordered him to return; if he did, he should not be punished; if not, the +Tsar would assuredly find means.</p> + +<p>Alexis obeyed, returned, threw himself at his father's feet. A +reconciliation was reported. But next day Peter arraigned his son before a +council, and struck him out of the succession in favour of Catherine's +infant son Peter. Alexis was then subjected to a series of incredible +interrogations as to what he would or would not have done under +circumstances which had never arisen.</p> + +<p>At the strange trial, prolonged over many months, the 144 judges +unanimously pronounced sentence of death. Catherine herself is said by +Peter to have pleaded for the stepson, whose accession would certainly have +meant her own destruction. Nevertheless, the unhappy prince was executed. +That Peter slew him with his own hand, and that Catherine poisoned him, are +both fables. The real source of the tragedy is to be found in the monks who +perverted the mind of the prince.</p> + +<p>This same year, 1718, witnessed the greatest benefits to Peter's +subjects--in general improvements, in the establishment and perfecting of +manufactures, in the construction of canals, and in the development of +commerce. An extensive commerce was established with China through Siberia, +and with Persia through Astrakan. The new city of Petersburg replaced +Archangel as the seat of maritime intercourse with Europe.</p> + +<p>Peter was now the arbiter of Northern Europe. In May 1724, he had +Catherine crowned and anointed as empress. But he was suffering from a +mental disease, and of this he died, in Catherine's arms, in the following +January, without having definitely nominated a successor. Whether or not it +was his intention, it was upon his wife Catherine that the throne +devolved.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='WH_PRESCOTT'></a>W.H. PRESCOTT</h1> + + +<h2><a name='The_Reign_of_Ferdinand_and_Isabella'></a>The Reign of +Ferdinand and Isabella</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> William Hickling Prescott was born at Salem, Massachusetts, +on May 4, 1796. His first great historical work, "The History of the Reign +of Ferdinand and Isabella," published in 1838, was compiled under +circumstances of extraordinary difficulty. During most of the time of its +composition the author was deprived of sight, and was dependent on having +all documents read to him. Before it was completed he recovered the use of +his eyes, and was able to correct and verify. Nevertheless, the changes +required were few. The "Conquest of Mexico" and "Conquest of Peru" (see +<i>ante</i>) followed at intervals of five and four years, and ten years +later the uncompleted "Philip II." He died in New York on January 28, 1859. +The subjects of this work, Ferdinand and Isabella, were the monarchs who +united the Spanish kingdoms into one nation, ended the Moorish dominion in +Europe, and annexed the New World to Spain, which during the ensuing +century threatened to dominate the states of Christendom. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--Castile and Aragon</i></h3> + + +<p>After the great Saracen invasion, at the beginning of the eighth +century, Spain was broken up into a number of small but independent states. +At the close of the fifteenth century, these were blended into one great +nation. Before this, the numbers had been reduced to four--Castile, Aragon, +Navarre, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada.</p> + +<p>The civil feuds of Castile in the fourteenth century were as fatal to +the nobility as were the English Wars of the Roses. At the close, the power +of the commons was at its zenith. In the long reign of John II., the king +abandoned the government to the control of favourites. The constable, +Alvaro de Luna, sought to appropriate taxing and legislative powers to the +crown. Representation in the cortes was withdrawn from all but eighteen +privileged cities. Politically disastrous, the reign was conspicuous for +John's encouragement of literature, the general intellectual movement, and +the birth of Isabella, three years before John's death.</p> + +<p>The immediate heir to the throne was Isabella's elder half-brother +Henry. Her mother was the Princess of Portugal, so that on both sides she +was descended from John of Gaunt, the father of our Lancastrian line. Both +her childhood and that of Ferdinand of Aragon, a year her junior, were +passed amidst tumultuous scenes of civil war. Henry, good-natured, +incompetent, and debauched, yielded himself to favourites, hence he was +more than once almost rejected from his throne. Old King John II. of Aragon +was similarly engaged in a long civil war, mainly owing to his tyrannous +treatment of his eldest son, Carlos.</p> + +<p>But by 1468 Isabella and Ferdinand were respectively recognised as the +heirs of Castile and Aragon. In spite of her brother, Isabella made +contract of marriage with the heir of Aragon, the instrument securing her +own sovereign rights in Castile, though Henry thereupon nominated another +successor in her place. The marriage was effected under romantic conditions +in October 1469, one circumstance being that the bull of dispensation +permitting the union of cousins within the forbidden degrees was a forgery, +though the fact was unknown at the time to Isabella. The reason of the +forgery was the hostility of the then pope; a dispensation was afterwards +obtained from Sixtus IV. The death of Henry, in December 1474, placed +Isabella and Ferdinand on the throne of Castile.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--Overthrow of the Moorish Dominion</i></h3> + + +<p>Isabella's claim to Castile rested on her recognition by the Cortes; the +rival claimant was a daughter of the deceased king, or at any rate, of his +wife, a Portuguese princess. Alfonso of Portugal supported his niece +Joanna's claim. In March 1476 Ferdinand won the decisive victory of Toro; +but the war of the succession was not definitely terminated by treaty till +1479, some months after Ferdinand had succeeded John on the throne of +Aragon.</p> + +<p>Isabella was already engaged in reorganising the administration of +Castile; first, in respect of justice, and codification of the law; +secondly, by depressing the nobles. A sort of military police, known as the +<i>hermandad</i>, was established. These reforms were carried out with +excellent effect; instead of birth, merit became the primary qualification +for honourable offices. Papal usurpations on ecclesiastical rights were +resisted, trade was regulated, and the standard of coinage restored. The +whole result was to strengthen the crown in a consolidated +constitution.</p> + +<p>Restrained by her natural benevolence and magnanimity, urged forward by +her strong piety and the influence of the Dominican Torquemada, Isabella +assented to the introduction of the Inquisition--aimed primarily at the +Jews--with its corollary of the <i>Auto da fé</i>, of which the +actual meaning is "Act of Faith." Probably 10,220 persons were burnt at the +stake during the eighteen years of Torquemada's ministry.</p> + +<p>Now, however, we come to the great war for the ejection of the Moorish +rule in southern Spain. The Saracen power of Granada was magnificent; the +population was industrious, sober, and had far exceeded the Christian +powers in culture, in research, and in scientific and philosophical +inquiry.</p> + +<p>So soon as Ferdinand and Isabella had established their government in +their joint dominion, they turned to the project of destroying the Saracen +power and conquering its territory. But the attack came from Muley Abul +Hacen, the ruler of Granada, in 1481. Zahara, on the frontier, was captured +and its population carried into slavery. A Spanish force replied by +surprising Alhama. The Moors besieged it in force; it was relieved, but the +siege was renewed. In an unsuccessful attack on Loja, Ferdinand displayed +extreme coolness and courage. A palace intrigue led to the expulsion from +Granada of Abdul Hacen, in favour of his son, Abu Abdallah, or Boabdil. The +war continued with numerous picturesque episodes. A rout of the Spaniards +in the Axarquia was followed by the capture of Boabdil in a rout of the +Moors; he was ransomed, accepting an ignominious treaty, while the war was +maintained against Abdul Hacen.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1487, Malaja fell, after a siege in which signal +heroism was displayed by the Moorish defenders. Since they had refused the +first offers, they now had to surrender at discretion. The entire +population, male and female, were made slaves. The capture of Baza, in +December, after a long and stubborn resistance, was followed by the +surrender of Almeria and the whole province appertaining to it.</p> + +<p>It was not till 1491 that Granada itself was besieged; at the close of +the year it surrendered, on liberal terms. The treaty promised the Moors +liberty to exercise their own religion, customs, and laws, as subjects of +the Spanish monarchy. The Mohammedan power in Western Europe was +extinguished.</p> + +<p>Already Christopher Columbus had been unsuccessfully seeking support for +his great enterprise. At last, in 1492, Isabella was won over. In August, +the expedition sailed--a few months after the cruel edict for the expulsion +of the Jews. In the spring of 1493 came news of his discovery. In May the +bull of Alexander VI. divided the New World and all new lands between Spain +and Portugal.