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CHARLES II. VISITING WREN DURING THE BUILDING OF ST. PAUL'S
From the painting by Sayaour Lucu, R.A., in th« poisuiion of Mn. W. C. King, BilUnghurst
The Book of History
m Ibistot^ of all flations
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT
WITH OVER 8000 ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
/ VISCOUNT BRYCE, p.c, d.c.l.. ll.d., f.r.s.
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
W. M. ninders Petrie, LL.D., F.R.S.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
Hans F. Helmolt, Ph.D.
EDITOR, GERMAN " HISTORY OF THE WORLD "
Stanley Lane-Poole, M.A., Litt.D.
TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
Robert Nisbet Bain
ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN, BRITISH MUSEUM
Hugo Winckler, Ph.D.
UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN
Archibald H. Sayce, D.Litt., LL.D.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Alfred Russel Wallace, LL.D., F.R.S.
AUTHOR, "MAN'S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE"
Sir William Lee-Wcwner, K.C.S.L
MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF INDIA
Holland Thompson, Ph.D.
THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
W. Stewart Wallace, M.A.
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Maurice Maeterlinck
ESSAYIST, POET, PHILOSOPHER
Dr. Emile J. Dillon
UNIVERSITY OF ST. PETERSBURG
Arthur Mee
EDITOR, "THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE"
Sir Harry H. Johnston, K.C.B., D.Sc.
LATE COMMISSIONER FOR UGANDA
Johannes Ranke
UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH
K. G. Brandis, Ph.D.
UNIVERSITY OF JENA
And many other Specialists
Volume Xr
WESTERN EUROPE TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
The Age of Louis XIV and XV
The Restoration
Great Britain and the American Revolution
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEONIC ERA
Europe After Waterloo
NEW YORK . X/THE GROLIER SOCIETY LONDON . THE EDUCATIONAL BOOK CO.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XI
CHARLES (I VISITING WREN DURING THE BUILDING OF ST PAULS . FRONTISPIECE SIXTH GRAND DIVISION {continued)
THE REFORMATION AND AFTER THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV
PAGE
The Grand Monarque ........... 4393
Austria and the Empire ........... 4405
England and the Netherlands .......... 4417
France's Wars of Aggression .......... 4431
The Problem of the Spanish Throne ........ 4446
War of the Spanish Succession .......... 4453
England's Restored Monarchy . . . . . , . . . . 4465
Denmark's Despotic Monarchy .......... 4492
The Great Northern War ........... 4495
THE ENDING OF THE OLD ORDER
The Bourbon Powers and Great Britain
Great Britain under the Whigs .
The Great Hapsburg Monarchy
The Development of Prussia
Frederic the Great ....
Great Britain and the American War
German Powers after the Peace
The Bourbon Powers and the Approach of the Revo
Denmark's Great Era of Progress
Sweden's Time of Strife .
Great Dates from the Reformation to the Revolution
ution
45ot 4509 4S2I 4533 4539 4547 4558 4563 4577 4580 4583
THE COMMERCE OF WESTERN EUROPE
Eflfects of the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries ...... 4585
International Capitalism ........... 4593
Competition for the World's Commerce ........ 4609
British Maritime Supremacy .......... 4615
The Development of France .......... 4621
The Rise of European Trade .......... 4625
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEONIC ERA
Plan of the Fifth Division 4635
Map of Europe during the Revolutionary Era ...... 4636
Napoleon the Great ......... Plate facing 4636
General Survey of the Period .......... 4637
The Flight of the King 4649
V
2073288
THE BCX)K OF HISTORY
7AGE
The Revolution Triumphant 4659
Under the Reign of Terror .......... 4667
The Conquering General of the Directory ....... 4679
Napoleon in Portraiture ........... 4695
France under the New Despotism ......... 4701
Napoleon on the Battlefield in Victory and Defeat ...... 471 1
Napoleon as Emperor of the French ........ 4725
How Trafalgar changed the Face of the World ...... 4735
The Awakening of Nationalism ......... 4739
The Rising of the Nations .......... 4753
The Settlement of Europe .......... 4761
Great Britain and Ireland in the Napoleonic Wars ..... 4769
THE REMAKING OF EUROPE
Plan of the Sixth Division .......... 4777
General Survey of Europe since 1815 ........ 4779
Map of Modern Europe ........... 4788
EUROPE AFTER WATERLOO
The Great Powers in Concord ......... 4791
The British Era of Reform .......... 4797
The Reaction in Central Europe ......... 4825
-^
THE GRAND MONARQUE
AND HIS LONG DOMINATION OF EUROPE
'X'HE conclusion of the Peace of West- -*• phalia is an important point of departure in the pohtical and economic development of Europe ; it is marked both by the firm establishment of the monar- chical principle, and also by the rising predominance of the mercantile system. Moreover, it marks the end of political feudalism, on which the powers and functions of the mediaeval body politic had been founded. Survivals of the feudal system may, no doubt, be noted even now ; but its spirit ceased to be a moving force in European civilisation from that time, and the personal ties which held it together had lost their strength.
The struggles of individualism for recog- nition had been checked by the corporate character of mediaeval life, but are of much earlier origin. Individualism came to birth with the revival of learning and the Renaissance, and had wholly won its way in the departments of science and art even during the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies. But it was not before its victory had been decisive there that the underlying principle, now sure of recognition, could be developed in another direction, that of the individuality of the state. New forces were brought into being by this movement, Th B" tK essentially opposed to the forces
- 1, " which had produced the feudal of Great , ^^Vf -i
w . system. The more the powers
Movements -> , , . • ^
of the corporations were re- stricted, the wider became the field for "individual activity, and rulers were en- couraged to grapple with those duties and responsibilities which had been previously undertaken by numerous corporations working to a common end. The assault delivered by the Reformation upon the
greatest and the most powerful of all international corporations, the papacy, had not been hnally decisive during the six- teenth century. This success was attained only in the Thirty Years War, where the efforts of Catholicism to secure universal supremacy were proved to be incapable of jj. . realisation. The recognition
»k » . » » of the equahty of all Christian the r rotestant j • ^i. t-» /-^
States creeds m the Romano-Ger-
man Empire, the political rise of the Protestant states— England, Sweden, and Holland — to the level of others which had remained Catholic, the sanction of the Pope given to "Christian," "Catholic," and " Apostolic " kingdoms — these were facts which nullified once and for all, that possibility of a universal Christian com- munity upon which the greatest minds and the boldest politicians had once speculated. The results of these facts became manifest as well in Catholic as in Protestant states. Catholicism became a political force, but states were no longer founded with the object of realising the Catholic idea.
The House of Hapsburg gained great advantages from an alliance with the papacy, but it had, and has, no hesitation in renouncing the alliance, if by so doing it could further its political ends. Of this we have instances in the nineteenth century as well as in the eighteenth. In the policy of the French Bourbon and Napoleonic governments such instances are even more striking. The chief task of every govern- ment is to unify the powers under its control, and to turn them to account with a view to throwing off any external yoke and to consolidating the. internal relations between the territories composing the state.
4393
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Por the accomplishment of this purpose a change in the miUtary system was imi)eratively demanded. During the fif- teenth century the vassal's duties were by no means co-extensive with the mere defence of the country. Feudal armies were no longer equal to the demands made upon them by their overlords, who were anxious to increase their dominions, though the great city corporations of Italy were able to cope with the increasing difficulties of their policy, using only the military strength of their own citizens. Pay and recruiting became the sole methods of creating an army. Professional soldiers fought for dynasties and towns, overthrew and founded states. The German military orders were pro- foundly national in their rules and regu- lations ; but they were of no service to the national welfare, as there existed no general authority nor political bond. War became a business, in which the man Who invested his capital was most likely to succeed. During the sixteenth century dynastiesand political parties, such as the League in France, were content with this military instru- He was only fL™ of ag^whel i^^.f^lfhf became Subordination ofthcsc
ment, which was Kmg of France. With Cardinal Mazarin as her Minister, eXCCUtivepOWerS Were
J f L J i Louis' mother, Anne of Austria, acted as regent, but in ■ j ^ i_ 11
passed from hand, to loei the great cardinal died, and the king becoming sole Camcd OUt Wfiolly
hand, and came into ruler made himself an absolute monarch. He died in 1715. ^pQ^ the basis of
the service of hostile lords for so long a sovereignty, and the creation of this
all, special districts became responsible for the enlistment of particular bodies of troops — regiments, in fact ; then, if the numbers were too scanty, a further enlist- ment might be demanded ; and, finally, the ruling power grew strong enough to grasp the right of calling out soldiers, or recruiting, an arrangement which would have been impossible before 1500, because it was incompatible with the conception of feudal sovereignty. This is a concep- tion that has disappeared in modern states. The constitutional system of the nineteenth century would replace it with the con- ception of " personal freedom ; " but this is an idea which has been greatly limited by the respect de- manded for "state necessities" and " state welfare."
In domestic ad- ministration, bureau- cratic influences con- stantly grew stronger. The ruling power gradually claimed for itself those rights which had hitherto been bound up with territorial possession, or had formed part of municipal privileges. Such rights were ex- ercised by individuals exclusively depend- ent upon the ruler or his representatives. The arrangement and
time as their operations should continue. But the great convulsion of the Thirty Years War opened the way for a new military organisation. It made possible the formation into standing armies of the yeomen who had been enlisted as occasion arose, and with these the state sought to advance its own political aims.
It was only in the second half of the seventeenth -century that the idea gained ground in Germany and in France that the several territorial districts, and not the feudal vassals, had to undertake the responsibility of providing material for the war power of the overlord. First of
4394
bureaucratic hierarchy occupied atten- tion even during the eighteenth century, until it degenerated and was found in- capable of completing the domestic organi- sation of the state, when it became ob- viously necessary to admit the co-operation of the people, who had been temporarily excluded from all share in administrative functions. However, standing armies and the bureaucracy are the distinguishing features of that political system which succeeded feudalism — a system of which we cannot even now observe the develop- ment in its totality, and the duration of which it is impossible to estimate.
A PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XIV.. SHOWING THE KING IN HIS ROYAL ROBES
From an engraving of the painting by Hyicinthe Kigaud
It also became necessary to support the newly organised state by reconstituting its domestic economy, a process which was carried out upon the principle of separating districts and centralising the productive forces within them. In the second half of the seventeenth century the mercantile system spread in every direction. Its essential feature consists in the fact that the ruling power proposed to make the work of all the members of the state useful
to the state itself, to put pressure upon them in order that as large a share as possible of their profits might become available for state purposes. Of state necessities, the chief were the' army and the. fleet, which implied vital power and the possibility of self-aggrandisement. The territorial community therefore now takes the place of the municipal. The aim of governments, is now to increase the productive powers of their peoples, not
4395
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Process of Political
©nly because individual producers and civic corporations are thereby benefited, but also because the capacity for bearing taxation is thereby increased. Govern- ments struggle for colonial possessions, and support the formation of great trading companies, which are not now indepen- dent corporations, but must submit to State control and jj . accommodate themselves to
eve opmen ^^^ political relations of their rulers with other powers. There we have the real origin of the conception of the national strength as a uniform activity, directed by the sovereign in power. It is when domestic economy takes a commercial direction that the distinguishing features of political economy, are plainly seen, and hence arises an entirely new set of ideas concerning the nature and extent of national power.
This process did not come to fulfilment at the same time in every Euro- pean nation ; it was most quickly carried out in cases where political unity had already been attained, and where the central power had emerged victo- rious from the struggle with the independent corporations. It is the historian's task to explain those circumstances
no answer to the question : What form of political and economic cbnstitution will have that permanent importance for man- kind which the forms of feudalism had for a thousand years ? We do not know whether any grade of development yet remains for our entry which is likely to last so long, whether the rapid change of productive conditions is likely to influence conceptions of rights, and thereby to pro- duce more rapid changes in the social organism. But the firm conviction is borne in upon us that the rise of those marvellously complex political organisms which we call Great Powers has exer- cised the highest degree of influence upon the historical life, not only of Europe, but of the whole world. Nationalism is not suffi- ciently intellectual to give an impulse to the creation of fresh bodies politic differing in essentials from those now existing, and thus far has contributed merely to assure the position of the Great Powers ; and it seems at the moment as if the great problems which mankind will have to solve in the near future could be taken in hand only with the help of the powerful machinery of the great states. NICHOLAS FOUCQUET jo offcr further con-
, . 1 . 1 , , Under Mazarin, Foucquet became Procureur- . . r > -i
which exercised a retard- O^n^ral and Minister of Finance, and in these JCCturCS UpOU futUrC dc-
ing or an accelerating positions acquired much wealth. He hoped to vclopmcnts is uot the
influence upon state succeed the great cardinal, but Louis ordered busiuCSS of history, which
formation. Economic his apprehension, and he died in prison mieso. ^j^^^j^ ^^^-^ political
life is wholly dependent upon external circumstances and the political situation, and therefore it is necessary first to ex- amine the political history, and to expound the most important series of related facts, before entering upon an examination of national progress.
A history of civilisation, which would examine the immediate condition of peoples living under similar circumstances, and not confine itself merely to the intellectual side of development, to art and science, can be written only upon the basis of political history. Alone and unaided, it can gain no insight into the motive forces of civil and political life, for this is information which the science of political history alone can provide. Even at the present day we have
4396
hypotheses to the utmost of its power ; but it is the duty of the historian to examine into the rise of those great political organ- isms with which lies the ultimate decision of all questions now involving the exercise of force. It is from this point" of view that we propose to follow the course of history and Th H "t ^^ pursue our investigations, of the cleT ^^^^"S special prominence to
Cardinals ^^^^^ P°^^* ^^^^^ "^^^ ^^^"^' trate that remarkable and
most important subject, the position of the
Great Powers in the nineteenth century.
When Louis XIV. began to extend and
to build upon the foundations which the
two cardinals had laid, his government
attained in every department of public
business a degree of independence and
THE GRAND MONARQUE
influence of which none of his confidential advisers could ever have dreamed. How could anyone have expected that the means which might have been success- fully employed to set up a tyranny in some humble little principality would be set in operation in a kingdom which was the home of the proudest nobility in Europe, and where the highest law courts could insist upon the enforcement of law and custom as against the crown ?
Louis was convinced of the fact that a monarch who could make all the forces of the state subservient to himself, and could turn them to the state advantage at his will and pleasure, was in a position to undertake far heavier tasks than any Minister, however gifted. The effort to realise his theory was a real pleasure to him, and he had suffi- cient ambition and also intellectual power to enable him to devote his life to this great task. A royal task it was in very truth, and he brought it to completion, for his was a royal nature through and through, eminently chosen and adapted to show mankind to what height of power and of purely personal influence a strong character can attain when supported
Villeroi and several Secretaries of State at a later period. Special knowledge, capacity for some particular business, alone decided the king's choice : birth and wealth no longer constituted a right to a place in the royal council. The king was the sole representative of the royal family, J.. , the House of Bourbon with its c ing s (jjffgj-gj^^ branches. In him were g"^"* conjoined both the will of the
nation and the interests of the dynasty. By the side of the young monarch the great Conde was but a poor figure : he never rose above the position of governor and general, and after him no other prince of the blood attempted to lay claim to a share in the government. However, where there was the will to govern, it was also necessary that there should be a way. Louis XIV. directed his particular care to this end : he looked carefully into the business of the " Partisans," the tax- farmers and public credi- tors, for it was above all things necessary to pro- tect the state from these vampires. He made a beginning with Nicholas Foucquet, the Procureur- General and Minister of Finance, who had con- ducted this department
by great traditions, in- The ill^LTprTnle^ a^'nd^hflntry of the state mth great
spired with the spirit of a generally, were in a sad condition when Col-
highly gifted people and ^'^ became the chief Minister of Louis XIV.
devoting for half a' Cen- i" ^*^'^- "f instituted many reforms and in
. ° rr 1 -I to years the revenue was more than doubled.
tury its every effort and
exertion to increase and to extend the possessions which belonged to the nation. The extraordinary political talent of the king became apparent at the outset of his reign in the security with which he proceeded to organise his government. He was himself his first and only Minister, ^. . assisted by several admirable
Ministers jntellects, for whom he, as L * XIV ni^ster, appointed the several departments in which their activity was to be operative ; these were Colbert, Le Tellier, Louvois, father and son, and Lionne. In cases of necessity others were called in from time to time to the state councils, which were invariably held under the king's presidency. At first Turenne was often one of these, as were
adroitness under Mazarin, but had also gained un- bounded wealth for him- self. Colbert had made the king acquainted with all the underhand dealings and falsifications of Foucquet, and the king had definitely decided upon his dismissal at the moment when Foucquet was under the impression that he could take Mazarin's place, and rule both king and country as Prime Minister. He based his calculations upon the young man's love of pleasure, which had already become obvious — so much so as to convince the court that the society of the Fronde, which had laid no restraint upon the freedom of inter- course between ladies and their cavaliers, would here also be thrown into the shade. But a peculiar feature in Louis' character, a mark both of his royal and tyrannical nature, was the fact that he never allowed his personal desires to
4397
4ov^:
THE GRAND MONARQUE
influence his political judgment, that his interests in official life and government were never thrust out of their place by conversation and love affairs, and that he always found time for .everything which could busy a mind with so wide an outlook over human hfe as his. Foucquet was arrested on September 5th, 166 1, a short time after he had enchanted the king with an extraordinarily brilliant and expensive entertainment in his castle of Vaux, at Melun, and thought that he had won him over entirely. The king placed him on his trial, and insisted upon a heavy punish- ment, although public opinion was in favour of the clever finan- cier who had been adroit enough to circulate the guldens which he had extorted by his oppres- sion among a wide circle of de- pendents and parasites, and also to reward therewith good and useful ser- vices. Colbert, as ministerial offi- cial, who had undertaken the business of work- ing up the most varied " cases " with inexhaust- ible zeal, was very well ac-
national credit without further imposi- tions, although the revenues had been pledged from the beginning of his adminis- tration until 1663. He entirely removed the taille, or poll tax, which was a burden only upon peasants and citizens, for the clergy, the nobility, and the upper-class citizens, in fact everyone who bore a title, had been exempted. On the other hand, he raised the indirect taxes, especially the gabelle, or salt tax, which was remitted only in exceptional cases, and bore more heavily upon the large estab- lishments than upon the small. With the re- form of taxation began that great economic cen- trahsation of the mercantile sys- tem, which is of no less import- ance than the formation of the state. Colbert had no prece- dent for his guidance, but none the less he formed the suc- cessive economic developments of previous reigns into a firm and sound national system, even as his lord and king followed the steps of Henry IV. and Riche- lieu in his foreign
MARIA THERESA, THE QUEEN OF LOUIS XIV. p O 1 i C y. The
nnQin + ^/l «n+V. This portrait of the queen of Louis XIV. is reproduced from the rpcnilatinn<; hv quaintea Wltn painting by Velasquez. Maria Theresa was the eldest daughter of regUiailons uy the methods bv P^il*? '*• "^ Spain, and was married to the French king in 1660. which Louis XI.
by
which the partisans had gained their great wealth, and supported the king in his resolve to demand restitution to the state of the gold that had been unjustly extorted. A special court of justice was entrusted with the examination of the defalcations, and ordered confiscations in the case of five hundred persons to the amount of no millions of livres, which were poured into the state chest.
By means of this influx, and also by lowering the rate of interest which the state paid to its creditors, Jean Baptiste Colbert was enabled to maintain the
had opposed the entrance of foreign manu- facturers into the kingdom, the institution of free trade in corn within the limits of the kingdom by the edict of 1539, the bestowal of special rights upon the com- mercial and manufacturing classes by the goverfunent after 1577 and 1581, the creation of a French fleet under Richelieu — these measures were first necessary before the policy of economic protection, the removal of the. customs duties of the provinces, could enable the general interests of the state to gain a victory over the individual aspirations of separate
4399
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
provinces and towns. The States-General could no longer be summoned, because such a measure would have renewed the struggle between the orders and the central power, and have taxed the entire strength of the government. It became necessary to place limits on the operation of the provincial assemblies, as no con- _, , sideration for the general rance s necessities could be expected Economic r .-, t-i ^ ,
Pj. j. from them There was also
the danger to be reckoned with, as the event proved, that these assemblies would use their privileges to secure their putative advantages within the narrow limits of their local adminis- tration, and would place every obstacle in the way of the government, which invaded the rights of the individual in its zeal to further the aims of the public economy.
In the course of only six years (1667- 1673) successive royal edicts had laid the foundations of a uniform adminis- tration throughout France, without which the country could never have provided the government with the enormous amount of military material required for the war against neighbouring states, whereby the " natural " boundaries of France were to be reached. Before the state could exert its power as a whole, the national resources had to be centralised. Economic progress became the foundation of political power.
There was but one method of increasing the prosperity of the citizens, and so making it possible for them to bear the burden of national undertakings, and this method consisted in attracting them to the production of staple articles of consumption, in persuading them to trade on their own account and so to reserve to themselves the profits which foreigners had previously ap- propriated, in putting all the available money in the country into circulation, and, by a steady reduction of the influx of foreigners, excluding foreign countries from all participation in the advantages gained
_. _ ^, through trade and manu-
The Government s r , ° t-, • , _ . factures. 1 his change m
Encouragement • j ^ • i i_ j
, ^ mdustnal concerns had
of Commerce , , ^ 1 r j
almost to be forced upon
the citizens of France by the government ;
of themselves, they contributed but little
to that result. Not only did Colbert
exercise his influence to bring about the
erection of new manufactories, not only
did he procure foreign experts and place
them as instructors in the workshops, but
even the smallest technical details were
4400
carefully examined by the authorities, Directions upon the weaving and dyeing of hundreds of fabrics were issued by them, and disregard of their regulations was punished. In the department of manufactures the energy of the govern- ment was rewarded by brilliant success.
The dexterity and the good taste of the population displayed itself in their manu- factures, which were, in part, new creations or were modified to meet an existing demand, as in the case of the lace manufacture.
The trade, however, which it was hoped that the West India, East Africa, East India, Northern, and Levant companies would establish by no means fulfilled the general expectations. The French were not capable of world-wide commercial undertakings. They rarely desired to push their influence in far distant coun- tries ; they were not fitted, as their king had supposed, to enter into commercial rivalry with Holland and England. Several times France gained a footing in North America, and each attempt proved her want of capacity for the task of colonisa- tion. At the present day France has neither _, influence nor colonists in the
^ ^'^ . northern continent of the New ncapaci y in ^^^.j^ . ^j^ggg have passed to
the British race. The capital of these companies was provided by private subscription, in which the higher officials had to take a share " at the king's desire."
The best business of all was done by the Levantine company, which monopolised the trade between the western Mediterranean and ports of the Turkish kingdom, after numerous attempts at intervention by the Dutch merchants. Great hopes had rested upon the completion of the Canal du Midi, as it was thought that merchantmen of heavy tonnage could avail themselves of this new route from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean ; at any rate, it made mani- fest the talents of the French for engineer- ing work, and gave flatterers — among whom Pierre Corneille was conspicuous — the opportunity of magnifying the king above Charlemagne and all his predecessors. But the new passage did not become an im- portant trade route ; the canal affected the trade merely of the surrounding districts — that is to say, of Languedoc.
The rearrangement of financial affairs, wherein, according to the report of the Venetian envoys, material improvement would be rapidly brought about by the influx of bullion from abroad, enabled the
4401
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
king to reorganise the army, which was hardly equal to any enterprise of diffi- culty in its present form, under which it had emerged from the most recent wars. The system of yeomanry enlistment, the swindling practised by the authorities, whose returns invariably claimed pay for a larger number of men than were actually under arms, the small number of real fighting troops as compared with the growing train of camp followers, the entire dependence of military operations upon the exigencies of winter quarters and har- vesting— these and many other causes of weakness could only be swept away when the king took the interests of the officers and men directly under his control, when the middleman was no longer respons- ible for their equipment, and when pay could be disbursed as it fell due.
Hitherto the governors of the provinces had been a serious check to the power of the king over the army, since they had command of the fortress garrisons, and
could call out the " arriere ban " of the nobles and levy the mihtia, Standing cavalry regiments had never been kept up, as they were found to be unavailable for purposes of regular warfare. Louvois was the first to make use of the militia — with some reluctance — during the War of the Spanish Succession, when lack of men became a serious problem. For this purpose contributions were exacted from the nobility and the towns, which were employed for purposes of recruiting.
It was not a national army that Louis XIV. employed to secure his predominance in Europe, but an army of professional soldiers, of which scarce two-thirds were Frenchmen. The infantry of the " Maison du Roi," which was 6,000 strong, was half foreign ; in the life-guards, 800 mounted troops of noble origin, Frenchmen were in the majority. The " infantry of the line " counted forty-six regiments, of which fourteen, including fifty so-called free companies, were composed of Swiss,
RENEWAL OF THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND, NOVEMBER 16Tir, 1663 4402
LET AT, CEST MOI!'. THE FAMOUS DECLARATION OF LOUIS XIV. The imperious temper of the youthful King of France, ever impatient with opposition, led Louis on one occasion to take stern measures with the Paris Parlement While he was hunting, word was brought to him regarding the interference of the Parlement with his edicts ; he galloped straight to Paris, entered the Palais de Justice and Hall of Parlement in his hunting habit, and sternly'rebuked the astonished legists. " L'Etat, c'est moi ! "—The State, it is I— is the saying attributed to him, and in this, phrase is embodied the policy which he so zealously pursued.
Germans, Irishmen, Italians, and Walloons. The cavalry amounted to eighty-two regiments, with 12,000 horses ; in their case foreigners made up an eighth part of the whole, and were looked upon as the flower of the service, and received higher pay than the native-born soldiers.
The rise of the French nation to the position of a great power was not the result of any great national movement, but was due solely to the victory of the system of centralisation and monarchical absolutism, which lofty aims were prosecuted by capable statesmen and a monarch of first- rate capacity. These aims were national. They corresponded to that inner conscious- ness of power with which the nation was inspired ; but they were not laid down as being the direct expression of the .national will. The kingly policy had to undertake the task of accustoming the nation to ihat point of view. In the Ger- man Empire exactly the contrary was the case. There the necessities and the just
demands of the nation were discussed in tracts and essays, which went the round of the educated classes. But the move- ment gained no consideration ; neither the emperor nor the diet was able to unite the German forces, either for defence against attack, or for the enforcement of justice, or contractual obligations, or for a stand against oppression. Had not this dis- similarity of conditions existed in her neighbour, France would never have been able, even under the strongest absolutism, to attain a position wholly out of pro- portion to her natural resources and to the just claims of her people.
Centralisation at home was followed by extension abroad, by conquest, the unlimited extent of which could not fail to become a source of danger to the nation. There can be no doubt that Louis XIV. was induced to undertake his wars of spoliation by the legend of Austrasia and the so-called right of natural boun- daries, which were to include the Rhine ;
4403
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
but it is equally certain that after his marriage with the Infanta of Spain he had entertained the hope of winning the Spanish kingdom, or at least a large portion of its territory. In so doing he transgressed to his eventual ruin the limits of the classical system of French policy which had been founded by Henry IV. and built up by the . , cardinals. He excited the greed
p^!*." . for possession in the French, o icy o ^^^ fostered their pohtical Aggression ., i_,i_ rijj.-
pride; but he failed to inspire
them with that sense of unconditional devotion to the state, with that spirit of cheerful obedience to the ruhng house, which is alone able to sustain the shock of severe repulse. The excess to which the centralisation of the state was carried brought about consequences so disastrous to the nation that all the cruel blood-letting of the Revolution could not effect a permanent cure.
The first step which betrayed the young king's intentions was directed against Lorraine. This province had already passed into the French sphere of influence, as a result of the rights, acquired in 1659, to a military road which crossed the province in the direction of the Rhine. Diplomatic quibbles and finally the em- ployment of force gained the whole district with the exception of one fortress, Maral. The ducal family of the House of Guise were again obliged to attempt to protect their property by joining hands with the Hapsburg pohcy ; but they obtained no material support from the emperor.
The second step had for its object the acquisition of the Spanish " Burgundian " dominions. Louis XIV. was ready to sup port his father-in-law, Philip, against Port- ugal— for Philip had designs of uniting Portugal with the country of its origin — provided that he would agree to declare that the renunciation made by his elder daughter, Louis' wife, was invalid, and that she might accordingly lay claim to the inheritance of Franche- e "nc Comte and some Nether-
Claims on Great 11, -, t ■ > ■
„ . land territory. Louis in-
tentions were helped by the fact that the Netherland jurists established the fact of the existence of so-called rights of escheatage as regards Brabant, whereby Maria Theresa could lay definite claim to an important part of Great Burgundy. When Philip died, in 1665, Louis came to an understanding with Charles II. of England upon certain acquisitions which Charles was
4404
to obtain, concluded a compact with the Rhenish princes for the security of the passage of the Rhine against any contin- gents of the imperial troops, and then ordered the Marshals Antoine d'Aumont and Turenne to advance into Flanders and push on to Brabant.
The Spaniards were not so completely taken by surprise as had been hoped in Paris. Brussels was too well prepared to be captured by any sudden attack. Den- dermonde, the most important strat eg cal point on the Scheldt, was in an excellent position of defence, and could have with- stood a siege. But Charleroi, Douai, Courtrai, and Lille were seized before the powers, who had been surprised by this unexpected breach of the peace on the part of France, could agree upon any common action. Louis issued the information that he desired to gain the Franche-Comte, Lux- emburg, and certain places on the Nether- land frontier, and that if these were left to him he would renounce all claims to any further rights which his wife might acquire by inheritance, Conde, who was entrusted with the conquest of the Franche-Comte, • viv ' succeeded in this task with
°j'fi. I' '• 1 surprising rapidity but this and the Triple -11 u- u
.... was the sole success which
fell to the king as a result
of this first act of aggression. Sweden
joined the convention which had been
brought about between England and the
states of Holland, resulting in the Triple
Alliance on January 23rd, 1668, which
recognised the claims of Louis to what he
had already seized, on the condition that
he should renounce all future attempts at
aggrandisement .
The king agreed ; he restored the
Franche-Comte to Spain, and retained his
conquests in the Spanish Netherlands.
The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, to which
Spain was obliged to conform, confirmed
this settlement on May 2nd, 1668, without
raising any discussion as to Maria Theresa's
rights of inheritance. Louis' Ministers had
urgently advised him not to entangle the
finances of the country by prosecuting a
war, in which Spain would undoubtedly
have found allies against him. Before
it was possible to resume the policy of
conquest, the work of centralising the
forces of the state must be vigorously
prosecuted. Meanwhile, the task before
French diplomacy was to split up the
Triple Alliance and to prevent any future
imion of the so-called " sea powers."
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
AUSTRIA AND THE EMPIRE
AND GERMANY'S FALL FROM GREATNESS
""THE German Empire, the old Holy ■*• Roman Empire of the German nation, once the greatest power of western Christendom, had renounced its position as a great power by the Peace of West- phalia. It had been deprived of territory, population, and wealth, its economic resources were inadequate, and its moral strength proportionately weakened. Moreover, its constitution had undergone changes, which entirely removed the possi- bility of that union of national force, that civil centralisation, by which alone national strength can manifest itself in action.
The feudal system had in this case run a course entirely different from that taken in England and France. The throne was based upon election by the freemen ; and though the power of election was limited to a constantly diminishing body, yet it could not be entirely set aside by any member of the royal house, , . ... .. which, both on the nearer
plwey'of ^^'^ ^"^*^^'" ^'^^ ""^ *^^ ^^P^' n. \M L maintained the exercise of the the Monarch , , . -.i -i
royal prerogatives with the
consent and the support owed by law from the great vassals. When finally the princes who had the right of choice — that is, the electors — received the commission to place a ruler on the throne under conditions contractual in their nature, then their rights and their peculiar position gained a con- stitutional sanction, and the power of the monarch was so far limited that he could never attain to absolute sovereignty.
The classes excluded from the electorate were also protected from oppression, for on the one hand they were indispensable to the bearer of the crown as a counter- poise to the electors, and, on the other hand, the latter might find their help useful should the sovereign meditate any attack upon their own political exist- ence. The many-sided interests which »king and emperor were bound or found occasion to represent claimed their whole power and attention. The inadequacy of
the revenue which the head of the empire,* as such, had at his command made them dependent upon the goodwill of their vassals ; and whenever the latter gave their assistance they found opportunity to increase their rights and to strengthen Ti. ^k t. their influence upon the life of Stron ^^^ nation. Nowhere was the
• g"* position of the Church so inde-
erma&y pgj^^jgj^^ qj- endowed with such
high temporal powers as in Germany ; nowhere without the German Enjpire could ecclesiastical princes be found with the position of an Archbishop of Mainz or Cologne, a Bishop of Wiirzburg or Miinster, bishops who could style them- selves Dukes of Franconia or Westphalia.
The Reformation had diminished their number, but the property of the dis- possessed had not accrued to the crown, as might very well have been the case if the head of the empire had been able to guide the movement directed against the constitution of the Church. A Protestant emperor who could have been a national emperor at the same time might have emerged in triumph from the battle with the feudal powers, which apparently fled for protection behind the sheltering bulv/arks of the old belief ; the ally and voluntary steward of the papacy handed over the portion of the empire which had been torn from the old Church to the princely houses, which thereby enriched themselves and assured their political position.
The Thirty Years War had shown that this state of affairs was impossible. It should, however, be observed that the _ , German religious wars might
rITioL^ have had a different result if e igious ^ tax-gatherer had held the
rugg es |.^j.Qj^g jj^ place of Charles V., or if Ferdinand II. had been inspired with the spirit of a Henry of Navarre, or even if this weak-minded pupil of the Jesuits of the Ingol towns had had at least the moral strength to use the talent and the merci- lessness of a Wallenstein in the interests
4405
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of a ruling imperialism based upon force of arms. As a matter of fact, that strong personality, which might have changed the semblance of imperial power into the reality, was not forthcoming from the House of Hapsburg ; in spite of the Divine assistance officially promised by the suc- cessors of St. Peter, it was equally incapable
_. _ . of performing the task laid The Paradox -j. u R. 4.u
f G ' "P°" ^^ ^y ^^® papacy — the
o ermany s syit)ig(>^JQj^ Qf ^J^g schismatics • Sovereign- A . .i t^
m the empire to the Roman
Church. Indeed, the ecclesiastical princes
themselves contributed not a little to retard
the progress of the army of the Catholic
emperor ; they went over to the side of
Maximilian of Wittelsbach when at Regens-
burg he had wrested the order for the
release of the Friedlander from the emperor.
The certainty was then made absolute that
Germany could not be a monarchy.
And Philip Boguslav of Chemnitz was entirely justified, in 1640, when in his famous " Dissertatio de ratione status in imperio nostro romano-germanico " he described the form of the German monarchy as essentially aristocratical, en- trusting certain departments of adminis- tration to the supervision of a monarch ; the monarch, however, had no special rights appertaining to him as princeps, except such as his colleagues in the administration were willing to concede to him. " This person of supreme rank bears the old Roman title of ' Kaiser,' but the title does not express the position which a monarch holds in other states. Sovereignty or majesty is not to be found with the Kaiser, but only with the general assembly of the members of the empire crowned in the Reichstag."
In accordance with this conception of the state, representatives of the German Reichs- tag carried on negotiations for Miinster and Osnabriick, and by the Peace of West- phalia the sovereignty of every component member of the empire was recognised, from the electors and dukes
^ ^^ 1 . to such towns as Dinkelsbiihl iLiiBpire l^eased j t-> n t^i.
c- . and Bopiingen. 1 he empire
as a State , , r o j ■ , ^
thereupon ceased to be a
state. It no longer corresponded to the
demands of a feudal state ; for in such the
vassals were not and could not be equal
with the overlord, but must be in personal
subjection to and dependence upon him.
But the empire was also incapable of
providing from its own resources for the
protection of its people against enemies
4406
from without or injustice within, and still more incapable of carrying out the organ- isation necessary for culture and prosperity.
The fulfilment of these obligations belonging to the state devolved upon the Orders, the owners of territory, who were forced to develop gradually into separate states or to disappear ; as the decision upon the religion to be adopted lay in their hands, they were in possession of the most important of all instruments for moulding the social spirit of their territory. But the German Orders differed greatly in extent of dominion, in composition, and in power of action, and, in consequence, only a small number of them was capable of forming a political unity, there being 158 members of the Reichstag, whereas there existed nearly 300 governors with forms of administration peculiar to each.
During the period from the Peace of
Westphalia to the dissolution of the old
kingdom the history of Germany embraces
not only the struggle of the Orders to
maintain their sovereignty as against the
attempts of the emperor to limit it, but,
even more, the struggle for means to found
_. _ ^ a body politic — that is, for
The Fate , , -^ t . • . ■ r
fW k ^^f^^t 01 territory, increase of
jj .. the population, and strengthen- ing of internal relations. A process of centralisation embracing the whole empire was impracticable, being excluded by the existing scheme of dis- union and disruption ; such centralisa- tion was possible only within the narrow boundaries of territorial lords, and was therefore confined to the German princi- palities. Strong and fortunate dynasties, where vigorous personalities could make their mark, succeeded in founding states with vital force sufficient to enable them to preserve their independence in spite of every collapse or political bankruptcy.
The remainder met with the inevitable fate of the weak who oppose the will of the strong — namely, destruction ; or else they maintained a very modest existence, having no greater extent or power than the estates of a private landowner, and owing their continuance to the silent forbearance of their neighbours, and to a respect for tradition, which had long since been void of all political content, and had no meaning save for the historical antiquarian.
Of all the royal houses of Germany, that of Hapsburg stood first in importance and external power ; but its possessions and interests had come to it from without
AUSTRIA AND THE EMPIRE
the boundaries of the empire ; the Casa d' Austria had been of and by itself a world power. It is true that Charles V. was the only ruler to govern the whole of the immense territory which he had inherited ; the division into the Spanish and German lines resulted from the fact that the two geographical groups were inevitably forced asunder by the necessities of their very existence, and the immediate cause of the separation was the exercise of those family rights which had brought the union to pass in the face of every political and economic law. The Spanish state with its Italian and Bur- gundian depen- dencies and its American colonies had been unable to main- tain its position as a great power, and had been forced to yield to Holland and France. The claims of the reigning dynasty, which thought it unnecessary to set any bounds to its ambition, and had frittered its strength away on every battle- field during the Thirty Years War, diverted attention from home affairs, so that ruin came upon the king- dom of Philip 11. both from with- out and from
within. The fact that the brothers Rudolf and Matthias left no children prevented the otherwise unavoidable subdivision of the German line ; Spanish influence enabled Ferdinand II. to become sole ruler, Spanish money supported the army with which the Austrian defended his terri- tory. But the consequence was that the German Hapsburgs found themselves obliged to take up the heavy and embar- rassing burden of the emperor's crown. The looseness of connection between the
different members of the Roman Empire within the German nation must have proved a help to a reigning dynasty which attempted to unify the subject states by means of personal government and a uniform administration ; especially was this true of the House of Hapsburg, which had been able to reinforce its rights of possession by the further influence resulting from uniformity of religion. The spiritual bond of union between the Hapsburg territories, which now began to receive the general name of Austria, and the chief centres of culture in the rest of Germany, had been almost en- tirely destroyed by the counter- reformation in the Alpine terri- tories, by the victory over the Bohemian dis- turbances, and by the conse- quent subjection of intellectual and moral edu- cation to the control of the Jesuit orders. Economic rela- tions between t he two countries were also cut off at their very source by the stoppage of trade and intercommu- nication conse- quent upon the poverty in which the Thirty Years War had
280
THE GERMAN EMPEROR LEOPOLD I. He succeeded his father, the Emperor Ferdinand III., in 1658, and ruled his Hungarian subjects with such severity that they rebelled. The War of the Spanish Succession broke out during his reign as
a consequence of the struggle between him and Louis XIV. of left the COUntry. P'rance for the heirship to the crown of Spain. Leopold died in 1705. ThuS Samuel
Pufendorf, writing in 1667, under the pseudonym of Severinus de Mozambano, " De statu imperii gertnanici," had spoken of the constitution of the Roman Empire as irregular and monstrous, and instanced the position of the Casa d' Austria, which had been able to separate from the empire without difficulty and to set up as inde- pendent on its own account. Upon this fact he founded the opinion that the House of Hapsburg must be supported in its imperial position, because, if the crown
4407
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
went to another family of princely rank the Hapsburg territories would inevitably be separated from the empire, which would thus be weakened and risk suffering the fate which had come upon Italy. More- over, no other house was then in a position to bear the expense of keeping up the im- perial court and ceremonial in proper form.
_ .. The inference was so inevit-
* erdinand ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ j^^^^ ^^
Mari& Declines ,, <■ j i,
Q the empire was found who
would have accepted the crown when Louis XIV. was looking out for a fresh candidate after the death of Fer- dinand III. in 1657. When Count Egon of Fiirstenberg made the proposal in the name of the French government to the Elector Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria, he declined it with the remark that he was not disposed to receive the imperial position as a favour from France, and that he did not care to endanger the security and permanence of his young electorate for the sake of the unstable and transitory dignity of the emperor's crown.
It was Brandenburg that finally decided the choice of Leopold I., an election vigorously opposed by France. With the exception of this elector and Bavaria, all the electors and their Ministers were silent. The ambassadors Gramont and Lionne, who were sent out to attend the election, had received credit from Mazarin to the amount of 15,000,000 dollars, and considerable sums from this source found their way into the pockets of influential personages at the courts of Cologne, Mainz, Treves, and Heidelberg. Austrian and Spanish money was also readily accepted, and the latter commanded great influence in Dresden. In any case, to take presents from both sides was to be under obligations to neither,
Frederic William of Brandenburg en- joyed a reputation greater than any that his forefathers had possessed. When Sweden, Poland, and Austria were struggling for the _ p supremacy in Eastern Europe
, _, .^ . they could not afford to leave of Frederic ,. -^ ^ r .■< • 1
^ . J . . his power out of their calcu-
lations ; within the empire his neighbours had to be careful how they opposed a coahtion of which he was a member. Before the meeting of the electors, Frederic William plainly de- clared his opinion in a despatch to the Elector of Cologne, and spoke in favour of the Austrian candidate, for he was of Pufendorf's opinion as to the welfare of the
4408
empire, and therefore laid it down as necessary in view of the threatening state of affairs " again to elect such a house as is capable by its own power of upholding the Roman Empire."
However, when it became necessary to draw up the terms of election and to lay down the principles upon which the chosen emperor would have to conduct the policy of his government, Branden- burg declared decisively for that party which was opposed to any amalgamation of German and Spanish affairs, and was anxious that the emperor should not involve the empire in a quarrel with its western neighbour on account of the Franco-Spanish war. In brief, the desire of this party was that if the House of Hapsburg took the German crown, it should not employ the additional power thus gained to avert the fall of Spain.
Co-operation by the courts of Vienna and Madrid invariably favoured Catholicism, a religion which Brandenburg had no inclination to strengthen. The majority in the college of electors was gained by the adherence of the Palatinate under . ... the influence of the ecclesiastical E^^'t^d * princes of Cologne and Mainz, p, who were brought over to his
side by the dependence upon France, whereas Protestant Saxony seceded through her jealousy of the Catholic parties — Bavaria and Treves ; however, the fact remains that the position assumed by Brandenburg materially helped to secure the safety of Protestantism. Leopold was obliged to undertake to abstain from any interference in the wars which France was waging in Italy and Burgundy, to give no help to her opponents, and further to work in the interests of peace between France and Spain. If the emperor as head of the empire desired to enter into alliance with foreign powers, the consent of the electors must first be obtained, and this not by writing, but after full discussion in the electoral assembly.
For the execution of an imperial decree in the case of any one state of the empire the general consent was also necessary. The electoral character of the empire was thus most strongly emphasised by the election of Leopold L, and the terms of election which explained the main features of the constitution were practically an amplifica- tion of the Golden Bull in the year 1356. The election of the House of Hapsburg
AUSTRIA AND THE EMPIRE
had been a concession to the necessities of the general pohcy of the empire ; it imphed uo greater coherence in the relations of the imperial princes to the emperor and his house. The republic of princes had chosen a wealthy and excellent representative, and had laid additional obligations upon the state, which was desirous of preserving the balance between the powers influential in the south-east of Europe ; but the several members of the empire were entirely convinced that the imperial dominions and the voluntary union of the German rulers did not together constitute any political unity, and that they were severally at liberty to pursue their own course of policy regardless of the emperor.
This idea found open expression in the formation of a confederacy of the princes on the Rhine, a movement which followed almost immediately upon the election. If we consider merely the formal wording of the convention concluded upon August 14th, 1658, we may call the confederation a movement of the friends of peace — with such emphasis is the statement made that " the con- p . federates, whether differing in
-, . . religion or not, will provoke no , p foreign power to hostihties, but
will preserve the friendship now existing among themselves, and will use the remedies of law to remove any causes of quarrel that may occur." However, this organisation could not be considered as remarkably formidable, inasmuch as the whole of the standing forces which the members were able to provide amounted to only 4,700 infantry and 2,370 cavalry.
Beside the electorates of Mainz, Cologne, and the Palatinate of Neuburg, the Liineburgers of Brunswick and the Landgrave of Hesse also joined the con- federation, which was modified conform- ably to its convention with France. France undertook to protect the rights and possessions of the confederates, who on their part promised to maintain the Peace of Westphalia together with the conces- sions then made to France, and held themselves in readiness to help the king with their military contingents if he should be attacked in any of the territories which had been assured by the peace.
The estimate of troops mentioned in the French proposals was sufficiently modest, amounting to 1.600 infantry and 800 cavalry ; the political confederates were
bound to act only in cases when the German princes reckoned upon French help ; they were not concerned with the rights of France to represent her own interests with such means as might seem necessary to her within the territory of the confederates. In the war against Spain and the States-General, Louis XIV. had _ gained considerable advantage
jj. . by making practical use of
f M°™**^"^ these rights, which had been established in theory by the dexterous diplomacy of Mazarin. Branden- burg also took part in the early stages of the negotiations, but she abstained from join- ing in the compact ; she made many changes of front which were not compatible with the policy of reinsurance against the growing power of the empire adopted by a number of petty German states. Brandenburg- Prussia had already become a body politic which was quite capable of leading an alliance, but could never have been an earnest, loyal member of a confederation under French guidance.
The imperial court fully recognised that the formation of the Rhine confedera- tion was directed immediately against its position in the empire, and foreboded an interference on the part of France in the affairs of the empire which might become extremely serious. The emperor therefore did his utmost to sever the constitutional representatives of the pro- vinces, who made up the assembly of deputies when the Reichstag was not sitting, from such influence as the Rhine princes might exert. There was some dispute upon the question whether the assembly of deputies should be held in Frankfort or in Regensburg ; and the Rhine confederates demanded the sum- moning of the Reichstag, which had been prorogued for two years in 1654.
The German Reichstag, which was in
correspondence with the assembly for
maintaining the Peace at Nuremberg, might
, have extended its activity
Germaays j^ ^^ unusual degree. It
°* _, .,. might have dealt with the Opportunities ° r ,• • ,,
means of reahsmg the prm-
ciples of the imperial constitution as laid down in the Peace of Westphalia, with measures necessary for securing the frontiers, with the organisation of the imperial army, with the means desirable for increasing the prosperity of the country, for revivmg trade and industry. However, one of the most remarkable
4409
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
phenomena among the consequences of the Thirty Years War is the fact that all the misery and all the losses which had befallen Germany during that period could not arouse the people to the absolute necessity of co-operation for the protection of their real interests. In wide sections of the population some dull sense of that necessity may have remained, ir* .... millions of sufferers may have
of German ^°P^^ ^^^* ^^^P ^^"^^"^ ^^""^ ermany ^^^^^ ^^iq emperor and the
empire, but of these desires no outward manifestation ever came to be expressed in political action.
The truth of the saying that " poverty brings weakness" was never so strikingly illustrated as in the case of the German Empire, which the great war had deprived of half its inhabitants, four-fifths of all its domestic animals, and of building materials and articles of daily use to an incalculable extent. Starving men, in whom all feeling for the benefits of society is dead, who have sunk to the degradation of cannibalism, as was con- stantly the case towards the end of the war, cannot be expected to fight for political rights ; they are utterly incapable of grasping the connection between political rights and their own struggle with the stern necessities of nature. The misery of the masses merely promotes the wealth and the power of a few self-aggrandising selfish natures, who know how to possess themselves of those means by which political power can be grasped and held. In the sixteenth century, when the demand for the Christian community of property arose over a great part of Germany, and became almost a war cry, the German peasants were generally in a state of prosperity which amounted almost to luxury, and were thus capable of striving for social equality with the territorial lords ; even after the subjection of the bloody revolt in Thuringia and Swabia,
they did not lose so much German Lands ^^ -^^ ^^ pohtical rights under the Rule ',, ^ j. j • it. ^
, e , . . as they lost durmg the two
of Soldiers , j-'. i_-i_ . i_° r-
decades m which the German
lands were under the rule of soldiers, and suffered alike from friend and foe.
Within the land-owning class great changes had taken place ; many ancient families had been extinguished, had been driven out from castle and court, or had found themselves unable to keep up their establishments, owing to want of capital
4410
and scarcity of labour ; their place had been taken by the military aristocracy, which had appropriated to itself most ol the hard cash in the country. " The new masters had no mercy upon the pool dependents, for they had not learned to know them by centuries of life among them. The rights and privileges which the old families had left undisturbed were now altered, and altered in favour of the masters, with the help of adroit masters of Roman jurisprudence, who were always ready to lend a hand in any doubtful business for cash payment ; free courts were broken up or suppressed."
But the men who had in this manner be- come great landowners could not forthwith give up the habits and vices which they had indulged during the long period of war. In the castles, which were restored and splendidly furnished with foreign money, a wild life went on ; drunkenness and gaming were unbounded, and were interrupted only by the rough pleasures of the chase. In the villages the disbanded soldiers who tramped the country took from the peasants the little which they had been able A A f *^ wring from the soil with their n «« o inadequate appliances. In many d Po rt P'^^^^ there was neither priest over y ^^^ schoolmaster ; the rich intellectual treasure which scholars had spread abroad throughout the hearths and homes of the people had vanished entirely. Ignorance, superstition, the belief in witchcraft, dominated their minds ; habits of begging had destroyed even their sense of shame.
In consequence of the want of money among the lower and middle classes, wages and the prices of raw stuffs were lowered in every part of the country ; industrial activity was limited to the pro- duction of such articles as were absolutely necessary, capital was wanting for the maintenance of artistic manufactures ; capital in the hands of a limited number of rich men went abroad in exchange for an increase of imports, which came in chiefly from France, but also from Amster- dam, London, Lisbon, and Venice. " From the courts, great and small, ecclesiastical and civil, in which had been heaped the plunder of the generals and captains of every nation and creed, the taxes paid by the vassals flowed into the coffers of the Parisian manufacturers, who then laid down the fashion of the day for the whole of the Continent. Thus it was that
AUSTRIA AND THE EMPIRE
France s economic triumphs increased her political advantage, and thus Germany's misfortunes conduced to the enrichment of her western neighbour." Dutch and English had absorbed the trade which was once the mainstay of the Hanseatic houses ; trade in South Germany was absolutely dead. Many of the powerful patrician famihes had become counts and landed lords, others took official posts as a possible sop to their ambition, most had disappeared altogether. There was no incitement to the spirit of enterprise ; in trade over seas the name of Germany was almost unknown.
This state of affairs did not, however, weigh heavily upon the councillors and syndics who represented their rulers at Regensburg, and spent most of their time in the presentation of extensive reports upon fruitless negotiations and in the study of injunc- tions, which generally con- tained occasion for setting aside any proposition which might have been generally beneficial. The " Recess of the Imperial Diet," which was the name given to the collective report of the resolutions passed, contains the text of the Peace of Westphalia and the practical resolutions of the Nuremberg assembly, a decree concerning the reform of the imperial chamber court, some proposals for improve
FREDERIC OF WALDECK This count, who had great influence upon the imperial policy of the
ceming imperial taxation, upon the regular payment of which the imperial party rightly laid great stress ; should the elector submit, " instead of being a king's equal, he would become a dependent, a treasure- bringing — that is, a tributary — lord, of less . power and resource than a ermany in j^j^^jg^j^ proprietor of Bohemia
th*'*!'*'^ k'°" °^ Poland." In view of the experience which Ferdinand III. had had of the Reichstag, Leopold could not expect to gain very much by re-opening negotiations with the states of the empire, for he could hardly expect any great support of his own interests from them. It was only the recurrence of the danger of an attack by the Turks upon the territory which he had inherited which had induced him to summon the Reichstag. The territory of the House of Hapsburg, great though it was, had not yet been organised as a state, and lacked the internal strength which would have enabled it successfully to resist the powerful force which the Sultan could bring against it ; < icrman money and German troops were necessary for its defence, for it was justly to be considered as a bulwark of the kingdom against the East. The kingdom of the Magyar nationality had proved unequal to this task ; since the disaster of Mohacs
ment in the division of the Elector of Brandenburg, advised it had fallen into disruption empire into circles, and unim- w™ not to submit to the de- and had become the scene portant regulations upon the crees concerning imperial taxation, ^f ^^^y Conflicts, which
payment of outstanding debts. The parties had been fighting under arms for thirty years, and continued to regard one another with mutual distrust ; the general welfare of the nation was neglected in spite of the fact that public opinion, as shown by a stream of political pamphlets, had set in steadily in the direction of a more enlarged and enlightened policy. The fear that
—. -, ,. . the emperor would attempt to The Nation » , j u • ,„ „ extend his powers was so over-
Welfare ■ J.U J. ij
N I t d powering that none could eg ec e recognise the unifjdng force of resolutions by the majority in the college of electors. Count George Frederic of Wal- deck, who obtained at that time greater influence upon the imperial policy of the Elector of Brandenburg, warned him not to submit in any way to the decrees coij-
greatly facilitated the Ottoman advance. It is possible that affairs in Hungary would have run a different course if the powerful dynasty of the Hunyadis had remained in power ; but even then it would have been impossible to say with any certainty that the Magyar feudal nobility would have been ready as a whole to make the heavy sacrifices demanded for a long war with the Turks. Since the Ottomans had possessed themselves of the Balkan Peninsula, thoughtful Magyars were no longer set upon preserving the complete independence of their kingdom ; they recognised the advisability of forming a close alliance with neighbours who were powerful, and considered personal union to be the surest guarantee of confederations. This opinion came to open expression
4411
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in the compacts with Hapsburg, in 1463 and 1491, and also in the election of the Bohemian king Vladislav ; the Reichstag at Ofen, 1527, also took the same point of view, after the terrorism of John Zapolya and his dependents had been crushed.
The nationalists, who passed the resolu- tion in 1505 that no foreigner should be J, elected king, never seriously
ungary jjQpgjj fQj- ^j^g absolute inde-
Two Evils pendence of Hungary. Having to choose between two evils, they preferred dependence upon the House of Hapsburg to dependence upon Turkey. The position adopted by Hungary, the centre of the opposition, was largely influenced by the religious policy of the Hapsburgs, whose permanent union with the papacy and the Jesuits formed a continual danger to the freedom of Protestantism, which had taken root both in the Carpathian highlands and in the plains of the Theiss. The national movements under Bocskay, Bethlen, and the Rakoczy were in each case attempts to protect Protestantism, and gained strength from union with the corresponding religious parties in Germany. The House of Haps- burg had hoped to be able to make its territories coherent by the maintenance of religious unity. But its stern opposition to the fundamental principle of religious freedom hindered the internal coherence of the population, shattered all confidence in the respect for justice which had been attributed to the dynasty, and secured the adhesion of the religious fanaticism, which was very strongly developed among the Magyar Calvinists, to the political parties. The policy of the Hapsburgs was not founded on religious intolerance in itself ; the grandsons of Maximilian I. regarded the Reformation from a political point of view. Resistance to the Reformation was a matter that touched neither heart nor conscience in their case ; they thought that they could not afford to lose the support of the ecclesiastical princes and the TK CK* f clergy against the encroach-
_, . .^ ments of the secular Orders
Factor in r xu tt
A » • • r t of the empire. However, Austria s Fate ,.^. , . ^ ,11
political views are unstable ;
they have to be adapted to change of cir- cumstances and a proof of this fact is to be seen in the altered attitude of Ferdinand I. and MaximiUan H., and even in the case of Rudolf and Matthias. The fate of Austria largely depended upon the supre- macy of the inner Austrian hne, in which the Bavarian Wittelsbach blood and
44X3
temperament of the Archduchess Maria had become preponderant. We must leave the investigators of the psychology of families and races to decide why it was that Jesuit Catholicism should have gained so strong a hold upon the Bavarians in particular ; at any rate, its influence during a period of 400 years is unmis- takable, and cannot be neglected if we would understand the history of Austria.
The Jesuits were the primary founders of that system of centralisation which affected the different countries possessed by the Hapsburgs in their natural develop- ment to a strongly organised federal state, brought about hostility between the several populations, and set their interests in opposition to the interests of the state. In the countries of the Bohemian crown the Jesuits exercised a Germanising influ- ence ; on the other hand, in the duchies of the Alpine districts, the acquisition and the union of which had formed the kernel of the power of the Hapsburg family, Jesuit influence prevented any close sympathy on the part of the people for their blood relations in the Protestant territories. _ - The consequence was the
I V^i °t 1 ^^"^°^t entire destruction in -, . those countries of that intel-
lectual culture which had been a splendid characteristic of the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Phrase-making, empty and superficial, was the dominant feature in literature ; in countless cases the spirit of intellectual society was broken, subservience was praised as a virtue, sycophancy and jealousy became habitual.
At the instance of his Bavarian relatives, and with the help of Jesuit advice, Ferdinand H. proceeded to oppress the Protestant Orders, and was resisted with empty words instead of strong action ; in cowardice and hesitation the Protestant landowners retired within their castle walls before a few gangs of peasants, and quietly looked on at the process of turning shopkeepers and peasants into Catholics. Until the edict of restitution in 1629, they had at least succeeded in preserving the right of freedom of worship in their own homes ; but after that period their liberties were nearly blotted out.
The Roman clerics advanced, secure of victory, and with them the overbearing bands of Friedlander soldiers, while dis- tinguished families who would not renounce their faith, retreated before them, and left their houses, courts, and country, to
AUSTRIA AND THE EMPIRE
await the time when the German Empire and their Christian fellows could assure them religious freedom and enable them to return to the possession of their ancient inheritances. With unparalleled obstinacy the Emperor Ferdinand III. fought against the attempt, during six years of negotiation at Miinster and Osnabriick, to extend the conditions of religious tolera- tion to his own territories ; during that period he failed to avail himself of many favourable opportunities, as he was em- ployed in offering an obstinate opposition to the attack made by Sweden in favour of the Austrian Protestants.
After the peace the chief power in the empire was concentrated in the person of an emperor who was chief only in name ; but the religious unity of the territories of the House of Austria had been pre- served. The Protestant Orders made further attempts to remove or to lighten the heavy yoke laid upon their Austrian co-religionists ; but these efforts were unsuccessful, the more so as they were never seriously prosecuted. The Reichs- tag and the election of Leopold as -^. . emperor would have provided
ere e opportunity for the exertion Empire r i. u i.
W k ^ greater pressure ; but no
one took the trouble to seize the occasion, because no one took any permanent interest in the fate of the Austrian territories. Nowhere was the weakness of the empire more conspicuous than at that point where the emperor was also a territorial prince ; the imperial support, which had been so earnestly re- quested and desired, about which so many words and documents in the Reichstag had been spent in vain, bore a miserable appearance upon the frontiers and could make no impression upon the land-owners, who were alarmed at the incursion of the Turks, from which they had suffered loss. The custom grew of considering the title of emperor as one attaching ipso facto to the local prince, and no special stress was ever laid upon the fact that the prince's lords were part of the Roman Empire of the German nation. The only people to take any real part in imperial affairs were the high nobility, who were aiming at paid official posts under the empire, or whose social position would be improved by admission into the colleges of imperial princes and counts. The Austrian could no longer entertain the idea that he was himself " within the
empire " ; the phrase " beyond the
empire " began to grow more and more
habitual. The separation of the Haps-
burg possessions from the rest of Germany
has been a steadily growing fact since the
Peace of Westphalia, so much so that
the legislation establishing their separate
existence in the eighteenth and nineteenth
-,. , J . centuries was brought The Independeace i , ■., - j-rc il ^j .. about without difficulty,
German Princes and the full significance of the step was probably never realised by the majority of the popu- lation. The common action necessary to meet the attack of the Turks was no check upon this process of alienation ; the German princes, with whom the emperor nego- tiated in the Reichstag for some means of support, had no intention of demanding that the ties uniting the empire should be further strengthened by way of recom- pense for their aid ; nor did they attempt to insist that the Reichstag should have more power to deal with affairs within the Hapsburg territories.
On the contrary, their efforts were concentrated entirely upon the task of making themselves more independent of the emperor by their wealth, their troops, and their personal service in war ; thus they were in favour rather of weakening the cohesive power of the em- pire. The more they could free them- selves from subjection to a superior power, the less they regarded the efforts of the emperors to make their own territory, by the introduction of all kinds of adminis-i trative measures, a self-contained province separate from the empire. Federal rela- tionship was the natural result of the circumstances of the time ; imperial federation had no real existence.
However, the manifestations of popular feeling were of a totally different charac- ter ; the nation had been roused by the reports disseminated concerning the cruelty of the Turks in Transylvania and Upper „ Hungary, and would gladly have
Raid'Y^ joined in offering a vigorous by Turks resistance to their hereditary foe. The heroic defence of Grosswardein in the summer of 1660 increased the interest which the people took in the fate of their co-religionists in Hungary and Transylvania. But the court of Vienna had no ears for popular outcry, and not the smallest desire to turn the crusading spirit to account, as it might lead only to the further strengthening of Protestantism.
4413
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
In spite of the many difficulties in the way, the diplomacy of the time continued to discuss the questions of equipment and defence. For six months had the Arch- bishop of Salzburg, as the emperor's chief commissioner, awaited the arrival of the Th A' f provincial ambassadors in the*" ur*on Regensburg ; in January, 1663, J p . ,, when the session of the Reichs- tag could be opened, it became plain that not only the special desires of the electors would require consideration, but that an opposition to the princely houses had been set on foot, and an oppo- sition which offered its assistance on con- ditions impossible to accept. It was due to the concurrence of France, ready to pull the strings of any number of intrigues, that William Philip of the Neuburg Palatinate, together with Brunswick, Hesse, and Wiirtemberg, had founded the " union of princes," which was directed against the preponderance of the electoral families ; their chief demand was that . the council of princes should be allowed to partake in the election of the emperors, a privilege which had hitherto been claimed by the electors alone. So this party desired to make their help against
been tapped; whereas the co-operation of troops in the campaigns proposed would be contingent upon conditions constantly changing, and in the last resort excuses might always be found for the recall of the troops. During the debates on the subject of " emergency help." a proposal emanated from the Court of Brunswick to the effect that in future special provisions should be made for the security of the empire ; this business occupied the atten- tion of the Reichstag to the end of the session, and many well-meaning proposals were brought forward. However, no defi- nite military scheme was evolved, as it was found impossible to guarantee the measure of support necessary for this purpose.
In the course of the summer of 1663 the Turkish intentions became plain ; they had invaded Transylvania, and pro- posed to use the party struggles brought about by the Rakoczy family for the purposes of a great campaign, and to secure their power on the Central Danube by a crushing blow to be directed against the Austrian territory. The Grand Vizir Ahmed Koprili led one hundred and twenty thousand men to the Waag, giving out that he proposed to march directly upon Vienna. Fortunately for
the Turks conditional upon ^„„„.^ „^x,.,.r-^,,^,,,». .
,, ,. • U.U COUNT MONTECUCCOLI -, . - i • ■^^.
an alteration m the con- count Raimund Montecuccoii, the that town, his military inca-
stitution, which the emperor imperial fieid-marshai, who entered pacitv was equalled Only by his
1 J , , the Austrian service in 1625, dis- -j • ^j r j •
had no power to grant tinguished himself against the pride ; instead of advancing
upon his own initiative, '^"'"''s "> ^^^ thirty Years War. straight upon his mark, he At length the union of princes was halted until September 27th, 1663, to
overruled ; it was decided to make an immediate grant of fifty " Romermonate," there was to be exemption for no one, and the ten imperial departments were all included in the demand for 6,400,000 guldens — in reality, only the half of them. The next question was how this sum should be raised. The imperial towns, which had long been groaning under the weight of the payments imposed upon them, now demanded a revision of the imperial rolls ; moreover, the members of the Rhine confederacy, upon the advice of France, declined to limit their action to a monetary payment, but desired to resume their original character of imperial auxili- aries by sending contingents of troops. France considered that such pecuniary resources would always be entirely at the emperor's disposal when once they had 4414
besiege the fortress of Neuhausel, which made a heroic defence under Adam Forgach ; upon the capitulation of the place he retired to Gran, and there sent his troops into winter quarters.
The imperial field-marshal. Count Rai- mund Montecuccoii, was one of the foremost strategists of the age ; he was careful and cunning as well, and he had so cleverly manoeuvred his scanty
., ^ .. forces as to give the Grand
Montecuccoii -tr- ■ i. n
^ . . Vizir a wholly erroneous im-
a Match r "li- • i_
* it T 1. pression of their numbers ; for the Turks *^ , ., t- 1 ,•
and the lurks accordingly
hesitated to attack the imperial position
at Altenburg. Hungary herself took but
little share in the defence of her own
territory. The militia, the levies of the
nobles and comitati, amounted to 11,000
rrien, who wer^ of pse only in ^errilla
AUSTRIA AND THE EMPIRE
operations, and would not stand firm in the open field. Not only were the operations of the imperial field-marshal inadequately supported, but supplies of provisions and men for the auxiliary forces were diminished by the self-seeking of individuals. The town of Pressburg declined to admit Montecuccoli within its gates, and only garrisoned the walls when the enemy were in sight of them. The Landtag declined to permit the imperial army to enter Hungarian territory before the militia had assembled, and the authorities were obliged to transport their reinforcements from Vienna by the Danube to the points threatened by the enemy.
The emperor was convinced that Ahmed Koprili would renew his attack in the following year, and appeared in person at Regensburg in December, 1663, being most anxious to secure the vigorous support of the imperial provinces. He found a zealous partisan in the Elector of Brandenburg, who further placed at the emperor's disposal such of his own troops as he could spare from the forces in pre- paration against Sweden and Poland, _ Bavaria, Saxony, and Mainz also
• *N™*a^f contributed. The Rhine con- . federation supplied a body of
7,200 men under the command of Count Hohenlohe, who was not, however, permitted to join in any operation until the emperor should have consented to the junction with the French division. Brandenburg brought foward a proposition in the Reichstag that an imperial army should be raised amounting to 60,000 men. But the other provinces would not pledge themselves to a special number of troops ; they agreed to the so-called Trip- lum — that is, the triple computation of the rolls of Maximilian or of Worms — which would theoretically have produced an effective force, but had never yet done so.
During the winter of 1663- 1664 the Rhine confederates had marched on their own initiative to the Drave, and had under- taken an aimless attack upon Essek, which had ended in heavy losses to them- selves. Naturally, the emperor, in spite of his disinclination, could no longer refuse the help of the French contingent, and in view of the approach of the numerous bodies of the enemy was forced to accept any help which offered itself. Monte- cuccoli would have been very glad to form a central force of 50,000 men and 124 guns on the Danube. But the coimcil
The Turks
Badly
Beaten
of war at Regensburg demanded the for- mation of three armies ; one for Upper Hungary and Transylvania, under Louis Rattwich, Count of Souches, another on the Drave under Strozzi and Nicholas Zrinyi for the conquest of Kanizsa, and a third under Montecuccoli on the Danube and Lake Platten with no special object in view. The Turks left their real line of attack to relieve Kanizsa, and Montecuccoli found time to effect a junction of his own army with the Rhine confederates and the French troops on the Raab, and gave battle on August ist, 1664, at Sankt Gotthard, which ended in the defeat of the Turks with the loss of 14,000 of their best troops.
The Grand Vizir was obliged to give up the attack, as the condition of his troops was not such as to inspire confidence. At Altenburg, Montecuccoli brought 40,000 men and sixty guns against him, and might have been able to take the offensive had the imperial troops and the French been willing to place themselves unconditionally under his command. In order to bring the Turkish war to a victorious conclusion, French and Spanish affairs should have been left temporarily to themselves, and Branden- burg, the best armed of the German states, should have been brought over by co-operation in Silesia. Eastern Hun- gary and Transylvania wOuld have had to be propitiated with the full recognition of religious freedom.
But such energetic measures proved too extreme for the authorities, and it seemed preferable to conclude the Peace of Vasvar, Eisenberg, with Turkey, on August loth, 1664, a dishonourable peace which was really no more than an armis- tice of long duration. It brought con- tentment neither to the empire nor to Hungary. A few years after the con- clusion of peace the conspiracy of Zrinyi, „ , Nadasdy, Frangipani, and
ungary s Ta,ttenbach broke out, the
e .. object of which was the dis- Separation ■",. <• tt r
ruption of Hungary from
Hapsburg. The conspiracy was dis- covered and the leaders punished with death, but dissatisfaction in Hungary only increased in consequence.
Turkey could count now, as previously, upon the adhesion of the magnates. It was for her to say when the war should be renewed.
4415
44i6
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE
AGE OF
LOUIS XIV.
Ill
ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS
AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH LOUIS XIV.
r^URING their eighty years' war of '-^ liberation against Spain the Protes- tant people of the Netherlands had not only struggled for religious freedom and political independence, but they had also become the greatest merchants and capitalists of the world. The struggle between the Romance and Teutonic races had lasted a thousand years, and after the seventeenth century it was not only a leading feature in European history, but was also an important factor in the political changes which took place in every habitable part of the globe ; and during that struggle there is no more brilliant example of Teutonic superiority in the spirit of business enterprise, in boldness of commercial designs, and in determination to make the most of any advantage, however small, than is pre- sented by the rise of Dutch commercial life. _ . . After Spain and Portugal had
jj*^ "''"*"**' begun, the era of geographical y. . discovery, it was the merchants
of Holland who were the first to grasp the commercial advantages opened by the discovery of the ocean routes to both Indies, and to draw full profit from them ; for the great influx of precious metal, which had given Spain so long a period of political power, was to be proved by no means a necessity, and very possibly a danger, to national prosperity.
It is possible that the Germans would have anticipated Holland by absorbing a large portion of the world's trade, or have become a commercial power contem- porary with her ; but German relations with Portugal, who had begun her East Indian commercial career upon capital borrowed from the Fugger, Welser, Vohlin, Hochstetter, and others, had been inter- rupted by the opposition of Hapsburg interests and the first religious wars, which had exercised a destructive influence upon commercial activity in Southern Gennany.
The political condition of the German Empire after Charles V. was totally incompatible with mercantile develop- ment, and the Netherlands had, therefore, no competition to fear in this direction. On the other hand, they were utterly beaten by the Hanseatics in the competition for the Baltic trade. The latter obtained »j . their imports at so cheap a rate
H Id b th *^^^ *^^y could afford to under- jj^ ^ . * bid any middleman ; they sup- ported Russia in her wars with Poland by shipments of guns and military stores, in return for which they exacted enormous quantities of raw material at ridiculously low prices. As they were always ready to pay cash down, they easily outstripped all competitors in the Baltic corn-markets ; they monopolised the herring fisheries on the Scotch coasts by their greater cleverness in the curing of the fish, their methods being unknown to the English.
In 1642 a special board was appointed for the development of trade in the Levant. Venice and Genoa, who had been working for that trade for centuries, now had to put a good face on the matter and try to secure their retail trade in dried fish and colonial produce by means of special conventions. Venetian textile goods, which had been so famous, and for which Smyrna was a special market, were now entirely ousted by Dutch and French productions. French goods were carried in Dutch vessels to every European coast; in the year 1658 their value was estimated at $210,000,000. The discoveries on the coast of the AustraUan continent, in New Guinea, and New Zealand must not be forgotten, together with the settlements in North America, where corn-growing and horse- breeding made great progress in a short time. The brilliancy of the Ufe of the aristo- cracy, the self-coDU&dence of the citizens,
4417
Commerci&l Triumphs of France
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
have been immortalised in the Dutch school of painters, who attained to a higher pitch of artistic power during those days of com- mercial and political ascen- dency than any of their con- temporaries. The admirable likenesses of their councillors and merchants bring before our eyes those men who exercised for half a century a domination which extended over every part of the world. However, their power was but short-lived ; at the moment when they seemed to have reached the highest point they were already tottering to their fall. The settlements, which their sea-power had enabled the Dutch to found after a hard struggle, lay open on the landward side to any attack, and extraordinary efforts were demanded to make their defence secure ; but the nation of whom these efforts were demanded was incapable of any further develop- ment. They had brought their carrying-trade to the highest possible pitch, but they were not sufficiently populous to become a pro- ducing people, and to add to the body of calculat- ing, speculating merchants a creative, manu- facturing class, which might have given the state a reserve of power ; for no such reserve was to be found among the clever but narrow - minded individuals who sat in the council chambers of the " Staden." The unbounded pride displayed by the
' 4418
JACOB FUGGER He was a member of a Swabian family famous for its commercial enterprise and prosperity, and whose grants of money made the development of trade possible.
THE PORTRAIT OF A DUTCH NOBLEMAN
From the painting by Franz Hals in the National Gallery, Edinburgh
capitalists towards the landed proprietors, who took no share in commerce, eventually deprived the city aristocracy of all co-operation on the part of the nobles in the further development of the state ; the House of Orange, which had raised the standard of freedom and independence during the hardest periods of the fight, was thereby deprived of that position in v/hich it had been able to render the greatest services to the common fatherland. The young stadtholder and cap- tain-general, WilUam H., was carried off by an untimely death on November 6th, 1650 ; and it was not till a week after his funeral that his heir was born to the English Princess Mary, on November 4th, 1650. This event gave the " aristocracy of wealth," as the regents of the state of Holland called themselves, the opportunity they had desired for establishing their sole supre- macy, which rested upon two main principles : first, that the Orange party should be ex- cluded from any share in the government ; and, secondly, that the freedom of the small towns and the poorer classes of the population should be with- drawn.
There is no pride like the pride of the busi- ness man who has made his own way in the world, and there is no administration so selfish and op- pressive as that which would provide for the good of individuals and the welfare of the
ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS
state upon the principles demanded for the working of a counting-house. With unmitigated hypocrisy, the members, of the new repubhc compared their state to the Jewish kingdom of antiquity. But when, in order to find some cogent reason for the abohtion of the hereditary ofhce of stadtholder, the repubhcans began to add up the account of what the House of Orange had cost the state, not forgetting the presents made to the children of their generals and statesmen, then it was that the peddling soul of the Dutchman showed all the characteristics of the Jewish money-lenders who had increased abun-
carried off the first vessels of the astounded British under the very guns of the Tower. The fortresses on the frontier were in a sad condition by contrast with this display of vigour. The internal dissensions and jealousies of the two parties ruined the spirit of the army, and destroyed the zeal of the officers, whom the government refused to pay because they were suspected of Orange inclinations.
However, the chief councillor of Holland, Jan de Witt, a dry, calculating machine, a man of some common-sense but with all the passionate narrow-mindedness of the re- publican citizen, was of the opinion that
THE SYNDICS: REMBRANDT OF A GROUP OF DUTCH MERCHANTS
In the seventeenth century Holland rose to :. ^ _^:i _;. ; „ at commercial supremacy, the domination of its enterprising merchants lasting for half a century and extending to every part of the world. The above picture, reproduced from Rembrandt's painting, shows us what type of men they were who made their country famous in the world of commerce.
dantly in previous centuries, and proved that their political ideas were absolutely devoid of that element of greatness which was always a feature of the home and foreign policy of the chosen people during their period of prosperity.
During the wars with England, which were the natural result of commercial rivalry, the Dutch fleet had in no way tarnished the reputation of the Low German seafarers ; the final triumph of the heroic spirit of the great Orange period took place when De Ruyter, in 1667, made a descent upon the Thames, and burned or
his lofty wisdom had saved the state from all danger when he had succeeded in forming the Triple Alliance with England and Sweden against Louis XIV. His mathematical knowledge had brought him the reputation of a savant, but had not enabled him to grasp the political combi- nations which the King of France set on foot when he found it necessary to break up this confederation of the maritime powers. De Witt thought that he had firmly bound the interests of England to those of his own country, and that he would be able to execute that great
4419
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
political design which was reserved for the
powers of the Prince of Orange, whom he '
bitterly persecuted, and whom he was
anxious to reduce to the position of a
mere dependant upon the " aristocracy of
wealth." But the design became possible
only when the positions of the actors had
been reversed, when the
ng an s English people had come to
ccovery rom ^ ^^jj development of their
Republicanism i-,- i '^ -,
political power, and were
able to take the lead in the movement to save the Teutonic world from subjection to the great King of France. At the moment when Louis XIV. was making trial of his diplomatic skill in his preparations to deal a crushing blow against the Netherlands, the condition of affairs in the British Isles was not such as to justify any ex- pectation that the salva- tion of European freedom might be expected from that source.
England had speedily recovered from her attack of republicanism, which was short though sharp, for the population which was represented in the two Houses of Parliament was composed of far hffppier elements than that of" the Dutch states. But when she restored the monarchy which Cromwell had removed, she had been unfortunate in setting up an utterly worthless ruler, and was conse- quently not in a position to take that place in the political world which belonged to her by right. One of the hardest trials of -a people to whom monarchy is a necessity, and who are inspired with the sense of its dignity, is to see a worthless ruler upon the throne, a man who is personally incapable of dealing with the responsibilities of his office.
The Stuart Charles II. had no conception of the relations that should subsist between the state and its ruler, between the monarchy and the representatives of the people ; in his opinion, the government of England was a possession that was natu- rally his, which might afford him the oppor- tunity of leading a life of debauchery. Of national pride or of ambition he had nothing. So it was not difficult for
4420
WILLIAM II„ PRINCE OF ORANGE Ruler of the United Provinces, William II., Prince of Orange, married Mary, the daughter of Charles I . of England, and their son, born after his father's death, in 1650, subsequently ascended the English throne as William III.
From the paintinyf by Honthorst
Louis XIV. to bend and turn him to his own purposes ; Charles was more than willing to sell his country for the gold which his Parliaments would not provide with sufficient lavishness, and which alone might finally enable him to dispense with ParHament altogether. The royal civil list had been drawn up by the Con- vention Parliament, which had made its stipulations with the Stuart before the Restoration, and the king's allowance did not err on the side of generosity ; how- ever, though $6,000,000 would have been quite enough to keep up all the necessary splendour of the court, it would not suffice to satisfy the excessive demands of the king's mistresses, who surpassed each other in the extravagance of their requests. Business between Charles II. and Louis XIV. began with the sale of Dunkirk, for which France paid $2,000,000 partly in cash, partly in bills, from the discounting of which King Louis probably profited.
The so-called Cavalier Parliament, which had been returned in 1661, was as loyal and devoted as any monarch could desire ; but it held tenaciously to the im- portant powers of voting supplies and controlling expenditure, and by voting separately the amounts required for special purposes it was able to preserve some proportion of authority in the several departments of public business. The vicious and unscrupulous character of the king enabled the Parliament to exercise its legislative powers without restraint, and to mould the growing kingdom as it pleased. As regards the centralisation of power, the
„ ,. , strong hand of the Puritan
Parliament j- . ? n n 1 j
. p. . dictator Cromwell had accom-
the Dictator pli^hed a great deal, and his
place was now taken by the
Parliament, which looked into religious as
well as economic affairs, and also worked
carefully to maintain the relations of Britain
with foreign powers and to raise her prestige
in Europe, for which task the house of
Stuart had shown itself wholly incapable.
The religious party of the Parliament
ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS
was intolerant to the point of cruelty. Crime and constant judicial murders were the result ; dissent was persecuted with a severity almost unexampled even during *he fiercest struggles of the Reformation. The supremacv of the Anglican Church was considered so inseparable from the unity of the state, and the uniform subjection of every citizen to the civU authority, that ecclesiastical supremacy was therefore especially protected by legislation, and any attempt of Papists or Presbyterians to overthrow it was immediately checked by the enforcement of the severest penalties.
By the Act of Uniformity in the year 1662 every form of worship was forbidden which differed from that of the established Episcopal Church ; holders of livings were dispossessed if they refused compliance, and 1,800 dissenting clergy were driven into poverty. The king,who had leanings to Catholicism, did his best to check the Papist per- secutions; but terrifying rumours of conspiracies, which readily found credence among the people, kindled the fire anew ; death - warrants were issued against members of the nobility, against whom the . most groundless suspicions were entertained. All this, however, was not the doing of Charles; these acts marked the rapid growth of the centralisa- tion of the civil power in the hands, not of the crown but of an intolerant ParUament.
At the same time the spirit of com- mercial enterprise began to make itself apparent. The example of the Nether- lands had exercised a reviving and stimu- lating influence upon English commercial activity, which had progressed but little „ . J since the voyages of Walter as a G t ^^^^i^^ ^^ the time of Queen Se ort Elizabeth. With the exception of London there was but one seaport with any extensive trade — namely, Bristol, which was in constant communica- tion with Virginia and the Antilles. Man- chester imported every year for her textile industries only 2,000,000 pounds of raw wool, which was brought from Cyprus and Smyrna ; among the largest imports were
THE CONSORT Mary survived her
the wines of Spain and Portugal, for the wine trade became important by reason of the reaction to luxury which followed upon the stern morality of the Puritan government. In no case had manufacture risen to a higher level ; British products could not compete with those of France _ . or Belgium either in quantity
t'^fh*'* or quality. Even the best J. . .. hardware was then imported from abroad. The output of iron was restricted by the scarcity of coal, and amounted to little more than 10,000 tons. In the North American colonies were some 30,000 settlers, who were working with energy and forethought for the development of their community, without concern for the party conflicts of the mother country ; but their economic development had not sufficiently advanced for the mother country to derive , any advantage from them.
At the period of the Restoration the landed nobility were still the ruling class in England ; they were but seldom in communication with the capital, as the badness of the roads made travelling both expensive and dangerous. As regards education and culture, they were probably on the same level as the petty
i nobles of Auvergne or
, ,i^ ,s Limousin ; even in the remoter districts of Ger- many men might be found of greater experience of the world and with better knowledge of the manners of the best European society than any of the nobility in Somersetshire or Yorkshire. Scarce more than half of the level land of the kingdom was under agriculture, but the products were valuable and were sufficient to main- tain the middle-class farmers, whose require- ments were generally of a moderate nature. However, even the richest nobles had but a very modest capital at their disposal ; among them incomes of 100,000 dollars were tne exception rather than the rule. After the fall of the Puritan tyranny and the' disbanding of the Parliamentary army, with which Cromwell had main- tained his power, it became possible to make special efforts to increase the pros-
4421
OF WILLIAM II. husband by ten years,
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
perity of the country. The lords and city aristocracy formed business companies, which were to develop commercial and carrying trade upon the principles which had been successful in Holland. Much of the carrying trade had already been captured by the Navigation Act of 165 1. The East India Company was already in existence, and an African J * " *^ Company was now formed with
f*E°"l d ^^® object of providing the ng an ^j^^jjigg ^j^j^ negro slaves.
Gold dust was imported from Guinea, and with this the first guineas were coined.
But wherever the English ships appeared they found jealous enemies in the Dutch, who did their utmost to spoil the English trade. In 1664 surprises and attacks had occurred in the distant seas, though no open declaration of war between the two states had yet been made. The interruption of friendly relations and the formal declaration of war in the year 1665 were only the in- evitable recognition of that hostility which had originated in state rivalry and had long ago broken out in the colonies. Upon several occasions during the war the English fleet was able to display its excellence in brilliant and successful actio as ; but it was unable to maintain a permanent pre- jan de witt
were burned by the Dutch," writes the good Royalist Admiralty official Pepys in his diary, " the king did sup with my Lady Castlemaine at the Duchesse of Monmouth's — the wife of his natural son, whom he had legitimised — and they were all mad in hunting of a poor moth." By the Treaty of Breda in 1667 England made peace with the Dutch ; she determined to limit rivalry with Holland to the sphere of commerce ; she recognised the common danger threatened by France who had now freed herself from the anxiety of the war with Spain, and therefore she readily agreed to the conclusion of the Triple Alliance. Charles II. cared nothing whatever for the political and moral forces which were working within the people. The direction of party movements which might happen to be popular with the city magnates or the county members was nothing to him, except in so far as he might be able to use it to increase his income. He and his brother, James, Duke of York, contri- buted, it is true, to the capital which was raised for the re- organisation of the African Company, which had become bankrupt during the war ; but this action was not the result of the desire to set a good example, and to pro- mote the spirit of enterprise
dominance over the Dutch. "« ^^^ ^^^ ''^'^^ councillor of among the moneyed classes ; it
'ru tc^- „ „-c j.u„ _ Holland, and succeeded in forming • n j i .
The efficiency of the navy the Triple Alliance with England was impelled by cove tousness declined considerably during and Sweden against Louis XIV. and the instinct of speculation, the war, although Parliament He tried to avert war with England, jhe investment of $25,000 showed no parsimony in voting naval in the African Company was a very small-
supplies, however little inclined it might be to improve the land forces or to take in hand the organisation of a standing army. But of the $6,250,000 which was voted for purposes of the war, $2,000,000 went into the king's private purse, and money was lacking to provide the ship- wrights with proper timber and materials for building. The favourites of the king's mistresses became naval commanders, capacity or experience being disregarded.
After De Ruyter's last attack on Gravesend and Chatham, the hope of inflicting a humiliation on their bold rivals was abandoned. It was recognised with bitter disappointment that a man had been chosen for king who had no particular interest in the fate of the country. " On the night when our ships
4423
Finaacial Schemes of
deposit for a king, one of whose mistresses lost $125,000 in one night at cards. Such insignificant sums went for nothing in his financial plans, even though there were times when he had not money enough to buy himself new underclothing. The Stuart king's respect for the new-made Triple Alliance and for the Constitution of his country
Char7eVll! ^^^ "°* strong enough to prevent him from entering upon the course of political dealing proposed to him by Louis XIV., by which he was the more attracted as the propositions of Louis promised him a far greater and surer reward than did the trade in spices and negro children. His royal cousin of France also displayed considerable politeness and prudence in entrusting the
28x
4423
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
final conclusion of this piece of business to the hands of two ladies, Henrietta of Orleans, Charles's sister, and her com- panion, Louise de Querouaille, who became Duchess of Portsmouth, and gained an influence upon the king nearly as strong as that which the Countess of Castlemaine had up to that time exercised.
In the convention of Dover, on May 22nd, 1670, Charles II. promised to go over to the Roman Catholic Church, to dissolve the Triple Alliance, and to form a confederation with France against Holland ; in return for this, Louis promised him an immediate present of $1,000,000, and
further support by way of
so-called yearly war subsidies Henrietta of Orleans
took banking business ; to these they refused repayment of the capital which they had borrowed. Charles also issued a declaration of indulgence removing the penalties to which Catholics and Presby- terians were liable. By these acts the powers of the Prerogative were exceeded, and suspicions of Catholicism began to be aroused. The seed of further discord had thus been sown and was rapidly germinating when Louis XIV. raised his hand to deliver the blow which he had long prepared against the Netherland states, in order that he might destroy the opposition of the most dangerous enemy to his plans of expansion.
Sweden had also been
to the amount of $1,500,000. She was the youngest child of bought by France ; she had Six thousand French troops fe'^/^^^L^STheTariaTiedt undertaken to enter into the were also to proceed to Phiiip, Duke of Orleans, the only War with 16,000 men on the England should the king brother of Louis XIV. of France, side of France if the emperor find it necessary to dejfend his royal pre- or the empire should espouse the cause
rogatives against the Parliament. More- over, Louis did not confine his operations merely to securing the king's adhesion; he gave large sums of money to be spent in bribery, the division of which among Ministers and members of Parlia- ment was entrusted to Colbert's brother.
In England the king had dismissed the grave and unpopular chancellor Clarendon, and so stifled criticism upon the in- creasing immorality of court life ; public opinion was entirely at fault concerning the intentions of the government, which was now carried on by the so-called Cabal Ministry — Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and
of Holland ; the price for this promise was 400,000 thalers in the event of peace, 600,000 in case of war. The Emperor Leopold I. had already come to an agree- ment with Louis XIV. in the year 1668 concerning the future division of the Spanish monarchy, by means of his Alinisters Auersperg and Lobkowitz. Auersperg was possessed with the idea that if he were made cardinal he would be a statesman not inferior to Richelieu and Mazarin, and he required the support of the King of France to obtain his preferment at Rome ; Lobkowitz hated the Spaniards, who lorded it over him at the court of Vienna, although they no
Lauderdale. The Cabal the duchess of Portsmouth longer had at their "dis
r'btainedSl2 "^OO OOofrnm T^^ companion ofHenrietta of Orleans, Louise T-.r,co1 +V.o Tnr.r.Q.7 t,,UU
uuciiiicu^i^^uu.uuuiium jjg Querouaille, afterwards the Duchess of POSal tnc mOUey With
Parliament tor purposes Portsmouth, became a favourite of Charles which SOmC thirtv Or
Of coast defence in the "•' ^""^ ""'''"'^ ^^^^^ -«-"- -- ^-- forty years previously they
event of a war between Holland and France, and then prorogued the assembly. As there was thus no Parliament in session, they seized the opportunity of defrauding the creditors of the Treasury, in particular tne London goldsmiths, who then under- 4424
had brought over privy councillors, princes of the Church, and generals, to their interests. The German House of Hapsburg had acquiesced in the gains which France had made during the " war of escheatage." It had, moreover, concluded a secret conven-
ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS
tion with France, which is first mentioned by Grimoard in the " (Euvres de Louis •XIV.," published in 1806; this convention was to the effect that, when the Spanish Une became extinct, France should have the Franche-Comte, Navarre, Naples and Sicily, the Philippines, and the fortresses on the African coast, while the emperor was to receive Spain, the West Indies, Milan, Sardinia, the Balearic and Canary Islands. Louis XIV. never had any intention of holding to the conditions of this convention ; but he had obtained a general recognition of the possibility of dividing the Spanish possessions, the throne of which was likely to become vacant, and he had obviated for a long
duke from his territory, occasioned no change in the emperor's attitude, though it increased the opposition of the Spanish party at the Vienna court.
Of the German states whose attitude towards the French army in its operations against Holland might have been of importance, Cologne, Bavaria, the Pala- tinate, and the warlike Bishop of Miinster had been won over to the side of France ; of the Guelfs, John Frederic of Hanover was induced to entei into a compact of neutrality at the price of a monthly subsidy of 10,000 thalers. Celle and Osnabriick stood aside and waited ; Mainz declared that all resistance to the French military power was quite hopeless.
itic PKciNi-H CAVALRY FoKi^iiNG iric. i^AssAGE OF THE RHINE ON JUNE 12Tir, 1672
time to come, any opposition on the part of tlje Vienna court to his undertakings against Holland. On November ist, 1671, a compact was signed for the emperor by Lobkowitz, in which the emperor promised to take no part in any war of France which should be waged outside the Spanish and German dominions, and to afford no other assistance to the powers attacked by France than the continuance of friendly relations with them.
Consequently, the efforts of the Austrian ambassador to the Dutch states to persuade the emperor to intervene on behalf of Holland remained without result for the moment. The occupation of Lorraine by French troops, and the expulsion of the
The Elector of Brandenburg, Frederic William, who had always been regarded with mistrust by the Dutch regents as being the uncle and guardian of the young Prince of Orange, perceived the serious complications which the victory of France over Holland would produce in the kingdom ; he declared that " in the eyes of the present and future generations it would appear an eternal disgrace to sur- render the freedom not only of Germany, but of the whole of Christendom." He would neither comply with the requests made to him by the French ambassadors, nor would he shrink before any threats. He was very anxious to form a confederation with the Dutch government ; but, dazzled
4425
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
jewels and works of art, fled to Hamburg, Denmark, or even into hostile England ; after the flight of the garrisons the citizens seized the power in the towns, in order to save their property by capitulating with the enemy, even at the loss of their freedom. The government of the aristocratic republicans had ended in anarchy ; destruc- tion menaced the existence of the state, the constitution of which was not national, and was, moreover, entirely subversive of freedom, being intended solely to secure the domination of the insolent Mynheer. But the deep feeling of the unspoiled classes, who still clung to the old faith and the old traditions, found expression in the cry for the strong guidance of a royal person- ality, and for the reinstatement of the last survivor of the House of Orange in the hereditary office of stadtholder and captain-general. To the great historical events which contributed to strengthen the belief in the importance of the individual, an addition has now to be made ; the assurance and the hope which impelled that cry for guidance were ad- dressed to a personality worthy of the confidence reposed in him. In the towns and marshes of the Low German mariners proof of their old prowess William hi., prince of orange there was but one man under the eyes of the The son of wiiuamii.. Prince of Orange, and who posscssed the Special
ruler of the United Provinces, he married, in „, i.-i- „ ^r „r-u;^u 4-U^
1677, Mary, daughter ofjames, Duke of York, quallt CS of whlch the
afterwards King James II. He was subse- fatherland had need — firm
quently called to the throne of England, conviction, Unshakcn
by the power and financial resources of Louis, they hesitated for a long time to accept the conditions which Frederic William was obliged to impose in view of the resources of his territory. But early in 1672 the Netherland ambassadors requested to know the meaning of the French L • XIV preparations, and received the ouis V. sj^oj-t answer from the king that
J^ith Holland ^.^ ^°"^^ complete his prepara- tions and use them as he thought proper. Then at length they made an agreement for the putting of 24,000 men into the field ; but for their maintenance they paid only 8,000 thalers a month, and not the 100,000 demanded by the elector. Two months later, Louis took the field with 140,000 men. After a short halt before Maestricht, two armies under Turenne and Conde diverged towards the Rhine, marched through the territory of Cologne, and took possession of the fortresses on the Holland frontier, which were in the worst possible con- dition and garrisoned with helpless, cowardly troops. At the custom- house on the Schenken- schanze, the passage of the Rhine was forced by the French cavalry, who were anxious to give
king. Meanwhile, the Bishops of Cologne and Miinster made the most cowardly excuses for withdrawing their troops into Friesland and Oberyssel, and permitted the occupation of a number of towns, among them Deventer, Zwolle, Harderwijk ; the province of Oberyssel readily submitted to the protectorate of the Bishop of Miinster. The English fleet under the Duke Of York, with very in- sufficient support from the French, had meanwhile, on June 7th, 1672, fought an action with De Ruyter in Southwold Bay, the result of which was indecisive ; the proposed landing of the English in Zealand was fortunately frustrated by an unusually low tide and a violent storm. None the less, affairs in the seven provinces were in an unsettled condition. The rich merchants with their families and treasures,
4426
courage, strong faith, devotion to the idea of German independence ; and this man was no other than the young Prince William of Orange, now twenty-two years of age, whose princely heart and nature had not been spoiled, despite the endeavours to that end of his republican guardians. As is invariably the case when the passions of the masses have been aroused by some unexpected calamity, the mani- festations of love for their national leader were accompanied by outbursts of hatred against the enemy and the oppressor. A few weeks after the States-General jhad removed the Permanent Edict by which the brothers De Witt in- the year 1668 hoped to have made the restoration of the House of Orange for ever impossible, this
ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS
feeling broke out in wild rage against the brothers, who were tortured and murdered by a furious mob on August 20th, 1672. Historians with leanings to republicanism reproach the Prince of Orange for not having used his popularity to save them ; but they forget that at that moment the stadtholder had to unite all the forces which were then freely offered for resist- ance against the enemy, that at no price could he have afforded to permit the growth of discord among those men who were ready to sacrifice person and purse to save their country.
Thus in Holland the impression made by the resolution of the prince restored the confidence of the nation in its own power ; inundations caused by breaking down the dykes put a stop to the advance of the French army, which had already gained possession of Utrecht. Meanwhile the opinion began to gain ground among the European ipwers that it was not wholly wise on their part to remain passive specta- tors of the conquest of the republican states and the victory of France. In Spain the war party gained the upper hand, and used all possible leverage to induce the emperor to break with
that the former should be recognised as the ruling power in evangelical North Germany, and the latter in South and West Germany, which were Catholic ; but the plan proved to be wholly premature, and it was impossible of discussion with men like Lobkowitz and Hocher, the vice-chancellor of the empire, who considered it impossible to renounce all hope of resuming the struggle against Protestantism.
None the less, Frederic William thought that he ought to lay great stress upon the importance of the emperor's co-operation in the campaign against France ; through John George of Anhalt in Vienna he vigorously pushed the proposal for an offensive alliance. On June 12th, 1672, it was agreed that each party should march with 12,000 men to pro- tect the boundary of the kingdom and repel the French from German soil ; also that the provinces of the empire and the Kings of Spain and Denmark should be invited to join the alliance. But both parties approached the subject with intentions and from points of view exactly opposed. The French party at the Vienna court was con- vinced that they would gain far greater gratitude from the King of France if Austria joined the
France. In the German T.!^*pS;.,.^?,r.k??.r..°fwSi., alliance and thereby
tmpire the Elector of represents Mary when she was the Princess obtamed the right and
Brandenburg consulted of Orangre. She ascended the EngUsh throne the Opportunity to place
the general feeling in the f^t ^^'^""^^^"f' '^'"j*'° m.. after her obstacles in the path of
T^ , , , , • 1 lather, James II., had lost ms crown. ,, t^, , , ^^^^ ,
Protestant countnes, and ^^^~^ ^ u —
also his own inclinations and political prin- ciples, when he determined to take up arms in favour of his nephew. However, he con- sidered that it would be useless for him to take the field alone with his own troops, as the French armies would be able to prevent his junction or even his co-opera- tion with the forces which the Prince of Orange had collected ; from the other princes of North Germany he could expect no assistance worth mentioning. Thus the only remaining resource was to remind the head of the empire of his duties, and to induce .him to lead a general mihtary operation of the German people. The elector desired an alliance between Bran- denburg-Prussia and Austria, on condition
the Elector of Branden- burg, than they would if she were to decline alliance with the elector and thereby force him to act upon his own initiative. Frederic William, however, considered that he would be able to induce the Austrian forces to make some sort _, . of strategical movement, and
_,' " .. would thereby draw off the
Troops o& the , , ,• r A t _-
Rhine attention of the larger part
of the French army. The imperial marshal Raymond, Count of Montecuccoli, was at first by no means disinclined to fall in with the '^elector's plans and to operate on his side against the French upon the Rhine ; however, even during the march to the proposed scene of action he was obliged to observe
4427
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the instructions which he had received from Vienna — namely, to avoid any possible collision with the enemy whom it was intended to befriend. The duty imposed on him was to await the attack of Turenne, to whom the defence of the Lower Rhine had been entrusted, and on no account to begin hostilities on his side. , Although Frederic William Turenne' s ^^^j^ ^^^ Induce MontecuccoH
to advance with him even as far
Success in Westphalia
as Coblenz, a movement which he had especially recommended to the Prince of Orange, he insisted upon the union of the two armies. But it became impossible to join hands with the Dutch and Spanish troops which were stationed at Maestricht, as Montecuccoli declined to cross the Rhine with the elector. When, toward the end of the year 1672, the alhes marched to Westphalia, Turenne followed them and cut off their union with the Netherlands troops, which had gained a position in East Friesland.
The elector was no longer in receipt of subsidies from the States-General, as he had not fulfilled his obligations at the seat of war ; he did not venture to make any attack on Turenne' s strong position at Soest, and, lest he should find himself the object of an overwhelming assault, deter- mined to conclude an armistice with France. In view of the emperor's waver- ing policy and the weakness of the con- tingents furnished by him — Montecuccoli's successor, Bournonville, had scarcely 10,000 men all told — this step was for the moment the best that could have been taken, for in no other way was it possible to avoid defeat. By the Peace of Saint-Germain, on April loth, 1673, Frederic William engaged to enter into hostilities neither against France nor against her allies — England, Cologne, and Miinster. In the Convention of Vossem, on June i6th, the King of France promised him $4,000,000 by way of compensation for the loss of the g . payments from Holland ; there ^"^*'°'^. was, however, no stipulation -i^.-j. against his fulfilling his duties
to the empire in the event of an imperial war. When the Dutch ambassadors made reproaches to Frederic William for his secession, he plainly informed them that his retirement was entirely due to the premature cessation of the war subsidies which they had been paying ; that, should they fail to bring about a general peace, he would be ready to renew his
4428
action on behalf of the states. The fact that it was his action and his influence upon the emperor which had alone pre- vented the destruction of the Dutch republic is in no way affected by the Peace of Saint-Germain.
The retirement of Brandenburg from the scene of operations, though but temporary, was unavoidable in view of events in Poland ; it implied only a momentary interruption in the foreign policy of the elector and inflicted no permanent damage upon the cause of the Netherlands. On the contrary, it obliged the emperor to give up his temporising policy, and to show greater decision in defending the independence of his empire and in pre- serving the security of his frontiers, if he did not wish to run the risk of entirely losing in the eyes of the empire a prestige which was in any case greatly impaired.
A convention was arranged on August 30th,i673, between the United Netherlands, the emperor, and Spain, whereby a monthly subsidy of 95,000 thalers for the army was assured to the emperor. Monte- cuccoli again took the command, and „ E I a Turenne, who had penetrated S°^d H^ ^^ ^° Rotenburg on theTauber,
c • t T J was forced back to the Rhine
Spanish Trade , c . , ■ ■>
by a series of strategical
movements. William of Orange besieged and took Bonn, after obliging the marshal Luxemburg to abandon the right bank of the Rhine. When the winter brought operations to a close, France had lost her advantage and was acting upon the defen- sive. She was, moreover, unable to pre- vent the secession of her allies ; England, who had not added to her reputation in the maritime war with the Dutch, was obliged to conclude the Peace of Westminster on February 19th, 1674, as she would other- wise have lost her Spanish trade ; her example was followed by Miinster and the electorates of Cologne and Mainz.
The campaigns of the year 1674 were fraught with great dangers to Louis XIV., who was now confronted by a strong con- federation of European powers, and heavy subsidies had to be paid to keep England from joining their number. Conde de- fended the northern frontier of the king- dom from a foreign invasion in the bloody battle of Seneffe in the Hennegau, on August nth, 1674, which was fought against the Dutch, Spanish, and imperial troops. Turenne' s military powers had never been displayed to greater advantage.
ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS
but all that he could do was to preserve Alsace, upon which the main attack of the imperial army had been directed. The Elector of Brandenburg had also appeared in that direction with 16,000 men under the general field-marshal George of Derf- flinger, for Louis XIV. had delayed the payment of his subsidy, and the elector had gladly seized the opportunity of treat- ing the convention of Vossem as dissolved. The German troops, among which those of Liineburg and Bninswick were distinguished by the excellence of their equipment and by their bravery, were unable to inflict any decisive defeat upon
upon Miilhausen towards the end of the year 1674, and, surprising the allies, who had gone into winter quarters, he scattered and drove them back. After the inde- cisive battle of Tiirkheim, on January 5th, 1675, the allies were forced to give up Alsace and to retreat once more to the right bank of the Rhine.
Disputes had broken out between the imperial generals and those of Branden- burg, as a consequence of the constant failures in the handling of the army. The elector's son Emil had succumbed to typhus fever in Strassburg during the cam- j)aign. The elector himself withdrew his
THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND DUTCH AT AGOSTA IN 1676 In this naval battle between the French and the Dutch, fought on April 2nd, 1676, the latter gained a notable victory, but lost their commander, De Ruyter, the hero of many fights and a tower of strengfth to his country in its wars.
the enemy ; the miserable cowardice of their leader, Alexander, Duke of Bournon- ville, who was thought to be treacherous as well as incapable, entirely neutralised the excellence of the forces at his disposal. In November, 1674, Turenne was forced by the superior strength of his opponents to retreat from Alsace to Lorraine. There he obtained reinforcements to the extent of 13,000 men, which brought his army to the number of 30,000, and by dividing it into several columns he succeeded in reaching Belfort unobserved ; from that point he suddenly swooped down
troops no farther than Franconia, in order that he might be able to take his share in the general plan of campaign upon the resumption of hostilities. During the winter he was hard at work at Cleves with the Prince of Orange, arranging plans, and inducing the emperor to place a proper proportion of fresh troops in the field.
But, though the Minister Lobkowitz had fallen, there was no inclination in Vienna to great sacrifices or vigorous measures ; the government hesitated even to make fitting preparations to protect Branden- burg and Pomerania against the attack of
4429
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the Swedes, who had again become allies of France. On May 30th, 1675, these restless neighbours actually began the cam- paign against Brandenburg by invading the Mark, and the only course of action open to the elector was to withdraw his contingent and its reinforcements from its position in Franconia, to return to his _ own country by way of Magde-
KuT^ burg, and to concentrate his ■ * B tti efforts upon the task of defend- ing his frontier. After the departure of the Brandenburg forces, the imperial army on the Rhine would have been reduced to the worst extremities had not Turenne, whose strategical talent, experience and daring made him a host in himself, been killed in the fight of Sasbach in Baden on July 27th, 1675.
From that time onward the progress of the war in the Palatinate and in the Breis- gau was marked by no special occurrence, though the important fortress of Breisach was captured. In the Spanish Netherlands, the French under Luxemburg made great progress, defeating the Prince of Orange at Saint Omer, and capturing Ghent and Ypern. The king ordered Vauban to extend and complete the fortifications of Conde, Valenciennes, and Cambray, and in his hands these places became first- class strongholds ; it was plain that he had no intention of surrendering them.
But the greatest surprise was excited by the appearance of France as a great naval power ; her gifted admiral, Abraham, Marquis du Quesne, beat the united fleet of the Dutch and Spaniards at the Lipari Islands and at Catania ; in a previous conflict, the battle at Agosta, on April 2gth, 1676, in which they were victorious, the Dutch had lost their famous naval hero De Ruyter. The preponderance thus gained by France in the Mediter- ranean, and her acquisitions in the Spanish Netherlands, created a most painful im- pression in England. After a lapse of fifteen ^ . months, Parliament was again f W'lr'^"**'* summoned in the year 1677, J Q and obliged the king, whom
range Lo^jg XIV. was Still sub- sidising, to form a new alliance with Holland, and to agree to the marriage of the daughter of the Duke of York, who had been brought up in the Protestant faith, with William of Orange. The personal attitude of Charles towards Holland had changed when the power passed into the hands of his nephew
4430
William, the son of his sister Mary. The reserve funds of the French state had now been expended, its credit was strained to the utmost, and Colbert was most earnestly urging upon the king the necessity of putting an end to the war ; Louis, therefore, after protracted negotia- tions at Nimeguen, came to an understand- ing with the republican party and the leaders of the English Parliament as to the principles which should form the basis of a pacific settlement.
Louis' aims were, on the one hand, to relax the close union existing between the Prince of Orange and the " States," and, on the other, to put an end to the highly inconvenient demands of the Stuart for further subsidies. In these objects he was successful, for he induced the Dutch to abandon Spain, and to allow France to indemnify herself at the expense of Spain in the Spanish Netherlands and in the Franche-Comte. On August loth, 1678, the treaty between France and the Republic was concluded ; on September 17th, Spain was forced to agree to the disadvantageous conditions imposed upon
„ , her ; in February of the follow-
France s • .■, r^''
_ . .. mg year the German emperor
Q .. . also accepted the peace. The Elector of Brandenburg, with the support of Denmark, had won victory after victory in his war with Sweden ; he had now to bear alone the full brunt of the attack of the whole French army, which advanced to Minden in June and proceeded to march upon Berlin. Brandenburg was obliged to give up her conquests in Pomerania, and to agree to the distribution of territory settled by the Peace of Westphalia. Louis XIV. had gained his desire; but it was easy to perceive that of all his adversaries he had the greatest respect for Frederic William, and before the year 1679 had expired he had won him over to alliance. As the ruler of Brandenburg had been abandoned by the emperor and the empire and above all by his Guelf neighbours, so was the Prince of Orange abandoned by the Hollanders and by the regents of the states, which he had preserved from disruption and loss. In the days of Nime- guen, Europe bowed to the will of the monarch who purposed to restore to the French the position that the Franks had held under Charlemagne. It seemed that with the exception of the Padishah of Stamboul there was to be but one great power in Europe — the French kingdom.
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FRANCE'S WARS OF AGGRESSION
AND THE STAR OF GERMANY IN ECLIPSE
p\URING the two final decades ot the ^-^ seventeenth century the seeds lying dormant in the historical life of the European peoples gradually came to maturity ; the ground had already been cleared for the most important changes in the territorial areas and in the mutual relations of the powers. In this light we must regard the con- quests of France and her repeated attacks upon the German Empire, the eastern developments of the German- Hapsburg policy which were brought about b}^ the favourable result of the Turkish war and the recovery of Hungary and its neighbouring territory ; the War of the Spanish Succession ; the renewal of com- plications in the East through the rivalry of Sweden and Poland ; and finally the rise of Brandenburg- Prussian influence and the recognition of her sovereigri position, which was marked by the rise of Prussia to the _,. _ , status of a kingdom. The
The Doom of , r r r, ,• r
.. , .^. . transference of the policy of the Lithu&nian ,, tt c /~\ i t<
J.. . the House of Orange to Eng-
Kingdom 1 J J i.u i
land and the permanent con- nection of that country with Holland must be regarded as an additional factor in the problems under consideration. A new member entered the European political world in the Russian state, whose mission was to educate healthy and vigorous Slav races to take their share in the struggle for the blessings of civilisation in the stead of the Polish Lithuanian kingdom, which was hastening to its inevitable fall.
Immediately upon the conclusion of the Peace of Nimeguen Louis XIV. began to take new steps for the acquisition of that territory which, as he was firmly convinced and as French patriots believed, was indispensable for the completion of his kingdom ; he proposed a set of en- tirely new principles as the basis of his national and historical right to what he claimed. In the name of the bishops of Metz, Toul, and Verdun he advanced his demand that the feudal rights of these
bishops to lands and possessions within the German Empire must be revived, though they had lain obsolete for cen- turies, and that the supremacy of France should extend over the districts in ques- tion. Upon the conclusions of the Peace _ , ot Westphalia concerning
rass urg s ^j^^ withdrawal of the Forced Homage . , • j r A^
to Louis XIV Austrian wardens from the Alsatian towns he placed such an interpretation that it was possible for France to claim the whole country, including Strassburg. The representations of the emperor and the Reichstag did not prevent him from annexing, piece by piece, the country which he claimed ; at the close of September, 1681, he surprised the old imperial town of Strassburg, and obliged the citizens to do him homage, after he had been informed that the emperor was proposing to garrison the town.
It is superfluous to spend time in pointing out the absence of justifiable reason for these " reunions." Justice is dumb when questions of national interest are at stake ; the most brazen injustice, the most out- rageous demands, are acclaimed as righteous by patriots so long as they can thence draw food for their vainglory. This is a fact of which the historian as well as the politician must take account, for he will generally find himself in the wrong if he attempts to account for state policy on principles other than " might is right." Louis XIV. continued to proclaim that his state must be increased just so long as he found himself able to brush aside all resistance to his will ;
„ _ his example was followed by
now France ^ j- .
Treated her ^^^^^ succeeding government «, . . . in France, whether monarch-
Neighbours . , 11- .■^ J.V.
ical or republican, until the
neighbours whom she had trampled on trampled on her in their turn.
Not for a single moment was the im- perial court incUned to compliance, nor did anyone imagine that the arts of diplomacy would ever induce Louis XIV.
4431
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
no M&tch for France
to retire from his advantageous position. The only possible course of action was to gain time to prepare for the struggle and to find alHes against France. Of alliances, however, the prospect was exceedingly small. It now became clear how fatal had been the mistake committed in neglecting Brandenburg, for without her troops the ^. -, . collective forces of the empire -_ t«f ?*'* were no match for the French king's army. It cannot be denied that the change in the Great Elector's poUcy after the Peace of Nimeguen was largely the cause of the " reunion " movement, but it is equally certain that King Louis would have had far less hesitation in aggrandising himself at the expense of the empire if Branden- burg had exhausted her strength in a hopeless war against Sweden and France, and had sacrificed to no pur- pose the army which she had iust created. The mere fact of her existence as an ally on one side or the other was a ground of security for the empire in the last extremity. Moreover, Frederic William would have been quite ready on proper- terms to throw in his lot again with the em- peror. But he was anxious, first of all, to see for himself that the emperor was capable
who had been in the service of Holland since 1672. He was confident that he could undertake the military organisation of the empire after he had secured the adherence in 1679 of some of his compeers from the Central Rhine, from the Wetterau, Westerwald, and Eifel, to a scheme for their mutual defence. This " union " was joined by Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Fulda, Bamberg-Wiirz- burg, and the Frankish district, and shortly afterwards by Saxony-Gotha.
Waldeck was able to create such a strong impression in Vienna of the im- portance of his scheme of mutual defence that the emperor, on June loth, 1682, concluded the " Laxenburg Alliance " with the " union," and it was hoped that others of the imperial provinces might be induced to join. They were to take up the defence of the empire, "^ of which scheme the main
features had been sketched out by the Reichstag at Regensburg, which had now become a permanent assembly. However, their intentions did not issue in practical results. Of more importance was the union of Bavaria and Haps- burg, which was closely cemented by the marriage in July, 1685, of the young elector. Max Emanuel — Ferdi-
of taking up the war with John george hi. nand Maria had died on May
France ; then he demanded J.}l^,^^^^^°l °I. Saxony from leso ^eth, 1679— with the Arch-
^ . ' ^. till 1691, John George III. played a , ,' v* • a j. ■ 4.u
certain compensation in re- leading part in the struggles of the duchess Maria Antonia, the
turn, the cession of districts period, and his secession from the daughter of the emperor ; im-
in Silesia, where the rights of French party was a sore blow to it. portant, too, was the secession inheritance possessed by the Hohen- of the Elector of Saxony, John George III
zollerns were not wholly secure. The Vienna court did not think it necessary to meet these advances half way ; it looked to other sources of help.
The members of that mighty confedera- tion which resisted the foundation of a universal supremacy of France in later years existed side by side, even at that period ; but they were not then sufficiently developed and had not the resources necessary to enable them to withstand the energy and the will of the French king. Around William of Orange was grouped a number of Dutch and German statesmen, who were constrained by necessity to thwart the ever-widening plans of Louis XIV. ; among them was also to be found George William of Waldeck, sometime minister and general of Brandenburg,
443a
(1680-1691), from the French party, and the readiness of the Duke of Hanover, Ernest Augustus I., to send an army of 10,000 men to the Rhine to support the imperial troops. Leopold and his council, which was then led by the Freiherr von Strattmann, were consequently obliged to admit that the interests of the House of Hapsburg with
New Turkish War
Th A respect to Spain demanded an
unconditional resistance to the encroachments of France ; to this they remained firm, even though the danger of a new Turkish war grew more imminent.
The Hungarian policy of the Vienna court was invariably unfortunate. The leaders did not appreciate the necessity of smoothing over religious differences by gentle treatment of the non-Catholics;
4435
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
their treatment of personal and family affairs was also ill-considered. The claims of th^ Rakoczy family, to which the Tran- sylvanian, magnate Emerich Tokoly be- longed, had been set aside by timely offers of compensation, bestowal of titles, and op- portune marriages ; but time had never been found for proper attention to these affairs, Th T k and the attitude of rejection that O *th ^' * ^^^ ^°^ often adopted helped to W P th ^"^S powerful adherents to the opposition. Stern and harsh in time of peace, weak and careless in time of war, the Austrian House did not gain either the respect or the confidence of the Magyars. After their fruitless war with Poland and Russia the Turks thought that they had found a haven of rest upon the Danube, and the state of affairs in Transylvania and Upper Hungary seemed eminently suited to further their aims. The Grand Vizir Kara Mustapha required to secure his position by some military success, and, having persuaded the sultan to permit the further chastisement of the infidel, he marched in person upon Vienna at the head of an army of 200,000 men. The Vienna statesmen had actually brought
matters to such a pass that Austria found herself obliged at one and the same time to carry on the war against France upon the Rhine, and to resist the attack of an enormously superior power upon the hereditary territories of the ruling house. The unprincipled Elector of Branden- burg took the opportunity to advocate the conclusion of an armistice with France, which would imply the temporary aban- donment of the " reunion " problem ; if some such arrangement could be made with Louis XIV., his ally, he was ready to send 16,000 men and more to Hungary. But in the course of these negotiations he again advanced his claims to Jagern- dorf, and the emperor declined to accept help from Brandenburg, which appeared the less indispensable as the King of Poland had promised to lead his army against the common enemy without any stipulation of reward. The Pope Innocent XI. persuaded Louis XIV. to cease for a time the hostilities which he had already begun against the House of Austria, and the king complied with his request in the expectation that in case of necessity his help would be
THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES AS IT WAS IN THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV.
From the painting by J. B. Martin in the Museum of Versailles
4434
THE WOMEN WHO INFLUENCED LOUIS XIV. The morals of Louis XIV. were notorious. In 1685 he was privately married to Madame de Maintenon, a woman who was under the influence of the Jesuits, but was no mere courtesan ; the Duchess de la Vallifere bore the king: four children, and retired into a convent when she was supplanted in the royal affections by Madame de Montespan.
demanded, and that when he had saved the country from the Turks he might, with the assent of Brandenburg, make any terms he pleased for himself.
The magnificent defence of the imperial capital offered by Count Riidiger of Starhemberg, the endurance of his troops and of the more sensible part of the population of Vienna, and finally the glorious battle which raised the siege on September 12th, 1683, in which Kara Mustapha was utterly beaten by the Polish army under John Sobieski, entirely upset Louis' calculations and raised the emperor's prestige to an un- expected height. The supreme command had been given by agreement to the Polish king, but the real conduct of the battle was claimed by Duke Charles of Lorraine ; and on this memorable day two German electors, John George in. of Saxony and Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria, had
COUNT RUDIGER Count Riidiger of Starhemberg
" armed provinces," in which the Prankish district was included as well as the electors. Hitherto standing armies had been set on foot only in such North German territories as were forced to protect themselves ; besides the Elector of Brandenburg, who was more powerful than any other German prince, the dukes of Brunswick and the Bishop of Miinster had troops on a war footing at their disposal, capable of being used for independent operations. The system of individual armament now began to prevail throughout the empire, so that military affairs entered upon a new phase of development.
It was a considerable advantage to the greater territorial princes always to have their own troops ready, and to send them beyond their provinces only upon special occasions of concerted action. But the maintenance of these
voluntarily placed themselves Vienna while it was undergoing Ordinary expense, and one under the orders of the duke, the siege of the Turks, which was which could not be met from also had the imperial /^'"^'^ °" September 12th. i683. ^j^^^j. ordinary sources of
as
field-marshal, the Count of Waldeck. This was Poland's last intervention in European politics. The emperor had not succeeded in raising an imperial army ; the empire had. not yet found time to take the measures necessary for the fulfil- ment of military exigencies. The help which had averted the fall of Vienna had been given to the emperor by the allied
sources income ; princes were therefore ready to employ their troops outside the somewhat narrow sphere of their own interests, and lent them to other powers, which were armed insufficiently or not at all, in return for corresponding pecuniary returns, which went into their war chests. This was a business which had been carried on by the captains of regiments
4435
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
during the period of vassalage, and during the Thirty Years War, by such great " contractors " as Mansfeld, Christian of Brunswick, Wallenstein, Bernhard of Weimar, and others. It now passed into the hands of the princely war lords, who gained far greater profit from it and were less easily exposed to the danger of a _ J conflict of political interests.
o icrs -pj^g complaints concerning the Who were n j << i x - v ^ >
L t O t so-caUed sale of the country s
children " first arose at a later period, and resulted from the failure to appreciate the close connection between the fundamental idea of " armament " and the arrangements for defence existing in earher times. In most cases the soldiers who were thus lent out were themselves entirely convinced that in no other manner could the special military qualities which made their services of value be kept at a high level of perfection.
The smaller provinces of the empire, which did not possess sufficient territory or population to enable them to embark upon such undertakings, generally came to some arrangement with the " armed " powers, if they were ordered to prepare for war by the empire or their allies ; districts in which there was no lord of dominant power formed compacts offensive and defensive and added to the number of the armed powers. But such a movement was for the most part of short duration.
As soon as the most pressing danger was over, these imperial districts withdrew their contingents, because their mainten- ance, was not imperative upon them as upon their more powerful neighbours, and because the expenses of war had an effect upon their home life more immediate and heavier than in the case of a populous state, where there were many shoulders to bear the burden. From 1670 to 1680 and through the following decades German military strength was represented by the forces of the " armed " provinces. Alliance TK T \ A ^"^ convention were the only Th* ^^ * means of calling great national Of History ^"^i^^s into existence. The policy of the emperor and the statecraft of every dynasty that strove to attain success abroad resolved itself into a series of attempts to effect alliances with the armed provinces of the empire ; con- sequently the threads of the diplomatic history of the period became so tangled, owing to schemes and plots, that during no (Jther epoch have we the same difficulty
4436
in unravelling their confused complexity. The defeat of the Turks at Vienna induced Louis XIV. to renew and to increase the pressure upon the two Hapsburg courts and upon the German Empire.
In addition to Strassburg he had quickly annexed two other important strategical points — Casale on the Po on September 30th, 168 1, and Luxemburg on June 4th, 1684. He now demanded an armistice for thirty, or at least twenty-five, years, the status quo to be maintained. During that period the empire would be able to devote her whole energy to the struggle with her hereditary enemy. The Elector of Brandenburg exerted his influence in Vienna and in Regensburg to secure the acceptance of this proposal, as it offered him personally a possibility of escape from the embarrassing position into which his relations with France had brought him.
It was clear to him that he could not safely take up a position of hostility to the em- peror at a moment when the majority of the Germans looked upon the continuance of the war with Turkey as a national duty. He had cynically admitted the difficulty , . , of his position to the French
,, . . . . , ambassador, the Vicomte de r riendshipfor T-> '1 j 1 j 1 i
the Elector Rebenac, and had appealed through him to the generosity of Louis XIV., asking him not to make capital out of the " desperate necessities of the empire." Rebenac was in full pos- session of the elector's confidence, and it was through his ready influence that the king was induced to confer a special mark of friendship upon the elector, which consisted in the raising of his subsidy to 100,000 livres per annum, a sum which was to be doubled in the event of war, and did not include personal presents. The elector was ever vigilant when his personal interests were concerned.
The views entertained at the court of Vienna underwent a change during the progress of the campaign. A few weeks after he had marched into his sore-tried capital the emperor's confidence in his Polish ally was seriously shaken. Sobieski, who despised the German time-servers, as he called them, considered that his Polish nobles had suffered disproportionate losses in the battle of Parkany on October 9th, 1683. At the storming of Gran on October 27th, he allowed them to take no active share in the operations, and afterwards marched them home. If the war in Hun- gary was to be continued it was necessary
4437
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to procure more and more reliable troops, and such Germany alone could provide. If war were to break out with France in the following spring, there would be very small numbers of German troops, perhaps none at all, at the emperor's disposal. Thus the Emperor Leopold was confronted with the dilemma whether J., f, . , he should again conclude an e mpire s m^sa^isf^ctory peace with the Armistice t i j ^i.
•«k m Turks, and resume the
with France ^ ', .^, t-
struggle with r ranee, or
should put oft^ the solution of the French question and at once undertake the conquest of Hungary. On the one side the position of the whole House of Hapsburg as a European power was at stake ; on the other, the special interests of the German ruling line. Leopold decided in favour of the latter. The Hungarian campaign of the year
1684 was carried on with inadequate forces, and led to no definite result. The mission of an ambassador-extra- ordinary. Count Lamberg, in February, 1684, to buy ofi Brandenburg from France, had been a failure, and for these reasons the emperor gave his consent to the conclusion of an armistice for twenty years with France, which was concluded on August 15th, 1684, at Regensburg.
This event marks a turning-point in the relations of the two hostile parties, because from that time begins the gradual separa- tion of the Great Elector from Louis XIV. A number of other occurrences in the year
1685 contributed to set him against French policy, and to prepare the way for that great federation which was destined eventually to ruin the far-reaching plans against the freedom of Europe which Louis XIV. had conceived. Of these the most important were the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the suppression of the Huguenots and of religious tolera- tion in France, and the accession of the Stuart James II. in England, who had become a Catholic and openly introduced a
„ . . , counter - reformation into Brandenburg s -r^ 1 j r i_-
Open Door for England, SO far as lus
the Huguenots opportunities allowed. Frederic William threw open his territory to his exiled co-religionists, the refugees, and came to a close under- standing with William of Orange to the effect that Louis must be conquered, as his obvious intention was to disturb the balance of the different Christian creeds which the Peace of Westphalia had deter- m.ined. Though he was quarrelling with
4438
the Pope, the king was considered still the most dangerous opponent of the Protestant powers. His efforts to build up a national French policy had been attended with complete success. But the ruinous dis- sension which eventually shook France to her very foundations proceeded from the king's fatal opinion that the centralisation of the constitutional power was incompatible with the existence of different religious creeds, and that universal toleration would impair the strength of the kingdom.
As soon as the Great Elector had made up his mind to dissolve his connection with France, in spite of the subsidies which had been paid to him through Rebenac since the year 1680, he entertained no scruples about rejoining the emperor and supporting him in his undertakings He could not have failed to recognise that Louis was desirous of keeping him in restraint, and even in impotency. He had at one time expected to increase his terri- tory with the aid of France, at the expense of Brunswick-Hanover or of Sweden, and this hope he was now obliged to renounce. None the less, the negotiations with the im- _, . perial government would have isappoin e j-gg^j^g^^ unfavourably had not opes o ^^^ Electoral Prince Frederic,
Hopes
the Elector
a declared enemy of France, devoted his energy to removing the chief obstacle. His father insisted upon the fact that an inconsiderable accession of territory was owing to himself in view of his hereditary claims to Jagerndorf and some other Silesian estates — the so-called Schwiebus district. What was the loss of twenty-four square miles of territory and a few thousand inhabitants, for the most part Protestants, to the powerful Hapsburg House, which was desirous of conquering the kingdom of Hungary at that moment ? A rigid insistence upon their rights prevented the Vienna statesmen from making a sacrifice which was valueless in comparison with the important alliance it would have brought. Schwiebus was formally alienated from the emperor during the lifetime of the elector. The electoral prince was obliged to undertake to restore the district upon his accession. For this he received a special subsidy of 10,000 ducats, a not unwelcome addition- to his impoverished treasury. This piece of baseness was successfully concealed from the old elector ; until his death he firmly believed in the uprightness of the Austrian House and of the prince. Pi»e
aSi
4439
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
emperor eventually exacted the return of his twenty-four square miles from the elector's successor ; however, he had pro- vided an excuse for Frederic the Great to declare that the promised renunciation of the Silesian principalities by his predecessor was not binding upon himself, and so to give a quibble of legality to his conquest of it.
On September 2nd, 1686. the fortress of Ofen, the central point of the Turkish
Simmern family on behalf of his brother Philip of Orleans, husband of the Princess Elizabeth Charlotte, the sister of the late elector. The possession of this territory would have made the French ruler a prince of the empire. In the contest for the archbishopric of Cologne he had espoused the cause of William Egon of Fiirsten- berg in opposi- tion to Prince Joseph Clemens of "Bavaria, and this action had embarrassed the interests of Aus- tria and Bavaria
. THE DUKE OF SAVOY AND CHARLES OF LORRAINE
rule in Hungary, victor Amadeus, the Duke of Savoy, fought against the French in
was stormed by the battle of Staffarda in 1690, and was overthro*'n by Catinat; and the rights of
the Cerman and Charlesof Lorraine commanded the imperial army, and died in 1690. A.Ug PoDC who
imperial troops. In this brilliant feat had decided in favour of Joseph Clemens
of arms some share was taken by the Brandenburg contingent of 8; 200 men, and after a lapse of 145 years the emperor was again put in possession of the Hungarian Konigsberg. The Brandenburger then undertook the defence of the Lower Rhine, and co-operated with the Dutch against . France, his late ally, while Max ' . *" Emanuel of Bavaria and Charles o mpoT &n ^^ Lorraine won the battle of Mohacs on August 12th, 1687, and took Belgrade on September 6th, 1688, for the first time, thus breaking down the resistance which the Turks annually renewed. The Field-Marshal von Barf us rendered important service at the battle of Slankamen on August 19th, 1691, with the Margrave of Baden, Lewis William, and helped to win a brilliant victory, which permanently strengthened the posi- tion of the imperial troops in Hungary, which had received a heavy blow in the previous year by the loss of Belgrade.
Meanwhile, an open breach with France had come to pass. Louis XIV. could not behold the recovery of the Hapsburg power in the East and the rise of the imperial prestige among the imperial princes without raising fresh claims on his side, and attempting to assert his pre- ponderance by interference in German affairs. With the death of Charles the Elector of the Palaitinate on May i6th, 1685, the line of Simmern of Wittelsbach became extinct, and Louis seized the opportunity to claim the allodial territory of the
4440
None the less. Innocent XI. made every possible effort to induce the king to accept some peaceful solution of the question at issue, and to restrain him from appealing to force of arms. His efforts were not successful. Louis felt himself threatened on two sides, and was determined to anticipate the for- mation of a confederacy against him by striking a rapid blow at his enemies. He considered himself as especially threat- ened by the alliance of Augsburg, whereby the emperor, Spain and Sweden, as allied powers, the Frankish and Bavarian dis- tricts, and also certain princes, had pledged themselves to provide a federal army of more than 46,000 men for the defence of the empire until its military organisation should have been perfected. Still more serious was the discord which had broken out between the English and King James II., and the alliance now imminent be- tween the leaders of Protestantism in England and Wilham of Orange, who could now reckon upon the consent of the States- General to such
The Plans of William of Orange
steps as he might consider needful to secure the Protestant character of the government in England. The Prince of Orange had been forced for a long time to postpone the execution of his great plans, as he was invariably confronted with the suspicions of the States-General ; the time was now at hand when he was to gain a powerful position, enabling him to undertake the
FRANCE'S WARS OF AGGRESSION
war with the despot upon the Seine who was threatening the freedom of Europe in general, and of the Protestant states in particular. William III. had married his first cousin, Mary, a daughter of James II., who had been baptised in the Protestant faith, of which she was a warm supporter : as her husband, he was summoned by England to bring into order the troubled and confused affairs of that country.
The Whigs had formed the forefront of the opposition to James II. ; the majority of the Tories and the whole of the clergy joined them with the object of overthrow- ing the Papal rule, to which the whole nation was resolutely opposed. It was the impenetrable stupidity of James II. which brought about this revolution, the extent and the radical consequences of which no one could have foreseen. He made easy martyrs of the bishops, destroyed the discipline of his troops by amalgamating the Irish with the English and Scotch regi- ments, sneered at the well-meant advice
of his protector on the French throne, and rewarded his liberality with ridiculous displays of haughtiness. Finally, his dis- regard of the prescribed court ceremonial gave rise to the rumour that the Prince of Wales, born on August loth. r688. was a mere changeling, whose existence was to destroy all possibility of a Protestant successor. A long series of similar provo- cations forced the opposition to resort finally to resistance, and their decision was taken _ only with the greatest re-
Supremacy luctance, in view of the
universal loyalty that the Restoration had at first evoked. The personal stubbornness of the king and of his Catholic followers played a large part in this change of govern- ment in England, which was so important in its influence upon the destinies of Europe ; so far reaching were its conse- quences, that even Lecky, a historian avowedly concerned with tracing " the per- manent characteristics of national life," is
England's Fear of Catholic
A. SCENE AT VERSAILLES IN THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV.
From the painting by J. B. Martin in the Museum of Versailles
4441
HISTORY OF THE WORLX)
obliged to draw the attention of his readers
to the fact that " that issue of the com-
phcated drama was brought to pass more
by the action of individuals and by chance
circumstances than by general causes."
After ' the flight of his father-in-law
had laid the road open, William III.
did not place his wife in the position
,„.„. , of ruler, but succeeded in William of J.J.- -L- ir J
Q gettmg himself recognised as
E 1 d' K' full sovereign and as the ruler whom the will of the nation had called forward. This was the real occasion upon which the Whig spirit first broke its bonds ; the prestige of the Parliament was secured, and the highest intellect of a nation provided with the most admirable political capabilities was called to the management of its own affairs. With the passage of the Prince of Orange from his native land to EngUsh soil the histori- cal importance of Holland was also transferred to Eng- land. The Netherland States had exhausted their ideals and their political strength in the struggle for the victory over Spain, and sank from their former high position in pro- portion as England rose in the world to a height for which past history affords no pre- cedent and no standard of comparison. It is true that
a usurper on the throne of England ; if he would maintain his position, he was obliged to prefer his new country before the old. The heavy English customs duties remained unchanged, the Naviga- tion Act was carried out in the colonies ; under the rule of the Diitch king two great financial powers arose, the Bank of Eng- land and the new East India Company, which proved ruinous to Dutch trade. In the friendly rivalry between the allied peoples England's preponderance rapidly became manifest ; the name of " sea- power " became a collective noun among diplomatists, and soon implied, as Frederic the Great was ill-natured enough to remark, " the English man-of-war with the Dutch jolly-boat towing behind."
The change of rulers in England would not have come to pass so quickly as it did, would perhaps never have been brought about at all, if Louis XIV., in September, 1688, just before the landing of William of Orange, had not declared war upon the German Empire, a war generally known as the third war of aggression. He proposed to strike terror into South Germany by de- livering a vigorous blow, and to oblige the emperor, whose best generals and troops were perforce employed in the Turkish war, to permit the
only in the eighteenth century prince eugene of savoy armistice to be ratified as a did England take the step Refused acommission in the army of definite peace, which would from the place of a European ^:^^^^l^:::^ have secured him in the
power to that of a world ofEmperor Leopold, distinguishing pOSSCSSlOU of the ReUUlOnS.
power ; but it was in the himself in the wars against France. His actiou was successful f rom seventeenth century that the foundations a military point of view, though, by
for that step were laid. Elizabeth, Crom- well, William form the constellation which has lighted the proudest and the most for- tunate of all the Germanic nations upon a path which has progressed upwards without interruption for over two hundred years.
William III. himself recognised that England would become the leader of the maritime powers ; he devoted his every care and effort and his unusual political capacities to making the United Kingdom equal to the performance of his splendid task. The distrust of the English toward their new ruler on account of his presumed leanings to Holland speedily proved as groundless as did those insular suspicions of Coburg" influence which last century saw. William III. was a stranger and
4442
releasing Holland from immediate danger, it set William free to secure the English crown. The admirably equipped French armies penetrated into the Palatinate as far as Heilbronn, overran the Wiirtemberg territory, devastated the fertile country on the Rhine, blew up the castle of Heidelberg on March 2nd, 1689, and by the end of the year collected over 2,000,000 livres in forced contributions. But no member of the empire had any intention of being thus bullied into a disgraceful peace. The emperor resolved to undertake the war upon both frontiers simultaneously ; his closer allies, Bavaria, Saxony, and Brandenburg, and also Hanover and Hesse, joined the " Concert
Devastating French Armies in Germany
4443
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of Magdeburg," which had been concluded by the armed provinces on October 22nd, 1688. Moreover, the Regensburg assembly determined to support the imperial war. Twenty thousand Brandenburg troops were speedily before Bonn, which Cardinal Fiirstenberg had betrayed to the French ; Charles of Lorraine, who commanded the y. . armies of the empire, retook
*^. ' Mainz on September 8th, 1689,
P . after eight weeks' fighting, and
Bonn fell shortly afterwards — on October 13th. During the succeeding years the war in Germany made no de- cisive progress ; the further advance of the enemy was repulsed, but nothing more was accomplished. The Margrave Lewis William of Baden succeeded Charles of Lorraine in the command of the imperial army after his death, on April i8th, 1690. At the seat of war in the Netherlands, Prince George Frederic of Waldeck lost the battle of Fleurus on July ist, 1690, and the French took Mons in April, 1691, and Namur in July, 1692. At the battle of Steinkirke, in Hennegau, on August 3rd, 1692, William of Orange was unable to gain any decisive advantage. On the other hand, at the battle of Staffarda, Catinat won a victory over the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus, to whose support Max Emanuel marched across the Alps, but was unable to bring about that change of fortune in Upper Italy for which the allies were anxiously longing.
