390 A BRIEF SURVEY 'OF HUMAN HISTORY

of all her liberal principles, she withdrew from the ' concert
of Europe' and allowed her allies to cling to their Holy
Alliance under the aegis of Czar Alexander I who had been
privately characterised at the Congress of Vienna as " half
fool, half Bonaparte."

It has been well observed by Professor Morse Stephens,
that "The doctrines of the French Revolution did more
than the victories of Napoleon to destroy^the political system
6f the eighteenth century." x In the so-called Holy Alliance
eighteenth century dynasticism was on its last legs. The
subsequent history of Europe during the nineteenth century
marks the triumph of Nationalism, Democracy, Liberalism,
in country after country. We have room here only to re-
cord the results. For a fuller study of this great theme
the reader must go to larger works. When Paris hath a
cold, it is said, the whole of Europe sneezes. But we might
as well say that whenever there is to be a political earth-
quake in Europe it is first indicated by the French seismo-
graph.

There were national and democratic risings all over Europe
in 1830 and 1848. In the first series, Greece won her inde-
pendence from Turkey when the English poet Byron sacri-
ficed himself at the altar of Hellenic liberation. In France,
the restored Bourbon regime was oince more overthrown in
favour of the Orleanist " citizen king " Louis Philippe, who
was crowned King "by the grace of God and by the will
of the people" At the same time, Catholic Belgium regain-
ed her national independence from Protestant Holland, and
her integrity was guaranteed by Britain, France, Prussia,
Austria, and Russia. There were also significant repercus-.
sions in Poland, Italy, Spain, and England. During the

1. Revolutionary Europe, p. 3.