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Italian Wars</i></h3> + + +<p>In the foreign policy, the relations with Europe, which now becomes +prominent, Ferdinand is the moving figure, as Isabella had been within +Spain. In Spain, Portugal, France, and England, the monarchy had now +dominated the old feudalism. Consolidated states had emerged. Italy was a +congeries of principalities and republics. In 1494 Charles VIII. of France +crossed the Alps to assert his title to Naples, where a branch of the royal +family of Aragon ruled. His successor raised up against him the League of +Venice, of which Ferdinand was a member. Charles withdrew, leaving a +viceroy, in 1495. Ferdinand forthwith invaded Calabria.</p> + +<p>The Spanish commander was Gonsalvo de Cordova; who, after a reverse in +his first conflict, for which he was not responsible, never lost a battle. +He had learnt his art in the Moorish war, and the French were demoralised +by his novel tactics. In a year he had earned the title of "The Great +Captain." Calabria submitted in the summer of 1496. The French being +expelled from Naples, a truce was signed early in 1498, which ripened into +a definitive treaty.</p> + +<p>On the death of Cardinal Mendoza, for twenty years the monarchs' chief +minister, his place was taken by Ximenes, whose character presented a rare +combination of talent and virtue; who proceeded to energetic and +much-needed reforms in church discipline.</p> + +<p>Not with the same approbation can we view the zeal with which he devoted +himself to the extermination of heresy. The conversion of the Moors to +Christianity under the régime of the virtuous Archbishop of Granada +was not rapid enough. Ximenes, in 1500, began with great success a +propaganda fortified by liberal presents. Next he made a holocaust of +Arabian MSS. The alarm and excitement caused by measures in clear violation +of treaty produced insurrection; which was calmed down, but was followed by +the virtually compulsory conversion of some fifty thousand Moors.</p> + +<p>This stirred to revolt the Moors of the Alpuxarras hill-country; crushed +with no little difficulty, but great severity, the insurrection broke out +anew on the west of Granada. This time the struggle was savage. When it was +ended the rebels were allowed the alternative of baptism or exile.</p> + +<p>Columbus had returned to the New World in 1493 with great powers; but +administrative skill was not his strong point, and the first batch of +colonists were without discipline. He returned and went out again, this +time with a number of convicts. Matters became worse. A very incompetent +special commissioner, Bobadilla, was sent with extraordinary powers to set +matters right, and he sent Columbus home in chains, to the indignation of +the king and queen. The management of affairs was then entrusted to Ovando, +Columbus following later. It must be observed that the economic results of +the great discovery were not immediately remarkable; but the moral effect +on Europe at large was incalculable.</p> + +<p>On succeeding to the French throne, Louis XII. was prompt to revive the +French claims in Italy (1498); but he agreed with Ferdinand on a partition +of the kingdom of Naples, a remarkable project of robbery. The Great +Captain was despatched to Sicily, and was soon engaged in conquering +Calabria. It was not long, however, before France and Aragon were +quarrelling over the division of the spoil. In July 1502 war was declared +between them in Italy. The war was varied by set combats in the lists +between champions of the opposed nations.</p> + +<p>In 1503 a treaty was negotiated by Ferdinand's son-in-law, the Archduke +Philip. Gonsalvo, however, not recognising instructions received from +Philip, gave battle to the French at Cerignola, and won a brilliant +victory. A few days earlier another victory had been won by a second +column; and Gonsalvo marched on Naples, which welcomed him. The two French +fortresses commanding it were reduced. Since Ferdinand refused to ratify +Philip's treaty, a French force entered Roussillon; but retired on +Ferdinand's approach. The practical effect of the invasion was a +demonstration of the new unity of the Spanish kingdom.</p> + +<p>In Italy, Louis threw fresh energy into the war; and Gonsalvo found his +own forces greatly out-numbered. In the late autumn there was a sharp but +indecisive contest at the Garigliano Bridge. Gonsalvo held to his position, +despite the destitution of his troops, until he received reinforcements. +Then, on December 28, he suddenly and unexpectedly crossed the river; the +French retired rapidly, gallantly covered by the rear-guard, hotly attacked +by the Spanish advance guard. The retreat being checked at a bridge, the +Spanish rear was enabled to come up, and the French were driven in route. +Gaeta surrendered on January 4; no further resistance was offered. South +Italy was in the hands of Gonsalvo.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--After Isabella</i></h3> + + +<p>Throughout 1503 and 1504 Queen Isabella's strength was failing. In +November 1504 she died, leaving the succession to the Castilian crown to +her daughter Joanna, and naming Ferdinand regent. Magnanimity, +unselfishness, openness, piety had been her most marked moral traits; +justice, loyalty, practical good sense her political characteristics--a +most rare and virtuous lady.</p> + +<p>Her death gives a new complexion to our history. Joanna was proclaimed +Queen of Castile; Ferdinand was governor of that kingdom in her name, but +his regency was not accepted without demur. To secure his brief authority +he made alliance with Louis, including a marriage contract with Louis' +niece, Germaine de Ford. Six weeks after the wedding, the Archduke Philip +landed in Spain. Ferdinand's action had ruined his popularity, and he saw +security only in a compact assuring Philip the complete sovereignty--Joanna +being insane.</p> + +<p>Philip's rule was very unpopular and very brief. A sudden illness, in +which for once poison was not suspected of playing a part, carried him off. +Ferdinand, absent at the time in Italy, was restored to the regency of +Castile, which he held undisputed--except for futile claims of the Emperor +Maximilian--for the rest of his life.</p> + +<p>The years of Ferdinand's sole rule displayed his worst characteristics, +which had been restrained during his noble consort's life. He was involved +in the utterly unscrupulous and immoral wars issuing out of the League of +Cambray for the partition of Venice. The suspicion and ingratitude with +which he treated Gonsalvo de Cordova drove the Great Captain into a privacy +not less honourable than his glorious public career. Within a twelvemonth +of Gonsalvo's death, Ferdinand followed him to the grave in January +1516--lamented in Aragon, but not in Castile.</p> + +<p>During the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the overgrown powers and +factious spirit of the nobility had been restrained. That genuine piety of +the queen which had won for the monarchs the title of "The Catholic" had +not prevented them from firmly resisting the encroachments of +ecclesiastical authority. The condition of the commons had been greatly +advanced, but political power had been concentrated in the crown, and the +crowns of Castile and Aragon were permanently united on the accession of +Charles--afterwards Charles V.--to both the thrones.</p> + +<p>Under these great rulers we have beheld Spain emerging from chaos into a +new existence; unfolding, under the influence of institutions adapted to +her genius, energies of which she was before unconscious; enlarging her +resources from all the springs of domestic industry and commercial +enterprise; and insensibly losing the ferocious habits of the feudal age in +the requirements of an intellectual and moral culture. We have seen her +descend into the arena with the other nations of Europe, and in a very few +years achieve the most important acquisitions of territory both in that +quarter and in Africa; and finally crowning the whole by the discovery and +occupation of a boundless empire beyond the waters.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='VOLTAIRE3'></a>VOLTAIRE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_Charles_XII'></a>History of Charles XII</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Voltaire's "History of Charles XII." was his earliest +notable essay in history, written during his sojourn in England in 1726-9, +when he was acquiring the materials for his "Letters on the English," +eleven years after the death of the Swedish monarch. The prince who "left a +name at which the world grew pale, to point a moral and adorn a tale," was +killed by a cannon-ball when thirty-six years old, after a career +extraordinarily brilliant, extraordinarily disastrous, and in result +extraordinarily ineffective. A tremendous contrast to the career, equally +unique, of his great antagonist, Peter the Great of Russia, whose history +Voltaire wrote thirty years later (see <i>ante</i>). Naturally the two +works in a marked degree illustrate each other. In both cases Voltaire +claims to have had first-hand information from the principal actors in the +drama. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--The Meteor Blazes</i></h3> + + +<p>The house of Vasa was established on the throne of Sweden in the first +half of the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century, Christina, +daughter of the great Gustavus Adolphus, abdicated in favour of her cousin, +who ascended the throne as Charles X. He and his vigorous son, Charles XI., +established a powerful absolute monarchy. To the latter was born, on June +27, 1682, the infant who became Charles XII.