Thus the French armies had the advan- tage on every side. But on May 29th, 1692, at La Hogue, their fleet was defeated by the combined English and Dutch Navies, under Russell ; this was the first of that series of defeats, the almost in- variable persistence of which during the next 200 years seems to prove that the Romance nations are no match for the Germanic in naval warfare. Louis XIV. could not flatter himself with the hope of being able totally to overpower the forces H -A IK opposed to him in the field ; ^ei e erg ^^ ^^^ unable to concentrate his power and to break down the resistance of his enemies at any one point. On May 22nd, 1693, he laid Heidelberg waste for the second time, and utterly ruined the castle, that wonderful monument of the German Renaissance ; but this could not be con- sidered a success. The Margrave of Baden drove the devastators back across the Rhine, and found himself able to
4444
Castle in Ruins
renew his plans for establishing himself in Alsace. The allies of the Golden Horn also did not accomplish as much as Louis had expected ; during the years following the departure of Baden from the seat of war in Hungary the imperial troops gained no advantage, but the operations of the Moslems were of a slow nature. As soon as Louis could with any certainty foresee the possibility of dissolving by diplomatic measures the federation of his enemies, without himself making any dispropor- tionate sacrifice, he accepted the inter- vention of Sweden, which had been repeatedly proffered, and entered upon the negotiations begun at Ryswick, from which Spain and the emperor, on October 30th, 1697, were unable to withdraw, after he had secured the consent of the sea-powers. The recognition of the Prince of Orange as King of England was an indispensable preliminary to which Louis agreed with a heavy heart, after pre- viously assuring himself that there was no possibility of forming a party within the United Kingdom for the later restora- tion of the Stuarts. The death of Queen
Spain's ^^^y' °" J^""a'"y 7th- 1695, in
_ . noway weakened her husband's
Polsestions Position ; the Whig principle, that the Parliament might bestow the crown outside of the direct line of succession, remained in force. Holland was easily satisfied by the concession of certain commercial privileges. Calculating upon a future understanding, Louis showed himself very accommodating towards Spain, to which Luxemburg and Barcelona, taken during the last stages of the war, were restored. The empire had to bear the cost of the peace. Strassburg, which might have been retaken at the eleventh hour by a rapid assault, had to be aban- doned. As a set-off, the Austrian House regained Freiburg and Breisgau, the empire gained Kehl and Philipsburg. The Cologne question was set at rest ; the Bavarian prince got his principality; the question as to the Palatinate succession was solved by a moderate payment on th^ part of the Palatinate Neuburg.
The peace concluded at Ryswick on October 30th, 1697, was but an armistice between France and the House of Haps- burg, which had been struggling for European predominance for 200 years ; the division of the Spanish inheritance, a question which was shortly to demand solution, would bring about a resumption
FRANCE'S WARS OF AGGRESSION
of hostilities all along the line. Louis XIV. required time and breathing-space in order to arrange the situation to suit his own interests by means of his un- rivalled political insight and diplomatic capacity.
The emperor did not venture, though the peace allowed him to turn the whole of his military power against the Turks, to embark upon a wearisome war in the Balkan states and to make a deter- mined effort to crush his hereditary foe ; and yet, even at that moment, circum- stances at the seat of war in Hungary had taken an unexpectedly favourable turn.
During the years 1695 and 1696 the progress of affairs in Hungary had been most unsatisfactory. The departure of the Margrave of Baden, Lewis William, had proved almost as disastrous as an actual defeat ; his successor, the Elector of Saxony, Frederic Augustus L, had been unskilled and unlucky in every operation which he undertook ; the emptiness of the treasury could no longer be concealed, and the discipline and courage of the troops deteriorated accordingly. But a rapid and far-reaching Tk MTt change in the state of affairs
e 1 1 ary ^^^^ brought about by the
Oenius of . , . " . r r t
„. r nommation m iD9Dof acom-
Princc Eugene , ^ ■ t ■' ■\_
mander-m-chief who was
only thirty-three years of age, Prince Francis Eugene of Savoy-Carignan, the youngest son of Mazarin's niece, Olympia Mancini, and the Count of Soissons. Since the election of the first Rudolf the House of Hapsburg could congratulate itself upon no more fortunate occurrence, certainly none more opportune or richer in result, than the fact that the "petit Abbe," whom Louis XIV., with his usual arbitrari- ness had wished to drive into the cloister, applied to the court of Vienna, following the example of his brother Lewis Julius, for a post in the imperial army.
" Who can venture to say," justly observes Alfred von Arneth, " how the history of Europe would have been changed if the prince had applied to Spain instead of to Austria, if he had never fought against the Turks, if he had been on the side of Philip of Anjou instead of agamst him during the War of the Spanish Sac- cession, if he had fought for instead of against France ? " The prince had long enjoyed the full confidence of the imperial veteran troops, and in a few months had
so thoroughly reorganised the army that he was able to oppose the powerful force with which the Sultan Mustapha 11. (1695-1703) was advancing in person during the month of August, 1697, for the delivery of a crushing blow. On September nth he attacked the Turks at Zenta on the Theiss ; they had been turned back from Peterwardein, and proposed to cross the river and invade
Turkish Rout
- Transylvania. They were so utterly defeated as to be unable to recover themselves. A large number of their best officers and 30,000 men were left on the field of battle or drowned in the Theiss ; 80 guns, 423 standards, and seven " horse-tails" fell into the hands of the con- querors, who paid but the moderate price of 1,500 dead and wounded for their victory. When the larger part of his army had been sent into winter quarters, Eugene made his famous incursion to Serajevo with 4,000 cavalry, 2,600 infantry, and 12 guns, proving to the Turks that the mountains of the Balkan peninsula, which they had regarded as a sure line of defence against Western armies, were not inaccessible to Austrian cavalry and even to guns. The Porte's strength was broken ; not only Austria, but also Poland, had gained con- siderable advantages. Moreover, Venice under Francesco Morosini, who died in 1694, had overrun the Morea, had taken Athens — when the Parthenon was destroyed on September 26th, 1687 — and had proved her superiority at sea. After the heroic struggle for Candia in 1669, the republic seemed to have lost her dominant position on the Levant, but in 1685 the banner of St. Mark triumphed once more, and the position of Venice as the chief Mediterranean power was vindicated.
Peace was concluded at Carlowitz on January 26th, T699 ; Austria obtained the kingdom of Hungary with the exception of the Banat, Transylvania, and Slavonia ; Poland was given the Ukraine arid Kamanez- Podolsk ; Russia obtained the harbour of Asov, and Venice the Morean peninsula, with ^gina and Santa Maura, Cattaro, and some smaller places on the coast of Dalmatia. Europe seemed to have entered upon a breathing space for rest and recovery, the dura- tion of which depended upon the life of the last Hapsburg King of Spain, which was slowly ebbing away in Madrid.
Europe's Rest After War
4445
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
|
^ |
THE AGE |
|
|
gl^ |
OF LOUIS XIV. V |
THE PROBLEM OF THE SPANISH THRONE
PREPARING FOR THE COMING WAR
AT the outset of the eighteenth century ■**■ the conception of the state as an entity had not been dissociated from that of the ruling dynasty. National rights were only tentatively brought forward in sup- port of dynastical objects. The surest
,„ , mode of extending political
Women s ■ j ■ ^i r
o- Kt power remained in the forma-
. '\ *. tion of family ties, the creation
^^^^ of hereditary rights, and the
enjoyment of them when they fell due.
Consequently, upon the extinction of a
ruling dynasty of such territorial power as
was the Spanish line of the Hapsburgs, a
European war was inevitable as being the
only way of deciding whether some one
European power was to become definitely
predominant, or whether the balance of
power could be maintained.
In the Spanish kingdom women could
usually inherit, failing men. In the House
of Hapsburg the rights of female succession
and of primogeniture were also recognised.
The possessions of the Spanish line and also
the estates of the Austrian line formed
inheritances, which had passed undivided
to the testator's eldest son or to the male
representative next in succession, so long
as any such survived. For the last two
generations the daughters of the Spanish
line had intermarried only with Bourbons
and the German Hapsburgs, so that these
were the only families affected by the
failure of male heirs. A point in favour
of the Bourbon claims was the fact that
the elder Infanta had always married into
the French line. Louis XIV. 's mother,
Anna Maria, was older than Maria Anna,
_ . „ the mother of the Emperor
Lh^ked °"*** Leopold. Of the sisters of
by Marriage Charles II., the last of the
Spanish Hapsburgs, the elder,
Maria Theresa, born on September loth,
1638, was the wife of Louis ; the younger,.
Margaret Theresa, born on July 12th,
1651, was the first of Leopold's three wives.
Maria Theresa, however, had solemnly
renounced her right of succession, whereas
4446
Margaret Theresa had been specially ap- pointed to the succession by her father's will, in default of male issue. Conse- quently at the court of Vienna there was no doubt whatever that the succession in Spain must fall to the Emperor Leopold, and that his rights were beyond question.
But at the outset of the War of Succession Louis XIV. had already found a pretext for declaring that his wife's renunciation was invalid. In this position he naturally remained firm, declared himself to be the only legitimate successor to the Spanish throne, and pretended an especial desire to consult the interests of Europe at large by entering into negotiations for the division of the Spanish inheritance.
The German House of Hapsburg was at a disadvantage compared with the Bourbons, because its efforts to increase its territory rested upon no national basis and no conception of the state as a . whole. The Hapsburgs were The Summit i^^^^^^ to a dynastic policy,
tl^tilr ^"^ ^^^'' territorial power
" ' * had no natural solidarity.
To them the imperial throne of the German kingdom was the summit of their ambition, as it was in fact the most dignified position in the Christian world. But it was a position which gave no increase of power, and there wa:s no future before it.
The Peace of Westphalia had made any union of the several German powers under a Catholic emperor wholly impossible. No political genius, however powerful, could have dreamed of successfully accom- plishing the task of imperial reform with a view to general centralisation. The con- ception of an Austrian state was non-exist- ent. Hence neither the ruling dynasty nor the privy council ever troubled themselves to consider in what direction their territory could and ought to be extended with a view to the gradual formation of a state.
The Hapsburgs had been forced into the practice of a universal policy by the unexpected reversion to themselves of
THE PROBLEM OF THE SPANISH THRONE
immense inheritances. They had thus been unable to devote their attention to the formation of a strong confederacy of the lands upon the Danube, or to the introduction of a uniform administration throughout the possessions which had been given into their hands. Their eyes were invariably fixed upon some possible advantage which might be won upon the outskirts of their empire. They frittered away their great resources in fruitless undertakings, and put off the ordering of their house at home, which would have brought them wealth and power. The conclusion of the Turkish war, the conquest of Hungary and Transylvania, had been successfully brought about, and room for colonial expansion was thus provided for at least a century. The greatest problems of political economy were awaiting solu- tion ; treasures lay ready to hand such as no other dynasty in Europe possessed. The Balkan territories lay open to the imperial armies, anr' never afterwards wei the conditions so favourable for a rapid success. The Vene- tian Republic had recovered its strength, and might have been brought over to alliance ; its objects coincided with those of the Hapsburgs in every respect ; its growth would have implied no loss, but a great increase of prosperity throughout the inner Austrian domains, for the exchange of products and of labour was necessary, natural, and inevitable. The more harbours the Venetians could have gained upon the coasts of Greece, Macedonia, and Albania, the easier and the more advantageous would have been the realisation of the products of the territories under the Austrian rule. The eastern portion of the Mediterranean might have regained its commercial importance; for, of the thousand threads which had united the
PHILIP v., FIRST BOURBON KING OF SPAIN He was the second son of the Dauphin Louis, and in
Levant to the Adriatic in earlier ages, all had not yet been torn away, and many might have been reunited.
The death of Charles II., the last prince of the blood in possession of Spain, Naples, Milan, the Catholic Netherlands, and " both Indies," was a misfortune for the Hapsburg House, because it again entangled them in a web of European politics, in which they had but little success in the days of Maximihan and Charles V. Moreover, this event averted their attention from very pressing neces- sities at home, which they would probably have recognised and dealt with had they been allowed the leisure to do so. All these considerations did not affect the Emperor Leopold. He considered the Hapsburg tradition as implying special duties which he must fulfil at all costs. His unshajcen con- fidence in Divine Providence had been increased by his victories over the infidels. He beheved in his rights and in the divine nature of the call which bade him cling to those rights. His deter- mination was in no way influenced by political considera- tions or practical
1700, when Duke of Anjou, was bequeathed the crown of statecraft. Otherwise
Spain by Charles II. But it was not till 1713 that, by the Peace of Utrecht, he was left in possession of the throne, after a long struggle with the Archduke Charles.
it must have dawned upon him that the only successful course open to him was to come to some pacific arrangement with Louis XIV. to divide the Spanish inherit- ance, and to unite with Louis in resisting any foreign interference. Leopold, how- fever, did not take this course, and troubled himself very little about the precautions which other powers were taking in the event of the demise of the crown of Spain. It had long ago been plain to WilUam of Orange that it would be most conducive to the peace of Europe if neither Bourbon nor Hapsburg should receive so consider- able an accession of power, and if the Spanish monarchy could be kept intact
4447
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and independent. There was, moreover,
an heir whose rights could be justified
with but little trouble, the Electoral Prince
Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, the son of
the Elector Max Emanuel's marriage with
the Archduchess Maria Antonia, the only
daughter of Leopold I. and the Infanta
Margaret Theresa of Spain. If the female
_. , , line of succession in the House
^. . f o*^ Spam was to be mamtamed,
c then Joseph Ferdinand was the
Successor , . •' ^ , , . ,,
legal successor to his mother,
who had died in 1692. Louis XIV. discussed the terms of a compact of divi- sion with the Prince of Orange on October nth, 1698, whereby the electoral prince was to have Spain, the Catholic Nether- lands (Belgium), and the colonies ; the French dauphin, Naples and Sicily ; the second son of the emperor (Charles), the duchy of Milan, which was in any case a fief of the German crown. But on Novem- ber 14th, 1698, Charles II. of Spain signed a will wherein he named the electoral prince as his successor. Louis then declined to recognise the prince, and waited the course of events, confining himself to putting in a word for the choice of his grandson Philip from among the Spanish grandees. Once again it would have been highly advantageous for the emperor, who was supporting the hereditary rights of the electoral prince and the testamentary rights of the dying sovereign, to have come to an understanding with Louis XIV. on the subject of a division. Such a course of action might have proved extremely profitable, even if they had taken the Elector of Bavaria into their confidence, for he would have been ready to give up Bavaria in return for Belgium. Thus German territory might have been acquired, influence in Germany might have been strengthened, Milan and Naples claimed a^ a secondary inheritance for the Archduke Charles, and Spain given up to the Bourbons in return. The Austrian _ . . House, instead of expending
ppor uni les ^^^ power in the War of the
Lost by the o • u o i_
A * • « Spanish Succession, wherein
Austri&n House ./ ,11 ■ ^ , •,,
it actually gained a still
smaller success, would have been free to
take the offensive against the Turks and to
plant colonies on the Lower Danube and
in the north of the Balkans.
But before any course of action had been decided upon, or the first step to negotia- tions with Spain had been taken, the whole position was altered by the sudden death
4448
of the Bavarian electoral prince, on February 6th, 1699, as he was about to take ship from Amsterdam to Spain.
In March, 1700, Louis proceeded to discuss further propositions for division with William of Orange, with the inten- tion of keeping him from union with the emperor. The latter was calculating upon the choice of a Spanish relative, which would have been favourable to his house, of whose recognition by the sea-powers he had no doubt. The Spanish population declined to entertain any proposals for dismembering the kingdom, and for this reason it might have been possible to secure the succession of a German Haps- burg if he had appeared in the kingdom with a force of troops sufficient to offer vigorous resistance to the invasion of the French army, which was to be expected upon the death of the king. But the Em- peror Leopold did not think the expense advisable, and in any case the undertaking would have been difficult. He therefore agreed to Louis' proposal that they should mutually agree not to undertake any military operation in Spain during _^ _ . the king's lifetime. The ad-
e y"»8 vantages of this arrangement t^M* d"'d' ^^re entirely upon the side of France for upon receipt of the news of the king's death she could bring an army to the Ebro in as many days as the emperor would require weeks to land a regiment at any Spanish port.
Under these circumsta.nces it was in vain for the dying Hapsburg at Madrid to form the heroic resolve of naming his relative at Vienna as his successor in defiance of his powerful neighbour's desires ; for the peace party in his own country, and chief among them the Archbishop of Toledo, urged upon him that the whole of Spain would be occupied by the French troops long before any German claimant could appear in the field to defend his rights.
Under pressure of these considerations was signed the will of October 3rd, 1700, wherein the hereditary rights of the In- fanta Maria Theresa were recognised, and her descendants were called to the succession ; in the first place was the second son of the dauphin, Philip, Duke of Anjou ; and if he should obtain the French throne, his brother Charles of Berry. After the Bourbons the German Hapsburgs were to inherit, and after them the Savoyards, who were descended from a sister of Philip III. The inheritance thus
THE PROBLEM OF THE SPANISH THRONE
provided for fell vacant on November ist, 1700 ; on that day Charles II., the last representative of that race which for a century had wielded the greatest power in Europe, sank into his grave.
A fortnight later Louis XIV. greeted the Duke of Anjou as Philip V., King of Spain, and gave him immediate possession of all the powers united under that title. He thought that he now had the game entirely in his own hands, for he knew that neither England nor Holland was inclined to further military undertakings or to great expense. He considered that if he could succeed in a very short space of time
such step ; he brought all his influence to bear upon the emperor, urging him to commission Prince Eugene to open the campaign in North Italy with all possible speed. The determination displayed by the German Hapsburgs was due to the consciousness that they could place an important general at the head of troops then marching to attack, but still more to the fact that they had on their side an ally who was ever ready to strike, whose infantry and cavalry squadrons were the admiration of Europe, the Elector of Brandenburg and King of Prussia. Frederic III., the Great Elector's son
THE STRONGLY FORTIFIED CITY OF BERLIN AS. IT WAS IN THE YEAR 1688
From a copperplate print of the period
in getting all the Spanish territories into his possession, the sea-powers would have little opportunity of stirring them up against him. As to the emperor's power, he thought he would not be able to keep in the field the im- posing armies which he was able to summon. The Emperor Leopold naturally could not recognise his brother-in-law's will ; on the contrary, as head of the kingdom and as representing the rights of his family, he was bound to offer a forcible opposition to the occupation of Spain by the French , troops. His eldest son, Joseph, " King of the Romans,'.' with all his dependents at the Vienna court, had long been fully convinced of the necessity for taking some
and successor, did not possess his father's moral and intellectual qualities. He was a weak ruler, fond of disj^lay, of but scanty political talent ; but he added a showy exterior to the edifice which his father had built up, by obtaining a formal recognition of its rank as a second-rate European power. For the moment this action appeared onh' as an attempt to satisfy personal vanity, but in later times it proved a valuable step on the road to further development. It is a point of some importance that this step was taken at a time when the imperial house had made the greatest sacrifices to the old plans of a universcd foreign policy. If the
4449
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Hapsburg had not been on the eve of the decisive struggle with the Bourbon rival, it is certain that consent would never have been given to the foundation of a German kingdom, and without the em- peror's consent such a kingdom would never have obtained recognition.
In another direction there was an at- tempt to make capital out of
.^^'w-L "'*' the elector's earnest desires : on the Throne i • i , i 1 1
, p J . his electoral colleague,
Frederic Augustus I. of Saxony, had been elected King of Poland on June 27th, 1697, at the price of his Protestantism, his recantation being made at Baden near Vienna, on June ist, 1697; he would have been glad to see another imitator of his secession, and would have rejoiced if the Brandenburger had requested his advancement to the kingly title from the Pope. For this purpose conversion to Catholicism would have been an in- dispensable preliminary. The Bishop of Ermeland, Andreas Chrysostomus Za- luski, had already arrived at Berlin with a letter from Pope Innocent XII., which unre- servedly announced the readiness of the Curia to assent to the bargain. But on this occasion the Elector Frederic showed that he was made of sterner stuff than his
portant preliminary, and was a guarantee of recognition on the part of other powers who would naturally adopt the emperor's attitude. The change might have been brought to pass by wholly different means in the confusion of the approaching wars. Brandenburg might have seized some suitable piece of territory and have been able to adopt the title of kingdom.
Frederic's was the sure and certain way, and the one proportioned to his capacities. It cost some sacrifice ; but this was com- paratively small when compared with the benefits which resulted. On July 24th, 1700, the emperor's privy council had practically given its assent to the negotia- tions upon this matter; on November i6th the affair was concluded. Brandenburg renounced any obligation of feudal depend- ency to the emperor as his " creation " ; in return for the imperial promise to greet the king after every coronation, he undertook to serve the em- peror in the war for those parts of the Spanish inherit- ance situated within the limits of the empire— tacitly including the duchy of Milan — with 8,000 men, for whose maintenance nothing should be paid in time of peace and 100,000 thalers in time of war. The elector further promised to renounce all claim to
AUGUSTUS OF POLAND
usual manner of life appeared Frederic Augustus I., Elector of arrears of subsidy due from to indicate ; not for a moment lofan"/ 'on^june Inh^feo?^ t"akin°i Austria, and to transfer from did he entertain any thought the title of Aug:ustus 11. 'He was his successors to the Roman of changing his religion, but '^^'^^'^'^ ^""^ dethroned m 1702. g^^pg^or the electoral power he allowed the Poles to speculate upon the of an archduke. On the other hand, the
possibility of such change so long as he thought their opposition might hinder the advancement of Prussia. He saw that as Protestant champion he would give his house a more assured position while placing his own loyalty to principle in contrast with the facile conduct of the King of Poland.
Frederic had also recognised correctly that he could not ask the crown he desired from the hand of France. Not dependence, but independence, was to be the meaning of this crown; it was to oblige the sove- reigns of Europe to treat with him as with an equal. The new Prussian kingdom was to rise from the Holy Roman Empire not as its enemy, but as a new expression of the power which was yet dormant in that antiquated organism. For that reason the emperor's consent was the most im-
4450
emperor promised the new king the inherit- ance of Orange after William's death.
On January i8th, 1701, Frederic and his wife ascended the kingly throne in Konigsberg, and the duchy of Prussia, which had been acquitted of all feudal obligations since the compacts of Labiau and Wehlau, was thus raised to the status of a kingdom. The Elector of Brandenburg became King of Prussia, even as the Elector of Saxony became King of Poland, as the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein became King of Denmark, and the Elector of Hanover, a decade later, became King of England. The form of personal union and the constitutional relations of the empire to these independent monarchies was the same in all of these cases ; but the actual
Prussia
Becomes a Kingdom
THE PROBLEM OF THE SPANISH THRONE
course of events produced many practical differences. Only the Elector of Branden- burg had become a German king ; his royal residence was BerHn, and not Konigsberg. The help of Brandenburg-Prussia was all the more important to the emperor, as the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, who was closely united to him, was now unable to fulfil his promises in the event of a war with France. He was the disturbing cause of a war for the possession of the Baltic territories, which occupied the attention of Europe for a full decade simultaneously with the War for the Spanish Succession — the Second, or Great, Northern War ( 1700-172 1). Of this war, it suffices at this point to say that the impetuous youth upon the Swedish throne, after overthrowing Denmark, attacked 40,000 Russians on the Narwa with 8,000 men ^ .^
on November 30th, 1700, and beat them utterly ; but Peter was not to be turned from the prose- cution of his designs. This defeat taught him the abso- lute necessity of completing his military organi
sation rind hp
, ' - Born in 1657, Frederic succeeded to the Electorate of Brandenburg in
understood very the year leSS. On January 18th, 1701, Frederic and his wife Sophia
well that " his Charlotte ascended the kingly throne in Konigsberg, and the duchy
ineXDerie need **^ Prussia was raised to the dignity and status of a kingdom.
youths were bound to yield before an
army so old, so experienced, and so well
equipped." The ridicule of Europe at
the Muscovite incompetency, of which the
most incredible reports emanated from
Sweden, was of no long duration. The
tsar was able to reorganise his military
administration, to found cannons out of
„ , ., church bells, to devise new Poland s c ■ J •
Q . . sources of income, and m a
J,. *° short time to take the offensive
again. Meanwhile Charles XII.
interfered in the affairs of Poland, marched
his army up and down the Vistula valley,
and by his partisanship of Stanislaus
Leszczynski as opposition king in 1704,
accentuated the party divisions among the
J^olish nobility, in which the kingdom
expended the remainder of its strength.
These Northern complications considerably
increased the emperor's difficulties in obtaining a force of troops from his German allies sufficient in number to protect the Rhine boundary ; they did not, however, prevent him from making an appeal to arms to secure his rights. His decision to send an army into Upper Italy under the command of Prince _ Eugene, for the reconquest of
Move of ^^® ^^^^y ^^ ^^^^"' ^^^^^ ^^^ I °^^ \A I ^^^ been taken over by the eopo . prench, was one of the best- advised moves which Leopold I. ever made in the course of his long reign. Eugene's success greatly increased the prestige of the House of Austria, and contributed to encourage .those states which were hesitating whether to take any part in the struggle or to allow the Spanish Kingdom to p;iss without opposition to
Louis XIV.'s grandson. A general feeling of astonishment was created by the information that Eugene had taken over the army under Marshal Nicolas Catinot, which was waiting in readiness in the fortresses on the Itsch, that he had arrived in Venetian terri- tory by detours through almost
PRUSSIA AND
QUEEN
impassable Alpine tracks, and that his attack upon the enemy's flank in the battle of Carpi, on July gth, 1701, had obliged the French to retreat behind the Oglio. The imperial field-marshal then awaited the counter attack of Villeroi at Chiari, on September ist, and inflicted considerable loss. upon the French. Then the open and the secret enemies of France rejoiced aloud, and began to consider the possibility of forming a new confederacy against the king, who was striving to become the master of Europe.
Louis XIV. was not anxious for the out- break of a general conflict, and thought that Holland, which delayed to recognise the position of Philip of Anjou, might be tempted into neutrality, and restrained from any thoughts of hostility which she might have entertained. In February,
4451
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
1701, he ordered Marshal Boufflers to cross the frontier of the Spanish Nether- lands, and to demand the surrender of those fortresses in which Dutch garrisons were stationed, in accordance with the terms of a "Barrier Treaty" with Spain. Max Emanuel of Bavaria, who ruled in Brussels as Spanish stadtholder had P , _ already ordered the com
ranee s rong j^ajjdg.nts to hand over the n&nd on J- . i T- J
♦k n i u ai i fortresses to France, and the Dutch States . ,, 1, , , ,1
m the result twenty-three
Dutch battalions became French prisoners. The Dutch States were now obliged to recognise Philip whether they would or not, in order to stave off the further advance of the French, against whom they were entirely defenceless for the moment ; but their suspicions had been aroused to the highest pitch, and of this fact they made no concealment to the English Parliament.
The Parliament determined to send an ambassador to the negotiations which had been opened at the Hague to discuss the conditions necessary to the maintenance of peace. Louis XIV. struggled to prevent the protraction of the negotiations which was thereby involved, but at length gave in, whereupon the States and England went a step further, and demanded power to co-opt an ambassador from the em- peror. The danger which France now had to face was lest the execution of the will of Charles II. of Spain should be placed in the hands of a European congress. While the progress of diplomacy between the House of Bourbon and the sea-powers was thus opportunely coming to a head, public opinion in England was gradually swinging to the opposite extreme. The Tories were afraid of losing their influence if they attempted to stem the tide ; they therefore withdrew their opposition to the Hanoverian succession.
The news from Italy, and the prospect
that England would take a vigorous share
in the coming war, produced an immediate
g. effect in Holland. William of
i^f * ^ • Orange arrived in his native of the Coming 1 j ? „ ^ , ,
y^ ^ land m September, 1701, and
concluded the Great Alliance, which declared itself unable to acquiesce in the French prince's possession of the Spanish monarchy. To the emperor was guaranteed at least the possession of the Catholic Netherlands, Milan, Naples, and Sicily, as well as the Spanish islands in the Mediterranean. On their side the sea- powers claimed the right to annex such
4452
portions of the Spanish West Indian colonies as were most suitable for their commerce and carrying trade. Spain and France were never to be united, and in no case was the King of France to be ruler also of Spain. It remained open to the Archduke Charles, to whom the kingdom had been devised by his father, to secure possession of it, if he could ; but the allies were not bound to support him.
The formation of this alliance did not absolutely preclude the possibility of a peaceful solution ; if Louis XIV. had recognised the critical nature of the situa- tion, an equal partition might un- doubtedly have been agreed upon. But his political programme was of far too ambitious a character to admit of any demands for the placing of reasonable limits to the French power. The compact that was concluded on March gth, 1701, with Maximilian Emanuel II. of Bavaria, whose brother Clemens of Cologne was already dependent upon him, might easily have deceived him with
» J- .- regard to the situation in Ger-
Indiscretions ° , , ,• 1 . j
J . many, and have stimulated
p . ,,. the hopes which he entertained
French King r ,, ^ t i. j r
of the emperor. Instead of
making overtures to the sea-powers, and requesting their mediation with the emperor with a view to settlement, he made the breach with England irreparable by recognising as king the thirteen-year-old James (III.) upon the death. of his father James II., on September 17th, 1701 ; at the same time he provoked the emperor to the bitterest resistance by giving per- mission to Philip to assume the title of Count of Hapsburg and Duke of Austria.
William of Orange survived this change in the relations of the European powers only a few months ; he died on March 19th, 1702. His great achievement, the alliance against Louis XIV., remained unimpaired. His sister-in-law, Anne, was bound to sup- port it because her position as ruler was founded upon the general opposition to her relatives who were maintained by France. John Churchill, Earl of Marl- borough, the husband of her friend Sarah Jennings, was anxious for a war and therefore busied himself in gaining the strong support of the English Parliament, and also in maintaining the policy of the Prince of Orange in the States, where he found an enthusiastic dependent and a loyal supporter of William's actions in the Council Pensionary, Anthony Heinsius.
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION
AND THE GREAT TRIUMPHS OF MARLBOROUGH
T GUIS XIV.'s hopes with regard to the *-^ German Empire remained unfulfilled. The two Wittelsbachs found no party. The associated armed districts of the empire had certainly fallen into the Bavarian trap, and had concluded an agreement of neutrality with him. But they perceived in due time that they were then entirely without defence against the protector of Max Emanuel, and so rejoined the emperor, on whose behalf the Margrave Lewis William of Baden undertook the defence of the Rhine. Hanover and Liineburg placed 6,000 men at the disposal of Holland, and 10,000 men at England's service in return for the necessary payments. The King of Prussia gave the sea-powers 6,000 men, besides the auxiliary troops which he was pledged to furnish to the emperor.
In the spring of 1702 the war began upon the Rhine and in the Netherlands. At the same time Max Emanuel openly de- „ clared for France, overpowered
^ * . the imperial town of Ulm, Movements j , • r n
* th W ^^ ^ possession of Regens- burg. His task was to maintain his position on the Danube until a French army could advance through the Schwarz- wald and unite with him. Then it was proposed to march upon Vienna. How- ever, it was not until May 12th, 1703, that the Bavarian army, in the pay of France, succeeded in joining Marshal Villars, and even then the leaders did not feel them- selves strong enough to march upon Vienna until they were secured against the possibility of a diversion from the Tyrol. Max Emanuel also had a subsidiary plan. He desired to get possession of the land which seemed well suited for his retirement in the event of peace negotia- tions, or even for exchange against Naples or Belgium. He therefore pressed on to unite with the Duke of Vendome, who was operating in Northern Italy.
Prince Eugene had been so feebly sup- ported from Vienna that he had been able only to prevent the duke from advancing
further north at the bloody battle of Luz- zara on August 15th, 1702, and could 'not inflict a decisive defeat upon him. The Bavarians got possession of the upper and lower Inn valley, took Innsbruck, and pressed on across the Brenner Pass. Then the Tyrolese brought their militia against them, which they had kept on foot since J- . the LandlibeU of 1511, and
Def t d t drove them back to the Brenner, Laadeck ^^ter defeating them at Landeck . The elector's attempt was a complete failure, for Vendome did not press his advance upon the Etsch with sufficient vigour. Lewis of Baden had been in position for the Danube for a long time, confronting the French army under Villars with a superior force, and if he had grasped the situation and made the best use of his advantage. Max Emanuel, whose strength had already been broken, would have been in a critical position, and would have been forced to make a separate peace with the emperor. However, he and Villars very cleverly extricated themselves from their perilous situation, and on September 20th, 1703, they even won a victory at Hoch- stadt over the imperial troops under the Austrian Count Hermann Otto Styrum.
The emperor's cause was in a bad way, mainly through lack of money for the pay and equipment of the troops. Prince Eugene was, it is true, summoned to court to preside over the council of war ; but his most zealous attempts to make the necessary provision for the armies re- mained without result from the time that
_^ _, .^ , it became necessary to carry The Fruit of ■ tt t u'
jj .. . on war m Hungary. Leopold s
e igious domestic policy of religious in- tolerance now brought forth its fruit. Religious toleration should have been granted to the kingdom upon its re- conquest, and after the hereditary rights of the Hapsburgs had been recognised in the Presburg Reichstag of 1687 a modicum of self-government should have been granted to the country. Instead of spend- ing time upon religious imiformity, the
4453
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
administration should have encouraged colonisation, have built roads and ships, settled German peasants and artisans in the country, supported the Saxons and the Zipfer, and furthered their material in- terests. Had this been done, the yearning SI* K A ^°^ ^^^ °^^ state of things under
ips o Turkish administration would . °^'^°^^^ not have been hot enough to ungftry ^^^^^ ^j^g ambitious plans of the Bethlen and Rakoczy, who were now able to satisfy their desire for insurrection with French money. Govern- ment business in Hungary was carried on principally through the " army Jew," Oppenheimer, with such careless and unsound methods that the credit of the Austrian House was absolutely rotten. The pledging of the crown jewels often produced insufficient amounts to cover the expenses of the most necessary diplomatic missions. Any regular payment of troops, any proper commissariat, or recruiting to supply the losses of regiments in the field, was entirely out of the question.
The commander of the Italian army. Count Guido Starhemberg, was so poorly supported from Vienna as to fall into the delusion that his previous commander had purposely
Dom Pedro II. of Portugal had also joined the Great Alliance. At his request an Anglo-Dutch fleet conveyed to Lisbon the Archduke Charles, in whose favour the emperor had resigned his rights of succes- sion to the Spanish monarchy. Though there were not resources sufficient for a vigorous campaign into the Spanish peninsula, yet an important part of the French army was there held in check. Marshal Rene de Froulai, Count of Tesse, began in 1705 a siege of the rock fortress of Gibraltar, which cost him nearly 10,000 men. The fortress had been captured by an English naval squadron under Rooke and Cloudsley Shovel. Louis XIV. still had before him the prospect that the war would turn entirely in his favour, if Max Emanuel with his Bavarian French army could penetrate to Vienna and seize the imperial capital. He had already obliged Passau to surrender at the beginning of 1704, and was advanc- ing toward Linz. The positions of the several combatants at that time form a truly remarkable picture, and the surprising union between these army corps thus scattered about with no apparent connec- tion is one of the most interesting features in the history of this war. They were placed as follows : him in the most difficult this great general won brilliant victories at Max Emauuel in Upper circumstances in the face Blenheim^ ^?_}l^t' ^*. ^f ""^!!f ^" }'^^^,l^^ Austria, with 16,000 men ;
Marshal Marsin, with 20,000 to 22,000 French, in Augsburg,
THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH J J. f • 1 1 fi Coramander-in-Chief of the English and Dutch
and out 01 jealousy left forces in the War of the Spanish Succession ;
of an enemy of over
Oudenarde in 1708, and at Malplaquet in 1709.
powering strength. However, he pro- vided plenty of occupation for his opponent, who had undertaken to join Max Emanuel at Trient, a movement which proved unsuccessful ; and at the outset of the year 1704 he began his famous flanking march along the right bank of the Po, crossing the Appennines and the mountainous country of Montserrat to Turin, where he joined Duke Victor Amadeus II. of Savoy, who had gone over to the emperor's side. From this time forward there were two separate seats of war in Northern Italy — one at Mincio, Lake Garda, and in the Brescian Alps ; the other on the Upper Po, around Chivasso and Crescentino.
4454
between Iller and Lech, to which must be added some 10,000 Bavarians as garrison troops in Munich, Ingolstadt, Ulm, and many smaller places.
Opposed to these were about 10,000
Austrians in Upper Austria and on the Tyrol
. frontier, and an imperial
c '■™>** army under Field-Marshal
Engaged in the ~i .y j .1 t-v ^^ i_
r^ T^iT Thungen and the Dutch
Great War /- 1 r- • ,i_
General von Goor, m the
Bodensee district, with Bregenz as their
headquarters ; their strength was 21,000
men, but the- departure of 9,000 electorate
Saxons brought them down to 12,000. In
Franconia was an imperial army under
the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth,
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Christian Ernest — imperial regiments, Prankish troops and Prussians under Leopold of Dessau, not more than 14,000 men altogether.
Marsin's troops were in poor condition, and greatly in want of recruits to com- plete their strength. To bring these up was the task of Marshal Tallard, who was on the Upper Rhine with 30,000 men.
T^'^ " . *^ In the Moselle district were Dutch in the -^ , j /- 1■
N th i d ^4'O00 trench under Coli;^ny. Against him and Tallard, the Margrave Lewis William of Baden, whose headquarters were at Aschaffenburg, could oppose 30,000 men, consisting of troops from the emperor and the empire, and from Hesse-Darmstadt and Liineburg in Dutch pay. He held the so-called Stoll- hofen line in the Rhine plains, opposite Strassburg and the Schwarzwald passes.
In the Netherlands the English-Dutch army, under the command of Marl- borough, had been standing for a year in almost complete inaction, confronted by the French under Boufflers and Villeroi. The Dutch commissaries, who interfered in all military affairs as soon as a single company paid by them had taken the field, placed insuperable obstacles in the way of any comprehensive plan of campaign. They were accustomed to wage war on the principles of commercial calculation. They were but feeble, nervous merchants opposed to any undertaking requiring audacity ; and so, whenever an attack was proposed, they hesitated and discussed until the advantage had slipped through their fingers.
Under these circumstances, it became plain that the respective superiority of the combatants must be decided upon the Danube. Perhaps the most striking proof of Marlborough's strategical powers is the fact that he recognised this necessity, and at once determined to act upon it. As in all great events, personal ambition here also exercised a most fortunate influence, for
Th E 1" h ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ which drove John e ng IS Churchill to seek a sphere for Leaders , . .,., • ^ 1 • 1
Q * k A t' military energies in which
success and honours were to be won. To the Dutchmen he left their own troops and no inconsiderable portion of the auxiliaries hired by England to carry on some unimportant sieges and covering movements in the Netherlands, while he himself executed a surprise movement across Germany with 20,000 English troops. The imperial court also recognised that
4456
Austria must be protected on the Rhine and in the Schwarzwald, and sent Prince Eugene into the empire. He undertook to cover the Upper Rhine, while Lewis William of Baden claimed the personal command of the imperial army, which was operating against Max ' Emanuel and Marsin. The Elector Max retired from Upper Austria to the Lech on hearing that the Schwarzwald passes were more strongly held and that the army was advancing from Franconia towards the Danube. He was afraid, and with reason, that his junction with Tallard might prove impossible of execution, and saw himself already in a desperate position.
If the timid Margrave had been in the least degree competent to perform his duties, the elector would most probably have been taken prisoner before the arrival of the French reinforcements, which were marching in the direction of Freiburg and had already reached Villingen. On May 20th he took over reinforcements from Tallard to the number of 10,000 men, \vith a long train of supplies, guns, uniforms, and 1,300,000 livres. Tallard then re- M IK h' turned to the Rhine. How- S V d'd°"^ * ever, thanks to the Margrave „ ^"^ . of Baden's disinclination to
eginni&g ggj^^^ ^j^g Franco-Bavarian
army escaped from its dangerous position at Stockach, and proceeded to fall back upon Ulm on June ist, 1704.
Shortly afterwards Marlborough's troops passed through Swabia without moles- tation, joined hands with the margrave's main army, and a plan of campaign became possible. Prince Eugene also took part in the deliberations, and agreed with Marlborough as to the necessity of attack- ing Max Emanuel, while their forces were still superior to his. Marlborough and the margrave held the command upon alternate days. On July 2nd Marl- borough gave battle with the united Anglo-German army on the Schellenberg at Donauwerth, and in spite of heavy losses — among them Field- Marshal Styrum and General Goor — won a victory over the Franco-Bavarians, who were forced to retire across the Danube and to concentrate upon Augsburg. The elector's hopes of victory were now dashed to the ground; he showed an inclination to listen to the emperor's proposals for peace. Marsin was greatly annoyed at this, and was forced to throw all kinds of obstacles in the way to prevent him
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
from negotiating with a view to throwing up the cause of Louis XIV. Tallard and Villeroi were opposing Prince Eugene on the Rhine with three times his strength, but did not venture to attack their dreaded adversary.
Tallard, at the call of Marsin, now marched through the Schwarzwald to the _ . helpof the elector with 25,000
rop^ing ^^^ ^^^ forty-five guns. As the Margrave t, ■ t- 1 j
f B a soon as Prmce Lugene learned
this, he collected all the troops which could by any possibility be spared from the defence of the Stollhofen lines, and made his way to that point where the fortunes of the Great Alliance were to be decided — to the Danube. He made a secret agreement with Marlborough, that the Margrave of Baden, who was nothing but a hindrance to their opera- tions, should be left behind to carry on the siege of Ingolstadt, while the two generals confronted the enemy in the open field.
Meanwhile Marsin had induced Max Emanuel to march with him from Augsburg in a north-westerly direction to the Danube, and to cross to the left bank of the river. There they joined hands with Tallard's troops. Marlbor- ough had been covering the retirement of the imperial army at Rain, and now hastened through Donauwerth to the sup- port of the prince, who had been for some days in a dangerous position, as he was liable to be driven out of his post upon the Kesselbach by the Franco-Bavarians, who were vastly superior in numbers.
The Frenchmen were anxious to await the arrival of the Bavarian reinforce- ments, for they thought it dangerous to weaken their own forces before the arrival of this accession of strength ; the Bavarians, however, did not arrive at the proper time. When Marl- borough's battalions appeared on the Kesselbach, the positions of the re- spective parties for the battle of
_. _ . Hochstadt were already deter- The French ■ j ^^ j.i_ • r
-j^. . . mmed. On the mornmg of
f ** H^ 1 August 13th, 1704, the allies
* ** advanced: Prince Eugene, with
eighteen battalions and seventy-eight
squadrons — 9,000 infantry and 9,360
cavalry — undertook to make a march on
the right wing for the purpose of delivering
a flank attack, and at three o'clock in the
afternoon advanced upon the position of
Max Emanuel and Marsin at Lutzingen.
The former had five battalions and
4458
twenty-three squadrons under his com- mand, while Marsin had thirty-seven battalions and sixty squadrons. Tallard had thirty-six battalions, forty-four mounted squadrons and sixteen on foot, with which to meet Marlborough, who commanded forty-six battalions, 23,000 men and eighty- three squadrons, with 10,560 cavalry. The allied forces, as a whole, numbered 57,000 men with fifty-two guns, against 56,000 French and Bavarians with ninety guns.
- The brilliant victory gained by the allies was due to the complete agreement of the two commanders as to the general idea of the battle and the accurate execu- tion of the movements proposed. Marl- borough was twice repulsed by Tallard on the right, while he prepared his unexpected main onset on the centre, but was able to rally for a third onset, while Eugene held the enemy's left wing so firmly that Marsin dared not send a single battalion to Tallard's support. The battle in this quarter was finally decided by the " indescribable valour " with which the ten Prussian battalions under Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau stormed the position of _ . Lutzingen, after the imperial
,,rV - cavalry had retreated before
. .'. the Franco- Bavarian horse. Max Emanuel and Prince Eugene fought in the hottest part of the attacks. Tallard did not understand how to make the best use of his superiority in infantry ; the greater part of them he placed in Blenheim to defend the place, and kept only nine battalions and 1,200 dismounted cavalry for use in the open field. Marlborough made the utmost use of his masses of cavalry ; 109 squadrons were employed in the tremendous charge at Oberglauheim in the centre of the line of battle between Lutzingen and Blenheim. Having broken the centre completely, Marlborough was now able to envelop the French right and destroy it.
At nine o'clock in the evening the allies were masters of the field ; they had lost 12,600 men, a quarter of the forces with which they had marched out to battle. The Elector Max and Marsin retreated with half of the Franco- Bavarian forces, having lost 17,000 dead and wounded, and 11,000 prisoners, among whom were 1,500 officers. The battle of Blenheim marks the beginning of modern warfare, which seeks to decide the contest by destroying the adversary on the battlefield, and not by merely winning the ground or capturing
4459
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
fortresses. The strategical principles of Marlborough and Eugene were further developed by Frederic the Great and Gneisenau, and brought to perfection by Moltke. However, at that time the art of following up a success was not understood. A vigorous pursuit, of which the nume- rous German cavalry would have been quite capable, would have com- BatuVof P^eted the destruction of the „, . . French army before Villeroi could Blenheim , . ^i. • • -
have come to their assistance.
But it was contrary to the custom of war to refuse the troops a pause for rest at the conclusion of a great action ; more- over, it was thought that the objects of the war might be obtained by diplomacy and continued negotiation with Bavaria. These hopes were not fulfilled. The remnant of Marsin and Tallard's army, together with some thousands of Bavarians sent by Villeroi, reached the left bank of the Rhine and went into winter quarters on the Moselle and in Alsace.
Max Emanuel resumed his post as stadt- holder in Brussels, while his troops kept up a guerrilla warfare in their native land with the Austrians, until Prince Eugene occu- pied Bavaria in the emperor's name, brought about the disbandment of the electoral battalions, and came to an agreement with the Electress Therese, who had remained in Munich, whereby she was assured a maintenance, but deprived of all influence upon the govern- ment of the country. However, the extortions of the Austrian administration and the conscription of recruits excited a revolt of the peasants in the following year, which was repressed only on Christmas Day by the battle of the Sendling Gate.
On May 5th, 1705, Leopold died, and Joseph I. ascended the throne without hindrance. The Great Alliance was now able to take the offensive, but the war made no great progress during this year. The French lines in the Netherlands were _ , stormed by Marlborough on
Death of j^j jg^j^ ^^ August i6th the Emperor f. .•' i^ ' r ?,
, /\ Prince Eugene fought an in- decisive battle with Vendome at Cassano. It was not until the year 1706 that Marlborough's victory over Villeroi at Ramillies in Brabant on May 23rd made the occupation of the Spanish Netherlands possible. The corresponding victory of Turin on September 7th, where Leopold's Prussians again displayed their admir- able inilitary capacities under Eugene's
4^60
leadership, drove the French out of the north of Italy. On June 27th, 1706, Madrid was won for Charles III. by an Anglo -Portuguese army, but was soon afterwards retaken. Valencia now became the seat of the Hapsburgs, until the defeat of Almanza, which Lord Galway suffered on April 25th, 1707, at the hands of the French marshal — natural son of James II. — James Fitzjames, Duke of Berwick. The southern provinces then fell into the hands of Philip V.
Louis XIV. attempted a change of policy by entering into an alliance with Charles XII. of Sweden, who had advanced upon Saxony from Poland in 1706, and obliged the Elector Frederic Augustus I. to renounce his claims to Poland at Altranstadt on September 24th, 1706. This was a serious matter for the allies, because the Swedes had made demands upon the emperor with which he was not likely to comply, and an adventurous spirit such as Charles might very well have initiated a Swedish attack upon the imperial territory. Had Charles possessed the smallest capacity for diplomacy, the em-
„ . barrassments of France would
France in , j j i • -.v.
.... have provided him with a
Alliance , ,fj ^ ■. r
with Sweden splendid opportunity for its exercise. But his action was inspired by the humour in which he hap- pened to be, not by fixed principles ; his mili- tary success was a surprise for the moment, but it did not contribute to establish the Swedish power, the importance of which was almost everywhere over-estimated.
Thanks to the personal intervention of Marlborough, Charles was induced to throw in his lot with the allies in April, 1707. His quarrel with the emperor was not successfully patched up until August 30th, 1707, when the emperor was led to make certain concessions in favour of the Silesian Protestants. During his stay in Saxony, Charles XII. had collected an army of 40,000 men and nearly 100,000 horse, and with this force he might have imposed any terms upon Germany as the ally of Louis ; for the empire had no army capable of resisting him at its disposal. When this army again marched eastward, in September, 1707, it was felt that the terrible suspense of the situation had been relieved. It was marching to its downfall. Charles was persuaded by the revolted Cossack hetman, Ivan Stephanovitch Mazeppa, to make an incursion into the Ukraine, instead of
446i
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
first reconquering the Balkan districts which the Russians had occupied. The battle of Poltava, on July 8th, 1709, resulted in the annihilation of the Swedish army, forced the king to take flight into Turkish territory, and by 'securing Peter the Great in the possession of Ingria (Saint Petersburg) gave him the foundations for his future position as a European power. It was only at the cost of the greatest efforts that Louis XIV. could provide means for the con- tinuation of the war. The defeats of Oudenarde on July nth, 1708, and of Malplaquet on September nth, 1709, obliged him to open negotia- tions for peace, wherein he showed himself disposed to renounce his claims upon Spain, if Philip were to be compensated with Naples. The Hague conference arrogantly demanded guarantees on the part of Philip of Anjou for the evacuation of Spain by the French troops. Louis never proved himself better capable of representing the
Louis XIV Works for Peace
interests of his people than when he rejected this proposal, and determined to continue the war, relying upon the devotion and the nobility of the French.
France was now no longer to be feared. In Spain, also, her influence was gone. The national party clung to Philip of Anjou because he consulted their interests in declaring for the independence of the monarchy. All the advantages which the sea-powers demanded for their trade might have been conceded forthwith. There was no reason why Europe should put herself to further loss on account of the kingdom of Charles III. ; on the con- trary, the ground had been cleared for a peaceful settlement, which might have led to a universal pacification. But one obstacle to this was the " barrier treaty " which Holland had concluded with England, on October 29th, 1709, without informing the other members of the alli- ance of the agreement. By this conven- tion the States were to receive a number
THE BATTLE OF VILLA VICIOSA IN THE YEAR 1710
This battle, which was fought after the withdrawal of the great Marlborough from the operations of the war,
resulted in a victory for the French over the Austrian party, and did much to revive the hopes of Louis XIV.
From the painting by Alaux at Versailles
4462
THE FRENCH VICTORY AT THE BATTLE u: DL.NAIN IN K „ The success of the French at the battle of Denain is said to have saved the kingdom, French writers swelling it into comparison with Ramillies. Prince Eugene besieged Landrecies, and the French commander, Villars, pretending to assault the besieging army, made a sudden side march and advanced upon Denain. The French oflBcers called for fascines to fill up the ditch. "Eugene will not allow you time," cried Villars, "the bodies of the first slain must be our fascines." Then storming the camp, the Frenchmen carried it before Prince Eugene could arrive.
From the painting by Alaux at Versailles
of fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, together with Liege, Bonn, and Guelders. Thus the division of the Spanish inherit- ance v»^as affected before the heirs had come to any agreement. As soon as Louis learned this fact, he perceived that the Alliance must split asunder. His new peace proposals w^ere offered merely with the object of initiating negotia- tion ; when once the negotiations
The Tories in Power
VIA ^^^ heen got under way, he felt "^^ *"* confident that the relations ol the powers would change in his favour.
This change began in the course of the year 17 lo, owing to the fall of Marl- borough's party in England, and the fact that the Tories gained nearly a two-thirds majority in the Parliamentary elections. Queen Anne had broken with the proud Duchess Sarah and assured the allies of the continuance of her support ; but she
was anxious to see the conclusion of peace, in order that Marlborough might be removed from his position as commander on the justifiable plea that there was no further need for his services.
Affairs in Spain had taken a course which precluded any prospect of Philip's removal. Vendome, who had taken up the com- mand of his army, was more than a match for any forces which Charles had at his disposal. He had forced Charles to evacuate Madrid, which he had occupied, and on December loth, 1710, at Villa Viciosa, he had defeated the Austrians under Starhemberg. Charles was driven back upon Barcelona and some fortresses on the shores of Catalonia. It was not to be supposed that he would ever succeed in getting possession of the kingdom. If, therefore, Philip was left in possession of the country of which he was, in any case, virtual
4463
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
toaster, favourable conditions in other respects might be expected from France. The road to peace was thus cleared when the Emperor Joseph I. died, on April 17th, 1711, leaving no son, so that the Hapsburg claimant to the Spanish throne became heir to the inheritance of the German line and to the imperial crown. _. , This entirely unexpected event
ugcne s — ^j^^ emperor died of small-
wUh"ra'c P°^ — sealed the fate of the Great Alliance. The Minister in charge of English foreign policy, Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, imme- diately entered into secret negotiations with Louis XIV., without giving the queen full information as to his intentions. He deceived the emperor's ambassadors and the Dutch by a pretended attitude of firm adherence to existing compacts and to the peace proposals of 1709. But he would guarantee no subsidies, and supported no plan of military operations. Prince Eugene himself paid a rapid visit to London to urge the continuance of the war, but was coldly dismissed. The Duke of Marlborough, who could do as he pleased with the army, might have put an end to a situation intolerable to himself had he determined, on his own responsibility, in conjunction with Eugene, to invade France, which was now quite defenceless.
A special agreement with France on October 8th, 171 1, made England's with- drawal an accomplished fact. All that was required of Louis was a solemn declaration that Philip of Anjou renounced his claim to the French throne, and some general promises with regard to the indemnity payable to the combatants. When England invited the Dutch to consider negotiations for peace, the latter did not venture to shake off the Tory yoke and to take up the ideals of the great Prince of Orange. The troops of all the allied princes, the Prussians, Hanoverians, and Danes, marched out of the English encampment. -^ Eugene was at the head of 122
Great W battahons and 273 squadrons, at & E d ^^^ ^^^ ready to march upon Paris ; but the Amsterdam merchants were no longer inspired with that spirit which had raised their maritime state to the position of a European power.
The War of the Spanish Succession was at an end. Louis XIV. dictated the con- ditions of peace, which was concluded on April nth, 1713, in Utrecht without the emperor's concurrence. Louis XIV.
4464
recognised the succession of the House
of Hanover in England, left to England
the Hudson Bay territories— in modern
British North America — gave Holland
a number of " barrier " fortresses on
the French-Netherland frontier, and gave
the kingdom of Prussia part of the Orange
inheritance, the principahty of Neuchatel
in Switzerland, the counties of Mors and
Lingen and parts of Guelders. As to
Spain and her colonies, a new Bourbon
dynasty was founded by Philip V. and
his descendants. Portugal obtained the
land on the Amazon, the Duke of Savoy
got the kingdom of Sicily. To the
emperor were left Naples, Milan, and the
rest of the Spanish Netherlands. Sardinia
and Luxemburg, with Namur and Charle-
roi, were evacuated in favour of the
Elector of Bavaria until his native
dominions should be restored.
It was the hardest of all conditions that
the emperor and the kingdom should be
obliged to receive into favour the Wittels-
bach arch-traitor, that they should have to
restore to him the lands which had been
justly confiscated. The emperor was
unable to continue the war. Of this fact
p . Prince Eugene was well
r V ij aware, and after continuing
Eugene Yields ,, ,, tju-
. -, the war upon the Khme
to France , 1 1 j .
for a year, he bowed to
the will of France, and concluded the peace negotiations of Rastadt and Baden on March 7th and September 8th, 1714. Of these, the main points were the recognition of the Peace of Utrecht and the reconcilia- tion of Max Emanuel with the emperor. A project of exchange had been seriously considered by these two — the kingdom of the Netherlands with Luxemburg in return for Bavaria. In spite of the protestations of his brother, Joseph Clemens of Cologne, Max Emanuel would have been ready to close with the bargain, preferring to stay amid the gaiety and wealth of Brussels to returning to Munich. It is worth while to remember that affairs in South Ger- many might have run a very different course from what they actually took. At that time Prussia could never have enter- tained the remotest idea of thwarting the growth of the Austrian power in South Germany. Fifty years later, when the proposal for exchange was renewed, Frederic the Great was able to prevent its accomplishment by force of protest, with- out appealing to force of arms.
Hans von Zwiedineck-SIjdenhorst
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE
AGE OF
LOUIS XIV.
VII
ENGLAND'S RESTORED MONARCHY
THE REVOLUTION AND THE UNION
Monk and the Rump Parliament
ON the death of the Protector his office was conferred by Parharaent upon his son, Richard Cromwell, a well-meaning country gentleman who had nothing but his name to recommend him for the first position in the state. The army, however, was determined to assert itself in the settle- ment. Finding that Richard Cromwell would not ^llow the military power to claim equality with the civil government, it forced him to abdicate, and invited the Rump to assemble. Forty-two of those whom Cromwell had rejected in 1653 responded to the summons, but were soon discovered to. be no more tolerant of military rule than they had been six years earlier.
A council of officers expelled the Rump for the second time, and made a shift to govern by the commissions which they held from the late Protector. The general indignation of civilians warned them that this system could not be main- tained, and once more, on December 26th, 1659, the Rump was brought back to Westminster. All was confusion and uncertainty when Monk, the ablest and most moderate of Cromwell's lieutenants, made his appearance on the scene leading the troops with which the Protector had supplied him for the maintenance of order in Scotland.
Monk's intentions were a mystery to others, and possibly what passed for supreme duplicity on his part was in fact the result of genuine perplexity. He confined himself to assurances that he would maintain the supremacy of the civil power, and took steps to procure a Parliament which would command the general support of the nation. He induced the Rump to recall the Presbyterian members who had been expelled by Pride's Purge ; he induced the Presbyterians to give their votes for the final dissolution of the Long Parliament. The stage was thus cleared of the body which had so long pretended, without justice, to represent the wishes of the people.
284
A new Parliament, composed of two Houses, was summoned, and the Commons were chosen once more by popular election. The two Houses met on April ;25>tJl.:,.,T)^y contained a strong Royafist triajohty ; for the arbitrary acts of Charles L had been obliterated from memory by the still more arbitrary conduct of the Long _,. P Parliament, the Protector, and
-. , .. the Majors-General. Within a Declaration , , -" ^ , ,. ,,
of B eda ^^ days of assemblmg, the new Parliament— called a conven- tion, because summoned without royal writs — had before it a manifesto from Charles IL, who was then living under the protection of the United Netherlands. This docu- ment, the famous Declaration of Breda, removed the last fears of those who had resisted the late king. It promised a free pardon to all persons who should not be expressly excepted from the amnesty by Parliament. It promised to tender con- sciences such liberty as should be con- sistent with the peace of the kingdom, and expressed the king's willingness to accept an Act of Toleration. It referred to Parliament all the disputes concerning the lands which had been confiscated in the late troubles. Without delay the two Houses voted unanimously for the restoration of the monarchy. In May, 1660, Charles II. returned to his own amid scenes of the wildest exultation.
The promises which he had made were indifferently fulfilled, for, as it turned out, no protection for Puritans or Common- wealth men was to be obtained from Parliament ; the promises which Charles had made of submitting to the arbitration of Lords and Commons left him free from all but moral and prudential restraints. The Convention Parliament, which con- tained many moderate men, was dissolved on the king's return, on the pretext that it was irregularly constituted, but in reality because it wished to protect the Presbyterian ministers who were in
4465
Charles II.
on
the Throne
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
possession of church benefices, and to make an equitable provision for the purchasers of lands which had been confiscated.
The Cavaher Parhament, which met immediately afterwards, was filled with hot-headed Cava- liers and Episcopalians. It allowed all Royalists who had been punished with confisca- tion to recover the whole of their estates by ordinary process at law. It declined to hear of any compromise in religious matters, and pro- ceeded to pass a number of disabling Acts which were
religion, disqualified for preferment all who had not received episcopal ordination, prohibited dissenting conventicles of every description, and forbade nonconforming ministers to come within five miles of a city or chartered borough. With cynical dis- regard for the expectations which the Declaration of Breda had excited, the king gave his assent to all these measures. His conduct was the more odious because he was himself out of sympathy with the victorious Anglicans. At heart a Catholic, he
levelled ''against the Puritan The son of the great Protector, he secretly intended to secure clergv and laity. This so- J^eeTn^el'ThSh hi fuctlded toleration for his co-religionists called Clarendon Code— which his father as Protector, he quietly at the first Opportunity. He took its name from the king's "^'»""^^^'' '" ''^ Restoration. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ p^ ^^ benefit chief adviser— excluded all Dissenters from them, and incidentally the Dissenters, by municipal office, imposed a more rigid issuing a declaration of indulgence to test of uniformity upon ministers of suspend the operation of the penal laws.
GENERAL MONK DECLARING FOR A FREE PARLIAMENT . ^u
This able soldier, realising the condition of anarchy into which the country was falling, proceeded *« London where the
Romp Parliament had resumed its sittings, and on February 16th. 1660, openly declared himself to ^em favour of a free
Parliament. The Long Parliament came to an end a month later, and the restoration of the monarchy soon foUowed.
From the painting by E. M. Ward, R. A., by permission Qf th? A'\ Vn'on Qf Uondon
4466
THE MONARCHY RESTORED: CHARLES II. RETURNING TO ENGLAND The son of the il^fated King Charles I., Charles II. was born at St. James's, London, in 1630. On Januarv 1st 16S1 he was crowned King of Scot and at Scone, and invaded England some months later at thel^^ad of i^arr^ of 10 00( men. Cromwell met and defeated him at Worcester, and after some adventures he escaped to FrancT Whenit was resolved to restore the monarchy, he was recalled to England and placed upon the throne of his father
From the painting by C. M. Padday, by permission of the Religious Tract Society
other prerogative courts. Parliament voted the king a hberal income, but for additional sup- plies he was entirely dependent on the Commons ; nor were they inchned to vote subsidies without demanding a strict account. The experi- ence of the Civil War made the name of a standing army odious, and it was with difficulty that Charles contrived to retain a few regiments of Monk's army. In the debates of both Houses the king's policy and his Mini- sters were sharply criticised. It is from this reign that we date the formation of
But when Parliament protested against this stretch of the preroga- tive, he at once with- drew the obnoxious manifesto. He feared, as he said, to be sent again upon his travels; the prospect of committing or conniving at injustice had no fears for him. Despite the exuber- ant loyalty of Parlia- ment, there were many respects in which the power of Charles II. was more limited than that of his father. The legis- lation of 1641 re- mained for the most part unrepealed. It was out of the question to think of reviving the Star Chamber and the
KING CHARLES He was dissolute and utterly untrustworthy, and while a Koinan Catholic m heart,he did his best to conceal from his subjects hjs adhesion to that faith. His reign was a failure.
4467
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
a parliamentary opposition well organised and skilfully led ; for the opposition in the Long Parliament had soon passed beyond the limits of party war and had become a revolutionary caucus. The king had therefore to walk warily.
The objects which he cherished — inde- pendence for himself, toleration for Roman Catholics — were repugnant to the majority in Parliament and the nation. He therefore looked abroad for help, and like Cromwell, but with very different motives, made a French alliance the pivot of his foreign policy.
England, as a part of Catharine's dower, Bombay and a firmer foothold in India — formed a new link with France, which had long affected to support the cause of Portuguese independence. Immediately afterwards the king sold Dunkirk to Louis for a round sum of money. The new understanding encouraged Charles to de- clare war against Holland in 1665, and English commercial jealousy was gratified at the same time that Louis received a proof of the value of an English alliance. Louis at first played a double game.
THE LANDING OF CHARLES IL AT DOVER ON MAY 26th, 1660
From the painting by E. M. Ward, R.A.
The old commercial feud between England and the Netherlands supplied him with a partial justification. The Navigation Act was renewed in 1660 with the express object of damaging Dutch trade. This facilitated friendly relations with Louis XIV., who had long cherished the idea of absorbing in his dominions the heretical and republican Dutch. In 1662 Charles married Catharine of Bra- ganza, a Portuguese princess. The mar- riage— otherwise notable, because it gave
4468
England stood in the way of his schemes for the extension of French trade and the establishment of French supremacy at sea. For a time he assisted Holland against England ; but in 1667 he was won over to a secret treaty with Charles, under which the latter agreed, in return for French neutrality, to further the designs of Louis upon the Spanish Netherlands. The Dutch war, in which the rival fleets had fought desperate battles with alter- nating fortunes, was then wound up. It
4469
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON IN THE YEAR 1666 Following: the Great Plag:ue in 1665, when 100,000 of the city's inhabitants died from the scourge, London, in 1666, was the scene of a terrible conflagration, which cleansed the city of the dregs of disease. The city was practically reduced to ruins, 13,200 houses being burned, and 200,000 people rendered homeless. The above view represents Ludgate, St. Paul's, and, in the extremity of the scene, the ancient and beautiful tower of St. Mary-le-Bow.
had served its purpose, and Charles made no attempt to revenge the disgrace which he experienced from a Dutch raid upon the shipping in the Thames and Medway. On the contrary, in 1668 he consented to the formation of a triple alliance with Sweden and Holland, by which he pledged himself to resist the French designs upon Tk S t ^^^ Spanish Netherlands. But
_, ,. , the secret obiect was still to Dealings of . , . 1 .,1 r
Ch 1 II ^^^s^ "^s value m the eyes 01 France, and an alliance with Louis was effected in 1670 by the secret Treaty of Dover. Louis, swallowing his resentment at the trick which had been played upon him, promised Charles a con- siderable pension on condition that he should have the help of English troops against the Netherlands. Charles undertook to avow himself a Cathohc at a convenient opportunity, and was promised in that case the support of a French army.
Only one or two of the king's most trusted advisers were admitted to a full knowledge of these provisions, and Charles never fulfined the undertaking to declare himself a Catholic. But for the remainder of his reign he was the pensionary of Louis, and in European politics England usually figured as the satellite of France. In 1672 the English navy supported a French
4470
invasion of the Netherlands, and in 1673 bore the brunt of a severe battle in the Texel. The land operations of Louis were foiled by the constancy of William of Orange . The French alliance was thoroughly unpopular, and Charles bowed to the wishes of his subjects so far as to conclude peace with Holland and to bestow on William the hand of his niece Mary of York in 1674. But the secret understanding with Louis remained unbroken. Three years later Charles refused to support the Dutch against a new French invasion ; and if at times he appeared to humour the popular desire for a war with France, his object, was merely to obtain more subsidies.
On the other hand, he refrained from entangling himself top deeply in the plans of Louis, and his main efforts were de- ^ voted to a conflict with the
rown an opposition, led by Shaftesbury. Commons ^i_^ , , , -^ ,1
• C tv t P^^rty manager had
been at first a Cavalier, then a supporter of Cromwell, then an ardent advocate of the Restoration and a member of the Cabal Ministry which was formed in 1668 after the fall of Clarendon. Sus- picion of Charles' designs and disappointed ambition soon drove Shaftesbury to resign his office. From 1673 to 1681 he led every attack of the Commons upon the Crown,
ENGLAND»S RESTORED MONARCHY
and spared no artifice to discredit the Ministries through which the king worked tortuously towards an absolutism. In 1678 the revelations of Titus Gates served Shaftesbury as a pretext to spread the alarm of an alleged Catholic plot formed to destroy Anglicanism by introducing French troops into England. It made little difference to the unscrupulous party leader that a number of innocent Roman Catholics were in consequence condemned to death. He followed up the attack upon the king's religion by impeaching Danby, the chief Minister, and Danby was saved only by the dissolution of Parliament.
In 1679 the opposition secured a more hono urable triumph in forcing upon the king the Habeas Corpus Act, by which the tradi- tional remedies against arbitrary arrest and deten- tion were made more effectual. Finally an Ex- clusion Bill was introduced to prevent the king's brother, James of York, from succeeding to the throne. James, unlike Charles, was a conscientious Catholic. There was a probability that he would do his utmost to procure not merely tolera- tion but ascend- ancy for the oppressed Catholics ; and the dangers of a Catholic reaction seemed grave enough to give Shaftesbury the support of many moderate politicians. But there can be little doubt that private aims determined his conduct. He knew that from James he had nothing to hope and
LONDON'S CITIZENS ESCAPING FROM THE GREAT FIRE
From the painting by Stanhone A- Forbes. A R.A., by permission of Messrs. Hildcsheim^r & Co.
much to fear. His complicity in the outcry against Catholicswould never be forgiven by the heir presumptive. On the other hand, there was every prospect that if Parliament should follow Shaftesbury's wishes and confer the succession upon Monmouth, an illegitimate but favourite son of the king, and the chief hope of the Anglican party, the Protestant demagogue might reason- ably aspire to the post of chief Minister.
The question of the succession was the all-absorbing topic in the next three Parliaments. Shaftesbury's influence procured innumerable signatures to petitions calling on the king to disinherit his brother ; and the Protestant faction were nicknamed "Petitioners," in contradistinc- tion to the "Abhorrers," who supported the king. But the king de- fended his brother's right with tenacity. The old instincts of loyalty re- asserted them- selves in the country, and after the abortive Parliament of Oxford in 1681 Shaftesbury fled into exile, a beaten man. He had laid the foundations of the great Whig party, but his rash precipita- tion discredited his followers ; in the last two years of the reign they were exposed, without popular disapproval, to a merciless perse- cution. London and other Whig cities were adjudged to lose their charters, and all municipal offices were filled with royal nominees. Russell and Sidney were executed on a charge of conspiracy in 1683.
4471
USS
4472
ENGLAND*S RESTORED MONARCHY
Never had the establishment of abso- The growth of scientific interests, lutism seemed more probable than in the attested by the foundation of the Royal latter years of Charles. Reaction is the Society in 1660, was in part a continuation dominant note in the domestic history of . of the native movement which Bacon had England between 1660 and 1684, and initiated, and was largely due to the Parliament in its own way was not less interest excited by his writings. But the reactionary than the Crown. work of Isaac Newton (1643-1727) is
In more than one sense, however, the closely related to the mathematical re- Restoration marks the beginning of searches of Descartes and Pascal on the one modern England. The intellectual atti- hand, and to the astronomical discoveries
of Galileo on the
tude of the nation was alter- ing. Some great Puritans lived and wrote under the last two Stuart kings ; but Milton and Bunyan, Penn and Baxter, are the glorious sur- vivors of a van- quished cause. The satirist and the comedian the
are now
EARL OF SHAFTESBURY AND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM A Royalist colonel, who afterwards went over to the Parliament, the
other. Newton and his contem- porary Robert Boyle, the father of English chemistry, were in the highest degree original ; but their en- thusiasm for natural science and their concep- tion of method were affected by the example of
^V.o^^^^-or,'c. + ;^ Earl of Shaftesbury was one of the commissioners sent to Breda to ff^roicrn <:m)n'nt<i
characteristic invite Charles 11. back to England; he died in I683. The Duke of lOrClgn SUVaniS
fiefUreS of the Buckingham had the repu:ation of bein^ the most wicked man at Meanwhile, the
v? the court of Charles II. His sad end is pictured on page 4477. ^„^^^„+;i-
literary move- mercantile
ment. Dryden and the dramatists of the Restoration bear witness to the triumph of French influence over older modes of thought and style. Their work was more than the mere effect of reaction — it was inspired by the ambition to recover touch with the artistic and intellectual society of the Continent, from which England had been entirely estranged by twenty years of fanaticism and warfare.
classes were developing new fields of enterprise and laying the foundations of a great commercial supremacy.
The one title of Charles II. to the reputation of a national statesman is to be found in his care for trade, and for the colonies, upon which the hopes of trade depended. He gave up Nova Scotia to the French colony of Canada in 1668, and suffered the island of St. Kitts to
Arlington THE NOTORIOUS
CABAL
Clififord MINISTRY
Lauderdale
THREE MEMBERS OF
John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, taken prisoner at Worcester in 1651, lay a prisoner for nine years in the Tow;er, at Windsor, and at Portland; at the Restoration he became Scottish Secretary of State; he died in 1682. Like Lauderdale, the Earl of Arlington was a member of the Cabal Ministry, and earned for himself an evil reputation as a betrayer of trust. The scar on his nose, seen in the portrait, was received at Andover during the Civil War. A Catholic member of the Cabal, Thomas Clififord was, in 1672, created Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. He died m 1673.
4473
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
be conquered by the navy of Louis XIV. in 1666. But England gained a pre- dominant position in the West Indies ; the American colonies of the Dutch were annexed and retained at the conclusion of the Peace of Breda in 1667. Charters were granted to a private com- pany for the exploitation of Hudson's Bay, and to Penn, the Quaker, for the settlement of Pennsylvania in 1680, while the name of the Carolinas records the fact that they were first colonised in this reign. From the Bay of Fundy t( Charlestown, the whok east coast of North America was now in English hands. At the same time the decline of the Dutch mari- time power, shattered by
Commons showed an unexpected degree of loyalty. Fear of civil war had brought all moderate men into the Tory party ; the king's demands were satisfied without murmuring or hesitation. This success was immediately followed by others of a less peaceful kind. The rising of Argyle in Scot- land and that of Monmouth in the South of England were both crushed with ease, and James beheved that the Protestant party, in whose interests these rebellions had been raised, was now at his mercy. Not content with a savage persecution of Monmouth's partisans, who were con- demned and executed by scores in the course of Judge Jeffreys' Bloody
LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL
continual wars and unde/- 7^'^Av°n-°^ *p^ ^^^u ^^'' ''^^ b^'^.''"'-'!' Assize, the king took steps
, , - T.T • Lord William Russell was a prominent ', /--.Vt i i
mmed by the Navigation politician in the reign of Charles 11.; his to give the Catholics a legal
Acts, prepared for the fate is depicted on the following page, equality with Protestants,
growth of an English empire in India, which had hitherto been the battle- ground of Dutch, French and Portu- guese. The East India Company profited by the exhaustion of competitors and threw out new tentacles. As early as 1639 it had acquired Fort St. George (Madras) ; and in 1668 it took over from the king the equally important station of Bombay. In 1686, shortly after the death of Charles, Calcutta in the Ganges delta was acquired by a treaty with the Great Mogul. Sensualist and dilet- tante though he was, Charles watched the growth of trade and colonies with an enlight- ened interest ; he formed within the Privy Council a special committee to handle all questions connected with these interests.
The death of Charles II., in 1685, was followed by the peaceful accession of his
in the expectation that it would then be possible to place the administration entirely in the hands of his co-religionists. The Test Act of the last reign had provided that every public servant should make a declaration against transubstantiation, and receive the Sacrament according to the Anglican rite. In defiance of the Act, James gave military commissions to Catholics, and met the re- monstrances of Parliament by a prorogation. The judges decided a test case in favour of the king's power to dispense from the opera- tion of the penal laws; whereupon James issued a declaration of indulgence in favour of both Catholics and Protestant dissenters.
This arbitrarj' suspension of the laws provoked a storm of indignation. Even the Dissenters sided with the
ALGERNON SIDNEY The second son of the second . . ^ _ . _^_ ^
Earl of Leicester, he was charged Opposition, lor LOUIS XiV.,
brother, James of York. The with complicity in the Rye House by his recent Revocation of new king had every intention f •?*' /"^ ^^^ condemned, and ^j^g Edict of Nantes, had
t J.- • 1 • r .1 . beheaded on December 7th, 1683. , . . t
of continuing his brother s aroused suspicions of a
autocratic system. But the revenue general Catholic conspiracy against Pro- which Parliament had granted to Charles testants. Petitions against the declaration
was not, for the most part, hereditary, and it was therefore essential that the new king should meet Parliament at the first opportunity. The new House of
4474
poured in upon the king. He endeavoured to repress the agitation by means of the law courts. The Archbishop Sancroft and six of his suffragans, who had joined
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4475
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
with him in signing such a petition, were put on their trial for seditious hbel. But they were acquitted by the jury, and received a popular ovation when they left the court. There were fears that James would now resort to force, for he had taken over Catholic troops from Ireland, and had quartered them at Hounslow in the neighbour- hood of London. But the majority were prepared to wait in patience for the accession of Mary of Orange, a Protestant princess and the wife of the man who had so successfully upheld the cause of the Dutch Pro- testants against Louis XIV. These hopes received a rude shock when it was announced that the queen, Mary of Modena, had given birth to a son. The Princess of Orange and her husband professed to regard the child as supposititious, a belief for which no plausible foundation could be discovered. But admitting his legitimacy, it was still certain that he would be
educated as a Catholic, and the nation was thus confronted with the prospect of a dynasty hostile to the Anglican Church. The Church had restored Charles IL ; it now expelled his brother. The survivors of the Whig party found themselves at the head of so numerous a following that they had no hesitation in summoning William of Orange to come and seize the throne by force. The stadtholder was willing enough to seize the opportunity of bringing England into the European league which he had built up against the aggressive designs of France. But Holland was already at war with France, and it was difficult to leave the theatre
SIR ISAAC NEWTON This great natural philosopher did much to widen the bounds of knowledge. The fall of an apple in his garden in 1665 r -tj x- r\ i
started the train of thought that led to of military Operations. Only
the discovery of universal gravitation, ^j^g mistakes of JameS and
Louis made it possible for the prince to cross the Channel. James in his blind infatuation refused the troops which were offered by his ally; Louis, instead of direct- ing his march against the Netherlands.
THE TRIAL OF ALGERNON SIDNEY ON A CHARGE OF HIGH TREASON IN 1683 Algernon Sidney was brought to trial at the King's Bench Bar, four months after the execution of Lord William Russell, for a treasonable libel wherein he asserted the power to be originally in the people and delegated by them to the Parliament, to whom the king was subject, and might be called to accoiint. Though he had not printed, published or circulated his writing, he was condemned to death, and executed on Tower Hill on December 7th, 1683.
From the picture by F. Stcphanolf
447b
THE MISERABLE END OF THE GAY DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM Foremost among- the courtiers who surrounded Charles II. and participated in his vices was George Villiers, Dnke of Buckingham, whose gay life came to an unlooked-for end. Broken in health and in fortune by his career of extravaganc ; and dissipation, the reckless nobleman retired to a country mansion at Helmsley, in Yorksnire, and in that neighbour- hood, in the house of a tenant, he died in 1684. Fever was brought on as a result of sitting on damp ground after a long run with the bounds, and Buckingham seems to have died comfortless and unattended, without a friend neau: him.
From the picture by A. L. Egg, R.A.
allowed his attention to be diverted to the Rhine. The Prince of Orange was therefore able to leave Holland unpro- tected ; he landed at Torbay without molestation, and began his march on London. Ever5rwhere he was greeted with enthusiasm. James was deserted by soldiers, officers. Ministers, and private friends. He attempted to leave the kingdom by stealth, but was apprehended by a mob of hostile Kentishmen and brought back a prisoner to London. It was only with the connivance and at the sugges- tion of William, to whom
succession
supporters. Both Houses resolved that the throne was vacant and that a Catholic was incompatible with the national safety. There were some who wished to restore James on conditions ; and others who would have pre- ferred to leave him the kingly title, appointing Wilham of Orange as regent with the full powers of a king. But these proposals, the work of Tories, were speedily dismissed. The Whigs desired to name Mary as queen and leave her husband in the position of a prince consort, but the objections of William proved an obstacle. The final
such a captive would have the poet dryden
been a source of great embar- John Dryden, bom in i63i, wrot- decision was to recognise the rassment, that the king ulti- fh°l?o^on\t^'on of'SkT i1",\nd prince and princess as joint mately made good his escape, was the author of many satires sovereigns. But they were A convention parliament °" ' * p" '*= ™^" ° * ® "°^- elected only on condition that assembled after the flight of James to they accepted the Declaration of Right in discuss the future settlement. For the which the principal abuses of the preroga- moment the Stuart cause had few tive for which the last two Stuarts had
4477
■4478
ENGLAND'S RESTORED MONARCHY
been responsible were enumerated and
condemned. The Declaration— afterwards
confirmed, with modifications, as the Bill
of Rights — settled the crown on William
and Mary, with remainder to
the survivor; then on the
heirs of Mary, then on Mary's
sister Anne and her heirs,
and in the last resort upon
the heirs of William. These
arrangements emphasised the
elective character of the royal
dignity and the supremacy of
Parliament. It is, however,
remarkable that no steps were
taken to provide new means
of asserting parliamentary
control. The Revolution was
but the first step in the rqbert boyle
process of constitutional re- The father of English chemistry,
William III. in 1702 the strife between the king and Parliament was bitter and almost continuous. The Dutch prince was, in his own fashion, not less arbitrary than the Stuarts, and his preten- sions might have produced his expulsion if England could have spared him ; for even the Whigs, to whom he owed the throne, complained that he would not be entirely guided by their advice. He was deter- rnined to be the slave of no one party in the state, and in foreign policy to act as his own jNIinister. Whatever the motives of this independence, the results were good. He saved the Tory party from proscription ; he would not the Dissenters to be
form, which continues for more Robert Boyle distinguished himself allow
than a century after 1688 '^X:::^,^^:^^ cheated of the toleration
From l689Untll the death of pump. Bom in 1 627, he died in 1691.
which they had loyally refused
THE NOBLE REBEL: THE LAST HOURS OF ARGYLE BEFORE Hib EXECUTION The Earl of Argyle, associating himself with the Monmouth rebellion, put himself at the head of a Scottish rising, but bis followers, dismayed at the increasing force of the enemy, gradually fell away from him. Falling into the hands of his enemies, the brave nobleman was convicted of high treason and beheaded at Edinburgh on June 30tb, 168&
From the fresco by £, M. Ward, R.A., in the Houses of Parliament
447Q
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
recair.
to accept from James II. ; and although his persistent hostiUty to France was censured, the event proved that he had gauged the ambitions of Louis XIV. more correctly than Enghsh politicians.
His path, however, was smoothed by the existence of perils which he alone could face. There was a rebellion in Scotland which promised, but for the death of the leader Dundee, to spread through all the Highlands. Dundee fell in the hour of victory at Killiecrankie in 1689, but the High- lands were not pacified for another two years. The resentment caused
by the massacre of king tames ii
Glencoe in 1692, and by He was the second son of Charies I., and o^ the succession, the commercial jealousy succeeded his brother, Charles II., in 1685- Meanwhile the position of England towards the <?"•*« alienating himself from his people, and of William in England
• • ° -u i 1 t losing his throne, he ultimately fled to France- „ „ •
rising merchant class of ' grew more precarious.
Scotland, made the northern kingdom a A number of the prominent Whig lords had
source of constant anxiety. In Ireland long corresponded with the exiled king in
there was a more prolonged war. The his refuge at St. Germains. Parliament
Catholics rallied to James II. ; London- persistently opposed the maintenance of a
m 1691 not only averted invasion — it inflicted a blow on the French fleet which Louis could not or would not afford to Henceforth the ambitions of the Grand Monarque were concentrated upon the land war. In this, too, England's interests were nearly concerned, since the dynastic revolution had linked her fortunes with those of the Low Countries, and she was now a party to the League of Augsburg. This danger lasted longer than the rest. The final settle- ment was delayed till 1697. But in that year, by the Treaty of Ryswick, France recognised the Revolution settlement
derry, the chief strong- hold of the Ulster Pro- testants, had to endure a three months' siege; the signal victory which William achieved over French and Irish forces at the Boyne in 1690 drove James II. from the island, but left his sup- porters in the field. It was only late in 1691 that the Irish Catholics laid down their arms and the French auxili- aries of Sarsfield de- parted, under the Treaty of Limerick
At sea, the French fleet 'which Colbert's genius had produced
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH Said to be the illegitimate son of Charles II
challenged the English ^e was created Duke of Monmouth in 1663.
naval supremacy, when King James II. came to the throne. Admiral Torrington was Monmouth asserted his own right to disgracefully beaten off *•»* "°''"' ''"* ^^^ defeated and beheaded
Beachy Head in 1690, and the south coast experienced a foretaste of the terrors of invasion. But this danger, too, was met. The great victory of Russell at La Hogue
4480
standing army, and would pass only an annual Mutiny Bill, voting the necessary supplies from year to year. In spite of the financial reforms of Godolphin and Montague, the credit of the government was bad. The foundation of the Bank of England in 1694, one of the most notable measures of the reign, was a device of Montague for raising a loan which otherwise could have been obtained only with difficulty ; and the growth of the national debt, though an inevitable consequence of the French war, provided the oppo- nents of the new regime with an effective argu- ment. The Toleration Act in 1689 was but a mutilated measure ; William was foiled by the Houses in his scheme for abolishing the tests, so far as they affected Protestants. The Triennial
ENGLAND'S RESTORED MONARCHY
Act of 1694, providing that a new- Parliament should be summoned at least every three years, was a limitation of the prerogative which the king accepted with great reluctance. After the death, in 1694, of his wife, whose per- sonal popularity had stood him in good stead, William was compelled to put himself in the hands of the Whigs. More than once he was driven in these years to protect him- self by the use of the veto, and by threatening that he would retire to Holland if further pressed. After the Treaty of Ryswick he re- luctantly acquiesced in a considerable reduction of the
army and dismissed his "^"^ infamous Jeffreys favourite Dutch Guards; but, tereTe^;Jr.^^ei:^'.^Jn^^^^^^
m spite of these concessions, F'^'J^^y which can find no garallel
the opposition insulted him
by examining and partially cancelling the grants of confiscated lands which he had bestowed upon his partisans in England and Ireland. His cold manner, his foreign extraction, his preference for Dutch friends, and his indifference to English party questions, were con- tributory causes to his unpopularity. But with the Tories the chief motive of attack was their repentance for the desertion of James, while the Whigs felt that Parliament had not attained that paramount position to which it was rightfully en- titled. The Act of Settlement in 1 70 1, which was primarily intended to bring the Hano- verians into the succession after Anne and her heirs, expressed in a series of new
in history. He died in the'Toveri , . • .
where he lay a prisoner, in 1689. limitations the mistrUSt which
RICHARD BAXTER BEFORE THE DREAD JUDGE JEFFREYS Lord Chief Justice in the reign of James II., Judge Jeffreys delighted in cruelty, and so inhuman was his treatment of the unhappy people dragged before him that his name became a byword throughout the land. He sent hundreds to death in connection with the Monmouth rebellion in the West of England. This picture represents the learned Dissenter, Richard Baxter, before the bar of the dreaded judge, who, with the view of gaining favour with the newlv- ascended monarch, James II., is heaping insults upon the head of the preacher, whom he afterwards committed to prison.
28^
4481
4482
»i.2J.t{
2 £003 5"g.s 2
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"? 2Z_
KING WILLIAM III. AND QUEEN MARY When the nation became weary of t.ie tyranny of Kinj James II.. an invitation to j;o to England and redress their grievances was extended to William III. of Orange, Stadtholder of the United Provinces, whose wife was the daughter of the English king He landed at Torbay on November 5th, 1688, with an Knglish and Dutch armv of 15,000 men ; sJl parties quickly flocked to his standard, and the throne, which aftT the overthrow and flight of James was declaxed vacant by the Convention Parliament, was offered to William and Mary.
From the portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
the Whigs felt for the prerogative. These precautionary measures were somewhat modified in the next reign, 1706, but the Act in its final shape demanded that the sovereign should adhere to the Church of England ; that no war should be opened for the defence of foreign territory with- out the consent of Parliament ; that no alien should sit in Parliament or the Privy Council ; that the judges should hold office during good behaviour.
In the last months of William's life a closer union between himself and his subjects was created by the opening of a new French war. It was ostensibly undertaken to prevent the European balance from being over^ thrown by the union of the French and Spanish Crowns in the Bourbon family. This was a danger which William had long foreseen and feared. The schemes of partition by which he had attempted to avert it have been elsewhere described. The smaller powers of the Continent concurred from the first in the general principle that the balance of power should be maintained bv a division of
VISCOUNT DUNDEE
the Spanish heritage. English politicians were not agreed as to the necessity ^oP enforcing such an arrangement by an armed demonstration ; Somers and Montague, the chief of the king's advisers, narrowly escaped an impeachment for their share in the treaties of partition. But the merchants were clearer-sighted than the politicians. It was soon per- ceived that a Bourbon dynasty in Spain would strain every nerve to exclude English trade from the Spanish ports in the New World.
There was considerable ex- citement when Louis accepted the Spanish inheritance for Phihp of Anjou in November, 1700. But it was an accident that induced the whole nation to take up the quarrel of the mercantile interest. James II. died in September, 1701. On
He relentlessly carried out the his death-bed he received a
sio^n'oi^fhT crentVe'l fn'Ico?: visit from the King of France, land, and was fatally wounded at and the latter, in a moment
the battle of Killiecrankie in 1689. ^^ chivakoUS impulsC, an-
nounced his intention of recognising the exile's son as the lawful King of England. This was an open insult to England and a violation of the Peace of Ryswick. In Parhament and in the nation it produced
MONMOUTH'S BID FOR THE THRONE: THE REBEL BEFORE THE KING After the death of Charles II., in whose reign he had been exiled, the Duke of Monmouth, natural nephew of King: James II., returned to England, and placing himself at the head of a rebellion against the reigning sovereign, soon had a following of 6,000 men. Meeting the king's forces at Sedgemoor, in Somersetshire, he was defeated after a desperate struggle and took refuge in flight. Discovered later on disguised as a peasant, Monmouth, with his arms bound behind him, was brought before James and threw himself at the king's feet. He ended his life on the scafFold.
Irrrni the paintiniE by John Pettie, R.A.
THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE, THAT SEALED THE FATE OF JAMES II. Forsaken by his people, who turned with enthusiasm to welcome William of Orange, James II. fled to Ireland, where he could still count upon the support of the Roman Catholics. On July 1st, 1690, was fought the famous battle of the Boyne between the armies of King William III. and the ex-King James, his father-in-law. The troops of the latter gave way before the powerful onslaught of the new king's forces, and when James, viewing the battle from a neighbouring hill, witnessed the defeat of his cause, he rode towards Dublin. A few days later he escaped to France. From the painting by Benjamin West, R. A-. by perwissigo of Messrs. Henry Crav^ & Cg.
4487
A LOST CAUSE: THE FLIGHT OF JAMES H. AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE, IN 1690
From the painting by Andrew C Gow, R.A., in the Tate Gallery
an outburst of passionate indignation which the excuses offered, upon maturer dehberation, by the King of France were powerless to calm. William at once proceeded to utilise the favourable opportunity. His life was cut short by a fall from his horse in the spring of 1702 ; but the Grand Alliance was already formed, and his position as the general of the allies devolved upon a successor who was tho- roughly fitted to continue his work both in diplomacy and on the field of battle. It may even be questioned whether William could have
of Anne. The husband and wife had sacri- ficed all other considerations to identify themselves with the fortunes of the future queen, and they now reaped their reward. Marlborough became cap- tain-general of the military forces ; his friend Godolphin received the white staff of the treasurer and the supreme control of home affairs. Tories by conviction, they sacrificed their party feeling to the exigencies of the war. Their Ministry contained from the first a number of the Whigs, with whom the war was especially popular because declared by Wil-
EARL OF GODOLPHIN liam ; and after 1708 the
achieved the great success Though this nobleman stood by James two chicf Ministers decided
which fell to the lot of when the Prince ofOrange landed in Eng- ^^ j.g| altogether OU that
., T-v 1 r ■««• 11 -1 land, the new king reinstated him as First •' ,^, '-'.,.
the Duke of Marlborough. Commissioner of the Treasury; he also party. The military cveuts
The new queen had been held office under Anne. He died in 1712. of the struggle with France
a cipher at the courts of her father, her are related elsewhere. It lasted with
sister, and her brother-in-law, and a cipher she remained, except for the fact that upon her favour the ascendancy of Marlborough depended. Marlborough's wife was for many years the chief confidant
4488
little interruption until 1711. The Low Countries, the valley of the Danube, the Spanish peninsula, and the Lombard plain were the chief theatres of the war ; but the dt^cisive operations were confined to
ENGLAND'S RESTORED MONARCHY
the first two of these, and are closely associated with the name of Marlborough. The balance of power, which meant little to England, gave Marlborough more con- cern than her commercial interests, which meant much. He showed a greater anxiety to damage the French than to benefit his own country- men, and he continued the war long after Louis had signified his willingness to concede everything that England had a right to expect. That Marlborough made war in order to make money was a vulgar slander. The sums which he received from contractors and foreign powers were perquisites of a kind which all generals of the age felt themselves at liberty to take. But the duke undoubtedly reflected that his position would be precarious when peace was once concluded, and^ it is probable that he would have been more pacific if his doubts on this head could have been satisfactorily set at rest.
It was a court revolution which led at length to England's withdrawal from the war. When the Tories had parted com- pany with Marlborough they gradually coalesced to form a compact opposition, of which Harley was the manager and Henry St. John the controlling mind. Both had been members of the Marlborough and Godol- phin Ministry ; both were evicted in 1708 to make room for Whigs. Thirsting for vengeance, they turned to Anne, in whom they saw the key of the situation. An ardent Anglican, the queen had quarrelled with the Whigs because they offered opposition to the Occa-
CHARLES MONTAGUE A Chancellor of the Exchequer and a great financier, be instituted the Bank of England ; he later became Earl of Halifax, and died in 1715.
of the war party, which was, in the mean time, discredited with the electorate by the furious attacks of Swift and other Tory pamphleteers. The Whigs, to crown all, made the mistake of prosecuting a popular Tory preacher, one Dr. Sache- verell, who had used his sermons as a vehicle for criticisms of the Revolution and the defence of the doctrine of Non- resistance. The majority of the electorate were High Churchmen, and in theory devoted to the principles of the divine right of kings. The Triennial Act made it impossible to pre- vent Parliament from changing in composition with all the changes of popular opinion. The elections of 17 10 produced a Tory House of Commons; and although, in the undeveloped state of political theory, the queen would have been justified in standing by Marlborough and the Whigs, the elections gave her the opportunity of asserting her personal and religious prejudices. Harley, now Earl of Oxford, and St. John, now Viscount Bolingbroke, came into office. Marlborough was recalled in 171 1, de- prived of all his offices, and threatened with charges of embezzlement.
The change of govern- ment entailed a change of foreign policy. The Tories had for some time past denounced the war as needless, unwarrantable, and ruinously expensive. They could not continue it without employing Marl- borough, and they were eager to appropriate the fruits of his victories. Accordingly they opened behind
LORD CHANCELLOR soMERS negotiations behind the
sional Conformity Bill ««d"con"stitu^°IS'i''ia"rMn*^692"he backs of the other parties
(1702-1706), a measure de- became Attorney -General, and was to the Grand Alliance. In
signed to prevent Dissenters ^""^ ChanceUor from 1697 till 1700. ^^^^^ eagerness for a settle-
from evading the sacramental tests. Repeated quarrels with the Duchess of Marlborough had strained the queen's friendship to breaking point. A new favourite and kinswoman of Harley was therefore able to undermine the position
ment they overreached themselves. The King of France took advantage of their haste to demand terms more favourable than those which he had offered two years previously, and the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 conceded nearly all that
4489
HISTORY OF THE WORLO
complete the execution of his designs.
Up to the last he had been hampered by
the vacillation of Oxford, who would
have preferred to make terms with the
Whigs. Oxford was at length dismissed,
but only a few days before the queen's
death. The accession of George I. was
accordingly followed by a proscription
of the Tory party. They were accused
of corresponding with the Pretender.
Bolingbroke fled the country, Oxford
was impeached and imprisoned. All offices
were put into
the hands of the
Whigs, and the
monopoly thus
acquired by one
party in the
state was retained
until 1761.
The union with Scotland, though an episode but s lightly con- nected with the general course of events, is, from our modern point of view, the most momentous re- sult of Queen Anne's reign. The union of the Parliaments had been projected by James L, and, for a moment, realised by Crom- well. Cromwell's experiment had
QUEEN ANNE, LAST OF THE STUART SOVEREIGNS been aCCOm-
OVer who would Thedaughterof James 11., she was the last of the Stuart sovereigns, -panied bv the
c;nrrpprl Annp succeeding: to the throne in 1702, on the death of William III., who pc+pKli^bTnpnf of
bUCCeeu /\mie died without issue. Her husband, to whom she was married in 1683, ebldUnblimtJlU Ui
under the Act of was Prince George of Denmark. The political troubles of the free trade
he demanded. The territories ceded to England were inconsiderable, and the trade privileges — the Asiento Contract for the monopoly of supplying the Spanish colonies with slaves, and the right of sending one merchant ship a year to Portobello— were equally insignificant. It was natural that such terms should pro- duce intense dissatisfaction with the government which accepted them. Boling- broke hoped to appease the mercantile classes by arranging a supplementary treaty of com- merce with France; he actually obtained the assent of Louis to a recip- rocal reduction of tariffs. But the interests threatened made their protests heard in Parlia- m e n t , and the commercial treaty was re- jected. It was suspected that the Ministers forced on the peace negotiations in order- to leave their hands free for Jacobite intrigues. This was not alto- gether true. The Tories knew, in- deed, that the Elector of Han-
Parliament,
time gave the queen little rest, and she died on August 1st, 1714.
garded them with implacable suspicion. But it would have been madness to think of forcing the Pretender upon the country. His religion alone put him out of the question as a possible successor. Boling- broke accepted the Hanoverians as an unpalatable necessity; he used the time of grace to strengthen the Tory hold upon central and local administration. He hoped, by a skilful use of patronage, to fortify his position so strongly that the elector would be forced to accept a Tory Ministry. The death of the queen oc- curred before Bolingbroke had time to
4490
be- tween the two countries, a measure which went far towards making the Scots content with the loss of national autonomy. But Cromwell's policy was reversed at the Restoration. Tauderdale and the other members of the clique which managed Scotland for the last two Stuarts were opposed to any measure of union, because it Would diminish their power and emolu- ments; nor was it difficult to create a prejudice against union in the mind of the Scottish Parliament. But the com- mercial classes suffered by their exclusion from English and colonial trade ; the
ENGLAND'S RESTORED MONARCHY
of securing union by the grant of free trade. The great difficuhy that lay in the way was to induce the Scottish Parlia- ment to vote for its own annihilation. Fortunately there had been no general
failure of the Darien scheme in 1695, a project for establishing a Scottish colony on the isthmus of Panama, proved that the Scots could not hope to obtain a share in the trade of the New World except under the shelter of the English flag. Many causes combined to pre- vent them from accepting the. union as a commercial necessity. The Glencoe mas- sacre in 1693, a romantic loyalty to the house of Stuart, resentment against the jealous spirit which England had shown in all commercial dealings, the fear of increased taxation, the certainty of dimini- shed national dignity, were obstacles which it took years to overcome. In 1703 the English Act of Succes- ^^^ ear^ of oxford and viscount bolingbroke
Sion, which disposed of the skUled in parliamentary law, Robert Harley was appointed Speaker in 1701 ;
crown of Scotland without in 1710 he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was created Earl of
reference to the wishes of Oxford. On a charge of high treason in connection with the Treaty of Utrecht
fVif. C^rntticVi DPnnlp nrn he was committed to the Tower, but was released in 1717. Henry St. John,
tne OCUlllbll pcupic, pi^" ^as created Viscount BoUngbroke in 1712. He held office in various ministries.
voked a storm. Scotland
retaliated by an Act of Security in 1704, election since the Revolution ; the Anglo- which provided that on the death of phile element was larger in the legislature Anne the Scottish succession should be than in the nation. A judicious use of settled bv the national legislature, and si:ch inducements as peerages strength- ened the party of the union. The fears of Presbyterians were removed by emphatic assurances that their Church should under no circum- stances be disestablished. The Highland chiefs were pacified by the guarantee of their hereditary jurisdic- tions. In the matter of taxation Scotland was liber- ally treated, knd she received a sum of S2,ooo,ooo with which to pay off her debt and to compensate the sufferers of the Darien scheme. Last, and most im- THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH AND SARAH JENNINGS portaut, equality in trade
The military exploits of the Duke of Marlborough have been descrihed in the ^ j noTrJcrafirin \\ra<i crrctntf^A preceding chapter. His wife, Sarah Jennings, fc ad almost boundless influence ^UQ navigdllOll Wdb gidiiLcu
over Queen Anne, which she employed to procure the professional advance- tO Scotland. Un tiiese terms
ment of her husband. Her power came to an end in 1711, when she was 1\iq Act of UnioU WaS paSScd
superseded in the queen's favour by her own cousin, Mrs. Masham. j^ 1707 It provided for the
that the successor to the English crown representation of Scotland in the united
should be ineligible unless Scotland were in the meantime admitted to full rights of trade and navigation. The English Parliament was thus taught the necessity
Parliament by forty-five commoners and sixteen elected peers, for the fusion of the executives, for the lasting union of the H. W. C. Davis
crowns.
4491
WESTERN
EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE
AGE OF
LOUIS XIV,
VIII
DENMARK'S DESPOTIC MONARCHY
THE NATION'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN GREATNESS
\T the close of the Swedish war in 1660, **■ Denmark was in a sad plight. She had lost some of her most valuable pro- vinces ; her finances were in complete chaos ; the whole country had been pil- laged and laid waste ; poverty and distress reigned everywhere. As a first step towards remedial measures a diet was summoned to Copenhagen in 1660, where representatives of the nobility, the clergy, and the burgess class met together. The burgesses and the clergy had for some time _ , been growing more and more
cnmar s gj^]^)j^^gj-g(j against the nobles.
N^bT?" '* '^^^y w^re indignant at their ^ selfishness and despised them for the poor role they had played during the war, while the burgesses, and especially those of Copenhagen, were proud of their vaUant defence of the capital. At first all efforts to improve the condition of the country' were frustrated by the opposition of the nobles, who were unwilliag to surrender any privilege or to pay any tax. Then the burgesses and the clergy, who had capable leaders in the persons of the burgomaster Nansen and Bishop Svane, joined forces.
Seeing that the privileges of the nobility would have to be abolished before any pro- gress could be made, Nansen and Svane, in collusion with the king — who was apparently neutral, though both he and the queen in reality kept secretly in touch with the non-privileged classes — brought forward, in October 1660, the proposal to consti- tute Denmark a hereditary monarchy. The burgesses and clergy immediately accepted the proposal ; and though the Rigsraad opposed, it was forced to give way, whereupon the ceremony of taking the oath
the throne were now annulled, and the next step was to work out a new constitution. The diet was, however, unable to come to an agreement, and Svane therefore pro- posed that the king should be empowered to draw up the constitution. Owing to the king's great popularity, which he had gained during the siege of Copen- hagen by his courage and self-sacrifice, the proposal was readily accepted.
Soon afterwards the diet was dissolved, and the king issued a document in which he claimed absolute power for himself. This document was circulated for signature by the representatives, and a despotic monarchy was thus approved by the nation. By the " Kongelov," or King's Law, of Novem- ber 14th, 1665, which was to be looked on as an unalterable and fundamental law _. „. for bothof Frederic's kingdoms,
Ah* "** ^^^ ^^^S was placed above „ , human laws and given the
Human Laws ,t rr ■ r
supreme power m all anairs of
both Church and State. The only con- ditions imposed upon him were that he must be a member of the Lutheran Church, and that he might neither divide his possessions nor alter the constitution.
The new constitution resulted in a change of administration. The Rigsraad was dissolved and the management of affairs transferred to six government boards, whose presidents formed the king's council of state. Feudal tenure was abolished, and the country was divided into districts managed by paid officials, the " Amtmoend." The parishes were deprived of their rights of patronage, and the town councils and burgomasters were appointed by the Crown. By reason of these changes the nobles lost not only their
KING CHRISTIAN V
of allegiance to the hereditary The first king of the oidenburg political power, but, owing to
sovereign was celebrated with Dynasty, christian v. succeeded the confiscation of their fiefs,
great splendour. ^ The con- Z^^^ll^^^^^^^ their most important sources
ditions of Fredenc s election to success. He died in the year 1699. of levenuc, and were no longer 4492
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
entirely exempted from taxation. Finding themselves unable to accommodate them- selves to the new order of things, they gradually withdrew from the court and the state service.
The old nobility had played its part and made way for a new court nobility, consisting for the most part of Germans. To this new nobility, whose function it was to lend splen- dour to the throne and support to the king, were accorded even greater privileges than to the old. On his estates the nobleman was almost a king ; he administered justice, had the rights of ecclesiastical
period deserve great credit for their legis- lation— the Danish and Norwegian Laws of 1683 and 1687 enacted by Christian V. — and their administration ol justice. They also supported the University, encouraged popular education, and worked for the improvement of economic conditions, especi- ally in the spheres of com- merce and manufacture. But their legislation was not always a success ; they fre- quently lacked the necessary insight. Moreover, they were biassed by the prejudices of AnMiDAi Micro TTTCT their time. Unable to refrain
ADMIRAL NIELS JUEL r ■ ^ e ■ n t
He^ commanded the naval forces ^^Om inter fcrHlg in all dirCC-
, " 1 • J J 1 "^ commanaea tne naval forces -•■^•■•^^ x»»..v^i »v,i«ij5 ixx cixi vj.ii.>^vy
patronage, levied taxes, and ofDenmarkinthe"ScanianWar," tions and making rules and raised troops. The Danish r„"''st/S"Ue?e^Te'"anl"h1^ laws for all cirLmstances. despotism was, on the whole, a ™^° '^^'^^ welcomed as liberators, they prevented a free and benevolent one, for the king looked upon natural development, and the effect of this himself as the father of his people, and was especially marked in the case of manu- was always anxious for their welfare. factures, which they endeavoured, in a Among other things the kings of this strictly protectionist spirit, to assist by
THE FALL OF THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR : GRIFFENFELD ON HIS WAY TO PRISON Count Griffenfeld, whose real name was Peder Schumacher, was Minister of Foreign Affairs under Christian V., and nsmg rapidly from one dignity to another he eventuaUy became Lord High Chancellor. He opposed the war with ^Z u^ 'k ^Pu? r n • ^^^L^'^^K *"® king was in favour of it, and soon after the outbreak of hostilities his enemies Drought about his fall in 1676. Accused of high treason, he was condemned to death, but on the scaffold this sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. After twenty-two years in prison he was set free, but died shortly afterwards.
From the painting by F. C. Lund
4493
DENMARK'S DESPOTIC MONARCHY
high tariffs and all kinds of prohibitions with regard to imports. It was only towards the end of the eighteenth cen- tury that this policy was changed. The maintenance of a costly court, the expenditure on the army and navy, which the sovereigns always strove to keep in an effective condition, and the financial assistance given to manufacturers and trading companies, swallowed up large sums of money ; and in order to meet this drain — the taxes, heavy as they were, being insufficient for the purpose — the government was compelled to have re- course to various measures, not always of the wisest, such as hiring out their troops to foreign princes, selling the churches, and the demesnes, etc. But it was all of no avail ; the financial position in the eighteenth century was anything but satisfactory, and the kings frequently found themselves in difhculties.
It was long before the kings of Denmark could resign themselves to the loss of Scania, and Frederic's son. Christian V. (1670- 1699), renewed the war with Sweden (the " Scanian War," 1675-1679). The Minister of Foreign Affairs was at this time Count Griff enf eld. His real name fk was Peder Schumacher, and he was the son of a German
OF
DENMARK He succeeded his father, Christian V., in
out his enemies compassed Griffenfeld's fall in March, 1676. In spite of his great gifts he had grave failings. He was mer- cenary, not above bribery, and arrogant. He was accused of high treason, and the king, weary of tutelage, withdrew his favour. He was condemned to death, but on the scaffold this sentence was commuted to im- prisonment for life. After spending twenty- two years in prison he was set free, but died soon afterwards on March 12th, 1699. The war with Sweden did not fulfil the cherished hopes of the Danish king, although Sweden, as the ally of France, was at the same time involved in war with Brandenburg. At the end of the century Christian's son, Frederic IV. (1699-1730), concluded an alliance with Russia and the combined kingdom of Saxony and Poland against Sweden. This led to the great Scandina- vian war of 1700-1721. Frederic began operations by an attack on Duke Frederic IV. of Gottorp, brother-in-law of the King of Sweden, but was obliged by Charles, who had effected a landing on Zealand, to make peace in 1700.
When, however, Charles was defeated in 1709 at Poltava by Peter the Great, Frederic renewed his alliance with Peter and Augustus II., declared war against Sweden, and landed
wine-merchant in Copen- He ^u'^^ed^d his\
hagen. He had the good 1699, and the eariieTijart"of''iiTs" reign in Scauia. Hewas, neverthe- fortune to attract the ^„%*„ll-77,f .Xi^S'^^^^^^^ less, compelled to retire after notice of Frederic III. and who was a good friend of the peasants, suffering heavy losses, and to win his confidence, was made Royal had to renounce his claim to Scania, while
Librarian in 1663, and in 1665 was com- missioned to draw up the king's Law. Under Christian V. he rose rapidly from one dignity to another, was ennobled in 1671, and made Lord High Chancellor in 1673. He was a gifted and well-informed man, energetic and capable in his ad- ministrative work ; and it was he who carried through the changes resulting from the new form of government and estab- lished absolutism on a firm basis. As Minister of Foreign Affairs he was opposed to the war and wished to maintain peace between the Scandinavian states. But at court there was a war party, which was hostile to Griffenfeld, and the king himself was in favour of war. After war broke
Sweden paid him an indemnity of 600,000 thalers, surrendered the exemption from tolls in the Sound granted her at Bromsebro, and undertook not to assist the Duke of Gottorp to recover his possessions in Schleswig, which Frederic had confiscated on account of the duke's breach of neu- trality during the war. By the Treaty of Frederiksborg the long-standing disputes between Denmark and Sweden were brought to an end. Denmark's struggle to become a great power had brought her nothing but loss. Sweden's power had also been broken in the last war, but Denmark gained nothing thereby. The chief power in the Baltic now passed into the hands of twQ new powers, Russia and Prussia.
f494
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE
REVOLUTION
THE AGE
OF LOUIS XIV,
IX
THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR
SWEDEN'S BRAVE STAND UNDER CHARLES XII.
""THE Regency which became responsible *■ for the government of Sweden on the death of Charles X. did little to improve the state of the country, and totally neglected the education of the young king. The resumption of crown lands was not continued ; the regents con- sidered only their own interests and those of the nobles. In their foreign policy they were irresolute and lacking in independ- ence, and even accepted bribes from foreign powers. The Estates were at variance.
At the beginning of 1668 Sweden joined the Triple Alliance against France. Soon after, however, Louis XIV. suc- ceeded in dissolving this alliance and in attracting Sweden to his side by the promise of large subsidies. When Louis made an attack on Holland, in 1672, Sweden was also implicated in the war. As Louis hoped, the Swedes attacked Brandenburg at the moment when the elector was fighting against the French on the
r, . "i 1:.. . Rhine. Every such attempt Elector s Finest r .1 <- j- 1 .
J. J .. of the Swedish government
to aggrandise itself at the expense of Brandenburg was bound to fail because there was no personality at the head of the government combining, as did Charles Gustavus, political talent with military experience, capacity, and boldness. This attack became the occasion for the Great Elector's most brilliant and most popular exploit — the battle of Fehrbellin. " It was not a cheerful moment in the prince's life, a life that was a constant succession of care and struggle, disappointment and danger ; his eldest son had just died ; one of his campaigns had come to a disgraceful ter- mination, and his every opponent was pointing to him as the cause of the disaster ; he was tormented by the gout and could not leave his bed ; his wife was nearing her confinement ; the subsidies had not come which he required for the pay of his brave troops, upon whom, as ever, depended the future of his house and his
position in the Councils of the German princes; yet, in spite of all, there was no weakness and no timidity." Frederic William relied so firmly upon himself and his comrades that he must have seen that the Swedes had delivered „ , themselves into his hands. It U J " was soon clear to him that he
X n „. could expect but little help from at Bellm ., • ^ • , , xt j.-
the imperial court. Negotia- tions with Holland were protracted to a wearisome length, although William of Orange kept true faith with the Elector. Denmark was ready to help, but wanted money ; only Brunswick was ready and willing to bring up help at once.
Frederic William did not wait. With 5,000 horse, 8,000 dragoons, 1,200 infantry, and fourteen guns he hastened into the terri- tory occupied by Sweden, surprised Colonel von Wangelin in Rathenow, and pressed so hard upon General Waldemar Wrangel, the brother of the field-marshal of Charles Gustavus, that he was obliged to give battle at the Ferry of Bellin. The battle opened with a splendid cavalry charge led by Prince Frederic of Hesse-Homburg with an impetuosity perhaps excessive, but, fortunately for the elector, success- ful in its purpose, for the Swedes, though they made a brave defence, were no match for the troops of Brandenburg.
The old Marshal Derfflinger, whose Upper Austrian origin did not prevent him from showing the utmost fidelity to the Mar- grave of Brandenburg, completed the defeat of Wrangel by his clever tactical dispositions, and so overwhelming wa3
_ , that defeat that the marches
Germany s x j r ^i, i,
p . . . were freed from the enemy by
th El ct r ^^^^ ^^® blow. The Germai people felt that this victory of the Brandenburger was a national exploit, a relief from the weight of a foreign domination which had been borne with growing discontent even by the strongest partisans of Protestantism. Brandenburg was considered for the first
44Q5
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
numerous defended
Succession of Swedish Disasters
time as an integral part of the nation and its elector was looked upon as the man and the prince for whom the heart of Germany had long been yearning. In pamphlets Protestant writers his action in defeating the Swedes, who were no longer the champions of the faith. The defeat encouraged the Danes also to declare war against Sweden. For three successive years the Swedes suffered disaster upon disaster. At the battle of Bornholm, on June nth, 1676, their fleet was almost entirely destroyed by the allied Dutch and Danish, among whom a few Brandenburg ships were to be found ; a Danish army occupied Schonen ; the elector penetrated to the coast line, and at length, on December 22nd, 1677, took Stettin after a siege which was carried on with splendid tenacity by both sides. The Swedish kingdom was saved from destruction only by the battle of Lund, which the young but dis- creet King Charles XI. won against the Danes.
The negotiations which Louis XIV. had in the mean- time entered upon at Nime- guen concluded the war in the north by the Peace of Saint-Germain with Branden-
a royal council, which the king summoned at his pleasure ; the king had the power to enact laws without consulting the Riksdag. The Estates still kept some qpntrol over the granting of taxes. At the same time the members of the regency were called to give an account of their administration by decree of the Estates in 1680, who also directed their efforts to a second resumption. The regents were sentenced to pay heavy fines, the resumption of crown lands was effected on a much greater scale, and with the utmost rigour, not only in Sweden itself but also in the Baltic provinces and in the older Danish and Norwegian provinces. These measures resulted in completely revolutionising the conditions of land ownership, and destroyed the power of the nobility by levelling the barriers of privilege which had separated the counts and barons from the inferior nobility, and by securing freedom for the peasants. Property was more evenly divided, and the public revenues increased enormously. The resumption of crown lands had, however, this drawback, that great indignation was aroused in many places by the severe and arbitrary measures through which it was effected. In the Baltic provinces the king's
burg on June 29th, 1679, and charles xi. of Sweden conduct almost occasioned a
the Peace of Lund with Denmark on September 26th, 1679. The elector had to give up Pomerania. Sweden sustained only the loss of her pro- vinces on the east bank of the Oder. The war had, however, greatly injured the domestic prosperity of Sweden.
The country was impoverished and in- volved in debt, the provinces on the frontiers were devastated, and the state Was helpless to cope with the general distress. The king and his confidential advisers were agreed that the one effectual remedy was to remodel the political and social organisation of the country. The first task of Charles was to reduce the power of the council and the upper nobility ; he succeeded in accomplishing this with the help of the other Estates and of the gentry.
The Estates sanctioned a new constitu- tion in 1680 and 1682, by which Sweden was practically transformed into an absolute monarchy. The Riksdag became
4496
The only child of Charles X. he was under a council of regency untjl 1672. He fought with success against the invading Danes, and proved himself a wise and able ruler
Charles XL
revolt ; there his contempt for private rights was the cause of a fatal resentment.
The abundant means which now had at his disposal were appropriated exclusively to im-. proving the political, military, and economic condition of his country. The land was strengthened against attack by the formation of a navy, and the erection of fortresses and a new naval port at Karlskrona. The reorganisation of the army, which had been begun by Charles IX. and Gustavus Adolphus, and which has partially re- mained in effect up to the present day, was completed. It was decided that in future the soldiers should be billeted on the estates of the peasants, who in return were exempted from military service in times of peace. Certain crown estates were freed from taxation on condition that they defrayed the expenses of the cavalry, while the
The Swedish
Army
Reorganised
THE GREAT NORTHERN WAR
officers received their maintenance from the crown lands. At the same time Swedish soldiers were levied to defend the foreign provinces. The finances and the administration were sub- jected to the careful revision which they so urgently re- quired . Charles also turned his attention to all branches of in- dustry. Although his own edu- cation had been so deficient, he knew the value of learning, and interested himself espe- cially in the education of the people. He strongly impressed upon the clergy the necessity of teaching the peasants to read. New life was also infused into every branch of litera-
of the House of Vasa took a keen interest in the development of the language and litera- ture and tried to advance scholarship in every way. The earliest Swe- dish literature was entirely designed for edification, and consisted of devotional and theological controversial trea- tises. The most celebrated writers were the reformers Olaus and Laurentius Petri, who also made some attempts at writing history from the Protestant standpoint ; while the Catholic point of view was represented by the ex-bishops Johannes and Olaus Magnus. These last wrote in Latin, which remained for along time
CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN Succeeding his father in 1697, he was faced by an alliance of Russia,
ture. As early as the sixteenth ?he°ehei^Tthetreti Northern the language of literary men century the literary activity of War,whichiastedfronii70otoi72i. jn the seventeenth century Sweden, which up to that time had been literature lost its devotional character and unimportant, received an impetus from became more remarkable for beauty of ^the Reformation, especially as the kings thought and diction. This transformation
THE CAPTURE OF THE TOWN OF MALMO BY COUNT MAGNUS STENBOCK A distinguished general, Count Magnus Stenbock took part in the earlier campaigns of Charles XI 1., and had a large share in the victories of the Swedish arms. In 1709 he captured the town of Malmo, and had other equally noteworthy suc- cesses. He ended his life in a Danish dungeon in 1717, after being defeated by the combined Russians, Danes and Saxons.
284
4497
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
was due chiefly to G. Stjernhjelm, who died
in 1672, " the father of Swedish poetry,"
who modelled his writings on the ancient
classics and popularised the old metres.
After the death of Charles XI., on April
15th, 1697, his son, Charles XII., became
king, and although not yet fifteen years
old was declared of age at the end of 1697.
_. .... Charles had enioved a good Characteristics 1 .• t -i "u- x j.\,
. ,. .. education. Like his father
of the New , . j r ,
V ^t 1 vri he was noted tor an earnest King Charles All. . , j , • ■■ 1 •,
piety and strict morality ;
his mode of life was temperate and simple. As a child he exhibited that love of honour and audacity, along with that obstinacy and perversity, which characterised him throughout his life. It was generally con- sidered that he possessed only moderate abilities, because he seemed to devote his time only to bear hunts and other equally dangerous pastimes. Accordingly his neighbours, who were jealous of the power of Sweden, thought that this was the best opportunity to recover what they had lost. Russia, Denmark, and Poland formed an alliance, and immediately began the great Northern War (1700-1721).
Once again in this struggle the Swedish military success flared up like some brilliant firework. At one time it might have been thought that under a new hero-king the Gothic peoples were to regain the high prestige which Gustavus II. Adolphus and Charles X. Gustavus had won for them.
But fate decided otherwise ; in Sweden's stead a new great power arose in Eastern Europe, a Slav kingdom under the guidance of the Russians, the neighbours of the Poles — a people gifted with admir- able political capacities. Having no sus- picion of their historical destiny, the Russians, through the agency of a wise prince, were raised in the course of but one generation to a position which enabled them to participate in the constitutional progress which Central and Western Europe had gradually achieved, and to TK R A create a vigorous constitutional
e api organisation for themselves. It Progress of . ° ,
.. g . IS true that, even to the present
day, their state is based on
the will of the Tsar ; the limited capacity
of the Slavs for constitutional progress is
obvious in the case of the mightiest
kingdoms of Slavonic nationality.
Take away the personality of Peter the
Great, and who can conceive the transition
from unimportant Muscovy to the Russian
Empire ? Who can separate the fate of
4498
the monarchy which he created from the actions of his successors ? Palace revolu- tions, revolts, military conspiracies, assas- sinations— these have been the deeds of special parties in particular cases ; they were in no case the expression of national will. The progress of an administration, which could have advanced but very slowly during two centuries if it had not served to strengthen dynastical power, has invariably consisted of borrowings from foreign constitutions.
It was foreigners who were Peter's teachers and demonstrators ; in foreign countries he acquired the ideas upon which he constructed his state. The mingling of Romanoff blood with that of Holstein- Oldenburg and Askanien-Thuringen pre- served the ruling house from a relapse into the Muscovite character of a Fedor, Ivan, or Alexei, and gave it a European stamp. It was its princes that have made Russia the European power in which the Slav nations have become great and strong. The useful qualities of the Russians have been their capacity for subordination, their obedience, and their invincible confidence in the Tsar as God's vicegerent upon earth. These characteristics have made them superior to the Poles ; by these they have been made equal to their great share in the world's history, which the Tsar Peter I. recognised as theirs, and took upon him- self and laid upon his successors.
The immediate result of this recognition, which was matured during Peter's travels in Western Europe, was his share in the attack directed against Sweden by Frederic Augustus of Saxony-Poland, which gave him the opportunity of gaining a seaboard on the Baltic. In spite of his victory at Asov in 1696, which his conquest of the Crimea would have enabled him to turn to account by employing means similar to those with which he had to fight the Swedes, he was ready to conclude peace with the Porte on July 2nd, 1700, in order to have a free hand for his undertakings in the north, for he was well aware that connection with the east was of no use to him, but that the opening up of communication with the west would secure the stability of his internal reforms and advance the entry of Russia into the ranks of the European powers.
Denmark attacked Holstein ; the Duke of Holstein, Frederic IV., had married Hedwig Sophia., the sister of Charles.
Peter the Great's Work for Russia
4499
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Peter attacked Esthonfa, and Augustus
sent an army against Livonia. Charles
refused all attempts at reconciliation,
and declared that he would not enter
upon an unjust war nor would he end
a just one before he had humbled his
enemies. He first of all directed his
attention to Denmark. King Frederic IV.
_ , was compelled oy the Peace
o an s ^j Travendal, on August i8th,
„'^* J 1700, to retire from the Dethroned 11 ■ j - 1 i j
alliance and to acknowledge
the independence of the Duke of
Holstein-Gottorp. In the same year he
inflicted a severe defeat upon Peter at
Narva on November 30th ; but instead of
following up his victory he first attempted
to crush his cousin Augustus, whom he
bitterly hated. He accordingly advanced
through Courland and Lithuania and
conquered Warsaw and Cracow. Augustus
was declared to have forfeited the crown
of Poland and Stanislas Leszczynski
was proclaimed king in 1704.
In the meantime Peter had been success- ful in the Baltic provinces, and had founded St. Petersburg in Ingermanland. Charles, however, remained several years in Poland in order to establish Stanislas in his king- dom, and then pressed on into Saxony, where Augustus the Strong was compelled by the Peace of Altranstadt in 1706 to renounce the Polish crown for himself and his descendants, to acknowledge Stanislas, and to withdraw from all his alliances. Charles stood now at the height of his glory. Louis XIV. made every endeavour to gain his assistance in the War of the Spanish Succession.
Charles, however, wished to overthrow Peter, the Tsar of Russia, But instead of advancing to St. Petersburg he marched towards the Ukraine to ally himself with the Cossack hetman Ivan Mazeppa, and afterwards to proceed to Moscow. With- out waiting for reinforcements, which were on the way, he entered South Russia. The
_ , , . Russians had in the meantime Defeat and 1 • j j. xu j. j
p.. . J laid wa'^te the country and
-,/* , ° v-ii defeated the general, Lewen- Ckarles XII. , . , ° 1 ,
haupt, who was to have
brought up the Swedish reinforcements ; Mazeppa, however, whose treachery was discovered, came as a fugitive to the Swedish army. In spite of this Charles continued his march, and arrived at Poltava in spring. Peter hurried to the relief of the town, and gained a brilliant victory over Charles on July 8th, 1709 ; the king escaped with
4500
difficulty, and fled with 500 followers across the Dnieper and the Bug into Turkish territory. The battle of Poltava decided the fate of the North ; Russia had taken the place of Sweden as a great power.
The power of Sweden had begun to decline even before 1709. After the battle of Poltava, Frederic III. and Augustus 11. renewed their alliance with Russia. Augustus drove Stanislas out of Poland. The Danes landed in Scania, which, how- ever, they were soon compelled to leave. Peter, who had completed the conquest of the Baltic provinces, devastated Finland, while his fleet threatened the coast of Sweden. The majority of the German pos- sessions had been lost. In this desperate situation the Council of State, in spite of the prohibition of the king, summoned the Riksdag, where dethronement was seri- ously considered. On hearing this, Charles, who had been in Turkey for five years, decided to return home. As " Captain Peter Frisch " he rode in sixteen days through Hungary and Germany, and arrived on November 22nd, 1714, at Stral- sund, which was the last possession of the Swedes in Pomerania. In the meantime Prussia, which was anxious to obtain Pomerania, and Hanover, which had bought Bremen and Verden — a conquest from the Danes — had attached themselves to the enemies of Sweden. After a heroic defence Charles was obliged to surrender Stralsund, which was be- sieged by the allies, and return to Sweden. He assembled an army, which he took to Norway, in 1716, but he was compelled to return to Sweden. Two years later he made a second attempt to conquer Norway, and advanced against the fortress of Fred- eriksten near Frederikshald in Southern Norway. There, on the evening of Decem- ber nth, 1718, a bullet from the fortress put an end to his restless life. The siege was at once raised, and his brother-in-law, Frederic of Hesse, led the army back to Sweden. In spite of the misfortunes into which Sweden was plunged by his obsti- nacj' Charles became the favourite national hero on account of his morality and his heroism, his contempt of death, and his marvellous victories. During his stay on the continent, and also after his return home, he worked zealously at reforming the government, and these reforms bear witness to his impartial sagacity.
Hans von Zwiedineck-Sudenhorst: >■
Charles the National Hero of Sweden
The ending op the OLD ORDER
THE FIFTY YEARS AFTER LOUIS XIV.
THE BOURBON POWERS AND GREAT BRITAIN
'T'HE Treaty of Utrecht and the death of ■*• Louis XIV. mark a definite epoch. For half a century France had pursued an aggressive policy which, if completely successlul, would have made her the dictator of Europe. In spite of the disasters of the last great war, Louis so far achieved his primary object that a Bourbon instead of a Hapsburg was seated on the Spanish throne ; the old- time fear of a great Hapsburg domination in Europe had given place to the fear of a Bourbon domination. But a Bourbon Union would never come forward as the champion of the papacy ; the transition was. completed by which commerce was to replace religion as the explicit motive in the contests of nations. Again, in achieving the hegemony of Europe,France had of necessity found the Hapsburgs her great rivals : in maintaining the hegemony, it was now Great Britain which threatened her power. It was largely the accident of the ejection of the Stuarts from England, the accession of the Dutch stadtholder, and the support Louis gave to his exiled cousins, that had involved France and England in war ; for the next century the most fundamental antagonism was to ... be that between French or p f Bourbon and British interests. £^^ There remained, indeed, sundry-
bones of contention, mainly in Italy and the Mediterranean, between Austria and Spain — the German Haps- burg power may now be definitely associated with the name of Austria — but the vital struggle was to be concerned with trans-oceanic supremacy. At the outset, however, the new con- ditions were not realised. The death of
Louis, in 1715, placed on the throne his
great-grandchild, Louis XV., a sickly
infant. In spite of renunciations, no one
could feel any certainty that his uncle,
now Philip V. of Spain, would not, after
all, assert his claim to the succession if
the child died ; while under the existing
instruments, Philip, Duke of Orleans, now
^1. I' vi J regent, was the heir-presump- The Troubled ,- ° <-, 1 , f,- , -^
f, .... tive. Urleans wanted his claim
Condition J • .L o • ii_
Q, J, secured as against Spain ; the
Hanoverian king of Great Britain wanted his secured against a Stuart restoration by French help ; so the two governments mutually agreed to support each other. The dynastic con- nection between the two Bourbon thrones did not become a bond of political union till the prospect of an attempt to make them one had disappeared ; and even then the helm of state in France, as in Britain, was in the hands of a Minister who had no mind to decide political issues by the arbitrament of war.
The recent struggle had borne much less heavily on the island power than on either France or Spain ; but, for all three, peace and financial reorganisation were needed. In England both these ends were procured with success ; for five-and- twenty years her warfare consisted in an abortive Jacobite rising and in occasional naval demonstrations, in the course of one of which she incidentally annihilated the Spanish fleet. From 1720 to 1739 Walpole persistently maintained a policy which treated the financial prosperity of the country as outweighing all other con- siderations, and the national wealth was immensely increased. In Spam, on the other hand, the marriage of King Philip
4501
History Of the worli)
Britain's Check To Spain's Naval Ambitions
to Elizabeth Farnese introduced a spirited foreign policy directed primarily against Austria in Italy. The Minister Alberoni endeavoured at the same time to revive the Spanish sea power, but his efforts were wrecked by a premature collision with the British squadron in the Mediterranean, off Cape Passaro. In consequence of this war, the Sicilies passed under Hapsburg dominion in 1720 ; though a few years later, in the course of territorial exchanges springing from the war of the Polish succession, a branch of the Spanish Bourbons was established on the Nea- politan throne. But this general mis- direction of Spanish activities did not tend to strengthen resources which required to be carefully husbanded. Meanwhile, France, like Great Britain, was avoid- ing wars of an exhausting kind. The Orleans regime was demoralising to the character of the upper classes from its extreme licentiousness; the noblesse was very dis- tinctly on a downward grade, and in this respect matters were not im- proved when the king himself was old enough to become the real centre of the court. About 1727, the septuagenarian Cardinal Fleury became first Minister. In con- junction with Walpole, Fleury directed his efforts to maintaining European peace, but he was less successful than the English Minister in keeping his country entirely clear of war. He, however, accomplished the rap- prochement with Spain which was expressed in the secret Family Compact of 1733, directed against Austria and Great Britain, of which the primary design, based on the knowledge of Walpole's intense aversion to war, was to act diplo- matically or otherwise against Austria, and then take in hand an isolated England. It was fortunate for the latter that the fundamental necessity of overwhelming her sea-power escaped the Bourbon plotters. Consequently, when the violence of popular excitement forced the govern- ments of Great Britain and Spain into war
against their will in 1739, Great Britain was always able to hold her own, with the more security, because this naval " War of Jenkins' Ear " was soon merged into a Continental struggle — the " War of the Austrian Succession," which absorbed most of the energies of France, wherefrom the naval power reaped the usual advantage. The opportunity for attacking Austria came first through the question of the succession to the crown of Poland. The monarchy of that country was elective. Stanislas Leszczynski, the father of the French king's wife, was the popular can- didate ; Augustus of Saxony, the son of the last king, was favoured by Austria and Russia. Louis consequently had a personal interest in the question, while Spain had none, so far as Poland was con- cerned ; but the Bourbons might gain something from a war with Austria, which, if it did nothing else, would loosen the bond between Austria and Great Britain, since Walpole might be safely relied upon to abstain from active intervention. The war was carried on without energy or marked ability in any quarter, but not without a considerable drain on the resources of the armies of all the com- batants, while Walpole, content to exercise mere
LOUIS XV. OF FRANCE He was little more than an infant when the death of his g^reat-grandfather, Louis XIV., in 1714 left to him the throne of France. He
lived a life of excess and debauchery, and diplomatic prCSSUrC, he died from an attack of smallpox in 1774. husbaudcd the national
wealth of Great Britain. The ultimate result was that the Austrian candidate got Poland, and Austria got from the powers a perfectly valueless guarantee of the " Pragmatic Sanction," which was to secure the whole of the Hapsburg succession to the emperor's daughter Maria Theresa. In Italy, however, she transferred the Sicilies g . to a Bourbon dynasty, and _." *"''*^ received Parma and Piacenza; rop an j^^g^^g^j^y ^g^g transferred to
the Duke of Lorraine, Maria Theresa's husband. He in exchange handed Lorraine over to Stanislas by way of compensation for the loss of Poland, and France got so much of clear profit, since this meant that she acquired Lorraine. The time was certainly not yet ripe for
4502
THE BOURBON POWERS AND GREAT BRITAIN
the Bourbons to make an open attack on Great Britain ; but events proved too strong for the governments concerned. The colonial and commercial policy initi- ated by Colbert early in the reign of Louis XIV. had planted French settlements in rivalry to those of the British, both in
That the
India and in North America competition in India would be brought to the decision of the sword had hardly occurred to French or English statesmen, though in America that event was growing more and more conspicuously im- minent. Holland had already fallen out of the race, and an acute observer might have recognised that a decisive struggle between France and Great Britain was as inevit- able as any political event can be. On the other hand, the causes of friction between Spain and England were more obvious and palpable, though in their nature there was nothing new. From the days of Elizabeth, Spain had maintained her monopoly in South America by re- strictions and regulations which English sailors had always endeavoured to evade or defy. There was an eternal cross-fire of charges and counter-charges,' of illegal trading by Englishmen, of illegal exercise of powers by Spanish officials.
The diplomatists in 1739 found themselves face to face with an outburst of popular sentiment in both countries which they were wholly unable to control. Walpole, in spite of his apprehension that Spain would be joined by France — information had reached him of the Family Compact — and his conviction that the combination would
who were able to make use of the in- comparably superior material of the British Navy, and to ensure its ascendancy ; but it was well for England that Fleury had neglected to make the French fleet capable of effective intervention.
In fact, French attention was absorbed by events in another quarter. The Emperor Charles VI. died ; according to the Pragmatic Sanction, his daughter was to succeed to all the Hapsburg dominions, and it had been the emperor's aim to secure the election to the imperial crown also for her husband. But the Elector of Bavaria claimed the succession to Bohemia and became a candi- date for the empire. The rending of Austria would
DUKE OF ORLEANS j -i r
PhUip of Orleans became regent provide SpOlls for VanOUS
when the crown of France fell pOWCrS, whO fouuduo difficulty to LouU Xy., and remained in in producing technical CXCUSCS
for breaking their pledges. The attack was opened by Frederic of Prussia, who seized Silesia on a flimsy pretext. France promised her support to the Bavarian Elector. British and Han- overian interests alike brought Hanoverian troops and British subsidies to the support of Maria Theresa ; Spain, of course, took her stand on the other side. The events of the war need not be detailed. From a British point of view, the complete success with which Commodore Martin imposed neutrality upon Naples, and the gallantly fought battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy, are its most interesting episodes, apart from the last Jacobite rising in 1745, which is described elsewhere. The heterogeneous combination against Austria had no common aims. Frederic of
that office till his death in 1723.
CARDINAL FLEUKY
be too strong for Great ment into his own hands, Fleury Prussia left the aUies when Britain, was forced to declare became his chief adviser. Against Maria Theresa abandoned war, amid national jubilation. |Vf *'"'• •?« ""^^ ^^^J" '"*» the Silesia to him. In the early
War of the Austrian Succession. . , . -r^ , -^
campaigns neither French nor
Great as a peace Minister, he was wholly unfitted to grapple with the conduct of a war, and the naval operations were marked by an inefficiency which was not absolutely disastrous only because the Spanish inefficiency was equally conspicu- ous. The process of " muddling along " gradually brought to the front commanders
Bavarian armies generally distinguished themselves, though in the later stages of the war the French Marshal Maurice of Saxony, commonly known as Marshal Saxe, showed himself perhaps the ablest of the commanders after Frederic of Prussia. It is curious to observe that until 1744
4503
2-5 o _ fl rt
4504
THE BOURBON POWERS AND GREAT BRITAIN
France and Great Britain were not nominally at war with each other, while each took the field as " auxiliary " of one of the principal combatants. In that year Frederic again joined the allies, to desert them again before the close of 1745.