--perhaps the most +extraordinary man who ever lived, who in his own person united all the +great qualities of his ancestors, whose one defect and one misfortune was +that he possessed all those qualities in excess.</p> + +<p>In childhood he developed exceptional physical powers, and remarkable +linguistic facility. He succeeded to the throne at the age of fifteen, in +1697. Within the year he declared himself of age, and asserted his position +as king; and the neighbouring powers at once resolved to take advantage of +the Swedish monarch's youth--the kings Christian of Denmark, Augustus of +Saxony and Poland, and the very remarkable Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. +Among them, the three proposed to appropriate all the then Swedish +territories on the Russian and Polish side of the Gulf of Finland and the +Baltic.</p> + +<p>Danes and Saxons, joined by the forces of other German principalities, +were already attacking Holstein, whose duke was Charles's cousin; the +Saxons, too, were pouring into Livonia. On May 8, 1700, Charles sailed from +Stockholm with 8,000 men to the succour of Holstein, which he effected with +complete and immediate success by swooping on Copenhagen. On August 6, +Denmark concluded a treaty, withdrawing her claims in Holstein and paying +the duke an indemnity. Three months later, the Tsar, who was besieging +Narva, in Ingria, with 80,000 Muscovites, learnt that Charles had landed, +and was advancing with 20,000 Swedes. Another 30,000 were being hurried up +by the Tsar when Charles, with only 8,000 men, came in contact with 25,000 +Russians at Revel. In two days he had swept them before him, and with his +8,000 men fell upon the Russian force of ten times that number in its +entrenchments at Narva. Prodigies of valour were performed, the Muscovites +were totally routed. Peter, with 40,000 reinforcements, had no inclination +to renew battle, but he very promptly made up his mind that his armies must +be taught how to fight. They should learn from the victorious Swedes how to +conquer the Swedes.</p> + +<p>With the spring, Charles fell upon the Saxon forces in Livonia, before a +fresh league between Augustus and Peter had had time to develop +advantageously. After one decisive victory, the Duchy of Courland made +submission, and he marched into Lithuania. In Poland, neither the war nor +the rule of Augustus was popular, and in the divided state of the country +Charles advanced triumphantly. A Polish diet was summoned, and Charles +awaited events; he was at war, he said, not with Poland, but with Augustus. +He had, in fact, resolved to dethrone the King of Poland by the +instrumentality of the Poles themselves--a process made the easier by the +normal antagonism between the diet and the king, an elective, not a +hereditary ruler.</p> + +<p>Augustus endeavoured, quite fruitlessly, to negotiate with Charles on +his own account, while the diet was much more zealous to curtail his powers +than to resist the Swedish monarch, and was determined that, at any price, +the Saxon troops should leave Poland. Intrigues were going on on all sides. +Presently Charles set his forces in motion. When Augustus learned that +there was to be no peace till Poland had a new king, he resolved to fight. +Charles's star did not desert him. He won a complete victory. Pressing in +pursuit of Augustus, he captured Cracow, but his advance was delayed for +some weeks by a broken leg; and in the interval there was a considerable +rally to the support of Augustus. But the moment Charles could again move, +he routed the enemy at Pultusk. The terror of his invincibility was +universal. Success followed upon success. The anti-Saxon party in the diet +succeeded in declaring the throne vacant. Charles might certainly have +claimed the crown for himself, but chose instead to maintain the title of +the Sobieski princes. The kidnapping of James Sobieski, however, caused +Charles to insist on the election of Stanislaus Lekzinsky.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--From Triumph to Disaster</i></h3> + + +<p>Charles left Warsaw to complete the subjugation of Poland, leaving the +new king in the capital. Stanislaus and his court were put to sudden flight +by the appearance of Augustus with 20,000 men. Warsaw fell at once; but +when Charles turned on the Saxon army, only the wonderful skill of +Schulembourg saved it from destruction. Augustus withdrew to Saxony, and +began repairing the fortifications of Dresden.</p> + +<p>By this time, wherever the Swedes appeared, they were confident of +victory if they were but twenty to a hundred. Charles had made nothing for +himself out of his victories, but all his enemies were scattered--except +Peter, who had been sedulously training his people in the military arts. On +August 21, 1704, Peter captured Narva. Now he made a new alliance with +Augustus. Seventy thousand Russians were soon ravaging Polish territory. +Within two months, Charles and Stanislaus had cut them up in detail, or +driven them over the border. Schulembourg crossed the Oder, but his +battalions were shattered at Frawenstad by Reuschild. On September 1, 1706, +Charles himself was invading Saxony.</p> + +<p>The invading troops were held under an iron discipline; no violence was +permitted. In effect, Augustus had lost both his kingdom and his +electorate. His prayers for peace were met by the demand for formal and +permanent resignation of the Polish crown, repudiation of the treaties with +Russia, restoration of the Sobieskies, and the surrender of Patkul, a +Livonian "rebel" who was now Tsar Peter's plenipotentiary at Dresden. +Augustus accepted, at Altranstad, the terms offered by Charles. Patkul was +broken on the wheel; Peter determined on vengeance; again the Russians +overran Lithuania, but retired before Stanislaus.</p> + +<p>In September 1707, Charles left Saxony at the head of 43,000 men, +enriched with the spoils of Poland and Saxony. Another 20,000 met him in +Poland; 15,000 more were ready in Finland. He had no doubts of his power to +dethrone the Tsar. In January 1708 he was on the march for Grodow. Peter +retreated before him, and in June was entrenched beyond the Beresina. +Driven thence by a flank movement, the Russians engaged Charles at +Hollosin, where he gained one of his most brilliant victories. Retreat and +pursuit continued towards Moscow.</p> + +<p>Charles now pushed on towards the Ukraine, where he was secretly in +treaty with the governor, Mazeppa. But when he reached the Ukraine, Mazeppa +joined him not as an ally, but as a fugitive. Meanwhile, Lewenhaupt, +marching to effect a junction with him, was intercepted by Peter with +thrice his force, and finally cut his way through to Charles with only +5,000 men.</p> + +<p>So severe was the winter that both Peter and Charles, contrary to their +custom, agreed to a suspension of arms. Isolated as he was, towards the end +of May, Charles laid siege to Pultawa, the capture of which would have +opened the way to Moscow. Thither Peter marched against him, while Charles +himself was unable to move owing to a serious wound in the foot, endured +with heroic fortitude. On July 8, the decisive battle was fought. The +victory lay with the Russians, and Charles was forced to fly for his life. +His best officers were prisoners. A column under Lewenhaupt succeeded in +joining the king, now prostrated by his wound and by fever. At the Dnieper, +Charles was carried over in a boat; the force, overtaken by the Russians, +was compelled to capitulate. Peter treated the captured Swedish generals +with distinction. Charles himself escaped to Bender, in Turkey.</p> + +<p>Virtually a captive in the Turkish dominions, Charles conceived the +project of persuading the sultan to attack Russia. At the outset, the grand +vizier, Chourlouly Ali, favoured his ideas; but Peter, by lavish and +judicious bribery, soon won him over. The grand vizier, however, was +overthrown by a palace intrigue, and was replaced by an incorruptible +successor, Numa Chourgourly, who was equally determined to treat the +fugitive king in becoming fashion and to decline to make war on the +Tsar.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Charles's enemies were taking advantage of his enforced +absence. Peter again overran Livonia. Augustus repudiated the treaty of +Altranstad, and recovered the Polish crown. The King of Denmark repudiated +the treaty of Travendal, and invaded Sweden, but his troops were totally +routed by the raw levies of the Swedish militia at Helsimburg.</p> + +<p>The Vizier Chourgourly, being too honourable for his post, was displaced +by Baltaji Mehemet, who took up the schemes of Charles. War was declared +against Russia. The Prince of Moldavia, Cantemir, supported Peter. The +Turks seemed doomed to destruction; but first the advancing Tsar found +himself deserted by the Moldavians, and allowed himself to be hemmed in by +greatly superior forces on the Pruth. With Peter himself and his army +entirely at his mercy, Baltaji Mehemet--to the furious indignation of +Charles--was content to extort a treaty advantageous to Turkey but useless +to the Swede; and Peter was allowed to retire with the honours of war.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Meteor Quenched</i></h3> + + +<p>The great desire of the Porte was, in fact, to get rid of its +inconvenient guest; to dispatch him to his own dominions in safety with an +escort to defend him, but no army for aggression. Charles conceived that +the sultan was pledged to give him an army. The downfall of the +vizier--owing to the sultan's wrath on learning that Peter was not carrying +out the pledges of the Pruth treaty--did not help matters; for the +favourite, Ali Cournourgi, now intended Russia to aid his own ambitions, +and the favourite controlled the new vizier. Within six months of Pruth, +war had been declared and a fresh peace again patched up, Peter promising +to withdraw all his forces from Poland, and the Turks to eject Charles.</p> + +<p>But Charles was determined not to budge. He demanded as a preliminary +half a million to pay his debts. A larger sum was provided; still he would +not move. The sultan felt that he had now discharged all that the laws of +hospitality could possibly demand. Threats only made the king more +obstinate. His supplies were cut off and his guards withdrawn, except his +own 300 Swedes; whereupon Charles fortified the house he had built himself. +All efforts to bring him to reason were of no avail. A force of Janissaries +was despatched to cut the Swedes to pieces; but the men listened to Baron +Grothusen's appeal for a delay of three days, and flatly refused to attack. +But when they sent Charles a deputation of veterans, he refused to see +them, and sent them an insulting message. They returned to their quarters, +now resolved to obey the pasha.</p> + +<p>The 300 Swedes could do nothing but surrender; yet Charles, with twenty +companions, held his house, defended it with a valour and temporary success +which were almost miraculous, and were only overwhelmed by numbers when +they sallied forth and charged the Turkish army with swords and pistols. +Once captured, the king displayed a calm as imperturbable as his rage +before had been tempestuous.</p> + +<p>Charles was now conveyed to the neighbourhood of Adrianople, where he +was joined by another royal prisoner--Stanislaus, who had attempted to +enter Turkey in disguise in order to see him, but had been discovered and +arrested. Charles was allowed to remain at Demotica. Here he abode for ten +months, feigning illness; both he and his little court being obliged to +live frugally and practically without attendants, the chancellor, Mullern, +being the cook of the establishment.</p> + +<p>The hopes which Charles obstinately clung to, of Turkish support, were +finally destroyed when Cournourgi at last became grand vizier. His sister +Ulrica warned him that the council of regency at Stockholm would make peace +with Russia and Denmark. At length he demanded to be allowed to depart. In +October 1714 he set out in disguise for the frontier, and having reached +Stralsund on November 21, not having rested in a bed for sixteen days, on +the same day he was already issuing from Stralsund instructions for the +vigorous prosecution of the war in every direction. But meanwhile the +northern powers, without exception, had been making partition of all the +cis-Baltic territories of the Swedish crown. Tsar Peter, master of the +Baltic, held that ascendancy which had once belonged to Charles. But the +hopes of Sweden revived with the knowledge that the king had reappeared at +Stralsund.</p> + +<p>Even Charles could not make head against the hosts of his foes. +Misfortune pursued him now, as successes had once crowded upon him. Before +long he was himself practically cooped up in Stralsund, while the enemies' +ships controlled the Baltic. In October, Stralsund was resolutely besieged. +His attempt to hold the commanding island of Rugen failed after a desperate +battle. The besiegers forced their way into Stralsund itself. Exactly two +months after the trenches had been opened against Stralsund, Charles +slipped out to sea--the ice in the harbour had first to be broken up--ran +the gauntlet of the enemy's forts and fleets, and reached the Swedish coast +at Carlscrona.</p> + +<p>Charles now subjected his people to a merciless taxation in order to +raise troops and a navy. Suddenly, at the moment when all the powers at +once seemed on the point of descending on Sweden, Charles flung himself +upon Norway, at that time subject to Denmark. This was in accordance with a +vast design proposed by his minister, Gortz, in which Charles was to be +leagued with his old enemy Peter, and with Spain, primarily against +England, Hanover, and Augustus of Poland and Saxony. Gortz's designs became +known to the regent Orleans; he was arrested in Holland, but promptly +released.</p> + +<p>Gortz, released, continued to work out his intriguing policy with +increased determination. Affairs seemed to be progressing favourably. +Charles, who had been obliged to fall back from Norway, again invaded that +country, and laid siege to Fredericshall. Here he was inspecting a part of +the siege works, when his career was brought to a sudden close by a cannon +shot. So finished, at thirty-six, the one king who never displayed a single +weakness, but in whom the heroic virtues were so exaggerated as to be no +less dangerous than the vices with which they are contrasted.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='HENRY_MILMAN_DD'></a>HENRY MILMAN, D.D.</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_Latin_Christianity'></a>History of Latin +Christianity</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> The "History of Latin Christianity, to the Pontificate of +Nicholas V.," which is here presented, was published in 1854-56. It covers +the religious or ecclesiastical history of Western Europe from the fall of +paganism to the pontificate of Nicholas V., a period of eleven centuries, +corresponding practically with what are commonly called the Middle Ages, +and is written from the point of view of a large-minded Anglican who is not +seeking to maintain any thesis, but simply to set forth a veracious account +of an important phase of history. (Milman, see vol. xi, p. 68.) +</p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--Development of the Church of Rome</i></h3> + + +<p>For ten centuries after the extinction of paganism, Latin Christianity +was the religion of Western Europe. It became gradually a monarchy, with +all the power of a concentrated dominion. The clergy formed a second +universal magistracy, exercising always equal, asserting, and for a long +time possessing, superior power to the civil government. Western +monasticism rent from the world the most powerful minds, and having trained +them by its stern discipline, sent them back to rule the world. Its +characteristic was adherence to legal form; strong assertion of, and severe +subordination to, authority. It maintained its dominion unshaken till, at +the Reformation, Teutonic Christianity asserted its independence.</p> + +<p>The Church of Rome was at first, so to speak, a Greek religious colony; +its language, organisation, scriptures, liturgy, were Greek. It was from +Africa, Tertullian, and Cyprian that Latin Christianity arose. As the +Church of the capital--before Constantinople--the Roman Church necessarily +acquired predominance; but no pope appears among the distinguished +"Fathers" of the Church until Leo.</p> + +<p>The division between Greek and Latin Christianity developed with the +division between the Eastern and the Western Empire; Rome gained an +increased authority by her resolute support of Athanasius in the Arian +controversy.</p> + +<p>The first period closes with Pope Damasus and his two successors. The +Christian bishop has become important enough for his election to count in +profane history. Paganism is writhing in death pangs; Christianity is +growing haughty and wanton in its triumph.</p> + +<p>Innocent I., at the opening of the fifth century, seems the first pope +who grasped the conception of Rome's universal ecclesiastical dominion. The +capture of Rome by Alaric ended the city's claims to temporal supremacy; it +confirmed the spiritual ascendancy of her bishop throughout the West.</p> + +<p>To this period, the time of Augustine and the Pelagian controversy, +belongs the establishment in Western Christendom of the doctrine of +predestination, and that of the inherent evil of matter which is at the +root of asceticism and monasticism. It was a few years later that the +Nestorian controversy had the effect of giving fixity to that conception of +the "Mother of God" which is held by Roman Catholics.</p> + +<p>The pontificate of Leo is an epoch in the history of Christianity. He +had utter faith in himself and in his office, and asserted his authority +uncompromisingly. The Metropolitan of Constantinople was becoming a +helpless instrument in the hands of the Byzantine emperor; the Bishop of +Rome was becoming an independent potentate. He took an authoritative and +decisive part in the controversy formally ended at the Council of +Chalcedon; it was he who stayed the advance of Attila. Leo and his +predecessor, Innocent, laid the foundations of the spiritual monarchy of +the West.</p> + +<p>In the latter half of the fifth century, the disintegration of the +Western Empire by the hosts of Teutonic invaders was being completed. These +races assimilated certain aspects of Christian morals and assumed +Christianity without assimilating the intellectual subtleties of the +Eastern Church, and for the most part in consequence adopted the Arian +form. But when the Frankish horde descended, Clovis accepted the orthodox +theology, thereby in effect giving it permanence and obliterating Arianism +in the West. Theodoric, the Gothic king of Italy, in nominal subjection to +the emperor, was the last effective upholder of toleration for his own +Arian creed. Almost simultaneous with his death was the accession of +Justinian to the empire. The re-establishment of effective imperial sway in +Italy reduced the papacy to a subordinate position. The recovery was the +work of Gregory I., the Great; but papal opposition to Gothic or Lombard +dominion in Italy destroyed the prospect of political unification for the +peninsula.