The French arms were persistently successful under Marshal Saxe in the Netherlands, and those of Austria in Italy. The assertion of British naval predominance brought about the capture of Louisburg on the St. Lawrence, and would probably have had decisive effects on the struggle which Dupleix had begun in' India if the powers, all alike weary of the war, had not ter- minated it in 1748 by the Peace of Aix-la- Chapelle. Frederic had won Silesia, and Maria Theresa had lost it. Otherwise, the peace practically restored all conquests on all hands. There had been an enormous expenditure of life and of money with insignificant result. Before a decade had passed, another conflagration was raging which concluded very differently. The War of the Austrian Succession had decided nothing except the facts that Prussia was a first-class military power, and that there would be no more attacks on the estabUshed dynasty in Eng- land. The combinations of the Powers, however, were to be on entirely new lines. In the first place, Spain retired altogether under a pacific king, Ferdinand ; the aggressive influence of Elizabeth Farnese came to an end with his accession. In the second place, the exhibition of Prussia's developed power had created alarm and jealousy, while the loss of Silesia had filled Maria Theresa with vengeful feelings, and Frederic's personality had excited the keen animosity of two other important dames — the Tsarina, and Mme. de Pompadour, who now ruled Louis.
In the third place, the issue between French and British, both in India and in America, grew more and more acute. Hence it became certain that when war did break out France and Great Britain would be on opposite sides, and Austria and Prussia would be on opposite sides. How the partners would pair off, however, remained uncertain. But while Great Britain, under the incompetent Newcastle, merely drifted into alliance with Frederic, Austria deli- berately sought the French alliance, in defiance of all tradition, while Louis was influenced thereto partly by the Pompa- dour, partly by the superstition that he could square the account with Heaven for
The Balance of Power in Europe
his private vices by supporting the Catholic Austria against the Protestant Prussia. Here we are concerned mainly with those aspects of the Seven Years War which especially affected the Franco- British rivalry ; and even among these, the events which took place actually in India or in America have been or will be g. . treated at length in other
f i^ "^\ parts of this work. But while d B *f h *^^ details in various fields of the great struggle can best be thus dealt with in isolation, we shall also find it most convenient to set forth here the relation in which the several contests stood to each other.
French and British had to finish in India a duel, the result of which had already become a foregone conclusion, while the French and British governments had been at peace and the rival companies were fighting out their quarrel as auxiUaries of rival native potentates. Nothing but the mastery of the seas could now have given the victory to France. The genius of Montcalm and the lack of organised co- hesion among the British Colonies in America made the issue there more doubt- ful, until British naval superiority cut the French off from aid out of France.
The one chance for France in the duel was to devote her whole energies to matching her rival on the sea. But her energies were divided, while those of Great Britain were concentrated. England's wealth enabled her to supply her ally Frederic with the sinews of war of which he was sorely in need. Thus aided, his genius enabled him to make head against the seemingly over- whelming circle of his foes ; France ex- hausted her resources in launching against him the great armies which were shattered by him or by his lieutenant Ferdinand of Brunswick at Rosbach and Crefeldt and Minden. The quality of the French armies, and especially of its aristocratic commanders, had grievously degenerated p. , since the days of Louis XIV. J * . .' On the other hand, when the
nspinng g^-^pj^j incompetence under which Great Britain entered on the war was replaced by the inspiring genius of Pitt, officers and men by land and by sea showed themselves worthy of the highest traditions of the nation. France had created a navy during the years of peace, but the two great fleets from Toulon and Brest were both annihilated in 1759 off Lagos and at Quiberon ; the British
4505
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
squadrons swept the seas unchallenged. Even if Wolfe had failed before Quebec, British reinforcements would ultimately have prevailed over Montcalm in his isola- tion. When it was altogether too late, a new king in Spain returned to the prin- ciples of the Bourbon Family Compact in support of France, but the only effect was _ . . . to place the Spanish settlements
^"i * ** * at the mercy of British fleets. Mistress t^ j i
»»!. c it seemed merely a question
of the Seas , ,. , , -^ ^t- i
of time before every l^rench
or Spanish island should fall a prey to the mistress of the seas, when the new king, George III., and his Minister, Bute, resolved to terminate the war at the price of the most recent conquests, and to leave their stubborn Prussian ally deserted — for which he never forgave them. Fortu- nately, however, some of his foes had already retired, and the rest were too exhausted to continue a struggle in which their superior numbers had been repeatedly overmatched by Frederic's genius.
The character of the Seven Years War, which opened with the successful attack of the French upon Minorca in 1756, and ended with the Treaties of Paris 'and Huberts- burg in 1763, was determined mainly by two factors. First, Great Britain deliber- ately and consciously fought, not for the balance of power in Europe, which had dominated international politics since the days of Wolsey, but for trans-oceanic empire, conditioned by naval supremacy ; whereas France divided her energies.
In the second place, the problem of the balance of power had itself changed, be- cause the Hapsburgs no longer dominated Central Europe ; Prussia had appeared as an effective rival— so effective that France was ready to help her old rival to recover her old predominance in order to crush the new Power. But a third feature was that Russia now began to play a much more direct and prominent part in the affairs of Western Europe than she had hitherto _ . , done — a position from which ussia s ^ ^i^g ^^g ^^^ again to recede.
vance m Incidentally also the fact was marked that Spain, Holland, and Sweden would thenceforth be unable to take more than subordinate places.
The result of the war was decisive in favour of Great Britain as concerned the supremacy of the British race — though subsequently divided — beyond and upon the seas ; and in favour of Prussia as securing her equality with Austria ; while France was further
4506
than ever from that hegemony of the west which Louis XIV. had seemed to attain. The " Grand Monarque " appeared to have achieved his object when the Spanish crown was accepted for his grandson Philip on the death of Charles " the Be- witched " of Spain, and he could declare that " the Pyrenees no longer existed."
The war of the succession would have taken a different course if he had not proceeded to convert England into a most energetic, instead of a very doubtful opponent, by his recognition of the Chevalier as James III., an act which dispelled the apathy of England as a nation to the war, for the recollection of their unhappy con- dition under James II. and his predecessor, Charles, made the people determined to resist to the utmost any attempt to restore the Stuarts to power ; and, disastrous as the war proved, it left the Bourbons in possession of Spain as well as of France. Circumstances, however, prevented the Bourbon combination from becoming a consolidated force. The Bourbon was King of Spain, but its ruler was Elizabeth Farnese, whose horizon was limited by her _ , , Italian ambitions and her desire pain s ^^ secure a great inheritance not „ for her stepsons, the heirs of the
Spanish throne, but for her own offspring. A Spain perpetually plunging into every war which gave her a pretext for attacking Austria had no chance of restoring her finances and reorganising her administration so as to play an ambitious part with any effect. It was not till Elizabeth's stepson Ferdinand ascended the throne, and her influence was lost, that Spain, in a decade of peace, was able to make real material progress. Hence, the Family Compact was, in fact, infinitely less dangerous to either of the powers against which it was aimed than it might have been made by cool-headed statesmanship.
But the main fabric which Louis XIV. had built up, grandiose, magnificent to outward view, was deficient in real strength. Building on Richelieu's foundations, he had concentrated the state in the monarchy. The power of the crown was absolute beyond all European precedent, and administra- tion had been in the hands of men selected by their king — whether judiciously or othenvise — on account of their fitness, not on account of their birth. Louis XIV. had, in fact, inclined to follow the precedent of the Tudors in England, in giving a prefer- ence to servants who did not belong to the
4507
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
old aristocracy. Under his successor, Louis the Well-beloved, the aristocracy, to a great extent, recovered their hold on administration, whereby efficiency was greatly impaired. Thus, the chiefs of the armies which took the field against Frederic 11. and Ferdinand of Brunswick were of a type utterly inferior to that of the antagon- P^ ^^ , ists of William III. and Marl- D ht t ' borough. Again, sheer absolutism p. can be successful only when
the monarch himself is either a man of high capacities or is endowed with a happy faculty for selecting able Ministers. Louis XIV. was tolerably qualified in both respects, Louis XV. in neither. It is true that France owed a good deal to Fleury, though the close. of his career was marked by ill-success very much like Walpole's in England ; but Louis was a mere boy when he bestowed the office of first Minister on his aged tutor, whom he had enough intelligence to love and respect. After Fleury died, at the age of ninety- three, Louis tried to emulate his great- grandfather and be his own first Minister, of which the practical outcome was that the king's mistress — the most important of the series was the Pompadour — ^was vir- tually the mistress of France ; though the king might, and frequently did, carry on political intriguing of his own behind her
back, while she was intriguing behind the backs of Ministers. It was a curious freak of popular favour which gave him the title of Bien-aime, the " Well-beloved," on his recovery from an illness, while he was still a young man — in his later years the epithet would have been fitted to him only in bitter irony. The crown, with no dim- inution of its absolutism, was already being rendered contemptible ; the series of national fiascoes and disasters which reached their culminating stage between 1758 and 1763 ruined its prestige. In France, even the large element of bombast and theatricality which characterised Louis XIV. had rather increased than diminished the force with which the Monarchy appealed to the popular imagination ; but the splendours of Louis XV. were palpable tinsel. The prestige of the aristocracy, which had stood
-.. ^. , high under the old king, when The imsel ° ■. • ■, j j
_ , . , merit was m demand, was de-
Splendours of , J T_ -1 • J.
L * XV stroyed by the mcompetence, and more than incompetence, of conspicuous members of the order, when merit ceased to count.
The better men among the noblesse were alive to the decadence, but were unable to counteract it. The reign of Louis the Well- beloved was sapping the foundations both of monarchy and of aristocracy, and was making France ready for the Revolution.
THE VICTORIOUS FRENCH AFTER THE BATTLE OF FONTENOY Marshal Saxe, who is shown seated on his white palfrey in the picture, was in command of the French army at the battle of Fontenoy in 1745, ag^ainst which the Duke of Cumberland and his British and Hanoverian troops marched in vain.
From the painting by Horace Vernet
45o§
|
WESTERN EUROPE FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION |
i^g2 |
THE ENDING OF THE OLD ORDER GREAT BRITAIN II |
GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE WHIGS
AND THE EARLIER GEORGIAN PERIOD
'X'HE German prince who succeeded Anne •'• on the British throne, and his son after him, were rripn of narrow understanding, unpopular ib their adopted country, and more interested in the fortunes of Hanover than in those of the kingdom to which they were indebted for wealth and con- sideration. Owing to ignorance of the English language they dropped the custom of personal attendance at the meetings of the Cabinet, which thus acquired a new independence and consideration. Their power was shown chiefly in the choice of Ministers. Although the practical im- possibility of ruling without a parlia- mentary majority was now admitted, the king had still considerable freedom in choosing between the rival leaders of the predominant party. At an early date the Whigs broke up into groups, which were held together by family influence or personal considerations. By a skilful use of the jealousies which Th K* ' separated these groups, the D'Vk^'^^f' ^^^S could often assert his theEngHshP^^^^onal ideas^ George I. did not care. He disliked the English ; he asked nothing better than to be left to his mistresses and his pota- tions. He would have nothing to do with the Tories ; but he was content with any Whig Ministers who could secure him in the enjoyment of an ample civil list, and his family in the succession to the Crown. Such a Ministry, however, he did not obtain at the first attempt. That formed in 1714, under the leadership of Townsend and Stanhope, contained but one man of marked ability ; and Robert Walpole was at first only the Pay- master of the Forces. He rose, however, in 1715, to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the real brain of the administration. The stolid acquiescence of the country at large in the establishment of the Hanoverian dynasty was sufficiently demonstrated by the apathy with which an attempt at a Jacobite restoration was
received in this year. The death of Louis XIV. destroyed any possible pros- pects of French assistance ; nevertheless, the Earl of Mar raised some of the clans in Scotland, and some county gentlemen, headed by Thomas Forster and the Earl of Derwentwater raised the Jacobite _ standard in England. The
0° Jacobite English rising collapsed igno- „. . miniously at Preston ; on the
isings same day Mar fought a drawn battle with Argyle at Sheriff Muir, after which the Scottish rising also fell to pieces.
The Cabinet, having weathered the in- surrection, provided against any sudden reaction of popular feeling in England and Scotland by the Septennial Act in 1716, which extended the maximum duration of Parliament from three years to seven. The Act was so worded as to cover the Parliament by which it was passed, and a general election was thus postponed to quieter times. But a personal quarrel between Walpole and Stanhope led to Walpole's secession ; he became the leader of the Parliamentary Opposition.
In 1720 the Government was fatally com- promised by the failure of the South Sea Bubble, a scheme for vesting the English rights of trade with the Spanish colonies in a single chartered company. The South Sea Bubble was the outcome of one of those manias for speculation to which commercial communities are par- ticularly liable in the first stages of their development ; and France suffered in this same year from a financial crisis ... , produced by the collapse of
a po e s Laws' Mississippi Company.
T,. , n • But the English Government,
Time of Panic , . ° , r • ^ i J
or certain members of it, had
connived at the tricks by which the price of the South- Sea stock was in- flated to excess ; their conduct incurred the greater odium because the company had been founded under the protection and guarantee of the State. They fell ignomini- ously ; and Walpole, admittedly the first
4509
KING GEORGE I. IN HIS CORONATION ROBES A great-grandson of James I. of England, George I., who had been Elector of Hanover since 1698, was proclaimed King of Great Britain, according to the Act of Settlement, on the death of Queen Anne in 1 7 1 4. Though king he took little part in the government of the country, the affairs of which were in the able hands of Sir Robert Walpole, and, his affections remaining with Hanover, he lived there as much as possible. He died at Osnabriick in 1727.
Walpole took the first step towards free trade. His power was in danger at the
financier of the age, was called into power that he might minimise the consequences of the crisis. The skill with which he wound up the company assured his popularity.
Walpole earned further gratitude from the commercial classes by a policy of peace and retrenchment, and by reform- ing to some extent the customs tariff. The country had inherited from the past a number of import duties of which the majority impeded trade without in- creasing the revenue. By abolishing these
4'iIO
death of the old king, in 1727, for although the Prince of Wales and Walpole had acted together when Walpole was in oppo- sition, their friendship had been destroyed by Walpole's rise to power. But there was no other Whig who fulfilled the necessary conditions for the first place in the Cabinet. Walpole was continued in office, not through choice, but of necessity, until he succeeded in capturing the ear of
a, 4) « S* _eJ3 L^ H
4511
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Caroline, the queen of George II. The king's marital in- fidelities were gross and numerous ; but the influence of the queen was supreme in political affairs, and her alliance with Walpole, con- tinued without a break until her death in 1737, secured the Minister against court intrigues. Walpole is the first Prime Minister in the modern sense of the word. In practice he discarded the theory that all Ministers of the Crown
is unfair, for the House of Commons had been corrupt before the Revolution, and still more so in the reign of William III. Walpole's bribery was more remarkable for success than for origin- ality, and the sums which he spent on this purpose have been grossly exaggerated.
Even in the early eigh- teenth century the opinions GREAT WALPOLE °^ '^^^ House of Commous Sir Robert Walpole was the fi?st >were largely influenced by o7'tTe'5;otd'^''A5vhe'„\T'lltrreTL'l^^ State of public feeling.
THE
were on an equality, and en- 1742 he was "created Eari of Orford. The votes for which Walpole
titled to differ as they pleased upon political questions. In his Cabinet Walpole would have none but subordinates. One by one his ablest colleagues were forced to leave the Minis- try because they would not bow to his wishes, and in time the novel spectacle was to be seen of a Whig govern- ment suffering from the attacks of aWhig Opposi- tion. Carteret andPulteney,the chief of these dis- appointed rivals, were abler speakers and more brilliant politicians than the Minister. But Walpole rested secure in the confidence of the commercial classes and in the possession of a parliamentary majority. He has been reproached with inventing a system of parlia- mentary corrup- tion. The charge
4512
GEORGE H. OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND The earlier years of the reiprn of this monarch ha ve been described as "the most prosperous period that England had ever known." He succeeded his father, in 1727, as King of Great Britain and Ireland, and died suddenly at Kensing^ton on October 25th, 176(1. After the painting by K. £. Pine
paid in cash and places were only his while he re- mained popular out of doors. In the end he lost his majority through the opposition of the merchant class, whose Minister he had been in a peculiar sense. For this class peace and retrenchment might do much, but a part of what they desired could be secured only by war.
Spain resented the commercial clauses in the Treaty of Utrecht, the more so because English traders in American waters contrived to extract from the treaty larger advantages than theframersofthe treaty had ever contemplated. Stanhope and Sunderland had guarded againsx Spanish designs by a Triple Alli- ance with France and Holland, in 1716. Walpole
4513
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
endeavoured to continue this policy, and believed that he might count implicitly upon the pacific intentions of the French Minister, Cardinal Fleury. But Fleury's influence was not always supreme in the councils of Louis XV. ; and in 17.^^ a family compact was secretly concluded between the Bour- bons of Spain and France with the direct object of curtailing the maritime sup- remacy of England.
The result ot the compact was soon apparent in more vigorous attempts on the part of Spain to repress the trade which English smugglers had developed with the Spanish colonies. The Spanish government began to assert the right of searching English ships on the high seas, and
but the usual tendency had been to regard these objects as subordinate to the time- honoured aim of preserving the European balance. In the period now to be surveyed the balance is still a consideration ; with Carteret and George II. it was the decisive consideration. But it rapidly fell into the background, and the attention of the middle classes and of the ablest Ministers was soon concen- trated upon North America and India. In British history the period of colonial wars includes a struggle between the component parts of the constitution. There is an attempt to reverse the Revo- lution settlement and to restore the old predominance
J of the king over Parliament. DUKE OF NEWCASTLE This struggle is in part treated suspected crews with ^ supporter of Waipoie, he sue- responsible for the reverses unjustifiable severity. The ^fp^emtr i^JS "HTre^frelT^ which Britain experienced story of a certain Captain 1756, but became Prime Minister insthc colonial period ; and Jenkins, who had lost an ear again in 1757, and died in 1768. the loss of America caused it in an affray with Spanish coastguards, to be terminated in favour of Parliament.
raised a tempest of indignation in the country. Walpole, though convinced that the war would be disastrous, since he believed that the country would be unable to cope with the expected combination of the French and Spanish powers, bowed to the will of the country and undertook the manage- ment of the war. But he was vigorously denounced in the Press by Bolingbroke, whom, with rare forbearance, he had permitted to return to Eng- land, and in Parliament by the rival Whigs whom he had evicted from office. He showed no ability as a War Minister ; his great mainstay, Queen Caroline, was dead ; the hostile forces were united in their animosity towards him.
There is, therefore, a close connection
between foreign policy and domestic
history, but it is a connection which
becomes intimate only when the struggle
with France is far advanced. At the
beginning of the period British history is
merely the history of a war.
Carteret, the successor of
Walpole, was unique among
the politicians of the day in
his mastery of the German
situation. This gained him
the ear of George ll., and the
two combined to involve the
country in the War of the
1 Austrian Succession. Public
feeling was with them because
they took the side opposed to
that of France. But their
object was to shield Hanover
against France and Prussia,
CAPTAIN ANSON to preserve the integrity of
For these reasons his party
dissolved. He resigned in 1741; Like another Drake, this famous the Austrian dominions, and and the management of the ZTrLrrtl^rh'ttnl^s to maintain the balance in war devolved on his successor and merchant fleets. In 1761 he Germany; the nation, on the Carteret (1742-1744). became Admiral of the Fleet, other hand, regarded the
The retirement of Walpole inaugurates war chiefly in its colonial bearings
a new phase in British foreign policy; we may call it the colonial phase. Colonies, sea power, and sea trade had been among the objects for which Engand fought in the Stuart • and revolutionary epochs ;
4514
Hence the subsidies which the Minister lavished upon German princes soon occasioned biting criticisms, and William Pitt won his spurs by attacking Carteret in the House of Commons. " This great,
GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE WHIGS
this powerful, this formidable kingdom," said the future confederate of Frederic II., " is now considered only as a province to a despicable Sectorate." The victory of Dettingen, in 1743, more creditable to the personal gallantry of George II. than to his skill as a general, did not pacify the Opposition. Car- teret, though a brilliant debater, failed to convince the country that his plans were sound, and failed also to redeem their defects by discovering successful generals. He was forced to retire in 1744, and the management of affairs passed to his former col- leagues, the Pelhams. The Pelhams were poor diplo- mats, and as War Ministers beneath contempt. But their enormous influence
THE OLD PRETENDER"
country. Under the Pelhams nothing wasj effected at sea except the capture of Cape Breton, in 1745, and the destruction ot two French squadrons. The commerce of France suffered by the war, but her losses were of a temporary character. Both army and navy had de- teriorated under thfe peace administration of Walpole, and the government was further hampered by the Scottish rebellion. Hence, little was gained by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. England and France resigned their conquests, the Pretender was expelled from France, and the French recognised the Hanoverian Succession. It was a truce rather than a peace. But the Pelhams made the mis-
The son of James II. of England and of , , ^ , .
his second queen, Mary of Modena. take of COUntlUg UpOU a
and their skill in party james Francis Edward faUed in his lengthy peace, and began management enabled them efforts to win back the throne from ^q reduce the strength of
which his father had been driven. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^
to keep a working majority.
Henry Pelham, the Prime Minister, took into the government all the Tories who might have been dangerous. The opposition which he had to encounter came chiefly from his fellow Ministers, and mattered little, since his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, kept the Commons well in hand. The chief care of the brothers was to extricate themselves from the war. They helped Austria with subsidies alone, and, in 1745, con- cluded a separate peace with Prussia which com- pelled Maria Theresa to acquiesce in the loss of Silesia.
But the war with France continued, and went badly. An English army was de- feated at Fontenoy in 1745, and the Duke of Cum- berland shared with the allies the humiliation of Lauffeld in 1747 ; nor were the successes of the navy conspicuous. The remarkable voyage in which Captain Anson (1740-1744) circurhnavigated the globe, like another Drake, plundering the Spanish colonies and merchant fleets, was a feat of more brilliance than profit to the
In Great Britain, the most important feature of a war, otherwise lacking in significant results, was the episode of " the Forty-five." Jacobitism made its last serious attempt in that year, led by the young " Pretender " {i.e., claimant), Charles Edward Stuart. Without hope of foreign aid, the prince landed almost alone, in the west of Scotland. The passionate loyalty of chiefs and clans- men placed him at the head of an army of High- landers. Edinburgh fell into his hands; the camp of the government com- mander. Sir John Cope, was surprised and his forces were put to ignominious rout. A few weeks later, Charles was over the Border, marching on London, where
„^„„^„^- w^^^ panic prevailed. But
cessfui as his father in his attempts upon whcu he reached Derby!,
the Crown, though he aroused the love COUnSCls of prudcnce oi* and enthusiasm of the Scottish people, despair triumphed. The
Enghsh Jacobites had not risen ; the gathering armies of the government were bound to annihilate his force if he advanced, unless something like a miracle happened. From the moment the retreat began, the cause was hopelessly lost.
4513
"THE YOUNG PRETENDER" Prince Charles Edward Stuart, son of " the Old Pretender," was quite as unsuc
CHARLES EDWARD STUART, "BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE" There is no more romantic story in history than that of the young Stuart prince who fought in vain for the throne of his forefathers. If the devotion and enthusiasm of friends could have achieved the triumph of his cause, then " Bonnie Prince Charlie " would have succeeded ; but the nation as a whole had no desire to bring: back the Stuart dynasty. Prince Charles landed in Scotland from France in 1745, held court at Holyrood. defeated Cope at Prestonpans, and with 6,500 men marched into England. At Culloden on April 16th, 1746. his cause received its death-blow. i^rom the paiating by John Pettie, R.A.. photographed by CaswaU Smith
4516
GREAT BRITAIN UNDER THE WHIGS
In spite of a severe defeat inflicted on General Hawley, at Falkirk, Charles had to withdraw into the Highlands. Thither the Duke of Cumberland pursued hip- • the last hopes of the Stuarts were extinguished on the Field of Culloden, and with them the last hopes of the Scottish patriots who still hankered for separation from England. The govern- ment, indeed, aroused considerable indig- nation even among loyalists by the severity of the treatment which it meted out to the rebels. But the Highlands, where alone a new rebellion might be
From 1746 the history of Scotland was one of increasing prosperity and of brilliant intellectual development. The historian and philosopher Hume ; Adam Smith, the founder of economic science ; James Thom- son, the poet of Nature ; Macpherson, the editor and forger of the Ossianic poems — these are perhaps the best known figures of this northern renaissance. But they were supported by other writers and thinkers of more than respectable merit ; and the day was not far distant when Burns and Scott were to express in their different manners the quintessence of the national character.
AFTER CULLODEN: PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD A FUGITIVE IN THE HIGHLANDS Defeated by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden, " the Young Pretender" fled to the Western Highlands, where, surrounded by loyal friends, chief among whom was the heroine Flora Macdonald, he evaded capture. After five months' wandering, he escaped to France. The above picture represents the Stuart prince sleeping in a cave on the hillside, while his faithful Highlanders stand by on guard, a reward of $150,000 having been offered for his capture.
apprehended, were disarmed ; and the power of the chiefs was undermined by an act abolishing their jurisdictions.
The clansmen murmured against the new rule of peace and law, but the only possible escape lay in emigration to the New World, or enlistment under the colours of the British army. Both courses were ex- tensively adopted ; and if, on the one hand, emigrants contributed to the bitterness of the feud between England and the colonies, on the other hand, the Highland regiments, raised by the elder Pitt, became a most valuable element in the British army.
The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle separated England from Austria, the one ally to whom she had been bound by all the ties of interest ; for Maria Theresa bitterly resented the pressure which the Pelhams had put upon her to secure her concurrence in the European settlement. And France presumed upon English isolation. Both in North America and in India the pioneers of French colonisation waged unremitting war upon the interests of England. In the New World attempts were made to form a cordon of French forts extending from Canada to Louisiana,
4517
History of the world
in order that the British might be con- fined to the eastern httoral ; and the colonists of Nova Scotia had cause to com- plain of French aggressions. Meanwhile Dupleix, the French representative in India, used the feuds and dynastic wars of native states to extend his country's in- fluence throughout the Pro- vince of Madras. In 1751 there was open war between the British and French for the ascendancy in the Carnatic. The crisis brought Robert
The war he was incapable of managing. His nominee, General Brad- dock, was defeated and killed on the way to Fort Duquesne in 1755 ; the Ohio and Missis- sippi seemed to be lost for ever. Outside Parliament there was the greatest readi- ness to help the Ministry by private effort. A loan of $5,000,000 was subscribed three times over as soon as floated ; large bounties were paid for recruits out of voluntary subscriptions. Newcastle hit by accident
was verv
enced the legislation of the period.
with
^1- - ., f , J r ADAM SMITH , ,
Clive to the front, and after a Scottish political economist, he upon the popular means of his achievement at Arcot Natu*e'"L^/clures"o"t^e Wealth satisfying popular demands. British predominance in the of Nations "—a book wWch influ- In 1756, by concluding
Prussia an agreement which was really, though not avowedly, directed against France, he pre- pared an ade- quate resistance to the coalition of France and Austria, which was forming under the auspices of Kau- nitz. But the failure of Byng at Minorca, the capture of
south of India soon assured. This success,ho w- ever, momentous as it proved in the future, did not allay the anxiety of the British Par- liament. The interests of com- merce formed at this time the all- engrossing topic of debate. There was a general feeling of insecu- rity. Ministers These brave seamen reasserted the maritime supremacy of England
f\\A nnf rnm- by the victories of Quiberon and Lagos, the destruction of Cherbourg, Ocwpcrr. Fnrf h^r aia not com- and the bombardment of Havre. Rodney was created a peer with '-^SWCgO rOrtOy mand the con- a pension of §10,000 a year. Lord Hawke, in 1766, was appointed First Montcalm the
Lord of the Admiralty, and in 1768 became Admiral of the Fleet '
TWO FAMOUS ADMIRALS: RODNEY AND HAWKE
fidence of the country, or eyen of the members who voted for their measures. Many critics as- serted that the Whig system of government by corruption had sapped the national morale and energy. Nothing, it was thought, but a great war, conducted by a man of genius, could save the country from the fatal lethargy which had overtaken it. War broke out in America in 1754, and found Ministers unprepared. The death of Henry Pelham
fall of Calcutta before Sura j ah Dowlah in 1756, were events which seemed to stamp his ad- ministration as hopelessly inefficient, and to seal the doom of the colonial policy. At this juncture he dis- covered in William Pitt the necessary War Minister. Pitt had been Paymaster of the Forces for a time, but his voice had been chiefly heard in opposition. He was with-
out private influence or
PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM ofifirial PYnpHpnrp • Vip wac - , , William Pitt, the great statesman, OmCiai experience , UC WaS
left Newcastle confused and made his mark in the government kuowu chicfly as a brilliant irresolute. He could barely ofitsfilt"ory."H"e^i^a"raU!ed'to"he debater and rhetorician. But manage the selfish groups into peerage as Lord Chatham in 1766. jjg commanded the confidence which the Whig party was dissolving, of the people, and soon showed that
451&
ADMIRAL RODNEY BOMBARDING THE FRENCH TOWN OF HAVRE IN 1759 Anchoring before Havre in the month of July, Admiral Rodney bombarded the town, setting it on fire in several places.
their confidence was justified. Ruling the House of Commons by the influence which he bor- rowed from Newcastle, he was, neverthe- less, a demo- cratic leader, who boasted that he had received his mandate from the country, and would render his account to the people rather than to the Crown. His suc- cesses were doubly welcome, because they were felt to be won in the face of a corrupt party system and an unsympathetic sovereign. Pitt had two great and obvious
KING GEORGE III. Born in London in 1738, he succeeded to the throne in 1760, and, not content to leave the atfairs of the country in the hands of his
defects as a statesman — he was impatient of detail, and he spent money with unnecessary pro- fusion. He had an invincible love of the theatrical, which appeared not merely in his private be- haviour, but also in his public policy. On the other hand, he grasped the Eu- ropean situation at a glance ; and the help, both in money and in men, which he lavished upon Frederic the Great proved the soundest of in- vestments. Pitt boasted, and with good reason, that
ministers, took a leadmg part in its government. He has been described he WOUld COUQ UCr as "brave, honest, and religious," and as representing the "type of » • ,i
the ordinary Englishman." In 1811 he became permanently insane. Amcnca On tlie
4519
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
banks of the Elbe ; for France found herself involved in a desperate Continental wal", which left her powerless to watch the interests of Canada. The Indian victories of CUve and Eyre Coote (1757-1761) owed little to Pitt's direct assistance ; but it was ^he European war ^hich enabled Clive to crush Surajah Dowlah, and Coote to destroy the settlement of Pondi- cherry in 1761. ' The events of Pitt's war ministry can be mentioned only in the briefest way. Hawke and Rodney and Bos- cawen reasserted the maritime supremacy of England by the yictories of Quiberon and Lagos, the de- struction of Cher- bourg, and the bom- bardment of Havre. In 1762 the French West Indies were one by one annexed, and the accession of Spain to the side of France was avenged by the capture of Havana and the Philippines. On land Wolfe and Amherst were no less successful in their attacks npon Canada. The former pierished, in the moment of victory, at Quebec in 1759, but the re- duction of the colony was completed by his colleague in the following year.
But Pitt's successes were brought prematurely to an end by a change of sovereigns. The old king died in 1760; and the successor, his grandson, George III., mounted the throne with a fixed resolve to free the prerogative from the trammels of the Whig ascendancy. The principles of Toryism,
QUEEN CHARLOTTE In 1761, the year after he ascended the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, George III. married Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whose portrait is given above.
LORD BUTE After the retirement of Pitt and Newcastle, the King's tutor, Lord Bute, was called to the head of the administration, and his first act was to renounce the Prussian alliance and to He died in 1792.
discredited in the country conclude the Treaty of Paris
and banished from Parliament, had found pended, an asylum in the royal family. The new king had been trained in the theories of Bolingbroke, who from his retirement had consistently preached the specious doctrine that a king should be above all parties,
4530
and should choose his Ministers without reference to their connections. The odium which corruption had brought upon the party system emboldened George III. to apply these lessons without loss of time. --^ He sowed dissension
in the Cabinet of Pitt and Newcastle, per- suaded the majority to vote against the opening of war with Spain, and in 1761 d ove Pitt to seek refuge for his morti- fication in retirement. Newcastle was ousted in 1762 and the king's tutor, Lord Bute, was called to the head of the administration.
Bute's first act was to renounce the Prus- sian alliance and to conclude the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The treaty could not fail to be advantageous, but less was gained than the successes of Pitt had entitled the country to expect. Havana and the Philippines were restored to Spain, as having been taken after the conclusion of peace; Guadeloupe, the wealthiest of the West Indies, and Pondicherry, the chief of France's In- dian settlements, were abandoned without any valid reason. France sur- rendered Canada, Cape Breton, Grenada, the Leeward Islands, and Minorca ; but she re- tained St. Pierre and the Miquelons, with valuable fishing rights on the New- foundland coast, and on the mainland she kept her foothold in Louisiana. The peace was sharply criticised in England. Bute and the queen- mother, upon whose favour he mainly de- became the most unpopular persons in the country. Bute retired, and a new double constitutional struggle was inaugurated between the king and Ministers, and between mother country and colonies. Arthur D. Innes
|
WESTERN EUROPE |
^df^Mlk |
WR^t |
THE |
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FROM THE |
wSm^ mSf^J^ |
B^^B-Jp '^^^fctf |
J^^ i/ll-"~ |
ENDING |
|
REFORMATION |
1 1 •. jfd^^^a^^ |
^MJpK^^HM^^^^y |
OF THE |
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OLD ORDER |
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REVOLUTION |
6^^^^^ |
III |
THE GREAT HAPSBURG MONARCHY
AND THE SUCCESSION OF MARIA THERESA
"T^HE decision of the question of the '• Spanish succession, the conquest of Hungary, the fact that since the Peace of Westphalia the so-called German inherit- ance had unceasingly shown a tendency to separation from the empire, made it imperative that there should be some formal constitution of the Hapsburg possessions, a first tentative effort for the formation of a comprehensive state. There was no Austrian state in existence, there was merely a family property, a union of kingdoms and countries, with or without constitutional ties, with or without common interests, brought into mutual relation only through the person of the monarch, pos- sessing the most varied privileges and burdened with the most diverse obliga- tions. The circumstances which had favoured the formation of a great dynastic power proved so many obstacles to the creation of a united kingdom. Many Th Sf f attempts have been made to
n ^ ^ Vl^^ date the first beginnings of the Point of the 1 . J T^, ° *=• , .
J. . kmgdom. 1 he permanent union
of Bohemia and Hungary to the German Alpine territory, dating from 1526, has been considered a starting point ; so have the attempts made at the outset of the seventeenth century to form a general conference of Landtag delegates. The recognition of the hereditary monarchy of the Hapsburgs in the lands of the Hun- garian crown in 1687 has been indicated as showing the need for closer connection between the several parts of the Hapsburg estate. But all these phenomena are to be explained as results of the growing power of the nobles, and have, moreover, merely proved the general fact that the formation of independent kingdoms from the several parts of the Hapsburg territory was an impossibility.
The resumption of the plan of uniting Bohemia, Moravia, and the Silesian prin- cipalities under a foreign rule split upon the rock of religious discord, and the Catholic powers were obliged to intervene
to secure the hereditary rights of Ferdinand II. The battle of the White Mountain put an end to the Bohemian constitution ; that is, to the idea of the Bohemian countries as an independent unity, with their own government, their own military and financial system. Bohemia
th* Wh*t ^^^ ^'^^'^ closely united to the
^ . . German Empire through the
Mountain <• ^i f, ^
person of the pnnce. Had
the Palatinate ruler maintained his ground, he would have been reduced to strengthen- ing to the best of his power the ties which united Germany to the empire and to securing the support of the Protestant orders by making concessions to the empire. In that case the Germanisation of the Czechs would have been brought about through the identity of their Church with that of the pure German countries.
The Catholic reaction had been carried out against the revolutionary Protestant parties without any consideration for the direction taken by the tide of national movements. Catholicism neither needed nor desired assistance from German sources, as its strength was based upon the Romance and Slavonic, not upon the German peoples. The conquest of Hun- gary would certainly have been impossible without the help of Germany and her armed provinces ; but the empire had allowed the House of Hapsburg without protest to grasp the advantages gained, because it was itself unable to extend its supremacy over so large and so far distant a country, owing to the lack of an organised administration and of a standing imperial _ army. The means employed
s ac es ^y Brandenburg-Prussia for
aps urg the amalgamation of its differ-
Administratton , °. ■ . , ,
ent provmces mto one state
were impracticable for the House of Haps- burg. It was impossible to introduce a uniform administration for Hungary, Bohemia, and a dozen German duchies and counties with the same rapidity and success as Prussia had attained. The royal House
4521
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of Austria was involved to a far greater extent than were the Hohenzollerns in every European quarrel and compacation. For many decades it could have found no opportunity to turn its attention to domestic organisation, leaving aside questions of European importance and abandoning a foreign policy which made
for disunion and disruption.
Only critics without historical
The Victorious Army of Prince Eugene
training,who would judge the
past by the alien conceptions
of the present, wouldsuppose that adominat-
ing position could ever have been attained
by the so-called idea of constitutional
totality in old Austria, conceived from the
point of view of a Roman emperor, who
was at the same time King of Hungary,
and thought it his duty to uphold his
claims of succession to Spain and Naples,
to Milan and to the Netherlands.
A common unity is to be seen for the
first time in the army of Prince Eugene.
However, it was not the Austrian, but the
" emperor's " army which he led from
victory to victory. This, compared with
the " imperial " army, was a uniform
whole, whether fighting in Italy or in the
Netherlands. Within the empire it was
often subdivided. Troops from special
provinces and districts were joined to its
regiments, and were commanded by
generals who were paid by the empire
and not by the emperor. The armed
provinces of the empire were far readier
to protest against the division of their
contingents than was the emperor in the
case of his own forces ; consequently we
can speak of the Brandenburg-Prussian,
of the Bavarian, even of the Hanoverian
army before we can employ the term
" Austrian " army. The diplomatic
service of the German Hapsburgs acted
in the name of the emperor, as more
privileges were thus to be enjoyed. As
regards revenue, receipts came in from
the most varied sources — feudal aids.
At f 1.1 grants from the Landtag, An Insoluble ° , •,• ,.,, , , <="
p . J subsidies, tithe?, general taxes
• «♦ » ft — so that it would have been impossible to draw up a separate balance-sheet for the state revenue of Austria alone.
The creation of a state without national union, without even a leadership sup- ported by a majority capable of great exertions, could not possibly be the work of a few generations ; it is a problem in statecraft which has remained insoluble
♦522
to the present day. The first steps which brought the solution somewhat nearer could proceed only from the ruling house itself ; they consist in the constitutional recognition of the ruling power as a unity and in the securing of the succession in order to obviate disruption.
Ferdinand I. could see no special danger to the power of the ruling house in the disruption and dissolution of his dominion into separate principalities ; he considered that the position of the imperial monarch was of overpowering predominance. The master of the inner Austria territories, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, the Count of Tyrol and the possessor of the Swabian and Upper Rhine frontiers, could only pursue the policy marked out by their imperial brother or cousin. The " fra- ternal quarrel," the party differences be- tween Rudolf and Matthias, show the possibility of strong opposition between the members of one and the same house. Spanish interest in the strength of the German family, and also the interest which the Catholic Church had in the mainten- ance of Catholicism in the Alpine and _ _ household territories, were
r r j"* J' the motive causes of the of Ferdm&nd s , ^^ ,. j tt
c supremacy of Ferdinand 11.
Supremacy -v. r ^i.
over the possessions oi the
German House of Hapsburg. The special position of the Tyrol under his brother Leopold was a concession to personal and private rights of inheritance, an indul- gence which left no permanent effect upon the constitution, as the Tyrol branch became extinct in the second generation.
Neither Ferdinand II. nor Ferdinand III. had the opportunity of settling the succession to the collective inheritance according to family regulations, as they had only one successor capable of govern- ment. Leopold I., however, contributed to the regulation of the succession when he and his eldest son Joseph re- nounced the Spanish succession in favour of the second son, the Archduke Charles. The emperor then made an openly ex- pressed agreement with his sons, that the succession in the two lines should go by primogeniture ; that is to say, that Charles and his descendants should inherit the undivided German Hapsburg lands upon the extinction of the male line in Joseph's family, and similarly Joseph and his descent were to have the whole Spanish monarchy should the Spanish line now founded by Charles become extinct. Should the male
THE GREAT HAPSBURG MONARCHY
issue fail in both lines simultaneously — that is, before the descendants of either could succeed — then the right of primogeniture was to pass to the daughters in Joseph's line, these also preceding Charles's female issue as regards the Spanish succession
This pact as to the mutual succession was attested by the three parties con- cerned on September 12th, 1703, and declared by them to be the expression of a custom previously subsisting in the House of Hapsburg. It was further ex- tended by the will of Leopold I., dated April 26th, 1705, by which he secured his son Charles in the possession of the Tyrol and the land on its frontier, though " without the right of making alliance or war," in case nothing should come down to him of the whole of the Spanish succes- sion. The Emperor Joseph I. died in the prime of life without male issue and without making definite arrangements for his daughters. According to the Pact of 1703, Charles VI. was sole heir to all the Haps- burg possessions, both Ger- man and Spanish. He actually entered into pos- session of both, inasmuch as he extended his power over a considerable portion of the Spanish dominion. Joseph's daughters yielded precedence to his own. For the former, the emperor was bound"
The Famous
Pr&gmatic
Sanction
as the Emperor
undivided in like manner and according to the order and right of primogeniture, to the legitimate surviving daughters." Only upon the failure of such legitimate issue of the ruling emperor was the right of succession to pass to the daughters of Joseph, also by primogeniture. This transaction and the emperor's explanation were embodied in a protocol known Pragmatic Sanction of the Charles VI., which is to be considered as one of the constitutional foundations of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The comparatively few words which express the contents of the docu- ment determine the permanent union of the territory of the German Hapsburgs in the form of a great power, which union is founded upon the exercise of a uniform government throughout the kingdoms and provinces which compose that territory. The uniformity consists not only in the supremacy of the one monarch, but also in his exercise of the governmental ]iowers vested in himself. These powers proceed, it is true, from his relations with individual kingdoms and provinces, but they are con- joined in personal executive power possessed by the
EMPEROR CHARLES VI. pouarch, and are expressed
He was declared emperor in 1711 in decrees of Uniform applic-
merely to provide according j " a^lfd^'lddld^'ljns'iderab? ^°o^^ ability. "The right of war, to the custom of his family, territories. The Pragmatic Sane- of peace and of alliance" — that Joseph's sudden death had_"°" ""^^ "»« "''J*^' °^ ^'^ P^^'^y- is to say, the entire foreign
is subject to the exclusive will of
thrown the imperial Privy Council into some perplexity as to the fate of his kingdom. They sent a request to Charles, who was still in Spain, asking him for a definite explanation. This explanation was not given until April 19th, 1713, before an assembly of court dignitaries and of the highest officials of Lower Austria. The emperor had the " Pact of mutual succession " read aloud, and then „ . . delivered a speech, wherein he
CUimed'" ^^^^ ^°^" *^^* ^y *^^ arrange- CK*"?* wi ment all kingdoms and terri- ■ tories possessed by the Emperors Leopold and Joseph passed to himself, and that " these territories should remain undivided, passing to the male issue of his body in primogeniture so long as such issue should exist ; upon the extinction of the said male issue the succession should pass,
policy-
the general ruler of the whole area ; he alone has the right to raise an army by means of the supplies granted by the king- doms and provinces, and with this his army to defend the interests of his house and of all the territories in the possession of that house.
The uniformity and universality of the ruling power cease at this point. Nothing is recognised by the Pragmatic Sanction as common to or binding upon the whole state except that which can be immediately deduced from the sovereignty ; hence the dynastic powers of the German Haps- burgs were not constituted as a state by the Pragmatic Sanction, although they did constitute a " great power," in view of the influence which they were able to exer- cise upon the course of European affairs.
4523
4524
THE GREAT HAPSBURG MONARCHY
In the solemn desJaration of Charles VI. no account was taken of the relations of the sovereignty to individual provinces, for this would have implied the raising of constitutional questions and complica- tions ; naturally, the destiny of the whole empire could not be made contingent upon the ultimate issue of these. The numerous provincial bodies politic were by no means on an equality in point of strength, and a compacted agreement with them would not have produced a statute of so funda- mental a nature as could be brought about by a simple expression of will on the part of a number of kings, dukes, and princes. By far the easier course was to obtain a supplementary consent from the several Landtags to the emperor's declara- tion which was laid before them. Negotiations for this purpose were begun in the year 1720, on the infant Archduke Leo- pold's death. He was the emperor's son, born in 1716, and there was no other male issue surviving.
When the Pragmatic Sanction was delivered to the Landtags, letters were also sent, speaking for the first time of the " object " of the Sanction. Upon the " union " of the kingdom and provinces (so ran the wording) de- pended the prosperity of
economic interests in common, particularly
the question of resistance to the Turks ;
and in this way their constitutional ties
with Hungary threatened to grow relaxed.
In Bohemia and in the other hereditary
provinces assent to the Pragmatic Sanction
. was given without difficulty,
xi^'n" *. stress only being laid upon the the Pragmatic • , -^ P,, ■ r, ,,
c ^. mamtenance of privileges
Sanction , , . . , *^ , ^9
and of provincial regulations.
In Bohemia it was thought unnecessary to make special mention of the peculiar rights of either one of the two nationalities under the empire; but the town of Eger, before which care had been taken to lay the proposals for regulating the succession, associated itself and its territory with the assent given by the Bohemian Lan4tag, " without detriment to the privileges granted in respect of the Eger pawn- money by the Roman emperors and the kings of Bohemia." The Tyrol provinces regretted that they were deprived of the prospect of having a resi- dent prince of their own, and demanded that the future reigning lo'rd should be of " German blood."
In Hungary, provincial representation was a national and constitu- tional institution, and had lost but Uttle of the power which it had possessed in previous
the kingdom and the the empress maria theresa
" peace of the populations, '^^^ daughter of the Emperor charies VI.. she centuries ; hence \he dis-
^ . 1 1 II was appointed by her father heir to his heredi- • i x i
provinces, and vassals, tary thrones, and at his death, in 1740, be- cussious lu the Landtag
Within the government came Queen of Hungary and of Bohemia and
area the proposal was Archduchess of Austria " —
She died in 1780.
issued for the calling of a " congress of the provinces." The Landtag of Lower Austria urged the advisability of an " hereditary alliance," whereby the provinces as a whole should mutually guarantee their interde- pendence. Although Prince Eugene was apparently in favour of this method of . .._ introducing the general repre-
f th °''*^'^*** sentation of the provinces, yet
„ ^ „ the government declined to
Provinces ere i ^
agree, for fear of encroachment
and confusion. Proceedings of this kind might arouse misgivings in such cases as that of Hungary, for since 171 2 the Croatian provinces had begun to form a closer con- nection with the provinces of Ijiner Austria, with which they had many political and
of 1722-1723 have a greater importance than any which took place elsewhere in the Hapsburg territories. As early as 171 2 Hungary had demanded that every province of the empire should enter into a special convention to recognise their common ruler under any circumstances, and to contribute a fixed sum for the maintenance of the military frontier guards and the garrisons in the Hungarian for- tresses, since Hungary was conscious of its position as buffer state between the Turks and the hereditary territories and Bohemia, and therefore desired a guarantee of continued support. Moreover, in the statute wherein the Landtag formulated its decision upon the question of the succession the condition was laid down
4525
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
that the heir or heiress of the Hapsburg House, whom they were ready to recognise as monarch, was to enter upon the posses- sion of an " indissoluble whole," composed of the totahty of the Hapsburg territories. No portion of the hereditary territory was to be alienated by division or in any other
^ j.^. manner; it was to form a
Conditions , j •. v i i j-
»4i. w u hereditary whole, mcludmg of the Hapsburg ., i • j r tt
Succession ^^^^ kingdom of Hungary
and its adjoining territory. Thus the Hungarian Landtag of 1722- 1723 displayed a dualism in its conclu- sions, and described its relations to the ruling house and to the non-Hungarian possessions of that house with a clearness and accuracy which gave it an indisputable advantage in all constitutional difficulties over the Germanic-Slavonic-Roman terri- torial group, which had hitherto been heavily burdened by the difficulty of assimilating certain districts.
In Hungary the constitutional value of the Pragmatic Sanction was far more highly estimated than in the other countries, whose representatives had accepted the rules for the succession without being fully informed of the importance of the step they were taking, and had missed the opportunity of anticipating the agreement with Hun- gary by first procuring a settlement of their own affairs and mutual rights and duties. In this case they would have been able to propose conditions to the Hungarian state, under which they would have been prepared to guarantee the desired support. In like manner, unfamili- arity with the historical development of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, an astonishing lack of general political educa- tion and of real constitutional knowledge, is the reason why the German liberals of the nineteenth century have made claims upon the common kingdom which it can never hope to meet by reason of its origin and organisation.
Charles VI. and his council were not incUned to attach too much importance _ , to the expressions of assent re- j."?? "t * ceived from the Landtags of the .. p . hereditary territories. They , were by no means penetrated
with the idea that the unity of the kingdom and the provinces was wholly indispensable. From the territories over which they ruled they did not think it possible to evolve a state capable of developing sufficient strength to secure its existence against aggression. Only one man believed in this
4526
possibility, even as he believed in the high capacity of the imperial army — namely. Prince Eugene, known as the" Savoyard," although he was a true Austrian. It was against his desire that the emperor had subordinated his entire policy to the one object of securing the recognition of his rules for the succession by the European powers. From the Peace of Rastat onwards there was no congress, no treaty, no conclusion of peace — and there was a remarkable number of these during his reign — into which he did not foist some clause upon this point.
The guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction by the empire was of the highest import- ance, because the withdrawal of the German-Austrian territory from the empire was thus made possible, and the Hapsburg House gained the right of uniting into a constitutional whole such of its possessions as belonged to the empire, the imperial provinces, and the kingdom of Bohemia, which was " con- joined " to the empire with its neighbour- ing territory, together with an independent state, such as Hungary. During the
. ^ . . negotiations carried on in Austria and ^^ , ,, • , • .
. -, Regensburg upon this subject
_, . the German Empire declared
itself entirely on the side of the imperial house, recognised the necessity for the existence of an Austrian monarchy, and showed the connection of the empire with it. " This declaration of assent may be considered as the first compact of the German Empire with Austria, for the Reichstag treats with the House of Hapsburg as with an independent power, for the maintenance of which the empire came forward in its own clearly recognised interests."
The credit of securing this guarantee belongs to Frederic William I., King of Prussia, who had become the emperor's ally by the compacts of Konigswuster- hausen on October 12th, 1726, and of Berlin on December 23rd, 1728. It was through his powerful influence that ths proposals were carried in the Reichstag in spite of the opposition of Bavaria and Saxony. The tour which he made in 1730 round certain German coasts which had as yet taken no share in the discussions was undertaken with the object of gaining their support for the emperor and of recom- mending them to concur in the guarantee. Bavaria and Saxony opposed it in vain. Notwithstanding the wavering attitude
MARIA THERESA APPEALING FOR HELP TO THE HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT The death of the Emperor Charles VI. was followed by the accession of his daughter Maria Theresa to the Hapsburg territories and by the claims of other powers for a share in these great possessions. Terrified at the approach of the allied army to Vienna, Maria Theresa, with her infant son, who afterwards became Joseph II., fled to Hungary, where she was received with enthusiasm. Appearing before the Hungarian ParUament at Presburg with her son m her arms, she called upon the nation to defend her against her enemies, and, stirred by her appeal, the whole assembly rose, and, drawing their swords, exclaimed, ' ' Our lives and our blood for your Majesty ! We will die for onr king, Maria Theresa 1
From the picture by Laslett J. Pott
4527
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the Palatinate, they were unable to secure a majority in the college of electors ; consequently, the only course open to them was to protest against the resolution of the Reichstag and to declare that it was not binding upon themselves.
In consequence, the imperial govern- ment could certainly conclude that, not- _ withstanding the numerous
pposi ion ^^^g ^^ diplomacy which they to Fem&le i j x 4.u
c . employed to secure the guaran-
Succession . ^ -^ , i • i. ^i,
tees, a struggle agamst the
female succession in the House of Hapsburg would inevitably ensue, for the two pro- testing electors proceeded to lay claim to certain portions of the inheritance upon the strength of their connection with the imperial family. Joseph I.'s eldest daughter, Maria Josepha, had married Frederic Augustus II. of Saxony on August 20th, lyiq, and her sister, Maria Amalia, had married Charles Albert of Bavaria on October 30th, 1722. Hence the obvious course of a clever politician would have been to cleave at all costs to the strongest supporter, Prussia, and to bind that country to the interests of the imperial house even at the price of voluntary concessions.
But Austria during the last few years had been slackening the bond between herself and Prussia. Though she had to thank Prussia, and no one else, for the passing of the guarantees, she declined to continue the support which she had previously promised to the king in the matter of the Juliers-Cleves inheritance. Ttt ask that the Austrian statesmen of the period should have clearly foreseen that the foundation of an independent monarchy was incompatible with a permanent sove- reignty of the empire would be to ask over- much of them, although we now can see that to break away from the narrow limits of the provinces of the empire and at the same time to claim supremacy among them was impossible. The time had come when it would be necessary to
^1. rk *!. struggle for influence with the The Death •••1.1. x ,1.
- _ rismg military power of the
Q. "^ * VI ^o^th German state. But from
the standpoint of practical
politics it may be asserted that the neglect
of Prussia was inspired by false conceptions
of the strength of the respective parties,
and that the loss of the Prussian support was
not to be counterbalanced by the dearly
bought assent of France to the guarantee.
With the death of the Emperor Charles
VI., on October 20th, 1740, that royal
4528
family became extinct which had been iounded by Rudolf I. and carried by Charles V. to the highest pitch of earthly power. The countries which the Prag- matic Sanction had declared to be a political whole were now obliged to act for the maintenance of that measure. It was now to be decided whether the position of the German Hapsburg house should be assumed by the Hapsburg-Lorraine family, which rested on the alliance — May 13th, 1717 — of the eldest daughter of Charles VI., Maria Theresa, with Francis, Duke of Lorraine ; whether that family should continue to hold in connec- tion the territory of the Hapsburgs in all that wide extent which had made it the equal of powers founded upon a national basis.
The division of the territory was de- manded by the Elector of Bavaria, Charles Albert, over whose youth the Emperors Leopold and Joseph had watched with true paternal care during the proscription of his father Max Emanuel. In 1722 he had been privileged to marry the latter emperor's second daughter. He based _ . his claims upon numerous
th ^H** °b points of relation to the family, e aps urg ^j^gjjj^pQj-j-^nceof which seemed Territories , ^ ■ -, , r 1 -c
^ to be 'increased by a lalsin-
^ cation fti'fitfie wiil' of Ferdinand I. of -^^avaria. He claimed all the family
"territory, ajid, declared Maria Theresa to be Queen of Hungary only.
The threats of Charles Albert would have be^n of li«ttle moment if Bavaria had not had numerous supporters in" Austria itself, and if Maria Theresa had had only this opponent to deal with. But a far more dangerous enemy arose in the person of King Frederic II. of Prussia, who succeeded to the throne in the year of Charles VI. 's death. He denied the validity of the guarantee given by Prussia, as the deceased emperor had not made the return which he had promised. He claimed compensation for the principality of Jagerndorf, which had been lost to his family owing to the collapse of the Winter kingdom, and also for the Schwiebus district, which his grandfather, Ferdinand I., had been forced to cede.
In either case the question of the justice of the claim was to him a matter of indiffer- ence. Frederic grasped at the chance of recovering these districts for which there had been so much strife, for he con- sidered that he required Lower Silesia to
TIffi
GREAT HAPSBURG MONARCHY
CHARLES ALBERT VH. He was elected and crowned Holy Roman Emperor on January
round off his possessions on the Oder, and had no intention of letting sHp an oppor- tunity so favourable for his own aggran- disement. He offered Maria Theresa his support against Bavaria, and was ready to vote for the election of her husband as emperor ; further, he was prepared to guarantee her German posses- sions and to pay a subsidy of 2,000,000 thalers for military preparations if Silesia as far as Breslau was ceded to him. It was not an impossible bargain for Austria, and a far-sighted politician would probably have recommended it ; but Frederic did not wait for any acceptance. In the middle of December, 1740, he poured 20,000 men into Silesia. At no matter what cost, the Austrian court declined to recognise the legality of an act of mere marauding on a grand scale. 2«h, 1742, although he possessed
The young Archduchess "° t«"itory. He died in 1745, and Queen of Hungary, wit)i; all the warmth of that ardent character which makes her so attractive a personality, assented to the counsel of the passionate Bartenstein, who declared against the Prussian proposals. She was actuated by indignation against infidelity, real or supposed, by a natural dislike to giving up land or property, and, finally, by the firm con- viction that it was her duty to cling to the heritage which she had taken up at all costs. The Hapsburgs were never covetous, but were obstinate in their defence of their rights.
Maria Theresa's stand against Prussia is an act rather of moral worth than of political importance. Her courage and her obstinacy, which proceeded from an ^^^^^ ^^^^ oftuscany
mvinClDle trust m God, Francis ofLon-aine, afterwards the
virtues of the German wife and mother, a mistress both dignified and gentle, a stern commander at need, of strong determina- tion, thorough and true in hate and love alike, endowed with that splendid beauty which stirs enthusiasm, it was not only in her native land that she won her people's hearts ; even by hostile nations she was speedily known as the " Great Em- press." Uncertainty and vacillation, the two deadly enemies to monarchical power, were unknown to her. She may have been deceived as to the forces which she had at her disposition, but she was well aware of the special characteristics of her empire. It was plain to her that Hungary's independent administration must be pre- served, whereas the adminis- trative power was to be centralised in the " German and Bohemian hereditary land." Though consenting to coronation, she did not permit the Bohemian con- stitutional privileges to grow larger, and kept a careful watch upon the uniformity and equality of the administration. Her full appreciation of the value of proper administration fitted her to walk in the ways which lead to the form- ing of states. With Maria Theresa begins the difficult transition from dynastic to constitutional power, which has continued to our own time. It should have come to an earlier conclusion, but the unjustifiable concessions made by liberalism to the form of the constitution have hindered its consummation.
Under Maria Theresa the relations of the ruling house to Bohemia partook for the second time of the character of a supremacy based on
enabled her people the more Grand Duke of Tuscany, married
readily to see in her hoxise the ^^"^ Theresa in 1736, and in 1745 conquest^ The kingdom had natural continuation of the ^** * **^ ^ ° ^ °™*" mperor. ^^ ^^ conquered by force of old royal family whose sorrows and joys
they had shared for the last 500 years. They shared also in her unjustifiable hatred against Frederic, and gave her their 'genuine sympathy as to one oppressed and persecuted. German from the crown of her head to the sole of her foot, with all the
288
arms after it had already submitted to the imperial government. In November, 1741, the Elector of Bavaria invaded Bohemia from Upper Austria, of which he had already gained possession. Prague surrendered almost without resistance, and there he received homage to himself as
4529
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
kingon November 25th. The constitutional representatives of Bohemia then surren- dered the rights of the Hapsburg House without scruple. No fewer than 400 mem- bers of the Bohemian orders — among them men who bore honoured names — took the oath of allegiance in person, although no irresistible pressure was put upon them. The Bavarian " peoples " would have been considerably embarrassed if the Bohemian nobles, who were ever ready to boast of their dependency upon the imperial house, had remained in their castles and organised a guerrilla warfare instead of hastening to Prague to kiss the hand of the Elector of Bavaria.
It was not until Maria Theresa had made peace with Prussia that she found her power equal to driving the Bavarians out of the country, together with the French; who were supporting them. These latter felt no pricks of conscience in thus breaking the guarantee which they had given to the Pragmatic Sanction. Beaten in the two battles of Mollwitz, on April loth, 1741, and of Chotusitz, north of Caslan, on May 17th, 1742, she agreed to give up Silesia with the exception of the principalities of Troppau and Teschen and the larger part of Jagerndorf. On the other hand, she was also obliged to sacrifice Glatz— of importance as being indis- pensable to the agreement with Frederic. However, the treaties of peace concluded at Breslau on June nth and at Berlin on June 28th, 1742, were not made in an honourable spirit.
Hardly had Maria enjoyed the benefits of the pacification, reconquered Bavaria, and convinced the world that her empire was a living reality, when she began to make plans for revenge upon Prussia. She was not attracted by the possibility of gaining Bavaria in place of Silesia, a proposition which might have been mentioned early in the negotiations, the motive being the utter cowardice of Charles Albert VII., who had been elected and crowned Roman Emperor on January 24th, 1742, although he possessed no terri- tory— Maria Theresa's husband would have had to cede Tuscany to the Wittelsbacher as his share of the bargain. By the Peace of Fussen,on April 22nd, 1745, she gave back
4530
Bavaria together with the upper Palatinate to the Elector Maximilian Joseph III., the son of the Emperor Charles VII., who had died on January 20th, 1745. She recognised the imperial position of his father, and entered into negotiations with Saxony, Russia, and France.
Frederic II. had been already convinced that Austria's alliance with these powers wouJd cost him not only Silesia but also his position in Europe, and made, therefore, his second invasion at the end of August, 1744. At Hohenfriedeberg, on June 4th, and at Soor, on September 30th, 1745, he beat the Austrians, and also the Saxons at Kesselsdorf on Decem- ber 15th, 1745, and secured his possession of his acquisitions by the second treaty of peace, which was concluded in Dresden on Christmas Day, 1745. Austria gained thereby the recognition of Maria Theresa's husband, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francis, as Roman Empercr. His election had taken place on October 4th, and the con- sent of the Bohemian elec- torate was obtained through Brandenburg-Prussia.
The Queen of Hungary and Bohemia thus became em- press as the consort of the emperor. In the eyes of posterity the imperial dignity PRINCE VON KAUNiTZ ^^1^^ encirclcs her is not
Ministerunder the Empress Maria merely the reflection of the
rheresa.Kaunitz failed to advance somCwhat tamished CrOWU
the development of the Austrian . , i • i i i i
state and only checked it by With WhlCh ShC SaW her huS-
renewing hostifities with Prussia. ^^^^ adomcd in Fraukfort.
During her reign a remarkable phenomenon comes to pass, in that her empire gained a title wholly different from that which usually attaches to the word. Maria Theresa really begins the succession of the Austrian emperors, and with her is bound up the conception of an Austrian state.
If after the second Silesian war Austria had considered her quarrel with Prussia as terminated she would have been able to make far greater progress in respect of her internal development. Apart from this fact, a renewal of the alliance with Prussia would have brought about the complete downfall of the Bourbons, and perhaps have made possible the acquisition of Naples. The Minister Kaunitz, upon one occasion — in 175 1 — put forward these ideas, but relinquished them in face of the opposition of the empress. The policy of
THE ^GREAT HAPSBURG MONARCHY
Kaunitz was as disastrous as that of Metternich. Not only did Kaunitz fail to advance the development of the Austrian state, but he checked and interrupted it by renewing hostilities with Prussia. How much might have been attained with the re- sources which were squandered and wasted in the Seven Years War, under such adroit and prosperous guidance as Maria Theresa displayed in the regulation of her home affairs ! In any case, it would not have been necessary to subordinate every requirement of Hungary to the settlement of constitutional relations with neighbour-
historic antagonism of Hapsburg and Bourbon was lost in the personal anta- gonism of the two German sovereigns. The empress had found herself compelled to acquiesce in the act of deliberate robbery by which Silesia had been torn from her dominion ; but she could not forgive it. The formation of a league for the over- throw of Prussia became a passion with her. There were German states which entirely sympathised, and the Russian Tsarina had her own grudge against Frederic, which made her a probable ally. Under existing conditions, neither Spain
THE MARKET PLACE OF VIENNA IN THE TIME OF MARIA THERESA
From the painting by Belotto ^
ing countries, and with Croatia in par- ticular. The commercial undertakings of Charles., VI. might have been renewed. The persecution of the Protestants in the Alpine territories, which were already sufficiently depopulated, whereby valuable productive forces were destroyed, would not have been thought necessary by Maria Theresa had she not thought to discover supporters of the hated Prussian king even among her co-religionists at home.
Maria Theresa was, in fact, so com-
•pletely possessed by her antipathy for
Frederic that it absolutely dominated
every other political consideration. The
nor Sweden was likely to dffect European military combinations materially, but it was certain that Great Britain and France would be drawn into the vortex. It is scarcely surprising that Maria Theresa sought the French in preference to the British alliance. As a military power on the Continent, France was prima facie the more effective ; her armies counted for more than British subsidies, and the incapable Newcastle was at the head of the British Government, France joined the league, while Newcastle was surprised to find himself in the sahie galley with Frederic.
4531
FREDERIC WILLIAM I. AND THE CROWN PRINCE: MEETING BETWEEN FATHER AND SON
For a time the relations between Prussia's great king, Frederic William I., and the Crown Prince were not of the happiest, the treatment which the son received from his father being of a harsh and humiliating character. But a better understanding was arrived at, and in the above picture an affectionate meeting between father and son is depicted. Towards the end of May, 1 740, the king became so unwell that the Crown Prince was summoned, but before his arrival Frederic William had slightly recovered and was able to be wheeled out in front of the palace, where he witnessed the laying of the foundation stone of a new building. The king died three days later— on May 31st.
4532 _ -- -
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE ENDING OF
THE
OLD ORDER
IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRUSSIA
THE KINGDOM UNDER FREDERIC WILLIAM I.
TTHE fate of a state is sometimes de- ■^ pendent upon the individuality of its princes. Even in republics it is im- possible for mediocrities to hold the reins of power without inflicting permanent loss upon the nation. Monarchies vary in importance with the capacities of their rulers. Prussia has to thank the Hohen- zollerns for the rapidity of her rise. In modern times we look in vain for a family which had produced four important statesmen endowed with creative powers within two centuries. These were the Elector Frederic William and the first king of the same name, and the kings Frederic II. and William I. ; and of these four Zollerns, the Great Elector and the great Fritz were men of genius.
It was a long time before Frederic William I. (1713-1740) gained the reputa- tion of a really great king. The period of the Declaration, with its many false p . , ideas upon the nature of the russia a state, did not point him out Debt to her r • t^ ^ 1 u •
G t K" for praise. It took his own son
a considerable time to appre- ciate his merits. But we from our point of view can see clearly how much Prussia and the German nation owe to him. We see that he strengthened the state, without which there could have been no German unity, and made it able to struggle for its existence ; that his son would never have become " the Great " had he not been educated as he was.
I fit be true that the German schoolmasters prepared the way for the great victories of the nineteenth century, then Frederic William was their prototype— the greatest schoolmaster who ever educated a people and made them equal to the tasks of life. Education of this kind he had none. At the court of his parents there was no one to sympathise with the lofty aspirations which rose in him, and what he saw there filled him only with repugnance. The extravagance which he could not curb incited him to habits of economy,
which his mother considered miserly, and condemned in no measured terms. In his early youth he had learned to keep an eye upon every department of business, a training which enabled him successfully to track embezzlement to its source. When he returned from the P . Netherland campaign of 1710, WuiiViTas ^^*^ energy and insight fully Refor r "latured, he overthrew the system of Sayn- Wittgenstein and Wartenberg, whereby the public funds had been irresponsibly squandered. To his action is al'^o to be ascribed the banishment of these two untrustworthy Ministers from couit a id country.
When he entered his royal office, Frederic William I. astounded the whole world by the rapidity and the radical nature of his reforms. The Prussians looked upon him as a tyrant, the outside world laughed at him and considered him as scarce responsible for his actions. A strange kind of court, where the state horses were sold, the silver plate melted down, the highest dignitaries fined or treated as common criminals for in- accuracy in their accounts ! Was it seemly for a king to rise betimes and spend hours over deeds and accounts, revise expendi- ture and drill recruits ? Should he walk into the houses of the Berlin citizens at dinner-time, taste the food as it was placed on the table, and inquire how much each dish cost ? The valuable results of his energy were lost sight of in the considera- tion of his more obvious demerits — a „ furious and unbridled temper,
„f * bursts of undiscriminating pas-
ing was sion, an exasperating suspicion
Slandered , ' , r ^u r i t
of members of the family as of
officials — demerits concerning which the
most sinister rumours went about. His
wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, was
largely to blame for the false reports of
Frederic William which were to be heard
at almost every court in Europe. She
objected to the primitive manners which
4533
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
R&dic&I Reforms
the king favoured, and considered the lack of etiquette and the painful stinginess of the court economy as insulting and degrading to herself. The elder children, Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina, who became Countess of Bayreuth in 173 1, and the Crown Prince — born January 24th, 171 2 — TK K* ' ^^^^ materially mfluenced by ^ e mg s ^j^g exasperation of their mother at their father's ap- parent sternness and cruelty. However, at the end of the first decade of the new government it could not be denied that this extraordinary monarch with his corporal's cane had completed a great task. Debts had been paid, the treasury was full, a standing army was in existence the like of which was not to be seen anywhere in Europe, and a centralised system of government had been intro- duced, which was invariably reliable and accurate in its working and was equal to any demands upon it. The Prus- sian king was not confronted with such great, difficulties as those which hampered Joseph II. in his no less ardent zeal for reform. But it must not be forgotten that the Great Elector had already done away with the claims and privileges of the provinces, that the position of the Hohenzollerns in Prussia was utterly unlike that of the Hapsburgs in Hungary, that the lords of
PRUSSIA'S GREAT KING Prussia will ever be indebted to Frederic William I. He accom- plished a great work and astounded
officials, and on December 20th, 1722, he fesolved upon the (institution of a General ■'Directory, which should henceforward control the whole of the financial business. The advantages of this centralisation soon became obvious to the taxpayers.
Especially beneficial in their effects were the clearness and simplicity of the judicial administration, and the certainty of obtaining justice, which was felt by every one of the king's subjects, no matter what his position. The confidence of the subject was gained by the keen super- vision maintained by the king himself over every official and every department. He knew the needs of his people from his own experience and from his frequent interviews with representatives of the most varied classes of society. No social question was ever overlooked or neglected by him. He provided for the support of the poor, drove gipsies and vagabonds out of the country, opposed the en- croachments of the privileged citizen classes in the towns, and freed handicrafts from the restrictions imposed by the guilds. What the com- mon-sense and supervision of one man could do for the discovery and reform of abuses was done by this king ; he had no theoretical training to guide him, but he had an un- usual power of appreciating economic conditions, and was
Cleves and of the Mark could be the whole world by theVapidTty and therefore able to free the pro- routed with even less expendi- the radical nature of his reforms. ductivC forCCS of his realm
ture of force than was needed to deal with the Belgian communes, and, finally, that a common faith and nationality made a secure foundation for the construction of a uniform system of administration.
In spite of these advantages, Frederic William I.'s early attempts to introduce this wonderfully organised administration were not entirely successful. He made mistakes, and often saw his hopes frus- trated. A separate financial department for civil and for military necessities proved to be an impracticable arrange- ment. " The fact that the duties of the officials were often coincident or conflicting occasioned confusion, and laid unneces- sary burdens upon the subject." The king readily admitted this fact ; he brought the causes of distress in the several districts before the notice of the government
4534
from restrictions and to make them in
the highest degree serviceable.
Frederic William was not a " soldier
king," although he considered himself to
be such, as indeed he was called by the
numbers of curious visitors who arrived
from all parts to see the giant grenadiers
at Berlin and to marvel at the complicated
_ . . manoeuvres which were then Prussia in j.- j v. x j.\.
ff ^ r practised by every arm of the j^ . service. At any rate, he attached ™^ the highest importance to the Prussian military forces. He knew per- fectly well how it was that his grandfather had been able to turn an influential province into a European monarchy. He recognised that the new German kingdom must compensate for the small extent of its territory by the strength of its arma- ment. As he desired a large and powerful
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRUSSIA.
army, he concentrated his poUtical talents upon questions of administration, for he saw correctly that a great military power can be founded only by a well-built and carefully administered state. His father had had scarcely 30,000 men under arms, and even with these had been able to play a very considerable part in the great War of Succession. But he dared not pursue his advantages to the uttermost, because he was unable to cope with an alliance of foreign powers. So early as 1725, Frederic William was able to call out an army of
that a supply of recruits and of material for further levies was guaranteed. Even in the first year of his reign Frederic II. was able to raise the number of battalions from sixty-six to eighty-three. And all these troops were armed on a uniform system, admirably drilled, trained in quick- firing, and able to be in marching order within twelve days. When Maria Theresa came to the throne the effective strength of the Austrian army was 107,000 infantry and 32,000 cavalry. But the concentra- tion of these forces was a matter of great
PRUSSIA'S VIGOROUS KING, FREDERIC WILLIAM, VISITING A BOYS' SCHOOL When Frederic William I. ascended the Prussian throne he immediately instituted reforms, some of which were so radical and thorough-going as to astonish the whole world. He made himself acquainted not only with the details of government but also with the condition of his people, visiting the homes of the Berlin citizens at dinner-time, tasting their food and inquiring what each dish cost. In the above picture the king is seen paying a visit to a boys' school
64,000 men at shorter notice than any other power, and his troops were better equipped and trained than the Austrians or the French. At his death, the standing army consisted of 66 battalions of infantry, 114 squadrons with 18,560 horse, six com- panies of field artillery, four companies of garrison artillery, and 43 engineer officers. This was the army of a great power.
By the canton regulation of May ist and September 15th, 1733, service in the royal regiments was made compulsory upon the larger part of the population, so
difficulty ; the various items of equipment were by no means complete, the commis- sariat was hampered by lack of funds. Hence the Austrian forces were by no means superior to the Prussian.
However, Frederic WiUiam's attention was not concentrated solely upon in- creasing the numbers and improving the efficiency of his army ; he was also able to secure a higher social position for his officers than was held by the officers of any other Continental army. He was the first ofiEicer upon the throne. In the Prussia of
4535
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
his time the officer's uniform became the
king's state dress, and gained a high
prestige from that custom. Under him
the nobihty of his territories, especially
those east of the Elbe, became permanently
connected with the army, as only by
military service could they come under
the king's special notice or lay claims to
AN s • •* sp^c^^^ distinction. Notwith-
• th^A *"" standing the roughness with
*^ n* '^^ which Frederic William was of Prussia , , . , .
pleased to express his senti- ments, he raised the standard of honour among his officers, and strictly maintained it at a high level. The officer was obliged to obey his superior without question, but to this obedience the condition was attached that his " honour should remain intact." Such a spirit was infused into the rank and file that a soldier upon furlough would parade his connection with the army before his village companions with pride. The military forces which Frederic William left to his son were permeated by a strong sense of their common unity.
He never himself employed the weapon which he had forged. In 1715, when he began the Pomeranian campaign against Charles XII. of Sweden, in which he gained Further Pomerania as far as the Peene, Usedom, and Wollin, the principles of his military organisation had not brought forth their fruit and his great work had hardly been begun. In later years he succumbed to the influence of the diplomacy peculiar to the period, with its restless striving after alliance, its intricate complexity of compacts and guarantees ; and even when his claims were entirely justified, he hesitated to throw his power into the political balance. We may well ask what would have been the position of the Great Elector in Europe if he had had money and troops at his disposal to the same extent as his grandson.
Frederic William's last days were sad- dened by a bitter disappointment. He had « . . •.«.... concluded the Convention VV^^"\u of Berlin with Austria,
Disa oiltment ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ brought isappoin men about by the dexterity of
Count Seckendorff, on December 23rd, 1728, in the conviction that the interests of the Houses of Hohenzollern and Hapsburg were at one. He had fulfilled his promises, and it was through his efforts that the Pragmatic Sanction had been recognised throughout the empire. But the conviction was forced upon him that the emperor
4536
would not help him to his rights in the matter of the Juliers inheritance, the ac- quisition of Berg and Ravenstein. He was unable to free himself from the network of intrigue with which he was surrounded. However, after long doubts and years of devouring anxiety, he at length became convinced of the inspiriting fact that in his son he could behold "his future avenger." The education of this son, the struggle with his weaknesses, real or imaginary, the painful cure which he imposed for the feeble spirit, the vacillating will of this youth, whose more refined disposition seemed to his father to arouse wishes incapable of accomplishment, even foolish and immoral — the whole of this story might form the basis for a powerful drama. It was not a cruel amusement in which the father indulged at the expense of a child whom he could not understand ; it was the execution of a duty which he felt in- cumbent upon himself as king, which was forced upon him by his theory and con- ception of the monarch's position. The tendencies to distraction, to study of current literature and art, the desire for _ J.. , comfort and display, which
„ * . '^* ' . . Frederic William observed
Harsh Treatment • ,i_ /^ t^ • ^n j
, . . c in the Crown Princer filled
of his Son , . .., , ' , .
him with anger, drove him
to abuse and chastise the young man striving for independence, whom he thought it his duty to hate, though he had a warm love for him in the depths of his heart. His father's degrading treatment and the contempt which he showed towards him before all the courtiers and before his military suite drove Frederic to attempt flight at the beginning of August, 1730, in his eighteenth year.
Desertion was the king's name for this unfortunate plan, which was nothing more than an effort for self-help. A court- martial was appointed to determine the life or death of the future king. In durance vile, Frederic was obliged to await their decision upon his future. On November 6th, 1730, he was forced to behold the execution of his confidential friend, Hans Hermann of Katte, and to have upon his conscience the terrible burden of the death of a true, courageous, and devoted man. After the inconceivable anguish of these events, it became possible for him to find consolation and renewed pleasure in life by working at the study of the administration in the Kiistrin military and departmental offices. The king's
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRUSSIA
expectations of him are shown by his few words to the Seneschal von Wolden : " He is to do exactly as I desire, to get French and English ways out of his head, and anything else that is not Prussian ; he is to be loyal to his lord and father, to have a German heart, to cease from foppery and from French, political, damnable falsity; he should pray diligently to God for His grace and keep the same ever before him, for then will God so dispose all things as to be opportune and eternally serviceable to him." The change in the king's temper, the renewal of his confidence in his son, was brought about by the latter's straightforward repentance and confession that he had done wrong and had led astray the accomplice in his attempted flight.
Then followed the heavy trial of marry- ing a wife he did not love, whom his father had chosen for him, the Duchess Ehza- beth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern. This great sacrifice was made on June I2th, 1733. In the end he was able to live with his wife, if not in complete happiness, at , any rate without disagree- _f ^^i*x ment. and at times with some-
, ^*?*' a" ^^ thing of sympathy. His
to his Son , ^, ° , -^ 1 J
father, too, no longer opposed
his mental development, his philosophical and scientific studies, his interest in art; for he recognised that Frederic was a thoroughly efficient officer and an excellent regimental commander. Upon his death- bed, on May 31st, 1740, Frederic William could say to the officers whom he had summoned to take leave of him : " Has not God been gracious to me, in giving me so brave and noble a son ? " In the dreams which came to this son, when he found him- self opposed to the armies of Europe, he once met his father, as Reinhold Koser relates, at Charlottenburg. He had been fighting against Marshal Daun. " Have I borne myself well?" he asked. And Frederic William replied : " Yes." " Well, then, I am satisfied ; your approval is worth more to me than that of the whole world." The foundations for the rise of Prussia to the status of a great power had been laid by Frederic William. Frederic II. (1740-1786) recognised the full extent of what had been done, and put the state to that proof of its strength which was to
make its importance manifest to Europe at large. This importance consisted in its capacity for carrying out the intentions which had been declared in the foundation of its system — namely, effective resistance to a superior number of great powers. However, the immediate object was the „ . aggrandisement of Prussia in the th^'^R'"^ f Oder district, the strengthening p . of the central district, in
which the electorate itself had risen, the strengthening of the Marks on the Havel and the Spree, the securing of Berlin by pushing forward the frontier toward the south-east. There lay the Silesian principality with a Protestant popu- lation closely related to that of the Marks.
For 300 years the Hohenzollems had been turning their eyes in this direction. In 1523 they had bought the Duchy of Jagerndorf ; in 1537 they had concluded an hereditary alliance with Frederic II., the Duke of Liegnitz, Brieg, and Wohlau, whereby the Great Elector in 1686 had fondly hoped to acquire the Schwiebus district. He had been deceived, as his son had promised to restore this in- significant strip of territory to Austria after his father's death.
In 1694 Austria insisted upon her rights, and did not spare the elector — to whom she was afterwards obhged to concede the title of king — the shame of this compulsory transference. She was formally within her rights ; but it was an act of indiscretion which led to disastrous results. By statutes and j udgments a state can be neither created nor upheld. Moreover, the period had long since passed when the affairs of the individual, and especially personal claims to the inheritance and amalgamation of territories, could be of decisive importance in such questions as these. Such claims . . were made only as a means of
A u proposing those demands which
p. j^j a state was obliged to make by
virtue of its own necessities. The conception of " rounding off territories as was expedient " was bound up with the practice of " adjustment of conflicting interests," which had become naturalised in every court since the time when the European powers had bid against one another for the Spanish inheritance.
4537
4538
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE ENDING OF
THE OLD ORDER
V
FREDERIC THE GREAT
THE SILESIAN AND SEVEN YEARS WARS
/^N October 20th, 1740, a few months ^^ after Frederic had ascended the throne, the male Hne of the Hapsburgs became extinct. He had no objection to seeing the Hapsburg territories pass un- divided to the successor ; he was even ready to lend the support of his army ; but he demanded a quid pro quo, a cession of territory, which would have enabled his own state to carry on an independent policy regardless of its powerful neigh- bours. He desired the immediate cession of Lower Silesia, and in return for this he was ready to waive those rights to the Juliers inheritance which his father had so highly valued. A tech- nical excuse was found in the proofs, sound or otherwise, which the old pro- fessor, Johann Peter von Ludewig, put together in Halle in favour of the Branden- burg rights to the four Silesian princi- palities. The question was neither simple . , nor straightforward, and both re^ ene s gj^gg j^^^y j^^yg ^gH believed in
c-, . the justice of their respective on Silesia , . -• r, . ■. u x
claims. But it was enough for
Frederic that his demands were dictated by political necessities. If he thought of " rights " at all, it was of the moral claims, arising out of his help to his neighbour, to whom his house had rendered important services, which he had recently declared himself ready to continue to the same or even greater extent.
We can easily understand the king's anxiety to turn a favourable political situation to the best advantage. It is no less easy to understand his resolution to secure himself in the possession of Silesia by force of arms, before the negotiations with Austria had begun, because the polit- ical talent which has conceived a plan at once begins to calculate the means avail- able for carrying it into execution, and # because, of all the possible means whereby territory may be acquired, seizure is un- doubtedly the easiest and the most certain. Frederic II. could not but presume that his
Time for Prussia
invasion of Silesia on December i6th, 1740, would almost inevitably lead to war. But for war he was prepared if Austria should reject his demands.
As a matter of fact, he was obliged to employ the whole of the yet untried power A T t- of his state to gain possession t:«*M^* of Silesia, and therefore ex- posed himself to the danger of collapse and total ruin. His action is not to be justified by the intrinsic worth of Silesia, but by the enormous importance attaching to the accomplish- ment of his own will and the maintenance of the claims which he had preferred. The three Silesian wars are something more than a struggle for Silesia. They are the struggle for the success of Prussian policy — that is, the creation of a new German great power. Of final importance for the result were the solidarity of the Prussian system of government, the loyalty and capability of its people in all the emergencies of war and of peace, the moral strength and military qualifications of the king. As a leader the great Fritz not only saved his Prussian kingdom from destruction, but also won the hearts of the Germans.
For how long a time had there been no warrior to rejoice the heart of every honest German ? Not since Warsaw and Fehrbellin. The little Savoyard had dealt hard blows, Starhemberg had directed many a fierce charge, splendid songs were sung of Marl- borough, but none of these possessed the popularity which Frederic the Great enjoyed. What made so deep an impression was the fact that the fate of the king _^ - himself was wholly contingent
e cere ^pQJ^ ^^g j-esult of his battles. of Frederic s T-f ,
p J .. The same phenomenon recurs opu an y .^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Napoleon I.
Moreover, it was a new art of war which Frederic had learned, an art which in some respects developed before the eyes of his contemporaries as he practised it. No poet and no painter has yet escaped the critic's censure, and the truth holds
4539
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
good of every general and strategist. " Strategy is not a science," as Prince Kraft of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen shows ; " it is an art, which must be inborn." Strength of character, power of decision, are elements indispensable to strategical capacity. Study may improve a man's powers, but it cannot make him a strate- gist. To this he must be born. Frederic the Great was a born strategist. He cer- tainly did not gain much advantage by study ; he learned the art of war by waging it. It is by no means generally admitted that he was a master in the art of war. His nearest relation, his brother Prince Henry (1726-1802), has given vent to the severest stricture upon his methods, without consideration for the fact that such criticisms recoiled upon himself
Now, he is said to have been always ready to give battle ; again, we are told in confidence that he was a coward at heart. The con- temporaries of Frederic the Great never realised the great strides which the art of war made under him. Napoleon was the first to give him his due merit. Frederic abandoned the system of keeping the enemy occupied by a number of concurrent operations, of inflicting a blow here and there, of driving him out of his positions and so gradu- ally gaining ground. The
Prussia's
Successful
Campaign
FREDERIC THE GREAT He succeeded his father as King of Prussia in 1740. On the death of the Emperor Charles VI., he claimed part of
and the Franco-Bavarian attempt in Bohemia. The Field-Marshal Schwerin won the battle of Mollwitz on April loth, 1741, owing chiefly to the admirable manoeuvring powers and the excellent firing drill of the Prussian infantry. At Czeslau, on May 17th, 1742, it was the king's generalship which brought the campaign to a favourable issue. He it was who decided upon the timely retreat from Moravia; he personally carried out the opportune junction with the younger Leopold (Maximilian H.) of Anhalt-Dessau. The battle was decided by the invincible steadiness of the Prussian battalions. Surprising had been the rapidity of the king's attack upon Silesia, and no less surprising to the allies was the one-sided Peace of Breslau, in which, for the first time, the pos- session of Silesia was pro- mised to him. In calm confidence as to his own strength, he paid no atten- tion to the irritation and the reproaches 'of France. He knew that his co-operation in the general war would meet with glad approval should he find himself again obliged to take up arms.
The conventions which Maria Theresa concluded with Great Britain, Saxony, and Sardinia aroused his anxiety for Silesia. On June 5th, 1744, he con-
destruction of his enemy's Siiesia, and, invading that province, cluded a frcsh alliance with
~„;„ iU^ ^u: — J. defeated the Austnans. He died m 1786. t? j • j„j t>„
main power was the object which he invariably kept in view. "Throughout the Seven Years War," says Bernhardi, " in every one of the battles which he planned — battles far more decisive than any of Napoleon's combinations — the object in view was the uttei destruction of the hostile army. Such especially was the case at Prague and at Leuthen, where the plan of destruction proved entirely successful. So, also, at Zorndorf, at Kunersdorf, and even at Kolin ; to a less extent at Rossbach, where it was necessary to take immediate advantage of a sudden favourable opportunity, produced by instantaneous decision." The first Silesian war coincided with the Bavarian invasion of Upper Austria
4540
Frederic's Genius in Battle
France, and invaded Bo- hemia, this being the second Silesian war. In the autumn he was obliged to evacuate the country. However, by a brilliant victory at Hohenfriedeberg on June 4th, 1745, he shattered the hopes of his destruc- tion which had been entertained by the quadruple alliance — Austria, Saxony, Great Britain, and Holland. The decision and the simplicity of his arrangements had revived the confidence of the army in the leader whom they did not yet understand. He was able quietly to observe the advance of the Austrian and Saxon armies over the mountains, until he made a night march from Schweidnitz and attacked the enemy before they could concentrate. The Saxons were overthrown at Striegau before the Austrians could get into line
FREDERIC THE GREAT
of battle. They began the fight when they had completed this operation, with their customary loyalty and bravery, but could not resist the fury of the Prussian cavalry ; the dragoon regiment " Bayreuth," under Gessler, made a wonderful charge. The victories of Sooron September 30th, and of Kesselsdorf on December 15th, so decisively proved the superiority of the Prussian arms that the empress was again forced
the compact concluded between Austria, France, and Russia — the compact of Ver- sailles, signed at Jouy, on May ist, 1756 — aimed at war with Prussia under any conditions, so that Frederic was forced to anticipate the attack of an overwhelm- ing force, or whether Frederic made the existence of an alliance which in no way threatened himself an excuse for carrying out the conquest of Saxony, upon which
THE YOUTHFUL FREDERIC THE GREAT AT RHEINSBERG
From the painting by W, Amberg
to yield Silesia in the Peace of Dresden on December 25th, 1745. Frederic did not attempt to disturb the position of the Austrian House in Germany, and recog- nised the imperial dignity of Francis I., the husband of Maria Theresa.
Even till recent times the most divergent opinions have been held upon the outbreak of the Seven Years War, which Prussia began by invading Saxony on August 28th, 1756. The question is, whether
he had determined long before. On J anuary i6th, 1756, the compact of Westminster was concluded at Whitehall between Prussia and Great Britain, which it was hoped would bring about a rapproche- ment with Russia, at that time in alliance with England. Even Frederic could hardly have foreseen that the only result of the compact would be to arouse Eliza- beth's dissent and to cause the with- drawal of Russia. Nor would anyone
4541
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
maintain that if Frederic had not himself anticipated the outbreak of hostiUties, Prussia would have been left in undis- turbed possession of Silesia, and that the policy of Count Kaunitz would have made it unnecessary for him to defend his ac- quisition. It was impossible to pass by this short cut through the protracted operation of defining the internal relations
of Germany; and whether How Fredenc ^-^^ ^^^ ^^^ entered earlier Impressed (he ^^ j^^^^ -^ ^ question of German Nation -^ ,
very mmor importance.
Entirely independent of this question is the deep impression made by Frederic's personality upon the German nation.
That impression is founded upon • the fact that the great king and his loyal people fought for seven years against- the five greatest powers, who in mere -point of numbers were far superior to them^^- Austria, France, Russia, Sweden, and the German Empire — that they siirviveci the bitter struggle, and were not crushed 'to the earth. It does not detract from the brilliance of Frederic's splendid resist- ance to the circle of foes that it would not have been possible without the gold which Britain provided, together with the fact that after 1757 his Anglo-
Hanoverian allies absorbed the attention of France — an aspect of the question dealt with in another chapter. Whether Prussia had only herself to thank for the war, or whether it was forced upon her by her enemies, the fact remains that it was a heroic fight of the weak against the strong, which excites admiration and has caught the fancy and imagination of those contemporary with it. "A true instinct guided the German people even in paths where the way could not be clearly seen or the landmarks noted ; that instinct taught them that upon this struggle their all was staked, that once again the past, as in the Thirty Years War, was summoning all her strength to destroy the future of Germany. Every mind which strove to cast away the narrow trammels of German intellectual life at that _ time, and to rise to a future
"th S°d"* of greater freedom, splendour, °jp^ .* * and beauty, ranged itself upon Frederic's side — the youthful Goethe and the older Lessing, who had now risen to the full height of his powers." At the outset the war was brilliantly successful. Saxony was occupied and its army forced to surrender at Pirna, on October i6th, 1756. By the victory of
A POPULAR KING: FREDERIC THE GREAT RECEIVING HIS PEOPLE'S HOMAGE
From the painting by Adolph Meniel
4542
FREDERIC THE GREAT
Lobositz on October ist, Frederic opened the way for his march into Bohemia. On May 6th, 1757, he defeated the Austrians at Prague, ia which battle Schwerin was killed, advanced to besiege he town, and then turned upon the army which was advancing to its relief under Daun.
At Kolin, on June iSth, 1757, his impetu- ous advance received its first check. The victory of the Austrians is to be ascribed rather to the bravery and endurance of their troops, es- pecially those of Saxony, than to the combinations of the general, and principally to the fact that Prince Maurice of Anhalt - Des- sau misunder- stood an import- ant order from the king, and made a move- ment which thwarted his plans. This vic- tory speedily freed Bohemia from the enemy. After the defeat, which hadutterly crushed the spirit of his generals, Frederic alone retained his pers- picacity and pre- sence of mind. He saw that he must give up the bold offen- sive movements which he had hitherto carried out, and act upon a general method of defence, to be maintained by offensive measures upon occasion. However, he did not give up the advantages to be gained by keeping his troops in the enemy's country until the last moment, and re- mained in Bohemia until he was forced to retreat upon the Lausitz by the advance of Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine and Bar upon Silesia.
Frederic left his brother Augustus William^the father of Frederic William II. — in charge of the defence of the line
FREDERIC THE GREAT
From the painting
of the Oder, and having successfully induced the Austrians to give battle at Zittau, he crossed the Elbe at Dresden, in order to repulse Soubise, who had joined the imperial army. Their advance upon the Elbe was an important move- ment, in view of the fact that the Anglo- Hanoverian army, under the Duke of Cumberland, had been defeated by a French army under Marshal Richelieu, and had been forced to capitulate at Closter Seven, on September 8th. Frederic, how- ever, had already determined to act on the defensive only against the French, and to attack the Aus- trians, who were making rapid progress in Silesia, when Sou- bise gave him, on November5th, 1757, the oppor- tunity of fighting the battle of Ross- bach, one of the most welcome victories ever gained by a Ger- man army. Fred- eric's intellectual superiority made it an easy task for him to cut through the slow envelopingmove- ment of his op- ponents by a single adroit manoeuvre. The brilliant charge of the Seydlitz cavalry then routed and put to flight the 43,000 men who were attacking 8,500 Prussians. The French fled to Hesse and Frankfort, the imperial troops to Franconia. The Anglo- Hanoverian army, now placed under the command of Ferdinand of Brunswick, held the French attacks in check on the west through the remainder of the war.
But the danger of losing the whole of Silesia was now extreme, and a movement was accordingly made 'in that direction. A brilliant raid of the Austrian hussars
4543
ON THE
by Adolpli Mer
BATTLEFIELD
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
to Berlin had no real military importance,
but it showed with appalling clearness
how far the enemy's lines had been pushed
toward the capital. Two months later
the army commanded by the Duke of
Brunswick-Bevern had been several times
defeated by the Austrians
and driven back to the
walls of Breslau. On
November 22nd, 1757,
they were there attacked
in their entrenchments
and forced to retreat from
the right bank of the
Oder. As the king was
hastening from Saxony
to Silesia, he was met
by messages of misfortune
upon misfortune ; first,
the loss of the battle,
and two days later the
capture of the Duke of
Bevern and the surrender
of Breslau. without
attempt at resistance.
On December 2nd Frederic joined the re- mains of the defeated army. His forces now 22,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, 96 light battalion guns, and 71 pieces of heavier artillery. The only possibility of saving Silesia lay in striking a decisive blow. Who before Fred- eric would have dared the ven- ture ? However, his mind was m^de up, even before the Aus- trians had deter- mined to march against him. Charles of Lor- raine had urged the policy of attack, in spite leaders in the seven years
FREDERIC the GREAT IN OLD AGE
amounted to
and Bavarian contingents. On December 5th, 1757, the king saw from Heidau the long battle line of his enemy, ex- tended over the space of a mile. Before their eyes Frederic concentrated almost his entire force against the Austrian left wing, after his own left had made a successful attack upon the Saxon advanced guard, which was not pushed home. Daun and the Duke Charles did not perceive Frederic's plan when their left wing was vigorously attacked and thrown back upon the centre at Leu- then. When the duke brought up reinforcements from the right wing, the cavalry were broken by the charge of sixty Prus- sian squadrons who had been standing undercover. There was no protection for the centre, and an utter rout was the consequence. The Austrians lost 21,000 men (12,000 of them prisoners), 116 guns, 51 standards, and 4,000 waggons. The price paid by the Prussians for the victory was 6,300 men and 200 officers.
The result of the victory of Leuthen, the most com-
plete and remark- able which Fred- eric ever gained, was equalled only by the skill with which it had been won. The king had directed his blow against the hostile power so as to drive it from the Bohemian line of retreat in
of the advice of EmstGideonBaronvonLaudon, whose portrait is first given, entered a north - easterly
+ 1->o /-anfimic the Russian service in 1732, but later exchanged into that of Austria. rliro^fir.n onrl +Vio
tne cautious Hg displayed great talent in the Seven Years War, and also as Q" eCtlOU, aUQ tnc
Daun, who would field-marshal in the war against the Turks. Hans Joachim von defeat COUSC-
have preferred to Zleten also distinguished himself greatly in the Seven Years War. quentlvproduccd
await the king in security at Breslau. Charles seems not to have desired to bring about a battle, but to have been convinced that Frederic would be forced to evacuate Silesia forthwith, when he found the vastly superior Austrian army in motion against him, consisting of 90,000 men, including the Wiirtemberg
4544
entire confusion. Charles of Lorraine brought only 35,000 men back with him across the mountains. Eighteen thousand fled to Breslau, where they were forced to surrender on December 21st. The whole of Silesia was evacuated as far as Schweidnitz. The action of a leader of genius, who addresses himself to the heaviest
FREDERIC THE GREAT
tasks, and at the. decisive moment calmly chooses the means calculated to produce the required result, was never more brilliantly displayed. The victor of Leuthen was hence- forward indestructible. The campaign of 1757 is typical of the whole war. The king acted prematurely in supposing that the re- treat of the Russians from Prussia implied their retirement from the alliance with Austria. By calling up the division of the old Field-Marshal Hans von Lehwald he made the kingdom the theatre of the war from that time onward. In spite of the redoubled attack of Seydlitz, he was unable to gain a victory at Zorndorf on August 25th, 1758. Until the autumn of 1760 Frederic was able to prevent the junc- tion of the armies of Laudon and Daun. The amal- gamation of these forces would have been his inevitable ruin. On August 15th he succeeded in checking Lau- don at Liegnitz
On November 3rd fortune smiled upon him at Torgau, where Zieten snatched a victory from the Austrians which they had thought within their grasp, and forced Daun to retreat upon Dresden. In 1761, ill-feeling between Laudon and Alexander Borrissovitch Buturlin saved him from being overwhelmed by 130,000 Austrians and Russians at Bunzelwitz, from August i8th to September 9th. There was no other decisive battle. The war ran its course until the death of the Empress Elizabeth, on January 5th, 1762, and the definite retirement of Russia brought its con- clusion near, in spite of the defection of England under Bute's administration. The Peace of Hubertsburg on February 15th, 1763, caused no change in the distribution of territory in Germany. However, it secured Prussia for the third time in possession of Silesia, and so' paid her the price for which she had spent her power. The imperial throne was secured to the house of Maria Theresa and with the assent of Branden- burg her son was elected at Frankfort, March 27th, 1764.
Frederic, King of Prussia, has become a German national hero. He did not appre- ciate the future open to the nation which sang his praises ; but he made his will to be law from the Baltic to the Alps. Hans v. Zwiedineck-Sudenhorst
THE STANDARD-BEARER OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY
289
4545
GREAT ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS FROM DEFOE TO GOLDSMITH
4546
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE
ENDING
OF THE
OLD ORDER
VI
GREAT BRITAIN ?t!? AMERICAN WAR
THE REVOLUTION IN NATIONAL INDUSTRY
THE primary purpose which George III. set before himself on ascending the throne of Great Britain — a nation at last united and loyal throughout to the reigning dynasty — was to re-assert the personal power of the monarch. The old scheme of meeting the claim of parlia- mentary rights with the claims of royal prerogative was dead and done with. The new scheme was for the Crown to acquire in Parliament itself the ascendancy which the exigencies of the Revolution had bestowed upon the dominant Whig families. To that end the two great obstacles were the personality of Pitt and the remains of solidarity among the Whigs. Out of a further disintegration, the Crown might hope to extract a dominant party of its own. With the overthrow of Pitt, the king had won the first battle for ascendancy. But it was easier to break and disunite the dominant party than to find another which . should be at once submis-
n '•»»• * '*" J sive to the royal views and Drifting towards . j • IIl tt x
-, . . respected m the House of
aCrisis „^ ^ ,
Commons. Several experi- ments of an unsuccessful and sometimes humiliating character had to be made before George HI. discovered a Prime Minister after his own heart. The great parties of the past, those which had opposed and supported the programme of the Revo- lution, no longer existed. In their place stood groups of politicians, united by attachment to a great name or fortune, returned to Parliament, as a rule, by the patrons whom they followed, and more concerned to secure a place or a pension than to study the situation and needs of the nation. The process which led to the victory of the king caused England, between ephemeral Ministries and a legislature partly corrupt, partly apathetic, to drift towards a crisis compared with which the f last two wars were trivial. Lately the arbiter of Europe, she was to be exposed to humiliation at the hands of her own colonies. The causes of friction between the
mother country and the American colonies can be traced back to the beginning of the eighteenth century. The different settle- ments, which extended from Massachusetts in the north to Georgia in the south, had been founded at different times and by _ . very various types of men.
F° tK Some had emigrated to escape Old C from religious persecution ;
°'"* *^ some had left England burdened with debt or the sense of failure in the profession which they had originally chosen ; others, again, were the younger sons of landed families ; others felt the desire for a life comparatively untram- melled by convention. Not a few were natives of Ireland or Scotland, whom the real or fancied wrongs of their native land had driven into exile.
But all the colonists, whether patriotic or the reverse, whether they had prospered or failed, whether they had been well or ill treated in their mother country, were moderately well contented to remain dependent on the British Crown so long as they were allowed to manage their own affairs through elected legislatures. In all the colonies, whether proprietary or formed by independent enterprise, there was a passionate love of '^freedom ; all had imitated to some extent the forms of English government, had preserved the English common law, and had Gherished the traditional English mistrust of the executive. In each colony the head of the executive was a governor appointed by the Crown or the proprietor ; and the acts of this official were watched I . withthemore jealousy because
" ^"'^ *.'*. he represented an authority p .. extraneous to the colonies
themselves. Hardly less acute was the jealousy which each colony entertained for its neighbours. It was well nigh impossible to secure concerted action between the colonial Parliaments. Their members could hardly conceive of co-operation except as entailing loss of
4547
THREE EMINENT STATESMEN IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. The Marquess of Rockingham, as leader of the Whig Opposition, was called upon to form a Ministry in 1765. He resigned in the following year ; in 1782 he again became Premier and died the same year. Burlce's introduction to parliamentary life began in 1765 when he became private secretary to the Marquess of Rockingham, and his eloquence soon won for him a high position in the Whig Party. During the American War Charles James Fox strongly opposed the coercive measures of government ; when Pitt came into power a long contest between these two statesmen began.
independence. This was the more un- fortunate because in the French power they had a common enemy. The attempt to connect Louisiana with the Great Lakes had been an equal menace to all. Nor could the danger have been averted but for English help. The colonies contributed less than was expected to the work of conquering Canada. Now that Canada had become a British dependency they were inclined to think of the danger as finally removed ; they resented the policy of the home government in maintaining a permanent military force for their pro- tection, and they were dis- inclined to find money for this object. They considered that England derived from the Navigation Laws sufficient advantages to reimburse her for whatever expense she had incurred on their behalf ; and "'" P°"",<=*i ^/'■;«'' ^^^^": ^^«"
., . , ,, '. , he was elected for Aylesbury m
they resented even that de-
The prophecy was soon fulfilled. Gren- ville, one of the Ministers whom George IIL endeavoured to train in his own views, resolved that the colonists ought to bear a part of the burden represented by the national debt. Finding that a more rigorous collection of the customs at colonial ports would not yield the sum that he thought proper, and having utterly failed to ob- tain the promise of adequate votes from the colonial legis- latures, he persuaded the English Parliament, in 1765, to impose a stamp tax in the colonies. There could be no doubt that Parliament possessed the legal right to do this. But the colonists treated the tax as the opponents of Charles L had treated ship money. They denied the legality of the Stamp Act, and roused in the mother country a feeling 1757 as a supporterTf'pTtt'He of irritation which threatened
JOHN WILKES
gree of control to which they metwith varied fortunes during his to ovcrcomc all prudential had been subjected from their Hfe, which came to an end in 1797. motives. The successors of
first foundation. " England," said Ver- gennes, after the conquest of Canada, " will soon repent of having removed the ^Jmly check which kept her colonies in j,awe. She will call on them to contribute towards supporting the burden they have helped to bring upon her, and they will answer by shaking off all dependence."
4548
Grenville's Ministry, the Rockingham Whigs, saved the situation by repealing the obnoxious Act before the quarrel had become irreparable. But this concession, in 1766, was accompanied by a Declaratory Act asserting the abstract right of Parlia- ment to levy taxes on the colonies as a formal concession on the part of the
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE AMERICAN WAR
Ministry to offended national pride. No practical consequences were intended to follow from the declaration of right. But the next Cabinet had the temerity, in 1767, to impose a duty upon tea and other goods imported into America. It is one of the ironies of history that Chat- ham, the most vigorous defender of colonial inde- pendence, was the nominal chief of this administration. But he was incapacitated by illness, and remained uncon- scious of the hare-brained scheme until the mischief had been done. It is true that '
the right of England to
^;o + ;r,^+ DEFENDER
distmct .,, :__
troops-.
flushed with their recent victory. New protests poured in ; there were squabbles with governors and affrays with British
OF GIBRALTAR the Continental
became necessary for the Government of George III, to choose between submission and the use of force. The government had now fallen completely into" the king's hands. During a series of weak administrations he had kept control of patronage, and by systematic corruption had organised in the House of Commons a party of " King's Friends," upon whom he could rely for unwavering support. It made Httle differ- ence to him that Parliament
impose customs, as v^.oLm^L .,^
, ' . J .' i_ J , After serving m mc >.,u>ii.uiciii.ai
irom excise duties, had been wars, George Augustus Elliott was, had ceased to represent the admitted in the past, and j^,t'Zr',''w1ll?h"he'he?oTcX°de°en''de'S nation, and that Middlesex, that the new taxes were a against the French and Spanish, ^^e most important of the
flea-bite as compared with the restrictions of the Navigation Laws, which the colonists endured with patience. But American suspicions had been aroused by the Declaratory Act, and the colonists were
free constituencies, had twice returned to Parliament a notorious profligate, John Wilkes, for no better reason than to attest their satisfaction at the virulent attacks which his newspaper delivered on the
|
4^^i^^^mm |
THE LAST SPEECH OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS The scene represented in this picture took place in the old House of Lords— the Painted Chamber — on April 7th, 1778. The Earl of Chatham, then in his seventieth year, had spoken against the recognition of the independence of the American colonies, and when attempting to rise in order to reply to some criticism of his speech, he fell back in a. convulsive fit and was carried from the House. He died about a month later and was buriad in Westminster Abbey. From the painting by J. S. Copley, R. A., in the National Callecy
4549
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Government. Still less was the king mo^lS by the satire and argument of the constitutionalists. The letters of Junius, an anonymous writer of no common order, exposed every member and measure of the Ministry to ridicule.
Edmund Burke published one of the most famous pamphlets, the " Thoughts on the Present Discontents," to prove that the new system of personal government was fatal to liberty and political morality. To such attacks the king responded by bring- ing into power Lord North, a man whose
The colonies were now in arms for the principle that without representation there should be no taxation. In 1773 a Boston mob destroyed the cargoes of English tea which were lying in their harbour. An attempt to make the whole community of Boston responsible led to the summoning of an inter-colonial congress ; the cause of Boston became that of all the colonies in 1774. North now began to think of retreat, but it was too late. In 1775 a new congress assembled to prepare for armed resistance ; it was immediately followed by an attack
FATAL RIOTS IN LONDON STREETS :,, THE GORDON. RISING IN THE YEAR 1780 The passing of a Bill in 1 778 for the relief of Roman Catholics from certain disabilities gave rise to riots in the city of ^ondon. Headed by Lord George Gordon, 50,000 persons marched to the H'dtlse- of Commons.on June 2nd, 1 780, to present a petition for its repeal. For five days dreadful riots took place, many Catholic chapels add houses being destroyed. The troops were called out, the above picture showing the Honourable Artillery ^Cofljlpany, under Sir'' Barnard Turner, in Broad Street. No fewer than 210 of the rioters were killed, 248 wounded, ISo^arrested, and 21' executed.
From the painting by Wheatley
genuine abilities, good humour, and polit- ical experience were marred by a blind deference to the wishes of his master. The king and North might have assuaged the popular indignation against the colonies. They chose rather to inflame the mutual ill-will of the disputants. At first they preserved the appearance of conciliation by repealing all the new duties except that on tea. It did not make any practical difference whether they excepted one tax or left the whole number still in force.
4550
on British troops at' Lexington^rby the siege of Boston, and by the repulse of the besieging colonial army from their position on Bunker's Hill. From these beginnings blazed up the War of Independence (1775- 1781), of which the events will be'^related in a later volume. It was a struggle in every way discouraging to England and damaging to the national prestige. The British armies, separated by enormous tracts of sea from supplies and reinforce- ments, had a hopeless task before them ;
4551
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
for although the colonies decided to secede only by the barest of majorities, the loyalists had little power to help the royal forces, and there was no one centre of the rebellion at which a blow could be delivered with fatal effect. But, allowing for these disadvantages, the generals of George III. made a poor use of their resources ; and . , , the war revealed a portentous c. , declme m the emciency of the
for Freedom "^7;^ ^^ "^^y i^^f «^ be said that the war was lost at sea, for, when France joined the cause of the colonies, in 1778, her fleet patrolled the coast of North America with such success that no adequate communications could be maintained with England, and the West Indies were reconquered one by one.
Moderate statesmen urged that measures of conciliation should be tried, Burke arguing that no taxes cou'ld ever com- pare with the profits of the colonial trade, and that expediency must be con- sidered before questions of abstract right and justice, Chatham taking the line that America had been treated like a slave, and must be compensated with complete acknowledgment of her freedom from control. Had Chatham been recalled to power this generous attitude and the glamour of his reputation might have prevented the final separation. But he died in 1778, after delivering in the House of Lords a last impassioned protest against the royal policy ; and North remained in power till the end of the war.
The struggle, so far as America was con- cerned, closed with the surrender of Corn- wallis at Yorktown in 1781. The national pride was slightly soothed by the subse- quent successes which Rodney gained at sea over the French, and by Elliott's heroic defence of Gibraltar against the Spaniards in 1782. But it was obvious that the prize for which Great Britain had fought must be abandoned ; the more obvious because Ireland, after well nigh a century of Pro- „ . testant ascendancy and subjec-
_ * ''* * tion to the British Parliament,
St&tes . • ui J
. . . was visibly verging upon armed
rebellion. The Rockingham Whigs, who had done their best to prevent the war, were called into power that they might bring it to an end. The negotia- tions which they opened were terminated by the death of their leader, the most honourable and consistent party leader of the eighteenth century ; but in 1783 the Treaty of Versailles, with France and with
4552
the colonies, was at length concluded. The colonies, under the title of the United States, were recognised as independent. France and Britain made a mutual re- storation of conquests, except that France retained Tobago and Senegal. Spain was pacified with Minorca and Florida ; but Gibraltar, of which the vast strategic importance was now fully recognised, remained in British hands.
The Tr,ea.ty of, ;P,cy"is left Great Britain with an enii^ire which was sadly mutilated, but still consid;'iahlc. It included in the western hemisphere not only Canada, but also Jamaica and some of the richer islands of the West Indies. In the East the governorships of Clive and Warren Hast- ings had led to an expansion of the terri- tories governed by the East India Com- pany. The Calcutta settlement now formed the capital of an immense province which took in the whole valley of the Ganges as far as Benares ; further to the south the coast district of the Circars had been annexed, and in the extreme south of the peninsula, where the territory actually under British rule was small, the British name was respected far and wide. The Regulating Act of
Founders of the Indian
J, . 1773 had brought the company
"^^ ' under the control of the state,
and the appointment of the Governor- General now rested with Parliament ; the territories of the company might therefore be considered as national dependencies. The growing importance of India was revealed by the conflict which arose be- tween George III. and the Whigs in 1783 on the subject of the Indian government. An India Bill, to place, for the time being, the patronage of political appoint- ments in the hands of a parliamentary committee, gave rise to a feud between the king and the coalition Ministry of Fox and North which ended in the defeat and retirement of the Ministers. But Clive and Hastings were not yet recognised as the founders of an empire. Both had cause to complain of national ingratitude. Clive died by his own hand, in consequence of an. implicit censure by the House of Commons on his Indian administration. Warren Hastings, who retired from office in 1785, was impeached for malversation on the evidence of private enemies, and the trial dragged on for years before it ended in his acquittal. Only recently have the characters of these great men been vindicated from the aspersions which
A GROUP OF HAPPY PRINCESSES : THREE OF THE CHILDREN OF GEORGE III. This picture, reproduced from the painting: by J. S. Copley, R.A., in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, shows three pretty princesses, the children of King George III. The figure with the uplifted tambourine is the Princess Mary, who afterwards became the Duchess of Gloucester. The Princess Sophia is behind the carriage, while the child in the carriage is the Princess Amelia. She was the favourite child of the king, and it is said that her death, when she was only twenty-seven years old, hastened, if it did not actually cause, the terrible malady which afiSicted him.
4553
THREE FAMOUS INVENTORS OF THE GEORGIAN PERIOD Edmund Cartwright, the inventor of the power-loom and other labour-saving: machines, was rector of Goadby-Marwood, in Leicestershire, and received a grant of 850,000 from Government in recognition of his services to industry^and invention. Richard Arkwright invented cotton-spinning machines and established a large factory in Derbyshire dnven with water power ; while James Watt, by his discoveries in connection with the properties of steam, benefited the human race.
their contemporaries were too ready, in the heat of party conflict, to accept as proved. In 1783 all Britain's colonial possessions seemed unimportant in comparison with those lost. Adam Smith, whose great work on
Prosperity of English Commerce
the " Wealth of Nations" appeared during the American war, was of the opinion that the national prosperity had been gravely compromised by the mistake of developing trade with America to the neglect of all other markets. The monopoly secured by the Navigation Acts and similar restrictive measures had indeed produced an unhealthy infla- tion of particular industries. Yet English commerce survived the shock of the American secession and continued to prosper. The country had, in fact, already developed its manufactures to such a point that it was industrially in advance of all its Continental rivals.
This development was of a compara- tively recent* date. The era of the great mechanical inventors began only in the reign of George II. Kay, the inventor of the flying shuttle, which effected a revo- lution in the weaving industry in 1738, was the pioneer of the new movement. He made it possible to extend the trade in manufactured woollens, and to open that in cotton stuffs. Soon after 1760 there came in close succession a number of further improvements. Hargreaves, a native of the Lancashire town of Black- burn, was led by the need for a more regular and abundant supply of yarn to
4554
devise means of spinning by machinery. In 1767 he produced the jenny, which enabled one weaver to drive and super- intend a number of spindles simultane- ously. The neighbours of Hargreaves, seeing their profits threatened, broke the machine to pieces, and the hapless in- ventor was all but killed in the riot. His machine was, however, patented in 1770. In 1769, Arkwright, also a native of Lancashire and a barber by trade, produced a roller machine for spinning by water power. He, too, had to contend against ' local perse- cution, and his factory was burnt to the ground ; but he rebuilt it, and lived to double the prosperity of his native place. In 1779 Samuel Crompton, a poor weaver, invented the spinning-mule, so called because it combined the principles of Hargreaves' jenny and Arkwright's water-plane. Finally, in 1785, Cartwright, a clerg3'man, extended the use of machinery to the process of weaving, and produced a • power-loom.
But hitherto the only source of mechan- ical power had been the water-wheel,
«r ... ^ . except that steam was used for Watt s Great • -^ -, ,,t , .
_. . mining-pumps, J ames Watt
iscovcry o (discovered, in 1769, the means steam Power j- . . • / v • ,-
of settmg a wheel in motion
by a steam-driven piston ; and a form of steam power was thus produced which could easily be applied to every sort of machine. The introduction of machinery meant a vast extension of the textile trades and the growth 01 urban manufacturing centres.
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE AMERICAN WAR
The invention of the steam-engine decided that the north of England, where coal was chiefly to be found, should become the headquarters of the new industrialism ; and the north thus began to assume that pre-eminent position which hitherto be- longed to the south-eastern counties and the weaving districts of the south- west. New towns sprang up, and the demand for a readjustment of parliamen- tary representation naturally increased. •But this was not the only change. The introduction of machinery bore hardly upon the less intelligent of the hand labourers. It ruined many old centres of industry. It elevated the skilful and quick-witted, but it made the struggle for existence harder and swelled the ranks of the proletariat. It also complicated the task of government, both in the spheres of foreign and domestic policy. The necessity of protecting industrial interests became more obvious than ever ; the danger of social agitation and revo- lution was increased by the growth of town populations imperfectly educated and civilised, living under institutions which had been framed for the government
of small communities and were inadequate to control disorderly multitudes.
The tale of industrial development is told by the statistics of English exports. In 1793 their value was Sioo,ooo,ooo ; in 1800 it had almost doubled; in 1815 it exceeded $250,000,000. This expansion took place in the midst of great wars, when England was fighting hard for the mastery of the seas, and for a part of the period under consideration, the normal development of trade was impeded b)» Th G th *^^ Continental system of
f N t°^ 1 Napoleon. The growth of p . national prosperity was not
r sp ri y gj^^jj-gjy dependent upon new
manufactures. In agriculture also there were great improvements. The enclosures which had been made in the sixteenth century for the sake of sheep-farming had done much to destroy the old open-field system of cultivation. The introduction of " convertible husbandry " furnished another incentive for the creation of compact holdings in place of those com- posed of scattered strips in the common fields. But the open-field system still dominated more than half of England.
JAMES WATT AS A BOY : DISCOVERING THE CONDENSATION OF STEAM That the child is father of the man was wonderfully demonstrated in the case of James Watt, the discoverer of the condensation of steam. As a boy he would sit by the fire watching the steam as it issued from the kettle, and wondering whether this force could be put to any practical purpose. In the above picture he is shown holding a spoon to the mouth of the kettle on the table in order that he may test the strength of the steam. In later years Watt became a great inventor, his discoveries in connection with the properties of steam completely revolutionising the methods of travelling. From the painting by Marcus Stone, R.A., by permission of Messrs. Craves & Son
4555
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
It was the growth of population con- sequent upon industrial changes which now accelerated the change from the mediaeval to the modern methods of agriculture. The native farmer was pro- tected against foreign competition by an import duty on corn. He was encouraged to produce for exportation by a bounty _ . system. And these artificial
u'd^'^N inducements, although taxing M**.!. J the community for the benefit Methods r 1 J- J V, A
« of a class, did much to
promote a more scientific agriculture.
About 1730 the experirrhents of Lord Townsend led to the use of an improved and more elaborate rotation of crops. The breeding of stock was raised to a fine art by the Leicestershire grazier, Bakewell. An enormous number of private Acts of Parliament were passed to sanction the enclosure of particular localities. The process was not completed before the middle of the nineteenth century, but upwards of a thousand Acts of this descrip- tion were passed between 1777 and 1800.
The increased profits of farming under the new methods went chiefly to those who had the necessary capital for effecting extensive improvements ; and one conse- quence of the agricultural revolution was the disappearance of the yeoman farmer. Undoubtedly the growth of great estates made for increased production of wealth ; but with the yeoman vanished one of the sturdiest and most valuable elements of the population, which was ill replaced by the class of tenant farmers.
Before this work enters on the new era of European history opened by the French Revolution, a brief survey of the literary development of the eighteenth century becomes necessary. It is not surprising that this period — an age of great wars, political tension, and economic develop- ment— should produce a literature which was polemical and often political in character, or that with the old religious ideas and the old social system the
e ugus an characteristic qualities of Age of English . ^.v. 1 ^
-7 seventeenth-century poetry
and prose should evaporate
away. Poetry, in fact, almost ceased to
exist, for Alexander Pope (1688-1744),
though choosing verse for the medium of his
utterances, was by nature a critic, satirist,
and translator, a poet at moments only,
and, as it were, by accident. He is the
most characteristic figure of the so-called
Augustan age of English literature. All
4556
his best work is satirical. The " Rape of the Lock " (1714) is a personal satire on feminine foibles, the " Dunciad " (1728- 1743) a savage attack upon the professional writers of Grub Street, from whose malice Pope had received pin-pricks which he was incapable of forgiving. The " Essay on Man " (1734), though professedly a philosophical poem, is redeemed from oblivion chiefly by the passages in which Pope analyses the failings of his con- temporaries. Avowedly the pupil of Dryden, he shows the influence of his master, both in matter and style. But he is less political than Dryden, and far surpasses his model in the management of their favourite metre, the heroic couplet. A metre less fitted for poetry than this, of which the whole effect depends upon antithesis, neatness of phrase, and compression of meaning, can hardly be imagined. But for the expression of a sarcastic common-sense, for the scornful analysis of character, it is un- rivalled. Pope's use of the heroic couplet entitles him to rank among the great masters of literary form. There is much ^ _ in common between Pope and
,1, * , Swift. But the latter chose to
Writers of l- ir • j
th P ■ d ^^Prsss himself in prose ; and
his satire was at once more in- discriminate and more reserved than that of Pope. Swift at his best is characterised by a grave irony, and his thought is more antithetic than his style. A Tory pam- phleteer of no mean order. Swift is best known for two satires of a perfectly general character — the " Tale of a Tub," which ridicules, under cover of an allegory, the Reformation and the quarrels of the Churches ; and the " Travels of Lemuel Gulliver." In the latter work Swift attacks humanity at large, and passes gradually, under the influence of a melan- choly bordering on mania, from playful banter to savage denunciation, which inspires, and is inspired by, loathing.
Swift died insane, and there is a morbid element in his best work even from his early years. The cynicism of his age mastered, soured, and finally destroyed a powerful nature. It could not sour Addi- son and Steele, the two great essayists of the Augustan age, whose contributions immortalised the " Tatler " and " Spec- tator," two otherwise ephemeral journals. Like Pope and Swift, they are critics of human life, but their criticism is tempered with humour and a genial sympathy.
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE AMERICAN WAR
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) is a critic in a different vein ; for many years the Hterary dictator of London society, he sat in judgment on books and theories and writers. He is typical of the second phase in the literature of this period, a phase in which literature becomes more impersonal.
But the writers of this phase still keep the attitude of critics. In poetry they aim, above all things, at the observance of rule and proportion. In prose they devote themselves to the delineation of character, and are most successful in the new field of the novel. Goldsmith, Sterne, Smollett, Fielding, and Richardson, much as they differ in other respects, are alike in their realism ; their characters, however whim- sical, belong to contemporary society.
The eighteenth century was character- ised by a shallow rationalism. But every age has its exceptions, and this produced three philosophers of a profound and penetrating genius. Berkeley (1685-1753), an Irish dean and bishop, laid the founda- tions of modern idealism in his works on the " Theory of Vision " (1709) and on the " Principles of Human Knowledge " (1710). The crude scepticism which he demolished was replaced by the more subtle specula- tions of David Hume (1711-1776), whose " Treatise of Human Nature " (1739-1740), " Essays Moral and Political " (1741-
1742), and " Principles of Morals " (1751) represent the last word of agnosticism in metaphysics, and are memorable for having provoked Kant to elaborate a system not less critical, but more serious and more stimulating, than that of Hume.
In political philosophy the period pro- duced Burke's expositions of the organic conception of society. A Whig politician, member of ParUament, and Minister of State, Burke (1729-1793) was originally drawn to study abstract principles by his dislike for the Toryism of Bolingbroke and George III. The " Thoughts on the Present Discontents " (1770) was the first of a series of writings in which Burke unfolded not only his conception of the Enghsh constitution but also the ideas and principles which underlie all political societies whatever. Unsurpassed as an orator and in the marshalling of complicated facts, he is greatest when he deals in generalisation. His speeches on American taxation and on concilia- tion with America are of lasting worth, apart altogether from the occasion to which they refer ; and the numerous writings in which he attacked the French Revolution (i 790-1 796) are the most com- plete defence of the old c rder upon which the Girondists and the Jacobins made war. H. W. C. Davis
RETURNING THANKS FOR THE KINGS RECOVERY: SERVICE IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL This picture shows the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral during a Thanksgiving Service held in the famous building on St. George's Day, 1789. The king, George III., bad been seriously ill, and this service took plac* on his recovery.
4557
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE
ENDING
OF THE
OLD ORDER
VII
GERMAN POWERS AFTER THE PEACE
PRUSSIA'S RAPID FALL FROM GREATNESS
'X'HE Seven Years War had witnessed an * altogether unprecedented combination of the powers, in which the great but only recently organised state of Eastern Europe had joined with the traditional antagonists, Austria and France, in an unsuccessful attempt to crush another great but recently organised state in Middle Europe. At the end of the war, personal causes detached Russia from a combination on which her ruler had originally entered mainly on personal grounds. France was detached from it by the losses and the exhaustion entailed by the maritime and trans-oceanic triumphs of Great Britain.
The natural outcome was that Austria should tend to reconciliation with Prussia, and both to something like a common understanding with Russia, the interests which affected all three being centred in Poland ; that Continental affairs should virtually cease to interest Great p . , Britain ; and that the Bour- ru sia bons, so far as, they could J p afford to make • their energies
felt outside their own king- doms, should seek opportunities for injuring Great Britain rather than for interfering with the Germanic states.
For Frederic of Prussia, the first re- quirement was peace. In territorial ex- tent, in population, and in resources, his kingdom was surpassed by each one of the three chief powers which had united for his destruction. At each one of them, his infinite energy had enabled him to strike blow for blow and something more. But the strain had been terrific ; rest, recuperation, reorganisation, were abso- lutely imperative. It was quite necessary to be ready to face a new war, in order to make sure that there should be no new war to face. The proffer of a Russian alliance was welcomed .by. him as a guar- antee of peace. If "Pitt in England had returned to power effectively, as he did nominally in 1766, the alliance of the northern powers — Russia, Prussia, and
4558
Great Britain — as a counterpoise to the existing association of Hapsburgs and Bourbons, might have become a reality. But even then the British Ministry, absorbed in the process of irritating the American colonies, gave no attention Th C 'f 1 *° European questions ; and - immediately after the Peace
of Poland °^ Hubertsburg, Frederic had no inclination to rely on the nation which had deserted him under Bute's guidance, and showed no signs of evolving a trustworthy or far-sighted administration under the leadership of Grenvilles and Bedfords.
Frederic and the Tsarina Catharine understood each other, though their formal alliance did not take place till March, 1764. The affairs of Poland were at a critical stage, and Russian and Prussian interests there could be pursued har- moniously. The ulterior objects of the two were indeed opposed. Catharine would have liked to annex Poland, but, failing that, wished for a government there which would dance to her order. Frederic wanted for himself Polish Prussia, which intervened between Brandenburg and East Prussia. But, in the meantime, an election to the Crov/n of Poland was imminent ; and it suited both him and Catharine to oppose a candidate -of the House of Saxony, now ruling, and. to maintain within Poland the cause • of religious equality. Austria, on the other hand, favoured the Saxon dynasty and the cause of Catholic domination, while the recent policy of France had associated p her with Austria and with
w>° *^ X J I. Saxony. But neither France
Dominated by \ j. • j
J. . nor Austria was prepared — as
Catharine was — to take a re- solute line, and the Tsarina obtained the election of her candidate, Stanislas Poniatowski. Russian domination was. secured, but the policy, when pursued, alienated many of the Poles who had at first supported her, and stirred Austria
THE GERMAN POWERS AFTER THE PEACE
and France to a more active hostility. Both powers endeavoured to detach Frederic from Russia; and here Frederic found his own opportunity of detach- ing Austria from France by a scheme of partition to which Russia might be prevailed upon to assent.
Now, it must be noted that the position of Austria had become somewhat anoma- lous. Maria Theresa was queen, and continued queen till her death in 1780. But her husband, the Emperor Francis, died in 1764, when their son Joseph suc- ceeded to the imperial crown, his brother Leo- pold becoming Grand Duke of Tuscany, for which Lorraine had been exchanged some thirty years before. Joseph began operations as emperor by a series of attempts to reform the imperial system, with- out success ; nor could
EMPEROR JOSEPH
A second meeting took place between Frederic and Joseph in the following year, 1770 ; and this time a practicable scheme was formulated. It seemed prob- able at the moment that Russia might establish herself in Roumania, a prospect not at all to the liking of Austria. The Porte appealed to the two powers to mediate. If they insisted on Russia resigning her conquests, they must offer some compensation : Poland provided the where- withal. Poland could offer no effective resist- ance, and she had reached a stage of political disintegration which almost warranted the doctrine that she had forfeited her right to a separate national existence. But if Russia was to have compensa- tion in Polish territory for resigning Roumania, Prussia and Austria might reasonably de-
he apply his reforming The son of Francis I and Maria Theresa, he ^ ^ • ^^
. t^F •' t- A was elected King of the Romans m 1764, and i_ • r
enthusiasm to the AUS- became Emperor of Germany in the next Spoils aS the priCe Of
trian dominions, where year, a feature of his reign was the their assent. If they
his mother still retained suppression of 700 convents. He died in 1790. agreed on a partition.
control. In foreign affairs, however, he was able to exercise a leading influence, although Kaunitz, Maria Theresa's Minister, retained his position. Broadly speaking, though the queen was less impulsive and less warlike than of old, her attitude to Prussia was never friendly, and her inclination continued to favour the French alliance. Joseph, on the other hand, had a warm admira- tion for his mother's great antagonist.
The overtures of France to Prussia were received with extreme coldness ; those of Austria, though made more or less at the instigation of France, were much more welcome. A friendly meeting was arranged between Frederic and Joseph in 1769, which had little direct result, beyond estabyshing friendly personal re- lations and impressing on Catharine of Russia the importance of keeping on a satisfactory footing with Frederic. She was already involved in a war with Turkey ; and the success which was attending her arms increased the likeli- hood of Austria wishing to intervene, and therefore to associate herself with Prussia.
there was no one to say them nay. Great Britain, under Lord North, had her hands more than full with colonial troubles, and France had no interests sufficiently strong to rouse her to active intervention. So Russia, Prussia, and Austria, after pro- tracted negotiations, settled how much of Poland each was to have, and how much was to be left to the puppet king, Stanislas, and the Polish Diet was bullied and bribed into ratifying the p . partition. Frederic got West
° Ci i"h Pru^si^' t^^ main object of his , r . desire : Austria got Red Russia. of Enemies _, ' . ° • j .
The provinces assigned to
Russia were larger though less populous ; but what was left over as " independent " Poland was virtually a Russian dependency. The business was completed in 1772.
To Frederic, the acquisition of West or Polish Prussia was of immense strate- gical importance ; but the negotiations revealed, and the partition brought nearer, dangers against which it was necessary to guard. The contact of the great Slav power with Teutonic Europe and with the Slavonic dominions of Austria was growing
4559
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
more intimate and, potentially at least, more menacing. The menace could be held in check if Austria and Prussia presented a united tront ; but of this there was no present prospect. Joseph's ambitions did not harmonise with Frederic's require- ments ; for Prussia it was a serious ques- tion whether the aggression of Austria or of Russia was the more to be feared, while Joseph's aspiration for the extension of power in Germany, to which Frederic was necessarily opposed, distracted him from the primary need of maintaining PI guard against Russia. How-
* *ff,, ever, if Frederic was between the upper and the nether mill-stones, there was always with him the chance that one or both of the mill-stones would get the worst of it. As regards Russia, Prussia's present security lay in the dominant attraction for that power in the direc- tion of the Danube and the Crimea.
Joseph's original idea of strengthening the imperial power by remedying abuses in the imperial system had failed ; the scheme had in effect been replaced by a desire to extend and consoHdate the Hapsburg territorial dominion so as to tjive Austria a dictatorial ascendancy
of Prussia's Security
throughout Germany. Joseph was not actuated by a mere vulgar thirst for con- quest. The successful politician is the man who knows how to adapt the means which he can control to the ends he has in view. The successful politician rises into the great statesman if the ends in view are great ends ; the measure of his idealism is the measure of his greatness. But the idealist who fails to grasp the relation between means and ends fails as a statesman, though his failure may be more admirable than a meaner man's success. Joseph was an idealist who failed. He was conscious of crying evils which he wished to remedy. To apply the remedies, he wanted despotic power ; but he found himself unable either to apply the remedies judiciously or to secure despotic power effectively. It may be questioned whether the remedies, even if he had been able to apply them despotically, would have had the desired effect. The benevolent despot was, however, a favourite ideal with the very considerable body of those who identified political liberty with anarchy — who were soon to point to the French Revolution as a gruesome warranty for their views. Unfortunately, in Joseph's case neither the benevolence nor the
THE CORONATION PROCESSION OF THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. In this picture the magnificent coronation procession of the Emperor Joseph II. is seen passing through the inner court of the royal residence at Vienna. The former residence of the chancellor of the empire stands in the baclcground.
4.S60
THE GERMAN POWERS AFTER THE PEACE
despotism was appreciated by his sub- jects. Joseph, then, was fain to extend his territories, while Frederic disapproved unless he saw his way to an equivalent — accession of strength for himself. An opportunity presented itself at the be- ginning of 1778. The electoral House of Bavaria became extinct ; the succession to the Duchy reverted to an elder
'* g" °'^ branch of the same stock — in j\ ' . the person of Charles Theodore the Elector Palatine. Charles Theodore was elderly and childless ; he was easily persuaded to recognise a very inadequate Hapsburg claim to a large slice of Bavaria. Only two German princes were directly affected.
If Frederic raised an opposition, there would be no great powers to support him. Russia was busy with Turkey, England with America, and France would side with Austria, if with either. Nevertheless, Frederic did oppose, successfully. The chance of French support for Austria dis- appeared, as France turned her energies to helping the American colonies against Great Britain ; and Russia showed symptoms of intervening in spite of her Turkish war. Maria Theresa was opposed to her son's policy. Joseph found himself obliged to be content with a small portion of what he had claimed and to recognise the Hohenzollern title to succession in Anspach and Baireuth.
In 1780 Maria Theresa died, and Joseph could now follow his own course un- fettered. Hitherto his mother had kept the domestic rule of the Austrian domain in her own hands, and had held in the main by Hapsburg tradition, for which the son showed no respect. Alive to the immense success which had been achieved by the organisation of Prussia which Frederic had built up on the foundations very thoroughly laid by his father and by the Great Elector, Joseph tried to force a similar system on his own diverse domi- nions. The primary idea of Prussian absolutism had been the rapid
e as er subordination of all pergonal and
, „ . class interests to the strength-
01 Prussia r Ai, i. i u- I.
ening of the state which
answered like a machine to the control
of the single master mind. But in Joseph's
dominions there were very powerful class
interests which had been established for
centuries, and declined to vanish at the
monarch's fiat. The nobles, the town
corporations, the clergy, in turn found
their privileges or endowments attacked
290
by the reformer, while elementary rights
of the peasantry were legalised. The
supremacy of the State over the
Church was emphasised, and general
toleration and religious equality before
the law were established.
All these things were in themselves
excellent ; but they not only excited the
classes who were directly affected, but
created the utmost alarm throughout the
principalities of the empire, the more so
as the Hapsburgs, or Lorrainers, now
dominated the college of princes in the
Imperial Diet. This end had been achieved
by the election of one of the emperor's
brothers as Archbishop and Elector of
Cologne. It appeared that the emperor
was not unlikely to force upon the minor
states reforms of the same nature as those
which he had been carrying out in his own
hereditary dominion. German liberties
were at stake ; not, that is, the liberties
of the bulk of the population, which had
never possessed any, but the right of each
petty ruler to rule within his own territory.
If the petty princes were to make head
against imperial aggression, they must
.«. *xi * . be leagued with some great The Okstaele a 4.u 1 1
J K' power, and the only one avail-
? °f.*'* * able was Prussia. Now the em-
Ambitions , ^^ . ,
peror and Kaunitz recognised
in Prussia the great obstacle to Joseph's ambitions within the empire. Frederic, with a natural inclination to a league with Austria to hold Russia in check, habitually found himself forced towards a league with Russia to hold Austria in check. Russia, with a Turkish goal in view, had on the whole a preference for an under- standing with Austria rather than an alliance with Prussia. Austria, with an eye to Germany, was prepared for such an understanding, which was, in fact, arrived at very shortly after the accession of Joseph to the Austrian throne.
Since France and Great Britain were both still outside the mid- European complications — since, that is, they were absorbed in their own mutual relations or domestic difficulties — Frederic was isolated. He could not afford to appear unsupported as the champion of the petty princes, as in the recent Bavarian affair he had posed as the champion of state rights, as opposed to imperial aggression. At that time the understanding between Russia and Austria had not been estab- lished. Now, however, Joseph provided the occasion for uniting Germemy^-which had
4561
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
hitherto proved impossible. The Nether- lands had passed decisively from Spain to Austria at the Treaty of Utrecht, but Austria had always found them trouble- some rather than useful, for reasons which a glance at the map makes obvious. They were' exposed to French attack, and difficult to defend. Joseph, foiled in his previous attempt to acquire Bavaria from the Elector Palatine, now proposed an exchange. Roughly speaking, Charles Theodore was to hand over Bavaria and receive the Netherlands, which, with the Lower Palatinate, were to form a recon- stituted kingdom of Burgundy.