</p> + +<p>Western monasticism had been greatly extended and organised by Benedict +of Nursia and his rule--comprised in silence, humility, and obedience. +Monasticism became possessed of the papal chair in the person of Gregory +the Great. Of noble descent and of great wealth, which he devoted to +religious uses as soon as he became master of it, he had also the +characteristics which were held to denote the highest holiness. In +austerity, devotion, and imaginative superstition, he, whose known virtue +and capacity caused him to be forced into the papal chair, remained a monk +to the end of his days.</p> + +<p>But he became at once an exceedingly vigorous man of affairs. He +reorganised the Roman liturgy; he converted the Lombards and Saxons. And he +proved himself virtual sovereign of Rome. His administration was admirable. +He exercised his disciplinary authority without fear or favour. And his +rule marks the epoch at which all that we regard as specially +characteristic of mediæval Christianity--its ethics, its asceticism, +its sacerdotalism, and its superstitions--had reached its lasting +shape.</p> + +<p>Gregory the Great had not long passed away when there arose in the East +that new religion which was to shake the world, and to bring East and West +once more into a prolonged conflict. Mohammedanism, born in Arabia, hurled +itself first against Asia, then swept North Africa. By the end of the +seventh century it was threatening the Byzantine Empire on one side of +Europe, and the Gothic dominion in Spain on the other. On the other hand, +in the same period, Latin Christianity had decisively taken possession of +England, driving back that Celtic or Irish Christianity which had been +beforehand with it in making entry to the North. Similarly, it was the +Irish missionaries who began the conversion of the outer Teutonic +barbarians; but the work was carried out by the Saxon Winfrid (Boniface) of +the Latin Church.</p> + +<p>The popes, however, during this century between Gregory I. and Gregory +II. again sank into a position of subordination to the imperial power. +Under the second Gregory, the papacy reasserted itself in resistance to the +Emperor Leo the Isaurian, the "Iconoclast," the "Image-breaker," who strove +to impose on Christendom his own zeal against images. To Leo, images meant +image-worship. To his opponents, images were useful symbols. Rome defied +the emperor's attempt to claim spiritual dictatorship. East and West were +rent in twain at the moment when Islam was assaulting both West and East. +Leo rolled back the advancing torrent before Constantinople, as Charles +Martel rolled it back almost simultaneously in the great battle of Tours; +but the Empire and the West, Byzantium and Rome, never presented a united +front to the Moslem.</p> + +<p>The Iconoclastic controversy threw Italy against its will into the hands +of the image-worshipping Lombards; and hate of Lombard ascendancy turned +the eyes of Gregory's successors to the Franks, to Charles Martel; to +Pepin, who obtained from Pope Stephen sanction for his seizure of the +Frankish crown, and in return repressed the Lombards; and finally to +Charles the Great, otherwise Charlemagne, who on the last Christmas Day of +the eighth century was crowned (Western) emperor and successor of the +Caesars.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--The Western Empire and Theocracy</i></h3> + + +<p>Charlemagne, the first emperor of the restored or Holy Roman Empire, by +his conquests brought into a single dominion practically all Western Europe +from the Elbe and the Danube to the Ebro. He stood the champion and the +head of Western Christendom, palpably the master, and not even in theory +the subordinate, of the Pontiff from whom he received the imperial crown. +But he established ecclesiastics as a territorial nobility, counteracting +the feudal nobility; and when the mighty emperor was gone, and the unity of +what was nominally one empire passed away, this ecclesiastical nobility +became an instrument for the elevation of the spiritual above the temporal +head of Christendom. The change was already taking place under his son +Louis the Pious, whose character facilitated it.</p> + +<p>The disintegration of the empire was followed by a hideous degradation +of the papacy. But the Saxon line of emperors, the Ottos, sprung from Henry +the Fowler, once more revived the empire; the third of them established a +worthy pope in Silvester II. But both emperor and pope died just after the +eleventh century opened. Elections of popes and anti-popes continued to be +accompanied by the gravest scandals, until the Emperor Henry III. +(Franconian dynasty) set a succession of Germans on the papal throne.</p> + +<p>The high character of the pontificate was revived in the persons of Leo +IX. and Victor II. (Gebhard of Eichstadt); many abuses were put down or at +least checked with a firm hand. But Henry's death weakened the empire, and +Stephen IX. added to the rigid enforcement of orthodoxy more peremptory +claims for the supremacy of the Holy See. His successor, Nicholas II., +strengthened the position as against the empire by securing the support of +the fleshly arm--the Normans. His election was an assertion of the right of +the cardinals to make their own choice. Alexander II. was chosen in +disregard of the Germans and the empire, and the Germans chose an +anti-pope. At the back of the Italian papal party was the great Hildebrand. +In 1073 Hildebrand himself ascended the papal throne as Gregory VII. With +Hildebrand, the great struggle for supremacy between the empire and the +papacy was decisively opened.</p> + +<p>Gregory's aim was to establish a theocracy through an organised dominant +priesthood separated from the world, but no less powerful than the secular +forces; with the pope, God's mouthpiece, and vice-regent, at its head. The +temporal powers were to be instruments in his hand, subject to his supreme +authority. Clerical celibacy acquired a political value; the clergy would +concentrate on the glory of the Church those ambitions which made laymen +seek to aggrandise their families.</p> + +<p>The collision between Rome and the emperor came quickly. The victory at +the outset fell to the pope, and Henry IV. was compelled to humble himself +and entreat pardon as a penitent at Canossa. Superficially, the tables were +turned later; when Gregory died, Henry was ostensibly victor.</p> + +<p>But Gregory's successor, Urban, as resolute and more subtle, retrieved +what had only been a check. The Crusades, essentially of ecclesiastical +inspiration, were given their great impulse by him; they were a movement of +Christendom against the Paynim, of the Church against Islam; they centred +in the pope, not the emperor, and they made the pope, not the emperor, +conspicuously the head of Christendom.</p> + +<p>The twelfth century was the age of the Crusades, of Anselm and Abelard, +of Bernard of Clairvaux, and Arnold of Brescia. It saw the settlement of +the question of investitures, and in England the struggle between Henry II. +and Becket, in which the murder of the archbishop gave him the victory. It +saw a new enthusiasm of monasticism, not originated by, but centring in, +the person of Bernard, a more conspicuous and a more authoritative figure +than any pope of the time. To him was due the suppression of the +intellectual movement from within against the authority of the Church, +connected with Abelard's name.</p> + +<p>Arnold of Brescia's movement was orthodox, but, would have transformed +the Church from a monarchial into a republican organisation, and demanded +that the clergy should devote themselves to apostolical and pastoral +functions with corresponding habits of life. He was a forerunner of the +school of reformers which culminated in Zwingli.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the century the one English pope, Hadrian IV., was a +courageous and capable occupant of the papal throne, and upheld its dignity +against Frederick Barbarossa; though he could not maintain the claim that +the empire was held as a fief of the papacy. But the strife between the +spiritual and temporal powers issued on his death in a double election, and +an imperial anti-pope divided the allegiance of Christendom with Alexander +III. It was not till after Frederick had been well beaten by the Lombard +League at Legnano that emperor and pope were reconciled, and the +reconciliation was the pope's victory.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--Triumph and Decline of the Papacy</i></h3> + + +<p>Innocent III., mightiest of all popes, was elected in 1198. He made the +papacy what it remained for a hundred years, the greatest power in +Christendom. The future Emperor Frederick II. was a child entrusted to +Innocent's guardianship. The pope began by making himself virtually +sovereign of Italy and Sicily, overthrowing the German baronage therein. A +contest for the imperial throne enabled the pope to assume the right of +arbitration. Germany repudiated his right. Innocent was saved from the +menace of defeat by the assassination of the opposition emperor. But the +successful Otho proved at once a danger.</p> + +<p>Germany called young Frederick to the throne, and now Innocent sided +with Germany; but he did not live to see the death of Otho and the +establishment of the Hohenstaufen. More decisive was his intervention +elsewhere. Both France and England were laid under interdicts on account of +the misdoings of Philip Augustus and John; both kings were forced to +submission. John received back his kingdom as a papal fief. But Langton, +whom Innocent had made archbishop, guided the barons in their continued +resistance to the king, whose submission made him Rome's most cherished +son. England and the English clergy held to their independence. Pedro of +Aragon voluntarily received his crown from the pope. In every one of the +lesser kingdoms of Europe, Innocent asserted his authority.</p> + +<p>Innocent's efforts for a fresh crusade begot not the overthrow of the +Saracen, but the substitution of a Latin kingdom under the Roman obedience +for the Greek empire of Byzantium. In effect it gave Venice her +Mediterranean supremacy. The great pope was not more zealous against Islam +than against the heterogeneous sects which were revolting against +sacerdotalism; whereof the horrors of the crusade against the Albigenses +are the painful witness.</p> + +<p>Not the least momentous event in the rule of this mightiest of the popes +was his authorisation of the two orders of mendicant friars, the disciples +of St. Dominic, and of St. Francis of Assisi, with their vows of chastity, +poverty, and obedience, and their principle of human brotherhood. And in +both cases Innocent's consent was given with reluctance.</p> + +<p>It may be said that Frederick II. was at war with the papacy until his +death in the reign of Innocent III.'s fourth successor, Innocent IV. With +Honorius the emperor's relations were at first friendly; both were honestly +anxious to take a crusade in hand. The two were brought no further than the +verge of a serious breach about Frederick's exercise of authority over +rebellious ecclesiastics. But Gregory IX., though an octogenarian, was +recognised as of transcendent ability and indomitable resolution; and his +will clashed with that of the young emperor, a brilliant prince, born some +centuries too early.</p> + +<p>Frederick was pledged to a crusade; Gregory demanded that the expedition +should sail. Frederick was quite warranted in saying that it was not ready; +and through no fault of his. Gregory excommunicated him, and demanded his +submission before the sentence should be removed. Frederick did not submit, +but when he sailed it was without the papal support. Frederick endeavoured +to proceed by treaty; it was a shock to Moslems and to Christendom alike. +The horrified Gregory summoned every disaffected feudatory of the empire in +effect to disown the emperor. But Frederick's arms seemed more likely to +prosper. Christendom turned against the pope in the quarrel. Christendom +would not go crusading against an emperor who had restored the kingdom of +Jerusalem. The two came to terms. Gregory turned his attention to becoming +the Justinian of the Church.</p> + +<p>But a rebellion against Frederick took shape practically as a renewal of +the papal-imperial contest. Gregory prepared a league; then once more he +launched his ban. Europe was amazed by a sort of war of proclamations. +Nothing perhaps served the pope better now than the agency of the mendicant +orders. The military triumph of Frederick, however, seemed already assured +when Gregory died. Two years later, Innocent IV. was pope. After hollow +overtures, Innocent fled to Lyons, and there launched invectives against +Frederick and appeals to Christendom.</p> + +<p>Frederick, by attaching, not the papacy but the clergy, alienated much +support. Misfortunes gathered around him. His death ensured Innocent's +supremacy. Soon the only legitimate heir of the Hohenstaufen was an infant, +Conradin; and Conradin's future depended on his able but illegitimate +uncle, Manfred. But Innocent did not live long to enjoy his victory; his +arrogance and rapacity brought no honour to the papacy. English +Grostête of Lincoln, on whom fell Stephen Langton's mantle, is the +noblest ecclesiastical figure of the time.</p> + +<p>For some years the imperial throne remained vacant; the matter of first +importance to the pontiffs--Alexander, Urban, Clement--was that Conradin, +as he grew to manhood, should not be elected. Manfred became king of South +Italy, with Sicily; but with no legal title. Urban, a Frenchman, agreed +with Charles of Anjou, brother of St. Louis, that he should have the crown, +on terms. Manfred fell in battle against him at Beneventum, and with him +all real chance of a Hohenstaufen recovery. Not three years after, young +Conradin, in a desperate venture after his legitimate rights, was captured +and put to death by Charles of Anjou.</p> + +<p>A temporary pacification of Western Christendom was the work of Gregory +X.; his aim was a great crusade. At last an emperor was elected, Rudolph of +Hapsburg. But Gregory died. Popes followed each other and died in swift +succession. Presently, on the abdication of the hermit Celestine, Boniface +VIII. was chosen pope. His bull, "Clericis laicos," forbidding taxation of +the clergy by the temporal authority, brought him into direct hostility +with Philip the Fair of France, and though the quarrel was temporarily +adjusted, the strife soon broke out again. The bulls, "Unam Sanctam" and +"Ausculta fili," were answered by a formal arraignment of Boniface in the +States-General of France, followed by the seizure of the pope's own person +by Philip's Italian partisans.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--Captivity, Seclusion, and Revival</i></h3> + + +<p>The successor of Boniface was Benedict IX. He acted with dignity and +restraint, but he lived only two years. After long delays, the cardinals +elected the Archbishop of Bordeaux, a subject of the King of England. But +before he became Clement V. he had made his pact with the King of France. +He was crowned, not in Italy, but at Lyons, and took up his residence at +Avignon, a papal fief in Provence, on the French borders. For seventy years +the popes at Avignon were practically the servants of the King of +France.</p> + +<p>At the very outset, Clement was compelled to lend his countenance to the +suppression of the Knights Templars by the temporal power. Philip forced +the pope and the Consistory to listen to an appalling and incredible +arraignment of the dead Boniface; then he was rewarded for abandoning the +persecution of his enemy's memory by abject adulation: the pope had been +spared from publicly condemning his predecessor.</p> + +<p>John XXII. was not, in the same sense, a tool of the last monarchs of +the old House of Capet, of which, during his rule, a younger branch +succeeded in the person of Philip of Valois. John was at constant feud with +the Emperor Louis of Bavaria, and also, within the ecclesiastical pale, +with the Franciscan Order. Louis of Bavaria died during the pontificate of +Clement VI., and Charles of Bohemia, already emperor in the eyes of the +pope, was accepted by Germany. He virtually abdicated the imperial claim to +rule in Italy; but by his "Golden Bull" he terminated the old source of +quarrel, the question of the authority by which emperors were elected. The +"Babylonish captivity" ended when Gregory XI. left Avignon to die in Italy; +it was to be replaced by the Great Schism.</p> + +<p>For thirty-eight years rival popes, French and Italian, claimed the +supremacy of the Church. The schism was ended by the Council of Constance; +Latin Christianity may be said to have reached its culminating point under +Nicholas V., during whose pontificate the Turks captured +Constantinople.</p> + +<hr /> + + + + +<h1><a name='LEOPOLD_VON_RANKE'></a>LEOPOLD VON RANKE</h1> + + +<h2><a name='History_of_the_Popes'></a>History of the Popes</h2> + + +<blockquote><p> Leopold von Ranke was born at Wiehe, on December 21, 1795, +and died on May 23, 1886. He became Professor of History at Berlin at the +age of twenty-nine; and his life was passed in researches, the fruits of +which he gave to the world in an invaluable series of historical works. The +earlier of these were concerned mainly with the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries--in English history generally called the Tudor and Stuart +periods--based on examinations of the archives of Vienna and Rome, Venice +and Florence, as well as of Berlin. In later years, when he had passed +seventy, he travelled more freely outside of his special period. The +"History of the Popes in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries" here +presented was published in 1834-7. The English translation by Sarah Austin +(1845) was the subject of review in one of Macaulay's famous essays. It is +mainly concerned with the period, not of the Reformation itself, but of the +century and a quarter following--roughly from 1535 to 1760, the period +during which the religious antagonisms born of the Reformation were primary +factors in all European complications. </p></blockquote> + + +<h3><i>I.--The Papacy at the Reformation</i></h3> + + +<p>The papacy was intimately allied with the Roman Empire, with the empire +of Charlemagne, and with the German or Holy Roman Empire revived by Otto. +In this last the ecclesiastical element was of paramount importance, but +the emperor was the supreme authority. From that authority Gregory VII. +resolved to free the pontificate, through the claim that no appointment by +a layman to ecclesiastical office was valid; while the pope stood forth as +universal bishop, a crowned high-priest. To this supremacy the French first +offered effectual resistance, issuing in the captivity of Avignon. Germany +followed suit, and the schism of the church was closed by the secular +princes at Constance and Basle. The papacy was restored in form, but not to +its old supremacy.