Such a scheme would involve danger to the independence of more than the petty principalities. To thwart it, Frederic took the lead in the formation of a defen- sive league, in which it was no longer a matter of great difficulty to induce practically all the German states to join, a league known as the Fiirsten- bund. It had not, indeed, the elements of permanency, of German unity, but it effected the immediate pur- pose of putting a stop to Austrian aggression within the empire. The Fiirstenbund fell to pieces after a brief interval, but it had destroyed the Bavarian scheme. What
EMPEROR LEOPOLD
predecessors, in spite of certain grotesque characteristics. After Frederic, the great- ness of Prussia fell to pieces; had there come no Bismarck and no Moltke, it might never have been restored in its fulness. But at the least, Frederic's rule had accomplished this, that even under incom- petent rulers Prussia was not likely again p . to become a negligible
,. i» J . . quantity in European poli- after Frederic s 3 ^, ^ -F .
jj^j^.j^ tics. Ihree years and six
months after the Great Frederic, Joseph also died. By this time the French Revolution was in full career, though most liberal-minded onlookers were rejoicing in the expectation that its out- come would be liberty in the sense of constitutionalism. The Bastille had fallen, but another year had to pass before the death of Mirabeau. The monarchs of Europe had not yet taken alarm ; and Leopold, Joseph's successor, was able to carry out a policy which was at once liberal and pacificatory. He shared Joseph's progressive ideas, but his intelligence was eminently practical. Being content to work patiently, he had been able to work effec- tively in his Duchy of Tuscany; and in a reign which was all too brief he succeeded in conciliating the outraged in-
further effect it would have He became emperor in 1790 on the tcrcsts, and in reconciling'
had if Frederic had been deathofhisbrotherjosephii.,and both the Netherlands and the
succeeded in Prussia by an- proved himseifa powerful ruler. He Hungarian nobles to the
other king of the same quality o^ed two years after his accession. Austrian supremacy, without
is matter of conjecture. But he died in 1786, and his nephew and successor Frederic William II., was no masterful genius. Frederic died leaving the Ger- man states united in a league of which Prussia held the unquestioned hegemony. But at that time no lesser man than Frederic himself could have accomplished what Bismarck was one day to carry out. P . . , No man, we are told, is indis- Work pensable. Nevertheless, history
. p . repeatedly presents us with the truth that many a great man's work has gone to pieces after his death for lack of a successor of the same calibre. Frederic had created a Prussia of tre- mendous efficacy, but the efficacy depended mainly on the competence of the man who controlled the machinery. His creation had been made possible by the remarkable ability of two of his 4562
materially curtailing the practical benefits which Joseph had thrust upon his unap-- preciative subjects. In a similar spirit, he dropped his brother's aggressive policy,' but his diplomacy recovered the German hegemony which had passed to Prussia.
The change in the relative positions of the two powers is a conspicuous illustration of the importance of personalities. Frederic had been replaced by Frederic William, Joseph by Leopold. Within six months of the latter event, the powers in general had recognised the change in the situation, and their moral support was transferred' from Prussia to Austria. But in Franc 3 events were moving rapidly towards a European catastrophe ; at the critical moment, two years after his accession, Leopold died, and with his death dis- appeared the last chance of the catastrophe ' being, averted.
|
WESTERN EUROPE FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION |
^ |
^i^J |
THE ENDING OF THE OLD ORDER VIII |
|
|
tI |
iiffi^(^ |
THE BOURBON POWERS AND THE APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION
FRANCE ON THE EDGE OF THE VOLCANO
THE pacific King Ferdinand of Spain had been succeeded on the throne by his half brother Charles III., the son of Elizabeth Farnese, who had previously managed to obtain for him the crown of Naples, the third Bourbon kingdom. Naples was now transferred to Ferdinand VI., a younger son of Charles. The accession was followed by that belated revival of the Family Compact which drew Spain into the Seven Years War at a moment when the British dominion of the seas had been completely established ; and she had already lost Havanna and the Philippines, and was in a fair way to lose the rest of her insular possessions when she was saved by the Peace of Paris, which restored most of her losses.
During the reign of Charles, which lasted till 1788, an enlightened domestic policy was followed, which, like that of Joseph II. in Austria, aimed rancc an ^^ ^^ abolition of the privi- pain uppor |gggg ^j ^j^g nobles and the Church, with the double ob- ject of benefiting the state as a whole, and of strengthening the Crown in particular. Charles's second intervention in interna- tional politics for the humiliation of Great Britain was no more successful than the first had been. France took up the cause of the American colonies in 1778 ; Spain followed suit in the vain hope of recovering Gibraltar, which successfully defied block- ades and bombardments, and Rodney shattered the French fleet at the battle of The Saints, when it was on its way to the rendezvous oft Hayti, where the Spanish fleet was to join it and so create a com- bined force which should wipe out the British navy. The pleasing prospect was dissipated by the overthrow of De Grasse, and Spain got nothing by her intervention. The domestic policy of Charles in Spain had been anticipated by Portugal under the able Minister Pombal, who achieved
The First Blow at the Jesuits
a practical dictatorship for many years under King Joseph II. Again the method adopted was that of benevolent despotism, a war of the Crown against class privileges, and the imposition of salutary reforms by a despot — the principle remaining the same whether the despot happens to be the monarch himself or an all- powerful Minister. The dictatorship, however, was ended by the death of Joseph in 1777, when Pombal was dismissed by his successor, and a reactionary policy was inaugurated.
Portugal was without weight in the European balance, though her friendly relations with Great Britain were to prove very valuable to the great naval power in the course of the Napoleonic wars. Never- theless, Pombal's activities were not only a typical example of the theory of reform by way of a monarchy ; in one particular, he gave the other Western states a direct lead. It was Portugal that first struck hard against the Order of Jesuits, which dominated the Catholic countries of Europe. Their privileges were threatened by the whole movement against privilege, and their power made them particularly formidable to the reformers.
The implication of the Jesuits in a sup- posed plot against the king and his Minister gave Pombal his opportunity. They were deported, and their property confiscated in 1759. The blow was followed up in France, where the Jesuit organisation was _^ . . condemned as illegal in 1761,
E * ii*d" * ^"^ ^^^ Order was suppressed . '''** / . by edict three years later. Before another three years had passed, Spain had followed suit, and ex- pelled the Jesuits ; and the third Bourbon dynasty in the two Sicilies copied the example set them. The death of Pope Clement XIII., who had dcy^e everything in his power to support the Order, was
4563
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
followed by the election of Clement XIV., who yielded to pressure and condemned it in 1773, thereby according to the general belief, sacrificing his own life, since his death, in the following year, was attributed to poison, and the poison was attributed to the Jesuits, but the story proved to be quite baseless.
The Seven Years War had injured France more than any of the other powers, not only by the greatness of her losses, but by the destruction of her prestige and the ruin of her finances. Her army in thi days of Louis XIV. had been the best in Europe ; her generals had been un- surpassed until Marl- borough and Eugene were matched against them ; the spirit of her troops had remained indomitable to the end. In the War of the Austrian Succession a marshal of the French army — albeit a German — had been the ablest commander, with the exception of Frederic of Prussia, and the French soldiery had achieved credit. But in the Seven Years War the French commanders were worthless, and their troops became de- moralised. France was not only defeated ; she was dis- credited in the eyes of Europe, and her rulers were discredited in the eyes of her own people.
No respect could be com- manded by a court where a Pompadour was supreme, and where the Pompadour herself was later succeeded by the Du Barry. No respect could be entertained for a noblesse which had failed in the one field wherein it professed to
recognise of arms ;
a duty— the field joseph ii
also as a cohesive social force, killing the sense of public responsibility in the seigneurs, while intensifying their arro- gance as a caste. Louis XV. was not with- out suspicions that a cataclysm must result from such conditions, but he counted on the system outlasting his time — and the system suited him. His despotism was complete ; but if it was not exactly tyrannical, neither was it benevolent ; the grandson who succeeded him was benevolent enough, but unfortunately was at the same time both morally and intellectually incompetent. Choiseul, the Minister into whose hands the prin- cipal direction of affairs had passed during the war, was honest and capable, but no genius. His interest was absorbed in foreign affairs, and he did not realise that domestic reconstruction was necessary before France could recover her power and prestige. On the other hand, he did realise that the downfall had been brought about by the British sea-power ; his policy was one primarily of preparation for another contest with Great Britain, which would demand a per- sistent development of the French navy. It would demand also a persistent abstention from expensive continental complications — a truth which had never been grasped by the rulers of France since Louis XIV. had neglected Colbert for Louvois. Choiseul did nothing to check the coming revolution; but France owed it mainly to his policy in the sixties that when she again challenged Great oF PORTUGAL Britain, in 1778, the fleets met
CHARLES III. OF SPAIN A younger son of Philip V., he succeeded his half-brother, Ferdinand VI.. on the throne of Spain in 1759. He died in 1788.
a noblesse which a war of the Crown against class ou terms of equality, for which had sunk for the most part glJ^J^^^o^e'SieVinUt'e? PombS there was no precedent except into parasites of the court ; achieved a practical dictatorship in the months between the a noblesse which, outside '"••■"^nyye"''- Joseph died in 1777 ^^^^^jgg Qf Beachy Head and of La Vendee and Brittany, had ceased La Hogue, ninety years before ; that
to be the leaders and rulers in their own territories, where they were habitual absentees. The monarchy, while preserving certain social aspects of feudalism, had destroyed it as a disintegrating political force ; but in so doing had destroyed it
4564
her squadrons were able to operate decisively in preventing the relief of Yorktown and compelling Cornwallis to surrender, thereby securing the American victory ; and that even when Rodney regained the all-but-lost naval supremacy
BOURBON POWERS AND APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION
for England, Bailli Suffren still more than held his own in Indian waters. Choiseul's government came to an end in 1770, when the king fell under the domina- tion of Madame du Barry. His tenure of office covered two events of importance — the expulsion of the Jesuits, and the annexa- tion of Corsica. The islanders, under the leadership of Paoli, revolted against the dominion of Genoa ; Great Britain, busy with American demonstra- tions and Middlesex elections, declined the protectorate offered her by the insurgents. Genoa sold Corsica to France, which established her govern- ment there ; and Napoleon Bonaparte was consequently born a French subject in 1769.
been able to free themselves from the conviction that the executive has the right to override the law. The fall of the Parlement was not a step in the direction of liberty in this sense ; the privileges it abolished were liable to mis- use, but were not so likely to be dangerous to liberty as the control of the administra- tion of justice by the Crown.
In ,1774 Louis the Well- beloved went to the grave unmourned. He was followed by his grandson, Louis XVI., a well-intentioned monarch of irreproachable character, unique in respect of the domestic virtues among the Bourbon princes, but wholly devoid of the qualities neces- sary for grappling with a crisis. The Maupeou government, ,^ eaSiefiife^^wfi'a^ supporter Hi^ wife, Marie Antoinette, which followed the fall of of the Jesuits, but, yielding to was the daughter of Maria Choiseul, carried non-inter- pressure, he condemned the Order. Thcrcsa, and the sister of vention further than that "« 'i**'^.' '» ^"*' T** *^*^**'y Joseph II. ; endowed with Minister himself ; had he re- attn ute o poison. charm, brilliancy, even
mained in office it is possible that the nobility of character, but young, impulsive, Eastern powers would not have been left self-confident, and injudicious, to partition Poland according to their own Maupeou and his colleagues were dis- convenience. But Maupeou found enough missed ; Maurepas became chief Minister,
was in fact improved, but, the marquise de pompadour no statesman but a instead of being a check For twenty years the public affairs of France second-ratc politician, in-
.1 tit were controlled by this woman, who was a mis- . . . i -a.
on the power of the tress of Louis xv. Her favourites were ap- tent ou present popularity, Crown, the judiciary was pointed to high offices in the state ; her policy but without either insight brought more under its was disastrous to the country, she died in i764. or foresight. Turgot was control. The fundamental conception of a statesman with both insight and fore-
liberty in England has always been the supremacy of the law over the execu- tive ; European governments, whether monarchical or democratic, have rarely
sight, but he was not a politician. He relied on the intrinsic merits of his policy, but was no adept at man«euvring for influential support. It was only through
4565
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
LOUIS XVI., KING OF FRANCE France was in a deplorable condition when, in 1774, Louis XVI. succeeded his grandfather, Louis XV., on the throne. For a time he was popular with the people, but evil days followed, and he was brought to the guillotine in 179:i.
the despotism that his aims could be achieved ; it was necessary to him to strengthen rather than to hmit the power of the Crown.
In a state in which the normal expenditure very considerably ex- ceeded the normal income, and the masses of the population were already taxed to the limit of en- durance, Turgot recognised that economy was a primary necessity; He proceeded to cut down expenses with great success, but to the, extreme annoyance of the nobles and others who had profited by the extravagance. He was of the economic school of the physiocrats who held that all wealth comes out of the land, and that all restrictions and, burdens should be removed from commerce and manufacture ; from which it followed that the incidence of taxation should be altered. The noblesse who battened
4566
on their exemptions perceived that they were likely to lose these privi- leges and to become the victims. The clergy were alarmed by the ascendancy of a man who was known to have contributed to the Encyclopedic, and to be approved by their declared enemy, Voltaire, while he was supported by Males- herbes, a friend of toleration, who wished to see the Edict of Nantes revived. Maurepas was afraid of finding himself displaced by Turgot, and the court was disgusted by his economies. The scarcity result- ing from bad harvests was attri- buted, according to recognised rule, to Turgot's reforms, which had been initiated by the establishment of free trade in corn within the king- dom, and there were popular riots. For a time Louis stuck to Tur- got, and the Minister continued to press- schemes of reform. The corvee, or forced labour, was to be abolished ; a tax on land was to pay for the labour. Labour was to be free to transfer itself from one industry to another. There were to be more economies. Protestant
MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE The queen of Louis XVI., she became notorious for her pleasures. In the horrors that came upon France with the Revolution she exhibited wonderful courage, and in 1793 she died at the guillotine^
BOURBON POWERS AND APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION
disabilities were to be removed. But the pressure on the king became too strong. The forces of reaction combined for the over- throw of the innovator ; Turgot and Males- herbes were both forced to resign in 1776. Maurepas replaced Turgot, after an inter- val of sheer incompetence,, by the banker, Necker, who hoped to restore the finances not by changing the incidence of taxation, but by borrow- ing, which his financial re- putation enabled him to do on comparatively reasonable' terms. So far, class interests found him less dangerous than his predecessor. But he was a Protestant, and there- fore distrusted by the clergy ; he was an economist, and therein was no improvement „. . , . . . .,
T-> , • ,L c Nicholas Augustin de Maupeou
upon Turgot in the eyes of became Chancellor of France in ,
the courtiers ; in the matter 1768, succeeding his father in that the British had hitherto been of privileges he was in effect ^^«^ o^ce. He was dismissed on able to compensate the dis-
the death of Louis XV. in 1774
CHANCELLOR OF FRANCE
winning side. Benjamin Franklin was welcomed in Paris with demonstrative enthusiasm. Necker, who had to find the money, was no more willing for a war than Turgot had been, but the torrent of sentiment was irresistible. France formally recognised the independence of the United States, and adopted an alliance which was equivalent to a declaration of war with Great Britain.
The French navy took the seas. Choiseul's naval policy found its justification. A fleet under D'Estaing sailed for American waters which was stronger than the fleet at Lord Howe's disposal ; while a second squadron was able to fight a drawn battle with a British squadron off Ushant. By the command of the sea,
a reactionary, and so lost the support of those who had applauded Turgot. Nevertheless, his methods did actually provide the immediate ways and means, in spite of the fact that France now plunged into a costly war. The moment had come for dealing a blow to Great Britain.
The first skirmish on American soil be- tween the colonial militia and the British regulars had taken place a year before Tur- got's retirement. The younger members of the French aristo- cracy, who had begun to develop enthusiasm for liberty and the rights of man, were soon volun- teering to help the gallant Re- publicans to cast off the yoke of the tyrant, and
THE REFORM MINISTER?, MALESHERBES & TURGOT Both of these Ministers were reformers and were associated with Maurepas on his becoming chief Minister of France. For defending the king, Malesherbes was arrested in 1793 and gruillotined the follow-
advantage of carrying on their operations in a remote and hostile terri- tory; now that advantage was lost. A year later, Spain followed the lead of France, and the prolonged siege of Gibraltar began The French fleet con- tinued to keep the British fleet inoperative ; when, in 1781, Cornwallis was shut up in Yorktown, the French commander was able to prevent the British from relieving him ; Yorktown fell, and with it the last hope of British success. Six months later, Rodney shattered De. Grasse's fleet in the Battle of the Saints by the manoeuvre known as " breaking the line" — anovelty then, but there-
forminff a source ingyear. As Controller-General of France, Turgot was responsible after a favOU'"ite „ 1 r ' for a great scheme of reform, but he was dismissed and died in 1781. -
perhaps, of more
embarrassment than advantage to George Washington. When two years had passed, the colonies were still unsubdued ; then, in the autumn of 1777, the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga produced a feeling that the colonies were going to be the
method of attack with the British naval commanders. The attempt to overthrow the naval supremacy had failed, but the purpose with which France had entered upon the war was achieved ; the Butish empire had been decisively rent in twain. Neither
4567
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of the combatants had any wish to con- himself compelled not only to multiply tinue the struggle, and the war ended economies, but to resort also to the applica-
with the Peace of Ver- sailles in the year 1783.
From the French point of view the best that can be said for the French intervention is that with- out it the colonies might possibly have been forced into temporary submis- sion ; and the Americans had reason to be grateful to the power which had undoubtedly made their task very much easier. But the injury to Eng- land was the only good that France got out of the war. It would never have been entered upon if the French Government had suspected the impulse
tion of some other of Turgot's principles. The Interests began to com- bine against him in his turn, and the process of borrowing was becoming increasingly difficult. Therefore, in 1781, he issued the " Compte rendu," or public finan- cial statement, contrary to precedent. For the moment the tide of opposition was stayed, but it soon became possible to point out some of the fallacies on which this proof of finan- cial success nested, while it exposed to the whole world the extravagances
which it was to give to voltaire, poet and satirist ^^ich still survived.
the revolution in France One of the world's greatest satirists, v^^^^^ Maurepas and Vergennes
.. ,- _, - • 1 -x was born at Pans in 1694 and died in that city , , , j , • j " , •
itselt. 1 he financial situa- in 1778. From his versatile pen came numer- both determined on filS
tion had already been ous poems and satires, while in his later years downfall. Necker thought
sufficiently serious ; the ^'^ writings violently assaUed Christianity, himself strong enough to
large addition to the expenditure had defy them, and proffered his resignation, necessitated heavy borrowing, and the The resignation was accepted, and
nation was threatened with insolvency. Maurepas had to find a new Finance
But beyond that, the |||_|^^__^_l^_l^gmilllll_^_l Minister. But the case
political order in France ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H for the reformers — the
was a pure despotism, ^^^^^^HHRHIii^^^^^^H case against the Govern-
the social order was ^^^^Br^ ,^^^^^^^H nient — was immeasur-
one of caste, and the ^^^^^M^S- "^^^^^^^^^m ^^^Y strengthened.
French Government had ^^^^BSR ^^^^^^1 After the death of
committed itself to ^^^RH^p ^„,,^ ^^^^^^^m Maurepas, in November
unqualified support of a ^^Hfp^S ^jSp fUJ^^^^^H ^^ ^^^ same year, 1781,
revolution which had ^^^K|^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^H ^^^ ^^^S did not appoint
proclaimed explicitly ^^^^^^K ""IH^^^^^H another Premier, and
that the rights of man ^^^^H^|fe^ *m^^^^^^^^ became more dependent
were its warrant and ^^^^^^V^%^^^^^^^^^H on the queen, who had
republicanism its ideal. ^^^^^^B ^^K^^^^^^^m i^^^ given birth to the
If the French Government ^^^^^Hk^ ■ -^^^^^^^^H ^^-^phin. Necker's im-
recognised the rights of ^^^^^^^^^^^6i^^^^^^| mediate successors, Joly
man, it confessed itself a ^^^^^^^^Hfefelk |^^^^| de Fleury and d'Ormes-
manif est monstrosity ; its ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^| son, held ofiice for a brief
approval of republican- ^^^^^^^^^^^^l^^^^^^l period, and on October
ism was an outrageous ^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^^^b 3rd, 1783, the Marquis de
paradox enthusiasm ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H Calonne, a profligate and
for the bourgeois Frank- ^^HHHiHIHHIHiilHH spendthrift roue, became
lin was a grotesque the French writer, rousseau "controller general," or
absnrditv Out of its ^**° Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712, JC^ppfor of finance His
aOSUrauy. UUr OI us and his literary success began when, in 1750, QireCtOr 01 nuaUCe. niS
own mouth the old order he was awarded a prize by the academy Systcm Ot the mOSt mad
stood condemned. It had of Dijon, He began his famous " Confes- extravagance with an
pronounced its own doom, sion "in England, and died suddenly im 778. empty treasury at once
Long before the war was over, Necker satisfied the courtiers ; he called an un-
had followed Turgot. In fact, he had found bounded expenditure of money the true
4568
BOURBON POWERS AND APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION
principle of credit, and scoffed at economy. The parasites sang the praises of the " ministre par excellence," for whom millions were but as counters, while the people received " panem et circenses" (doles and shows) through his great public works in Paris, Cherbourg, and elsewhere. Calonne reduced Necker's sj^stem of borrowing to a fine art. All money melted in his hands, and in order to obtain loans he was forced at once to give up large sums to the bankers ; as unconscientious as John Law in the second decade of the eighteenth century, he
assembly of notables, by which order could easily be established. He extolled his administration before it, and attacked Necker. This led to a paper war between them resulting in the triumph of Necker. When Calonne demanded a universal land tax, he was met by shouts of " No " from every side, and the notables insisted on learning the extent of the deficit. He admitted at last that it amounted to 115,000,000 francs. The Archbishop of Toulouse, Lomenie de Brienne, then brought up the clergy to the attack, and reckoned out a deficit ot 140,000,000. The
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE IN 177« Taking an active part in the deliberations which resulted in the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1778, Benjamin Franklin visited Paris in order to secure foreign assistance in the war. The bitter feeling prevailing in France at that time against England favoured the mission of the distinguished American, and France agreed to send help.
From the painting by Baron Jolly
court effected the fall of Calonne on April 9th, 1787, and the quack left France, while the popular voice clamoured for the return of Necker. The courtiers, however, per- suaded Louis to summon the archbishop who had overthrown Calonne, and actually to nominate him " principal minister."
Lomenie de Brienne was an actor of excep' ional versatility, a philos )phising self-induljent place-seeker, who wished to carry measures by the employment of force, and yet was discourage^ at the least resistance. When the notables refused him the land tax, he dismissed them ; they
4569
courted bankruptcy. The scandalous affair of the Diamond Necklace, into which the queen's name Was dragged by vile calum- niators, was a fitting product of Calonne's age of gross corruption. When he was at the end of his resources, he brewed a compound of the schemes of Vauban, Colbert, Turgot, and Necker, put it before Louis in August, 1786, and requested him to go back to the system of 1774, and to employ the abuses to the benefit of the monarchy. At the same time he induced him to act as Charlemagne and Richelieu had acted in their day, and summon an
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
now took back home with them full knowledge of the abuses prevailing at Versailles, and paved the way for the Revolution. The archbishop had a very simple plan by which to meet the financial prob- lem, but he was soon involved in strife with the Parlement. The people sided with the latter, clubs* sprang into existence, pamphlets were aimed at the court, especially at " Madame Deficit," the queen, and her .'friend, the Duchess of PoTignac, whose pic- ture the mob - burnt, together with that of Calonne. The Parle- ment, exiled to Troyes, concluded after a month a compromise with the Government, but insisted on the abandonment of Brienne's stamp duty and land tax.
Louis, who posed as an absolute monarch,' 'splayed a sorry figure in the " seance royale " of November 19th, in which the Duke of Orleans won for himself a cheap popularity, and in the " lit do justice," or solemn' meeting of Parlement, of May i8th, 1788. On this latter date the Parlements were re- duced to the level of simple provincial magis- trates, and a supreme court, or " cour pleniere," constituted over them. This was the most com- prehensive judicial re- form of the " ancien regime " ; but the Crown did not possess the power to carry it out. The courts as a body sus- p e n d e d their work ; Parlements, clergy, nobility, and the Third Estate leagued together
JACQUES NECKER Occupying in turn the offices of Director of WhlCh granted Treasury and Director-General of Finance, he niOnCV and was responsible for many remedial measures. - ^ •^ ''
He added to his popul£.rity in 1788 by recom- mending the summoning of the States-General.
against the centralising tlonary pamphlets were sold in the gardens
policy of the Crown ; "^ *^" ^"^^" ^°y^'' "'^ **""' '""'**^"" Breton nobles laid in Paris the foundation- stone of what was afterward to be known as the Jacobin Club ; the provinces, especially Dauphine, were in a ferment ;
4570
and revolutionary pamphlets were sold in the gardens of the Palais Royal, the resi- dence of the Duke of Orleans. Louis, how- ever, lived for the day only. The loyal Malesherbes vainly con- jured him not to under- estimate the disorders, and pointed out the case of Belgium under Joseph II., and of the American colonies of Great Britain. Louis was too engrossed in hunting to read the memorial.
The winter of 1788- 1789 brought France face to face with famine. Brienne was without credit, and a suspension of payments was immi- nent. It was high tim^'e to find an ally against the privileged classe^, him nb Brienn.e looked for one in the nation. He invited every- one to communicate with him on the sub- ject of summoning the States-General, which had not met for 170', years, offered complete liberty of the Press on this national question, and let loose a veritable delugei; 2,700 pamphlets ap- peared. Their utterances were striking. First and foremost there was the pamphlet of the Abbe Sieyes, vicar-general at Chartres, entitled '^ Qu'est-ce que le Tiers Etat," a scathing attack on clergy and nobility, and a glorification of the Third Estate, which Sieyes emphatically de- clared was the nation, and as such ought to send to the National Assembly twice as many represen- tatives as the two other Thirty thousand copies of this pamphlet were in circulation in three weeks. Count d'Antraigues in his pamphlet recalled the proud words with which the justiciar of Aragon did fealty to the king : " We, each of whom is as
PHILIP "EGALITE" OF ORLEANS
He became Duke of Orleans on the death of estates
his father, in 1785. He disseminated books and
papers advocating liberal views, and revolu
4571
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
great as thou, and who, combined, are far more powerful than thou, promise obedience to thee if thou wilt observe our rights and privileges ; if not not." The count attacked, with Rousseau, the dis- tinction of classes, explained that no sort of disorder is so terrible as not to be pre- ferable to the ruinous quiet of despotic _. „ . power, and called the heredi- The Heaviest^ ^^^^ nobility the heaviest courge o an g^^^^j-gg ^j^-j^ which an angry
ftgry eaven j^g^^gj^ could afflict a free nation. Jean Louis Carra called the word " subject " an insult as applied to the members of the assembled estates, and termed the king the agent of the sovereign — that is, of the nation. Even Mirabeau, who more than any other had suffered in the fetters of absolute monarchy, took up his pen, called upon the king to abolish all feudalism and all privileges, and coun- selled him to become the Marcus Aurelius of France by granting a constitution and just laws. His solution was " war on the privileged and their privileges," but his sympathies were thoroughly monarchical.
Louis then promised that the States- General, which the popular voice de- manded, should meet on May ist, 1789, and dissolved the " cour pleniere." The archbishop, on the other hand, sus- pended the repayment of the national debt for a year, and adopted such des- perate financial measures that everyone considered him mad. On August 25th he was dismissed from office ; the mob burnt him in effigy and called for Necker, on whom the country pinned its last hopes.
When the arbitrary power of the Crown
had been exercised by a despot of ability
such as Louis XIV., resistance on the part
of the Interests had been crushed. When
they had been exercised by a ruler of
inferior ability to the social and pecuniary
advantage of the Interests, they had not
aroused the resistance of caste. But since
the accession of Louis XVI. things had been
o -1 ir« X different. The evil effects
Evil Effects r .1 (( / ■ ,,
- . 01 the ancien regime
. . „' . under Louis XV. had Ancien Regime , , ,. ^^
reached a chmax. Every
Finance Minister in turn now found himself compelled sooner or later to make demands on the pockets of the privileged classes, to attack their immunities, and to call the arbitrary powers of the Crown to his aid in doing so. Hence the privileged classes found themselves in antagonism to the arbitrary powers of the Crown ; and hence
4572
again they found themselves advocating the limitation of these powers by the summoning of the States-General — a con- stitutional assembly of the three estates of the realm, nobles, clergy, and commons, which had not been summoned since 1614. The idea, of course, was that the Third Estate would count only when it was in accord with the other two. That the " Tiers Etat " was to capture the supre- macy was not at all in the programme of the Parlements or the clergy, or of one section at least of the aristocrats who supported the demand. On the other hand, the demand itself was applauded by all those who had learned to look upon the British constitution as the best existing model, by those who had fallen in love with the American revolution, and by the populace, which reckoned that in the States-General it would become articulate. Inevitable also was the recall of Necker ; the reign of the series of amateurs who had succeeded him had been ruin- ously costly, and had not even saved the privileged classes ; whereas the honesty of Necker and his reputation as a financial expert were still untarnished. _ , Nevertheless, Necker was not rance s ^j^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ hour. The
n- problem for France was not
Disease ^ 1 ., . t
merely that of raismg money ;
that problem existed as a symptom of the
disease of the whole body politic. Until
the disease itself should be attacked,
that particular expression of it could find
only temporary alleviation, whereas in
Necker's eyes it was the whole disease.
He looked upon himself as indispensable ;
he saw that the States-General was in--
evitable ; but he did not see that it was
going to be master of the situation. In
fact, so little did he realise the enormous
importance which was going to attach to
that body that a fundamental question
as to its constitution was left for its own
decision when it should assemble. Were
the three orders to vote separately — that
is, were there to be three chambers of
equal weight — or were they, to vote
together, the majority in the aggregate
being decisive ? If the former course
were to be followed, the two privileged
orders could resist any attack ; if the
latter, privilege was doomed. For it
had been granted that the Third Estate
should have double representation, roughly
600 members as against 300 for each of the
others ; and there were enough reformers
BOURBON POWERS AND APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION
among clergy and nobles to turn the scale decisively. Necker left the point undeter- mined, though the double representation would be palpably meaningless unless it gave the doubly-represented double weight. With this preliminary issue before it, the States-General met on May 5th, 1789. Politically and socially, mediaeval Europe was the outcome of two forces — feudalism and clericalism. The mediaeval passed into the first stage of the modern when a third force, the individualism, which was the essence of renascence, was brought to bear upon these two ; the resultant was the Western Europe of the eighteenth century. When the third force overwhelmed the other two in the French Revolution, the second modern stage was reached. The isolation of England had saved her from being gripped like the Continental nations by either feudalism or clericalism ; hence she had acquired a strong central government centuries before any European nation had done so. A rigid caste system had never established itself; she had broken free from Rome with hardly a struggle ; for five centuries
^i e. ^ her Commons had never been
The Steady • ,■ 1 . j r r
. . marticulate, and for four cen-
f E 1 d ^^^^^^ ^^^ labouring classes had been free from villeinage. She had been able to advance steadily without a revolution at all. What she had called revolution was little more than successful resistance to attempted reaction. From the time of King John the party of pro- gress had invariably repudiated the charge of innovation and appealed, not to doctrines of abstract right and theories of what ought to be, but to concrete rights legally confirmed by charter, by statute, or by ancient custom.
But during those centuries on the Continent feudalism and clericalism had reached their full development, though not without a certain antagonism between themselves. Feudalism must issue politi- cally either in absolutism or in distinegra- tion, or in a combination of the two. In France Louis XI. was able to direct it towards absolutism ; in the empire imperial absolutism failed, and Germany became a loose confederation of states ; but in the separate states absolutism triumphed. The political downfall of feudalism, how- ever, did not destroy it socially. The boundaries between class and class de- veloped into almost impassable barriers between hereditary castes. The law
strengthened the barriers and emphasised the distinction by multiplying privileges and immunities on the one side and intensi- fying disabilities on the other. The new force, individualism, hardly at the outset attacked feudalism either on its political side, where it was collapsing by its own nature, or on its social side, where it had
«« . ox * not then reached its full Western States j 1 j. n • 1 au
m# J 11 J XI. development. Prmianly the Modelled on the , ^ , 1 . r • j- j
French Pattern great onslaught of individu- alism was directed against clericalism. Where clericalism made terms with absolutism, it survived ; where it did not, 'Protestantism was victorious. The combination of political absolutism, social feudalism and clericalism culminated in the France of Louis XIV. And to that model every one of the Western states approximated, with modifications, except Great Britain, Holland, and Switzerland.
Now, individualism — the spirit which asserted itself in the Renaissance and the Reformation — is at bottom the claim df the individual to inquire, to judge, and to act for himself, so far, at least, as his doing so does not impede his neighbour's power to do likewise. Absolutism is the negation of the individual's right to act for himself politically; caste or privilege imposes artificial restrictions on one class for the advantage of another, socially. Clericalism is the negation of the individual's right to inquire and judge for himself intellectually. Each may serve worthy ends in particular stages of development, but each is in direct an- tagonism to individualism.
Since inquiry and judgment precede action, the demand for freedom of inquiry and judgment became vigorously militant before the demand for freedom of action. It had been so far victorious as to sever one half of Western Christendom from Rome in the sixteenth century, and to overthrow the Jesuits in the eighteenth. But latterly the attack on clericalism had V It • tK changed its character ; the o aire e champions of the movement Ch **t" 'tv w^re the intellectual descend-
ris lanity ^^^^ ^^ Erasmus rather than of
Luther. They were more logical than the heroes of the Reformation; but they were less moral, being actuated more by contempt for the irrational and the absurd than by positive religious con- viction. Their protagonist ^as Voltaire, who assailed clericalism as the intellectual enemy with merciless ridicule and invective.
4573
4574
BOURBON POWERS AND APPROACH OF THE REVOLUTION
But the movement had changed also in another way. As the right to inquire and to judge became decisively recognised, inquiry applied itself more boldly to the political and the social iields. Herein, England gave the lead. She had worked out her own salvation in practical fashion, without much conscious theorising, and pre- sented to the world the example of a state in which the average individual possessed a degree of liberty without other parallel — in thought, in speech, and in action.
Hobbes had written his theoretical justification of the absolutism which broke down, and John Locke had pro- vided a more or less logical basis for the constitutionalism which succeeded. Hobbes, and Locke after him, both based their theory of the structure of civil society on the hypothesis of an original contract by which aggregates of men had voluntarily subjected themselves to a govern- ing authority. Both also recognised the existence of certain fundamental rights of the individual which could not be abro- gated by any contract. The two conceptions, of contract as the origin of society and of the Rights of Man, as postulates, became the basis of ex- tensive speculation cul- minating in the emotional propaganda of Jean Jacques Rousseau. In Rousseau's account, the " contrat social " had been an insidious device by which the few had been enabled to domineer over the many, and he demanded a new contract based upon the Rights of Man. How such doctrines were impregnating the whole atmosphere of political speculation may be seen from the explicit manner in which the apolo-
pointed to the British constitution as the one under which the maximum of indi- vidual liberty was actually to be found, and attributed the fact to the separation df the sovereign functions and to the balance of political powers. ^ A -revolution on Anglo-American lines Was made to appea'r possible ; and with modifications borrowed from the idealised republicanism of Ancient Rome, appealed with considerable force to the intelligent, the intellectual, and the pedantic. In short, a. constitutionalisih which was content to be monarchical in form while republican in effect was pre- sented as an attractive ideal, especially to the younger generation, who were, or wished to seem, progressive. Nevertheless, such an ideal was quite incompatible with Rousseauism, although consistent enough with the teaching of Diderot, D'Alembert, and the Encyclopedic. On thfe practical side, immense additional momentum was given to the revoj- lutionary movement be- cause in its earlier stages it found champions among the best of the intellectuals and of the aristocrats, who did not realise the uncontrollable character of • the forces that were being let loos^. Those forces were, in their origin, more social than political. ^> A system under which the wholie
were and
JEAN LE ROND. D'ALEMBERT This great mathematician and Encyclopaedist was born in 1 71 7, and among l^'j^a^ writings
: books on philosophy, liter^. criticism weight of taxation rested
the theory of music. "He died in 1753. " i i- n
upon a population usually at or below the hunger-line was endurable only* so long as it was itresistible. The population hitherto ^ had suffered- an(l hated, but endured perforce. The suffering and hatred were on the verge of becoming not only articulate but clamorous as th^ people began to perceive that endurance might not be necessary, that defiance
gists of the American revolt claimed the ^ might be possible, that the system might
Rights of Man as their justification.
Apart, however, from the emotional expression of abstract theories, inquiry in the political field had tal.en a new direction, Montesquieu had undertaken the task of analysing existing or formerly existing institutions and comparing their working, initiating the application of the historical and comparative methods. He had
be shattered. The iniquities of privilege were patent to all except the minority who profited- by them ; even* amOrig the minority there were not a few who fett and deplored the injustice. '
The States-General had now been sum- moned to deal with the problem. What would the States-General do with it ?
Arthur D. Innes
4575
GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY AS SEEN FROM ST. JOHN'S HILL
THE STORTHING, DENMARK'S IMPOSING HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
CHRISTIANIA. THE BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL OF NORWAY Photochrome
4576
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
|
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f^HC |
^s^ |
J |
|
"•"■■' <Jl |
^ M^ki |
lE |
r« |
|
IfM^vA |
^ *^ |
■K |
mI |
|
W^^ |
^ |
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.. |
THE
ENDING
OF THE
OLD ORDER
IX
DENMARK'S GREAT ERA OF PROGRESS
THE REVIVAL OF NORWAY'S PROSPERITY
A FTER the great Scandinavian war there ^~^ followed for Denmark a long period of peace, which enabled the nation to recruit its energies and which was of the utmost importance for the internal development of the country. Its intellectual life was greatly influenced from abroad, not only from Germany, as before, but also from Western Europe. New ideas were introduced, interest in public affairs grew stronger, and gradually radical reforms were carried out in various directions. Pietism, im- ported from Germany, became widespread, especially among the lower classes ; and Frederic IV.'s son, Christian VI. (1730- 1746), influenced by this movement, exerted himself to promote the intellectual and spiritual welfare of his subjects.
In all parts of the kingdom schools were erected where the children could be taught religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Literature, too, now set itself the task of ^t .. » J • working for the enlighten-
PeriocT ' """^ "'^^^ ^"""^ education of the • "n 1 people. In the Reformation
in Denmark ^ .^j ,. ,,.j. j.
period a national literature
had grown up which was of the greatest importance for the development of the ver- nacular as a literary language and for the education of the masses. But soon there was a return to Latin, and scholars were almost ashamed to make use of their mother tongue. It was the " academic period." Science, it is true, had been studied with success, and Denmark could boast of dis- tinguished namej — the astronomer Tycho Brahe ; Niels Stensen or Steno, the founder of geology ; Thomas Bartholin, the well- known anatomist ; and the physicist Ole Romer, who became famous by his calcula- tion of the velocity of light.
But the labours of these scholars were without influence on the intellectual life of the nation, for whose education prac- tically nothing had been done. Even poetry was the business of scholars — an artificial product, in imitation of Germany. Yet there were at this time a few poets not
2W
without originality, such as A. Arreboe, who has been called the father of Danish poetry; the Norwegian poet Peter Dass, whose popularity has not even yet died out, and Thomas Kingo, highly esteemed as a writer of hymns. But, on the whole, the , literary output was poor. It
o ergs was only with the appearance of Influence on r j • tt lu /^o. --.\
the Nation Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) that Danish literature changed its cnaracter and became the educative force which it now is for the whole nation. Holberg was influenced by the intellectual life of Western Europe, and desired, like the philosophers of the eighteenth century, to " enlighten " his countrymen, to exter- minate ancient prejudices and follies, and to spread useful knowledge. His writings are of many kinds, including satires, comedies, and historical and philosophical works. His purpose being to educate the people, he wrote in Danish, in the develop- ment of which as a literary language he rendered valuable service, though he him- self was actually a Norwegian. He had several followers, who, as apostles of " enlightenment " and " rationalism.," aimed at being useful to the state and the nation, and worked through their writings for the cause of "universal happiness."
The poets of the latter half of the eigh- teenth century received strong stimuli from abroad, from the English poetry of Nature, from Rousseau and from German sentimental and national literature, especi- ally from Klopstock, who spent a consider- able time in Denmark. The Danish poets, the chief representative of whom was Th P Johannes Ewald, followed the
f D °* 'k last-nanied direction, which
. j^ the Norwegians, influenced by
rway £j^gjjgj^ ^^^^ French literature,
opposed, openly showing their dislike to" it by the formation in 1772 of the Nor- wegian Society, the heart and soul of which was J oh. Herman Wessel, The new ideas continued to spread, and bore fruit in the great reforms which
4577
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
KING CHRISTIAN VI. He was the son of Frederic IV. , and, ascending: the throne of Denmark and Norway in 1730, applied him- self to promoting the intellectual and spiritual welfare of his subjects.
Both Frederic and his Ministers were in favour of reform ; they took in hand a number of Struensee's earher plans, but proceeded with caution, and thus im])arted strength and durabiUty to their measures. The Press regained its freedom, the adminis- tration of justice was im- proved, and many of the bonds that fettered commerce and agriculture were unloosed, for the state of the peasantry was still disgraceful.
Frederic IV., it is true, had abolished the old serf- dom ; but under his successor a new form of it had been introduced. The regulation had been made — partly to facilitate conscription and partly to ensure a supply of labour for the landed proprie- tors— that the peasantry were not to be allowed to leave their native place as long as they were liable for military service ; as a consequence they were tied to the soil during the best part of their lives, and abandoned to the tyranny of the landowners, who harassed them with claims of compulsory service and with heavy taxation. Serfdom was now abolished— in 1788, and in the duchies in 1797 — and by this reform the peasantry
attained real freedom. Their condition was also improved in other ways, with the result that the landowners were no longer able to treat them as they liked. Agricul- ture now made rapid progress, and the value of land was quin- Two FAMOUS DANISH ASTRONOMERS tuplcd between
Ole Romer, whose portrait is first given, a distinguished philosopher and 175*-^ and 180O.
astronomer, became famous by his calculation of the velocity of light. Pnrnmprrp and
Tycho Brahe, who belonged to an earlier period thanRomer, prosecuted '-'•Junilcicc d.IlU
his studies as an astronomer with great success, discovering serious shipping also
errors in the astronomical tables, and observing a new star in Cassiopeia. . j
entered upon an era of prosperity. In the tariff law of 1797 the protectionist policy was given up ; the embargoes on imports were for the most part abolished and the duties were reduced. With a view to encouraging commerce, an agreement had been
characterise the last - decades of the eighteenth century. The king who was reigning at that time, Christian VII. (1766- 1808), was feeble-minded and incapable of performing his duties, and was in con- sequence soon obliged to leave the real work of government to his Ministers. In the early years of his reign, Bernstorff, the capable statesman who brought the disputes with Gottorp to a satisfactory con- clusion, took the chief part in the government ; but in 1770 he had to make way for the German physician, Struensee, who had known how to gain the confidence of 'the king and the affection of the queen, the English Princess Caroline Matilda.
Struensee was imbued with the ideas of the age of enlight- enment, and carried out sensible reforms, such as establishing the freedom of the Press, abolishing the examination of prisoners under torture, and so forth. But his measures were introduced too hurriedly and unsystematically, and many of them aroused great opposition, besides which he incensed the people by his lax morality and his contempt for the Danish language. At the court he had numerous enemies, and they succeeded in bringing about his fall ; he was arrested on Jan- uary 17th, 1772, accused of lese majeste, and be- headed on April 28th. Most of his reforms were cancelled by the new govern- ment, the most influential mem- ber of which was Ove Hoegh- Guldberg. O n
April 14th, 1784, the Crown Prince Frederic took up the reins of government, and, though still young himself, showed his ability to select capable advisers, the most prominent being Count Bernstorff, whose moral reputation Avas without blemish.
4578
DENMARK AND NORWAY
concluded with Sweden and Russia — the Armed Neutrahty of July, 1780 — even at the time of the American War of Indepen- dence ; and Bernstorff was able to prevent Denmark and Norway from becoming involved in hostilities. Danish and Nor- wegian vessels sailed all the seas without let or hindrance, and carried on a profitable trade with the belligerents.
After the extinction of the old royal house in 1319 Nor- way had become united first with Sweden and then with Denmark in 1380. From this time the country rapidly deteriorated ; it could not maintain its independence in the union. The prosperity of the country was ruined by the Hanseatic League, which was steadily increasing in power ;
KING CHRISTIAN VII,
Itself very little at first about the country. It was only towards the end of the six- teenth century that Norway began to regain its strength; Christian IV. (1588-1648)11! particular worked zealously for its welfare. The natural resources of the country were turned to better advantage; the power of the . Hanseatic 'League was broken. Com- merce and navigation re- vived. Forestry and mining became more important ; the towns increased in number and size : Christiania was founded in 1624. In addition to the peasantry a class of citizens and mariners was springing up. The nobles were not numerous and had not so many privileges as in Denmark ; neither did they possess the power of depriv- their true
at the same time Norway Ferwe-minderand 'inclpabie' of ing the peasants of
was terribly devastated in performing: the duties of his posi- independence. It is
.■!„ f i. it. J. i_ tion, helefttheworkofg-overnment ,, . ,i i j rr j . i i
trie fourteenth century by to his ministers. He married the that the land suffered through
several pestilences. English Princess Caroline Matilda, ^j^g ^a,r between Denmark
The retrogression of the material wel- fare of the country was accompanied by a decline in the literary life ; after the middle of the fourteenth century almost all literary activity ceased. The Danes made their way into the country and obtained civic rights by intermarriage. They brought with them the Danish language, which dis- placed old Norwegian as the literary language, and strongly influenced the col- loquial language of the towns. While Sweden had freed her- self from Danish supremacy and was entering upon a time of prosperity, Norway was treated almost like a pro- vince of Denmark after the " Counts' war "of 1536 ; it is true it retained the title of kingdom and had its own laws, but it lost its Council of t-„-^„-^, ^ ^-. ncMMAot^
Ca i J 1 1 THE ORACLE OF DENMARK
btate; and was governed by count Bemstorfr was Danish Min-
the Danish Council of State 'Ster of Foreign Aflfairs from 1751
„^J -TV • 1- m ■ 1 T>i till 1770. By Frederic the Great this
and Danish officials. The ■■ ^ Reformation was introduced in 1536 by peremptory decree; the churches and monasteries were pillaged. Little trouble was taken to instruct the people of the country in the new doctrines ; indeed, the Danish government concerned
and Sweden, and also lost the pro- vinces of Herjedalon, Jemtland, and Bohuslen ; but, on the whole, it made quiet progress.
The situation improved still more after 1650, when an absolute government was introduced into Denmark and Norway. Norway was freed from the Danish feudal lords and stood directly under the king, who interested him- self just as much in Norway as in Denmark. The adminis- tration and judicature were improved ; a new code of laws was issued in 1687, and public offices were often filled by Norwegians. The Norwegians soon became distinguished in many departments of life. Ludwig Hoi berg, " the Father of Modern Danish-Norwegian Literature," was a Norwegian. Trade and commerce flouri- shed. The last years of the
,_, U111//U. joy r reaenc tne oreat mis . , , .-, , -^
The capable statesman was character- eighteenth CCUtury WCrC par-
,r^A ised as "The Oracle of Denmark." ticularly fruitful; at that
time, during the revolutionary wars, Denmark-Norway was able to preserve a neutral 'attitude, and down to their time there was no ill-feeling in Norway against Denmark and the union.
4579
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE
ENDING
OF THE
OLD ORDER
X
SWEDEN'S TIME OF STRIFE
THE BLOODLESS REVOLUTION UNDER GUSTAVUS IH.
/^N the death of Charles XII. without ^^ issue, his sister Ulrica Eleonora, who had been married to Frederic, hereditary prince of Hesse, was chosen queen, but she was obliged to renounce the absolute sovereignty in February, 1719. The war soon came to an end in the new reign. Hanover received Bremen and Verden, _ - , . Prussia the southern part of e imi e Nearer Pomerania, and Russia Power of .V XT
. M K' provinces of Ingerman-
land, Esthonia, and Livonia, with Viborg Len, from Finland. Denmark was satisfied with 600,000 thalers ; Sweden abandoned her claim to exemp- tion from tolls in the Sound, and promised not to protect the Duke of Gottorp.
Ulrica Eleonora resigned the crown in March, 1720, in favour of her hus- band ; Frederic received allegiance as king. However, a new form of govern- ment limited the power of the king still more. The king became quite dependent upon the Council of State and the Riksdag. The supreme power was in the hands of the Riksdag, which assembled every three years and had the right of supervising and altering all the decrees of the king and of the Council of State.
National affairs were first discussed in the standing committees, among which the " secret committee " soon obtained the greatest influence. The nobles had the predominance in the Riksdag ; they alone had a seat and a vote in the Council of State and filled all the import- ant offices. The period between 1720 and . . , 1772 is generally called the .. ~ ^ " time of liberty." For a long
of Liberty " ^^^^^ after the long and devas- tating war the country was in a most wretched condition ; the finances were in the greatest confusion. However, the situation improved more rapidly than might have been expected, thanks princi- pally to the Chancellor, Count Arvid Horn. In order to further his country's interests he preserved a wise and cautious demeanour towards other nations.
4580
At home, also, there was plenty to do : new laws were necessary, and the finances had again to be set in order ; all branches of industry required careful attention. In a short time manufactures and mining, commerce and navigation, revived.
With increased prosperity, however, the voices of the malcontents made them- selves heard. There was a certain section of the people who could not reconcile themselves to the loss of the Baltic pro- vinces, and, goaded on by France, they had become dissatisfied with Horn's foreign policy ; they wanted war with Russia in order to regain what they had lost. They derisively termed Horn and his followers " Nattmossor " (Night-caps), while they called themselves " Hattar " (Wide-awakes). In this way Sweden soon became the scene of fierce party quarrels. The contending parties had recourse to any expedient which might injure their I opponents, and by which they
St "f '^'^' could attract followers to their
. c . own side ; as both factions in Sweden ,, ,
were equally venal, corruption
became more common. The neighbouring nations watched the internal strife with joy, for it promised advantage to them at the expense of Sweden, and foreign am- bassadors spared no money to prolong the strife in the interests of their own states. T*ne " Wide-awakes " received bribes from France, the " Night-caps " from Russia.
In the year 1738 the " Wide-awakes," under the leadership of Charles, Count of Syllenborg, succeeded in gaining the upper hand. In 1741 they declared war against Russia. The generals Wrangel, Lewenhaupt, and Buddenbrock, were defeated by the Russians, and at last were forced to surrender. In the meantime Sweden was engaged with the question of the succession to the throne, as Ulrica Eleonora had died childless in 1741. A few, and among them the peasants, de- sired the Danish Crown Prince (Frederic V.) as successor. This was actively opposed by Elizabeth, the Tsarina of Russia, who
SWEDEN'S TIME OF STRIFE
feared the power of a united North ; she therefore promised easy conditions if the Swedes would elect the Gottorp prince, Adolphus Frederic, who enjoyed her favour. The " Wide-awakes " succeeded in effecting his election, and in the Peace of Abo, on August 7th, 1743, Russia gave back the greater portion of Finland.
The "Wide-awakes" main- tained their power for several years. Like the "Night-caps," they aimed at promoting national industries ; their methods, however, were extremely ill-advised and ex- travagant. It is true, manu- factures flourished, but in a way which was unnatural and injurious to other branches of industry, especially to agri-
desired to extend the authority of the king. However, her attempt to overthrow the " Wide-awakes " failed so hopelessly that the king and queen were still more humili- ated. The king was not even able to prevent the " Wide-awakes " from at- taching themselves to the enemies of Prussia in the Seven Years War and declaring war against Frederic II. The war was carried on so carelessly that Sweden completely forfeited her military reputation. It also aroused such indignation against the " Wide-awakes," with whose unsatisfactory government the people were already dissatisfied, that the " Night-caps " succeeded in overthrowing them and re-
culture. Commerce and navi- Frederic i. of Sweden gaining their influence. If the
gation were handicapped by Hereditary prince of Hesse, Fred- " Wide-awakes " had been
various prohibitions and by rj^Trottr'?h';^?efx^Tdi:d'^'th- too extravagant with public
heavy custom duties ; the out issue, she was chosen queen.but moucy, the " Night-caps "
finances were in disorder, resigned in favour of her husband, were too economical. They
and the national debt steadily increased, declined to give the manufacturers the
It must be admitted that the " Wide- awakes " rendered great service to the arts and sciences ; they founded an academy of painting and sculpture and another for science, and lived to see the fruits of their labours. The study of natural science reached a high state of per- fection ; its most celebrated representatives were Linne (Linnaeus), who died in 1778, and the physicist, A. Celsius, who died in 1744. The well- known mystic E. Swedenborg also belongs to this period. Among other great men should be mentioned the historian S. Lagerbring, and O. Dalin, and the philologist, J. Ihre. In the cultivation of poetry the Swedes took as
large loans and the assistance on which many depended, with the result that they were compelled to stop work. On account of the consequent lack of employment and distress, the " Night-caps " became so unpopular that in 1769 they were forced to give way to the " Wide-awakes." Thus the two parties continued their struggles, without, how- ever, allowing the phantom king to take advantage of their strife by increasing his own power ; even the threat of Adolphus Frederic that he would resign his crown had no effect. Russia, Prussia, and Denmark, who had in view the dismemberment of Sweden, naturally sought in every way to prevent any
great botanist
their models French and fn^ In^'^t'he'itanXTrcL^th: change in the constitution English poets. Dahn, who science of botany. In 1742 he be- Thus Sweden was for a time is mentioned above, wrote came professor of botany at Upsaia threatened with the same epics, lyrics, satires, and University. He died in 1778. f^^.^ which soon afterwards dramas ; he is recognised as the father overtook unfortunate Poland.
of modern Swedish aesthetic literature.
King Frederic I. died in 1751. His successor, Adolphus Frederic, was a weak, insignificant man, but his wife, Louisa Ulrica, a sister of Frederic II. of Prussia, who was both talented and fond of power,
Gustavus III., the son of Adolphus Frederic, came to the rescue of the country. He was on the Continent at the time of his father's death, but on hearing the news at once hurried back to Sweden, firmly resolved to make an end of internal strife
4581
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and to recover for the crown its former splendour. He gained the approval of the officers and soldiers for his plan. On August iQth, 1772, by a coup d'etat he arrested the councillors and the leaders of the Estates, and on August 21st compelled the Riksdag to sanction a new constitution, by which the king received absolute power, appointed the members of the A Revolution q^^^^^^ ^^^i^h retained only Without ,, { ■ ■ J • J
Bloodshed thepowerofgivmgadvice,and shared the legislative power with the Estates. This revolution was received with joy by the people, and was effected without bloodshed ; those who had been arrested were set at liberty without being prosecuted or punished. The neighbouring nations were indignant at the coup d'etat, and threatened war. Gustavus took vigorous pre- cautions, and the storm was soon stilled.
In the years following his coup d'etat Gustavus made good use of his new powers. He was talented, learned, and affable, and having been influenced by the liberal ideas of the Encyclopaedists, which were being diffused all over Europe, he was strenuously endeavouring to carry out useful reforms. The law- courts were improved, the
finances reformed, the free- gustavus in. of swkden dom of the Press was intro- 7il^ f°" °^ ^'^ff^-^ flt'^^"%l"
1 771 he succeeded his father. The
side of his nature gained the ascendancy. He was soon in want of money through his love of splendour and extravagance, and, in order to meet his necessities, he took measures which aroused great dis- satisfaction, especially among the lower classes. It was the lower classes, however, to whom he looked for support against the nobility, who could never forgive him for his coup d'etat. When he observed that his popularity was declining, he thought that he could recover it by a successful war. In 1788 he found a pretext for declaring war against Russia, and marched th'ough Finland, across the Russian boundary, while the fleet was instructed to sail towards St. Petersburg at the same time. But he was scarcely across the boundary when the officers mutinied, and demanded that he should summon a Riksdag and conclude peace, for he had acted unconsti- tutionally in declaring war without the consent of the Riksdag. Gustavus hurried . back to Sweden, where he won the support of the people, who were indignant at the revolt, summoned the Riksdag, and, on February 2 1st, 1789, carried the "Saker- hetsakt," which granted him almost unlimited power.
The war was continued, but the favourable oppor- tunity was lost, and the war
duced, and the fetters which early years of his reign were soou Came to an end on impeded trade and other successful, but in 1792 he was August 14th, 1790, with the branches of industry were ^^*^"y '^"""'^^'^ ^* Stockholm, removed. Gustavus was especially inter- ested in art and science ; he founded the Swedish Academy in 1786, the Swedish Theatre in 1773, and the Musical Academy in 1771. The plastic arts were also making progress, in particular sculpture. I. T. Sergei, who died in 1814, was the greatest sculptor of his age. In literature the French style prevailed, and was adopted by Gustavus, who was himself a dramatist, and by several poets who had gathered round him — namely, I. H. Kellgren and K. G. af Leopold ; while others who kept themselves free from French influence and went their own way were K. M. Bellmann, B. Lidner, and A. M. Lenngren.
Thus the first years of Gustavus's reign were fortunate for Sweden, and the king himself was very popular among the people. Gradually, however, the worse
4582
Peace of Werela, which in every respect confirmed the former state of affairs. Gustavus desired to help his friend Louis XVI. against the Revolution ; and accordingly, in 1791, concluded a treaty with Russia, and conceived the plan of advancing into France at the head of a Swedish and Russian army. However, a conspiracy was formed among Th K* SK ^^^ nobility, whose indigna- e mg o ^.^^ j^^^ reached its height
M k d B 11 since the introduction of the " Sakerhetsakt." At a masked ball at Stockholm Gustavus was mortally wounded on March i6th, 1792, and died a few days later. Gustavus left a son, Gustavus IV. (Adolphus, 1792-1809), who was not of age, and the brother of Gustavus, Charles, Duke of Sodermah- land, undertook the government.
Hans Schjoth
GREAT DATES FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION
A.D.
1609 Henry VIII. king of England. Albuquerque
appointed Viceroy of tlie Indies 1511 I Holy League fonned against France 1613 Henry in Picardy. James IV. of Scotland killed
at Battle of Flodden. James V. succeeds.
Leo X. elected Pope. Rise of Wolsey. Swiss
Confederation completed 1515 Charles of Burgundy succeeds to the crowns of
Castile and Aragon. Francis I. king of France.
Battle of Marignano 1617 Martin Luther challenges Indulgences 1619 Charles succeeds to Hapsburg dominions and is
elected Emperor Charles V. 1520 Field of Cloth of Gold. Blood-bath of Stockholm.
Luther burns the Pope's Bull. Magelliaens passes
Straits of Magellan
1621 Diet of Wonus. Adrian VI. Pope. Cortes in Mexico. War between Charles and Francis
1622 England joins the war. Knights' war in Germany
1623 Clement VII. Pope. Gustavus Vasa king of Sweden. Frederic of Holstein king of Denmark
1624 German Peasants' War. 1626 Battle of Pavia
1626 Charles marries Isabella of Portugal
1627 Sack of Rome by Imperial troops. Crowns of Hungary and Bohemia conferred on Ferdinand of Austria, brother of Charles V.
1529 Peace of Cambrai. Protest of Spain. Turks before Vienna. Fall of Wolsey.
1530 Confession of Augsburg. Formation of the Schmal-
1531 Death of Zwingli [caldic League 1582 Treaty of Nuremberg. Pizarro in Peru
1633 England repudiates Papal allegiance. Ascendancy
of Thomas Cromwell
1634 Paul III. Pope. Francis makes Turkish alliance 1636 Visitation of English monasteries. Charles V. in
Tunis
1636 Pilgrimage of Grace. War renewed between 1538 Truce of Nice [Charles V. and Francis
1640 I Order of Jesuits receives Papal sanction
1641 Calvin supreme at Geneva. Algerian expedition of
Charles V. Diet of Regensburg (Ratisbon) 1542 War renewed between Charles and Francis. Scottish forces routed at Solway Moss. Death of James V . and accession of infant Mary Stuart
1643 Henry joins Charles against France
1644 Peace of Crespy
1645 Council of Trent begins
1646 Death of Luther. Schmalcaldic War.
1647 Edward VI. king of England. Henry II. king of
France. Defeat of Protestants at Muhlberg. Rout
1648 Interim of Augsburg [of Scots at Pinkie
1649 Julius III. Pope. Fall of Somerset in England 1662 Maurice of Saxony heads German Protestants.
Peace of Passau 1653 Mary Tudor queen of England
1664 Mary marries Philip of Spain
1665 Beginning of Marian persecution. Pacification of
Augsburg. Paul IV. Pope 1568 Charles V. abdicates. Philip succeeds to Spain and Burgundy, Ferdinand in German.v
1667 Lords of the Congregation in Scotland. War
between France and Spain.
1668 Loss of Calais. Mary Stuart marries Dauphin.
Ehzabeth qq^en of England
1659 Treaty of Cateau Cambresis. Francis II. king of
France. Religious settlement In England
1660 Treaty of Leith. Charles IX. king of France.
Ascendancy of Catharine de Medici
1661 Mary Stuart returns to Scotland
1662 Massacre of Vassy. Beginning of Huguenot wars
in France
1663 End of Council of Trent. Peace of Amboise
1664 Maximilian II. emperor 1565 Mary Stuart marries Damley
1666 Pius V. Pope
1667 Murder of Damley. Mary forced to abdicate
Huguenot wars in France. Alva in the Netherlands
1668 Mary Stuart takes refuge in England
1669 Suppression of insurrection of Northern earls in
England. Battles of Moncontour and Jamac
in France 1570 Treaty of St. Germains. Papal Bull deposing
Elizabeth. Assassination of Regent Moray 1672 Revolt of Netherlands. Gregory XIII. Pope.
Battle of Lepanto. Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Death of John Knox 1678 Alva recalled from Netherlands
A.D.
1576
1578 1679 1580
1584
1585
1586 1587 1588
1589 1592 1593 1598
1600 1803 1604 1606 1609
1610 1611 1612 1613
1614 1617
1618 1619
1320 1621 1621 1825 1626
l'?28 1329
1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1838 1639
1640
1641 1642
1643
1644 1645 1648 1649
1650 1651
1652 1653 1654 1656 1667 1668 1660
1661 1662
The " Spanish Fiu-y " of Antwerp. Don John sent
to the Netherlands. Pacification of Ghent.
Rudolf II. emperor Death of Don John. Parma sent to Netherlands Union of Utrecht Annexation of Portugal to Spain. Desmond's
rebellion in Ireland. Drake completes his voj age
of circumnavigation Death of William the Silent ;and of Anjou(Alencon),
making Henry of Navarre heir to French throne Raleigh's first Virginia colony. Sixtus V. Pope.
■■ War of the Three Henries " in France English in Netherlands. Babington's plot Execution of Mary Stuart Spanish Armada. Assassination of Henry of
Guise. Christian IV. king of Denmark Henry IV. claims succession to Henry III. Clement IX. Pope Henry IV. accepts the Mass Treaty of Vervins ; Edict of Nantes. Death of
Philip II. and Lord Burleigh. Philip III. king
of Spain Charter of English East India Company James I. of England. Union of English and Charles IX. king of Sweden [Scottish crowns
Paul V. Pope Twelve years' truce between Dutch and Spain.
Charter of Virginia Henry IV. assassinated. Louis XIII. king of France Gustavus Adolphus king of Sweden Matthias emperor Princess Elizabeth of England marries Elector
Palatine Last States-General called in France till 1789 Ferdinand of Carinthia recognised as heir to
Matthias Bohemian revolt begins Thirty Years War Bohemians elect Frederic of the Palatinate.
Ferdinand becomes emperor Battle of White Mountain. Voyage of Mayflower Philip IV. king of Spain
Supremacy of Cardinal Richelieu in France begins Charles I. king of England Protestants under leadership of Christian of
Denmark. Wallenstein comes to aid of emperor.
Battle of Lutter Petition of Right. Assassination of Buckingham Withdrawal of Denmark. Emperor issues Edict
of Restitution Dismissalof Wallenstein. Gustavus Adolphus lands Gustavus wins victory of Breitenfeld Wallenstein recalled. Gustavus killed at Lutzen Wentworth in Ireland
Death of Wallenstein. Battle of Nordlingen Claim of Ship-money. France at war with Spain National League and Covenant in Scotland Death of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The Bishops'
War (Scotland) Accession of Frederic William, the Great Elector
of Brandenburg. Meeting of Long Parliament Execution of Strafford. Insurrection in Ireland Beginning of Great Rebellion in England. Maz&rin's
rise to power in France Louis XIV. king of France. Anne of Austria
regent. Solemn League and Covenant between
Parliament and Scots. Due d'Enghien (the
Great Cond6) defeats Spaniards at Rocroi Battle of Marston Moor Battle of Naseby
Peace of Westphalia. Beginning of war of the Fronde Charles I. beheaded. Commonwealth in England.
Cromwell in Ireland Death of Montrose. Battle of Dunbar Battle of Worcester. Escape of Charles II.
Navigation Act Anglo-Dutch war begins. War of the Fronde ends Cromwell made Lord Protector Charles X. king of Sweden. End of Dutch war Cromwell at war with Spain
French alliance with Cromwell. Blake at Santa Cruz Capture of Dunkirk. Death of Cromwell Stuart Restoration in England. Louis XIV.
assumes government in France. Charles XI.
king of Sweden. Treaty of Oliva Death of Mazarin. Colbert in France. Clarendon
in England Charles II. of England marries Catharine of Bra-
ganza. Dunkirk sold to France
4583
GREAT DATES FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION
A.D.
1665
1667
1668
1670 167S
1878 1674
1676
1677
1678
1670
16S1 1682 1685
1686 1688
1689
1690 1692
1694 1697
1698 1699
1700
1701
1702
1704
1705 1706
1707
1708 1709
1710
1711
1713
1714
1715
1716 1717
1718 1720
1721 1723 1724 1726 1726
Independence of Portugal under the house of Bra-
ganza recognised. Charles II. king of Spain.
Anglo-Dutch war begins Hnd of Dutch war. Fall of Clarendpn. Beginning
of the " War of Devolution." Louis XIV.
invades the Netherlands Cabal Ministry in England. Triple Alliance
(England, Holland, and Sweden) Treaty of Dover between Louis and Charles France and England attack Holland. Fall of the
Grand Pensionary and rise of William of Orange
(nephew of Charles II.) European coalition England withdraws from war. Turenne's campaign
in Alsace Death of Turenne. Victory of Great Elector at
Fehrbellln William of Orange marries Mary, daughter of Duke
of York Treaty of Nimeguen. Titus Gates and the Popish
Plot in England Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. Rising of Scottish
Covenanters. Habeas Corpus Act Louis seizes Strasburg Accession of Peter the Great in Russia James II. king of England. Louis revokes the Edict
of Nantes William of Orange forms League of Augsburg The Great Elector succeeded by Frederic III
Louis invades the Palatinate. William of
Orange lands in England William III. and Mary accept Declaration of
Right. Battle of Killiecrankie. Grand Alliance Battle of Boyne [formed
Massacre of Glencoe. Irish Penal Laws passed.
Battles of La Hogue and Steinkirk Bank of England established Treaty of Ryswick. Prince Eugene defeats Turks at
Zenta. Charles XII. king of Sweden. Party
government initiated by Whig Junto First (Spanish) Partition Treaty Collapse of Scottish Darien scheme. Second
Partition Treaty Spanish Crown accepted by Philip (V.) of Anjou.
Northern war. Charles XII. defeats Danes and
Russians at Narwa Louis acknowledges James Edward Stuart. England
joins Grand Alliance. Frederic III., Elector of
Brandenburg, becomes King Frederic I. of Prussia Anne queen of England. War of Spanish succession
Charles XII. invades Poland Marlborough and Eugene rout French at Blenheim.
Rooke takes Gibraltar Joseph I. emperor Marlborough wins battle of Ramillies. Eugene
wins battle of Turin Defeat of allies by Berwick at Almanza. Treaty
of Union between England and Scotland united
as Great Britain Battle of Oudenarde Battle of Ramillies. Charles XII. defeated at
PoltAwa Fall of Whigs in England. Conference of Gertruy-
denberg Archduke Charles becomes Emperor Charles VI.
Fall of Marlborough Treaty of Utrecht establishes Bourbon dynasty
in Spain. Frederic William I. king of Prussia Treaty of Rastadt. George I. king of England.
Hanoverian dynasty begins. Philip V. marries
Elizabeth Farnese Louis XV. king of France ; Orleans regent. Jacob- ite rising of the " Fifteen " Eugene overthrows Turks at Peterwardein Great Britain, France, and Holland form Triple
Alliance ; later joined by Austria Treaty of Passarovitz. Alberoni in Spain. Spanish
fleet destroyed at Cape Passaro. Death of
Charles XII. End of Northern war. Promulgation of Pragmatic
Sanction by Emperor Charles VI. Collapse of
South Sea Bubble In England, and Law's Missis- sippi scheme in France Walpole's administration begins in England Orleans regency ends in France Ripperda in Spain Catharine I. in Russia Cardinal Fleury becomes First Minister In France
A.D.
1727 I George II. king of England. Walpole retains 1729 Treaty of Seville [power. Treaty of Vienna
1731 Second Treaty of Vienna 1733 Secret family compact between French and Spanish
Bourbons. War of Polish succession begins 1736 War of Polish succession ends. Bourbon dynasty
in the two Sicilies
1738 France guarantees Pragmatic Sanction
1739 I War of Jenkins' Ear begins between Spain and Great Britain
1740 Frederic II. king of Prussia. Death of Emperor Charles VI. ; Austrian succession claimed by Maria Theresa under Pragmatic Sanction, chal- lenged by Charles of Bavaria. Frederic occupies Silesia ; first Silesian War
17^1 i War of Austrian succession
1742 1 Charles VII. of Bavaria emperor. Fall of Walpole
1743 ; Battle of Dettingen. Treaty of Fontainebleau
1744 Marshal Saxe in the Netherlands
1746 Francis I. of Tuscany (Lorraine), husband of Maria Theresa, emperor. Charles Edward lands in Scotland and invades England
1746 Jacobite cause crushed at Culloden. Opening of
Franco-British struggle in India. Dupleix and La Bourdonnais capture Madras. Ferdinand
1747 French invade Holland [VI. king of Spain
1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restores conquests 1751 Clive at Arcot
1764 Collisions of French and British colonists in
America 1758 Alliance of Great Britain and Prussia. League
against Prussia. French take Minorca. Frederic
invades Saxony. Seven Years War begins 1767 Pitt in power. Clive's victory at Plassey. Battles
of Prague, Kolin, Rosbach, and Leuthen 1758 Battles of Crefeld, Zomdorf and Hochkirch. Choiseul
in power in France 1769 Battles of Minden, Kunersdorf, Lagos, Quiberon
and Quebec. Pombal in power in Portugal.
Charles III. king of Spain
1760 Battles of Leignitz, Torgau and Wandewash. I George III. king of England
1761 ! Bute predominant. Pitt retires
1782 i Spain joins France ; Russia becomes neutral 1763 i Treaties of Paris and Hubertsburg 1'764 j Suppression of Jesuits in France. Stanislas ! Poniatowski king of Poland. Battle of Buxar (Bengal)
1766 \ Joseph II. emperor. Grenville's Stamp Act
1'768 i Rockingham Ministry repeals Stamp Act. Pitt forms I Grafton Ministry and becomes Earl of Chatham
1767 j Jesuits expelled from Spafti. Charles Townshend'a
Colonial taxes
1768 France acquires Corsica from Genoa. Middlesex
elections
1769 Meeting of Frederic and Emperor Joseph
1770 Second meeting. Fall of Choiseul in France. North's
Ministry in England
1771 Abolition of Parlement by Maupeou
1772 Partition of Poland. Gustavus III. king of Sweden 17'73 Jesuits condemned by the Pope. North's Indian
Regulating Acts
1774 Louis XVI. king of France. Maurepas sestores the
Parlement. Penal Acts against Massachusetts. Warren Hastings Governor-General of India
1775 Turgot's reforms in France. Beginning of American
War of Independence 1'778 Necker in France. American Declaration of Inde- pendence
1777 Joseph II. claims Bavarian succession. Burgoyne's
surrender at Saratoga
1778 France supports America
1779 Spain joins war
1780 First armed neutrality. Death of Jt^ria Theresa
1781 Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown. Reforms
of Joseph II.
1782 Fall of North. Whig Ministries in England. Rodney's
victory of The Saints. Grattan's Parliament established in Ireland
1783 Peace of Versailles. Independence of U.S.A. recog-
nised. Calonne in France. Coalition of Fox and North ; the younger Pitt becomes Prime Minister
1784 Pitt returned to power ; remains till 1801
1786 Pitt's India Act. Frederic II. forms the Furstenbund
1786 Frederic William II. king of Prussia
1788 Revolt of Netherlands against Joseph's reforms. Recall of Necker, and summoning of States- General
4584
TNECOMMeCEofWESTERN EUROPE
S FROM THE REFORMATION TD THE REVOLUTION IS
THE EFFECTS OF THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES
TTHE permission obtained from the Pope ■*• by the rulers of Spain and Portugal to extend their power over unknown or un- trodden regions was a result of the long- continued war with the Mohammedans, which to the successors of Gregory VII. and Urban II. was a continuation of the Crusade policy of the papacy. The sove- reigns of the Iberian Peninsula finally suc- ceeded in driving oversea the enemy who had come upon them in the eighth century. The bloodshed of 700 years was brought to a close by the conquest of Granada in 1492 . 1 1 now became necessary to render the regained territory secure by occupying the Mediterranean coast of Africa. In fact, both Spain and Portugal undertook this task, but with the means at their disposal success Th St seemed very uncertain. It was
A * ■ t^ff^ ** ^^^ ^^^^ reason that Henry the gams \e Navigator, who died in 1460, Mohammedans , " ^ . r- ^
endeavoured to find a new
strategic base of operations, as well as new allies and means, to be used against the infidels. Colymbus and his patroness, Isabella of Castile, were also inspired by the same thought. Spaniards and Portu- guese alike were filled with the idea of making use of the treasures of India and China in their struggle against the Moham- medans. Yet neither Spain nor Portugal was able to carry out its plans in respect to the conquest of the Barbary States.
The Christians were able to capture and hold only single points along the coast, the so-called " presidios." The attacks of Charles V. on Tunis and Algiers were ineffectual, and Sebastian's cam- paign against Morocco ended in 1578 with a defeat that was decidedly injurious
to the future influence of Portugal. The kings of Spain were obliged to defend the interests of their subjects against the Mohammedans in the Eastern Medi- terranean also — above all, the commerce of the Catalonians, who, since the time of j^ the Crusades, had been the
ap es a j-jyals of the Italians and Pro- epen ency ^gj^^g^|g jj^ ^^le Levant. More- ***"* over, Sicily had been under the dominion of Aragon for centuries, and Naples became a dependency of Spain in 1504. It was necessary to defend political and economic interests against the fol- lowers of Islam in this region also.
Conditions in the Levant had become completely altered since the end of the Crusades. The Byzantine Empire was no longer in existence, and the Mohammedan kingdom of the Turks had arisen in its place. There were no longer any Genoese or Venetian settlements in the Black Sea region. Anatolia was now a Turkish province. Syria and Egypt had been under the dominion of the Sultan of Constantinople since the beginning of the sixteenth century. The sole remains of the colonial empire of Venice in the Eastern Mediterranean were a few islands, constantly threatened, and indeed con- -^ -, quered piecemeal. In addition
-. . ,». to Spain and Italy, there Empire of the f.,, , , .•' , . ,
jj . was still another region which
the Hapsburgs, on whose empire the sun never set, were obliged to defend against the Mohammedans. This was Austria, their hereditary king- dom. To be sure, dexterity and good luck had enabled them in the year 1526 to establish the great union of
4585
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Crescent's
Failure
at Vienna
nations from which the Austro-Hungarian monarchy developed in later times ; but, owing to the quarrels of the different ruling factions in the lands of St. Stephen, they were unable to avoid the loss of the greater part of Hungary. It was greatly to the advantage of the Hapsburgs that the protection of German Austria was looked upon as a com- mon German, indeed as a common European, cause. Hence Suleiman H., accus- tomed as he was to victory, failed to plant the crescent on the walls of Vienna in 1529. The most important part of the policy of Spain, the repulse of the Turks at the time of their final advance against Chris- tendom, was greatly obstructed owing to the fact that France, under Francis I., was all the while waging a war of self- preservation against the Haps- burgs. Feeling that the existence of his monarchy was threatened by the supre- macy of Spanish power, Francis had entered into negotiations with the Porte as early as 1525, when in prison in Madrid. The Franco- Spanish War of 1526-1529, together with the contem- porary attacks of Suleiman on Hungary, compelled the Hapsburgs to divide their forces in order to protect themselves on both sides. A few years later, in 1535,
between the different parts of the Spanish Empire, which were bound together only by dynastic ties. In the meanwhile France harvested the material fruits of her un- christian alliance with the Mohammedan East. A commercial treaty, drawn up on very similar lines to the old Hanse compacts, and offering a model for later treaties, was concluded in 1535. It was based on the principle of reciprocity as against other powers. The French in the East were to pay the same tolls and taxes that the Turks themselves paid to their government, and vice versa ; further, it was agreed that the French should be legally answerable to their own consuls alone, and that they should be permitted to worship according to their own religion in Mohammedan lands. The French flag succeeded to the privileges of the Venetian, and was moreover displayed by all vessels of other nations sailing under French pro- tection. In contrast to the Spaniards, the Venetians did not allow themselves to be driven from their trade with the Levant. As in earlier times, they would now have preferred to slip in between the hostile powers of the West and East ; but during the sixteenth century it was necessary for them to be armed and on their guard NAVIGATOR ^-gaiust both the sultan, who
HENRY THE —
The fourth son of John "rricrng dcsircd tO get pOSSCSSioU of
Francis I., fully conscious of °Lf°''*f^Hl'«.!i^J"''°on^^^l''°i?; the remains of their colonies,
.' •' agfes of discovery, and, at his '
the gravity of the step, own expense, fitted out important and the emperor, or, rather, formed an alliance with the ^''P^'^'t'""^- «« ^ied in i46o. ^^^ ^^^^^ ^f Austria, whose
Turks. This was the first open union which had ever been entered into by a Christian- Latin power with the followers of the Pro- phet. The Turks in re+urn put the French king in possession of a Mediterranean fleet.
The Spaniards were not only prevented from becoming the rulers of the Medi- terranean, but, owing to their position as champions of Christianity, were obliged to forfeit the remains of their com- merce in the Levant. In this the Cata- lonians and the city of Barcelona were the greatest sufferers.
The Castilians had nothing to lose in the East, and were looked upon by the other Spaniards as the founders of a world-policy that appeared to be the height of madness. The decline of commerce in the Levant rendered more acute the antagonism
4586
sphere of interest in the plain of the Po and beyond the Adriatic extended dangerously near to the boundaries of the territory subject to Venice. Although the Continental possessions of Venice were likely to draw her into serious complica- tions, without the revenues from these lands she would be unable to provide the troops and ships required for the defence of her position in the East. The false notion that the Oriental commerce of the Venetians came to an end be- cause of the discovery of an ocean route to India, and that trade was wrested from Venice by Portugal, is old and seemingly ineradicable. In reality, Venice continued to carry on traffic with the Levant not only throughout the sixteenth
Eastern Commerce of Venetians
THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES
century, but until the beginning of the eighteenth, so that at least seven or eight generations passed before the commerce in question entirely lost its earlier import- ance. Had the Venetians been as stubborn as the Hanseatics, there is no doubt that they would have lost their Oriental trade much earlier than they did.
When they saw that Alexandria was declining for lack of an import trade, because the Portuguese had closed up the entrance to the Red Sea, they did not hesitate for a moment to desert the former mistress of the Eastern Mediterranean, and transferred their headquarters to Aleppo, for the reason that the Syrian city had once more become a market for the products of Asia. Arabs, Persians, and Armenians brought merchandise thither from India ; for the Portuguese, much as they wished to do so, had not succeeded either in closing the Persian Gulf perma- nently, in blocking up the overland routes, or in driving the Arabs from the Indian Ocean. They had indeed been successful in rendering the old commercial routes more difficult of access, but they had by no means _ . destroyed them. The fate of
usincss Venetian trade in the East n crpris ^.^ ^^^ j.^ .^ ^^^ hands of the
Portuguese, but depended upon the moods, peaceful or warlike, of the sultan. How capable the Venetians were of adapting themselves to adverse circum- stances was shown by the fact that they struck out an entirely new commercial route, and one, moreover, for which the chief instrument of their trade, their mercantile marine, was practically use- less ; this was the caravan road that led diagonally across the Balkan Peninsula from Constantinople to Spalato. All wares that did not find purchasers in the last- named city — where trade was entirely in the hands of Venetian merchants — were sent to the capital by ship. Thus Venice was still able to supply her old customers outside of Italy with merchandise from the Orient, in spite of Lisbon and Antwerp, although, to her great regret, she was not able entirely to do away with their competition. Both before and after the period of discoveries the Upper Germans were the most reliable customers of the Venetians. It was an advantage to the South German merchant, now reaching out more vigor- ously than ever in all directions, that, in spite of the south-east passage to India, the Portuguese and the Netherlanders
were unable to monopolise the entire trade in Asiatic products. The Germans had their choice of Venice, Lisbon, and Antwerp. There was no reason why they should neglect Venice ; indeed, there was a far better market for the sale of German products there than in the newly-estab- lished commercial centres of the West.
How was it, then, that Ven- jj * .^ *. ice could have so suddenly, ma oa ^^ ^^^ traditional formula pos- uropc ^^j^^gg^ 2Qg|- jjgj. commanding position in the world's trade ? Even granting that the Orient had in reality been hermetically sealed by the Portu- guese and Turks, this would not have been sufficient to destroy the trade of Venice, of which one of the chief supports was her domestic industry. During the sixteenth century, the height of the Renaissance, and until late in the seventeenth, Italy dominated the artistic taste of all Europe. The commercial language, customs, and methods of Italians became widely diffused over Northern and Western Europe for the first time in the sixteenth century. Indeed, the discoveries through which tlie commerce of the Apennine Peninsula is said to have been destroyed actually contributed, if not to an increase in the commercial power of Italy, at least to an enlargement in its area of distribution ; for Venetian and Genoese importers were among the very first to supply Seville and Lisbon with the merchandise that was sent out to the Transatlantic possessions in accordance with the Spanish and Portuguese system of colonisation. The older commercial races, the Italians and the Germans, had no reason for fearing the Spaniards and Portuguese ; the English and the Netherlanders were far more dangerous rivals. It was in the North, along the line that divided Central from Northern European commerce that the Venetians were first compelled to retire from competition. About the year
_, ,. 1560 they suspended the
Venetians 1 ■' i,- 1, iu
_ .. , regular sea voyages which they Retire from , j i • li, u um. f
^ ..,. had been in the habit ot Competition , . . -i. t /^ j. •
making to the Low Countries
and the British Isles ever since the year 1318, while, on the other hand, English and Dutch navigators had become con- stant visitors to the Mediterranean.
There can be no doubt that the centre of gravity of the world's commerce gradu- ally swung westward to the Atlantic coast during the course of the sixteenth century,
4587
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
yet without bringing with it any sudden destruction to German or Itahan trade. Both Germany and Italy stretched forth their tentacles over the Iberian Pen- insula and the newly developing centres of the world's trade. Adaptation to altered circumstances was now possible, inasmuch as the old and clumsy method of
11, . barter had in a large degree been
Wonders j j u ai, s
of th N superseded by the use of money
Wo Id ^^^ credit; consequently, geo-
graphical displacements of trade were no longer of any great consequence.
The New World proffered her peculiar flora and fauna to the conquistadores of the sixteenth century in their entire tropical profusion. The existence of a strange race of human beings who lived in other moral conditions was also of con- sequence to the masters of the new hemisphere, although phenomena of nature and civilisation were of but minor interest to men whose activities were almost exclusively limited to the obtaining of gold.
However, it was at least necessary to settle in the new continent, and to look at it as a territory for residence and subsistence. Had Europe, or even Spain, suffered from excess of population during the sixteenth century, the New World would have been from the very first what it really became only during the nine- teenth century — a region of expansion for such civilised nations of the world as are lacking either in land or in means of subsistence. Since at that time Europe, and especially Spain, had too few rather than too many inhabitants, the New World was at the beginning an unlimited arena for the deeds of adventurers, a fair field for missionaries eager to make converts, and a tremendous crown demesne for the government, which bore and con- tinued to bear the expenses of discovery and conquest, and naturally, according to the principles of government which then prevailed, desired an immediate _ _ reimbursement of its outlay.
g * *'^ But although emigration
. . ^ . from Europe to America did in America , . A ±^
not at first assume any
Cc*nsiderable proportions, sporadic settle- ments were made by eager, enter- prising, and highly educated leaders, lay and ecclesiastical, who sowed the seeds of Mediterranean culture in the New World, and, still remaining Euro- peans, founded that system of hemispheric division of production and distribution
4588
which was the keystone of commercial policy for more than two centuries. The transmission of European civilisation to America, so beneficial to both hemispheres, was dependent on the relations of the colonists to the native races, who were not thickly settled although sometimes highly developed. Had the methods of the conquistadores been adopted, the red race would soon have been annihilated.
However, the influence of Church and State tended to curb the unscrupulous egoism of colonial, mining, and commercial interests. As soon as ecclesiastical and political government took the place of previous anarchy, the native races could at [east be rescued from extirpation, although their civilisation was allowed to drift away to destruction because of its heathen origin. Only the more barbarous of the Indians retreated beyond the sphere of European influence, seeking refuge in the forests and deserts. Their civilised breth- ren did not shrink from the consequences of association with the European intruders ; marriage between Europeans and Indian women also contributed towards the estab- lishment of friendly relations. In this
«.ri . .1 VT way a race of half-breeds,
What the New \ir 4.-
„, , . _ . .or Mestizos, arose among World Received ,, i i j j t-
r *i. r\ij the pure-blooded turo- from the Old 1 t 1 ■ 1
pean and Indian peoples.
The Old World was far superior to the New with regard to the possession of domestic animals. The llama, the vicuiia, and a few varieties of birds were all that America had to offer to European settlers. The great wealth of the new continent in game was not taken into consideration at all by the Spanish and Portuguese colonists. Since practically all the domestic animals of the New World are of Old World origin, first having been im- ported from Spain or elsewhere — this applying not only to the tame but also to the wild cattle and horses — it follows that the exchange of civilisation favoured America from a zoological quite as much as it had from an anthropological point of view.
Although America was more fortunately situated in regard to flora than to fauna, nevertheless the New World received from the Old more than it gave in the shape of useful plants. Such American products as maize, tobacco, potatoes, and Spanish pepper can, indeed, be cultivated in the more temperate regions of the Old World. In like manner the pineapple, aloe, and cactus have been introduced into the
THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES
sub-tropical zones ; and cocoa and vanilla, together with some medicinal plants, flourish in the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere. Even if we add to these American dye-woods and timber, the vegetable products that have been trans- planted from the New World to the Old fall a long way short both in number and in importance of the total of species that have crossed the Atlantic in the other direc- tion ; in fact, the various kinds of grain, wheat, barley, oats, and rye are of them- selves sufficient to equalise the balance.
It would take too long to enumerate all the varieties of fruits and vegetables, fibrous plants and herbs used for dyeing, which have been exported across the ocean from the three older continents, and have been found to thrive well in North and South America. To these, sugar-cane and coffee must also be added. Even the two chief varieties of cotton cul- tivated in America are of Old World origin.
Plants and animals were at first exported across the ocean from one hemisphere to the other without much attention being paid to them. Perhaps centuries passed before their useful qualities were discovered
Trade between ^"^ properly valued— the potato, tor example. Dunng "d^A* ■ ^^^ ^^^^ century or century and a half after the discovery, products of the animal and vegetable kingdoms played a very small part in the traffic between Europe and America. As yet there was nothing from either to be sent back to Europe as a return cargo with which to pay for the importations of European industrial products. Even the quantity of West Indian sugar sent to Europe in addition to dye-woods and drugs from Central and South America seems not to have been large ; the use of sugar itself was ^et very limited. In general, none of the products which in later times received the name of " colonial wares " had yet become well known as luxuries. Not until the seventeenth cen- tury did the manner of life of Europeans alter to such a degree as to favour trade in such products.
Nevertheless, permanent settlements were soon established in America by European immigrants, who required regular importations of the products of Old World industry, for they by no means fell to the level of self-sufficing barbarism. Next in importance to the possession of an unlimited area for residence and
subsistence, the occurrence of the precious metals was the foundation of the being and prosperity of the Spanish-American colonies. Ever since the sixteenth century the gold and silver of the New World have exerted a powerful influence on the economic and political history of Europe. Although the production of the precious
. . , metals in America can be
Amenc& s j • ■ .
««• » cf .expressed m approximate First Shipment n i_ i f'^ • •
of B 11* figures, scholars have vamly
endeavoured to discover the quantity of gold and silver on hand in Europe previous to the year 1500, when bullion was first shipped across the Atlantic. Perhaps §625,000.000 worth is not too high an estimate. However, there are other facts which, in addition to being firmly estab- lished, are of far more importance to the history of European possession and coinage of the precious metals. During the Middle Ages silver was the chief medium of exchange, but, owing to the untrustworthi- ness of silver money, ever since the middle of the thirteenth century wholesale trade had become accustomed to the use of the gold currency which had been employed for many years back in the Levant, within the Byzantine as well as the Mohammedan sphere of civilisation. The Florentine florins and the Venetian ducats, or sequins, served as models for the gold pieces of the Rhineland, France, and Hungary. The smallness of the output of gold in Europe prevented a further extension of the use of a gold coinage.
On the other hand, the use of silver greatly increased during the fifteenth century, and rose still more rapidly during the sixteenth. Over-production of silver was rendered impossible, owing to the fact that even in classic times there was a constant flow of money, especially of silver, into Eastern Asia ; this explains the scarcity and high value of money, as well as the favourable ratio maintained by silver to gold. Apart from some temporary fluctuations at the end of the «e gf^ggjjj-j^ century the ratio of g.. value of gold and silver was
11^ : I. During the course of the sixteenth century the effects of the pro- duction of the precious metals in America were distinctly felt in Europe. Owing to the continued preponderance of silver, the ratio gradually became more and more favourable to gold, standing at 15 : i from about 1630-40 ; and this ratio was maintained with but few interruptions
4589
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
until 1874, when 16 : i was exceeded, and a rapid fall in the price of silver began. The extraordinary increase in the supply of precious metals during the sixteenth century was by no means an unmixed blessing from an economic point of view. The joint production of precious metals in Europe and America between 1493 . , and 1600 amounted probablv to America s ^^^^^ $$385,000,000 in gold and D ^V .- over $875,000,000 in silver — a
Production ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ $1,250,000,000.
The New World remained behind the Old in the production of the precious metals until 1544 ; this was due to the richness of the mines in the Tyrol, Bohemia, and Saxony, as well as to the superior methods of mining and extraction employed in Europe. But when the silver mines of Potosi in Peru were discovered in 1545, and those of Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico in 1548, when German miners were sent to America, and one of them, whose name is unknown, invented the method of extracting silver from quartz by the use of mercury, the production of America soon surpassed that of the Old World, and began to cause a fall in the value of the precious metals.
Although the exact quantity of silver and gold shipped from America to Europe is not known, one can at least form some idea of the increase from estimates of the total supply of the precious metals in Europe at different periods. Thus, if the supply in 1403 is reckoned at about $625,000,000, and that in 1600 at $1,625,000,000, the increase during the sixteenth century must have amounted approximately to $1,000,000,000.
With a constant increase in the supply of the precious metals, the purchasing power of money must sink, just as increase in the supply of any com- modity is apt to cause a fall in its value, once the normal demand is satisfied; it follows that a fall in the value of money _ is attended by a rise in prices
*!.* xl^t of all other commodities. A the Value ... ,
of M general rise m prices must be
felt by all classes of society, especially in cases where there is no increase of income to correspond with the decrease in the purchasing power of money. Ex- perience shows that, as a rule, men who are dependent upon wages and salaries for their support are not able — certainly not immediately — to increase their in- comes proportionately to the increased
4590
cost of necessities of life. Hence, a crisis in prices is usually accompanied by economic phenomena, which are especially destructive to the welfare of the poorer classes. Workmen who received their pay in currency were better off during the fifteenth century, when wages were relatively high, than during the sixteenth, when, in addition to a fall in wages, there was a decrease in the purchasing power of money ; thus, the proletariat grew in numbers in spite, rather than in consequence, of the opening of the treasures of the New World. The rise in the prices of commodities had also a depressing effect upon incomes derived from interest or rent. On the other hand, producers or dealers who were successful in bringing about an advance in prices were able to add to their wealth without the slightest exercise of labour.
As has been proved by thousands of independent statements, civilised Europe underwent an economic crisis during the sixteenth century. The effects of the fall in the value of money and the general advance in the prices of commodities were felt in all directions— earlier in the West than in the East — and this state of affairs continued until well into the seventeenth century. Conditions did not change until about 1650, when a slight reaction set in, and not until the begin- ning of the eighteenth century was there another steady advance of prices.
The customary term, " revolution in prices," is certainly very inappropriate for the designation of movements that are so slow as almost to remind us of the gradual risings and fallings of continents. Only the attempts of mer- chants to effect a rise artificially, and the clumsy financial policy of certain politi- cians, have here and there given to these slowly consummating crises the character of revolutionary movements.
By turning the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese discovered an ocean route to India, the goal which the Spaniards under Columbus had so unsuccessfully endeavoured to attain. They set foot in a region with which Europe had been engaged in indirect trade for thousands of years, a densely populated country, abounding in its own peculiar products, possessed of its own independent civilisation, the very nucleus of the world's commerce. Nevertheless, the inhabitants
Economic
Crisis
in Europe
THE SPAlSnSH AND PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES
of India had no wish to dominate the world's trade, and wiUingly placed their commerce in the hands of foreigners, through whose activities a market was secured that extended over the broadest spheres of lands and peoples. The Arabs were the masters of the intermediate trade with the coasts of the Indian Ocean, and from their hands the Europeans of the Mediterranean region, the Venetians leading, received the luxuries of India, which then passed through a third, fourth, and perhaps twentieth hand, each ex- change aiding the merchants of the Latin and, for a long time, the Byzantine sphere of civilisation to secure the commercial supremacy enjoyed by them for so many years. Eastern Asia no less than Western Europe depended upon India for a large part of its commerce, which extended even beyond Japan, losing , itself at an indeterminable c opes (jJ5^^j^(,g among the islands
"^n** » 1 of the Pacific. The Portu-
to Portugal , ,
guese were good seamen and
expert m war. Like the Spaniards, they were old enemies of the Mohammedans, whom they had already victoriously followed into North Africa, and now en- countered once more in the world of the Indian Ocean. They took possession of the hemisphere that had been granted them by the Pope, nominally, rather than in reality ; for a small, sparsely populated country like Portugal could think neither of colonisation nor of any serious effort to subjugate the native inhabitants.
However, the hostile attitude of the Arabs rendered it necessary for the Portu- guese to occupy and fortify certain points along the coast. In fact, the possessions of Portugal both in Asia and in Africa have never been more than coast settlements. The two objects which Portugal set out to attain — both far beyond her power — were the monopoly of the spice trade in Europe, and the driving away of Asiatic
competitors, who acted as middlemen in the commerce with European nations. Together with the spice trade at first hand, the Portuguese carried on traffic in negroes, which had grown to considerable propor- tions since the introduction of slavery _ into Spanish America ; the
f n*"*^^' gold of West Africa was also
of Portuguese '^ r .,,, ,
p J. a source of gam. Although
the undertakings of the Por- tuguese were at first purely mercantile enterprises, in which no greater expendi- ture for materials of war had been entailed than in the case of the ordinary traffic in the Mediterranean in later times, the Por- tuguese Crown was obliged to make great military preparations, of which the ex- pense increased from year to year. Like the Spanish, the Portuguese colonial trade was placed under strict state supervision and all financial affairs organised, national- ised, and put under crown control. A direct participation of foreigners, once permitted, was forbidden for the future. King Manuel the Great concentrated the East Indian trade in the Casa da India at Lisbon, and finally declared it to be an exclusive right of the crown. Cargoes of spices had already been sent to England and to the Netherlands ; a permanent royal depot was now established at Ant- werp. Once more the commerce of Western Europe possessed two centres in Antwerp and Lisbon. It was not long before Itahan, Upper German, Spanish, and French merchants took up their quarters in the latter city. When the crown handed over the rights of * '*^ . * monopoly in the Indian trade
Fountain j. t i ^i
t\iT uu to farmers-general, the capi-
oi Wealth , 1- , r ?- 4 1
tahsts of Europe competed
for access to this fountain of wealth.
Lisbon was also an important centre of
the trade in grain and in shipbuilding
materials ; North and South German
merchants of Danzig as well as of Augsburg
shared in delivering the raw products.
4591
THE CUSTOMS HOUSE. IN im, SHOWING THE TOWER OF LONDON IN THE DISTANCE
THE BANK OF ENGLAND, THE BUILDING OF WHICH BEGAN IN 1734
NOTABLE COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS OF OLD LONDON
4592
VCESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
THE
COMMERCE
OF
WESTERN EUROPE
II
INTERNATIONAL CAPITALISM
MERCHANT PRINCES AND KINGS OF FINANCE ORIGINS OF THE GREAT BANKS & EXCHANGES
/^NE of the most significant featuresof the ^^ economic life of the sixteenth century was the introduction of Itahan and Upper German capital into the sphere of Spanish and Portuguese oceanic trade. However, the finances of the sixteenth century, like those of all other times, were not limited to transactions founded on mere exchange of goods. Whether they would or not, merchants were forced beyond the bounds of commercial affairs and drawn into the currents of national policies, of which money, particularly ready money, is an indispensable factor. As yet, the machi- nery of European states was not well adapted to the requirements of an age already based on financial principles.
The remains of ancient feudal institu- tions, founded on a more primitive economic system, were everywhere to be seen. Thus a large part of the state revenues came
„. _ from the natural products of
The Source i j -r
» it c* . crown lands ; there was no of the State , r re • i j. en
„ system of officials as yet sutfi-
ciently developed to be able
quickly to raise taxes in the form of money
and to accumulate them in a central
treasury. For all grants of money the
Crown was dependent on the estates of
the realm, which were acquainted only
with their own narrow class interests.
But the courts lived in an atmosphere
of far-reaching national and world policy.
It cost money, however, to carry out
any policy, whether of peace or of war,
especially since regiments of mercenaries,
and in some cases standing armies, had
come into use in place of the old feudal
levies. Governments not only looked
about for new sources of income, but
also made whatever use they could of
those who already possessed money ; and
sovereigns of the sixteenth century, the
period when royal power reached its height,
were as little backward in the first respect
292
as in the second. Financiers and mer- chant princes were offered unbounded privileges in return for financial services, and one loan was apt to draw on ten or a dozen others in its train.
The modern conception of great powers,
which arose at the end of the fifteenth
_ - century through the French
angers o jj^yg^gJQj^g ^f Italy and the
Q •♦ i- t development of the universal monarchy of the Hapsburgs, created the, modern centralised state, with its military and financial systems, out of the loosely bound confederation of more or less independent units — the state of the Middle Ages — and to this effect employed capital, so far as it was already in exist- ence and organised, as its tool. At the same time the large capitalists were ex- posed to dangers they would scarcely have survived but for their private affairs being linked together with state interests.
It is difficult to conceive that the events of a whole period of the world's history could have been so intimately connected with mercantile interests, particularly the affairs of an age which religious, dynastic, and constitutional ideals seemed so to dominate ; not only seemed — for Reforma- tion and counter-Reformation, the duel be- tween the Houses of Hapsburg and Valois, and the war for the independence of the United Netherlands, arose from no mere
_, , ,, , imaginary motives : their Evolution of o -^ 4. 1 L J X
J, . . sources must have reached to
p .. the very depths of the human
soul, or at least have extended far below the level of self-deception. Before the most powerful of the mer- chant princes of the sixteenth century, the Augsburgers and Niirembergers, were compelled by the natural development of economic forces and the irresistible ten- dency of the times to turn from dealings in tangible commodities to speculation, to
4593
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
banking and exchange, and finally to purely financial pursuits. The Italians had already passed through all these transition states, and had acquired an astonishing aptitude in all branches of commerce. Italian money-changers, Lombards and Tuscans, followed the expansion of Italian trade into all countries. They bought and _. _ sold the precious metals,
Dt\ or"*"""* ^i^^^^ '^^^"^^ °^ ^^ bullion,
ays o ^.j^g of exchange, and pro-
Money-Lending ^ -i
missory notes ; they nego- tiated loans for merchants, attended to the financial affairs of the Roman Curia, and loaned vast sums to monarchs.
Their activities developed an interna- tional character, and they were therefore constantly obliged to struggle against the endeavours of the merchants of various states who sought to nationalise the busi- ness of money-lending. This the French temporarily succeeded in doing in the fifteenth century, at the time when the Florentine rnoney-lenders were at the height of their prosperity.
A citizen of Bourges, Jacques Coeur, the foremost banker of his age, established connections with the Government, and delivered it from the hands of the inter- national capitalists. But after the fall of this great financier France once more became dependent on the Italians in all matters concerning banking, exchange, and loans. The French kings of the sixteenth century favoured the Florentines, for political reasons, while, on the other hand, the Hapsburgs turned to the Genoese.
The Upper German merchants also were drawn into international finance through their business connections with the House of Hapsburg. A rapid rise, an overwhelm- ing development of power, aild a lament- able fall were the stages passed through by German wealth in less than a century. Long before the operations in banking and credit of the merchant princes of I th ' Upper Germany had attained
r^ ' . .. full sway the resentment of Denunciation ,^ ^ -^ 1111
J jj the German people had been
aroused in full measure ; com- plaints were showered upon the diet, and the official spokesmen of the nation, Martin Luther among them, thundered against all doubtful commercial dealings and against usury. The ecclesiastical law against the taking of interest on loans was. still every- where in force. The delusion of a just, and therefore unalterable, price for every sort of commodity still dominated the
4594
economic thought of the age. When the Roman Catholic Church adopted a milder attitude towards the practice of usury the Protestants offered violent opposition, and thus both Catholics and Protestants were soon compelled to join hands with the general public in their hostility against mercantile life and affairs. The economic policy which had arisen in the small city communities of the Middle Ages — a policy of low prices, of small dealers and con- sumers, opposed not only to capitalism but to competition — was likewise completely in harmony with the ecclesiastical position.
It is not surprising that the masses of the populations of cities were stirred to their very depths when they beheld speculators arising in their midst, who advanced prices and carried on their financial operations to a practically un- limited extent. The most dangerous phenomenon of all appeared to be the com- bination of the already all-powerful single houses into syndicates and rings. In order to diminish the risks encountered in their speculations, capitalists united into limited liability companies that could be easily dissolved, and the gains divided in proportion to the original contributions as soon as their original object had been attained. Such associations were fre- quently able to create a local monopoly in articles of commerce — spices or metals, for example — ^and sometimes succeeded in influencing prices even in the world markets. However it may have come about, it is at least certain that the copper and pepper monopolies of the time shortly before the outbreak of the great social revolution — the Peasants' War — of 1525 served the popular agitators as a means for awakening the indignation of the popu- lace^a means that was only the more effi- cacious the less the proletarians were able to understand such complicated matters. Nevertheless, it is remarkable how soon the non-mercantile classes became recon- ciled to the new method of making money without labour, which they had at first so violently opposed. Just as during the nineteenth century the commercial crises have neither assumed great proportions nor caused vast desolation until the private capital of the middle and lower classes has been placed in the hands of stock-jobbers, so was it at the time of the pepper rings. Innumerable small capitalists, whose one idea was the possibility of gain, and who
Revolt of the Peasants
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4595
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
not infrequently lost the whole of their little fortunes when the undertaking col- lapsed, became members of the associations and companies of the sixteenth century — a phenomenon which we have seen repeated in our own time in the speculations on the exchanges. Thus even peasants had a share in the dealings of the Hochstetters of —^ Augsburg, and when the leading
Hotse of' ^™ ^^^^^^' ^°^^ ^^^^'^ scanty ♦k^'f* ° savings. Had it not been for sup- uggers ^YiQs, furnished by small sources, the great masses of capital with which commercial houses conducted their affairs could never have been heaped together.
How German capital, and, in fact, all capital that was employed in international commercial operations, came to find itself upon the plane down which it glided during the course of the sixteenth century may be learned from the history of the Fuggers, the first mercantile house of the age.
In 1367 the founder of the family, Hans Fugger, a weaver of fustian, settled in Augsburg and attained to modest pros- perity. His sons soon became distin- guished wholesale merchants, and his grandson, Jacob 11. , who died in 1526, made the house famous throughout the world. By furnishing the equipment for the retinue of Emperor Frederic III. at the time of his meeting with Charles the Bold, Jacob Fugger opened relations with the House of Hapsburg, which was just then beginning to aspire to the position of a power of the first rank. This connection led to results important to both families. Archduke Sigismund of the Tyrol granted to the Fuggers, for the repayment of a loan, the yield of the Tyrolese silver mines.
Henceforth they devoted themselves to
the mining operations, to which the rapid
growth of their fortune was due. The
copper mines at Neusohl in Hungary were
also acquired by the house, which was
now able to extend its trade as far as
Danzig and Antwerp, and even to control
_, ^ , .. the copper market of Venice.
East Indian t^, t- 1 ■ 1
Expedition of J^^ Fuggersalso journeyed
the Portuguese f.^^^f °"' ^^5/ *^7 ^^^^- lished a depot for the spice
trade shortly after preparations had been completed for the first East Indian expedi- tion of the Portuguese. They shared in the expenses of the great expedition of 1505, contributing, together with other Upper Germans, the sum total of 36,000 ducats. After the Indian-Portuguese trade was placed under the control of the Crown,
4596
they repeatedly received large quantities of spices, mostly as payments on loans at high interest to the Portuguese Government.
But at the beginning of the sixteenth century, both in Germany and in Italy, dealings in commodities had ceased to form the chief business of the merchant princes, who now occupied themselves mainly with the affairs of the money markets, and devoted a large part of their energy to contracting loans for the various govern- ments. By the second decade of the century of the Reformation the decision of the most important questions in the world's history lay in the hands of mer- chants. The appearance of Luther in the year 1517, and the election of Charles V. as Emperor of Germany in 1519, were both connected in a most extraordinary manner with the affairs of the house of Fugger.
As early as 1500 the Fuggers possessed a depot in Rome, where they executed commissions entrusted to them by the Pope and other ecclesiastical dignitaries. Albert of Brandenburg, who had been elected Archbishop of Mainz in 1517, bor- rowed 21,000 ducats from the house in order to meet the expenses con-
as Prince!" "^^*^^ ^^ *^^ ^^"^ ^^^^ *^® as rince y bestowal of the pallium ; he Money-Lenders , • j xu x
also received, on the payment
of 10,000 ducats — also loaned by the Fuggers — the position of commissary- general for Saxony of the jubilee pro- claimed by Leo X. The archbishop appointed priests to collect the money from the vendors of indulgences, and to hand it over to the agents of the Fuggers, who accompanied them. One half of the amount received by the agents was for- warded to Augsburg towards payment of the archiepiscopal debt ; the other half was sent to Rome. It was over this business that Luther and Tetzel were destined finally to fall out. The flow of money to Rome had been for many years a matter of great annoyance to Germany, and the recently introduced traffic in indulgences furnished a welcome opportunity for de- livering a simultaneous blow to the papacy and the great commercial syndicates.
Although the Fuggers were only in- directly involved in the causes which led to the revolution in the Church, it was certainly their money that procured the victory of Charles V. over his competitor, Francis I., at the election of an emperor, following the death of Maximilian I., in 1519. AU such elections were notliing
4597
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
more or less than complicated acts of bribery, the decision being inevitably determined by the amounts expended. The security offered by the Fuggers for the Spanish candidate put an end to the wavering of the electoral princes, for Francis I. was unable to obtain equally reliable guarantees. Of the 850,000 golden _,. _ florins required by Charles
I'lllZZ y-' *he Fuggers supplied the Hapsburgs •543,ooo,theWelsers 143,000, and the Italians the rest. From this time forth the merchant princes themselves belonged to their puppets, body and soul ; for it was necessary to retain sovereigns on their thrones if any return from the money already advanced, but not yet repaid, was to be expected. More- over, the Fuggers were still less able to escape from bondage, inasmuch as they were convinced partisans of the Hapsburgs and of their Roman Catholic policy.
After the election of Charles V., in 1519, Spain became the centre of gravity for the house of Fugger, the creditors of the emperor-king having been assigned shares in the national income. " The Spanish business" absorbed the entire strength of the firm, and finally ruined the greatest mercantile establishment of the age.
Among the enterprises of the Fuggers in Spain, the leasing of the quick- silver mines at Almaden, of great value ever since the discovery of the use of mercury in extracting silver and gold, may be mentioned. German miners were sent by the Fuggers to Spain, and often to America. Inasmuch as the chief creditors of the Government were constantly obliged to grant new loans to the Crown in order to secure their old claims, they were often referred to the " silver fleets " returning from the New World and in part laden with the imperial " quinto," the 20 per cent, share of the Crown. Since the expor- tation of the precious metals from Spain was forbidden by law, it became neces- sary for the Fuggers and their
crman compatriots to obtain special . *^" licences that they might be able pain ^^ place their capital wherever it was most needed. Even the Government was obliged to maintain the strictest secrecy in regard to this matter, or the Spaniards would have forcibly prevented the removal of gold from the country. In this manner the stream of precious metal from America flowed on past Spain into the treasuries of the capitalists, Who had
4598
also succeeded in drawing to themselves an additional share of the bullion of the New World through the importation of commodi- ties into the as yet industrially undeveloped continent. The Fuggers, however, took but little part in the latter activity ; their attention was already sufficiently occupied with the sale of the mining and natural products of the Crown possessions that had been yielded to them as pledges.
The Fuggers also maintained permanent financial relations with the German line of the House of Hapsburg. As Ferdinand I. had vast domains in Naples, his chief credi- tors extended their sphere of activity Over the southern part of Italy. The Govern- ment of the Spanish Netherlands also constantly availed itself of the assistance of Upper German and Italian capitalists.
After the death of Jacob II. the house of Fugger reached the zenith of its power and wealth under the guidance of his nephew, Anton (1526-1560). It was fortunate for the family that it had become a tradition not to divide the wealth of the various members, but to keep it altogether in one mass, governing it
. from a central point, in strict
rinces monarchical fashion. Although
o uropean -^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ relatives co- operated with the head of the family, the most important affairs of the house were, as a rule, under the exclusive control of a single individual, who transacted business even in the most dis- tant countries by means of his factors and agents. Augsburg was the residence of these princes of European finance. Not until after the middle of the sixteenth century did the family ties begin to loosen. Single members then withdrew their money from the firm, and thus rendered it neces- sary for the house to depart from one of its most firmly established principles — that is to say, if possible, never to put any other capital, except that belonging to the family, into an undertaking. The more the use of outside capital increased towards the end of the century, the more difficult the position of the house became, especially during critical times.
The turn in the fortunes of the firm arrived during the period of its greatest prosperity, and was brought about by the Schmalcaldic War, 1546-1547. Anton Fugger, who already at that time had serious thoughts of winding up the affairs of the house, must have had an instinc- tive presentiment of the inevitable end ;
INTERNATIONAL CAPITALISM
however, he was no longer able to do as he wished, bound as he was by bands of iron to the Hapsburgs. To hold his own against the Protestant party in Augsburg it was necessaiy for him to assist the Catholics to victory. And when Charles V, fled before Maurice of Saxony to Villach the Fuggers were obliged to come to his aid with 400,000 ducats — an unheard-of sum at the time — in order not to lose for ever the entire amount owed them by both branches of the Hapsburg family.
So things went on until the outbreak of the first great financial crisis, in the year 1557 ! this was followed by a pro- tracted cessation of business. The age
talented man, with a love for the fine arts, but lacking in the true spirit of commerce, who after a few years resigned his position in favour of the sons of Anton, " Marx Fugger and Brothers." The realty of the family was divided and the business in merchandise brought to a close. Thus, the Spanish affairs remained the only enter- prise of the house , which rendered necessary constant communication with Antwerp, the most important exchange of Europe. However, the Spanish Government was in such a bad way financially that it suspended payment at the end of periods averaging twenty years each, and resorted to com- pulsory settlements with its creditors.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE BEAUTIFUL TOWN OF REGENSBURG
Photochrome
of decline had begun, not only for the Fuggers, but for all the great capitalists of Europe. The first period of inter- national financial sovereignty was drawing to a close, soon to give place to a national, or at least territorial, economic and financial policy, which was to continue until the French Revolution and the great wars at the beginning of the nineteenth century prepared the way for the rise of new international financial powers.
Many years passed after the first signs of warning in the year 1557 before the final bankruptcy came. After the death of Anton Fugger, in 1560, the control of the house passed mto the hands of Hans Jacob, his nephew, a well-educated,
Although the Fuggers were favoured more than other creditors of the state, they were, nevertheless, forced to assent to whatever conditions were imposed upon them. The most burdensome of all was the acceptance of certificates of credit. As a result they did not receive their loans back at full value, but in the shape of interest-bearing, unredeemable, "perpetual" debenture bonds that imme- diately sank below par value,' and con- sequently could not be converted into specie without loss. Since the bankers in turn paid their creditors and those who had entrusted money to their keeping in debenture bonds of the same description, the result was a miserable series of law-
4599
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
suits, followed by the absolute ruin, first, of the credit of Spain, and then of that of the bankers. The position of the Fuggers became unbearable after the accession of Philip IV. (1621-1665) ; they were now treated with disfavour by the all-powerful Prime Minister, Olivarez, not- withstanding the fact that in earher times _ . _,. they had fared far better than f " th *"*** *^^ other German capitalists, P on account of their undeniable
"** '^ services. They were forced to provide the sum of 50,000 ducats monthly for the expenses of the court, in re- turn for which they received worthless assignments on the taxes.
After 1630 the house was many times compelled to delay its payments, and in 1637 ^^^ Spanish affairs of the Fuggers were placed in the hands of creditors, for the most part Genoese. The deficit amounted to over half a million ducats, despite the fact that the claims on the Spanish Crown, which were as good as worthless, had been included among the assets. " The total loss," says Ehrenberg, "sustained by the Fuggers through their dealings with the Hapsburgs up to the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury could not have amounted to less than 8,000,000 gulden, Rhenish. It would not be far from the truth to say that the bulk of the earnings of the firm during its century of activity disappeared in this way alone."
Nor did the other South German mer- cantile houses which had ventured into the sphere of international finance fare much better than the Fuggers. The Hochstetters, Paumgartners, Welsers, Sellers, Neidharts, Manlichs, Rems, Haugs, and Herwarts, all of Augsburg, were, every one of them, obliged to suspend payment in the course of the sixteenth century, for the most part during the critical years 1550-1570. The Hoch- stetters, " the most hated monopolists of their age," were the first to fail — in 1529.
_ „ The Welsers succeeded for
Collapse • J. ■ •
. _. . . many years in mamtammg a
Hoo'ser*"" position among the Upper German firms second only to the Fuggers. They were divided into two branches, one in Nuremberg and the other in Augsburg ; the former house wound up its affairs in 1560. Bartholomew Welser, the first and only German who made an attempt to secure territory in the New World, thereby for a short time arousing hopes of German colonial possessions in
4600
America, was a member of the Augsburg branch of the family. In contrast to the Fuggers, who were so strongly inclined in favour of the Hapsburgs, the Welsers maintained a neutral position among the contending parties, and even entered into financial negotiations with the French Government, thereby suffering not only in consequence of the bankruptcy of Spain, but also on account of the failure of the national finances of France in 1557. Their credit, however, remained unimpaired, and subsequently the firm was even able to contract loans for the EngUsh Crown. The affairs of the house did not begin to deteriorate until the end of the century, but in 1614 the Welsers were bankrupt.
The Tuchers of Niiremberg, another great business house of the century, adopted the principle of never on any account permitting themselves to become entangled in the financial affairs of sovereigns or princes ; hence they escaped the crises of the seventeentn century unscathed. The Imholfs, another large firm involved in national finance, were not absolutely ruined although forced to - . retire with considerable losses.
^ . , With the exception of Augs- Masters of , , t.,- 1 R.
Busi s o^^g ^^^ Nuremberg, the cities of South Germany had but little share in the international opera- tions in capital and credit. The Italians, who Were not only earlier in the field but showed a greater mastery in all kinds of business, had a longer career than the High Germans, who did not desert the traffic in commodities for that in money until the end of the fifteenth century. During the sixteenth century they were represented chiefly by the Florentines and the Genoese in the international markets. After the Genoese had lost their position as a commercial power in the eastern Mediterranean, and had found it very difficult to carry on traffic in the western basin of the same sea because of the Barbary pirates, the spirit of commerce turned the surplus capital of the Ligurian seaport into new channels, especially into affairs of exchange and credit. The Genoese had been commercially connected with the Spaniards ever since the thirteenth century ; their ability as navigators and their capital had been of great assistance to Spain in her occu- pation of America. They also undertook to supply a certain number of slaves annually to the transatlantic colonies,
VIEW OF THE TOWN FROM THE RIVER SCHELDT, SHOWING THE CATHEDRAL
itmi
s«c ■■■&
/^' '
j 1'
ANTWERP'S TEMPLE OF FINANCE : THE INTERIOR OF THE BOURSE
SCENES IN THE IMPORTANT SEAPORT TOWN OF ANTWERP Photochrome
4601
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
provided Seville with merchandise to be sent to America, and furnished the money necessary for the equipment of expeditions. Single Genoese firms, such as the Grimaldi, had already entered into financial transactions with the Spanish Government. A political alliance had developed from the union of economic _. -. interests. The desertion of
The Masses y^^^^-^^ j fo^ the cause of
N w N bilit Charles V. by the house of ew o 1 1 y £)Qj.jg^ j^ j-^28 had a decisive
effect on the second Franco-Spanish war. The governing party, called that of the optimates, or the wealthy classes, was divided into two branches, the old and the new nobility, the former engaged chiefly in financial affairs, the latter in dealings in merchandise. The masses were in favour of the new nobility, as trafiic in goods was beneficial to the handicrafts, and hence to the prosperity of the working classes.
Nevertheless, in 1549 ^^e new nobility, under Giovanni Luigi de Fieschi, were defeated by the older party led by the Dorias, who now entered into a still closer alliance with Spain. In return, the emperor, and later his son, Philip II., granted them a position of the first rank among his financial advisers, the Fuggers being the only other family which enjoyed the same privileges. Among the Genoese creditors of the Spanish Government, the most distinguished were the firms of Grimaldi, Spinola, Pallavicino, Lomel- lino, Gentili, and Centurioni.
The higher they rose in the estimation of the Spanish king, the more dangerous became their position during these times of regularly recurrent financial crises, for the favour of monarchs was not to be had for nothing ; in short, the Genoese, like the Upper Germans, could not get any repay- ment of their loans other than unredeem- able debenture certificates and worthless assignments of taxes. Nevertheless, they continued to maintain their connection Q with Spain until about the
„ * middle of the seventeenth
Possessions , t> .i. . .- ^^
. ^ J century. By that, time all solvent nations had to a great extent nationalised their economic and political affairs, and thus the age of inter- national financial operations was over in any case. In the meanwhile the Genoese capitalists had obtained possession of vast territories in Naples through their connections with the House of Hapsburg, and consequently were able to view the
4602
complete prostration of their native city with a certain measure of composure. At about the middle of the seventeenth century the Florentines severed their connections with France, where monetary affairs had been in their hands for over a hundred years. During the early days of Florentine finances, at the time of the Baldi and Peruzzi in the fourteenth cen- tury, France had been one of the clients of the Tuscan bankers. These relations were renewed in the fifteenth century, when the Medici became the sovereigns of the banking world. During the six- teenth century, when, with the assistance of the Hapsburgs, the Medici obtained political dominion over Tuscany, the Florentine plutocracy nevertheless took the side of the Valois. Business with France continued to flourish, although financial relations ceased with England and the Netherlands as soon as these nations began to control their economic and commercial affairs with their own capital.
The most distinguished Florentine capi- talists of the sixteenth century were the Frescobaldi, Gualterotti, Strozzi, Salviati, „ .- Grfedagni, and Capponi ; and,
*"^ ■ in addition to the specifically g , . Florentine houses, the Chigi of Siena, the Buonvisi of Lucca, the Ducci of Pistoia, and the Affaitadi of Cremona may be mentioned. The first crushing blow dealt to the Tuscan firms in their relations with France was the bank- ruptcy of Henry II. in the year 1557. The Huguenot wars broke out not long after this, and during their progress the finances of France became completely disorganised. One can only wonder at the rashness of such bankers as Girolamo Gondi, who still continued to transact business with the French Crown. At the end of the reign of Henry IV. the Florentines had dis- appeared from France, although the nation was obliged to make use of foreign capital until the year 1660.
The modern exchange has developed from the market of the old Frankish- German Empire. The privilege of holding fairs and markets, granted to suitable districts by emperors and kings ever since the time of the Carlovingians, was the nucleus around which all the special rights grew up which later constituted the con- ception of municipal governments. In the midst of the old village communities the independent civilisation of the cities arose, first in the Latin countries, later
INTERNATIONAL CAPITALISM
in the Germanic, isolated it is true, and not destroying the earlier form of social liie adapted to the villages. From this time forth village and town, peasant and citizen, were permanently established side by side as opposite types of civilisation ; each was unable to attain economic prosperity without the assistance of the other, and for that reason they entered into an organised system of traffic in- vented by the town dwellers as the more developed of the two types. The weekly market and the precinct, or city boundary, are the characteristic tokens of this mutual adaptation of rural and urban interests.
The weekly market assured the city of a supply of the natural products of the neigh- bourhood, and guaranteed the country dwellers a place for the sale of their goods where prices would not be influenced by the tricks of over and under bidding; the precinct prevented the city industries from being pursued beyond its own limits, and thus assured it of the custom of its peasant neighbours. The towns experi- enced greater difficulty in their relations with the heirs of the old feudal lords, —^ _^ the landed nobility. Robber .t .*" knights were a well-known J phenomenon of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. The civic estates, merchants and capitalists, had become dangerously powerful and prosperous relatively to the nobility of the country. Robber knight and " pepper- sack " — as the merchant was called in derision — represented two distinct spheres of interest, the agrarian and the indus- trial-commercial ; and the war of social interests embodied in the two classes ended only in the sixteenth century with the overthrow of the landed nobility.
Long before the state interfered in the struggle between the industrial and agrarian classes the municipal communi- ties had succeeded in establishing their positions firmly, although in complete in- dependence of one another. The city, as a whole, was looked upon as an association of consumers," requiring protection from the natural self-interest of the producers. The inhabitants of a town were all consumers to a certain degree, even the merchants and craftsmen of the city. But since in any town the special interests of the producers were opposed to the general interests of the consumers, it was necessary for the economic policy of the municipality to be one that strove
to institute a state of affairs acceptable
to both parties. The city government in
its endeavour to bring about harmony
found itself at least partially united with
the organised industries, the guilds, and
the various societies of craftsmen. It was
found necessary to reduce as far as possible
the rivalry between tradesmen, and to
„ ... exclude the competition of all Benefits r ■ j . • o- xt.
J . foreign mdustnes. Smce the
_ ^ . city secured the home market Town Fairs r •',, j x- r ■.
for the productions of its own
industrial classes, and at the same time
helped them in their outside competition,
it was, on the other hand, entitled to
look out for the general interests of
consumers through the introduction of
tariffs on prices and wages, and laws
regulating the quality of goods.
It was also to the general advantage of town populations occasionally to intro- duce the competition of strangers by temporarily opening the city gates to all comers. This object was served by the annual fair, which brought profit to the town by an influx of strangers, and, though it exposed domestic industries to a temporary competition, it also brought them into touch with new circles of customers. In addition to towns, churches and monasteries often obtained market privileges, for the reason that on certain religious holidays they were much visited by pilgrims and guests ; in this manner a brisk traffic would arise out of nothing.
These fairs were of an international type, and are still to be seen in the Mohammedan, Brahmin, and Buddhist countries. For example, the two chief markets of Paris, the fairs of St. Denis and St. Germain, were originally opened for the custom of pilgrims. The same may be said of what was once the greatest annual fair in England, held on an open field near Stourbridge Abbey. The con- ceptions of market and annual fair soon became one and the same, and it was a long „ time before men grew accus-
°^ tomed to call the markets of
I owns
_ , . international significance that Developed . , ° , ■•
were repeated several times
during the year by the special name of " fairs." Cities could not, however, main- tain an important position in commerce as the headquarters of fairs alone. Staple towns also developed, and sometimes one town presented both aspects. Among staple towns, with or without annual fairs, two varieties, natural and artificial, may be
4603
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
distinguished. Natural markets arose independently of definite dates, often
at the termini of great commercial high- continuing throughout the year, or, at
ways, especially of sea routes. Such were least, during the most favourable seasons.
Venice, Genoa, Barcelona, and Bruges, Foreign merchants of the same city or
where goods sent from distant lands were country usually had their own staple
unloaded, and, in so far as they were not houses at such markets, as the Germans
needed for domestic con sumption, were resold and distributed. Every town was not so situated, nor did all cities produce to such an extent, that com- modities and purchasers could be enticed to them from all sides. Towns past which the stream of com- merce would have flowed without stopping sought to obtain by means of coercion the same advantages that grew up spontaneously in natural staple markets. The method of building up a
their Fondaco in Venice, or the merchants of Regens- burg their yard in Vienna ; in case they possessed no separate establishment, they had their special quarters in houses of the townsmen, as a rule in the neighbourhood of the money - changers and brokers.
Both in the permanent marts and at the fairs, besides the older trade in commodities actually de- livered and paid for in cash, there grew up other
- SIR THOMAS GRESHAM
market by force, such as Founder of the Royal Exchange. He more elaborate commercial was once to be seen at was elected Lord Mayor of London in transactions, in which the Vienna, consisted in oblig- ^^^~- "« ^^^ knighted by Queen Eliza- Italians led the way. To
ing foreign merchants to ^eth in 1559, and died twenty years later. ^^^^^ ^^j^^^ ^^f ^^^
offer their goods for sale in the city for a methods designed to obviate the neces-
definite period, sometimes as long as six sity for the transportation of coined
or eight weeks. They were also forbidden money, so dangerous and costly in those
to make a circuit around such a market times, first and foremost among them
town, the only road open to them being being exchange and the whole system
that which led through the city itself. In connected with it. At the end of the
all markets a foreign traffic developed great fairs, when all transactions in nrtnal
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE OF LONDON, FOUNDED BY SIR THOMAS GRESHAM IN 1566
4604
SHOPKEEPER AND APPRENTICE:
SHOPPING IN THE TIME OF CHARLES I.
commodities were over, the money dealers met and adjusted their various claims in such a manner that only a final balance remained to be paid in coin. If any money was left over, it was frequently loaned at advantageous rates of interest until the time came for the next fair ; thus ^ . the money-lending system
j^ . . also was closely connected
f M h *t with the settlements of accounts that followed at the close of each temporary market. In the permanent markets, the great emporiums of European commerce, the custom developed for merchants to meet every day at an appointed place for the purpose of obtaining information from one another as to business affairs and of attending to matters concerning goods, money, and exchange. Business thus trans- acted was frequently rendered valid by law on the very spot by a notary, and con- tributed not a little to the establishment of fixed market prices for various classes of goods. Thus the Venetian merchants assembled on the, Rialto, the Florentines in the arched hall, or loggia, of the Mercato Nuovo, and the Catalonians in the Lonja of Barcelona. In foreign countries, as in Bruges, for example, the Italians usually
met in the houses of their consuls. The word" bourse," which has been introduced into almost every European language, was first employed in Bruges for the usual assemblies of merchants who met for com- mercial ends. In this chief terminus of the traffic between Northern and Southern Europe there was a house owned by the Van der Burse family, in which the Vene- tians had held their meetings ever since the fifteenth century. The house was called " de burse " for short, and thus the name of the Flemish family finally came to signify a place where such mercantile assemblies were held. The term ' ' bourse " was already fixed in most European languages when a great edifice with halls and columns surrounding an open square in which business was transacted was . . , erected in Antwerp. In Eng- on on s j^^^ ^^^y ^^g another term
j,°''^f employed, and the bourse
constructed in 1566 at the instigation of Sir Thomas Gresham took the name of " The Royal Exchange."
From the twelfth to the fourteenth century the bulk of the business carried on between the northern and southern com- mercial regions of Europe was transacted at the fairs of Champagne and Brie, at
4605
THE CITY AS SEEN FROM THE LOWER BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER MAIN
*^^NI^..'"
SACHSENHAUSEN QUARTER OF THE CITY CONNECTED BY BRIDGES WITH FRANKFORT
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN: VIEWS OF THE FAMOUS PRUSSIAN CITY Photochrome 4606
INTERNATIONAL CAPITALISM
Troyes, Lagny, Bar-sur-Aube, andProvins. After the decline of the fairs at Champagne, Geneva became an important market for French, Italians, and Upper Germans. Louis XI. endeavoured to entice traffic back to French soil, and granted many privileges to the four fairs of Lyons, at the same time forbidding his subjects to visit Geneva. The French kings made Lyons the centre of their negotiations for loans and the recruiting-place for their armies when the policy of imperialism that arose during the sixteenth century was no longer to be satisfied by the earlier methods of conducting financial affairs.
The succession of loans to the French Crown continued its course from 1522 until the fatal year 1557, when Henry II., con- temporaneously with his opponent, Philip IL, suspended all payment of debts. Lyons completely lost its position during the disturbances that followed the outbreak of the Huguenot wars ; nor did it rise again to importance until 1650, and then, not as a scene of international finance, but as one of the nationalised centres of French industrial and commercial life. ^. , , As the French monarchs had,
The Lost r , • , • u J
p . . from obvious motives, barred , , the money market of Lyons to
their Hapsburg opponents, it was necessary for the Spanish Government to seek out other places in which to trans- act its financial business. Spain itself possessed several towns holding regular fairs, which had arisen in order to supply the needs of domestic traffic in goods ; and these cities gained importance also for affairs of finance and exchange the more the Spanish court and Spanish consumers were compelled to turil to foreign lands for their requirements. The end of each fair at Medina del Campo, Villalon, and Medina de Riosecco marked the arrival of the term at which the foreign creditors of Spain put in their claims and, as far as possible, balanced their accounts.
In order to injure the fairs of Lyons, Charles V. opened an opposition market at Besangon in Burgundy, attended by Genoese and Upper Germans, who as subjects of the emperor did not possess full commercial freedom in Lyons. However, the Genoese, dealing in money alone, not in merchandise, soon discovered localities * more convenient for their purposes. The so-called Genoese fairs were not held in Genoa, but at first in small towns north of the Alps, in Poligny and Chambery,
then further to the south, in Rivoli, Ivrea,
and Asti, from 1579 i^^ Piacenza, and
from 162 1 in Novi. At this time the
financial domination of the Genoese was
beginning to totter, that of the Upper
Germans having already fallen ; and with
the bankruptcy of the Spanish Government
in 1627 the last support of the international
r^ .^ r capitalism of the sixteenth cen- Orowth of , ^ TD i M. • J.U
P . . tury gave way. But it was in the
w . north that commercial activity
most prevailed. The great fairs and cloth markets grew apace. Even after Antwerp had become a permanent staple town, with a bourse in which financial affairs were transacted, the old fairs still retained their importance by marking the time for the recovery of debts and the balancing of accounts. As in Bruges and Lyons, the native-born citizens were not the great merchants and capitalists. The commercial significance of the city depended upon the foreigners, among whom Upper Germans and Italians were the most distinguished. They controlled the mercantile trade and the traffic in loans, therefore governments in need of money, the municipality of Brussels, the kings of Spain, Portugal, and England, had their permanent agents in Antwerp. About the middle of the sixteenth century business was transacted to the average amount of forty million ducats a year. When Antwerp was practically destroyed as a commercial centre by the wars and disturbances of 1568-1585, several heirs obtained shares in the heritage of the ruined city.
The bulk of the world's commerce fell to Amsterdam ; but the business of Frankfort- on-Main also increased to such an extent that this city became not only the first market and exchange of Germany, but an international centre of commerce, a posi- tion that it retained until late in the seventeenth century. The rise of Antwerp marked a new period in the economic history of the world. The great capitalists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whose fortunes had Antwe been made during the period of Mediterranean commercial pros- perity following the Crusades, turned from trade to politics and adopted the imperial policy of the period, which proved so destructive to them. As states became bankrupt the international capitahsts also were ruined. Thus ended the first section of the history of international capitalism at the close of the sixteenth century.
4607
The Rise of
THE NEW MARKET AND OLD WEIGH-HOUSE, BUILT AS A TOWN GATE ABOUT 1 tss
THE BUSY FISH MARKET, WITH THE WEIGH-HOUSE ON THE RIGHT
AMSTERDAM, THE COMMERCIAL CAPITAL OF THE NETHERLANDS Pho.ochrome
4608
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE
REVOLUTION
THE
COMMERCE
OF
\X'ESTERN EUROPE
III
DUTCH COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY
COMPETITION FOR THE WORLD'S COMMERCE
AT the end of the sixteenth century, a ^^^ hundred years after the time of Columbus, Diaz, and Vasco da Gama, the two hemispheres, which had been granted to Spaniards and Portuguese by the Pope, were united under one sceptre. The de- velopment of the Iberian race, however, had been at a standstill for two generations. The Spaniards had reached the limit of their requirements for growth at the point where further possession of territory seemed no longer desirable and colonisa- tion no longer profitable enough for them in the regions reckoned as being worthless — that is, worthless according to the no- toriously false notion of political economy of the times, because they did not abound in gold or silver or precious stones, and possessed no large population adapted for use as slaves. Portugal, dynastically united with Spain since 1580, had reached the limit of her capacity for deve- . lopment years before — the fatal
, P*'"*'' * limit where profits cease and the N W Id preservation of possessions al- ready gained devours the entire income derived from them. Further progress was impossible ; moreover, it was scarcely desired, and yet the rights of monopoly in the ownership of the earth still remained uncontested. No rival had as yet seriously disturbed the Spaniards in their sole possession of the New World, or the Portuguese in their exclusive commer- cial proprietorship of the East Indies.
When the sixteenth century came to an end no European nation, with the excep- tion of the Spaniards and Portuguese, owned one square foot of territory on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There had been no lack of attempts to found settlements in regions of the New World not occupied by Spain, nor had induce- ments such as the fisheries, the fur trade, and the quest of a north-east passage been wanting. Nevertheless, all endeavours of the English and French to set firm foot on the continents of America had, down to the end of the sixteenth century, been miser-
293
able failures. Wars, want of the necessi- ties of life, and lack of a marketable return freight for ships bound east had destroyed both colonies and colonists. It was far more enticing to turn corsair, privateer, or smuggler than to die of starvation in a . squalid settlement or to be slain xpansion ^^ Indians or angry Spaniards, o uropean^j^^ resented the intrusion of foreigners into what they con- sidered their exclusive possessions. During the years of the Anglo-Dutch war with Spain, from 1568 onwards, it was more profitable and more attractive to'prey upon Spanish treasure-ships. From this time forth the traffic with America which set the Spanish monopoly at defiance became a principle of European commerce, which had no scruples whatever as to right and wrong, lawfulness or unlawfulness. Smug- gling led to the occupation of the unappro- priated Lesser Antilles by Englishmen, Hollanders, Frenchmen, and Danes, with whom the native pirates, or filibusters, readily associated themselves.
Before the attempts of non-Spaniards to settle in America were renewed, the ban that had apparently been laid upon the East Indies was already broken. Dutch ships cruised in the Indian Ocean, brought home cargoes of spices with them, and awoke in other nations the desire to emulate them.
But the growth of the Western European sphere of expansion and the increase of Transatlantic traffic were not due wholly or even chiefly to the participation of new commercial peoples or to the rise of per- manent colonies. Foreign trade and the . development of distant terri- **^ °" * th Tories depended, not only in the fV ^d" seventeenth but in every other ° '^* * century, upon the necessities, demand, and consumption of the mother country or continent. The true inciting motive to increased traffic between peoples is not furnished by production alone, whether of raw materials or of manufac- tured articles, or of the portion of the
4609
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
completed products that falls to commerce ; it is consumption, the direct expression of human requirements and desires. The consumer is master ; the producer is his servant, and the middleman his go-be- tween. The two latter may, it is true, often entice the former to increase his purchases, but, on the other hand, they _^ must also await his pleasure.
Colmercc ^^^ ^^ "°* ^^^^ ^°'" *^® funda- ommerc j^ental changes that came of the World , , . *=■ J i
about m manners and customs
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the commerce of the world would not have overstepped its previous limits, it would never have increased its rela- tively small sphere of activity.
Since the very earliest times, from the days of journeys to the Ophir of the ancient Oriental peoples down to the opening of the seventeenth century, the world's commerce had been little more than traffic in a few spices and luxuries of South-eastern Asia, articles for which there is so limited a market that they are scarcely taken into account at the present day, although the quantities dealt in are, if anything, greater now than ever before.
Neither during the times of the Phoeni- cians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabians, the Venetians, and the Genoese, nor later in the days of Portuguese supre- macy, did the character of the commercial relations between the Old World civilised nations of the temperate zone and the lands of the tropics alter to any appreciable extent. Even the discovery of tropical and sub-tropical America did not at first bring about any decided change in the variety of articles handled in the world's trade, for the acquisition of the precious metals thrust every other form of commer- cial activity into the background. The cultivators of sugar-cane, however, soon began to furnish a commodity capable of attaining a largely increased consumption, and not subject to the artificial prices of monopoly, as was the case oJIes't Article ^i|h spices. Sugar is the - , oldest of the various articles
uxury ^^ luxury to which Trans- atlantic trade was indebted for its development. The plantation system of cultivation, in later times adapted also to the raising of other products, and leading to negro slavery, from which in turn developed a new branch of mono- poly, originated in the production of sugar-cane in Spanish America. But, as
4610
we have already stated, everything de- pended upon the demand, upon the adop- tion of an article by larger and larger circles of consumers.
At about the time that the sugar-cane of the East Indies found a new home in the Western Hemisphere during the sixteenth century, and sugar first became an important article of commerce through its importation into Europe from America, American tobacco, on the other hand, became diffused over the Old World, and proved itself to be a herb no less easily acclimatised than acceptable to mankind. In tobacco, an article for wholesale con- sumption and a commodity of the first importance to commerce was acquired, not to speak of the significance to hnance attained in later days through Government monopolies of this luxury, the use of which was at first so sternly discountenanced.
Like sugar and tobacco, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries cocoa, coffee, tea, indigo, and cotton became articles of wholesale consumption, and hence of the greatest importance to natural production and commerce. Now for the first time settlements and the
„ , acquisition of colonies became Demand ^ ,• ,
- _, . . remunerative, and commerce or ropica |^g^^ggj^ ^^le Old World and Luxuries ,, xt 1 ,
the New assumed great pro- portions, for prior to this time no truly reciprocal traffic had been possible. Trade was completely transformed, owing to its marvellously rapid development. The rea- son for all this lay in the fact that con- sumption developed a tendency favourable to foreign products. Europeans, indeed the inhabitants of temperate regions in general, were persistent in their demands for luxuries from the tropics, and sup- ported alien regions of production and alien merchants, however greatly it may have been to their own disadvantage from an economic point of view.
The money paid by consumers for stimulants containing alkaloids was not wasted. These so-called stimulants have in reality a quieting effect on the nerves ; they support the nobler powers of intellec- tual life, and, owing to their influence in counteracting the brutalising tendencies of alcoholism, have contributed not a little to the civilisation of the European peoples. The age of narcotic antidotes, which is also that of enlightenment and humanity — the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — succeeded to the period— from the fifteenth
DUTCH COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY
to the seventeenth — of which the chief characteristics had been drunkenness and gluttony. Gentler manners and new cur- rents of thought found their most active upholders in precisely the circles in which coffee, tea, chocolate, and sugar had to a great extent taken the place of alcohol.
The first nation to flout the conse- crated privileges of Spain and Portugal by venturing into their closed territories was the Dutch Republic. Holland had suc- ceeded in freeing itself from the dominion of Philip II. in 1579, and had now taken upon its own shoulders the entire burden of a war with the greatest power of the age, the Southern Netherlands having returned to Spanish rule. The Dutch had already been successful in defending their interests in the carrying trade of Europe against both the German Hansa and the merchants of England. Owing to the geographical situation of their country they had become the recognised middle- men of the traffic between North and South. Moreover, even after the outbreak of the War of Independence, in 1568, neither Spain nor Portugal excluded the p , Hollanders, but allowed them
lip .s ^^ make their purchases of P 1 A foreign products both in Lisbon and Seville, for the King of Spain regarded the revolutionary party only, not the peaceful merchants of Holland, as his enemies. But when the seven northern provinces finally gained their independence, and allied themselves with powers hostile to Spain, then Philip II. put an end to all free trade with the Spanish as well as the Portuguese ports, which were at that time subject to his dominion.
After the fall of Antwerp, Amsterdam was, beyond doubt, the most conveniently situated spice market of Northern Europe. The question was, where was Amsterdam to obtain spices now that the ports of Spain were closed to her merchants ? The provinces and towYis of the new republic had become very independent of one another, owing to the absence of any strong bond of common economic interests ; and thus attempts were made by other cities besides Amsterdam to procure on their own account, and directly from the regions of production, the various com- • modifies which had been rendered unob- tainable by the closing of the Spanish and Portuguese harbours. Private com- panies were formed in several towns for
organisation of the Dutch East India Company, together with much that was the purpose of importing merchandise direct from India ; and by exchanging the spices, etc., thus obtained for the products of Northern Europe the promoters hoped to supply the deficiency in commodities indispensable to the traffic of the Continent. D t K T A ^^^ most important of the
. . . ' small companies established E t I a* to carry on a direct trade with the East Indies was the " Compagnie van Verre " (Company of the Distant Lands), founded in 1594 ; and it was in the interests of this firm that tlie first Dutch voyage to Java, Bawean, and Bali was undertaken in 1595, under the command of Cornells de Houtman.
This company, like its rivals, scarcely differed from the ordinary shipping associa- tions, which possess a historical importance from the fact that they were the precursors of joint-stock companies. When the object for which such an association had been formed was attained, the cargoes were divided among the partners, who hoped to make a profit from the sale of the goods. Through the influence of the great states- man, Johan van Olden Barneveldt, all the separate companies were incorporated into one in 1602 ; and a new type of mercantile association arose, which dominated and characterised the commercial life of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The United East India Company was a joint-stock association with rights of monopoly. It obtained from the Dutch Government the sole right of commerce with the East Indies in the very widest sense. Every Hollander was forbidden even to sail beyond the Cape of Good Hope, not to speak of carrying on trade, without permission of the company ; on the other hand, it was open to every Hollander to become a shareholder and partaker in all the company. 's rights and privileges by paying a subscription. The
. originally unequal shares into
f -rfadin ^^^^^ *^^ capital of 6,600,000 o & ra mg ^^j-jj^g ^^^ divided could be Association . , , -.i , . •
transferred without restric- tion. Towards the end of the seventeenth century a nominal value of 3,000 gulden per share was established for the con- venience of traffic in the bourses.
The affairs of the company, which was divided into provinces, were managed by a committee of seventeen members called directors. There were many new features
4611
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in the old and characteristic of the con- stitutions of the guilds. Fundamentally new, however, was the endowment of the association with political rights of sover- eignty exercised in the name and under the supervision of the States-General of the Netherlands. All subsequent trading associations established after the model of _, J ... the Dutch East India Com-
PoweV'to'' P'^'^y. ^""^ distinguished as
ower o political commercial associa-
Declare War f. o i, • u j
tions. Such companies had
the power to declare war and to enter
into negotiations and treaties ; legislation,
administration, and the enforcement of
justice were entrusted to them within
their spheres of activity ; and the Dutch
government exercised its rights of
sovereignty only in form so long as the
company was able to maintain itself
without assistance and remained solvent.
The Dutch East India Company formed the basis of the colonial empire of Holland in South-eastern Asia. The Portuguese were driven out of important points —Ceylon, Malacca, the Moluccas ; and unclaimed regions, that is to say, territories inhabited by indigenous races only, such as Java, Sumatra, and Celebes, were occu- pied. A depot in Java, which in 1619 received the name of Batavia, was the residence of the governor-general, who, when the Dutch colonies were at the zenith of their prosperity, in the middle of the seventeenth century, controlled as many as seven provinces.
The sphere of influence of the Hollanders extended as far as China and Japan, although trade was exposed to many serious difficulties in the Furthest East. One of the company's servants, Abel Jansz Tasman, circumnavigated Australia, or New Holland, and discovered Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, and New Zealand in 1642. But these events, how- ever important from a geographical stand- point, had no immediate commercial result, for the barren coasts of Aus- Austraiia s ^^^j-^ j^. j^^ ^^ entice settlers. Undiscovered , •, 1,, ,j
_ ,, m«- and its wealth in gold re-
Gold Mines j i-i i.u x i^/^ ir
mained, like that 01 Caliiornia,
undiscovered for over two hundred years. The Hollanders carried on traffic in spices in the same manner as the Portu- guese had done : their one desire was to obtain and to maintain the highest pos- sible prices of monopoly. In spite of the fact that spices were sold at auction in the Amsterdam market, and consequently
4612
were exposed to free competition, prices were kept constant through regulation of the amounts of production. The cultiva- tion of clove-trees was restricted to the island of Amboina, that of nutmegs to the Banda group ; superabundant harvests were reduced by the destruction of all products in excess of the quantity required for exportation, which, as a rule, equalled the average measure of consumption.
When, in 1621, the twelve years' truce with Spain, which had been so beneficial to the welfare of the Netherlanders, expired, a second joint-stock association, also furnished with rights of sovereignty, arose. This was the Dutch West India Company. Just as the Pope had once divided the earth between Spain and Portugal, so the Dutch government now apportioned it between the East and West India Com- panies. The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn formed the boundaries of the hemi- spheres subjected to their monopolies. Although the Hollanders were unable to lay claim to international recognition of their proceedings, and although the orders given by the Dutch government to its subjects and commercial companies had _^ „ nothing whatever to do with
w ?•. f " r the other Christian nations Methods of r T- it- 1 iL
. jj . of Europe, nevertheless the
Dutch continued to act with the utmost unscrupulousness toward former possessors of the lands occupied as well as later intruders.
During this same period the Dutch theorists — the teachers of " natural right " — Grotius, Salmasius, Boxhorn, and Dela- court, were dogmatising on the mare liherum, the freedom, or rather the open- ness, of the sea to all men, a conception quite in accordance with the spirit of the time considering that the pretensions of the Spaniards to monopoly were now completely overthrown. However, these patriotic philosophers made no mention at all of the fact that, although the seas had become open, their countrymen were everywhere doing their utmost to close them again to all competitors. Never- theless, the Dutch thinkers proved that theory — for the most part unconsciously — declares that which is most advantageous for one's own time or for one's own people, even for one's own party, to be the best. The theorists of the seventeenth century developed the same principles of free trade that were reahsed in England 150 years later. It is remarkable that, without excep-
DUTCH COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY
tion, the economically stronger nations have ever held forth to their weaker neighbours on the blessings of free trade, of unrestricted competition between states as well as individuals. Although since the end of the eighteenth century the free trade theories of the British have con- quered the world, and contributed not a little to the commercial triumph of Eng- land, the assertions of the Dutch jurists of the seventeenth century in regard to the same principles were almost wholly ignored, although the economic practice of the Dutch was a cause of violent re- actions as time went on.
The West India Company conducted itself even more offensively than did the East India; it was in reality a joint-stock association of pirates supported by the state, whose robberies found a counter- part only in the dealings of speculators in company shares at the Amsterdam Bourse. However, Holland has the West India Company to thank for Surinam and some of the Lesser Antilles ; other regions in America occupied by the company — New Netherlands and Brazil — were lost again during the seventeenth century. In like -, „ manner the little North Sea
, „ . " nation was unable to retain of Modern ■. w? . m ■ St k ■ hh' West African possessions
later than the end of the eighteenth century. Since the shares in the two mercantile associations were the first effects to be handled in conformity with the regulations of a modern exchange, the Amsterdam Bourse has a legitimate claim to be considered the home of modern stock-jobbing. The building was con- structed in the year 1613, and from the very beginning was the scene of an unre- mitting struggle between " bulls " and " bears." The time transactions of modern days, the evil custom of buying on margins — that is to say, purchase and delivery of stock for which one has not paid, against which laws have been enacted without avail — the exchange tax, exchange list, etc., were all either invented, or at least brought to a high state of development, at the Amsterdam Bourse. Inasmuch as the rise and fall of dividends paid by the India Companies depended upon events im- possible to foresee, owing to the fact that they were taking place in all quarters of 'the globe — the average dividend amounted to 22 per cent. — speculation had the character of a game of chance. The desire for gambling became a national vice, as
was shown by the notorious tulip swindle in the year 1630, a ridiculous parody of exchange transactions, carried on outside the bourse. Men sj eculated on the rise and fall in the prices of real and imaginary tulip bulbs, until finally the whole mad business, tulips and all, disappeared with a crash.
Until the end of the seventeenth century -^ the Amsterdam Bourse was used
f *T) t\ * ^^^ *^^ purpose of contracting ^' ."*^, loans by the Dutch govern- ment, as well as by the execu- tives of the provinces and the cities of the Netherlands. Naturally, the promissory notes and debenture bonds of public authorities were, in these times of war and disturbance, subject to great fluctuations. There was no longer an international loan market such as had once existed in Antwerp, now that the Italian and Upper German capitalists were bankrupts. Every state endeavoured, if possible, to make both ends meet with the aid of its own capitalists. But when Holland was forced out of the world market by the national economic policies of England and France, the capital thus set free accepted such opportunities for investment as were offered by the great industries which were just beginning to develop. In spite of all, however, capital became heaped up in the land, which not only had sufficient for all its needs, but was still gasping for more.
Wealthy men showed less and less desire to take part in laborious or dangerous undertakings; and preferred simply to put their money out at interest Thus it happened that after the beginning of the eighteenth century impoverished sove- reigns who were unable to obtain loans at home sought out Holland as a place for borrowing money. Amsterdam became the scene of international money trans- actions, and the Amsterdam Bourse the international stock market, whose rates of exchange were the standard followed by all the other European stock exchanges „ of the eighteenth century.
p * . Oncemore, after a long period
J of comparative inaction, an
element which has been of like importance to the history of the world and to the history of economics made its appearance ; and although it was badly adapted to its more or less hostile environment, it nevertheless persevered, looking forward to a better future. Driven forth from all lands, and perse- cuted ever since the time of the Crusades,
4613
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the Jews, even when tolerated for the good of the treasury, had no share in either the local or the international commercial affairs of Northern and Southern Europe. From the twelfth to the seventeenth cen- tury they had managed to maintain a pre- carious existence as money-dealers and usurers on the very smallest scale. After
the conquest of Granada, in
* ^^^ 1492, they were expelled from
N N* Spain together with the Moors,
although a few who had been converted to Christianity were permitted to remain in the country, receiving the name of Marannos. But like the con- verted Moors, or Moriscos, they had the reputation of being merely nominally Christian, and in 1609- 161 1 they were finally turned out of Spain and Portugal neck and crop as conspirators and rebels. A number of them found a place of refuge in the Netherlands, the Dutch welcoming their arrival as an opportunity for a demon- stration of hostility to Spain. A Jewish quarter grew up in Amsterdam, and no hindrances were placed in the way of Jews who wished to share in the commercial life of the city. In a short time daughter com- munities, like the one at Hamburg, deve- loped from the main colony at Amsterdam. Dutch-Portuguese Jews emigrated to England when the kingdom, closed to them since the time of Edward I., was once more thrown open by Cromwell, in 1657. Amsterdam was the door through which the Jews again found entrance to European civilisation. Scattered as they were over all parts of the world, the Jews were the connecting link of what was to be a new development of international capitalism.
For all that the business in money and credit and the non-European commerce of Holland was so extensive, she owed her wealth chiefly to her trade in merchan- dise with the rest of the Continent. During the seventeenth century the Dutch
»« -x- 'w^ 1 were the maritime carriers
Maritime Trade ■, ■ 1 ji r t^
_ . and middlemen of Europe ;
h th D t h three-fourths of the mer- ^ cantile marine of the world
belonged to them. The power of the Hansa was gone ; the Thirty Years War had effectually crippled Germany; England was experiencing the greatest crisis of her constitutional existence ; France was still prevented from per- ceiving or attending to her economic interests owing to various political com-
plications ; in short, general conditions were now as favourable to the Nether- lands, though still feeble in themselves, as they had been in former days to the Hansa. Thus the Dutch were enabled to control maritime trade until finally the tendency of the world's history became unfavourable to them, and the Great Powers vindicated their natural rights of superiority.
In the meanwhile, however, Dutch mer- chants and shipowners dominated the commerce of the Baltic, and consequently the grain trade of Europe. " Amsterdam obtained possession of the great surplus quantities of grain grown in the Baltic countries, and thus supplied not only Hol- land, but alsoWestern and Southern Europe. According to a document of the year 1603, a stock of 4,000,000 bushels — that is to say, wheat enough to supply 800,000 people for a year — was kept constantly on hand." By closing the mouths of the Rhine and the Schelde, the Hollanders destroyed the trade of the Spanish Netherlands as well as that of Western Germany. The latter region, indeed, became economically subject to them as far south as the Black Forest, and they were already masters of Eastern Germany beyond the World^I Hamburg and Danzig, they Commerce ^^d long been superior to all competitors in Scandinavia and on the northern seas, whether as merchants or as fishermen, their connections extending as far as the coasts of the White Sea. Dutch navigators even, cruised about the Arctic Ocean, striving to solve the mystery of a north-east passage. Southern Europe also had fallen into the net of their all- embracing commerce ; they dominated the Mediterranean, and after the conclusion of peace in 1648 appeared once more in the harbours of Portugal and Spain.
How great a burden the Dutch had been to England and France was shown by the violent reaction that arose against them in both nations during the latter half of the seventeenth century. In 165 1 the English Navigation Acts were passed by the Commonwealth Parliament. A severe struggle now began for the freedom of English maritime trade and for supre- macy in the world's commerce, a struggle in which the weaker nation finally sub- mitted to the stronger, and sought by means of an alliance at a propitious moment with its former opponent to save what it could of its earUer power.
4614
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
"pjrWTJ':"^^
THE
COMMERCE
OF
W ESTERN EUROPE
IV
THE BRITISH MARITIME SUPREMACY
EXPANSION OF THE NATION'S COMMERCE
IN the eleventh century England had * fallen under the political and economic dominion of foreigners. While the per- manent foreign and native elements were gradually becoming reconciled to one another, the commercial dominion of strangers, in spite of its nomadic character, became still deeper rooted in the land. Although England yielded an abundance of natural products, there were no de- veloped industries and no maritime traffic or shipping capable of competing with other countries, not to speak of any inde- pendent foreign trade. Nevertheless, the central government, in spite of all feudal limitations, was powerful enough to main- tain a firm and consistent national policy. The kings sought to relieve the economic difficulties of their subjects, and this at a time when throughout Europe economic policy lay almost exclusively in the hands of municipal authorities, or, at the most,
_ , , . under the control of more England under , r , • • i
«k V I, "^ '^ss powerful provmcial
ofForeine rulers. 1 he struggle ot Eng- land to free itself from the economic yoke of foreigners began with the establishment of companies, such as the Staple Guild and the Association of Merchant Adventurers.
The accession of the Tudors, in 1485, was followed by a change in economic conditions that led to far-reaching results. This was the substitution of " enclosure " for the " open-field " system of agricul- ture. The landed proprietors of Eng- land no less than of the Continent opposed the old order of economic life, for the reason that it stood in the way of various new and profitable means of making money. When a large amount of farming land was turned into pasture for the sake of sheep-farming, the large wool producers found that their interests were injured by the small properties of peasants scattered over their estates, and that the common lands were a great hindrance to their plans for
pasturage or for the alternate use of the land as meadow and ploughed field. Hence the large landowners turned their pro- perty into pasturage, regardless of the rights of occupants, enclosing common lands, with the assistance of accommo- . . . dating sheriffs and magis-
n 8« o trates, who belonged to their
Poverty and , ™, ''
,, , . own class. Ihus numerous
Unemployment r , u , ^
freeholders and tenants were
deprived of their land, and of these but a small proportion were able to lease new ground suitable for farming. As a result, the country swarmed with paupers and unemployed. Even the worse than in- adequate relief of distress supplied by the monasteries was ended by their abolition under Henry VHI., without any substi- tute being provided. It became a question of vital importance to the nation, either to promote or to create new forms of industry with a view to the relief of temporary want as well as the employment of a future increased population.
One way to this object was discovered by the economists of England in the time of Elizabeth. Among the first measures passed by the Elizabethan government was the currency reform of 1560, which had become necessary owing to the debasement of the coinage brought about during the reign of Henry Vni. The English Government was in the fortunate position of never having granted the right to coin money to subordinate powers, as had happened else- where in feudal Europe ; while, therefore, one sovereign might cause a temporary derangement of the cur- rency, another was able to reduce it to order, for the good of the whole country, which by this time was taking an intelligent interest in the most important economic questions. The measures passed by the Government for general economic better- ment were approved by the nation, the advantage of state control in economic
4615
The Ensilish Government their own Coiners
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Erection of the Royal Exchange
matters having been exemplified in the case of the currency. It is true that the Enghsh government was unable to look to the public for co-operation in regard to foreign affairs — however much the national intelligence had developed during the early Eliza- bethan period — until the country was threatened by a foreign invasion. Before a state of complete understanding between government and people had been reached in 1588, at the time of the Spanish Armada, the Crown, anxious to avoid any extra- ordinary taxation, had been obliged to contract loans of very doubtful advantage. At first the Tudors borrowed money in Antwerp, where the celebrated Sir Thomas Gresham occupied the position of financial agent of the English government. But as early as 1569, after the Duke of Alva had arrived in the Netherlands, and Antwerp had begun to decline, the financial require- ments of the English Crown were supplied by domestic capital. The government of England had thus freed itself from the dominion of international money-lenders, and had thereby advanced several steps in economic development.
The attainment of national independence in all things pertaining to money and credit found expression in the erection of the Royal Exchange by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1566 at his own expense. The queen had already recognised the services of this public-spirited financier by conferring knighthood upon him in 1559 ; indeed, it had long been the fashion for Conti- nental governments to confer patents of nobility on the various German and Italian merchant princes who had been of especial service to them as money-lenders. The imperialist policy of the Tudors was expensive, like that of the Hapsburgs and Valois. In all lands sovereigns were discovering that their incomes were no longer sufficient to meet their expenses, so much easier had it become to contract _ . debts; and debts required
UvTd Beyond ° Settlement, or at least Their Income, i"t^rest had to be paid on them. 1 he populations of all the countries of Europe resisted the increasing demands of the governments ; and as a result of undeveloped, badly managed systems of assessment and collec- tion, so much money was lost to the national treasuries, that what finally found its way into the cofiers of the state amounted to very little indeed. However, 4616
necessity led to the invention of various expedients for raising money, which were not only independent of the concessions of parliaments and popular assemblies, but yielded far greater amounts than had any previous source of income. This is the financial aspect of the development of the theory of Royal prerogative.
The German princes had assumed long before, as heirs of the old Roman Empire, exclusive possession of all the useful pre- rogatives of royalty, such as the right to coin money, to dig for precious metals, to collect taxes, and to dispense justice ; but as time passed these rights were gradually transferred to lesser powers, both temporal and ecclesiastical, and to towns and corporations. The income of a sovereign was limited to the yield of the crown possessions, and had he lost these also, he was powerless, as poor as the German emperors who followed the Hohenstaufen. Minor princes and cities now took upon themselves the duties of government, and in their restricted spheres exercised the same rights of administra- tion as had once been executed by the sovereign himself over his entire domain ; but with this step the feebleness of the dis- united towns a nd lesser rulers increased, as was especially obvious when looked at from the point of view of en- tanglements with foreign powers.
Since the incomes derived by princes from the crown lands proved insufficient, they resorted to taxation ; but this resulted only in making parliaments and assem- blies more and more disinclined to grant the demands of sovereigns. Con- sequently the latter unearthed and ex- tended their ancient and inalienable royal prerogatives to relieve them of financial embarrassments. The acceptance of Roman law during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries greatly furthered the designs of the rulers. Especially in Western Europe regalism was soon in full sway, and was pursued without the slightest regard either to existing rights or to the welfare of subjects. Princes of the small states of Germany and Italy followed the example of the sovereigns of great kingdoms, if not with the same favourable results to their own ends, at least with the same thoroughness and rigour.
In England, the regulation of trade was by general admission included under the prerogative of the Crown, while taxation.
Western Europe under Regalism
THE BRITISH MARITIME SUPREMACY
avowedly for revenue was not. But the Tudors found a convenient elasticity in the admitted rights of the Crown, and developed a system of granting mono- polies^sometimes to favourites, but generally receiving substantial considera- tion for the grant — till the list of mono- polies became formidable and burdensome, at one time including currants, salt, iron, gunpowder, playing-cards, cowhide, furs, sail-cloth, potash, vinegar, whale-oil, coal, steel, brandy, brushes, bottles, pots, salt- petre, lead, oil, mirrors, paper, starch, tin, sulphur, cloth, sardines, beer, cannons, horn, leather, Spanish wool, and Irish yarn. However, this system of conduct- ing inland commerce was from the be- ginning so imperfect and faulty that it soon disappeared, leaving no trace behind. It was left to the Stuarts to make their vain attempt to extend the prerogative into the field of taxation.
On the other hand, a Crown monopoly of foreign trade was much easier to enforce and to maintain, owing to the fact that previous systems could be brought into connection with it. Several
^ guild - like corporations,
Commerce n j n i 5 j
• .t. €5- * *i called regulated com-
m the Sixteenth • >> ■, r j r,
g . panics, and formed after
^"^ " ^ the model of the Merchant
Adventurers, were instituted with the assistance of the government, which was, of course, well paid for its good offices. The names of these corporations alone are sufficient to convey a vivid idea of the extent of British commerce at the end of the sixteenth century, although it is true that they were not equally prosperous. There was a Russian or Muscovite Com- pany, founded in 1554, a Baltic Company (1579), ^ Turkish Company (1581), a Morocco or Barbary Company (1585), and a Guinea trade monopoly. In addi- tion to these, the merchants of Exeter and Bristol organised themselves into guilds, having constitutions similar to that of the Mercers' Compan}^ of London. Finally, in 1600, the East India Company, the first joint-stock association to be formed in England, was founded.
English policy during the time of Elizabeth had already overcome the German Hansa, one of the most powerful enemies of national trade. England had also succeeded in getting the upper hand of the Italians, as was shown by the sus- pension of the voyages of the Venetians and Genoese. Consequently there remained
but one rival in the field — Holland,
the greatest of all ; but so long as the
Dutch were indispensable to the English
as allies in the war against Spain and
Portugal, the chief sea-powers of the time,
a conflict was not desirable. That
England was, however, already prepared
to take up arms against the Netherlands
_ . , „ „ mav be seen from the events spam s Fall 1.^1 1 • ./i
, ^ .^. which occurred in 1504, from Maritime , j. , , r .C
Q before the uprising of the
Dutch against Spain. England
and Holland then fought one another with
trade embargoes, and England finally
removed her cloth staple from Antwerp.
During the further course of events England sought to ally herself with Holland, as happened in reality one hundred years later, at the time of William III. The result of this attempt was the war between Spain and England, which culmi- nated in the destruction of the Invincible yVrmada in 1588. In that great struggle it was finally manifested that Spain was deposed from the position of supreme maritime power, though many years and much hard fighting passed before her fleets ceased to be dangerous.
Shortly after the accession of James I., who, as a Stuart, was friendly to Spain, peace was concluded with Philip II. at London in 1604. The Spaniards granted the inhabitants of the now United King- dom freedom of trade with all their possessions, excepting the East and West Indies. However, it was not long before the English found a way of escaping the latter difficulty. The question was. should England permit the Hollanders, who had already extended their trade to the Far East, as well as to Arnerica, alone to retain possession of the field ? F"ortunately, the treaty of 1604 itself furnished a pretext for intrusion into Spanish and Portuguese domains, inasmuch as according to its terms, the English were permitted to seek out and, under certain conditions, take _. , possession of any West or
Ex^'a'din ^^^^ Indian territory not yet xpan mg Q^^^^pjg^ j^y Sp^in or Portu- Commerce 1 ti ■ f j.- 11
gal. Thus international law
and national interests were — at least in one case — brought into complete har- mony with one another.
In spite of the expansion of England's maritime trade, and notwithstanding the wars into which the nation had been plunged in order to secure freedom from the economic dominion of strangers, the
4617
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
industrial activity of the English — so far as foreign markets were concerned — was, even during the time of the Tudors, restricted to the manufacture of wool products. Not until the first migration of Flemish weavers to England during the reign of Edward III. had the manufacture of wool attained to a state of development _ . . sufficient to warrant the ex-
Weicomld P"rtation of cloth. By the . t,*^.™.^ middle of the sixteenth century in Britain ... , r , ••<,
it became necessary to forbid
the exportation of sheep and wool, in order that the domestic spinning and weaving industries might not suffer for lack of raw material. Soon afterwards the second great immigration of Flemish weavers took place. The fugitives, driven from the Netherlands by the decrees against heretics issued by Charles V. and Philip II., were cordially welcomed by the British govern- ment, to the great disgust of the domestic industrial classes. From this time forth the wool industry of the Netherlands possessed no special feature that could not easily be duplicated on the other side of the Channel.
During the reign of Elizabeth the important transformation in industrial conditions that had already taken place a century before on the Continent in several branches of manufacture began to affect the English wool trade. From its very nature the wool industry could not well be carried on as a handicraft, inasmuch as the same material passed through many hands — spinners, weavers, fullers, dyers — before the cloth was complete and ready for use.
Nor did the finished product reach the
consumer until it had been exposed for
sale in the shops of wholesale and retail
dealers. No single establishment was able
to fulfil all these conditions. Dealers who
owned capital, and even the sheep farmers,
found it an easy matter to obtain control
of the craftsmen through advances of
raw material and wages ; and thus the
Th E cloth industry soon took the
« * V^t form of a capitalised system Days of the r r ^ ^xr
»»r 1 T J of manufacture. Weavers, Wool Trade , ,, , , , '
fullers, and dyers no longer
laboured directly for their customers, but for a capitalist, who was the connecting link between the different classes of pro- ducers, and at the same time supplied the markets with the finished product. The wool trade did not at once become a great industry, such as is pursued in factories, but continued to be carried on in the
4618
homes of the weavers and in small work- shops, for the government protected house labour and prevented the introduc- tion of factory industry — at least so far as the manufacture of wool was concerned — ^until late in the eighteenth century.
The control by the central government of commerce and industry which in other countries had gradually been won from the central governments by independent cities, companies, and territories, was undisputed in England. The passing of the Apprentices Act in 1562 had the effect of determining the organisation of English industr}^ for centuries. This Act was a law dealing with the most important of social questions — the time of apprenticeship (seven years), and m.atters concerning journeymen, contracts, time, and reward of labour. The municipal authorities were entrusted with its execution in towns, and in the country, the magistrates.
The Act of Elizabeth remained in force until 1814, although it had long ceased to be observed in many particulars, since new forms of industry and new branches of commerce had sprung up to which it did not
The Stuarts f^^^y- Although the Tudors P . .. had many times been per-
with Spain
mitted to take the law into
their own hands, and without opposition, because their policy was in harmony with the wishes of the British nation, this was not the case with the Stuarts, against whom an active resistance that passed all previously known limits developed in both people and Parliament. Their friendly relations with Spain were not popular, although it would have been advantageous for England to ally herself with this nation against Holland, her more dangerous rival ; moreover, such an alliance could not have been otherwise than favourable to the importation of English products into the Pyrenean Peninsula and South America.
Thus, when the earlier Stuarts desired to collect the money necessary for carrying out their foreign policy they found neither Parliament nor people disposed to give them any assistance ; and since they endeavoured to win their point by invoking the aid of absolutism and divine right, the consequence was that the opposition of the nation increased. Parliament claimed the right of distribution of monopolies in 1623, withdrawing it from the Crown, and fought the system of forced loans. When it granted the taxes on tonnage and poundage
THE BRITISH MAIUTIME SUPREMACY
to the king, not for life, as to his pre- decessors, but for a terni of one year only, Charles I. endeavoured to govern without a Parliament, and to collect taxes without further authorisation than his own will. Still, the English people were not moved to action by economic motives alone ; the question of religion, without doubt, predominated, and, according to popular opinion, political interests, in the stricter sense of the term, were of greater importance than economic affairs were.
the Parliament — Cromwell was not yet Protector, but was occupied with the Worcester campaign — by passing the Navigation Act, threw down a direct challenge to its commercial rival.
Already under the Tudors, and even at the time of the Plantagenets, English mer- chant vessels had been protected by means of discriminating taxes, coasting ships in particular having been favoured by various reservations. In the Act of 165 1 all the old regulations were renewed and supple-
INVENTOR OF THE STOCKING LOOM: THE ORIGIN OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY Many of the world's greatest discoveries have been simply born, the invention of the stocking loom being- a case in point. The Rev. William Lee, to whom the discovery of this epoch-making machine was due, derived the idea of his wonderful creation from watching the movement of his wife's fingers while knitting. Constructing his machine, he removed it from Claverton, in Nottingham, to London, and Queen Elizabeth made a personal examination of its working. On the invitation of Henry IV., Lee tooK up his residence in France, but did not live to reap the reward of bis invention.
From thi picture by Alfred Elmore, R.A,
But just as the material desires of man are expressions of an invincible natural force that mocks all attempts at repres- sion, so also in the lives of nations affairs relating to material welfare invariably press their claims whenever there is a pause in the constant struggle in the spiritual world. The war with the Nether- lands for the independence of English foreign trade and for the dominion of the sea was postponed for many years ; but when Holland decUned overtures for an intimate, union with the English Republic,
mented. From that time no importation of extra-European goods to England was allowed except under the English flag. Commodities of European origin could be sent to England in English ships only, or in vessels belonging to the nation in which their cargoes were produced. It was also determined that voyages should be direct, from port to port, without any stop being made at the Dutch intermediate stations. The coasting trade was reserved to the national flag, and, for the improvement of the home fishing industry, the importation
4619
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of salted fish was forbidden. Directions as to the manning of EngHsh merchant vessels proved that Cromwell looked upon the merchant marine as the training school for the navy.
Although, owing to the relative weak- ness of the English mercantile marine, it was long before the Navigation Act had D t K Sh* the favourable economic results c" *t d'h' anticipated, its immediate th^V'^V h*^ pohtical effect was a naval war "^ " with Holland (1652-1654), in which the English navy, under Robert Blake, showed itself to be in no wise in- ferior to the fleets of Holland manned by crews of far greater experience in battle. The great territorial expansion of the Dutch made it possible to deal more serious blows at them, and during the year 1653 the English captured over one thou- sand Dutch vessels in various parts of the world. According to the terms of the peace of 1654, made on party grounds by the anti-Orange oligarchy under the leadership of the brothers De Witt, Holland agreed to recognise the Naviga- tion Act as well as the supremacy of the British flag in English waters.
But the victory of the English under
Cromwell over their ancient enemies, the
Spaniards, was of far greater value to the
Englishman of the day than the successes
won against the Dutch ; not because the
colonial power of Spain was a hindrance to
British expansion, but for the reason that
the Spaniards represented Catholicism.
The result of the war was the acquisition
of Jamaica and the port of Dunkirk. The
latter might have been a foothold for
English power on the Continent, like
Calais in former days (1347-1558), but
Charles II. sold the city to Louis XIV.
in 1662. That the monarchy of the
Restoration had no intention of adopting
a commercial-political pohcy other than
that introduced by the Commonwealth
was shown by the renewal of the Navigation
^ . , Act in 1660 and 1664 — so
Commercial , , 1^1
-, . . to speak, a second and a
Concessions to , , ■ f , , , ■ ,
..-,,. third enlarged and improved
the Colonies ,., . r°,, • • 1 a ^
edition of the original Act.
In New England the long-wished-for region of distribution and consumption was acquired, a region which the English sought straightway to close to the compe- tition of foreign merchants. Each time the Navigation Act was renewrd clauses were inserted according to which the pro- ducts of British colonies could be sent to 4620
English ports alone, even when intended for another land, and European goods could be exported to the colonies only on English ships, and direct from England and Wales. It was not till the Union of 1707 that English privileges became British by their extension to Scotland. The second naval war with Holland broke out in 1664 as a result of a dispute with the Dutch West India Company. During the course of the hostilities New Amsterdam — the New York of to-day — and Cape Coast Castle in Guinea were captured by the British. The first guineas were minted, at this time, of gold brought on the vessels of an English company from the Guinea Coast.
As the war had resulted in great damage to English commerce, peace negotiations were begun at Breda, which, in spite of the sudden appearance of a Dutch fleet in the Thames in 1667, were definitely favourable to England. The Peace of Breda granted permanent possession of New Netherlands to the English, who were now masters of the entire Atlantic coast of North America from Acadia to Florida. Considerable light is thrown upon the
o an in dependence of German Alliance with ^ ^ j.\,- j.- u
J, J . commerce at this time by
^^ '^^ the fact that, although con-
trary to the provis ons of the Navigation Act, the Dutch were allowed to carry German goods to England in their own vessels.
A third naval war with the Dutch fol- lowed (1672-1674), when England, in alli- ance with France, supported Louis XIV. in his attempt to annihilate Holland. Al- though England gained no new territory by the Treaty of Westminster, she neverthe- less prevented Holland from carrying out her intention of forming an alliance with Spain, when the two former mistresses of the sea saw that their interests were equally prejudiced by the rapid develop- ment of English maritime power. The troubles with Holland finally ceased when the House of Orange once more stood at the head of the state in 1672, and renewed their dynastic connection with the Stuarts. The result was an adjustment of the interests of the two nations. Holland, satiated with wealth, desired rest and peace, and after having estabHshed a permanent alliance with England, contented herself with opp sing the encroachments of the French, who had now become dangerously powerful in Europe as in the colonies.
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE REVOLUTION
M
.aK
THE
COMMERCE
OF
WESTERN EUROPE
V
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRANCE
AND THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL INDUSTRIES
'X'HE wars between England and the ■*■ Netherlands were but a prelude to the tremendous struggle with France between the years 1688 and 1815. The new Hun- dred Years War, that lasted with but few intermissions from Louis XIV. 's third war of conquest until the Congress of Vienna, was, looked at from the point of view of to-day, the final and decisive contest for the dominion of the world's commerce. Spaniards, Portuguese, Hol- landers, French, and British — all had striven for it in vain, and with insufficient powers. What was this monopoly of the world's commerce but a phantom tfiat beckoned to each nation in turn, only to vanish into air ? The unconquerable im- pulse for independence and action displayed by the nations of Western Europe, which had been crowded together at an early day by the migrations of peoples, would no more permit the establishment of a commercial
-,. _ . , than a political world mon-
1 he Daughter u j ■ .1
J. . . archy ; and smce the very
the N W Id ^^^^ qualities were develop- ing in the daughter nations in the New World, their dependence on the mother countries became constantly less likely to continue. Yet the pursuit of this phantom of exclusive commercial dominion caused European civilisation to develop more rapidly and to expand over wider regions than any sober estimate of possi- bilities would have anticipated. Private economic and fiscal endeavours found firm support in the governments and in the colonial policy of nations, for the living representatives of all these varied interests breathed the same stirring atmosphere of imaginary gains and advantages.
Of the five powers which at one time or other entered on the rivalry for mari- time supremacy — Spain, Portugal, Holland, England, and France — the last named was the last to take a part. After Philip H. had made peace with France at Vervins, shortly before his death, and the wars of the Hugue- nots had also come to an end in 1598, one of
those pauses in the tumult of human affairs ensued during which such peoples and states as are possessed of vitality are able quickly to recover their power, even though a short time before they may have been standing on the very brink of the grave. In p. . .. France the monarchy took
^ . g ' . charge of the labour of civili- Questions sation, and, moreover, en- countered at first little or no opposition. Henry IV., assisted by Sully, succeeded, by the aid of commercial treaties, colonising associations, the promotion of industry, and, above all, by encouraging agriculture, in guiding the French people into the same tendencies of national economic policy that had already led to such great results elsewhere. Richelieu himself, the powerful subduer of the feudal nobility, in seeking to free the Crown from their dishonouring tutelage, pursued the same course, so far as his participation in the Thirty Years War allowed him to direct his attention to economic questions.
But it soon became apparent that the French had been too late in entering the ranks of colonial nations, and that only the leavings of the Spaniards, Portuguese, Hollanders, and English remained to them. French colonists settled, it is true, on the St. Lawrence, in the Antilles, in Guiana, in West Africa, and in Madagascar, yet without any very serious attempt to make these territories their own, and their attention was constantly being taken from their new possessions by political entangle- ments nearer home.
A new and bitter quarrel arose with Spain _ , during the days of Richelieu
ranee s ^^^ continued long after the
W'th s"*"* close of the Thirty Years P*'" War, lasting until the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659. ^t the same time, in the disturbances of the Fronde, the last struggle was fought between the three inde- pendent and privileged powers, the clergy, the nobility, and the parlements, and the absolute monarchy, which threatened
4621
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
them all alike. This movement was occasioned by the incredible mismanage- ment of the national finances, which had begun during the days of Richelieu, and had gone from bad to worse during the ministry of Mazarin, 1642-1661. Ever since the national debts of France had passed from the hands of foreign capi- , talists into those of domestic y. * *"* * money-lenders, the so-called
" P*^^ *i^*' " Partisans," the abuse had cop e Yy^Qj^ current of farming out the rates and taxes to the state creditors in order that they might be able to repay themselves from the sums collected. The result was boundless oppression of the masses, deception of the Government, and enrichment of capitalists
A concerted attack, under the leadership of the Parlement of Paris, was made on the unlimited monarchy ; and the populace of the capital joined in it. But as the disturbances of the Fronde continued, to the great injury of the industrial classes, a reaction followed in Paris, and the king and his all-powerful Minister finally ob- tained the upper hand in this last struggle of feudal institutions against unlimited monarchical power.
A sequel to the events of the Fronde followed, when, after the death of Mazarin, the chief cause of the ruin, his financial tool, Nicholas Fouquet, who had outdone even the court of Louis XIV. by the magnificence of his household, was sent to prison. The same judgment was passed on the entire tribe of Partisans, although they had been a power in the state — in fact, above the state ; a precarious support to lawful authority during times of disturbance, and often rather an aid to princely " condottieri " of the stamp of an Orleans or a Conde, who had become more dan- gerous to the King of France than Wallen- stein had been to the Emperor Ferdinand.
Jean Baptiste Colbert, the new Finance C lb t th Minister, whose influence had Great Minittcr ^'^^^}y contributed to the of Finance overthrow of the Partisans, retained his difficult position from 1661 until his death, in 1683. His first great work was to consolidate the state liabilities, which rested on a thousand separate titles and bore high rates of interest, into a single national debt, paying interest at 5 per cent. This relatively mild method of acknowledging the bank- ruptcy of a nation was even then not new
4622
to France, and was often resorted to in later times. But Colbert was obliged to forgo the task of extinguishing the national debt, as well as any attempt to meddle with the privileges of the nobihty and clergy, for upon them depended' the foreign and domestic policy of Louis XIV., and the Minister of finance had no other desire than to be his faithful servant. The wars of this period caused many more loans to be raised and the public finances once more to be thrown into disorder. The nobility and clergy were subdued and transformed into court domestics, as it were, by deference to their privileges and the offer of certain personal advantages.
A significant change had taken place in the policy of the sovereigns of Europe. Previously kings had been able to keep the privileged classes in check through alli- ances with the third estate ; but now that the kingship had attained to the zenith of its power, it transformed clergy and nobility into pillars of the Government, not in order to oppose the masses, its former ally — the latter had as yet no idea of revolting — but merely that it might be _ _ lifted above all bickerings
p ^ °^' with the privileged classes, and
. 2 th r^^^i^^ *^^ ^^^^ o^ ^ centralised government, impartially look- ing down upon the doings of men from the heights of its absolute position. The king had, in fact, become the highest expression of governmental force, to which all personal or class rights were as nothing. This form of kingship, which created the unity of the modern state out of the welter of competing independent jurisdictions, was by no means lacking in a conception of its social mission ; but the latter remained in the background, certainly so long as the throne was surrounded by troops of privileged cour- tiers, whose chief office was to increase its splendour and stability.
To be sure, now and then a law for the improvement of economic and social affairs made its appearance ; for example, Colbert decreased the land-tax (taille) for the bene- fit of the peasants, the most oppressed of all the social classes. However, the tendency of the unlimited monarchy was far more in the direction of a general and in- discriminate policy of national welfare than in that of protection of the feeble and oppressed. The power and, above all, the military capabilities of the state were to be augmented by an increase in the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRANCE
prosperity of the people ; and in order to heighten mihtary efficiency, all endeavours were concentrated in the ideas of protec- tion of the state from without, of increase of territory, and of general expansion.
The fall of the Spanish Empire was looked upon by France as an invitation to step into that nation's place, and to seize the position of supremacy in Europe, on the high seas, and in all colonial spheres. This vast political programme not only contained within it the germs of renewed struggles with the Spanish and German Hapsburgs, at whose expense France expected to acquire the " natural boun- daries " previously denied her, but was a cause of renewed war with Holland and England, the sea powers of the age.
In no empire the world has yet seen
have nation and kingship reached such
a state of solidarity as in the France of
Louis XIV. All variances that arose
under his rule and under that of his
successors — the downfall of the old
monarchy, the great revolution, the
empire — had their foundations in the
defeats suffered by the French in the
struggle with the English. Just
^J^^.^ "* , as Spain, Holland, and England the Time of , ir i j j jj x-
¥ • viv herself had done, so did 1:^ ranee Louis XIV. .^ , 11 f
sacnfice hundreds of years
of her existence to the attainment of an illusory dominion of the world, established on a monopoly of the world's commerce.
In order that the French, who already saw certain plunder before their eyes in the fallen Spanish Empire, might drive the Dutch and English from the seas, it was necessary for them to mobilise all their military strength and at the same 'time to open up all their economic re- sources. The policy of imperialism re- quired wealth such as was possessed by Spain in her mines and by Holland in her commerce. It was also necessary for England, France's rival — in fact, for any nation that expected to maintain itself against Louis XIV. — to invent new means for carrying on the struggle. The un- directed pursuit of small economic in- terests with limited spheres was certainly not a means of creating such resources as were needed by powers of the first rank in their struggle for the world market.
However, the economic conditions of the smaller circles, of corporations, cities, territories and provinces, must at least have suggested thoughts for the guidance of a national policy based on a regard
for the public welfare. It was necessary
to transfer that which had already been
done on a small scale into a greater
sphere, to develop and to perfect it.
In fact, the mercantile system, or
Colbertism, as it has been called, after its
classic representative, merely consisted in
an extension in the use of economic-
C Ik f political measures that had
^ ^' *, long been employed in restricted Mercantile ° a ^u i. ^
g areas. As soon as the stale
drew within its paternal protec- tion economic affairs which had previously been left to their own powers of develop- ment, like every eager beginner it went too far in the matter, without considera- tion for the activities of natural produc- tion. The latter are of a private, individual nature, the sources of numerous economic phenomena which gradually shade off into the very highest spheres of national and world economy. However, on the whole, mercantilism stood the test of its time ; that is to say, it succeeded in Western Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It gave to peoples and to states that which they had not before possessed, indeed that which they could not possibly have acquired through the action of the unregulated forces to which they had been accustomed. Nothing short of the centralised power of a modern nation was able to perform that which neither cities, nor leagues of cities, nor the provinces of Germany and Italy, nor even the independent provinces of larger states, had been capable of effecting ; all of these were obliged to waste a large amount of the forces at their disposal in the conflict of their special interests. Nations of the first rank that included many lesser circles within themselves did away with all internal friction, and produced from the sum of the forces out of which they had been evolved effects of constantly increasing magnitude. A description of the mercantile policy of each single community would lead to endless repeti-
How Colbert Served the State
tions ; let us, therefore, take France as a representative ex- ample. The organisation of the finances, Which finally resulted in an annual revenue of 100 million livres (600 million francs) with- out any increase in the burden of taxation, was, comparatively speaking, one of the least of Colbert's services to the state. Of far greater importance, both financially and economically, was his policy in regard
4623
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
French Industries
to the customs. The old provinces of the north and west, Isle de France, Cham- pagne, Burgundy, Picardy, Normandy, Poitou, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, were, as soon as the former lines of custom-houses had been done away with, united into one revenue district ; the newer provinces (provinces etrangeres), _ . however, retained their own Pr^nt""*^ special tariff rates, for various financial reasons. The mercan- tile principle of a protective tariff against foreign nations was adopted in the customs regulations of 1667. Through keeping the products of foreign industries out of the domestic markets by means of excessive duties, French industry was incited to greater activity, and money that would otherwise have gone out of France was retained in the country.
Industries still lacking to the nation were artificially called into life and fur- thered in every possible manner — for example, the manufacture of looking- glasses and laces previously made in Venice only, of stockings knitted after the Enghsh fashion, of cloth woven according to methods employed by the Dutch weavers, and of the same sort of brass and pewter ware that had in earlier days been im- ported from Germany.
In fact, Colbert did succeed in furthering the technical capacities of the French to an extraordinary degree. However, his legislative works, such as the book of commercial laws (Ordonnance du Com- merce, 1673) and the Code Noir (slave law in the colonies) proved to be of more permanence as monuments to his fame than his industrial regulations. In order to bring money into the country, and to render secure the economic foundations of France, it was necessary that industrial pxtivity should not be limited to the production of articles for domestic con- sumption, but that commodities for export should also be manufactured, and conse- Xh G quently that regard should be
.. had for commercial affairs.
of C lb t " Colbert, who was descended from a family of merchants," says Ranke, " may perhaps have set too high a value on the actual possession of money, but he brought his mercantile endeavours into complete harmony with the chief interests of the state — the eleva- tion of the lower classes, the unifying of the nation, and the strengthening of its position in the world." He furthered
4621
domestic traffic by means of highways, canals, and posts. Foreign trade was promoted by encouraging the exportation of manufactured products and the im- portation of raw materials, through the construction of depots, harbours, and naval arsenals. An efficient navy was built, and the merchant marine increased to such an extent that the services of Dutch vessels were no longer required.
At the same time, however, in order that the forests of France might be preserved, merchants were allowed to purchase ships built in foreign countries. Maritime commerce was protected not only by the monopoly of coast and colonial trade, but by discriminative taxes favouring domestic vessels. Colbert also hoped to ensure the prosperity of trans-oceanic commerce by means of monopolies modelled after the Dutch India Companies. However, such associations were formed with the greatest difficulty, and as a rule their lives were short ; none of them attained to the importance of the Dutch and English cor- porations. The Levantine Company (1670- 1690), whose headquarters were Marseilles „ . and Smyrna, the chief trading
„ . . place m the East, where
. _, I J competition with the Dutch and England jj ^ , . ■ u 1
did not present insuperable
difficulties, was the most prosperous. The Northern Company experienced less good fortune in the Baltic ; the East India Company, though firmly established in India, was ruined in its military struggles with the British ; and the West India Com- pany, active on both sides of the Atlantic, existed for ten years only, from 1664-1674. Colbert's mercantile policy, like that of Cromwell, was directed against the supremacy of Holland ; indeed, the very existence of the Dutch nation was threatened by the attack undertaken by Louis XIV. in alliance with Charles II. in 1672. However, freed from all danger on the side of England by the Peace of Westminster in 1674, and supported by the Germans, the Netherlanders managed to weather the storm, and even succeeded in negotiating a favourable commercial treaty in 1678. In order to avoid being exposed to the same difficulties again, WiUiam III. linked the fate of Holland with that of England, thus causing the rivalry between the two nations to subside. After William ascended the English throne in 1688, England and Holland were companions in the struggle with France.
WESTERN EUROPE
FROM THE
REFORMATION
TO THE
REVOLUTION
THE
COMMERCE
OF
WESTERN EUROPE
VI
THE RISE OF EUROPEAN TRADE
AND THE STRUGGLE FOR THE COMMERCE
OF THE WORLD
A SHORT time after Colbert's death, in ^*- 1683, the friendly relations which had hitherto existed with England turned into mutual hostility. Colbert had succeeded in restoring France to the French people — that is to say, he emancipated his country from the mercantile dominion of foreigners, and rendered it economically independent. Louis XIV., however, was not content with securing for the material existence of France the isolation considered indis- pensable to national development and power; he also wished to establish the same exclusiveness in respect to religion. Since the Protestant minority stood in the way of his idea of establishing a Galli- can or national Church, the king revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and sought to convert such of his subjects as were members of the Reformed Church by means of coercive measures. In spite of a Th FV ht ^^^ forbidding emigration,
» D /*^ . . thousands of Protestants fled of Protestants ,, , , , . r
From France ^^^ country and sought refuge in Switzerland, Holland, Eng- land, and Brandenburg. France was not injured so greatly by the consequent decrease of population as by the trans- planting to foreign soil of French skill and the capacity for producing articles of French industry and culture — silk, cloth, hats, gloves, glass, paper, ornaments, etc. Just as in France, the spirit of religious exclusiveness prevailed in England too ; but in England no obstacle was placed in the way of emigration. The colonies in North America, with which the mother country now possessed such a lucrative trade monopoly, had been founded by Nonconformists or Dissenters, including Roman Catholics. James II. lost his throne, and was obliged to seek refuge at the court of Louis XIV. in 1688, as soon as he ventured to interfere with the Test Act. William III. of Orange now became leader of the great league formed 294
for the purpose of resisting the encroach- ments of France and of re-establishing the European balance of power. From this time forth, as already stated, England and Holland were allies against France. The French fleet, under Tourville, was destroyed at La Hogue, on May 29th, 1692, by the united English and Dutch squadrons _^ _. under the command of Admiral
The French ^^^^^i Although superior to Defeated on r, • a. 1 ■ 1
I J J c any of her enemies taken smgly, Land and Sea „ -^ j r ^ j • iif
France was defeated in the
third predatory war on the sea, and in the War of the Spanish Succession on land.
It is remarkable what far-reaching effects were exerted by the war with which the seventeenth century ended and the eighteenth century began upon the economic conditions of the two hostile nations. The Bank of England was established, and the National Debt con- solidated amid the clash of arms ; and during the same years the finances of France were so utterly deranged that they could not be put in order again until the drastic settlement of all accounts at the Revolution.
After the first public banks had been established in Genoa and Venice — Italian financiers had succeeded in putting into circulation notes, or paper money, in the place of specie, at the end of the sixteenth century — the development of the banking system was passed on to the Dutch. The cheque bank of Amsterdam, founded in 1608, became a model for banks whose chief office was to attend to the debit and credit accounts of merchants, based on the principle of a guaranteed deposit. In London, the goldsmiths of Lombard Street had long been engaged in banking, an important branch of their trade being money changing, from which large profits were obtained during periods of a confused currency. They also received deposits,
4625
London Goldsmiths as Bankers
HISTORY OP THF WORLD
1699. Not until the parliamentary union of 1707 did Scotland succeed in bringing the economic differences between the two countries to a settlement ; but Ireland was still excluded from the Union, and was treated like a colony beyond seas.
The rivalry of France and Britain in the Spanish and American markets was the commercial basis of the War of the Spanish Succession. Even during the war itself France obtained, through commerce with Spain and with Central and South America, a large portion of the financial power which enabled her to carry on the struggle with England to a comparatively favourable termination in spite of constant defeats. Britain, however, was able to prevent Spanish- American commerce from becoming the exclusive possession of her rival. The Spanish Empire was torn asunder at the Peace of Utrecht, as had ever been the desire of Britain ; the Spanish Nether- lands, Naples, Sardinia — ex- changed for Sicily in 1720 — and Lombardy passed into the hands of Austria ; Britain herself obtained two of the most important posts in the Mediterranean, Gibraltar and Port Mahon in Minorca, and across the Atlantic, Acadia, now Nova Scotia.
The British considered the Asiento agreement, through which they, instead of the poration formed of national An able "and'far-seeing* financier, French, were granted the creditors received the right to blcomhf^ln'i^e^f on "'^M^^'fo^t exclusive right of supplying carry on banking, to the directors. His Darien scheme of Spanish America with negro exclusion, however, of all =°i°"is^tion proved other mercantile affairs, and to issue notes redeemable on presentation, as in the
which they put out at interest, and in ad- dition negotiated loans for the Government. When Charles II. suspended payment of his debts in the year 1672 — the last state bankruptcy in England — the gold- smiths of Lombard' Street, to whom the king owed six and two-thirds million dollars, also became insolvent. Although the establishment of a public ""g "if ° bank was immediately proposed, f E ^ d *^^ project was not executed ng an until the time of the third French war of conquest, during the reign of William III. It was with the greatest difficulty that money was obtained for the purposes of this war, owing to the lack of a proper financial organisation, although England had rather a superfluity than a lack of capital . The Restoration period had been a time of great occasional prosperity, and capital had already turned to seductive but unsafe schemes, like the South Sea Bubble.
After the first five million dollars of the consolidated English national debt had been subscribed for in 1692- 1693, the Government con- tracted a new loan amounting to six million dollars at the rate of eight per cent. According to the plan in- troduced by William Pater- son, a Scotsman, who took the bank of St. George at Genoa for his model, a cor-
WiLLlAM PATERSON
system alrieady in use among the gold- smiths. In a short time the Bank of England became an indispensable feature of the financial life of the nation, and to this day it remains one of the strongest pillars of international finance and credit. The Bank of Scotland was founded soon after, in 1695. United dynastically with England in 1603, Scotland had always been treated very much hke a foreign country so far as commercial matters were concerned, and had no share in the privi- leges due to it as part of the United Kingdom . When the Scots made an independent attempt at colonising in Darien, on the Isthmus of Panama, the English took a material part in frustrating their scheme in
4626
failure, gjaves, to be their greatest success. The apparently insignificant favour of being allowed to accompany each fleet of slavers by two vessels of not more than six hundred tons burden, and loaded with other than living freight, was an im- mediate source of illegitimate gain to British merchants. Liverpool became enriched . p . . through both the slave trade and
f W'7a veiled smuggling. When, after c ... the close of the War of the
** " Spanish Succession, the British
Government farmed out the negro Asiento to the South Sea Company^by South Sea, the ocean on both sides of South America is to be understood — a period of wild specula- tion such as is usually terminated by a catastrophe no less destructive than purify- ing to the financial atmosphere followed. Shares in the South Sea Company rose
THE RISE OF EUROPEAN TRADE
when the latter received the Asiento, and were in great demand, since after the close of the war, British capital was no longer taken up by the Government ; in addition the company wished to provide for the extinction of the National Debt. The price of South Sea shares, soon rising from $500 to $5,000, grew too high for the small speculators. All sorts of tempting . but fallacious associations were established, and however unreasonable and absurd they may have been, were subscribed to with the greatest enthusiasm. Finally, the frenzied speculation, which had its
the kingdom had very much the appear- ance of a ball tossed to and fro by the Whigs and the Tories ; and the many- headed Parliament also seemed to stand at a disadvantage when compared with the closely-knit despotism that governed France. But it was precisely the agree- ment between Crown and Parliament .which rendered possible the accumulation of the largest funded debt that had yet been known to history. So long as the two forces had been hostile to one another, the credit of the nation had remained at a very low ebb — at such a low ebb, in
THt OLD MERCERS' HALL, WHERE THE BANK OF ENGLAND WAS FIRST ESTABLISHED
counterpart in France at the same period, was ended by the bursting of the " bubble" and the remedial measures desired by Walpoie (1720). The South Sea Company remained actually solvent, and managed to continue its existence until after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, when it lost the Asiento.
The effects of the foreign affairs in which Britain had been so successful soon became apparent in the improved domestic policy, which had been completely revolu- tionised since the year 1688. To be sure,
fact, that a policy of expansion hke that of William III. or of Anne would have been out of the question.
The Whigs looked upon the Bank of England as their creation, and they also interested themselves in the national loans, owing to the fact that Britain's partici- pation in the War of the Spanish Succession was to them a party issue. On the other hand, the Tories prided themselves on the advantageous terms of peace of 1713 and 1714 — master-strokes of their leader, Bolingbroke. Nor did the economic
4627
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
antagonism of the two parties lead to a narrow commercial policy. Although the Tories were predominant among the land- owning classes, and were the representatives of agrarian interests, they did not annul the protective tariffs and the restrictions on imports and commercial privileges with which the Whigs defended the interests of _ . . , merchants and manufacturers.
^" **„ . On the contrary, the Tories Great Foreign , . . , . -^ , •
^ obtamed mcreased mcomes
(commerce , I^ • , , \ r
from their estates by means of
these very tariffs, and thus had no such cause for complaint against a national policy of mercantilism as had the agriculturists and landed proprietors of France. Conse- quently there grew up a peculiar national commercial policy in Britain, which has been called " protective solidarity."
British foreign trade increased three- fold during the century beginning with the accession of William III. and ending with the French Revolution — from an annual value of 60,000,000 to one of 180,000,000 dollars. European trade was the most important ; next followed American, then Asiatic, and finally African. Had it not been for a contemporaneous increase in domestic industry, it would scarcely have been possible for the British to have retained the balance of trade in their favour.
The older system of industry was adopted in England during the sixteenth century, and it preponderated in all the staple branches of manufacturing until the close of the eighteenth. England remained behind the rest of Europe throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, during which period a new method of conducting industries, the factory system, came into vogue on the Continent. The origin of factories cannot be traced. This much only may be said with certainty — new forms of industry were gradually intro- duced into spheres over which the guilds had no control, and such industries were by their very nature adapted to
. -, . the methods employed by the An Era of , i z -ri
-, large manufacturer. Paper-
Industries niaking — for which we have evidence even in the fourteenth century — smelting, carried on in establish- ments attached to mines, cotton spinning and weaving, for which the raw materials were imported from the Levant, printing, brewing, and sugar-refining, partook largely of the nature of factory industries. The establishments that were called into exist- ence by Colbert and his imitators in order
4628
that articles which had previously been imported might be produced at home by domestic labour were organised through- out after the manner of factories. Wherever the mercantile system was introduced, looking-glass, tapestry, silk, army-cloth, porcelain, and tobacco factories were erected, partly as state, partly as private undertakings. Their prosperity depended upon the nation into which they were introduced and the skill of its inhabitants. The manual dexterity of Italians, High Germans, and French was not to be found everywhere ; but owing to unfavourable circumstances both Italians and Germans were driven from competition in the world market during the seventeenth century.
Until the eighteenth century, with the exception of metal industries, which were carried on outside the cities — the strong- holds of the craftsman and the guild — there was no factory organisation in Eng- land. The introduction of the use of coal in metal- founding seems to have been a result of the experiments of Dud Dudley about 1620. The most important trades, such as wool and linen weaving, tanning,
_ , ,. and dyeing, still retained the Revolution , c -c rx t j j
nature of house crafts. Indeed,
even the crafts that were
in the Cloth Industry
taken into England by the Huguenots, such as the manufacture of silk in Spitalfields, were organised according to domestic industrial methods. Although there were cotton-weavers in England, this branch of the textile trade was of little importance, inasmuch as British manu- facturers were unable to compete with the West Indians. And yet the cotton industry was destined one day to subject the whole world to the industrial supre- macy of England. This became possible owing to the discovery of improved methods for carrying on all branches of weaving — a trade that had never fallen into the hands of the guilds. The replacing of hand labour in the workman's home by machine labour in factories brought about a complete transformation in the cloth industry.
A long series of inventions began witH the spinning-machines of Watt, Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton, and the power- looms of Kay and Cartwright. The fac- tories of Richard Arkwright, built in 1768, at first driven by horse and later by water power, were a source of such wealth to their founder that from this time forth the employment of machinery in industry was assured. In the meanwhile, James
THE RISE OF EUROPEAN TRADE
Watt had succeeded in inventing a steam- engine capable of practical use ; and the Boulton and Watt works at Soho, near Birmingham, supplied the first machines used in spinning and weaving establish- ments, breweries, and mills. The making of pottery and porcelain had also assumed the proportions of a factory industry, as exemplified by Josiah Wedgwood's estab- lishment at Etruria in Staffordshire. In a comparatively few years there was scarcely an industry to which the new sources of power had not been adapted — wool, linen, and silk followed the lead of cotton.
During the sixteenth century the British Isles still bore the yoke of foreign mer- chants, although the burden had been much decreased by the shaking off of the Hansa. In the seventeenth century the English had become equal to the Hollanders, and, after having contributed their share in bringing about the downfall of Spain, they began the struggle with France for the possession of the trans-oceanic colonies and various commercial advantages. The commercial struggle still hung in the balance, though the colonial struggle had been brought
_ ., . _ to a decisive conclusion,
Britain Supreme v jj i ■ j.
. . when suddenly, owing to
Industrial World ^'} extraordinary growth of national intelligence, various new and improved methods of manufacturing were introduced, which, together with inventions of machines and engines, secured to Great Britain the supremacy of the industrial world.
The region of commercial conquest was situated not only on the Continent of Europe, but in other parts of the world, especially in South-eastern Asia, where the British East India Company had been at work for 150 years, without achieving any great success. It had maintained itself with difficulty against Portuguese and Dutch, and several times had been on the verge of collapse, as, for example, during the days of the Commonwealth. Later, during the reign of William III., it was threatened by an opposition company established by Whigs, until finally the two associations were united in 1701.
Prosperity came with the dissolution of the empire of the Great Mogul. To be sure, France began to compete at the same time, but the French were so badly supported and so abominably deceived by their own Government that they were unable to maintain their position. As soon as the East India Company began to
extend its influence over India, the British
Government took the management into
its own hands, assuming the office of
superintendence on the passing of Lord
North's Regulating Act in 1773 and the
younger Pitt's East India Bill in 1784.
India, however, did not become a market
for manufacturers until freedom of trade
. . , . , was granted in 1814, when Brit-
Industnal • 1 1 • • j Z
p . ish machine industry was in a
tK°¥^^^ h position successfully to compete
with the hand labour of the East ,
despite the amazing cheapness of the latter.
In spite of the fact that, owing to the War of the Spanish Succession and to the Seven Years War, France had lost her North American possessions, and was at the same time obliged to retire from com- petition with Great Britain in the East Indies, nevertheless during the eighteenth century the mercantile and industrial progress of the French people was remark- able. It is true that during the declining years of Louis XIV. the finances of France were in a wretched condition, and imme- diately after the War of the Spanish Succession the Government instituted measures that had the effect of a bank- ruptcy upon the nation. The evil results, however, were chiefly felt by the successors of the old Partisans, for whom there was but little sympathy. But the misery of the lower classes sank only the deeper into the hearts of such patriots as were able to look out beyond the narrow sphere of class interests. Still, the wars had not been a cause of misfortune to all classes. As soon as peace was concluded, capital became heaped up, as in Holland and England, and hungry for profitable investments.
During the regency of the Duke of Orleans the excited impulse for specula- tion was furthered by the financial system introduced by John Law, a Scotsman, who founded two joint-stock companies — ^a bank of issue in 1716, and a colonial association, the " Compagnie d'Occident" in 1717, also —^ ^ called the Mississippi Com-
, c '^ f .. pany, with which he united for Speculation f, -^ r t- ^
. „ the remains of an East
in France t j- /-i • ^ j-
Indian-Chinese trading asso- ciation under the name " Compagnie des Indes" in 1719. The bank was supported by the Government, Law himself receiving the office of superintendent of finances, and it finally pledged itself to pay the National Debt. France was soon flooded with in- convertible notes, and all the while specie was gathered into the state treasury.
4629
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Inasmuch as the redemption of the notes
was impossible, they became worthless,
and were called in from circulation. The
shares in the Mississippi Company, of
very little value in themselves, became
" fancies," and were driven up from a
nominal value of 500 livres each to 20,000
livres ; and when, in order to moderate
. _. the extravagance of these deal-
*t. !!^j° • ings, the Government began to
the Ancten 1 .t u j
jj. . ,, lower the prices by degrees, a
egime sudden revulsion took place in
public opinion, and all men sought to get rid of their shares, which finally resulted in their being worth about twenty francs apiece. John Law had fled in the mean- time, and the winding up of the affairs of his companies followed. For two generations the effects of this lesson were visible in France. The affair was not forgotten until the days of the Revolution, and even then the revolutionary leaders did not forget to include Law's performances in the cata- logue of the sins of the " Ancien Regime." Misfortunes in war and finance had never prevented the people of France from realising to the fullest extent their private economic advantages. Between the heights where the privileged castes lived free from earthly cares and sorrows, and the depths in which the oppressed masses dragged on their miserable existence, lay the great middle class of craftsmen and trades- men, scholars, to whom it was a matter of regret that they did not possess a position in the state worthy of their material and intellectual significance.
The owners of industries had brought French arts and crafts to a high state of perfection, and the entire prosperity of the export trade rested upon their activity. In spite of domestic draw- backs, the foreign commerce of France had increased fivefold during the eigh- teenth century ; and the traffic with the colonies had grown to ten times its fonner proportions, although the colonial area , had diminished. But there
rancc s ^gj-e still valuable possessions
Colonial , , , ■ i_ • i_
« . among the colonies which
Possessions y, ° , , , . , .
Prance had managed to retain,
above all, San Domingo — the eastern part of the Spanish Haiti, ceded to the French in 1697 — Guadeloupe, and Martinique in the West Indies, and Reunion in the Indian Ocean. In 1789 the colonial com- merce of the French exceeded that of the British by about 150 million livres. Once more during the eighteenth century
4630
the possibility of regaining their lost colonies from the British was opened to the French people, when during the American War of Independence the three nations that had been forced from the sea by Britain — France, Holland, and Spain — entered into an alliance with the revolted colonies. In fact, at the Peace of Versailles, in 1783, France was awarded the Senegal region, Tobago and Pondi- cherry, while Spain recovered Minorca and Florida ; but the trade with the United States was retained by Great Britain, although they were now accessible to merchants and ships of all nations.
During the last years of the eighteenth century men began to look upon the commerce of nations from a broader point of view. Both the English Navigation Act and the traditions of Colbert's system in France had, at least in theory, lost the greater part of their pristine lustre. When France renovated the Bourbon Family Compact in 1761, during the Seven Years War, rights of reciprocity were granted to all lands belonging to members of the House of Bourbon — that is to say, to - . . France, Spain, the Two Sicilies, th'^'w ^d''" ^"^ Parma. In 1787, shortly
^ before the Revolution, the new
Commerce , . , ' . ,
conceptions of economic free- dom having become common property, Great Britain and France entered into a commercial agreement, the so-called Eden Treaty, in accordance with which the high protective duties were decreased, and prohibitions removed from many articles of import. The Revolution, how- ever, put an end to any further develop- ment of commercial agreements, and caused the old quarrel as to the supremacy of the sea to burst forth anew.
While Holland, England, and France were competing with one another and increasing their powers in the struggle for supremacy in the world's commerce, national life was at such a low ebb in Germany that the Holy Roman Empire, which had itself once dreamed of world dominion, became little more than a prey to the dominant races of Western Europe. As early as the end of the sixteenth century signs of decay had become visible in all directions ; the Hansa was gradually approaching its final dissolution, and the power of the Upper German capitalists was broken. It was during this period of enfeeblement that the Thirty Years War began, and transformed Germany
THE RISE OF EUROPEAN TRADE
from the most densely populated and best cultivated country in Europe into a desert. Since agriculture began again for the most part with the reclaiming of barren land, and absorbed into itself almost the entire working power of the people, German industry was unable to break through the limits of local demand without the assistance of foreign capital, and as a result German commerce became linked to foreign interests by ties that could not be broken. Western Germany on both sides of the Rhine fell into the hands of the Dutch, who barred the mouths of the Scheldt and the Maas so effectually that the Spanish — since 1714 the Austrian — Netherlands, or Belgium, were also cut off from traffic with foreign nations.
Since the end of the seventeenth century French articles of luxury, art, and fashion were imported into Germany from the West, for ever since the accession of Louis XIV. France had taken the place of Italy in setting the fashions. The decay of the fairs at Frankfort-on- Main, which had possessed a Continental importance during the sixteenth century, Wh th ^^^ ^ token of the economic _ . .'^ servitudeof Western Germany.
D J • 4 .The British were predominant Predominated ^ tt 1 1 .1
from Hamburg, where the
Merchant Adventurers had established themselves as early as the sixteenth cen- tury, to Saxony and Silesia. Although the North Sea cities retained their character as depots for foreign trade during the very worst years of the economic dependence of Germany, and in the eigh- teenth century were quite capable of taking an independent share in the world's commerce, the harbours of the Baltic were deserted; Liibeck, once the queen of the North, as well as the smaller ports. Danzig alone — under the rule of Poland — remained the great centre of the export trade which was carried on from the richly productive region of the Vistula ; yet even Danzig, like Hamburg, was little more than a link in the chain of Dutch and English economic interests.
The more the principles of the mercan- tile system were accepted by the various German Governments, the worse became the condition of the small principalities, and especially of the industrial cities of the empire, like Niiremberg ; for such towns were so shut in on all points by customs duties and prohibitions on trade that they were compelled to forgo all
competition in foreign markets. There was no unity in Germany such as is brought about by a strong central government or by the rigid application of the mercantile system. Each of the minor states to which complete independence had been granted by the Peace of Westphalia imitated the policy to which the great powers of -.. Qj . Western Europe had come Q through a long course of deve-
r- : - lopment, but this policy had no meanmg whatever m a small state. In Prussia and in Austria only was it possible for the mercantile system to be carried out to success ; there, indeed, it attained to the most favourable results, creating economic unity from various dynastically joined provinces, and transforming a heterogeneous mass into an organised structure.
It is true that the old German Empire still had an emperor, and even, since the year 1663, a permanent Reichstag ; but after the imperial modifications of the six- teenth century, which had left both imperial army and finances in a half- organised state, so that not even such beneficial measures as the regulations respecting the coinage of 1524, 1551, 1558 could have any practical effect, a period of complete inaction of all governmental functions followed during the seventeenth century. Even the atrocious disorder that reigned in the currency at the beginning of the Thirty Years War, due chiefly to the activities of money-clippers, was insuffi- cient to induce the imperial government to take any steps towards establishing order ; it merely renounced its rights in favour of the lesser provincial rulers.
The wars with the Turks and the French alone were of general interest sufficient to keep alive a consciousness of common life and aims in the German people. It was all the more remarkable that, after some fifty years of negotiations, the empire actually passed a law in
regard to an economic-polit- TheGennan j^^j matter. This was the Empire Roused t ■ 1 t j ^ t r
... .. Imperial Industry Law of
Into Action ^ << t-l i_ j ti^ j
1731. The unheard-of had
occurred ; the German Empire, after a pause of centuries, finally roused itself to the enactment of a uniform legislative measure , through which the chief difficulty that had previously stood in the way of corporation reform was overcome. How- ever, it immediately became evident that uniform legislation without a uniform
4631
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The New Economic Life of Nations
executive is, in a certain sense, very much like a wooden poker." In fact, the organisation of the guilds, originating as it did during the age of mediaeval city states, was an anachronism in the days of the mercantile system ; it was at least necessary for it to adapt itself to the requirements of the new economic life of nations. Long ago, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, craftsmen and small merchants had united into independent associations in order not only to limit mutual and foreign com- petition, but to overcome the supremacy of the capitalists, who were members of the more or less distinguished patrician families of the towns.
The control of industrial affairs in the cities gradually became transferred from the guilds to the municipal authorities. Then followed associations of the guilds themselves, some of which extended their power over the whole country — indeed, beyond the boundaries of the empire. Inasmuch as the trades corporations represented the interests of the master craftsmen alone — ^and of these only the wealthier — ^journeymen and labourers were compelled to form their own associations, which from the end of the fifteenth until well into the eighteenth century carried on an embittered class struggle with the masters.
Such drawbacks to trade were legislated
against in France in the industrial
regulations of Henry III. in 1581
and of Henry IV. in 1597 ; here, as in
England, the central government sought
to control the guilds and associations of
craftsmen by means of legislative and
administrative measures. In Germany
also the ruling princes had the same
praiseworthy intention of putting an end
to the nuisance of constant industrial
quarrels so hurtful to the community ;
but, owing to the vast expansion of the
various associations of master-craftsmen
_. _ and journeymen, extending
The German xu j^i-u j- r
J, . far beyond the boundaries of
CnunMin their territories, the sovereign princes were unable to accom- plish their object until the imperial law of 173 1 was passed, showing them a way to help themselves out of the difficulty through the introduction of uniform measures. Improvements, of course, de- pended on the goodwill, the intelligence, and the power of the rulers, in whose hands lay the weal and woe of the crumbling
4632
German Empire. The minor ruling princes of Germany were able to accomplish but little compared with what was done in Prussia and Austria after these large states had once adopted the mercantile system — that is to say, at the end of the seventeenth century. Both the external and internal policies of the two nations began to develop at the same time, as did also their rivalry, when, by help of the mercantile system of Western Europe, their monarchs sought to increase the productive capacity of their countries, which were so much behind the times.
The Great Elector Frederic William (1640-1688), the founder of the military power of Prussia, who united Eastern Pomerania and Prussia with Branden- burg, was also the originator of an eco- nomic policy that extended far beyond the narrow limits of an ordinary German territorial state. In his naval and colonial plans he paid homage to the spirit of the time. Unfortunately, he endeavoured to hasten natural development too rapidly, with the result that the colonies hurriedly established on the Guinea Coast and on the island of Arguin were com- ai ure o pjg^g failures, while the Dutch russian ^^^ ^^^ French looked upon their new rivals with no friendly eyes. The Great Elector occupies a brilliant place in the history of commerce, inasmuch as he was the originator of the Prussian system of territorial posts and of the canals that connect the rivers of Eastern Germany. By means of the Miillrose canal he guided the traffic between th"e districts of the Oder and the Elbe through his rapidly developing capital of Berlin.
His grandson, Frederic William I., laid the foundations of German bureau- cracy, and showed how a government could pay all claims, whether domestic or foreign, without contracting a national debt — indeed, could have a balance left over at the end of each year to go towards forming a state treasury. Seeing that since the end of the Thirty Years War no posses- sion was more necessary to the state than inhabitants, he offered a refuge in his dominions to some 20,000 Protestant refugees who had been driven from Salsburg by their intolerant archbishop, Firmian ; in fact, the Great Elector had long ago begun internal colonisation by welcoming Hugue- not refugees, who transplanted various branches of French industry to Prussian soil, as well as Irish Catholics flying from
THE RISE OF EUROPEAN TRADE
Prussi&'s Financial Troubles
Protestant intolerance. In contrast to the Huguenots, the Salsburgers settled down as agriculturists, chiefly in East Prussia. Hussites from Bohemia and Swiss Protestants also found a second home in Prussia, while the Irish swelled the army. As an opponent of the ex- portation of money, and consequently of the importation of foreign manufactures — cotton goods, for example — Frederic William I. furthered the domestic cloth industry. A " Russian Company " was founded for the carrying on of traffic in cloth with the Muscovite empire, and a depot was erected at Berlin, where small producers could offer their goods for sale after they had been subjected to inspection. After Frederic II. had used up in the Silesian war the army and treasure left him by his father, he was obliged to look out for fresh supplies ; but not until the interval of peace that followed the Seven Years War, in 1763, was he able to carry out his plans of economic im- provement. And he, the greatest sovereign of the eighteenth century, clear- sighted, intelligent, and absolute in power, was likewise a mercantilist ; that is to say, he was an instructor of an economi- cally backward people in certain theories of com- josiah wedgwood
the same was true of the calling of new branches of industry into being. It was only with great difficulty that Frederic II. introduced silk-worm culture and silk- weaving into his kingdom. Workmen were needed for all these things, and he enticed them into his dominions by means of awards of money and grants of land Especially when, after the first partition of Poland, West Prussia fell to his share, agriculturists were necessary and were supplied from the over-populated districts of South-western Germany, particularly from Wiirtemberg. Nevertheless, in 1785, shortly before Frederic's death, Prussic^ possessed little over 5,500,000 inhabitants. Such a small nation, one, moreover, that was obliged to beai the arms of a power 01 the first rank even in times of peace, could not preserve its status for any great length of time without suffering from various financial troubles, however much it hus- banded its resources. Frederic's administration, particularly the methods of government monopoly and taxation for revenue, organised by the French- man, La Haye de Launay, and caiTied out with the assistance of French financial experts, awak- ened the hatred of his
merce. He attained the a native of Bursiem, he raised English pottery subjects. Thccoffeemono- chief object of exterior *« * ^"« *^> ^"^ ™*'*« * fortune out of his poly was characteristic of
„„ • 1 ^^^^ „ works at Etruria. Borninl730, hediedinl795. t,- ..„:„-, . :j. T-..-o/^+i,^ollT7
commercial policy, a balance of trade, with but little difficulty : the value of imports was from four to five million thalers less than the value of exports annually. However, the king was unable to establish successful trans- oceanic connections, and the German- Asiatic companies of Emden were failures from the very beginning.
Prosperity of Domestic Institutions
Various domestic institutions, such as the Bank of Berlin,
the Society of Maritime Com- merce, and an institute of credit, formed in order to prevent the families and property of the nobility dwelling east of the Elbe from falling into the hands of usurers, were attended with far greater prosperity. If it required the power of the state to create these institutions,
his reign ; it practically suppressed a commodity whose use took large sums of money annually from the kingdom. But in spite of all his peculi- arities, Frederic the Great promoted the economic prosperity of his kingdom.
When the Prussian government was once more established after the troubles of 1806-1807, the views and require- ments of the people had so altered that practical mercantilism could be looked upon as a thing of the past. Prussia adopted the principles of economic liberal- ism earlier than did any other German state, for the reason that throughout its development attention had been paid to the preliminary steps towards liberty. The end of the Thirty Years War failed to bring peace to the hereditary
4633
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
dominions of the House of Austria. French, Turks, and insurgents rendered it necessary for Leopold I. and his sons, Joseph I. and Charles VI., constantly to engage in wars, which had to be borne by the already exhausted provinces of Old Austria and Bohemia. Moreover, the once prosper- ous trade with Italy had come to an end, . . . and there was no market for Pj ' "^ * '1^ the products of the fertile
-..„. ... Austrian soil. During the reign Difficulties J. J ,,T 4.4. 4.
of Leopold I. attempts were
made towards building model workshops and manufactories and establishing mono- polies, but there was a lack, not only of money, but of contractors and competent officials. Escape from financial difficulties was sought through foreign loans, raised in Holland, England, Genoa, and the imperial cities of Germany. By the foundation of the City Bank in Vienna in 1706 the Govern- ment secured a means of obtainmg money without going abroad, and drew upon the deposits there for the loans it needed.
Until the reign of Charles VI. there was no consistent commercial policy, based upon a developed mercantile system, in Austria. The emperor desired Ostend to be a point of departure for trans- oceanic traffic, because of its favourable situation in the Spanish — since 17 14 Austrian — Netherlands, but the East India Com- pany, established for this purpose in 1722, soon fell a victim to the jealousy of Holland and England in 1731. He was far more successful in his endeavour to obtain a share in Mediterranean commerce through the Adriatic harbours of Trieste and Fiume, free ports since 1719, as Venice was no longer in a condition to offer any opposition. On the other hand, the at- tempt to further Eastern trade by means of a great Oriental monopoly company was a complete failure, and brought with it a disaster similar to that which had resulted from Law's companies in France. The deliberate policy of centralisation adopted _ „ . during the reign of Maria eign jjjgj-ggg^ ^j^g g^jgQ directed
towards unifying the financial and economic affairs of the Bohemian and German provinces ; while, on the other hand, the isolated condition of the Hungarian, Italian, and Flemish portions of the empire was allowed to remain unaltered. In the first-named provinces even the inland duties were removed and the customs service regulated in 1775. In like manner the national debt was consoli-
4634
of Maria Theresa
dated, the currency set on a firm basis — according to the twenty-florin standard agreed upon with Bavaria in 1753 — and the Vienna Bourse became a central point for dealings in money, exchange, and stocks.
The reign of Joseph II. was also rich in improvements. Among its failures may be included the beginning of the indebtedness of the Government in 1782, that unfortu- nately lasted until 1889. In spite of many protests, Joseph II. adopted in 1784 the system of prohibition of various commodi- ties for the sake of protection, which remained in force until 1850. All foreign goods that either were or could be produced at home, or seemed to be superfluous, were not permitted to be imported for sale. To be sure, men were allowed to bring with them over the frontier certain articles for their own personal use, but heavy duties were exacted. Under the protection of this prohibitory system of Joseph II. the industries of Austria began to develop greatly ; a large export trade was carried on with Hungary, which, until 1850, was a separate customs district, and with the Ottoman Empire. Joseph II. also sought _ to transform the Austrian
ofThe""* Netherlands into a maritime c II e^ < commercial country, but in Small States „ ,, t-. . 1 r n
1785 the Dutch successfully
resisted all his attempts to break through their blockade of the Scheldt.
Thus, during the eighteenth century, notwithstanding that there were Prussian and Austrian regions of production of con- siderable extent, there was no distinctively German sphere of commerce. Small states and provinces were governed by no definite policy, although, in spite of their weakness and the amazing capacities for misgovern- ment of some of their sovereigns, a few of them attained to industrial and commercial significance, as, for example, the Electorate of Saxony. Most of them were content with bringing forth an excess of population, of which large numbers were sold to foreign countries during the wars of the time by unscrupulous rulers as food for cannon. For this reason a great advance in progress was shown when an excess of population was first used for colonising purposes : by Prussia in her eastern provinces, and by Austria in Hungary and Galicia. In most countries the century was a mere parenthesis, and Europe had at the beginning of the nineteenth century to start afresh.
Richard Mayr
EUROPE FIFTH DIVISION
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEONIC ERA
The French Revolution is an event— if we may legitimately apply that term to a series of occurrences extending over five years — which forms, perhaps, the most definite epoch, the moment most pregnant of change, in European history since the fall of the Western Roman Empire ; unless we except the decade following Luther's challenge to Tetzel, or the voyage of Columbus.
The French Revolution changed the social order of half the continent immediately, though its work in that field is not even yet completed. And it also caused, though it did not at once effect, a fundamental change in the political order, the gradual democratisation of governments, the ultimate control of articulate Public Opinion over State policy. But besides these permanent results it evoked that unique phenomenon, the Napoleonic Empire ; and by doing so it drew the Muscovite Empire more definitely than before into the main current of Western history, so that the division into East and West, which we have hitherto observed, of necessity disappears.
Throughout the whole period of the Revolution, the militant Republic, and the Empire, France, or France impersonated by Napoleon, dominates the historic stage so completely that the subdivisions of the narrative are fixed by French events ; and we have only deviated from this principle so far as to devote a separate section to the affairs of Great Britain.
Thus in the succeeding pages the reader will follow the story of the fall of the French Monarchy, the Terror, the Rise of Bonaparte, the Military Dictatorship, the Empire and its downfall ; to be followed hereafter by the story of the European reaction, succeeded by the Nationalist reorganisation and the social and political development of popular ascendancy.
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD By Dr. J. Holland Rose
HISTORY: FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE
HUNDRED DAYS
By Arthur D. Innes, M.A.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND By H. W. C. Davis, M.A.
HOW TRAFALGAR CHANGED THE FACE OF
THE WORLD
By Sir John Knox Laughton
4635
MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE FIFTH DIVISION OF EUROPE The fifth division of Europe differs from preceding divisions of our History in the fact that the territorial interests cease to be localised, for with the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era the whole continent comes up for general treatment. In the four divisions of Europe with which we have dealt a distinction was maintained between the eastern and western nations, but now, and to the end of the Grand Division, European history is treated as a whole ; the point of view is chronological rather than geographical. The map shows the disposition of the countries of Europe during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, with the history of which this division of our work is concerned.
4636
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NAPOLEON THE GREAT
From th« bust by Canora in the Pitti Gallery, Florence
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
By Dr. J. Holland Rose
IT used to be the fashion, in the genera- * tion which was dominated by the personahty of Thomas Carlyle, to dwell in rhapsodic strains on the cataclysmic character of the French Revolution. Similes of the explosive order were worked very hard, the result being that the average reader, who too often confuses similes with arguments, came to regard that great event as an outcome of the workings of the kosmos no less inevitable and terrible than the periodic quakings and rendings of the earth's crust, to which it seemed to have some hidden relation.
But times have changed. The volcanic or earthquake similes have worked them- selves out. After all, they explain nothing. They do not show why the revo-
lution broke out in France and ""r'^ during the reign of Louis XVI., g*. still less why it ran the course
which it did, only to be followed by the ascendancy of Napoleon. The pre- sent age is nothing if not scientific. History is now recognised as a science, and not as one of the inferior domains of literature, to which Dr. Johnson contemptuously assigned it. Historians seek to attract not so much by glowing descriptions as by presenting illuminating explanations of the course of events, especially those which affect the progress of the species.
They strive to bring their narratives down from the misty heights of tragedy to the lower levels whereon men act, not as demi- gods, but as fallible creatures, where the action ceases to be epic in order to be human. What their story loses in pic- turesqueness it partly regains in philosophic interest. If the historian of to-day fails to
dazzle the imagination, he at least ought
to seek to enlighten the understanding.
Viewed from this standpoint, which may
be termed philosophical or evolutionary,
the French Revolution will be regarded,
not as an appalling explosion, but as the
greatest and most terrible of all the many
movements of modern times which have
_ , aimed at the emancipation of
Keasons for i • j r i.
.. „ . mankmd from outworn usages. the French r^-, ^^
jj J .. Ihere were many reasons why
the outbreak should have occurred first in France of all European lands. We cannot imagine a great revo- lution taking place in England in the year 1789, firstly, because feudalism and monarchy never had been so deeply
S 'anted and so rigidly aeveloped there as ey had been in France, and, secondly, because the champions of political freedom had won nearly all that they strove for in the political revolution of 1688.
The century that elapsed after that event was essentially conservative, and though Britons had many grievances both against George III. and the landed aristocracy, yet there was no talk of dethroning the king and expropriating the landlords even _ u ^ ^^ ^^® close of that most disas-
•/'aI* 1"* *' trous War of American Inde- its Absolute pendence. The apathy of the Monarchy ^^^y^^^i in the years 1780-1789 was equally surprising and distressing to professed reformers like Charles James Fox.
In France everything was different. There were three forces that had long been repressing the growth of the nation. The first of these was the royal power, which, in theory at least, was as absolute under Louis XVI. as under Louis XIV., le grand
4637
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
monarque, who said, with perfect truth : " L'Etat c'est moi." A second and far more burdensome influence was that exerted by feudal customs from which all the life had gone. Defensible as many of these had been in the Middle Ages, when the barons were expected to protect their peasants in return for the dues and services which they exacted, Imminence j^Q^hing could be urged in their of N&tional i r • ^ u au
„ . defence m an age when the
rup cy gj-gg^^ lords neither defended the realm at their own charges, nor fulfilled the duties of landlords, but were occupied mainly in acting as courtiers at Versailles and Paris.
The third of these untoward influences resulted largely from the extravagance of the monarchs and the almost complete immunity of the nobles and titled clergy from taxation ; it was the imminence of national bankruptcy. All the great powers were in difficulties as a result of the many wars of that generation ; and Great Britain especially suffered severely from the American War of Independence ; but after its close she had the good fortune to gain a statesman, William Pitt the younger, whose careful husbanding of the nation's re- sources soon brought her back to prosperity. At the same time, in France the extravagant policy of Calonne plunged that nation deeper in the mire and led to those conflicts between the king and the old juridical bodies, the Parlements, from which there seemed to be no escape save by the summoning of the States-General in May, 1789. This last step furnished a humiliating proof of the helplessness of King Louis XVI. in face of a difficult but by no means hopeless situa- tion. In theory an absolute monarch, he had not the political foresight, the insight into men, or the needed firmness of will, to carry through by royal decree that most necessary of reforms, the subjection of the privileged orders to the national taxa- , tion. Nowhere else in the world
ranee s ^^^ there the same financial _*^. ° . need ; and nowhere did a great
ec oning ^^^^^ ^^j-jj^ g^ helplessly as
France after the American War of Inde- pendence. Her participation in that struggle was in reality a serious political blunder. While dealing a deadly blow at England, she stored up for herself a day of reckoning. Her soldiers, after helping those of Washington to found a free commonwealth, became missionaries
4638
of democracy when, on their return to France, they found the old abuses rampant, the higher ranks of the service more than ever closed to commoners, and the pay of the rank and file falling hopelessly in arrears.
The importance of this source of dis- content has probably been underrated. Writers have descanted on the revolu- tionary forces let loose by Voltaire and Rousseau ; and it is true that the cultured classes, which had laughed at the mordant ironies of the philosopher of Ferney and had accepted the new social gospel pro- claimed by the Genevese seer, thenceforth for the most part allied themselves with the critics and assailants of the old order of things both in Church and State. But the influence of these writers and of the whole cohort of the Encyclopaedists did not extend very far. The workmen of the towns and the whole mass of the peasantry were not moved by such writings, for the simple reason that they could not read.
But they were aroused by the stories told by the many thousands of French troops who now knew what liberty was, „ . . and looked on the old griev- eginnings ^Lnces with eyes which had , „ ^ .. been enlightened. There indeed
Revolution .^r, ^ ■ -i 11
was an mfluence which worked like leaven through the whole of the army and permeated large parts of the indus- trial population. The hitherto unavailing efforts of the intelligencia to overthrow the autocracy and bureaucracy in Russia furnish an instructive commentary on the beginnings of the French Revolution.
They show that the well-educated classes alone cannot bring about a great political change. The debacle can begin only when the masses are set in motion, and when the soldiery refuse to act for the throne against their fellow citizens. Mazzini has finely said that a revolution is the pass- ing of an idea into actuality ; but to this terse and suggestive statement we must add the proviso that the brain which conceives the idea must have full control over the nerves and muscles of the body. That controlling power which produced the events of 1789 emanated very largely from the troops that fought for the cause of freedom in the New World.
Now, a brief comparison of the condition of France with that of the other great powers will show them to have been free from the chief influences which made for the overthrow of the French monarchy.
FRENCH REVOLUTION: GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
Nowhere else, except in England, had the national consciousness been so vnvidly aroused ; in no land, except Spain, was the monarchy so all-pervading an institu- tion. Germany and Italy were merely geographical names, devoid of any polit- ical significance ; in those picturesque mosaics there was little cohesion and no life. Russia was too barbarous, and Spain too torpid to struggle for popular liberty. In Great Britain the forces of the time might have tended towards revolution but for the timely reforms of the Whigs and Pitt. Further, none of these powers suffered from that concen- tration of wealth at the capital which left the country districts denuded, and drew to Paris hunger-stricken throngs of peasants in the hope of picking up crumbs from the table of Dives.
The great thinker, Montesquieu, as far back as the year 1748 had seen whereto this was tending when he penned this damning indictment of the policy of Louis XIV. and Louis XV. : " Monarchy is destroyed when the prince, directing everything to himself, brings the country to the capital, the capital to
on tlr ^^^ ^°"'"*' ^"^ ^^® ^^^^^ *° ^^^
r" ^1-1. own person." Add to the fore- French Throne . ^ J .• iU
gomg considerations these
last : that this centralised monarchy was now in the hands of a sovereign wholly incompetent to bear the weight of respon- sibility ; and that in France, far more than in any other land, the body politic had been infected by the virus of de- mocracy— and the reasons of the political outbreak which occurred in France in 1789 will be intelligible.
The reader who peruses the stories of misgovernment, class favouritism, and gross stupidity in the handling of finance, will perhaps wonder why the outbreak did not come sooner — say, during the reign of Louis XV., a far worse ruler than Louis XVI. We may reply that reasons partly material and partly personal brought the doom on the head of the more innocent monarch. The financial strain of the American War led to the financial troubles which caused the convocation of the States-General ; and the summer of 1788 was marked by a prolonged drought which ended in a violent hailstorm. The winter of 1788-1789 was also among the severest ever known, the result being that the elections for the States-General were held amid scenes of want and excitement.
Nevertheless matters might have gone smoothly had the king and his chief Minister, Necker, possessed foresight, initiative, and firmness. They lacked these qualities, and the result was an irritating indecision and vacillation on the burning question of the constitution of the States-General. For details the reader _ _ , must consult the general nar- c Uueen s j-^^ jyg Here we may note that tvil Influence t ■ j. j-u u-
. n !•*• Louis was at one with his
in Politics , . . . i_ £ 1
subjects on the financial
and other practical reforms which were so urgently needed ; but he resented the step taken by the Tiers Etat, or Commons, of declaring themselves to be the National Assembly of France. Thereafter he gave ear to his queen and to the other reac- tionary advisers who led him to attempt the feeble coup d'etat of July I3th-i4th.
Thus we may say that the final causes of the popular outbreak, by which Paris successfully defied the monarchy, are traceable to the incompetence of the king and to the spasmodic and ill-advised interference of Marie Antoinette in polit- ical affairs. That unfortunate queen had the charm and spirit of her mother, Maria Theresa, but none of her tact and sagacity. In 1774 she induced Louis XVI. to dismiss the great reforming Minister, Turgot, because his economies injured a court favourite ; and her beha- viour in matters political was generally the outcome of sentiment and passion.
Dumont, the friend of Mirabeau and Bentham, went so far as to ascribe the French Revolution solely to the failings of the king and queen. This is defective reasoning. To attribute a great and complex event to a single cause, and that a small one, is irrational. But we may admit that those failings gave the final tilt to events which resulted from other and weightier causes.
To attempt to divide up into periods a
great movement like that of the French
■w^ n ... Revolution, which possesses an
The Bastille • •- ■■> u i
_ inner unity amid all its ex-
*'*J"^* 1 ^ ternal diversities, is a somewhat opu ace j^|.jjg task. Even at the time of the first defiance of the royal power by the Tiers fltat in the latter half of June there was seen the stern insistence on the sovereignty of the people which rendered compromise difficult, if not impossible. The capture of the Bastille by the Parisian populace on July 14th led to scenes of violence both in the capital and the
4639
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
provinces, which showed the weakness of the governing power and the strength of the anarchic forces now coming to a head. Nothing is more remarkable than the ease with which feudaUsm and the absolute monarchy were then struck down.
The abolition of agrarian abuses and feudal privileges was decided in a single sitting of the National Assembly
The Reign of Terror Begins
on August loth, 1789. The prerogatives of the old mon-
. archy went by the board in the debates on the royal veto and the outlines of the future constitution. A few irritating occurrences at Versailles, and the secret use of the money of the Duke of Orleans to stir up sedition at Paris, sufficed to send forth the " dames des halles " and the dregs of the populace in a turbid stream westwards, which overbore the feeble defences at Versailles and brought back king, queen, and court to Paris, October 5th and 6th. The National Assembly soon followed them ; and, in a limited sense, we may say that the Reign of Terror had its beginnings in the events which centred around the capture of the Bastille, fhe " jacquerie " of July- August, and the victory of the maenads of Paris at Ver- sailles. Thereafter the Government fell more and more under the control of a suffering and excitable populace.
Nevertheless, the final triumph of the anarchic forces came slowly, and it might possibly have been averted had the more moderate leaders, whether Royalists or Democrats, come to some understanding. But it is one of the peculiarities of the French Revolution, as that gifted woman, Mme. Roland, finely remarked, that while the movement was great, the men of the time were mediocre. From this state- ment we must except one truly inspiring personality ; and Mirabeau, though pos- sessing the width of vision and magnetic gifts which mark the statesman, lacked one of the essentials of a leader of men in that he never inspired con-
.. .V *t**!! r fidence. The National Assem-
the Tribune of ,, u j j. ^^i.
- p J ,, bly showed a most unworthy
eop e jealousyof its ablest member
by passing a decree — November 9th, 1789 —
which shut out him or any member of
the House from the king's Ministry.
Excluded from all control of affairs,
Mirabeau finally drifted into ambiguous
courses, taking money secretly from the
king in return for advice — ^which Louis
very rarely followed — and yet posing
4640
before the world as the great tribune of the people. In reality, his aims were thoroughly sound — namely, to rid the king of all reactionary tendencies, to make him figure as leader in a popular move- ment, and to strengthen the reformed monarchy so as to enable it to defy the Parisian demagogues. The scheme broke down mainly owing to the suspicion which his notorious vices inspired both in the king and the Democrats ; but also because men in authority, like Necker — the chief Minister until September, 1790 — and Lafay- ette, commander of the Parisian National Guards, refused to act with him. The union of these three men for the support of moderate reforms and the renovated monarchy might have stemmed the course of anarchy. As it was, power passed from the king's Ministry, even from the once popular Lafayette, to the political clubs.
For while the friends of order remained in disunion that very event which Mirabeau most feared was coming to pass — " anarchy was organising itself." The Jacobin Club, at first a reunion of nien of all parties, became both more
extreme in its views and more
fth'^s'^' powerful throughout France.
e ocia jyjg^ ^^ clear-cut theories and
incisive speech, like Robes- pierre, there gained a hearing which the National Assembly often denied to them. The social gospel, first set forth by Rousseau in his "Contrat Social" in 1762, and now preached by " the sea-green incorruptible," as Carlyle dubs Robes- pierre, proved to be an impelling force of the first magnitude. It was spread every- where by newspapers and pamphlets which reported the debates of the Jacobin Club ; and the managers of that institu- tion, with a foresight not to be found in the royal counsels, affiliated to the mother society in Paris the many thousands of clubs which sprang up in the provinces.
The result was seen in the heightening of democratic fervour which marked the years 1790-1792. By the departmental system, which came into force early in 1790, the French people gained local self- government very nearly on the basis of manhood suffrage. The summer of that year saw titles of nobility abolished and the Church of Rome in France compelled to fit in with the new local organisation, her bishops and priests being required to submit to popular election and to take an oath of allegiance to the civil power
FRENCH REVOLUTION: GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
which invahdated their allegiance to the Pope. The attempt to enforce this mea- sure— called " The Civil Constitution of the Clergy " — led to a schism in the ranks of the clergy. The pliable minority who bowed before the civil power were termed " constitutionals " ; those who refused to take the oath were known as " non-jurors." From that time we may date the beginnings of a religious reaction against the Revolu- tion which finally aroused the Royalist and intensely Catholic west in a series of desperate revolts.
This same ill-omened measure likewise completed the disgust of the king at the course of events ; and after the death of Mirabeau, on April 2nd, 1791, the king attempted to flee, not to Royalist Nor- mandy, as Mirabeau had advised, but to the eastern frontier, where he would come into touch with the Austrians and the bands of reactionary emigrant French nobles assembling in the Rhineland. The attempt failed miserably at Varennes at midsummer of 1791, and the schism between king and nation was now seen to be complete. This date, therefore, marks a fatal point in the course of the Revolution. It was impossible long to keep at the head of affairs a desired to run away to the and thereafter a Republican party began to form.
Nevertheless, an attempt was made by all moderate men to avert anarchy by bolstering up the royal power ; but it failed in face of the passions which had been aroused. The new National Assembly was more extreme than its predecessor ; and when Francis II. of Austria, nephew of Marie Antoinette, seemed to imply that he had the right of interference in French affairs, the party of enthusiastic idealists, known as the Girondins, who were now uppermost in the Ministry of Louis XVI., pushed him on to declare war against Austria. Prussia, Sardinia, and the Holy Roman Empire thereafter declared against France, which found herself beset by alarming difficulties.
The outbreak of the war is perhaps the most sinister event in the whole course of the French Revolution. Imagine the fury which would have been aroused in Eng- land if before the outbreak of the Civil War French troops had invaded that country with the avowed object of rescuing Charles I. and his consort Henrietta — ^a
295
France the Centre of Difficulties
king who Austrians :
Failure
of the Royal
Scheme
French princess — and of putting down the popular party. The instinct of nationahty shows that this would immediately have ruined the royal cause, and have led to a general rising against a prince thenceforth deemed a traitor to his people. Power would at once have passed to the extreme party, which demanded his deposition and the adoption of the most vigorous measures against the common enemy. If, after his deposition, the ranks of the invaders had been strengthened by a Spanish army with English nobles acting as its vanguard, we can picture the rage which would have fallen on all other Royalists or their adherents. The agony of the nation would have led to deeds of violence impossible at ordinary times, and to the ascendancy of any faction, however desperate, which had vigour enough to beat of^ the invaders and avenge the outraged dignity of the nation. " Salus populi suprema lex." At such a crisis desperadoes figure as heroes, and even a massacre of supposed traitors ceases to be odious.
Transfer this supposed case to France in 1792, and the overthrow of the mon- archy, the September massacres, the victory of the extreme party at the polls, the pro- clamation of the Republic by the Conven- tion, the astounding military efforts which beat back the Prussians and Austrians, the execution of Louis XVI. as an accom- plice of the invaders — ^all this becomes intelligible. We pity the king, but there can be little doubt that he secretly desired, and even worked for, the declaration of war in April, 1792, in the hope that this would bring the forces of Central Europe in triumph to Paris for the rescue of himself and the confusion of his foes.
His conduct at every crisis was miser- ably weak. Early on the morning of August loth, which was to see his over- throw, his bearing was so uninspiring as to unman the defenders at the Tuileries. A hero would have _ * *** rallied round him the waver-
ppor uni y o ■ ^j^^^alions of the National Louis XVI. i" ^ J J • J J.I.
Guard, and imposed on the
Marseillese and the populace. The queen then showed that she was the daughter of Maria Theresa ; but she soon came to despair of success and gave her consent to that tamest of surrenders by which a Bourbon left his palace and sought refuge with the National Assembly. Heroism was shown on that day only by a few
4641
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Royalist gentlemen and by alien mercen- aries, the Swiss regiment, which even in its death agonies sought to protect the shield of the fleur de lys. A little olive-cheeked lieutenant of artillery who looked on at that last struggle to uphold the honour of the old monarchy believed that if the Royalist troops at the Tuileries had been well led they would have won the day. Such was the judgment
Execution of the
P . „. of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is "^* needless to review here the events of the republican wars and of the Reign of Terror. My aim has been to point out the meaning of events and the inter- action of forces that brought France to that awful year 1793, whicli Victor Hugo has so vividly depicted. The fanaticism of the Jacobins appeared in the energy with which they pressed back the invader-s at the close of 1792, and threw down the gauntlet to England and Holland on the question of the River Scheldt. Danton's • gigantic phrase, " Let us fling down to Europe the head of a king as gage of battle," came to be literally true.
On February ist, 1793, eleven days after the execution of Louis XVL, the French Convention declared war against England and Holland, and live weeks later against Spain. This aggressive policy led up to another sharp crisis, France losing Belgium and having her north- eastern districts invaded. But again the emergency called forth all her energies. The incompetent Girondins were flung on one side ; the unscrupulous Jacobins seized on power, and, discarding par- liamentary forms, governed despotically through two secret committees, those of Public Safety and of General Security.
Little by little the " levee en masse," decreed by the Convention and organised by Carnot, made headway against the invaders on all the frontiers and crushed the Girondin and Royalist opposition in the south and west. At the same time Robespierre and his colleagues sought Th Gh tl *° P^^S^ France of her bad _. f, *', ^ blood by systematically setting Failure of uaIutd- ri-
Robespierre ^^°^^ *^^ ^^^^n of Terror, the prelude, as he believed, to the golden age foreshadowed in the writings of Rousseau.
The experiment was a ghastly failure. France fell back exhausted on the more feasible of the schemes of the earlier re- volutionists ; but the time of Robespierre's ascendancy— from July, 1793, till July, 1794
4642
— led to one result, the importance of which, perhaps, has not been sufficiently empha- sised. The disillusionment and desj)air which settled upon France at the end of the Reign of Terror and led to a sharp Royalist reaction a year later directly favoured the supremacy of the army. That must always happen when the political problem seems insoluble, and when the army alone wins decided successes.
To recur once more to English history, the shortcomings of civilians at the close of the Civil War and during the Common- wealth made the supremacy of the greatest soldier of the age inevitable. So, too, the French Republic in 1794-1796, though strong enough to crush the revolts of mal- contents and Royalists, failed to harmonise the claims of liberty and order, failed to build up a durable constitution — that of the Directory leading to constant friction — and therefore failed to maintain that equilibrium between the civil power and the army which has ever been the crux of French politics.
Now, too, there arose a mighty genius who would perhaps in any case have gained the mastery which Burke ise o « jjj 1790 foretold would be the g outcome of events in France.
^" The little Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, had done much towards saving the Republic in the great street fight of Vendemiaire, October, 1795, at Paris, and ere long men were to see the danger of cutting the Gordian knot of French politics by the sword. That same trenchant sword ended the Austrian domination in Italy, brought that fair land under the control of France, and compelled the Haps- burgs to sign the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Campo Formio in October, 1797.
The conquest of Italy was the most brilliant feat of arms of the eighteenth century. Its results were incalculably great. France, previously exhausted by civil strifes, now gained wealth enough to enter on a new cycle of war — not now for the propagation of liberty, but for aggran- disement or plunder. The Italians received an impulse towards political freedom and unity which they were never to lose. The old European system received a shock which brought about the mighty changes of the nineteenth century.
But greatest, perhaps, of all Bonaparte's conquests in 1796-1797 was his conquest of France. The mind of that people, baffled in the quest for liberty, disgusted
FRENCH REVOLUTION: GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
by the sordid strifes of parties at Paris, now turned away from political affairs and sought satisfaction in following the career of the young general, who alone of his compeers seemed able to extend the bounds of freedom.
The man who has thrilled the imagi- nation of France has always been in reahty her master. At the close of the Italian campaigns, Bonaparte felt the need of keeping his prestige unimpaired, and as he deemed the invasion of England to be impossible, he entered on the Egyptian expedition with the aim of crippling her power in the East, and also of throwing up in brilliant relief his achievements against the petty and perse- cuting conduct of the civihan Directors at Paris. In a material sense, the expedi- tion was a failure ; but the young general fully realised the personal aim which has just been noted. Returning to France in the autumn of 1799, he was hailed with delight as the conqueror of the East.
The real state of affairs in Egypt was not known by Frenchmen ; all that they knew, or cared to know, was that the Directory had brought about further Bonaparte wars in Europe, those of the
the Master Spirit , ii- u j 1 i.
. _ second coalition, had lost
Italy, and had made their own countrymen miserable. Bonaparte's "Coup d'etat" of Brumaire, November 9-ioth, 1799, brought about the overthrow of the Directory. But it did far more ; it put an end to parliamentary institutions in France. The generals and malcontents who helped him to scatter the elective councils at St. Cloud paved the way for military rule. The complicated constitution of December, 1799, proposed by Sieyes and approved by a " rump " of the councils, proved to be easily adaptable to his requirements ; and in most essentials the future constitutions of the French Empire of 1806 — 1814 were laid down in secret conferences held at the close of 1799, in which Bonaparte was the master spirit. It is well to remember the salient outlines of the constitutional history of the decade 1789-1799. In the spring and early summer of 1789 it seemed that parliamentary institutions had for ever prevailed over all forms of autocracy in France. The triumph was consolidated by the very democratic constitution of * 1791, which left the monarchy with functions little more than nominal, and assigned the reality of power to a single
Assembly, elected on a very extended franchise. With the disappearance of monarchy a year later, democracy in an extreme form seemed to be the only pos- sible form of government in France. But at that very time the crisis produced by the war led to the strengthening of the executive powers, and to the extension F 11 f »K ^^ ^^® functions of committees * ° * which supervised various de-
n*^** . partments of state. In the Robespierre f •,, r ,■,
terrible emergency of the spring
and summer of 1793 these committees began to trench on the sphere previously reserved to the elective chamber ; and during the Reign of Terror parliamentary government was largely in abeyance.
After the fall of Robespierre the Convention regained many of its functions at the expense of those of the secret executive committees. Nevertheless, in the constitution of 1795 we find the idea of a supervising committee acquiring permanence. The five Directors, who were charged with the supervision of the Ministers of State and the general control of the executive and of foreign policy, were the lineal descendants of the secret committees of the Reign of Terror. On the collapse of the Directory in Bru- maire, November, 1799, their powers de- volved on three consuls, among whom the First Consul alone, Bonaparte, had the reality of power. He, therefore, as First Consul, received the heritage be- queathed by the terrible committees of the Reign of Terror ; and if one examines carefully the causes which brought about this triumph of the one strong man over the discordant parties around him, one finds it to be due mainly to war.
A time of severe national crisis demands a strong executive, and the general ex- perience of mankind has been that at such seasons the strongest of all governing com- mittees is a committee of one. The eleven members of the Robespierrist Committee _. _ .of Public Safety were in 1795 ^*^J^'°j^'^« ultimately replaced by five opu ari y o J) jj-g^^^Qj-g^ and four years later onapa e j-j^ggg [^ their turn handed over their powers to three consuls, the second and third of whom were merely ciphers multiplying the power of the First Consul. Shortly after the conclusion of a most advantageous peace with England — the Peace of Amiens, in March, 1802 — Bonaparte gained so much popularity as to be able still further to depress the
4643
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
legislative bodies and extend his own authority. He now became First Consul for life, with powers which were to be virtually hereditary in his family. Thus, by success in war, diplomacy, and the handling of parties, he attained to heights of power never reached even by Louis XIV. ; and the change of title to _ that of emperor in May, 1804,
onapar e ^^^ little more than nominal. ecomes j^ ^^^ often been found that ** attempts to level down mankind
to a plane of safe mediocrity have brought about a situation in which one able man avenges the slights inflicted on genius, and builds up a personal power far more imposing than that which the would-be reformers endeavoured for ever to destroy. In a very real sense the Napoleonic despotism is the Nemesis which dogged the steps of the men of 1789-94.
Never were there faculties so varied and transcendent concentrated in any one man. Coming of a race which had been toughened by clan strifes and family vendettas in Corsica, he saw, as if by instinct, the weak point of opponents either on the field of battle, in the council chamber, or the legislature. On his father's side he traced his descent to forebears who had played no small part in the party feuds of mediaeval Florence ; and their spirit lived on in the man who threaded with ease and safety the mazes of revolutionary politics that had led so many promising leaders to death. He was the able soldier whose advent Burke had foretold and Robespierre had feared ; but he was also by far the ablest statesman France had found since the days of Richelieu, and resources much greater than those of the age of Louis XIII. were now at his disposal.
In many respects he sought to bring back revolutionary France to the customs of the old monarchy. Indeed, the general drift of his civil policy at the time of the NaDoleon's Consulate (1799-1804) may be _ , . , indicated by saying that it was Policy of ■ u J. j_i_
a compromise between the
licy Compromise
more feasible of the measures passed in 1789-92 and the best of the laws and customs of old France. This is especially true of the Civil Code — after- wards named the Code Napoleon — which cleared away the perplexing growth of local laws in favour of a code which was clear, symmetrical, and, on the whole, very well adapted to the needs of the French people.
4644
Though the work of redaction was due mainly to skilled jurists, yet he superin- tended it and in parts stamped it with his own personality and genius. Later on, the Code was extended to many parts of Italy and Germany, and it forms the most enduring tribute to his organising abilities. The remark hazarded above is also applicable to the Concordat, or treaty with the Pope (1801-2). By it Bonaparte officially recognised the Roman Catholic system in France, ended the schism which had begun in 1790, and bound her closely to the Holy See. On the other hand, he compelled the Church to forego its claims to the tithes and lands confiscated in the early part of the Revolution. Thus, while restoring a state system of religion in France, he also became the guarantor of the agrarian settlement of the Revolution, which all the peasants and farmers sought to uphold. While spiritualising the life of France in form, he materialised it in essence. The strength gained by this astonishingly clever compromise in what had been an almost atheistical society enabled him to carry through another _, . . measure highly repugnant to
th°T *"^ ° Jacobins and progressives of all c egion gj^g^^jgg -pjjjg ^^g ^jjg founding of Honour r .1 t • r tt •
of the Legion of Honour, m
which he sought to include in several grades of merit and reward all those who had distinguished themselves in military or civil affairs. The sequel was to show that this institution was but a half-way house on the road leading to the restoration of titles of nobility abolished in 1790.
Besides discrediting philosophic specula- tion, unbelief, and the passion of equality, which had been so characteristic of the period of Jacobin supremacy, Napoleon favoured the return of the emigrant nobles, sought to attract them to his court, and gradually made it the most sumptuous and brilliant in Europe. Now that pro- sperity had returned under the enchanter's wand, Paris fell back contented into the . old pleasure-loving ways, and, as long as their great ruler won battles and gave panem et circenses, the quest of liberty seemed an idle dream.
The restless activity and love of power so characteristic of Napoleon were far from exhausted by the immense task of reorganising France after a decade of upheaval. While the institutions of modern France were rapidly taking shape under his master-hand, he was spreading
FRENCH REVOLUTION: GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
her influence far and wide. During the brief Peace of Amiens (1802-1803) schemes were on hand for the extension of the French colonial empire, both in the vast district of Louisiana recently gained from Spain, in India, and, if opportunity admitted, in the central parts of New Holland, or Australia. Undoubtedly he desired to recover Egypt, with a view to the ultimate conquest of India, always a favourite plan with him. The beginnings of his new Oriental policy undoubtedly disturbed the Addington Cabinet at West- minster ; and as they went hand in hand with an almost prohibitive tariff system wherever the tricolour floated, the exten- sion of French influence threatened to impoverish " the nation of shopkeepers," as he contemptuously termed the British.
These extensions of influence were also threatening Europe. Piedmont and Elba were annexed ; first Holland, and then Switzerland became French satrapies. Finally, the Addington Cabinet sent demands — including the retention of Malta by Britain for ten years — which were de- signed to restore the balance of power in « . . the Mediterranean. Bonaparte
" p"^ angrily refused, and declaimed at w against Britain as the breaker
of treaties. War, therefore, broke out in May, 1803. At first the central powers remained neutral, but in May-June, 1805, Napoleon's assumption of the title King of Italy, and his annexa- tion of the Ligurian (Genoese) Republic, drove Austria and Russia to take up arms. Pitt had been seeking to build up a coalition of the Great Powers ; but he did not fully succeed until these actions of the French Emperor convinced the statesmen of Vienna and St. Petersburg that peace was more dangerous than war. It is note- worthy that they entered upon this war of the Third Coalition, not with the pur- pose of dethroning Napoleon, but of restoring the balance of power upset by his acts of aggrandisement.
The ensuing campaigns, naval and military, were marked by events of sur- passing interest and importance. Nelson's final triumph at Trafalgar synchronised with an equally crushing victory gained by the French Emperor over the Austrian forces at and near Ulm, on the Upper Dajjube. Pursuing his advantage, he shattered the Russo-Austrian armies at Austerhtz, on December 20th, 1805. com- pelling the Tsar to retire crestfallen to
his own dominions, while the Hapsburg Court consented to Napoleon's very exacting demands. The net result of the campaigns of 1805, then, was to make Britain mistress of the seas and Napoleon master of the Continent.
This sharp differentiation in character between the two chief opponents deter- , mined the main outlines of Harmed * Napoleon's policy. Unable to fj. . strike at England directly, as ng aa ^^ ^^^ hitherto sought to do from the chffs of Boulogne, he now attempted to effect her overthrow in- directly— that is, through the subjection of the Continent to his pohtical and commercial system. He framed what he called the Continental system, with a view to the financial ruin of his most persistent opponent. All his allies, all his subject states, were thenceforth rigidly to exclude British goods, and all ships which had touched at British ports. Prussia, Naples, and Holland also felt the pressure of his new policy. The House of Hohenzollern was forced to bar out British goods from the north-west of Germany, a proceeding which, with other provocations, brought about the Franco -Prussian War of 1806 and the overthrow of the chief North German power. The Bourbons of Naples were de- throned, Joseph Bonaparte taking up the reins of power in South Italy, and Louis Bonaparte becoming King of Holland.
The occupation of Berlin by French troops gave the great conqueror the opportunity of launching, in November, 1806, his Berlin Decree against England for the completion of his system, and the great victory of Friedland enabled him to throw the trammels of his commercial pohcy over Russia. The ensuing Treaty of Tilsit, on July 7th; 1807, saw him at the height of his power.
The Tsar, Alexander I., previously his bitterest enemy, now went over com- pletely to his side, adopted the Con- tinental system and promised
, D .!™* , to help in compelling the re- of Britain s ■ ■ '^ ■ , ^j^ .2
jj mammg mdependent states,
Sweden, Denmark and Portu- gal, to close their ports to British goods. Equally significant were the secret articles whereby the two potentates arranged for the future partition of the Turkish Empire with a view to eventual action against Britain's Oriental possessions. Britain was never in greater danger than after the conclusion of this treaty;
4645
MiStORV OF THE WORLD
for her sole remaining ally, Sweden, was soon to be coerced by Napoleon. It is impossible not to feel admiration for the skilful and forceful policy by which, in two years, he utterly broke up the Third Coalition, which Pitt had done so much to form, and turned the tables on Britain. The latter was now face to face with a hostile world, and her industries Denmark s ^^^^ ^^j^ ^^^ pressure of the Fleet Seized , i
. _ . . great engme of war now per- y ri ain fg^^^g^^ ]^y ^]^g French Emperor.
But though Pitt had succumbed to cares of state in January, 1806, his pupil and admirer, Canning, fortunately became Foreign Minister in the spring of 1807.
He struck sharply at Denmark, seized her fleet, and thus paralysed the naval schemes which Napoleon was undoubtedly maturing. A little later — namely, in October-November, 1807 — the French Emperor showed his hand in his cowduct towards Portugal. By virtue of a secret treaty with Spain in October, 1807, he sent a strong column under Junot, which received help from the Spaniards, to seize the Portuguese fleet at Lisbon. In this he failed. The royal family sailed away to Brazil shortly before the French entered their capital. Nevertheless, the close of the year saw him everywhere triumphant on the Continent. The Iberian Peninsula was under his control ; Italy, Switzerland, and the secondary German states were his vassals ; Prussia lay helpless under his heel ; and the Tsar, Alexander I., abetted him in his schemes for the domination of the world.
England alone resisted the autocrat, and she showed signs of weariness and waver- ing. A powerful section of the Whigs had all along opposed the war and advocated a friendly understanding with Napoleon. His success seemed assured when, at the close of the year, he launched the Milan Decree against British commerce. But now this great genius was to reveal the weaker side of his nature. The - * ** briUiance of his triumph and po in ^j^g collapse of his enemies Napoleon 1 j j ^ • 1 • . ,
hardened m him the con- viction of his own invincibility and of their stupidity and weakness. As we have seen, his policy after Trafalgar was directed mainly to the control of the maritime states. Already he controlled all the coasts from Cronstadt to Trieste ; but now, as his commercial decrees against England were not always enforced with
464b
the rigidity that he desired, he began in all possible cases to substitute annexation for mere control. This fact explains his absorption of Tuscany and a large part of the Papal States in 1808. It also explains his virtual annexation of Spain.
The alliance of the Spanish Bourbons was far from satisfying him. He owed them a grudge for a warlike proclamation made by Godoy, their Prime Minister, at the beginning of the last war with Prussia ; and, above all, resolved to have the complete disposal of the Spanish fleet and colonies. With this great ac- cession of naval strength he trusted to be able to make the Mediterranean a French lake — the scheme of 1798 revived — to partition the Turkish Empire in a way highly favourable to France, and then — as he phrased it in a letter to the Tsar — " to crush England under the weight of events with which the atmo- sphere will be charged."
There is nothing in Napoleon's letters of the spring of 1808 to show that he expected any opposition for a moment from the Spanish people. Their regular , troops were largely in his Ent r into" "P^^^'" ' ^ome of their northern ih^ '^f''* ?a fortresses were held by French regiments ; and the disgraceful feuds in the royal family at Madrid gave him an easy foothold, as it were, on the walls of the central citadel.
The result is well known. Successful in his dealings with a corrupt dynasty and court, he entirely left out of account the pride of the Spanish nation. Instead of gaining profitable vassals and a vast colonial empire, he turned allies into irreconcilable foes. England, far from being barred out from the Iberian Penin- sula, secured the help of Portuguese and Spaniards, and access for her commerce to their vast colonies. Above all, the British army now had a field whereon they could fitly display their prowess.
The entry of Sir Arthur Wellesley, soon to become Viscount WeUington, on a scene of action pre-eminently suited to his peculiar gifts gave to the national re- sistance of Spaniards and Portuguese a toughness which wore out the strength of French armies and baffled the efforts of all Napoleon's marshals. In the whole career of Napoleon no miscalculation, save, perhaps, one to be noted presently, was more fraught with disaster. Struggle and scheme as he might — and he did so
FRENCH REVOLUTION: GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
with brilliant success in the case of the Austrian campaign of 1809, with its diplomatic corollary, the Austrian mar- riage— he could never rid himself of the evil result of his " Spanish blunder." The waste of men in that war told even on his gigantic resources ; and when his final annexations at the close of 1810 — the north-west of Germany, etc. — brought him to a rupture with the Tsar, one may safely ascribe the determination of the potentate of the east to his belief that the overgrown empire of his rival was being sapped at the other extremity.
For in and after the year 1808 a new spirit was in the air. Peoples that had previously lain torpid under French dom- ination now began to awaken, and to take heart as they saw the power of a nation's resistance in Spain.
The power of armies is a visible thing, Formal, and circumscribed in time and space. But who the limits of that power can trace Which a brave people into light can bring ?
Thus sang Wordsworth as he gazed at
the events in Spain. German thinkers
and patriots begun to prepare for the day
of revenge. And that day came
ic ims o ^jjgj^ Napoleon's Grand Army
Napoleon s a- r iu u x-
Q. . — Victims of the insane obsti-
s macy ^^^^y ^^j^ which he clung to
Moscow up to October 19th — succumbed to the snows of the steppes. The succeed- ing campaign of 1813 witnessed the defec- tion first of Prussia, and then of Austria, from his alliance. The three days' battle around Leipzig completed his discomfiture. The South German states turned against him, and, while Wellington was invading the south of France, Italy also fell away from the Emperor's control. Even so he struggled on, omitting to take advantage of the offers of peace which the allies made to him, first at Frankfort, in No- vember, 1813, and next during the spring campaign of 1814 in the east of France.
It is difficult to fathom his reasons for this conduct. The evidence seems to prove that even then, when he had scarcely 50,000 men wherewith to oppose the armies of Russia, Prussia, and Austria in Cham- pagne, and when Wellington had pene- trated into Languedoc, the emperor believed that he could beat the allies and secure more advantageous terms. It was # . the last of his mistakes. The allies declared that never again would they have dealings with him. His own marshals refused to go on with the struggle ; and he abdicated
on April nth, 1814, at Fontainebleau. His escape from Elba, his victorious march to Paris, and the details of the "Waterloo campaign and of his sojourn at St. Helena, need not be recounted here. His doom was sealed in the spring of 1814 when he succeeded in arousing the undying distrust of the allied sovereigns ofth M°°ht and of their Ministers. It will At* '* ^ be more suitable to conclude this brief survey by pointing out some of the chief results of this momentous period — 1789-1815 — in the life of the European peoples.
First, we may notice that the extra- ordinary upheavals of that time imparted an impulse to the Continent which did not wear away even in the time of exhaustion and despair brought about by nearly a quarter of a century of war. Further, while the political results of feudalism were thus almost obliterated in Central Europe, the dead hand of the past was re- moved from nearly all European peoples in social and agrarian affairs. Northern Italy in 1797 decreed the abolition of feudal wars and services and the emancipation of serfs. The Netherlands, the Rhineland, and Switzerland soon took the same steps, either of their own accord or at the bidding of the French Republic. Prussia and Spain, which resented Napoleon's ascendancy, on their own initiative set free their serfs, reformed their land laws, and thus laid the basis for a healthier social life.
The reforms by which the Prussian statesman Stein, in 1 807-1 808, founded local self-government and unified the governing powers of the state would alone give significance to this era. The sense of national unity is another of the signs of awakening in this period. The mighty upheavals of the Napoleonic wars brought men everywhere face to face with ele- mental facts ; and thus a strong sense of racial kinship, which had grown up in England and France during the Hundred - Years War, now spread to
naugura ion Qgj-jjj^ns and Italians. This ?l ^^^^ awakening of the sense of
nationality, largely traceable to the Spanish rising of 1808, is one of the great events of world history; for it im- pelled those peoples to struggle on against the irritating restrictions imposed by the Congress of Vienna, and thus to inaugurate the great movements which brought about Italian and German unity in the decade 1860-1870. J. Holland Rose
4647
4648
EUROPE: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND
NAPOLEONIC
ERA II
THE FLIGHT OF THE KING
AND THE RISING TIDE OF REVOLUTION By Arthur D. Innes, M.A.
"TTIE States-General met on. May 5th, ■■■ 1789, with the question of procedure still unsettled. The Third Estate was in the full sense representative. It had been chosen by double election — that is, in each area the mass of voters chose a body of electors, and the electors appointed their delegates, who received from them instructions, a programme known as a cahier. The delegates were for the most part commoners, a large proportion being lawyers ; but they included a few members of the noblesse — notably Mirabeau — and of the clergy, notably the Abbe Sieyes.
Among the body of the nobles there were several who for good or bad motives favoured reform : Lafayette, the hero of the American War, and Philip " figahte " of Orleans, the king's cousin, who had hopes of getting Louis deposed, and of being made king by popular favour. Among the clergy, those of the higher ranks were almost all of the ancien regime ; of the lower ranks, a majority were with the reformers.
After the opening ceremony, when Necker exhausted the audience by a wearisome panegyric on himself, there came a deadlock. The Third Estate, in accordance with the instructions in their cahiers, refused to recognise the separate existence of the other two Estates. Necker's proposal, that the three Estates should be formed into two chambers on the English analogy, the lower clergy joining the commons,
National Assembly
V .7V\ was ignored. At last, on June Instituted ■ 1 T_ • u • • J u
17th, having been jomed by
a few of the lower clergy, the Third
Estate declared itself to be the National
Assembly, and proceeded to affirm that
the present taxes were authorised only
during the session of the Assembly,
and to take the question of food supply
into consideration. Two days later the
clergy formally joined the Third Estate.
Such an assumption of authority was
not part of the plan as understood by the
Court. The king and Necker had meant
the Third Estate to be supporters not
masters. Reform was good, but it was
to be granted with popular approval, not
enforced by the popular representatives.
When the Assembly gathered on the
» • n r. . 20th, it found the hall in the Louis Defied 1 1 r 1
. hands of workmen, m prepara-
•rv- J r . » tion for a Royal Session. The Third Estate , , , -', . u j *
delegates went in a body to
the Tennis Court, where they took a solemn
oath to continue their meetings where and
when they could, till the Constitution was
completed. Ousted from the Tennis
Court, they found a new place of meeting,
where they were joined by the majority
of the clergy on the 21st.
On the 23rd the Royal Session was held. The king announced the reforms which he would invite the Estates to approve ; but they must act as separate Estates. If they were recalcitrant, the king would make the reforms by decree. King, clergy, and nobles retired ; the Third Estate, swayed by Mirabeau, refused to obey. Next day the majority of the clergy rejoined them, and also the reformers from the nobles. The Crown's attempt was palp- ably defeated ; so palpably that Louis requested the rest of the clergy and nobles to join the Assembly.
But the king now was not guided by Necker, who had not lost his popularity, but by his younger brother, the Comte D'Artois — one day to become Charles X. — and the extreme reactionaries. Their inten- tion was to turn the tables by a coup d'etat. The thing needed was force — an army before which opposition should vanish. But the Garde Frangaise was showing insubordination, an excuse for summoning more troops to the capital. They gathered, a palpable menace ; excitement and
4649
History of the world
alarm ran high, with the less need, since the insubordination spread quickly through their ranks, except among the regiments of foreign mercenaries. The climax came when Paris heard, on July 12th, that Necker and others had been displaced and reactionary Ministers appointed. Muni- cipal government was already at a stand- still ; the body of " electors " to the States-General formed themselves into a provisional municipal government, and began to enrol the Paris militia, which was soon to turn into the National Guard, with its counterparts all over the country. The populace clamoured for arms, and
law. The fall appealed to the world as signalising the ending of an ancient tale of wrong. It was as though the walls of Jericho had fallen at the trumpet blast. The event was hailed with paeans of joy by young enthusiasts ; its actual circum- stances were enveloped in a cloud of myths. As a matter of fact, what it mainly signi- fied was that the people of Paris had no master — was on the way to find out that it was itself master ; and when that became patent, half the young enthusiasts were in a short time finding themselves as passionately opposed to the revolution as they had been passionately in its favour.
THE ILL-FATED RULERS OF FRANCE : MARIE ANTOINETTE AND LOUIS XVI. Louis XVI. was King of France when the Great Revolution broke out, and he fell a victim to the wild passions of his people. The queen, Marie Antoinette, who had supported the king in his fatal policy, also died by the guillotine.
turned itself to the manufacture of pikes. There were scenes of violence, collisions with the mercenaries ; on the 14th the " Invalides " was seized, supplying muskets and ammunition, Paris turned on the Bastille ; the Garde Fran9aise joined the mob ; the rest of the troops could not or would not stir. When the little garrison refused to capitulate, the mob stormed the place with little difficulty. Though the garrison surrendered, the comman- dant and a few officers and soldiers were murdered. The Bastille had fallen.
The Bastille was the symbol of the old tyranny, of arbitrary rule, of ordered force, which could override justice and
4650
The physical force was no longer on the side of the existing order ; it had passed to the side of the revolution.
Meanwhile, the Assembly was in session at Versailles, expecting the coup d'etat which was intended. The news arriving that night meant the complete rout of the Court party. The next day the king announced to them the withdrawal of the troops and the recall of Necker. A band of the popular representatives — Bailly the President, Lafayette, and others, hastened to Paris with the joyful news, and were received with acclamation. Bailly was promptly nominated Mayor of Paris, La- fayette was made General of the National
QJ rt a << ■-' c ? o
2 3 ixi—'
S !->» J)
4651
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Guard. Necker's return through France — he had left the country — ^was a sort of triumphal progress. Louis himself, cou- rageously enough, made a state entry into the capital, and was greeted as the restorer of French liberties. On the other hand, Artois, and others of the most prominent among the reactionary noblesse fled across the border. The emigration had begun.
It was by no means the intention of the Assembly to be simply destructive, nor was it with de- structive intent that the new Paris munici- pality or the National Guard had been formed — .both of which found immediate imitators all over the country. But the Paris mob had tasted blood ; there were more lynchings, and these found their counterpart throughout the south - eastern provinces in risings of the peasantry, burn- ings of chateaux, and the like. And in Paris itself, the Committee of Electors, which had taken upon itself the task of governing the city, was dis- placed by an elected body, at once less capable and less inde- pendent, its members ready to be swayed by the dictation of the least responsible of their constituents. There was no sign that the fall of the Bastille was to initiate an era of orderly self-government by the people.
The National Assembly, however, was honestly zealous to find genuine remedies for the prevailing evils. With a pathetic behef in the enunciation of high principles as a general curative, it was passing its time in abstract discussion of the Rights of
4652
CAMILLE DESMOULINS AT THE PALAIS ROYAL Desmoulins belonged to the extreme party of Revolutionists, and the above picture shows him addressing an enthusiastic gathering in the grounds of the Palais Royal. As a member of the National Convention, he voted for the death of the king, in 1793. Desmoulins was himself arrested, and died by the guillotine on April 5th, 1794.
From the drawing by C. M. Sheldon
Man, when it was roused to concrete action by the reports of disorder and outrage. On August loth it set itself to pass a series of reforms, wiping out a host of privileges, and earning for that day the title of " St. Bartholomew of Property." The feudal rights of the noblesse to personal service, such as the corvee, and to juris- diction were abolished; what We should call the game laws went the same way. These enactments were proposed not by commoners, but by members of the noblesse. In like manner, the guild restrictions on the practice of trades and crafts and the transferability of labour were done away with.
In effect, feu- dalism was sud- den ly swept away in a single night by one great wave of emotion ; legal rights which, however evil, had been part and parcel of the social fabric were blotted out in a moment without compen- sat ion — very much as if slavery had been suddenly abol- ished without compensation to slave - owners — incidentally, of course, with an extremely dis- quieting effect on the contiguous feudal provinces of the empire. Still more serious, from the European point of view, was the fact that in some frontier pro- vinces actual treaty rights of German princes were over-ruled by these measures. The reforms of August 4th embodied principles which were true and sound, but their sudden, instead of gradual, appli- cation to a system built up on totally different principles necessarily involved ?iri
THE RISING TIDE OF REVOLUTION
immense amount of injustice, and intensi- fied a hundredfold the instability of a social and political fabric which was already quaking. By this business of destruction the way to construction was prepared, and to this the "Constituent ' ' Assembly now de- voted itself. The process divided the body more definitely into parties — •the " right " representing reaction, the centre modera- tion, the left radicalism, with its various types. The reactionaries were important mainly from their readiness to combine with one or another radical section in order to carry out a policy of obstruction. The
and Lafayette. The combination was virtu- ally impossible, because the three men were incompatibles ; and Mirabeau could not displace Necker, because the Court hated him, and there was no political group which either understood or trusted him, in spite of his extraordinary power of swaying both the Assembly and the populace.
The form of the new Constitution Wcis the first question to be dealt with ; a committee appointed thereto had drafted a scheme. The executive was to remain with the Crown. The legislature was to be a representative chamber, a senate, and
THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE: THE MOB STORMING THE PRISON To the people of France the Bastille was the symbol of the old tyranny, of arbitrary rule, of ordered force, which could override justice and law, and when the nation rose in revolt the famous prison was fiercely attacked. When the little garrison refused to capitulate, the mob stormed the place, efifected an entrance, and the Bastille was destroyed.
moderates included many men of ability, who aimed at a constitution after the British model, and saw with alarm that the revolutionary forces were becoming too powerful to be controlled. The radicals included academics like Sieyes, enthusiasts like Barnave, Duport, and Lameth, fana- tics like Robespierre. And outside of all the parties stood Mirabeau, the single titanic personality, the one man who might conceivably have given the revolu- tion a different course, but whose only chance of doing so lay in his displacing Necker as Minister, or uniting with him
the Crown. The senate was not to consist of hereditary peers, as in Eng- land—which was, of course, the general model — but of Crown nominees presented by the departments. The Crown was to have the power of veto. But the senate did not suit the reactionaries, since it was not to be aristocratic ; it did not suit the extreme democrats, because it was not representative. The two wings combined to kill the second chamber. Then arose the question of the royal veto. The Rights of Man could not be squared with an individual's right to veto
4653
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the demands of a nation — just as the equality of all men could not be squared with the theory of a senate. The ex- tremists clamoured ; the mob shouted. Despotism and slavery would be re- stored ! The Assembly ended by adopting the compromise of the arch-compro- miser Necker. The Crown was granted a suspensive veto. If a measure were passed twice, the veto must lapse.
But while the Assembly debated the creation of a constitution which had no basis in the national history — thus differing fundamentally from its supposed model, the British Constitu- tion, which was an organic his- torical growth — a fresh outside force had been developing : an energetic and vociferous Press, which poured out a flood of newspapers and pamphlets. The winds of doc- trine, blowing from every CO n c e i vable quarter, pro- duced wild tur- moil in men's minds, though as yet in Paris, La- fayette, with his National Guard o f respectable citizens, kept violence within bounds. Much of the most dan- gerous agitation is attributed to the sinister designs of Orleans and his allies ; and a mob for whom it was still hard enough to provide sufficient food was an instrument which responded readily to the agitator's touch.
Wild rumours as to the destruction of food supplies by the aristocrats found popular credence. A royalist banquet was given at Versailles by the officers of a newly arrived regiment ; it was re- ported that the tricolour, the new national badge, had been trampled under foot. On October 5th an extraordinary mob, the women of Paris, poured out to
4654
Versailles, to interview the king — ^not without an attendant masculine mob. Reluctant Lafayette, with the National Guard, arrived at night from Paris and restored some sort of order ; but in the early morning rioters broke into the palace, murdering the soldiers they found. Only by the self-devotion of a few guards was the royal family saved from probable massacre, before Lafayette appeared with the National Guard and cleared out the rioters. But the mob was clamouring without that the king and queen must go back to Paris ; and the National Guard, in spite of Lafayette's popularity, were obviously in sym- pathy with the mob's demands. The royal family was carried off to Paris ; the Assembly trans - f e rr ed itself thither. Their presence in the capital was the visible sign that the promise of the day of the Bastille was being fulfilled. Paris was su- preme in France, and the mob was all but supreme in Paris.
For the time, however, the effect was in favour of order, more especially as Orleans was obliged to leave the country. The rnob was not supreme yet, and some riots were firmly dealt with. But several of the moderates began to withdraw from the Assembly, the grouping of parties began to alter, and their differentiation to become more definite. The organisation of the groups took a new development through the formation of political clubs. Of these the most important was the Jacobin, named from the quondam Jacobin monas- tery where it met. From its original character as an association of Breton delegates it became a club which included most of the reforming leaders. Now the
THE RISING TIDE OF REVOLUTION
preponderance of extremists drove Lafayette, Sieyes, and others to secede and form a new club of their own, leaving the Jacobins to develop the extremist organisation all over the country. The reactionaries imitated the example set them, and sundry other clubs were started on similar lines. And every group held its own discus- sions, ran its own jour- nals, and issued its own pamphlets.
It was in these altered and altering circum- stances that the Con- stituent Assembly con- tinued its work. The moderates hoped to check the swelling democratic current through the old provincial parlements, with their traditions, which were both anti- monarchical and anti- democratic. But the Assembly proceeded to
MIRABEAU Belong-ing: to the noblesse, he was the one man who mig^ht have prevented the Revolution suspend the parlements by reconcUlng the monarchy with the demo-
and reorganise provincial "^^^y- ''"* ^^ '^^^^ '" '^^^' before his task was
administration after the "mpleted, and the revolutionary tide swept on.
ideals of symmetrical and mathematical perfection so dear to the brain of the Abbe Sieyes, ignoring, just as it did in evolving the scheme of the new Constitution, the principle on which Burke in England laid so much stress — that the new should be de- veloped out of the old, not sub- stituted for it ; that sound reform is a process of adaptation to altered environ- ment, not of ex- periments in search of ab- stract logical ideals. The divi- sion of the country into administra- tive provinces had
LAFAYETTE AND BAILLY Lafayette had taken part in the American War of Independence, and proposed to the National Assembly a declaration of rigrhts based on the American plan ; he formed the National Guard and worked for order and humanity. Jean Sylvain BaiUy was President of the National Assembly and Mayor of Paris ; losing his popu-
fiTOWn out of the l^^tyi he retired, but was seized, brought to Pciris, and guillotined.
old division of feudal areas, with correspond- ing variations in the local system of govern- ment. The provinces were abolished, and the country was cut up into " departments " on geographical lines,
approximating to a chessboard pattern. All the departments were to be adminis- tered on identical ideal lines, uniform and symmetrical. The department was divided into districts (arrondissements), and the district into cantons. There was a council of thirty-six, with five executive officers for the department as a whole ; subordinate to this were a separate council and executive for each dis- trict. The canton was a merely electoral division. The " citizens " — that is, all who paid a minimum amount in direct taxation — in the canton chose " electors " ; the electors chose the councils and officers for districts and departments, and the de- puties for the Assembly. A higher " taxable " quali- fication was required for members of the councils, and a higher still for deputies. So far the re- construction proceeded palpably on middle-class lines. But the canton itself was divided into self-governing units called communes, each having its own council and executive elected directly by the people ; virtually a purely democratic institution, which in a very short time was to fall com- pletely under the control of the Jacobin clubs. The judicial system was reorganised on the same local basis, and the ap- pointment of judges, from among the lawyers, was transferred from the Crown to the " electors."
The Church, too, had to be dealt with ; her endow- ments were tempt- ing to an exnausted treasury, and the distribution of Church property was suffi- ciently scandalous. Necker in his necessity had already obtained from the Assembly, swayed by Mirabeau, a grant of one-fourth
4655
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of all incomes ; but even that had been swallowed up by the enormous expenses entailed in the process of reconstruction. The theory was advanced that endow- ments were the property of the nation, only held in trust by the Church. The state took possession, guaranteeing a minimum income to every cure and the cost of public worship. But since the announcement that Church property be- longed to the state failed to restore credit, the next step was to issue a vast paper currency (assignats) on the security of the Church lands ; that is, the holder could
of the clergy retired, and became known as non- jurors. The process of fixing the limitation of powers under the new Constitution was completed by the de- bates and by resolutions on the question whether the Crown should have the power of making war and peace.
Mirabeau, who still hoped to create a strong government by the combination of a democratic legislature with a monarchical executive, fought hard for the rights of the Crown, and the result was a formula asserting that the right belonged to " the nation." War could be declared only
THE ARREST OF LOUIS XVI. WHILE ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE FROM FRANCE Unable any longer to delude himself as to the impending danger to the throne, the king decided to make his escape from the distracted country. On June 20th, 1791, under the cover of darkness, Louis and Marie Antoinette secretly took flight from Paris, but before they reached the border the king was recognised. The party was stopped at Varennes and ignominiously brought back to the capital. On the king's return, his authority was suspended.
From tlie painting by T. F. Marshall
claim the equivalent in Church lands. The plan proved a failure financially. It was not till some months later — in the middle of 1790 — that the " Civil Constitu- tion of the Clergy " was completed. The religious houses having already been suppressed, the departments were turned into bishoprics, and the bishops and parish priests were to be chosen by the electors, papal authority being ignored. Priests and bishops were shortly afterwards required to take an oath recognising the civil supremacy, whereupon the greater part
4656
by a decree of the Assembly introduced by the king. Finally, the unanimity and con- cord of the nation was celebrated by a great patriotic demonstration on the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, when king and queen, the Assembly, delegates from all the departments, and a huge assembled crowd took the oath of loyalty to the new Consti- tution, amid wild excitement and enthu- siasm. Nevertheless, disorder continued. A soldiery whose pay is not forthcoming is a dangerous element, and in August there was a serious mutiny at Nancy,
296
4657
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
suppressed only after fierce fighting. It was at this juncture that Necker suddenly melted out of politics and withdrew from France, almost unnoticed. If the Court would have frankly placed its confidence in Mirabeau, it is conceivable that he might have succeeded in attaining his own ideal ; but the Court would not denounce the Emigres, and Mirabeau Mirabeau was now himself enounce ^gjj^g j^otly denounced as a "^ traitor by the Jacobins. Before he had succeeded in converting Louis in his favour, the tremendous strain of his public energies, coupled with the excesses of his private life, broke the great tribune down, and he died in April, 1791. The one man who might have reconciled the monarchy with the democracy had gone.
In spite of July 14th demonstrations, there had never yet been an approach to mutual confidence between the Court and the Assembly. Louis was sincerely desirous of his people's good ; but his whole entourage saw in the events of the still uncompleted two years which had passed since the convening of the States- General nothing but a greedy and in- sensate attack on privileges which they regarded as rights inherently necessary to the existence of social order.
Mirabeau had urged on the king that his presence in Paris deprived him of all independence and power of action, that the vigorous initiative essential to the recovery of confidence in the king's capacity or sincerity could be displayed only if he took up his residence at a distance from the domineering and turbid capital. But this was a very different thing from the escape out of French territory which the Court now contem- plated. Knowing or fearing that any departure from Paris would be forcibly prevented, the king and queen took flight secretly by night on June 20th. But before they reached the border Louis P t t i ^^^ recognised. At Varennes FlTht" * *^® party was stopped and of 'fh K" ignominiously brought back to ^^^ Paris. When the king's flight was discovered, the Assembly promptly took upon itself the whole of the sovereign functions ; and when he was brought back to Paris the suspension of his authority was continued until the Constitution should be actually and formally completed. This caused a seces- sion of royalists from the Assembly, while,
4658
on the other hand, the Jacobins began to demand that the suspension should be permanent and the Constitution altered into a republic instead of a limited monarchy.
For the time, however, this in turn drove several of those who had hitherto been looked upon as the chiefs of the advanced party into alliance with the moderates, Sieyes and Lafayette. This left the thorough-going Jacobins, among whom Robespierre, Danton and Marat now exercised the principal in- fluence, free to work on very extreme lines ; and in the country, though not in the Assembly, their organisation made them far more powerful than the other sections.
The attitude of the Constituent Assembly during these last months of its career recalls that of the Long Parlia- ment in 1649, and of the Rump after- wards. It had done a great deal of work very conscientiously ; it was thoroughly satisfied with itself ; and it was unaware that it had lost control, which had passed to a very much more powerful organisa- tion— 'in England, the army, in France, the Jacobin club. Unconsciously it had already sealed its own fate
r t r"^ ... and the doom of its own of Lafayette s ,• , ■ a • ir
Influence P^^^^^ ^y registermg a self-
denymg ordmance. When the Constitution was brought to com- pletion, the Constituent Assembly was to be dissolved and a new Legislative Assembly called ; and members of the old Assembly were to be barred from sitting in the new one.
This, by the way, presents not a resem- blance but a very strong contrast to the Long Parliament and the Rump, which were more inclined to perpetuate their own powers. The new men were certain to be largely Jacobin candidates, and without the experience which the present dele- gates had acquired. This was made the more certain by a serious collision in July between Lafayette with the National Guard and a mob which had been set in motion by the Jacobins. The Guard were driven into firing on the mob ; Lafayette's influence had rested mainly on his personal popularity, which was destroyed by his action on this occasion.
The Constitution was formally accepted by Louis on September 14th ; on the 30th, the Constituent Assembly was dis- solved. On October ist, the Legislative Assembly opened.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
"IT
*'^:^
■m*'-
III
BY ARTHUR D. INNES, M.A.
THE REVOLUTION TRIUMPHANT
THE LAUNCHING OF THE FIRST REPUBLIC
DEFORE the career of the Constituent ^ Assembly was ended affairs in France had produced in other countries an attitude ominous of war. In England, the section of Whigs headed by Charles James Fox were enthusiastic* partisans of the Revolution ; but Burke had broken with them, and his splendid denuncia- tions were exercising a powerful influence. Still, however, and for some time to come, the attitude of Pitt and his Ministry was favourable rather than otherwise. Nothing in the nature of intervention was contemplated.
On the Continent, on the other hand, the Tsarina Catharine II. was anxious to embroil Austria and Prussia with France in order to free her own action in Poland, where her influence was threatened ; while German states had already received provocation — as noted — by the proceedings of August 4th, 1790,
-, , . the princes looking upon the
Movement in „ ,■ re i iu „
P . . compensation offered them
.*^. ""^ B ' . for the deprivation of treaty
Ancien Regime ■ , , ^. , , , , -^
rights as inadequate ; the
Austrian Emperor was the French queen's brother ; and the emigres, established at Coblenz, were actively agitating for foreign aid in restoring the ancien regime, a project which Gustavus III. of Sweden ardently advocated. In the brief period of his rule the Emperor Leopold had already acquired such prestige that it practically lay with him to decide whether Europe should or should not intervene ; and he was too cool-headed to do so voluntarily. Nevertheless, the predicament in which the French monarchy placed itself by the abortive flight to Varennes, com- bined with the general pressure which he had hitherto succeeded in resisting, forced Leopold's hand, and in July he invited the Powers to combine in sup- port of the French monarchy. Until the king was once more a free agent they should refuse to recognise the authority of the existing French Government,
and should prepare to enforce that point of view in arms if necessary. At the same time, he brought Prussia into close diplo- matic accord with himself. At the end of August he met Frederic William at Pilnitz, where the two monarchs emphatically L • XVI snubbed the Comted'Artois and . . ■ the emigres, but issued a joint
.. ^ "^ declaration in favour of inter- vention, provided the other Powers were in agreement. It was by no means Leopold's intention to carry out'the threat, for he was well aware that Pitt would stand aloof ; moreover, the actual purpose of the declaration seemed to have been effected when, a fortnight later, Louis accepted the Constitution and became king again. Leopold very promptly announced that the raison d'etre of the declaration had thus been removed, and the declaration itself cancelled. It was hoped that the crisis was passed.
In France, however, these proceedings had not been recognised as what may be called a manoeuvre to take the wind out of the sails of the emigres and their partisans ; they appeared in the light of an insolent attempt to dictate to France as to the conduct of her internal affairs. The new Legislative Assembly met in a spirit of aggressive defiance which boded ill for the peace of Europe. The members were without political experience — that had been assured by the self-denying ordinance of the Constituent Assembly. Among them was a mere sprinkling of Royalists, and only a small band of " Feuil- lants," the name given to the supporters ... of the Constitution which the
ivisions j^g^ Assembly had been at such mong e p^-j^g ^^ construct. The bulk of the delegates fell into two advanced sections, the Girondins, of whom the nucleus was a group of enthusiastic idealists, and the Jacobins, who gathered round the fanatical extremists — the section which came to be known as " the Moun- tain," from the elevation of the seats
4659.
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
which they occupied in the Assembly. The Crown might have saved itself before by placing itself in the hands of Mirabeau. It might conceivably have saved itself now by unqualified co-opera- tion with a smaller man than Mirabeau, La- fayette, with the support of the Feuillants. But the queen hated Lafayette, as she had long hated Mira- beau ; Louis could not shake off the definitely reactionary influences, and even at the best, Lafayette's popularity had waned, and a change in the organisation of the National Guard de- prived him of his ex- clusive control. Within the Assembly, the Feuil- lants were not a con- spicuously able group, whereas the Girondins— Robespierre
so named after the dis- a proniinent figure in the revolutionary times.
. . u" V. ^^* elected first deputy for Pans to the
tnct from Wnicri some National Convention, and became one of the
of their prominent rulers of France. He was popular for a time,
members Came^— were in- hut fell from favour and was guillotined in 1794.
tellectually brilliant as well as being for the most part intensely in earnest. With the Mountain, as with the Feuillants, the real chiefs were outside the Assembly — Robespierre and the other
heads of the Jacobin club.
The king's persistence in relying on "royalist" Ministers, who were almost without supporters in the Assembly, made harmonious working practically impos- sible. In November, edicts were passed against the emigres and against the non- juring clergy, the former being in arms on the frontier, while the latter were foment- ing civil outbreaks. There- upon the king apphed the veto. The constitutional
GENERAL DUMOURIEZ Resigning the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take command in the field, he defeated the Prussians in 1792,
have been submitted to the Assembly by the Crown. But by his action Louis virtually challenged the Assembly, and placed a weapon in the hands of the Republicans of the Gironde and the Mountain.
Moreover, on the ques- tion of foreign relations, the Feuillants were effec- tively in agreement with the Girondins. Lafayette probably, and the Girondins avowedly, ex- pected to derive increased political weight from a patriotic war, and both groups genuinely and not unjustifiably resented the pretensions of any foreign power to interfere with French domestic affairs. That the Mountain happened for its own reasons to be more pacifically inclined, and so far in accord with the Crown, was of no advan- tage to the Crown. The result was that the king at the close of the year was compelled to dismiss his War Minister, and appoint a Feuillant, and to address to the Elector of Treves and to the emperor demands for the disbanding of the emigre forces. The emigres refused V to be disbanded, and Leopold's
answer was a virtual refusal. Thereupon a large force was massed on the frontier, and an ultimatum sent to the emperor on January 25th, re- quiring a satisfactory answer by March 4th. On this, Leo- pold formed a close defensive alliance with Prussia ; but the direction of affairs was snatched from his hands by death, and he was succeeded on the throne by his son, Francis II., while Louis found
question was immediately and the Austrians in the following himself forced to reconstruct
^ . , 1 ., ., ■, -^ year. He died in England m 1823. ,.,,.., , ., ,
raised whether the decrees ^ ^ were technically laws to which the veto could apply or executive measures fall- ing within the control of the Assembly absolutely. Probably the true position was that they should have been regarded as executive measures to prevent a civil and perhaps a foreign war, which ought to
4660.
'" """"' his Ministry from the ranks of the Girondins, Dumouriez becoming Minister for War. The change did not make for peace, and resulted in Louis being compelled, on March 20th, 1791, to propose to the Assembly, in accordance with the forms of the new Constitution, the declaration of war against Austria,
THE REVOLUTION TRIUMPHANT
where Francis as yet was not emperor. War with Austria would mean . also war with Prussia and Sardinia. Neither Russia nor Great Britain certainly, nor Spain probably, would take any part. Gustavus III. of Sweden, who would have eagerly joined in, to restore the old French monarchy, had been assassinated a month before. Dumouriez, though associated with the Girondins, had aims analogous to those of Mirabeau, and saw in a suc- cessfully conducted war the prospect of
which constitute a " natural " barrier, strategically defensible. Such a frontier may be provided by the sea, by mountain ranges or by rivers. On three sides and on part of the fourth side France was already all but girdled by the ocean, the Pjnrenees, and the Alps ; it remained to make the Rhine the completion of her boundary, and to absorb Savoy on the south. The expectation that the people of the Austrian Netherlands would prefer association or incorporp.tion with France to their existing
THE SONG OF THE REVOLUTION: ROUGET DE LISLE SINGING "THE MARSEILLAISE" "The Marseillaise," the National Anthem of France, was born amid the tumult of the Revolution, being written in a smg:.e night by an officer named Rouget de Lisle. In the picture De Lisle is seen singing the song to his friends.
establishing something like Mirabeau's ideal of dividing the exercise of the sovereign powers between a strong mon- archy and a strong democracy ; and his energies were concentrated on the war. It was Dumouriez who now developed a conception which became and remained an important factor in French foreign politics — that of acquiring for France her " natural " frontier, which has its analogy in Lord Beaconsfield's " scientific frontier " for India ; a frontier fixed not by considera- tions of homogeneity of race, language or customs, but by geographical features
subjection to the Austrian monarchy, against which they had very recently been in open rebellion, encouraged a plan of campaign which made those provinces the immediate objective. Three armies were sent to the front under Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Luchner. But the first engagejnent resulted in ignominious defeat, the men. behaving so badly that Rocham- beau resigned his command in disgust. The soldiers, on their part, believed that their officers were " aristocrats," who in- tended to betray them, a distrust which sufficiently accounted for their misconduct.
466IJ
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The suspicions of treachery were no less rife in Paris, where the sympathies of the Court were notoriously and in- evitably on the side of the enemy. The news of the opening fiasco led to the immediate formation of a new armed force of " pikemen " for the capital, formed from the lower classes — ^not from the bourgeoisie, like the National Guard, to whose moderate tendencies the pikemen served as a counterpoise. The As- sembly proceeded to decree the formation, outside Paris, of a camp
DANTON Like so many of the leading men of the time, Danton, who has been described as
were most closely con- nected with the Gironde. Dumouriez, conscious that he would be power- less if he severed himself from his party, resigned on Louis' refusal to withdraw the veto.
Louis fell back on an incompetent Feuillant Ministry. Onjuneaoth, the Paris mob, probably with the connivance of the Mayor, Petion, a Jacobin, invaded the Tuileries ; but although the queen was insulted and bullied, and Louis himself was compelled to wear the " red cap " of the Liberty, he refused to
of volunteers from the greatest figure that feii in the Revoiution.ended be intimidated. When departments, and the his life at the guillotine. He was an original, p^^tion himself appeared,
expatriation of the non- '^^'^^^' °^ ^^^ Committee of Public Safety. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ iuduccd tO
juring clergy. The king vetoed both retire. The riot produced a certain re- decrees, and dismissed the Ministers who action, but the opportunity was wasted.
PARIS IN REVOLT : THE MOB IN THE PALACE OF THE TUILERIES After their unsuccessful attempt to escape from France, the king and queen returned to the Palace of the Tuileries, which was invaded by the mob on June 20th, 1792. Seeking refuge in an inner room, Marie Antoinette, with her children and her sister Elizabeth, stood for hours behind a barricade of tables and chairs, exposed to the reviling? of the crowd that poured through the royal residence, heedless of the queen's appeal to their better feelings* From the painting by A. Elmore, R.A., by permission of the Art Unioh
4662
THE REVOLUTION TRIUMPHANT
Louis hoped that foreign intervention would restore him unshackled by alliance with any party. Lafayette hastened from the front, in the hope that his pre- sence might restore order ; but he found both the court and the Assembly hostile, and even his National Guard disaffected, and could only withdraw again.
If anything was required to raise the popular excitement to the explosive point, it was provided by the Prussian declara- tion of war in July, followed by the manifesto of Brunswick, the Prussian commander, threatening penalties on Paris if the king or queen suffered harm. The contingents of volunteers from the depart- ments— the veto on the formation of the
defend him. He, with the royal family, escaped to the Assembly, which promised them protection. The Swiss Guard at the Tuileries alone refused to desert their posts, and after a desperate resistance were cut to pieces; the mob massacred every man they could find in the palace.
Not the Assembly, but the new Com- mune was now completely master of the situation, for the Commune not only swayed the mob, but had captured the material means of government. The Assembly could only obey its orders. The monarchy was suspended ; Danton was made Minister of Justice. Lafayette, with the army, proposed to march on Paris, but neither the men nor the commanders
IN THE NAME OF LIBERTY' : ENROLLING VOLUNTEERS IN THE REPUBLICAN ARMY
camp had been withdrawn— arrived ; those from Marseilles brought with them the " Marseillaise," thenceforth to be the hymn of revolution. The national celebration of July 14th was virtually a Republican demonstration. Even Lafayette and a too royalist Assembly became the mark of popular clamour. On the night of August 9th a rising was organised in Paris. Arrangements were made to replace the Paris government by a provisional com- mune, with Danton at its head. The commander of the National Guard was put out of the way and replaced by a mob leader. With the dawn of August loth the volunteers were brought up, and the king found that there were no troops to
would support him, Dumouriez declaring that their business was with the threatened invasion. Lafayette and his associates, denounced as traitors by the Assembly at the bidding of the Commune, retired over the frontier, and vanished political!" . In fact, Lafayette was captured by tlie enemy and held in detention as a prisoner of war for five years.
Meanwhile, the Prussians, under Bruns- wick, were advancing. Lafayette and his colleague, Luchner, were replaced by Dumouriez and Kellerman. Longwy capitulated ; on September 2nd, Verdun fell, and the way to Paris was open. To increase the desperate condition of affairs, civil war broke out ; the peasants of La
4663
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Vendue, where, as previously noted, the relations of the populace with the gentry were of a patriarchal and friendly type, rose in su})port of the Crown and the clergy. For desperate circumstances, Danton devised a more than desperate remedy. There must be no shadow of risk , that the action of the execu-
Xr'^'ht * f ^^^^ should be in any way " s"* "t °" hampered by opposition ; it uspec s j^yg^ |3g 3^g fj-gg from control
as the most absolute despotism ; to that end sheer terror must be the means. On the night of August 29th, commissioners, nominally in search of arms, conducted a house to house visitation throughout Paris, and arrested and flung into prison some four thousand "suspects." The mob was taught' tliat the " aristocrats " were only waiting for " patriots " to depart to the front,, ia order to carry out a massacre. When the news arrived of the fall of Verdun, organised bodies were allowed to enter the prison's, and for three days there was a systematic slaughter. Similar atrocities were carried out in other cities ; the numbers of the slain were reckoned in thousands.
But now at the front the situation changed. While Frederic William and Brunswick were discussing whether an immediate advance should be made upon Paris, Dumouriez was infusing a new spirit of patriotic confidence into the French troops, and when the Prussians attacked them at Valmy they held their ground. The Prussians retired, and from this time the enemy realised, as did the French troops themselves, that the latter had once more become formidable. Moreover, Russian action in Poland was now demanding the serious attention of Prussia, which could no longer afford to let its armies be absorbed in a monarchist crusade, and Brunswick drew off his troops towards the Rhine.
The cannonade of Valmy — it hardly claims to be called a battle — took place on September 30th. In the mean- time, the Assembly had con- tinued its session, but, under the orders of the Commune, had fixed September 2ist as the date for its own dissolution and for the assembling in its place of a new National Convention, to which the old self-denying ordinance of the Constituent Assembly did not apply, and for which the electorate and the delegates Were freed from the
4664
France Proclaimed a Republic
former property qualifications. Its first step on its opening day was to proclaim that the monarchy was at an end, and France was a republic.
The Constituent Assembly had been a reforming body, in which men like Lafay- ette, Mirabeau, or Sieycs had all bceii reckoned as of the advanced party. Iii the Legislative Assembly the ideas which had dominated such men were regarded as conservative and even as reactionary ; the representative section of the advanced party was to be found among the idealists of the Gironde. In the Convention, the republican Girondins were the party of order, and their opponents were the revo- lutionaries of the Mountain. From the Second Assembly the Royalists had almost vanished ; in the Third Assembly, a like fate had befallen the Constitutionalists.
In the Convention, at the outset, the
preponderance lay with the Girondins ;
the members of the Mountain were much
fewer. But the very considerable body
known as " the Plain," which was attached
definitely neither to the Gironde nor to the
Mountain, was very soon under the prac-
tical control of the latter or of
c u '^°h t ^^^ leaders, who were in effect
,, ..... . the dictators of the Jacobin
Undisciplined . . • j r ^iT r> •
organisation and of the Pans
Commune. Theoretically, indeed, there was no great difference between the aims of the Gironde and the Mountain. But the cultured intellectuals of the Gironde shrank back with a shudder from the merciless popular tyranny ex- pressed in the September massacres, the author of which they would willingly have punished. Their own ranks, however, were devoid of discipline, and their leaders had no conception of political tactics. They attacked Robespierre, Danton, and Marat instead of seeking the alliance of Danton, without having the evidence to carry their charges home ; while the centralising system of their opponents, which concentrated all effective control in the hands of a few men who knew their own minds, gave those opponents an enormous advantage.
Nevertheless, amid the contests of thf Mountain and Gironde work was done by committees of the Convention outside the realms of party warfare which has re- mained of permanent value — such as the introduction of the uniform " metric " system of weights and measures in place of the old chaotic variety, the preparation
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Republican Armies' Series of Victories
of Condorcet's great scheme of systematic national education, and the preliminary work on the Civil Code, which made the way ready for the Code Napoleon. A curious aberration, however, was the in- vention of a new Revolution Calendar, starting the year One of the New Era from September 21st, 1792. Cosmic laws un- kindly forbade the perfect application of the decimal system, but logic substituted for the old haphazard desig- nations of the months titles connected with their naturalistic associations, such asTher- midor, Fructidor, Brumaire. The new cal- endar was not put in force till October, 1793. The armies of the Republic prospered during the autumn. The population of Savoy was quite ready for incorporation, having no affection for the Sardinian monarchy, and practically no resistance was offered. In the Rhine provinces, which the operations in the north had left undefended, Custine advanced and cap- tured Mainz and Frankfort without diffi- culty. In the north, Dumouriez invaded Belgium, where he inflicted on the Aus- trians at Jemappes a defeat which caused them to retire ; and here, too, the popula- tion welcomed the invaders.
On the same day as the victory at Jemappes the Convention took the aggres- sive step of declaring the commerce of the River Scheldt to be free, although the con- trol of it had been guaranteed to Holland by treaty. These proceedings, however, had an important effect on the international situation. Hitherto the French had, in theory at least, been fighting in self-defence, with every justification for resisting the armed intervention of foreign powers in the domestic affairs of France. Now, France was assuming the aggressive, annexing territories, ejecting governments, and claiming by her own fiat to cancel treaties. Two things were still wanting. The first
was supplied when, in December, the Re- public issued a decree proclaiming that in all districts^occupied by French armies the existing governments and all privileges were to be abolished, popular assemblies summoned, and the country taken under the protection of the Republic. The second followed when, in Danton's phrase, the Republic " flung down to the kings the head of a king as the gage of battle." The Jacobins saw in the slaying of the king the opportunity of cutting France off from her historic past, of appealing to the passions of the Paris mob, and of denounc- ing as traitors all who opposed the design. The Girondins shuddered, detested, but dared to offer only a qualified resistance. A committee reported that the king might lawfully be tried by the Convention. The discovery of some of Louis's earlier corre- spondence strengthened the clamour against him. The Mountain began to demand the summary execution of the king without trial, on the principle that the security of the people overrides all law. To escape that extreme, the Giron- dins assented to the trial ; to his eternal honour, Malesherbes came forth from his sixteen years of political retirement to volunteer his services in the king's defence. An attempt was made to withdraw the decision from a court dominated by the Paris Commune and the Paris mob, and to refer it to the Departmental Assemblies.
• XVI '^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ opened in jj?"" ■ December, the galleries being G*^il r * crowded with an intimidatmg mob. Under such conditions, on January 14th, 1793, the verdict was given, a majority of eleven voting in favour of the guillotine. On the 21st Louis's head fell. Within three weeks Great Britain was added to the nations against whom the Republic had declared war — a war which was really to be ended only after two-and- twenty years, on the field of Waterloo.
THE FRENCH VICTORY OVER THE AUSTRIANS AT THE BATTLE OF JEMAPPES IN 1792
4b66
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
IV
BY ARTHUR D. INNES, M.A.
UNDER THE REIGN OF TERROR
AND THE COMING OF THE MAN OF DESTINY
HITHERTO France had been at war with Austria, Prussia, the princes of the frontier provinces, and Sardinia or Savoy. Prussia was vacillating between sympathy for the French monarchy and distrust of Russia in Poland; between aversion from the revolution in France and an equally intense aversion from the emigres. Austria was fighting at a distance from her base, in conjunction with an ally with whom she was by no means in close accord. The other powers were standing out of the quarrel, Pitt being, indeed, rather disposed to recognise the Republic and seek its alliance. But in the closing months of 1792 and January, 1793, some important changes had taken place. Public opinion in England was turned angrily against France by the September massacres. The French Government, with its successes in the field, was eager R J ^*^ challenge the world in ,^^\ ** ^ arms, under the conviction o Challenge ^^^^ -^ England, as well as
the World 1 u xu 1
elsewhere, the people were
groaning under the tyranny of a political system which they were yearning to over- throw. The Jacobins were zealous to impose popular liberties as understood by themselves on the nations of Europe. The Girondins anticipated with alarm the results of a peace which would scatter over France 300,000 soldiers for whom the existing industrial conditions would not readily provide civil employment. On the other hand, the foreign territories now in French occupation were beginning to realise that liberation, as interpreted by the Republic, was not an unqualified bless- ing. In Eftgland, though not in Ireland, the demand for liberation was practically non-existent, and it was soon to be proved that Great Britain was the most im- placable and also the most stable of all the Powers challenged by the regicide Re- public. The war had been forced upon a Minister who, up to the last moment, had
done his best to avert it, but when once it had begun did his best to maintain and ex- tend the European coalition with a greater zeal than that of any other of the Powers. But the strength of coalitions depends very much less on their aggregate mass than on their sustained co- c" dT^ operation and unity of aim. of°PoIand Spain, Portugal Naples, and Holland might be, and were, all drawn into this coaHtion ; but at the best these were only make-weights, and on land Great Britain herself was little more — as yet. The effective military powers were Prussia and Austria. But Austria and Prussia were not preparing to devote their energies completely and decisively to the repression of France.
At this crisis Prussia became absorbed in a fresh partition of what remained of Poland with the Tsarina, on lines the reverse of satisfactory to Austria, whose interest lay in the maintenance of an inde- pendent Poland strong enough to serve as a barrier against the westward advance of Russia. Until the close of 1795 the Polish problem perpetually distracted the two German powers from the systematic prosecution of the war against the French.
Under such conditions it is not surprising that the coalition failed to strike decisive blows in spite of the pressing difficulties under which the French Government, still nominally Girondin, was labouring. It was only for a very brief moment that the enormous odds which France had raised against herself served to unite all _^ _. parties in a determination to
e ir n ns j^gg^ ^jjgjn gf^g^tively. Huge
, " 1"*' new levies were raised, and
from Remorse ., , , ,■ ,1
the outstandmg cash prob- lem was dealt with according to precedent by the issue of more assignats. But the strife between the Mountain and Gironde revived with increased bitterness. Having made themselves responsible for the death of Louis, the Girondins could forgive
4667
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
neither themselves nor the antagonists who had driven them into this false position. Dumouriez, after visiting Paris, and offer- ing a vain opposition to the regicide policy, returned to the army in Belgium with the immediate object of subjugating Holland, which was not un-
Defeated vv^ining to overturn the rule of
Ambitions of -^ - -
Dumouriez
the Stadtholder, William of Orange. The advance of the Austrians into Belgium compelled him to give them battle, and to suffer a defeat at Neerwinden. Seeing only a dwindling prospect of carrying out his own policy in the character of a triumphant general — the pohcy of restoring the monarchy in the person of young Louis Philippe, the son of " Egalite" Orleans — .he resolved to do so with foreign aid. His troops, however, were still less disposed to aid him in this pro- ject than he had been to aid Lafayette in the past ; and he was obliged to take flight and follow Lafayette out of effective polit- ical life, though not into captivity.
The Girondins had refused to detach Danton from the Jaco- bins, to injure him by charging him with com- plicity in Dumouriez's Orleanist plot ; but thereby they only hastened their own downfall. A secret
succeeded in assassinating Marat, bat the practical effect was to intensify the ferocity with which the Jacobins pursued their opponents. Had the antagonism to the Paris Government been organised instead of sporadic, it would have been in the utmost peril. And had the members of the coalition been working in concert, they might have threatened Paris itself, for, in every quarter, the French were being worsted — by Spaniards, Pied- montese, Prussians, Austrians, British. The loyalists of Toulon handed over the arsenal and harbour to the protection of the British Fleet. The allies took Valen- ciennes and recaptured Mainz. But each of them was playing for his own hand with the object of securing this or that piece of territory out of the dismemberment of France. In the face of these gathering perils, the Committee of Public Safety, now armed with almost unlimited powers, directed its energies with savage vigour to the organisation of an aggressive defence and a ruthless crushing of all resistance, potential as well as active, sus- pected as well as proved, to the "tyranny of Liberty." The genius of Carnot, the " organiser of victories," was soon tri-
MARiE ANTOINETTE IN MOURNING umphautly associatcd committee of nine. After the execution of Louis XVI. with the fanaticism of
known as the Committee of Public Safety, St. Just and the venom of Robespierre
was established by the Convention to control the Girondin Ministry and the commanders at the front, with almost despotic powers. The Girondins made unsuccessful rhetorical attacks on their opponents, who organised a popular hostility in Paris, which broke out in a rising on June 2nd. The National Guard had become an instrument of the Jacobins. The Convention was surrounded in force, and compelled to surrender most of the prominent Girondins. Some of these escaped, and proceeded to raise the pro- vinces against Paris mob rule. La Vendee had already for months been in active insurrection, defying and destroying Gbvernment forces. Charlotte Corday
4668
in directing the fate of France. Although the Convention drew up yet another Constitution, its adoption was deferred, and practically all powers executive and legislative were vested in the Committee, and their commissioners ruled absolutely in every department. Carnot raised . three-quarters of a million
FMl d "-th* soldiers ; the revolts every- "S* ^\ " where were crushed with mer- uspec s pjjggg rigour. " Suspects," which might mean anyone who had failed to display conspicuous energy on behalf of the existing Government, were flung into prison by the thousand. The old commanders were displaced, it might be on insufficient grounds ;
THE REIGN OF TERROR AND THE MAN OF DESTINY
but the new men were selected by Carnot with extraordinary insight and judgment, and they displayed a capacity which invariably justified the selection. In the north, Jourdan drove back the combined British and Austrians — the former were still in the stage when family connections constituted the sole title to important commands ; in the Rhine
destroying the French warships which lay in the harbour. Yet these military triumphs had an ugly background in the Reign of Terror which was established — not only in Paris. Names noble and infamous were numbered in the death- role — the queen and the sister of the king, the mistress of the king's grand- father, Mme. Roland, the soul of the Girondin idealism, Philip " figalite," generals who had failed to satisfy, like Custine and Houchard, men once honoured as reformers, like Bailly and Barnave, amid an untold number of forgotten victims, while the interested psychologist ob- serves that Paris went to the theatre as usual. Even Robespierre was disgusted at the obscene profanities of the " feast of reason " indulged in by the foul Hebert and his associates. Danton, and those who were with him, were now nicknamed the " Indulgents " ; though re- sponsible for the last year's- September mas- sacres, they had no part in these abominations. Danton struck without mercy, but with definite purpose ; the " Reign of Terror " was a period of indiscriminate slaughter, almost without purpose, hideous, sickening. Robe- spierre, seeing the revulsion It caused, allied himself for a moment with the
THE DEATH OF GENERAL PICHEGRU IndulgCntS for the de- Enlisting in the army of France, Charles Pichegju became a general of division, StrUCtlOn ot the HebertlStS, and led his troops to victory in a series of important battles. In consequence wfiose heads fell beneath of bis associating- himself with the Bourbons, the Directory superseded him , i miillotinp in March by Moreau, and his Bourbon intrigues were continued after he became President o u + A of the Council of Five Hundred in 1797. He escaped from France, but returned 1 hen KobeSpierre turneO. to it in 1804, and on, the morning of April 6th, was found strangled in bed. on his rival. A fortnight
provinces, Hoche and Pichegru drove back after, Hebert, Danton and his associates
Austrians and Prussians. Before Toulon, the genius of a young artillery officer, Napoleon Buonaparte — .the more popular form Bonaparte was adopted by him at a later date — .secured over the besiegers a position so commanding that the English admiral. Hood, had to content himself with taking off a number of the loyalists and
met the same doom. Robespierre's supremacy was undisputed.
Robespierre was a complete fanatic ; in his own eyes, the apostle and high priest of perfect Rousseauism, whose mission it was to inaugurate Rousseau's millennium at the cost of a vast sacrificial slaughter. He was also a complete egoist,
4669
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
perfectly satisfied that to secure his own power all means were moral. He was a convinced Deist ; and, in contrast to the Hebertists with their nauseous " feast of reason," which was an atheistic carnival, he caused the Convention to affirm by decree the exist- p ence of the f Supreme Being and the immor- tality of the soul ; he insti- tuted the Festi- val of the Supreme Being, acting himself as a sort of high
had been glutted and turned to nausea. The overthrow had been effected by a com- bination of Indulgents and Terrorists ; but the victory lay with the Indulgents.
The personnel of the Committee of Public Safety was necessarily changed, though Carnot remained. H e cannot be ac- quitted of re- sponsibility for the Terror ; but his business had been with the exercise of ad- ministrative 'unctions in .mother sphere, that of military organisation, and ^_ for his astonish-
ST. JUST AND CARNOT
priest. But the Terror went on; it was to go on till the " Reign
of Virtue was St. just was a follower of Robespierre, and at the Convention in 1792 ^^8 SUCCCSS in
established, came into notice by his fierce attacks on the king. He died by the this department
T^i J r guillotine, along with Robespierre, in 1 794. Carnot, a member of the t? j
ine i^aw Ol Committee of Public Safety during the Revolution, earned the title of rraUCC OWCQ
Prairial in Tune the " organiser of victory '; he raised no fewer than fourteen armies, him an CUOrmOUS
abolished the last semblance of legal pro- cedure in the case of " suspects," and his former coadjutors felt that their own turn might come any day. While the guillotine devoured its daily feast — between forty and fifty victims on the average, in Paris — enemies who had learned their business as members of the Committee of Public Safety, enemies as ruth- less as himself, were plotting Robespierre's downfall. There were preliminary warnings, but Robespierre counted on his own influence. On Thermidor 9th (July 27th), not six weeks after the passing of the Law of Prairial, the Conven- tion turned upon Robes- pierre and his associates, St. Just and Couthon, and decreed their arrest. The troops of the Com- mune were brought up to effect a liberation, but they offered no opposition when the Convention in turn brought up troops to carry out its order. The three were dispatched to the scaffold. So ended the Terror. Not because all the new chiefs were less bloodthirsty, but l)ecause they realised that the lust of blood
4670
debt. The new Government set about the task of restoring something like constitutional methods with vigour. The Law of Prairial was repealed, and Robes- pierre's instrument, the Revolutionary Tribunal, was suspended. Much of the power usurped by the Committee was restored to the Convention. The Paris Commune was abolished, and replaced by com- mittees nominated by the Convention. Fresh forces were organised to hold the mob in check, com- posed of members of the well-to-do classes. The remnant of Terrorists were forced to resign their places on the various committees. The remnant of Girondins was recalled to the Assembly, and the J acobin club was JEAN PAUL MARAT closcd by a dccrcc of
A zealous revolutionary, he engaged in a the Convention. The
mortal struggle with the Girondins, and at his Termr wrac o Inrirl Kr^nh-
door has been laid the blame of the most in- A^rrOF Wdb a lUriQ OaCK-
famousof the massacres. He was the object of grOUnd tO the military intense hatred, and was assassinated in 1793. i • . r j^i_ t-»
achievements of the Re- publican armies. They were now led almost entirely by men of great natural talent, who had displayed conspicuous ability and courage in the ranks and in subordinate posts ; and the presence at the front of commissioners of the
THE REIGN OF TERROR AND THE MAN OF DESIINY
Committee of Public Safety was a perpetual reminder that failure, or even the appearance of failure, might lead to the guillotine, as it did with Custine and Houchard. The Spaniards, who had met with some success when they first joined the coalition, were driven back, the Pyrenees were pierced, and Spain itself was invaded by the force which had recovered Toulon. The previous successes of the Piedmontese were reversed.
On the side of the Rhine and the Nether- lands, the French improved upon the advantages won in 1793. Prussia, intent on subjugating her share of Poland, would continue the French war only for hard cash ; Austria would provide none, but Pitt furnished the subsi- dies demanded, in return for which Prussia sent to the Rhine 60,000 men, whose commander, Mollendorf, remained per- sistently inactive. In the Netherlands, the Austrians at first co- operated with the Duke of York, and Landrecies was taken ; but Pichegru advanced at the head of the French Army of the North ; York was de- feated at Turcoing; further south, Jourdan, after a series of minor engagements, defeated the Austrians at Fleurus, while Mollendorf refused to move to their support. The Austrians retired be-
" Glorious
First
of June ' '
to which power, it may here be noted, he very shortly ceded the protectorate of the Dutch Colony at the Cape, which thence- forth remained a British possession, except during the brief interval of the "Peace of Amiens. Holland itself was transformed into the " Batavian Republic." The revolt in La Vendee, though it had extended to Brittany, had been reduced to warfare of an exclusively guenilla character. For the coalition the record of the year 1794 was })itiful. Great Britain alone could find some consolation in Lord Howe's naval victory of the " glorious First of June " off Ushant — a battle famous, among other things, for the mythical heroism of the crew of the Vengeur, who, after a magnificent fight, did not refuse to strike their colours, but surrendered before the ship went down. The legend, however, was in- valuable as an inspiration of dauntless defiance. The situation was not redeemed in the following year. Austria, indeed, impelled by the energy of Pitt and the promises of the Tsarina Catharine, who was exceedingly anxious to keep the em- peror embroiled in the west, maintained the war, though without energy. Great Britain did little
GENERAL HOCHE General Hoche defended Dunkirk against the , .
Duke of York in 1793, and it was owing to his eXCCpt make an abOrtlVC
yond the Meuse, York fell ^Xht to an'ind'hf mt 'two yIa%"st%Thl attempt to set the emigres back into Brabant, and inflicted several defeats on the Austrians. at the head of a Royalist Pichegru made himself master of Belgium, rising in Brittany, which was foiled partly
In fact, with Austria, as with Prussia, the French war had come to be regarded as of minor importance as compared with Poland, and Francis was hoping to be compensated for the loss of the Nether- lands by the acquisition of Bavaria as
- . the price of his assent to the
Succession „ ,•.• j u i.
P partition arranged between
... ^^ !^ Prussia and Russia. As the Victories , j n j.i
year advanced, all the provinces
on tjje left bank of the Rhine were occupied by the French ; Pichegru ad- vanced into Holland, disregarding the difficulties of a winter campaign ; the Dutch fleet in the Texel was captured, and the Stadtholder took flight to England —
by the miserable incapacity of the emigres themselves, partly by the skill and energy of Hoche, to whom Carnot entrusted the command. Some seven hundred of them were shot down in cold blood by the order of TalUen — who was present as com- missioner— not of Hoche, who proceeded to pacify the country with a judicious justice, which could be severe or lenient as circumstances might demand. But the coalition was broken up. Prussia, which had taken no effective part since 1793. made her own peace with the Republic in April by the Treaty of Basle, sur- rendering her territories on the left bank of the Rhine, and receiving a provisional
4671
TRIAL OF MARIE ANTOINETTE BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNAL Marie Antoinette was brought for trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal on October 14th, 1793. The proceedings lasted for about twenty consecutive hours. The queen was perfectly calm throughout the long and terrible ordeal, and " did not give the least sign of fea r or indignation, or weakness," even when the decree that sentenced her to death was read.
THE QUEEN OF FRANCE BEING LED TO EXECUTION ON OCTOBER Kjtii, 1793 The courage and fortitude exhibited by Marie Antoinette during her long trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal did not forsake her in the closing hours of life, and she bravely met death by the guillotine on October Kith, 1793.
4672
THE GUILLOTINE'S DAILY TOLL: GIRONDINS ON THEIR WAY TO DEATH The Girondins, at first allied with the Jacobins, were one of the chief revolutionary parties that arose during the Revolution, but while they had apart in the overthrew of the monarchy they had no share in the infamous September massacres. When the party were defeated in June, 1 793, many of their leaders and followers were led to the guillotine.
From the painting by Piloty
VICTIMS OF THE GUILLOTINE : A DAILY SCENE DURING THE REVOLUTION Such scenes as that represented in the above picture were witnessed daily in the streets of Paris and other cities during the Reign of Terror. In rough carts, men and women, amid the jeers and insults of the brutal mob, were taken to the place of execution and beheaded by the guillotine, whose thirst for blood remained insatiable.
297
4673
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
promise of compensation on the right bank. Spain followed suit in July, ceding her portion in San Domingo. The Bourbon monarchy was the less averse because the young Dauphin, who had not been guillotined, but kept a prisoner, suc- cumbed in June under the severities of his confinement.
It is not surprising that some two score of pseudo-Dauphins were discovered at inter- vals in the years to come. The legitimist heir to the throne was now the late king's brother, the Count of Provence, who assumed in his exile the title of Louis XVIII. Once more a new Government was on
another insurrection in May, which was successfully put down by the Government. The scales had turned against mob rule. As usual, however, the remedy for dis- content was sought in the promulgation of a new Constitution. Two fundamental vices were discovered as the cause of failure in the past — the confusion of the legislative and executive functions, and the single chamber. The executive body was now to have no control over legislation ; the Legislature, divided into two chambers, would have no control over the execu- tive, save for the power of impeaching Ministers, The deputies were to be chosen
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARAT BY CHARLOTTE CORDAY Though of noble family, Charlotte Corday welcomed the Revolution, but was horrified at the acts of the Jacobins, and resolved to destroy one of their leaders . On July 1 7th, 1793, she was admitted to the house of Marat on the plea that she had important news to impart, and finding him in his bath stabbed him to the heart. She was executed a few days later.
l-roin the picture by H. Scheffcr
the verge of being formed in France. The " Thermidorean " reaction was the expres- sion of a strong national revulsion against the excesses of the last two years, and restored a considerable share of power to the bourgeois element. But the distress of the lower classes had found temporary alleviation from the employment provided by revolutionary committees, and from the " maximum " law, which had fixed a limit on the price of food and other articles ; both these disappeared with the reaction. The discontent of the mob was fanned by the surviving Terrorists, and Paris saw
4674
by double election — the citizens who paid taxes choosing electors, and the electors choosing deputies. The younger deputies, forming the larger body, were to submit legislation to the elder, or Chamber of Ancients. The two bodies were to nomi- nate the five heads of the executive, the Directory, who would appoint Ministers. One of the Directory and one-third of each of the other bodies were to retire annually. An obvious weakness lay in the risk of Directory and Legislature losing touch, and crekting a deadlock with its attendant dangers, which in England are obviated
HISTORY OP THE WORLD
by the system of party Cabinets. The fear, however, of reaction, whether royahst or revolutionary, taking effect at the coming elections, inspired a further modifica- tion— 'that in the first instance two-thirds of the deputies must be chosen from the members of the Convention itself.
There was no one in Paris to treat the Convention as Cromwell had treated the Rumj) under somewhat similar circumstances ; but the Assembly was not so secure of its own position as the British Parliament which prolonged its own life In passing the Septennial Act. An insurrection in Paris of the discontented factions was almost a cer- tainty. The Government appointed Barras to deal with the emergency. Barras turned to a young artillery officer who had recently been cashiered for refusing to join the army in La Vendee — the same to whom the credit for the capture of Toulon was; "known to be due. To him Barras entrusted the command of the troops. By the use of ar- tillery,dexterously secured by Murat, Bonaparte com- pletely scattered the in- surgents in the streets of Paris on October 5th. The Man of Destiny had set his foot on the first rung of the ladder. Before we accompany him through his tremendous career, his rise to unexampled power and the crash of his fall, we must turn to the events in Central Europe, which have been glanced at only from time to time in our sketch of the first years of the first French Republic. The special affairs of, G-reat Britain are reserved for separate treatment.
The first partition of Poland had reduced the area of that kingdom by transferring border provinces to Russia, Prussia and Austria respectively ; while the 'throne itself had been secured for^ ■Stanislas Poniatowski, a creature of the Tsarina.
4676
This subjection, however, was not to the liking of the Poles themselves ; and when, at the close of the 'eighties, Russia became involved in a Turkish war the hope was revived of recovering indepen- dence and strengthening the Polish state. Ideas of constitutional reform were developed under the influence of the
MADAME ROLAND AT THE GUILLOTINE The wife of Jean Marie Roland, Minis,ter of the Interior, was arrested and taken to Sainte Pelagrie. On November 8th, 1793, she was brought to the guillotine. " O Liberty,'' she said, addressing with her last breath the statue so-called, "what crimes are committed in thy name ! "* Her husband afterwards stabbed himself
doctrines emanating from France in the opening "Constituent*' stage of the Revo- lution. In May, 179^, the succession to the childless Stanislas was laid down in the Saxony liiie, with a view to the estab- lishment of a hereditary instead of an electoral monarchy, and a Constitution was promulgated. The liber um veto, or right of any one noble to veto legislation,
THE CELEBRATION OF MASS DURING THE REIGN OF TERROR
From the pa;ntiiig by C. L. MuUer
was abolished, the executiv^e was placed in the hands of the Crown, and the legislature in the hands of a Senate and a represen- tative Assembly. The plan suited Leopold of Austria, who wanted a strong buffer state to hold back Russia ; it was less agreeable to Frederic William, who saw his chances of acquiring Danzig and Thorn vanishing ; and it did not suit Russia at all, for obvious reasons. Leo- pold, however, succeeded in establishing his influence over the Prussian king, _, and the two German monarchs
aIThct agreed, in July, 1790, and in p . February, 1791, to guarantee a "free constitution" for Poland. Hence, Catharine's anxiety to obtain a free hand for upsetting the new arrange- ments by involving Austria ajid Prussia in hostilities with France, and to bring the TiH»kish war to a conclusion. With the Peace o#^ Jassy, in January, 1792, and the intense friction between France and the Powers in those months, both Catharine's immediate objects seemed to be accomplished ; and she was aided by the death of the shrewd emperor in March, and by the dissensions among the Poles themselves, the old nobility being very ill- content with the new constitution, which deprived them of their ancient and fatal' " liberty " to make the central govern- ment an unworkable farce. Frederic
William, no longer guided by a wiser ruler than himself, disregarded the appeals of the constitutionalists, and the tradi- tional jgalousy and distrust between Austria and Prussia revived, while Austria herself was committed to the French war in defence of the Netherlands. Catharine sought to satisfy Prussia by meeting her' demands for additional Polish territory, while Austrian acquiescence was to be secured by the old scheme of exchanging the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria. But Austria was not so easily satisfied.
With Dumouriez overrunning Belgium at the end of 1792, the practicability of the scheme of exchange was more than doubtful ; moreover, Prussia would give no active assistance in carrying it out, and refused to accede to Austria's further demands for the transfer to her of Anspach and Baireuth. Catharine, however, praC' tically twisted Frederic William to her will ; arid in January, 1793, the two powers made a secret treaty, arranging a parti' tion, and leaving out Austria — except fo^ a joint undertaking to lend moral support to her acquisition of Bavaria.- At the same time, Prussia bound herself to con^ tinue the French war. How she jnter^ preted that obligation we have already sefn. She took Ekt's subsidies, sent Mollendorf to the Sthhie, . and remained inactive. In Poland, however, both
4677.
History of the world
Prussia and Russia proceeded to carry out their joint policy with energy. Both invaded that country — to suppress dis- order— and appropriated the respective shares agreed upon, that of Russia, it may be remarked, having double the population and four times the area of the Prussian portion. The effect on Austria was to terminate the policy of co-operation with Prussia, which had proved itself utteiHy untrust- N.'orthy, and to bring into power the anti - Prussian Minister, Thugut. Neverthe- less, the partition was con- firmed in September, while Stanislas, with what was left of his kingdom, found himsell a mere vassal of Russia. Again the Poles rose against the Russian dominion, in 1794, under the leadership of Kos- ciusko. The revolt had no practical chance of success, and it was perceived at Berlin that unless . Prussia intervened the spoils would fall to Russia. A Prussian invasion in June resulted in the capture of Cracow, to which prompt action would have added Warsaw. But owing to the lack of it,
Warsaw was enabled to hold out tmtil the Prussians found themselves obliged to withdraw in order to suppress insurrec- tion in their own new provinces. Russia took up the task and completed it with thoroughness. The successful general, Suwarrow, defeated and cap- tured Kosciusko, stormed Praga, massacred its inhabi- tants, and seized Warsaw. Catharine could now afford to disregard Prussia and con- ciliate Austria. On January 3rd, 1795, the two Powers completed the final partition by a treaty to which Prussia acceded a year later. A por- tion, including Warsaw, went to Prussia ; a larger portion, including Cracow, to Austria J and the lion's share to TadetcrSsk?™Ithe f^^^'\ Poland had Vanished
national movement in Cracow after from the map of EuropC. An
the second partition of Poland, and „jj;+;„-,„i c-ar-rcx-^ +r-a'^+-,, Kq
was appointed dictator and com- auuiliondl becrei xrediy ue-
mander-in-chief, He died in 1817. tweCU Austria and RuSSia
never took effect, and did not, in fact, come to hght till half a century had passed ; it is of interest as throwing light on the unscrupulous character of the designs and the diplomacy of Thugut, but exercised no practical effect whatever on history.
4678
THE DEFEAT OF THE AUSTRIANS AT THE BATTLE OF FLEURUS IN 1794
From the pa!ntin£ by Mauzaisse at Versaillus
THE FRENCH; REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
V
BY ARTHUR D. iNNES. M.A.
THE CONQUERING GENERAL OF THE
DIRECTORY
BONAPARTE IN ITALY AND EGYPT
pONAPARTE, in the affair of " Vende- *-' miaire" — i.e., October 5th — saved the Repubhc from relapsing into anarchy. The new Constitution came into immediate force. The five Directors chosen — ^Carnot, Barras, Rewbell, Letourneur, and La Reveillere — ^were all members of the regicide Assembly ; but their policy was one of moderation, approved by the Legis- lature, of which bodies, as we noted, two- thirds were members of the Convention. The government proved itself to be vigor- ous and alert, as well as moderate, and the sense of public security began to revive, although the solution of the financial problem seemed as remote as ever.
Domestic order, then, was restored. But Great Britain and Austria combined to reject peace overtures, and the con- tinuation of the war led directly to the establishment of some victorious general as autocrat. The destined Caesar was tlie man who had made such excellent use of his chance of deserving well of the new Government. Barras had his own reasons for pushing the young man who, amid his ambitions, was consumed with passion for the fascinating widow Josephine Beauharnais. Carnot recognised a brilliant military genius in the plan for an Italian campaign which Bonaparte had sent in. He was appointed to the Italian command, married Josephine, and, after the briefest of honeymoons, started for the front in March, 1796. He was then six-and- twenty years of age. He was one of several brothers, of a leading Corsican family, French only in the sense that Choiseul annexed Corsica just before Napoleon was born.
For years past, Corsica, under the leadership of the patriot Pasquale Paoli, had been struggling for freedom from the Genoese rule; and the struggle was re- newed against the French. The young Napoleon's sympathies were with the patriots to an extent which occasionally
The Early Genius of Bonaparte
brought him into trouble while he was pursuing his studies for a military career in France. He attached himself, however, to the revolution, and held an artillery command at the siege of Toulon, where he was on friendly terms with the Com- _ , missioner of the Committee of
Career ' ^"^^^^ Safety, Robespierre's , -» younger brother. After Robes-
In Danger •'. °, , „ ,, • ,-
pierre s fall, this connection
went near to destroying his career, and he had been trying to obtain an appoint- ment as organiser of the Turkish sultan's artillery, when he was cashiered, and then reinstated in order to " save the Republic " in Vendemiaire.
According to the general plan of cam- paign, two French armies, under Jourdan and Moreau, were to enter Germany and force their way to Vienna ; Bonaparte was to force the King of Sardinia — ^who had already lost Savoy and Nice, but maintained a strong army in Piedmont — to sever himself from the Austrian alliance, and was to drive the Austrians out of Italy.
The new general had as subordinates men who had already shown great abilities, such as Massena and Lannes ; he was soon to eclipse them. Advancing with some 40,000 men, he found the Austrian and Piedmontese forces under Beaulieu dis- posed in three divisions, prepared to dispute his passage into Piedmont, and to cut his communications if he proceeded along the coast to Genoa. Bonaparte's move- ments deceived Beaulieu, and he was successful in completely routing the centre division at Montenotte, and Austnans ^ ^j^ting the right-^the Pied- Defeated by j^^^^gsg on the west^from the Bonaparte jeft, Beaulieu on the east. The Austrians fell back to the north-east to defend the hne of the Po, the Piedmontese to the north-west, to cover Turin. But the King of Sardinia, seeing that Piedmont was now practically indefensible, came to terms, and withdrew from the coalition.
4679
THE BOYHOOD OF NAPOLEON: HIS UNHAPPY SCHOOLDAYS AT BRIENNE As a lad, the future Emperor of the French attended school at Brienne, and having but a scanty acquaintance with the French language, his lot was anything but happy. He even felt so miserable that he attempted to escape, and it is said that he offered himself as a sailor to the British Admiralty. The lonely youth seems to have been an object of amuse- ment to his schoolmates, and Bonaparte's sensitive nature must have been deeply wounded by their unfeeling treatment.
I'roin the* painting by Realier Dumas
Bonaparte was free to deal independently with the Austrians before April was ended. Beaulieu took up his position behind the Ticino ; again Bonaparte, by rapid move- ments, completely outmanoeuvred him, and effected the passage of the Po at Piacenza. Beaulieu withdrew behind the Adda. But the fury of the French assault, headed by Bonaparte and Lannes in per- son, on the narrow wooden bridge at Lodi, carried the passage, and the Austrians were routed. Beaulieu, however, managed -to draw his scattered forces together beyond the Mincio, and retreat to the all- important fortress of Mantua.
Four days later Bonaparte entered the Lombard capital, Milan. The hypothesis that the Republican army was engaged on a mission of liberation was rendered some- what unconvincing by the toll which the conqueror levied, not only in cash but in works of art, which the Italians looked upon as national treasures, and various local insurrections of the populace took place which were severely repressed.
Naples, the other Bourbon state which was in the coalition — Spain had with- drawn in the previous year — was terrified into neutrality, and the Neapolitan con-
4680
tingent was withdrawn from the Austrian forces. Leghorn was seized — though the Duke of Tuscany, the brother of the emperor, had left the coalition before Prussia — and the British merchants and shipping in that neutral port paid the penalty. Bologna and Ferrara, at the north of the Papal states, were occupied : and the Pope bought respite at the price of five million dollars, the surrender of numerous works of art, and the cession of Bologna, Ferrara, and Ancona. Further, although Venice was neutral, Bonaparte , found a pretext for occupying BrntiLnt * Brescia, within the territories _" '*? . of that republic, thereby amp&igntng yjj.^y^j|y compelling Beaulieu
in turn to violate the Venetian neutrality by occupying Peschiera, to cover Mantua. Beaulieu was thereupon attacked and driven north into the Tyrol, while a portion of his army remained in Mantua.
The Directory, taking alarm at the sud- den and startling prestige acquired in six weeks of brilliant campaigning, proposed, but did not venture to press, that Bona- parte should leave half his army* under command of Kellerman to deal with the Austrians, and should proceed with the
THE CONQUERING GENERAL OF THE DIRECTORY
other half to coerce the Pope. The proposal was negatived. The general went on to begin the siege of Mantua, when news came that Beaulieu was superseded by Wiirmser, who was descending from the Tyrol with his main army by the valley of the Adige, in Venetian territory, while 9. second army was to pass on the west of Lake Garda towards Brescia. Wiirmser was soon to learn the unwisdom of splitting up a force which was intended to operate
broken up, and Wiirmser only succeeded in reaching Mantua with a force consider- ably smaller than the number of men he had lost in getting there.
Had the French campaigns in Germany been successful, it would now have been Bonaparte's business to leave North Italy in its practically prostrate condition and march through the mountains upon Austria. The two columns under Moreau and J our dan advanced on separate lines into Germany, while the Austrian commander, the Archduke Charles, had his forces depleted in order to provide the troops for Wiirmser's , descent into Italy, Charles, however, leaving only a small force to hold Moreau in check, threw himself on Jourdan, and in a series of engage- ments drove him back over the Rhine. Moreau, in danger of finding him- self cut ofi and over- whelmed, conducted a masterly retreat ; but the combined plan of campaign was completely foiled. Bonaparte could carry out his own plans in Italy — unless the Austrians could prevent him. As an initial step, he had on his own responsibility ejected the Duke of Modena, and con- structed the " Cispadane Republic " out of the duchy and the recently ceded estates of the papacy. Austria, however, had not yet thrown up the cards, and in the late BONAPARTE IMPRISONED AS A "SUSPECT" AT NICE autumu ucw armies were
On the downfall of Robespierre, Napoleon, as his brother's friend, fell under the rlpcrpnrlincr frnm +hp T\nT>l suspicion of the authorities, and on a pretext being found for his arrest, he was uebceiiuiiig iiuni Liic a yiui, placed in the prison at Nice, in August, 1794, and detained there for thirteen days, considerably Outnumbering
From the painting by E. M. Ward
against Bonaparte, who at once hurled himself on the western force, put it to flight, and then, in a rapid series of engage- ments, broke up Wiirmser's main force, driving it back into the Tyrol.
Receiving reinforcements, the stout old Austrian again advanced — and again in two divisions: — with the inevitable result. One was shattered at Roveredo ; the victor occupied the Austrian line of com- munications. The second army was then
Bonaparte's forces. By three days of desperate lighting at Areola, Alvinzi was driven back to the Tyrol in November ; yet once more he renewed his advance in January, 1797, only to be crushed at Rivoli and La Favorita. These battles decided the fate of Mantua, which surrendered at the beginning of February ; Bonaparte was sufficiently generous to allow Wiirmser and the garrison to march out with the honours of war. To complete the humiliation of
4681
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the papacy was now a simple process, which had been deferred only till more dangerous matters had been dealt with. Ten days after the surrender of Mantua the Pope was compelled to sign the Treaty of Tolentino. The terms were unexpectedly favourable ; beyond a further indemnity, they amounted to little more than the confirmation of the previous cession of Ferrara, Ancona, and Bologna, which were already incorporated in the Cispadane Republic. To this were now to be added, under the name of the Cisalpine Republic, the conquered d is - tricts of Lom- bardy.
Southern Italy did not demand immediate atten- tion ; Northern Italy was com- pletely in the hands of the French, though Venice was still to pay the pen- alty for her neutrality. But France was pre- paring to renew her advance upon Vienna, Hoche replacing Jour- dan — and Hoche was the most dan- gerous of Bona- parte's rivals. The C o r s i c a n resolved to be first in the field, and to secure for himself the ad- vantage of die
portions of the Venetian territory. In this last stipulation Bonaparte was barely anticipating events, since no excuse could be pretended for the partition of Venice. The excuse came. The exactions and the domineering of the French, deliberately provocative, aroused the fury of the population ; in Venice there was a rising, and the French soldiers in the hospital were murdered, the day before the articles were signed at Leoben. The Venetian Government humbled itself in despairing mes- sages, while col- lisions continued. Bonaparte r e - plied by dictating terms of submis- sion, which were accepted. The Venetian o 1 i g - archy abolished itself, and was replaced by a popular • consti- tution ; the alli- ance with France which Venice had hitherto persist- ently refused, was adopted ; the usual tribute in works of art was exacted.
The meaning of these things was revealed in the d e fi n i t i V e Treaty of Campo F o r m i o with Austria in Octo- ber, when the JOSEPHINE, THE WIFE OF BONAPARTE Venetian tcrri-
The widow of the Vicomte de Beauharnais, Josephine was married to tOriCS eaSt OI tne Bonaparte in 1 796. Fond of pleasure, she gathered around her the Adige WCrC tranS
tatin? terms to ™ost brilliant society of France, and in this way assisted in the estab- fprrpd tO Austria • , ". T lishment of her husband's power. Her marriage was dissolved in 1809. , . .^ '
Austria. In a rapid campaign, in which he was ably assisted by Massena and Joubert, he forced the passage of the Alps, defeating the Archduke Charles on the Tagliamento, and reached Leoben early in April, while Moreau's advance had been delayed by deficiencies in the military suppUes. At Leoben he was met by Austrian peace commissioners, and the preliminaries of a treaty were signed on April i8th. Austria was to cede Belgium and Lombardy, and, by way of compensation, was to receive
4682
while France took possession of the Ionian Islands. Venice was the price which Bonaparte was willing to pay in order to secure from Austria the promise of the Rhine provinces in addition to the cessions of territory arranged under the articles of Leoben.
Other events, however, had been taking place while Bonaparte was winning his position as the foremost of living soldiers. Spain, after retiring from the coalition in 1795, had gone over to the French alliance in 1796, and reinforced the French ,
THE CONQUERING GENERAL OF THE DIRECTORY
fleets; France already had that of the Batavian Repubhc — that is, Holland — at its disposal. Although Admiral Jervis was in command of the Mediterranean squadron, his orders reduced him almost to impotency till he found his opportunity in February, 1797. Off Cape St. Vincent he caught a much larger Spanish fleet, on the way from Cartagena to Cadiz ; but being in two divisions, he was able to crush the larger portion, partly owing to an audacious disregard of orders on the part of Commodore Nelson, which met with the admiral's full approval. The victory of Cape St. Vincent secured the mastery of the seas when it seemed to be threatened by the numerical strength of the hostile combiaaiion.
Nevertheless, that mastery was again endangered almost immediately after- wards, first by a serious mutiny in the fleet at Spithead, which was the outcome of genuine grievances on the part of the
MARSHAL LANNES Another of Napoleon's marshals, Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello, played a leading part in the campaigrns of the French ; he was mortally wounded at Aspern in 1 809.
men. The justice of the. men's demands was so manifest that they were conceded, and the men returned to their duty. This, however, was followed by a second
mutiny at the Nore, in which there is no doubt that the ringleaders were inspired by Jacobin doctrines. This trouble was
the more dansrerous because the fleet
NAPOLEON'S GREATEST MARSHAL . Marshal Mass^na distinguished himself in the many cam[)aig:ns in which Napoleon was engag^ed, and in 1807 was created Duke of Rivoli. He cast in his lot with the Bourbons at the Restoration, and declined to follow Napoleon on his return from Elba. He died in 1817.
was ill expectation of an engagement with the Dutch squadron which was being prepared in the Texel. This mutiny was sternly suppressed with the aid of the now loyal ex-mutineers of Spithead, while Admiral Duncan was deceiving the Dutch into a behef that the two or three vessels which he could command were mcFcly the leaders of his squaciron,_^d so kept them from issuing out 'oj^W^lie Texel in force. It was not till some months later, almost at the moment when the Treaty of Campo Formio was being signed, that Duncan decisively vanquished the Dutch fleet in the stubborn engagement of Camperdown.
Affairs, however, had not in the mean- time been going smoothly with the French Government. It had not, indeed, been shaken by Jourdan's failure in 1796, which had been more than counterbalanced by Bonaparte's Italian successes ; nor
.^683
THE ENTRY OF THE VICTORIOUS FRENCH INTO MILAN, MAY 15tii, 1796 After receiving the command of the army of Italy, Bonaparte started his campaign on April 12th, 1796, and about a month later— oa May 15th — entered Milan in triumph as the conqueror of all Lombardy and Piedmont.
THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY Or iui-ENTINO BY THE POPE IN 1797 Having defeated the Austrians and driven them out of Italy, Napoleon marched into the Papal states, and ten days after the surrender of Mantua, on February 19th, 1797, forced the Pope to sign the Treaty of Tolentino.
4684
BONAPARTE IN ITALY: REVOLT OF THE PEASANTS AT PAVIA During: his Italian campaign the peasants in several quarters rose in revolt against the French. The disturbance in Pa via was not suppressed until the town was takan by storm, and g^ven up to be plundered by the soldiers.
BUNAPAKit. AT THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY OF LEOBEN IN 1797 Forcing the passage of the Alps and defeating the Archduke Charles on the Tagliamento, Bonaparte reached Leoben early in April, 1797, where he was met by the Austrian Peace Commissioners. There, on the 18th of that month, were signed the preliminaries of peace between Austria and France embodied in the Treaty of Campo Formio.
4685
THE FRENCH IN EGYPT: BONAPARTE'S AMBITIOUS bCHKMK During his EgfyptiaA campaig-n Bonaparte, discovering the remains of an ancient canal near Suez, contemplated the formation of a waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and in the above picture his soldiers are seen at the work of excavation. The scheme, however, was abandoned, the discovery being made on survey that there was a difference of thirty, feet between the levels of the Mediterranean at low water and the Red Sea at high water.
From the painting by Grenier
was its position affected by the fact that the latter general conducted affairs in that country very much as if he himself, and not the Directory, were at the head of the state. But whereas two-thirds of the delegates to the Assem- blies were members of the Convention, the majority of the remaining third, the elected members, were reactionaries, many of whom desired a monarchical restoration. Among the Directors, Carnot and Letour- neur both favoured the " Moderates."
The retirement of one-third, according to the Constitution, in May, 1797, greatly strengthened this party ; and although Letourneur also retired, lay lot, his place was taken by another moderate, Barthe- lemy. A leading personage in the party was Pichegru, who some time before had followed t he example of Dumouriez in enter- ing upon negotiations for a monarchical restoration with the Austrians, though the conspiracy had not been discovered. Still, Pichegru's leanings were more than sus- pected. The other three members of the Directory, Barras, Rewbell, and La Reveillere, with the old conventionists,
4650
trembled for their power. On the other hand, Austria and Great Britain both saw a prospect of a French Government which would be comparatively amenable. Austria in the past had refused to make peace apart from her island ally ; she had just assented to the articles of Leoben only because a victorious army was within eighty miles of her capital, and she began to hope that she might evade the ratifica- tion of those articles. The Moderates were already showing their hand by attacking the Italian measures of Bonaparte. The Triumvirate in the Directory began to meditate a military coup d'etat, to be carried through by Hoche, whose am- bitions seemed to be of a less dangerous type than those of Bonaparte. But Hoche must be hoodwinked ; he Would not be a tool of the Triumvirate, and was not minded to play Caesar. The overtures to Hoche proved unsuccessful. But Bonaparte's wrath was aroused by the Moderate attacks on him. From his quarters at Montebello he called upon the Triumvirate to crush the hypothetical
The Directory
in Dread
of Bonaparte
THE CONQUERING GENERAL OF THE DIRECTORY
conspiracy — he furnished proof, from papers which had fallen into his hands, of Pichegru's designs two years before — • and he sent his lieutenant Augereau to manage the military part of the business. On September 4th the coup d'etat of Fructidor established the Triumvirate in power, drove Carnot froni the country, and sent Pichegru and many others to prison or exile. Moreau, as a friend of Pichegru, was withdrawn from his command on the Rhine, where w-?k "^ V * h^ ^^^ ^^^ replaced by Hoche, ^„. , and on the death of Hoche, by ***"'*' Augereau. With Hoche dead, and Moreau under the Government's sus- picion, Bonaparte had no possible military rival, and had no hesitation in letting the Triumvirate feel that he certainly was no less independent of the new Directory than of the old.
Austria and England appreciated the change in the situation. Pitt was as stubborn as ever in his determination to refuse a peace on unsatisfactory terms, having failed to realise that the wealth
and resources of the Republic were now rapidly increasing. Austria, on the other hand, felt herself with no alternative but to make the best bargain available, in which Thugut was not likely to display scrupulousness. Hence the Treaty of Campo Formio in October left Great Britain isolated, while Austria accepted Venice as compensation for her losses elsewhere, 9.nd acceded to Bonaparte's demand for the German Rhine provinces. The Directory raged, but found itself compelled to the terms of Bonaparte.
Having settled the treaty, Bonaparte returned to North Italy to complete the organisation of the Cisalpine Republic, to which was added the Valteline, hitherto a canton subject to the Swiss Grison League, from whose domination it had just broken free. Thence, after a brief visit to the congress at Rastadt, which was engaged in settling some details of the Treaty of Campo Formio, he betook him- self to Paris. The Directors received him with more fear than satisfaction ; but he was not yet inclined to seize the military
THE PLAGUE AT JAFFA : AN INCIDENT IN BONAPARTE'S EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN Plague was raging at Jaffa when Bonaparte and his army passed through Syria, and in this picture the great general of the Directory is seen visiting the pestilence-stricken quarter and laying his hands on the sores of the afflicted people. Apart from the heroism of the art, he thus showed his own belief in predestination, the sole article of his creed.
From the painting by Baron Gros
468;r
THE BRITISH VICTORY IN THE NAVAL BATTLE AT CAMPERDOWN On October 11th, 1797, the fleets of the British and Dutch engaged in battle off Camperdown, Admiral Duncan being in command of the British forces, while the Dutch fleet was under De Winter. The sanguinary action resulted in a brilliant victory for the British who captured seven ships of the line, among them bemg the two flagships. In the above picture the Dutch flagship is shown in a dismantled condition and about to surrender to Admiral Duncan.
From tie p.iiiitint; by D. Orinc
THE OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH AT THE BATTLE OF THE NILE The Battle of the Nile, fought in Abonkir Bay on August 1st, 1798, between the British and the French fleets, was won by the former. Nelson completely overthrowing the enemy, though his fleet was numerically inferior. The picture given above represents the battle at the moment of the blowing up of the French flagship The Orient.
From the painting by De Loutherbourg 4688
NELSON'S CAPTURE OF SPANISH WARSHIPS AT THE BATTLE OF ST. VINCENT On February 14th, 1797, a great naval eng-agement between Britain and Spain was fought off Cape St. Vincent, the British admiral, Sir John Jervis, scattering the Spanish fleet. Nelson — at that time commodore — in the rear of the line fought valiantly to prevent the reunion of the two divisions of the Spanish fleet, and when the victory was won he boarded the Spanish ship, San Nicolas, and led his men across her deck to the San Josef, of which he also took possession. In the above picture he is seen on board the latter vessel receiving the commander's sword.
From the painting by J. T. Barker
AFTER THE BATTLE OF CAMPERDOWN : THE DUTCH ADMIRAL'S SURRENDER This picture illustrates an incident after the defeat of the Dutch fleet by the British at Camperdown, Admiral de Winter being shown yielding up his sword in acknowledgment of defeat to Lord Duncan on board the Venerable.
From the painting by D. Orme
208
4689
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
dictatorship which was within his grasp. It was not as a Paris politician that he in- tended to strike for the great world-empire on which his imagination was dwelling.
The fact patent to everyone was that Great Britain was the one Power which stood out in resolute hostility to the Re- public ; for, although Catharine of Russia had died in 1796, her successor, Paul, had not yet adopted an anti-French policy. To humble England was an obvious policy, to the adoption of which the Directory was already avowedly committed. To that end, again, a great invasion was a con- spicuous means. The arsenals of France, especially Toulon, were soon busy prepar- ing armaments ; the victorious general was to be hurled agaipst the tyrant of the seas.
The victorious general had every in- tention of crushing the tyrant of the seas ; but not, for the present, by that particular method, to which the British fleet might prove an obstacle. But Great Britain was now an Oriental as well as a European Power. Bonaparte had conceived the idea of an Asiatic
empire which would not only rob Great Britain of her Indian dominion, but would provide overwhelming resources for turn- ing back upon the West. The high-road to Asia lay through Egypt ; and Egypt, not the shores of England, was the objec- tive of Bonaparte's designs, to which the effusive Barras had no sort of ob- jection. The general of the Republic triumphing in London would be a portent more alarming to the Triumvirate in Paris than the general on his way to India. England watched and waited, expecting the obvious. Bonaparte's secret was kept ; but Admiral Nelson, on guard in the Mediterranean, had his own intuitions. At any rate, the armament would come out of Toulon, and, whatever its destination, he would have to account for it. But weather drove him off ; the fleet had just time to sail clear away before he could re- appear, to find Toulon empty. Instinct bade him make for Egypt in pursuit. He reached Alexandria, but found no sign of his quarry, which he had passed in a fog
Nelson on the Track of the French
BONAPARTE'S CLEMENCY WITH THE SLEEPING SENTRY Bonaparte, at Areola, discovering a sentry asleep, quietly took his g^in and stood guard in his place. The man on awakening was terror-stricken, for the penalty of his fault was death, but his general gave him only a few auiet words of reproof. By acts such as this Napoleon gained the love and devotion of bis men, who were ever ready to follow him to deatlj.
469
10
BONAPARTE BEFORE THE DIRECTORY ON HIS RETURN FROM EGYPT
B^T^°*i*'* *^^* ^.^k'"? ^^^ come for him to return to France and assume decisive control, Bonaparte suddenlv ouitted
Egypt, leavmg: Kleber m command of the troops. On his arrival in Paris he presented himsel?SlthroLectoi^
and left behind engaged in securing Malta from the Knights of St. John. Malta was neutral ; Egypt, a dependency of Turkey, was neutral.
Nelson started afresh in pursuit, but again missed his prey, which reached Alexandria on June 30th, the day after his departure. Bonaparte and his forces were landed ; he Was careful to proclaim that they had come as Uberators— friends, in- deed, of the sultan and the Mohammedan religion-^to free Egypt from the yoke of the Mamelukes. Alexandria was seized without difficulty ; Bonaparte led his murmuring forces across the desert, to change their murmurs into vivalswhen they shattered the splendid Mameluke cavalry French ^" ^^^ Battle of the Pyramids.
Triumphs and P^^^Pft^^'^tered Cairo in Disasters trmmph. On the top of tri- umph came news of disaster.
' Nelson had got on the scent, and returned to Alexandria on August ist. He found the French battleships^thirteen in number —
, at anchor in Aboukir Bay, heading north- west, with shoals on their left, where he was told there was no room for ships to pass. But Nelson held that where there was room for French ships to swing there
was room for English ships to sail. He bore down, late as it was, on a north-west wind, his van passing down the French left between the ships and the shoals, his rear passing down the French right. Thus he brought the French van between two fires, while the French rear to leeward could not come into action.
The battle raged far into the night ; the French flagship. The Orient, was bloWd up ; all but two of the battleships an3*J couple of frigates were destroyed or cap- tured. " It was not a victory, but a revolu- tion." The battle converted the Mediter- ranean into an English lake. Bonaparte was isolated in Egypt, with no possibly chance of obtaining supplies or reinforced ments, or maintaining his communication^ with France. The Asiatic empire had become an impossibility, though even now' Bonaparte would not admit it to himself.
The attack upon Egypt forced the Porte to declare war on France ; and Bonaparte, after having organised an Egyptian govern- ment, and having set the example, which found followers among his army, of pro- fessing Mohammedanism, anticipated the Turkish attack by himself attacking Syria early in 1799. His successes were checked
4691
HISTORY OF THg WOfeLD
before Acre, where Djezzar Pasha held out stubbornly, his garrison being reinforced by Sir Sidney Smith with some British sailors and Bonaparte's siege artillery, which they had captured en route from Alexandria. All the French efforts to carry the obstinate fortress were fruitless ; Acre made mere futility of the Syrian cam- paign. Bonaparte retreated into Egypt, wiiere he annihilated a Turkish column ; but also, in the course of communications with Sir Sidney Smith, received a packet of newspapers bearing momentous intelli- gence concerning events of which his
isolation had kept him in ignorance. Even before his departure from Toulon the progress of the congress at Rastadt had been ominous of trouble. The rulers of the Rhine provinces were very ill- pleased to find that Austria and Prussia — now ruled by Frederic William III. — had disposed of their territories to France. Protestant Prussia was willing to compen- sate them by the secularisation of the ecclesiastical states in Central Germany ; orthodox Austria was not. A Franco- Prussian alliance seemed a probable outcome of the quarrel, and Thugut
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BONAPARTE'S COUP D'ETAT: DISPERSING THE. EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE The executive government of France, known as the Directory, was in the hands of five men, and because of his youth Bonaparte was unable to join it. He resolved, however, on a bold stroke ; the Directory was unpopular, and he deter- mined to overthrow it. With tht, assistance of Si6y6s, this was accomplished on November 9th, 1799. The two Directors who refused to dissolve were placed under griard ; a tremendous scene was witnessed in the Council of Five Hundred when Bonaparte was refused a hearing:, but the Chamber dispersed when the soldiery advanced upon iU
From the painting by Francois Bouchet in the Louvre
4692..
INSTALLATION OF THE THREE "CONSULS' OF FRANCE This picture is a sequel to that on the preceding page. After the dissolution of the Directory, the Council of Ancients de- creed the appointment of a provisional executive committee of three, nominating Si6yfes, Ducos, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
From the painting by Louder at Versailles
began to meditate a renewal of the war. Moreover, the Tsar Paul, who, in con- trast to Catharine, was already showing himself a strong reactionary in domestic affairs, took umbrage at the French seizure of the island of Malta. In Italy, the Directory deserted Bonaparte's policy of leniency to the papacy, to which it had objected from, the beginning ; it encour- aged democratic insubordination, and in the disturbances which arose found excuse for marching upon Rome, removing the old Po{)e from the Eternal City, and setting up a Republic according to precedent. Similar disturbances were fostered in Switzerland, with similar results ; the existing Government was abolished and replaced by the " Helvetic Republic " on the approved model. These proceedings inspired universal alarm. The Neapolitan monarchy felt itself particularly endan-
gered The battle of the Nile greatly strengthened Pitt, and even his energies were now surpassed by those of the Tsar in the effort to form a new coalition. Nelson and his fleet from the Nile arrived at Naples and inspired fresh confidence. The monarchy prematurely declared war against the Republic, and an army marched on Rome. Temporary success was promptly followed by reverse. The advance of French troops frightened the royal family into flight to Nelson's ships. Naples was forthwith converted into the Parthenopean Republic, and the Sardinian and Tuscan territories were occupied by French troops in January, 1799.
The second coalition was already formed, and Russia was pledged to support Austria by sending an army into Italy under Suwarrow. In March, 1799, several hostihties were in full swing. Jourdan,
4693
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
advancing towards Vienna, was driven back over tbe Rhine by the Archduke Charles. Scherer was defeated at Magnano, and replaced by Moreau. Massena, who had begun an advance on Vienna from Switzer- land, was paralysed. Suwarrow appeared in Italy, outmanoeuvred Moreau, and on the Trebbia cut to pieces General Mac- . donald's smaller force from the
- * ^ south, which was attempting to
OS o e gjfjg^,^ ^ junction with Moreau, who was obliged to retreat. Suwarrow, however, was ordered to remain in Italy, instead of pressing on to France, While the Austrians secured Lombardy.
Joubert appeared on the scene with a fresh French army, but was crushed and himself slain by the combination of Suwarrow with the Austrians at Novi. In Naples, the Republic was easily overturned and the Bourbons were restored — 'to avenge the recent revolution in very sanguinary fashion. The whole of Italy was lost to the French, except Genoa. In the north, a British force was landed in Holland, and captured the Dutch fleet in the Texel, though York, its commander, made no further effective progress.
This record was serious enough for France, but beyond this the central govern- ment itself was in very precarious condi- tion. The Directory, as established at Fructidor, was aware of the uncertainty of its own tenure of power, and in 1798 aroused indignant opposition by cancelling the election of several unfavourable depu- ties. In the following spring they again lost ground in the elections ; Sieyes took the place of Rewbell in the Directory itself, and in June that body was practically reconstituted, as concerned its personnel, though without any tendency to royalism. Such was the sum of the news which convinced Bonaparte that the time had come for him to return to Paris at all costs and assume decisive control. Keeping his designs secret till all was ready, he succeeded in making sail from onapa e Egypt jn company with trusted I p comrades — Marmont, Lannes,
Murat, and Berthier — leav- ing the indignant Kleber in command of the troops, and at the head of the administration. He landed in France on October 9th, to find that the month of September had seen a material improve- ment in the military situation. In Holland, Brune was on the point of forcing York to capitulate at Alkmaar — an event which
4694
occurred ten days later. In Italy, SuWar* row had found that Austria was merely playing for her own hand, to secure not only Lombardy but also Sardinian terri- tory ; and he himself was ordered to join his colleague, Korsakoff, in order to crush Massena in Switzerland. When he suc- ceeded in crossing the Alps he found that Massena had already fallen upon Korsakoff and crushed him. He himself had the utmost difficulty in withdrawing his force, which alone could not cope with Massena, to a place of safety. Having effected this, he threw up his command. The breach between Russia and Austria was a most serious blow to the coalition. Bonaparte was hailed with acclamations as the conqueror of Egypt. He hastened to Paris, where he found affairs ripe for the coup d'etat which he planned. The last constitution had proved unworkable, owing to the practical difficulty of maintaining harmony between the Assemblies and the Executive ; the indefatigable Sieyes was ready with a brand new one, beautifully and pyramidally symmetrical, though as yet the secret of it was locked in his own bosom. Sieyes was evidently the man , to ally himself with, since Bonaparte s j^^ represented the moderates,
C "*"itat ^^° ^^^^ dissatisfied with oap e a ^^^ existing constitution.
Open identification with either Jacobins or royalists would not result in the necessary dictatorship. The existing constitution forbade Bonaparte to join the Directory on the score of his youth. The blow was to be struck on November 9th (Brumaire). Sieyes could command a majority in the Chamber of Ancients ; Bonaparte's brother, Lucien, was president of the other Chamber. With his quartet of comrades from Egypt, Bonaparte could make sure of most of the important soldiers. On the fateful day, the two Directors who refused to dissolve were placed under guard ; there was a tre- mendous scene in the Council of Five Hundred, which was Jacobin in its sym- pathies, and refused Bonaparte a hearing. A harangue from Lucien, however, out- side the Chamber, roused the soldiery to advance on the Chamber, which dispersed ; and the Council of Ancients decreed the appointment of a provisional Executive Committee of three — a. decree confirmed by a few members of the other Chamber, who nominated as the three " consuls " Sieyes, Ducos (an assenting member of the Directory), and Napoleon Bonaparte.
4^95
'-Q^:^i
feW/^
"c^Mj^^-^ v^^&-r<^
^^^^^^^'^^
IN HIS EARLY DAYS BEFORE THE CONSULATE
From the painting by Philippoteaux
IN THE -UNIFORM OF A GENERAL M WHEN FIRST CONSUL
I'-rom tl:
AN INTERESTING BUST OF THE SAME PERIOD
From the i>ainting by Appiani
FAVOURITE PORTRAIT AS GENERAL AND FIRST CONSUL
From the painting by Gerard
4695
THE EMPEROR IN THE YEAR 1805
Frum a contemporary engraving
DETAIL FROM A LARGE PAINTING
h'rom the painting by Baron Gros
4698
A CURIOUS PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON, SHOWING TWO ASPECTS OF HIS FACE
From the painting by Girodet-Troison, entitled " \
^
M!MI!tt>JMJBi«MMMMSMUMMMI<W^J—
ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON
Fr.jin the i),untiiit; bv C. L. Eastlake R.A.
THE EMPEROR
From the painting by Horace V'ernet in the National
^a^jg^^a^^g^^
^£^
4699
4700
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
VI
BY ARTHUR
D. INNES, M.A.
FRANCE UNDER THE NEW DESPOTISM
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AS FIRST CONSUL
IT had been understood among the con- spirators of the coup d'etat that Sieyes Was to introduce his final masterpiece of constitution-making. It was very soon understood that the masterpiece was to be remoulded according to the require- ments of Bonaparte. Sieyes had con- structed his scheme on the metric system. Five milhon electors were to choose 500,000, who were to choose 50,000, who were to choose 5,000. Municipal officers were to be appointed from the half-million, departmental officers from the 50,000, government officials, the judicature, and the legislative assemblies from the 5,000. The legislative assemblies were to be three — the Council of State, to initiate legislation ; the Tribunate, to discuss and amend ; the Corps Legislatif, to accept or reject. Above these came the Senate, appointed for life, co-opting its
_ _ own members, nominating the
1 lic rowers _i 1 1 1 •
- . chambers, and vetomg uncon-
F' t C I stitutional legislation. Above the Senate were two consuls, wielding the executive power, and con- cerned respectively with war and peace : they were to hold office for ten years. At the top was a Grand Elector, nominated for five years but removable by the Senate ; he was to nominate the two consuls, and be the diplomatic figurehead. Bonaparte offered trenchant criticism. Everybody was checked by somebody else ; no one could do anything. The Grand Elector became the First Consul, wielding the whole executive power ; the other two consuls were to be merely advisers.
The First Consul was to nominate prac- tically all Government officials, and also the Council of State, thus virtually ac- quiring the power of initiating legislation ; ' and the Senate might neither depose him nor absorb him into its own ranks. In effect, he was to be an autocrat, with all the powers which had once been wielded by the Committee of PubUc Safety. The First
Fiance under Her New Government
Consul was, of course, to be Napoleon Bonaparte, A practically unanimous plebiscite confirmed the new despotism.
As far as the central authority was concerned, self-government and the Sovereignty of the People vanished with the paradoxical announcement : " Citizens, the Revolution is fixed to the principles which commenced it. It is finished." All power was in the hands of the First Consul's nominees. It remained to apply the principle to the self-government by elective bodies in departments and communes, which had been overridden by the agents of the Committee of Public Safety. tBy a law promulgated in 1800, the Departments were placed under the control of a Prefect and Sub-prefects, and the Communes under a Mayor — all ap- pointed by the central Government at Paris. The representative bodies became merely consultative. The entire system was probably the most completely and perfectly centralised on record. All the sovereign functions were exercised at the will of a single man, with no check save the power of the legislature to reject legislation. Even criticism was articulate only in the chamber of the Tribunate.
The healing of old wounds was the policy of the new Government. Amnesties for past political offences, repatriation of Emigres who were not of the irreconcilable type, permission to celebrate public wor- ship for priests who accepted onap& e ^ formula of obedience to the Government, were measures
the Advocate of Peace
which removed sources of disaffection. The next step was for the First Consul to pose as the advocate of* peace, which would certainly be popular. It is improbable that the overtures made by Bonaparte were genuine. They threw the onus of rejection upon the obstinately aggressive foes of France. The continuation of war, if forced upon
4701
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the French, would give them oppor- tunities for supplying the exchequer by a renewal of the system of organised pillage which Bonaparte had adopted in Italy. Austria was mistress of North Italy, and Great Britain was on the point of possess- ing herself of Malta ; neither of these Powers was disposed to resign the advan- tages won. The First Consul knew that his proposals would be unacceptable, and he presented them in the irregular form of letters addressed personally to the i Emperor and to King George, which ensured ; their rejection. ^ .
It was easy to rouse the right- eous resentment of France against Austria and the perfidious Pitt.
The war con- tinued. The superior Aus- trian forces under Melas split the French army of Italy, driving Massena e a s t - ward into Genoa, and the rest west- ward into Nice. Moreau was placed in com- mand of the Army of the Rhine , with orders not to proceed further thanUlm. Bona- parte, with some secrecy, prepared a third army. Moreau a d - vanced on April 25th, passed the Rhine, and by a series of victories drove the Austrian com- mander, Kray, back to Ulm. If he had pushed forward he would undoubtedly have forced open the road to Vienna, and have been able to dictate terms to Austria ; the honours would have fallen, not to the First Consul, but to Moreau. But his orders condemned him to inaction till Bonaparte had secured the admiring attention of France. The First Consul carried his army over the Alps by the
4702
MALTA'S SURRENDER TO THE BRITISH TROOPS This island in the Mediterranean, an important port of call, was captured by Bonaparte in 1798 ; two years later, in September, 1800, as shown in the above illustration, it surrendered to the British.
From the drawing by R. Caton Woodville
St. Gothard pass, and swooped upon the plains of Lombardy before Melas sus- pected his approach at the end of May. The dogged tenacity of Massena in Genoa had served its purpose, though he was obliged to surrender on June 4th. Strategy is not sentiment, and Genoa was allowed to fall in order that Melas might be the more completely crushed.
Bonaparte proceeded to envelop Melas at Marengo, near Alessandria; the Aus-
- I trian, for his
i part, was deter- mined to cut his way through. He ' very nearly suc- ceeded, but a French column, detached under Desain to Novi, lieard the firing and returned to the field of battle at the critical moment —when .Melas imagined that the fight was already won. Desain stopped the tide : a brilliant cavalry charge, led by K e 1 1 e r m a n, changed immi- nent defeat into decisive victory. Melas felt his position to be so hopeless that he agreed to the cession of all North Italy west of the Mincio, by the Convention of Alessandria. Marengo, on June 14th, though won almost by an accident, covered the victor with glory. He returned to Paris, leaving Massena in charge in Italy. In the fortnight following Marengo, Moreau, by threatening the Austrian com- munications, forced them to evacuate Ulm, defeated them at Hochstett, drove them back on Bohemia, and captured Munich ; then hostilities were suspended.
Negotiations with Great Britain and Austria made no progress ; Marengo had not been a fatal blow to th? latter power,
FRANCE UNDER THE NEW DESPOTISM
which pledged itself not to make a separate peace before February, in consideration of an English subsidy. But Bonaparte now established friendly relations with the Tsar, who had quarrelled completely with Austria, and was possessed with an infatuation for the First Consul as the destroyer of the Jacobin Republic ; and Bonaparte was quite ready to purchase his alliance by promising the restoration of .Piedmont to Sardinia, and of Malta to the Knights of St. John. From Spain, also, the cession of Louisiana, the colony on the Mississippi, was obtained in return for a promise that Tuscany should be conferred as a kingdom on the Duke of Parma. The failure of the Austrian nego- tiations led to a renewal of hostilities and Moreau's crush- ing victory at Hohenlinden on December 3rd, which forced Austria in effect to sue for an armistice, and to adopt a new tone in the negotiations at Luneville.
In February, 1801, the Peace of Lune- ville was signed ; it was on the basis of the earlier Treaty of Campo Formio. The
GENERAL MOREAU A g:eneral in the French army, be won manjr notable victories over the Austrians, culminating^ in the decisive battle of Hohenlinden. Napoleon exiled him to America.
Adige was again the frontier in North Italy; Tuscany was handed over to Parma as promised. The Tsar saved the kingdom of Naples, which promised to close its ports to Great Britain, which power had excited Paul's indignation by refusing to give up Malta. Once again the United Kingdom — ^the Irish Act of Union had just been passed — stood alone, at the moment when Pitt was retiring from office on account of the king's obstinate refusal to concede the Catholic Emanci- pation to which the Minister was pledged.
This isolation was the more serious because an anti - British combination of the maritime Powers was threat- ening. Jervis, Duncan, and Nelson had dealt with the fleets of Spain, Holland and France, so that the navies actually at the service of France could not cope with England. But her claims as to the treat- ment of neutral vessels had been felt as vexatious for a long time, and only twenty years before had caused, or been made the pretext for, the first league between th'
BRITAIN'S VICTORY AT THE SANGUINARY NAVAL BATTLE OFF COPENHAGEN The institution of Napoleon's commercial conspiracy against Great Britain was met by prompt action on the part of the latter, which determined to meet the Armed Neutrality. Early in 1801 a British fleet was dispatched to the Baltic, and on April 2nd struck at the Danish fleet, which lay at anchor before Copenhagen, protected by the shoals. Nelson was second in command under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, and disregarded the signals ordering his withdrawal
From the painting by Serres
4703
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
northern maritime powers, which took the
name of " the Armed Neutrality." The
main result of that league had then been
a declaration of war between Holland and
Great Britain, to the detriment of Holland.
Its unsuccessful aim had been to impose
a change of practice on the British. In
i8oo, as in 1780, the league was revived
f ^^ ^^^ instigation of Russia,
"th^A** a which was joined by Sweden,
M 1 i-^^" Denmark, and, under pressure,
Neutrality v •r. • <t-v • t
by Prussia. The occasion of
the Russian activity in the matter was
the Tsar Paul's resentment at the British
capture of Malta — in September, 1800 —
which Bonaparte had promised to place
under his protection. The renewal of the
league at the present crisis was a very
manifest threat.
The British practice had not, in fact, materially differed from that of any other naval power which had been strong enough to exact similar claims ; but the rules of international law were even less definitely laid down for general acceptance than at the present day, and there was no common agreement as to their interpretation in the courts of different countries. It was common ground that neutral vessels might not enter a blockaded port, and that contraband of war was liable to capture on neutral vessels ; but different views were put forward as to what constitutes a blockade, and what goods are covered by the term " contraband." It had been the standing practice to seize not only contra- band, but also enemy's goods in general, when carried in neutral vessels.
The Armed Neutrality claimed that vessels under convoy of a neutral warship should be exempt from search ; that goods carried on neutral vessels should not be treated as enemy's goods ; that the British definition of contraband included goods which ought not to be reckoned as contra- band ; and that only an effective blockade, not merely a paper one, should be recog-
_ ., , , nised. For a sea-power engaged Britain s n.L xu i j
... . in a conflict with a land
Victory over , , , •
the Dane power, these claims were manifestly disadvantageous. The claims were regarded in England merely as a pretext for forming a hostile naval combination in the interests of France, warranting hostilities. A British fleet sailed for the Baltic, and on April 2nd struck at the Danish fleet, which lay at anchor before Copenhagen, protected by the shoals. Nelson, who was second in
4704
command, carried the major part of his fleet through the shoals ; and after a furious engagement, in which he was subjected to the hottest fire he had ever experienced, but had disregarded the signals ordering his withdrawal, he forced on the Danes an armistice for three months, having silenced the enemy's ships.
His intention was to deal with the Swedes and Russians in detail after the same fashion. But it was unnecessary. The peculiarities and the violence of the Tsar Paul had produced a conspiracy for his deposition, which meant his assassination; though this had not been realised by his young successor, Alexander, who was privy to the plot. Ten days before the Battle of the Baltic he had been murdered, though the fact Was not yet publicly known. The new Tsar was a complete contrast to his father, whose policy he was prompt to reverse. In three months the Armed Neutrality was dissolved. Great Britain made some concessions, modifying the list of contraband, acceding to the principle of effective blockades, and abolishing the right of search by privateers, though not
The French ^^ ^^^ ^^'^^'^ ^^'P^' "^^^^ jj . neutral vessels were under
f '"^ E convoy of a neutral warship. rom gyp ^^^ TssiT withdrew his claim in respect of Malta. Further successes attended the British arms. In Egypt, Kleber, the lieutenant whom Bonaparte had left, proved eminently successful; but his assassination placed the incompe- tent Menon in command. At the end of March a British force under Sir Ralph Abercrombie landed at Aboukir Bay, and completely routed the French, driving them into Alexandria. Though Abercrombie himself was killed, Cairo surrendered in June, and Alexandria in August. The French occupation was at an end.
With Malta and Egypt secured, and the Armed Neutrality dissipated, Great Britain was no longer averse from peace ; prelimin- aries were signed in October, and the definitive Treaty of Amiens in March, 1802. For the first time in ten years France was at last at peace. The Aldington Ministry undertook to restore Egypt to Turkey, Malta to the Knights of St. John, and other conquests, with the exception < of Ceylon and Trinidad. Even the Cape was temporarily restored to the Dutch. On the other hand, France was to retire from the Papal states and from Naples, and the Ionian Islands were to form an
FRANCE UNDER THE NEW DESPOTISM
independent Republican state. On all hands peace was welcomed, though its terms gave no security against an early renewal of the war ; it was welcomed even though before it was concluded Bonaparte gave ominous premonitions of continued aggression by imposing upon the Batavian Republic modifications of its constitution, which brought it still more decisively under French control, ignoring the express stipulation for its independence in the Treaty of Luneville. Similar treatment was applied to the Ligurian Republic, as Genoa had now for some time been named ; while the Cis- alpine became the Italian Republic, with Bonaparte for President. Piedmont, too, was presently annexed, instead of being restored to Sardinia, in accordance with the promise to the Tsar. But in truth Britain was so invulnerable at sea, and France so invulner- able on land, that neither seemed able to inflict further serious damage on the other, unless through her commerce. Between Hohenlinden and Amiens, the First Consul had been strengthening his own position in France. In De- cember, 1800, an attempt on his life, which was soon proved to be the work of some Brittany Chouans, was made
attendance at Mass in Notre Dame at Easter, 1802. The First Consul, though personally absolutely indifferent to creeds and forms, was thoroughly awake to the uses of a concrete religion as a preservative of order, and the inadequacy of abstrac- tions to supply its place. He was ready to call himself a Mohammedan in Egypt, but in France he re-established the Roman „ . Catholicism which the Revo-
n . CI- t. lution had deposed. Ihe Re-establishes 1 • , j ^ i u • 1
«... bishops and archbishops
** ** were appointed or reap- pointed by the First Consul, with the confirmation of the Pope. The non-juring clergy were to be restored, and the acting clergy, regarded as renegades by the orthodox, were to be received canonically into ecclesiastical orders and subjected to normal ecclesiastical discipline. On the other hand, the Church lands confiscated during the Revolu- tion were not to be restored. The concordat established the Catholic Cnurch, but only as subordinate to the State ; instead of being antagonistic to the Government, the clerical organisation became its powerful supporter.
Another law of the same
date gave security to all but
a few of the emigres and
PAUL I. OF RUSSIA " suspects " who wished to
an excuse for the deportation The second son of Peter III., he return to France. Thei. bulk of several Jacobins who had Sl'r1nMnmt'AconS?rfor of them, though no doubt no connection with it. He his deposition ended in his assas- they remained theoretical sup- encroached upon the powers ''"^"°" ^"^ *"" °^'^" '° '*"'• porters of a Bourbon restora-
of the Corps Legislatif and the Tribunate. The collection of taxes was transferred from the innumerable local bodies to a single central one. The fundamental fact became continuously more obvious, that the French people had lost all desire of practical par- ticipation in the Xjovernment, and cared only to have secured to them the material
_,. _. . advantages which had accrued The Church r ,, " t^ 1 j.- t-
. . from the Revolution. Even
Q . the appointment of arbitrary
courts of justice at the First Consul's disposal met with no opposi- tion outside the Tribunate.
Another step was to seek to establish favourable relations between the Govern- ment and the Church, whose opposition 'had been a constant source of disaffection in the past history of the Republic. The new policy took shape in the concordat with the papacy, ratified by an official
299
tion, were thus converted into practical supporters of the de facto Government. It remained to secure the position of the First Consul himself, whose appointment, though for ten years, instead of the five originally proposed by Sieyes, was still subject to the time limit, whence new revolutionary intrigues and conspiracies might not unreasonably be anticipated.
A proposal was made in the Senate for an extension of ten years more, which was amended into appointment for life, to' be ratified by a plebiscite. More than 3,500,000 votes against less than 10,000 expressed the practically .unanimous ap- proval of the French people. The other two consuls, Cambaceres and Lebrun, were then confirmed in office for life ; the First Consul was authorised to appoint his own successor, and he received further powers of controlling the personnel of the Senate
4705
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
and the Legislature. From this time, the First Consul adopted the monarchical custom of using his first name instead of his surname, and we may speak no longer of Bonaparte, but of Napoleon.
An additional buttress of the new Imperialism was the institution of the Legion of Honour, which created a new —^ . . aristocracy and new ranks in
e egion gQ(,jg|.y yvhose interest neces-
oF Honour 11 • j. ■ ■ ^i
I ft t d ^^^''y ^^y ^^ mamtammg the regime under which they had come into being. The new honours were not hereditary ; in theory they were bestowed in reward for public services. But they were a very direct negation of the abstract doctrine of universal equality. Like his great prototype, Julius Csesar, Napoleon was not only the mightiest of the masters in the science and art of war,
and variegated legal system derived from diverse local customs and procedures, and to revise these into a universal code based on those principles of equality which the Revolution recognised. The completion of this work was now entrusted to a committee of four jurists, with the occasional intervention of the First Consul himself. The result of their labours was the great civil code issued in 1804, which, with certain subsequent modifications, received in 1807 the name of the Code Napoleon. The extensive application of this code or of parts of it, not only to the realms which at one time or another were made subject to or dependent on the French Empire, but also in independent states such as Prussia and Spain, has profoundly modified the law throughout Western Europe. Similarly the work of
PREPARING FOR THE IWVAblON OF ENGLAND: NAPOLEON'S CAMP AT BOULOGNE It was long the ambition of Napoleon to conquer Great Britain. In this illustration his camp at Boulogne is shown, this being the point from which he intended to cross the Channel. There a huge flotilla was prepared for the purpose of embarking an army of 120,000 men for the shores of England when the opportunity should present itsel£
and the most triumphant organiser of an imperial system out of revolutionary elements ; he displayed also an admini- strative genius in social reorganisation, and that acute perception of the moral and material benefits of a wisely splendid expenditure on public works which Pericles had claimed ages before as specially characteristic of the Athenian people. Roads and canals, bridges and harbours, public buildings and public institutions, the splendours of the Louvre, bear lasting witness to the vast range of his activities.
In his most monumental work, how- ever, in the spheres of law and of educa- tion, Napoleon built upon foundations prepared by the idealists of the Revolu- tionary era. Years before, a committee of the Convention had been appointed to introduce uniformity in the complex
47o5
Condorcet under the Convention supplied the basis for Napoleon's scheme of universal education. The elementary, secondary, and advanced schools of Condorcet, however, had lacked the necessary fostering care. While leaving the elementary section mainly to the control of local authorities, Napoleon vigorously developed the second- ary schools, especially with a view to their use as seminaries of militarism. Technical schools also were established, and in 1806 the educational edifice was crowned by the seventeen academies of the University of France. It was a matter of course, under Napoleon, that the whole educational system should be subject to the control of the head of the state, and should be conducted in accord- ance with his ideas on the hues which
Nspoleon's Encouragement of Education
4707
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
would make it an instrument for strength- ening the whole system of government. While this reorganisation Was in progress in France, another process of reconstruc- tion was going on at the diet of Regens- burg, which was working out that problem of the German principalities which had been left for settlement after the Peace of Luneville. Ostensibly the question was one of compensating the princes dispossessed by the French ac- quisitions of territory on the left bank of the Rhine. Actually it was one of re- distributing German provinces in the manner most advantageous to French interests. France, inviting the media- torial aid of Russia, conducted private negotiations with a num- ber of the sovereigns concerned, adapted its general scheme to suit the personal predilections of Alexander, which hap- pened to chime in with French interests, and was able to present to the diet proposals the acceptance of which was already a foregone conclusion.
The prevention of any- thing in the nature of German 'consolidation or the effective extension of Hapsburg control may be regarded as the primary end of French policy. To strengthen Prussia on the
TALLEYRAND
and consequently weakened Austria, which only obtained some Church property in the Tyrol, while her prospects of acqui- sitions in Bavaria vanished. Prussian gains were somewhat more substantial. The princes of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg were kinsmen of the Tsar, and French diplomacy represented the favour shown to those states as compliments to Alex- ander. Further, the secularisations en- abled the states which profited thereby to improve their own individual organisa- tions, and encouraged them to assert their own individuality in preference to any ideas of a German nationality, in which they would be lost, and in preference more particularly to subordination to the Imperial House. It was not difificult for the on- looker to realise that in fact the process going on was that of preparing them to become French dependencies.
Napoleon appears at this time to have been considering schemes of expansion in the Western Hemisphere. That was presumably his primary intention in obtaining Louisiana from Spain, and in the expedition of 1802 to establish a French government in San Do- mingo, where the black population had set up a
Baltic, as a counterpoise As Foreign Minister under the First Consul free republic Undcr the
to Austria, without allow- ^^raSlfe!b'ein|foTawtre1ei^^^^^^^^^ leader Toussaint
ing her influence over country. Later, lie became the leader of the L'Ouvcrture, of which an
West Germany to be ^""-Napoleonic faction, and died in 1838. ^ccouut appears in an-
extended, was a means thereto ; while the main business was to make West Germany really dependent on France. The com- pensations for dispossessed sovereigns could be obtained only by abolishing other sovereignties. The scheme proposed the secularisation of all the ecclesiastical states, their absorption in lay principalities.
A corresponding fate was to befall nearly all the free cities. Thus, the secular princes of South and West Germany would extend or consolidate their domin- ions. Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Baden and Hesse-Cassel in particular profited by the secularisation, and were raised to the position of imperial electorates. The suppression of the ecclesiastical states made a Protestant majority in the Diet,
4708
anti-Napoleonic faction, and died in 1838.
other volume. Toussaint was captured, but no serious effort was made to retain dominion. Similar vague dreams instigated a peaceful expedition to Australia, where the French ships were anticipated by the British. Napoleon soon dropped such schemes, and sold Louisiana to the United States, having more palpable objects to grasp at nearer home. The old dream of an Asiatic empire had been dissipated in Egypt, whereas the British hold on India was tightening under the admin- istration of the Marquess Wellesley, after- wards Lord Mornington, who had just overthrown the Mohammedan dynasty of Mysore, and it was soon to be still more decisively confirmed by the military skill of Wellesley's younger brother Arthur.
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NAPOLEON CROWNING HIMSELF EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH In the troublous times that witnessed the struggle to reassert the power of the Bourbons an attempt was made on the First Consul's life. The principal participators in it were punished with death, and all supporters of the new regime felt that its perpetuity could be secured and the Bourbon decisively excluded only by the establishment of a dynasty. Accordingly, the First Consul, on May 18th, 1804, was proclaimed Napoleon I., Emperor of the French.
From the painting by J. L. David in the Louvre
While. the First Consul was reorganising France, and his Foreign Minister, Talley- rand, was manipulating the affairs of Germany, the hollow- ness of the Peace of Amiens was becoming daily more apparent. The British were carrying out their evacua- tions of captured territory, but without undue haste ; and they found ample excuse for prolonging the delay with regard to Malta in the action of France. She had not only dealt in high-handed, fashion with the Batavian and Italian republics, but she continued to keep troops in their terri- ^he duc d'enghien
tones ; and the formal annexa- when the Royalist movement in
ation of Piedmont took place t^e^ our^EfgWenl^r^ourbon '^ot. In March there was a in September, i8o2. Formal prince, was kidnapped and shot " scene " in Paris between diplomatic protests were '''*''°"' ^'*" ^'''^ condemned, j^^apoleon and the British entered without effect, and in March, 1803, ambassador. In April what was in effect Napoleon found excuse in the domestic a British ultimatum was presented, de- discussions of the Swiss for intervening manding the withdrawal of French troops
as mediator and reorganising the Helvetic Republic for the use of France.
In January was published the report of Colonel Sebas- tiani's " commercial mission," which concerned itself with such matters of trade as the annexation of the Ionian Islands and the reconquest of Egypt. The protests of the British Foreign Office were answered by protests against the continued occupation of Malta, angry complaints, which were justifiable enough, of scurrilous articles published in England by the royalist in- transigeants, and demands for their extradition, which were
4709
HISTORY OF THE WORLO
Designs on Britain
from the Batavian and Helvetic republics, compensation to Sardinia for the loss of Piedmont, and the retention of Malta by England for ten years. France refused the terms, and on May 17th diplomatic relations were broken ofl. Napoleon at once ordered the seizure of all British property and the arrest of all British , subjects in France ; the latter n^J^t IT ' remained in captivity till 18 14. It is further to be remarked that during- the peace Napo- leon had continued to maintain in the ports of France and the dependent republics a practical boycott of British goods and British commerce.
The state of open war was renewed, although, as at the time when the Peace of Amiens was signed, it was difficult for either of the mighty belligerents to strike the other except through commerce. But France could and did impose upon Britain a tremendous burden by a per- petual menace of invasion. A huge flotilla was at once prepared at Boulogne, for the purpose of embarking an army of 120,000 men for the shores of England when the opportunity should present it- self. Great Britain prepared to meet the peril, and vast numbers of volunteers were enrolled, drilled, and trained to answer the call to arms'and face the dreaded invader. And the British Fleet held the seas, while the insuperable difficulties of effecting the embarkation and transport with sufficient swiftness to evade the fleet made themselves apparent to Napoleon.
The two Powers were like wrestlers, waiting to close, each watching for the instant's relaxation or exposure on the part of the other which should give the chance of springing in for a fatal grip. Neither could close with effect. England renewed the process of capturing French colonial possessions. France could not strike at England, but she occupied the English king's German electorate of Han- over in spite of its neutrality, counting on the immobility of Prussia. Nevertheless, the act stirred a fresh uneasiness in Austria and Russia. On the other hand. Great Britain, having learned that France was in receipt of a Spanish subsidy, brought Spain into active hostility by seizing her treasure-ships. For Spain had fallen upon evil days under the depraved rule of the infamous and incompetent Godoy, the worst type of court favourite
4710
The Evil Days of Spain
under a degenerate monarchy. But the shock which brought about the Third Coalition was administered by Napoleon himself. With the renewal of the war with Great Britain, the Royalists were inspired with fresh hopes. George Cadou- dal, the moving spirit of the Breton insur- gents, and Pichegru, the degraded general, concocted a conspiracy in conjunction with the Comte d'Artois. The plot was known and watched secretly. The conspirators were allowed to visit Paris in February, 1804, and Pichegru interviewed his old friend and comrade Moreau, the one soldier whose rivalry Napoleon feared. Moreau refused to join or to betray them. Then the Government struck ; Moreiu, Pichegru, Cadoudal, and others were arrested. But this was not enough. Charles of Artois was out of reach, but there was a Bourbon prince residing at Baden, the Due d'Enghien, the representative of the House of Conde. The duke was kid- napped and carried into French territory at Vincennes for " trial " by a military commission ; but his grave awaited him, already dug, literally as well as metaphori- cally. The duke pleaded to be Napoleon brought before the First Consul Emperor of , • °,r .1 • ■
. P . himself ; the commissioners
seconded the request. But Savary, Napoleon's agent, with Murat, knew the First Consul's will, and the duke was shot without having been even con- demned. Europe stood aghast at the crime.
In France, the crime does not appear to have produced any corresponding shudder. It presented itself as little more than a deed which quite decisively barred any possible reconciliation between the First Consul and the Bourbons, the new system and the old ; *the murdered prince was re- garded as an accomplice in the plot against Napoleon's life. Pichegru died in prison, probably by his own hand. Cadoudal and others were executed. Moreau could be condemned only to two years' imprison- ment, for which Napoleon substituted perpetual exile, and the victor of Hohen- linden was sent to America.
But the First Consul's life had been threatened ; all supporters of the new regime felt that its perpetuity could be secured and the Bourbons decisively excluded only by the establishment of a dynasty. By senatorial decree, justified by sundry petitions and addresses, the First Consul was proclaimed Napoleon I., Emperor of the French, on May i8th 1804.
4711
4713
4714
THE RETURN OF THE FRENCH FROM SYRIA IN 1 T.'O Bonaparte on foot while a wounded officer has the use of his horse
Hrijm the pa nn:iK' i'v Mciratc \'enict
4715
47^7
WOUNDED IN THE FOOT AT THE BATTLE OF REGENSBURG IN 1809
From the painting by Gautlierot
DEFEATING THE RUSSIANS AT THE BATTLE OF FRIEDLAND IN 1807 [
From ihe painting by Horace V'ernet
4719
4720
30O
4721
'ON THE GREAT ROAD"-THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW
From the painting by Verestchiii,'in by permission of the Berlin Pliotograpluc Co.
"KS14. AN EPISODE IN THE CAMPAIGN
From the painting by Meissonier
4723
4724
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
VII
BY ARTHUR
D. INNES, M.A.
NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR of the FRENCH
HIS DOMINATION OF EUROPE AND HIS FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO CRIPPLE BRITAIN
TTHE month which saw the nominally ■•■ republican constitution of France converted into an avowed hereditary auto- cracy under a Corsican dynasty saw also the return to active control of affairs in England of Napoleon's most determined antagonist, William Pitt. The murder of the Due d'Enghien had already aroused the indignation of Alexander I., whose Court had been ordered into mourning. From this time both Great Britain and Russia were actively engaged in the en- deavour to construct a new coalition.
The most enthusiastic advocate of energetic measures was also the least im- portant— Gustavus IV., of Sweden, who had inherited his father's passion for sup- porting the legitimate Bourbon monarchy — whereas Great Britain was not in favour of a forcible Bourbon restoration, and Russia agreed with Great. Britain. The Tsar was an idealist, whose ideals were apt to drop into a secondary position when the aggrandisement of Russia was he was a zealous adherent of the principles of 1789 which the " Consu- late for life " had virtually wiped out of the French Constitution. He had designs of reviving the Polish kingdom as a constitutional monarchy \Vith Alexander I. as its constitutionalking. Neither London lior Vienna cared about the principles of 1789, and Vienna did not want a revived Polish kingdom. Hints of an Austro- Russian partition of Turkish territory were equally unattractive in London, where also the Tsar's suggestions for con- cessions on the Armed Neutrality lines, and for the restoration of Malta to the Knights of St. John, were impossible of acceptance. Prussia was not to be drawn out of her own persistent neutrality ; she suspected the existence of the Polish scheme, and while Napoleon's occupation of Han- over had alarmed her, the French Emperor
^dealism of the Tsar, of Russia
in question
Britain Mistress of the Seas
was willing to cajole her with promises that Hanover would probably be transferred to her. Hence nearly a twelvemonth passed before the Powers could come to terms. In April, 1805, the British and Russian Governments came to an agreement. Napoleon was to be required to withdraw his forces from Holland, Hanover, Switzerland, and Italy, ■ and to restore Pied- mont to Sardinia. At the end of the war a European Congress was to settle disputed points and establish a European system. The accession of Sweden and Austria soon followed, the latter being overcome by the fear that Napoleon meant to appropriate the whole of Italy ; and war actually begun in September, 1805. Throughout this period, of course. Great Britain had been at opeti war, ruling the seas while the menace of the Boulogne flotilla still threatened her shores.
Napoleon's proceedings in the mean- while leave little room for doubt as to his intentions. The Holy Roman Empire had become the shadow of a great name ; Napoleon meant to incarnate the reality in his own French Empire, of which France was to be merely the , foundation. The recognition of his title by .Prussia and Austria gave him the necessary status, while Francis weakened his own position by adopting the title of " Hereditary Emperor of Austria." Napoleon's theory that he was reviving the empire of Charle- -. magne was typified in his coro-
apo eon j^a.tion ceremony ; the Pope was Crowns , , •. 1 . xt 1
„. ,, to perform it, but Napoleon Himself j-j^ , ii- J. ^
did not permit him to place
the crown on his head ; he did that with his own hands. He reorganised the Batavian Republic under an almost autocratic " Grand Pensionary." The Italian Re- public turned itself into a monarchy, and invited Napoleon to be its king — .an invitation which he accepted, assuming
4725
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the old crown of Lombardy with his own hands. The Ligurian Repubhc was annexed to France, Parma to the new kingdom of Italy, in which the recently issued Civil Code of France was established. Re- turning to Paris, Napoleon left his stepson, Eugene Beau- harnais, as Viceroy in Italy. It was these proceedings, at the beginning of 1805, that turned the scale with Austria, and hurried her into the third coalition.
In effect, the new coalition consisted of Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, and Austria. Prussia stood aside ; of Western Germany, the southern half, Bavaria,
concentrated at Boulogne, for the English invasion. The Austrians began operations by invading Bavaria in September, ex- pecting to be left leisure to occupy it while the Russian armies were advancing from the rear, and the Archduke Charles was deahng with North Italy.
But the Boulogne army was not destined for the invasion of England ; that point was already settled. For an in- vasion the temporary com- mand of the Channel was an absolute necessity. With that end in view. Napoleon, at the close of 1804, made with
ALEXANDER I. OF RUSSIA Spain a treaty which placed a
In 1801 he succeeded his father, and fleet at his disposal ; but
Wurtemberg and Baden, were a°gaiLT'NSon"^'*RuVsu"was while an English squadron on the French side while a much at war during: his reign, was keeping the Brest fleet considerable French force which ended with his Jeathimso.s. ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^
under Bernadotte was in occupation of watching Toulon, nothing could be done. Hanover. Napoleon's Grand Army was Napoleon displayed an intention of setting
EMPEROR AND CHILDREN: NAPOLEON WITH THE FAMILY OF GENERAL MURAT This pretty picture showing the great Emperor of the French surrounded by the children of his distinguished general, Murat, offers a striking contrast to some of the other scenes reproduced in these pages. Napoleon is enjc ying a rare interval from the stress of the battlefield, the picture presenting aa interesting phase of his character.
From the painting by OucU
4726
THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON WITH THE OFFICERS OF HIS STAFF
From the painting by Meissonier
about the recovery of the West Indies for France and Spain. In March, 1805, Villeneuve at Toulon got his chance of shpping out of port while Nelson was driven off guard by stress of weather. Villeneuve sailed for the West Indies ; Nelson was soon in pursuit. But the West Indies were not the French admiral's objective ; the intention was to evade Nelson, double back, drive the English blockading squadron from Brest, join the Brest fleet, and so secure com- mand of the Channel before Nelson got back, and hold it while the army of invasion was transported. Up to a certain point the plan suc- ceeded. Villeneuve evaded ...... ^^...^ ^ „„.
Nelson and made for European created Prince of Venice in 1807
waters. But Nelson was in time to despatch a swift cruiser with a warning. Before Ville-
EUGENE de BEAUHARNAIS The sonof Josepiiine, who married Napoleon in 1796, he exhibited great military talent, and rapidly rose to a high position. He was
neuve arrived, Admiral Calder was waiting for him with a squadron, smaller, but sufficient for its purpose. Calder and Villeneuve met ofl Finisterre ; the engagement decided Villeneuve to join forces with the Spanish at Cadiz in August, instead of raising the blockade' of Brest at once and at all costs. Nelson's return shattered the whole design.
Napoleon afterwards as- serted that the Boulogne army had always been in- tended not for England, but for Austria ; in other words, that he did not consider an invasion really practicable until the command of the Channel should be more than temporary. If so, the inten- tion of Villeneuve's manoeuvre was only to force a small portion of the British fleet
4727
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Villeneuve Bernadotte
COMMANDERS OF THE FRENCH FORCES A commander in the French navy, Villeneuve took part in various battles against the British fleet ; Nelson crushed him at Trafalgar, and thus ended Napoleon's scheme for the invasion of England. The son of a lawyer, Bernadotte became a marshal of the French army in 1804. In 1818 he ascended the throne of Sweden as Charles XIV.
into an engagement with superior forces, crush it, and so reduce the present pre- ponderance of the British naval power. If so, again, Villeneuve's retirement was justified, since the engagement with Calder showed that it was more than doubtful whether the scales would be materially re- dressed by carrying out the programme. However that may be. Napo- leon was ex- tremely angry with Villeneuve, but he used his Boulogne army with decisive effect. Long before the Rus- sians could arrive, it was racing to Bava- ria, whither Berna do 1 1 e , ignoring the neutrality of intervening territory, was on the march to join it. Before the Austrian commander, Mack, had realised the situation, he found himself cut off from retreat, and was compelled to surrender, with the bulk of his forces, at Ulm on October 20th. The way to Vienna lay open to Napo- leon. The capitu- lation was virtu- ally decisive of the war on the Continent.
An engagement still more decisive of the war with Great Britain took place on the following day. Nelson had returned to England, and after a brief in- interval resumed the naval command. Villeneuve, stung by the Emperor's taunts, put out from Cadiz with 33 ships of the line, French and Spanish. Nelson, with 27 ships of the line, found him in the Bay of Trafalgar. Descending in double column on the
4728
BROTHERS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON Louis Bonaparte, whose portrait is first given, was the third brother of the Emperor Napoleon. Appointed King of Holland in 1806, he resigned four years later. 1 he eldest brother of Napoleon, Joseph Bonaparte also wore a crown, being placed on the throne of Naples in 1806. Two years later he became King of Spain, but resigned inl813.
French centre, he broke it at two points, and the Franco-Spanish fleet was de- stroyed. Nelson fell in the hour of victory ; but the spectre of a French invasion had been finally laid, the last semblance of serious resistance to the British sea-power had vanished.
That naval dominion was to cost Napoleon dear ; but Tra- falgar was no present check on his Continental career. When Mack capitulated at Ulm, the Arch- duke Charles, hastening back from Italy, found it vain to inter- pose between the French and Vienna, and he fell back to Hungary, while the Russian advance guard retreated on the main body in Moravia. On November 13th the French were in occupation of Vienna. This was the moment when Prussia might have intervened with great effect. Frederic William had been roused to indignation by Bernadotte's march across his territory, pre- cisely when Prussia was refusing the Russians a pas- sage ; and he now went so far as to sign an alliance with Austria and Russia at Pots- dam, on Novem- ber 3rd. But the terms proposed to Great Britain were palpably outrageous, and their repudiation gave Prussia an excuse for negotiating. While the negotiations went on the mo- ment passed during which the Prussian army might have struck. Napoleon enticed the Russians into an engagement at Austerlitz on December znd, and won over
NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH
them a victory, perhaps the most brilliant of all his brilliant achievements. Had Prussia joined the coalition at the outset, Ulm would have been impossible. Had she followed up the Potsdam agreement by vigorous action, Austerlitz would have been impossible, and the French army might have been overwhelmed in spite of Ulm. Had Austria maintained a strict defensive till the Russian forces could co- operate, she would not have had her main army put out of action. Now, Alexander, shocked by Austerlitz, disgusted with Prussia, and annoyed with Austria, con-
Treaty of Schonbrunn, Prussia gave up Neufchatel, Cleves, and Anspach. For these losses, the Power which was negotiating with Great Britain for a subsidy was to be given possession of Hanover, on condition of formally allying herself to France. By the Treaty of Presburg, Austria ceded to Napoleon's kingdom of Italy all her own Italian possessions. Napoleon's obsequious allies, Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Baden, were endowed with her outlying territories, though the Tyrol was presently to re- pudiate the Bavarian sovereignty. The
THE FRENCH AT VIENNA: NAPOLEON RECEIVING THE KEYS OF THE CITY
eluded a truce and withdrew. Francis, whose troops shared the defeat of Auster- litz with the Russians, obtained an armis- tice. The coalition was virtually at an end. The Prussian Minister, Haugwitz, was prompt to accept, at Schonbrunn, a treaty unexpectedly profitable super- ficially, but extremely dishonourable, which Frederic William did not venture to repudiate. Austria had practically no option in acceding to the terms dic- tated to her at Presburg on December 26th. In England the news of Auster- litz proved mortal to William Pitt, who died in January, 1809. By the
three were severed from the old Empire, and the two first became independent kingdoms. The penalising process did not stop here. The Bourbon dynasty was summarily ejected from Naples for having attached itself to the coalition, and Napoleon's brother Joseph was proclaimed King. o.f the Two Sicilies, though the British .fleet effectively secured the island against the entry of French troops. French forces occupied the Papal states. Hol- land and Belgium were then united under another brother, Louis. More than a dozen duchies and principalities were carved out of the ceded territories for Napoleon's
4729
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
marshals. Bavaria and Wiirtemberg pro- vided princesses as brides for Jerome Bonaparte and Eugene Beauharnais.
Another mark of the triumph of the new empire over the old was the formation of the German Confederation of the Rhine, a combination of a dozen of the Western states of the old empire, which were severed from it and recognised the much more effective suzerainty of the new — Wiirtemberg, Bavaria, and Baden at their head, with Dalberg, Archbishop of Mainz, as the prince-primate of the Con- federation. For foreign policy and for military services they were at the beck and call of Napoleon. They got their profit by the mediatising of the minor baronies within their borders — that is, the several states absorbed the hitherto independent estates of the remaining tenants-in-chief of the old empire. Francis II. did little more than recognise an accomplished fact when he dropped the Holy Roman title, and called himself only the Emperor Francis I. of Austria. On August 6th, 1806, the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist.
Meanwhile, Great Britain and Prussia had to be dealt with. Pitt's death brought into power his great rival, Charles James Fox, in the Grenville Ministry, known as ' 'the
Ministry of all the Talents," since it was constructed without consideration of party. Fox had always been disposed to take the most generous view of the good intentions and good faith of the French Government. In spite of the completeness of Great Britain's maritime triumph and of the relative progress of her commerce, the war entailed a heavy strain, which was felt severely by the industrial population, and the conditions were favourable for seeking an honourable peace. Napoleon negotiated on the basis of the restoration of Hanover and the retention of Malta and the Cape of Good Hope, which had been given up at the Peace of Amiens, but reoccupied soon after the renewal of the war. Fox himself, however, was not long in realising that Napoleon had no intention of relaxing his hostility ; and his death, in September, removed the one powerful personality that made for amicable relations.
But the negotiations with Great Britain opened the eyes of Prussia, who was to reap the due reward of her fatuous policy. The formation of the Rhine Confederation was a death-blow to any dream of a Prus- sian hegemony in Germany replacing that of Austria. But by way of placating her.
Napoleon's Hostilily to Britain
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NAPOLEON MEETING FRANCIS
4730
II. AFTER THE FORMER'S VICTORY AT AUSTBRLIT?
i-roin the painting by Baron Gros
NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH
Napoleon dangled before her hints '^f a North German Confederation, of whicn she should be the head, but of which the im- practicability was secured. The compul- sory closing of the North German ports to English ships at Napoleon's behest pro- voked England to reprisals which were ruinous to Prussian commerce. The dis- covery that Napoleon was proposing to King George the restoration of Hanover, the one reward which Prussia had been promised for the Ignominious part she had played, was too much for Frederic William. The war party, which included his queen, Louise, carried the day. Great Britain and Russia were indeed both willing to com- bine against Napoleon, but neither was will- ing to sacrifice much for Prussia, and neither was ready to render her immediate practical assist- ance. Neverthe- less, on October 9th, Prussia flung down the challenge. The bout was short. The French forces had not been withdrawn from North Ger- many. Napoleon was with them ; they were in motion at once. Brunswick, the Prussian commander, changed his plan of taking the offensive and fell back towards Magdeburg, leaving one wing of his army under Hohenlohe to hold Napoleon in check at Jena. Hohenlohe was completely overwhelmed. The retreating Brunswick was caught on the same day at Auerstadt by a smaller French column under Davoust, and was compelled to retire. The arrival of the rout from Jena turned the retire- ment into a panic flight on October 14th. Prussia was prostrate. Fortress after for- tress opened its gates ; only Bliicher made a stubborn stand at Liibeck. Napoleon's
NAPOLEON AND THE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA AT HI. SIT Crushed under the power of the migrhty Napoleon, Prussia was left only a fragment of her dominions by the Treaty of Tilsit Louisa, the brave Queen of Prussia, met Napoleon at Tilsit, and endeavoured on behalf of her country to obtain concessions from him.
From the painting by Gosse
terms rose as he advanced ; Frederic William found that nothing short of abject submission would be accepted. But the limit had been passed. He would not sub- mit to Napoleon's terms. He retreated to East Prussia, to throw himself on Russian support, and dismissed Haugwitz, the Minister whose counsels had guided his policy. A fort- night after Jena, Napoleon was in Berlin. The re- maining North German states were joined to the Rhine Con- federation, in- cluding Bruns- wick and Hesse - Cassel, which were combined into the kingdom of Westphalia for a third brother of Napo- leon, Jerome.
Russia and Great Britain still remained. Against the latter, military or naval opera- tions were entirely useless. But it was to her hostility that Napoleon attri- buted every check he had received ; in her he saw the moving spirit of every combina- tion which had been formed against him, and in her he recognised the most serious obstacle to the expansion of his empire. To strike at her commerce was the one means of wounding her. Now, apart from Portugal, every port in Europe west of Denmark and the Adriatic was virtually under his control. On November 21st he issued from Berlin the Decree which was to bring her to her knees. Every British port was declared to be in a state of blockade. Every British ship was to be excluded from every port of the French Empire and of the dependencies and allies of the French Empire ; all British subjects were to be seized, and all British goods, or goods which had come from Britain, QonAscated throughout those territories.
4731
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The British Government was not long in replying. In J anuary , 1807, all ports from which British ships were excluded were declared, by the first of a series of Orders in Council, to be in a state of blockade, the enforcing of which was infinitely more practicable than that of Napoleon's paper pronouncement. So far as the European . , Continent shut out British
Britain » Drastic ^^^^^^ ^^^ Continent should
be denied sea-borne com-
Reply
to Napoleon ^v ■ •
merce. The two great
belligerents were treating neutrals ; on the same principles each claimed forcibly to prevent neutrals from trading with the rival power. It was to be a trial of strength ; but Napoleon, the challenger, had failed to realise that the arena was precisely that in which all the advantage lay with the sea-power which had no equal and no second. She could prevent the neutral trade ; Napoleon could not.
It was true that neutrals were more irritated against Britain than against Napoleon, for the plain reason that it was the British and not the French who, in actual fact, came near to annihilating their trade altogether. On the other hand, it was the dependents of Napoleon who found themselves by Napoleon's orders robbed of British goods which they had stocked and precluded from replacing them — in whom, therefore, a bitter hatred of the new empire was aroused. Again, while neutral ports existed where there could not even be a paper blockade to bar the entry of British ships, British goods could find their way into, and European goods could find their way out of, the Continent.
Finally, whatever Governments might forbid, the Continent stood in absolute need of goods which could be obtained only through the British, even more than the British stood in need of Continental goods. If the traffic was made illegal, difficult, and dangerous, it also became proportion- ately profitable to those who took the risks of engaging in it ; and an f M *"* ' in^n^snse smuggling trade was o apo eon s ggj^gj-g^^gjj which preserved a
Continental market for British goods in defiance of Berlin Decrees. Perhaps we may sum up the results by remarking that Napoleon's " Continental System," while imposing fetters and manacles on the trade of the world, made a present to Britain of that predominance which the man with one wooden leg has over the man with two. In fact, it gave her a
4732
monopoly precisely where it had been in- tended to exclude her altogether. Russia, on the other hand, was to be challenged with cannon and bayonet. Prussia had entered on the J ena campaign in alliance with both Russia and England, though she had courted disaster before either of her allies could render effective support.
Russian armies were now moving on the east of Prussia, whither Frederic William had fallen back. From Berlin, immediately after issuing the decree, Napoleon advanced into Poland, pro- claiming that he was appearing as a liberator. The patriot Kosciusko had no confidence in Napoleon as a liberator ; nevertheless, his name, audaciously attached to a proclamation, was made to serve as a call to arms for other Polish patriots. An engagement at Pultusk forced the Russians to retreat ; but in spite of what even Napoleon regarded as the impracticable condition of the country in mid- winter, the newly- appointed Russian commander, Bennigsen, deter- mined on an active campaign, and appeared in force, threatening the positions », „ of Bernadotte and Ney in the _ . . . ^ north. Napoleon was com- j^. . pelled to march against him,
'^ and in February a terrific battle took place at Eylau, in which the Emperor failed to drive Bennigsen from his position. Neither army was in condition to renew so desperate an engagement — 'the casual- ties exceeded 30,000 — .and both fell back.
The new British Ministry — Portland's — which was formed in March, intended to display vigour, but did not act up to its intentions. Even the energy of George Canning could inspire it with only spas- t modic activity ; and though it undertook in the Treaty of Bartenstein, in April, X807, in which Sweden joined, to despatch an army to the Baltic in support of Prussia and Russia, the reinforcements delayed, while Napoleon's troops were multiplying. The campaign opened in June. Bennigsen repulsed Napoleon's attack on his camp at Heilsberg, but on June 14th he was drawn into fighting a pitched battle against superior numbers at Friedland. Austerlitz was repeated.
Again the Tsar felt that disaster had fallen upon his army through the in- competence or the wavering of those who were or should have been his allies ; for Austria might now have played the part which Prussia ought to have played before
NAPOLEON AS EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH
Austerlitz. He resolved to negotiate with the French Emperor ; and the two met in a personal private conference on a raft in the River Niemen, at Tilsit, on June 25th. The result of the meeting was a complete revolution in the European situation.
Already Prussia was crushed and Austria paralysed ; soon, in Napoleon's expecta- tion, Great Britain would find her power sapped and her life-blood drained by the Continental System. It would be prefer- able to remove Russian antagonism rather than to attempt the conquest of Russia. At Tilsit, Napoleon found his task un- expectedly easy. The Tsar was ready to abandon the allies whom he held guilty of playing him false. Napoleon had a settlement to propose which would place all Western Europe under his own heel, and complete the Tsar's Eastern supremacy by bestowing on him Finland and the better part of Turkey. Between them, the two would be masters of all Europe ; and the ruin of Great Britain would be assured when every port in Europe should be closed to her ships and her commerce. The Tsar found himself willing to abandon the liberation of an ungrateful Europe in favour of the aggrandisement of Russia.
The Treaty of Tilsit
Moldavia ; for the other the cession of all conquests since 1805, and the withdrawal of the maritime claims. Rejection was to mean in one case deprival of all European territories except Roumelia and Constanti- nople, and in the other the completion of the Continental System by the inclusion of Sweden, Denmark, Por- Fi * t c *^ t A ^^^'^ ^^^ Austria. Secret K *B i *'* "" information, which the y n &ia Government was unable to
reveal, reached Canning as to the secret stipulations of the Tilsit agreement. The Danish fleet was to be annexed. The Danish fleet need have caused little alarm to the British, and the Danish Government was no party to the proposal ; but Canning felt justified in anticipating Napoleon. A British fleet appeared before Copenhagen, and de- manded that the Danish navy should be handed over and neutralised in British ports. The Danes refused, but a three-days* bombardment forced them to submission. The fleet was carried off as prize of war, and Den- mark herself was con- verted to bitter hostility. The action would have been in any case questionable ; since the information on which it was based could not be
KING AND QUEEN OF SPAIN made pubhc, while the
left to Prussia only a frag- Charles iv. of Spain was not a king of whom Tsar and Napoleon re-
ment of her dominions, his country had reason to feei proud. After a pudiatcd the interpreta-
anrl this merplv as a rnn- contemptible reign of fifteen years, Napoleon T nloppH ^n the
ana tnis merely as a con- compeUed him to abdicate the throne in isoa ^O" piacea on tne
cession of Napoleon's to the Tsar's goodwill. Her Polish domains were transformed into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, controlled by Saxony. Danzig became a free town. Other Prussian districts were added to Murat's duchy of Berg, to Jerome Bonaparte's kingdom of Westphalia; and to Louis's kingdom of
_ „,. Holland. The French army
Conditions , .■
fih T ^^^ remain in occupation
° ~. . "* ^ until such war indemnity as France might claim should be paid. Turkey was to submit to France's mediation between her and Russia, or take the consequences. Britain was to submit to Russia's mediation, or take the consequences. As provided by secret agreement, the mediation for the one meant the cession of Wallachia and
Tilsit Treaty by the British Ministers, it assumed the appear- ance of a flagrant and inexcusable breach of neutrality, damaging the British credit. Portugal now remained alone outside the Continental System. Napoleon treated the bombardment of Copenhagen as warranting the announcement that neu- trality in the struggle with England should no longer be recognised. He demanded the accession of Portugal to his system ; Portugal, honourably loyal to an alliance of nearly 150 years' standing, refused. In October, Junot was marching on Portugal ; Napoleon had already agreed with Spain on the partition of her dominions. Armed resistance was out of the question, and Napoleon's purpose seemed to be consummated. Great Britain
4733
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The French
Caesar's
Monarchies
responded by a new series of Orders in Council, imposing additional requirements on neutral traders, on pain of being treated as prize of war ; while Napoleon retorted with the Milan Decrees, imposing a corresponding penalty on neutrals who yielded to the British claim. That Gustavus of Sweden still refused to own himself beaten was a quite insignifi- cant detail, since there was no prospect of his receiving any practical help. Never- theless, defiance was coming from two quarters whence it might least of all have been expected. The French Republic had begun its career as the champion of freedom, in the sense of democracy as opposed to monarchy. It had toppled over dynasties and organised republics on every side ; in theory at least it had established popular governments and abolished hereditary privileges, though it had made the new republics dependent on itself. In France itself, democracy had pre- pared the way, in accordance with the law laid down by philosophers of old, for the tyrannis perfected as Caesar- ism. The Caesar had con- verted all save one of the dependent republics into dependent monarchies, ab- solute in type. He had added to his empire a congeries of minor monarchies ; sometimes maintaining old dynasties, sometimes replacing them from his own family stock. For the old ancestral governments he had substituted the arbitrary and grind- ing yoke of a foreign domination ; the peoples had not received the freedom of democracy, and they had been robbed of national freedom as well.
Hitherto Germany had all but lacked the nationalist conception ; owing to the Napoleonic order, the little leaven was by degrees to pervade the whole mass. In Spain, the spirit of the people had been repressed under centuries of despotism ; now, when a foreign despot was thrust upon them, it blazed out in sudden defiance. How the triumph of Napoleon acted upon Germany we shall presently examine. It was in Spain that the next phase was to be inaugurated. The Minister Godoy, his mistress, and her
4734
husband, King Charles IV., had ruled Spain contemptibly for fifteen years — a melancholy sequel to the enlightened reign of Charles III. For most of the time they had acted as the humble vassals of France, a pawn for Napoleon to play when he thought fit.
At the end of 1807, in order to facilitate the introduction of a French army into the Peninsula, the Emperor arranged with Godoy — as noted above — for a partition of Portugal and her colonies between Spain and France ; incidentally, his Italian dominion was to be consolidated by the transfer of the Etrurian kingdom to France. But Napoleon had probably already made up his mind that it was time to substitute a Bonaparte for a Bourbon on the Spanish throne, a process con- veniently facilitated by differences bet ween the reigning sovereigns and the heir apparent, Ferdi- nand. Between the prince and Godoy there was natural hostility, which reached a point which seemed, before the end of the year, to warrant interven- tion— .theoretically in sup- port of the heir against the machinations of the Minister. But the advancing troops occupied fortresses ; alarm was created. A popular outbreak frightened Charles into abdication in favour of Ferdinand ; and the queen was soon entreating Murat, whom Napoleon had des- Spain in 1814, and died in 1833. patched from Italy, to re- store him. King and ex-king proceeded to meet the Emperor at Bayonne ; another outbreak in Madrid against the French served as excuse for enforcing abdication on Ferdinand. Charles surrendered his own claims to Napoleon, accepting estates and a pension by way of compensation ; _ . . and Napoleon nominated
r'^^'I/a • ^^^ ^^^ brother Joseph
evo gams ^^ ^j^^ vacant throne in
Napoleon j^^^^ ^g^g ^^^^^^ ^^^
had hoped for the crown, had to be contented with that of Naples, from which Joseph was transferred. The pride of a proud nation was touched to the quick ; and the whole Spanish people rose to arms in defiance of the Power which had over- thrown the mightiest coalitions that all Europe had been able to pour against hin;.
FERDINAND VII. OF SPAIN He became king on the forced abdi- cation of his father, but Napoleon kept him prisoner during the Penin- sular War. Ferdinand returned to
n-nT*rt*rt*nnn^.-iiti,,-^,,^^if
rt i-;o»iTT^*Tj.ig^-«*f»->^^f^-cvCi^.|^H.|V
howtrafmjgar changed t/ie
fACEOFTTiEWORLP
BEING A rODTNOTL TO MI/TORY
By S I R. 7oMN Knox Laughton
/^N November i8th, 1805, at Znaym, ^^ an obscure little town in Moravia, Napoleon received the news of the battle of Trafalgar. There had been, he said, some fighting ; also a storm, in which a few French ships had unfortu- nately been lost. That was all. He pushed on, and a fortnight later won the battle of Austerlitz. Here, indeed, was something like a victory. Every soldier in the French army knew it ; every Austrian, every Russian was keenly conscious of defeat. The judg- ment of war was decisive against the coalition ; and the djdng Pitt, it has been said, recognised the blow as fatal to the liberties of Europe. Jena and Auerstadt in the following year seemed but to confirm the verdict, from which there was no longer any appeal.
In England, public opinion did not take any extended view. To the English, as English, it mattered little that the Austrians and Prussians were crushed by the French ; I but they quite understood that after i Trafalgar there was no fear of a French I army invading England. The iu- I tolerable threat which had seemed to I hang over the country for the last two
I years was dissipated and could not be renewed. Nelson was dead ; but his i spirit remained, the tutelary deity of his country — a feeling which Canning more distinctly formulated in the celebrated apostrophe :
3 And when in after-times with vain desire
I Her baffled foes, in restless hate, conspire
I From her fair brow the unfading wreath to
I tear,
I Thy hand, and hands Uke thine have planted
I there ;
i Thou, sacred shade ! in battle hovering near
I Shalt win bright Victory from her golden sphere, To float aloft, where England's ensign flies. With angel wings and palms from paradise.
I But whilst in England people were
England's Nightmare Dissipated
content to take their own selfish view of the result, on the continent of Europe Trafalgar seemed a very small thing in comparison with Austerlitz or Jena. Napoleon himself was probably the one man who, without in the least , undervaluing his own vic- apo eoa s Tories, could understand opes urie ^^^^^ Trafalgar was the de- struction of his hopes and schemes. We are not to be beguiled or misled by his own statements of what he did or did not intend ; we judge from his persistent conduct, from his secret letters and orders, that from the date of the renewal of the war in 1803 his all-absorbing idea was to land his army in England, when, with the help of God, he would put an end to her existence.
So he wrote repeatedly ; but — as a still more illustrious Frenchman is said to have found— the first step was the most difficult. One after the other, in quick succession, he drew up different schemes for ferrying his army across the narrow sea — so narrow that men have swum it, so narrow that a boy in a dinghy might paddle himself across; but which to Napoleon was impassable, because a few ships of war — ships of the line, frigates, and smaller vessels — lay in the Downs or ranged along the coast of France, from Dunkirk to Etaples, in force to run down, sink, or destroy any boat which ventured out ; because in two years of scheming he was never able to bring up any sufficient force of the French navy
r n •I*'* *'**^* to drive these ships away, of Britain s , ,, \. -■'
u/ J iir II and secure the safe, unm- Wooden Walls. ^ , ', ^,
terrupted passage of these
boats ; because, before every port in
France or Spain, wherever a French or
Spanish ship of war was to be found,
there was a corresponding force keeping
guard over it ; because all his plans
were rendered futile by the tenacity of
4735
Schemes
of Napoleon
Cornwallis off Brest, and under him Pellew, Collingwood, Cochrane, and others, in the Bay of Biscay, and of Nelson in the Mediterranean, off Toulon. The main force of the French navy was at Brest, and there the watch was the strictest. If only the Brest fleet could evade the vigilance of Cornwallis, get
TK Ch • °^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^P ^^^ Chan- ^^^ an«>»8 jjgj^ Keith, in the narrow
sea, might be overpowered
and the French army be
carried across before Cornwallis or any
of his colleagues to the southward
knew anything about it.
The detailed technical history of these two years, and the confidential corre- spondence during these two years of Napoleon with his Ministers, admirals, and generals, give positive proofs of the reality of his wishes and hopes. But the point to which we would call especial notice is the frequent change of plan. As soon as the failure of one became evident, the conception of another began to take form. The death of La Touche- Treville, commanding at Toulon, in August, 1804, put an end to one plan ; another had to be evolved, and gradually the Emperor conceived the one, more familiarly known, of a gathering of French and Spanish squadrons in the West Indies, whence they were to return and sweep the Channel in overpowering force. When that failed, a modification of it was to be tried. The fleet from the Mediterranean was to come off Brest ; at the same time the fleet in Brest was to come out, and Cornwallis, caught between the two, was to be crushed. By no possibility could such a plan — setting at defiance all principles of navi- gation and naval war— .have succeeded ; and if Villeneuve, the admiral com- manding the Mediterranean fleet, had Th a brought it off Brest, it must
war e have been destroyed by Plans of the ^ n- i- x xi.
j, Cornwallis before ever the
^ ^ fleet from inside could get
out. As it was, Villeneuve refused to
throw away his fleet in that fashion, and,
having come as far as Ferrol, turned in
the opposite direction and went to Cadiz.
His disobedience marked the failure of
this plan ; and, threatened by a coalition
of the European Powers, Napoleon, who
had been flattering himself with the idea
that if he could crush England the soul of the coalition would be dead, felt obliged to attend to the critical position in Germany before starting on a new plan to get his army across the Straits. That some plan, on lines similar to those that had preceded it, and probably as absurd as any of them, would have been devised appears certain ; but the fond hope was destroyed at Trafalgar. The knowledge was forced on Napoleon that there was n© longer a possibility of his getting the command of the Channel for the few hours or days that he required, and that other means must be found for breaking the power of England. She could not be crushed by armed force, she should be crushed by the ruin of her commerce. Out of this determina- tion came the Berlin and Milan Decrees, the Continental System, the land block- ade, met — on the part of England — by the Orders in Council and the blockade by sea. Of the cruel suffering caused by this commercial war, this war of the sea against the land, we cannot speak in any detail. In England it was terrible ; but the national existence was at stake, and it was endured. In France it was the ruin of bankers, merchants, and manufacturers ; when the factories were still, the workmen were starving ; it was the horror of desolation crowning the desolation of more than a dozen years of titanic war. But the glamour of military success and the authority of the Emperor maintained the struggle and sustained the suffering. Other nations, not so supported, refused to endure. In Spain, in Portugal, in Germany, in Russia, it was maintained past the breaking point, and the Peninsular War, the Russian campaign, and the War of Liberation followed. Leipzig and Waterloo were the conse- quents ; the Congress of Vienna, t^e Holy Alliance, the map of Europe as it remained for fifty years, the kindling of German aspirations succeeded, and the unification of Germany, and — less directly — of Italy, has placed the coping-stone on the edifice whose foundation was laid in the destruction of the French sea power at Trafalgar. John Knox Laughton
The Great Results of Trafalgar
4736
NELSON'S FAMOUS SIGNAL AT TRAFALGAR In this picture, reproduced from the painting by Turner, Nelson's flagship, the Victory, is shown flying the memorable signal at Trafalgar, "England expects every man will do his duty."
THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE FIGHTING TElMERAIRE This famous picture was painted by Turner after seeing the old T6m6raire towed up the Thames.
301
4737
THE DAY AFTER THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR The Victory, with the body of Lord Nelson on board, being: towed into the harbour at Gibraltar by H.M.S. Mars the day after the Battle of Trafalgar.
1 the painting by Stenfield
4738
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
VII!
By ARTHUR
D. INNES M.A
THE AWAKENING OF NATIONALISM
WELLINGTON'S BRILLIANT TRIUMPHS IN THE PENINSULAR WAR
MAPOLEON had committed himself to * ^ an error vast and far-reaching in his attempt to reduce Great Britain to sub- mission by his Continental System. He calculated that Britain had more need of the Continent than the Continent had of Britain ; whereas the need for English goods was so great that no decrees could keep them out, and, while a sea-borne trade was a necessity, the British could ensure that no carriers but themselves should be available. In his Spanish policy he committed himself to a second error equally far-reaching, based on a miscalculation which would probably have been shared by almost every observer at the time. He assumed that a Govern- ment having for its sanction the force of the Empire could have nothing to fear from popular insurrection. The event was to prove that an insurgent people, The French supported by a British army,
Army Held
insignificant in numbers but
i Ch k ^^^y ^^^' ^^^^^ keep a quarter of a million French troops locked up in the Peninsula for five years and finally drive them out of it altogether, in spite of the military genius of such generals as Soult, Massena, and Marmont. The initial miscalculation of the ease with which Spain could be held in subjec- tion being demonstrated, the Governments learned that popular national enthusiasm was a potent instrument at their disposal which they had not hitherto dreamed of bringing into play, and which ultimately wrought Napoleon's downfall.
Even at the time when Napoleon was intervening in Spain, and carrying out his scheme for a Bonapartist monarchy, the ground was being prepared in Prussia, and the seed was being sown which should in due time bring forth harvest. Jena and Auerstadt had awakened the existing Government of that unhappy state to a (consciousness of the rottenness of its
fabric. A complete reorganisation had become an absolute necessity, while it could be brought about only by a drastic suppression of vested interests, which was anathema to the cabal which had hitherto guided the king. Statesmen were not lacking who realised the need ; there was only one. Stein, who had the resolution _ . to carry the reforms through ;
r j!* . andafter Jena, Frederic William J. J himself still lacked the courage
to entrust him with the task. Hardenberg, the statesman who took the place of Haugwitz, was of the same school as Stein ; but he, too, was not bold enough to override opposition. By a curious fate, it was Napoleon himself who after Tilsit forced Stein upon the king, because Hardenberg's English sympathies were not to be tolerated, and Stein appeared to him in the light of a financier whose skill would raise the funds which he intended to extort from Prussia. Stein was appointed Minister in October, 1807, with a free hand, which he did not hesitate to use.
Prussian society was organised in three rigid castes — nobles, citizens, and peasants. Of these, none but the first had any share whatever in the management of the state, while the last were still in the condition of serfage. The nobles supplied all the officers of the army ; the rank and file were drawn from the peasants. It was _. _ neither expected nor permitted
^, that the wealth-producersshould
Classes 1 c i_j. • 1 -j. r
. p . be fighters, just as it was for- bidden to the nobles to descend to the degrading occupation of trade. The land itself was correspondingly divided between the three classes and could not pass from one to the other. The Prussian peasant was still in the position legally held by the English villein in the fourteenth century, but which even then was largely modified in practice. To the citizen, in the
4739
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
sense of a denizen of the cities, as well as to the serf, citizenship in the sense of political rights and responsibilities was denied. Under such conditions public spirit even, of the most local kind could scarcely take root; patriotism, the public spirit which is not parochial or provincial but national, was all but an impossi- bility.
The first step was to make citizenship pos- sible. A com- mission of Har- denberg's had made recom- mendations; before Stein had been a week in office he had translated the recommend a- tions into decrees. The restrictions which bound a man to live and die in the class and in the employment to which he was born were abolished. The law permitted
Jourdan Soult
TWO OF NAPOLEON'S FAMOUS MARSHALS A marshal in the army of Napoleon, Jourdan gained victories against the Austrians, but was defeated by the Duke of Wellingrton at Vittoria in 1813. Soult was a tower of streng^th to the French army, and served his country with distinction in Spain and other countries. He was defeated by Sir John Moore at the battle of Corunna.
every man to follow whatsoever calling he chose. The transfer of land became free ; the peasant was no longer bound to the soil, he was at liberty to seek new pastures or to join in the life of the cities. A little
later, not by Stein but by Hardenberg, he was converted into the pro- prietor of his land ; for the present he re- mained a tenant who had to pay the landlord dues in one form or another for his holding, while both Stein and Harden- berg left the jurisdiction of the baronial class intact. A sense of
common citizenship being made possible, Stein saw the means to its development in demanding the fulfilment of the obligations of citizenship, participation
)EATH OF SIR JOHN MOORE AT CORUNNA In chief comraana oi tne cntisn army in Spain in 1808, Sir John Moore co-operated with the Spaniards in expelling: the French forces from the Peninsula. Learning of the Spanish defeats and of the fall of Madrid, he began a masterly retreat to Corunna, the huge army of France following in pursuit. In a brilliant action at Corunna, on January 16th, 1809, Moore repulsed Soult's attack, but in the hour of victory the gallant soldier was mortally wounded.
4740
THE PARTING OF EMPEROR AND EMPRESS : NAPOLEON'S FAREWELL TO JOSEPHINE Being without family and desirous of an heir to carry on the dynasty, the Emperor Napoleon resolved to obtain a divorce from his consort Josephine, and with her reluctant consent this was earned through at the close of 1809._ The emperor's farewell to the woman who had been his wife for thirteen years is admirably depicted in the above picture.
Ffom tlM painting by Laslett J. Pott
4741
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
in public duties. He started at the
bottom by instituting local elective
bodies to manage minor local affairs —
the beginnings of a representative system
which was intended to culminate in a
representative parliament ; not, as in
England, controlling administration, but
able to make its voice heard and its will
. , felt in public affairs. Stein's
russias tenure of ofhce, however, was
c orming ^^^ brief to enable him to carry
Minister , . i j ^u
his programme beyond the
initial stage, which was of itself sufficient to bring into being the sense of individual responsibility and duty to the public, of a common good to be wrought for in common, for which there was no room in the old system.
Besides this there was the reorganisa- tion of the army, a work which, like the abolition of caste, was not the creation of Stein's own genius, but was one which his colleagues would hardly have been able to set on foot without the aid of his vigorous initiative. The actual organiser was Scharnhorst. As matters stood, promotion among the officers was per- manently blocked by superannuated veterans, and the ranks were filled with long-service men, to whom the citizen class had not contributed.
The recent development of huge armies had made universal liability to military service a practical necessity ; but the con- ditions laid down after Tilsit restricted the number of troops to 40,000 men. By Scharnhorst's plan a short-service period took the place of the former twenty years in the ranks. At the conclusion of the period the men were drafted into reserves, so that while the numbers of the short- service army stood at 40,000, there was soon a large reserve of trained soldiers who could be called to arms in case of necessity. In addition, a " Landwehr," or militia, was created for home defence, though it was not enrolled till five years later, . and the scheme of a " Land- wa ening g^^j-j^ " or general arming of the Patriotism , ,• ° j t^ -
I p • population, was prepared. But
the reorganiser of Prussia was intensely patriotic, intensely nationalist ; his influence soon proved far more seriously antagonistic to the Napoleonic ascendancy than that of Hardenberg, while he aroused a more active hostility to himself in the nobles, who had encouraged the king in his pusillanimous courses of old, and who now found their privileges challenged.
4742
Stein was zealous to place the country once more on a fighting basis, and to ally it with Austria ; in the sudden uprising of Spain he was not alone in recognising a universal call to arms, and he did not believe in the completeness of the harmony between the Tsar and Napoleon.
The Emperor received information of his plans for an Austrian alliance, and the demands on Prussia immediately took a more stringent form. Defiance at the moment was impossible ; Frederic William gave way. Stein soon after resigned, and the present prospect of Prussia taking arms against Napoleon disappeared. A few weeks later Stein was forced by the Emperor's wrath to flee for his life to Austrian territory. But the grain of mustard-seed, the nationalist ideal, had taken root.
The " Address to the German Nation," issued by the philosopher Fichte during this year, formed a powerful appeal which went home to the hearts of the people, -and when their hour came they answered to it magnificently. All Europe was startled by the rising of _ . Spain, some months before the fall pain ^j ^j^g great Minister in Prussia. . ** "* During the last week of May, with- out organisation, without warning, without any common plan, every district of Spain which was not actually dominated by the presence of French forces was in arms. The officials were compelled by the populace to join ; those who ventured to refuse were apt to find a short shrift. At every centre of insurrection a " junta," or governing committee, was formed in the name of King Ferdinand, as well as an army. The clergy flung themselves into the popular cause in opposition to the Antichrist who was coercing the Pope.
It did not occur to Napoleon that the resistance was serious. His generals, Bes- sicres, Dupont, and others, were soon moving on various provinces ; but a success of Bessieres, which secured the route from the Pyrenees to Madrid, was followed within a week by a disaster to Dupont, who was compelled to capitulate with all his forces at Baylen, and King Joseph, at the end of July, had to flee from Madrid, which he had only just entered.
Meanwhile the Government in London had resolved on a new military policy. Napoleon had seized Portugal, but that country was eager to be set free, and the mistress of the seas had no difficulty in
THE -AWAKENING OF NATIONALISM
despatching troops thither. - ^ The Spanish monarchy was at war with Great Britain, but Spain, now represented by the Central Junta at Seville, was at war with Napoleon, and, in Canning's view, was ipso facto an ally of Great Britain. On August ist Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had particularly distinguished himself in India, landed in Portugal at the head of 18,000 British troops. At Vimeiro he was niet by Junot, who was still in command ofrthe French forces in Portugal. Wellesley was victori- ous, but his success was marred by the arrival on the scene of two senior officers, Burrard and Dalrymple, who, instead of crushing Junot completely, concluded with him the Convention of Cintra, under which the French troops evacuated Portugal, but were conveyed with their arms in Eng- lish ships to France. The indignation of Napoleon with Junot was equalled by British indignation with the generals who had failed to make the most of their success. All were recalled, and the command was taken up by Sir John Moore, though Wellesley, cleared of all charges, was to reappear next year. Napoleon was. annoyed not so. joiuch by , the actual events ■ in, the T* M G°° * Peninsula as by the excitement ig rip ^j^g were causing in Europe. On Prussift „ -',. , , , ., ° .. ^
He tightened the curb upon
Prussia, which shrank from Stein's pro- posal of open war, and caused the Minister's fall. But the matter of first importance was to overawe Europe by a fresh demon- stration of the amity between the Emperor and the Tsar, since Austria, too, had been reorganising and arming.
In October, a magnificent conference was held at Erfurt, where all the vassal princes were present and the Courts of Austria and Prussia were both represented. In appear- ance, at least, the conference was successful. Napoleon left Erfurt with the operations against Turkey for carrying out the Tilsit agreement postponed, and with a free hand for Spain. Nevertheless, the display of harmony only veiled the fact that the Tsar's friendship for Napoleon was cooling.
The Emperor was fully aware that the suppression of Spain would demand a large force. Early in November he himself passed the Pyrenees to conduct the opera- tions. The daring spirit of the insurgents had not provided them with a capable central government in the Seville Junta, or with capable military chiefs, and their dispositions were quite inadequate for
Death of
Sir John Moore
At Corunna
coping with Napoleon. Their extended line was rapidly pierced and scattered ; and though Palafox was able to throw himself into Saragossa, where a prolonged and heroic defence was maintained, it appeared as though serious resistance had already been shattered. Napoleon marched in triumph to Madrid. In the meantime, Sir John Moore, whose in- formation from the British agent and from the Spanish Government was scandal- ously inadequate, had advanced under great difficulties to support the Spaniards. Learning of the Spanish defeats, and, by an accident, of the fall of Madrid, he turned to effect a diversion by advancing against Soult's division. This brought Napoleon himself in pursuit, and Moore began a masterly retreat to Corunna, where English transports should have been awaiting him but were not.
Napoleon was satisfied to leave the com- pletion of the pursuit to Soult, while he himself retired from. Spain, which he re- garded as virtually coriquefred. Moore, in a brilliant action at Corunna, . oh January i6th, 1809, repulsed Soult's attadk, and though his own life was lost, histrb^ps were able to embark oh the transports, which had now arrived Six weeks later, Saragossa had fallen. Soult entered Portugal, the South of Spain was held in subjection by Marshal Victor, and, with a quarter of a million of French troops in the Peninsula, the insurgents seemed to have little enough to hop)e for.
But it was equally obvious that a very large force was necessary to maintain Joseph in Spain. In Austria, the wai party was in the ascendant, and the active spirit of revolt was spreading in Germany. Austria resolved on war, confident that it would take but little to bring about thfe co-operation of Prussia and of the Rhenish confederation. The population of the Tyrol, which had been ceded to Bavaria at the Treaty of Presburg, detested us ria e ^■^^ ^^^ regime, which ignored Of F^'^'d'^ traditional customs and preju- dices. The Austrian army itself had bijeen placed on a greatly improved footing by the Archduke Charles, and thr Minister, Count Stadion, was of Stein's political school — mutatis mutandis — with a strong desire for Austria to take her place as the leader of German nationalism. It was as the champion of European freedom and German nationalism that
4743
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Austria threw down the gauntlet in April without entering into definite treaties with Great Britain or with the Spanish Nation- alists, who had struck a formal alliance in January. In April, Wellesley also returned to the Portuguese command, having under him 20,000 British troops, and being appointed generalissimo of the Portuguese forces. Portugal was to be the basis for co-operation with the Span- iards. In view, however, of the Austrian declaration of war against Bavaria, the British Government resolved to concentrate its main effort on an attack on Holland, which, if promptly and effectively carried out, would have very materially affected Napoleon's campaign on the Danube.
It is by no means clear that the scheme in itself was not well advised, though it is sufficiently obvious that if the 40,000 men who were sent on the Wal- cheren Expedition had been dispatched to . Wellesley instead, the Peninsula cam- paign of 1809 would have taken a very different course. As the event proved, the brilliancy of Wellesley's personal suc- cesses did not enable him to maintain ground beyond the Portuguese frontier ; the Walcheren Expedition was ignominious and disastrous, and the only check on
Napoleon's operations on the Danube lay in the fact that so many of his troops were detained on the south of the Pyrenees.
The Austrian advance to Regensburg threatened the Emperor's forces with dis- aster ; but his arrival to conduct the operations in person changed the situation. Napoleon's presence had a paralysing effect on the Archduke Charles. In five days, by a series of heavy blows, the Em- peror had driven the Austrians before him in full retreat, and the prospect of a general German revolt had already all but van- ished. He advanced to Vienna ; but a severe and unlooked-for check at the battle of Aspern-Essling on May 21st placed him in a very dangerous position. The arch- duke, however, lost nerve, and failed to . take advantage of his oppor-
us nan tunitv- The moment passed ; Overthrow - ^
At Wag ram
French reinforcements were
allowed to strengthen the lines of communication. Six weeks later Napo- leon succeeded in accomplishing the pas- sage of the Danube by night ; the Austrians had to fall back to Wagram, whence they were again forced to retreat after a stubborn battle on July 6th. To the victors themselves the defeat by no means seemed to be a crushing blow : but the Austrians
4744
THE MARRIAGE OF NAPOLEON TO MARIE LOUISE OF AUSTRIA IN 1810
From the painting by Rouget
THE BAPTISM
NAPOLEON'S HEIR,
KING
ROME,"
JUNE lOTH.
To the Emperor Napoleon and Marie Louise was born an heir on March 20th, 1811, and from his birth he was styled "King ofRome." His baptism on June 10th is depicted in the above picture. His death occurred m the year 1832.
had lost heart, and sought and obtained an armistice. In the north, at the opening stage, the daring but unauthorised raid of Colonel Schill with a regiment of cavalry from Berlin had excited high hopes for the moment ; but he had been unsup- ported, and was annihilated at Stralsund, just after Aspern.
The Duke of Brunswick, successor of the old duke who had formerly com- manded the Prussian forces, raided Saxony from Bohemia, but Germany was content to admire without aiding. It was only in the Tyrol that the gallant Hofer remained unsubdued after Wagram. Under his leadership, the Tyrolese had thrown off the Bavarian yoke ; and now an invading force met with such disaster that the French evacuated the region. But the Tyrol, too, was soon to find itself deserted. At the end of July the belated British expedition arrived on the The British gcheldt. An immediate ad- ^'"'c*'!.*'?r.°'' vance on Antwerp might still the Scheldt have dealt a heavy blow; but
time was wasted at Flushing while the defences of Antwerp were being secured. In the marshes of Walcheren the troops were laid low by fevers. The bulk of them were withdrawn, and those that were left were more than decimated from the same cause
before they, too, were recalled. The whole business was a ghastly failure. In the meanwhile, Wellesley had been showing what it was possible for a brilliant commander to do, and what it was not possible to do unaided.
On his arrival at Lisbon in April he organised the defences of the capital and then threw himself northward on Soult's lines of communication, and forced the marshal to evacuate Portugal with the loss of his cannon. He was thus enabled to attempt a swift blow on Madrid, in conjunction with the Spaniards. But he could get no reinforcements from England— the troops were wanted for Walcheren— and the Spanish Government forces, the generals, and the Government itself, were incompetent. Wellesley reached Talavera, where he was attacked by King Joseph and Marshal Victor on July 28th.
The Spaniards broke and fled, yet the valour of the British troops gave them the victory. But the British troops could not take Madrid by themselves, and Soult was already threatening the line of retreat. Wellesley, who was rewarded for his victory by the title of Viscount Wellington, fell back into Portugal, recog- nising that the present possibilities were limited to the defence of that country.
4745
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Wellington's retirement into Portugal and the collapse of the Walcheren Expedi- tion, capping the defeat of Wagram and the failure of Germany to rise, ended any inclination on Austria's part for the pro- longation of the contest. Count Stadion was replaced by Metternich, in whom popular sympathies did not exist. The idea of Austria as the head of a German nation vanished.
The Gall&nt Hofer Shot as a Rebel
Austria bowed to the con- queror. By the Treaty of Vienna in October, the Tyrol, in spite of promises, was tossed back to Bavaria, its resistance was crushed, and Hofer was betrayed and shot as a rebel. The regions terminating on the Adriatic were surrended to Napo- leon, and formed into the " Illyrian Pro- vinces." Cracow was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. The Austrian change of front was completed and her humiliation consummated when, in the following March, Napoleon demanded and obtained the hand of the Austrian princess, Marie Louise, an alliance for the sake of which he divorced Josephine.
Before Wagram, Napoleon had already rounded off his Italian dominion. Pius VII. had never been his obedient servant ; even after the Berlin Decree, the Pope refused to close the papal ports to the British. In 1808 Napoleon occupied Rome ; in May, 1809, he issued a decree confiscating the Papal States, and the Pope was held a still unsubmissive prisoner at Savona. The States themselves were re- organised as departments. The annexation was another move towards stopping the leaks in the Continental System.
Sweden had been secured at last by the fall of Gustavus IV., whose stubborn refusal to submit to overwhelming force brought about his deposition, and the elevation of Charles XIII. to the throne. Charles sub- mitted to the inevitable, and since there was no heir to the reigning house, found an excuse for nominating Marshal Bernadotte as his successor. Although •n Contrl? Bemadotte did not actually
"Ic!°"/° ascend the throne till 1818,
cf Sweden , , j j. • 1
he at once assumed practical
control of the state. The formation of
the Illyrian provinces after the Treaty of
Vienna closed what had been the Austrian
ports in the Adriatic. There remg-ined only
some points on the North German coast,
besides Holland, where Louis Bonaparte
found the needs of his subjects more
•xigent than his brother's demands, and
4746
permitted a considerable introduction of British goods, which, it must be remem- bered, covered practically all colonial pro- duce, tea, cotton, and other necessaries, since British ships were the only carriers.
In 1810 the Emperor's demands became so insistent that Louis abdicated, where- upon Holland was annexed to Napoleon's empire. It is noteworthy that Joseph in Spain, as well as Louis in Holland, found the brother's bonds so galling that he, too, would have abdicated if he had been permitted to do so. The annexation of Holland, in July, 1810, was followed up by the incorporation with the empire of the still nominally free Hansa towns and coastal districts, including the Duchy of Oldenburg, with the futile aim of stopping every cranny in the wall which Napoleon was seeking to build up for the total ex- clusion of British commerce. The seizure of Oldenburg soon proved to be at least a contributory cause of the defeat of the very object with which it had been effected.
The divorce of Josephine was carried
through, with her reluctant consent, at
the close of 1809. For obvious reasons,
Napoleon, like Henry VIII. of England,
, wanted a male heir of his
apo eon s ^^^y ^q carry on the dynasty ; Divorce and -', u- u i u- ij
^ . a want which J osephine could
arnage ^^^ supply. Moreover, a matri- monial alliance with one of the two imperial houses would give the dynasty of the Corsican a status which it lacked. The first approaches on the subject had been made to Alexander at Erfurt ; by him they had not been warmly received, and of the two available Russian princesses the elder had been promptly betrothed to the Duke of Oldenburg.
In December, 1809, a formal request for the hand of the second was presented to the Tsar ; but already the balance was leaning towards Austria. Napoleon was disinclined to risk receiving a direct refusal from Russia which the Tsar's lukewarm attitude rendered more than probable. Negotiations were opened with Vienna, where Metternich had none of Alexander's scruples. The marriage was arranged and took place in April. The annexation of' Oldenburg completed the breach with Russia, which formally withdrew from the Continental System in December, and opened its ports to British commerce.
Napoleon had in fact decided on a change of policy. Austria could no longer be considered as a rival, but she might be
THE SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF BADAJOZ BY THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON IN 1812 Reaching Badajoz in the middle of March, the Duke of Wellington resolved to carry it before Soult could arrive to relieve it, and the storming of the town "was perhaps the most terrific incident of the war." The defence was obstinate and ingenious, but, after appalling carnage, the walls were carried by escalade and the fortress captured.
From a cunleniporarj' engravir.g
utilised as an associate in consolidating the empire of Western Europe. If Russia chose to assume the role of rival instead of coadjutor, she should in due course be humbled like all other opponents except the maritime Power. The dream which Napoleon may have dreamed after Tilsit of an advance through Asia, in conjunction with Russia, and the demolition of the British power in India, had been of but brief duration at best," though the sus- picion of it had caused some commotion in the minds both of the British them- selves and of native potentates who hoped to profit by their overthrow. As Napoleon and Alexander drew manifestly apart, the perturbation was speedily allayed. But in Europe the events of i8io pointed to
the development of the rupture between France and Russia into open war before any long time should have passed.
In the Peninsula, moreover, the course of the year's campaigning did not improve the French position. It opened, indeed, not unfavourably. Wellington was mak- ing no movement into Spain, and during the first months Soult overran Anda- lusia, where the Spanish Government was strongest, and drove the Junta and its armies into Cadiz. In the north, Catalonia was being conquered by Suchet. Napo- leon resolved to bring ttie war to an end, and Massena was despatched with a mighty force to drive the British into the sea ; but that rather difficult operation was made none the easier by the jealousies
STORMING THE SPANISH TOWN AND CASTLE OF ST. SEBASTIAN IN SEPTEMBER 1813
From Hfi engraving publUI^^ in (he same jea^
4747
THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF THE DUKE OF W.-LLINGTON INTO MADRID IN 1812 Wellington's brilliant campaigns in Spain, during which he inflicted a series of defeats upon the armies of Napoleon, put an end to the French domination in that country. Reaching Madrid in 1812, as shown in the above picture, he entered the city in triumph, the inhabitants of the place receiving him with wild enthusiasm.
From the painting by Wm. Hilton, R.A.
and disagreements of the French generals. Wellington had advanced to the north of Portugal with the intention of relieving the Spanish garrison of Ciudad Rodrigo, on its frontier, which was invested and was holding out gallantly ; but the approach of Massena with a force con- siderably larger than the Anglo-Portuguese army under Wellington's command made retreat imperative. Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida fell. At Busaco, however, Mas- sena accepted the challenge to an engage- ment offered by Wellington and met with a severe repulse, which gave heart to the Portuguese on the spot — .for Massena had the flower of the French veterans under his command — .and to the British Ministry in England.
Wellington continued his retreat, and the pursuing Massena suddenly found himself faced by the famous lines of Torres Vedras, behind which Wellington had secured the whole of his forces and his supplies, as well as an immense number of civilians. Those lines he had steadily and silently pre- pared for a year past, till they were impregnable, though the French had no suspicion of their existence. Also he had systematically stripped the whole of the neighbouring district, and Massena
4748
found himself before a position which he could not force, in a country denuded of supplies, with subordinates who were jealous and intractable. Torres V.edras could not be stormed ; with the British in command of the sea it could not be blockaded. He fell back to Santarem ; while Soult, who received orders to rein- force . him, delayed in order to reduce the fortress of Badajoz on the southern frontier of Portugal — a fine piece of work in itself, but not that which happened to be demanded of him.
In March, 1811, Massena, recognising that his purpose had been definitely foiled, began to withdraw from Santarem, with Wellington following him ; while Soult, having secured Badajoz, returned to An- dalusia, where an attempt on the part of the garrison at Cadiz to take the besiegers in the rear had been foiled at Barossa. Massena, wasting the country as he went, so that the pursuing forces were often hard put to it to obtain supplies, was obliged to evacuate Portugal and retire to Salamanca — .partly by the perpetual insubordination of Ney, partly by the rapidity of Wellington's movements. The security of Portugal and the possibility
The Rapid Movements of Wellington
THE AWAKENING OF NATIONALISM
of an aggressive movement into Spain on Wellington's part now depended on the recovery of Almeida and of Ciudad Rodrigo on the north, and of Badajoz on the south. Badajoz, defended with all the resources of engineering skill by the commandant, Philippon, was left to Beres- ford, and proved too hard a task for him. Wellington's own efforts were concentrated on the two northern fortresses.
The splendid conduct of the British regi- ments at Fuentes d'Onoro foiled Massena's attempt to raise the siege of Almeida, and the marshal's supersession by Marmont prevented a repetition of the attempt. The position of the garrison was hopeless, but the com- mandant, Brennier, blew iip his magazines before breaking his way out through the besiegers with most of his forces, and Wellington took possession. In the south Soult advanced against Beresford, and was in June repulsed in the desperate action of Albuera, where practically the whole of the fighting on the side of the allies was done by the British troops, less than 7,000 in number,
Wellington in Possession of Almeida
of whom more than 2,000 were killed or wounded. Marmont, however, marching from the north, effected a junction with Soult, and the preponderance of the French force was so great that the siege had to be raised. But since the country was unable to maintain so large an army, Marmont again withdrew.
While Wellington was doing all the work on the Portuguese frontier with no practical help from the Spanish army and the Spanish Government, the efforts of the French marshals who were engaged on the subjugation of Northern Spain were perpetually nullified by the activities of the Spanish guerrilla leaders, whom no defeats in the field could crush ; and presently the French armies began to feel the drain due to the withdrawal of troops who were to form part of the grand army with which Napoleon was projecting the invasion of Russia. To this tremendous scheme must in the main be attributed the fact that Napoleon neglected personally to take in hand the subjugaton of Spain. The marshals to whom he left the task were brilliant commanders.
AT VITTORIA: WELLINGTON LEADING THE THIRD DIVISION TO THE ATTACK This battle, fought on June 21st, 1813, was the decisive engagement of the campaign. Vittoria was the key to the line of commuQicatioo with France, and there the French were routed, sustaining an irretrievable overthrow.
Frpm th« drawing by R. CatoQ WoodviUe
4749
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
but they were not, individually, a match
for Wellington, and they habitually failed
to act with that concert which Napoleon's
own presence would have ensured. The
Russian scheme so overshadowed all else
that Spain lost its true importance in his
eyes, and his forces there were weakened;
and when he finally gave the scheme effect
its disastrous termination
^eXIush necessitated a withdrawal of
J^ ^^^\ troops, which at length turned Commander . , ^ , , , "■ r
the scale decisively in favour
of the British general in the Peninsula. That consummation, however, was not yet reached; although during 1812 Wel- lington was able to establish his personal superiority unmistakably, it was not till the next year that he could conduct a campaign which should expel the French from the Peninsula altogether. Never- theless, the certainty that a Russian cam- paign would have precedence of everything else in Napoleon's plans materially affected those of Wellington. In January, by a sudden attack, which Marmont had not anticipated, he carried Ciudad Rodrigo by storm, capturing the siege-train without which Marmont could make no effective attempt to recapture the place, which was now occupied by a Spanish garrison. In the middle of March, Wellington was before Badajoz, the second of the two keys to Spain, determined now to carry it at all costs before Soult could arrive to relieve it. The storming of Badajoz was perhaps the most terrific incident of the war ; the obstinacy and ingenuity of Philippon's defence made the struggle exceptionally desperate ; and when, after appalling carnage, the walls were carried by escalade, there were two days during which the British troops, frenzied with their victory, lost all semblance of discipline, and the officers lost all control over them. Soult was not to be drawn into an engagement. It became Welling- ton's object to make his junction with
»r ..• X . Marmont impossible ; and this Wellingtons „t u j L ttik
_ . was accomplished by Hill s
g" **'' exploit in capturing the bridge of Almaraz. Holding both Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo, Wellington could keep both Marmont and Soult un- certain as to which of them would be his next object of attack; and he had succeeded in making Soult believe that he was on the point of a move into the south when he was already on his way to measure swords with Marmont. The result was the cam-
paign of Salamanca in July. After pro- longed manoeuvring, neither general being willing to .risk a serious defeat, Marmont endeavoured by a flanking movement with his left wing to cut off Wellington's chance of retreat and to crush him.
In doing so a gap was opened between centre and left. The opportunity thus given was seized ; Wellington was able to deliver a crushing blow. Marmont was seriously wounded. The disaster to the French would have been complete but for the skill with which Clausel, who took Marmont's place, drew the defeated army from the field. Wellington was able to march on Madrid, whence King Joseph fled to Valencia, summoning Soult to raise the blockade of Cadiz, leave Anda- lusia, and join forces with him. At Madrid the victors were received with wild enthusiasm. Still, Wellington was not strong enough without reinforcements to carry his success further, or even to maintain a secure position in Spain, especially after an unexpected failure to capture the castle of Burgos. Once more he found himself obliged to fall back on . the Portuguese frontier. The
e '*''><^ (jgcisive campaign was deferred struggle ^.j^ ^g ^j^g disasters of
in Europe .^ -kit • j. 1
the Moscow campaign, to be
described in the next chapter, gave a new form to the Titanic struggle in Europe, and more and more of the French troops were withdrawn from the Peninsula. Wellington, on the other hand, was some- what better supported by the British Government, with whom he had a powerful advocate in the person of his brother, the Marquess Wellesley, whose brilliant career as Governor-General of India has been narrated in an earlier volume.
Of the 200,000 French troops that remained, which still included contingents from the subject or dependent nation- alities, nearly half were occupied in endeavouring to hold down the northern districts, and to repress the irrepressible guerrillas and their brilliant chief, Mina. Soult had been called away to Napoleon's aid, and the armies in Spain were com- manded nominally by Joseph, actually by the veteran Jourdan, when Wellington took the offensive in the late spring of 1813, having now under his command nearly 50,000 British troops, supple- mented by Portuguese. Deluding the enemy into the belief that his attack was to be directed against the centre of Spain,
4751
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
he was on the march into the northern districts before the enemy could concen- trate. Vittoria was the key to the hne of communication with France ; and here the decisive battle was fought on June 21st. It ended in the utter rout of the French. Guns, ammunition, bag- gage, treasure, all the accumulated spoil of Joseph's five years in Spain were lost. The French army
The French Disaster
V'lt • ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ flight to France. The disaster was irretrievable. Soult was once more despatched to do all that could be done to hold the frontier. He applied to the task supreme skill and daring, but it was impossible of accom- plishment. By the end of the year Wellington's Peilinsular army was on French soil. Between him and Soult the last contest took place on April loth, 1814, at the hard-fought battle of Toulouse, which could barely be claimed as a victory by the British commander. And the battle itself was needless; for although the fact was unknown to Soult or to Wellington, Napoleon had already abdicated ; only the terms of the abdication were not fully settled until the following day.
The story of his fall will be told in our next chapter ; but first we must turn from the accounts of campaigns with which we have hitherto been occupied to other aspects of the Peninsular War. We have remarked on the fact that while the Spanish guerrillas maintained a persis- tent and successful warfare against the French domination in the north, thereby rendering immense service to Wellington, ' the Spanish Government and Government troops habitually failed to co-operate with their great ally. The guerrillas were not politicians ; their one object was to rid themselves of the foreign oppressor.
The termination of the regime of the
Bourbons and Godoy seemed to give their
opportunity to the reformers, who had
been multiplied by the French Revolution.
_ . They succeeded in obtaining the Bourbon •' x au /^ j. a.i_
_, . summons of the Cortes, or the
t*a*"E A "^^rest thing to the Cortes avail- able, in Cadiz, when the rest of Andalusia was in the hands of the French. As had happened in France, the moderates in this national Parliament were soon swamped by the zealots of the revolu- tion, who were no more in sympathy with the anti -revolutionary English than with French Caesarism ; and mutual distrust made anything like cordial relations abso-
4752
lutely impossible. Instead of devoting itself to the urgent necessities of a war administration, the Cortes turned its atten- tion to the production of a democratic constitution and democratic legislation, while its members were conspicuously deficient both in political experience and in political capacity. The moderation of Jovellanos, the one man of real ability, was translated into treason, and he was put to death in 181 1.
The new constitution was modelled on the very limited French monarchy of 1791, with a single very democratic Assembly to which the executive, though nominated by the king, was to be responsible. It was to be elected every two years, and no one might sit in two consecutive Assemblies ; consequently administrative experience was precluded. The legislation followed the natural anti- feudal and anti-clerical lines, though it enforced Roman Catholicism and tolerated no other religion. A theoretical loyalty to King Ferdinand was essential. In the country where, of all others, clerical as- cendancy had been for centuries the most _^ p . marked characteristic, not
e eninsu a ^^^j ^^ ^^^ Government, but Freed from the , •' • , , • , •,
P • Y k ° ^^ popular sentiment, it
oreign o « -g obvious that party feeling between clericals and anti-clericals ran particularly high ; and when the French withdrawal from Andalusia after Salamanca enabled the Cortes to make itself felt in North Spain the discussion became still more serious, and might have paralysed Welling- ton if the French had been in a position to reap the full advantages of it.
The overthrow, final so far as concerned Spain, of the French power at Vittoria delivered the Peninsula from a foreign yoke, but left it on the verge of a constitutional struggle. The democrats had tasted power; the king, Ferdinand, who was now to re- turn to his kingdom, had only played the popular part as prince, in opposition to Godoy. The Napoleonic monarchy of Spain, absolute though it was except so far as it was subordinated to the behests of the Emperor, had still followed the principle of suppressing feudal privileges. Nationalism had won the day, but the seeds of domestic discord were destined to bring forth a plentiful crop. And incidentally the war had enabled the Spanish American colonies to throw off their allegiance — a resolution which the mother country was as yet by no means ready to accept.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
IX
BY ARTHUR D. INNES. M.A.
THE RISING OF THE NATIONS
AND THE FALL OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON
■VV/HEN Massena was sent to take ^ up the Spanish command against WeUington the omens were already pointing to a decisive breach between . Napoleon and Alexander. The French Emperor's seizure of Oldenburg was almost a personal insult to the Tsar ; and when the New Year, 1811, saw Russia withdrawn from the Continental System, a declaration of war between the Eastern and Western Emperors became a mere question of time. For the humbling of Great Britain could be accomplished only by an exclusion of her commerce even more rigid than Napoleon had hitherto been able to enforce ; and with the Baltic open to her, it was vain to dream that her goods could be shut out of Europe.
It is not surprising that the determination
to crush Great Britain should have been the
dominant passion with Napoleon ; for she
was the one Power which had persistently
. defied him and consistently
apo eon s f^gj-gj-g^ ^j^^j upheld every effort
.^^g**. ."^ on the part of other nations to resist him. But no such pas- sion possessed the Tsar, and nothing short of it could make endurable the economic strain involved by the exclusion, total or even partial, of British and colonial pro- duce. The apparent fact is that whatever subsidiary objects Napoleon may have had in view, the primary consideration which drove him to war with Russia was the determination to seal up the Baltic.
It remains among the most curious of those psychological aberrations which break across the normal forces of historical causation that an intellect so vast and so catholic as Napoleon's should have flatly rejected the economic truths which were patent to all his finance Ministers. He could not or would not realise that the Continent could not sub- sist without British and colonial produce ; that the policy of exclusion could, on the one side, only limit without destroying the market for British goods, while, on the
30a
other, it enhanced prices enormously. Beetroot sugar and chicory could not, for instance, satisfy the demand for sugar and coffee, and the risk of a forbidden traffic compelled the producers to sell only at extravagant prices, which the consumers ^^ had no choice but to pay ; while
„ " the shortage or the high cost of F *^ d " ^^^ material ruined Continental manufacturers. In other words, the Continental System could only hamper England, but it crippled and crushed the Continent. And in doing so it immensely intensified the forces antagonistic to the French Empire. Yet the perfecting of the Continental System overshadowed every other consideration in Napoleon's mind.
It is hardly less strange that his absorp- tion in this grand object Winded him to the importance of definitely ending the Peninsular War. In view of the resources at Wellington's and at Napoleon's dis- posal, the most enthusiastic admirers of the Iron Duke can hardly doubt that he must have been driven into the sea if Napoleon had made up his mind to conduct in person a fight to a finish in the Peninsula before he advanced upon Russia.
Before we follow Napoleon's campaign,
it will be well to grasp the territorial
situation of the Powers. Draw a line from
Liibeck on the Baltic to the south of
Dalmatia on the Adriatic. Between that
line and the Pyrenees the whole Continent
was under Napoleon's sway. Murat ruled
at Naples. Eugene Beauharnais in the
kingdom of Italy was Napoleon's own
viceroy. Denmark was now devoted to
his cause. The Confederation
thJ7w^ " of the Rhine owned his suzer-
»*»j ^^^ ainty. Practically the whole of Napoleon <■ 'li . ^ n
of the rest was actually
annexed to France. East of the line, Meck- lenburg and Saxony were in the Rhine Confederation, and the Gi:and Duchy of Warsaw was a dependency of Saxony. Norway belonged to Denmark, and Sweden was virtually under Bernadotte — the only
4753
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
doubtful factor. Outside of Russia, Great Britain, and the Peninsula, there remained Prussia — what was left of it — Austria, and Turkey ; and an Austrian princess was now Napoleon's empress.
Before the war began, Alexander neutra- lised Turkey by the judicious Treaty of Bucharest. Both he and Napoleon endeavoured to secure Polish support, and here Napoleon was
Polish Mistrust of Russia
successful ; Polish mistrust of Russia was too deeply rooted. Austria and Prussia could hardly avoid participation. Austria was disposed to support Napoleon, but to confine herself to a masterly inactivity in doing so. For Prussia, the problem was grave. Hardenberg, who had returned to the chancellery, was Russian in his sympathies, but saw that Prussia could not take the risk. If she declared for Russia, she would be the first victim, and Hardenberg remembered that Russia had almost completely deserted her after Friedland. Sentiment yielded to judgment, and Prus- sia offered France her alliance, which meant just so much support as might be abso- lutely necessary to preserve Prussia from destruction. Both Prussia and Austria were careful to explain to an under- standing Tsar that their hostihty was entirely simulated. Finally, Bernadotte, never a warm supporter of Napoleon, resolved to identify himself with the interests of Sweden, to play the part of a Swedish patriot, and to decline the French Emperor's overtures.
The enormous resources now at Napo- leon's disposal are illustrated by the vastness of the army which he was able to bring together in the spring of 1812 for the Russian campaign. Although more than 200,000 men were still locked up in the Peninsula, these forces were so great that the actual army of invasion which crossed the Niemen in June numbered 350,000 men. It was Napoleon's intention to thrust between the northern and the
The Great
Russian Campaign
southern armies of Russia with his whole force, and render
their junction hopeless. Pro- gress, while the army was still in Russian Poland, met with few active obstacles. But the advance force under Davoust was unable — ^probably owing to the dis- obedience of Jerome Bonaparte — to cut off the smaller southern army under Bagration ; and the rear-guard of the larger northern army was able to hold St. Cyr and Mac-
4754
donald in check, while its chief, Barclay du Tolly, retired eastwards and effected the junction with Bagration at Smolensk.
The exhausting character of the advance and the commissariat difficulties of the Grand Army necessitated a halt, and it appears to have been Napoleon's first intention to restrict his further operations for the year to the organisation of Poland as a base for next year's campaign. But he was accustomed to annihilate his enemies by the fierce swiftness of his blows. The temptation to crush the Russian force at once was too strong ; Austria and Prussia, however inert, still stood as ramparts to cover his rear. Instead of staying to organise, he hurled his forces onwards to Smolensk.
But Barclay had realised the uses of a policy of withdrawal. His rear-guard held the French army at bay while the main body retired ; then fired the city, and retired itself under cover of the conflagration, en route for Moscow, luring Napoleon after it in the full hope that he would yet force an engagement and win a crushing victory. Had Barclay du Tolly remained in command, an engagement might never _ have been forced at all. The
« raa Grand Army was already D*fr^ H" dwindling, if that term may be applied to a force which still numbered 140,000 men. Every mile it marched took it further from its base and its supplies, further into the heart of a passionately hostile country in which supplies were hardly' procurable. But Barclay's sagacity appeared to more fiery spirits to be pusillanimity, even treason. He was superseded by Kutusoff, a veteran of Suwarrow's training. Kutusoff gave his army and the enemy their heart's desire.
Three weeks after the action at Smolensk, Napoleon found the Russians facing him at Borodino on September 7th. After a long and desperate sturggle, he drove them from their position ; yet only so that a ridge in the rear could be occupied so as to cover the further retirement effectively. Borodino cost Napoleon 30,000 men, and though it was a victory for him in the technical sense that it left him master of the battlefield, he was no nearer his object of shattering the opposing force,
Kutusoff and his Russians, however, found their honour satisfied by a battle in which their courage and skill had been sufficiently vindicated. They were content now to revert to the previous policy.
THE RISING OF THE NATIONS
In another week Napoleon was at Moscow ; the historic capital of the Russian Empire was in his hands on September 14th. But he found, not the submission he had hoped for, but. emptiness. The population had gone, as well as the army, leaving little but empty houses. The country had been swept by the Russian troops, as Welling- ton had swept the country before Massena on the retreat to Torres Vedras. On the night when Napoleon occupied the ancient capital, fires broke out in every quarter — deliberately planned — and a great part of the city was laid in ruin.
Nevertheless, shelter was still afforded. It was even possible to suggest that the army should winter there. But the problem of providing supplies was insoluble. A march on St. Petersburg, dogged by the Russian army, which now lay on the south at Kaluga, was im- practicable. For a month Napo- leon held on, in the hope that the fall of Moscow might still bring the Tsar to terms ; but the Tsar made no sign. It became convincingly clear that retreat was the only
Macdonald Ney
TWO GREAT MARSHALS OF FRANCE rniir«;p no<;«;iblf B"*"" ** Sedan, the son of a Scottish Jacobite schoolmaster, Macdonald -^ _^ ^ ' rose to high rank in the French army, distinguishing himself on the
Un UCtOber IQl-h, battlefield, and becoming marshal and Duke of Taranto the order was another great leader, was in charge of the rear-guard in the disas- issued NaDO- ^'^°^^ retreat from Moscow; he was shot for high treason in 1815.
leon had penetrated to Moscow, less, shattered army before
perhaps, from the conviction that by doing
so he would reach Russia's heart than
from the hope of bringing the Russian
army to the decisive engagement which
it had eluded. At any rate, he found that
if Russia had a heart — a vital spot — it
was not at Moscow. Barren, indeed, were
the laurels of that victorious The Terrible advance ; such laurels were of^Moscow ^^ inadequate substitute for
bread. The five hundred miles that lay between Napoleon and the fron- tier had been swept bare, and those five hundred miles would have to be traversed again, for Kutusoff lay between the Grand Army and a more southerly route, which had not been swept ; and Kutusoff soon proved to be an insuperable obstacle.
A fierce battle at Jaroslavitz, though again a technical victory for the French, was Pyrrhic in character. The Grand Army could not fight its way out of the country by such battles as that, and Napoleon found that there was no alterna- tive but to retreat along the line of the _ _, previous advance. For nearly
.. ,* ° three weeks it was conducted Napoleons j .i j u • j j
Q . . amid great hardships and under
^ harassing attacks which re- duced the 100,000 men who started from Moscow to half that number. And then, on November 6th, winter descended. But it is well to note that before the bitter winter began Napoleon's force was already less than two-fifths of that which had found the Russians facing it at Borodino two montl s before. In other words, the Grand Army was already a wreck, a rem- nant, before that awful frost smote it. Just as in the case of the Spanish Armada, a picturesque fiction has permanently dis- placed the his- torical fact in the general belief. The Armada was an irretrievably beaten and broken fleet be- fore the winds Ney" blew. The Grand Army was an irretrievably the frosts came. But the broken Armada was splintered by the winds, and the shattered Grand Army was annihilated by the frosts; and the world will probably continue to give the winds and frost the whole credit
The frosts came, and the disastrous retreat became a hideous nightmare of misery, relieved only by the indomitable heroism of the rear-guard. It is estimated that not less than 400,000 men must have crossed the Niemen eastwards ; only 20,000 made their way back into Prussia on November 14th, apart from the column, of about the same number, under Macdonald's command in the north.
Ten days earlier, the Emperor had left his army in order to hasten in person to Paris to re-establish his authority, against
4755
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
which, and in his absence, a futile attempt to engineer an insurrection had been made. The command was left to Murat — King of Naples — ^who followed his chief's example, and made for his own kingdom, leaving the army to Eugene Beauharnais, who succeeded in conveying it to safe quarters at Leipzig, in Saxony. Al- though Wellington's victory at uropean Salamanca had not enabled him J. / to secure the mastery of Spain,
apo eon ^^ ^^^ been made evident that French ascendancy could be established only by a great effort in the Peninsula. The mere fact was sufficient to stir the hopes of Napoleon's foes throughout Europe.
On the top of Welhngton's successes came the terrific disaster of the Russian expedition. Yet even now the Govern- ments were afraid or unwilling to break free. Russia, from her own point of view, might well be content with what she had achieved. Austria, guided by Metternich, saw diplomatic opportunities in prospect. The princes of the Rhine Confederation halted between two opinions. And Frederic William of Prussia, with his territories still largely occupied by French garrisons, lacked the nerve to make an irrevocable decision. But the decision was taken out of his hands.
The Prussian contingent, hitherto serv- ing as in alliance with the French, was under the command of the veteran General Yorck. Stein, a fugitive from the wrath of Napoleon, had been called by the Tsar into his counsels, and now exercised a strong influence with him. These two men gave the lead which changed the situation. Macdonald, with his column, recalled from the siege of Riga by the disaster of the Grand Army, accomplished a successful retreat into Prussian territory, and was on the point of calling upon Yorck to co-operate when he found himself compelled by the Prussian general's defection to withdraw ^ ^ hastily to Konigsberg. Yorck,
• .t n*i r on his own responsibility, but
intheRoleof •,, ,, ^t •.•
... With the enthusiastic support
of the officers and men of his
army, had concluded a convention with
the Russians at Tauroggen. Influenced by
Stein, the Tsar was once again resolved
to resume his early role of liberator, in
spite of a strong Russian opposition
which would have preferred leaving
Western Europe to take care of itself.
Magnanimity might not have sufficed to
4756
bring him to this decision if he had been
satisfied that Russian interests would be
adequately secured otherwise ; but if
Napoleon should again terrorise the West
into submission, it was more than probable
that Russia would again find itself the
object of attack. The liberation of North
Germany by Russian aid could be justified
as the most effective defensive policy for
Russia. Yorck's convention withdrew the
Prussian troops from the French alliance,
and in effect handed over East Prussia to
the Tsar, and the Tsar entrusted the
government to Stein. Stein forthwith
convoked an assembly for the purpose of
calling the people of East Prussia to arms,
himself acting in the name of the Tsar.
Frederic William at first repudiated
Yorck's action, but very soon found that
the whole nation would be with him if he
took the courageous course, and would
almost certainly take that course itself
whatever the Government might do.
Within a month of the convention he had
fled from Berlin, which was dominated
by the French, to Breslau, which was not ;
and at the end of February he concluded
the Treaty of Kalisch with Prttssia and j.\_ 'r i ■ ^
„ . . , the Tsar for war against Russia against xt 1 xi. t j
■^ . Napoleon, the Tsar under-
apo eon taking that the Prussian kingdom shoud be reinstated in its old ex- tent, with equivalents in other quarters to compensate for particular curtailments ; which meant mainly that German districts were to be substituted for Polish provinces which in effect would pass to Russia. To Prussia, it seemed that a heavy price was demanded. It was not realised that in becoming a Power wholly German, instead of largely Slavonic, she would be greatly advancing the ultimate prospects of German nationalism under Prussian hege- mony ; that, to this end, Prussia would be placed at an immense advantage as com- pared with Austria, within whose domin- ions both Magyars and Czechs stood entirely outside German nationalism.
Even before the Treaty of Kalisch was concluded, Russian troops were pressing forward through Prussia, and the arming of the whole population was in progress. On March 4th, Beauharnais evacuated Berlin ; on the i6th the Prussian declara- tion of war was formally proclaimed ; on the 17th, the king issued an appeal to the nation which gave the signal for an overwhelming outburst of national enthusiasm. But when the allies issued
THE RISING OF THE NATIONS
another appeal to German sentiment outside Prussia, there was no similar response. Sweden was the only state which joined the coalition without hesita- tion, mainly, perhaps, because Berna- dotte expected, as the outcome, to acquire Norway from Denmark, which was reso- lutely fixed in its adherence to Napoleon. But the effect on Prussia itself of Stein's influence, and of Scharnhorst's military organisation, became apparent when the short -service army was trebled by the trained reserves, and, behind these, Landwehr and Landsturm were taking up their training in yet greater numbers. A passion of patriotic ardour, of fervent
tion, though Austria, with more prudent calculation, declined to render him the military aid which he demanded.
Napoleon took the offensive, and drove back the Russians and Prussians, defeating them first at Liitzen and then at Bautzen ; but the defeats were not of the old crush- ing character — ■neither of them approached to a rout. Nevertheless, Barclay, restored to the Russian command, could hardly be restrained from reverting to the purely Russian policy of falling back into Poland, by the consideration that this would de- stroy all prospect of Austria coming into the coalition. In J une, Napoleon, trusting to the moral effect of Liitzen and Bautzen
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MARSHAL NEY DEFENDING THE REAR-GUARD IN THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW In the whole history of Napoleon's campaigns there is nothing more terrible or tragic than the experiences of his army during the ill-fated Russian expedition. Retreating from Moscow the Grand Army of the Emperor was subjected to great hardships and harassing attacks, these tremendously reducing the number of'^the men. The frosts came, and the retreat became a hideous nightmare, relieved only by the indomitable heroism of the rear-g^ard under Marshal Ney.
From the painting by Adolphe Yvon
self-sacrifice, for the whole German Fatherland, swept through Prussia, strangely rational and sober despite its intensity, which makes this Prussian movement, in its kind, perhaps the most nobly inspiring which history records.
It is hardly less startling to find that the armies of France, which had lost half a million men or little less in the last six months of 1812, were able still to muster half a million, besides the 200,000 left for Wellington to deal with in Spain. So confident was Napoleon of his own in- vincibility despite the experience of 1812, that he rejected Austria's offer of media-
on both Pnissia and -Austria, offered a truce, which was readily accepted. But he had now to deal not with the vacillating King of Prussia, but with her people ; with the astute Metternich, who meant to have his price from one side or other, and saw more promise from the allies ; and with Alexander, who, having again set his hand to the plough was not to be per- suaded or alarmed into looking back. To Metternich the truce presented "pre- cisely the opportunity he desired of modifying the plans of the coalition in the Austrian interest. He was himself satisfied that Austria's adhesion to the
4757
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Allied Nations ready for War
Coalition would assure it of the mastery ; the more so when Great Britain con- cluded subsidiary treaties with Russia and Prussia, and news came of Wellington's decisive triumph at Vittoria. Metternich's mediation was provisionally accepted by both parties. But Napoleon was deter- mined not to yield an inch of territory. Metternich would not demand less than the retrocession of the Illyrian Provinces to Austria, the partition of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and the restriction of the French dominion to the west of the Rhine, with his suzerainty over the Rhenish Confederacy. Napoleon's refusal c|f the terms threw Austria into the coali- tion : on August 12th she declared war. , The truce had helped the allies, especially Prussia, to increase their levies much more than Napoleon ; and now to these were added the Austrian armies which threatened Napoleon's flank from Bohemia. The French numbers were far inferior, and were especially deficient i'n artillery and cavalry, the arms on which I^apoleon placed most reliance. Still, fhey had the advantage of the central position in Saxony, and of the controlling master-mind.
' The value of this was seen in the second great engagement which followed 4 fortnight after the renewal of the war, ^hen, at Dresden, Napoleon won a brilliant victory over the main allied force. But ijts effect was neutralised by Bliicher's defeat of Macdonald at Katzbach, in Silesia,' on the previous day, and by the disaster, three days later, which befel Vandamme's column at Kulm. Sent to cut off the retreat of the allies, the force was unsupported, surrounded, and com- pelled to capitulate. And a week later Ney, who had advanced on Berlin, was de- cisively defeated at Dennewitz by Biilow. The allies now saw the way open to effect a junction on Napoleon's rear. Bliicher from Silesia passed round the northern flank, and from that side, awaiting Ber- nadotte and Biilow, threatened Leipzig, whither the main army proposed to make its way from the south. Napoleon, finding it impracticable to pierce the Erz-Gebirge and attack the latter in Bohemia, left Murat, who had joined him again, to cover Leipzig, and went to destroy Bliicher ; but Bliicher retired, evading
4758
" Battle of the Nations "
battle, while the allies, under Schwarzen- berg, pressed Murat back from the south. Napoleon found himself compelled . to concentrate on Leipzig and accept battle.
On October i6th began the three days' Battle of Leipzig, the "Battle of the Nations." On the south. Napoleon checked Schwarzenberg ; on the north, Bliicher drove in Marmont. The great fight was on the i8th. The French resist- ance was prolonged and desperate ; but now Bernadotte, who had hampered rather than aided the movements of the allies, was arriving, and threatened to cut off the retreat which had become inevitable. The final result was a decisive rout, in which a part of Napoleon's army escaped across the Elbe, and a part was driven into the river. The series of battles cost Napoleon 45,000 men, besides 23,000 who were left behind in hospital.
Only 70,000 men recrossed the Rhine. Yet the allies had suffered so severely — more, numerically, than the French — ^that they were unable to carry on a pursuit. Some weeks t»efore Leipzig the bearing of the Austrian intervention on the future ^ ; of Germany manifested itself in
Fut'^eTn* ^^^ Treaty of Toplitz, which th B 1 ratified the alliances. The inten- tion of the Treaty of Kalisch had been to develop Stein's ideas of German nationalism at the expense of the princes . of the Rhenish Confederation, who, from this point of view, had forfeited all claim to consideration. But to Metternich, the theories of Stein were an abomination. His scheme was not that of appealing to Ger- man sentiment and establishing free govern- ments, but of detaching Napoleon's allies by promising them monarchical indepen- dence in place of monarchical subjection.
Little pleasing as the idea might be to the new nationalism, it was not without its appeal to the still influential body of monarchists and feudalists in Prussia ; moreover, Austria's position in the coalition was too strong to permit of her being over-ruled. The Treaty of Toplitz embodied Metternich's principle ; and its effect was seen in the early adhesion of Bavaria, which had been Napoleon's ally from the beginning, and in the marked inclination of the whole posse of princes to transfer their support to the allies. Leipzig was decisive. They came in, in haste to secure themselves the benefits of the Toplitz agreement. Those whom Napoleon had ejected were restored.
THE RISING OF THE NATIONS
William of Orange was reinstated in Holland, no longer as stadtholder, but as king. Denmark was obliged to give up the French alliance, and to cede Norway to Sweden. And most of the fortified places held by French garrisons from the Vistula to the Rhine were soon forced to capitulate. Spain was already com- pletely lost to Napoleon, and all that Soult could do was to offer a stubborn resistance to Wellington's entry into France through the Pyrenees.
At Frankfort the allies held council in the second week of November. Bliicher, as befitted the veteran who was popularly known as " Marshal Forward," was eager for an immediate invasion of France. Not so the diplomatists. They preferred to offer the Emperor terms, restricting France to her " natural boundaries " — the Pyre- nees, the Alps, and the Rhine. The monarchs were in some fear of the next development of the peoples, into whom the spirit of patriotism had breathed an alarming energy. The old dread of the Revolution was very much alive. Those terms would have satisfied all the Powers. . . After Moscow, Vittoria, and nva ing Lgjp^jg^ they were generous, and in Fran e ^^^^ represented nothing more than the accomplished fact. But even now Napoleon would not recog- nise that the odds had become too over- whelming. Perhaps he believed that his dynasty would be endangered if he came to terms otherwise than as a victor in the field. Perhaps he trusted to a collapse in the unanimity of the allies. Whatever his motive, he ignored what was now the pre- dominating sentiment in France in favour of an honourable peace, while the allies had been careful in -the form of their proposals to concihate the amour propre of the French people.
By this time Wellington was on French soil, and his admirable control over the invading troops was producing a most favourable impression in Southern France. Even the obsequious Corps Legislatif pre- sented what was practically an address in favour of such a peace as was offered. But the Emperor was obdurate in maintaining larger demands, and on December ist the offer of the allies was withdrawn. In Jan- uary the invading armies entered France.
In the south of France, the duel between Soult and Wellington continued. In the south of Italy, Murat had dropped ' his brother-in-law's cause ; in North Italy,
the Austro-Bavarian agreement after Top- litz, by giving the Austrians free passage through the Tyrol, had made the position of Eugene Beauharnais practically unten- able. On the north-east of France, the allied army of the north was entering Belgium. Their Grand Army of 250,000 men passed the Rhine at Basle and moved A M-ii- north-west on Champagne, A Million ^j^.jg ^j^g g Bliicher with
Men Lost by . v i • xi, ■ i.
j^ J 90,000 crossed it m the neigh-
apo eon bourhood of Coblentz, passed the Moselle and the Meuse, and advanced to effect a junction with Schwarzenberg. Napoleon was vastly outnumbered, for the campaigns of the last eighteen months must have cost him a million soldiers, and that he could still put an effective force in the field is explicable only when we re- member that a great proportion of the soldiery employed on those campaigns was drawn, not from France, but from the subject and dependent states of Germany, Italy, and Poland. As it was, the force on which he was now reduced to reljdng was made up partly of indomitable veterans, but mainly of lads who had been too young to be called to arms before, of the genera- tion which, born in the Year of Terror, was inevitably stamped by physical inferiority. The Seine, which takes its course through Troyes to Paris, the Aube, which joins it a little below Troyes, and the Marne, which joins it just above Paris, all take their rise on the plateau from which the Grand Army was advancing. Napo- leon's force lay between the Marne and the Seine, covering Paris. A vigorous offen- sive from Schwarzenberg was not to be expected, but Bliicher was displaying his habitual energy. He was already nearing Schwarzenberg, when Napoleon struck at him and checked him at the end of January at St. Dizier and Brienne. But Bliicher, reinforced, had double the numbers of the opposing column, and inflicted a severe defeat on it at La Rothiere on February „ . ist, 1814. The victory was de-
_ "*^ ' . cisive enough to warrant his P . desire to march straight on Paris
by the Marne and Chalons ; but neither Austrians nor Russians wished the campaign to be in effect a Prussian triumph. For commissariat purposes, as it was alleged, it was resolved that the Grand Army should advance by the Seine and Bliicher by the Marne — not too fast. They still wished, in fact, to give Napoleon the chance of accepting a peace. Austria was
4759
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
jealous of Prussia acquiring too much pres- tige ; so was the Tsar. Austria was afraid of the Tsar insisting, in the hour of victory, on championing a Repubhcan restoration, for he was the one monarch who had re- garded the Revolution principles with favour. Frederic William shared Austria's fear. But Napoleon remained as deter-
^i r^ •*. 1 mined as ever in demanding The Critical ,, ,, , •,•
„ ... , more than the most conciha- rosition of , /• i • <• i j j
. -, tory of his foes would concede.
In the second week of Feb- ruary, Bliicher gave him his chance by endeavouring to break in between Napoleon at Troyes and Macdonald at Epernay, and to cut the latter off from Paris. The movement involved an extension of his column, which enabled the Emperor to inflict on it in detail a series of defeats which drove it back on Chalons and gave the young French conscripts a new confidence in themselves and in their mighty leader. Napo- leon's temporary division encou- raged Schwarzen- berg to advance past Troyes, and the Emperor had to turn back and defeat him at Montereau in- stead of going on to complete Bliicher's discomfiture, which was much less complete than Napoleon imagined.
Again the allies proposed an armistice ; again Napoleon refused ; though the former were continually receiving rein- forcements, and the latter was not. The overtures being rejected, the allies renewed their treaty at Chaumont on March ist. The fact that it was to hold good for twenty years suggests that even now they were not contemplating the total destruction of Napoleon's power in the immediate future. Meanwhile, however,
NAPOLEON ARRIVING AT ELBA IN 1811
that Bliicher, by the end of February, was making a flank march on the north, with a view to effecting a junction with the Army of the North, which was now approaching, and of threatening Paris, while Schwarzenberg occupied Napoleon. The junction was effected at Soissons on March 4th. Napoleon attacked the united forces at Craonne and drove them back on Laon, where his success was reversed. The overwhelming pressure of the allies drove the Emperor to the desperate expedient of falling on Schwarz- enberg's communications, thus leaving open the road to Paris for the Grand Army ; and the Tsar resolved to disregard Napoleon's movement and advance on Paris itself. The covering corps under Marmont were shattered at La Fere Champe- noise by the com- bined forces of the Tsar and Bliicher on March 26th. Throughout the 30th a fierce but unequal contest raged in the en- virons of Paris, till Bliicher's cap- ture of Mont- martre decided Marmont to act on the licence I given him by Joseph Bona- parte, who was nominally in con- trol of the city. Paris capitulated on the next day; it was evacuated by the French troops, and entered by the allied sovereigns. At last Napoleon found resistance hopeless. His marshals one and all gave him to understand that he must consider himself irretrievably beaten. Napoleon jj^ offered to abdicate, but still struggled to make condi- tions. The allies would listen to They, not he, must decide the
Retires to Elba
none.
future of France. For himself, he might retain the title of Emperor, a substan- the south-west was passing decisively tial but by no means imperial pension, to Wellington, and on March 12th the and the sovereignty of the island of Royalists in Bordeaux proclaimed Louis Elba. On April nth, 1814, he yielded. XVI I L But what mattered more was On May 4th he was in Elba,
4760
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
X
BY ARTHUR D. INNES.M.A
THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPE
NAPOLEON'S RETURN & FINAL OVERTHROW
THE Napoleonic era closes with the abdication in 1814. Fundamentally, the Emperor's return and the campaign of 1815 merely form an episode, intensely dramatic, but productive only of accidental effects, inasmuch as the return silenced the disputes between the Powers which were threatening to disturb Europe afresh, and the victory of Waterloo gave Great Britain an increased prestige in the councils of Europe. But the principles on which the Continent was settled in 1815 were no departure from the principles of 1814. We have therefore reached a convenient point for forming some estimate of what was actually accomplished by the Revolution and the Empire.
In the first place, the Revolution destroyed once for all in France the old system of aristocratic and clerical privilege. 1 he aggressive Republic imposed the same principle on the subordinate republics which it created ; and when Caesarism
„ * . replaced the French Republic,
Revolution ^j r> i- j. j i.*
. ,. . . and Bonapartist dynasties
Accomplished ., it ^ i_i-
the subordmate republics,
the same principles continued to be maintained, and took permanent root. In Central Europe those principles had taken sufficient hold to enable Stein and Hardenberg and Stadion to carry re- forms up to a point which gave a solid basis for further development, but stopped far short of what the reformers desired. Social feudalism had gone in the west, and its foundations in Germany were sapped.
Not so with monarchism. The Revolu- tion effected only a temporary sub- version of monarchism. The republics which it created became monarchies again, and so remained ; yet those monarchies lacked their old prestige, and under them enough of the machinery of popular govern- ment survived to make the way ready for constitutionalism to eject absolutism.
The Republic had extended liberty outside the borders of France, in the sense of calling peoples to active participation
in the government of the state. It had destroyed liberty in the other sense— that it had imposed alien control. The Caesarism put an end to the new liberty, and extended the imposition of alien con- trol. Yet where that control was most complete it brought gifts, consistency in- _,. „ the form of law and in its ad-
f F ^'^^'"'^ ministration. The dependent £^ . states were better governed
when they were dependencies than when they were independent. Where the Nationalist idea was non-existent, where subordination to some external authority had been habitual, as in Italy and in Belgium, the French expansion, per se, was beneficial. Napoleon in his conquests and annexations merely carried out on a larger scale the poUcy of the Republic itself ; and the Republic, intensely Nationalist as concerned France itself, recognised no Nationalism beyond its own borders. It was when the French expansion came into collision with Nationalism that it became a tyranny, which stirred patriotic resistance to a passion, and brought it to life where it had hitherto been virtually non-existent. Nationalism was a late birth of time. In England and Scotland it had been vigorous for 500 years, in France and Spain for 300, and in Holland for 200 ; but the system of the Holy Roman Em- pire was cosmopolitan in theory and prac- tice, and the Nationalist idea remained no more than embryonic. Napoleon's concep- tion of replacing the amorphous Holy
„ , , Roman Empire by reviving Napoleon s ,- • ^ . r /-. 1
„ . J c . a living empire of Charle- Ruined Scheme ^ Jl 1 ■,- ■,
of Imperialism magne IS not to be dismissed as the outcome of mere per- sonal ambition ; but it was doomed to failure in the long run precisely because it disregarded the Nationalism which, once awakened, could juot be reconciled with cosmopolitan imperialism. The perfidy by which he seized Spain, the tyranny to which he subjected Prussia, raised
4761
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Great Britain's Resistance
Nationalism into an irresistible antagon- istic force which brought the whole imperial scheme to complete ruin.
The apologists for Napoleon have some warrant for claiming that the conception of such an empire, and the attempt to give it effect should be admired and ap- plauded as being for the advantage of civil- isation. The upholders of Nationalism are entitled to
. ., , take the contrary view. For
to Napoleon ^ , -r> \l ■ /u
Great Britam, the assump- tion that the forces of the Napoleonic Em- pire, when its construction and organisation should be completed, would be devoted to her o\ erthrow was so overwhelming that she had no choice but to resist Napoleon with her whole force. In the endeavour to crush her resistance Napoleon imposed, or tried to impose, upon Europe the Conti- nental System, which inflicted on the Continent itself hard- ships which more than coun- terbalanced such benefits as were conferred by his consum- mately organised methods of administration. Added to this, the realisation of the imperial idea could be at- tained only through a series of wars, with all the evils thereof in proportion to the vast scale on which they had to be waged, destroying property, ruining industry, and draining every country in Europe of its most
ignore it has ended in its more decisive con- firmation. Perhaps in time it may come to be recognised universally and decisively, instead of only partially and occasionally. Among the allies at the moment of Napoleon's abdication there were not a few prominent persons who entertained illusory hopes of a Nationalist develop- ment. They were doomed to disappoint- ment ; but the first business of the victorious Powers was the settlement of France. Neither Russia nor Great Britain viewed a Bourbon restoration with en- thusiasm, but both wished the choice' of the French themselves to be confirmed, and the Legitimists carried the day, with the warm approval of Austria and Prussia. Talleyrand, always a monarchist at heart, made himself the real controller of the situation. Louis XVIII., recalled from exile, entered Paris on April 29th, but the royalist victory was endangered at the outset by his reactionary tone. Under pressure from the Tsar he was induced to concede a Constitu- tion by grace of the Crown.
On the hypothesis that the Revolution was over, and that France had returned to her legitimate Government, the legitimate Government made a treaty with the allies. The French frontier was with- drawn to its maximum pre- regicide limit, that of 1792,
, . JOACHIM MURAT ,. . „
vigorous sons, leavmg it in a general in the French army, he With SOmC additions : Great
the main to those physically [^^fgw* wfi^^prodataed'Krng^lff Britain restored her con- inferior to impart their de- the Two SidUes. He was shot in quests, except Mauritius, St. fec^s to_ the next generation. '^''•*^'*'"*"*^ ''y "'"■*-'"*''"^^- Lucia, and Tobago. The
The French Revolution, in spite ot its own excesses and the monarchical reac- tion in which it ended, made the con- ception of civic freedom a part of the inheritance of future generations, not only in France, but throughout Europe. Napoleon, overriding but not uprooting civic freedom, set his seal on the revo- lutionary charter which abolished a caste system that was tightening its coils about Europe. His overthrow established the principle by which it was accomplished, that through neither Empire nor Pro- vincialism, but through a healthy and tolerant Nationalism the progressive de- velopment of Europe must be achieved. The lesson was not learnt then ; it was obstinately and repeatedly ignored in the century that followed, and each attempt to
4762
allied armies withdrew, and no indemnity was required. Broadly speaking, the whole period of the Republic and the Empire was wiped out as covering merely an unfortunate episode. It was provided at the same time that Holland should receive an increase of territory, and _ , that Great Britain should re-
R«tor°ed" ^^°^^ ^^^ ^"^^^ colonies— all es ore y ^^ ^hich she had captured — the Powers . .j r- j ta
except the Cape and Demerara.
The German princes were to have full sovereignty, but were to be federated ; Italy was to be resolved into a congeries of independent states, except for a portion to be restored to Austria. The disinter- ested attitude of Great Britain was marked not only by her unique surrender of actual conquests, but by her insistence
THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPE
on a clause in the treaty directed against the slave-trade. Other questions and details were to be referred to a congress which was to meet at Vienna in November. At that con- gress the five great Powers were represented respectively by Metternich, Hardenberg, Nesselrode, Castlereagh, and Talleyrand. Every European state, large or small, was represented, except Turkey. The four victorious Powers had agreed to reserve to them- selves the decision of burning questions, but the diplomatic skill of Talleyrand not only added France herself to the four, but made him practic- ally the most important of all the notable negotiators. The congress had to re- construct a Europe which had been decomposing and recomposing ter- ritorially and constitutionally at brief intervals for more than twenty years,
LOUIS XVIII OF FRANCE The younger brother of LouisXVI., he became monarch on the fall of Napoleon in 1814. He ruled with severity, and when Napoleon re- turned from Elba', fled from Paris.
and it had no intention whatever of allowing its reconstruction to be affected in the one field by Nationalism, or in the other by the principles of 1789. Talleyrand successfully gave them their keynote by offering them the principle of legitim- ism as the basis of harmony. It did not produce harmony, but it eliminated certain discordant possibilities. The treatment of Poland and Saxony and of German Nationalism became the cru- cial questions. Russia wanted Poland cLS a modest return for her disinterested efforts in the cause of Europe ; but Prussia, if she were to lose her share of Poland, wanted Saxony by way of compensa- tion ; while the King of Saxony had forfeited all right to consideration by supporting Napoleon till his defeat at Leipzig. But in the Austrian view that would give
THE BEGINNING OF "THE HUNDRED DAYS ": NAPOLEON'S RETURN FROM ELBA Brooding in Elba, Napoleon saw the unpopularity of the Restoration regime in France, and he determined to make one more struggle with fate. Escaping from Elba, he landed near Cannes on March 1st, 1815, and appealed to the French nation's loyalty to its emperor. Though France, on the whole, acquiesced in his return, the old enthusiasm was lacking.
From the painting' by Steuben
4763
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Kingdom of Saxony
Prussia too great a preponderance in Germany ; nor did it meet with the approval of England and France, both of which disliked the advance westward of the Russian frontier. Matters reached a stage at which these three Powers entered into a compact to resist the * '^* * undue aggrandisement of Russia and Prussia. Talley- rand's doctrine of legitimism, however, carried the day with the Tsar. The King of Saxony was allowed to retain half his kingdom, Prussia getting the other half, and, by way of compensation, the districts on the west which she held before Tilsit, together with the old ecclesias- tical districts of Treves and Cologne ;. and Dan- zig, Thorn and Posen, conceded by Russia, on the east. Protestant Prussia was rather troubled by the acqui- sition of the arch- bishoprics ; neither she nor France realised that by having her frontier brought to the Rhine she was bound to be- come the protagonist in any Franco-German contest over frontiers, and to gain a corre- sponding predominance among the German states. We need not enter into further de- tails of the territorial rearrangements in Germany, but some
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON By his great victory at the Battle of Waterloo, in
in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Norway was transferred from Denmark to Sweden, which had lost Finland to Russia after Tilsit . The restoration of Ferdinand VII. in Spain, and of the House of Braganza in Portugal, resulted, in both countries, in the Government which presented in its extremest form the monarchical reaction against those "principles of 1789" which had been so completely pre- dominant in the war of liberation.
The hardest disappointment was re- served for the German patriots who had revivified Prussia under the inspiration of German Nationalism. They had looked for a reorganisation which would establish German unity, or, at least, two vigorous federations, headed by Austria and Prussia respectively, if the con- flicting claims of those two Powers to the hegemony could not be reconciled. Stein and his allies had looked further for the com- pletion of the work in which Stein himself had been stayed by the in- tervention of Napoleon, of developing constitu- tional government and free institutions. All these hopes were dashed. Some two score of principalities, whose " legitimate " sove- reigns were restored with sovereign rights
nnintQ rPTYinin in Vip 1815, this famous general broke for ever the power „rirnrf ailpri wprp a<i- poiniS remain lO Oe „{ Napoleon and rid Europe of the disturber of its UnCUrtaiiea, WCrC as-
noted. The promised peace, a grateful nation covered him with honours, . • , TT n J and in 1827 he became Prime Minister. He died in 1852.
extension of Holland
gave her Belgium and Luxemburg ; Austria thus ceased to rule over provinces co- terminous with France. Victor Emanuel of Savoy recovered his provinces in North Italy, with his kingdom of Sardinia, while Austria recovered her northern provinces in that country, as well as the Tyrol from Bavaria. The rest of North Italy resumed its character as a congeries of small states, and the papal dominions were restored. Murat was permitted to retain Naples, but ruined himself by again going over to Napoleon on his return ; he was deposed, and was finally captured in an attempt to recover Naples, and was executed; the Bourbons were reinstated
4764
sociated in a headless confederation which lacked even the semblance of unity pro- vided by the defunct Holy Roman Empire. Not German unity but the total sup- pression of the " principles of 1789 " was the one requirement of Austria under the sinister guidance of Metter- nich. While the diplomatists wrangled and collogued, a catastrophe was preparing which came near to shattering the whole edifice they were constructing. France had regarded the fall of the Emperor with something like relief ; the strain of the last eighteen months had been too exhausting, and Napoleon's obstinate refusal to accept honourable terms had
France Tired of Napoleon
47^5
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
created a reaction against him. But the peace and the Bourbon restoration brought back to France immense numbers of veteran soldiers who had been prisoners of war, and gave the Royalists the opportunity of flaunting their determina- tion to carry the reaction back beyond 1789, and more particularly of procuring , the restitution of the property L^Tst*" * which had changed hands in *.l r ^"^K e the Revolution. In the intense with Fate J . , .,
and mcreasmg unpopularity
of the Restoration regime, Napoleon, brood- ing in Elba, saw his chance of making one more struggle with fate. Eluding the vigilance of the warder frigates, he suc- ceeded in embarking, landing near Cannes on March ist, and appealing to the French nation's loyalty to its emperor.
There was a critical moment when the garrison of Grenoble was marched out against him. With theatrical instinct he bade them fire upon him if any among them sought his death ; they responded with enthusiastic shouts. In that hour the soldiiery took him back to their hearts ; loyalist marshals and generals had to flee for their lives as he progressed trium- phantly towards Paris. Louis was not behindhand in dramatic fervour ; he announced that he would remain steadfast and die to protect his people. Having said which, he incontinently ran away to Ghent. On March 20th the Emperor was back in Paris. Ney had gone out to destroy him, and had joined him with all his troops instead.
Napoleon declared that he had come back not to embroil Europe, but to save the Revolution. It is conceivable that this was his intention at the moment ; it is not conceivable that it would have re- mained so for long. The Powers, at any rate, dechned to take the risk. They refused to recognise him, and a week before he reached Paris declared him the public enemy of Europe. Their wrangles were brought to a sudden th*'*E*°'^ end in the face of common f*E ''*™* danger. In a treaty on March 25th, each of them agreed to put 150,000 men in the field, and maintain war until Napoleon should be effectively deposed and removed from all possibility of troubling the world. Whether he wished for war or not, he must either fight or go.
With the army at his back, whatever the sentiment of the rest of France might be, there was no sort of doubt that he
' 4766
would fight. France, on the whole, acquiesced in his return, but without unanimity or general enthusiasm. He gave it to be understood that he intended to rule not as an autocrat, but constitu- tionally. It was evident that a revival of despotism would meet with active resistance, and there were many men iu France, as well as outside, who felt that no confidence could be placed in assurances of good intentions. But in any case. Napoleon was once more de facto lord of France, and the attitude of the Powers required him to organise his forces and strike before the armies of Europe were gathered together against him.
In June, the Emperor had concentrated his forces, some 124,000 men, on the Bel- gian frontier at Valenciennes. Great Britain had thrown 36,000 troops into Holland. Combined with these were 22,000 Bruns- wickers, 20,000 Dutch and Belgians, 6,000 of the King's German Legion, and minor contingents. Wellington had under his command something over 90,000 men,- with his headquarters at Brussels. Bliicher had 120,000 men, nearly all Prussians, with their base at Namur. The rest of the allies j^ had not yet brought up their
apo ^°^ forces. The Prussian van had B^rtTr "id * advanced as far as Charlerot, and Wellington had not com- bined with them, when Napoleon began his advance. Space forbids us here to enter on the endless discussions as to what each of the generals may have intended to do. The prima facie interpretation of the campaign must suffice. Napoleon struck straight at the Prussians, with the object of driving them back on Namur, and cutting them off from a junction with Wellington, at whom he could then strike, crushing him or driving him back on Brussels. The destruction first of one army and then of the other could then be completed in detail, before the appearance of the allies.
On June 15th, then. Napoleon advanced on Charleroi, while it was Wellingtonis expectation that his blow would be directed not to severing the British from Bliicher, but to cutting the communica- tions of that Power with the sea. Froih Charleroi he drove back the Prussian van.
Bliicher took up a strong position at Ligny. Wellington was tardy in his movements. Ney was despatched north with a column to secure the cross-roaos at Quatre-Bras on the Brussels road, blocking Welhngton's advance, and from
THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPE
that point to descend south-eastwards by the Namur road on Bliicher's rear, while Napoleon himself made the main attack on Bliicher. Ney found Quatre-Bras weakly held by the Prince of Saxe-Weimar, who had seized it without orders.
Ney, however, on the one hand, expected the support of a corps under D'Erlon, who received contradictory instructions, and hovered all day between Quatre-Bras and Ligny without rendering help in either quarter ; and, on the other hand, the Dutch were reinforced by British regi- ments, who retrieved the position. Mean- time, Napoleon attacked Bliicher, and, after a stubborn fight, compelled the Prussians at last to retreat under cover of darkness. The victory at Quatre-Bras prevented the defeat at Ligny from becoming a disaster ; but Napoleon's object of severing the hostile armies seemed to have been accomplished.
Under this impression. Napoleon lost valuable hours in delaying either to press on after Bliicher or to advance against Wellington. Moreover, he was misled by the intelligence he received on the 17th into believing that Bliicher was retiring on the line of his communica- tions to ^amur ; whereas the valiant Prussian had resolved to effect the junction with Wellington, risking his exposed communi- cations, and was retiring upon Wavre, northwards, parallel to the road from Quatre-Bras to Brussels. Wellington called in his troops from Quatre-Bras and took up his position on the ridge at Waterloo.
Soon after midday on June 17th, Grouchy was detached with 33,000 men to find Bliicher. It was not till after midnight that the pursuing force learned definitely that their quarry was not at Namur, but at Wavre. Napoleon himself advanced against Wellington. The crisis had arrived. It was prima facie improb- able that Wellington could inflict a defeat on his adversary, who had a slightly larger force and very much stronger artillery. Moreover, of Wellington's 67,000 men, only 24,000 were British, and those for the most part were young recruits ; his Hanoverians and Brunswickers could be relied on — they were burning to avenge the death of the Duke of Brunswick at Quatre-Bras— but the rest, for the most part, were of very uncertain quality. The great questions were, for the Prussians, whether Wellington would hold on at
The Decisive
Battle
of Waterloo
Waterloo or beat a retreat ; for Wellington,
whether the Prussians would be able to
come to his help at all, and if at all,
whether he could hold out till they came.
Wellington's troops were drawn up,
screened by the summit of their ridge,
and occupied the slopes, in front the
chateau of Hougomont, guarding their
^ ... , left, and the farm of La Haye Welling on s g^-^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^ ^^jj^y
nriiiiant , between them and Napo- Defence , -^ , .1 r i-
leon s army on the frontmg
ridge. The Emperor, not believing in the
possibility of Bliicher's arrival, delayed
his attack till near midday on Sunday,
June i8th, because the drenched state
of the ground was unfavourable to the
cavalry movements on which he relied.
Fierce attacks on Hougomont and La Haye Sainte, gallantly repulsed, were the features of the early stages of the Battle of Waterloo. But Grouchy had failed to interpose his force between Wellington and Bliicher, and the fact that Prussians were approaching was ascertained before the fight had been going on for two hours. A dispatch was sent to Grouchy, recalling him - to the main army, but it did not reach him till too late.
It became evident that if WelUngton was to be routed before reinforcements arrived, his centre must be pierced. Masses of troops in dense columns were hurled against it and rolled back by the stubborn fire of the infantry and charges of British cavalry. At about 4.30, the fury of the attack began to be redoubled, and still charge after charge was hurled back by the obstinate, unyielding British squares, and shattered by the flank fire of the extended British line on the massed columns.
It was probably not till after six o'clock that La Haye Sainte, resolutely held by the King's German legion, was de- cisively carried. But by that hour Bliicher's approach had withdrawn the reserves which should have occupied the captured ground. Still, though \t* w f Ik the Prussians were now Old cJard threatening the French flank, they had not yet arrived in such force but that the field might yet be won if the British could be routed in a last desperate effort. That desperate effort was made. The Old Guard was hurled up the slope, only to be hurled back, broken and shattered. The Prussians were already in touch with Wellington's left. The Duke gave the order for a general
4767
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
advance ; the cavalry, hitherto to a great degree withheld from action, fell upon the staggering column. The Prussians, crashing in on the French right, turned what was already becoming a rout into a wild " sauve-qui-peut," and carried far into the night a pursuit in which the exhausted British could not share. Napoleon's , army had ceased to exist. Napoleons j^^^^^ ^^^ English critics
AntihilaUd' ^^° "^°^^^ ^^^^ ^^ *^^* ^^^" lington would have defeated
Napoleon if there had been no Bliicher. There are German critics who would have it that nothing but Bliicher's arrival saved Wellington from utter disaster. There are Bonapartist critics who hold that Napoleon would have destroyed both Wellington and Bliicher but for the incompetence of his own marshals. And there are critics from whom one would gather that the most characteristic feature of this most decisive of battles, in which the two most uniformly successful commanders since the days of Marlborough and Eugene were pitted against each other, lay in the blunders that each of them committed. The last point hardly demands discussion. As for the third, if Grouchy and Ney held commands for which Soult and Davoust were better fitted, it was by Napoleon's own choice.
For the other two, it was Wellington's business to hold his position till Bliicher arrived, and to be prepared for the con- tingency of Bliicher's not arriving. It is by no means inconceivable that if the approach of the Prussians had not drawn off Napoleon's reserves, the position would have become untenable before the end of the day. It is also conceivable that the doggedness of Wellington's troops would even in the same event have proved in- vincible ; also that he might in any case have been able to retire, defeated, but not routed. The obvious fact is that Welling- ton with the British, the Hanoverians and .... . . Brunswickers, and the German
J. **„ ° legion, held Napoleon at bay
to*Paris*'°' ^°^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^ while Bliicher completed the dangerous and daring movement which turned a stubborn defence into an overwhelming victory.
The Emperor fled to Paris, to find Carnot practically the only man still zealous that France should and could yet once more be rallied to his support. Fouche, crafty, self-seeking, indispensable, was at one with Lafayette in insisting on the Chambers
4768
being treated as the supreme authority. Paris gave no hope, and there was none out- side Paris. Napoleon abdicated in favour of the son born to him by his Austrian spouse, attempted to embark on an American frigate at Rochefort, and finding that impossible, surrendered himself on July 8th to the commander of the British warship Bellerophon, declaring that he threw himself on the generosity of England. But generosity carried too many risks for Europe to be contemplated by England or assented to by the Powers. In the mid- Atlantic, where stands the lonely rock of St. Helena, the sun of Napoleon set for ever. The last desperate effort, crushed on the ^ield of Waterloo, made no difference to the settlement of Vienna save as regarded France herself. Wellington and Bliicher swept on to Paris. On July 3rd the city capitulated. On the 8th, Louis XVIII. re-entered the capital, and was recognised by Wellington. The monarch was quite capable of grasping the necessity of adopting, a much ifiore constitutional attitude than at his last restoration. Talleyrand convinced the Tsar that the choice lay between Louis and Napoleon, , and Napoleon was impossible.
ranee s jj^g-t being^ettled, the question R °"'*^ .^ of the penalty to be imposed upon France arose, and here the cool judgment of the victor of Water- loo carried the day. The natural wrath of Prussia must be restrained — the dynastic restoration would be doomed if it were accompanied by the territorial losses which that Power called for. Something was taken ; the boundaries not of 1792 but of 1790 were granted. France was to remain one of the Great Powers.
These considerations outweighed the demands of Prussia for a rectification of the frontier which would have ended the military possibility of renewed aggression by France, and would hardly have given Prussia herself an excessive compensation for all that she had endured and all that she had lost. Finally, her fortresses were to be occupied by the allied troops for five years, she was to pay a heavy war indemnity, and was to restore to their rightful owners the art treasures which Napoleon had annexed. The settlement was finally confirmed, on November, 1815, in the Treaty of Paris, which in other respects was a practical confirmation of the settlement arrived at by the Congress of Vienna. Arthur D. Innes
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON
XI BY H. W. C. DAVIS, M.A.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS
By H. W. C. Davis, M.A.
CELDOM has a coup d'etat proved more ^ successful than that by which George in. destroyed the power of the Whigs in 1783. His old servant North had joined with Charles J ames Fox, the most advanced of parliamentarians, to form a coalition Ministry, and the allies seemed to have the Crown at their mercy, since they controlled an assured majority in the House of Commons. But by their ill-advised attempt to obtain control of the Indian patronage they drew upon themselves the suspicion of meditating an unparalleled system of jobbery. The king was able to turn them out of office on the pretext of a defeat which they had sustained in the Upper House through his influence with the Lords ; and the younger Pitt, a strip- ling of twenty-five, whom he called into power because it was impossible to obtain a more experienced lieutenant, was able , by skilful management to carry _ *i '*' the country with him at the
_, „ next general election. The From Power , . ° , , . , .,., .
nation was weary of the Whigs,
and of Ministers who were mere figure- heads. It recognised in Pitt something of the great qualities which had distinguished his father. H,e became, accordingly, a popular dictator ; and, justifying his great position by the success of his financial and foreign policy, he remained in office until 1801. It was the longest and most powerful Ministry since Walpole's time.
The relations of the king with the Prime Minister were friendly. Even if George III. had been disposed to rebel against the ascendancy of his chosen adviser, he could not have dispensed with Pitt except at the price of submission to the Whigs. But he was never forced to consider this alterna- tive. He found in Pitt an adviser of con- servative temperament, who was guiltless of any designs to curtail the royal preroga- tive ; and after 1788, when his mind began to be clouded by intermittent insanity, the king left everything to his adviser.
303
Pitt had entered politics as a reformer. The early measures of his administration went far towards gratifying the expecta- tion which he had excited by his speeches as a private member. From the first he showed himself a master of fitiaiice. He undertook with energy the thankless task of liquidating the liabilities incurred in the p. American war. He brought
p'. *' forward, though he was not „*!"?* able to carry, a measure for the redistribution of parliamentary seats, proposing to increase the repre- sentation of London and the largest counties by disfranchising a number of pocket boroughs. He was also prepared, upon certain conditions, to give French commerce a more favourable treatment in the present with the ofier of complete equality in the future ; but on this plan also he was out-voted.
The theory of party government was still immature. A Prime Minister could not in Pitt's time count upon the support of his party for every legislative proposal ; nor did he conceive himself obliged to treat the defeat of his Bills as a command to retire. So long as his administrative policy was approved by Parliament, he could retain his position. Pitt might have threatened to resign if his reforms were not carried ; but he pre- ferred to relinquish them and remain in power. This has been nia.de a charge against him. But the principles on which Tu D ki he acted were those of all The Problem p^.^^^ Ministers before him,
and for some time afterwards.
of N&ttonal D efe nee
He hoped, no doubt, that time would convert his minority into a majority. As a matter of fact, the course of time brought new problems much more pressing than those of internal reform ; and, after 1793, every other consideration was perforce subordinated to that of national defence. The initial stages of the French Revo- lution were generally viewed in England
4769
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
with indifference or approbation. Fox and his friends, the remnant of the Whig party, applauded the fall of the Bastille as an event which heralded the dawn of a new and brighter era in the history of mankind. Pitt considered that the Revo- lution was a crisis of purely national significance which need not interest other countries. He welcomed it, but solely because it offered
How Britain Regarded the
„ , ,. the prospect of a lasting peace. For some time, he thought, the aggressive policy which the French monarchy had so long pursued towards the rest of Europe would be out of the question. His attention was concentrated upon financial reforms which could be effected only in a prolonged period of peace. The sinking fund by which he hoped to extinguish the national debt was not expected to produce its effects in less . than fifteen years.
At first it seemed as though the Revolu- tion would fulfil Pitt's anticipations. France did not come to the help of Spain in the affair of Nootka Sound in 1790, and Dumouriez, the first Foreign Minister of talent whom the Revolution produced, was anxious to obtain an English alliance. But Dumouriez was at the same time meditating war on Austria ; and all other party leaders in France were united in desiring, for one reason or another, that the Revolution should throw down the gauntlet to Europe. The Royalists thought that war would be the ruin of the Republican cause ; the Republicans looked upon war as the best means of identifying their interests with those of the nation. The opening of the Scheldt in defiance of all treaties, and the propagandist decree of the Convention in November, 1792, promising assistance to any nations which would revolt against their Governments, were a direct challenge to Europe, and early in 1793 they were followed by a declaration of war upon England. The ... . pretext was found in Pitt's
^y " , protests against the measures of Clamour for ^ , , ° , ,- ,,
-. 1792 ; the real motive was the
engeance ^ggjj.g ^q ^j^^j employment for
the armies of Dumouriez, which were as dangerous to France as to foreign Powers. The British nation was far from sharing Pitt's aversion to a war. The execution of Louis XVI. had produced a thrill of horror ; the king and Pitt were followed through the streets by crowds clamouring for vengeance. Edmund Burke fanned the
4770
flame. He had attacked the Revolution in his " Reflections " as long ago as 1790. He represented it as a madness which, unless roughly repressed, would spread, and sap the foundatipns of European society. There was, indeed, some reason to fear that Jacobin doctrines would take hold upon the industrial population of the English manufacturing towns. England was passing through a period of bad harvests and commercial depression. Wages were low ; in some localities there was actual famine ; and it was known that clubs professing sympathy with the Revo- lution had been formed in more than one centre. The \yar was therefore regarded as a war of self-defence, and in that spirit it was undertaken by Pitt.
Britain was at war with France from 1793 to the Treaty of Amiens in 1801, at first as member of a coalition which in- cluded more than half the Powers of Europe. But the coalition was from the beginning composed of Powers with divided aims. To Prussia and Austria the question of Poland seemed more important than that of France ; and the Jacobin admini- stration, guided by the skilful hand of Carnot, was able not only to clear France of in- vaders, but even to undertake conquests. The Austrian Netherlands, Holland, and the west bank of the Rhine, fell a prey to the Republic in 1794. Holland was converted into a republic under French protection ; Prussia retired from the war and was followed by a number of the lesser German states in 1795 ; Spain became the active ally of France. There remained in the coalition only Austria, Sardinia, and Britain ; and Bonaparte's invasion of Italy in 1796 had the immediate effect of detaching Sardinia. The French victories of Lodi, Areola, Rivoli, and La Favorita, enabled Bonaparte to impost terms of peace upon Austria in 1797. From that time till 1799 Britain stood alone. But the formation of the second coalition — with Austria and Russia — at length enabled her to conclude a peace upon favourable terms. In the early part of the war Pitt pursued a policy which was expensive and unsuccessful. He main- tained in the Netherlands an army of 10,000 men, which was incompetently commanded by the Duke of York, the king's second son ; he showered subsidies upon the Continental allies, spending for this purpose upwards of $45,000,000.
Britain and France at War
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
The desirability of waging a maritime war appears to have forced itself upon Pitt's mind only by slow degrees. But the British navy had never been in a better condition. The reorganisation effected by Hawke had borne lasting fruits ; Rodney and Howe proved them- selves worthy pupils of this great master.
An army, on the other hand, had still to be created ; and it was in the preliminary work of raising, equipping, and training troops that Abercrombie, Moore, and Wellesley, who afterwards distinguished themselves in the field against the best French leaders, were for a long time to be absorbed. But even the naval war was not really begun before 1707, when the victory of Jervis off Cape St. Vincent annihi- lated the Spanish fleet ; and it was only the mutinies of Spithead and the Nore, in the same year, which forced the Government to abandon an ill-advised system of economy under which the crews had been insuffi- ciently paid and fed.
After the mutinies, in- deed, there followed a period of wonderful suc- cesses. Duncan defeated the Dutch at Camper- • down in October, 1797 ; in 1798, Nelson, by the Battle of the Nile, ruined
WILLIAM PITT
the expense of Spain and Holland, cost
little to France, although the acquisition
of Ceylon was a blow to the chimerical
project, long entertained by Bonaparte,
of disputing the British supremacy in
India. But Trinidad and Ceylon were
acquisitions of the first importance to
Britain, and may even be re-
_ *. . , garded as an equivalent for the Driven into ° , 1 • u j i.u
y. vast sums lavished on the
European war. The war was one into which Pitt had been driven against his will. His successor, Ad- dington, may therefore be excused for insisting upon an indemnity ; nor was it reprehensible that the indemnity should be taken from Holland and Spain, Powers which in ^he latter stages of the war had been arrayed on the side of France. The great event of internal history in this period of war is the union with Ireland. The Act of Union was Pitt's solution for griev- ances and dangers which had been accumulating since the Revolution, and a brief retrospect is necessary to understand the circumstances under which he felt justified in bribing the Irish Parlia- ment to commit suicide.
The Irish were, in the eighteenth century, a
Bonaparte's schemes for This great parliamentary leader and Prime disunited people. There
the conquest of Egypt Sha;:^^Ae'sLw\rhL?e:ifamV's%f^ffin"f was the old feud of and the Levant. In ance, and won the nation's confidence. He died Catholic and Protcstant,
,1 r J.L J in 1 806, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. j. i xj. l
the war of the second ' at bottom as much a
coalition (1799-1801) Pitt pursued a feud of races as of religions. There was
sounder course than formerly. He left
the reconquest of Italy, Switzerland,
and the Rhine to the land Powers, and
made it the business of Britain to
maintain her supremacy at sea. This
was brilliantly vindicated by the battle
H II A' ^^ Copenhagen ; the sur-
r/* f^ *» t render of the Danish fleet put Fleet Captured j x xu j l
b B "t ^^ ^ armed neutra-
y ri ain j.^^ ^^ ^^^ northern Powers,
by which Bonaparte had anticipated that he would bring Britain to her knees. When peace was signed at Ahiiens, Britain reaped the fruits of sea power ; while surrendering the bulk of her colonial conquests she retained Trinidad and Ceylon. These renunciations, made at
also the feud between the nationalists and the representatives of English rule, which went far, at the end of the century, towards obliterating religious and racial differences. Last, and more deeply rooted than either of these, there was the feud between the landlord and tenant, which could be traced back to the days of the plantation policy, and was kept alive by the absen- teeism of the ordinary Irish landowner.
Of all the grievances which Ireland cherished against England, that connected with religion was the most reasonable. In 1691, the Treaty of Limerick, which concluded the " Glorious " Revolution so far as Ireland was concerned, had given an express promise of relief to Roman
4771
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Catholics. So far was this promise from
being observed that the Test Act, never
before apphed to Ireland, was immediately
afterwards accepted and enforced by the
Whig majority of the Irish Parliament.
Immediately afterwards began a period of
penal legislation (1795-18 15), which is
happily unparalleled in the history of Great
_. _ ,. Britain. Under the penal
The Persecution , r^ ^.i, ^■ i.
.... acts no Catholic parent
„ rs .. ,. might send his children to Roman Catholics , °j , j i_ j j
be educated abroad, and no
Catholic teacher might set up a school . The lands of a Catholic, instead of passing to the eldest son, were equally divided among the children, unless one of them happened to be a Protestant, in which case he was entitled to the whole. No Catholic might acquire land from a Protestant, or own a horse of a value greater than $25, or keep weapons in his house for the purpose of self-defence. It was a penal offence for any Catholic ecclesiastic to enter the country from abroad. Any attempt to convert a Protestant was punished as a crime.
For these and other measures the blame must be laid, in the first instance, on the Irish Protestants, whose fanaticism was sharpened by the wildest fears and suspicions. But the English Government, which could easily have withheld the royal assent from such legislature, cannot be acquitted of responsibility. The persecution was the more inexcusable, because neither in 1715 nor in 1745 did the Irish Catholics show any inclination to throw in their lot with the House of Stuart.
It must be admitted that many of the penal acts were so atrocious as to defeat their own purpose. The law officers did their best to avoid prosecutions ; juries could be induced to convict only with the greatest difficulty. But the Acts were galling. They held a sword of Damocles over the heads of the Catholics, who, being without representatives in Parlia- ment and disqualified for the franchise, , felt that at any moment an R*^! n f outburst of persecuting zeal Intolerance "^^8^^ make their condition intolerable. The Protestant tyranny was the more odious because it excluded a large proportion of the Irish Protestants from all public employments. This was the result of the Test Act, which the Irish Anglicans refused to relax in favour of other Protestant sects. In fact, it was not until 1719 that liberty of public worship was accorded to the Presbyterians.
4772
The political grievances of Ireland were in part connected with Poynings' Law (1492) and the Declaratory Act of 1721. By Poynings' Law the assent of the English Privy Council was necessary before any Bill could be introduced in the Irish Parliament. By the Declaratory Act the English Parliament claimed the right of legislating for Ireland. Even more gall- ing, however, was the position of the viceroy. In Ireland he took the place of the sovereign and was not responsible to Parliament ; but at the same time he was a member of the English Ministry, and compelled to regard interests other than Irish in his administration. Some viceroys, such as Lord Chesterfield in 1745, were dis- interested and solicitous for Irish interests ; but even the best of them could not resist the pressure of their English colleagues, who treated, the Irish patronage and pen- sion fund as a part of their resources for purchasing English supporters.
Signs of a national opposition to Eng- land showed themselves about the middle of the century. In Parliament it is true that the Opposition was no less unprin- cipled than the Castle party. a lona ^ number of the great Irish ^^^\ '° J families combined to prove the ^^ *" market value of their services by obstructing Government measures. The only result was a further increase of par- liamentary corruption. The Castle at first tried the plan of periodically buying the Opposition, and finally adopted the safer plan of building up a rival combination by means of wholesale bribery. More effective was the opposition in the country. About 1760 the secret societies, formed by peasants to resist tithes, enclosures, and demands for the arrears of rent, became a serious difficulty. They were not at first political, but through them the agricultural classes received an apprenticeship in con- certed resistance to authority. More formid- able was the Catholic Committee formed in 1759, which pressed for the repeal of the disabling laws. The Government, fearing a stoppage of the supply of Irish recruits for the army, made some slight concessions in 1771 and again in 1778. But the Catholics were still un- satisfied, and they now combined with the party of Nationalists which Flood and Grattan were forming in the Irish Parliament. The difficulties of the American War enabled this coalition to press its demands with irresistible force.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
The fear of a French invasion compelled the Government to sanction the enrolment of volunteer corps. These were composed of Protestants, but soon fell under the influence of the Nationahsts in politics. Numbering 50,000, they had the Govern- ment at their mercy, since no regular troops could be spared for Ireland. There was no rioting and no use of overt threats. But the volun- teers in every part of the country held monster meet- ings, and everywhere formu- lated the same demands. One of these was for free trade with England, and for the removal of the legislation by which the cloth manu- facture and other Irish indus- tries had been depressed in the interests of England. Free trade was conceded by Lord North in 1779, but the clamour for Home Rule became only more urgent, since North's action was rightly interpreted as a proof of weakness. The volunteers rapidly increased in numbers ; new measures of Catholic relief and the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act for Ire- land in 1782 failed to satisfy them. Fox and North, on coming into power, resolved that the inde- pendence of the Irish Parliament must be recog- nised. T-his was accord ingly done, the Eng- lish legislature repealing the Declaratory Act and passing an Act of Renuncia- tion in 1783.
Unfortunately for Ireland and for England, the settlement which the coalition Ministry had thus effected was hasty and unworkmanlike. The future relations of the two Parliaments were left ambiguous. It was clear that Ireland was to be subordinate to England in all questions of foreign relations. But no provision had been made for an Irish
AN IRISH PATRIOT Henry Grattan was a member o the Irish Parliament, and opposed the movement which ended m the rebellion of 1798. He afterwards sat in the Imperial Parliament.
Addington
EMINENT POLITICIANS IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 till 1801, Henry Adding- ton was invited to form a Ministry upon the resignation of Pitt. His administration came to an end in 1804, and in the following year he was created Viscount Sidmouth. Lord Grenville, another eminent Parliamentarian, formed the Government of " AH the Talents."
contribution to military and naval ex- penses. And if the Irish Parliament chose to frame a protective tariff, it was legally entitled to present such a measure for the royal assent. Pitt's generous proposals for a commercial settlement were foiled by the factious opposition of the English Whigs and the im- practicable temper of the Irish Parliament. Equally unsatisfactory were the rela- tions of the latter body with the disfranchised majority of the Irish nation. The Pro- testant oligarchy consented to give Catholics the franchise, but it would not admit them to Parliament ; under these circumstances the Catholic franchise was a mere mockery, and the Catholic gentry felt little sympathy with the cause of national indepen- dence. It was, however, the French Revolution which gave the first shock to the settlement of 1783. The Irish received the doctrines of Rousseau and Paine with the same enthusiasm which they had shown for the preaching of the Counter- Reformation. The United Irishmen, a society controlled by Wolfe Tone, Napper Tandy, Emmett, and Fitzgerald, which
had originally contented itself with demanding parliamentary reform and a full measure of Catholic eman- cipation, turned for help to the French Govern- m en t . The leaders were Protestants or Rationalists, but they were joined by a large pro- portion of dis- cont ente d Catholics ; and in 1798, having received promises of a French invasion, they raised the standard of revolt in Ulster and Leinster. The Protestants, however, rallied to the cause of the Govern- ment. The largest force collected by the rebels was routed at Vinegar Hill, near
4773
Grenville
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Passing of the Act of Union
Enniscorthy ; the French force arrived too late, and though it landed in Connaught and gained one victory, was soon forced to surrender for lack of support.
The rebellion proved that the Protesant ascendancy had failed to conciliate the Cathohcs. Pitt believed, rightly or wrongly, that Catholic emancipation would never be completed by a Pro- testant Irish Parliament, from the fear that the Catholic ascen- dancy which must result would be turned to account vindictively, and he resolved to prepare the way for removing all religious disabilities by fusing the Irish legislature with that of Great Britain. No doubt the impracticable behaviour of the Irish leaders in their dealings with •England made him more inclined to accept this solution. The nightmare of an inde- pendent Ireland declaring war upon Eng- land had haunted the minds of Englishmen for many years.
To an unbiassed critic it may seem that the same methods of persuasion which sufficed to procure the Act of Union might equally well have procured measures for Irish parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. Inevitable or not, the Act of Union was framed, and it passed the Irish Parliament in 1800, under a fire of eloquent protests from every independent member in both Houses. It gave Ireland a hundred seats in the United House of Commons and thirty-two in the House of Lords, established absolute free trade between the two countries, and fixed the Irish contribution to the revenue of the United Kingdom at two-fifteenths. It left the Irish judicature and executive untouched, but united the Irish Church and Army to those of England.
The promise of Catholic emancipation remained a dead letter till 1829. George III. refused to hear of any measure of relief, and Pitt accordingly retired from office. He did not return until 1804, when the country was again at war
t ^ .u*!.'**'^ with France. He then gave of Catholic Ai /- iu T °^i
Emanci ation ^P Catholic cause on the mancipa ion gj-^^j^^j ^j^^^^ ^ revival of the
question would be fatal to the old king's un- settled reason. The circumstances were peculiar, and historians have hesitated to accuse Pitt of bad faith. The fact remains that he missed a possible opportunity of reconciling the Irish Catholics to the Union. The Peace of Amiens was a mere armis- tice, which Bonaparte had no intention of.
4774
observing. He declined to withdraw his armies from Holland and Italy ; he occupied Switzerland on the pretext of mediating in a civil war; he refused to offer the United Kingdom any satisfaction or compensation for these breaches of faith.
She, on her part, refused to surrender Malta, as she had promised at Amiens, until the First Consul fulfilled his part of the treaty. Malta was of vital importance in case of war with France. The Cape was in French hands ; the only safe route to India lay, therefore, through the Mediterranean. The struggle with France was assuming the same character as the wars of 1740-1763 ; in the future little was to be heard of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, but much of sea-power, colonies, and commerce.
War was declared by the Addington Ministry in May, 1803. The challenge was answered by an embargo on British shipping, and preparations for a descent upon England. A flotilla was prepared with this object at Boulogne ; the com- bined French and Spanish fleets were instructed to draw the British admirals off _. _ .to the West Indies, and then,
Vktor"'"""* S^^^^g them the slip, to ."J"^ J J return and cover the in- ra a gar ^g^gj^j^ Nelson fell into the trap, but Calder met the returning fleet of Villeneuve at Finisterre, and won a victory, which gave Nelson time to return from his chase and refit his ships. In October, X805, Nelson met Villeneuve of£ Cape Trafalgar, and won a crowning victory. More than half the French fleet were put out of action, and Villeneuve was taken prisoner. The victory cost Nelson's life, but it removed the fear of invasion ; the prodigious successes of Napoleon on land brought him no nearer to his ultimate ambition of reducing England and appropriating her empire.
Pitt died in 1806, prematurely worn out by his exertions and heart-broken at the apparent failure of his policy. His loss was inestimable, for he had been the soul of each successive coalition against France, and had maintained an unshaken hold upon the confidence of the nation. The Ministry of All the Talents (1806-1807), which succeeded him, failed to secure a peace ; Fox died nine months after his great rival, and the Ministry resigned because it refused to pledge itself to silence on the question of Catholic emancipation. George III. was driven to fall back on the
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
support of the Tories, and it was this party which finally brought the war to a successful conclusion. They remained in power for twenty-three years. They saved Britain from Napoleon, and afterwards came near to involvmg her in a civil war. They provided her
Perceval at the head of the Ministry, which was joined by the Marquees Wellesley and by young Lord Palmerston. In the following year the old king sank into permanent imbecility, and the future George IV. became the Prince Regent in
1811. A minis-
wit h a Welling- ton and a Can- ning ; but they also saddled her with a Liver- pool, a Castle- reagh, and an Eldon. It was the greatest of Britain's mis- fortunes in the war that the prestige of vic- tory fell to the share of re- actionaries who LEADERS IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT
J ■ ' J The Duke of Portland succeeded Lord Rockingham as leader of the • r
were aiSpOSea wW? party ; he was twice Pnme Minister and held office as Home aCCCSSlOn Ol to make their Secretary under Pitt. One of the most brilliant of Foreign Ministers, Lord LiverpOOl services a plea George Canning had a seat in various administrations, and made a for rbprlrinp' all reputation as a parliamentary orator of much eloquence and wit
Portland
Canning
terial crisis in 1812 gave the personnel of the administration a still more de- cisively Tory cast, Wellesley retiring and Castlereagh re- turning — a modi fie ation which was con- firmed only by the assassination of Perceval in April, and the
reforms. The Grenville Ministry has to its credit the abolition of the slave trade. It fell in maintaining the principles that Ministers are entitled to tender their advice on whatever subjects they think fit, and that the king could act only on their advice. Such was the reaction produced in England by the French Revolution that even such recognised doctrines as these were in danger of being discredited ; the Tory rule which followed was as unhappily stubborn in its fear of the Revolution as it was happily stubborn in its resistance to Napoleon. In the Portland Ministry, which followed, the two most re- markable figures are those of Canning and Castlereagh ; as concerns the wary it was re- sponsible for the bombard
to the post of Prime Minister, the year 1827.
which he retained till
The part played by the United King dom in the struggle with Napoleon has already been sufficiently described ; but, incidentally that struggle involved her, in i8i2, in another non-European war, the outcome of the Berlin Decrees and the answering Orders in Council. The United States found them- selves seriously inconveni- enced, at least as concerned their southern portion, by the consequent restrictions on their commerce, and the in- convenience was more imme- diately due to the British than to the Napoleonic regulations. Exasperation reached a climax at the moment when the Government in Britain
VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH was throwu into coufusion by
Famous as Foreign Secretary, and the aSSaSSlUatlOU Ot the
ment of Copenhagen and as a leader of the reactionary party Prime Minister, Perceval, the seizure of the Danish fleet, j|*^^°KjJ^^'*g^^«^^«^^.Jy.^**^°^^ the result that war
the undertaking of the Penin- *° "» a «i o msam y m ^^^ declared in 1812 on the
sular War, the appointment of Wellesley eve of Wellington's victory at Salamanca, to the command, and the Walcheren The American contest received little
Expedition. On this last head there was such angry dissension between Canning and Castlereagh that both resigned in 1809, and the death of Portland placed
attention in England, preoccupied with the greater struggle, and although American attempts upon Canada failed, the British were astonished to find their
4775
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
of Washington
owri ships repeatedly worsted in engage- ments. Having awakened to the facts, they were of course able to send to American waters a naval force which could effectively control the seas The termina- tion of the European war at the beginning of 1814 was followed by the immediate despatch of a part of the Penin- Tt. r^ sular force to the United States.
The capture v^ashington, the capital of the States, was captured ; other ex- peditions distributed in desul- tory and disconnected fashion over the American continent were for the most part failures. Negotiations which had been opened between the belligerents at Ghent resulted in a Convention, signed on Decem- ber 24th, 1814, which terminated actual hostilities, though a singular bitterness of feeling survived. It was unfortunate that the news of the Convention reached America too late to prevent a bloody battle at New Orleans, where the courage of the Peninsular veterans did not save them from a complete defeat in attempt- ing to capture the city.
The nation emerged from the N apoleonic wars oppressed by a debt of £800,000,000, and with a credit which had been strained to the utmost. It was necessary for the Bank of Eng- land to suspend cash payments as early as 1797; its bank- notes could not be made con- vertible again until 1819. Taxation had been intoler- ably severe, and pauperism had assumed appalling di- mensions. But from the economic point of view there had been com- pensations.
Rrifkh +rarlf^ ^"^ CAPTURE OF THE "CHESAPEAKE"
jLJiiLisii tid-ue On June 1st, 1813, a fight took place in Maaaachusetts Bay between the
developed m American frigate Chesapeake and the British frigate Shannon. The battle
spite of the lasted but a few minutes, the Chesapeake falling as a prize to the Britiah.
Continental System ; it is a well-known fact that the armies of Napoleon were largely
fed and clothed with English exports The Berlin and Milan Decrees could be
defeated only by a costly process of smug- gling, but the expenses of the trade were defrayed by the Continental consumer ; and the wars resulted in no inconsiderable additions to the empire. At the final settlement of 1815 England retained Malta.
She also kept Ceylon, and she acquired a legal title to the Cape of Good Hope and to Mauritius. In the western hemisphere she kept Trinidad, Dutch — henceforth British — Guiana, Tobago, and St. Lucia. The Indian acquisitions of the period, although they did not come under the notice of the Congresses of Paris and Vienna, may be regarded as in a sense the fruits of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The Mysore war of 1799, which established the British supre- macy over the southern extremity of the peninsula, and the Mahratta war (1803- G • fth -^^^4)' which led to a great
ains o e au^^ientation of territory and Napoleonic -3 • xi ^ j
p . . iniiuence in the centre and
north-west, were both the out- come of French intrigues. In 18 15 there could be no doubt that it was the destiny of Great Britain to predominate in India. Such, then, were the gains of the Napo- leonic period. But years were to elapse before their value was adequately realised.
The Peace of 1815 was fol- lowed by a period of com- mercial de- pression and bad harvests, by agitation against the restraints which the Tory Govern- m e nt had thought fit to impose, with parliamentary sanction, upon individual lib- erty ; and by the perplexi- ties arising from politiccd and social evils which were deeply rooted in the past, but had assumed a more serious aspect during twenty years of strain and stress.
H. W. C. Davis
4776
EUROPE SIXTH DIVISION
THE RE-MAKINQ OF EUROPE
We enter now upon the last phase of completed European history — the century which has already run its course since the decisive overthrow of Napoleon's ambitions at Waterloo. Although during this period the United Kingdom and the Eastern Powers, Russia and the whole Eastern peninsula, pursue their course in comparative independence of the com- plications which involve the rest of Europe, the latter being no longer in isolation sufficient to warrant us in maintaining the earlier complete separation of East and West.
Following immediately after Waterloo, we have a period of strong reaction against the political ideas of the French Revolution, a period in which the claims to power and to territory of " legitimate " dynasties are looked upon as paramount, while the control of the Sovereign People and demands for the recognition of nationalities are held in check, though Greece attains her liberation from Turkey. The second period opens and closes with two revolutions in France — the expulsion of the Bourbwns and the coup d'etat of Napoleon III.
During this period the demands of Constitutionalism and of Nationalism are fermenting, Germany in particular making futile efforts in the latter direction. The third period coincides with that of the Second Empire in France, and is marked by the unification of Italy and the triumph of German nationalism in the new German Empire, consummated by the Franco- German war, and attended by the establishment of the Third French Republic.
Finally we follow the fortunes of the now reconstructed Europe — the whole narrative having interludes associated with the modem Eastern Question — until we reach our own day.
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
By Oscar Bro'wning, M.A.
THE CONTINENT
By Dr. H. Zimmerer, Dr. Heinrich SchurtZt
Dr. Georg Adler, Dr. G. Egelhaaf,
Dr. H. Friedjung, and other '^vriters
By A
THE BRITISH ISLES D. Innes. M.A., and H. W. C. Dayis, M.A.
4777
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE PERIOD
By Oscar Browning, M.A. EUROPE SINCE THE YEAR 1813
DEFORE the French Revolution Europe *-' was in a condition of unstable equili- brium. Anyone who studies the condition of the map of Europe in the last years of the eighteenth century will perceive this to be the case. France, Spain, and Great Britain were in a fairly homogeneous situation, but the position of the rest of Europe was intolerable. The German Empire, the mere phantom of its glorious past, was honeycombed by the territories of ecclesiastical princes, while its neigli- bours, Hungary and Poland, better con- solidated than itself, were a menace to its permanence. Russia was in the throes of expansion to the east, west, and south. The Turkish Empire, when it crossed the Bosphorus, found itself ruling dominions which it could not hope to maintain, and which were now slipping from its grasp. Greece and Bosnia, Moldavia and Wallachia, Servia and Bulgaria were moving from a position of subjection to vassalage, from vassalage to indepen- dence. Berlin was divided from Konigs- berg by a long stretch of territory which could not in any sense be called Prussian. . Italy was cut up into a number
Barriers o ^^ impotent and warring states, uropean ^jji^h denied it a voice in an y £yj.Qpgg^j^ affairs. Naples and Sicily were parts of Spain. Norway was a part of Denmark. There was no soli- darity, no unity in the component parts ; railways, had they existed, would have been* impossible, commerce was impeded by every kind of artificial barrier. A traveller who changed a sovereign when
he crossed the Chcinnel found it reduced to nothing before his return by the charges of perpetual discount. The awakening was rude. Sluggish Europe shook herself to resist the dangers of the Revolution. She threatened to march to Paris to punish the regicide miscreants who bore .p. J. sway in the capital, and to
. " . restore the Bourbon to his w ening ^j^j-Qj^g gy^ regenerated France ^ laughed gaily at this unwieldy Titan. She threw off with ease the attacks directed against the missionaries of a new political gospel, and carried war into the territories of those who had assailed her. Her generals were everywhere victorious ; but from among them arose Napoleon, the greatest of all generals of modern times. It is too common to represent this commanding genius as a man of blood — insatiable with slaughter, uncontrolled in ambition, and regardless of the sacrifices with which it might be grati- fied. The empire of Napoleon was, at least in part, a carrying out of the programme of the Directory, and the consummation of the efforts which France had originally begun to resist intrusion. When that empire had reached its height, it was. either in direct govern- ment or in powerful influence, nearly coterminous with civilised Europe, with the exception of Russia and England, who remained unsubdued. Spain and Portugal were under France, Belgium and Holland were a part of her dominions, the kingdom of Italy reached to the frontier of Naples, and Naples was French.
4779
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Switzerland was devoted to the man who
had given her a good government, the
Confederation of the Rhine inchided the
kingdom of WestphaUa as well as the
tributary states of Saxony, Bavaria,
Wurtemberg, and Baden ; Scandinavia
listened to the advice of the Tuileries ;
Prussia was reduced to insignificance.
The Grand Duchy of War-
The Unstable ^^^^ ^ French creation, lay as
mpire ^ buffer state between Prussia
of Napoleon j a j. • j a j. •
and Austria ; and Austria,
having given an empress to the French throne, was in a position in which her best hope of influence and power lay in her alhance with Napoleon, a position which she had not the wisdom to realise.
But Napoleon's empire was itself in a condition of instability. What form it would have taken if he had continued to reign, we do not know. The claims of nationality had begun to assert themselves before his fall — ^indeed, they had been to a large extent the cause of his ruin ; and if he desired to rear a lasting edifice he must have found a way of reconciling them with his scheme of a European Empire. He wished for a second son, and if such a one had been born and grown to manhood, or at least to ado- lescence, the formation of a united Italy might have been anticipated by many years. But his empire, constituted as it was, was certain to perish at his fall, and his fall came sooner than was expected.
We do not yet completely know the causes of the great Russian war, and we cannot properly apportion the blame of it between the emperor and the tsar. He believed that this would have been his last enterprise, his last war. Russia once brought to his feet, Europe would be at peace. But he miscalculated the difficulty of the task, and the stolid stubbornness of Russian resistance. Fortune turned against him, his star paled, and his em- pire was no more. It is a mistake to sup- pose that he could have made
The *^»t»' peace at Frankfort or at Chatil- Error of the *^
Hapsburgs
Ion; the terms offered him
were delusive, and were in- tended to be so by Metternich. Had Austria obeyed the voice of honour and of interest the empire might have been preserved, but by deserting these funda- mental principles, the empire of the Hapsburgs, which has made so many mistakes, committed a last fatal error, which it has since most bitterly expiated.
4780
The Congress of Vienna endeavoured to repair the shattered fabric, but the un- prejudiced observer will not credit the diplomatists of that assembly with much wisdom or with much prescience.
Ignorant of, or ignoring, the principle of nationality, which has since governed the world with a dominating force, they were led by Talleyrand to adopt the principle of legitimacy, which they had not the courage to follow out when it became a question of punishing Napoleon's friends or rewarding his enemies. Consequently, many arrangements of Vienna have been upset. Belgium has been divorced from Holland, Norway from Sweden, Prussia has united its severed territories and secured the headship of Germany. Italy has consolidated herself at the expense of the provinces and the prestige of Austria ; and Turkey has lost, one after another, the dominions which it was a disgrace to civilisation that she should have held at all.
The change from the Restoration which succeeded the fall of Napoleon to the conditions of the present day is divided , into certain well-defined epochs Bri ain s jj^a,rked by periods of disturb- Electoral •' ^ , ,• ^,
_ . . ance, wars, or revolutions, ihe
period between 1820 and 1830 is one of disheartening reaction, controlled by a desire to suppress everything which could remind the world of the principles of 1789, and to undo everything which the administrative ability of the great emperor had accomplished. This led to the Revolution of July, accompanied by other disturbances in Europe, and indirectly to the emancipation of the Catholics in England and the Reform Bill of 1832. It is characteristic of Great Britain that the only revolution which it has experienced since the close of the seven- teenth century has been an alteration in the electoral system, a change quite as im- portant as, and more permanent than, any which has taken place in any othercountry. After 1830 the democratic strivings of the nations of the Continent were either suppressed or appeased, but the fire broke out with greater intensity in 1848, when a series of revolutions either shook or shattered every throne in Europe but England's. Then followed a series of wars — the Crimean war of 1854, the Italian war of 1859, the Danish war of 1863, the Austrian war of 1866, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. From
THE RE -MAKING OF EUROPE: GENERAL SURVEY
1870 until 1914 Europe was at peace, and the severance of Norway from Sweden and the final consolidation of Italy were brought about without an actual conflict. Belgium was no longer the cockpit of Europe — that was to be sought further afield. Rivalries which had a European side to them were fought out in Asia and in Africa, and we hoped the time was far distant when the horrors of war would be brought within our own experience.
Yet progress, in which international jealousies must have a part, still went on, and war, if averted, was often threatened. The world knows of. many mortal struggles which have never taken place, but which have been regarded as inevitable by well-informed and re- sponsible statesmen. At one time Great Britain expected a war with Russia, at another time with France, at another time with America, and a final war with Germany was looked upon by so many as the doom of fate that they thought it useless to discuss its probability or even to take means to avert it. If the possibility of these catastrophes was known to the public at large, how French many were in the cognisance
f 1830°" ^^ Ministers who were ac- ° quainted with the secrets of
foreign affairs ? The present is quite sufficient to occupy the historian.
Let us consider separately the effect of each of these crises on the course of European politics. The Revolution of July in Paris had broken out as a quarrel between the people and the king ; it ended by establishing the authority of the people. The royal title was changed from King of France to King of the French. The Charter was a Bill of Rights on the English model, dear to the heart of Guizot. It fixed the limits within which the people were willing to accept the government of a king. It was a decided advance towards democracy. The new constitution which followed the Revolution in Belgium was framed on similar lines, and in the spirit of the English Revolution of 1688.
It laid down the principle that all power emanated from the people, and that the king possessed no authority beyond that given him by the constitution. He could do no executive act except through the Ministers, and they were responsible to the Chambers. If the Ministers failed to command a majority in Parliament, it was their duty to retire. The English
colour of these arrangements seems to have suited the character of the Belgian people and the temper of the king.
The Revolution of July produced a powerful effect upon Switzerland, and inaugurated what is called the Period of Regeneration. It began with a move- ment to reform the constitutions of some
„ ., . ., of the cantons, in order to Switzerland s • u • au _
p . . . give a share in the govern-
Regeneration
ment to classes who did not
possess it. The Forest Can- tons, the ancient heart of Switzerland, remained passive, but the population of the others bombarded their Governments with petitions for reform, and reform was speedily accorded. Ziirich was the leader of the movement. The programme of the radical party was sovereignty of the people, universal suffrage, direct election, freedom of the Press, of petition, of religious belief, and of industry.
The movement was essentially demo- cratic, and the struggle became so severe that the Federal Government had to inter- vene. The Canton of Basle was separated into two half cantons, Basle Town and Basle Country. Seven cantons formed a separate confederation, and a coun'ei league was organised to oppose it. The conflict, embittered by the presence of refugees from other disturbed countries, lasted till the convulsions of 1848.
In Spain and Portugal the struggle between the Constitutionals and the Absolutists was complicated by a dis- puted succession. In the first country, Isabella was the watchword of the Liberals, Don Carlos of the reactionaries, their place being taken in Portugal by Maria da Gloria and Don Miguel. In Italy the agitation was more serious. It seized upon the states which had not been affected by the previous movements of 1820. At Rome the death of Pius VIII. gave the signal. Louis Napoleon took part in the plot to make his uncle, Jerome, King of Italy. In the Romagna and * ^ "^ . the Marches provisional govern- tj * * ° ments and national guards were the order of the day. Govern- ments of this kind, with a dictator at their head, were formed in Parma and in Modena. But the movement came to nothing. Louis Philippe would not help, and Metternich was at hand with his Austrian army. With their assistance he brought back the Duke of Modena, and pacified the States of the Church. But
4781
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
the " Young Italy " of Mazzini was bom in the conflict, a secret society devoted to the realisation of the unity of Italy under the form of a republic. Eventually the first object was attained, but the second was not. A similar impulse animated the Liberals of Germany, who had long been discon- tented with the policy of the Holy Alliance. The War of Liberation had Poland s bold only subjected them to a worse Id °d despotism than that of Napo- n epen cnce ^qq^ Brunswick.Hesse-Cassel, Saxony, and Hanover obtained constitu- tions ; in Bavaria and Baden men of enlightened minds were allowed to express themselves more freely. A stronger move- ment took place in Poland, then divided between two parties, the Whites and the Reds. The Whites were composed of the large proprietors, the higher officials, and the clergy. Provided that Poland was suffered to retain a nominal independence, they were content to wait for constitutional reforms. The Reds were patriots and demo- crats, but they were violent and impatient. In the last month of 1830, when the emperor had mobilised the Polish army in order to suppress the revolution in France z:sA Belgium, the national troops turned against their oppressors. The students of the Military College seized the palace at Warsaw, and the Grand Duke Constantine fled for his life. The Romanoff dynasty was deposed, and the union of Poland with Lithuania was proclaimed. Britain and France were sympathetic, but refused to give active assistance ; the Polish army was crushed by superior numbers, and a military dictator was set up. The end of Poland had arrived. In 1835 the Emperor Nicholas told the Poles plainly that unless they gave up the dream of a separate independent nationality the guns of the newly built citadel should lay Warsaw in ruins. We see, therefore, that the Revolu- tion of July had made a great breach in the system established by the Congress of Vienna. The Bourbons,
ChaTrsi ^^° ^^^'^ *^^^^ *^^^® °^ *^^ anges in pj^j^^iples of legitimacy, were
succeeded by a king of the barricades, professing the doctrines of 1789, and waving its flag. The British Constitu- tion remained unshaken, but the Reform Bill of 1832 brought about a revolution in the balance of political power not less momentous than the others, because it was pacific, and destined to produce results not less important although slow in coming.
4782
Eighteen years later the Revolution broke out with greater violence, and spread with the rapidity of a plague. It began in Switzerland in 1847, showed itself in Sicily in January, 1848, and overthrew the throne of Louis Philippe in France in February of the same year. The fall of monarchy in France gave the signal for disturbances throughout Europe. England, the Iberian Peninsula, Sweden, Norway and Russia alone escaped. In Holland, Belgium and Denmark it ran a comparatively mild course. The symptoms were more severe in Austria, Prussia, Germany, and Central Italy ; it led to bloodshed in Northern Italy, Schleswig-Holstein, and Hungary.
The outbreak in Switzerland was the result of a conflict which had been smoul- dering for many years. It was caused by two movements, one civil, the other religious ; one an effort to democratise the constitution, the other a desire to restrain the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The Liberal party was divided into Moderates and Radicals, but the Moderates gradually lost their in- fluence. The Radicals were strengthened and stimulated by the refugees . *^° " *°* of other nationalities, who had
a -. . , found an asylum in Switzerland Switzerland , , . -' . r .1 •
when driven out of their own
countries. The Poles organised raids against Neuchatel and Savoy ; Mazzini used Switzerland as a place of arms. Austria and Bavaria demanded the extra- dition of German " patriots," and when this was refused, broke off diplomatic relations. France insisted upon the expulsion of the supposed authors of the conspiracy of Fieschi, and sealed their frontiers against the passage of the stubborn Switzers.
A few years later they asked for the surrender of Louis Napoleon, who had his home at Arenenberg. The Catholics based their hopes on the peasants, and posed as the supporters of democracy. In Schytz the two parties of " Horns " and " Hoofs " came to blows over the use of the public pastures ; in Canton Ticino, the Radicals won by force of arms ; in the Valley of the Rhone the Upper and Lower districts were in hopeless disorder. The Puritans of Ziirich drove Strauss, the author of the " Life of Jesus," from his professorial chair. The Jesuits succeeded in founding Catholic Colleges at Schytz, Freiburg, and Lucerne. Argau answered this challenge by suppressing eight convents, and de- manding the expulsion of the Order. The
THE RE. MAKING OF EUROPE t GENERAL SURVEY
result of this prolonged tension was a civil war. In 1845 the seven Catholic cantons formed a " sonderbund," a separate league, which the government deter- mined to suppress by force, and in three weeks General Dufour effected this object. The Radicals were victorious, the Jesuits were expelled, and civil war was averted. The result of this struggle was the forma- tion of a new constitution, by which Switzerland, from being a statenbund — a confederation of states — became a federal state — a bundesstat. A new nation came to life in Europe.
The French Revolution of 1848 was equally a surprise for the victors and the vanquished. It raged for two days, the first of which witnessed a revolt of the reformers against Guizot, the second a revolution of the Republicans against the monarchy. At 10 a.m. on February 24th, the Palais Royal was captured ; at 4.30 p.m. the throne was destroyed in the Tuileries, and shortly afterwards the Republic was proclaimed at the Hotel de Ville. The result of this was a democratic movement throughout Europe. In Holland . . the personal government of
B* '^il" • * the king was changed into a
Revolt against ■•. x- i ° v •
. . constitutional monarchy; m
Belgium the Liberals were
confirmed in power ; in Denmark the
accession of a new king presented an
opportunity for substituting a constitution
for absolutism and for setting the Press free.
Italy was shaken from Monte Rosa to Cape Passaro. The movement began in Sicily, where for a fortnight in January the insurgents fought against the Royal troops, demanding the constitution of l8i2. At Naples, Ferdinand accorded a constitution based upon the French Charte, and appointed a Carbonaro as Prime Minister. At Turin, Charles Albert promulgated a constitution, which, in all the storm of conflict, has never been abrogated, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany did the same.
At Rome, Pio Nono nominated three lay Ministers, but the supreme power remained with the College of Cardinals. The passionate desire of the Italians was to shake off the hated domination of Austria. They shouted, in the words of the "Garibaldi hymn": " Va fuori d'ltalia, va fuori o Stranier ! " [From Italy from sea to snow, let the hated stranger go ! ] For this the revolution in Vienna gave an opportunity. Here the storm broke in
March, the direct consequence of the French Revolution of February. The desires of the people were voiced by book- sellers, students, and Liberal clubs ; they demanded liberty of religion, of teaching, of speech, and of writing, and a budget controlled by a representative govern- ment. Their cry was : " Down with Metternich ! Down with the of^St Mark soldiery ! " and Metternich was in V i dismissed. The emperor fled to the Tyrol, and the Arch- duke John, the darling of the people, took his place. A Constituent Assembly met at Vienna in July. In Hungary, a country better suited for self-government, the change took a more solid shape. The seat of Parliament was tra'nsferred from Pressburg to Budapest. It issued a coinage, and formed an army under the Hungarian tri- colour. Austria was compelled to weaken her garrisons in Italy in order to subdue her revolted provinces north of the Alps.
In March, Milan rose, and Radetsky retired within the Quadrilateral. Modena and Parma were left to themselves, and obtained constitutions. Cavour called the Piedmontese to arms ; Tuscany, Rome and Naples sent their troops to join their brethren of the North. In Venice, Daniele Manin, like-named but not like- minded with the last Doge, awakened to life a Republic of St. Mark. A revolution was organised, at once Liberal, monarch- ical, and national, under the three colours of the Italian flag, the emblems of passion, purity, and hope.
The dream of liberty was short lived. It vanished before the approach of foreign armies. The Austrians defeated the Sar- dinians at Custozza, and reconquered the whole of Lombardy. A still more fatal blow fell at Novara, where Charles Albert was routed in March, 1849, and abdicated in consequence. The crown came to his son, Victor Emmanuel, who afterwards became the first monarch of a united _^ -. Italy. Venice fell, after a long
1 r'tf* siege, in August of the same J y . year. Modena and Parma, who had joined themselves to Piedmont, were occupied by Austria, and their ducal governments were restored. Tuscany suffered the same fate, and the Grand Duke was compelled by the Aus- trian army of occupation to abrogate the constitution of 1848, so that his country became less free than it was before the revolution. Four Catholic Powers —
4783
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
France, Spain, Austria, and Naples — offered their assistance to the Pope, but the main burden of recovering the Holy City fell upon France. Rome, defended by Mazzini and Garibaldi, was captured in June, 1849 ; the Cardinals came into power with Antonelli at their head. The tricolour was surrendered. Italy was again split into fragments,
ay p « dependent upon foreign force. P ° Sardinia alone remained a
ragmea s gg^.^^ q£ liberty and hope.
In Austria, the champion of reaction, the war of nationalities, which has always been to her a danger, now proved her salvation.
A Panslavic Congress had been sum- moned at Prague, which was attended not only by Bohemiahs, Moravians, and Silesians, but by Russians, Poles, and Servians. But the Croatians turned against the Magyars, and the South Slavs against their brethren of the North. Prague was bombarded and Bohemia conquered ; the Croats marched upon Budapest. The emperor, who had fled from his capital and sought refuge in Moravia, made a common war against the German democrats and the Hungarian rebels, who had chosen Kossuth as their leader. Croats attacked Vienna from the east, Bohemians from the north. After a short struggle they were victorious ; the Hungarians, who had come to the assist- ance of the friends of liberty, were repulsed and an absolute government was restored, Hungary held out a little longer.
A Hungarian Republic was established, with Kossuth as President. But the Rus- sians declared themselves the enemies of revolution, and Nicholas came to the aid of his brother emperor. An army 80,000 strong entered the country from the Carpathians. The Magyars capitulated at Vilagos, pre- ferring to fall into the hands of the Russians rather than into those of their ancient tyrants. Kossuth, after burying the Hungarian crown, sought refuge in Th B ' f Turkey. Metternich was again
_ * . "* master, and the last state of Republic ,, L 11-
of Hungary ^^^ '^P^^^^^'Tu P^'T^^^^ "^^
worse than the first. Prussia also had her " days of March," but here the middle-classes stood aloof, and the Liberals were left to fight out their battle against the army.
The chief object of their attack was the Prince of Prussia, brother of the king, who WEis destined at a later period to be the first Emperor of Germany. The king at
4784
first tried to temporise. He promised a constitution, withdrew his troops, and sent the Prince of Prussia to England. He adopted the German tricolour, threw him- self upon the affection of his Prussians, and invoked the confidence of Germany. He granted a written constitution and a National Assembly elected by universal suffrage. But he soon discovered his mis- take, and was obliged to follow the example of Austria. The army re-entered the capital, took possession of the Parliament build- ings, dissolved the National Guard, and soon afterwards dispersed the Assembly. Absolute government was restored, veiled under the forms of a constitution.
The Provisional Government in France, which succeeded the Orleans monarchy, was formed by a coalition, and therefore contained within itself the seeds of dissolution. One party aimed at the establishment of a democratic republic based on universal suffrage, the other desired a democratic and social republic, the chief object of which should be the elevation of the working classes. The tricolour of 1789 was opposed by the red _. flag of Louis Blanc. The battle
. '^ ^**' raged round the organisation *^ P •' ^ ^ oi labour and the establish- ment of national workshops. However, the Socialists had opposed to them the whole of France and half the capital, and they were unable to hold their own. A civil war broke out in the streets of Paris, and three days' fighting was required for the capture of the suburb of St. Antoine by General Cavaig- nac. The Socialist prisoners were shot or transported and their newspapers were suppressed. Eventually a constitution was agreed upon, which established a single chamber, a president holding office for four years, and a Council of State.
The president was to be chosen by universal suffrage, and the election took place on December loth, 1848. Ledru RoUin was the candidate of the Socialists, Cavaignac of the Democrats, but both had to give way to Louis Napoleon, the inheritor of a mighty name, who was chosen by an overwhelming majority. This election could have no other result than the establishment of a monarchy. The coup d'etat of December 2nd, 1851, dissolved the Assembly, and arrested the leaders of the Republican party. Follow- ing the example of his uncle, Louis Napoleon was first made president for
THE RE -MAKING OF EUROPE: GENERAL SURVEY
ten years, and shortly afterwards Emperor. The plebiscite accepting him as Emperor of the French was taken four years, to a day, after he had been elected president.
By the events we have described absolute government was established over the whole of Europe, excepting Switzer- land and the countries which had not been affected by the revolutions of 1848. However, France preserved her principle of universal suffrage, Prussia and Sardinia their constitutions, with the fixed resolve of achieving the unity of Germany and of Italy, founded on the principle of nation- ality, which had been ignored by the Congress of Vienna. We now pass from the epoch of revolutions to the epoch of war.
The Crimean War of 1854 belongs to those events of history of which we do not precisely know the cause. There are probably few Englishmen who feel satisfied with their country's share in it, or who support it as an act of political wisdom. There are few, also, who would deny that England was led into it by the Emperor of the French. Louis Napoleon came to the throne of France pledged by conviction and by honour to effect the T^f liberation of Italy from the
rimcan ^^g^j-jg^j^ yoke. This could not
be done without war, and although France was strong enough to meet Austria in the field, she could not contend against Austria and Russia united. It therefore became necessary to weaken Russia before such a war could be under- taken, and the question of the Holy Places was seized upon with great adroitness as a colourable pretext for a war with Russia. Britain was easily, too easily, stirred to defend Turkey against aggression and dismemberment, and thus a conflict was begun of which there is little reason to be proud. Russia was prepared to meet an attack in the Baltic, in Poland, or on the Danube, but the Crimea was only feebly garrisoned. Still, Sebastopol held out, and the resources of the allies were strained to the utmost. A winter campaign became necessary in a desert country, subject to intense cold. The British lost half their troops, and no assistance came from Austria or Prussia.
In the spring of 1855 the Emperor ' Nicholas died, and the war no longer had a motive. However, it continued under his successor, and Sebastopol did not fall until six months afterwards. Napoleon was ready to make peace, ^though Palmerston
304
wished to go on fighting, and a treaty was eventually concluded at the Congress of Paris. Turkey lost the Danubian pro- vinces, but the integrity of her empire was guaranteed, while she promised reforms of administration which were never carried into effect. The navigation of the Danube was declared free, and the Black Sea _ neutral. Cavour had been
ofTr"""' "^^^^^^ enough to join the ^ . * -„ alliance, although Sardinia Crimean War , , ' , , °,- ,
had no mterest, direct or m-
direct, in the questions in dispute. This gave him a right to take part in the congress, and the liberation of Italy entered for the first time into the domain of practical poUtics. The war undoubt- edly raised the prestige of the French Emperor, and gave him a commanding position in European affairs. It called Roumania into existence, and it recognised the claims of nationality in Italy. It was another blow to the principles of the Congress of Vienna, and it weakened the influence of Austria.
It will be seen from this narrative that the Crimean War led directly to the Italian War of 1859. ^Y adroit diplo- macy Austria was induced to invade Sardinian territory, and the armies of France crossed the Alps to defend her. The two allied armies were able to con- centrate at Alessandria before they could be attacked in detail. The Battle of Magenta, having been lost in the morning, was won in the afternoon, MacMahon playing the part of Desaix at Marengo.
The Austrians evacuated Lombardy and retired into the Quadrilateral to defend Venetia. After a hard struggle the Austrians were again defeated at Sol- ferino, but the bloodshed had so unnerved the emperor, and the quarrels between his marshals had so disgusted him, that he broke his promise of setting Italy free to the Adriatic, and made a peace which secured only Lombardy to Sardinia. He received in exchange Savoy
PrrsH Tof * ^"^ ^^^^' ^^* ^^^^ second war res ige o ^^ ^^ fatal to his prestige as
Louis Napoleon ,, r-iijir
the first had been favour- able. Italy alone profited by the result. Parma, Modena, and Tuscany drove out their dukes ; Romagna set herself free from the Pope ; provisional governments were established in these provinces, ready for incorporation with the kingdom of the House of Savoy. Cavour, who had resigned after the Peace of Villafranca,
4785
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
again became Prime Minister. The spell of Austrian domination was broken, and the establishment of an Italian kingdom, so long the dream of poets and patriots, became only a question of time.
The scene of our drama shifts to another quarter. What Cavour had done for Italy Bismarck was to do for Germany. The rivalry between Austria and Fatir'" * Prussia for the leading position _* * - in Germany, and for the in-
heritance of the Holy Roman Empire had been active ever since the Congress of Vienna. The policy of Napo- leon would have annihilated Prussia and strengthened Austria, but Metternich com- mitted the fatal blunder of joining the coalition of which the profits were to come to his rival instead of himself.
There was a time when Hanover might have disputed with Prussia the first place in a Teutonic Empire, but it was im- possible that such a position could be held by a King of England, and the sovereignty of the British Isles was regarded as more valuable than the chances of a Continental crown. The share which Prussia had taken in the Waterloo campaign rendered her reward certain, and the world was disposed to favour Protestant progress at that time.
Still, it is doubtful if Prussia would have gained the position which was the object of her desires unless Bismarck had been in her service, who, with a mixture of statesmanship and craft, of courage and audacity, half untied and half cut the Gordian knot of the situation. The X Danish War of 1864 would probably never have taken place unless Bismarck had conveyed to the Danes the false assurance, based probably upon an intercepted dispatch, that she was certain to receive the support of Britain. The defeat of Denmark was speedy and inevitable, and the arrangements made by the Peace of Vienna ceded the duchies of Schleswig
• . and Holstein to Austria and
th**P ""^^ ° Prussia under conditions which
. ... made a future quarrel inevitable.
The Schleswig-Holstein diffi- culty rose in great measure from the fact that whereas Holstein was almost entirely German — and, indeed, claimed to be a part of the old German Empire — Schleswig was more than half Danish, and yet the two duchies were united by a permanent bond which national feeling declared was never to be broken. " Schleswig-Holstein sea
4786
surrounded " was the text of their patriotic hymn. The arrangements for the joint occupation of the provinces by the two conflicting rivals provided that the Ger- man province should be occupied by Austria ; the semi-Danish by Prussia. This made a quarrel certain. The Prus- sian governor of Schleswig persecuted the partisans of independence ; the Austrian governor of Holstein encouraged them. The rupture was delayed for a time by the Convention qf Gastein, but it came at last.
In order to attack Austria with success it was necessary that Prussia should have Italy on her side. But Italy could not act without the consent of France, and this implied the approval of the Emperor Napoleon. At the interview of Biarritz, in October, 1865, Napoleon agreed to support Prussia against Austria, and declared him- self in favour of the unity of Italy, if some compensation were given to his own coun- try by an increase of territory. He desired to tear up the settlement of Vienna, so hostile to Napoleonic ideals. Bismarck adroitly encouraged these aspirations, but took care not to commit himself. It was found difficult to overcome the Urstrust of ^^st^ust which the Italians felt IS rus o ^^^ Bismarck. They hoped to obtain Venetia without a war, possibly by ceding the newly-created Roumania to Austria. Even King William was averse from force, and Bismarck stood alone, supported by his clear insight and his iron will. At last, in April, i866, an offensive alliance with Italy was concluded for three months. Italy was to support Prussia in obtaining the hegemony of Germany, and was to receive Venetia in return. She asked for Trieste, but it was refused to her. Napoleon promised to remain neutral.
In June, Prussia declared the federative tie which bound her to Austria dissolved. But she found herself alone. Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Saxony, and Hanover, to- gether with Hesse-Nassau, and Baden, supported Austria. Prussia had to rely upon her well- drilled army and her admirable arrangements for mobilisation. Napoleon hoped that between combatants so equally matched the war would be of some duration, and that, when both were exhausted, he could come forward as a mediator, and make his own terms. But these hopes were shattered by the rapidity of the Prussian movements. Before the end of June the army of Hanover had
THE RE -MAKING OF EUROPE: GENERAL SURVEY
capitulated, Saxony was occupied, Bo- hemia invaded, and on July 3rd the Battle of Koniggratz, won largely by the genius of the Crown Prince Frederic, ended the struggle, and the way lay open to Vienna.
At the same time the Italians were defeated at Custozza by a force inferior in numbers, but this did not prevent the Austrians having to surrender Venetia to Napoleon, who gave it to the Italians. The southern states of Germany were incapable of effective action. They were beaten in detail ; Frankfort was occupied, Austria was compelled to abandon her allies, who had no alternative but to make peace ; Prussia became the undisputed head of the German confederation. Europe was dazed and bewildered by the rapidity and completeness of her success.
Napoleon found himself deceived, and every step which he took to recover his position led to new disasters. His attempt to gain possession of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg proved a failure. He looked about in vain for allies. A triple alliance was proposed with Austria and Italy, but Austria was exhausted and dreaded another war, while Italy de-
* manded the withdrawal of the
rea es French from Rome. Nothing Ki**^* ^t. could be obtained beyond
Nineteenth i j i .• t ■'
^ general declarations of sym-
^ ^^^ pathy and friendship. A pro- position made in the beginning of 1870 for a mutual disarmament came to nothing. At last, at a moment when peace seemed to be assured, war broke out with the suddenness of an earthquake. The clumsi- ness of a French Minister who, not satisfied with a material victory, demanded a humiliating declaration from the Prus- sian king, the genius of Bismarck, who seized an unequalled opportunity for precipitating a conflict which he regarded as inevitable, so as to have the nation and the sovereign on his side, caused the greatest war of the nineteenth century, by the results of which Europe was dominated until 1914.
War was declared on July 19th, and the emperor left for the front. But he had no ijilusion as to the result. The empress who, stung to the heart by the taunts of Germany, had stimulated the conflict, was unable to inspire him with hope. He left St. Cloud, accompanied by his son, as a victim led to the slaughter, and the final catastrophe was not long delayed. The war of 1870 was more than a local conflict. It was reckoned at the time among the vital struggles which have convulsed Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire ; a scene, but as we know now only a scene, in the secular rivalry between the Roman and the Teuton.
It was said at the time that Sedan
avenged Tagliacozzo, that the French
emperor expiated on that field the murder
of the Hohenstauffen Conradin by the
^ . , brother of St. Louis. Regarded Creation of x • • i. r
,^ _ from a more prosaic point of
the German - ^ -
Empire
view, it upset the politics of
Europe. It created a German Empire, with Prussia at its head, and gave that country a preponderance in Europe. It achieved the unity of Italy, and destroyed the temporal power of the Pope. It opened the question of the East by putting an end to the neutrality of the Black Sea. It established in France a republican government which seems to be durable, and it transferred that neutral territory between Neustria and Austrasia — which appears to have come into existence from the accident of Louis the Pious having three sons instead of two — from the French to the German side of his dominions. Whether this arrange- ment will be permanent or not, none can say. It produced by force a settlement of Europe very different to those which were established at Miinster, at LTtrecht, or at Vienna, and until 1914 we lived under the conditions which it created.
Forty-four years elapsed after the war of 1870, almost as long a period as intervened between the Battle of Waterloo and the Crimean war, before the great European War.
4787
MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE SIXTH DIVISION OF EUROPE The above map shows Europe as it was in the year looo, with the boundaries of the various states as we know thum to-day. The period thus illustrated is not the whole of the time covered by "The Re-making of Europe," but rather the eventual settlement of the Continent, as a result of the movements which were initiated on the downfall of Napoleon, and involved such international conflicts as the Crimean War, the Italian revolt against Austria, the Franco- Prussian, the Russo- Turkish, and the Greco-Turkish wars. The areas within 250 and 500 miles of the coast are also indicated.
4.788
hot; -J
.3 -a s w-S d n u S,v o
« CT3 u O C
*^EUROPE^WATffiLfiD
THE GREAT POWERS IN CONCORD
AND THE FAILURE OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE
AT the Congress of Vienna nations were but rarely, and national rights and desires never, a subject of discussion. The Cabinets — that is to say, the princes of Europe, their officials, and in particular the diplomatists — arranged the mutual relations of states almost exclusively with reference to dynastic interests and differ- ences in national power ; though in the case of France it was necessary to consult national susceptibilities, and in England the economic demands of the upper classes of society came into question. The term " state " implied a ruling court, a govern- ment, and nothing beyond, not only to Prince Metternich, but also to the majority of his coadjutors. These institutions were the sole surviving representatives of that feudal organism which for more than a thousand years had undertaken the larger proportion of the task of the state.
Principalities of this kind were not founded upon the institutions of civic life, which had developed under feudal society ; the rule of the aristocracy had fallen into decay, had grown anti- quated or had been abolished, and as the monarchy increased in power at the ex- pense of the classes, it had invariably employed instruments of government more scientifically constructed in detail. Bureaucracies had arisen. Governments had in- tervened between princes and peoples and had become ends in them- selves. The theory of "subordination," which in feudal society had denoted an economic relation, now assvuned a political character ; it was regarded as a necessary extension of the idea of sovereignty, which had become the sole ajid ultimate basis of
European Governments in Evolution
public authority in the course of the seventeenth century. The impulse of the sovereigns to extend the range of their authority, and a conception more or less definite of the connection between this authority and certain ideal objects, re- sulted in the theory that the guidance of
-,. _, . society was a governmental The French 4. i j ^i i j
t J » .. TM. task, and consequently laid Idea of The • • ^ iL <•
D- L* t%M .. an ever-increasing number of Kights 01 Man 1 ■ J J 1
claims and demands upon
the government for the time being. To this conception of the rights of princes and their delegates, as a result of historic growth, the French Revolution had opposed the idea of " the rights of man." To the National Assembly no task seemed more necessary or more imperative than the extirpation of errone- ous theories from the general thought of the time ; such theories had arisen from the exaggerated importance attached to monarchical power, had secured recogni- tion, and had come into operation, simply because they had never been confuted. Henceforward sovereignty was to be based upon the consent of the community as a whole. Thus supported by the sovereign will of the people, France had entered upon war with the monarchical states of Europe where the exercise of supreme power had been the ruler's exclusive right. It was as an exponent of the sovereign rights of the people that the empire of Napoleon Bonaparte had attempted to make France the paramount Power in Europe ; it was in virtue of the power entrusted to him by six millions of Frenchmen that the Emperor had led his armies far beyond the limits of French domination and had imposed his personal
4791
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
will upon the princes of Europe by means of a magnificent series of battles. Within a period of scarce two decades the balance of power had swung to the opposite extreme, and had passed back from the sovereign people to the absolute despot. Monarchs and nations shared aUke in the task of overpowering this tyranny which _. _ . had aimed at abolishing en- Power 0^*"* tirely the rights of nations as ower g^^j^ Y)^^ from victory the
the People . ■, j • j j
princes alone denved advan- tage. With brazen effrontery literary time- servers scribbled their histories to prove that only the sovereigns and their armies deserved the credit of the overthrow of Napoleon, and that the private citizen had done no more service than does the ordinary fireman at a conflagration.
However, their view of the situation was generally discredited. It could by no means be forgotten that the Prussians had forced their king to undertake a war of liberation, and the services rendered by Spain and the Tjnrol could not be wholly explained by reference to the commands of legally constituted authorities ; in either case it was the people who by force of arms had cast off the yoke imposed upon them. The will of the people had made itself plainly understood ; it had declined the alien rule even though that rule had appeared under the names of freedom, reform, and prosperity.
Once again the princely families re- covered their power and position ; they had not entertained the least idea of dividing among themselves the spoils accumulated by the Revolution which had been taken from their kin, their relations, and their allies ; at the same time they were by no means inclined to divide the task of administering the newly created states with the peoples inhabiting them. They tacitly united in support of the conviction, which became an article of faith with all legitimists, that' their position , and prosperity were no less im-
e u jec s pQj.^j^jj^ thdin the maintenance
^•"^e? * ofsocialorderandmoralitv.lt
theStatc 1-j iuj/ r
was explamed as the duty of
the subject to recognise both the former
and the latter ; and by increasing his
personal prosperity, the subject was to
provide a sure basis on which to increase
the powers of the government. However,
" the hmited intelligence of the subjects "
strove against this interpretation of the
facts ; they could not forget the enormous
4792
sacrifices which had been made to help those states threatened by the continuance of the Napoleonic supremacy, and in many cases already doomed to destruction. The value of their services aroused them to question also the value of what they had attained, and by this process of thought they arrived at critical theories and practical demands which " legitimist " teaching was unable to confute.
The supreme right of princes to wage war and conclude peace rested upon satisfactory historic foundation, and was therefore indisputable. In the age of feudal society it was the lords, the free landowners, who had waged war, and not the governments ; and their authority had been limited only by their means. Neither the lives nor the property of the com- monalty had ever come in question except in cases where their sjonpathies had been enlisted by devastation, fire, and slaughter ; to actual co-operation in the undertakings of the overlord the man of the people had never been bound, and such help had been voluntarily given. After the conception of sovereignty had been modified by the ideaof "government" the situa- of the ^'" tion had been changed. Military ° J . powers and duties were now dissociated from the feudal classes ; the sinews of war were no longer demanded from the warriors themselves, and the provision of means became a government duty. However, no new rights had arisen to correspond with these numerous additional duties. The vassal, now far more heavily burdened, demanded his rights : the people followed his example. That which "was to be supported by the general efforts of the whole of the members of any body politic must surely be a matter of general concern. The state also has duties incumbent upon it, the definition of which is the task of those who support the state. Such demands were fully and absolutely justified ; a certain transformation of the state and of society was necessary and inevitable.
Few princes, and still fewer officials, recognised the overwhelming force of these considerations ; in the majority of cases expression of the popular will was another name for revolution. The Revolution had caused the overthrow of social order. It had engendered the very worst of human passions, destroyed professions and pro- perty, sacrificed a countless number of human lives, and disseminated infiidelity
THE GREAT POWERS IN CONCORD
and immorality ; revolution therefore must be checked, must be nipped in the bud in the name of God, of civilisation and social order. This opinion was founded upon the fundamental mistake of refusing to recognise the fact that all rights imphed corresponding duties ; while disregarding every historical tradition and assenting to the dissolution of every feudal idea, it did nothing to introduce new relations or to secure a compromise between the prince and his subjects.
This point of view was known as Con- servatism ; its supporters availed them- selves of the unnatural limitations laid upon the subject un- duly to aggrandise and systematically to increase the privileges of the ruling class; and this process re- ceived the name of statecraft. This conservative state- craft, of which Prince Metternich was proud to call himself a master, proceeded from a dull and spirit- less conception of the progress of the world ; founded upon a complete lack of historical knowledge, it equally failed to recognise any distinct purpose as obligatory on the^tate. Of politi-
The Tsar's Lost Faith in Liberalism
had been forced to leave the Germans and Italians to their fate, and had satisfied his conscience by the insertion of a few expressions in the final protocol of the Vienna Congress. Subsequently he suffered a cruel disappointment in the case of Poland, which proceeded to misuse the freedom that had been granted to it by the con- coction of conspiracies and by continual manifestations of dissatisfaction. He began to lose faith in Liberalism as such, and became a convert to Metternich's policy of forcibly suppressing every popu- lar movement for freedom. Untouched by the enthusiasm of the German youth, which for the most part had displayed after the war of liberation the noblest sense of patriotism, and could provide for the work of re- storation and reor- ganisation coadjutors highly desirable to a far-seeing adminis- tration; incapable of understanding the Italian yearnings for union and activity, and for the founda- tion of a federal state free from foreign in- fluences, the great Powers of Austria, Russia, and Prussia cal science Metternich ^^ ,. , ,/rM ^'^ "'^•' Afi^'^Jt^';' u . a employed threats and
, J , J After the fall of Napoleon, in 1815, Metternich stepped r ■ r
had none; he made i„to the place vacated by the emperor as the first person- lOfce in every torm,
good the deficiency allty in Europe, and, as the avowed champion of Con- with the object of bv the ffeneral ad servatism, opposed forces that were destined to ultimate imposing COnstitu- nuration which his '""'"P'^" He was overthrown in ms, and died in 18o9. ^-^^^ ^f ^j^^-^.
his
intellect and character inspired. His diaries and many of his letters are devoted to the glorification of these merits. A know- ledge of his intellectual position and of that of the majority of his diplomatic colleagues is an indispensable preliminary to the under- standing of the aberrations into which the statesmen of the so-called Restoration period fell. The restored Government of the Bourbons in France was indeed provided with a constitution. It was thus that Tsar Alexander I. had attempted to display his liberal tendencies and his good-will to the French nation ; but he
The Restored Government of the Bourbons
tions ot tneir own choice upon the people, whose desires for reform they wholly disregarded. Austria had for the moment obtained a magnificent position in the German Confederacy. This, however, the so-called statecraft of Con- servatism declined to use for the con- solidation of the federation, which Austria at the same time desired to exploit for her own advantage. Conservatism never, in- deed, gave the smallest attention to the task of uniting the interests of the allied states by institutions making for pros- perity, or by the union of their several artistic and scientific powers ; it seemed more necessary and more salutary to limit as far as possible the influence of the
4793
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Austria's Surrender to Russia
popular representatives in the adminis- tration of the allied states, and to prevent the introduction of constitutions which gave the people rights of real and tangible value. The conservative statesmen did not observe that even governments could derive but very scanty advantage by ensuring the persistence of conditions which were the product of no national or economic course of development ; they did not see that the power of the governments was decreasing, and that they possessed neither the money nor the troops upon which such a system must ultimately depend. In the East, under the unfortunate guidance of Metternich, Austria adopted a position in no way corresponding to her past or to her religious aspirations ; in order not to alienate the help of Russia, which might be useful in the suppression of revolutions, Austria surrendered that right, which she had acquired by the military sacrifices of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of appearing as the liberator of the Balkan Christians from Turkish oppression.
Political history provides many ex- amples of constitutions purely despotic, of the entirely selfish aspirations of persons, families, or parties, of the exploitation of majorities by minorities, of constitutions which profess to give freedom to all, while securing the dominance of individuals ; but illusions of this kind are invariably connected with some definite object, and in every case we can observe aspirations for tangible progress or increase of power. But the Conservatism of the Restoration period rests upon a false conception of the working of political forces, and is therefore from its very outset a policy of mere bungling, as little able to create as to maintain. Of construction, of purifi- cation, or of improvement, it was utterly incapable ; for in fact the object of the conservative statesmen and e ec s o their highest ambition were P?r7o d**" nothing more than to capture the admiration of that court society in which they figured in their uni- forms and decorations. For many princely families it was a grave misfortune that they failed to recognise the untenable character of those " principles " by which their Ministers, their masters of ceremonies, and their officers professed themselves able to uphold their rights and their possessions ; many, indeed, have disappeared for ever
47Q4
from the scene of history, while others have passed through times of bitter trial and deadly struggle.
From their armed alliance against Napoleon a certain feeling of federative union seized the European Cabinets. The astounding events, the fall of the Caesar from his dizzy height, had, after all the free thinking of the Revolutionary period and the superficial enlightenment, once more strengthened the belief in the dispositions of a Higher Power. The effect on the tsar, Alexander I., was the most peculiar.
His temperament, naturally idealistic, moved him to an extreme religiosity, intensified and marked by strong mystical leanings, to many minds suggestive of the presence of something like mania. He was not without friends who encouraged him to regard himself as a special " in- strument " with a religious mission, who was to raise Europe to a new level of Christianity through his power as a ruler ; in contradistinction to Napoleon, whom he probably, in common with a good many other mystics, had come to regard as Antichrist. Alexander did not pose _ as the champion of a Church,
* **'t th ^^^ ^^ wanted to assume the u *."* *^f- ** * role of the ideal Christian Holy Alliance . j . i j i,-
monarch, and to lead his
brother monarchs along the same path. Un- fortunately, the conception of the divine mission developed the idea of divine mon- archical authority ; so that from his early notions of Liberty he passed to the stage of identifying the cause of Absolutism and of Legitimism with the cause of Christianity. Thus, he was moved to materialise his ideals in the form of a Christian union of nations, a Holy Alliance. This scheme he laid before his brother rulers.
Frederic William HL, also a pietist in his way, immediately agreed ; so did Francis L, after some deliberation. On September 26th the three monarchs concluded this alliance in Paris. They wished to take as the standard of their conduct, both in the internal affairs of their countries and in external matters, merely the precepts of Christianity, justice, love, and peaceableness ; regarding each other as brothers, they wished to help each other on every occasion. As pleni- potentiaries of Divine Providence they promised to be the fathers of their subjects and to lead them in the spirit of brother- hood, in order to protect religion, peace, and justice ; and they recommended their
THE GREAT POWERS IN CONCORD
own peoples to exercise themselves daily in Christian principles and the fulfilment of Christian duties. Every Power which would acknowledge such principles might join the alliance. Almost all the states of Europe gradually joined the Holy Alliance. The sultan was obviously ex- cluded, while the Pope declared that he had always possessed the Christian verity and required no new exposition of it. Great Britain refused, from regard to her constitution and to parliament ; Europe was spared the presentation of the Prince Regent as a devotee of the higher morality.
There was no international basis to the Holy Alliance, which only had the value of a personal declaration, with merely a moral obligation for the monarchs con- nected with it. In its beginnings the Alliance aimed at an ideal ; and its founders were sincere in their purpose. But it soon became, and rightly, the object of universal detestation ; for Metternich was master of Alexander, and from the promise of the potentates to help each other on everj' opportunity he deduced the right to interfere in the internal affairs of foreign states. The Congresses of
eague Carlsbad, Troppau, Laibach o uropean ^^^ Verona were the offshoots of this unholy conception. In addition to the Holy Alliance, the Treaty of Chaumont was renewed. On November 20th, 1815, ^^ Paris, Russia, Great Britain, Austria, and Prussia pledged themselves that their sovereigns would meet periodically to deliberate on the peace, security, and welfare of Europe, or would send their responsible Ministers for the purpose. France, which had so long disturbed the peace of Europe, was to be placed under international police supervision, even after the army of occu- pation had left its soil.
The first of these congresses met at Aix-la-Chapelle, and showed Europe that an aristocratic league of Powers stood at its head. Alexander, Francis, and Fred- eric William appeared in person, accom- panied by numerous diplomatists, among them Metternich, Gentz, Hardenberg, Humboldt, Nesselrode, Pozzo di Borgo, and Capodistrias ; France was represented by Richelieu ; Great Britain by Welling- ton, Castlereagh, and Canning. The chief question to be decided by the con- ferences, which began on September 30th, i8i8, was the evacuation of France. The Duke of Richelieu obtaiued on October
Qth an agreement according to which France should be evacuated by the allied troops before November 30th, 1818, in- stead of the year 1820, and the costs of the war and the indemnities still to be paid were considerably lowered. On the other hand, he did not succeed in forming a quintuple alliance by securing the ad- , mission of France as a member "^* *** ^^^^ ^^^ quadruple alliance. It Air ° ^ ^^ true that France was received on November 15th into the federation of the Great Powers, and that it joined the Holy Alliance ; but the recip- rocal guarantee of the five Great Powers, advocated by Alexander and Ancillon, did not come to pass ; the four Powers renewed in secret on November 15th the Alliance of Chaumont, and agreed upon military measures to be adopted in the event of a war with France. We have already spoken of the settlement of the dispute between Bavaria and Baden ; the congress occupied itself also with other European questions without achie\'ing any successes, and increased the severity of the treatment of the exile on St. Helena.
Alexander I. of Russia, who was now making overtures to Liberalism throughout Europe and supported the constitutional principle in Poland, soon returned from that path ; he grew colder in his friendship for the unsatisfied Poles, and became a loyal pupil of Metternich, led by the rough " sergeant of Gatshina," Count Araktcheiefi. Although art, literature, and science flourished in his reign, although the fame of Alexander Pushkin was at its zenith, the fear of revolution, assas- sination, and disbelief cast a lengthening shadow over the policy of Alexander, and he governed in a mystic reactionary spirit.
When it became apparent that Alexan- der had broken with the Liberal party, Metternich and Castlereagh rubbed their hands in joy at his conversion, and the pamphlet of the prophet of disaster, , Alexander Stourdza, " On the
* k**-th Present Condition of Germany,"
'^^ .J'^ , which was directed against the the Liberals j- , r . j • .1?
freedom 01 study in the univer- sities and the freedom of the Press, when put before the tsar at Aix-la-ChapeUe, intensified his suspicious aversion to all that savoured of liberty. The conference of ambassadors at Paris was declared closed. The greatest concord seemed to reign between the five Great Powers when the congress ended on November 2ist.
4795
47q6
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
II
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
THE LAST OF THE GEORGES, WILLIAM IV., AND BEGINNING OF THE VICTORIAN AGE
IN the nature of things, the British * nation at all times stands to a certain extent outside the general course of Con- tinental politics. The political organism developed far in advance of other nations ; the English polity, assimilating Scotland and Ireland, had achieved long before the French Revolution a liberty elsewhere un- known. Political power had become the property not indeed of people at large, but, in effect, of the whole landowning class, a body altogether different from the rigid aristocratic castes of Europe ; and absolutism or the prospect of absolutism had long vanished. In the latter half of the eighteenth century there had been indications of a democratic movement, to which the beginnings of the French Revo- lution gave a considerable impulse. But its later excesses gave a violent check to that impulse throughout the classes which held political power, causing a strong anti- democratic reaction ; although a precisely contrary effect was produced in the classes from whom political power was withheld. That is to say, Europe in general and the United Kingdom, like Europe, showed the common phenomenon of a proletariat roused by the French Revolution to a desire for political power, and rulers who were convinced that the granting of such power would entail anarchy and niin ; while material force was on the side of the rulers. But the distinction between the composition of the ruling class in the United Kingdom and in the Continental , , states remained as it was before RllcHona ^^^ Revolution : though the ex- eac lonary jg^jj^g Ministry in Great Britain
*'^" ^ was reactionary to an ex- ceptional degree, the sympathies of the ruling class were with constitutionalism, not with absolutism. Moreover, Great Britain was free from any idea that she had a divine mission to impose her own political theories on her neighbours, and had a conviction, on the whole wholesome,
that her intervention in foreign affairs should be restricted as far as possible to the exercise of a restraining influence in the interests of peace.
Thus we find Great Britain in the nine- teenth century for the most part pursuing her own way ; taking her own course of Great Britain Vo\yticB\ development, influ-
« .. . enced only m a very second- a Jrattem to ■,•'■, -ir •
Other Lauds fj degree by affans on the Contment, on which she in turn exercised usually only a very minor influence, save as providing a pattern for reformers in other lands. Her part in world-history, as distinct from domestic history, was played outside of Europe altogether, in the development of the extra-European Empire, as- already related in the histories of India, Africa, and Australasia, and to be related in the American volume. In European history, interest centred not in Great Britain, but in the readjustments which issued in the reorganisation of Germany as a great and homogeneous Central European power, in the German Empire as it had developed ; in the reorganisation of France as the Republic which we know to-day; and in the liberation and unification of Italy, and of minor nationalities.
Great Britain had played her full part — a conspicuously unselfish one — in the Congress of Vienna and the settlements of Europe after the final overthrow of Napoleon. In the period immediately ensuing she made her influence felt, not by her intervention, but by her refusal of pressing invitations to intervene, and pre- sently by her refusals to countenance the unwarranted intervention of other Powers. Thus the British representatives declined to join the Holy Alliance of the great Powers which was formed at Vienna in 1815 for the repression of liberal prin- ciples, and the foreign policy of the Tories was marked by a strong sympathy for the
4797
VA!AVAT7LVAiATAVA'A'AVA'A*AVX»XVAV/.VA»X»AVA'A!AUrA?A*>dA^A>AyAVAU»AtAVAVA.>Avj
WILLIAM HUSKISSON
LORD PALMERSTON
^VMVAViWAv;v.YiYrv7v>^
DISTINGUISHED STATESMEN OF THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY The four statesmen whose portraits are given above — Peel, Canning, Huskisson and Palmerston — exercised a powerful influence upon the Cabinet which they joined in 1822, moderating the foreign policy of the Tories and informing it with a strong sympathy for the principles of liberty. Three of them — Peel, Palmerston, and Canning — became Prime Ministers.
principles of liberty and nationality. But this was due to the influence of the Moderates — ^Peel, Canning, Huskisson, and Palmerston — ^who joined the Cabinet in 1822. The extreme Tories sympathised with the aims of the Holy Alliance, and had resolved under no circumstances to impede its efforts. The refusal of Great Britain to assist in bolstering up the Spanish dynasty ; her consent to recognise the independence of the
479S
Spanish colonies and Brazil ; her defence of Portugal against the forces of Dom Miguel, the absolutist pretender, and Fer- dinand VII. of Spain ; her intervention to save Greece from the Sultan and Mehemet Ali — ^all these generous actions were the work of Canning, and would never have been sanctioned by Castle- reagh, his predecessor at the Foreign Office. In domestic policy the spirit of reaction reigned supreme. During the
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
years 1815 to 1822 class interests and the morbid fear of revolution were responsible for a series of repressive enactments which were so unreasonably severe that they increased the popular sympathy for the principles against which they were directed. After 1822 came the period in which the extreme Tories gave way tardily and with the worst of graces.
The peace was inaugurated with a new corn law, framed in the interests of the landowning classes, from which both Houses of Parliament were chiefly recruited. This pro- hibited the importation of foreign com until the price of 80s. a quarter should be reached ; that is, until the poorer classes should be reduced to a state of famine. The statutory price before this date had been merely 48s. The change was naturally followed in many places by bread riots and incendiarism. The Government replied by calling out the soldiery and framing coercive measures. In 1819 a mass meeting which had assembled in St. Peter's Field, at Man- chester, was broken up with considerable bloodshed ; Parliament, which had already
Bread Riots in the Country
suspended the Habeas Corpus, pro- ceeded to pass the Six Acts giving the executive exceptional powers to break up seditious meetings and to punish the authors of seditious libels. The powers thus obtained were stretched to their utmost limits, on the pretext that such hare-brained schemes as the Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820, constituted a serious menace to public order.
It was not until 1823 that the Cabinet consented to attack the root of social disorders by making some reductions in the tariff. It began by concessions to the mercantile classes, whose prospects were seriously affected by the heavy duties upon raw materials, and to the consumers of various manufactured commodities, such as linen, silk, and cotton stuffs, upon which prohibitive duties had been im- posed in the interests of British industry'. But in the all-important question of the corn laws, affecting the poor rather than the middle classes, the Tories would only concede a compromise, the sliding-scale duty of 1829. The demand of the chief commercial centres for the repeal of the Navigation Laws was met by an Act
MASS MEETING AT MANCHESTER: THE YEOMANRY CHARGING THE MOB IN 1819 Suffering hardship in consequence of the high price of bread, the people in many places resorted to violence. The Government's reply was to call out the soldiery and frame coercive measures. A mass meeting which had assembled in St. Peter's Field, at Manchester, in 1819, was broken up, as shown in the above picture, with considerable bloodshed.
4799
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
THE SCENE OF THE CATO STREET CONSPIRACY In Cato Street, London, shown in this picture, was conceived a plot to assassinate Castlereagrh and other Ministers at a Cabinet dinner in 1820. The plot being discovered, the revolutionaries were captured, five of them being hanged and five transported for life.
?roviding that the ships of any foreign 'ower should be allowed free access to British ports if that Power would grant a reciprocity ; the Combination Acts, framed to make trades unions illegal, were repealed: considerable amendment s were introduced into the criminal law. But to several reforms of paramount neces- sity the Ministers showed them- selves obstinately averse. They would not repeal the disabUng laws which still re- mained in force against the Catholics, al- though three- fourths of the Irish nation were calling for this act of justice. They would do nothing to reform the House of Commons. They would not deprive the landowning classes of the profits which the corn duties afforded.
It was now that the nation discovered the use which could be made of two rights which it had long possessed. Freedom of speech on poUtical matters was guaranteed by Fox's Libel Act of 1792, which left to the jury the full power of deciding what constituted legi- timate criticism of the administration. Freedom of association and public meeting existed, indepen- dently of special enact- ments, under the protec- tion of the common law. These weapons were used with extraordinary skill
by O'Connell, the leader of his countrymen, and patriotically sur-
of the Irish Catholics. The Catholic Association, formed in 1823, learned from him the art of intimidating without illegaUty by means of monster meetings. Proclaimed as an illegal body in 1825, the association con- trived to continue its existence in the
4800
guise of a philanthropic society. At the Clare election in 1828 O'Connell, although a Catholic, and therefore disqualified, was returned by an overwhelming majority. Peel persuaded his colleagues that the time had come when eman- cipation must be granted. Bills for that purpose were accordingly passed and sub- mitted for the royal assent. This afforded George IV., who had succeeded his father in 1 820, an opportunity of asserting him- self for once in a matter of national concern. A prodigal and a voluptuary, who had systematically sacrificed honour and decency to his pleasures and had broken his father's heart by his want of shame and filial piety, he now declared that nothing could induce him to accept a measure which that father had rejected. After long expostulations he broke this vow, as he had broken every other, and Catholic emancipa- tion was finally recorded on the Statute Book.
George IV. died in 1830. He was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of Clarence, under the title of Wilham IV., a more respectable char- acter than " the first gentleman in Europe," but a politician of poor abilities, great tactless- ness and greater obstinacy. In their resistance to the next popular agitation found him a valuable ally. The triumph of the Irish Catholics was followed by a revival, in England, of the cry for parliamentary reform, and to this purpose the tactics of O'Connell were steadily applied by the Liberads
DANIEL O'CONNELL The leader of the Irish Catholics, O'Connell was foremost in the agitation for the rights
rendered personal interests for the advance- f J^g TorieS ment of the national cause. He died in 1847.
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
of the great manu- facturing centres. The energy with which the Whigs pushed their attack is explained by their conviction that the defects of the repre- sentative system con- stituted the main obstacles to social, pohtical, and fiscal reforms of the utmost weight and urgency. The House of Com- mons no longer ex- pressed the opinions of the country. The most enlightened, industrious, and prosperous portion of the community were either unrepresented or ludicrously under- represented. Since the time of Charles II. no new constituencies had been created, and of the boroughs which
KING GEORGE IV. He became Prince Regent in 1810 owing to the mental derangement of his father, George III., and succeeded to the throne ten years later. Without any qualities that endeared him to his people, he possessed failings and vices that were conspicuously displayed, and there were few to regret his death, which occurred in 1830.
had received repre- sentation under the Tudors and the Stuarts, the greater part owed their privi- lege to the Crown's expectation that their elections could always be controlled. Many boroughs which formerly deserved to be represented had fallen, through the decay of their for- tunes or through an excessive limitation of the franchise, under the control of the great territorial families. Close boroughs were so com- pletely an article of commerce that the younger Pitt, when he proposed a measure of parliamentary re- form, felt himself bound to offer the patrons a pecuniary
A SITTING OF THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS IN THE YEARS 1821-28 From the engraring by J. Scott. Photo by Wallcer
305
4801
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
compensation. It was by means of " pocket " boroughs that the Whigs had held the first two Hanoverians in bondage, and that George III. had maintained his personal ascendancy for twenty years. In 1793 it was computed that 307 members of Parliament were returned by private patrons. Matters had improved in the last forty years ; but still on the eve of the reform legislation 276 seats were private property. Three-fourths of these be- longed to members of the Tory aristocracy. The state of the county representation was somewhat better. But the smallest shires returned as many membeis as the largest, with the solitary exception that Yorkshire, since 1821, returned four members in place of the usual two. The county franchise was limited, by a law of 1430, to freeholders, and the owners of large estates had established their right to plural or " faggot " votes.
The faults of this system, its logical absurdities, are glaringly manifest. With the votes of about half the House of Commons controlled by a few families, with great cities unrepresented, with small and large counties treated as of equal weight, with franchises varying in different localities, it might rather be said that there was no system at all. But it is a peculiarly British characteristic to regard anomalies as desirable in themselves, as it was characteristic of the theorists of the Revolution to discover the universal panacea in symmetrical uniformity.
Entirely apart from personal interests, the large proportion of the ruling class had a firm conviction that the consti- tution was incapable of improvement, that it provided the best possible type of legislator and administrator. The unen- franchised masses saw in these Olympians a group who neither understood nor cared for anything but the interests of their own class ; they acquired a rooted conviction that, when they themselves obtained political power, the millennium would arrive. But among the enfranchised, the minority, who had always refused to be terrified by the Reign of Terror, now grew into a majority who believed that political intelligence existed in other sections of the community, who might be enfranchised without danger, and that flagrant anoma- lies might be removed without under- mining the constitution. When France once more overturned the Bourbon monarchy and established the citizen-king,
4802
GEORGE I\
OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN HIS ROYAL ROBES Fran tha psintiof by Sir Tbomas Uwrence, F.R.A.
4803
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4805
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Louis Philippe, on the throne with a con- stitution in which the pohtical power of the bourgeoisie was the prominent feature, effecting the change without any excesses, the phantom of the ancient Reign of Terror dwindled, and the Reform party was materially strengthened.
The king and the Duke of Wellington refused at first to believe that any change was either desirable or necessary. But they were compelled in 1830 to admit that it was necessary ; and Lord Grey was per- mitted to construct a reform Cabinet of Whigs and moderate Tories. Their Bills passed the House of Commons without difficulty, receiving the votes of many members whose seats were known to be doomed by its provisions. The House of Lords, encouraged by the king, endeav- oured to obstruct the measure which they dared not openly oppose. But a new agitation, threatening the very existence of the Upper House, at once arose. The duke, with greater wisdom than his royal master, resdised that further resistance was out of the question, and induced the Lords to give way in June, 1832.
The Reform Bill of 1832 fell far short of the democratic ideal which the English admirers of the French Revolu- tion had kept in view. Jeremy Bentham., 1748- 1832, the greatest of those writers and thinkers who prepared the minds of men for practical reform, was of opinion that the doctrine of natural equal- ity ought to be the first principle of every constitu- tion; but the followers of Lord Grey contented themselves with giving
power to the middle classes. This work has since been supplemented by the legislation of 1867, 1884, and 1885 ; yet even at the present day the doctrine of man- hood suffrage is unknown in English law. Still less were the first reformers inclined to map out the coimtry in new electoral
4806
Changes in the Constitution of P&rliament
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON THE CLYDE
DOlitical "^^^ early part of the nineteenth century witnessed progress along:
t^ J, many lines, the introduction of steamboats being a noteworthy
advance. The Comet, shown in the above illustration, was built
by Henry Bell, and began sailing on the Clyde in the year 1812.
districts of equal size. They enlarged the representation of some counties. They suppressed or partially disfranchised eighty-six decayed boroughs. They gave representatives to forty-two of the new boroughs. But they kept intact the old distinction between county and borough, and sedulously avoided the subdivision or amalgamation of constituencies which possessed organic unity and historical traditions. In this and other respects the later Reform Bills have been more drastic. That of 1867 abandoned the principle, which had been steadily maintained in 1832, that the franchise should be limited to those who paid direct taxes in one form or another. That of 1885 endeav- oured to equalise constituencies in respect of population ; in order to attain this end, counties and boroughs .were broken up into divisions, without respect for past traditions. Such legislation is necessarily of a temporary character, since no measure of redistribution can be expected to satisfy the principle of equality for more than a few years. And this is not the least important consequence of the legislative change which the nineteenth century effected in the constitution of Parliament. The Lower House in becoming demo- cratic has ceased to represent a fixed number of communities with fixed in- terests and characteristics.
The reformed Pcirliament was not long in justifying the hopes which had been formed of it. Those, indeed, who had ex- pected that the members re- turned under the new system democrats soon
would all be Whigs or found reason to revise their judgment. This is not the only, occasion in Enghsii history on which it has been- proved that aversion to ill-considered change is a fundamental trait in the national
THE CORONATION PROCESSION OF WILLIAM IV. AND QUEEN ADELAIDE AT THE ABBEY The third son of George III., William IV., the " Sailor King," succeeded to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland on the death of his eldest brother, Georg-e IV., in 1830, and along with his consort, Adelaide, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, whom he married in 1818, he was crowned on September 8th, 1831.
From the drawing by George Cattermole
character. The Tories, although for a moment under a cloud, soon recovered their spirits and a certain measure of influ- ence in the country. Under the leadership of Peel, they adopted the new name of Con- servatives, and shook off the instinct of dogged and unreasoning obstruction. Peel was unable to procure a majority in the House of Commons when first invited by the king to form a Ministry, and accordingly left Melbourne and the Whigs in 1835 to carry on the government. But political opinion was swinging round to his side ; The Busy j^g obtained a majority in 1841. I *^* 1° *• So far the unforeseen had Legislation j^g^ppg^ed. On the other hand, the work of remedial legislation proceeded with vigour whether the Whigs were in or out of office. In fact both parties had become possessed by the idea that their main business was to devise and carry sweeping measures. Legislation was re- garded as the worthiest function of a sovereign assembly ; it seemed as though there could never be too much of legisla- tion. Experience has brought a decline of faith in the panacea. But it must be admitted thart for twenty years the new
Parliament had necessary work to perform in the way of legislation, and performed it with admirable skill. A few of the more important measures may be mentioned.
The Emancipation Act of 1833 com- pleted a work of philanthropy which had been commenced in 1807. The Ministry of All the Talents had abolished the slave trade. The new Act emancipated all the slaves who were still to be found in British colonies, and awarded the owners the sum of twenty millions as a compensation. Costly as the measure was for the mother country, it was still more costly for the colonies. The sugar industry of the West Indies had been built up with the help of slave labour. The planters lost heavily through being compelled to emancipate the slave for a sum which was much less than his market value, and the black population showed a strong disinclination to become labourers for hire. This was particularly the case in the larger islands, where land was abundant and a squatter could obtain a sustenance with Uttle or no labour. The prosperity of Jamaica was destroyed, and the West Indies as a whole have never been prosperous since 1834.
4807
48o8
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
Free trade completed their ruin, since they had only maintained the sugar trade with the help of the preferential treatment which they received from England. The basis of their former wealth was wholly arti- ficial, and it is unlikely that slavery and protec- tion will ever be restored for their benefit ; but it may be regretted that the necessary and salu- tary reforms of which they have been the victims could not have been more gradually ap- plied in their case.
For the new Poor Law of 1834 there can be nothing but praise. It ended a system which for more than a generation had been a national curse, demoralising the labourer,
poor-relief in aid of wages, and of making relief proportionate to the size of the applicant's family. This practice was confirmed b}^ the Speenham-land Act of 1796. The legislature acted thus in part from motives of philanthropy, in part under the belief that the increase of popu- lation was in every way to be encouraged. The Act was at once followed by a drop in the rate of agricultural wages and a I'ortentous increase of l)oor-rates. In 1783 poor- relief cost the country about £2,000,000 ; by 1 817 this sum had been quadrupled. The evils of the new system were augmented by the absence of any central authority possessing power to en-
LORD GREY _ , .
encouraging improvidence a distinguished statesman, he succeeded Ws forcc Uniform principles aiid immorality, taxing ^^^st^tme^pUiTaStltsal^h^eU"^^^^^^ and methods of relief, all classes for the benefit a powerful party, and passed the Act abolish- The proposal to iutroducc of the small farmer and -g slavery in t{.e colonies. Hediedini845. such an authority, and in employerwhom the misplaced philanthropy other respects to revive the leading ideas of the legislature had enabkd to cut down of the Elizabethan Poor Law, was made by wages below the margin of subsistence. Up a Royal Commission after the most careiui
to the year 1795 the English Poor Law had been, save for one serious defect, sound in principle. The defect was the Law of Settlement, j&rst laid down by an Act of 1662, which enabled the local authorities to prevent the migration of labour from one parish to another, unless security could be , given that the immigrant I would not become a charge upon the poor rate.
The result of this law had been to stereotype local inequalities in the rate of wages and to take from the labourer the
LORD MELBOURNE
investigations. The new Poor Law, 1834, em- bodied the principal sug- gestions of the commis- sioners. It provided that the workhouse test should be once more rigidly applied to all able-bodied paupers ; that parishes should be grouped in poor-law unions ; that each parish should con- tribute to the expenditure of the union in propor- tion to the numbers of its paupers ; and that a central board should be appointed to control the system. The new Poor Law is still in force, so
chief means of bettering Twice Premier, he was in office at the accession far as its main principles his position. It was ?!S^Zl°y}'-^°llV'^.lfI:^.^^^^^^^ of administration are con-
opportunist," and "kept his place in the early
mitigated in 1795 to the years of Queen Victoria chfefly through the CCmed. ^ . i . 1 . J.-L 1 1. favour of the young queen." He died in 1848,
extent that the labourer could be no longer sent back until he actually became a charge upon the rates. But about the same time the justices of the peace began the practice of giving
But there have been changes in the con- stitution of the central authority, by Acts of 1847, 1871, and 1894. The Poor-law Board has been merged in the Local Government Board ; and the
4809
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Boards of Guardians, which control the of the young queen. The Conservatives,
local distribution of relief, are now demo- impatient for a return to power, were dis-
cratic bodies, whereas, under the original posed to bid against the Whigs for popular
Act the justices of the peace held favour. Neither party desired extreme
office as ex-officio members. The Poor Law Act was followed by others for the reform of municipal govern- ment in 1835, of the Irish tithe system in 1838, and for the introduction of the penny post in 1839. The new Poor Law and the new muni- cipal system were also applied to Ireland by special legisla- tion. But larger questions slumbered until the formation of great political societies forced them upon the un- willing attention of Ministers and both Houses of Parliament.
reform. Lord John Russell expressed the general senti- ment when he stated his conviction that the Reform Bill had been the final step in the direction of democracy. But neither party was strong enough to resist external pressure. The rise of the Chartist organisation in 1838 seemed likely, therefore, to produce sweeping changes. It was recruited from the labour- ing classes and animated by hostility to capital. It pro-
A
many
JEREMY BENTHAM posed the cstaWishment of
flodai'kld poiftkii reforas radical democracy as a panacea
The period of 1840- 18 50 which characterised the early vic- for the wrongs of workmen.
„ I- t r ui i torian era were suggested by him. t^, f. • T £ j^\, i >
was peculiarly favourable to The five points of the people s
the democratic agitator. The Reform charter were manhood suffrage, voting by
Whigs had maintained themselves in power till the death of WiUiam IV. But their majority was small, and their chief leader, Melbourne, an indolent opportunist. He kept his place in the early years of Queen Victoria chiefly through the favour
ballot, annual parliaments, payment of members, and the abohtion of the property qualification for membership. These de- mands were supported in the House of Commons by the philosophic Radicals, among whom Grote, the historian, was
THE REFORM RIOTS AT BRIST
From the diawing by L.
'CTOBEK, 1831
4810
DESTRUCTION OF THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT ON OCTOBER i6th, 1834 This graphic scene depicts the destruction by fire, on October 16th, 1834, of the Houses of Parliament, the picture
sketch taken by him by the light of the flames at the end of Abingdon Street.
From the drawing by William Heath
influence was felt not only in England but in Wales, where it con- tributed to produce the Rebecca .Riots, 1843. But the. next occasion on' which Chartism invaded the capital was in 1848, the year of revolu- tions. It was an- nounced that half a million of Chartists would assemble at a given place on April loth, and march in procession to lay their demands before the House of Commons. The danger seemed great ; extensive military preparations were made under the old Duke of Welling- ton, and the authori-
Though a Whig before his accession to the throne of ticS announced Oil the Great Britain and Ireland in 1830, he became a Tory after appointed daV that „ „ „i „ , J, his coronation, and used his influence to obstruct the .-, " ■, ■, ^ r
nean character, its passing of the first Reform Act in issg. He died in 1837. they would use for ce,
48H
being made by the artist from
the most conspicuous, while in Feargus O'Connor the Chart- ists possessed a popular orator of no mean order. The House of Commons refused to consider the first petition of the Chartists in 1839. The refusal was, how- ever, followed by riots in various localities; and a second attempt was made to move Parliament in 1842. when the Conserva- tives, under Peel, had wrested power from the Whigs. But the new Ministers were no more pliable than the old ; and a series of prosecutions against prominent Chartists forced the movement to assume a subterra-
KING WILLIAM
"YOUR MAJESTYl": ANNOUNCING TO PRINCESS VICTORIA THE FACT OF HER ACCESSION
On the death Of King WUliam IV. at Windsor Castle in 1837, his niece, Princess Victoria, succeeded to the throne. Riding- through the night from Windsor to Kensington Palace, Dr. Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Marquess of Convngham. Lord Chamberlain, awakened the young girl about five o'clock in the morning to tell her that she was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. This dramatic incident is admirably represented in the abore picture. From the painting by M^ry L. Cow, by permission of tlie perlin Photographic Co.
481?.
QUEEN VICTORIA IN HER CORONATION ROBES Succeeding to the throne in 1837, at the early age of eighteen years, Queen Victoria was crowned at Westminster Abbey on June 28th, 1838. The youthfiil queen of Great Britain and Ireland is in this {>ictur8 represented in her coronation robes, standing in the dawn of the longest and most glorious reign in the nation's bistoiy.
From the painting by Sir George Hayter
4813
4bi4
48i5
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
if neoessary, to check the march of the pro- cession. The Chartist leaders were cowed, and contented themselves with submitting their petition for the third time. A large number of the signatures, which had been estimated at 5,000,000, turned out to be fictitious ; and amidst the ridicule ex- cited by this discovery the Charter and Chartists slipped into oblivion.
The collapse of Chartism was significant, for the great Chartist demonstration was contemporaneous with a series of revo- lutionary movements on the Continent. It meant that in England the people at
were the product of the great war. They had been established for the protection of the agricultural interest, and had alto- gether excluded foreign corn from the English market except while the price of English corn stood above eighty shillings, so that the price of bread was maintained at a very high figure. A modification had been introduced, by which duties were imposed on foreign corn, in place of the import being prohibited, while home- grown corn stood below eighty shillings, the amount of the duty falling as the price of English corn rose, and vice versa-
THE CORONATION PROCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA
From the drawing by Champion
large declined to believe in physical force as the necessary means to attaining political reforms, preferring the methods of constitutional agitation. Chartism dis- solved itself in the fiasco of 1848. But the political demands of the Chartists were adopted by constitutional reformers, and were in great part conceded during the following half century — though they have not brought the millennium. The episode emphasised the sobriety of the masses ; and the result was probably in measure due to the improvement in the con- ditions of the industrial population owing to the repeal of the Com Laws in 1846. We have remarked that the Corn Laws 4816
But this did not remove the obvious fact that the cost of the staple food of the working classes was kept high artificially, in order to benefit or preserve the agri- cultural interest. Apart from philan- thropic considerations — though these carried their due weight in many quarters — the capitalist manufacturers, now the dom- inant power in the House of Commons, began to perceive that if the price of bread fell the operatives could live on a lower money wage, that the wages bill would be lowered, and with it the cost of production ; that is to say, the middle classes saw that their own interests would be served by the abolition of the Corn Laws.
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
The Anti-Corn Law League, first formed in 1838, owed its existence to a serious depression of the manufacturing indus- tries. Cobden, Bright, and others of the leading organisers were philanthropists who saw the iniquity of artificially main- taining the price of food when wages were low and employment uncertain. They recruited their supporters to a great extent among the starving operatives of the North and Midlands. But the funds for the Free Trade campaign were largely
their own prospective ruin. The working classes, however, were not convinced by the Chartist doctrine, and felt that if bread were cheaper life would be easier. An Irish famine completed the conversion of the Conservative leader, Sir Robert Peel, who had already been agitating his party for Free Trade measures and the removal or reduction of duties protecting British industries. He took a number of his colleagues with him, but not the party as a whole. Peelites and Whigs together
QUEEN VICTORIA'S FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT TO THE CITY OF LONDON The first o£Bcial visit of Queen Victoria to the City of London was on Lord Mayor's Day, November 9th, 1837, and in this picture her carriage is seen passing Temple Bar on the way to the GuildhalL The picture is interesting not only on account of its historic value, but also by reason of the glimpse which it gives of apart of London now entirely altered.
carried the repeal of the Corn Laws, but had hardly done so when the Protectionists and extreme Radicals combined to defeat the Ministry, and Peel's career as Prime Minister was closed. The Whigs, sup- ported by Peelites, assumed the govern- ment, and were presently combined in the Liberal party.
Colonial development has been dealt with in detail elsewhere ; but certain points must here be noticed. During the period under consideration nearly the whole of the Indian peninsula passed under the British dominion as a result of the great Mahratta
4817
supplied by manufacturers. There was no thought of giving to the masses the franchise as a means of self-protection. Accordingly, the extreme Chartists hated the Free Traders, and openly opposed their propaganda, on the ground that the charter would secure to the people all, and more than all, that was hoped from the repeal of the Corn Laws. The class character of the Free Trade agitation was a source of weakness, because the working-class agitators did not believe that the labouring class would benefit by it ; while the landed interest saw in it
306
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
war ; while the first Burmese war added territories beyond the Bay of Bengal. Under Bentinck's rule, progress was made in the organisation of administration and the development of education. On the north-west, however, the aggression of Persia, more or less under the aegis of Russia, produced British- intervention in the affairs of Afghanistan, with dis- astrous consequences, of which the evil effects were at any rate diminished by the skilful operations of Pollock and Knott. In the same decade, however, the British supremacy was challenged by the Sikh armyof the Punjab. Beaten in the first struggle, the Silchs were renewing their challenge in 1848, when Lord Dalhousie arrived in India to take up the gage of battle and extend the British dominion, in 1849, over the Land of the Five
in North America, with the exception of Newfoundland, as states of the Canadian Dominion. The foundation was laid for that system under which the colony was no longer to be treated as a subordinate section of the empire, but was to receive full responsible government — a govern- ment, that is, in which the Ministers are responsible to the representative assem- blies as Ministers in England are responsible to Parlia- ment ; to become, in fact, mutatis mutandis, a counter- part of the United Kingdom, practically independent ex- cept in matters affecting war and peace. Canada, indeed, did not immediately achieve this status even after the Act of Reunion ; but that Act may be re- garded as initiating the
change which has smce
PRINCE ALBERT been carried out in nearly
The younger son of the Duke of Saxe- all the British COlonieS whcre
Coburgr-Gotha, Prince Albert first met .v „ i,;j.„ ^„„ i„+;^„ !,„„
Queen Victoria in 1836. They fell in love, ^hc whltc population haS
Rivers up to the mountain and were married in i84o, the Prince then ccascd to bear the character
passes, thus completing the receiving the title of Royal Highness, ^f ^ garrisou. Of the
assuming were not
The Union of British Colonies
ring-fence of mountain and ocean girdling the British Empire in India.
In Australia the settlements, which at first had been penal in character, were the form of true colonies, but yet emancipated. In South Africa, transferred to Great Britain as a result of the Napo- leonic war, a part of the Dutch population — partly in conse- quence of the abolition of slavery — began during the fourth decade of the century to remove itself beyond the sphere of British interference, and to found the com- munities which developed into the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic.
It was, however, almost at the moment of Queen Victoria's accession that dis- satisfaction with the existing system in the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, which had been established in the time of the jounger Pitt, reached an acute stage, issiung in insurrection and in the dispatch of the epoch-making commission of Lord Durham. The report of the commissioner was the starting-point virtually of a new theory of colonial relations. It led directly to the Act of Reunion of 1842, which was gradually followed by the federal union of all the British colonies
4818
religious movements in this period some account will be found in a later chapter of this section. But we have still to review here a development of English literature which has no parallel except in the Shake- spearean era, for the beginnings of which we must go back to the Revolution epoch. During three-fourths of the eighteenth century, classicalism had dominated prose and poetry alike. In place of poems, satires, epigrams, admirable essays and dissertations in verse had been produced in abundance in strict accord with rigid conventions ; no scope had been granted to the lyrical utterance of passion, and spontaneity had been repressed as barbaric or at least impolite. But the spirit which was rousing itself to a stormy attack on social and political conventions was not to spare the conventions of literature. These were, indeed, set at naught by the lyrical genius of Robert Burns, whose first volume of poems appeared in 1786. Burns, however, was not a pioneer in the true sense — consciously promul- gating a new theory. Essentially his work was the most splendid expression of a poetical type which had always flourished in Scotland outside the realms
The Genius
of
Robert Burns
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
of polite literature. But its power and fascination arrested attention, and carried the conviction that subjects forbidden by the critics as vulgar were capable of treatment which was undeniably poetical. He demonstrated anew that the poet's true function is to appeal to the emotions of men, and that this may be done through the medium of language which is not at all cultured. Unlike Burns, however, the so-called " Lake School " of Wordsworth and Coleridge were conscious exponents of a theory which defied the crit- Q°^^ ical dogmas of the day. But p [*' Coleridge's practice contra- dicted a part of his own theory, and when Wordsworth acted upon it in its entirety, he did not write poetry. Their revolt against artificial language and artificial restrictions of subject led them virtually to affirm that the best poetry may treat of commonplace matters in commonplace language.
The paradox becomes obvious when we perceive that Coleridge is never common- place, and that it is precisely when he is not commonplace that Wordsworth is great, though unfortunately he never recognised that truth himself. The familiar
fact must yield the unfamiliar thought ; the familiar terms must combine in the unfamiliar phrases which stamp themselves upon the mind. The current criticism erred, not in condemning the commonplace, but in identifying the commonplace with the superficially familiar, and treating con- ventions as fundamental laws of art. That these were errors was conclusively proved by the practice rather than by the critical expositions of the Lake school. The volume of " Lyrical Ballads," which contained " Tintern Abbey " and the " Ancient Mariner," was a sufficient refutation of the orthodox doctrines.
The poetical work which was produced in the twenty-six years which passed between the publication of the " Lyrical Ballads," 1798, and the death of Byron, 1824, travelled far enough from the standards of the eighteenth century. Within that period Sir Walter Scott adapted the old ballad form to metrical narrative, and turned men's minds back to revel in the gorgeous aspect of the Middle Ages, somewhat forgetful of their ugly side. Byron burst upon the public, an avowed rebel, whose tragic poses were unfortunately only too easy of imitation
A ROYAL ROMANCE : THE MARRIAGE OF QUEEN VICTORIA IN 1840 Tne interesting- ceremony represented in the above picture took place at the Chapel Royal, St James's, on February lOth, 1840. Queen Victoria was then in her twenty-first year, while Prince Albert was three months her junior.
From the paintingr by Sir George Hayter
4819
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
had already developed a new type of the novelist's art, in the " Pickwick Papers " ; but his great contemporary and rival, William Makepeace Thackeray, had not yet achieved fame in this field. The Bronte sisters, however, with " Wuther- ing Heights" and "Jane Eyre," 1847, had just given convincing proof, if any were needed after Jane Austen, Scott's con- temporary, that the novel is a literary instrument which woman can handle as successfully as man. By that time all the great poets of the Revolution era had passed away, save Wordsworth, who was all but an octo- genarian ; but the stars J of Tennyson and Brown- ing had already appeared
by a host of self-conscious rhymesters, and gave vice a morbid picturesqueness ; but redeemed himself by the genuineness of his passion for liberty, and died at Misso- longhi fighting for the liberation of Greece. Shelley, a rebel of another kind, shocked the world by his Promethean defi- ance of an unjust God, of tyranny in every form, but was, in fact, the prophet not of atheism and materialism, but of an intensely spiritual pantheism ; the most ethereal, most intangible, most exquisite among the masters of song. John Keats died when he was only five-and- twenty, but he had already lived long enough to win for him- self a secure place in the richard cobden
elysium of "poets dead "The Apostle of Free Trade," he denounced above the horizon.
and gone." His poetry ^f /o^nrerwi|«'!^ere"ow^^^^^^ The time of ferment
is the practical expression ment uncertain, and to his labours was largely which produccd this out-
, f \. , due the abolition of the Corn Laws in 184C. , , r t, ,• •,
of his own dictum : burst 01 literary activity
" Beauty in truth, truth beauty ; that is was also responsible for two new movements all ye know on earth, and all ye need to of English thought, the utilitarian and the know." Among great English poets there idealist. Utilitarianism is the sceptical
and inductive spirit of such eighteenth - century thinkers as David Hume, applied to the study of morals and social institu- tions. The movement began with the French Encyclopaedists ; it came to England through Jeremy Bentham, 1748- 1832, than whom no man has exercised a more far- reaching influence on the thought or government of modern England. Most of the social and political reforms which charac- terise the early Victorian era were suggested by
is no other whose work is so devoid of all ethical element, none in whom the sense of pure beauty is so overm3,stering or its rendering more perfect.
Among the poets whom we have named, Byron's influence alone was Euro- pean; but that influence pales by the side of Walter Scott's in the realm of prose romance. There were novelists before Scott, but it was he who gave to the novel that literary predomin- ance which at one time characterised the drama.
Practically it was he who john bright Bentham. His two great
revealed the capacities of Along with Cobden and others in the agitation works, the "Fragment on
nro<iP romance for the against the Corn Laws, John Bright used Government " T'7'76 and prube roilldlice lUI ine his great eloquence both in Parliament and on »J"\ cmmeilt, 177U, dliu
portrayal of character and the pubUc platform to further the cause of Free the ' Principles of Morals of picturesque incident, T"'*'*"- &« held office m ut^- —- through the amazing achievement of the
later Ministries.
series of " Waverley Novels," whereof the first appeared in 1814. Before the close of our period, the genius of Charles Dickens
4820
and Legislation," 1789, belong chronologically to the age of the Revolution ; but it was only in later life that Bentham became a prophet among his own people. His greatest disciple was
THE CHRISTENING OF THE PRINCESS ROYAL AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE IN 1840
From the painting by C. R. Leslie
CHRISTENING THE PRINCE OF WALES, THE PRESENT KING EDWARD, IN 1841
From the painting by Sir George Hayter
DOMESTIC EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA
4821
Robert Burns, 1759-96 William Wordsworth, 1770-1850 S. T. Coleridge, 1772-1834
Jane Austen 1775-1817 Lord Byron, 1788-1824 P. B. Shelley, 1792-1822
IHSy^ \^flHi
Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881 Lord Macaulay,. 1800-59
W. M. Thackeray, 1811-63 Charles Dickens, 1812-70 Charlotte Bronte, 1816-55
GREAT MEN AND WOMEN OP LETTERS FROM BURNS TO CHARLOTTE BRONTE
4822
THE BRITISH ERA OF REFORM
John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873, whose versa- tile genius never showed tonlore advantage than when he was handling social questions in Bentham's spirit. Mill was not so rigorous a thinker as Bentham ; but the moral enthusiasm of the younger man, his power of exposition, and his suscepti- bility to the best ideas of his time, gave him the respectful attention of all thought- ful minds. What Bentham did for the theory of legislation. Mill did for the theory of wealth. Mill's "Political Eco- nomy," 1848, although largely based upon the investigations of Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Malthus, marks an era in the history of that science. Mill was the first to define with accuracy the proper limits of economic study. He originated a number of new theories. He diagnosed the economic evils of his time and sug- gested practical remedies. Above all, however, he was the first to see the parts of economic science in their true proportions and to connect them as an ordered whole. The tendency of modern thought is to belittle the deductive school of econo- mists which MiU repre- sents ; but his claim to be regarded as the classic of that school has never been disputed. Similarly,
SIR WALTER SCOTT
trade of the Tractarians. whose attempt to imbue Anglican dogmas with a nev\ significance and to destroy. the insularity of the Established Church is the most remarkable phenomenon in the religious history of modem England. The idealists found a powerful though erratic ally in Thomas Carlyie, 1795-1881. In literature a romantic of the most lawless sort, unequalled in power of phrase, in pictorial imagination, and in dramatic humour, but totally deficient in architectonic skill, Carlyie wrote one history, " The French Revolution," 1837, and two biographies, " Cromwell," 1845, " Frederick the Great," 1858-1865, of surpassing interest. But his most characteristic utterances are to be found in " Sartor Resartus," 1833, and "Heroes and Hero- Worship," 1 841, the first a biting attack upon formaUsm and dogma, the second a vindication of the importance of indi- vidual genius in maintain- ing and in reforming the social fabric. Carlyle's gospel of labour and silence, and his preference for the guidance of instinct as opposed to that of conscious reflection, have exercised a great, though indeterminate, influence upon many thinkers who are unconscious of theii
characteristics
" Representative Govern- revealing: a creative genius unmatched since Can hardly be brought out
ment," i860, he became Shakespeare. Bom in 1771. he died in 1832. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^
exponent of English placing his work beside that of Thomas
the accredited exponent of Liberalism ; while his essay on " UtiU- tarianism," 1861, by giving a larger and less material interpretation to Bentham's formula, " the greatest happiness of the greatest number," did much to bring out the common basis of belief on which Liberals and idealists Have conducted their long controversy.
The ideahst movement begins with Coleridge, whose philosophic writings, notably the " Aids to Reflection," pub- lished in 1825, although fragmentary and unsystematic, are the first sign of a reaction among English metaphysicians against Hume's disintegrating criticism. In a diluted and theological form the new tenets formed the intellectual stock in
Babington Macaulay, no idealist, but a typical Whig, whose clear-cut antithetical style made him the past-master of popular exposition, and the still prevalent model for the essayist and the historian.
Finally, we note the appearance of John Ruskin, whose " Modern Painters " began to appear in 1842. Entering the literary field primarily as a critic of the arts of painting and architecture, Ruskin extended his criticism, constructive and destructive, to literature and economics, the essential characteristic of his teaching being insist- ence on the ethical basis of all human energies : teaching expressed with unsur- passed eloquence.
H. W. C. Davis; A. D. Innes
4823
AS SEEN FROM THE FANALE MARITTIMO uIGHTHOUSE
TRIESTE. THE CHIEF SEAPORT OF AUSTRIA - HUNGARY
4824
THE
RE-MAKING
OF
EUROPE
EUROPE
AFTER
WATERLOO
III
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
AND THE ASCENDANCY OF METTERNICH
HTHE Austrian state, totally disor- ■'• ganised by the period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, had nevertheless succeeded in rounding off its territories at the Congress of Vienna. In internal affairs Francis I. and Metter- nich tried as far as possible to preserve the old order of things ; they wished for an absolute monarchy, and favoured the privileged .classes. There was no more tenacious supporter of what was old, no more persistent observer of routine than the good Emperor Francis. He was an absolute ruler in the spirit of conservatism. He saw a national danger in any move- ment of men's minds which deviated from the letter of his commands, hated from the first all innovations, and ruled his people from the Cabinet. He delighted to travel through his dominions, and receive the joyful greetings of his loyal subjects, since he laid the highest value on popu-
—. ,, . larity ; notwithstanding all his The Vain i -^ s u ^- j
_, keenness of observation and
mp ro j^.^ industry, he possessed no ideas of his own. Even Metter- nich was none too highly gifted in this respect. Francis made, at the most, only negative use of the abundance of his supreme power. Those who served him were bound to obey him blindly ; but he lacked the vigour and strength of character for great and masterful actions ; his thoughts and wishes were those of a permanent official. Like Frederic William in., he loathed independent characters, men of personal views, and he therefore treated his brothers Charles and John with unjustified distrust.
The only member of his family really acceptable to him was his youngest brother, the narrow-minded and character- less Louis. On the other hand, Francis was solicitous for the spread of beneficial institutions, and for the regulation of the legal system ; in 1811 he introduced the " Universal Civil Code," and in so doing completed the task begun by Maria
Austria's High Position in Europe
Theresa and Joseph H. His chief defect was his love of trifling details, which de- prived him of any comprehensive view of a subject ; and his constant interference with the business of the Council of State prevented any systematic conduct of affairs. Francis owed it to Metternich that Austria once more held the highest position in Europe ; he was therefore glad to entrust him with the management of foreign policy while he contented himself with internal affairs. Metternich was the centre of European diplomacy ; but he was only a diplomatist, no statesman like Kaunitz and Felix Schwarzenberg. He did not consolidate the new Austria tor the future, but only tried to check the wheel of progress and to hold the reins with the assistance of his henchman Gentz ; everything was to remain stationary.
The police zealously helped to main- tain this principle of government, and prosecuted every free-thinker as sus- pected of democracy. Austria was in the fullest sense a country of police ; it supported an army of " mouchards " and informers. The post-office officials disregarded the privacy of letters, spies watched teachers and students in the academies ; even such loyal Austrians as Grillparzer and Zedlitz came into collision with the detectives. The censorship was blindly intolerant and pushed its inter- ference to extremes. Public education, from the university down to the village school, suffered under the suspicious tutelage of the authorities ; school and _ . . Church alike were unprogres-
Suspicion &nd
sive. The provincial estates, j, . both in the newly-acquired
and in the recovered Crown lands, were insignificant, leading, as a matter of fact, a shadowy existence, which reflected the depressed condition of the population. But Hungary, which, since the time when Maria Theresa was hard pressed, had insisted on its national
4825
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
independence, was not disposed to descend
from its height to the general insignificance
of the other Crown lands, and the Archduke
Palatine, Joseph, thoroughly shared this
idea. It was therefore certain that soon
there would be an embittered struggle with
c ' v • M *t the government at Vienna, Szechenyi the ^^^^^ ^j^j^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^
Greatest of constitution of Hungary as
the Hungarians ^^^^^j ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^|^J^j^
and Tyrol. The indignation found its expression chiefly in ths assemblies of the counties, which boldly contradicted the arbitrary and stereotyped commands from Vienna, while a group of the nobiHty itself supported the view that the people, hitherto excluded from political life, should share in the movement. In the Reichstag of 1825 this group spoke very distinctly against the exclu- sive rule of the nobility. The violent onslaught of the Reichstag against the Govern- ment led, it is true, to no result ; the standard-bearer of that g"oup was Count Stephen Szechenyi, whom his antago- nist, Kossuth, called " the greatest of the Hungarians." Th3 Archduke Rainer, to whom the viceroyalty of the Italian possessions had been entrusted, was animated by the best intention of pro- moting the happiness of the
both there and in Germany, as outcomes of the revolutionary spirit. Yet the hopes of the nations on both sides of the Alps were not being realised ; the " Golden Age " had still to come.
The condition of the Austrian finances was deplorable. Since the year 1811, when Count Joseph Wallis, the Finance Minister, had devised a system which reduced by one-fifth the nominal value of the paper money— which had risen to th3 amount of 1,060,000,000 gulden — per- manent bankruptcy had prevailed. Silver disappeared from circulation, the national credit fell very low, and the revenue was considerably less than the expenditure, which was enormously increased by the long war. In the year 1814 Count the former Minister of the Interior, undertook the thank- less duties of Minister of Finance. He honestly exerted himself to improve credit, introduce a fixed monetary standard, create order on a consistent plan, and with competent colleagues to de- velop the economic resources of the nation. But various financial measures were neces- sary before the old paper money could be withdrawn en bloc, and silver once more put into circulation. New loans had to be raised, which
Stadion,
PP A Mf^TC F Op AUSTRIA
Lombard- Venetian kingdom. He succeeded his father, Leopold increased the burden of in-
and of familiarising the li-'it^^^h^^^enrnce^dX'^tftie'of terest, in the years 1816 to
Italians with the Austrian German-Roman Emperor, retain- 1823, from 9,000,000 gulden
rule ; but he was so hampered '"^ ^^^^ "^ Emperor of Austria. ^^ 24,000,000, and the annual
by instructions from Vienna that he could not exercise any marked influence on the Government. The Italians would hear nothing of the advantages of the Austrian rule, opposed all " Germanisation," and prided themselves on their old nationality. Literature, the Press, and secret societies aimed at national objects and encouraged independence, while Metternich thought of an Italian confederation on the German model, and under the headship of Austria. It was also very disastrous that the leading circles at Vienna regarded Italy as the chief support of the whole poUcy of the empire, and yet failed to understand the great diversity of social and poHtical conditions in the individual states of the peninsula. Metternich, on the other hand, employed every forcible means to oppose the national wishes, which he regarded, 4826
expenditure for the national debt from 12,000,000 to 50,000,000. The National Bank, opened in 1817, afforded efficient help. If Stadion did not succeed in remodelhng the system of indirect taxes, and if the reorganisation of the land- tax . proceeded slowly, the attitude of Hungary greatly added to the difficulties of the position of the great Minister of reform, who died in May, 1824. The state _. „ • J of the Emperor Francis was rhe Promised naturally the Promised Land Land of r J. 1 J. • i-
„ . . .. of custom-house restrictions
Restrictions , ■ ^ . -rr ■ j j.
and special tariffs ; industry
and trade were closely barred in. In vain did clear-headed politicians advise that all the hereditary dominions, ex- cepting Hungary, should make one customs district ; although the Govern- ment built commercial roads and canals,
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
still the trade of the empire with foreign countries was stagnant. Trieste never became for Austria that which it might have been ; it was left for Karl Ludwig von Bruck of Elberfeld to make it, in 1833, a focus of the trade of the world by founding the Austrian-Lloyd Ship- ping Company. Red tape prevailed in the army, innovations were shunned, and the reforms of the Archduke Charles were interrupted. This was the outlook in Austria, the " Faubourg St. Germain of Europe." Were things better in the rival state of Prussia ? Frederic William III. was the type of a homely bourgeois, a man of sluggish intellect and of a cold scepticism, which contrasted sharply with the patriotic fire and self- devotion of his people
its opponents, although the old tutelage of the Church under the supreme bishop of the country still continued to be felt, and Frederic William, both in the secular and spiritual domain, professed an abso- lutism which did not care to see district and provincial synods estab- lished by its side. The union, indeed, produced no peace in the Church, but became the pretext for renewed quarrels ; nevertheless it was intro- duced into Nassau, Baden, the Bavarian Palatinate, Anhalt, and a part of Hesse in the same way as into Prussia. The king wished to give to the Catholic Church also a systematised and profitable development, and therefore entered into negotiations with the Curia, which were
METTERNICH IN LATER LIFE Metternich's domination of European politics
after the fall of Napoleon in 1815 stands out , j u i-u
prominently in the history of the period. He COndUCtcd by the am-
His main object was to was the centre of European diplomacy, but he baSSador Barthold G.
secure tranquillity ; the "^^^ °'^y * diplomatist and not a statesman. Niebuhr, a great historian storm of the war of liberation, so foreign but weak diplomatist. Niebuhr and Alten- to his sympathies, had blown over, and stein, the Minister of Public Worship, made he now wished to govern his kingdom too many concessions to the Curia, and in peace. Religious questions interested were not a match for Consalvi, the
him more than those of politics ; he was a positive Christian, and it was the wish of his heart to amalgamate the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches, an at- tempt to which the spirit of the age seemed very favourable. When the ter- centenary of the Reformation was commemor a t e d in the year 1817
Joseph Sz6ch6nyi
LEADERS OF HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE
Insisting on its national independence, Hungary was unwilling to
Cardinal Secre- tary of State. On July i6th, 1821, Pope Pius VIL issued the Bull, " De salute ani m a rum," which was fol- lowed by an ex- planatory brief, "Quod de fide- lium." The king confirmed the agreement by an order of the Cabi- net ; Cologne and Posen became
aepenaence, nungaiy was unwiumg ro g. r C h b ishoorics
descend to the insignificance of the other Crown lands under Austria, z, ^ *' '-' ^"yl^ii'-Sj
and both the Archduke Palatine, Joseph, and Count Stephen Sz6ch6nyi TreVCS, Miinster,
he appealed for assisted the movement in assemblies and elsewhere. Sz^ch^nyi was de- Paderbom, BreS-
the union of the sc"bedbyhisantagonistKossuthas"thegreatestoftheHungarians." jg^^ Kulm and
TWO confessions, and found much response. Ermeland bishoprics, each with a clerical
The new Liturgy of 1821, issued with his own concurrence, found great opposition, especially among the Old Lutherans ; its second form, in 1829, somewhat conciliated
seminary. The cathedral chapters were conceded the right of electing the bishop, who, however, had neces- sarily to be a persona grata to the king.
4827
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
The Problem of Mixed M&rriages
The trace did not, indeed, last long ; the question of mixed marriages led to renewed controversy. Subsequently to 1803, the principle held good in the eastern provinces of Prussia that the children in disputed cases should follow the religion of the father, a view that conflicted with a Bull of 1741 ; now, after 1825, the order of 1803 was to be valid for the Rhine province, which was for the most part Catholic. But the bishops of the districts appealed in 1828 to Pope Leo XII. He and his successor, Pius VIII., con- ducted long negotiations with the Prussian ambassador, Bunsen, who, steeped in the spirit of romanticism, saw the surest pro- tection against the revolution in a close adherence between national governments and the Curia.
Pius VIII., an enemy of liberal move- ments, finally, by a brief of 1830, permitted the celebration of mixed marriages only when a promise was given that the children born from the union would be brought up in the Catholic faith ; but the Prussian Government did not accept the brief, and matters soon came to a dispute between the Curia and the Archbishop of Cologne. It was excessively difficult to form the new Prussian state into a compact unity of a firm and flexible type. Not merely its elongated shape, its geographical inco- herency, and the position of Hanover as an excrescence on its body, but above every- thing its composition out of a hundred territorial fragments with the most diver- sified legislatures and the most rooted dislike to centralisation, the aversion of the Rhenish Catholics to be included in the state which was Protestant by history and character, and the stubbornness of the Poles in the countries on the Vistula, quite counterbalanced a growth in population, now more than doubled, which was welcome in itself. By unobtrusive and successful labour the greatest efforts were made to- wards establishing some degree p^V^ of unity. The ideal of unity rassi&n could not be universally realised in the legal system and the ad- ministration of justice. The inhabitants, therefore, of the Rhenish districts were con- ceded the Code Napoleon, with juries and oral procedure, but the larger part of the monarchy was given the universal common law. The narrow-minded and meddlesome system of the excise and the local variations of the land-tax system were intolerable.
4§28
The root idea of the universal duty of bearing arms, that pillar of the monarchy, was opposed on many sides. This institu- tion, which struck deeply into family life, met with especial opposition and discon- tent in the newly acquired provinces. In large circles there prevailed the wish that there should no longer be a standing army.
But finally the constitution of the army was adhered to ; it cemented together the different elements of the country. The ultimate form was that of three years' active service, two years' service in the reserve, and two periods of service in the militia, each of seven years. The fact that the universal duties of bearing arms and defending the country were to be permanent institutions made Frederic William suspicious. His narrow-minded but influential brother-in-law, Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the sworn opponent of the reform legislation of Stein, Hardenberg, and Scharnhorst, induced him to believe that a revolutionary party, whose movements were obscure, wanted to employ the militia against the throne, and advised, as a counter precaution, that . the militia and troops of the
'".'"* • ^^^^ should be amalgamated.
V e in -g^^ ^j^^ originator of the law of defence, the Minister of War, Hermann von Boyen, resolutely opposed this blissful necessity. An ordin- ance of April 30th, 1815, divided Prussia into ten provinces ; but since East and West Prussia, Lower Rhine and Cleves- Berg were soon united, the number was ultimately fixed at eight, which were subdivided into administrative districts.
Lords-lieutenant were placed at the head of the provinces instead of the former provincial Ministries. Their ad- ministrative sphere was accurately defined by a Cabinet order of November 3rd, 18 17 ; they represented the entire Government, and fortunately these responsible posts were held by competent and occasionally prominent men. The amalgamation of the new territories with Old Prussia was complete, both externally and internally, however difficult the task may have been at first in the province of Saxony and many other parts, and however much consistency and resolution may have been wanting at headquarters, in the immediate vicinity of Frederic William. But the struggle with the forces of local particu- larism was long and obstinate. The ^eat period of Prince Hardenberg.
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Chancellor of State, was over. He could no longer master the infinity of work which rested upon him, got entangled in intrigues and escapades, associated with despicable companions, and immediately lost influence with the king, himself the soul of honour ; his share in the reorganisation of Prussia after the wars of liberation was too small. On the other hand, he guarded against Roman en- croachment, and assiduously worked at the question of the constitution. His zeal to realise his intentions there too frequently left the field open to the reactionaries in another sphere. Most of the higher civil servants admired the official liberalism of the chancellor, and therefore, like Hardenberg and Stein, " ap
order to recommend themselves to the Governments as saviours of the threatened society. The indignation at their false- hoods was general ; there appeared numerous refutations, the most striking of which proceeded from the pen of Schleier- - mach(r and Niebuhr. The
Prussian and Wiirtemberg Governments, however, stood on the side of Schmalz and his companions, and rewarded his falsehood with a decora- tion and acknowledgment. Frederic WilUam III., indeed, strictly forbade, in January, 1816, any further literary controversy about secret combinations, but at the same time renewed the pro- hibition on such societies, at which great rejoicings broke out in Vienna. He also for-
Lutheran and Reformed Churches.
FREDERIC WILLIAM III
peared to the reactionaries He ascended the throne of Prussia bade the further appearance as patrons of the extravagant ^J^^in^^ ^.!X of the " Rhenish Mercury," enthusiasm and " Teutonis- did much to further the union of the which demanded a constitu- ing "agitation of the youth as secret democrats, in short. Boyen was the closest supporter of Hardenberg ; the Finance Minister, Count Biilow, formerly the distinguished Finance Minister of the kingdom of Westphalia, usually supported him, while the chief of the War Office, Witzleben, the inseparable counsellor of the king, who even ventured to work counter to the Duke of Mecklenburg, was one of the warmest advo- cates of the reform of Stein and Hardenberg. The re- actionaries, under Marwitz and other opponents of the great age of progress relied on the Ministers of the Interior and of the Police, the over- cautious Schuckmann and Prince William of Wittgen- stein. The latter was a bitter enemy of German patriotism and the constitution, and the best of the tools of Metter-
tion and liberty of the Press. Gneisenau was removed from the general command in Coblenz. Wittgenstein's spies were continually active. The emancipation of the Jews, in contradiction to the royal edict of 181 2, lost ground, The Act for the regulation of landed pro- jjerty proclaimed in Septem- ber, 1811, was "explained" in 18 16, in a fashion which favoured so greatly the pro- perty of the nobles at the cost of the property of the peasants that it virtually re- pealed the Regulation Act.
In the course of the last decade there had been fre- quent talk of a General Council. Stein's programme of 1808 proposed that the Council of State should be the highest ratifying authority for acts of legislation. Harden-
Distinguished as a historian, Bar- . ^' . '
thoid Niebuhr in 1823 took up mg for his own Supremacy,
nich at the court of Berlin, his residence at Bonn, and gave had Contemplated in iSio
The reaction which naturally a grreat impetus to historical leam- giving the council a far more
.- ., ,, - , - -^^ mg: by his lectures in that city. ^ ,^. ^, -r>x '^.-u
NIEBUHR THE HISTORIAN
followed the exuberant love of freedom shown in the wars of liberation was peculiarly felt in Prussia. Janke, Schmalz, the brother-in-law of Scharn- horst, and other place-hunters clumsily attacked in pamphlets the " seducers of the people " arid the " demagogues," in
modest role. But neither scheme received a trial ; and in many quarters a Council of State was only thought of with apprehension. When, then, finally the ordinance of March ^oth, 1817, estabUshed the Council of State, it was merely the highest advisory authority,
4829
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Schemes of Count Billow
the foremost counsellor of the Crown, and Stein's name was missing from the list of those summoned by the king.
The first labours of the Council of State were directed to the reform of the taxa- tion, which Count Biilow, the Finance Minister, wished to carry out in the spirit of modified Free Trade. His schemes were very aggressive, and aimed at The Aggressive freedom of inland commerce, but showed that, considering the financial distress of the moment, the state of the national debt, which in 1818 amounted to 217,000,000 thalers, $165,000,000, the want of credit, and the deficit, no idea of any remission of taxation could be entertained. In fact, Biilow demanded an increase of the indirect taxes, a proposal which naturally hit the lower classes very hard. Humboldt headed the opponents of Biilow, and a bitter struggle broke out. The notables convened in the provinces to express their views re- jected Biilow's taxes on meal and meat, but pronounced in favour of the direct personal taxation, graduated according to classes.
Biilow was replaced as Finance Minister at the end of 1817 by Klewitz — the extent of whose office was, however, much dim- inished by all sorts of limitations — and received the newly created post of Minister of Trade and Commerce. In Altenstein, who between 1808 and 1810 had failed to distinguish himself as Finance Minister, Prussia found a born Minister of Public Worship and Education.
In spite of many unfavourable conditions he put the educational system on a sound footing ; he introduced in 1817 the pro- vincial bodies of teachers, advocated uni- versal compulsory attendance at school, encouraged the national schools, and was instrumental in uniting the University of Wittenberg with that of Halle, and in founding the University of Bonn in 1818. Biilow, a pioneer in his own domain, not inferior to Altenstein in the field of _.. , Church and school, adminis- u ow s tered the customs department, Hand on the , j , j.t_ i_ A
C St ms supported by the shrewd Maassen. The first preparatory steps were taken in 1816, especially in June, by the abolition of the waterway tolls and the inland and provincial duties. A Cabinet Order of August ist, 1817, sanctioned for all time the principle of free importation, and Maassen drew up the Customs Act, which became law on May 26th, 1818, and came into force
4830
at the beginning of 1819, according to Treitschke " the most liberal and matured politico-economic law of those days " ; it was simplified in 1821 to suit the spirit of Free Trade, and the tolls were still more lowered. An order of February 8th, 1819, exempted from taxation out of the list of inland products only wine, beer, brandy, and leaf tobacco ; on May 30th, 1820, a graduated personal tax and corn duties were introduced.
Thus a well- organised system of taxation was founded, which satisfied the national economy for some time. All social forces were left with free power of movement and scope for expansion. It mattered little if manufacturers complained, so long as the national prosperity, which was quite shattered, revived. Prussia gradually found the way to the German Customs Union. No one, it is true, could yet predict that change ; but, as if with a presentiment, complaints of the selfish- ness and obstinacy of the tariff loan were heard beyond the Prussian frontiers. What progress had been made with the constitution granting provincial estates jj , and popular representation,
e rogression pj-Qj^|sg(j ^y ^j^g ]^ijj„ by the of Frederic j- . r tit jo 1
^.„. edict of May 22nd, 1815 ?
William T^, . / J 7
1 he commission promised for
this purpose was not summoned until March 30th, 1817. Hardenberg directed the proceedings since it had assembled on July 7th in Berlin, sent Altenstein, Beyme, and Klewitz to visit the provinces in order to collect thorough evidence of the existing conditions, and received reports, which essentially contradicted each other.
It appeared most advisable that the Ministers should content themselves with establishing provincial estates, and should leave a constitution out of the question. Hardenberg honestly tried to make pro- gress in the question of the constitution and to release the royal word which had been pledged ; Frederic William, on the contrary, regretted having given it, and gladly complied with the retrogressive tendencies of the courtiers and supporters of the old regime. He saw with concern the contests in the South German chambers and the excitement among the youth of Germany ; he pictured to himself the horrors of a revolution, and Hardenberg could not carry his point.
The Federal Diet, the union of the princes of Germany, owed its existence to the Act of Federation of June 8th, 18 15, which
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
could not possibly satisfy the hopes of a nation which had conquered a Napoleon. Where did the heroes of the wars of liberation find any guarantee for their claims ? Of what did the national rights consist, and what protection did the whole Federation offer against foreign countries ? Even the deposed and mediatised princes of the old empire were deceived in their last hopes ; they had once more dreamed of a revival of their independence. But they were answered with cold contempt that the new political organisation of Germany demanded that the princes and counts, who had been found already mediatised, should remain incorporated into other political bodies or be incorpor- ated afresh ; that the Act of Federation involved the implicit recognition of this necessity. The Act of Federation pleased hardly anyone, not even its own designers. The opening of the Federal Diet, con- vened for September ist, 1815, was again postponed, since negotiations were taking place in Paris, and there were various territorial disputes between the several federal states to be decided. Austria was scheming for Salz- "p" *' 1 ^^^8 ^^^ ^^^ Breisgau, Bavaria - . ^ for the Baden Palatinate ; the two had come to a mutual agreement at the cost of the House of Baden, whose elder line was djang out, and Baden was confronted with the danger of dismemberment. The two chief powers disputed about Mainz until the town fell to Hesse-Darmstadt, but the right of garrisoning the important federal fortress fell to them both. Baden only joined the Federation on July 26th, 1815, Wiirtemberg on September ist. Notwith- standing the opposition of Austria and Prussia permission was given to Russia, Great Britain, and France to have am- bassadors at Frankfort, while the Federa- tion had no permanent representatives at the foreign capitals. Many of the South German courts regarded the foreign am- bassadors as a support against the leading German powers ; the secondary and petty states were most afraid of Prussia.
Finally, on November 5th, 1816, the Austrian ambassador opened the meeting of the Federation in Frankfort with a speech transmitted by Metternich. On all sides members were eager to move resolutions, and Metternich warned them against precipitation, the very last fault, as it turned out, of which the Federal Diet
was likely to be guilty. On the question of the domains of Electoral Hesse, with regard to which many private persons took the part of the elector, the Federation sustained a complete defeat at his hands. The question of the military organisation of the Federation was very inadequately solved. When the Barbary States in 1817 extended their raids in
_ ** Fi t ^^''•r^h o^ slaves and booty as .... far as the North Sea, and attacked merchantmen, the Hanseatic towns lodged complaints before the Federal Diet, but the matter ended in words. The ambassador of Baden, recalling the glorious past history of the Hansa, in vain counselled the federal states to build their own ships. The Federation remained dependent on the favour of foreign mari- time Powers ; the question of a German fleet was dropped. Nor was more done for trade and commerce ; the mutual exchange of food-stuffs was still fettered by a hundred restrictions.
How did the matter stand with the per- formance of the article of the Act of Federation, which promised diets to all the federal states ?
Charles Augustus of Saxe- Weimar had granted a constitution on May 5th, 1816, and placed it under the guarantee of the Federation, which also guaranteed the Mecklenburg constitution of 1817. The Federation generally refrained from inde- pendent action, and omitted to put into practice the inconvenient article empower- ing them to sit in judgment on "the wis- dom of each federal government." Austria and Prussia, like most of the federal governments, rejoiced at this evasion ; it mattered nothing to them that the peoples were deceived and discontented.
The same evasion was adopted in the case of Article XVIII., on the liberty of the Press. The north of Germany, which had hitherto lived apparently undisturbed, and the south, which was Th F H I seething with the new constitu-
e e« a tional ideas, were somewhat , ^* *"* abruptly divided on this point. In Hanover the feudal system, which had been very roughly handled by Westphahan and French rulers, returned cautiously and without undue haste out of its lurking-place after the restoration of the Plouse of Guelph. In the General Eandtag the landed interest was enormously in the preponderance. Count Miinster-Leden- burg, who governed the new king dons
4831
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
from London, sided with the nobihty ; the constitution imposed in 1814 rested on the old feudal principles. The estates solemnly announced on January 17th, 1815, the union of the old and new terri- tories into one whole, and on December 7th, 1819, Hanover received a new con- stitution on the dual-chamber system, and with complete equality of rights for the two chambers. The nobility and the official class were predominant. There was no trace of an organic development of the commonwealth ; the nobility con- ceded no reforms, and the people took little interest in the proceedings of the chambers.
Charles insulted King George IV., and challenged Miinster to a duel. Finally, the Federal Diet intervened to end the mismanagement, and everything grew ripe for the revolution of 1830.
In the kingdom of Saxony, so reduced in territory and population, matters re- turned to the old footing. Frederic Au- gustus I. the Just maintained order in the peculiar sense in which he understood the word. Only quite untenable conditions were reformed, otherwise the king and the Minister, Count Einsiedel, considered that the highest political wisdom was to persevere in the old order of things.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE TOWN OF BREMERHAVEN, FOUNDED IN 1827
Photochronje
The preponderance of the nobility was less oppressive in Brunswick. George IV. acted as guardian of the young duke, Charles II., and Count Miinster in London conducted the affairs of state, with the assistance of the Privy Council of Brunswick, and promoted the material interests of the state, and the country received on April 25th in the " renewed system of states " a suitable constitution. Everything went on as was wished until Charles, in October, 1823, himself assumed the government and declared war on the constitution. A regime of the most de- spicable caprice and licence now began ;
4832
Industries and trade were fettered, and there was a total absence of activity. The officials were as narrow as the statesmen. In the Federation Saxony always sided with Austria, being full of hatred of Prussia ; Saxonj' was only important in the develop- ment of art. Even under King Anthony, after May, 1827, everything remained m the old position. Einsiedel's statesman- ship was as powerful as before, and the discontent among the people grew.
The two Mecklenburgs remained feudal states, in which the middle class and the peasants were of no account. Even the organic constitution of 1817 for Schwerin
Charles II.
Frederic Augustus
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WUliam I.
REACTIONARY RULERS OF EUROPEAN STATES Assuming- the government of Brunswick in 1823, Charles II. declared war on the constitution, and a regime of the most despicable caprice and licence went on until the Federal Diet intervened to end the mismanagement. Known as the Just, Frederic Augustus I. of Saxony followed in the old order of things, and thus the country was stunted in its industries. King of Wiirtemberg, William I. promised a liberal representative constitution, but did not fulfil his pledges ; he died in 1821.
made no alteration in the feudal power prevailing since 1755 ; the knights were still, as ever, supreme in the country. The Sternberg Diet of 1819 led certainly to the abolition of serfdom, but the position of the peasants was not improved by this measure. Emigration became more com- mon ; trades and industries were stagnant. Even Oldenburg was content with " poli- tical hibernation." Frankfort-on-Main received a constitution on October i8th, 1816, and many obsolete customs were abolished. In the Hansa towns, on the contrary, the old patriarchal conditions were again in full force ; the council ruled absolutelv. Trade and commerce made
great advances, especially in Hamburg and Bremen. The founding of Bremerhaven by the burgomaster Johann Smidt, a clever politician, opened fresh paths of world commerce to Bremen.
The Elector William I., who had returned to Hesse-Cassel, wished to bring every- thing back to the footing of 1806, when he left his countiy ; he declared the ordin- ances of " his administrator Jerome " not to be binding on him, recognised the sale of domains as little as the advancement of Hessian officers, but washed to make the fullest use of that part of the Westphalian ordinances which brought him personal advantage. He promised, indeed, a liberal
THE FAMOUS UNIVERSITY OP BONN. FOUNDED IN THE YEAR 1818
307
4833
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
representative constitution, but trifled with the Landtag, and contented himself with the promulgation of the unmeaning family and national law of March 4th, 1817. When he died, unlamented, in 1821, the still more capricious and worth- less regime of William II. began, which was marked by debauchery, family quar-
_ , , rels, and public discontent.
Reforms of y- jx ■ xu i. ^
th G d '* more edif5ang was the state Duk 'l^ ' ^^ things in Hesse-Darmstadt, where the Grand Duke, Louis I., although by inclination attached to the old regime, worked his best for reform, and did not allow himself to be driven to re- action after the conference at Carlsbad. He gave Hesse on December 17th (March i8th), 1820, a representative constitution, and was an enlightened ruler, as is shown, among other instances, by his acquiescence in the efforts of Prussia toward a customs union.
The most unscrupulous among the princes of the Rhenish Confederation, Frederic of Wiirtemberg, readily noticed the increasing discontent of his subjects, and wished to meet it by the proclamation of January nth, 1815, that ever since 1806 he had wished to give his country a constitution and representation by estates ; but when he read out his constitution to the estates on May 15th, these promptly rejected it. The excitement in the coun- try increased amid constant appeals to the " old and just right." Frederic died in the middle of a dispute on October 30th, 18 16. Under his son, William I., who was both chivalrous and ambitious, a better time dawned for Wiirtemberg. But the estates offered such opposition to him that the constitution was not formed until September 25th, 1819 ; but the first diet of 1820-1821 was extremely amenable to the government. William was very popular, although his rule showed little liberalism.
Bavaria, after the dethronement of its second creator. Napoleon, had recovered the territory on the left bank of the Rhine, _ . , and formed out of it the
la 5 Rhenish Palatinate, whose Recovered , .. • j i- 1
Terr't population remained for a long
time as friendly to France as Bavaria itself was hostile. " Father Max " certainly did his best to amalgamate the inhabitants of the Palatinate and Bavaria, and his premier, Count Montgelas, effected so many profitable and wise changes for this kingdom, which had increased to more than thirteen hundred square German miles, with four million souls, that much
4834
of the blame attached to this policy might seem to be unjustified. His most danger- ous opponents were the Crown Prince Louis, with his leaning towards roman- ticism and his " Teutonic " sympathies and hatred of France, and Field-Marshal Count Wrede. While Montgelas wished not to hear a syllable about a new constitution, the crown prince deliberately adopted a constitutional policy, in order to prepare the downfall of the hated Frenchman.
Montgelas' constitution of May ist, 1808, had never properly seen the light. He intended national representation to be nothing but a sham. The crown prince wished, in opposition to the Minister, that Bavaria should be a constitutional state, a model to the whole of Germany. Mont- gelas was able to put a stop to the intended creation of a constitution in 1814-1815, while his scheme of an agreement with the Curia was hindered by an increase in the claims of the latter. He fell on February 2nd, 1817, a result to which the court at Vienna contributed, and Bavaria spoke only of his defects, without being in a position to replace Montgelas' system by The New another. The Concordat of
CoLittTion of June 5th, 1817, signified a Bavaria complete Victory of the Curia,
and was intolerable in the new state of Bavarian public opinion ; the " kingdom of darkness ' stood beside the door. The Crown met the general dis- content by admitting into the constitution some provisions guaranteeing the rights of Protestants, and thus naturally fur- nished materials for further negotiations with the Curia. On May 26th, 18 18, Bavaria finally received its constitution ; in spite of deficiencies and gaps it was full of vitality, and is still in force, although in the interval it has required to be altered in many points.
Bavaria thus by the award of a liberal constitution had anticipated Baden, which was forced to grant a similar one in order to influence public opinion in its favour. Prospects of the Baden Rhenish- Palatinate were opened up to Bavaria by arrangements with Austria. The ruling House of Zahringen, except for an ille- gitimate line, was on the verge of extinc- tion, and the Grand Duke Charles could never make up his mind to declare the counts of Hochberg legitimate. At the urgent request of Stein and the Tsar Alexander, his brother-in-law, Charles, had already announced to Mettemich and
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Hardenberg in Vienna on December ist, 1814, that he wished to introduce a repre- sentative constitution in his dominions, and so anticipated the Act of Federation. Stein once more implored the distrustful man, "whose indolence was boundless," to carry out his intention ; but every appeal rebounded from him, and he once again postponed the constitutional question.
The Bavarian craving for Baden terri- tory became more and more threaten- ing. A more vigorous spirit was felt in the Baden Ministry after its reorganisa- tion. At last, on October 4th, Charles, by a family law, proclaimed the indivisi- bility of the whole state and the rights of the Hochberg line to the succession. It was foreseen that Bavaria would not submit tamely to this. German public opinion, and even Russian influence were brought to bear in favour of a constitution. Baden was forced to try to anticipate Bavaria in making this concession. Even the Emperor Alexander opened the first diet of his kingdom of Poland on the basis of the constitution of 1815, and took the occasion to praise the blessing of _ . . . liberal institutions. Then Ba- • *^i/V^^\ varia got the start of Baden. Q '^ Tettenborn and Reitzenstein
rraany represented to Charles that Baden must make haste and create a still more liberal constitution, which was finally signed by Charles on August 22nd, 1818.
It was, according to Barnhagen, "the most liberal of all German constitutions, the richest in germs of life, the strongest in energy." It entirely corresponded to the charter of Louis XVIII. The ordinances of October 4th, 1817, were also contained in it and ratified afresh. The rejoicings in Baden and liberal Germany at large were unanimous. In Munich there was • intense bitterness. The Crown Prince Louis in particular did not desist from trying to win the Baden Palatinate, and we know now that even Louis II. in the year 1870 urged Bismarck to obtain it for Bavaria. Baden ceded to Bavaria in 1819 a portion of the district of Wertheim, and received from Austria Hohengerold- seck. The congress at Aix-la-Chapelle had also pronounced in favour of Baden in 1818.
Nassau, before the rest of Germany, had received, on September 2nd, 1814, a constitution, for which Stein was partly responsible. But the estates were not summoned until the work of reorganising the duchy was completed. Duke William
opened the assembly at last on March 3rd, 1818, and a tedious dispute soon broke out about the Crown lands and state property. The Minister of State, Bieber- stein, a particularist and reactionary of the purest water, adopted Mettemich's views. In popular opinion the credit of the first step was not given to Nassau, -J because it delayed so long to
nru y ^ i^ike the second. If Metternich . D' t looked towards Prussia, he saw the king in his element, and Hardenberg in continual strife with Hum- boldt ; if he turned his eyes to South Germany, he beheld a motley scene, which also gave him a hard problem to solve. In Bavaria the first diet led to such unpleasant scenes that the king con- templated the repeal of the constitution. In Baden, where Rotteck and Baron Liebenstein were the leaders, a flood of proposals was poured out against the rule of the new Grand Duke, Louis I. ; the dispute became so bitter that Louis, on July 28th, 1819, prorogued the chambers. In Nassau and in Hesse-Darmstadt there was also much disorder in the diets.
The reaction saw all this with great pleasure. It experienced a regular triumph on March 23rd, 1819, through the bloody deed of a student, Karl Ludwig Sand. It had become a rooted idea in the Umited brain of this fanatic that the dramatist and Russian privy councillor, August von Kotzebue, was a Russian spy, the most dangerous enemy of German freedom and German academic life ; he therefore stabbed him in Mannheim. While great and general sympathy was extended to Sand, the governments feared a con- spiracy of the student associations where Sand had studied.
Charles Augustus saw that men looked askance at him. and his steps for the pre- servation of academic liberty were unavail- ing. Metternich possessed the power, and made full use of it, being sure of the assent
. . of the majority of German
..""If"* * * governments, of Russia, and of the Hotbeds % a. t^ • , • r t-
,- . . Great Britam; even from r ranee of Intrigues , , ,
approval was showered upon
him, Frederic WilHam III., being com- pletely ruled by Prince Wittgenstein and Kaunitz, was more and more overwhelmed with fear of revolution, and wished to abolish everything which seemed open to suspicion. The universities, the fairest ornaments of Germany, were regarded by the rulers as hotbeds of revolutionary intrigues ;
4835
HISTORY OF THE WORLD
they required to be freed from the danger. The authorities of Austria and Prussia thought this to be imperatively necessary, and during the season for the waters at Carlsbad they wished to agree upon the measures . H aste was urgent , asitseemed, for on July ist, 1819, Sand had already found an imitator. Karl Loning, an apothe- —^ Gary's apprentice, attempted
e ron ^^ assassinate at Schwalbach
Prossil" ^^^^ ^°^ ^^®^^' ^^^ president of the Nassau Government, whom, in spite of his liberal and excellent administration, the crackbrained Radicals loudly proclaimed to be a reactionary. The would-be assassin committed suicide after his attempt had failed. In Prussia steps were now taken to pay domiciliary visits, confiscate papers, and make arrests. J ahn was sent to a fortress, the papers of the bookseller Reimer were put under seal, Schleiermacher's sermons were subject to police surveillance, the houses of Welcker and Arndt in Bonn were carefully searched and all writings carried off whici the bailiffs chose to take. Protests were futile. Personal freedom had no longer any pro- tection against the tyranny of the police. The privacy of letters was constantly infringed, and the Government issued falsi- fied accounts of an intended revolution.
On July 29th Frederic William and Metternich met at Toplitz. Metternich strengthened the king's aversion to grant a general constitution, and agitated against Hardenberg's projected constitution. On August ist the Contract of Toplitz was agreed upon, which, though intended to be kept secret, was to form the basis of the Carlsbad conferences ; a censorship was to be exercised over the Press and the uni- versities, and Article 13 of the Act of Federation was to be explained in a corre- sponding sense. Metternich triumphed, for even Hardenberg seemed to submit to him. Metternich returned with justifiable self- complacency to Carlsbad, where he found w - ... his selected body of diplo- _ . matists, and over the heads of
I nary ^j^^ Federal Diet he discussed with the representatives of a quarter of the governments, from August 6th to 31st, reactionary measures of the most sweeping character. Gentz, the secre- tary of the congress, drew up the minutes on which the resolutions of Carlsbad were mainly based. Metternich wished to grant to the Federal Diet a stronger influence on the legislation of the several states, and
4836
through it indirectly to guide the govern- ments, unnoticed by the public. The inter- pretation of Article 13 of the Act of Federation was deferred to ensuing con- ferences at Vienna, and an agreement was made first of all on four main points. A very stringent press law for five years was to be enforced in the case of all papers appearing daily or in numbers, and of pamphlets containing less than twenty pages of printed matter ; and every federal state should be allowed to increase the stringency of the law at its own discretion. The universities were placed under the strict supervision of commissioners ap- pointed by the sovereigns ; dangerous professors were to be deprived of their office, all secret societies and the universal student associations were to be prohibited, and no member of them . should hold a public post. It was enacted that a central commission, to which members were sent by Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, and Nassau, should assemble at, Mainz to investigate the treasonable revolutionary societies which had been discovered ; but, by the distinct
^^ ..^ n, declaration of Austria, such The Te Deum i, 1 j u
commission should have no
_' . . judicial power. A preliminary
Reactionaries •• , • ^ , , ^ , • ,•'
executive order, to terminate
after August, 1820, was intended to secure the carrying out of the resolutions of the Federation for the maintenance of internal tranquillity, and in given cases mihtary force might be employed to effect it.
On September ist the Carlsbad con- ferences ended, and the party of reaction sang their Te Deum. Austria appeared to be the all-powerful ruler of Germany. " A new era is dawning," Metternich wrote to London. The Federal Diet accepted the Carlsbad resolutions with unusual haste on September 20th, and they were pro- claimed in all the federal states. Austria had stolen a march over the others, and the Federal Council expressed its most humble thanks to Francis therefor. All free-thinkers saw in the Carlsbad resolu- tions not merely a check on all freedom and independence, but also a disgrace ; never- theless, the governments, in spite of the indignation of men like Stein, Rotteck, Niebuhr, Dahlmann, Ludwig Borne, and others, carried them out in all their harsh- ness. The central commission of inquiry hunted through the Federation in search of conspiracies, and, as its own reports acknowledge, found nothing of importance,
THE REACTION IN CENTRAL EUROPE
but unscrupulously interfered with the life of the nation and the individual. Foreign countries did not check this policy, although many statesmen, Capodistrias at their head, disapproved of the reaction. The Students' Association was officially dissolved on November 26th, 1819, but was immediately reconstituted in secret.
There was no demagogism in Austria ; Prussia was satisfied to comply with the wishes of the court of Vienna, and even Hardenbergwas prepared for any step which Met- t e r n i c h pre- scribed. Every suspected per- son was re- garded in Berlin as an imported conspirator. The edict of censorship • of 1819, dating from the day of liberation, October i8th, breathed the unholy spirit of Wollner; foreign journals were strictly supervised. The reaction was nowhere more irreconcilable than in Prussia, where nothing recalled the say- ing of Frederic the Great, that every man might be happy after his own fashion. The gymnasia were as relentlessly persecuted as the intellectual
exercises of university training ; nothing could be more detestable than the way in which men like Arndt, Gneisenau, and Jahn were made to run the gauntlet, or a patriot like Justus Gruner was ill-treated on his very deathbed, or the residence of Gorres in Germany ren- dered intolerable . This tendency obviously crippled the fulfilment of the royal promise of a constitution — a promise in which
Humboldt
Frederic William had never been serious. Hardenberg and Humboldt were per- petually quarrelling ; Humboldt attacked the exaggerated power of the chancellor, who was not competent for his post ; Hardenberg laid a new plan of a constitu- tion before the king on August nth, 1819. The king, in this dispute, took the side of Hardenberg, and the dismissal of Boyen and Grolman was followed, on December 31st, 1819, by that of Humboldt and
Count Beyme. Metternich re- joiced ; Hum- boldt, the "thoroughly bad man," was put on one side and thence- forth hved for science.
Hardenberg's position was once more strengthened ; his chief object was to carry the revenue and fin- ance laws. On January 17th, 1820, the ordi- nance as to the condition of the national debt was issued, from which the Liberals re- ceived the comforting as- surance that the Crown would not be able to raise new loans except under the joint guarantee of the proposed
Eichhorn
A GROUP OF DISTINGUISHED GERMANS Entering the service of Prussia in 1 780, Baron von Stein worked for pro- gress and laid the foundations of Prussia's subsequent greatness. Rotteck, a professor at Freiburg, was eminent as a historian and publicist ;
famous as a naturalist and traveller, Humboldt explored unknown aSSCmblv of the lands, while Eichhorn was a prominent Prussian statesman and jurist. , . j
esxates, ano. that the trustees of the debt would furnish the assembly with an annual statement of accounts. Shipping companies and banks were remodelled ; the capital account was to be published every three years. Hardenberg then brought his revenue laws to the front, and in spite of many difficulties these laws, which, though admittedly imperfect, still demanded attention, were passed on May 20th, 1820.
4837
HISTORY OF THE TI^ORLD
Ideal of Union
In accordance with the agreement made in Carlsbad, the representatives of the inner federal assembly met in Vienna, and deliberated from November 25th, 1819, to May 24th, 1820, over the head of the Federal Diet ; the result, the final act of Vienna of May 15th, 1820, obtained the same validity as the Federal Act of 1815. , In the plenary assemblv of June Eichhorn s ^^^^ ^g^^^ ^^^ Federal Diet pro- moted it to be a fundamental law of the Federation. Particu- larism and reaction had scored a success, and the efficiency of the Federal Diet was once more crippled. The nation was universally disappointed by the new fundamental law, which realised not one of its expectations ; but Metternich basked in the rays of success. ^ ,
The question of free intercourse between the federal states had also been discussed in Vienna, and turned men's looks to Prussia's efforts towards a customs union. The Customs Act of May 26th, 1818, was unmercifully attacked ; it was threatened with repeal at the Congress of Aix-la- Chapelle, but weathered the storm, and found protection from Johann Friedrich Eichhorn. In the field of material interests Eichhorn had a free hand ; he was a hero of unobtrusive work, who with inde- fatigable patience went towards his goal — the union of the German states to Prussia by the bond of their own interests. In 1819 he invited the Thuringian states, which formed enclaves in Prussia, to a tariff union, and on October 25th in that year the first treaty for accession to the tariff union was signed with Schwarzburg- Sondershausen ; since this was extremely advantageous to the petty state, it served as a model to all further treaties with Prussian enclaves.
The German Commercial and Industrial Association of the traders of Central and Southern Germany was founded in Frank- fort during the April Fair of 1819, under _, the presidency of Professor
e n ra pj-ig^jj-i^.]^ j J5^ ^f Tiibingen.
Commercial t>, • i r ^i •
. ... Ihe memorial of the associa-
Association ,. , it-. 1
tion, drawn up by List and
presented to the diet, pictured as its
ultimate aim the universal freedom of
commercial intercom se between every
nation ; it called for the abolition of the
inland tolls and existing federal tolls on
foreign trade, but was rejected. List now
attacked the several governments, scourged
in his journal the faults of German
4838
commercial policy, was an opponent of the Prussian Customs Act, and always recurred to federal tolls. Far clearer were the economic views of the Baden statesman Karl Friedrich Nebenius, whose pamphlet was laid before the Vienna conferences. He too attacked the Prussian Customs Act ; but his pamphlet, in spite of all its merits, had no influence on the development of the tariff union. Johann Friedrich Benzenberg alone of the well-known journalists of the day spoke for Prussia. Indeed, the hos- tility to Prussia gave rise to the abortive separate federation of Southern and Central Germany, formed at Darmstadt in 1820. Such plans were foredoomed to failure. All rival tariff unions failed in the same way.
Hardenberg's influence over Frederic William III. had been extinguished by Metternich, and the Chancellor of State was politically dead, even before he closed his eyes, on November 26th, 1822. A new constitution commission under the presidency of the Crown Prince Frederic William {IV. ), who was steeped in roman- ticism, consisted entirely of Hardenberg's opponents, and would only be . . content with charters for the
T^***^ h several provinces. The king riuaip an (.Qj^ggj^^gjj ^q them. After
Hardenberg's death the king could not consent to summon Wilhelm von Hum- boldt, but abolished the presidency in the Cabinet. The king contented himself with the law of June 5th, 1823, as to the regulation of provincial estates.
Bureaucracy and feudalism celebrated a joint victory in this respect. Austria could be contented with Prussia's aversion to constitutional forms, and, supported by it, guided the Federal Diet, in which Wiirtemberg, owing to the frankness and independence of its representative, Wangenheim, now and again broke from the trodden path. Wangenheim suggested the plan of confronting the great German powers with a league " of pure and constitutional Germany," under the leadership of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, proposing to create a triple alliance. But the Vienna conferences of January, 1823, arranged by Metternich, soon^ led to Wiirtemberg's compliance. Wangenheim fell in July. The Carlsbad resolutions were renewed in August, 1824, ^^^ the Federal Diet did not agitate again, after it had quietly divided the unhappy Central Enquiry Commission at Mainz in 1828.
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