</p> + +<p>The pontificates of Sixtus IV. and the egregious Alexander VI. were +followed by the militant Julius II., who aimed, with some success, at +making the pope a secular territorial potentate. But the intellectual +movement challenged the papal claim, the direct challenge emanating from +Germany and Luther. But this was at the moment when the empire was joined +with Spain under Charles V. The Diet of Worms pointed to an accord between +emperor and pope, when Leo X. died unexpectedly. His successor, Adrian, a +Netherlander and an admirable man, sought vainly to inaugurate reform of +the Church from within, but in brief time made way for Clement VII.</p> + +<p>Hitherto, the new pope's interests had all been on the Spanish side, at +least as against France; everything had been increasing the Spanish power +in Italy, but Clement aimed at freedom from foreign domination. The +discovery of his designs brought about the Decree of Spires, which gave +Protestantism a legal recognition in the empire, and also the capture and +sack of Rome by Frundsberg's soldiery. Charles's ascendancy in Italy and +over the papacy was secured. Clement, now almost at his beck, would have +persuaded him to apply coercion to the German Protestants; but this did not +suit the emperor, whose solution for existing difficulties was the +summoning of a general council, which Clement was quite determined to +evade. Moreover, matters were made worse for the papacy when England broke +away from the papal obedience over the affair of Katharine of Aragon.</p> + +<p>Paul III., Clement's immediate successor, began with an effort after +regeneration by appointing several cardinals of the Contarini type, +associates of the Oratory of Divine Love, many of whom stood, in part at +least, on common ground with avowed Protestants, notably on the dogma of +justification by faith. He appears seriously to have desired a +reconciliation with the Protestants; and matters looked promising when a +conference was held at Ratisbon, where Contarini himself represented the +pope.</p> + +<p>Terms of union were even agreed on, but, being referred to Luther on one +side and Paul on the other, were rejected by both, after which there was no +hope of the cleavage being bridged. The regeneration of the Church would +have to be from within.</p> + + +<h3><i>II.--Sixteenth Century Popes</i></h3> + + +<p>The interest of this period lies mainly in the antagonism between the +imperative demand for internal reform of the Church and the policy which +had become ingrained in the heads of the Church. For the popes, these +political aspirations stood first and reform second. Alexander Farnese +(Paul III.) was pope from 1534 to 1549. He was already sixty-seven when he +succeeded Clement. Policy and enlightenment combined at first to make him +advance Contarini and his allies, and to hope for reconciliation with the +Protestants. Policy turned him against acceptance of the Ratisbon +proposals, as making Germany too united. Then he urged the emperor against +the Protestants, but when the success of Charles was too complete he was +ill-pleased. He withdrew the Council from Trent to Bologna, to remove it +from imperial influences which threatened the pope's personal supremacy. So +far as he was concerned, reformation had dropped into the background.</p> + +<p>Julius III. was of no account; Marcellus, an excellent and earnest man, +might have done much had he not died in three weeks. His election, and that +of his successor, Caraffa, as Paul IV., both pointed to a real intention of +reform. Caraffa had all his life been a passionate advocate of moral +reform, but even he was swept away by the political conditions and his +hatred of Spain, which was an obsession. Professed detestation of Spain was +a sure way to his favour, which, his kinsfolk recognising, they won his +confidence only to their own ultimate destruction when he discovered that +he had been deceived. Half his reign was worse than wasted in a futile +contest with Spain; when it was done, he turned rigorously to energetic +disciplinary reforms, but death stayed his hand.</p> + +<p>A very different man was Pius IV., the pontiff under whom the Council of +Trent was brought to a close. Far from rigid himself, he still could not, +if he would, have altogether deserted the paths of reform. But most +conspicuously he was inaugurator of a new policy, not asserting claims to +supremacy, but seeking to induce the Catholic powers to work hand in hand +with the papacy--Spain and the German Empire being now parted under the two +branches of the House of Hapsburg. In this policy he was most ably assisted +by the diplomatic tact of Cardinal Moroni, who succeeded in bringing +France, Spain, and the empire into a general acceptance of the positions +finally laid down by the Council of Trent, whereby the pope's +ecclesiastical authority was not impaired, but rather strengthened.</p> + +<p>On his death, he was succeeded by one of the more rigid school, Pius V. +(1563-1572). This pope continued to maintain the monastic austerity of his +own life; his personal virtue and piety were admirable; but, being +incapable of conceiving that anything could be right except on the exact +lines of his own practice, he was both extremely severe and extremely +intolerant; especially he was, in harmony with Philip of Spain, a +determined persecutor.</p> + +<p>But to his idealism was largely due that league which, directed against +the Turk, issued in one of the most memorable checks to the Ottoman arms, +the battle of Lepanto.</p> + +<p>Gregory XIII. succeeded him immediately before the massacre of St. +Bartholomew. It was rather the pressure of his surroundings than his +personal character that gave his pontificate a spiritual aspect. An +honourable care in the appointment of bishops and for ecclesiastical +education were its marks on this side. He introduced the Gregorian +Calendar. He was a zealous promoter of war, open and covert, with +Protestantism, especially with Elizabeth; his financial arrangements were +effective and ingenious. But he failed to obtain control over the robber +bands which infested the Papal States.</p> + +<p>Their suppression was carried out with unexampled severity by Sixtus V. +Sixtus was learned and prudent, and of remarkable self-control; he is also +charged with being crafty and malignant. Not very accurately, he is +commonly regarded as the author of much which was actually due to his +predecessors; but his administration is very remarkable. Rigorous to the +verge of cruelty in the enforcement of his laws, they were themselves +commonly mild and conciliatory. He was energetic in encouraging agriculture +and manufactures. Nepotism, the old ingrained vice of the popes, had been +practised by none of his three immediate predecessors, though he is often +credited with its abolition. His financial methods were successful +immediately, but really accumulated burdens which became portentously +heavy.</p> + +<p>The treatment of public buildings in Rome by Sixtus V., his destruction +of antiquities there, and his curious attempts to convert some of the +latter into Christian monuments, mark the change from the semi-paganism of +the times of Leo X. Similarly, the ecclesiastical spirit of the time +opposed free inquiry. Giordano Bruno was burnt. The same movement is +visible in the change from Ariosto to Tasso. Religion had resumed her +empire. The quite excellent side of these changes is displayed in such +beautiful characters as Cardinal Borromeo and Filippo Neri.</p> + + +<h3><i>III.--The Counter Reformation: First Stage</i></h3> + + +<p>Ever since the Council of Trent closed in 1563, the Church had been +determined on making a re-conquest of the Protestant portion of +Christendom. In the Spanish and Italian peninsulas, Protestantism never +obtained a footing; everywhere else it had established itself in one of the +two forms into which it was divided--the Lutheran and the Calvinistic. In +Germany it greatly predominated among the populations, mainly in the +Lutheran form. In France, where Catholicism predominated, the Huguenots +were Calvinist. Calvinism prevailed throughout Scandinavia, in the Northern +Netherlands, in Scotland, and--differently arrayed--in England.</p> + +<p>In Germany, the Augsburg declaration, which made the religion of each +prince the religion also of his dominions, the arrangement was favourable +to a Catholic recovery; since princes were more likely to be drawn back to +the fold than populations, as happened notably in the case of Albert of +Bavaria, who re-imposed Catholicism on a country whose sympathies were +Protestant. In Germany, also, much was done by the wide establishment of +Jesuit schools, whither the excellence of the education attracted +Protestants as well as Catholics. The great ecclesiastical principalities +were also practically secured for Catholicism.</p> + +<p>The Netherlands were under the dominion of Philip of Spain, the most +rigorous supporter of orthodoxy, who gave the Inquisition free play. His +severities induced revolt, which Alva was sent to suppress, acting avowedly +by terrorist methods. In France the Huguenots had received legal +recognition, and were headed by a powerful section of the nobility; the +Catholic section, with which Paris in particular was entirely in sympathy, +were dominant, but not at all securely so--a state of rivalry which +culminated in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, while Alva was in the +Netherlands.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, these events stirred the Protestants both in France and in +the Netherlands to a renewed and desperate resistance. On the other hand, +some of the German Catholic princes displayed a degree of tolerance which +permitted extensions of Protestantism within their realms. In England, the +government was uncompromisingly Protestant. Then the pope and Philip tried +intervention by fostering rebellion in Catholic Ireland and by the Jesuit +mission of Parsons and Campion in England, but the only effect was to make +the Protestantism of the government the more implacable.</p> + +<p>A change in Philip's methods in the Netherlands separated the northern +Protestant provinces from the Catholic Walloons. The assassination of +William of Orange decided the rulers of some of the northern German states +who had been in two minds. The accession of Rudolf II. of Austria had a +decisive effect in South Germany. When the failure of the house of Valois +made the Huguenot Henry of Navarre heir to the French throne, the Catholic +League, supported by the pope, determined to prevent his succession, while +the reigning king, Henry III., Catholic though he was, was bitterly opposed +to the Guises.</p> + +<p>The immediate effect was the compulsory submission of the king to the +Guises and the League, followed by the assassination, first of Guise and +then of the king, at the moment when the Catholic aggression had taken +shape in the Spanish Armada, and received a check more overwhelming than +Philip was ready to recognise.</p> + +<p>In certain fundamental points, the papacy was now re-asserting +Hildebrandine claims--the right of controlling succession to temporal +thrones. It is an error to regard it as essentially a supporter of +monarchy; it was the accident of the position which commonly brought it +into alliance with monarchies. In the Netherlands, it was by its support of +the constitutional demands of the Walloon nobles that the south was saved +for Catholicism. It asserted the duty of peoples to refuse allegiance to +princes who departed from Catholicism, and it was Protestant monarchism +which replied by asserting the divine right of kings; the Jesuits actually +derived the power of the princes from the people. Thus a separate Catholic +party arose, which, maintaining the divine appointment of princes, +restricted the intervention of the church to spiritual affairs, and in +France supported Navarre's claim to the throne; while, on the other hand, +Philip and the Spaniards, strongly interested in preventing his succession, +were ready to maintain, even against a fluctuating pope, that heresy was a +permanent bar to succession, not to be removed even by recantation.</p> + +<p>Sixtus V. found himself unable to decide. The rapid demise of three +popes in succession after him (1590-1591) led to the election of Clement +VIII. in January 1592, a man of ability and piety. He mistrusted the +genuineness of the offer which Henry had for some time been making of +returning to the bosom of the church, and was not inclined to alienate +Spain. There was danger that the French Catholics would maintain their +point, and even sever themselves from Rome. The acceptance of Henry would +once more establish France as a Catholic power, and relieve the papacy of +its dependence on Spain. At the end of 1595 Clement resolved to receive +Henry into the church, and he reaped the fruits in the support which Henry +promptly gave him in his claim to resume Ferrara into the Papal States. In +his latter years, he and his right-hand man and kinsman, Cardinal +Aldobrandini, found themselves relying on French support to counteract the +Spanish influences which were now opposed to Clement's own sway.</p> + +<p>On Clement's death another four weeks' papacy intervened before the +election of Paul V., a rigorous legalist who cared neither for Spain nor +France, but for whatever he regarded as the rights of the Church, as to +which he had most exaggerated ideas. These very soon brought him in +conflict with Venice, a republic which firmly maintained the supremacy of +the authority of the State, rejecting the secular authority of the Church. +To the pope's surprise, excommunication was of no effect; the Jesuits found +that if they held by the pope there was no room for them in Venice, and +they came out in a body. The governments of France and Spain disregarded +the popular voice which would have set them at war--France for Venice, +Spain for the pope--and virtually imposed peace; on the whole, though not +completely, in favour of Venice.</p> + +<p>But the conflict had impeded and even threatened to subvert that unity, +secular and ecclesiastical, which was the logical aim of the whole of the +papal policy.</p> + + +<h3><i>IV.--The Counter Reformation: Second Stage</i></h3> + + +<p>Meanwhile, the Protestantism which had threatened to prevail in Poland +had been checked under King Stephen, and under Sigismund III. Catholicism +had been securely re-established, though Protestantism was not crushed. But +this prince, succeeding to the Swedish crown, was completely defeated in +his efforts to obtain a footing for Catholicism, to which his success would +have given an enormous impulse throughout the north.</p> + +<p>In Germany, the ecclesiastical princes, with the skilled aid of the +Jesuits, thoroughly re-established Catholicism in their own realms, in +accordance with the legally recognised principle <i>cujus regio ejus +religïo</i>. The young Austrian archduke, Ferdinand of Carinthia, a +pupil of the Jesuits, was equally determined in the suppression of +Protestantism within his territories. The "Estates" resisted, refusing +supplies; but the imminent danger from the Turks forced them to yield the +point; while Ferdinand rested on his belief that the Almighty would not +protect people from the heathen while they remained heretical; and so he +gave suppression of heresy precedence over war with the Turk.</p> + +<p>The Emperor Rudolph, in his latter years, pursued a like policy in +Bohemia and Hungary. The aggressiveness of the Catholic movement drove the +Protestant princes to form a union for self-defence, and within the +hereditary Hapsburg dominions the Protestant landholders asserted their +constitutional rights in opposition. Throughout the empire a deadlock was +threatening. In Switzerland the balance of parties was recognised; the +principal question was, which party would become dominant in the +Grisons.</p> + +<p>There was far more unity in Catholicism than in Protestantism, with its +cleavage of Lutherans and Calvinists, and numerous subdivisions of the +latter. The Church at this moment stood with monarchism, and the Catholic +princes were able men; half Protestantism was inclined to republicanism, +and the princes were not able men. The Catholic powers, except France, +which was half Protestant, were ranged against the Protestants; the +Protestant powers were not ranged against the Catholics. The contest began +when the Calvinist Elector Palatine accepted the crown of Bohemia, against +the title of Ferdinand of Carinthia and Austria, who about the same time +became emperor.</p> + +<p>The early period of the Thirty Years' War thus opened was wholly +favourable to the Catholics. The defeat of the Elector Palatine led to the +Catholicising of Bohemia and Hungary; and also, partly through papal +influence, to the transfer of the Palatinate itself to Bavaria, carrying +the definite preponderance of the Catholics in the central imperial +council. At the same time Catholicism acquired a marked predominance in +France, partly through the defections of Huguenot nobles; was obviously +gaining ground in the Netherlands; and was being treated with much more +leniency by the government in England. And, besides all this, in every part +of the globe the propaganda instituted under Gregory XV. and the Jesuit +missions was spreading Catholic doctrine far and wide.</p> + +<p>But the two great branches of the house of Hapsburg, the Spanish and the +German, were actively arrayed on the same side; and the menace of Hapsburg +supremacy was alarming. About the time when Urban VIII. succeeded Gregory +(1623), French policy, guided by Richelieu, was becoming definitely +anti-Spanish, and organised a huge assault on the Hapsburgs, in conjunction +with Protestants, though in France the Huguenots were quite subordinated. +This done, Richelieu found it politic to retire from the new combination, +whereby a powerful impulse was given to Catholicism.</p> + +<p>But Richelieu wished when free to combat the Hapsburgs, and Pope Urban +favoured France, magnified himself as a temporal prince, and was anxious to +check the Hapsburg or Austro-Spanish ascendancy. The opportunity for +alliance with France came, over the incidents connected with the succession +of the French Duc de Nevers to Mantua, just when Richelieu had obtained +complete predominance over the Huguenots. Papal antagonism to the emperor +was becoming obvious, while the emperor regarded himself as the true +champion of the Faith, without much respect to the pope.</p> + +<p>In this crisis the Catholic anti-imperialists turned to the only +Protestant force which was not a beaten one--Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. +Dissatisfaction primarily with the absolutism at which the emperor and +Wallenstein were aiming brought several of the hitherto imperialist allies +over, and Ferdinand at the Diet of Ratisbon was forced to a change of +attitude. The victories of Gustavus brought new complications; Catholicism +altogether was threatened. The long course of the struggle which ensued +need not be followed. The peace of Westphalia, which ended it, proved that +it was impossible for either combatant to effect a complete conquest; it +set a decisive limit to the Catholic expansion, and to direct religious +aggression. The great spiritual contest had completed its operation.</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12845 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |