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HISTORY   OF    THE    WORLD 

Volume   VIII 


THE 

HISTOEY   OF   THE  WORLD 

A  SURVEY  OF  MAN'S  RECORD 

EDITED    BY 

DR.  H.  F.  HELMOLT 

WITH    AN    INTRODUCTORY    ESSAY    BY    THE 

Right    Hon.  JAMES    BRYCE,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

COMPLETE  IN  EIGHT   VOLUMES 

VOLUME   VIII 
WESTERN   EUROPE  — THE   ATLANTIC   OCEAN 

WITH  PLATES  AND  MAPS 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,   MEAD   AND   COMPANY 

1907 


OopyrigJit,  1907 
By  Dodd,  Mead  and  Company 


A^ 


tINIVERSITT  PRESS    •    JOHN   -WILSON 
AND   SON     ■     CAMBRIDGE,    U.S.A. 


PREFACE 


IN  immediate  connection  with  our  remarks  at  the  beginning  of  the  preface  to 
Volume  VII,  we  would  emphasize  the  fact  that  our  eighth  volume  is  mainly 
a  continuation  of  its  predecessor.  In  the  following  pages  a  prominent  place 
is  assigned  to  the  history  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  history  of  the  Great  Powers  is  here  continued  in  four  main  sections.  First 
comes  an  account,  which  is  necessarily  compressed,  of  the  Eevolutionary  Napole- 
onic and  Eeactionary  periods.  This  is  followed  by  a  description  of  the  political 
and  social  transformations  which  occurred  between  the  years  1830  and  1859.  The 
unification  of  Italy  and  Germany  (1859-1866)  is  the  subject  of  the  third  section. 
The  fourth  gives  a  summary  account  of  every  event  of  importance  which  occurred 
in  Western  Europe  between  1866  and  1902.  Then  follows  a  section  upon  the 
historical  importance  of  the  Atlantic,  which  serves  as  a  liuk  to  connect  Volume  I 
with  Volumes  VII  and  VIII. 

In  preparing  the  illustrations  for  this  volume  the  German  editor  has  been  much 
assisted  by  the  kindness  of  the  following  institutions:  the  Ministry  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  the  Eoyal  Cabinet  of  Engravings,  the  German  Eeichstag,  the  Eoyal 
Archives  in  Berlin ;  the  Eoyal  Cabinet  of  Engravings  in  Dresden ;  the  Art  Insti- 
tute in  Hamburg ;  the  Peters  Musical  Library  in  Leipsic ;  the  Imperial  Library  in 
Vienna. 

OOTOEEE,   1903. 


CONTENTS 


I.  WESTERN  EUROPE  AT  THE  AGE  OF 

THE  REVOLUTION,  NAPOLEON 

AND  THE  REACTION 

Page 

1.  The  Condition  of  France  before  1789        1 

2.  The  Revolution 7 

a.  The  Constituent  Assembly  ....        7 

b.  The  Legislative  Assembly    ....       13 

c.  The  Convention 15 

3.  The  Age  of  Napoleon  I 24 

a.  Bonaparte 24 

b.  Napoleon  I 39 

4.  The  Reaction 85 

a.  The  Beginnings  of  the  Second  Res- 

toration   ',    •     ■       85 

b.  The  Powers 92 

c.  European  Convulsions  (from  1823  to 

the  July  Revolution,  1830)    ...     124 

"n.  THE   POLITICAL  AND   SOCIAL 
CHANGES  IN  EUROPE  BE- 
TWEEN 1830  AND  1859 

1.  Conservative  Aberrations     ....     133 

2.  The  Fall  of  the  Bourbons  in  France     136 

3.  National   Risings  between  1830  and 

1840 143 

a.  Belgium 145 

b.  Poland 146 

c.  The    Revolts  in    Modena    and   the 

Church  States 149 

d.  The  Effects  of  the  July  Revolution 

upon  Germany 150 

e.  The  New  Kingdom  of  Greece  under 

Otto  I     ; 153 

4.  Religious  and  Social  Movements  from 

1830-1850 155 

a.  The  Religious  Ferment 155 

b.  The  First  Attempts  at  a  Solution  of 

the  Social  Question 159 

5.  The  German  Federation  and  the  Ger- 

man Customs  Union 161 

a.  Germany  as  represented  by  the  Diet  161 

b.  The  Customs  Union 162 

c.  The  Beginnings  of  Frederick  William 

IV 164 


6.  The  Collapse  of  Metternich's  System     166 

a.  Conservative  Statesmanship  in  Aus- 

tria       166 

b.  The  Party  Struggles  in   Spain  aijd 

Portugal 168 

c.  The  Struggles  for  Unity  in  Italy  .     .     170 

d.  The   Downfall   of   Jesuit    Predomi- 

nance in  Switzerland 171 

e.  The    Romantic    and    Constitutional 

Movements  in  Prussia 173 

7.  The    February  Revolution  and   its 

Effects 176 

a.  The   Foundation   of   the    Second 

French  Republic 176 

b.  Revolutionary  Movements  in  Central 

Europe 180 

c.  The  Convocation  of  the  German  Par- 

liament      186 

8.  The    Struggles    for    the    Right    of 

National  Autonomy 190 

a.  Italy 190 

b.  The     Austro-Hungarian    Monarchy, 

1848-1849 197 

c.  Schleswig-Holstein 207 

d.  Pan-Slavism  and  the  Poles  ....     210 

9.  The  Red  and  the    Democratic    Re- 

public IN  France 213 

a.  The  Radicals  in  May  and  June,  1848  213 

b.  The  Presidency  of  Louis  Napoleon  .  214 

c.  The   Restoration   of    the    Temporal 

Supremacy  of  the  Pope     .     .     .     .     217 

d.  The  Coup  d'l^fat 218 

10.  Liberalism,  Radicalism,  and  the  Re- 

action IN  Germany' 220 

a.  The  Frankfort  Parliament  ....     220 

b.  Prussia's  Attempt  at  Federal  Reform     230 

11.  Political  and   Ecclesiastical  Ret- 

rogression, 1850-1853 236 

a.  The  Reactionary  Movement  in  West- 

ern Policy  after  1850     .....     236 

b.  Ecclesiastical  Reactionary  Move- 

ments in  Relation  to  the  State    .     .     240 


vm 


CONTENTS 


12.   The  Fluctuations  of  Power  under 
THE  Influence  of  the  Second  French 

Empire  TO  THE  yEAK  1859 242 

a.  The  Crimean  War .243 

6.  The  Downfall  of  Austria  in  Italy      .  247 

III.    THE    UNIFICATION    OF   ITALY   AND 
GERMANY   (1859-1866) 

1.  Preliminary  Remarks 255 

2.  The  Union  of  Italy 257 

a.  Retrospect  of  the  first  Half  of  the 

Nineteenth  Century 257 

b.  The  Ministry  of  Eattazzi      ....  261 

c.  The  Second  Ministry  of  Carour  .     .  263 

d.  Garibaldi 266 

e.  Cavour's  End 269 

/.  The  Roman  Question :   The  Fall  of 

Ricasoli  and  Garibaldi      ....  270 

3.  The  Failures  of  the  Emperor  Na- 

poleon III     ... 271 

4.  Military  Reform  and  the  Constitu- 

tional Struggle  in  Prussia    .    .    .  273 
a.   The    Ministry    of    Hohenzollern- 

Schwerin 273 

6.   The  Army  Reform 275 

c.  The  Attitude  of  the  Landtag   ...  277 

d.  The  Summons  of  Bismarck      .     .     .  279 

5.  Bismarck's  First  Fights 281 

a.  His  Antagonism  to  the  Chamber  of 

Representatives  and  to  the  Crown 
Prince -281 

b.  The  German  Question 283 

c.  Austria  as  a  Constitutional  State      .  284 

d.  The  Diet  of  Princes  at  Frankfort      .  285 

6.  The    Struggle    for    Schleswig-Hol- 

STEIN 286 

a.  The  Hereditary  Right  to  tlie  Duchies  286 

b.  The  War  with  Denmark      ....  288 

c.  The  Treaty  of  Gasteiu 289 

d.  The  Rupture  between  Austria  and 

Prussia 291 

e.  War  Preparations  of  the  Two  Nations  292 
y.   Final  Negotiations  and  the  Outbreak 

of  War 223 

7.  The  Decisive  Struggle 296 

a.  Hanover 296 

b.  The  War  in  Bohemia 296 

c.  The  Battle  of  Custoza 302 

8.  The  Last  Struggles  and  the  Conclu- 

sion of  Peace 302 

a.   The  Advance  of  the  Prussians  to  the 
Danube ;  the  Struggles  iu  Western 

and  Southern  Germany    ....  302 


Page 

b.  Nicholsburg;  Lissa 303 

c.  Bismarck's  Diplomacy 304 

IV.  WESTERN  EUROPE   IN   THE   YEARS 

1866-1902 

1.  Western  Europe,  1866-1871     ....  306 

a.  The  Amalgamation  of  the  new  Prov- 

inces with  the  Kingdom  of  Prussia  306 

b.  The    Establishment    of    the    North 

German  Confederation     ....  308 

c.  The  Difficulties  and   Expedients   of 

Napoleon 311 

d.  The  Consolidation  of  Germany     .     .  314 

e.  Austro-Hungary  after  1866  ....  318 
/.   Great   Britain;    Parliamentary    Re- 
form; Ireland;  Abyssinia     .     .     .  321 

g.  The  Roman  Question;  The  Conse- 
quences of  the  Treaty  of  Septem- 
ber, 1864     .     . 323 

h.  New  Complications 324 

j.   The  Outbreak  of  the  Fraoco-German 

War 328 

k.  The   War  of   Germany  against   the 

French  Empire 336 

I.  The   War  of  Germany  against  the 

French  Republic 341 

2.  Western  Edrope,  1871-1902     ....  354 

a.  The  German  Empire 354 

b.  Austria-Hungary 373 

c.  Great  Britain 375 

d.  France 378 

e.  Spain ■   .     .     .     .  380 

/    Italy 382 

g.  Switzerland 383 

h.  Belgium 385 

j.    The  Netherlands 386 

V.  THE    HISTORICAL    IMPORTANCE  OF 

THE  ATLANTIC       • 

1.  Configuration  and  Position  ....  388 

2.  The  Age  Before  Columbus    .     .   •.    .  391 

a.  Until  the  Retirement  of  the  Romans 

from  the  North  Sea 391 

b.  From  the    Sixth  to   the   Fifteenth 

Century 395 

3.  The  Age  After  Columbus     ....  399 

a.  The  Atlantic  Ocean  as  an  Educa- 
tional Force 399 

6.  The  Part  Played  by  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  in  the  Struggle  for  Suprem- 
acy in  the  World's  Commerce   .     .  403 

c.  The  Atlantic  Ocean  after  the  Napo- 

leonic Wars 408 

4.  Retrospect 412 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


COLOURED   PLATES  Page 

The  Congress  of  Vienna  in  1815  (with  leaf  of  text) 74 

The  Congress  of  Paris  in  the  Year  1856  (with  leaf  of  text)       246 

WOOD   ENGRAVINGS   AND   ETCHINGS 

The  Chief  Characters  of  the  French  Revolution 3 

The  Three  Notifications  of  "The  Moniteur"  which  refer  to  the  Execution  of 

Louis  XVI 16 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  at  Four  Different  Stages  of  his  Career     .......  24 

The  Leaders  of  Russia,  France,  Austria,  and  the  Curia  in  the  Year  1800   ...  34 

The  Heroes  of  the  Liberation  of  Prussia  and  Germany 62 

The  Beginning  and  the  Conclusion  of  the  Holy  Alliance  of  September  26,  1815  .  87 
Caricatures  of  the  Members  of  the  Frankfort  National  Congress  and  of   the 

Prussian  "  Kreuz  "  Newspaper  Party  of  the  Year  1849 187 

The  Danish  Ship  of  the  Line  "  Christian  VIII,"  blown  up  at  Eckernforde,  April 

5,  1849  (with  leaf  of  text) 209 

Introduction,  Middle,  and  Conclusion  of  the  Constitution  of  the  German  Empire 

of  March  28,  1849 , 228 

Otto  von  Bismarck  at  Four  Different  Stages  in  his  Career "   .     .  330 

Important  Extracts  from  the  Preliminary  Peace  of  Versailles  and  the  Treaty  of 

Frankfort  of  February  26  and  May  10,  1871 354 

COLOURED   MAPS 

France  from  1774  to  the  Peace  of  Luueville  of  1801 11 

Middle  Europe  at  the  Beginning  of  the  "Wars  of  Liberation  in  the  Year  1813       .  57 

Prussia  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 304 

The  War  of  1870-71  .     .     .     . >.     .     .  339 


HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD 


WESTERN  EUROPE  AT  THE  AGE  OF  THE  REVOLU- 
TION, NAPOLEON  AND  THE  REACTION 

Bt  prof.    dr.   ARTHUR  KLEINSCHMIDT 


1.    THE   CONDITION  OF  FEANCE  BEFORE   1789 

NO  revolution  of  ancient  or  modern  times  has  obtained  such  a  unique 
popularity  as  the  Revolution  of  1789,  that  terrible  picture  of  sin  and 
retribution,  full  of  light  and  shade,  beauty  and  blood,  of  fair  ideals  and 
foul  crimes,  and  original  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word.  Michelet 
actually  called  it  "  The  accession  of  law,  the  resurrection  of  right,  the  reaction  of 
justice."  That  was  merely  a  phrase ;  the  "  days  of  innocence  "  soon  flew  past,  and 
the  massacres  followed.  Every  other  revolution  was  restricted  by  geographical 
limits,  that  of  1789  destroyed  all  boundaries,  and  had  no  country  of  its  own ;  but 
it  aspired  to  sweep  away  all  frontiers,  and  unite  all  nations  in  a  single  spiritual 
commonwealth.  Like  a  creed  aiming  to  become  a  world  religion,  it  had  its 
preachers  and  its  propaganda ;  it  was  as  intolerant  as  a  world  religion,  but  it 
admitted  no  divine  worship,  recognised  no  future  existence,  and  restricted  itself  to 
the  material  and  the  earthly.  It  wished  to  bring  to  all  the  freedom  which  it 
believed  it  had  won  for  itself ;  it  offered  the  kiss  of  brotherly  affection  to  its  arch- 
enemy, England;  it  cared  for  no  nationality,  but  was  international.  And  this 
impulse  toward  universality  opened  the  doors  to  it  wherever  it  knocked.  It  is 
little  wonder  that  such  a  religion,  seething  and  fermenting  with  the  strength  of 
youth,  was  antagonistic  to  Christianity.  It  rejected  a  church  that  was  based  on 
predestination  and  the  favour  of  God  to  the  wealthy,  —  it  called  that  an  immeas- 
urable injustice,  and  demanded  equality  of  rights  for  all,  equality  before  God  and 
man. 

And  yet  this  international  revolution  was  also  a  local  one ;  it  could  not  occur 
anywhere  except  ta  the  France  of  the  eighteenth  century.  There,  above  all,  the 
ancien  regime  had  lost  its  vitality,  and  had  no  nerve,  no  backbone.  Nowhere  was 
the  old  political  wisdom  so  exhausted,  so  sapless,  as  there ;  nowhere  glowed  a  more 
fiery  hatred  of  despotism  and  feudalism ;  nowhere  had  the  specious  promises  of 
modern  philosophy  so  undermined  the  ground  on  which  the  throne  stood.  And 
seated  on  that  throne  was  no  enlightened  despot  like  Frederick  the  Great,  no 
Maria  Theresa,  commanding  respect  from  all  Europe.     The  "  first-born  "  kingdom 


2  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [chapter  i 

of  the  Church  was  represented  by  the  Eegent  and  Louis  XV,  who  undermined 
morality  by  their  licentious  pleasures,  and  forfeited  respect  by  mean  trading  in 
the  hunger  of  their  people.  They  allowed  themselves  every  excess,  and  trampled 
the  nation  under  their  feet.  The  nation  became  restive  under  the  burden  of  royal 
tyranny,  and  of  that  caste  system  which  was  arrogant  in  spite  of  political  impo- 
tence, and  doubly  detested  for  that  very  reason.  Callousness  and  indifference 
gnawed  the  vitals  of  the  people.  The  land  bled  from  a  thousand  wounds,  and  the 
army,  so  long  the  pride  of  France,  was  dishonoured  by  the  stain  of  Eossbach. 
According  to  Quinet's  view,  a  thunderbolt  ought  to  have  descended  on  the  mon- 
archy at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  War  of  Succession,  and  only  the  patience  of  the 
nation  allowed  another  century  of  sin  to  be  added  to  the  list.  Peter  the  Great,  as 
far  back  as  1717,  after  his  visit  to  Versailles,  thought  that  the  senseless  luxury  of 
the  court  must  ruin  fair  France ;  Montesquieu  did  not  shrink  from  admitting 
that  things  could  not  go  on  longer  as  they  were,  the  ancien  regime  was  untenable ; 
and  Eousseau  dinned  into  his  countrymen's  ears,  "  Awake,  your  will  is  the  law,  is 
God ;  be  no  longer  slaves,  but  kings  ! "  Louis  XV,  on  the  contrary,  sunk  in  cor- 
ruption, said  with  laboured  wit, "  I  am  an  old  man  :  it  will  see  my  time  out ;  my 
grandson  can  take  care  of  himself." 

It  was  unfortunate  for  France  and  the  world  that  this  grandson  and  successor 
was  Louis  XVI,  who  "  could  love,  forgive,  suffer,  and  die,  but  was  incapable  of 
ruling,"  —  a  prince  of  romance,  ill  suited  to  the  tragedy  in  which  he  was  fated  to 
play  a  part.  And  at  his  side  was  Marie  Antoinette,  a  woman  never  weary  of 
pleasure,  a  true  Viennese,  the  easy  prey  of  calumny,  the  impolitic  daughter  of  a 
politic  mother,  who  was  a  more  royal  and  manly  character  than  Louis,  but  yet 
unstable  and  inexperienced.  Then,  if  ever,  France  needed  a  Henry  IV,  who 
would  have  been  able  to  watch  over  the  demands  of  an  age  eager  for  reform,  and 
to  grant  favours  with  prudent  moderation;  it  needed  an  energetic  and  liberal 
sovereign,  fertile  in  plans,  bold  and  renowned,  who  would  have  commanded  rever- 
ence and  warm  affection.  Such  a  sovereign  must  have  carried  out  the  inevitable 
revolution  by  a  coup  d'Stat  from  above  without  bloodshed,  and  would  not  have 
ventured  to  entrust  its  conduct  to  his  people.  A  slave  to  the  influence  and  the 
innuendoes  of  others,  the  puppet  of  his  relations,  of  parties,  nfinisters,  and  cour- 
tiers, possessing  no  knowledge  of  persons  or  events,  Louis  XVI  was  ■sl^aried  by  any 
intellectual  exertion,  avoided  the  bulk  of  his  duties,  and  frittered  away  his  time 
in  hunting  or  in  the  workshops  of  locksmiths  and  watchmakers.  He  remained 
absolutely  moral  in  the  midst  of  the  most  profligate  court  in  the  world,  but  he  was 
devoid  of  self-reliance,  firmness,  or  royal  dignity.  Weak  monarchies  stake  their 
existence  at  the  precise  moment  when  they  wish  to  lighten  the  burden  that  rests 
on  their  people  ;  for  the  people  shakes  itself  entirely  free  from  the  detested  yoke 
that  now  is  easily  slipped  off.  Louis  made  experiments  with  a  series  of  reforms, 
and  revealed  the  weakness  of  the  ancien  regime,  when  he  promised  to  amend  it. 
He  may  have  shown  in  his  proclamation  to  the  attentive  nation  how  disgracefully 
it  had  hitherto  been  treated,  and  under  what  shameful  circumstances  it  had  suf- 
fered and  bled ;  but  he  soon  revived  these  conditions  and  renewed  the  now  doubly 
hated  abuses.  Though  more  disposed  in  favour  of  the  union  of  all  classes  than 
any  other  Bourbon,  he  nevertheless  followed  the  principle,  "  Divide  et  impera." 
While  he  was  the  most  unfortunate  representative  of  absolute  monarchy,  he  still 
looked  down  with  Bourbon  pride  on  the  position  of  a  British  sovereign. 


r*!!  -'=»^" 


The  Chief  C'HAiiACTEK.s  of  the  Fkexch  Revulutiox 


EXPLANATION   OF   PORTEAITS   ON   THE    OTHEE    SIDE 

1.  Jacques  Neoker  (1732-1804)  ;  painted  by  J.  S.  Duplessis-Bertaux,  engraved  by  A.  de  Saint- 

Aubin. 

2.  Honore  Gabriel  Victor  Riqueti,  Comte  de  Mirabeau    (1749-1791);  painted  by  Ch.   Boze, 

engraved  by  E.  Beisson. 

3.  Queen  Marie  A'ntoinette  (1755-1793);  painted  by  Francois  Janinet. 

4.  King  Louis  XVI  (1754-1793) ;  painted  in  1785  by  J.  Boze,  engraved   by  B.  L.  Henriquez. 

5.  Maximilien  Marie  Isidore  Robespierre  (1758-1794);  drawn  by  J.  Guerin,  engraved  by  F. 

G.  Fiessinger. 

6.  Georges  Jacques  Danton  (1759-1794). 

(],  2,  i,  and  5  are  after  the  "AUgmeines  Historisches  Portratwerk  "  of  Woldemar  von  Seidlitz  ; 
3,  from  a  coloured  portrait  in  the  Royal  Collection  of  Engravings  at  Dresden;  6,  after  an  old  anonymous 
lithograph. ) 


lpf7^;fS1Sn^]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  3 

Louis  made  terrible  mistakes  in  the  choice  of  his  first  ministers.  The  premier 
Count  Maurepas  was  nothing  better  than  a  place-hunter  of  ordinary  calibre,  who 
wished  to  make  the  fullest  profit  out  of  his  office,  and  put  every  obstacle  in  the 
path  of  all  who,  like  Turgot  and  Malesherbes,  wished  to  act  honourably  toward 
their  king  and  country.  The  able  minister  of  finance,  Turgot,  aspired  to  make  the 
nation  and  government  one ;  he  wished  to  free  the  labour  on  the  land  and  the 
ownership  of  land  from  all  feudal  burdens,  to  abolish  all  compulsory  labour  ser- 
vice and  privileges,  to  do  away  with  customs  and  local  tolls  within  the  kingdom, 
and  to  join  all  Frenchmen  together  by  the  ties  of  commercial  intercourse.  They 
were  to  be  accustomed  to  public  life  by  provincial  assemblies,  and  prepared  for 
the  fresh  summoning  of  the  states-general;  he  wished  to  see  a  land  tax  levied 
upon  all,  —  in  short,  he  tried  to  build  up  political  reforms  on  the  basis  of  social 
reforms,  just  as  Stein  did  in  Prussia  later,  and  to  effect  the  necessary  alterations  by 
means  of  enactments.  His  friend  Malesherbes,  the  secretary  of  state  and  treas- 
urer of  the  royal  household,  demanded  equal  rights  and  equal  security  for  all,  a 
renewal  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  the  abolition  of  torture  and  of  letires  de  cachet 
(arbitrary  arrests). 

But  Malesherbes  and  Turgot  fell  in  May,  1776,  for  Louis  did  not  wish  to  re- 
construct France,  and  the  privileged  classes  were  opposed  to  any  universal  land 
tax.  The  nation  lost  its  confidence  in  the  crown,  and  this  latter  sacrificed  its  future, 
since  it  gave  the  clergy  and  the  nobility  the  preference  over  the  people.  The 
clergy,  as  great  landed  proprietors,  possessed  a  third  of  the  soil,  with  a  revenue  of 
130,000,000  francs  (£5,000,000  sterling)  and  a  million  and  a  half  of  serfs  (mam- 
mortahles),  but  yet  were  free  from  most  taxes,  and  confined  themselves  to  dons 
gratioits  (voluntary  gifts)  to  the  crown.  They  lived  secular  lives,  indulged  in 
worldly  pleasures,  and  were  as  far  removed  from  genuine  piety  as  Talleyrand  and 
Eohan  showed  them  to  be.  With  all  this  they  asserted  toward  Eome  a  certain 
independence,  which  rested  on  the  four  articles  of  the  Galilean  Church  of  1682. 
The  new  philosophy  concentrated  all  its  fury  against  the  Church,  preached 
atheism,  wished  to  depose  God,  and  overthrow  all  authority;  and  the  Church 
missed  the  statesmanlike  prelates  which  it  had  formerly  possessed,  men  like 
Eichelieu,  Mazarin,  and  Fleury,  thinkers  like  F^nelon,  Bossuet,  and  Malebranche, 
orators  like  FMchier,  Massillon,  and  Bourdaloue.  Effete  and  sterile,  it  could  not 
withstand  the  growing  storm  of  the  Eevolution.  It  was  split  up  into  a  nobility 
consisting  of  the  prelates,  which  was  recruited  mainly  from  among  the  noblest 
families,  and  a  people,  the  inferior  clergy.  Both  sections  hated  each  other ;  the 
one  feared,  the  other  desired,  the  Eevolution  as  the  first  step  toward  equalisation 
of  rights.  The  nobles  were  never  so  detested  as  now,  when  they  had  sunk  from 
the  position  of  local  rulers  to  that  of  supple  courtiers,  and  never  appeared  on 
their  estates  except  to  collect  the  rents,  which  they  squandered  in  Versailles.  It 
was  only  in  La  Vendc^e  and  Brittany  that  the  nobles  lived  a  patriarchal  life  and 
contmued  to  be  the  friends  and  respected  counsellors  of  the  people.  Everywhere 
else  they  represented  a  rigid  caste ;  they  made  themselves  hated  from  their  ridicu- 
lous pride,  and  they  owned  some  third  of  the  soil,  in  addition  to  many  valuable 
privileges.  They  too  were  divided  into  the  higher  and  the  lower  nobility ;  the  two 
sections  were  disunited,  and  powerless  against  the  coming  revolution.  Besides  the 
noblesse  d'epee  (or  knightly  nobility)  there  was  also  the  noblesse  de  robe  (nobility 
of  office).     The  crown  could  rely  neither  on  clergy  nor  on  nobility ;  the  future 


4  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  ^Chapter  i 

belonged  to  the  Third  Estate,  which  official  France  contemptuously  ignored ;  it  com- 
prised twenty-five  million  souls,  while  the  two  privileged  classes  together  did  not 
amount  to  half  a  million.  There  was  no  middle  class  of  proprietors.  In  France,  as 
Arthur  Young  noticed  in  1791,  there  were  only  latifundia  and  small  holdings,  and 
the  small  holdings,  which  made  up  a  third  of  the  soil,  were  in  the  hands  of  pea- 
sants. The  Eevolution  first  created  the  middle  class  of  landowners.  No  one  spoke 
so  loudly  of  the  abuses  of  the  ancien  regime  as  the  Third  Estate,  to  which  it  was 
nevertheless  indebted  for  many  privileges.  It  hated  the  nobility,  whose  property  it 
had  partially  obtained,  despised  the  voluptuous  clergy,  which  it  rivalled  in  religious 
indifference,  and  scoffed  at  the  poor  man,  who,  as  misera  contrihuens  plehs,  did  not 
appear  its  equal.     All  classes  were  thus  disunited  and  divided  among  themselves. 

Turgot's  entire  work  was  ruined  under  incompetent  successors.  Even  when 
Jacques  Necker,  the  Genevese,  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  finances  in  June, 
1777,  there  was  still  scope  for  Miurepas'  machinations ;  for  Necker,  as  a  Protestant, 
could  not  become  a  member  of  the  council  of  state,  and  come  into  close  contact 
with  the  king.  Necker  was  intolerably  proud ;  he  plumed  himself  upon  his  strict 
morality,  but  could  never  rise  to  any  lofty  ideal.  He  considered  himself  a  genius, 
and  yet  hated  all  genius  in  others,  as  he  had  shown  by  his  behaviour  to  Turgot 
and  Mirabeau.  He  was  no  statesman,  and  had  no  talent  for  administration ;  he 
was  merely  a  banker,  but  disinterested  and  incorruptible.  Without  thinking  of  the 
future,  he  tried  to  alleviate  the  distress  of  the  moment ;  but  he  was  incapable  of 
organising  the  shattered  finances,  and  contented  himself  with  specious  appearances. 
While  his  name  was  a  power  on  the  money  market,  and  the  bourses  at  home  and 
abroad  were  open  to  him,  he  incurred  new  debts  to  cover  the  old,  anticipated  the 
coming  years  by  loans,  borrowed  in  five  years  530,000,000  francs  (£21,000,000), 
and  worked  with  a  permanent  deficit. 

Public  opinion  compelled  him  to  take  part  in  the  war  of  Great  Britain  and  her 
American  colonies  and  to  incur  fresh  debts.  The  oldest  kingdom  allied  itself  with 
the  youngest  republic.  The  young  nobles  were  enthusiastic  for  the  pioneers  of 
political  freedom  in  the  New  World.  Lafayette,  Custine,  Lameth,  Eochambeau, 
and  others  shed  their  blue  blood  there,  and  by  so  doing  won  the  approval  even 
of  the  Third  Estate,  who  formerly  had  been  their  bitter  foes.  The  appearance 
of  Benjamin  Frankliu  at  the  court  of  Versailles  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  m8)  and  his 
affected  simplicity  procured  for  America  the  alliance  of  the  Boi  Trh-Chretien ; 
and  when  Eochambeau's  troops,  having  become  familiar  with  the  freedom  of  the 
New  World,  returned  to  their  despotically  governed  home  after  the  peace  of 
Versailles  in  1783,  they  brought  back  with  them  republican  ideas  and  the  germs 
of  revolution. 

Necker's  operations  failed ;  he  himself  followed  the  path  of  Turgot,  whom  he  had 
previously  opposed,  and  ventured  on  what  was  an  unprecedented  step,  considering 
the  mystery  in  which  the  ancien  regime  had  loved  to  shroud  itself.  Eemembering 
the  British  budgets,  he  published  in  1781  a  "  Gompte^endu  presents  au  roi,"  or 
statement  of  accounts  to  the  king.  The  work  shows  traces  of  deliberate  em- 
bellishment ;  it  lays  stress  upon  all  improvements  in  the  incomings,  and  skilfully 
conceals  the  deductions ;  presents  a  quite  false  picture,  denies  the  deficit,  which 
amounted  to  over  two  hundred  and  eighteen  millions,  and  speaks  of  ten  millions 
surplus.  The  compte-rendu  hurried  on  the  Eevolution,  for  now  the  nation  was 
supplied  with  statistics  of  the  senseless  and  ruinous  extravagance  which  prevailed 


Xfr..fiSS»]        HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  5 

at  court;  but  it  was  fatal  to  Neoker,  for  Maurepas  overthrew  him  on  May  19, 
1781.  This  gave  the  opposition,  which  was  headed  by  the  Dulce  of  Orleans,  and 
the  Prince  of  Cond^,  the  opportunity  to  flatter  Necker's  pride  by  ovations  and  to 
magnify  his  dismissal  into  a  national  disaster. 

After  the  death  of  Maurepas,  in  November  of  the  year  1781,  the  king  did  not 
appoint  another  premier,  and  became  more  dependent  on  the  queen,  who  had  just 
given  birth  to  the  dauphin.  Necker's  immediate  successors,  Joly  de  Fleury  and 
d'Ormesson,  held  ofiice  for  a  brief  period,  and  on  October  3,  1783,  the  Marquis 
de  Calonne,  a  profligate  and  spendtlirift  rou4,  became  "  controller  general,"  or 
director  of  finance.  His  system  of  the  most  mad  extravagance  with  an  empty 
treasury  at  once  satisfied  the  courtiers ;  he  called  an  unbounded  expenditure  of 
money  the  true  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"  (food  and  amusement)  through  his  great 
public  works  in  Paris,  Cherbourg,  etc.  Calonne  reduced  Necker's  system  of  borrow- 
ing 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  courted  bankruptcy. 
The  scandalous  affair  of  the  Diamond  Necklace,  into  which  the  queen's  name  was 
dragged  by  vile  calumniators,  was  a  fitting  product  of  Calonne's  age  of  gross  corrup- 
tion. When  he  was  at  an  end  of  his  resources  he  brewed  a  compound  of  the  reform- 
ing 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  Eichelieu  had  acted  in  their  daj^,  and  summon  an  assembly  of 
notables,  by  which  order  could  easily  be  established.  He  extolled  his  administra- 
tion before  it,  and  attacked  Necker.  This  led  to  a  paper  war  between  them,  result- 
ing 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  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  millions.  The  archbishop  of  Toulouse  then  brought  up  the  clergy  to 
the  attack,  and  reckoned  out  a  deficit  of  one  hundred  and  forty  millions.  The 
court  effected  the  fall  of  Calonne  in  April  9, 1787,  and  the  quack  left  France,  while 
the  popular  voice  clamoured  for  the  return  of  Necker.  The  courtiers,  however, 
persuaded  Louis  to  summon  the  Archbishop  de  Brienne,  who  had  overthrown 
Calonne,  and  actually  to  nominate  him  "  principal  minister." 

Archbishop  Lom^nie  de  Brienne  was  an  actor  of  exceptional  versatility,  a 
philosophising  self-indulgent  place-seeker,  who  wished  to  carry  measures  by  the 
employment  of  force,  and  yet  was  discouraged  at  the  least  resistance.  When  the 
notables  refused  him  the  land  tax,  he  dismissed  them ;  they  now  took  back  home 
with  them  full  knowledge  of  the  abuses  prevailing  at  Versailles,  and  paved  the  way 
for  the  Eevolution.  The  archbishop  had  a  very  simple  plan  by  which  to  meet 
the  financial  problem,  but  he  soon  was  involved  in  strife  with  the  parliament. 
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  Polignac,  whose  picture  the  mob  burnt  together  with  that  of  Calonne. 
The  parliament,  exiled  to  Troyes,  concluded  after  a  month  a  compromise  with  the 
government,  but  insisted  on  the  abandonment  of  the  stamp  duty  and  land  tax. 


6  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichapur  i 

Louis,  who  posed  as  an  absolute  monarch,  played  a  sorry  figure  in  the  seance  royale 
of  November  19,  in  which  the  duke  of  Orleans  won  for  himself  a  cheap  popularity, 
and  in  the  lit  de  justice  (solemn  meeting  of  parliament)  of  May  18, 1788.  On  this 
latter  date  the  parliaments  were  reduced  to  the  level  of  simple  provincial  magis- 
trates, and  a  supreme  court  {cour  plenihre)  constituted  over  them.  This  was  the 
most  comprehensive  judicial  reform  of  the  ancien  regime  ;  but  the  crown  did  not 
possess  the  power  to  carry  it  out.  The  courts  as  a  body  suspended  their  work ; 
parliaments,  clergy,  nobility,  and  the  Third  Estate  leagued  together  against  the 
centralising  policy  of  the  crown ;  Breton  nobles  laid  in  Paris  the  foundation  stone 
of  what  was  afterward  to  be  known  as  the  Jacobin  Club ;  the  provinces,  especially 
Dauphin^,  were  in  a  ferment ;  and  revolutionary  pamphlets  were  sold  in  the  gardens 
of  the  Palais  Eoyal,  the  residence  of  the  duke  of  Orleans.  Louis,  however,  lived 
for  the  day  only.  The  loyal  Malesherbes  vainly  conjured  him  not  to  underestimate 
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  imminent.  It  was  high  time  to 
find  an  ally  against  the  privileged  classes,  which  granted  him  no  money,  and 
Brienne  looked  for  one  in  the  nation.  He  invited  every  one  to  communicate  with 
him  on  the  subject  of  the  states-general,  offered  complete  liberty  of  the  press  on 
this  national  question,  and  let  loose  a  veritable  deluge ;  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  pamphlets  appeared.  Their  utterances  were  striking.  First  and  foremost 
there  was  the  pamphlet  of  the  Abb^  Si^yfes,  vicar-general  at  Ghartres,  entitled 
"  Qu'est-ce  que  le  Tiers  Btat ; "  a  scathing  attack  on  clergy  and  nobility,  and  a  glori- 
fication of  the  Third  Estate,  which  Si^yfes  emphatically  declared  was  the  nation, 
and  as  such  ought  to  send  to  the  national  assembly  twice  as  many  representatives 
as  the  two  other  estates.  Thirty  thousand  copies  of  this  pamphlet  were  in  circu- 
lation in  three  weeks.  Count  d'Antraigues  in  his  pamplilet  recalled  the  proud 
words  with  which  the  justiciar  of  Aragon  did  fealty  to  the  king :  "  We,  each  of 
whom  is  as  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  Eousseau,  the  distinction  of  classed' explained 
that  no  sort  of  disorder  is  so  terrible  as  not  to  be  preferable  to  the  ruinous  quiet  of 
despotic  power,  and  called  the  hereditary  nobility  the  heaviest  scourge  with  which 
an  angry  heaven  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  Count  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 
counselled  him  to  become  the  Marcus  Aurelius  of  France  by  granting  a  constitu- 
tion and  just  laws.  His  solution  was  "war  on  the  privileged  and  their  privileges," 
but  his  sympathies  were  throughly  monarchical.  Louis  then  promised  that  the 
states-general,  which  the  popular  voice  demanded,  should  meet  on  May  1, 1789, 
and  dissolved  the  cour  pUniere.  The  archbishop,  on  the  other  hand,  suspended 
the  repayment  of  the  national  debt  for  a  year,  and  adopted  such  desperate  financial 
measures  that  every  one  considered  him  maa.  On  August  25  he  was  dismissed 
from  office ;  the  mob  burnt  him  in  effigy  and  called  for  Necker,  on  whom  the 


J7:7lT.ll^iir[       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  7 

country  pinned  its  last  hopes.     Louis  reluctantly  summoned  him,  and  this  time 
conceded  to  him  a  seat  and  vote  in  the  council  of  state. 

Necker  had  hardly  become  director-general  of  finance  before  credit  improved. 
The  public  funds  rose  thirty  per  cent  in  a  day,  the  capitalists  brought  back  their 
money,  and  Necker's  name  was  a  power  on  the  bourse.  With  his  boundless  self- 
complacency  he  hoped  to  make  the  ship  of  state  once  more  seaworthy,  although 
there  were  barely  500,000  francs  (£20,000)  in  the  treasury.  He  took  with  one 
hand  what  he  gave  with  the  other ;  he  borrowed  in  eight  ^onths  sixty  millions 
from  the  discount  office,  monopolised  more  than  ever  the  corn  trade  of  the  king- 
dom, and  treated  the  question  of  the  states-general  as  a  jest,  while  Mirabeau,  his 
most  formidable  opponent,  estimated  their  value  by  the  words :  "  The  nation  has 
made  a  century  of  progress  in  twenty-four  hours.  You  will  see  what  it  can  do  on 
the  day  which  gives  it  a  constitution,  on  the  the  day  when  intellect  also  will  be  a 
force."  Necker  did  not  come  down  from  his  curule  chair ;  he  made  no  reforms  from 
above,  but  stared  vacantly  into  the  distance.  In  vain  Malouet,  Mounier,  and 
others  urged  him  to  overcome  his  indecision.  He  preferred  to  shift  the  responsi- 
bility of  answering  the  question  how  the  states-general,  which  had  not  met  since 
1614,  should  sit,  to  a  new  assembly  of  notables,  which  met  in  N"ovember,  1788, 
but  did  nothing  and  was  dissolved  on  December  12.  Then  on  December  27  he 
pronounced,  contrary  to  it,  in  favour  of  doubling  the  number  of  representatives  of 
the  Third  Estate,  and  published  his  view  in  a  pamphlet  in  order  to  increase  his 
popularity.  He  did  not,  however,  decide  the  question  whether  the  voting  in  the 
states-general  was  to  be  by  orders  or  by  heads,  while  the  whole  nation  was  already 
hurrying  to  the  voting  urns.  He  did  not  form  any  combinations  in  order  to  be 
able  to  guide  matters,  but  sat  at  his  desk  and  composed  the  tedious  oration  in  his 
own  praise  which  he  intended  to  pronounce  at  the  opening  of  the  states-general. 
The  deputies  of  the  clergy  were  divided,  as  we  have  already  mentioned  (p.  3),  into 
a  nobility  and  a  people.  The  prelates  piteously  protested,  "  A  complete  revolution 
seems  to  threaten  every  political,  civil,  and  religious  institution.  The  people  will 
make  an  uproar,  and  will  rise  against  the  nobles."  The  inferior  clergy,  however, 
looked  forward  to  that  day.  The  nobility,  which  had  most  to  lose  by  this  revolu- 
tion, was  equally  disunited ;  and  the  new  age  found  its  representatives  neither  in 
the  clergy  nor  the  nobility,  but  in  the  Third  Estate.  The  electoral  law  was  to  a 
large  degree  democratic.  Among  the  deputies  of  the  Third  Estate  the  lawyers 
greatly  predominated ;  there  were  hardly  six  country  gentlemen.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Third  Estate  elected  a  number  of  nobles  and  clerics,  for  instance,  Mira- 
beau and  Si^yfes.     It  felt  itself  the  representative  of  the  entire  nation. 

2.  THE   EEVOLUTION 

A.  The  Constituent  Assembly 

When  Louis  XVI  on  May  5  appeared  at  the  opening  of  the  states -general, 
Mirabeau  said  to  his  neighbour, "  There  is  the  victim ; "  and  the  greatest  Frenchman 
of  the  century  listened  with  undisguised  distrust  to  the  three  hours'  speech  of 
ISTecker,  which  was  an  interminable  series  of  statistics  and  repetitions,  and  totally 
misrepresented  the  financial  position.  Since  Mirabeau  also  violently  attacked 
Necker  in  his  journal,  the  government  tried  to  silence  him  by  force ;  but  he  held 


8  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [cha^pterl 

Ms  ground,  and  spoke  just  as  before  against  the  man  who  proudly  wrapt  himself  in 
his  threadbare  cloak  of  virtue.  On  the  17th  of  June  the  deputies  of  the  Third 
Estate,  having  been  often  foolishly  challenged  and  insulted  by  the  court,  consti- 
tuted themselves  the  National  Assembly.  Si^yfes'  question,  What  is  the  Third 
Estate  ?  was  thus  answered.  The  Third  Estate  jostled  aside  the  two  superior 
classes  and  proceeded  to  the  order  of  the  day.  Necessity  compelled  the  nobles 
and  clergy  to  unite  with  it  on  June  27.  One  victory  after  another  fell  to  it; 
even  the  voting  by  heads  and  not  by  orders  was  conceded.  On  June  20  the 
deputies  administered  the  "  first  oath  "  in  the  tennis  court  at  Versailles.  Louis,  it 
is  true,  had  declared  it  null  and  void ;  but  at  the  close  of  the  royal  sitting  (June 
23),  in  which  Necker  meanly  deserted  the  king  in  order  to  heighten  his  own  popu- 
larity, Mirabeau  emphasised  the  lasting  efficacy  of  the  oath,  challenged  the  bayo- 
nets, and  thus  succeeded  in  affirming  the  inviolability  of  the  national  assembly. 
These  were  heavy  reverses  to  the  crown,  since  the  army  now  began  to  show  disloy- 
alty. Where  was  there  any  tangible  power,  if  Mirabeau  dared  to  use  such  lan- 
guage ?  The  court,  led  by  the  queen,  took  fresh  courage.  The  Duke  of  Broglie 
received  the  command  over  the  foreign  regiments,  which  mustered  in  and  round 
Versailles,  Louis  refused  to  withdraw  them,  and  Necker  was  summarily  dismissed 
on  the  11th  of  July. 

Necker  hurried  so  rapidly  to  Coppet  in  Switzerland  that  his  arrest  was  impos- 
sible. To  the  deluded  people  he  appeared  a  martyr,  and  riots  broke  out.  Des- 
moulins  termed  Necker's  dismissal  the  tocsin  for  a  St.  Bartholomew's  night  of  the 
patriots,  and  the  new  ministry  of  the  reaction  was  completely  powerless.  Its 
weakness  was  proclaimed  by  the  surrender,  which  is  even  yet  mendaciously 
glorified  as  the  storming,  of  the  Bastille  on  that  14th  of  July  when  the  mob  so 
basely  broke  the  promise  which  it  gave  to  the  few  defenders  of  the  old  fortress. 
The  revolt  had  become  a  revolution,  as  the  Duke  of  Larochefoucauld-Lian court 
first  announced  to  the  astonished  monarch  on  the  following  night.  How  bewil- 
dered everyone  was  by  the  reality !  What  power  the  phrase  possessed !  The  trade 
in  stones,  in  models,  in  pieces  of  iron  and  wood  from  the  Bastille,  was  world-wide. 
Lafayette  received  a  sword  of  honour  made  out  of  a  bar  from  the  Bastille,  and  the 
theatres  earned  immense  sums  by  "  La  Prise  de  la  Bastille."  Schlozer  thought  that 
a  Te  Deum  must  have  been  sung  in  heaven  for  the  wonderful  events,  Klopstock 
lamented  that  he  had  not  a  hundred  tongues  to  extol  the  day  of  freedom  ;  Stolberg, 
Johannes  von  Miiller,  Forster,  Eulogius  Schneider,  and  Steffens  vied  with  each 
other  in  enthusiasm.  In  St.  Petersburg  the  passers-by  embraced  one  another  in 
the  streets  and  rejoiced  over  the  foul  massacre  of  the  14th  of  July. 

Louis  was  compelled  to  recall  Necker  on  July  16.  The  latter,  with  blind  self- 
confidence,  accepted  office  unhesitatingly  for  the  third  time,  and  was  conducted  in 
a  triumphal  procession  to  Versailles  as  "  father  of  the  people."  Louis,  on  the  con- 
trary, had  already  taken  the  first  step  on  the  road  to  the  scaffold ;  for  his  appear- 
ance in  the  national  assembly  and  his  offer  of  reconciliation  and  confidence  on 
reciprocal  terms  could  only  accentuate  the  ambiguity  of  his  position.  While  the 
Count  of  Artois,  his  youngest  brother,  led  the  great  retreat  of  the  first  emigration 
and  the  fortune-hunting  courtiers  fled  for  their  lives  like  cowards,  the  visit  of  Louis 
on  July  17  to  mutinous  Paris  degraded  his  crown.  He  represented  the  caricature 
of  a  citizen-king  by  the  side  of  the  mayor,  Bailly,  and  Lafayette,  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  National  Guard.    When  he  returned  to  the  queen  at  Versailles  with 


Xfr^^rS^f;]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  9 

the  national  cockade, "  the  distinctive  badge  of  the  French,"  she  could  not  suppress 
the  cry, "  I  did  not  think  to  have  married  a  citizen ! "  Everything  bowed  before  the 
national  assembly,  which  lay  under  the  hand  of  the  mob.  The  dictatorship  of 
blood  was  in  sight,  and  Barnave  enquired  in  the  assembly,  after  the  murder  of  a 
number  of  "  national  enemies,"  "  Is,  then,  this  blood  so  pure  ? "  Necker  revelled  in 
the  consciousness  that  he  was  the  guardian  angel  of  the  nation,  and  was  tactless 
enough  to  allow  a  general  amnesty,  which  could  only  emanate  from  the  monarch, 
to  be  granted  by  the  municipal  authorities  of  Paris.  Mirabeau,  who  strained  every 
nerve  to  obtain  Necker's  position,  attacked  him  remorselessly,  and  tried  to  gain 
access  to  the  threatened  court  through  Count  August  von  der  Mark  (Prince  Aren- 
berg) ;  the  queen,  however,  allowed  herself  to  be  mastered  by  her  feelings,  and, 
calamitously  for  her,  rejected  the  helper,  the  "  plebeian  count "  who  was  notorious 
for  his  profligacy.  He  avenged  himself  by  inciting  the  populace  of  Paris,  and 
aimed  at  the  mayoralty,  which  Bailly,  a  weak  character,  was  incompetent  to  admin- 
ister ;  but  he  had  to  fight  for  power  against  the  court  and  Necker  on  one  side,  and 
Jacobins  and  other  claimants  on  the  other.  Meanwhile  the  peasant  war  raged  in 
the  provinces.  Law  and  magistrates  were  silent  before  the  bandits.  Chateaux 
and  monasteries  were  burnt  daily ;  nobody  any  longer  would  pay  the  taxes ;  Marat 
and  other  despicable  creatures  commanded  the  press ;  and  the  masses  listened  to 
the  senseless  "  (^a  ira,"  the  favorite  song  of  the  Jacobius. 

In  the  midst  of  this  excitement  came  the  night  of  the  4th  of  August,  the  night 
of  deluded  infatuation  for  the  nobility  and  clergy,  whose  voluntary  sacrifice,  offered 
in  an  excess  of  self-abnegation,  was  soon  regarded  as  unworthy  of  thanks.  Mira- 
beau had  before  this  declared  it  to  be  ridiculous  that  the  rights  of  man  should  be 
proclaimed  before  the  country  possessed  a  constitution;  but  the  constituent  na- 
tional assembly  was  too  much  in  love  with  abstract  principles  to  hear  him.  After 
the  reckless  proceedings  of  the  night  which  sounded  the  knell  of  feudal  France, 
he  wrote  to  his  uncle :  "  Here  you  see  your  Frenchmen.  For  a  month  they  were 
wrangling  over  syllables,  and  in  a  night  they  demolished  the  entire  ancient  struc- 
ture of  the  monarchy."  Yet  scarcely  anyone  in  the  assembly  ventured  to  suggest 
that  the  resolutions  of  the  4th  of  August  encroached  upon  the  feudal  rights  of 
many  German  States  of  the  empire  in  Alsace,  Lorraine,  and  Burgundy  and  preju- 
diced them  without  authority.  The  French  rejoiced  like  children  at  the  victory  over 
tradition  and  history,  and  at  the  public  justification  of  the  peasant  war  of  the  last 
few  weeks.  Not  a  single  voice  was  conservative,  all  thoughts  and  actions  were 
revolutionary,  and  men  tried  to  spread  this  movement  outside  the  limits  of  the 
coimtry.  Disorders,  therefore,  broke  out  in  the  neighbouring  secular  and  spiritual 
domains ;  trees  of  liberty  were  planted,  seditious  songs  and  speeches  were  heard,  all 
the  protests  of  the  States  of  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire  were  futile.  France  cared 
nothing  for  the  right  of  other  people  to  be  free  agents,  but  insisted  upon  forcing  on 
all  her  own  "  freedom." 

The  debates  on  the  proposed  new  constitution  bore  the  stamp  of  excited  pas- 
sions, immaturity  and  utopianism.  A  heated  dispute  as  to  the  veto  soon  began. 
The  democrats  declared  it  madness  to  cripple  the  will  of  twenty -five  millions  by 
the  veto  of  one  individual ;  the  constitutionalists  supported  the  royal  right  of  veto, 
in  order  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  mob  rule.  Men  in  the  streets  shouted 
curses  on  the  veto,  many  took  Veto  for  the  name  of  a  hated  aristocrat,  and  wished 
to  hang  him  on  a  lamp-post,  the  new  method  of  showing  public  disapproval.     On 


10  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapteri 

the  SOtli  of  August  tlie  Marquis  de  Saint-Huruge,  who  had  sunk  from  one  depth 
to  another,  started  for  Versailles  with  a  large  mob,  but  was  prevented  by  Lafayette 
from  reaching  his  destination.  Mirabeau  ia  a  marvellous  speech  defended  the 
absolute  veto  of  the  king ;  Necker,  on  the  contrary,  who  had  been  since  August  6 
"  first  minister  of  finance,"  in  order  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  people  behaved 
so  pitiably  that  Louis,  unsupported  as  he  was,  contented  himself  on  September  11 
with  the  veto  suspensif  (or  suspensory  veto),  and  thus  became  powerless  in  the 
sphere  of  legislature. 

The  national  assembly  declared  itself  permanent.  The  new  constitution  re- 
quired no  royal  assent ;  the  "  king  of  France  and  Navarre  "  became  a  simple  "  king 
of  the  French ; "  and  in  the  constitution  were  included  the  possible  contingencies 
under  which  he  could  lose  his  crown.  The  court  committed  folly  upon  folly,  need- 
lessly provoking  the  already  exasperated  people  by  fetes  of  the  Gardes  du  Corps, 
and  so  forth.  On  the  5th  of  October  Paris  marched  to  Versailles  in  order  to  bring 
the  royal  family  under  the  yoke  of  the  mob.  Lafayette's  suspicious  attitude  facili- 
tated the  undertaking,  and,  amid  scenes  of  the  most  revolting  character,  the  mon- 
arch, the  royal  family,  and  the  national  assembly,  in  accordance  with  the  popular 
wish,  were  brought  to  Paris.  Necker  had  counselled  this  step ;  Mirabeau  offered 
useless  warnings  against  it.  Paris  now  was  queen  of  France.  A  number  of 
moderates  left  the  national  assembly,  where  consequently  the  radicals  gained  in 
power ;  no  part  can  be  played  with  weakening  forces.  Lafayette,  the  strongest 
man  in  the  country,  sent  the  Duke  of  Orleans  out  of  his  path  to  England.  Mira- 
beau broke  with  this  latter  and  exclaimed :  "  He  is  as  cowardly  as  a  lacquey ;  he 
is  a  scoundrel,  and  would  not  be  good  enough  to  black  my  boots." 

Gabriel  Honor^  Eiqueti,  Count  Mirabeau,  who  knew  France  better  than  anyone, 
wished  to  become  prime  minister  in  the  kingdom  created  on  August  4  and  to 
build  up  a  constitutional  monarchy.  His  ideal  was  la  monarchie  sur  la  surface 
egale,  and  he  thought  that  one  class  of  citizens  would  have  met  with  Eiche- 
lieu's  approval.  Mirabeau  saw  in  Lafayette  the  flighty  and  emotional  usurper,  a 
Grandison-Cromwell,  and  he  conjured  Louis  to  leave  Paris  at  once.  But  nobody 
listened  to  his  advice,  no  one  wished  to  have  this  genius  in  the  ministry.  In  order 
to  remedy  the  financial  distress  the  ecclesiastical  property  was  made  available  and 
was  declared  to  be  the  "  dowry  of  the  Eevolution."  Specie  disappeaJftd  from  circu- 
lation, foreign  countries  no  longer  gave  any  credit,  assignats  flooded  the  country, 
and  national  bankruptcy  was  approaching.  All  the  efforts  of  Mirabeau  to  become 
minister  failed.  The  resolution  of  the  national  assembly  of  November  7,  by 
which  no  member  might  become  minister  during  the  session,  was  aimed  at  him ; 
and  he  said  to  Chateaubriand  that  his  superiority  would  never  be  forgiven.  The 
dream  of  a  parliamentary  monarchy  was  past. 

The  process  of  transformation  lasted  in  France  untD.  the  summer  of  1790. 
America  served  in  many  cases  as  the  prototype,  and  then  the  French  constitution 
became  itself  the  model  of  all  the  constitutions  of  Europe  and  America.  Mira- 
beau opposed  incessantly  the  levelling  mania,  and  wished  to  preserve  in  the  new 
State  the  good  points  of  the  old.  But  every  historical  tradition  was  destroyed. 
France  was  divided  into  eighty-three  departments,  as  nearly  as  possible  of  the 
same  size,  which  were  called  after  mountains  and  rivers,  to  avoid  any  recollection 
of  the  old  provinces  and  to  destroy  any  feeling  of  union ;  Sidyfes  even  proposed 
numbers  instead  of  names.     All  executive  power  was  sacrificed;  the  monarchy 


ZT£TZSl':]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  11 

and  the  influence  of  the  crown  were  ruined  in  the  overthrow  of  all  organisa- 
tion. The  king  was  obeyed  henceforward  only  if  his  will  happened  to  be  that 
of  4,400,000  participatory  citizens.  The  whole  body  of  officials  depended  on  these 
latter,  who  were  their  electors,  and  a  most  disastrous  state  of  anarchy  gained 
ground  where  none  would  obey  and  all  wished  to  command.  The  whole  judicial 
system  was  practically  independent  of  the  king,  and  the  parliaments  were  abol- 
ished. Many  of  the  new  laws  were  excellent,  for  the  constituent  assembly 
contained  brilliant  jurists ;  but  law  and  judges  soon  became  dependent  on  the 
sovereign  people.  Louis,  as  supreme  head  of  the  army,  was  condemned  to  equal 
Impotence;  since  he  confirmed  all  the  resolutions  of  the  national  assembly,  he 
gradually  sank  into  a  puppet  king  (roi  fainSant).  When  the  position  of  the 
Church  was  being  settled,  Mirabeau,  referring  to  the  St.  Bartholomew's  night, 
vainly  warned  men  against  religious  fanaticism.  Passion  broke  through  all 
hounds,  and  the  enemies  of  the  old  Church  gained  the  day.  The  clerics  of  new 
Prance  became  "  officials  of  the  people,"  and  were  bound  to  it  on  oath. 

Meanwhile  the  press  became  more  and  more  obscene ;  it  flattered  the  lower 
impulses  of  the  masses  and  worked  on  the  animal  nature  of  the  readers.  To  men 
like  Desmoulius,  Carra,  Loustalot,  and  Marat  nothing  was  sacred,  and  they  were 
supported  by  patrons  as  powerful  as  a  Danton,  before  whom  everyone  trembled. 
The  idle  loafers  in  the  streets  composed  the  ever  ready  army  of  the  Jacobin  Club, 
which  ruled  the  entire  left  of  the  national  assembly,  and  Mirabeau's  "  Patriotic 
Club  of  1789,"  like  other  moderate  combinations,  was  powerless  against  the  serried 
ranks  of  the  Jacobia  Club,  which  comprised  all  France.  The  club  of  the  Cordeliers, 
under  the  advocates  Danton  and  Desmoulins,  vied  with  this  in  excesses.  The 
judicial  murder  to  which  the  Marquis  de  Favras  fell  a  victim  showed  to  true 
royalists  what  they  had  to  expect.  Louis,  by  his  appearance  in  the  constituent 
assembly  (February  4,  1790)  and  by  taking  the  citizen  oath,  sanctioned  this 
monstrous  deed.  Mirabeau  and  Monsieur  (the  future  Louis  XVIII)  came  to  an 
understanding  with  each  other,  and  the  former,  in  return  for  a  pension,  became 
an  extraordinary  councillor  of  the  king.  But  the  latter,  to  his  ruin,  did  not  often 
follow  Mirabeau's  advice,  and  plotted  with  the  emigrants  and  the  foreigner  or  with 
foolish  courtiers.  Mirabeau,  nevertheless,  had  done  splendid  service  for  the  worn- 
out  monarchy  in  the  debates  on  the  right  to  declare  war  and  peace.  Undismayed 
by  the  furious  outcries  of  the  mob,  he  had  obtained  for  the  king  his  share  in  such 
declarations,  and  in  a  secret  audience  at  St.  Cloud  (July  3,  1790)  he  had  frankly 
declared  his  views  to  Marie  Antoinette,  though  he  was  unable  to  convince  the 
daughter  of  the  ancien  regime.  The  abolition  of  all  titles  of  nobility  by  the 
national  assembly,  the  farcical  sitting  of  the  19  th  of  June,  in  which  Anaoharsis 
Clootz  by  his  folly  provoked  thunderous  applause,  sickened  Mirabeau.  The  new 
measures  were  foolish  and  impracticable ;  France  could  never  become  a  country 
of  citizens  and  citizens  only.  Mirabeau  was  right  when  he  said  to  Mauvillon : 
"Nothing  is  more  impossible  than  to  tear  the  power  of  recollection  from  the 
hearts  of  men.  In  this  sense  the  true  nobility  is  a  possession  as  indestructible  as 
it  is  sacred.  Forms  change,  but  reverence  remains.  Let  everyone  be  equal  in  the 
eyes  of  the  law,  let  every  monopoly,  especially  every  moral  monopoly,  perish !  All 
else  is  a  mere  shifting  of  unrealities." 

How  miserably  Louis,  overshadowed  by  Lafayette,  played  the  popular  king  at 
the  federation  fete  on  July  14 !    How  theatrical  the  so-called  Holy  League  !     The 


12  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [chapter  i 

attitude  of  the  king  in  his  semi-imprisonment  seemed  to  be  more  and  more  lifeless. 
He  did  not  escape,  and  yet  remained  most  reluctantly.  Necker  resigned  in  Septem- 
ber without  the  world  noticing  it,  being  cast  aside  by  the  Eevolution  as  worthless, 
dead  while  still  living.  Louis  would  have  begged  for  the  new  ministry  from  the 
national  assembly  had  not  he  been  hindered  in  this  by  Mirabeau.  The  latter  now 
sided  with  the  Jacobins,  and  counselled  him,  therefore,  to  form  a  Jacobin  ministry, 
becoming  himself  president  of  the  Jacobin  Club  and  playing  a  thoroughly  dishon- 
ourable role.  Louis  consented  to  everything ;  the  pious  prince  only  wished  not  to 
support  the  Eevolution  against  the  Catholic  Church,  and  asked  advice  from  the 
pope.  But  the  Eevolution  forced  him,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  of  Pius  VI,  to  sign 
the  Constitution  civile  du  clerge  on  the  26th  of  December,  ]  790.  Though  by  so 
doing  he  was  on  the  side  of  those  who  emancipated  his  Church  from  the  pope  and 
made  it  subject  to  the  national  laws,  he  still  in  heart  supported  the  refractaires,  — 
that  is  to  say,  the  clergy  who  refused  to  swear  to  the  new  constitution,  —  and  wished 
rather  to  be  "  king  of  Metz  than  remain  king  of  France  in  such  a  position."  Mira- 
beau, on  the  other  hand,  thought  it  possible  to  "  decatholicise  France."  Most  of 
the  clergy  in  many  departments  refused  the  oath ;  on  the  whole,  fifty  thousand  out 
of  sixty  thousand  priests.  Of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  bishops,  only  five  took 
the  oath.  Among  these  latter  was  Talleyrand,  who  resigned  his  bishopric  of 
Autun  and  became  a  layman ;  his  keen  sagacity  detected  the  imminent  end  of 
the  Church. 

The  king  and  queen  were  more  desirous  than  ever  to  leave  France.  The  latter 
thought  of  an  appeal  to  Europe,  but  the  former  feared  a  civQ  war,  and  condemned 
any  reference  to  Charles  Stuart.  There  was  much  secret  scheming  and  corre- 
spondence, but  they  did  not  come  to  any  conclusion.  And  which  of  the  European 
sovereigns  thought  of  helping  them  ?  Gustavus  III  of  Sweden  alone  wished  to 
overthrow  the  Eevolution  in  a  crusade,  and  to  raise  once  more  the  banner  of  the 
fleur-de-lis.  Prussia  and  Great  Britain  rejoiced  in  the  Eevolution  against  the  royal 
house.  Catherine  II,  indeed,  wrote  in  a  sympathetic  style,  but  did  not  sacrifice  a 
single  soldier  or  rouble;  though  the  Eevolution  seemed  to  her  to  be  very  danger- 
ous to  Eussia,  she  only  urged  Sweden,  the  emperor,  and  Prussia  to  withstand  it, 
and  hoped,  while  they  were  thus  engaged,  to  expand  her  power  in  Poland  and 
Turkey  behind  their  backs.  The  emperor  Leopold  II,  Louis'  brothei#n-law,  was 
a  cool,  sensible  man,  and,  considering  the  reconciliation  of  the  crown  with  the  new 
constitution  to  be  possible,  he  counselled  patience  and  avoidance  of  the  emigrants  ; 
but  he  never  encouraged  Louis  and  Marie  Antoinette  to  flee. 

On  April  2,  1791,  Mirabeau  died,  prematurely  worn-out  by  work  and  self- 
indulgence.  He  was  the  first  to  enter  into  the  pantheon  of  the  magnates  of 
France,  and  the  mystery  of  an  uncompleted  work  shrouded  the  tomb  of  the  Titan, 
who  had  bitterly  paid  by  disappointments  for  the  sins  of  his  youth.  Only  small 
men  with  small  capacities  now  trod  the  stage.  Eousseau's  pupil,  Eobespierre, 
the  sentimental  monster  of  mediocrity,  acquired  considerable  influence,  while 
Lafayette's  power  diminished.  Under  the  leadership  of  Eobespierre  the  Jacobins, 
in  possession  of  the  tribunes,  intimidated  the  constituent  assembly.  Louis  entan- 
gled himself  in  a  mass  of  contradictions,  prevaricated  from  desperation,  and  finally 
on  June  20  started  on  his  lamentable  flight,  accompanied  by  his  family.  The 
plan  was  one  foredoomed  to  failure  even  if  it  had  not  been  bungled  in  the  execu- 
tion.    Louis  was  recognised,  detained  at  Varennes,  and  on  June  25  brought  back 


X"7^/JS11if.^]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  13 

to  Paris,  which  was  roused  to  iatense  excitement.  It  is  true  that  the  republic  was 
not  proclaimed,  but  the  monarchy  was  tottering.  Louis'  deposition  was  already- 
clamoured  for.  He  lived  with  his  family  in  the  Tuileries  under  close  arrest;  guards 
were  stationed  even  in  the  bedroom  of  the  queen.  The  circular  of  the  emperor 
from  Padua  (July  6,  1791)  to  the  cabinets  of  Europe,  the  treaty  of  Vienna  (July 
25)  with  Frederick  William  II  of  Prussia,  who  now  chivalrously  interested  him- 
self on  behalf  of  the  unfortunate  royal  pair,  the  joint  declaration  of  the  sov- 
ereigns at  PUlnitz  (Saxony)  on  August  27,  1791,  did  not  ameliorate  the  position 
of  the  Bourbons;  for  no  army  was  put  in  the  field  to  carry  out  their  threats 
against  France,  and  a  concerted  intervention  of.  the  European  powers  was  not 
arranged.  The  constituent  assemblj%  as  a  preliminary  step,  suspended  the  execu- 
tive power  of  the  king,  without  however  deposing  him,  and  did  not  restore  it  to 
him  until  he  had  accepted  the  new  (or  second)  constitution  on  September  13  and 
had  sworn  to  it  on  September  14.  At  his  request  the  national  assembly  granted 
an  amnesty  for  all  political  offences ;  but  he  wrote  very  ambiguous  letters  to  his 
brothers,  who  had  taken  refuge  abroad,  in  which  he  represented  himself  as  a 
prisoner  and  under  compulsion  in  his  actions.  The  constitution  was  completed 
finally  on  September  30,  1791.  Devised  in  an  extraordinarily  short  time  by 
the  leading  brains  in  France,  it  contained  many  dubious  experiments,  and  dis- 
played an  anxious  fear  of  monarchy  and  a  considerable  bias  toward  democracy. 

B.  The  Legislative  Assembly 

The  constituent  assembly  was  replaced  on  October  1  by  the  legislative  assembly, 
from  which  the  democrats,  at  Eobespierre's  proposal,  excluded  all  deputies  of 
1789,  so  that  the  twelve  hundred  best  trained  politicians  in  France  were  at  once 
deprived  of  seats.  Among  the  members,  principally  unknown,  of  the  new  national 
assembly  the  Girondists,  deputies  from  the  department  of  Gironde  and  their  par- 
tisans, formed  the  most  interesting  group.  They  were  democratic  doctrinaires, 
imaginative  and  eloquent,  but  inexperienced  in  politics  and  too  prone  to  phrases ; 
they  dreamt  of  a  philosophic  republic  with  philosophers  as  kings,  and  desired 
democracy  in  place  of  monarchy,  but  rejected  bloodshed  as  a  means  of  establishing 
it.  Unfitted  themselves  to  legislate,  they  endeavoured  to  destroy  the  recently 
granted  legislature.  Their  chief  leader  was  Brissot,  a  fervent  advocate  of  war,  and 
near  him  stood  the  superficial  Madame  Eoland,  who  was  always  hovering  on  the  bor- 
der line  between  woman  and  virago,  while  Sidy^s  secretly  furnished  the  Girondists 
with  the  plan  of  campaign.  No  unanimity  of  opinion  existed  among  them,  but 
they  were  all  determined  to  declare  war  with  the  foreign  powers.  The  supporters 
of  Louis  were  consumed  with  hatred  of  the  constitution,  while  the  Jacobins  seized 
the  power.  Lafayette  and  Bailly  were  forced  to  resign  their  ofiices,  the  brutal 
Potion  became  mayor  of  Paris  on  November  14,  and  the  other  leading  posts  in 
the  municipal  council  fell  to  radicals  like  Manuel,  Danton,  or  Eoderer.  Louis 
refused  to  sanction  the  harsh  measures  against  the  emigrants  and  the  clerical 
non-jurors,  as  well  as  the  threatening  proclamation  aimed  at  his  brother.  By 
putting  his  veto  on  them  he  increased  the  hatred  of  himself  and  Marie  Antoinette, 
"Madame  Veto;"  and  the  carmagnole  rang  in  their  ears, — 

"Madame  Veto  avait  promis 
De  faire  egorger  tout  Paris. " 


14  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichapter  i 

Leopold  II,  like  Louis,  wished  to  see  war  avoided,  but  the  Girondists  were 
resolved  to  fight ;  mad  with  passion,  they  menaced  Leopold  and  overthrew  the 
ministry  of  Louis.  But  more  than  this,  in  March,  1792,  the  murderous  hand  of 
Anokarstrom  had  laid  low  Gustavus  III  of  Sweden,  who  had  honourably  and 
earnestly  planned  the  restoration  of  Louis.  Leopold  had  just  concluded  a  defen- 
sive alliance,  from  purely  conservative  motives,  with  Frederick  William  II  on 
February  7  when  he  died,  on  March  1.  He  was  followed  by  his  son  Francis  II, 
who,  unlike  the  old  emperor,  was  a  sworn  foe  to  the  principles  of  the  lievolution 
and  all  ideas  tending  to  a  constitution.  Louis  was  compelled  to  propose  war 
against  him  on  the  20th  of  April,  and  the  assembly  thoughtlessly  applauded  a 
resolution,  which  brought  with  it  two  and  twenty  years  of  war. 

The  Gironde  had  forced  upon  Louis,  in  March,  1792,  the  "  ministry  of  Madame 
Eoland,"  in  which  he  only  saw  his  gaolers ;  the  leader.  General  Dumouriez,  talked 
foolishly  of  the  Alps  and  the  Ehine  as  the  "  natural  frontiers  of  France,"  and 
attempted  secret  negotiations  with  Prussia  against  Austria.  The  campaign  was  a 
costly  one  for  France.  The  plan  of  Dumouriez  to  conquer  Belgium  at  once  failed 
completely ;  generals  and  soldiers  fled  before  the  imperialists,  and  the  intended  blow 
on  Savoy  was  never  struck.  The  king  communicated  with  the  enemies  of  the 
ministry  of  the  sans-culottes,  and  sent  his  confidant  Mallet  du  Pan  on  May  21 
with  secret  instructions  to  the  priuces  allied  against  France.  He  interposed  his 
veto  on  the  deportation  of  the  non-juring  priests,  after  which  his  body-guard  of 
six  thousand  men  was  taken  from  him  (May  29).  And  when,  without  asking  him 
a  camp  of  twenty  thousand  "  federals  "  was  established  outside  Paris,  he  once  more 
interposed  his  veto  in  June.  He  knew  indeed  that  the  Gironde  wished  to  create 
in  this  way  a  standing  army  against  the  throne.  Numerous  ministerial  changes  did 
not  improve  his  position.  No  confidence  could  be  reposed  on  the  Feuillants ;  Lafay- 
ette seemed  to  the  Jacobins  an  unmasked  monk.  Broadsheets  threatened  "  the 
monster  Louis  "  with  death  ;  but  he  wrote  to  his, father-confessor  on  June  19, 1792, 
that  he  had  done  with  men,  and  that  his  eyes  were  now  fixed  on  heaven.  The 
next  day  the  Girondists,  Jacobins,  and  Cordeliers  arranged  the  armed  visit  of  the 
mob  to  "  Monsieur  and  Madame  Veto."  The  mayor,  Pdtion,  played  an  ambiguous 
part ;  the  king,  the  queen,  and  Madame  Elizabeth,  the  sister  of  Louis,  exhibited 
splendid  courage  and  dignity.  The  Eevolution  missed  its  aim ;  the  2(fth  of  June 
ended  in  folly ;  and  the  young  captain  of  artillery,  Bonaparte,  declared  that  with  a 
whiff  of  grapeshot  he  could  sweep  away  all  the  canaille.  A  sort  of  feeling  of 
shame  was  roused  in  thousands  of  Frenchmen  ;  and  the  price  which  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  henceforward  "  Philippe  Elgalit^"  had  laid  on  the  head  of  Louis  was  not 
yet  earned. 

A  camp  was  erected  near  Paris,  which  Louis  now  sanctioned.  The  legislative 
assembly,  in  consequence  of  a  fiery  speech  by  Vergniaud,  obtained  on  July  4  the 
right  to  declare  the  nation  in  peril  even  without  the  royal  permission ;  immediate 
use  was  made  of  this  privilege  on  July  11. 

Louis,  whose  life  was  constantly  threatened,  was  compelled  to  sustain,  as  ever, 
his  double  rSle.  While  he  played  the  part  of  a  patriot  against  the  allied  sover- 
eigns, he  hoped  for  salvation  from  the  troops  of  the  allies  which  were  advancing 
under  Duke  Charles  William  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick,  and  saw,  with  malicious 
joy,  how  miserably  the  review  of  the  volunteers  on  the  14th  of  July  had  turned 
out.     When  he  refused  a  new  Girondist  ministry,  the  Gironde  united  again  with 


X?o75SS^«]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  15 

the  Jacobins  and  declared  war  to  tlie  knife  against  him.  In  consequence  of  the 
agreement  between  Francis  II  and  Frederick  William  II  at  Mayence  the  army 
advanced  under  Brunswick,  who  personally  was  a  friend  of  the  new  constitution  in 
France,  and  yet  lent  his  name  to  the  foolish  manifesto  of  Coblenz  on  July  25. 
Unrestrained  fury  answered  his  threats.  "Woe  to  him  who  did  not  join  in  the  cry  ! 
Maximilien  de  Eobespierre,  an  advocate  of  Arras,  demanded  a  national  conven- 
tion in  place  of  the  king ;  the  Gironde  wished  for  the  king's  deposition ;  the  "  fed- 
erated "  bandits  from  Marseilles  cemented  brotherhood  with  the  Jacobins  and  the 
Cordeliers ;  street  demagogues  sprang  up  like  mushrooms,  and  Danton  came  rapidly 
to  the  front. 

The  mayor.  Potion,  paved  the  way  for  the  attack  of  the  mobs  on  the  Tuileries. 
Louis  saw  himself  deserted  by  almost  all  troops  when  the  10th  of  August  dawned. 
The  rebels  pressed  on  to  the  Tuileries,  and  Louis  ordered  the  loyal  Swiss,  his  last 
defenders,  to  evacuate  the  palace.  Instead  of  fighting  there  and  dying  an  honour- 
able death,  as  befitted  a  soldier  and  a  king,  he  abandoned  the  monarchy  and  followed 
the  advice  of  the  Girondists,  to  fly  with  his  family  to  the  bosom  of  the  legislative 
assembly.  There  he  listened  to  the  interminable  discussion  over  his  fate,  and 
learnt  that,  upon  the  proposal  of  Vergniaud,  he  was  provisionally  removed  from  his 
office,  and  that  a  national  convention  was  created.  On  the  13th  of  August  the 
Temple  received  the  royal  family.  The  Girondist  ministers,  recalled  to  office,  were 
unimportant  in  comparison  with  Georges  Danton,  the  minister  of  justice,  tribune 
of  the  republican  democracy,  who  himself  did  not  shriak  from  wholesale  murders. 
All  personal  safety  was  at  an  end.  On  the  18th  of  August,  on  Eobespierre's  motion, 
a  revolutionary  tribunal  was  constituted  against  all  who  were  suspected  of  loyalty, 
and  spies  were  everywhere  looking  for  suspects.  The  legislative  assembly  blindly 
obeyed  the  commune  of  Paris,  in  whose  name  the  unprincipled  Danton  governed. 
Everything  was  drifting  toward  a  republic.  The  property  of  the  emigrants  was 
squandered,  and  all  feudal  rights  were  abolished  without  compensation,  which 
signified  a  loss  of  at  least  six  thousand  million  francs.  During  the  terrible  Sep- 
tember massacres  in  Paris  and  the  proAonces,  in  which  hired  executioners  butchered 
thousands,  among  the  chief  of  whom  was  the  friend  of  the  queen,  the  princess  of 
Lamballe,  whole  crowds  of  clerical  non-jurors  were  got  rid  of,  for  the  guillottne 
worked  too  slowly.  By  a  hideous  deed  in  monumental  style  Danton  wished  to 
preclude  the  nation  from  returning  to  the  old  order  of  things,  and  by  a  sea  of  blood 
to  separate  monarchical  France  from  the  new  France. 

C.  The  Convention 

On  the  21st  of  September,  1792,  the  national  convention  dissolved  the  legis- 
lative assembly  and  immediately  adopted  the  unanimous  resolution  that  the 
monarchy  was  abolished.  But  then  the  Girondists  and  the  party  of  the  Mountain 
separated ;  the  former  declared  against  the  September  butchery,  the  latter  glorified 
it  as  the  confession  of  faith  of  the  lovers  of  freedom.  Victory  smiled  on  the  swords 
of  the  young  republic.  Her  armies,  which  gradually  became  accustomed  to  disci- 
pline, astonished  the  whole  world.  The  cannonade  of  Valmy  effected  nothing,  and 
the  Prussians  under  the  incompetent  Duke  of  Brunswick  were  compelled  to  aban- 
don the  advance  on  Paris.  Custine  and  Houchard  occupied  Mayence ;  it  capitulated 
with  disgraceful  celerity,  as  did  Frankfurt,  Worms,  Speier,  and  other  less  important 


16  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Cha:pter  i 

towns.  Dumouriez  conquered  the  imperialists  at  Jemappes  and  took  the  whole  of 
Belgium;  Montesquiou  and  Anselme  made  themselves  masters  of  Savoy  and  Nice,- 
which  were  soon  incorporated  into  France ;  while  monarchical  Europe  tottered  and 
fell,  the  revolutionists  adopted  the  plan  of  spreading  their  ideas  by  force  of  arms, 
and  pursued  it  even  into  the  empire.  They  threw  off  the  mask  of  national  eman- 
cipation and  unsheathed  the  sword  of  conquest.  The  deposed  royal  family  lan- 
guished in  the  Temple,  cut  off  from  all  communication  with  the  outside  world  and 
exposed  to  the  brutality  of  their  keepers.  The  cabinets  of  Europe  did  nothing  for 
them,  after  the  vain  threats  from  Padua,  Pillnitz,  and  Coblenz  had  died  away  in 
the  empty  air. 

Legally,  the  king  could  not  be  put  on  his  trial.  But  the  Girondists,  playing 
with  the  fire,  wilfully  hurried  on  his  death ;  they  did  not  wish  to  see  him  killed, 
but  only  condemned ;  he  was  to  live  under  the  axe,  a  hostage,  hovering  between 
the  throne  and  the  scaffold.  While  Eobespierre's  inexorable  disciple,  St.  Just, 
demanded  with  brutal  words  the  death  of  Louis  for  the  crime  of  being  king,  and 
while  Eobespierre  exclaimed  that  Louis  must  die  in  order  that  the  republic  might 
live,  the  convention  adopted  the  pretence  of  legal  proceedings.  On  December  10 
the  bill  of  indictment  against  "Louis  Capet"  was  drawn  up.  Louis  strangely 
omitted  to  enter  a  protest  against  his  judges,  answered  each  interrogation,  and  con- 
vincingly refuted  most  of  the  charges.  The  veteran  Malesherbes  offered  his  ser- 
vices to  defend  him ;  Tronchet  and  De  Sfeze  took  his  side.  But  they  were,  from 
the  first,  helpless  against  the  malice  of  the  convention.  Robespierre,  in  spite  of 
the  brilliant  speech  of  Vergniaud  on  the  31st  of  December,  defeated  the  Girondists ; 
he  wanted  the  head  of  the  king,  in  order  to  commit  the  nation  to  his  policy  by 
making  them  his  accomplices  in  murder.  Marat  and  Hubert  dragged  the  mon- 
.archy  through  the  mire  of  their  journals,  domiciliary  visits  and  prosecutions  were 
endless,  the  terrorism  could  no  longer  be  checked,  and  at  the  close  of  the  year  four- 
teen thousand  men  fled  from  Paris. 

On  January  15, 1793,  the  voting  began  in  the  convention  on  three  of  the  ques- 
tions raised  by  the  Gironde.  The  first,  whether  Louis  was  guilty  of  conspiracy 
against  France,  was  negatived  by  no  one.  The  second,  whether  the  judgment  should 
be  submitted  to  the  approval  of  the  nation,  was  negatived  by  a  large  majority,  and 
the  Girondists  thus  suffered  a  distinct  defeat.  The  execution  of  Lou^,  the  third 
question,  was  decreed  on  the  17th  by  a  majority  of  one  vote.  The  proposal  to 
delay  proceedings  was  rejected  the  next  day,  and  on  the  subject  of  the  protest  of 
the  Spanish  ambassador  the  members  proceeded  to  the  order  of  the  day.  After  a 
heart-rending  farewell  to  his  family,  Louis  XVI  went  calmly  and  with  resignation 
to  his  death.  On  the  21st  of  January,  1793,  he  was  guillotined  ;  the  weakling  be- 
came a  martyr  and  a  hero  (cf.  the  inserted  extracts  from  the  "  Moniteur  ").  The 
meanest  of  judicial  murders  had  been  committed.  The  execution  of  a  king  could 
not  fail  to  put  a  new  stamp  on  France.  Bandits  and  murderers  spread  terrorism 
through  the  land.  The  Revolution  itself  had  cut  away  the  path  of  propaganda  from 
under  its  feet,  and  had  hurled  the  king's  head  in  the  face  of  monarchical  Europe. 
The  only  answer  would  be  a  universal  war.  How  did  Europe  and  the  world  treat 
the  murder  of  the  king  ?  George  III  at  once  dismissed  the  French  ambassador 
from  his  realms.  The  convention  replied  to  that  on  February  1,  1793,  with  a 
declaration  of  war  against  Great  Britain  and  the  states-general  which  were  influ- 
enced by  her,  and  threatened  to  change  all  France  into  "  one  vast  camp."    Through 


THE  THREE  NOTIFICATIONS  OF  THE  "  MONITEUR "  WHICH  EEFEE 
TO   THE  EXECUTION   OF   LOUIS   XVI 

Gazette  nationale,  ou  le  Moniteur  universel 

No.  SI.     Lundi  Zl  Janvier  1793.     Van  deuxieme  de  la  Republique  Franfaise 


Extrait  des  proces-verbaux  de  la  Convention  na- 
tionale, des^  IB,  17,  19  et  20  Janvier  1793,  Van 
■2  de  la  Republique  Franfai/e. 

Art.  I".  La  Convention  nationale  declare 
Louis  Capet,  dernier  roi  des  Fran9ais,  ooupa- 
ble  de  coufpiration  coutre  la  liberty  de  la  Na- 
tion, et  d'attentat  contra  la  furete  generate  de 
I'Etat. 

II.  La  Convention  nationale  deorete  que 
Louis  Capet  fubira  la  peine  de  niort. 

III.  La  Convention  nationale  declare  nul 
I'acte  de  Louis  Capet  apporte  k  la  barre  par 
fes  confeilS,  qualifie  d^appel  a  la  Nation  du 
jugement  contre  lui  rendu  par  la  Convention ; 
defend  h.  qui  que  ce  foit  d'y  donner  aucune 
fuite,  h  peine  d'etre  pourfuivi  et  puni  comme 
coupable  d'attentat  contre  la  furetd  geuerale 
de  I'Etat. 

IV.  Le  confeil  ex^cutif  provifoire  notifiera 
le  prefent  dans  le  jour  a  Louis  Capet,  et  pren- 
dra  les  mefures  de  police  et  de  furete  neeef-- 
faires  pour  en  affurer  I'execution  dans  les  24 
heures,  k  compter  de  la  notification,  et  rendra 
compte  k  la  Convention  nationale  immediate- 
ment  aprfes  qu'il  aura  ete  execute. 


Proclamation  du  conseil  ex:^cutif 
provisoire,  du  20  janvier 

Le  confeil  executif  provifoire,  deliberant  fur 
les  mefures  a  prendre  pour  I'execution  des 
decrets  de  la  Convention  nationale,  des  15, 
17,  19  et  20  Janvier  1793,  arrete  les  difpofi- 
tions  fuivantes : 

1°.  L'execution  du  jugement  de  Louis 
Capet  fe  fera  demain  lundi  21 ; 

2°.  Le  lieu  de  I'execution  fera  Xa  place  de  la 
Revolution,  ci-devant  Louis  X  V,  entre  le  piede- 
ftal  et  les  Champs-Elyfees ; 

3°.  Louis  Capet  partira  du  Temple  k  huit 
heures  du  matin,  de  maniere  que  I'execution 
puiffe  etre  faite  k  midi ; 

4°.  Des  commiflaires  du  d^partement  de 
Paris,    des   commiifaires    de   la  municipalite, 


Extract  from  the  Protocols  of  the  National  Con- 
vention of  the  15th,  17th ,  19th,  and  20ih  January, 
179S,  in  the  year  2  of  the  French  Republic. 

Art.  I.  The  National  Convention  declares 
Louis  Capet,  last  king  of  the  French,  guilty 
of  conspiracy  against  the  liberty  of  the  Nation 
and  of  an  attempt  on  the  general  security  of 
the  State. 

Art.  II.  The  National  Convention  decrees 
that  Louis  Capet  suffer  the  penalty  of  death. 

Art.  III.  The  National  Convention  de- 
clares the  act  of  Louis  Capet  brought  forward 
by  his  counsel,  entitled  an  appeal  to  the  Nation 
from  the  judgment  pronounced  on  him  by  the 
Convention,  to  be  null  and  void ;  and  forbids 
any  one  to  follow  it,  on  penalty  of  being  prose- 
cuted and  punished  as  guilty  of  an  attempt 
on  the  general  security  of  the  State. 

Art.  IV.  The  Provisional  Executive  Coun- 
cil will  notify  this  present  to  Louis  Capet  in 
course  of  the  day  and  will  take  the  necessary 
police  measures  and  precautions,  in  order  to 
secure  its  execution  within  24  hours,  reckon- 
ing from  the  notification,  and  will  give  a 
report  to  the  Convention  immediately  after  its 
execution. 


Proclamation  of  the  Provisional  Exec- 
utive Council  of  the  20th  January 

The  Provisional  Executive  Council,  after 
deliberating  on  the  requisite  measures  for  the 
execution  of  the  decrees  of  the  National 
Convention  of  the  15th,  17th,  19th,  and 
20th  January,  1793,  agrees  on  the  following 
resolutions  : 

1.  The  sentence  on  Louis  Capet  shall  be 
carried  out  to-morrow,  Monday,  the  21st. 

2.  The  place  of  execution  shall  be  the  Place 
de  la  Revolution,  formerly  Place  de  Louis  XV, 
between  the  pedestal  and  the  Champs-Elysees. 

3.  Louis  Capet  will  leave  the  Temple  at 
8  A.  M.,  so  that  the  execution  can  be  over  by 
noon. 

4.  Commissaries  of  the  Department  of  Paris, 
Commissaries   of   the   Municipality,  and   two 


deux  membres  du  tribunal  criminel  affifteront 
a  I'exeoution.  Le  fecretaire-greffier  de  ce  tribu- 
nal en  dreffera  procfes-verbal ;  et  lefdits  com- 
miflaires  et  membres  du  tribunal,  auffitot  aprfes 
I'execution  confommee,  viendront  en  rendre 
compte  au  confeil,  lequel  reftera  en  feance 
permanente  pendant  toute  cette  journee. 
Le  confeil  executif  provifoire. 


members  of  the  Criminal  Court  will  be  present 
at  the  execution.  The  Secretaire-Greffier  of 
the  Criminal  Court  will  draw  up  the  protocol ; 
and  the  aforesaid  Commissaries  and  members 
of  the  Court,  immediately  after  the  execution 
will  report  to  the  Council,  which  will  remain 
sitting  the  whole  day. 

The  Provisional  Executive  Council. 


Gazette  nationale,  ou  le  Moniteue  universel 

No.  23.     Mercredi  23  Janvier  1793.     L'an  deuxieme  de  la  Repuhlique  Franfaise 


De  Paris 

Lundi,  21  Janvier,  etait  le  jour  fixe  pour 
I'execution  du  decret  de  mort  prononce  contre 
Louis  Capet.  A  peine  lui  avait-on  fignifie  la 
proclamation  du  confeil  executif  provifoire, 
relative  k  fon  fupplice,  qu'il  a  demande  k 
parler  k  fa  f  amille ;  les  commiffaires  lui  ayant 
montre  leur  embarras,  lui  propoferent  de  faire 
venir  fa  f amille  dans  fon  appartement,  ce  qu'il 
accepta.  Sa  femme,  fes  enfans  et  fa  foeur  vin- 
rent  le  voir ;  ils  confererent  enfemble  dans  la 
chambre  oii  il  avait  coutume  de  manger  ; 
I'entrevue  a  ete  de  deux  heures  et  demie;  la 
converfation  fut  trfes-chaude.  .  .  .  Aprfes  que 
fa  famille  fe  fut  retiree,  il  dit  aux  commiffaires 
qu'il  avait  fait  une  bonne  mercuriale  a  fa 
femme. 

Sa  famille  I'avait  prie  de  lui  permettre  de  le 
voir  le  matin ;  il  fe  debarraffa  de  cette  queftion 
en  ne  repondant  ni  oui  ni  non.  Madame  ne 
I'a  pas  vu  davantage.  Louis  criait  dans  fa 
chambre ;  les  bourreaux  !  les  bourreaux !  .  .  . 
En  adreffant  la  parole  h,  fon  flls  Marie-A  nioinette 
lui  dit :  Apprenez  par  les  malheurs  de  votre 
pere  a  ne  pas  vous  venger  de  fa  mort.  .  .  . 

Le  matin  de  fa  mort,  Louis  avait  demande 
des  cifeaux  pour  fe  couperles  oheveux;  ils  lui 
f urent  refufes.   .  .  . 

Lorfqa'on  lui  ota  fon  couteau,  il  dit:  Me 
croirait-on  affez  l^che  pour  me  dftruire. 


Le  commandant  general  et  les  commiffaires 
de  la  Commune  font  montes  k  huit  heures  et 
demie  du  matin  dans  I'appartement  oh.  etait 
Louis  Capet.  Le  commandant  lui  a  fignifie 
I'ordre  qu'il  venait  de  recevoir  pour  le  conduire 
au  fupplice ;  Louis  lui  a  demande  trois  minutes 
pour  parler  A  fon  confeffeur,  ce  qui  lui  a  ete 
aocorde.  Un  inftant  apr^s,  Louis  a  pr6feiite 
un  paquet  k  un  des  commiffaires,  avec  priere 
de  le  remettre  au  confeil  general  de  la  Com- 
mune. Le  citoyene  Jacques  Roux  a  repondu 
h,  Louis  qu'il  ne  pouvait  s'en  charger,  parce 
que  fa  miffion  ^tait  de  I'accompagner  au  fup- 


From  Paris 

Monday,  the  21st  of  .January,  was  the  day 
fixed  for  carrying  out  the  sentence  of  death 
pronounced  on  lyouis  Capet.  The  decree  of 
the  Provisional  Executive  Council  had  hardly 
been  communicated  to  him.  when  he  asked  to 
speak  to  his  family  ;  the  Commissaries,  being 
in  a  difliculty,  proposed  to  him  that  his  family 
should  be  brought  to  him,  an  offer  which  he 
accepted.  His  wife,  his  children,  and  his  sister 
visited  him;  they  talked  together  in  the  room 
where  he  usually  took  his  meals.  The  inter- 
view lasted  two  and  a  half  hours ;  the  conver- 
sation was  very  animated.  .  .  .  After  his 
family  had  withdrawn,  he  said  to  the  Commis- 
saries that  he  had  severely  reprimanded  his  wife. 


His  family  begged  to  be  allowed  to  see  him 
the  next  day ;  he  evaded  this  question  without 
answering  yes  or  no.  Madame  did  not  see 
him  again.  Louis  shouted  out  in  his  room 
"The  executioners!  the  executioners !  "  .  .  . 
Marie  Antoinette  said  to  her  son,  "  Learn  from 
the  misfortunes  of  your  father  not  to  avenge 
his  death." 


The  morning  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  to 
die  Louis  had  asked  for  a  paJk  of  scissors  to 
cut  his  hair,  but  they  were  no^iven  him. 


When  they  took  away  his  knife,  he  said, 
"  Would  you  suppose  me  to  be  coward  enough 
to  kill  myself  ?  " 

The  Commandant-General  and  the  Commis- 
saries of  the  Commune  went  up  to  the  room 
of  Louis  Capet  at  8.30  a.  m.  The  Command- 
ant communicated  to  him  the  instructions 
which  he  had  received  to  lead  him  to  the 
scaffold.  Louis  asked  for  three  minutes  in 
order  to  speak  to  his  confessor,  and  his  request 
was  granted.  A  moment  after  Louis  handed 
a  packet  to  one  of  the  Commissaries  with  the 
request  that  he  would  take  it  to  the  General 
Council  of  the  Commune.  Citizen  Jacques 
Roux  answered  Louis  that  he  could  not  under- 
take to  do  so,  because  his  duty  was  to  accom- 


plice :  il  a  lepondu  :  Cejljujie.  Le  paquet  a 
%\A  remis  4  un  autre  membie  de  la  Commane, 
qui  s'eft  charg6  de  le  rendre  au  confeil 
g&eral. 

Louis  a  dit  alors  k  Sauterre :  Marchons,  je 
f%%s  pret.  En  fortant  de  fon  apparteinent,  il 
a  prie.  les  officiers  municipaux  de  recommander 
k  la  Commune  les  perfonnes  qui  avaient  ete  h. 
fon  fervice,  et  de  la  prier  de  vouloir  bien  placer 
auprfes  de  la  reine  Clery,  fon  yalet-de-ohambre ; 
il  s'eft  repris  et  a  dit :  Aupres  de  mafemme;  il 
a  6te  repondu  k  Louis  que  Ton  rendrait  compte 
au  confeil  de  ce  qu'il  demandait. 

Louis  a  traverfe  a  pied  la  premiere  cour  ; 
dans  la  feconde  il  eft  monte  dans  une  voiture  oii 
etaient  fon  confefleur  et  deux  officiers  de  gen- 
darmerie. (L'executeur  I'attendait  a  la  place 
de  la  Revolution.)  Le  cortege  a  fuivi  les 
boulevards  jufqu'au  lieu  du  fuppliee ;  le  plus 
grand  filence  regnait  le  long  du  chemin. 
Louis  lifait  les  prieres  des  agonifans  ;  il  eft 
arrive  k  dix  heures  dix  minutes  k  la  place  de 
la  Revolution.  II  s'eft  deshabille,  eft  monte 
d'un  pas  affure,  et  fe  portant  vers  I'extremite 
gauche  de  I'echafaud,  il  a  dit  d'une  voix  affez 
ferme :  Franfais  je  meurs  innocent.  Je  par- 
donne  a  tons  mes  enneniis  el/ouhaite  que  ma  mart 
foil  utile  au  peuple.  II  paraiflait  vouloir  parler 
encore,  le  commandant  general  ordonne  k  l'ex- 
ecuteur de  faire  fon  devoir. 


La  t§te  de  Louis  eft  tombee  k  dix  heures  20 
minutes  du  matin.  Elle  a  ete  montree  au 
peuple.  Auffit6t  mille  cris :  Vive  la  Nation, 
vine  la  Republique  Franfaije  fe  font  fait  en- 
tendre. Le  cadavre  a  ete  tranfporte  fur  le 
champ  et  depofe  dans  I'eglife  de  la  Magdelaine, 
oil  il  a  ete  inhume  entre  les  perfonnes  qui 
perirent  le  jour  de  fon  mariage,  et  les  Suiffes 
qui  f urent  maflacres  le  10  aout.  Sa  fofle  avait 
douze  pieds  de  profondeur  et  fix  de  largeur; 
elle  a  ete  remplie  de  chaux. 

Deux  heures  apres,  rien  n'annongait  dans 
Paris  que  celui  qui  naguere  etait  le  cnef  de  la 
Nation,  venait  de  fubir  le  fuppliee  des  crimi- 
nels.  La  tranquillite  publique  n'a  pas  ete 
troublee  un  iuftant.  Si  la  fin  tragique  de 
Louis  n'a  pas  infpire  tout  l'inter§t  fur  lequel 
certaines  gens  avaient  compte,  fon  teftament 
n'eft  pas  propre  k  I'accroitre :  on  y  verra 
qu'aprfes  avoir  repete  tant  de  fois  qu'il  avait 
fincerement  adopte  la  conftitution,  le  roi  con- 
ftitutionnel  n'etait,  k  fes  yeux,  qu'uu  roi 
depouille  de  fon  autorite  legitime,  et  qu'il 
repouffe  jufqu'au  titre  de  roi  des  Franfais,  que 
la  confbitution  lui  avait  donne,  pour  fe  decorer, 
au  moins  dans  le  dernier  aote  de  fa  vie,  de 
celui  de  roi  des  France.  Les  temoignages 
irrecufables  de  mauvaife  foi  contenus  dans  ce 
teftament  pourront  tarir  quelques-uns  des  fen- 


pany  him  to  the  scaffold;  he  replied,  "  G'est 
juste."  The  packet  was  intrusted  to  another 
member  of  the  Commune,  who  undertook  to 
convey  it  to  the  General  Council. 

Louis  then  said  to  Santerre,  ^'Marchons,  je 
suis  pret."  As  he  left  his  room  he  begged  the 
municipal  officers  to  recommend  to  the  com- 
mune the  persons  who  had  been  in  his  service, 
and  to  request  it  to  let  Clery,  his  valet,  wait 
on  the  Queen ;  he  corrected  himself  and  said, 
my  wife.  The  reply  was  that  his  wishes 
should  be  conveyed  to  the  Council. 


Louis  crossed  the  first  court  on  foot ;  in  the 
second  he  got  into  a  carriage,  in  which  were 
seated  his  father  confessor  and  two  officers 
of  the  gendarmerie.  (The  executioner  was 
waiting  for  him  in  the  Place  de  la  Revo- 
lution.) The  procession  moved  along  the 
Boulevard  to  the  place  of  execution.  The 
deepest  silence  prevailed  along  the  route. 
Louis  read  the  prayers  for  the  dying ;  he 
reached  the  Place  de  la  Revolution  at  tea 
minutes  past  ten.  He  undressed  himself, 
mounted  the  scaffold  with  a  firm  step,  and 
turning  toward  the  left  side  said  in  a  fairly 
steady  voice,  "  Frenchmen,  I  die  innocent.  I 
forgive  my  enemies,  and  wish  that  my  death 
may  benefit  the  people."  He  seemed  as  if  he 
wanted  to  say  more ;  but  the  Commandant 
ordered  the  executioner  to  do  his  duty. 

The  head  of  Louis  fell  at  10.20  a.  m.  It 
was  shown  to  the  people.  Immediately  a 
thousand  cries  were  beard,  "  Vive  la  Nation, 
vive  la  Republique  Franfaise."  The  corpse 
was  immediately  taken  away  and  placed  in 
the  church  of  the  Madeleine,  where  it  was 
buried  between  the  persons  who  perished  the 
day  of  his  marriage  and  the  Swiss  guards  who 
had  been  massacred  on  the  10th  of  August. 
His  grave  was  twelve  feet  deep  and  six  feet 
broad;  it  was  filled  up  with  lime. 

Two  hours  afterwards,  nothing  in  Paris  be- 
trayed that  he,  who  lately  had  been  the  Head 
of  the  Nation,  had  just  died  the  death  of  a 
felon.  The  public  peace  had  not  been  dis- 
turbed for  a  moment.  If  the  tragic  end  of 
Louis  did  not  inspire  all  the  interest  on  which 
some  persons  had  counted,  his  will  was  not 
calculated  to  increase  it.  One  can  see  there 
that,  after  having  repeated  so  often  that  he 
had  sincerely  adopted  the  constitution,  a  con- 
stitutional king  in  his  eyes  was  merely  a  king 
stripped  of  his  legitimate  authority,  with 
which,  as  with  the  title  King  of  the  French, 
which  the  Constitution  gave  him,  he  would 
have  nothing  to  do;  he  still  adorned  himself, 
at  least  in  the  last  act  of  his  life,  with  the  title 
of  King  of  France.  The  irrefutable  proofs 
of  bad  faith  contained  in  this  will  might  well 


timens  de  piti^  que  les  ames  compatiffantes 
aiment  k  reflentir.  II  eft  difficile  de  penfer 
qu'il  ait  pu  §tre  aflez  content  des  puiiTances 
bellig^rantes,  de  fes  freres,  et  de  cette  nobleffe 
auffi  plate  qu'impuiffamment  r^belle,  pour 
n'avoir  cherch6  qu'^  meriter  leurs  fuffrages. 
En  effet,  qu'ont-ils  fait  pour  lui  depuis  que  la 
mort  planait  fur  fa  tete?  Y  a-t-il  un  feul 
temoignage  d'intevet,  I'offre  du  moindre  facri- 
fice  ?  Us  n'ont  pas  m§me  eu  I'hipoorifie  de  la 
fenfibilit6,  et  ils  n'agiffaient  que  pour  fes 
intergts !  .  .  .  Mais  laiffons  Louis  fous  le 
crepe  ;  il  appartient  deformais  k  I'hiftoire. 
Une  viotime  de  la  loi  a  quelque  chofe  de  facre 
pour  I'homme  moral  et  fenfible :  c'eft  vers 
I'avenir  que  tous  les  bons  citoyens  doivent 
tourner  leurs  voeux,  leurs  talens  et  leurs  forces. 
Les  divifions  out  fait  ou  laifiK  faire  aflfez  du 
mal  k  la  France.  Tout  oe  qui  eft  honnete  doit 
fentir  le  befoin  de  I'union  ;  et  ceux  qui  n'en 
airaeraient  pas  le  charme  out  encore  la  raifon 
d'inter6t  pour  defirer  qu'elle  exifte.  Un  peu 
de  principes,  un  peu  d'efforts,  et  la  coalition 
fatale  aux  mechans  fera  confomm^e. 


blunt  some  of  those  sentiments  of  compassion 
which  pitying  souls  are  accustomed  to  feel. 
It  is  difficult  to  think  that  he  was  so  satisfied 
with  the  belligerent  powers,  with  his  brothers, 
and  with  that  nobility,  as  stupid  as  impo- 
tently  rebellious,  that  he  only  sought  to  de- 
serve their  votes.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  what 
did  they  do  for  him  after  his  head  was  threat- 
ened? Was  there  one  single  proof  of  interest, 
or  offer  of  the  least  sacrifice  ?  They  had  not 
even  the  semblance  of  sensibility,  their  only 
aim  was  their  own  interest.  .  .  .  But  let  us 
leave  Louis  under  the  crape ;  henceforth  he 
belongs  to  history.  A  victim  of  the  law  is 
something  sacred  to  the  moral  and  sensible 
man ;  it  is  towards  the  future  that  all  good 
citizens  must  direct  their  wishes,  their  talents, 
and  their  powers.  The  divisions  have  caused 
directly,  or  indirectly,  sufficient  evil  to  France. 
All  that  is  honourable  must  feel  the  need  of 
union,  and  those  who  would  not  love  its  charm 
have  still  interested  reasons  for  wishing  it 
to  exist.  A  few  principles,  a  few  efforts, 
and  the  coalition  fatal  to  evil-doers  will  be 
accomplished. 


^f.%fS^.lot1        HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  17 

British  representations  Spain  —  where,  under  the  unworthy  Charles  IV  and  his 
licentious  consort  Maria  Louise,  the  latter's  favourite,  the  despicable  Godoy,  was 
governing  —  broke  off  all  relations  with  France.  The  whole  Spanish  nation  shouted 
for  war,  which  was  destined  to  prove  a  heavy  burden  to  it.  William  Pitt,  the  great 
son  of  a  great  father,  concluded  within  six  months  thirteen  treaties  of  alliance  and 
subsidies,  and  was  the  soul  of  the  coalition  against  France.  The  German  Empire, 
Pope  Pius  VI,  and  King  Ferdinand  IV  of  Naples  and  Sicily  began  the  war.  The 
only  powers  that  remained  neutral  at  first  were  Sweden  under  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  IV,  Denmark  under  Christian  VII,  Eussia,  Tuscany  (which,  however,  joined 
the  coalition  in  October,  1793),  Venice,  Switzerland,  and  Turkey.  The  coalition  put 
two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  into  the  field.  The  Prince  of  Saxe-Coburg 
defeated  General  Dumouriez  on  March  18, 1793,  at  ISTeerwinden.  Dumouriez's  sol- 
diers fled  m  masses,  and  he  himself,  fearing  for  his  head,  took  refuge  with  the 
imperialists  on  April  4. 

While  loyal  La  Vendfe,  with  British  help,  took  up  arms  against  the  new  sov- 
ereignty of  the  people  and  was  frequently  victorious  in  the  war,  the  convention 
sent  eighty-two  commissaries  into  the  departments,  in  order  to  crush  any  opposi- 
tion to  the  Parisian  terrorism,  and  nominated  a  committee  of  public  safety,  in 
which  the  Gironde  and  Danton  were  predominant.  The  revolutionary  tribimal  of 
March  10,  1793,  signified  a  victory  of  both  over  Eobespierre  and  a  delay  of  the 
undisguised  reign  of  terror ;  but  their  league  was  not  lasting.  The  Gironde  accused 
Danton  of  being  a  partner  in  the  guilt  of  Dumoiuiez ;  but  he  foamed  like  a 
wounded  boar  and  the  Jacobins  cheered  him.  The  Gironde  was  certain  to  suc- 
cumb before  Danton,  Eobespierre,  and  Marat,  if  their  leaders  accomplished  nothing, 
but  only  made  fine  speeches.  The  eighty-two  commissaries  of  the  convention 
incited  the  proletariate  against  the  propertied  class,  armed  it,  and  in  many  depart- 
ments threw  three  or  four  thousand  persons  into  prison.  All  lawful  authorities 
were  deprived  of  their  power.  Eobespierre  with  his  sans-culottes  and  his  tricoteuses 
was  master  of  the  position.  When  the  Gironde  on  May  18,  1793,  displayed  in 
the  convention  a  wish  to  aim  a  blow  at  the  terrorists,  Barfere,  "  the  Anacreon  of 
the  guillotine,"  averted  it ;  and  on  May  22  Danton  declared  open  war  against  the 
Girondists,  when  they  had  threatened  that  the  province  would  march  on  Paris. 
Convinced  that  the  Girondists,  so  soon  as  they  possessed  the  power,  would  bring 
the  Moimtain  under  the  guillotine,  he  planned  with  this  party  under  Eobespierre 
and  Marat  the  rising  which  raged  in  Paris  from  May  31  to  June  2.  The  Gironde 
fell.  Danton  left  the  members  their  lives,  an  act  which  the  Jacobins  soon  consid- 
ered a  crime  on  his  part.  Many  Girondists  escaped  from  arrest ;  and  instigated  by 
them  Charlotte  Corday  murdered  Marat  on  July  13,  in  order  to  avenge  the  Gironde, 
but  forfeited  her  life  by  so  doing.  The  country  rose  against  the  capital.  Brittany 
and  La  A'"end^e  blazed  with  the  civil  war  of  "  whites  "  against  "  blues."  Marseilles, 
Lyons,  Toulon,  Bordeaux,  Toulouse,  and  other  towns  threw  down  the  gauntlet  to 
Paris.  Toulon  opened  its  gates  to  the  British  and  proclaimed  the  dauphin,  now  a 
prisoner  in  the  Temple,  king  as  Louis  XVII ;  the  convention  was  besieged  with  ad- 
dresses of  the  towns  against  the  "  handful  of  unscrupulous  villains."  The  allies  once 
more  took  Belgium  and  the  Ehine  country ;  the  road  to  Paris,  where  complete 
anarchy  prevailed,  lay  open.  But  the  disunion  of  the  cabinets  and  their  wish  for 
peace  saved  France.  Prussia  was  intent  on  booty  in  Poland,  Austria  in  Bavaria 
and,  instead  of  advancing  straight  on  Paris,  Great  Britain  was  blockading  Dunkirk. 


18  HISTORY    OF  THE   WORLD  [cjiapteri 

Trance  gained  time  for  new  preparations,  which  were  the  more  necessary  since  the 
soldiers  of  her  eastern  army  were  deserting  by  tens  of  thousands. 

Danton's  prestige  in  the  convention  diminished,  and  only  full-blooded  Jacobins 
now  sat  on  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety.  Robespierre  was  pushing  more  and 
more  into  the*  foreground.  Danton  was  the  avowed  enemy  of  all  hypocrisy,  and 
merely  regarded  the  Eevolution  as  a  source  of  power  and  enjoyment,  without  any 
belief  in  ideals.  In  spite  of  his  marvellous  natural  endowments  he  had  not  a  spark 
of  the  higher  intellectual  life ;  an  athlete  in  his  pleasures  and  his  crimes,  knowing 
no  limits  to  his  daring,  and  filled  with  glowing  patriotism,  he  was  an  honourable 
robber  and  candid  murderer.  Fran5ois  Joseph  Maximilien  Isidor  de  Eobespierre, 
on  the  contrary,  played  a  carefully  studied  part ;  with  his  companions,  St.  Just  and 
Couth  on,  he  wished  to  lead  the  social  democracy  to  victory.  He  never  changed 
his  views,  or  allowed  himself  to  be  deterred  by  any  scoffs,  but  remained  loyal  to 
himself.  His  personal  appearance  was  not  in  his  favour,  for  he  was  insignificant 
and  ugly ;  but  his  house  was  filled  with  his  picture  in  every  possible  pose,  and  he 
idolised  himself.  He  forced  his  way  up  by  his  slavish  adoration  of  Eousseau's 
"  social  contract ; "  his  phrase,  "  The  nation  is  pure  and  noble,  but  the  rulers  are 
evil,"  proved  his  fortune.  He  never  wearied  of  lauding  himself  as  the  incorrupt- 
ible and  the  steadfast.  He  was  the  only  hitherto  unemployed  power  among  the 
demagogues,  devoid,  indeed,  of  any  creative  talent  and  of  genius,  but  an  accurate 
logician,  whose  policy  was  strictly  negative.  Without  the  courage  of  Danton,  he 
was  like  a  cat  creeping  up  to  pounce  on  its  prey.  He  waited,  concealed,  to  see  if 
his  secret  blows  had  struck  home.  He  was  consumed  with  hate  and  envy  of  every 
one  who  in  rank,  talent,  or  influence  was  an  "  aristocrat,"  as  opposed  to  him  ;  and 
while  he  courted  power  only  for  its  own  sake,  he  was  eager  to  remove  all  who 
stood  in  the  way  of  his  quest  for  equality.  With  honey  on  his  lips  and  venom  in 
his  heart,  he  was  planning  the  moment  when  all  other  powers  should  be  disorgan- 
ised, in  order  to  put  his  rule  in  their  place.  The  senseless  constitution  (III) 
which  at  his  proposal  was  promulgated  at  the  end  of  June,  1793,  remained  with 
its  rights  of  man  a  "  piece  of  paper."  The  government  of  the  Eevolution  was  all 
powerful,  and  the  guillotine  worked  unceasingly.  The  Girondists  were  outlawed 
on  July  18, 1793,  and  one  noble  general  after  another  was  executed.  Barfere  called 
all  nobles  "  budding  traitors,"  and  demanded  on  September  5  that  the  terror  should 
be  entered  upon  the  orders  of  the  day. 

The  revolutionary  tribunals  were  packed  with  Eobespierre's  creatures.  On 
September  17,  1793,  a  savage  law  was  passed  against  the  "suspects,"  who  were 
divided  into  six  categories;  and  on  October  3  the  shameful  trial  of  the  queen, 
who  was  removed  to  the  Conciergerie,  was  begun.  Eobespierre's  gang  did  not  even 
allow  the  proceedings  to  be  decently  conducted ;  the  obscenities  of  Hubert  brought 
a  blush  to  the  cheeks  of  the  fishwives  in  the  galleries.  In  the  three  days'  hearing 
of  the  case  no  positive  acts  of  treason  could  be  proved  against  Marie  Antoinette  ; 
nevertheless,  she  was  condemned,  and  bravely  met  her  death  on  October  16. 
Forty  Girondists  followed  her  to  the  scaffold  during  the  next  weeks,  while  others 
escaped.  The  scenes  of  horror  continued  in  the  departments  ;  Lyons  was  almost 
destroyed.  There  was  only  one  crime,  that  of  not  being  radical  enough.  Every 
town  possessed  a  revolutionary  committee  and  a  revolutionary  army ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  unfettered  rabble.  In  Toulon,  Barras  and  Fr^ron  wreaked  their  fury ;  in 
Nantes,  Carrier  organised  the  brutal  drownings  in  the  Loire  (noyades,  or  republi- 


^fr^Sair]       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  19 

can  marriages) ;  while  twelve  colonnes  infernales  ravaged  La  Vendue.  Everywhere 
a  fanatic  fury  was  vented  on  Christianity  ;  the  churches  fell  a  prey  to  plunder  and 
desecration.  Hand  in  hand  with  all  this  went  the  spoliation  of  all  respectable 
people  ;  at  Bourges  two  million  francs  were  extorted  in  a  single  day.  The  entire 
booty  of  the  robbers  amounted  to  four  hundred  million  francs  (£16,000,000),  and 
the  number  of  arrests  exceeded  two  hundred  thousand.  Even  Danton  and  CamiUe 
Desmoulins  thought  that  the  massacres  had  gone  far  enough,  or  France  would 
bleed  to  death.  They  wished  to  restore  law  and  order,  to  restrict  the  committees 
and  the  Paris  commune;  they  set  about  their  purpose,  and  the  terrorist  party 
began  to  break  up. 

The  prevalent  hatred  of  Christianity  produced  the  senseless  "  Eepublican  Cal- 
endar," which  began  with  September  21,  1792.  It  was  followed  by  the  abolition 
of  Christianity  and  the  adoption  of  heathen  in  place  of  Christian  names.  Many 
would  have  liked  to  decree  by  law  the  cancelling  of  the  whole  period  since  Christ. 
They  did  not  suspect  how  difficult  it  is  to  take  away  the  belief  of  a  people  which 
had  been  baptised  in  the  blood  of  St.  Bartholomew's  night.  The  whole  nation  was 
judged  from  infatuated  proletarians  or  blinded  atheists  like  Anacharsis  Clootz, 
who  called  himself  "  the  personal  enemy  of  Jesus ; "  from  standard-bearers  of  reli- 
gious and  moral  anarchy  like  Chaumette  ("  Anaxagoras  "),  who  termed  divorce  the 
patron  goddess  of  marriage;  from  a  Dupont,  who  shouted  out  in  the  convention, 
"  Nature  and  reason  are  my  gods ;  I  confess  on  my  honour  that  I  deny  G-od ; "  or 
from  Bishop  Gobel  of  Paris,  who,  "  led  by  reason,  in  company  with  other  clerics, 
divested  himself  of  that  character  which  superstition  had  imposed  on  him ; " 
while  execrations  were  poured  upon  the  Jansenist  Gr%oire,  who  fearlessly  acknow- 
ledged his  Christianity  and  would  not  abjure  that  which  he  held  sacred. 

But  when  loafers  and  prostitutes  paraded  in  priestly  vestments,  and  the  sacred 
vessels  were  defiled,  many  timid  thinkers  asked  themselves  whether  such  people 
would  bring  them  a  true  religion,  or  whether  it  would  not  be  more  expedient  to 
resist  them  and  hold  fast  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  which  had  brought  them 
two  thousand  years  of  prosperity.  Men  of  the  stamp  of  Hubert,  who  published 
"  Le  Fere  Ducliene,"  and  Cloots  seemed  even  to  the  terrorists  to  be  digging  the 
grave  of  the  reign  of  terror;  and  Eobespierre  resolved  to  proceed  against  such 
enrages,  as  they  were  called. 

Though  he  was  still  a  rationalist  of  Eousseau's  school,  he  thought  that  a  reli- 
gion, however  faint  and  floating,  was  indispensable  to  a  government.  He  thun- 
dered in  the  Jacobin  Club  against  those  fanatics  who  crushed  the  sacred  impulse 
of  the  people,  and  expressed  his  admiration  for  the  great  thought  which  safe- 
guarded the  order  of  society  and  the  virtue  of  the  individual,  while  he  chastised 
the  underlings  who  wished  to  play  a  part  superior  to  his.  Hubert  humbled  him- 
self. Danton,  too,  raised  a  warning  voice  against  the  action  of  the  partisans  of 
Hubert.  Nothing  touched  Robespierre  more  acutely  than  the  appeal  for  clemency 
and  humanity  which  the  originator  of  the  September  massacres  raised.  Danton, 
from  his  popularity  with  the  masses,  was  the  most  dangerous  rival,  and  in  dealing 
with  him  it  was  necessary  to  exercise  the  greatest  cunning.  Desmoulins,  who  had 
helped  to  fan  the  flame  of  the  Revolution,  and  had  plucked  the  first  national 
cockade  from  a  tree  in  the  garden  of  the  Palais  Royal,  now  that  his  ideal  lay 
bemired  on  the  ground,  attacked  the  tyranny  of  the  authorities  in  his  clever  and 
satiric  paper,  "  Le  vieux  Cordelier,"  and  demanded  that  their  despotism  should  be 


20  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [chapter  i 

ended.  The  paper  formed  the  topic  of  the  day,  and  Bar^re  taunted  Desmoulins 
■with  wishing  to  rekindle  the  ashes  of  the  monarchy ;  but  Desmoulins  compared 
the  committee  of  public  safety  to  Tiberius. 

The  management  of  the  war  by  the  republic  had  meanwhile  improved ;  in  La 
Vendue  alone  no  progress  was  made.  Everywhere  else  was  felt  the  powerful 
influence  of  Lazare  Nicolas  Marguerite  Garnot,  who  since  August  had  sat  on  the 
committee  of  public  safety,  and  was  at  the  head  of  military  affairs.  He  drew  up 
the  plan  of  operations,  raised  the  national  armies,  created  fourteen  army  corps, 
and  with  masterly  discernment  discovered  military  genius  like  that  of  Bonaparte. 
He  despised  Eobespierre  and  St.  Just,  hated  the  rule  of  bloodshed,  but  served  it  in 
order,  at  the  given  moment,  to  be  able  to  rescue  his  country  by  arms.  He  was 
"  the  organiser  of  victory."  Many  a  distinguished  general  came  to  the  fore,  chiefly 
young  men,  the  chief  of  whom  were  Lazare  Hoehe,  the  commander  of  the  army  of 
the  Moselle  and  t"he  Ehine,  and  Bonaparte.  Hoche  drove  back  the  imperialists 
under  Wurmser  over  the  Ehine,  Houchard  and  Jourdan  were  victorious  at  Honds- 
coote  and  Wattignies  over  the  allies,  Bonaparte  began  his  European  career  with 
the  capture  of  Toulon;  Everywhere  outside  their  own  country  victory  rested  with 
the  French. 

But  in  their  own  land  they  were  slaughtering  each  other.  Eobespierre  dug  the 
common  grave  for  Excess  and  Moderation,  as  he  termed  Hubert  and  Danton. 
Intimate  friends  warned  Danton  of  the  danger;  but  he  did  not  believe  that 
Eobespierre  would  venture  to  proceed  against  him.  He  was  advised  to  fly ;  he 
refused,  since  "  a  man  cannot  take  his  country  with  him  on  the  soles  of  his  shoes." 
He  was  advised  to  appeal  to  the  masses,  his  old  allies ;  but  "  mankind  wearied 
him,"  and  he  "preferred  to  be  guillotined  than  to  guillotine."  On  March  15, 
1794,  the  H^bertists,  and  on  March  31,  Danton,  Desmoulins,  and  other  Danton- 
ists,  were  arrested.  Eobespierre  declared  to  the  muttering  convention  that  the 
presumptuous  and  exceptional  role  of  Danton  was  over,  and  all  submitted  to  the 
dictatorship  of  the  glib  dissembler.  In  contrast  to  the  pitiable  behaviour  of 
the  Hdbertists  at  the  trial  and  on  the  scaffold  (March  24),  the  Dantonists  faced 
with  unblushing  assurance  their  judges,  now  accustomed  to  such  scenes,  and 
demanded  to  be  personally  confronted  with  Eobespierre,  St.  Just,  and  Couthon. 
But  in  vain.  The  triumvirate  extorted  the  verdict  of  "  guilty  "  fronfthe  jury,  and 
mustered  numerous  troops  for  the  execution,  since  they  feared  a  riot  when  Danton 
appeared  on  the  scaffold.  Like  a  jaded  voluptuary  the  "  Mirabeau  of  the  alley  " 
went  to  meet  his  death,  and  said  to  the  executioner  with  a  sneer,  "  One  cord  is 
enough,  put  aside  the  other  for  Eobespierre."  In  Danton  there  fell  (April  5, 1794) 
a  candid  brigand ;  the  last,  though  belated,  voice  against  the  dictatorship  of  the 
terror  was  hushed.  A  hyena  lacerated  France, "  revelling  in  blood  and  tears." 
The  "  holy "  guillotine  found  ever  fresh  food ;  one  scoundrel,  to  use  Goethe's 
phrase,  had  been  despatched  by  another. 

" The  terror  and  all  virtues  "  were  now  the  order  of  the  day.  Eobespierre,  "the 
virtuous  and  the  incorruptible,"  governed  with  "  the  healthy  centre ;  "  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  armed  proletariate  was  to  be  raised  the  national  edifice  of  "  virtue  and 
righteousness,"  adorned  by  those  strange  caryatids,  Eobespierre,  St.  Just,  Couthon, 
CoUot  d'Herbois,  Billaud-Varennes,  and  Fouquier-Tinville.  They  were  all  pre- 
pared for  new  bloodshed  and  horrors,  waded  through  streams  of  gore,  wished 
to  bring  to  life  Eousseau's  "  Social  Contract,"  and  displayed  their  wit  by  saying 


ZTmf'Siutil']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  21 

that  the  more  the  body  social  sweated  the  healthier  it  would  become.     Death 
became  the  only  principle  of  ruling.     The  republic  was  given  over  to  executions ; 
in  the  town  and  in  the  country  bled  hecatombs  of  the  enemies  of  the  democratic 
dictatorship. 

Eobespierre  then  spoke  of  morality  and  divine  worship,  dethroned  the  goddess 
of  reason,  a  prostitute,  who  had  been  worshipped  for  a  short  time,  and  introduced 
the  cult  of  the  "Supreme  Being,"  as  whose  high  priest,  arrayed  in  a  gorgeous 
uniform,  he  received  homage  on  June  8  (20th  Prairial).  Many,  indeed,  of  his  com- 
panions in  crime,  like  Fouchd,  laughed  their  fill  at  "  the  great  man  of  the 
republic  "  with  his  enormous  nosegay ;  the  masses  remained  mute.  He  altered 
the  revolutionary  tribunal  to  suit  his  purpose,  and  ordered  trials  en  masse,  since 
separate  condemnations  wasted  too  much  time.  The  administration  of  the  Supreme 
Being  began  with  the  institution  of  the  "  great  batches  "  (^grandes  fournees).  For 
seven  weeks  some  seventy  persons  were  daily  executed ;  in  Paris  alone  fifteen 
hundred  victims  fell.  Every  informer  was  sure  of  his  reward,  and  anyone  put 
those  he  wished  to  get  rid  of  on  one  of  the  many  categories  of  public  enemies. 
"  We  grind  vermilion,"  cried  David,  the  great  painter  of  the  Eevolution ;  and  the 
executioners  chuckled,  "  The  basket  is  soon  full."  From  the  daily  spectacle  death 
by  the  guillotine  lost  its  sting ;  it  became  "  demoralised,"  so  Billaud-Varennes 
thought.  Madame  Elizabeth,  sister  of  Louis  XVI,  met  her  fate  on  May  10,  1794; 
the  scaffold  seemed  promoted  to  be  the  deathbed  of  the  House  of  Bourbon.  Many 
mounted  the  scaffold  with  a  jest;  only  a  sponsor  of  the  Eevolution,  the  Comtesse 
Dubarry,  mistress  of  Louis  XV,  implored  the  executioner  to  spare  her  life  ;  and 
"  Egalit6  "  died  as  meanly  as  he  lived,  on  November  6, 1793.  Every  man  except 
his  most  intimate  friends  (St.  Just,  Couthon,  and  Lebas)  avoided  Eobespierre.  A 
half-uttered  thought  might  rouse  his  ever-watchful  suspicion ;  even  in  the  con- 
vention no  one  was  safe  from  him.  The  whole  guidance  of  the  State  lay  in  the 
hands  of  the  "gens  de  la  haute  main"  —  Eobespierre,  St.  Just,  and  Couthon. 
Under  them  stood  a  second  triumvirate,  the  "  gens  revolutionnaires,"  Barfere,  CoUot 
d'Herbois,  and  Billaud-Varennes,  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  the  political  move- 
ment from  subsiding.  A  third  triumvirate,  Carnot,  Prieur  de  la  Marne,  and  Lindet, 
les  travailleurs,  superintended  the  entire  administration.  There  was,  in  addition  to 
these,  Jean  Bon  Saint- Andr^ ;  so  that  there  was  a  decemvirate  to  rule  the  country. 

But  all  others  were  full  of  jealousy  and  hatred  against  the  highest  triumvirate 
and  strove  to  overthrow  it.  They  termed  the  introduction  of  the  cult  of  the 
Supreme  Being  and  the  visions  of  Catherine  Th^ot,  the  mother  of  God,  pre- 
liminaries to  the  despotism  of  the  "  Pisistratus,"  Eobespierre.  The  latter  kept 
noticeably  aloof  from  public  life.  He  feared  the  military  dictatorship  of  a  victori- 
ous general,  wished  therefore  to  conclude  peace  with  the  emperor,  and  meditated 
a  marriage  with  Madame  Eoyale,  the  sister  of  the  prisoner  in  the  Temple,  who 
was  proclaimed  as  Louis  XVII  by  the  royalists.  His  enemies  gained  ground. 
His  reappearance  in  the  Convention  on  the  26th  of  July,  1794,  was  intended  to 
overthrow  them,  but  it  completely  failed  in  this  purpose.  The  next  day,  the  9th 
Thermidor,  the  Convention  overwhelmed  him  with  accusations ;  he  was  not  allowed 
to  speak,  and  together  with  his  loyal  adherents  was  arrested.  They  were,  it  is  true, 
liberated  by  the  commune  and  taken  to  the  HStel  de  Ville  under  the  safeguard 
of  Henriot,  the  drunken  commander-in-chief  of  the  National  Guard ;  but  when 
the  Convention  outlawed  the  commune  and  Henriot,  the  troops  of  the  Convention 


22  HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  [chapter  i 

marched  imder  General  Barras  to  the  HStel  de  Ville.  Eobespierre  made  a  futile 
attempt  to  commit  suicide.  And  on  July  28, 1794,  amid  the  sincere  rejoicings  of 
the  populace,  Maximilien  Robespierre,  his  brother  Augustin  Bon  Joseph,  St.  Just, 
Couthon,  and  Henriot  (Lebas  had  died  by  his  own  hand)  were  guillotined,  and  on 
the  following  days  and  later  nearly  a  hundred  of  the  most  bloodthirsty  villains 
shared  the  same  fate.  The  long-crippled  bourgeoisie  was  aroused  and  had  over- 
thrown the  reign  of  blood ;  it  desired  order,  law,  and  peace,  the  reorganisation  of  a 
country  fallen  into  chaos. 

To  what  had  the  ideas  of  1789  degenerated  ?  Instead  of  freedom  for  all,  they 
had  all  found  the  same  slavery;  the  whole  intellectual  work  of  the  National 
Assembly,  all  the  rights  of  man  and  citizen,  were  destroyed.  The  ancien  r'egime 
was  dead  and  buried ;  but  what  mighty  labour  was  needed  to  rear  a  new  structure, 
whether  monarchy  or  republic  ? 

The  future  rested  with  the  armies  of  the  young  republic,  and  their  unbroken 
strength  was  eager  to  hurl  itself  on  Europe.  The  civO.  war  in  La  Vendee 
gradually  died  out.  Jourdan's  victory  at  Fleurus  over  the  Prince  of  Coburg  cost 
the  allies  Belgium;  the  Rhine  countries  and  Savoy  were  occupied,  and  not  a 
foreign  soldier  was  left  on  French  soil.  This  strengthened  the  confidence  of  the 
French  soldiers,  who  looked  with  pride  on  their  generals,  the  best  that  had  led 
them  for  a  century.  The  coalition,  on  the  other  hand,  showed  that  its  members 
were  disunited.  Austria  still  schemed  for  Bavaria  and  the  removal  of  the  House 
of  Wittelsbach  to  Brussels;  Prussia  was  haggling  with  Russia  for  Poland. 
Bavaria  finally  threw  itself  into  the  arms  of  France,  in  order  to  find  protection 
against  the  emperor ;  and  Russia  concluded  with  Prussia  the  second  partition  of 
Poland,  since  it  was  not  allowed  to  annex  it  entirely.  The  new  foreign  minister 
at  Vienna,  Baron  Thugut,  a  practical  politician  of  calm  temperament,  and  no  more 
scrupulous  about  means  than  the  ministers  at  Berlin  and  Paris,  being  a  declared 
enemy  of  Prussia,  was  incensed  at  the  partition,  and  stirred  up  ill-will  against 
Prussia.  He  approached  Catherine  II,  who  gladly  met  him,  for  she  hated  Fred- 
erick William  II,  and  required  Austria  as  a  bulwark  against  the  warlike  schemes 
of  the  sultan  Selim  III.  The  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who,  in  November,  1793,  had 
defeated  Hoche  at  Kaiserslautern,  resigned  his  position  as  commander-in-chief  of 
the  allied  forces  in  January,  1794 ;  and  Frederick  William  was  aUbady  desirous 
of  leaving  the  coalition,  when  the  cabinet  of  St.  James,  in  the  treaty  of  the 
Hague  of  April  19,  forced  him,  as  a  mercenary  of  Great  Britain  and  of  the  States- 
General,  to  equip  an  army  for  the  war.  The  king's  heart  was  not  in  the  cause ; 
and  since  the  payment  of  the  subsidies  from  London  was  in  arrears,  he  regarded 
the  treaty  as  lapsed,  especially  since  the  insurrection  in  Poland  under  the  noble 
Thaddeus  Kosciusko  sufficiently  occupied  his  hands.  The  Prussians  and  the  im- 
perialists withdrew  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  former  turned  against 
Poland;  but  it  was  the  genius  of  Suvaroff,  the  Russian  general,  that  first  suc- 
ceeded in  checking  and  subjugating  the  Poles  (November,  1794).  The  secret 
understanding  of  January  3,  1795,  between  Russia  and  Austria  was  aimed  at 
Prussia. 

Frederick  William  II,  indeed,  knew  nothing  of  it ;  he  suspected  however,  the 
hostile  attitude  of  both  cabinets,  and  resolved  to  come  to  an  agreement  with 
France,  whatever  other  States  of  the  empire  might  intend.  The  conquest  of 
Holland   by   Pichegru   opened   to  the   French  a   door  for  an  attack  on  Lower 


^.T/f"iS^fn1       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  23 

Germany.  Frederick  William  then  began  negotiations  with  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety,  and  the  result  of  them  was  the  peace  of  Basle  on  April  5,  1795. 
In  it  Prussia  not  only  renounced  its  position  as  a  great  power,  but  abandoned  to 
France  the  left  bank  of  the  Ehine ;  it  secured  from  France  the  promise  of  com- 
pensation on  the  right  bank,  and  sought  a  neutral  position  behind  a  line  of 
demarcation.  The  regicide  republic  celebrated  its  splendid  victory  over  the 
superannuated  monarchy  of  "  Old  Fritz."  Numerous  lampoons  were  published  in 
Vienna  against  the  Judas  in  the  empire,  the  speculator  in  an  imperial  crown  of 
Lower  Germany ;  and  yet  it  was  only  the  stupidity  of  Haugwitz  and  Lucchesini 
that  caused  Prussia's  unworthy  conduct.  France  also  concluded  peace  with  Spain 
at  Basle  (July  22,  1795),  and  received  the  latter's  share  of  San  Domingo.  The 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  a  near  relative  of  the  emperor,  had,  as  first  of  the  Italian 
princes,  come  to  a  friendly  agreement  with  France. 

The  body  of  citizens  in  France  demanded  protection  against  the  recurrence  of 
anarchy.  The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  and  the  other  committees  in  Paris 
were  placed  on  a  new  footing ;  the  fifty-two  thousand  revolutionary  committees  in 
the  departments,  which  cost  sis  hundred  millions  of  francs  yearly,  were  greatly 
reduced  in  number.  The  uninterrupted  payment  of  daily  wages  to  the  idlers  in 
the  sections  of  Paris  was  discontinued.  The  dissolute  hordes  of  proletarians, 
priding  themselves  on  their  rags  and  dirt,  disappeared  from  the  streets.  A  cheer- 
ful crowd,  emerging  from  their  concealment,  scared  them  thence,  and  haUed  the 
overthrow  of  the  tyranny.  The  natural  gaiety  of  the  French,  coupled  with  their 
love  of  pleasure,  reappeared ;  the  places  of  amusement  were  always  thronged, 
men's  minds  were  occupied  with  dress  and  show.  It  was  a  sickly  effort  to  obtain 
ample  compensation  for  all  the  dangers  they  had  undergone ;  and  instead  of  the 
bloodthirsty  songs  of  the  Eeign  of  Terror,  there  resounded  from  a  thousand  lips 
the  song  of  vengeance  against  the  terrorists,  le  rsveil  du  peuple.  The  irregular 
militia  of  muscadins  and  petits  maitres,  the  jeunesse  Freronniere,  formed  by  the 
converted  terrorist  Fr^ron,  defeated  with  their  life-preservers  the  Jacobins,  the 
tricoteuses,  and  "veuves  de  Bobespierre."  The  Committee  of  Public  Safety  closed 
the  Jacobin  club.  The  last  Girondists  were  brought  back  in  triumph  to  Paris, 
and  now  entered  the  camp  of  the  reaction  and  were  reconciled,  as  if  transformed, 
to  the  monarchical  idea.  Mutinies  and  insurrections  did  not  indeed  cease.  The 
constitution  of  1793  was  willingly  employed  as  a  pretext;  scenes  like  those  of 
May  20,  1795  (1  Prairial  of  the  year  III),  in  the  Convention  recalled  precisely 
their  prototypes  in  the  Eeign  of  Terror,  but  led  to  beneficial  results,  —  to  the 
disarmament  of  the  suburbs,  the  abolition  of  the  revolutionary  committees  and 
the  revolutionary  tribunal,  to  the  fall  of  the  constitution  of  1793,  and  to  the 
consolidation  of  the  middle  classes. 

Eoyalism  once  more  was  revived,  but  only  for  Louis  XVII.  It  was  a  terrible 
blow  for  the  royalists  and  a  triumph  for  the  Convention  that  the  unfortunate  boy 
died  at  that  very  moment,  on  the  8th  of  June,  1795,  in  the  Temple.  The  reaction, 
suppressed  in  Paris  by  the  convention,  raged  furiously  in  the  south  of  France ;  the 
horrors  of  the  White  Terror  of  the  Compagnies  de  Jesus  or  du  soleil  in  Lyons, 
Marseilles,  Aix,  Tarascon,  were  as  atrocious  as  those  of  the  Eed  Terror.  Attempts 
at  a  general  rising  of  the  Vendeans  and  Chouans,  who  were  supported  by  British 
ships  and  British  gold,  were  defeated,  and  General  Hoche  meted  out  stern  justice 
to  the  insurgents. 


24  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Icha^ter  i 

The  change  both  in  sentiment  and  in  the  position  of  affairs  since  the  constitu- 
tion of  1793  was  immense.  The  wish  now  was  no  longer  to  weaken  the  govern- 
ment, but  to  give  it  strength  to  ensure  peace  and  security.  It  was  no  longer  a 
question  of  unattainable  social  equality,  but  equality  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  Every 
one  who  wished  to  share  in  the  management  of  the  commonwealth  must  have  a 
certain  amount  of  property.  Boissy  d'Anglas  was  right  when  he  said,  "  A  country- 
ruled  by  the  propertied  classes  is  in  the  right  social  condition ;  government  by  those 
who  have  no  property  is  barbarism."  The  Convention  had  required  the  experiences 
of  five  long  years  of  terror  to  comprehend  this  obvious  truth.  Trance  might  have 
been  spared  such  experience  had  Mirabeau's  emphatic  warnings  been  followed  out, 
and  had  he  not  been  left  to  pine  away  in  an  unsatisfied  longing  for  the  guidance 
of  the  nation. 

3.   THE  AGE   OF   NAPOLEON  I 

If  the  constitution  (IV)  of  the  year  III  in  the  republican  chronology  (August 
22,  1795)  created  no  monarchy  in  France,  it  laid  the  foundation  for  one.  All 
who  for  the  future  exercised  rights  undertook  duties  also ;  and  the  franchise  was 
limited  by  means  of  a  property  qualification.  The  legislative  power  went  to  two 
councils, —  the  council  of  the  Five  Hundred  and  the  coimcil  of  the  Ancients;  the 
executive  was  assigned  to  a  directory  of  five  members  selected  from  the  latter 
council.  The  chief  mistake  of  the  constituent  assembly  was  unintentionally 
avoided  by  taking  in  despair  two-thirds  of  both  councils  from  the  Convention. 
The  royalists  and  the  bourgeoisie  could  not  tolerate  the  constitution;  in  order 
to  repress  them,  the  Convention  required  the  suburbs  and  the  armies.  Bona- 
parte's hour  was  come.  Who  could  have  possessed  more  ambition  or  more  talent 
in  order  to  be  the  coming  man  ? 

A.  Bonaparte 

Born  shortly  after  the  conquest  of  Corsica,  on  the  15th  of  August,  1769,  at 
Ajaccio,  Napoleon,  the  second  son  of  the  advocate  Carlo  Maria  B(u)onaparte,  a 
man  of  noble  ancestry,  had  suffered  bitter  privations  from  his  earliest  years,  and 
through  poverty  was  compelled  to  lead  a  life  of  careful  manal§fement  and  strict 
economy.  Sent,  by  royal  favour,  to  a  military  school  first  at  Brienne  (1779),  and 
afterward  at  Paris  (1784),  the  enthusiastic  worshipper  of  the  Corsican  national 
hero,  Pasquale  Paoli,  was  in  every  fibre  of  his  being  a  Corsican,  and  detested  the 
French  as  the  executioners  of  Corsican  freedom.  Unpopular  with  his  comrades, 
since  he  was  shy,  reserved,  and  awkward,  he  buried  himself  in  the  library  and 
scoffed  at  the  luxury  of  the  others ;  a  soldier,  he  said,  required  discipline  and  sim- 
plicity. He  found  pleasure  in  learning  artillery  duties  and  fortification,  and  his 
masters  thought  he  wordd  one  day  become  a  good  artillery  officer,  whereas  he  would 
by  preference  have  joined  the  navy.  He  devoured  eagerly  all  books  which  he  found, 
whatever  their  contents,  and  his  extraordinary  memory  enabled  him  to  remember 
all  that  was  useful. 

Since  his  father,  an  improvident  man,  left  hardly  any  fortune  behind  him  on 
his  death  in  1785,  his  mother,  Maria  Letitia,  found  the  education  of  her  large  family 
an  anxious  and  difficult  task,  though  her  son,  a  boy  of  sisteen,  would  not  consent 
to  put  her  to  much  expense.     He  became  second  lieutenant  in  September,  1785, 


'it 


^- 


^ 


^'  *% 


Napoleox  Eoxaparte  at  Fuuk  Different  Stages  of  his  Career 


EXPLANATION    OF    THE    POETRAITS    OF    NAPOLEON    BONAPAPtTE 

ON   THE   OTHEE   SIDE 

1.  Bonaparte   as   Brigadier-General   when   arrested  and   deprived   of   his   command    (1795) ; 

drawn  by  J.  Guerin,  engraved  by  G.  Fiesiiiger. 

2.  Bonaparte  as   the  victorious  commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  of  Italy  on   the  Bridge   of 

Areola  (1796)  ;  painted  by  Antoine  Jean  Gros. 

3.  Bonaparte  as  First  Consul  in  Malmaison  (1802)  ;  painted  by  Jean  Baptists  Isahey. 

4.  Napoleon    I   as   Emperor   (1810) ;   drawn   by  Stefano   Tofanelli,   engraved    by   Raffaello 

Morghen. 

(1,  after  an  engraving  in  the  Dresden  Gallery  ;  2,  after  a  photograph  by  Giraudon  of  the  picture  in 
the  Louvre  at  Paris  ;  3,  from  Giraudon's  photograph  of  the  picture  in  the  Museum  at  Versailles;  4,  from 
W.  V.  Seydlitz's  "  Historisches  Portratwerk.") 


^a7A7S:«f;]        HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  25 

■was  quartered  in  Valence,  then  in  Auxonne  (after  1788),  and,  dissatisfied  with 
garrison  duty,  occupied  himself  with  literary  work,  but  could  not  turn  his  labours 
to  account.  Though  he  met  with  constant  reverses  and  disappointments,  he  did 
not  give  way  to  useless  regret,  but  always  hoped  to  ameliorate  his  position.  The 
Eevolution  of  1789  roused  him  to  political  speculations.  He  hated  all  privileges,' all 
aristocracy,  and  hoped  that  the  Eevolution,  to  whose  flag  he  swore  allegiance,  would 
lead  to  his  rapid  advance.  He  spoke  passionately  in  the  clubs  when  he  visited 
Corsica ;  he  organised  the  National  Guard  there,  and  wrote  wild  political  pamphlets. 
He  worked  also  in  the  cause  of  revolution  after  1791,  while  a  first  lieutenant  in 
Valence.  But  since  he  had  stayed  in  Corsica  without  leave  in  order  to  prepare  an 
insurrection  and  capture  Ajaccio,  the  war  minister'  erased  his  name  from  the  army 
list  on  February  6,  1792.  After  the  lOtli  of  August,  the  day  on  which  the  throne 
had  fallen,  able  men  were  needed,  and  Bonaparte  was  once  more  enrolled  in  the 
army  as  captain.  He  could  no  longer  play  any  part  in  Corsica.  Paoli  was  negoti- 
ating with  the  British,  and  the  whole  family  of  Bonaparte  was  banished  from 
Corsica  in  July,  1793.  The  exiled  Corsican  now  became  a  Frenchman ;  the  bridge 
to  his  native  country  was  broken  behind  him. 

In  the  south  of  France  the  adherents  of  the  Gironde  were  fighting  against  the 
national  Convention.  Bonaparte,  the  friend  of  the  younger  Eobespierre,  fought  at 
Avignon,  Beaucaire,  and  Toulon  for  the  Convention.  Toulon  was  attacked  accord- 
ing to  his  plan  of  siege ;  it  fell  on  the  19th  of  December,  and  Bonaparte  became 
brigadier-general  of  artillery  on  the  22d.  The  overthrow  of  Eobespierre  threatened 
to  bring  him  also  to  the  scaffold.  He  was  arrested  in  August,  1794,  aud  deprived  of 
his  post.  He  was  successful,  indeed,  in  justifying  himself  and  proving  his 
patriotism.  He  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  artillery  in  an  expedition  against 
Corsica,  which  the  British  had  conquered,  but  was  transferred  suddenly  to  the  army 
of  the  west  against  the  Vendeans ;  his  name  was  struck  out  from  the  artillery  and 
transferred  to  the  infantry.  Bonaparte  was  not  disposed  to  assent  quietly  to  this 
change.  He  went  to  Paris,  tried  to  get  into  touch  with  Tallien,  Barras,  Frdron, 
Boissy  d'Anglas,  and  Cambac^rfes,  and  evolved  the  plan  of  the  Italian  campaign  for 
1796.  As  a  member  of  the  topographical  bureau  in  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  he  had  the  best  prospects  in  his  favour,  but  his  refusal  to  go  to  La  Vendue 
led,  on  September  15, 1795,  to  his  being,  for  the  second  time,  struck  off  the  army 
list.  His  friend  Louis  Stanislas  Frdron  saved  him  from  fresh  misery,  recommended 
him  to  Paul  Jean  Franqois  Nicolas  Barras ;  and  on  the  13th  of  Vend^miaire  (Octo- 
ber 5)  Bonaparte,  as  second  in  command  to  Barras,  routed  the  opponents  of  the  con- 
vention in  sanguinary  street  fighting  as  completely  as  in  a  pitched  battle.  For  his 
services  he  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  of  the  interior  on  Octo- 
ber 26.  His  fortune  was  made,  and  he  held  up  his  head  in  pride.  The  directors 
of  the  republic  were  Barras,  Carnot,  Lar^veillfere-Lepeaux,  Letourneur,  and  Eewbell ; 
and  on  October  26, 1795,  the  Convention  ended  its  revolutionary  career  by  granting 
a  general  amnesty. 

(a)  The  Campaign  in  Italy.  —  The  centre  of  interest  now  lay  in  the  foreign 
policy  and  in  the  armies  of  the  republic.  Politics  split  up  the  German  Empire 
into  two  parts.  Prussia,  and  with  it  Hesse-Cassel,  lay  hidden  behind  the  line  of 
demarcation ;  but  South  Germany  separated  itself  from  Prussia  and  reckoned  on 
the  emperor  or  on  France.     The  imperial  foreign  minister.  Baron  von  Thugut, 


26  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [_Chapteri 

prevented  any  good  understanding  between  Austria  and  Prussia.  The  Ehenish 
princes  fled  when  Jourdan  and  Pichegru  marched  across  the  Ehine.  The  cowardly 
surrender  of  Dusseldorf  and  Mannheim  revealed  the  weakness  of  the  empire, — the 
demorahsation  consequent  on  a  system  of  secondary  and  petty  States.  Bonaparte 
was  given  by  Carnot  the  supreme  command  of  the  army  of  Italy.  Moreau  and 
Jourdan  once  more  crossed  the  Ehine  in  order  to  seize  the  road  through  South 
Germany  to  Tyrol.  If  their  attack  on  Vienna  failed,  Bonaparte  hoped  to  press  on 
thither  from  Italy.  Wurtemberg  and  Baden,  which  had  prospects  of  acquiring 
fresh  territory,  concluded  separate  terms  of  peace  with  the  victorious  Jean  Victor 
Moreau,  and  detached  themselves  from  the  coalition  and  the  war  of  the  empire. 
Swabia  and  Franconia  and  Electoral  Saxony  came  to  terms  with  Moreau.  The 
efforts  of  the  republicans  to  establish  communications  caused  no  little  anxiety  to 
the  States.  Many  princes  fled,  and  strange  plans  of  compensation  whizzed  through 
the  air.  The  Paris  government  seduced  the  rulers  of  the  southwest  of  Germany  to 
prove  disloyal  to  emperor  and  empire  for  the  sake  of  their  own  enrichment,  held 
out  to  them  as  a  bait  the  possessions  of  the  Church  in  the  empire,  and  won  them 
all  over.  Bonaparte  quickly  separated  the  Austrian  and  Sardinian  armies  from 
each  other,  detached  Sardinia  from  the  coalition,  occupied  Milan  and  the  whole  of 
Lombardy,  and  on  the  18  th  of  May,  in  a  treaty  of  peace  with  Sardinia,  obtained 
Savoy  and  Nice  for  France.  He  appeared  in  Italy  not  as  a  liberator  but  as  a  con- 
queror. All  the  States  of  the  peninsula  trembled  before  the  unscrupulous  man, 
who  was  bound  by  no  commands  of  the  Directory,  but  waged  war  and  ravaged 
countries  for  his  own  glory  and  at  his  own  discretion.  Parma,  Modena,  Naples, 
Tuscany,  and  the  States  of  the  Church  concluded  humiliating  treaties  with  him. 
He  detached  them  from  the  coalition,  seized  the  British  factories  in  Leghorn,  cre- 
ated the  Cispadane  and  the  Transpadane  republics,  and  thus  began  to  surround  the 
sun  of  the  French  Eepublic  with  a  ring  of  satellites.  His  victories  which  followed, 
blow  upon  blow,  culminated  in  the  fall  of  Mantua  on  February  2, 1797.  Italy  was 
conquered,  and  Austria  terribly  weakened. 

After  Bonaparte  had  devastated  the  States  of  the  Church,  and  had  obtained,  on 
February  19,  at  Tolentino,  the  cession  of  Avignon,  Bologna,  Ferrara,  Eomagna,  and 
Ancona,  he  sought  out  the  emperor  in  his  German  dominions.  While  he  was  in 
Styria,  Barth^lemy  Catherine  Joubert  was  favoured  by  fortune  in  Tj#d1.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Archduke  Charles  had  succeeded  in  driving  back  Jourdan  and 
Moreau  over  the  Ehine  in  the  autumn  of  1796,  an  incident  that  gave  Bonaparte  a 
■welcome  ray  of  hope,  since  he  saw  in  Moreau  his  most  formidable  rival  next  to 
Hoche.  When  he  had  reached  Leoben,  the  Hofburg  was  so  alarmed  that  it  opened 
negotiations.  The  result  was  a  preliminary  peace  on  April  18,  1797,  which  gave 
to  France  Belgium,  the  Ehine  frontier,  and  all  the  Italian  possessions  of  Austria 
to  the  west  of  the  Oglio,  but  procured  Austria  large  portions  of  the  republic  of 
Venice,  which  was  at  peace  with  France.  The  republic  of  Venice  was  abolished 
in  the  summer,  and  Genoa  became  a  "  Ligurian  "  satellite-republic.  The  Cisalpine 
republic  was  now  created. 

Thugut  avoided  a  final  conclusion  of  peace  because  he  expected  a  revolution  in 
Paris.  Without  interfering  in  the  matter,  Bonaparte  also  awaited  that  moment. 
He  did  not  fight  for  "  cowardly  advocates  and  miserable  babblers."  But  by  means 
of  the  rough  Pierre  Fran9ois  Charles  Augereau,  he  forced  the  despised  Directory 
into  the  coup  d'etat  of  the  18th  Fructidor  (September  4),  by  which  the  royalists  and 


^fr<^"ir£t']       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  27 

the  conservatives,  with  Carnot,  Barth^lemy,  and  Pichegru  at  their  head,  were  over- 
thrown. The  victory  of  the  Directory  thus  turned  out  to  his  advantage.  Lazare 
Hoche,  the  fiery  republican  who  alone  could  have  disputed  the  dictatorship  with 
him,  died  suddenly  in  the  camp  at  Wetzlar  (September  18,  1797),  after  he  had 
pacified  Vendee  and  Brittany.  The  communistic  rising  of  the  "tribune  of  the 
people  "  Babeuf  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  398)  had  terminated  in  May,  1796,  with  his  arrest 
{a  year  afterward  he  was  executed) ;  other  movements  proved  failures.  The  place 
of  the  guillotine  was  now  taken  by  deportation  to  Cayenne,  the  "  dry  guillotine." 
Bonaparte,  in  whose  favour  all  this  was,  admitted  to  his  friends :  "  The  nation 
needs  a  supreme  head,  crowned  with  bays  of  victory ;  Frenchmen  do  not  under- 
stand the  phraseology  and  fancies  of  ideologists." 

Bonaparte,  acting  without  any  scruples,  obtained  from  Francis  II,  on  October 
17,  1797,  at  Campo  Formio,  the  peace  abroad  which  he  now  required  in  order  to 
strengthen  his  position.  This  treaty  was  one  of  the  keystones  of  his  world 
empire.  Belgium  and  the  Ionian  Islands  came  to  France ;  Lombardy  to  the 
Cisalpine  republic ;  a  prospect  of  the  Ehiae  frontier  was  held  out  to  France ;  Aus- 
tria received  the  greater  portion  of  the  ancient  Venice ;  peace  was  to  be  concluded 
with  the  empire  at  Eastadt,  and  a  congress  should  meet  for  the  purpose.  Bona- 
parte appeared  there  ia  order  to  "  give  a  supplement  to  Campo  Formio  "  to  obtain 
the  cession  of  Mayence,  and  to  effect  the  evacuation  of  the  empire  by  the  imperial 
troops.  Paris  then  received  him  in  the  "  Eue  de  la  Victoire  "  with  acclamations, 
and  in  order  to  increase  his  popularity,  he  modestly  withdrew  from  the  demonstra- 
tions, apparently  happy  only  as  a  member  of  the  institute. 

(5)  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  Year  1797.  —  At  Campo  Formio  the  emperor  had 
reconciled  himself  with  the  political  ethics  of  the  Eevolution,  had  enriched  himself 
at  the  cost  of  the  empire,  and  had  incurred  new  suspicion  on  the  part  of  Prussia. 
The  latter  did  not  understand  the  miserable  role  of  hiding  behind  the  line  of 
demarcation.  It  awaited  its  salvation  from  France,  and  yet  only  served  it  as  a  tool 
against  Austria.  The  large  accession  of  Slavic  territory  which  it  had  received  on 
the  partition  of  Poland  destroyed  its  German  character.  Prussia  became  a  mized 
kingdom,  and  the  government,  as  well  as  the  military  system,  was  unpr  ogres  si  ve. 

Everything  was  rusty  when  Frederick  "William  II,  the  voluptuary  and  mystic, 
under  whom  the  nation  grew  immoral  and  decadent,  was  replaced  by  his  virtuous, 
but  perverse  and  irresolute,  son,  Frederick  William  III  (IsTovember  16, 1797).  The 
new  sovereign  was  not  competent  for  his  heavy  task.  The  revival  of  State  and 
society  was  delayed.  Great  natures,  among  them,  first  and  foremost.  Baron  Karl 
vom  Stein,  the  only  real  political  reformer  in  Prussia,  were  repulsive  to  the  king. 
It  was  only  as  a  soldier  that  Frederick  WUliam  had  any  real  importance,  but  he 
was  excessively  pacific.  He  was  as  averse  to,  and  as  suspicious  of,  any  innovation 
as  the  emperor  Francis  II,  who  resembled  him  in  narrowness  of  views  and  limi- 
tations of  intellect.  George  III  of  Great  Britain  was  also  of  boorish  intellect, 
capricious,  and  filled  with  a  jealous  hatred  of  great  men,  such  as  the  two  Pitts. 
He  had  preferred  to  lose  the  New  World  rather  than  give  up  a  foolish  policy  (cf. 
Vols.  I  and  VI).  Wherever  we  look,  there  was  not  a  sovereign  of  real  power  who 
was  able  to  check  Bonaparte's  career.  Catherine  II  of  Eussia  avoided  war  with 
France,  and  was  already  on  the  verge  of  the  grave  when  his  career  began  before 
Toulon.    This  explains  to  some  extent  the  absolutely  unprecedented  success  of  the 


28  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  {Chapter  i 

Corsican  condottiere,  the  ancient  foe  of  France,  who  had  now  long  behaved  as  an 
ardent  Frenchman,  and  won  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  by  victory,  conquest, 
and  booty. 

At  the  imperial  peace  congress  at  Eastadt  the  official  non-French  world  played 
a  miserable  part.  Many  of  the  States  of  the  empire,  large  and  small,  grovelled  in 
the  dust  before  the  representatives  of  France,  whose  pockets  they  filled ;  but  they 
treated  the  envoys  of  the  ecclesiastical  princes  so  contemptuously,  that  these  felt 
it  would  go  badly  with  them.  A  shameless  scramble  for  new  possessions  was 
initiated  by  the  catchword  "  secularisation."  In  vain  did  the  ecclesiastical  princes 
emphasise  the  theocratic  nature  of  the  empire.  The  secular  lords  already  picked 
out  the  lots  on  which  they  had  set  their  hopes  in  the  great  auction  of  the  empire, 
estimated  their  losses  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Ehine  or  elsewhere  at  an  exorbitant 
figure,  and  put  a  low  valuation  on  the  territory  given  in  compensation  in  order  to 
do  a  good  stroke  of  business.  There  was  no  talk  of  patriotism  or  public  spirit,  and 
France  fostered  their  base  inclinations  in  order  to  make  them  more  subservient. 

(c)  Egypt  and  Syria.  —  The  dream  of  the  East  and  of  Egypt  filled  Bonaparte's 
soul,  together  with  the  thought  of  the  conquest  of  Great  Britain,  which  formed  part 
of  the  same  plan.  He  wished  to  wrest  Egypt  from  the  sultan  and  then  to  march 
to  India,  in  order  to  strike  Great  Britain  in  her  most  vulnerable  spot.  He  dreamed 
of  expelling  the  Turk  from  Europe  and  of  establishing  once  more  a  Byzantine  empire. 
"  Europe  is  only  a  molehill ;  great  empires,  great  revolutions,  are  found  only  in  the 
East,  where  six  hundred  million  men  live.  Our  path  must  lie  eastward ;  for  the  East 
is  the  source  of  all  power  and  might."  To  carry  out  the  Egyptian  expedition,  which 
was  shrouded  in  the  profoundest  mystery,  the  Directory  had  need  of  money.  Since 
it  had  none,  but  was  desirous  of  sending  Bonaparte  away  from  France,  the  generals 
Berthier  and  Brune  were  ordered  to  empty  the  treasuries  of  the  States  of  the  Church 
and  of  Switzerland  in  the  midst  of  peace.  Pierre  Alexandre  Berthier  overthrew 
the  papal  rule,  and  led  Pius  VI  a  prisoner  to  France,  where  he  died  (August  29, 
1799) ;  and  on  March  20,  1798,  the  Eoman  Eepublic  was  created.  A  part  of 
Switzerland  was  united  to  the  Cisalpine  Eepublic,  Geneva  was  joined  to  France, 
and  on  the  11th  of  April  the  "one  and  indivisible  Helvetian  republic"  was  pro- 
claimed, where,  according  to  Lavater's  phrase,  only  the  "  freedom  of  S^n  flourished." 
These  steps  not  merely  enlarged  the  power  of  France,  but  also  brought  the  treasures 
of  Eome  and  Berne  to  the  relief  of  the  depleted  exchequer.  It  was  high  time ;  the 
assignats,  of  which  more  than  forty-five  milliards  were  in  circulation,  had  sunk  to 
one  two-hundredth  of  their  nominal  value.  Bonaparte,  as  commander-in-chief  of 
the  army  of  the  Orient  and  the  army  of  England,  well  equipped  with  all  neces- 
saries, left  Toulon  on  May  19,  1798.  He  had  no  difficulty  in  crushing  the  State  of 
Malta,  which  had  sunk  very  low,  and  obtained  as  booty  the  treasury  of  the  Order 
and  large  stores.  He  eluded  Nelson's  fleet,  which  was  intended  to  catch  him, 
captured  Alexandria  on  July  2,  and  moored  his  fleet  in  the  Bay  of  Aboukir. 

Hastening  through  the  burning  desert,  he  made  his  entry  into  Cairo  after  the 
battle  of  the  Pyramids,  or  Embabeh  (July  21),  the  crushing  defeat  of  the  Mame- 
lukes (of.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  713).  But  in  vain  he  flattered  the  sheikhs ;  all  his  coquetting 
with  Islam  was  useless.  The  "  sultan  Kebir  "  did  not  reciprocate  his  love,  and  the 
attempts  to  bless  the  Egyptians  with  departments  and  arrondissements  met  with 
universal  opposition.      Then  the  great  admiral  Horatio  Nelson  annihilated  the 


XeTi^'lToitiSr^       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  29 

whole  of  Napoleon's  fleet  on  August  1  at  Aboukir  Bay,  and  cut  off  the  return  of 
the  French.  Selim  III,  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  reforming  sultans,  availed 
himself  of  the  chance,  declared  war  in  September  with  France,  and  concluded 
alliances  with  Great  Britain  and  Eussia.  Napoleon  was  forced  to  suppress  an 
iusurrection  in  Cairo  with  grapeshot  (October  21-22). 

Since  all  that  was  romantic  attracted  him,  he  now  regarded  Syria  as  the  base 
of  his  advance  on  India,  and  entered  into  negotiations  with  Tippu  Sahib,  sultan  of 
Mysore,  and  with  Persia.  The  thought  of  an  expedition  like  Alexander's  march 
flashed  through  his  brain.  El  Arysch  indeed  capitulated,  and  Jaffa  was  stormed 
by  him  on  March  7,  1799,  but  Bonaparte's  assaults  on  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  where  the 
plague  broke  out  in  his  army,  were  failures ;  and  the  victory  won  by  his  subor- 
diuate,  Jean  Baptiste  Kl^ber,  over  the  Turks  on  Mount  Tabor  (April  16)  did  not 
compensate  for  the  losses  before  Acre.  Bonaparte  was  forced  to  abandon  his 
Oriental  dreams  and  to  withdraw  on  May  20  ;  "  but  for  Acre  he  was  emperor  of  the 
East."  Nelson  now  wrote  triumphantly  that  the  "  vagabond  "  was  cut  off ;  never- 
theless he  reached  Cairo,  cleared  Upper  Egypt,  and  defeated  the  Turks  on  July  25 
at  Aboukir.  But  little  news  from  France  had  reached  him.  His  antagonist  before 
Acre,  the  British  commodore  William  Sidney  Smith,  derisively  sent  him  news- 
papers which  revealed  to  him  the  misfortunes  of  France. 

{d)  The  Second  Coalition  War.  —  What  had  happened  ?  The  Directory  had 
to  face  stubborn  struggles  with  the  obstinate  republicans,  and,  iu  order  to  crush 
them,  usurped  in  May,  1798,  an  illegal  power ;  but  after  Carnot's  retirement  it  for- 
feited all  respect.  Barras,  its  best-known  member,  seemed  an  incarnation  of  every 
vice.  Eussia,  since  November,  1796,  had  an  eccentric  ruler,  the  emperor  Paul,  who 
regarded  himself  as  a  divine  tool  for  the  restoration  of  ancient  France  and  ancient 
Europe,  wished  to  reinstate  the  pope,  and  contrary  to  tradition  acted  quite  disin- 
terestedly, being  prepared  to  supply  money  and  men,  and  enthusiastic  for  the  cause 
of  the  divine  monarchy  against  the  worthless  republic.  Paul  vainly  tried  to  draw 
Prussia  out  of  her  neutrality.  His  favourite  thought  was  an  alliance  of  Eussia, 
Prussia,  Austria,  and  Great  Britain  against  France.  The  new  (second)  coalition,  the 
soul  of  which  was  Paul,  was  most  formidable  to  France  even  if  Prussia  kept  aloof  from 
it.  It  comprised  Eussia,  Great  Britain,  the  new  pope  Pius  VII,  the  princes  of  Italy, 
a  number  of  German  States  (not  Bavaria,  however,  which  strangely  favoured  France), 
Portugal,  Turkey,  and  the  Barbary  States.  The  second  coalition  emphatically  de- 
fended the  law  of  nations  as  established  by  past  history,  and  Paul  gave  it  a  com- 
mander of  the  highest  rank  in  Marshal  Suvaroff.  At  sea,  indeed,  the  British  were 
undisputed  masters  since  Aboukir.  The  French  under  Joubert  conquered  Sardinia, 
whose  king,  Charles  Emmanuel  IV,  knelt  before  the  sacred  veil  of  Veronica  instead 
of  fighting,  and  forced  him  in  December,  1798,  to  abdicate  and  leave  the  country. 
Under  Jean  Etienne  Championnet  they  conquered  Naples  on  January  23,  1799, 
and,  while  the  court  fled  to  Palermo,  created  the  Parthenopean  Eepublic.  France 
in  this  way  possessed  Italy  as  far  as  the  straits  of  Sicily. 

Andr^  Mass^na,  when  the  coalition  war  began,  drove  the  imperialists  from  the 
Grisons  to  Vorarlberg,  and  then  received  the  supreme  command  of  all  troops  on 
the  Ehine  and  in  Switzerland.  Jean  Baptiste  Jourdan  advanced  at  the  beginning 
of  March,  1799,  to  Swabia,  was  defeated  by  the  archduke  Charles  on  the  21st  and 
25th  of  March  at  Osterach  and  Stockach  and  repulsed  to  the  left  bank  of  the 


30  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [chapter  I 

Ehine.  Marshal  Paul  Kray,  Baron  von  Krajowa,  defeated  the  French  on  April  5 
at  Magnano,  and  Suvaroff  drove  them  behind  the  Adda.  He  then,  after  the  vic- 
tory over  Moreau  at  Cassano  on  April  28,  entered  Milan  and  dissolved  the  Cisal- 
pine Eepublic,  while  Massdna  was  driven  by  the  imperialists  into  the  heart  of 
Switzerland.  The  French  envoys  were  still  sitting  at  the  congress  of  Rastadt. 
The  imperial  headquarters  finally  declared  that  their  safety  could  no  longer  be 
guaranteed.  When  they  started  back  on  the  night  of  the  28th  of  April  they  were 
attacked,  in  gross  violation  of  international  law,  and  two  of  them  were  killed. 
Fortune  smiled  on  Suvaroff  in  Italy.  He  defeated  Macdonald  on  June  17-19  on 
the  Trebbia.  Mantua  was  taken  on  July  27,  and  on  August  15  Joubert  feU  in 
the  defeat  inflicted  at  Novi  by  Kray  and  field-marshal  Baron  Melas,  and  France 
was  doomed  to  forfeit  her  last  positions  in  Upper  Italy  if  the  coalition  remained 
imited. 

Suvaroff  was,  however,  incensed  at  Thugut's  intrigues  and  the  interference  of 
the  military  council  of  Vienna.  He  and  his  emperor  wished  to  reinstate  the  king 
of  Sardinia ;  the  emperor  Francis  would  not  hear  of  it,  and  was  himself  intent  on 
booty.  The  British  cabinet  organised  a  Eusso-British  expedition  to  Holland, 
which  captured,  it  is  true,  the  Dutch  fleet,  but  was  defeated  in  the  autumn  of 
1799  by  General  Brune;  thus  the  plans  for  a  restoration  of  the  banished  House  of 
Orange  to  the  throne  of  Holland  and  for  an  invasion  of  Belgium  were  thwarted. 
No  battles  were  fought  on  the  Ehine ;  Archduke  Charles  only  captured  Mann- 
heim, and  the  militia  caused  the  French  much  trouble.  While  Count  Haugwitz, 
the  foremost  statesman  of  Prussia,  feared  the  encroachment  of  France  ■on  Prussia, 
and  advised  an  entrance  into  the  triple  alliance  of  Austria,  Eussia,  and  Great 
Britain,  the  king,  who  saw  in  France  his  natural  ally,  remained  an  idle  spectator 
of  the  great  war.  The  foolish  plan  was  formed  in  Vienna  of  cutting  short 
Suvaroff's  triumphal  march  into  Italy  and  of  removing  him  over  the  Alps  into 
Switzerland.  By  unparalleled  exertions  the  general  crossed  over  in  September, 
1799,  and  when  he  heard  of  the  victory  of  Massdna,  at  Zurich  (September  26),  over 
the  Eussians  and  imperialists,  he  descended  with  the  fragments  of  his  army  in 
October  into  the  valley  of  the  Upper  Ehine.  Paul,  furious  with  Francis,  concluded 
the  alliance  of  Gatshina  with  Bavaria,  whose  independence  he  guaranteed,  an- 
nounced to  Francis  in  blunt  words  his  withdrawal  from  the  coalftion,  and  in 
December  the  Eussians  marched  back.  The  coalition  was  broken  up,  and  France 
saved  from  the  most  dangerous  onset.  The  weak  government  of  the  Directory 
would  not  have  been  adequate ;  it  could  hardly  keep  its  head  above  the  water. 
The  Director,  Emmanuel  J  oseph  Si^yfes,  himself  aimed  at  its  overthrow,  and  looked 
for  an  energetic  general  to  help  him.  Since  Joubert  was  fallen,  he  thought  of 
Bonaparte.  His  colleague  Barras,  on  the  contrary,  planned  a  restoration  of  the 
Bourbons,  and  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  banished  head  of  the  house, 
Louis  XVIII,  whose  attempts  at  reconciliation  Bonaparte  had  always  rejected. 

(e)  The  Consulate.  —  As  soon  as  Bonaparte  in  Egypt  learnt  how  things  were 
going  in  Europe,  he  resolved  to  return  home ;  he  had  nothing  more  to  do  in  the 
East  or  with  his  army,  which  he  handed  over  to  Kl^ber.  His  star  was  now  in 
the  ascendant  at  Paris.  He  sailed  secretly  from  Alexandria  on  August  23,  1799, 
taking  only  a  few  followers  with  him.  Marmont  confesses  in  his  memoirs,  "  We 
felt  we  were  bound  to  an  irresistible  destiny."     A  glamour  of  romance  already 


^/7JSL1.^]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  31 

surrounded  the  victor  of  the  Pyramids  and  of  Mount  Tabor ;  when  he  landed  at 
Fr^jus,  on  the  9th  of  October,  people  said  before  his  face, "  We  will  make  you  king, 
if  you  wish."  On  the  16th  of  October  he  appeared  in  front  of  the  astonished 
Directors ;  they  certainly  had  not  summoned  him.  But  the  nation  saw  ia  him  the 
embodiment  of  its  honour,  the  glory  of  France ;  the  nation  belonged  to  him,  not  to 
the  despised  Directory. 

(a)  The  Founding  of  the  Consulate.  —  Bonaparte  quietly  enlisted  allies  and 
adopted  useful  agents  from  every  party.  His  brothers  Joseph  and  Lucien,  now 
president  of  the  Council  of  the  Five  Hundred,  did  him  yeoman  service ;  Josephine 
helped  him  with  Barras  and  Louis  J^rSme  Gohier,  who  was  then  president  of  the 
directory.  Charles  Maurice  Talleyrand  joined  his  side,  as  did  many  generals,  min- 
isters, and  other  influential  men,  with  Si^yfes  at  their  head.  He  did  not,  however, 
trust  any  one  of  them,  being  himself  guided  by  ambition  and  cool  reason,  wholly 
occupied  from  chUdhood  with  the  plain  actualities  of  life,  with  struggles  and  vic- 
tories, and  as  hardened  an  egoist  as  Machiavelli's  "  Prince."  The  soldiers  wor- 
shipped him,  the  generals  yielded  to  his  persuasions,  and  some  bankers  advanced 
money.  Then  the  coup  d'etat  of  the  18th  and  19th  Brumaire  (9th  and  10th  No- 
vember, 1799)  took  place.  For  a  time  everything  pointed  to  failure,  but  Lucien's 
presence  of  mind  saved  the  situation.  The  council  of  the  Five  Hundred  at  St. 
Cloud  was  broken  up  by  troops,  the  Directory  forced  to  abdicate,  and  a  provisional 
Consulate  (Si^yfes,  Eoger-Ducos,  and  Bonaparte)  entrusted  with  executive  power. 
The  nation  abdicated  in  the  orangery  of  St.  Cloud ;  the  military  despotism  which 
Eobespierre  had  already  foreseen  had  come,  and  after  the  first  sitting  of  the 
Consulate  the  duped  Si^yfes  acknowledged,  "  We  have  a  master.  Bonaparte  wills 
everything,  knows  everything,  and  does  everything.  The  laws,  the  citizens,  and  all 
France  lie  in  his  hand."  Sidyfes  was  forced  to  content  himself  with  sketching  a 
constitution ;  but  when  he  wished  to  limit  Bonaparte's  power,  and  subordinate  it 
to  himself,  Bonaparte  called  the  plan  a  metaphysical  absurdity,  and  the  constitu- 
tion (V)  of  the  year  VIII  (24th  of  December,  1799)  placed  all  power  into  the  hand 
of  the  First  Consul. 

Bonaparte,  chosen  by  the  senate  to  be  First  Consul  for  ten  years,  had  all  sover- 
eign powers,  and  chose  for  the  Second  and  Third  Consuls,  who  were  only  given 
advisory  powers,  Jean  Jacques  E^gis  de  Cambac^rfes  and  Charles  Fran§ois  Lebrun, 
occupied  the  Tuileries  with  them,  and  surrounded  himself  and  them  with  guards. 
In  order  that  the  legislative  power  might  be  as  weak  as  possible  relatively  to  the 
executive,  it  was  divided  between  a  tribunate,  a  legislative  body,  and  a  senate, 
which  Bonaparte  managed  as  lord  and  master.  Sidyfes  as  president  of  the  voice- 
less senate  was  buried  alive.  Into  the  council  of  state,  which  showed  some  resem- 
blance to  the  conseil  du  roi  of  Louis  XIV,  Bonaparte  summoned  the  best  experts ; 
the  council  of  state  became,  as  Louis  Marie  Cormenin  says,  "  the  torch  of  legis- 
lature," also,  indeed,  the  vanguard  of  the  upstart.  The  other  two  Consuls  were 
shadows.  In  place  of  the  many-headed  government  of  the  advocates,  a  single  ruler 
governed,  who  was  at  once  the  child  and  the  destroyer  of  the  Eevolution.  A 
manifesto  of  December  15  stated  that  the  Eevolution  was  ended. 

Bonaparte  had  attained  a  high  position ;  but  nevertheless  he  was  dependent  on 
the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  and  might  after  ten  years  be  removed  into  the  back- 
ground.    He  was  compelled,  therefore,  to  keep  his  laurels  from  fading  and  to  add 


32  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  {_Chai,ter  i 

to  them  by  fresh  campaigns,  even  though  he  now  apparently  was  an  advocate  of 
peace.  He  offered  peace  to  the  haughty  George  III  in  the  tone  of  an  equal,  know- 
ing well  that  the  king  would  keep  his  hold  on  Malta  and  on  Egypt ;  and  when 
George  sent  a  ciu't  refusal  to  Talleyrand  by  his  secretary  of  state,  William  Wynd- 
ham,  Lord  Grenville,  in  January,  1800,  that  gave  the  desired  pretext  for  stigma- 
tising the  policy  of  William  Pitt  as  the  grand  obstacle  to  international  peace.  A 
similar  refusal  was  returned  by  Francis  II,  for  Thugut  did  not  wish  to  lose  the 
victories  of  1799.  Frederick  William  III  wished  to  reconcile  the  Czar  with  the 
consular  government,  but  Bonaparte  saw  that  Prussia  was  a  too  subordinate  power. 
He  established  quiet  in  the  country,  and  finally  subdued  La  Vendue.  The  heads 
of  the  Ghouans  continued,  however,  to  be  his  deadly  foes. 

(/3)  Marengo.  —  Moreau  led  the  army  of  the  Ehine  against  the  emperor,  and 
drove  back  General  Kray,  in  May,  1800,  into  a  fortified  camp  before  Ulm;  Mas- 
s^na  was  operating  in  the  Appeuines  against  Marshal  Melas.  The  First  Consul, 
however,  crossed  the  Alps  with  the  reserves  of  Berthier,  in  order,  after  most 
careful  preparation,  to  imitate  Hannibal  and  Suvaroff.  A  success  at  Montebello 
was  followed  by  the  glorious  victory  of  Marengo  on  the  14th  of  June.  Never 
perhaps  was  Bonaparte  so  favoured  by  fortune,  never  was  he  less  in  a  position  to 
show  his  genius  as  a  commander.  Melas  lost  his  head,  and  the  disgraceful  capitu- 
lation of  Alessandria  not  only  cancelled  Austria's  victories  of  1799,  but  cleared 
North  Italy  of  the  enemy  as  far  as  the  Mincio  and  the  lower  Po.  The  thought  of 
a  western  empire,  though  still  vague,  already  arose  in  Napoleon's  breast.  At  the 
same  time  Moreau  defeated  Kray  on  June  1 9  at  Hochstadt,  occupied  Munich,  and 
inflicted  terrible  losses  on  South  Germany.  Conquered  Austria  soon  concluded  a 
new  treaty  of  subsidies,  with  Great  Britain,  which  also  entered  into  a  similar  treaty 
with  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and  Electoral  Mayence.  The  emperor  rejected  the  pre- 
liminary peace  of  the  28th  of  July,  but  on  the  other  hand  not  only  concluded  the 
armistice  of  Parsdorf  but  prolonged  it  on  the  20th  of  September ;  thus  the  "  aug- 
menter  of  the  empire  "  abandoned  South  Germany  to  its  fate.  Thugut  fell  on 
October  8, 1800,  and  Count  Ludwig  Cobenzl  succeeded  him. 

Bonaparte  curtly  rejected  any  overtures  of  the  Bourbons,  who  wished  to  employ 
him  to  reinstate  them,  and  directed  affairs  into  the  path  of  monar|^y,  in  order 
to  aid  his  own  advancement  to  the  throne.  He  closed  the  list  of  emigrants, 
willingly  admitted  emigrants  to  his  own  circle,  and  wished  to  "  make  the  people 
of  1792  and  the  people  of  the  18th  Brumaire  one  united  people."  The  Jacobins 
considered  him  a  renegade,  the  royalists  an  usurper,  who  had  escaped  their 
attempts  in  October  and  December,  1800.  The  dispute  with  the  United  States  of 
America  was  terminated  by  the  peace  of  Mortefontaine,  in  which  the  principle 
"  free  ship,  free  cargo "  was  recognised,  and  France  obtained  an  influential  ally 
against  the  British  naval  power.  Bonaparte  wished  to  put  against  Great  Britain 
an  alliance  of  the  neutrals  under  the  headship  of  the  Czar,  and  made  overtures  to 
him.  Paul  fell  an  easy  victim  to  his  flattery  and  cheap  homage  ;  he  saw  in  Bona- 
parte the  conqueror  of  the  Eevolution  and  the  future  emperor  of  Western  Europe, 
and,  in  concert  with  Prussia,  Denmark,  and  Sweden,  concluded  a  convention 
of  armed  neutrality  against  the  naval  supremacy  of  Great  Britain  (December, 
1800)  and  drove  the  Bourbons,  who  had  been  received  at  Mitau,  out  of  Eussia  in 
midwinter. 


JleTiS'ZZ^I       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  33 

(7)  Luneville  and  Amiens.  —  The  war  with  Francis  II  broke  out  afresh,  and 
Thugut  returned  for  a  short  time  to  the  head  of  affairs.  But  Moreau  defeated 
Archduke  John  on  December  3  at  Hohenlinden,  and  Bonaparte  became  master  of 
the  situation  in  Germany  and  Italy.  He  pushed  Moreau  into  the  background,  met 
with  support  for  his  anti-Austrian  policy  from  Russia  and  the  South  German 
princes,  and  by  his  iasistence  achieved  the  peace  of  Luneville  on  the  9th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1801.  Central  Italy  and  the  left  bank  of  the  Ehine  became  French ;  the 
German  Empire,  politically  and  territorially  revolutionised,  was  forced  to  give 
compensation  to  the  princes,  whose  rights  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Ehine  had  been 
prejudiced,  and  the  ecclesiastical  States,  which  were  destined  to  serve  this  purpose, 
saw  that  their  hour  had  come.  An  imperial  peace  commission,  which  was  mainly 
in  favour  of  secularisation,  was  intended  to  carry  out  the  affairs  of  the  imperial 
peace ;  but  everything,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  was  settled  in  Paris,  —  princes  and  min- 
isters fawned  loathesomely  for  the  favour  of  France. 

Bonaparte  ruled  the  unworthy  royal  pair  of  Spain  by  means  of  Godoy,  the 
"  prince  of  peace "  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  552).  In  the  alliance  of  Madrid  on  March 
21,  1801,  Parma  and  Elba  as  well  as  Louisiana  came  to  France.  Tuscany  was 
given  as  the  "  kingdom  of  Etruria "  to  Prince  Louis  of  Parma,  the  son-in-law  of 
Gharles  IV;  this,  the  first  kingdom  created  by  Bonaparte,  was  naturally  only  a 
French  province,  and  Louis  a  puppet  king.  In  spite  of  all  the  promises  given  to 
Spain,  Bonaparte  sold  Louisiana  in  1803  for  eighty  million  francs  to  the  United 
States  of  America,  whose  extent  of  territory  was  thus  doubled.  Lucien  Bonaparte, 
ambassador  in  Madrid,  goaded  Spain  to  war  against  Portugal,  the  ally  of  Great 
Britain.  After  a  disastrous  campaign,  the  prince  regent  John  in  Badajoz  was 
forced  to  close  the  harbours  of  Portugal  against  the  British,  pay  twenty-five 
million  francs  to  France,  and  make  concessions  in  Guiana.  Ferdinand  IV  of 
Naples  also  saw  himself  compelled,  as  Murat  approached,  to  close  his  harbours  to 
England  and  to  allow  the  French  to  occupy  the  Gulf  of  Taranto. 

The  British  sovereignty  in  India  stood  firmer  than  ever.  Lord  Wellesley  and 
his  successors,  Cornwallis  and  Minto,  continued  the  victorious  career  of  Olive  and 
Warren  Hastings,  and  enlarged  the  British  possessions  far  and  wide  (of.  Vol.  II). 
Kldber  had  been  murdered  ia  Egypt ;  his  foolish  successor  Menou  capitulated  in 
September,  1801,  to  the  British,  who  were  coming  to  the  help  of  the  Turks.  Egypt 
was  lost  for  France  (cf.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  715).  Bonaparte  meditated  vengeance  and  the 
annihilation  of  England. 

The  emperor  Paul  became  stranger  than  ever  in  his  conduct.  His  own  family 
felt  themselves  threatened,  and,  with  the  cognisance  of  his  successor  to  the  crown, 
a  number  of  nobles  wished  to  compel  him  to  abdicate.  He  resisted,  and  was  mur- 
dered on  March  24, 1801,  —  a  blow  for  Bonaparte,  but  a  triumph  for  Great  Britain. 
Alexander  I,  Paul's  successor,  concluded  in  June  a  peace  and  a  commercial  treaty 
with  Great  Britain,  waived  all  claim  to  Malta  and  to  the  grand  mastership  of  the 
Maltese  Order.  Vice-Admiral  Lord  Nelson  had  attacked  the  Danish  fleet  on 
April  2  and  compelled  King  Ohristian  VII  to  abandon  the  alliance  of  the  neu- 
trals ;  this  defection  was  soon  followed  by  that  of  Gustavus  IV  of  Sweden.  The 
northern  confederation  for  the  neutrality  of  the  seas  thus  was  broken  up. 

Bonaparte  now  set  aside  the  respect  he  had  entertaiaed  for  Paul  and  annexed 

Piedmont  to  France  in  1802.     He  concluded  a  secret  treaty  in  August,  1801,  with 

Bavaria,  whose  destinies  were  guided  by  the  talented  Max  von  Montgelas, "  the 
VOL.  vin— 3 


34  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichaperi 

Pombal  of  Bavaria,"  and  thus  obtained  an  important  base  in  Southern  Germany. 
He  also  effected  a  peace  with  Great  Britain.  The  pacific  cabinet  of  Addington 
met  him,  and  concluded  peace  preliminaries  at  London  on  October  1,  1801,  and 
a  definite  peace  at  Amiens  on  March  27,  1802.  It  was  soon  apparent  that  it  was 
at  best  an  armistice.  Great  Britain  never  contemplated  resigning  Malta  to  the 
Knights  of  St.  John,  nor  did  France  intend  to  evacuate  the  Helvetian  and  Batavian 
republics.  Bonaparte  immediately  entered  into  closer  relations  with  Alexander  I. 
When  they  had  concluded  a  peace,  they  formed  a  secret  agreement  iu  Paris  on 
October  11,  1801,  in  order  to  settle,  to  their  mutual  satisfaction,  the  affairs  of  Italy 
and  the  question  of  compensation  to  the  secular  States  of  the  empire  for  their 
losses  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  The  policy  of  Tilsit  and  Erfurt  had  already 
long  existed  in  the  germ.  Both  rulers  set  up  to  be  dictators  in  Europe  and  arbi- 
trators in  the  empire,  and  Alexander  did  not  seem  to  notice  that  Bonaparte  was 
only  making  use  of  him  for  his  own  ends.  The  First  Consul  concluded  peace  also 
with .  Turkey  and  the  Barbary  States,  and  the  world  hailed  him  as  the  bringer 
of  universal  peace. 

(8)  'The  First  Consul.  —  How  little  did  Bonaparte's  nature  correspond  to  this 
idea!  It  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  Spartan-like  adventurer  whether 
the  nations  found  peace  and  happiness ;  they  were  to  be  merely  the  footstool  under 
his  feet.  Fame  alone  meant  anything  to  him ;  but  not  the  fame  of  spreading  civi- 
lization and  morality,  but  the  fame  which  is  won  by  force  and  sanguinary  wars. 
Washington  was  not  his  ideal.  He  called  the  devastation  of  the  Palatinate  by 
Louvois  the  latter's  noblest  title  to  fame.  Filled  with  an  intense  contempt  for 
men,  which  was  due  to  his  great  knowledge  of  mankind,  he  attached  no  value  to 
the  lives  of  his  fellow  creatures ;  he  had  seen  in  the  East  how  the  life  of  man  was 
not  esteemed  more  highly  than  that  of  a  dog.  As  if  an  evil  spirit  urged  him  on, 
he  loved  to  destroy  what  others  held  dear,  to  rend  in  pieces  all  that  history  had 
built  up.  He  wished  to  change  the  varied  form  of  Europe  into  the  desolate  uni- 
formity of  a  military  world  empire.  He  was  devoid  of  patriotism.  At  first  he  was 
an  enthusiastic  Corsican,  then  apparently  a  Frenchman,  soon  a  thorough  citizen  of 
the  world;  the  French  realised  that  fact,  and  never  offered  the  man  who  remained 
half  a  foreigner,  while  he  was  raising  them  to  be  masters  of  tlS  world,  that  love 
which  Louis  XII  and  Henry  IV  had  enjoyed. 

Although  he  had  no  religious  feeling,  he  recognised  the  necessity  of  Christianity 
for  social  order.  He  required  for  the  world  sovereignty,  to  which  he  aspired, 
an  alliance  with  the  papacy.  The  Catholic  religion  was  invaluable,  in  order 
to  invest  him  with  the  character  of  the  heaven-sent  ruler.  "Philosophers  will 
laugh,  but  the  nation  wlU.  bless  me.  .  .  .  Men  will  say  I  am  a  papist:  I  am 
nothing.  In  Egypt  I  was  a  Mussulman ;  here  I  shall  be  Catholic  for  the  welfare  of 
the  people.  ...  My  policy  is  to  govern  as  the  majority  wish.  ...  If  I  ruled  a 
nation  of  Jews,  I  would  restore  the  temple  of  Solomon."  Bonaparte  was  doomed 
to  disappomtment  if  he  thought  that  the  papacy  would  give  itself  up  as  a  tool  to 
the  will  of  another,  and  that  the  hierarchy  could  be  ordered  about  like  a  regiment. 
Pius  VII  showed  him  his  error.  Pius  and  his  secretary  of  state,  Cardinal  Ercole 
Consalvi,  a  man  of  splendid  ability,  gladly  opened  negotiations  with  the  First 
Consul,  full  of  admiration  "  for  the  man  of  studied  spontaneity,"  and  the  Concordat, 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  measures  of  Bonaparte,  was  signed  on  July  15,  1801. 


The  LEADEFts  of  Kussia,  Fkaxce,  Austria,  and  the  Cckia 
IN  THE  Year  1800 


EXPLANATION   OF  POETRAITS    ON   THE   OTHER   SIDE 

1.  Catherine  II,  Empress  of  Russia  (1729-1796)  ;  engraved,  1762,  by  Count  Peter  Rotari  from 

a  picture  in  the  possession  of  E.  TschetesofE  in  St.  Petersburg. 

2.  Alexander  I,    Emperor   of   Russia  (1777-1825) ;     drawn   by    Seb.   Bourdon,   engraved  by 

P.  Audouiu. 

3.  Charles  ilaurice,  Duke  of  Talleyrand-Perigord,  Prince  of  Benevento  (1754-1838)  ;  painted 

by  F.  Gerard,  engraved  by  A.  Boucher-Desnoyers. 

4.  Clemens  Wenzel   Nepomuk    Lothar,  Prince  of  iMetternioh-Winueburg,  Dulve    of   Portella 

(1775-1859);  painted  by  Th.  Lawrence. 

5.  Pope  Pius    Vri,  formerly  Barnaba   Luigi   Chiaramonti    (1740-1823);   painted   by   Joseph 

Bazzoli,  engraved  by  Ang.  E.   Lapi  and  Raph.  Morghen. 

6.  Francis  II,  Emperor  of  Germany,  as  Emperor  of  Austria  Francis  I  (1768-1835) ;  painted 

by  Nat.  Schiavoni,  engraved  after  1806  by  Joseph  Longhi. 

(From  W.  v.  Seydlitz's  "  Historisches  Portrittwerk.") 


ZtAiEZrJiin]       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  35 

France  and  the  Church  were  reconciled.  The  latter  accepted  the  dictatorship  of 
Bonaparte,  the  States  of  the  Church  were  restored  to  the  pope,  who  became  the 
supreme  head  of  the  French  Church.  The  ecclesiastical  laws  of  the  Eevolution 
were  repealed,  and  the  Curia  assented  to  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  the 
Church  in  France.  All  the  clergy  in  France  became  State  servants,  the  schools 
were  taken  away  from  them,  and  the  Church,  in  its  democratic  form,  was  far  more 
compliant  and  ecclesiastical  than  it  was  before  the  Eevolution.  Bonaparte  obtained 
indirect  power  over  the  religious  belief  of  the  French. 

Bonaparte  introduced  military  discipline  into  the  national  life,  which  had 
become  demoralised,  and  the  idea  of  authority  once  more  gained  ground.  The  law 
of  February  17,  1800,  became  the  foundation  of  the  government.  In  contrast  to 
the  revolutionary  age  with  its  elected  bodies,  the  State  was  now  governed  by  single 
officials.  It  was  a  hierarchy  of  a  number  of  "  First  Consuls  in  miniature ; "  all 
were  nominated  by  Bonaparte,  and  were  removable  at  his  pleasure.  The  govern- 
ment of  France  was  strictly  centralised  from  top  to  bottom.  The  councillors  who 
stood  by  the  side  of  the  prefects  played  the  part  of  the  chorus  in  ancient  tragedy. 
The  entire  executive  and  legislative  power  was  united  in  the  First  Consul.  All 
regular  authorities  obeyed  him ;  public  opinion  had  to  keep  silent,  and  a  marvel- 
lously trained  police  suppressed  inconvenient  views.  The  readjustment  of  the 
finances  was  carried  out  by  help  of  the  capable  finance  minister.  Gaudier.  The 
chief  burden  of  the  direct  taxes  fell  on  the  landowners ;  the  indirect  taxes  were 
accurately  adapted  to  social  conditions.  The  national  expenditure  and  national 
debt  were  entirely  reorganised.  Industry  and  trade  were  supported  by  the  Bank 
of  France,  founded  in  1800.  The  respectable  business  men.  strongly  supported  the 
national  financial  undertakings.  Even  in  finance  centralisation  prevailed ;  the 
money  market  became  subservient  to  Bonaparte's  despotism. 

By  a  wide  extension  of  the  system  of  substitutes  a  large  proportion  of  the 
wealthier  classes  obtained  freedom  from  military  service,  and  the  army  raised  by 
conscription  served  Bonaparte's  ambition  better  than  a  recruited  army.  It  was 
only  from  1807  onward  that  the  harshness  of  the  military  law  was  imduly  promi- 
nent. The  corps  of  officers  was  divided  into  two  sections,  since  the  staff  officers 
required  to  be  educated  men;  there  could  be  no  promotion  in  ordinary  cases 
beyond  the  rank  of  captain.  The  "  field-marshal's  baton  in  every  knapsack  "  was 
only  a  phrase,  a  concession  to  the  "  equality  "  delusion.  Bonaparte's  rule  was  the 
best-organised  despotism  of  modern  history ;  but  there  was  no  place  in  it  for  public 
spirit  or  an  independent  attitude. 

Even  before  the  Revolution  a  reform  of  the  French  judicial  system  was  thought 
imperative,  and  Bonaparte,  who  possessed  an  exceptionally  legal  mind,  nominated 
in  1800  a  committee,  consisting  of  the  four  most  capable  jurists  in  France,  to  draw 
up  a  civil  code.  In  the  council  of  state,  which  contained  legal  magnates,  the 
proposals  of  Cambac^rfes  were  discussed,  and  Bonaparte's  opinion  often  determmed 
the  correct  decision.  As  the  thought  of  Eome  and  world  empire  influenced  him 
greatly,  Eoman  law  was  prominent  in  the  new  system,  though  combined  with  the 
droits  de  coutume.  The  portions  of  the  revolutionary  legislation  which  abolished 
all  feudalism  were  also  taken  into  account.  In  the  Cinq  Codes  the  practical  legis- 
lation of  the  Bonapartist  despotism  was  effected  (1801-1810).  Usually  known 
as  the  Code  JVapoleon,  it  is  still  in  force  in  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  and  many 
other  countries,  where  it  had  been  introduced  during  the  Consulate  and  the  first 


36  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  ichapter  i 

empire,  —  a  splendid  conquest  in  the  field  of  civilization.  Extraordinary  courts 
and  military  commissions,  however,  frequently  served  the  government  when  it 
wanted  to  place  itself  above  the  law. 

The  educational  system  was  in  a  sorry  plight.  Bonaparte  intended  teachers  to 
be  apostles  of  his  authority  and  superintendents  of  the  political  and  moral  views 
of  the  people;  he  organised  the  educational  system  from  a  rigidly  bureaucratic 
standpoint,  and  created  a  scholastic  hierarchy.  All  teachers  formed  a  corporation,  a 
civil  militia  available  for  the  power  of  the  government,  and  had  at  their  head,  after 
1808,  the  grand  master  of  the  Imperial  University.  Since  all  independent  thought 
and  work  in  science  •  and  art  seemed  to  Bonaparte  shallow  pedantry,  the  press, 
literature,  and  the  theatres  were  kept  under  strict  supervision.  They  were  con- 
stantly threatened  with  police  interference.  The  intellectual  life  requisite  for 
freedom  thus  languished ;  everything  succumbed  to  an  uniformity  which  crushed 
the  spirit  and  allowed  no  genius  to  break  through. 

(e)  The  Consulate  for  Life.  —  The  senate  and  the  legislative  body  were  entirely 
submissive  to  the  will  of  the  First  Consul.  In  the  tribunate  alone  many  still 
opposed  his  wishes,  which  were  directed  toward  despotism.  He  removed,  how- 
ever,, all  opponents  except  Carnot,  who  alone  recalled  past  days  of  freedom  of 
thought,  and  filled  their  places  with  creatures  of  his  own.  It  seemed  dangerous  to 
make  France  suddenly  into  a  monarchy  once  more.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
possible,  by  prolonging  the  term  of  the  Consulate,  to  lead  the  nation  insensibly  in 
the  desired  direction.  Bonaparte  discussed  the  whole  matter  carefully  with  Cam- 
bacdrfes,  the  Second  Consul,  and  was  indignant  when  the  exasperated  Si^yfes  induced 
the  senate  to  propose  a  renewal  only  for  ten  years.  He  was  afraid  that  the  proposal 
might  be  accepted,  and  declared  to  the  senate  he  would  only  remain  in  office  if  the 
nation  demanded  it.  But  the  question  was  simply  put  to  the  nation  in  the  form, 
Shall  Bonaparte  be  Consul  for  life  ?  Lists  were  opened  everywhere  in  the  country, 
and  there  was  vast  room  for  influence  and  intrigues.  The  people  pronounced  for 
their  hero,  and  by  a  decree  of  the  senate  of  August  3, 1802,  "  Napoleon  Bonaparte  " 
became  Consul  for  life.  He  followed  "  the  wiU  of  the  people,"  resolved  soon  to 
replace  it  by  his  own  will.  The  rights  were  conceded  him  of  nominating  his  suc- 
cessor, of  concluding  truces  and  alliances  on  his  own  responsibfcty,  of  granting 
pardons,  etc. ;  he  ranked  among  the  sovereigns.  The  constitution  of  the  year  VIII 
was  immediately  altered  to  suit  his  purposes.  The  tribunate  was  reduced  in 
numbers,  the  senate,  his  dumb  servant,  was  increased  and  its  powers  enlarged ; 
not  a  trace  was  left  of  constitutional  guarantees.  The  Bonaparte  family  grouped 
themselves  round  him.  On  the  15th  of  August,  1802,  his  birthday  was  celebrated 
for  the  first  time  as  a  national  festival.  He  had  already  founded  in  May  the  order 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour,  a  sign  of  the  approaching  dissolution  of  the  republic. 

The  First  Consul  felt  himself  the  master  and  the  mediator  of  the  destinies 
of  Europe.  He  had  imposed  on  the  greatly  weakened  "Batavian  republic,"  in 
October,  1801,  a  constitution  which  made  it.  quite  dependent  on  France.  He 
changed  the  "Cisalpine"  into  an  "Italian"  republic,  of  which  he  graciously 
accepted  the  presidency  on  January  26,  1802.  The  republic  of  Lucca  received 
a  Bonapartist  constitution,  the  "Ligurian  republic"  saw  incorporation  imminent, 
Parma  and  Piacenza  came  under  French  administration ;  thus  Upper  Italy,  except 
Austrian  Venetia,  was  directly  or  indirectly  in  Bonaparte's  power.     He  interfered 


X^*;"JSr«r]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  37 

in  the  party  conflict  of  Switzerland;  and  on  February  19,  1803,  by  the  Act  of 
Mediation,  the  best  constitution  of  Switzerland  before  1848,  gave  a  fresh  proof 
of  his  marvellous  power  of  administration.  He  became  "  Protector  of  Switzerland," 
whose  neutrality  ceased,  and  stood  above  the  Landamman ;  Geneva  remained 
to  France ;  Valais  became  a  French  protectorate.  The  alliance  of  France  with 
Switzerland  was  followed  in  1803  by  a  military  capitulation,  according  to  which 
Switzerland  was  pledged  to  keep  sixteen  thousand  soldiers  always  ready  for 
France.  Europe,  as  Bonaparte  said,  had  recognised  that  Holland,  Italy,  and 
Switzerland  were  at  the  disposition  of  France. 

(f)  The  Diet  of  Ratisbon. — Apparently  in  concert  with  the  emperor  Alexander, 
but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  independently,  the  First  Consul  decided  matters  of  life  and 
death  in  the  German  Empire.  The  States  overwhelmed  him  with  petitions  and 
demonstrations  of  respect;  thoughts  of  a  confederation  of  the  Ehine,  the  plan 
of  a  third  alliance  besides  the  chief  powers,  haunted  his  ever  restless  brain.  He 
concluded  secret  treaties  with  Prussia,  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  Baden,  and  Hesse- 
Cassel,  and  then  with  Austria  also,  and  promised  himself  great  advantages  from 
them.  The  partition  of  the  German  Empire  had  been  planned  by  Bonaparte  and 
Alexander  on  June  3, 1802.  In  spite  of  all  protests  of  the  ecclesiastical  States, 
the  resolution  of  the  imperial  diet  was  passed  with  unprecedented  rapidity,  in  con- 
sequence, indeed,  of  orders  given  from  Paris  and  St.  Petersburg.  On  the  25th  of 
February,  1803,  the  chief  resolution  of  the  diet  at  Eatisbon  was  promulgated,  —  a 
monstrous  act  of  iujustice  which  confiscated  by  a  law  of  the  empire  the  whole  pos- 
sessions of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  ecclesiastical  States  in  the  empire,  which 
had  indeed  long  been  decaying,  fell  victims,  not  to  the  requirements  of  modern 
progress,  but  to  the  greed  of  the  secular  proteges  of  Napoleon.  Only  two,  and 
those  rapidly  disappearing,  princes  survived.  Out  of  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
ecclesiastical  princes,  there  were  only  three  who  kept  their  status ;  two  of  these, 
the  grand  master  of  the  Teutonic  Order  in  Mergentheim,  and  the  grand  prior  of 
the  Knights  of  St.  John  in  Heitersheim,  were  soon  to  disappear.  The  third  was  a 
loyal  friend  of  Napoleon,  the  elector  and  arch-chancellor  Karl  Theodor  von  Dal- 
berg.  His  archiepis copal  see  was  removed  from  Mayence  to  Eatisbon.  More  than 
two  thousand  square  (Gerfnan)  miles,  with  more  than  three  million  souls,  fell  to 
the  secular  lords,  and  only  six  States  of  the  empire  escaped  destruction. 

There  was,  in  fact,  no  longer  a  Holy  Eoman  Empire  of  the  German  nation,  and 
the  theocracy  was  past  and  gone.  The  proportion  of  votes  in  the  new  imperial 
diet  was  largely  in  favour  of  Protestantism.  The  change  within  the  Catholic 
Church  was  more  thorough  and  more  comprehensive  than  even  at  the  Eeformation. 
The  Catholic  clergy  were  deprived  of  their  immunity  from  taxation,  as  well  as  the 
greater  part  of  their  property,  and  became  servants  of  the  State ;  but  they  also 
lost  interest  in  the  empire,  in  which  they  no  longer  appointed  any  princes  or  cath- 
edral chapters.  A  democratic  spirit  hostile  to  the  plundering  State  took  the  place 
of  the  independence  of  the  princes  of  the  empire ;  subserviency  to  the  pope  and 
ultramontane  doctrines  celebrated  their  birth.  The  Curia  itself  gave  up  the  Eoman 
Empire  for  lost,  since  it  henceforth  spoke  of  imperium,  germanicum ;  Talleyrand 
actually  termed  it  federation  germanique.  When  the  new  era  dawned  with  viola- 
tion of  all  rights,  the  German  people  hardly  felt  the  disgrace.  Amongst  the 
medley  of  nationalities,  the  ephemeral  States  of  1803,  a  Bonapartist  biu'eaucracy 


38  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapteri 

promoted  an  unnatural  particularism.  In  South  Germany  especially  the  govern- 
ments, supplied  with  rich  spoils,  proceeded  with  precipitation  and  recklessness, 
following  out  an  identical  and  stereotyped  policy.  Their  conceptions  of  justice 
resembled  in  many  respects  those  of  their  protector,  and  only  a  few  men  possessed 
the  courage  of  Baron  Karl  vom  Stein,  who  openly  blamed  and  condemned  all 
outrages. 

(??)  San  Domingo,  Boulogne,  Hanover,  Pichegru,  Cadoudal,  and  Enghien.  —  The 
First  Consul  knew  perfectly  well  that  the  peace  with  Great  Britain  could  not  be 
permanently  maintained.  Pitt,  whom  Grenville  called  the  only  saviour,  challenged 
the  too  pacific  cabinet  of  Addington,  and  advised  new  preparations  for  war.  Bona- 
parte on  his  side  thought  of  organising  a  great  colonial  policy.  The  revolt  of  the 
negro  Toussaint  I'Ouverture  in  San  Domingo  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  488)  presented,  at  the 
beginning  of  1801,  the  pretext  for  sending  out  an  army  tinder  Charles  Emmanuel 
Leclerc  d'Ostin,  husband  of  Pauline  Bonaparte.  The  island,  indeed,  was  subju- 
gated, and  Toussaint,  by  a  stroke  of  treachery,  was  brought  to  the  icy  dungeon  of 
Joux  in  the  Jura,  where  Mirabeau  had  once  languished.  But  a  new  negro  insur- 
rection after  Leclerc's  death  ended  in  November,  1802,  with  the  loss  of  the  island, 
and  Bonaparte  for  the  future  thought  no  more  about  San  Domingo.  The  United 
States  of  America  immediately  opposed  the  expansion  of  France  from  Louisiana,  a 
further  reason  for  sale.  Bonaparte  was  thus  forced  at  an  early  date  to  renounce 
the  hope  of  colonial  successes. 

Smarting  at  the  caricatures  which  appeared  in  the  British  comic  journals  at 
the  permanent  occupation  of  Malta  and  various  other  occurrences,  the  First 
Consul  made  preparations  for  renewed  war  with  the  queen  of  the  seas ;  he  publicly 
insulted  the  British  envoy,  and  the  cabinet  of  St.  James  replied  on  May  18,  1803, 
with  a  declaration  of  war.  The  British  privateers  unscrupulously  plundered  French 
and  Batavian  ships;  British  fleets  watched  the  coasts  of  France.  The  greatest 
sacrifices  were  willingly  made  by  the  people,  who  all  looked  to  Pitt  as  the  natural 
director  of  their  destinies.  Even  his  opponent  Charles  James  Fox  admired  him. 
Large  military  forces  were  raised.  Bonaparte  fanned  the  old  racial  hatred  into 
flames,  revived  the  fgte  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  and  savagely  denounced  England 
in  the  press,  which  was  entirely  at  his  service,  as  the  eternal  disturb^  of  the  peace 
of  Europe.  The  whole  of  France  resembled  a  gigantic  dockyard.  England,  that 
second  Carthage,  must  be  attacked,  chastised,  and  overthrown.  It  was  a  duel ;  but 
Bonaparte  showed  the  same  obstinacy  and  embarrassment  as  later  when  facing 
Eussia.  France  was  fated  to  make  futile  sacrifices ;  Spain  and  Portugal  too  were 
pressed  into  the  service.  Laurent  de  Gouvion  St.  Cyr  held  the  ports  in  the  Nea- 
politan district ;  the  Batavian  and  Helvetian  republics  were  required  to  lend  aid, 
and  a  large  army  was  collected  in  the  camp  at  Boulogne. 

Prussia  had  felt  secure  behind  the  line  of  demarcation,  and  at  Eussian  instiga- 
tion ventured  temporarily  to  occupy  Hanover  in  1801,  a  policy  which  Bonaparte 
never  forgave ;  it  now  received  the  tidings  that  the  First  Consul  himself  would 
occupy  Hanover.  Before  the  king  summoned  courage  to  anticipate  him.  Bona-, 
parte,  disregarding  Hanover's  neutrality,  ordered  Mortier  to  advance  into  the  country 
in  May,  1803,  and  by  the  blockade  of  the  Elbe  and  the  Weser  to  close  North  Ger- 
many to  British  trade.  The  gallant  Hanoverian  army  was  disarmed  and  disbanded, 
and  twenty-six  months  of  French  occupation  cost  the  country  more  than  sixty  mil- 


J^frA™K«r]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  39 

lion  francs.  The  occupation  damaged  Prussia's  trade  and  its  prestige  in  ISTorth 
Germany.  But  Frederick  William  did  not  shake  off  his  inactivity ;  ui  fact,  his 
government  played  the  part  of  a  mediator,  in  order  to  induce  the  pretender 
"Louis  XVIII,"  who  was  living  on  Prussian  soil,  to  abandon  his  claims.  The 
attempt  met  with  a  proud  refusal.  Bonaparte's  will  was  sovereign  from  Hamburg 
to  Messiua,  and,  filled  with  arrogance,  he  exclaimed,  "I  find  no  opponent  ia 
Europe ! " 

The  French  royalists  living  under  British  protection,  being  supported  by  the 
cabinet  of  St.  James,  thought  of  a  coup  de  main ;  but  the  First  Consul,  who  was 
haunted  by  a  fear  of  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons,  was  informed  of  all  their 
preparations  by  his  spies,  and  his  splendid  police  enticed  the  conspirators  into  the 
net.  Moreau,  Charles  Pichegru,  Georges  Cadoudal,  Armand,  and  Jules  de  Polignac 
were  allowed  to  land  without  hindrance  and  were  then  arrested  in  the  spring  of 
1804.  In  spite  of  the  pressure  which  Bonaparte  exercised  on  the  courts,  he  did 
not  succeed  in  procuring  the  execution  of  Moreau,  who  escaped  with  a  sentence  of 
perpetual  exile.  Pichegi'u  was  found  strangled  in  the  Temple  on  April  5,  and  pub- 
lic opiuion  called  Bonaparte  the  murderer  of  the  "  suicide."  Cadoudal  and  eleven 
others  were  executed  on  June  25 ;  the  two  Polignacs  escaped  the  penalty  of  death. 
Louis  Antoine  Heari  de  Bourbon,  Duke  of  Enghien,  "the  flower  of  the  Cond^," 
was  arrested  by  the  First  Consul,  in  flagrant  defiance  of  the  law  of  nations,  on 
Baden  territory  in  Ettenheim  for  no  crime  whatsoever,  and  was  shot  on  the  21st 
of  March  at  Vincennes.  The  German  imperial  diet,  Austria,  and  Prussia  accepted 
the  outrage  in  silence ;  Hanover  and  Sweden  protested ;  and  actual  war  with  Eussia 
seemed  imminent. 

B.  ISTapoleon  I 

(a)  The  Empire  of  the  West.  —  The  general  alarm  which  had  seized  France 
was  utilised  by  Bonaparte  for  his  further  elevation.  The  senate  was  compelled  to 
ask  him  humbly  to  strengthen  his  position,  and  a  tribune  proposed  that  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  should  be  given  the  title  of  "  hereditary  emperor ; "  Carnot  alone  in  the 
tribunate  raised  a  voice  of  protest.  Even  the  legislative  body  was  in  favour  of 
the  proposal.  Napoleon  adroitly  excluded  the  limitations  which  the  senate  wished 
to  propose,  and  by  a  decree  of  the  senate  of  May  18,  1804,  he  was  given  the  im- 
perial crown  for  himself  and  his  descendants.  The  new  constitution  of  the  year 
XII  enlarged  the  senate,  but  restricted  it  to  the  discussion  of  proposals  introduced 
by  the  crown,  limited  the  legislative  body,  and  the  tribunate  still  more  closely  and 
completely  fettered  freedom ;  in  Mignet's  phrase,  France  was  now  ruled  for  ten 
j-ears  with  closed  doors.  The  clergy  compared  Napoleon  I  with  Moses  and  Cyrus. 
Napoleon  did  not,  however,  wait  for  the  result  of  the  pretended  popular  voting, 
which  promised  an  enormous  majority  in  his  favour,  and  revived  the  old  pomp  of 
the  Bourbons  at  his  imperial  court.  How  many  of  these  new  and  fickle  courtiers 
had  raved  during  the  Eevolution  against  nobility,  titles,  privileges,  and  church ! 
how  many  had  dipped  their  hands  in  royal  blood,  and  stained  themselves  with 
theft !    It  is  only  necessary  to  recall  the  high  chamberlain  the  Duke  of  Talleyrand. 

What  a  strange  imperial  house !  Besides  the  venerable  mother  Letitia,  who 
was  now  styled  Madame  Mfere,  there  were  the  other  "  imperial  highnesses,"  —  the 
whilom  commissaries  Joseph  and  Lucien ;  Louis,  the  emperor's  comrade  in  poverty 
at  Auxoime  and  Valence ;  the  frivolous  Benjamia  J^rSme  and  the  three  gay  sisters ; 


40  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [_Chapteri 

finally,  the  uncle,  Cardinal  Grand-Almoner  Joseph  Pesch,  the  prosperous  army- 
contractor  and  picture  collector.  The  etiquette  and  ceremonial  of  the  court  of 
Louis  XIV  were  diligently  studied  in  order  that  everything  might  assume  an 
effective  and  "  legitimate  "  form.  The  old  nobility  flocked  to  court  and  entered  the 
service  of  the  "  successor  of  Charlemagne,"  unconcerned  about  the  solemn  protests 
of  the  banished  king  against  the  unlawful  usurpation  of  his  throne.  Since  his 
"  system,"  as  Napoleon  styled  it,  depended  on  military  successes,  he  created  by  the 
side  of  the  civil  posts  great  military  offices,  the  marshals  of  France,  amongst  whom 
there  was  no  friend  of  Moreau.  The  new  nobility,  which  owed  its  existence  to 
him,  formed  a  counterpoise  to  the  old,  both  bowed  beneath  his  iron  fist  and  the 
principle  of  authority.  The  "  empire  "  was  the  Csesarism  of  old  Eome,  as  Napoleon 
showed  by  carrying  the  Eoman  eagles  on  his  coat-of-arms  and  his  standards ;  that 
is  to  say,  a  State  controlled  by  one  man's  will  and  administered  by  military  offi- 
cials and  policemen.  The  idea  of  universal  sovereignty  was  more  prominent  in 
the  empire  than  in  the  monarchy.  Napoleon  saw  in  himself  an  emperor  of  the 
West.  The  Roman  Empire  passed  from  the  Hapsburgs  to  the  Bonapartes ;  the 
world  indeed  was  accustomed  only  to  one  Western  emperor,  and  saw  in  the  Czar 
the  heir  of  the  Greek  emperors. 

Most  of  the  courts  hastened  to  recognise  the  crowned  revolution  as  a  legitimate 
power.  Prussia  set  the  example  to  the  rest.  Austria  hesitated,  as  Friedrich  von 
Gentz  advised  caution ;  but  Cobenzl,  the  diplomatist  of  Campo  Formio  and  Lun^- 
ville,  thought  that  the  monarchs  of  Europe  ought  not  to  be  ashamed  of  this 
colleague.  The  German  and  Italian  princes  congratulated  Napoleon  with  the  most 
servile  flattery ;  only  Russia,  Great  Britain,  and  Sweden  refused  to  acknowledge 
the  imperial  title.  The  emperor  Francis  foresaw  that  the  Roman  elective  empire 
could  no  longer  exist  in  his  empire ;  he  retained  therefore  his  existing  title,  but 
assumed  at  the  same  time,  on  August  11,  the  title  of  "Hereditary  Emperor  of 
Austria  "  for  his  hereditary  dominions,  —  they  had,  as  a  fact,  constituted  an  inde- 
pendent realm  since  Leopold  I.  After  Napoleon,  in  spite  of  much  ridicule,  had 
acknowledged  this  third  empire,  Francis  in  return  acknowledged  him  as  emperor 
of  the  French.  On  Napoleon's  imperial  progress  along  the  Rhine  in  September, 
1804,  the  German  princes  prostrated  themselves  in  the  dust  before  him  at  "  golden 
Mayence,"  and  did  homage  to  him  as  the  natural  successor  of  Charlamagne,  while 
he  dropped  hints  of  a  confederation  of  the  Rhine.  They  all  realisedthat  they  had 
an  absolute  master,  who  showed  the  iron  hand  more  and  demanded  more  than  a 
Hapsburg  emperor,  but  rewarded  them  far  more  amply.  Napoleon  suggested  to 
Frederick  William  his  willingness  to  recognise  Prassia  as  an  empire,  but  the  king 
did  not  rise  to  the  bait. 

Napoleon  now  invited  the  compliant  German  princes,  a  remarkable  following, 
to  attend  his  coronation  at  Paris  by  Pius  VII,  and  Fesch  had  the  difficult  task  of 
persuading  Pius  and  Consalvi,  with  threats  and  inducements,  to  take  the  journey. 
Ought  he  to  consecrate  the  murderer  of  Enghien  on  the  throne  of  the  "most 
Christian  kings  "  ?  Ought  he  to  legitimatise  an  illegitimate  accession  and  to  pro- 
claim Napoleon  to  the  faithful  Catholics  as  a  successor  of  Charlemagne  ?  Faced 
by  this  difficulty,  Pius  finally  set  aside  his  scruples,  especially  since  he  cherished 
the  hope  that  his  compliance  would  be  rewarded  by  large  secular  and  spiritual 
advantages.  Napoleon  treated  him  with  studied  neglect,  and  was  very  indignant 
when  Josephine  persuaded  Pius  to  give  the  blessing  of  the  Church  to  their  mar- 


Jlf^iu^lifi^l       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  41 

riage,  whicli  had  only  been  concluded  according  to  the  civil  law.  The  coronation 
of  Napoleon  and  Josephine  took  place  on  December  2  in  the  Cathedral  of  Notre 
Dame,  a  stately  but  chilling  ceremony.  Pius,  ia  spite  of  his  long  stay,  obtained 
none  of  the  expected  advantages.  The  Gregorian  Calendar  alone  was  reinstated 
on  January  1,  1806,  and  the  constitutional,  that  is  to  say,  heretic,  French  bishops 
became  subject  once  more  to  the  Eoman  primacy.  Pius  left  France,  deeply 
mortified. 

Napoleon  was  more  arrogant  than  ever ;  he  termed  it  incredible  that  Francis  II, 
alone  or  in  concert  with  Alexander,  should  raise  the  flag  of  "  rebellion  "  against 
him,  and  extended  his  power  on  every  side  by  conquests  and  threats.  Where  his 
rule  extended,  all  intercourse  with  Great  Britaia  had  to  cease ;  but  the  dream  of 
landing  in  England  was  never  realised.  The  army  which  had  been  assembled  on 
the  coasts  of  France  was  employed  in  the  campaign  of  Austerlitz.  Napoleon  in 
his  obstinacy  hardly  noticed  that  Pitt  was  welding  a  new,  the  third,  coalition 
against  him,  and  was  pouring  out  a  liberal  stream  of  subsidies  everywhere.  Pitt, 
who  had  been  premier  since  May,  1804,  devoted  all  his  energy  to  the  defence  of 
his  country ;  he  failed  in  his  efforts  to  detach  Prussia,  but  attacked  Spain,  which 
sided  with  Napoleon.  Among  Napoleon's  declared  opponents  was  reckoned  Gus- 
tavus  IV  of  Sweden,  the  honourable  but  impolitic  "  Don  Quixote  of  legitimacy," 
whom  the  Napoleonic  press  overwhelmed  with  abuse  and  contempt.  He  drove 
the  French  ambassador  from  the  country,  saw  in  "  Monsieur  Bonaparte  "  the  beast 
of  the  Eevelation  of  St.  John,  allied  himself  with  Great  Britain  and  Eussia  against 
him,  and  furnished  twenty  thousand  men  to  the  coalition  (April,  1805).  Alexan- 
der I  became  more  and  more  friendly  to  Pitt,  and  concluded  at  the  same  time  an 
alliance  with  Great  Britain,  in  the  interest  of  the  European  balance  of  power, 
according  to  which  France  was  to  give  up  all  conquests  made  since  1789.  The 
prospective  entrance  of  Austria  into  the  coalition  did  not,  however,  yet  take  place, 
notwithstanding  the  defensive  alliance  with  Eussia  in  November,  1804,  and 
Prussia  remained  neutral,  in  spite  of  the  persuasion  of  Pitt  and  Alexander.  It  was 
in  vain  that  Queen  Louise,  Prince  Louis  Ferdinand,  General  Ernst  von  Etichel,  and 
others  were  eager  for  war.  Austria,  where  since  1801  Count  Ludwig  Cobenzl  was 
permanently  at  the  head  of  affairs,  was  for  peace,  especially  in  view  of  the  increas- 
ing financial  distress.  Archduke  Charles  spoke  also  for  the  maintenance  of  peace ; 
and  the  army,  in  spite  of  all  improvements,  was  still  defective. 

(J)  The  War  of  1805.  —  Napoleon  went  to  Italy  in  order  to  make  a  monarchy 
out  of  the  republic.  The  people  were  forced  to  ask  for  his  brother  Joseph  and  then 
Louis,  and  since  both  declined  the  crown.  Napoleon  crowned  himself  on  May  26, 
1805,  at  Milan,  with  the  iron  crown  of  the  Lombard  kings.-  His  step-son,  Eugene 
de  Beauharnais,  became  viceroy  of  Italy,  and  this  kingdom  was  administered  in 
the  French  fashion ;  in  the  talk  about  the  greatness  of  Italy  the  Italians  forgot  the 
chains  of  Napoleon.  The  Ligurian  Eepublic  was  united  to  France  in  June,  Parma 
and  Piacenza  to  Italy  in  July ;  and  with  the  grant  of  Piombino  and  Lucca  as  an 
hereditary  principality  to  his  sister  Eliza  Bacchiochi  began  the  narrow-minded 
policy  of  providing  for  his  family  adopted  by  the  "  emperor  and  king,"  who,  in 
so  doing,  became  the  harshest  oppressor  and  most  unsparing  judge  of  his  own 
relations. 

These  events  in  Italy  induced  the  Viennese  cabinet  to  take  up  arms.     The  arch- 


42  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [chaj^teri 

duke  Charles  drew  up  the  plan  of  compaign,  which  the  incapable  general  Karl 
von  Mack  was  to  follow;  and  in  August  Austria  joined  the  alliance  of  Great 
Britain  and  Eussia.  The  princes  of  South  Germany  took  the  side  of  Napoleon, 
who  had  promised  them  a  share  in  the  spoliation  of  Austria ;  at  their  head  was 
Bavaria,  which  vied  with  him  in  reviling  the  emperor  Francis,  "  the  skeleton, 
whom  the  services  of  his  forefathers  has  raised  to  the  throne."  In  Bavaria,  Baden, 
Wurtemberg,  and  Hesse-Darmstadt  Napoleon  had  the  "bases  of  his  German 
league,"  which  furnished  him  large  bodies  of  troops.  Mack  entered  Bavaria  in 
September,  1805,  and  occupied  Munich.  Prussia  remained  neutral;  even  the 
march  of  the  army  corps  of  Bernadotte  through  the  district  of  Ansbach,  although  a 
flagrant  breach  of  the  laws  of  neutrality,  did  not  induce  the  king  to  rise  against 
France  and  make  common  cause  with  Austria ;  he  only  allowed  the  Eussians  to 
pass  through  Silesia  and  occupied  Hanover.  Napoleon  struck  crushing  blows  at 
Francis  II.  On  October  17  Mack  made  a  shameful  capitulation  at  Ulm,  and 
other  Austrian  divisions  were  defeated  before  the  Eussians  under  Michael  Gole- 
nishchef-Kutusoff  could  come  up. 

On  the  other  hand.  Napoleon  seemed  to  meet  with  no  good  luck  at  sea ;  the 
fleet,  which  had  been  rebuilt  after  Aboukir  at  an  enormous  cost,  was  annihilated, 
along  with  the  Spanish  fleet,  off  Cape  Trafalgar  by  Admiral  Nelson  (October  21, 
1805).  Nelson  fell;  but  he  had  secured  for  his  country  the  charter  of  the  abso- 
lute rule  of  the  seas.  Napoleon's  maritime  dreams  were  over,  and  no  one  ventured 
to  mention  the  name  of  Trafalgar  before  him.  , 

The  emperor  Alexander  had  broken  away  from  the  anti-Prussian  counsels  of 
his  friend,  Priuce  Adam  Czartoryski,  and,  at  the  king's  invitation,  had  gone 
to  Berlin,  where  the  archduke  Anton  also  appeared.  The  treaty  of  Potsdam  of 
November  3  pledged  Frederick  William  to  attempt  an  armed  mediation  between 
the  coalition  and  Napoleon  on  the  basis  of  the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  Lun^ville,  and 
to  join  the  coalition  on  December  15,  should  the  mediation  prove  unsuccessful. 
Alexander  and  the  king  and  queen  of  Prussia  clasped  hands  over  the  grave  of 
Frederick  the  Great  in  confirmation  of  the  agreement,  and  Haugwitz  set  out  on 
November  14  for  the  headquarters  of  Napoleon,  in  order  to  offer  the  promised 
mediation.  Napoleon,  however,  was  so  confident  of  idtimate  victory,  that  he 
already  spoke  of  the  end  of  the  Hapsburg  dynasty,  and  was  lookii|g  out  princi- 
palities in  the  empire  for  his  marshals. 

The  French  advanced  into  Austria  and  Italy,  the  court  fled  from  Vienna,  Upper 
Italy  was  lost  to  Francis,  and  Murat  captured  Vienna  on  November  13  by  a  strata- 
gem. Napoleon  occupied  Schonbrunn  and  tried  in  vain,  by  posing  as  a  national 
liberator,  to  detach  the  loyal  people  from  Francis.  The  Eussians  under  Prince 
Peter  Bagration  were  defeated  by  Lannes  and  Murat  on  November  16  at  Holla- 
brunn,  and  Briinn  fell.  Nevertheless  Napoleon's  position  in  Moravia  might  have 
become  very  precarious  if  the  alhes  had  acted  prudently,  and  if  Prussia  had 
entered  the  alliance  after  Napoleon  had  rejected  her  offer  of  mediation.  But 
Alexander  let  himself  be  hurried  into  premature  action,  and  the  "  battle  of  the 
three  emperors  "  at  Austerlitz,  on  December  2, 1805,  was  Napoleon's  most  brilliant 
victory ;  he  certainly  never  showed  greater  skill  as  a  general  than  on  that  day. 
The  Austro-Eussian  army  fell  back  on  Hungary.  Francis  abandoned  the  Eussians. 
Alexander  was  completely  discouraged,  and  carefully  followed  out  the  plan  which 
had  been  drawn  up  for  the  retreat;  he  also  recalled  his  troops  from  Italy  and 


'llf7tuRTo^t^'\       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  43 

Hanover.  Francis,  gnashing  with  fury,  humbled  himself  before  Napoleon,  who 
gave  him  an  interview  at  a  bivouac  and  conceded  an  armistice.  A  third  of  the 
Austrian  dominions  remained  in  the  power  of  the  French,  whUe  the  South  German 
courts  already  sent  their  diplomatic  representatives  to  Napoleon's  headquarters  in 
order  to  beg  for  territory  and  subjects  out  of  the  losses  of  the  "augmenter  of  the 
empire."  After  Austerlitz  no  other  course  was  left  to  Haugwitz,  the  mediator, 
than  to  conclude  with  Napoleon  at  Sohonbrunn,  on  December  15,  a  humiliating 
defensive  and  offensive  alliance,  by  which  Prussia  received  Hanover. 

Napoleon,  having  obtained  the  treaty  with  Prussia,  did  not  ingratiate  Austria 
by  the  moderation  of  his  claims,  as  Talleyrand  advised,  but  extorted  from  Francis  II 
a  characteristic  peace.  Francis  was  forced,  in  the  treaty  concluded  on  December  26 
at  Pressburg,  to  recognise  all  changes  in  Italy,  and  to  sacrifice  a  fifth  of  his  fairest 
dominions,  of  which  Italy,  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and  Baden  received  their  share. 
Salzburg  was  a  miserably  small  compensation  for  this.  Austria  was  excluded  from 
Germany  and  Italy,  cut  off  from  Italy  and  Switzerland,  forced  to  pay  an  enormous 
war  tax,  and  placed  in  an  untenable  and  unendurable  position.  The  terms  of  peace 
spoke  of  the  "  German  Confederation,"  not  of  the  German  Empire.  Bavaria  and 
Wurtemberg  became  sovereign  kingdoms,  Baden  a  sovereign  electorate ;  the  airy 
phantom  of  the  Eoman  Empire  vanished.  Hereditary  sovereignties  accorded  ill 
with  the  elective  empire.  The  despotic  king  Frederick  of  Wurtemberg  wrote  to 
his  imperial  patron  that  the  diet  of  the  empire  at  Eatisbon  was  a  collection  of 
fools,  as  ridiculous  and  mischievous  as  apes !  The  conqueror  of  Austerlitz  and 
Pressburg  had  made  many  matches  between  the  new  French  nobility  and  that  of 
the  ancien  regime.  His  burning  ambition  now  was  to  ally  his  family,  which  he 
termed  the  fourth  on  the  French  throne,  with  the  ancient  ruling  dynasties  of 
Europe.  His  wish  was  easily  obtained.  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  offered  their 
princesses,  and  Baden  its  heir  apparent,  in  marriage  to  the  Bonapartes.  Prussia, 
bound  hand  and  foot  by  the  harsh  treaty  of  Paris  of  February  15, 1806,  was  obliged 
to  abandon  the  policy  it  had  marked  out  for  itself,  and  to  commence  hostilities 
with  Great  Britain  and  Sweden.  Napoleon  all  the  time  was  playing  a  double 
game,  for  while  Frederick  William  thought  himself  secure  in  the  possession  of 
Hanover,  his  patron  was  secretly  making  offers  of  it  to  England.  Napoleon  always 
had  two  strings  to  his  bow ;  he  wished  to  transform  the  Evu'opean  system  com- 
pletely. The  position  of  an  emperor  of  the  French  did  not  satisfy  him ;  he  thirsted 
to  become  emperor  of  Europe,  emperor  of  the  West,  and  to  collect  round  his  throne 
a  suite  of  kings  who,  while  nominally  independent,  would  be  forced  to  submit  to 
be  the  puppets  of  his  caprice.  He  ruled,  indeed,  as  he  himself  said  to  the  senator 
Ghaptal,  "  both  at  home  and  abroad  only  by  the  fear  which  he  inspired."  He  never 
asked  after  the  peoples  of  those  kings,  and  his  ambition  for  a  world  empire 
estranged  him  more  and  more  from  the  French  nation.  An  army  order  of  Decem- 
ber 26, 1805,  announced  that  the  House  of  Bourbon  had  ceased  to  reign  in  Naples ; 
and  on  March  30, 1806,  Napoleon's  eldest  brother,  Joseph,  became  king  of  Naples 
and  Sicily,  without,  of  course,  any  will  of  his  own.  His  beautiful  sister.  Princess 
Pauline  Borghese,  received  temporarily  the  duchy  of  Guastalla.  His  brother 
Louis  was  forced  to  become  king  of  Holland  on  June  5,  1806,  and  lived  a  life  of 
martyrdom,  since  he  became  attached  to  his  subjects  and  did  not  wish  to  sacrifice 
them  to  Napoleon.  The  brothers  and  sisters  of  Napoleon  all  took  the  name  of 
Napoleon  in  addition  to  their  Christian  names ;  and  the  Church,  in  spite  of  the 


44  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  i 

shameful  treatment  of  her  supreme  head,  discovered  a  Saint  Napoleon.  The  mar- 
shals and  ministers,  newly  fledged  nobles  for  the  most  part,  were  provided  with 
large  hereditary  fiefs  in  the  conquered  or  "  protected  "  States,  and  were  merely  the 
princely  satellites  of  the  one  and  only  sun. 

(c)  The  Confederation  of  the  Rhine.  —  Ulm  and  Austerlitz  had  killed  Pitt  on 
January  23,  1806,  and  Fox  became  the  soul  of  GrenviUe's  "  Ministry  of  all  the 
Talents."  The  negotiations  for  peace,  which  he  soon  commenced,  were  answered 
by  Napoleon  with  the  attempt  to  separate  Eussia  and  Great  Britain  from  each 
other;  but  Eussia  now  drew  closer  to  Prussia.  Disappointed  in  his  hopes  of 
peace.  Fox  died  on  September  13, 1806,  and  Lord  Grenville  adhered  to  the  policy 
of  war  with  Napoleon. 

Gustavus  IV  seceded  from  the  German  Empire  in  January,  1806,  "since  only 
usurpation  and  egoism  influenced  the  resolutions  of  the  Eeichstag  and  no  one  dared 
any  more  to  speak  the  language  of  honour."  The  fragments  of  the  empire  were  no 
longer  able  to  face  the  storm,  and  the  imperial  chancellor,  Karl  von  Dalberg,  dinned 
into  Napoleon's  ears, "  You  are  Charlemagne,  prove  yourself  the  reformer,  the  saviour 
of  Germany,  the  restorer  of  her  constitution.  Let  the  western  empire,  the  realm 
of  Charlemagne,  formed  of  Italy,  France,  and  Spain,  again  arise  in  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  ! "  In  this  way  Napoleon's  wishes  were  met  by  the  princes  of  the  empire. 
He  thought  of  forming  out  of  the  secondary  German  States  which  were  dependent 
on  him  "  la  troisi^meAllem,agne,"  in  opposition  to  Austria  and  Prussia,  and  to  divide 
the  petty  States  among  them.  They  were  intended  to  furnish  troops  for  his  battles, 
and  were  never  allowed  to  act  on  their  own  initiative.  The  decree  of  the  Confed- 
eration of  the  Ehine,  which  Talleyrand  read  out  to  the  various  ambassadors  of  the 
vassal  princes,  was  drawn  up  under  his  eyes  on  the  12th  of  July,  1806.  They  all 
signed  it,  since  rich  spoils  were  held  out  to  them,  while  in  any  other  case  complete 
destruction  was  certain.  Under  the  leadership  of  the  prince-primate  Dalberg  six- 
teen German  princes  were  separated  from  the  emperor  and  empire,  broke  their 
oath,  and  in  the  most  servUe  manner  joined  Napoleon,  "whose  ideas  were  in  com- 
plete accord  with  the  true  interests  of  Germany."  They  openly  announced  their 
treachery,  and  annexed  the  territories  of  all  their  peers  on  the  Ehine,  in  Franconia 
and  Swabia,  who  refused  to  join  them;  the  laws  of  the  empire  had^ost  all  force 
for  them.  More  than  seventy  princes  and  counts  were  robbed  of  their  sovereign 
rights  in  favour  of  the  sixteen,  who  received  the  fullest  sovereignty  in  their  own 
territory,  but,  on  the  contrary,  in  European  politics  had  to  submit  unconditionally 
to  the  "  protector  of  the  Confederation  of  the  Ehine."  All  the  continental  wars  of 
the  Confederation  of  the  Ehine  and  its  protector  were  for  the  future  waged  in 
common.  The  Confederation  could  put  into  the  field  sixty-three  thousand  men, 
whom  Napoleon  only  considered  food  for  powder.  Gentz  called  the  constitution, 
which  was  never  completed  or  expressed  in  legal  forms,  "  a  shameful  and  con- 
temptible constitution  of  nations  of  slaves  under  despots,  who,  again,  are  under  a 
head  despot."  As  a  fact,  the  new  alliance  of  States  brought  more  than  three 
thousand  square  (German)  miles  with  fully  eight  millions  of  subjects  under  the 
rule  of  Napoleon. 

The  official  representative  of  Napoleon  at  Eatisbon  proclaimed  on  August  1 
that  his  master  no  longer  recognised  a  German  Empire.  Francis  II  considered 
this  a  suitable  moment  for  getting  rid  of  the  German  crown,  which  had  been 


TofTik^RToiuH^']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  45 

degraded  to  a  useless  ornament.  A  cold  note  of  Count  Stadion  gave  the  co^ip  de 
gr&ce  to  the  institution  founded  a  thousand  years  before  by  Charlemagne,  and 
Francis  threw  the  imperial  crown  into  the  still  open  grave  of  the  "  permanent " 
diet.  The  step  was  indeed  unconstitutional,  since  an  emperor  can  do  nothing 
without  the  co-operation  of  the  imperial  diet,  but  every  one,  except  the  German 
knights,  agreed  to  the  burial.  The  nation  went  away  from  the  grave  without  a 
tear,  and  the  "Mayence  Journal"  said  scoffingly,  "There  is  no  Germany  left!" 
The  protectorate  over  the  Confederation  of  the  Ehine  was  inaugurated  on  the  26th 
of  August,  1806,  by  the  execution  of  the  brave  bookseller  Johann  Philipp  Palm, 
the  first  who  testified  by  his  blood  to  the  German  love  of  freedom. 

(d)  The  War  of  1806  and  1807.— Th^  Confederation  of  the  Ehine  was  fraught 
with  great  danger  to  Prussia,  but  Haugwitz  adhered  to  Napoleon.  He,  just  as 
his  sovereign,  contemplated  a  North  German  confederation  under  Prussian  head- 
ship as  a  counterpoise.  The  king  was  deaf  to  the  appeal  of  the  patriots,  however 
loudly  Arndt,  Fichte,  and  Schleiermacher  spoke  to  the  hearts  of  the  Prussians. 
It  was  only  when  he  learnt  that  Napoleon  had  again  offered  Hanover  to  the  Eng- 
lish that  his  eyes  were  opened  and  he  ordered  the  army  to  be  mobilised.  The 
commanding  officers  rejoiced,  in  spite  of  the  bad  condition  of  the  army.  They  had 
learnt  nothing  from  the  mistakes  of  the  Austrians  in  1805,  and  in  their  presump- 
tion still  saw  in  the  French  the  sans-culottes  of  1792.  Frederick  William  would 
gladly  have  avoided  war.  But  Napoleon  thirsted  for  vengeance  on  Prussia,  in 
which  he  saw  the  last  hope  of  Germany.  He  received  the  homage  of  the  princes 
of  the  Ehenish  Confederation  at  Mayence,  and  considered  it  "  a  proof-  of  the  weak- 
ness of  the  human  iatellect  to  think  that  he  could  be  opposed."  In  order  that 
Eussia  might  not  hasten  to  the  assistance  of  Prussia,  he  roused  the  Porte  to  attack 
it,  and  stirred  up  the  Poles  against  Prussia  and  Eussia.  When  Prussia  finally 
declared  war  against  him  on  October  9  he  called  it  madness.  It  was,  indeed,  the 
most  unfavourable  moment  for  Prussia  to  strike  a  blow.  Saalfeld  (10th  October), 
Auerstadt,  and  Jena  (14th  October)  stripped  the  badly  led  army  of  the  charm  of 
invincibility  which  it  had  inherited  from  Frederick  the  Great.  The  Prussians 
everywhere  were  defeated  or  capitulated,  as  did  most  of  the  fortresses.  Frederick 
William  had  no  army  left.  Saxony  went  over  from  him  to  Napoleon ;  the  elector 
of  Hesse  was  deposed  by  Napoleon  on  October  23,  and  his  territory  placed  under 
French  administration ;  the  dynasties  of  Orange  and  Brunswick  lost  their  domin- 
ions. Napoleon  imposed  an  exorbitant  war  tax  on  the  Prussian  monarchy ;  wished 
to  detach  it  from  Germany ;  meanly  rejected  Frederick  William's  proffered  nego- 
tiations, and  incorporated  provisionally  his  territory  left  of  the  Elbe  into  the 
empire.  His  soldiers  flooded  Central  and  North  Germany.  On  October  24  he 
entered  Potsdam,  whence  he  sent  the  cane  and  sword  of  "  Old  Fritz,"  his  ideal  of 
a  commander,  to  Paris.  Three  days  later  he  was  in  Berlin.  The  officials  humbly 
obeyed  him,  seven  ministers  took  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  him,  and  he  wrote  to 
the  sultan,  "  Prussia  has  disappeared."  In  this  opinion  he  had  eminent  supporters. 
Gentz  found  the  notion  of  Prussia's  revival  ridiculous. 

A  disgraceful  alliance  which  the  grand  marshal  Michel  Duroc  forced  upon  the 
Prussian  ministers  in  Charlottenburg  only  served  to  accentuate  Prussia's  plight; 
while  the  Continental  System,  introduced  by  the  Berlin  decree  of  November  21, 
not  only  closed  the  Continent  to  British  commerce,  but  crippled  for  a  long  time 


46  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [_Chapter  I 

the  prosperity  of  every  nation,  —  a  misguided  measure  which  put  all  Europe  in 
sympathy  with  Great  Britain.  Frederick  William  finally  plucked  up  courage,  and 
on  Novemher  21,  at  Osterode  in  East  Prussia,  repudiated  the  treaty  of  Charlotten- 
burg.  That  act  marked  the  hour  when  a  new  Prussia  was  born.  The  king  allied 
himself  closely  with  Alexander,  and  dismissed  Haugwitz.  He  did  not,  however, 
summon  Stein,  as  the  patriots  hoped,  but  broke  completely  with  that  "  disrespect- 
ful and  indecorous  man."  Napoleon  in  his  fury  drew  up  a  declaration  for  the 
deposition  of  the  HohenzoUern  dynasty,  dangled  from  Posen  phantoms  of  a  new 
Polish  kingdom  before  the  eyes  of  the  Poles,  in  order  to  rouse  them  against 
Prussia  and  Eussia,  and  made  futile  efforts  to  incite  Austria  against  Prussia.  The 
Ehenish  Confederation  was  increased  by  the  kingdom  of  Saxony  and  a  series  of 
sovereign  petty  States,  —  a  stroke  of  policy  which  filled  once  more  the  pockets  of 
Napoleon's  diplomatists.  Napoleon  thought  himself  nearer  than  ever  to  his  goal. 
He  wished  to  play  off  Europe  against  Great  Britain,  to  make  one  single  State  out 
of  Europe,  to  conquer  India  and  Egypt,  his  never-forgotten  land  of  sunshine ;  while 
for  the  first  time  a  vague  foreboding  filled  the  French  people  that  this  sovereignty, 
whose  aim  was  cosmopolitanism,  was  only  a  passing  natural  phenomenon. 

Prussia  served  as  the  base  for  the  operations  against  Eussia.  In  the  French 
army  the  feeling  of  pride  and  self-confidence  had  increased  enormously  since  the 
victories  over  Prussia ;  but  this  army,  since  one-third  of  it  was  composed  of  non- 
French  soldiers,  lost  its  national  character  and  became  a  mixed  society,  which  was 
animated  by  the  spirit  of  mercenaries  instead  of  enthusiasm  for  France.  Dissen- 
sions soon  broke  out  between  the  Eussian  and  the  Prussian  generals.  The  com- 
mander-in-chief. Count  Kamenski,  showed  signs  of  madness  and  abandoned  the 
Vistula,  and  Napoleon  entered  Warsaw.  After  the  indecisive  battle  of  Pultusk, 
the  new  commander-in-chief,  Th.  von  Bennigsen,  advanced  to  Eylau,  where  the 
Prussians  were  the  chief  factors  in  preventing  Napoleon,  on  February  7  and  8, 
1807,  from  winning  a  complete  victory.  Contrary  to  his  custom,  he  retired  into 
winter  quarters,  and  hypocritically  offered,  through  H.  G.  Bertrand,  peace  and 
friendship  to  Frederick  William,  designating  that  moment  as  the  most  splendid  of 
his  life ;  but  the  king  saw  through  the  tempter,  and,  at  the  advice  of  Hardenberg, 
stood  by  the  Czar.  Fortune  smiled  on  the  French  in  Silesia  and  in  Pomerania. 
Several  fortresses  capitulated ;  and  after  the  fall  of  Dantsic  (May  25j|  only  Glatz 
and  Kosel,  Kolberg  and  Graudenz,  held  out.  The  bold  raids  of  the  volunteer 
bands  of  Ferdinand  von  Schill  and  Friedrich  von  der  Marwitz  were  certainly  a 
great  embarrassment  to  the  enemy.  Prussia  had  concluded  peace  with  Great 
Britain  in  January,  1807,  and  had  renounced  all  claims  on  Hanover;  Austria,  in 
spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  Eussia,  persistently  remained  neutral.  On  the  other 
hand,  Alexander,  at  KyduUen,  on  April  4,  said  to  Frederick  William,  who  honour- 
ably confided  in  him :  "  Is  it  not  true  that  neither  of  us  will  fall  alone  ?  —  both 
together  or  neither ! "  The  alliance  of  Prussia  with  Sweden  was  followed  by  an 
alliance  on  April  26  at  Bartenstein  with  Eussia,  which  it  was  hoped  that  Great 
Britain,  Austria,  and  Sweden  would  soon  join.  In  spite  of  all  the  exertions  of 
Gentz  and  others,  Francis  did  not  join,  and  Great  Britain  did  very  little. 

Napoleon  displayed  an  almost  fabulous  versatility  and  persistency.  From 
Osterode  and  Finkenstein  he  directed  the  affairs  of  the  world,  despite  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  beautiful  countess  Walewska,  who  had  become  enamoured  of  the 
supposed  saviour  of  Poland.     He  waged  war  with  Eussia  and  Prussia,  defended 


X-™Ssr»"]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  47 

Constantinople  against  the  British,  and  was  continuously  absent  from  France.  The 
battle  of  Heilsberg  (June  10,  1807)  was  indecisive ;  but  at  Friedland  Napoleon, 
once  more  on  the  14th  of  June,  annihilated  the  army  of  Bennigsen,  and  the  latter 
urged  Alexander  to  ask  for  an  armistice,  while  the  Prussians  were  forced  to 
evacuate  Konigsberg.  The  effect  of  Austerlitz  was  revived  in  Alexander's  memory. 
He  seemed  crushed,  and  trembled  before  the  possibility  that  Napoleon  might  set 
foot  on  Eussian  territory  and  stir  up  the  Poles.  Throwing  his  promises  to  Prussia  to 
the  wind,  he  struck  out  a  new  path  after  the  armistice  of  June  21.  Napoleon  exerted 
his  extraordinary  powers  of  persuasion,  and  won  the  Czar  over  at  a  secret  interview 
held  on  the  Memel  (June  25).  The  two  emperors  became  friends.  Their  friend- 
ship was  naturally  the  offspring  of  self-interest  and  cold  calculation ;  they  were  at 
one  in  their  hatred  of  Great  Britain  and  in  their  ambition.  Napoleon  held  out  to 
the.  Czar  the  prospect  of  a  free  hand  on  the  Balkan  peninsula  and  in  Finland,  and 
entrapped  the  easily  persuaded  monarch,  whom  he  intended  to  keep  in  leading- 
strings  like  a  prince  of  the  Ehenish  Confederation. 

Alexander  relinquished  the  thankless  rSle  of  a  champion  of  international  rights 
and  international  freedom,  abandoned  Frederick  William,  and  acquiesced  in  the 
mutilation  of  Prussia.  He  met  Napoleon  at  Tilsit,  discussed  with  him  the  trans- 
formation of  the  world,  and  hoped  to  rule  it  with  him.  Prussia  was  forced  to  con- 
clude a  truce ;  Napoleon  heaped  reproaches  on  the  king,  and  the  tears  of  Queen 
Louise  "  slipped  off  him  as  off  oilskin."  On  July  7  Eussia  and  France,  on  July  9 
France  and  Prussia,  concluded  peace  at  Tilsit.  Only  "  out  of  consideration  for  the 
emperor  Alexander"  did  Napoleon  give  back  to  the  king  the  smaller  half  of  Prussia 
(2,856  square  German  mUes,  with  4,594,000  inhabitants),  and  Alexander  enriched 
himself  with  the  Prussian  frontier  province  of  Bialystok.  South  Prussia  and  New 
East  Prussia  fell  to  the  new  duchy  of  Warsaw,  which  the  king  of  Saxony  received, 
together  with  the  district  of  Cottbus ;  Dantsic  became  a  free  city.  Prussia  was 
forced  to  break  off  all  trade  relations  with  Great  Britain.  The  king  and  the  Czar 
recognised  the  royal  crowns  of  Joseph  and  Louis  Napoleon  and  Napoleon's  title  of 
Protector  of  the  Ehenish  Confederation ;  Jerome  Napoleon  was  to  receive  a  king- 
dom of  Westphalia.  The  Czar  allowed  the  king  of  Sardinia  to  fall,  ceded  Jever  to 
Holland,  the  Ionian  Islands  and  the  Bocche  di  Cattaro  to  France.  Both  emperors 
concluded  at  the  same  time  a  secret  offensive  and  defensive  treaty  for  all  wars, 
negotiating  like  robbers.  They  wished  to  partition  Turkey  in  Europe,  except 
Eoumelia  and  Constantinople;  to  fight  the  British,  and  to  enforce  strictly  the 
continental  system,  which  plan  brought  Eussia's  trade  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  The 
creation  of  "  Old  Fritz  "  seemed  destroyed  at  Tilsit ;  Prussia  was  driven  back  over 
the  Elbe,  and  Westphalia  was  interposed  as  a  barrier  State  between  Prussia  and 
France,  —  a  daughter  of  France  on  German  soil.  Hardenberg,  who  left  on  July 
10,  still  guarded  against  the  entry  of  Prussia  into  the  Ehenish  Confederation.  But 
the  thoughtlessly  arranged  Convention  of  Konigsberg  (July  12)  was  responsible 
for  the  great  misery  of  the  next  years.  Napoleon  wished  to  crush  the  rest  of 
Prussia,  while  maintaining  peace,  by  war  taxes  of  an  exorbitant  height.  It  was 
with  Prussian  money  that  he  waged  his  wars  on  the  Iberian  Peninsula.  The  Eus- 
sian councillor  of  state,  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  his  Corsican  hereditary  enemy,  termed  the 
treaties  wrung  from  Prussia  a  masterpiece  of  destruction. 


48  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichapteri 

(e)  Napoleon's  Struggle  for  World  Empire.  —  The  third  transformation  in 
Kapoleon  had  been  completed  for  some  years.  He  had  become  a  world  conqueror, 
the  despot  of  Europe,  and  France  was  only  a  province  of  his  system.  He  denied 
this  at  St.  Helena  and  called  France  his  only  love,  and  yet  the  case  was  otherwise ; 
the  French  themselves  felt  it.  No  sovereign  in  modern  times  was  ever  so  supreme 
as  Napoleon  after  Tilsit ;  only  Alexander  the  Great  and  Julius  Caesar  furnish  any 
kind  of  parallel.  But  his  insatiable  appetite  was  far  from  satisfied :  he  wished  to 
be  worshipped  as  the  "  image  of  God  upon  earth ; "  his  will  was  to  become  and 
remain  the  only  law  for  the  world. 

Weak  or  neutral  States  only  provoked  his  laughter ;  they  could  look  for  neither 
clemency  nor  protection  from  him,  so  soon  as  they  attracted  his  greed.  Portugal, 
in  order  to  be  allowed  to  remain  neutral  in  the  war  between  France  and  Great 
Britain,  had  paid  sixteen  million  francs  to  France,  for  it  lived  on  British  trade ;  but 
Napoleon  thirsted  for  the  treasures  of  Portugal,  and  insisted  that  it  should  close  its 
ports  to  the  British.  Since  the  kingdom  of  Etruria  carried  on  business  with  the 
British  from  Leghorn,  he  incorporated  it  with  France  in  November,  1807.  His 
quarrel  with  the  pope,  whose  secular  and  spiritual  power  he  continually  curtailed, 
became  more  acute  when  J^rOme's  divorce  was  refused.  Three  provinces  of  the 
States  of  the  Church  were  occupied  by  the  French.  Napoleon  intended  to  turn 
the  Danish  iieet  to  account  against  the  English ;  but  they  anticipated  him,  bom- 
barded Copenhagen,  and  carried  away  the  fleet  in  September,  1807,  —  a  blow  from 
which  Denmark  never  recovered.  It  was  a  technical  breach  of  the  law  of  nations ; 
but  necessity  knows  no  law,  and  the  struggle  was  one  of  life  or  death  for  England. 
The  attempt  of  Eussia  to  mediate  between  France  and  Great  Britain  was  frus- 
trated by  the  energetic  foreign  secretary,  George  Canning,  who  saw  in  the  Czar 
the  masked  underling  of  Napoleon.  Canning  answered  the  "  continental  system  " 
by  the  orders  in  council  declaring  the  blockade  of  the  French  coast,  and  began 
war  with  Eussia.  How  little  intention  Napoleon  had  of  fulfilling  the  promises 
which  he  made  at  Tilsit  and  of  strengthening  Eussia  at  the  cost  of  Turkey  was 
shown  in  August,  1807,  by  the  truce  of  Slobosia,  due  to  his  intervention,  according 
to  which  the  Eussians  were  forced  to  evacuate  the  Danubian  principalities.  The 
friendship  already  began  to  flag.  The  ambassadors  in  St.  Petersburg  —  Savary 
Duke  of  Eovigo  and  De  Coulaincourt  Duke  of  Vicenza  ■ —  had  been  conG|p:ned  in  the 
execution  of  the  Duke  of  Enghien,  and  in  consequence  were  treated  coldly  by  the 
Eussian  court ;  and  the  Eussian  ambassador  in  Paris,  Count  Peter  Tolstoy,  showed 
an  exclusive  preference  for  the  society  of  the  royalist  Faubourg  St.  Germain. 
Alexander  gave  vent  elsewhere  to  his  indignation  at  the  deception  by  attacking 
Finland.  Gustavus  IV  was  supported  indeed  by  the  British ;  but  in  Finland  the 
Count  of  Buxhowden  advanced  victoriously,  and  in  the  peace  of  Fredrikshamn  Fin- 
land came  to  Eussia  in  September,  1809.  The  French  occupied  Swedish  Pome- 
rania  in  1807 ;  but  the  British  fleet,  however,  carried  off  the  Eussian  fleet  in  the 
Tagus  (September,  1808). 

(/)  Spain.  —  The  "emperor  and  king"  now  laid  his  insatiate  hand  on  the 
Iberian  Peninsula,  for  "  there  were  to  be  no  longer  any  Pyrenees."  The ,  downfall 
of  Spain  after  the  enlightened  despotism  of  Charles  III  and  Aranda  was  primarily 
his  doing,  and  the  directing  minister,  Godoy,  was  his  tool  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  552). 
Talleyrand  counselled  Napoleon  not  to  interfere  with  Spain,  since  he  disapproved 


Xfr^;g"S5/™]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  49 

generally  of  his  master's  boundless  greed  for  territory,  but  Napoleon  would  not  take 
advice ;  he  wished  to  tear  Spain  from  the  Bourbons  and  transfer  it  to  his  house, 
of  which  he  said  that  it  would  shortly  be  the  oldest  in  Europe.  While  Andoche 
Junot  led  an  army  to  Portugal,  Napoleon  concluded  with  infatuated  Spain  at 
Fontainebleau,  in  October,  1807,  a  treaty  aiming  at  the  destruction  of  Portugal, 
which  allowed  Napoleon  to  enter  on  Spanish  territory  and  to  advance  through 
Spain  to  Portugal.  The  royal  family  fled  to  Brazil,  their  American  kingdom  (cf. 
Vol.  I,  p.  490)  ;  Junot  occupied  Portugal ;  and  Napoleon  announced  in  December, 
"  The  house  of  Braganza  has  ceased  to  reign."  Portugal  was  terribly  plundered 
by  Junot,  now  Duke  of  Abrantfes,  and  lost  both  its  colonies  and  its  maritime  trade. 
The  ministers  at  Madrid  saw  these  violent  measures  with  alarm.  But  Napo- 
leon was  not  content  with  these ;  in  February,  1808,  he  ordered  Eome  and  the 
fortress  of  St.  Angelo  to  be  occupied,  and  showed  to  Pius  VII  the  successor  of 
Charlemagne.  Charles  IV  of  Spain  and  his  heir  apparent  Ferdinand,  prince  of 
the  Asturias,  hated  each  other,  and  the  queen  Maria  Louise  (of  Parma),  whose 
infatuation  for  Godoy  was  notorious,  loathed  her  son.  Napoleon  incited  the  three, 
one  against  the  other.  Ferdinand  begged  for  the  hand  of  a  Bonaparte ;  Charles,  too, 
proffered  this  request,  and  he  thought  of  Lucien's  daughter  Charlotte.  Playing  the 
part  of  providence  in  Spain,  Napoleon  posed  in  Italy  as  the  genial  father  of  a  family, 
adopted  his  step-son  Eugene  as  son,  and  nominated  him  heir  to  the  throne  of  Italy, 
which  caused  a  good  impression  there.  He  blockaded  the  Island  of  Sardinia  as 
being  an  ally  of  England,  tried  to  wrest  Sicily  from  the  British  in  order  to  restore 
it  to  Naplesj  and  threatened  Algiers.  Spain  was  defenceless.  When  Charles  IV 
discovered  a  conspiracy  organised  by  Ferdinand  against  him,  he  complained  of 
his  son  to  Napoleon ;  since  Ferdinand  also  summoned  Napoleon  to  his  side,  the 
latter  became  the  willing  mediator  and  arbitrator.  After  fine  speeches  the  country 
was  enslaved.  Joachim  Murat  appeared  as  lieutenant-general  of  the  emperor  in 
Madrid ;  he  cast  longing  eyes  on  the  crown  of  Spain,  and  the  emperor  cajoled  him 
also;  Murat  then  served  him  doubly  well.  The  French  invested  Madrid  on  every 
side.  Napoleon  hoodwinked  the  entire  court  of  Spain,  where  all  parties  regarded 
him  as  their  helper,  and  prepared  for  the  friendly  nation  an  unparalleled  comedy 
of  errors.  When  the  royal  couple  wished  to  fly,  the  son  betrayed  them.  The  peo- 
ple lost  all  patience ;  an  insurrection  against  Godoy  led  to  the  abdication  of  the 
king,  and  on  March  19,  1808,  the  son  proclaimed  himself  king  as  Ferdinand  VII. 
But  Murat  enticed  the  king  to  give  him  a  paper  on  which  the  latter  called  his 
abdication  involuntary.  Napoleon  invited  both  kings  and  the  queen  to  the  castle 
of  Marrac  near  Bayonne,  goaded  them  on,  one  against  the  other,  like  wild  beasts, 
and  effected  with  mean  cunning  the  abdication  of  both  kings.  The  Bourbon 
dynasty  collapsed  amid  mutual  execrations.  Murat  suppressed  a  riot  in  Madrid  on 
May  2,  and  Spain  with  all  her  colonies  was  now  French ;  but  her  haughty  people 
still  remained  Spaniards  at  heart.  In  order  that  Talleyrand  might  appear  to  be  re- 
sponsible for  the  settlement  of  the  Spanish  question.  Napoleon  shut  up  the  ephem- 
eral king  Ferdinand  VII  with  him  in  the  chateau  of  Valenqay.  By  this  means 
and  by  the  dole  of  pensions  to  the  old  royal  couple,  he  thought,  shortsightedly 
enough,  that  the  matter  was  settled.  In  Naples  he  replaced  his  brother  Joseph  by 
Joachim  Murat;  the  former  was  transferred  to  Spain  as  king,  on  June  6,  1808. 
Joseph  obeyed  his  brother  as  his  destiny,  and  set  foot  in  Spain  on  the  9th  of  July. 
But  hardly  had  the  people  heard  of  the  occurrences  in  Marrac  when  an  insurrec- 

VOL.  VIII— 4 


50  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  ichapter  i 

tion  broke  out,  in  order  to  shake  off  the  foreign  yoke.  Napoleon  did  not  under- 
stand this  struggle  for  independence ;  he  thought  that  the  Spaniards  ought  to  have 
thanked  him  on  their  knees  for  having  given  them  his  approved  system  of  govern- 
ment instead  of  the  former  maladministration.  He  regarded  unchained  national 
passions,  such  as  the  French  Eevolution  had  so  often  shown  him,  with  supreme 
contempt ;  yet  Spain  and  the  Tyrol,  Prussia  and  Eussia,  were  fated  to  teach  him  a 
stern  lesson  as  to  the  primitive  force  that  lies  in  freedom-loving  peoples.  The 
Spaniard  knew  only  one  king,  Ferdinand  VII.  The  British  supplied  them  with 
money  and  arms;  the  juntas  of  the  towns  assumed  the  defensive.  National 
armies  grouped  themselves  round  popular  leaders.  The  peasants  attacked  the 
French  soldiers  from  ambushes  and  stabbed  them,  while  muttering  a  prayer ;  even 
priests  handled  the  poignard,  for  Napoleon  was  the  persecutor  of  the  Holy  Father, 
the  despoiler  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

Joseph  saw  how  things  stood.  He  wrote  to  his  brother  from  Burgos  that  he 
had  not  a  single  adherent.  Napoleon,  however,  relied  blindly  on  his  fortune, 
and,  consumed  by  a  disastrous  over-confidence,  hoped  for  an  unqualified  success. 
Joseph  did  indeed  enter  Madrid ;  but  the  Spaniards  captured  the  French  fleet  off 
Cadiz,  and  the  cautious  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  who  brought  troops  to  them,  took 
care  that  the  "  wound  on  the  body  of  the  empire  "  remained  open.  Pierre  Count 
Dupont  de  I'Etang  capitulated  on  July  22  at  Baylen.  Joseph  warned  his  brother 
that  his  fame  would  be  wrecked  in  Spain,  and  evacuated  Madrid,  as  he  longed  to 
be  back  in  Naples ;  but  Napoleon  asserted  haughtily  that  he  found  in  Spain  the 
pillars  of  Hercules,  but  not  the  limits  of  his  power.  "While  the  insurrection  ex- 
tended, Portugal  concluded  an  alliance  with  Spain.  Wellesley  was  victorious  at 
Eoli§a  and  Vimiero  (17th  and  21st  August) ;  on  August  30  Junot  and  Kellermann 
surrendered  in  Cintra. 

The  moral  effect  of  Baylen  and  Cintra  on  the  world  was  immense.  Germany 
and  Austria  were  in  a  ferment,  and  Baron  Stein  hoped  for  a  simultaneous  rising. 
Secret  leagues  were  formed  among  the  German  people,  so  little  disposed  to  con- 
spiracy, and  the  Prussian  war  party  entered  into  communications  with  Austrian 
diplomatists.  But  Frederick  William  was  anxious  not  to  fight  the  master  of  the 
world  without  trustworthy  alhes.  He  had,  during  the  time  af  distress,  started  on 
the  road  to  great  exploits.  Stein  and  Hardenberg,  although  remote  from  the 
throne,  had  co-operated  in  the  reform  of  Prussia.  The  abolition  of  hereditary  serf- 
dom was  followed  quickly  by  the  reorganisation  of  the  government  and  of  the 
military  system,  as  well  as  by  social  reforms,  municipal  regulations,  etc.  In  Aus- 
tria, Count  Philip  Stadion,  "  the  Stein  of  Austria,"  wished  to  remedy  all  ancient 
abuses ;  from  the  moment  when  he  entered  the  ministry  he  tried  to  kindle  the 
flame  of  patriotism  in  the  motley  group  of  nationalities  in  Austria,  and  thought  of 
an  universal  "  war  of  the  nations "  against  Napoleon.  Friedrich  Gentz  wrote  in 
favour  of  national  liberty  and  the  emancipation  of  Europe,  and  Stein  advised 
the  court  of  Vienna,  which  certainly  cared  little  for  his  opinion,  to  take  the  op- 
portunity of  commencing  the  war  before  Spain  was  conquered.  But  Archduke 
Charles  was  in  favour  of  the"  postponement  of  the  war,  and  contented  himself  with 
the  reorganisation  of  the  army  and  the  formation  of  a  militia  for  the  whole  mon- 
archy except  Hungary.  The  Czar,  too,  warned  Francis  to  maintain  peace,  since  he 
wished  to  settle  accounts  with  the  Porte  without  the  interference  of  Austria.  The 
latter,  therefore,  took  no  action. 


Xf^'5^3l»n]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  51 

Napoleon  suspected  that  the  war  against  Austria  could  not  long  be  delayed, 
and  wished  to  settle  first  with  Spain.  Nobody  rejoiced  more  heartily  at  the  Prench 
reverses  on  the  Iberian  Peninsula  than  the  imprisoned  pope,  from  whom  one  piece 
of  territory  after  another  was  snatched,  in  spite  of  the  most  energetic  protests 
that  he  could  make  in  the  presence  of  Europe.  If  Napoleon  could  only  succeed  in 
binding  more  closely  to  himself  Alexander,  who  was  busied  in  distrustful  intro- 
spection, he  could  withdraw  the  grand  army  from  Germany  and  crush  Spain  with 
it,  in  which  case  all  the  vassal  States  would  fall  to  him.  The  further  existence  of 
Prussia  was  doubtful,  since  an  intercepted  letter  of  Stein  of  August  15  had  roused 
the  blind  fury  of  Napoleon.  Prince  William  of  Prussia  was  forced,  at  the  sword's 
point,  to  sign  the  crippling  agreement  of  Paris  of  September  8, 1808,  which  re- 
duced the  Prussians  to  the  impotence  of  a  State  of  the  Ehenish  Confederation, 
allowed  it  only  an  army  of  forty-two  thousand  men,  and  prohibited  the  raising  of 
militia  or  the  arming  of  the  people. 

Napoleon  once  more  promised  Alexander  a  free  hand  in  the  East,  humoured 
his  greed  by  a  thousand  fanciful  pictures,  and  invited  him  to  Erfurt,  in  order  to 
settle  with  him  the  destiny  of  the  world.  As  a  set-off  to  the  Spanish  reverses  it 
was  important  to  renew,  under  the  eyes  of  Europe,  the  Eranco-Eussian  alliance, 
and,  in  order  to  produce  the  best  scenic  effects,  the  princes  of  the  Ehenish  Confed- 
eration, so  insignificant  in  themselves,  were  summoned  to  Erfurt  to  serve  as  a 
background.  Talma  played  every  evening  before  a  "  parterre  of  kings,"  and  the 
two  emperors  discussed  matters  together.  Their  lips  were  overflowing  with  friend- 
ship, but  their  hearts  beat  only  for  self-interest.  Napoleon's  wish  for  the  hand  of 
a  Grand  Princess  met  with  no  response,  and  Constantinople,  the  "  key  to  the  house- 
door,"  did  not  fall  to  Alexander.  The  treaty  of  Erfurt  on  October  12,  1808,  re- 
newed the  alliance  of  Tilsit,  and  guaranteed  to  Turkey  its  territory  with  the 
exception  of  the  Danubian  principalities ;  in  the  event  of  an  Austrian  war  the  two 
emperors  wished  to  help  each  other.  Prussia  was  once  more  reduced  in  size,  and 
was  forced  to  bow  before  the  dictatorship  of  the  two.  On  November  6  a  new 
arrangement  with  respect  to  the  war  tax  and  evacuation  of  territory  was  made. 
Stein,  the  soul  of  the  anti-Napoleon  party,  fell  on  November  24;  on  December  16 
he  was  outlawed  by  a  decree  of  Napoleon  from  Madrid,  and  his  property  confis- 
cated. Napoleon  fought  against  "  le  nomme  Stein  "  as  against  a  rival  power.  In 
Austria,  where  he  found  an  asylum.  Stein  exercised  no  influence.  Francis  consid- 
ered him  a  Jacobin  and  member  of  the  Tiigendbund,  and  was  submissive  enough 
to  accept  resignedly  Napoleon's  phrase,  "  Your  Majesty  is  what  he  is  by  my  will." 
On  December  4  Madrid  surrendered  to  Napoleon.  He  treated  Spain  as  a  conquered 
country,  ruling  it  over  the  head  of  Joseph,  who  re-entered  Madrid  on  January  22, 
1809,  in  order  to  form  a  liberal  administration ;  Napoleon  thought  that  ridiculous, 
advised  him  to  rule  with  axe  and  halter,  and  allowed  his  soldiers  to  plunder  the 
country.  Meanwhile,  great  discontent  was  caused  in  France  at  the  interruption  to 
its  prosperity. 

(^)  The  War  of  1809.  —  Austria,  deeply  wronged,  at  last  armed  herself.  The 
same  cry  for  revenge  echoed  from  palace  and  hovel ;  the  militia  hastened  to  the 
colours,  and  the  nation  was  prepared  for  any  emergency.  The  cabinet  waited  in 
vain  for  Eussia  and  Prussia  to  join,  while  Napoleon  said  scoSingly  that  Austria 
had  drunk  of  the  waters  of  Lethe,  and  that  Francis  wished  to  forfeit  his  throne. 


52  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chaj>teri 

From  Spain  came  the  tidings  of  the  surrender  of  Saragossa  to  Lannes ;  from  the 
States  of  the  Ehenish  Confederation,  which  was  now  twice  as  strong  as  Prussia, 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  men  poured  out  under  French  generals.  Austria 
had  far  fewer  men  than  Napoleon,  and  was  still  in  the  middle  of  the  preparations, 
as  Archduke  Charles  had  vainly  emphasised  in  answer  to  Stadion's  importunity. 
Among  the  peoples  in  opposition  to  the  governments  of  the  Ehenish  confederation 
patriotic  feelings  were  roused ;  they  recalled  the  union  of  the  empire  for  so  many 
centuries  under  the  Hapsburgs,  and  read  with  enthusiasm  the  proclamation  of 
Archduke  Charles,  in  which  he  said  that  the  cause  of  Austria  and  Germany  was 
one  and  the  same. 

Tyrol,  loyal  to  the  emperor,  began  the  war.  The  "  landsturm  "  freed  it  in  five 
days  from  the  Bavarians  and  French  ;  at  Wilten  Count  Bissen  laid  down  his  arms. 
Napoleon  once  more  experienced  the  power  of  national  indignation,  and  in  North 
Germany  Andreas  Hofer,  Joseph  Speckbacher,  and  their  companions  were  wor- 
shipped as  national  German  heroes.  Archduke  Charles  crossed  the  Inn  on  April  9, 
but  split  up  his  army.  Napoleon  concentrated  his  forces  and  drove  him  back  to 
Bohemia  in  five  days.  Austria's  hopes  were  destroyed,  and  Stadion's  dream  of  a 
universal  national  rising  was  shattered ;  the  archduke  hesitated  what  to  do.  The 
French  re-entered  Vienna  on  May  13.  All  independent  attempts  at  liberation  in 
Germany  made  against  Napoleon  and  King  J^rSme  of  Westphalia  had  failed; 
only  in  the  Iberian  Peninsula  did  the  Iron  Duke  conquer,  and  Tyrol  freed  itself  a 
second  time,  toward  the  end  of  May. 

The  imperial  upstart  hurled  his  thunderbolts  from  Schdnbrunn  agaiast  the 
"  House  of  Lorraine ; "  called  on  the  Hungarians  to  make  themselves  independent 
and  elect  a  king  for  themselves ;  put  before  the  "  bishops  of  Eome  "  their  list  of 
sins;  united,  in  virtue  of  being  "the  successor  of  Charlemagne,"  the  rest  of  the 
States  of  the  Church  with  France  on  May  17 ;  and  ordered  the  pope  to  be  taken  as 
a  prisoner  to  Savona,  when  the  latter  on  June  10  had  excommunicated  him  as  the 
all-devouring  tyrant.  The  world  followed  with  strained  attention  the  duel  between 
France  and  Austria.  Suddenly  the  "  invincible "  was  prevented  by  Archduke 
Charles  on  May  21  and  22  from  crossing  the  Danube  at  Aspern-Essling.  Unfor- 
tunately Charles  did  not  take  full  advantage  of  the  victory^  Nevertheless  all 
Germany  followed  the  example  of  Theodor  Korner  and  Heinrich  von  Kleist  in 
praisLQg  him  as  a  national  hero,  and  Napoleon,  clearly  perceiving  the  impression, 
was  furious  at  the  canaille  of  Austrians ;  it  was  the  first  time  a  single  State  had 
defeated  him.  But  on  July  6  Charles  sustained  the  defeat  of  Wagram,  and  an 
armistice  was  concluded  at  Znaim.  The  peace  party  in  Vienna  gained  the  day. 
Stadion  fell,  and  with  Count  Metternich,  the  new  foreign  minister,  the  Opportun- 
ists came  to  the  helm.  Napoleon  rejoiced  at  the  want  of  spirit  shown  by  the 
chetif  FranQois,  who  abandoned  any  effort  to  carry  on  the  war  and  was  eager  to 
conclude  peace,  for  the  victor's  hands  were  quite  fuU  with  Spain  and  Portugal. 
Here  Wellesley,  with  less  than  twenty  thousand  British  troops,  foiled  aU  the 
efforts  of  Soult  and  Victor  to  entrap  him,  and  took  the  adventurous  course  of 
marching  on  Madrid.  Want  of  men  compelled  him  to  abandon  this  design  and 
fall  back  upon  the  coast  of  Portugal ;  but  not  before  he  had  won  the  glorious  vic- 
tory of  Talavera  (July  28)  over  an  army  nearly  double  the  numbers  of  his  own. 
Even  in  Portugal  he  was  a  constant  source  of  anxiety.  He  built  the  impregnable 
lines  of  Torres  Vedras  to  defend  Lisbon  and  the  position  of  his  army,  and  waited 


ZTt^''S:Z']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  53 

calmly  for  the  favourable  moment  to  emerge  and  drive  the  imperial  forces  out  of 
Spain.  On  the  other  hand,  the  British  expedition  to  the  island  of  Walcheren, 
situated  between  the  mouths  of  the  Scheldt  and  the  North  Sea,  was  a  disastrous 
failure. 

Napoleon  gladly  commenced  peace  negotiations  with  Austria.  He  saw  Eussia 
ready  to  interfere,  and  knew  that  the  friendship  of  Eussia  was  more  than  dubious. 
In  the  leading  circles  the  only  partisan  of  France  was  really  the  imperial  chan- 
cellor, Count  Eumjanzoff,  a  mere  cipher,  while  the  empress  mother,  Maria  Fedor- 
ovna,  was  as  pronounced  an  enemy  of  Napoleon  as  the  empress  Maria  Ludovica  in 
Vienna  and  Queen  Louise  in  Berlin.  The  attempt  of  Staps,  a  priest's  son,  on 
his  life  (October  12)  made  a  very  deep  impression  on  him.  He  feared  other  plots, 
had  peace  concluded  in  Vienna  on  October- 14,  and  left  the  next  day.  This  treaty 
of  Schonbrunn  imposed  very  hard  terms  on  Austria.  It  was  forced  to  cede  to 
France,  Italy,  Eussia,  Warsaw,  Bavaria,  and  Saxony  more  than  50,000  square  miles, 
with  3,500,000  souls,  pay  a  war  indemnity  of  85,000,000  francs,  and  to  reduce  its 
army  to  150,000  men ;  it  forfeited  its  position  at  sea,  was  henceforth  surrounded 
on  every  side  by  Napoleon's  world  empire,  and  sufi'ered  much  from  the  continental 
system  forced  upon  it.  Francis  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  all  present  as  well  as 
all  future  changes  on  the  Iberian  Peninsula  and  in  Italy,  and  to  pledge  himself  to 
a  rupture  with  Great  Britain.  In  addition  to  this,  a  financial  crisis  prevailed  which 
yielded  to  no  remedial  measures.  Austria  sacrificed  the  heroic  Tyrol  and  Vorarl- 
berg,  patiently  looked  on  at  the  execution  of  Hofer  (February  20,  1810),  and 
became  a  second-class  power  under  French  superintendence.  Metternich,  it  is 
true,  never  believed  in  any  long  duration  of  the  Napoleonic  world  empire,  but  now 
he  saw  salvation  in  close  alliance  with  Napoleon.  Alexander,  too,  was  dissatisfied 
that  the  enlargement  of  the  State  of  Warsaw  placed  a  new  kingdom  of  Poland 
before  the  door  of  Eussia,  but  consented  to  receive  Tarnopol  out  of  the  ceded  ter- 
ritory of  Austria,  and  thus  proclaimed  himself  a  hireling  of  France. 

Napoleon  completed  the  long-planned  divorce  from  Josephine  in  order  to  rivet 
his  dynasty  by  the  links  of  legitimacy,  and,  since  no  Eussian  princess  was  given 
him,  married  by  proxy,  on  March  11, 1810,  the  archduchess  Marie  Louise,  daughter 
of  Francis.  The  ceremonial  was  precisely  the  same  as  in  the  case  of  his  "  prede- 
cessor," Louis  XVI.  The  princes  of  the  Ehenish  Confederation  flocked  to  the 
nuptial  ceremony,  which  Fesch  performed  in  the  Louvre,  and  five  queens  bore  the 
train  of  the  chosen  bride.  The  fact  that  one-half  of  the  College  of  Cardinals 
(the  "  black  "  cardinals),  which  had  been  removed  to  Paris,  was  absent  from  this 
ceremony  roused  the  spoiled  tyrant  to  fury.  The  "  restorer  of  the  altars  "  expected 
implicit  obedience  from  the  Curia,  and  yet  it  condemned  his  second  marriage  as 
bigamous.  By  a  decree  of  the  senate  of  February  17,  1810,  the  States  of  the 
Church  were  iacorporated  iato  the  empire ;  Eome  became  the  second  city  in  it ; 
and  to  flatter  old  remembrances,  the  expected  son  of  Marie  Louise  was  to  be  called 
king  of  Eome.  Even  Napoleon,  who  unhesitatingly  destroyed  so  many  kingdoms 
in  this  world,  did  not  venture  to  abolish  the  papacy.  Paris  was  intended  to  become 
the  capital  of  Christendom,  the  pope  the  spiritual  arch-chancellor  of  the  empire 
and  merely  president  of  the  French  council.  The  Galilean  Church  was  to  be 
separated  from  Eome ;  Napoleon  then  would  be  Ctesar  and  pope.  Once  more 
Napoleon  had  mistaken  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  faith  of  the  subjects  could  not 
be  outraged  in  the  way  that  the  States  of  the  Church,  the  pope,  and  the  cardinals 


54  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  {_Chapterl 

were.     Pius  himself  quietly  endured  the  hard  imprisonment  in  Savona,  and  his 
patient  resistance  was  an  invincible  power. 

The  quarrel  between  the  pope  and  the  "  commediante  "  largely  influenced  the 
feeling  of  the  Spaniards  and  embittered  them  more  and  more  against  the  foreign 
yoke.  The  veterans  of  Napoleon  found  their  graves  La  Spain  and  Portugal.  An 
orthodox  campaign  against  the  guerilla  forces  of  the  two  nations  was  quite  imprac- 
ticable. Joseph  was  pushed  by  his  brother  entirely  into  the  background,  and  the 
marshals  of  the  emperor  effected  little  against  Wellington.  One  of  the  chief  follies 
of  Napoleon  was  his  perverse  insistence  in  the  continental  system  (cf.  Vol.  VII, 
p.  122).  He  wished  to  annihilate  the  British  in  a  passionately  waged  commercial 
war,  and  to  close  the  Continent  to  them  entirely.  The  trade  of  the  neutral  States 
was  also  greatly  injured  by  it.  The  tariff  of  Trianon  and  the  edict  of  Pontaine- 
bleau  (1810)  forbade  any  State  lying  within  the  dominions  of  Napoleon  to  trade 
with  Great  Britain,  and  ordered  the  capture  and  burning  of  all  British  goods. 
The  imperial  soldiers  carried  out  this  command  from  Spain  and  Switzerland  to 
Sweden  and  the  Hansa  towns  with  the  utmost  barbarity, — a  course  which  did  not 
prevent  the  most  daring  smuggling.  The  trade  of  every  State,  including  Prance, 
was  destroyed  in  favour  of  the  imperial  monopoly. 

Qi)  The  World  Umpire;  its  Zenith  and  its  Fall.  —  The  situation  of  Prussia 
became  more  and  more  desperate.  Napoleon  remorselessly  demanded  the  arrears 
of  the  war  indemnity  and  scoffed  at  the  king's  pecuniary  distress.  When  Pred- 
erick  WUliam  once  more  resided  in  Berlin  in  the  midst  of  the  imperial  soldiers 
(December,  1809),  he  was  called  upon  to  cede  territory,  and  the  Altenstein-Dohna 
ministry  advised  the  cession  of  Silesian  soil.  Spurred  on  by  the  brave  queen, 
Prederick  William  dismissed  the  faint-hearted  ministers,  and  -in  June,  1810, 
Baron  von  Hardenberg  became  chancellor  of  state.  The  second  work  of  reform 
began,  but  the  queen  was  not  fated  to  see  the  regeneration  of  Prussia.  Louise  died 
on  July  19,  1810. 

The  fulness  of  power  granted  to  Hardenberg  was  contrary  to  all  traditions  of 
the  Prussian  official  system.  He  undertook,  in  combination  with  Stein,  many  im- 
provements, and  tried  to  develop  the  country's  resources,  disregaading  the  obstinate 
resistance  of  the  privileged  classes.  The  agrarian  reform  found  its  completion  m. 
the  edicts  of  September,  1811.  In  1810  freedom  of  trade  was  conceded,  the  first 
case  in  a  German  State,  following  the  example  set  in  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia. 
But  the  promise  given  by  Frederick  William  in  the  finance  edict  of  October  27, 
1810,  of  granting  an  appropriately  constituted  representation  of  the  people,  was 
quite  premature.  The  assembly  of  the  national  deputies  of  1811,  as  well  as  the 
"  interim  national  representation"  of  1812,  by  no  means  realised  the  high  expecta- 
tions which  had  been  excited. 

Among  the  States  which  were  peculiarly  injured  by  the  continental  system 
Holland  was  first.  Its  prosperity  rested  on  the  trade  with  the  British.  King 
Louis,  therefore,  conjured  his  brother  to  desist  from  his  disastrous  measure,  but 
no  representations  availed.  Napoleon  merely  became  so  incensed  with  the  king, 
who  favoured  Holland  against  Napoleon,  that,  in  March,  1810,  he  united  part  of 
his  country  with  the  empire.  When  he  sent  Oudinot  with  an  army  to  Holland, 
Louis,  weary  of  his  dreary  role,  abdicated  and  escaped  to  Austria.  Napoleon 
thereupon,  on  July  9,  declared  Holland  as  "an  alluvial  deposit  of  the  French 


ZTtneTeZlln}       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  55 

rivers"  to  be  united  with  the  empire,  strictly  enforced  the  continental  system, 
and  reduced  the  country  to  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  Full  of  distrust  of  the 
kings  of  his  house,  he  curtailed  their  power.  From  King  J^rSme  of  Westphalia, 
to  whom  he  had  given  Hanover  in  January,  1810,  he  snatched  a  large  part  away, 
in  order  to  join  it  to  the  empire,  and  King  Joseph  of  Spain  received  similar  treat- 
ment. On  account  of  the  continental  system,  he  incorporated  into  the  empire  the 
entire  coast  from  the  Ems  to  the  Elbe,  the  Hanseatic  towns,  Lauenberg  and  Olden- 
burg (whose  duke,  as  well  as  the  princes  of  Salm  and  Aremberg,  he  deposed), 
and  also  Valais,  ta  December,  1810.  A  canal  was  intended  to  connect  Paris  with 
the  Baltic.  Dalberg,  the  prince-primate,  became  grand  duke  of  Frankfurt,  and 
nominated  Napoleon's  step-son  Eugene  as  his  future  successor.  The  Ehenish 
Confederation,  which  in  its  widest  development  embraced  about  145,000  square 
miles,  with  15,000,000  inhabitants,  was  a  powerful  weapon  in  the  emperor's  hands. 

Napoleon's  direct  dominion  now  extended  from  Eome  to  the  Baltic ;  in  addi- 
tion there  were  thirty -nine  vassal  States ;  in  all,  seventy-two  and  a  half  million 
souls  obeyed  him.  He  thus  could  exclaim,  "  I  have  the  strength  of  an  elephant ; 
what  I  touch  I  crush."  He  thought  of  a  new  expansion  of  his  realm,  of  the  incor- 
poration of  the  Iberian  Peninsula  and  of  Italy.  "  The  trident  will  be  united  with 
the  sword ;  Neptune  will  ally  himself  with  Mars  for  the  erection  of  the  Eoman 
Empire  of  our  days ;  from  the  Ehine  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  from  the  Scheldt  to 
the  Adriatic  Sea,  there  shall  be  one  people,  one  will,  one  language."  He  only 
complained  that  the  world  would  not  believe  him  when  he  declared  himself  to  be, 
like  Alexander  the  Great,  god-born.  The  Danish  government  obediently  followed 
his  commands.  In  Sweden  Gustavus  IV  was-  overthrown  in  spring,  1809,  by  a 
palace  revolution,  at  whose  head  stood  the  treacherous  uncle  of  the  king,  and  the 
power  of  the  crown  was  curtailed  by  the- States.  Charles  XIII,  the  new  king, 
whom  Napoleon  treated  as  a  subject,  saw  himself  compelled,  by  the  treaty  of  Paris 
in  1810,  to  join  the  continental  system  and  declare  war  on  the  British.  In  the 
hope,  which  was  not  realised,  of  propitiating  Napoleon,  the  childless  Charles  and 
the  Eeichstag  chose,  in  the  August  of  that  year.  Marshal  Jean  -Baptiste  Jules 
Bernadotte  as  successor  to  the  Swedish  throne.  Victory  after  victory  crowned 
Napoleon's  undertakings.  In  his  arrogance  he  said  to  Count  Wrede :  "  In  three 
years  I  shall  be  lord  of  the  universe."  The  birth  of  his  son,  the  king  of  Eome,  on 
March  20,  1811,  seemed  to  secure  his  fortune  for  ever.  The  fourth  dynasty  had 
now  not  only  a  present,  but  also  a  future.  A  wave  of  rapture  swept  over  France, 
and  all  the  satrap  States,  princes,  and  diplomatists  outdid  each  other  in  grovelling 
salutations  to  the  "new  Messiah."  That  generation  seemed  born  to  servility. 
Within  eight  days  two  thousand  poets  commemorated  the  birth  of  a '  son  to  the 
generous  father.  The  Cassandra-like  utterance  of  a  Vieimese,  "  In  a  few  years  we 
may  have  this  king  of  Eome  as  a  beggar-student  in  Vienna,"  found  no  echo. 

The  boundaries  of  the  world  empire  approached  more  and  more  nearly  those  of 
Eussia.  While  Alexander  recognised  that  he  had  been  outwitted  at  Tilsit  and  at 
Erfurt,  that  the  Porte  was  under  the  protection  of  France,  and  that  a  new  kingdom 
of  Poland  was  growing  up  in  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  Napoleon  dreamt  that  he  saw 
his  custom-house  officers,  who  watched  Great  Britain,  at  work  on  the  Neva  and  the 
Volga ;  that  he  was  commencing  an  Alexander-like  march  from  the  Volga  to  the 
Ganges,  attacking  the  British  with  squadron  after  squadron  on  every  sea,  and  set- 
ting the  befooled  Poles  at  the  Eussians.     Alexander,  being,  as  head  of  the  house 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapteri 

of  Holstein-Gottorp,  insulted  by  the  deposition  of  the  Duke  of  Oldenburg,  his 
cousin,  lodged  a  protest,  which  Napoleon  returned  sealed  to  the  Eussian  ambas- 
sador. The  Czar,  by  a  ukase  of  December  31, 1810,  abandoned  entirely  Napoleon's 
system  of  trade,  and  announced  a  customs-tariff,  which  quickly  revived  Russia's 
trade  and  menaced  France.  While  protestiag  their  love  of  peace  the  two  rulers 
armed  for  the  campaign  which  Talleyrand  called  "  the  beginniug  of  the  end." 
Alexander  anxiously  faced  the  situation,  and  was  resolved  to  await  the  attack  of 
his  Erfurt  friend  in  Kussia  itself,  where  his  people  would  fight  the  most  valiantly  ; 
he  obtained  by  bribery  information  from  the  French  war  office  as  to  the  plan  of 
campaign. 

Napoleon  felt  sure  of  the  princes  of  the  Ehenish  Confederation ;  for  he  aban- 
doned them,  as  he  wrote  to  the  King  of  Wurtemberg,  the  most  self-reliant  among 
them,  at  the  slightest  suspicion.  Two  hundred  thousand  men  were  assembled  on 
the  Lower  Elbe,  and  Prussia  feared  to  be  obliterated  from  the  map  of  Europe  even 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  war ;  it  was  gagged,  found  no  protection  from  Eussia, 
and  the  king  styled  a  national  war  on  a  large  scale,  such  as  Gneisenau  and  Seham- 
horst  recommended,  mere  romance.  Scharnhorst's  mission  to  St.  Petersburg  and 
Vienna  met  with  little  success ;  Metternich  took  no  interest  in  the  permanence  of 
Prussia,  and  refused  all  help ;  and  Great  Britain  finally  refused  to  send  money. 
There  was  no  other  course  left  to  Prussia  than  to  conclude  an  alliance  with  Napo- 
leon (February  24,  1812)  and  to  supply  him  with  twenty  thousand  men;  almost 
the  whole  of  Prussia  lay  open  to  the  passage  of  the  French ;  the  fortresses  and 
Berlin  were  in  their  hands,  and  the  king  lived,  with  a  body-guard  of  a  few  hundred 
men,  at  Potsdam.  Austria  allied  itself  with  Napoleon  on  March  14, 1812,  under 
far  more  favourable  circumstances,  promising  him  thirty  thousand  men ;  it  con- 
fidentially assured  the  authorities  at  St.  Petersburg  that  it  would  only  pretend  to 
take  part  in  the  war. 

Sweden  also  suffered  terribly  under  the  continental  system,  and  secretly  kept 
up  commercial  relations  with  Great  Britain,  with  which  it  ought  to  have  been  at 
war.  The  Crown  Prince,  Charles  John  (Bernadotte),  who  conducted  affairs  almost 
irresponsibly,  wished  to  have  Norway,  and  since  Napoleon  did  not  acquiesce  in 
that,  he  came  to  an  understanding  with  Eussia ;  the  Eusso-S\radish  alliance  was 
completed  in  April,  1812,  and  was  followed  by  further  agr^nents  with  Great 
Britain.  Alexander  informed  Sultan  Mahmud  II  (1808-1839  ;  cf.  Vol.  V)  of 
Napoleon's  offer  to  divide  Turkey  with  Eussia ;  the  result  was  the  peace  of  Bucha- 
rest, on  May  28,  1812,  which  brought  Bessarabia  to  Eussia. 

Alexander  had  not  the  third  part  of  Napoleon's  forces.  The  grand  army,  a 
medley  of  every  nation,  was  one  of  the  most  numerous  which  the  world  had  ever 
seen,  647,000  men  strong.  But  on  all  sides  the  dislike  of  the  nations  to  the  op- 
pression of  Napoleon,  as  well  as  to  the  compliant  sovereigns,  made  itself  evident. 
A  widespread  ferment  was  noticeable  among  the  usually  peaceful  Germans,  while 
their  sovereigns  stood  humbly  round  the  potentate  in  Dresden,  and  tried  to  read 
their  fate  in  his  eyes ;  even  Francis  and  Frederick  William  were  not  absent.  He 
left  Dresden  on  May  29.  The  Poles  proclaimed  in  Warsaw  the  restoration  of  their 
kingdom.  "  The  destinies  of  Eussia  shall  be  fulfilled ;  the  Tartars  shall  be  driven 
beyond  Moscow."  Without  declaring  war  Napoleon  entered  Eussia  at  Kowno, 
on  June  25.  The  first  Eussian  army,  under  Michael  Barclay  de  Tolly,  withdrew 
further  and  further  into  the  interior,  instead  of  uniting  with  the  second  army 


INDEX    TO   THE    MAP    OF    CENTEAL   EUROPE    IN    THE   ^EAE    1813, 
AT   THE   COMMENCEMENT   OF   THE   WARS   OF   LIBERATION 

[The  letters  enclosed  in  parentheses  (SA)  indicate  the  abbreviations  given  on  the  map,] 


I.   Confederation  of 
THE  Rhine: 

1.  Kingdoms: 
Bavaria 

Departments: 

filer 

Inn 

Isar    

Main    

Oberdonau    

Regen    

Rezat 

Salzach    

Unterdonau    

Saxony  (SA) 

Westphalia  (WE)    . . . . 
Departments: 

Aller 

Elbe 

Fulda 

Harz    

Ocker 

Saale    

Werra    

Wiirtemberg 

2.  Grand  Duchies: 
Baden    

Berg 

Depat-tments: 

Rhine 

Ruhr    

Sieg   

Frankfurt  (FR) 

Hesse  (HE)    

Wiirzburg 

3.  Duchies: 

Anhalt . 

Mecklenburg-Schwerin 

—  Strelitz 

Nassau 

Saxony    

4.  Principalities: 
Hohenzollem  (HO)  . . 

Isenburg 

V.  d.  Leyen  (L)    

Liechtenstein  (LI)  . . . 
Lippe-Detmold  (LP)  . 

Reuss  (R) 

Schaumburg-Lippe  .  . 
Schwarzburg  (SB)  . .  . 
Waldeok  (W) 


II.    Austrian  Empire: 

Crownlands; 

Bohemia 

Galicia 

Kamten    

Croatia 

Moravia 

Austria    

Silesia    

Slavonia    

Styria    

Hungary 


III.  Kingdom  of 

Fhubsia: 

Provinces: 

Brandenburg    . 
Pomerania    ... 

Prussia    

Silesia      

IV.  Republic  of 

Danzig    . . 


V.  DuoHT  op  Warsaw 

VI.  Helvetian  Re- 

public   


G-L,  1-5 


HIK3,  4,  5 

HI4,  5 

15 

IK4,  5 

IKS,  4 

14 

IK4 

14 

K4,  5 

K4 

IKL3 

HI2,  3 

HI2 
12 
H3 
HIS 
HI2,  3 
13 
H3 
H4,  5 


GH4,  5 
GH3 

G3 
GH3 
GH3 
H3,  4 
GH3,  4 
HIS,  4 


IK2,  3 
IKl,  2 
K2 
GHS 
IKS 


H4,  5 

H3,  4 

G4 

H5 

H2,  3 

IKS 

H2 

13 

HS 


K-<J,  2-6 

KL3,  4 
N0P3,  4 
L5 

LM5,  6 
LM4 
KLM4,  5 
MN3,  4 
MN6 
L5 
M-Q,  4-6 


I-P,  1-3 

I-L2 

K-M1,2 
M-0,  1-2 
LM3 


Nl 
L-P,  1-3 

GH5 


VII.    French  Empire; 
1.  Principalities: 

Erfurt  (E) 

Neuchatel   


2.  Grafschaft  Katzenelln- 
hogen  (K) 


3.  lUyrian  Departments : 

Carinthia  (1811)    

Camiola  (1811)    

Croatia,  civil  (1811)  . . . 
—  military  (1811)  .  .  .  . 

Dalmatia  (1811)    

Istria  (1811) 


4.  French  Departments  : 

Ain 

Aisne   

Allier    

Alpes  maritimes  (1792) 

Apennins  (1806)    

Ardeche  

Ardennes 

Arifege    

Amo  (1808)    

Aube    

Aude    

Aveyron    

Bas  Rhin 

Basses  Alpes 

—  Pyrdn^es    

Mouth   of    the    Scheldt 

(1810)    

—  of  the  Elbe  (1810)... 

—  of  the  Meuse  (1810)  . 

—  of  the  Rhin  (1810)  .  . 

—  of  the  Rhdne 

—  of  the  Weser  JSIO)  . 

—  of  the  Yssel  (1810)  . . 

Calvados   

Cantal 

Clharente 

—  inf^rieure 

Cher 

Corrfeze    

Corse 

C6te  d'Or    

C6te3  du  Nord 

Creuse 

Deux  Niithes  (179S)   . . . 

—  Sfevres 

Doire  (1802) 

Dordogne    

Doubs    

Dr6me 

Dyle  (1795)    

Ems  occidental  (1810)  . 

—  oriental  (1810)    

—  sup^rieur  (1810)  .  .  . 

Eure    

Eure  et  Loir 

Finisterre    

ForSts  (1795)   

Frise  (1810)    

Gard    

Giines  (1805)    

Gers 

Gironde 

Haute  Garonne    

—  Loire 

—  Mame 

Hautes  Alpes 

Haute  Sadne 

Hautes  Pyr&des 

Haut  Vienne 

—  Rhin 

HiSrault   

lUe  et  Villaine   

Indre   

—  et  Loir 

Isfere 

Jemappes  (1795) 

Jura 

Landes 

Ldman  (1792) 

Lippe 

Loire  (1810)   

—  inf^rieure 

Loiret    

Loir  et  Cher 


A-N,  2-8 


13 

F5 


GS 

K-N,  5-7 

K5 

KL5,  6 
L6 
LM6 
LM6,  7 
K5,  6 


F5,  6 

E4 

E5 

G6,  7 

H6 

F6 

F3,  4 

D7 

16,7 

EF4 

DE7 

E6,  7 

OH4 

FG6,  7 

C7 

EF3 

HI2 

F2,  S 

F3 

F7 

H2 

FG2 

C4 

E6 

CD6 

C5,  6 

E5 

DE6 

H7,  8 

F5 

B4 

DE5,  6 

F3 

C5 

G6 

D6 

FG5 

F6 

F3 

G2 

G2 

GH2 

D4 

D4 

AB4,  5 

FG3,  4 

FG2 

EF6,  7 

H6 

CD7 

C6 

D7 

EF6 

F4,  5 

FG6 

FG5 

CD7 

D5,  6 

G4,  5 

E7 

BC4,  5 

D5 

D5 

FG6 

EFS 

F5 

C6,7 

FG5,  6 

G2,  3 

EF5,  6 

BC5 

DE4,  5 

D5 


Lot  .  •. 

Lot  et  Garonne    

Loz6re      

Lys (1795)    

Maine  et  Loire 

Manche 

Marengo  (1802) 

Mame    

Mayenne   

Mdditerrannc^e  (1808).  .  . 

Meurthe 

Meuse    

inf^rieure  (1795) 

Montblanc  (1792)    

Montenotte  (1805) 

Mont  Tonnerre  (1798)    . 

Morbihan     

Moselle    

Nievre    

Nord    

Oise 

Ombrone  (1808) 

Ome 

Ourthe  (1795)    

Pas  de  Calais   

P6  (1802)    

Puy  de  D6me 

Pvr^ndes  orientales  .... 
Rhin  et  Moselle  (1798)  . 

RhAne 

Roer  (1798)    

Rome  (1810)    

Sambre  et  Meuse  (1795) 

Sadne  et  Loire 

Sarre  (1798) 

Sarthe 

Scheldt  (1795) 

Seine  (S) 

—  et  Mame    

—  et  Oise 

—  infdrieure 

Sesia  (1802)    

Simplon  (1810)    

Somme    

Sture  (1802)  

Tam 

Tarn  et  Garonne    

Taro  (1805)    

Ttasimtoe  (1810) 

Var 

Vaucluse 

Vendue    

Vienne 

Vosges 

Yonne 

Yssel  sup^rieur  (1810)    . 
Zuiderzee  (1810)    

VIII.  Kingdom  of 
Italy:   

Departments: 

Adda 

Adige 

Adnatique    

Agogna    

Bacchiglione 

Bas  P6 

Brenta 

Crostolo  

Haut  Adige 

—  P6 

Lario 

Mella 

Metauro 

Mincio   

Musone    

Olona 

Panarq 

Passariano    

Piave 

Reno    

Rubicone 

Serio    

Tagliamento 

Tronto  

IX.  Principalitt  of 

Lucca: 

X.  Republic    of    San 

Marino  and  Piom- 
bino  (lu  ) 


D6 

CD6 

E6 

E3 

C5 

C4 

GH6 

EF4 

C4,  5 

17 

FG4 

F4 

F3 

FG6 

GH6,  7 

GH4 

B4,  5 

FG4 

E5 

E3 

DE4 

17 

CD4 

FG3 

DES 

G6 

E5,  6 

E7 

GS,  4 

F5,  6 

GS 

IK7,  8 

F3 

F5 

G3,  4 

CD4,  5 

EFS 

E4 

E4 

DE4 

D4 

GH6 

GH5,  6 

DES,  4 

G6 

DE7 

D6,  7 

HI6 

K7 

FG7 

F6,  7 

C5 

CD  5 

FG4 

E4,  5 

FG2,  3 

F2 


H-K,  5-7 


HI5 

16 

K6 

H5.  6 

16 

IK6 

16 

16 

15,6 

HI6 

H5,  6 

HI6 

K7 

16 

K7 

H6 

16 

K5,  6 

IK5,  6 

16 

IK6,  7 

HI5,  6 

K5.  6 

K7 


H6,  7 


K6,  7 


CENTRAL  EUROPE 

iafhfiyfaTl813,ai  flu;  camiiipTice 
TJxeTit,  of  thjB  wars  of  liberalioxL. 


Landtm  :  Wf^ffernrmariTt 


VvxnXj^  d  by-  ilie  Biblio  ^y 


FR  helanipng  to  GrandJ^ctjTTFrarOefur 
HE  belariffin/j hn Gr^oTLd. ZfurJiySe^sa 

. . f.m\'Sr  Cmmlir  fihl^er^ 

eHriboffcn 

LI  PriruifjciiiXy'Jiuu^iirnsteiJi. 

LP  PriruKjicifinx'S J-y^eJ^ctrnold.  ojul 

Sch  anTTthurg  Zippe 
LU  VrdtEdPrizicifjamiesJJUixn.  and 

PujniJ/tna 
R     IPr77ii^p(ihtit!S  IS£iLSS  (older  and. 

younge^^Ujis '  "1  o 

S     Seme  -Depar-imenf 
SB  PrincipciJtiies  ScTcFitcniiuryiRzidjili 

^fculi  ojid  Sand/^shmtsen  J 

^(••beluriffuig  taScurong^  j 

WE  hclont/rnff  to  Westphudui  j 


rapliis  cIlg  s  In  stitut  Leip  zig . 


Wm-lark  :Dodd,Mea/l  &C" 


Western  Europe  at  the' 
Age  of  the  Revolution 


]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  57 


under  Prince  Peter  Bagration,  and  finally  offered  battle  near  Smolensk,  and  was 
defeated  on  August  17.  The  French,  as  had  been  the  case  in  Spain,  were  faced  by- 
religious  fanaticism,  and  the  people  took  up  arms.  The  enemy  was  lured  further 
and  further  into  the  deserted  country,  where  neither  food  nor  shelter  was  to  be 
found.  But  the  golden  cupolas  of  Moscow  gleamed  seductively,  and  Napoleon, 
looking  back  on  his  entry  into  Berlin  and  Vienna,  Madrid  and  Lisbon,  took  for 
granted  that  Alexander  would  sue  for  peace  so  soon  as  he  marched  into  Moscow. 

The  Old  Eussians  now  came  to  the  helm ;  Kutusoff  received  the  supreme  com- 
mand of  the  main  army.  But  on  September  7  Napoleon  was  again  victorious  in 
the  bloody  battle  of  Borodino,  in  which  Bagration  was  mortally  wounded.  Napo- 
leon was  not  fated  to  enjoy  the  victory  to  the  full ;  his  army  had  been  reduced 
to  some  one  bundred  thousand  men,  and  murmured  at  the  privations  which  the 
emperor's  ambition  had  brought  on  them.  He  entered  Moscow  on  September  14, 
and  took  up  his  residence  in  the  Kremlin,  allowing  the  soldiers  to  plunder  the 
city ;  but  the  governor-general.  Count  Fedor  Eostopchin,  a  deadly  enemy  of  Prance, 
united  the  fury  of  the  population  against  the  "  unbaptised  enemy,"  and  in  a  rude 
outburst  of  patriotism,  committed  the  "  holy  little  mother  "  Moscow  to  the  flames. 
The  city  burnt  until  September  20,  and  the  French  army  lost  all  discipline. 
There  was  no  talk  of  peace  with  a  people  which  had  ventured  on  so  monstrous  a 
deed ;  they  would  have  continued  the  war  as  far  as  Siberia.  A  purifying  fire 
glowed  in  Alexander's  soul ;  supported  by  Stein  and  Arndt  he  displayed  great 
energy.  A  German  committee  was  formed  in  order  to  stir  up  the  Germans  against 
Napoleon,  and  the  Eussian  people  were  ready  for  any  sacrifices :  many  a  nobleman 
raised  an  entire  regiment  out  of  his  own  pocket.  A  pitiless  gulf  yawned  in  front 
of  Napoleon.  The  weeks  went  by  in  useless  discussions;  winter,  Eussia's  most 
formidable  ally,  was  approaching,  and  every  one  advised  the  emperor  to  retreat  to 
Poland.  But  the  fall  from  such  a  height  seemed  to  him  too  sudden,  —  his  pride 
resented  it;  nor  did  he  forget  the  pusillanimity  of  Alexander  after  Austerlitz 
and  Friedland. 

When  Murat  had  been  defeated  at  Winkowo,  Napoleon  at  last,  on  October  19, 
consented  to  retreat,  and  the  Grand  Army  was  soon  doomed  to  destruction.  Con- 
quered at  Malo-Jaroslawetz,  Wjasma,  Krasnoi,  and  other  places,  it  reached  the 
Beresina,  which  was  crossed  by  the  rear-guard  on  November  29,  in  a  lamentable 
Condition.  The  retreat  was  like  a  judgment  of  heaven ;  it  led  through  an  in- 
terminable waste  of  snows,  where  the  peasants  and  Cossacks  lay  ambushed,  the 
wounded  died  on  the  road,  and  desertion  of  the  colours  became  prevalent.  "  Men 
no  longer  had  any  hopes  or  fears ;  an  indifference  to  everything,  even  to  death, 
mastered  their  completely  dulled  spirits  ;  they  had  sunk  into  brute  beasts."  Such 
was  the  account  of  an  eyewitness.  On  the  way  came  the  strange  news  that  the 
half-insane  General  Claude  Franqois  de  Malet  had  spread  in  Paris,  on  October  23, 
the  false  tidings  of  Napoleon's  death,  and  wished  to  bring  in  a  republic ;  that  was 
to  say,  that  no  regard  had  been  paid  to  the  empress  and  her  son,  to  the  existence  of 
a  Napoleonic  dynasty.  The  cold  reached  —  30°  E^aumur  (36°  below  zero  Fahren- 
heit), and  the  army  was  broken  up.  The  last  traces  of  discipline  vanished,  when 
Napoleon,  once  more  thinking  only  of  himself,  deserted  his  army,  on  December  5, 
in  Smorgoni,  in  order  to  enter  the  Tuileries  on  the  18th.  Four  days  before  that, 
the  last  troops  had  crossed  the  Prussian  frontier,  and  everywhere  it  was  whispered, 
"These  are  God's  judgments."  Napoleon,  however,  wrote  to  Cassel,  "There  is 
nothing  left  of  the  Westphalian  detachment  in  the  Grand  Army." 


58  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapter  i 

Napoleon  attributed  the  loss  of  his  troops  entirely  to  the  northern  winter,  and 
wished  to  deceive  every  one  by  his  falsehood,  but  he  could  not  deceive  himself. 
He  tried  to  divert  public  attention  from  the  Eussian  campaign  to  the  Malet  epi- 
sode, as  an  unpardonable  crime  of  the  government.  The  authorities  once  more 
grovelled  in  the  dust  before  the  indignant  deity,  who  now  contemplated  crowning 
his  son,  so  soon  as  he  should  be  old  enough,  as  his  successor  on  the  throne,  follow- 
ing the  custom  of  his  "  predecessors  on  the  throne,"  the  Capets.  It  was  important 
also  to  win  new  victories,  in  order  to  wipe  out  the  Spanish  and  Eussian  defeats. 
A  wider  sphere  presented  itself  to  his  creative  imagination.  In  a  few  months  he 
wished  to  have  half  a  million  soldiers  under  arms  for  a  new  war  and  wreak  a 
bloody  vengeance  on  Eussia.  The  startled  world  was  to  be  once  more  lulled  , 
into  the  old  amazement. 

The  great  calculator  was,  however,  wrong  this  time,  in  his  calculations ;  the 
allies  adopted  a  different  policy  from  that  which  they  had  formerly  pursued  when 
he  was  so  easily  quit  with  them.  Alexander,  under  the  persuasions  of  Stein,  re- 
solved to  abandon  all  ideas  of  conquest  and  to  continue  the  war  outside  Eussia  for 
the  emancipation  of  Europe  until  Napoleon  was  annihilated.  But  Alexander 
vainly  tried  to  win  over  the  Poles,  who  still  trusted  to  Napoleon's  promises ;  and 
he  was  equally  unsuccessful  in  inducing  Austria  to  fight  against  Napoleon.  Kutu- 
soff,  however,  concluded  on  January  30,  1813,  a  secret  truce  with  Prince  Schwarz- 
enberg,  who  commanded  the  Austrian  auxiliary  army.  Frederick  William  did 
not  venture  to  give  the  signal  for  war,  that  so  many  counselled  him  to  do,  but  he 
paved  the  way  for  Eussia  and  Austria,  and  resumed  preparations.  In  the  10th 
Army  Corps,  led  by  Marshal  Macdonald,  the  Prussians  were  commanded  by 
General  Hans  David  Ludwig  von  Yorck,  a  deadly  enemy  of  the  foreign  yoke  and 
a  zealous  supporter  of  the  old  order  of  things.  He  ventured  on  the  decisive  step 
at  which  his  king  hesitated ;  in  order  no  longer  to  sacrifice  the  soldiers  of  Prussia 
to  Napoleon  he  concluded  on  December  30,  1812,  in  the  mill  of  the  village  of 
Poscherun  the  treaty  of  Tauroggen  with  the  Eussian  Major-General  Hans  Karl 
Priedr.  Anton  von  Diebitsch,  and  then  remained  neutral.  The  king,  whom  he  had 
hoped  to  draw  with  him  on  the  path  of  self-emancipation,  made  excuses  to  Napo- 
leon for  this  high-handed  policy  and  dismissed  Yorck,  but  in  hiyieart  of  hearts  he 
rejoiced  with  Germany  at  the  determination  of  the  "  iron  "  man.  Hardenberg  stiU 
nominally  stood  by  Napoleon,  and  the  court  was  able  to  evade  the  proposal  to 
marry  the  Crown  Prince  with  a  Beauharnais  or  a  Murat. 

Metternich  and  Prancis  were  not  disposed  to  fight ;  they  only  wished  to  re- 
establish the  old  independence  of  the  Austrian  imperial  domiuion  and  to  mediate 
a  general  peace.  They  saw  in  the  North  German  patriots  the  promoters  of  schemes 
of  emancipation,  and  Jacobins,  and  Napoleon  assiduously  increased  their  fear  of 
this  bogy.  He  also  riveted  the  princes  of  the  Ehenish  Confederation  to  himself 
with  the  threatening  prospect  that  men  of  revolutionary  tendencies  like  Stein 
wished  to  dethrone  them  in  order  to  found  a  "  so-called  Germany."  But  when 
Metternich  thought  of  an  armed  mediation,  when  he  wished  to  keep  the  Eussian 
giant  off  Austria,  to  set  limits  to  Napoleon's  power,  and  to  procure  for  Austria  the 
leadership  in  a  German  Confederation  of  independent  States,  he  forgot  the  most 
essential  point ;  he  did  not  reckon  with  the  immeasurable  arrogance  of  the  im- 
perial son-in-law.  The  Parisians  displayed  to  this  latter  their  disinclination  for 
renewed  war,  and  in  the  provinces  many  a  fist  was  clenched  against  the  "  Bona- 


Xfr</fiS:«ot]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  59 

parte."  But  he  appeared  entirely  a  war  minister,  and  even  speculated  with  the 
property  of  the  local  communities,  in  order  to  raise  money  immediately  for  his 
preparations,  without  increasing  direct  taxation.  On  account  of  the  religious 
element  in  the  country  he  again  approached  Pius  VII,  who  had  been  confined  in 
Fontainebleau  since  1812,  tried  flattery  and  threats  by  turns,  personally  negotiated, 
and  finally  on  January  25,  1813,  actually  obtained  a  new  concordat,  according  to 
which  Avignon  was  to  become  the  residence  of  the  popes  for  the  second  time,  and 
they  were  to  renounce  temporal  power.  But  Pius  was  soon  filled  with  remorse ;  on 
March  24  he  renounced  the  bargain  and  henceforward  steadily  refused  any  curtail- 
ment of  the  Patrimonium  Petri. 

Hardenberg's  policy  of  deceit  lulled  Napoleon  into  such  reliance  on  Prussian 
support  that  Frederick  William  was  able  on  January  22,  1813,  to  travel  without 
hindrance  from  Potsdam,  where  he  had  been  a  sort  of  hostage,  to  Breslau  where  he 
was  free.  The  preparations  were  eagerly  pushed  on.  Volunteer  Jager  corps  were 
formed ;  as  long  as  the  war  lasted  no  remission  of  the  duty  to  serve  was  to  be 
recognised.  Stein  took  the  lead  in  East  Prussia,  which  was  treated  as  if  allied 
with  Eussia ;  steps  were  taken  to  organise  the  militia  and  arm  the  nation,  and 
Yorck,  being  acquitted  of  all  guilt  by  the  king,  undertook  on  his  own  responsibility 
the  supreme  command  in  East  Prussia.  Burgrave  Alexander  zu  Dohna  obtained 
in  Breslau  the  royal  assent  to  the  independent  action  of  East  Prussia ;  Professor 
H.  Steffens  from  his  chair  at  Breslau  carried  away  the  students  with  enthusiasm, 
and  all  Prussia  hailed  the  dawn  of  freedom ;  the  iron  ornaments  of  the  German 
women  told  the  men  that,  in  Theodor  Korner's  words,  "  das  hochste  Heil,  das 
letzte,  im  Sohwerte  liege  "  ("  the  last  and  greatest  safety  lies  in  the  sword "). 
Frederick  William  yielded  to  popular  feeling.  On  February  13  he  issued  his 
final  declaration  to  Napoleon;  on  February  27  and  28  Scharnhorst  and  Harden- 
berg  came  to  terms  with  the  Eussian  plenipotentiaries  in  Breslau  and  Kalisch ; 
it  was  a  question  of  a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  "  in  order  to  make  Europe 
free,"  and  to  restore  the  boundaries  of  Prussia  as  they  had  been  before  1806,  while 
Alexander  hoped  for  the  whole  of  Poland. 

The  Eussians  advanced  under  Count  Ludwig  zu  Sayn- Wittgenstein ;  Yorck's 
Prussians  followed  over  the  Oder.  By  February,  Cossacks  were  roaming  round 
Berlin.  The  viceroy  Eugfene  became  uncomfortable  and  left  Berlin  on  March  4, 
when  the  Russians  and  the  Prussians  entered.  The  knightly  freebooter  Friedrich 
Karl,  Baron  Tettenborn,  occupied  Hamburg,  and  in  March  induced  the  two  Dukes 
of  Mecklenburg  to  desert  the  Ehenish  Confederation ;  this  first  proof  of  reviving 
courage  by  German  princes  was  soon  followed  by  Anhalt-Dessau.  After  the  Czar 
had  entered  Breslau,  Frederick  William  declared  war  with  Napoleon  on  March  16. 
The  whole  nation  became  soldiers ;  one  out  of  every  seventeen  subjects  joined  the 
colours,  so  that  an  army  of  two  hundred  and  seventy-one  thousand  men  was 
formed.  On  March  10  the  birthday  of  the  heroic  and  lamented  Queen  Louise,  her 
husband  instituted  the  order  of  the  Iron  Cross,  and  on  March  17  the  burning 
appeals,  "  To  my  People  "  and  "  To  my  Army  "  sped  through  the  world.  Saxony 
refused  to  join  Prussia,  since  Frederick  Augustus  thought  the  defeat  of  his  great 
ally  impossible,  and  the  allies  took  Dresden  on  March  27.  On  that  day  Napo- 
leon, furious  with  the  "  ingratitude  of  Prussia,"  proposed  to  Austria  its  partition. 
But  Metternich  wisely  declined  the  offer,  and  prepared  to  play  the  part  of  the 
armed  mediator.     On  March  29  he  concluded  the  secret  agreement  of  Kalisch 


60  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chaj>ter  i 

with  Eussia,  according  to  which  Schwarzenberg  withdrew  before  the  Eussians  into 
Galicia  and  refrained  from  any  acts  of  hostility.  He  refused  a  binding  alliance 
with  Eussia  and  contented  himself  with  an  explanation  which  took  place  on 
April  2. 

Count  Miinster,  to  whom  the  English  Prince  Eegent  and  his  ministers  looked 
for  information  on  German  affairs,  saw  with  displeasure  the  revival  of  Prussia,  and 
the  British  gave  no  assistance  to  the  Prussians.  The  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden, 
Charles  John,  a  somewhat  ambiguous  personality  in  the  war  of  liberation,  landed 
in  May  with  his  troops  in  Pomerania  ;  Napoleon's  efforts  to  draw  to  himself  his  old 
rival  for  the  hand  of  Desir4e  Clary  proved  futile.  The  courts  of  the  Ehenish  Con- 
federation still  trembled  before  the  Protector,  and  the  army  divisions  from  three 
quarters  of  Germany  arrived  punctually  in  order  to  assist  him  to  sap  the  sources 
of  Germany's  freedom;  thus  ISTapoleon  could  reckon  on  roughly  six  hundred 
thousand  soldiers.  The  plenipotentiaries  of  Eussia  and  Prussia  concluded  a  treaty 
in  Breslau  on  March  19  which  threatened  all  German  princes,  who  within  a  definite 
time  would  not  join  the  allies,  with  the  loss  of  their  territory,  and  held  out  the  pros- 
pect of  a  central  council  of  administration,  of  which  Stein  was  the  moving  spirit, 
with  unlimited  powers,  intended  to  administer  temporarily  the  occupied  territories,  to 
conduct  the  preparations  for  war  in  them,  and  to  distribute  the  revenues  therefrom 
among  the  allies.  The  Czar  would  have  preferred  to  depose  the  King  of  Saxony, 
and  Stein  to  have  abolished  the  system  of  petty  States.  Kutusoff,  a  typical  anti- 
German  Eussian,  in  his  proclamation  of  Kalisch  struck  strangely  enough  the 
national  German  chord,  spoke  of  the  right  of  nations  to  freedom,  and  held  out  to 
all  German  princes  who  continued  to  desert  the  German  cause  the  alarming  pic- 
ture of  annihilation  by  the  force  of  public  opinion  and  righteous  arms.  All  these 
threats  were  fulfilled  because  it  seemed  as  if  the  princes  of  the  Ehenish  Confedera- 
tion did  not  care  for  the  feeling  of  their  subjects,  but  only  submitted  to  force ;  to 
the  parties  threatened  the  threats  sounded  very  "  Jacobinical,"  and  only  confirmed 
them  in  their  close  adherence  to  the  Protector.  Napoleon  might  avert  a  complete 
change  in  the  European  situation  if  he,  as  Talleyrand  said,  became  king  of  France, 
that  is,  if  he  formed  part  of  the  former  European  concert.  Blticher,  the  Prussian 
commander-in-chief,  quickly  subjugated  Saxony,  whose  king  l^d  fled  and  in  the 
Treaty  of  Vienna  of  April  20  threw  himself  iato  the  arms  of  A*tria. 

In  order  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  the  case  of  Malet,  Napoleon,  before  taking 
the  field,  appointed  Marie  Louise  as  regent ;  he  settled  the  last  measures  at  Mayence. 
It  is  true  that  the  new  recruits  were  vastly  inferior  to  the  fallen  veterans ;  the 
cavalry  was  the  weakest.  He  had  not  two  hundred  thousand  men,  but  five  hun- 
dred thousand  were  soon  to  follow ;  the  alKes  indeed  had  far  fewer,  and  he  wished 
to  conduct  the  war  as  "  General  Bonaparte,  not  as  Emperor."  On  April  5  the  Prus- 
sians under  Yorck  and  Friedrich  Wilhelm  Baron  von  Billow  defeated  the  viceroy 
Eugfene  at  Mockern.  The  Prussians  were  different  from  those  in  1806,  and  the 
main  army  of  the  Eussians  entered  Dresden  on  April  26.  Napoleon,  however, 
effected  a  junction  on  April  29  at  Merseburg  with  his  step-son  and  defeated  the 
Eussians  and  Prussians  at  Grossgorschen  (Llitzen).  The  Ehenish  Confederation 
greeted  the  conqueror  and  Frederick  Augustus  not  only  came  back  to  him  repen- 
tantly, but  put  his  army  and  country  at  his  disposition.  His  lieutenant-general. 
Baron  Thielmann,  however,  went  over  to  the  allies.  Metternich  sent  Major-General 
Count  Bubna  with  a  programme  of  mediation  to  Napoleon.     According  to  it  the 


:^aTA'Sr;]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  61 

latter  would  have  retained  France  with  vast  dominions  and  have  prevented  Aus- 
tria's entry  into  the  alliance ;  but  in  his  unbounded  arrogance  he  dismissed  Bubna 
after  a  stormy  audience  on  May  16.  Meanwhile  Count  Stadion  had  gone  to  the 
Eussian  headquarters  with  the  same  programme.  Napoleon  wished  to  negotiate 
directly  with  the  Czar  by  means  of  Caulaincourt ;  but  the  Czar  referred  the 
mediator  to  Stadion. 

"While  the  Viceroy  was  forming  an  army  in  Italy  and  Marshal  Louis  Nicolas 
Davout  (Duke  of  Auerstadt  and  Prince  of  Eggmiihl)  once  more  took  Hamburg 
(May  30-31),  Napoleon  and  Marshal  Michel  Ney  (Duke  of  Elchingen,  le  brave  des 
braves,  Prince  of  Moscow)  defeated  the  Eussians  under  Barclay  de  Tolly  and  the 
Prussians  under  Blticher  in  the  battle  of  Bautzen  (May  20-21).  The  Elbe  was 
once  more  in  Napoleon's  power  from  Dresden  to  the  sea,  and  the  retreat  of  the 
enemy  left  the  greatest  part  of  Prussia  at  his  mercy.  The  Eussians  no  longer 
wished  to  sacrifice  themselves  for  foreign  purposes,  but  appeared  as  if  they  would 
withdraw  to  Poland.  Only  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  which  was  as  necessary  for 
the  allies  as  for  Napoleon,  could  save  the  treaty  of  Kalisch  from  a  premature  ter- 
miaation.  In  consequence,  the  Armistice  of  Poischwitz  was  concluded  (June  4). 
Metternich  was  proud  of  his  triumph  as  a  mediator,  while  the  North  German  Pa- 
triots cursed  the  useless  shedding  of  so  much  blood.  Hardenberg  was  convinced 
that  Napoleon  would  reject  the  mediation  of  Austria,  and  concluded  on  the  14th  of 
June  at  Eeichenbach  a  subsidiary  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  which  was  followed 
there  on  the  next  day  by  a  similar  one  between  Great  Britain  and  Eussia.  The 
latter  and  Prussia  offered  Napoleon  favourable,  and  Austria  still  more  favourable, 
terms  of  peace,  and  finally  Austria  promised  on  June  27  in  Eeichenbach  to  join 
Eussia  and  Prussia  in  the  war  against  Napoleon,  if  Napoleon  did  not  accept,  before 
July  20,  the  Austrian  terms  of  peace.  On  the  next  day  the  emperor  had  such  a 
stormy  interview  with  Metternich  in  Dresden  that  the  latter  for  the  first  time 
doubted  the  possibility  of  coming  to  any  agreement.  Napoleon  afterwards  regret- 
ted his  outburst,  and,  since  he  had  still  to  do  with  preparations,  changed  his  views : 
he  recognised  the  mediation  of  Austria  and  sent  representatives  to  the  General 
Peace  Congress  at  Prague. 

Meanwhile  Spain  was  lost  to  Napoleon.  Wellington's  victory  at  Vittoria  on 
June  21,  1813  cost  Joseph  the  crown ;  he  fled  and  was  treated  by  the  emperor  as  a 
criminal.  The  Marshals  Nicolas  Jean  de  Dieu  Soult,  Duke  of  Dalmatia,  and 
Louis  Gabriel  Suchet,  Duke  of  Albufera,  were  repulsed  everywhere.  The  six  years 
was  ended  with  the  defeat  of  Napoleon,  who  had  just  been  encouraged  by  the  new 
homage  of  the  confederate  sovereigns  in  Dresden  to  believe  that  his  will  still  was 
the  law  of  the  world.  The  allies  fixed  on  their  plan  of  campaign  at  Trachenberg 
(near  Breslau)  on  July  12,  and  it  was  taken  for  granted  that  Austria  would  join 
them;  Alexander  Frederick  William  and  the  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  had  ap- 
peared in  person.  Bernadotte  had  hoped  to  become  generalissimo,  but  he  only 
received  the  command  of  the  Northern  army,  and  hindered  operations  in  that 
quarter  more  than  he  helped  them.  On  July  22  he  joined  the  Kalisch  alliance 
with  the  prospect  of  obtaining  Norway.  While  he  broke  with  Napoleon,  he  did  not 
wish  to  offend  the  French  irretrievably,  and  delayed  as  much  as  he  could,  casting 
sidelong  looks  at  the  French  crown ;  Billow  and  his  colleagues  felt  that  the  Gascon 
was  not  to  be  trusted. 

The  Congress  at  Prague  met  on  July  11.     Caulaincourt  kept  it  waiting  for  him 


62  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  {Chapter  i 

until  July  28,  and  the  Congress  could  not  point  to  one  fully  attended  sitting.  It 
was  clear  that  Napoleon  merely  wanted  to  gain  time.  When  in  conclusion  he 
privately  asked  Metternich  what  would  be  the  cost  of  Austria's  alliance  or  neutral- 
ity, Metternich  refused  both  and  sent  in  an  ultimatum ;  Napoleon  gave  no  answer. 
At  the  opening  of  the  sitting  on  August  11  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Eussia  and 
Prussia,  Job.  Protasius  von  Anstett  and  "Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  declared  their 
authority  ended,  and  Metternich  closed  the  Congress  with  a  declaration  of  war  on 
Napoleon.  In  this  way  the  alliance  included  Great  Britain,  Eussia,  Prussia, 
Sweden,  and  Austria;  Spain  and  Portugal  soon  joined  it. 

In  Spain  the  sovereign  legislature,  the  Cortes,  encouraged  by  the  French 
disasters,  had  met  in  September,  1811,  and  had  declared  all  the  results  of  the 
events  at  Bayonne  (p.  49)  to  be  null  and  void  and  Ferdinand  VII  to  be  lawful 
king,  and  had  drawn  up  a  constitution  in  March,  1812.  This  bore  a  thoroughly 
democratic  stamp  and  gave  the  crown  a  shadowy  existence,  but,  notwithstanding 
all  its  defects,  had  for  the  moment  the  great  value  of  an  unambiguous  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  universal  wish  for  independence  and  of  some  union  between 
different  parties  in  their  efforts  to  obtain  it.  A  regency  was  to  conduct  the  govern- 
ment until  Ferdinand  was  released  from  French  custody ;  Great  Britain  and  Eussia 
acknowledged  it.  The  regency  appointed  by  Prince  Eegent  John  before  his  flight 
to  Brazil  was  also  acting  in  Portugal,  and  received  its  orders  mostly  from  England. 

Against  the  army  of  the  allies,  which  was  almost  half  a  million  strong.  Napo- 
leon could  this  time  only  place  in  the  field  440,000  men,  amongst  whom  discon- 
tent at  the  renewal  of  war  was  rife.  The  Confederation  of  the  Ehine  willingly 
furnished  soldiers,  especially  since  Napoleon  held  before  its  eyes  the  bogey  of  the 
loss  of  sovereignty.  Bavaria  alone  secretly  prepared  for  defection  and  merely  sent 
a  weak  division  to  Saxony,  while  its  main  army  under  Wrede  remained  on  the  Inn 
and  watched  developments.  Napoleon  lulled  himself  into  his  old  confidence ;  he 
held  the  line  of  the  Elbe  from  Konigstein  to  Hamburg  and  went  happily  to  the 
conflict,  in  which  he  wished  above  everything  to  crush  Prussia.  Great  confidence 
prevailed  in  the  Prussian  forces.  The  commander-in-chief  of  the  allies,  on  the 
contrary.  Prince  Schwarzenberg,  who  had  arranged  Napoleon's  marriage  a  few 
years  before,  feared  to  meet  him  in  the  open  field,  being  more  oUa  diplomat  than  a 
general,  and  no  match  for  a  Napoleon. 

Napoleon  turned  against  the  SHesian  army,  which  he  erroneously  imagined  to 
be  the  strongest  of  the  three  opposed  to  him,  sent  Marshal  Oudinot,  Duke  of 
Eeggio,  with  three  army  corps  against  Berlin,  and  ordered  Marshal  Davoust  to 
cover  the  lower  Elbe ;  he  himself  selected  Dresden  as  the  base  of  his  own  move- 
ments and  was  proceeding  thither  when  the  approach  of  the  main  Bohemian  army 
under  Schwarzenberg  was  announced ;  he  had  already  transferred  to  Marshal  Mac- 
donald,  Duke  of  Taranto,  the  chief  command  against  Bliicher.  Oudinot's  mission 
was  completely  frustrated  by  General  von  Billow,  who  beat  him  on  August  23  at 
Grossbeeren,  and  by  the  defeat  of  General  Jean  Baptiste  Girard  at  Hagelberg  on 
August  26.  The  March  of  Brandenburg  was  freed  from  the  danger,  and  when 
Marshal  Ney  attempted  a  new  expedition  to  Berlin,  Biilow  defeated  him  also  on 
September  6,  at  Dennewitz.  The  whole  of  SUesia  was  cleared  of  the  enemy,  while 
"  Marshal  Forwards,"  as  BHicher  was  nicknamed,  defeated  Macdonald  on  August 
26  on  the  historic  battlefield  of  Katzbach.  Schwarzenberg,  on  the  contrary,  who 
had  delayed  to  capture  Dresden  by  a  cowp-de-mcdn,  was  utterly  routed  on  the  26th 


The  Heroes  of  the  Liberation  of  Prussia  and  Gerjianv 


EXPLANATION  OF   PORTE  AITS   ON   THE   OTHEE   SIDE 

1.  Heinvioh  Friedrioh  Karl  Baron  von  Stein  (1757-1831);  lithographed  by  Heyne. 

2.  Karl  August,  Baron  von  Hardenberg  (1750-1822 ;  1814,  Prince)  ;  painted  by  F.  G.  Weitsch, 

1795,  engraved  by  H.  Sintzenich,  1798. 

3.  Queen  Luise  (1776-1810);  painted  by  Tischbein. 

4.  King  Frederick  William  III  (1770-1840). 

5.  Gerhard  Leberecht  von  BlUcher  (1742-1819;  1814,  Prince  ofWahlstatt)  ;  painted  in  1816 

by  F.  C.  Groger  and  drawn  on  stone  in  1825. 

6.  Hans  David  Ludwig  vou  Yorck  (1759-1830)  ;  in  1814  Count  Torek  of  Wartenburg  ;  drawn 

by  B.  Woltze,  engraved  by  L.  Jaooby. 

(1  and  2,  4-6,  after  W.  v.  Seydlitz's  "  Histoiisches  Portratwerk;  "  3,  after  a  pliotograph  of  the  original 
picture  in  possession  of  the  Empres.s  Frederick.) 


X"7AT11.f/]        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  63 

and  27th  of  August  at  Dresden,  Napoleon's  last  victory  on  German  soil.  The 
emperor  has  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  his  old  opponent  Moreau  was  among 
the  mortally  wounded  in  the  Czar's  camp.  Schwarzenberg's  army  withdrew  to 
Bohemia  and  General  Vandamme,  Count  Hiineburg,  hoped  to  be  able  easily  to  sub- 
due it  in  the  Teplitz  valley ;  but  the  Eussians  reached  the  crest  of  the  Erz  moun- 
tains before  he  did,  checked  his  further  advance,  and  on  August  30,  the  Prussians, 
who  under  General  von  Kleist  attacked  Vandamme  in  the  rear  from  the  heights  of 
NoUendorf,  won  a  decisive  victory  at  Kulm ;  Vandamme  was  taken  prisoner.  Na- 
poleon had  lost  80,000  soldiers  in  a  week.  A  presentiment  crept  over  him  that 
the  time  of  his  victories  might  be  past,  and  he  prepared  himself  for  the  possibility 
of  defeats.  "  My  moves  on  the  board  are  getting  confused,"  he  confessed.  His 
army  was  breaking  up  from  discouragement  and  desertion. 

Meantime  the  allied  armies  were  jubilant,  and  the  diplomatists  were  assidu- 
ously closeted  together ;  on  September  9,  Russia  concluded  separate  alliances  with 
both  Prussia  and  Austria,  although  with  many  reservations  and  without  arriving  at 
any  honest  agreement.  If  Russia  and  Prussia  adopted  a  forward  policy,  Austria 
and  Great  Britain  held  timidly  back,  and  Hardenberg  yielded  far  too  much  to 
Metternich.  The  latter's  chief  aim  was  to  induce  Napoleon's  vassals  to  join 
Austria  by  treating  them  with  indulgence.  The  other  allies  left  these  negotiations 
to  Metternich  alone.  The  King  of  Bavaria  now  renounced  the  yoke,  which  he  had 
borne  so  long,  shook  it  off,  and  on  October  8,  by  the  treaty  concluded  through 
Wrede  at  Ried,  in  Upper  Austria,  entered  the  alliance  as  a  fully  qualified  member, 
in  return  for  which  his  sovereignty  and  dominions  were  guaranteed  to  him.  The 
slender  hold  that  the  French  rule  now  had  on  German  soil  was  shown  above  all 
by  the  coup-de-main  of  the  Cossack  leader,  Alexander  Chernyscheff,  who  forced 
Cassel  to  capitulate  on  September  30,  and  declared  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia  to 
be  broken  up.  It  is  true  that  the  king  returned  to  Cassel  after  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Cossack  pulk,  on  October  16,  but  he  could  no  longer  stay  there  permanently. 
Yorck  defeated  Bertrand's  division  at  Wartenburg  on  the  Elbe  (October  3). 
Napoleon  left  Dresden  with  the  Saxon  court  for  the  front  on  October  7,  and 
entered  Leipsic  on  October  14 ;  the  iron  ring  of  the  hostile  forces  encircled  him 
more  and  more  closely.  The  preliminary  fight  at  Liebertwolkwitz  (October  14) 
was  followed  by  the  defeat  of  Marmont  by  Blucher,  at  Mockern,  on  October  16. 
But  this  was  cancelled  by  the  success  attained  by  Napoleon  at  Wachau  on  the 
same  day,  the  first  day  of  the  great  "  battle  of  the  nations  "  at  Leipsic.  He  could 
not  yet  resolve  to  retire  to  the  Rhine,  and  he  also  neglected  to  secure  his  retreat 
under  any  circumstances;  on  the  contrary  he  tried  (October  17),  but  without 
success,  to  enter  into  separate  negotiations  with  his  father-in-law.  The  allies 
were  joined,  on  October  17,  by  further  Austrians,  Russians,  and  the  Crown  Prince 
of  Sweden,  so  that  they  now  numbered  250,000  men  against  160,000  of  Napoleon. 
On  October  18,  at  Paunsdorf,  3,000  Saxons  and  some  hundreds  of  Wurtembergers 
went  over  to  the  allies,  with  whom  were  the  emperors  of  Russia  and  Austria,  the 
King  of  Prussia  and  the  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden.  Napoleon  sustained  a  complete 
defeat  at  Probstheida,  as  did  Ney  at  Schonefeld.  In  the  early  morning  of  the  19th 
of  October,  the  vanquished  army  poured  out  of  the  city ;  King  Frederick  Augustus 
of  Saxony  was  captured,  Macdonald  escaped,  but  Prince  Poniatowski  was  drowned 
in  the  Elster.  The  fugitives  hurried  Napoleon  on  with  them ;  he  could  no  longer 
think  of  halting  in  Germany. 


64  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  i 

There  was  an  end  to  the  Confederacy  of  the  Ehine ;  one  prince  after  another 
left  it;  King  Jdr6me  quitted  Cassel  for  ever  on  October  26,  and  the  kingdom  of 
Westphalia,  Napoleon's  German  daughter-kingdom,  disappeared  without  a  hand 
being  raised  on  its  behalf.  Since  Napoleon  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  garri- 
sons in  the  fortresses  on  the  Elbe,  Oder,  and  Vistula,  his  loss  amounted  to  a  round 
total  of  150,000  men.  Desertion  of  the  colours  became  threateningly  common, 
and  there  were  only  60,000  men,  rank  and  file,  when  he  got  near  to  the  Ehine. 
Metternich  was  able  to  check  the  deposition  with  which  Frederick  Augustus  was 
threatened,  and  the  incorporation  of  Saxony  into  Prussia ;  the  king  was  confined 
in  Berlin,  afterwards  in  the  castle  of  Friedrichsfeld,  and  Prince  Nicholas  Eepnin- 
Wolkonski  administered  the  country  by  order  of  the  Central  Administration,  which 
had  temporarily  been  established  for  countries  which  had  been  left  without  rulers, 
or  whose  rulers  had  not  yet  joined  the  alhance  against  Napoleon.  The  Prussian 
statesmen  wanted  to  dethrone  Napoleon ;  but  Metternich  was  by  no  means  desir- 
ous that  he  should  be  deposed,  but  only  that  he  should  be  restricted  to  France,  and 
meditated  an  alliance  with  him  to  stifle  the  revolutionary  intrigues  in  Europe. 
Napoleon  knew  the  views  held  at  Vienna,  and  drew  fresh  hope  from  them.  He 
conjectured  that  his  brother-in-law.  King  Joachim  of  Naples  (Murat),  would  betray 
him,  when  he  hurried  home  from  Erfurt ;  but  Joachim  went  far  farther  than  the 
emperor  could  have  suspected ;  he  wished  not  only  to  save  his  own  crown  from 
the  crash,  but  to  become  independent  of  Napoleon  and  king  of  Italy. 

At  Hanau,  Napoleon  drove  out  of  his  path  the  Bavarians  under  Wrede,  and  an 
Austrian  detachment,  which  wished  to  cut  off  his  retreat  (October  30-31),  and  with 
the  remnants  of  the  Grand  Army  the  typhus  entered  Mayence.  France  was  for 
weeks  unprotected  against  the  allies ;  when  Napoleon  started,  on  November  7,  from 
Mayence  for  Paris,  the  important  question  then  was  to  raise  a  new  army  from  the 
soil.  The  fortresses  in  Germany  and  Poland  surrendered,  as  did  Hamburg,  finally, 
in  May,  1814,  and  Magdeburg  in  June.  The  picked  troops  garrisoning  the  for- 
tresses were  lost.  The  corps  of  Billow,  the  victor  of  Grossbeeren  and  of  Denne- 
witz,  regained  possession  of  the  western  provinces  for  Prussia,  freed  East  Friesland 
and  the  province  of  Westphalia,  where  the  inhabitants  began  a  war  of  extermina- 
tion against  all  that  was  French,  and  the  old  rulers,  the  El^tor  of  Hesse,  the 
dukes  of  Brunswick  and  of  Oldenburg,  and  the  Hanoverian  gOTemment,  were,  in 
spite  of  all  their  harshness  and  shortcomings,  welcomed  back  into  their  rescued 
dominions.  On  November  2,  at  Fulda,  Wurtemberg,  on  the  condition  that  its 
sovereignty  and  its  existing  possessions  were  guaranteed,  went  over  to  the  side  of 
Austria ;  and  Baden,  Wiirzburg,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  Nassau,  and  the  North  German 
courts  soon  followed  the  example.  Many  reluctantly  abandoned  the  foreign  over- 
lord, who  had  made  them  great.  Frederick  of  Wurtemberg  took  this  step  "  in 
expectation  of  the  return  of  happier  conditions ; "  Charles  of  Baden,  "  with  sincere 
regret."  Few  showed  any  traces  of  enthusiasm  for  the  German  cause ;  most  nego- 
tiated from  the  force  of  circumstances.  The  monarchs  of  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
Eussia  now  courted  them  just  as  Napoleon  had  previously  done ;  the  vassalage  was 
the  same,  only  the  person  of  the  lord  had  changed.  Those  that  had  been  made 
sovereign  States  by  Napoleon  were  accorded  friendly  treatment ;  those  that  had 
been  "  mediatised "  by  him,  and  who  implored  to  be  restored,  were  now  rejected, 
and  remained  lifeless. 

The  Prince-Primate  and  Grand  Duke  of  Frankfurt  abdicated  on  October  28,  to 


X?7«^Sri«]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  65 

the  Viceroy  Eugfene.  The  allies,  however,  occupied  his  territory,  parcelled  it  out, 
and  Frankfurt,  like  Hamburg,  Bremen,  and  Lubeck,  became  a  free  city.  The 
Grand  Duchy  of  Berg  was  dissolved  on  November  1 ;  the  princes  of  Isenburg- 
Birstern  and  Leyen  were  deposed,  and  their  dominions  confiscated.  In  November, 
in  the  Willemspark  at  the  Hague,  Van  Hogendorp,  Van  der  Duyn,  and  Count 
Limburg-Styrum  placed  the  forbidden  orange  cockade  in  their  hats  and  rode 
through  the  town  of  William  the  Silent  with  the  cry  of  "  Oranje  boven ! "  Alle- 
giance to  Napoleon  was  renounced.  The  Prussians  under  Bluoher  and  the 
Eussians  drove  the  French  out  of  Holland.  The  Prince  of  Orange  landed,  on 
November  30,  in  Scheveningen,  and  was  proclaimed  a  sovereign  prince  under  the 
title  of  William  I;  Antwerp  alone  held  out  under  Carnot  until  April  14.  The 
situation  of  the  Viceroy  Eugfene  in  Italy  became  more  precarious  every  day.  By 
the  middle  of  October,  1813,  he  was  forced  to  give  up  the  line  of  the  Isonzo  and 
withdraw  to  the  Etsch,  where  the  Austrian  field  marshal.  Count  Bellegarde,  held 
him  in  check.  The  tempting  offers  of  the  allies  to  make  him  king  of  Italy  if  he 
would  abandon  Napoleon,  made  no  effect  on  the  stainless  Bayard  of  the  Empire, 
whose  task  was  rendered  still  harder  by  the  desertion  of  Joachim  of  Naples. 

Meanwhile,  in  Spain,  Wellington  had  completed  the  most  essential  part  of  his 
work.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  influence  of  the  Peninsular  War  upon 
Napoleon's  fortunes  has  been  exaggerated  by  the  national  pride  of  English  histo- 
rians. It  is  true  that  from  1808  to  1813  large  numbers  of  French  troops  were 
locked  up  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  that  some  of  the  ablest  of  Napoleon's 
marshals  had  to  be  pitted  against  Wellington.  This,  however,  did  not  prevent 
Napoleon  from  humbling  Austria  at  Wagram ;  and  while  it  is  certaia  that  the 
armies  of  Spain  could  not  have  changed  the  disaster  of  the  Eussian  campaign  iuto 
a  triumph,  it  is  more  than  doubtful  whether  the  raw  conscripts  by  whom  the 
French  cause  in  Spain  was  upheld,  after  the  winter  of  1811-1812,  could  have 
changed  the  result  of  the  Battle  of  the  Nations  at  Leipsic.  The  effect  of  Welling- 
ton's successes  was  moral  rather  than  material.  He  had  been  the  first  to  show  that 
French  invincibility  was  a  myth;  and  in  the  dark  years,  1810  and  1811,  his  suc- 
cesses at  Busaco  and  Fuentes  d'Onoro  had  kept  hope  alive.  While  Napoleon  was 
advancing  on  Moscow,  Wellington,  by  the  capture  of  Ciudad  Eodrigo  and  Badajoz, 
and  by  the  victory  of  Salamanca,  had  cleared  the  road  to  Madrid,  and  freed  one 
capital  at  the  moment  when  another  was  threatened.  Finally,  in  1813,  while 
Napoleon  was  facing  the  allies  in  Germany,  Wellington  and  the  English  were 
advancing  slowly  but  irresistibly  to  and  through  the  Pyrenees.  After  the  battle 
of  Vittoria  (June  21,  1813),  it  became  clear  that  on  the  south,  also,  France  would 
have  to  face  invasion. 

In  November,  1813,  the  allied  sovereigns  made  their  headquarters  in  Frankfort- 
on-Main.  The  war,  of  which,  in  Korner's  phrase,  "  the  crowns  knew  nothing,"  the 
■"  crusade,  the  holy  war,"  had  become  a  war  of  selfish  interests,  and  the  diplomatists 
played  their  game.  The  people  of  Frankfurt  welcomed  the  "good"  emperor, 
Francis,  as  "  their  emperor "  and  the  ruler  of  Germany ;  but  he  and  Metternich 
would  hear  nothing  of  this  unimportant  title,  and  hoped  for  a  more  prominent  posi- 
tion of  Austria  in  a  German  confederation  of  sovereigns  endowed  with  equal  privi- 
leges, but  meeting  under  the  presidency  of  Austria.  Metternich  suspected  the 
German  Central  Administration,  from  fear  of  revolutionary  intrigues.  Stein  ap- 
peared to  him  a  thorough-going  Jacobin,  and  the  Czar  hardly  less  so.  Frederick 
VOL.  vni  — 5 


66  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  i 

William  III,  who  had  never  been  pleased  with  the  German  national  movement, 
was  only  too  easily  convinced  by  Metternich's  political  wisdom,  while  Stein  and 
Hardenberg  saw,  with  much  dissatisfaction,  that  a  general  amnesty  was  extended 
to  the  princes  of  the  Rhenish  Confederation. 

Then  would  have  been  the  most  opportune  moment  for  an  invasion  of  France. 
The  country  was  almost  without  troops,  materially  and  morally  disorganised.  The 
nation  no  longer  wished  to  water  the  tree  of  its  world-empire  with  its  own  blood ; 
it  regarded  itself  as  the  victim  of  the  mad  ambition  of  a  foreigner,  who  attached 
no  value  to  the  lives  of  the  people.  There  was  no  longer  any  trace  of  that  enthu- 
siasm which  had  swept  forward  the  French  nation  in  the  "  days  of  innocence  "  of 
the  great  Eevolution,  and  had  intoxicated  her  with  the  ideal  of  the  blessings  of 
freedom.  The  long  avoided  increase  of  the  direct,  as  well  as  the  indirect,  taxes 
did  not  avail  much,  and  produced  great  bitterness.  The  Eentes  had  fallen  enor- 
mously, and  hard  cash  was  scarce ;  the  budget  showed  a  great  deficit.  Napoleon 
had  sixty-three  million  francs  (£2,500,000)  of  his  own  savings  lying  in  the  cellars 
of  the  Tuileries,  which  he  was  carefully  husbanding  for  his  "  last "  war ;  on  this 
reserve  he  had  now  to  draw.  He  drew  more  heavily  upon  the  blood  of  his  French 
subjects.  From  the  classes  of  veterans  down  to  1803,  who  had  already  served, 
Napoleon  required  three  hundred  thousand  men,  —  the  fathers  of  families,  that  is 
to  say.  But  many  withdrew,  and  by  1814  only  one  fifth  had  come  in.  Barely 
twenty  thousand  men  of  a  newly  constituted  national  guard  presented  themselves  ; 
and,  in  addition,  there  was  the  recruiting  for  1815,  with  two  himdred  and  eighty 
thousand  men.  Since  the  emperor  required  his  old  soldiers  under  marshals  Suchet 
and  Soult,  he  gave  up  Spain,  and,  without  any  regard  for  his  own  brother,  con- 
cluded in  December,  1813,  the  conditional  treaty  of  Valengay  with  Ferdinand  VII. 
When  the  Spanish  Eegency  repudiated  the  treaty,  he  released  Ferdinand  uncondi- 
tionally on  March  15,  1814,  and  Spain  was  thus  formally,  as  well  as  actually,  re- 
lieved from  the  supremacy  of  France.  The  return  of  Ferdinand  was  greeted  with 
boundless  joy,  which  was  soon  destined  to  give  way  to  indignation  and  despair  at 
his  terrible  misgovernment.  Napoleon  also  wished  to  release  the  pope,  but  Pius 
refused  all  negotiations  until  he  again  resided  at  Eome,  and  so  the  situation  was 
not  altered.  ^ 

Metternich,  from  the  headquarters  where  great  dissensions  prevailed,  entered 
secretly  into  communications  with  Napoleon,  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  treaties 
of  Teplitz,  by  the  agency  of  the  imprisoned  French  diplomatist,  Auguste  Baron  de 
St.  Aignan,  and  offered  France  its  old  position  as  a  power  within  the  "  natural 
frontiers  of  the  Ehine,  the  Alps,  and  the  Pyrenees."  Napoleon,  in  his  reply,  haugh- 
tily ignored  these  very  favourable  conditions.  The  question  now  was,  ought  the 
allies  to  show  any  further  consideration  to  one  who  would  not  learn  a  lesson? 
Public  opinion  in  France  was  more  distinctly  against  him  ;  but  the  reinstating  of 
the  Bourbons,  which  he  always  feared,  still  seemed  far  from  probable.  After  much 
deliberation  with  a  view  to  peace,  and  influenced  by  Caulaincourt,  his  new  minister 
of  foreign  affairs.  Napoleon  accepted  St.  Aignan's  proposals  on  December  2,  but 
extended  "  natural  frontiers  "  of  France  so  widely  that  the  allies  could  not  possibly 
agree  to  his  demands.  At  the  headquarters  in  Frankfort  the  war-party,  under 
Stein,  Gneisenau,  and  Bliicher,  triumphed.  Stein  impetuously  hunied  Alexander 
and  Frederick  William  on  to  a  war  d,  I'outrance.  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  who  conducted 
the  deliberations,  composed,  in  accordance  with  Metternich's  view,  the  proclama- 


Tgt^i^'^EZiuHo^        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  67 

tion  of  December  1,  which,  distinguished  between  the  French  and  Napoleon ;  the 
allies  attacked  only  the  unbridled  ambition  of  Napoleon,  which  was  a  menace  to 
the  world,  but  promised  France,  on  the  contrary,  larger  dominions  than  she  had 
possessed  in  the  days  of  the  ancien  regime.  The  phrase  "natural  frontiers"  was 
omitted  this  time. 

Pozzo  went  to  England  in  order  to  rouse  the  Cabinet  to  greater  enthusiasm. 
The  English  were  eager  to  possess  Antwerp  and  Flushing.  The  new  secretary  of 
state  for  foreign  affairs.  Viscount  Castlereagh,  a  cool  and  calculating  nature,  was 
only  gradually  reconciled  to  the  thought  of  a  war  A  I'outrance,  and  contemplated 
founding  a  powerful  kingdom  of  the  Netherlands,  directed  by  Great  Britain.  On 
the  one  hand,  he  entertained  the  deepest  reverence  for  Metternich's  wise  states- 
manship; on  the  other  hand,  a  lively  mistrust  of  the  Czar,  whom  he  wished  to  bind 
to  the  British  policy,  in  order  to  make  Great  Britain,  and  not  Eussia,  the  first 
power  in  Europe  after  Napoleon's  overthrow.  In  order  to  attain  this  object,  the 
Cabinet  of  St.  James  spared  neither  subsidies  nor  soldiers,  and  Castlereagh  reaped 
the  harvest  which  had  ripened  under  Canning's  wise  hand  in  the  war  against 
Napoleon. 

The  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  swooped  down  on  Denmark,  advanced  to  the 
Eider,  and  exacted  the  Peace  of  Kiel  on  January  14,  1814.  Norway  fell  to  Swe- 
den, whiqh  relinquished  Swedish  Pomerania  and  the  island  of  Eugen  to  Denmark. 
Great  Britain  restored  to  Denmark  all  its  colonies  except  Heligoland.  Denmark 
now  joined  in  the  war  against  Napoleon,  putting  ten  thousand  men  into  the  field. 
Napoleon  was  thus  abandoned  by  his  last  ally. 

The  French  nation  was  not  merely  unenthusiastic  for  the  glory  of  the  imperial 
name,  it  cursed  the  insatiate  ambition  of  the  tyrant ;  opposition  was  shown  even 
in  the  legislative  body.  Jos.  Henri  Joachim  Laind  openly  declared  the  discontent 
of  the  nation  at  the  interminable  wars,  which  were  contrary  to  the  prosperity  of 
Fjance,  and  demanded  peace ;  others  spoke  in  the  same  vein.  Napoleon,  by  dis- 
solving on  December  31,  1813,  the  legislative  body  as  "factious,"  severed  himself 
from  the  representation  of  the  people,  and  produced  the  worst  impression  in  the 
provinces.  His  action  in  dismissing  the  pope  to  Savona  was  not  put  to  his  credit, 
but  was  reckoned  as  weakness.  The  preparations  of  the  enfeebled  Napoleon  ought 
to  have  been  thwarted  by  a  hasty  and  energetic  invasion  of  France ;  at  the  outset 
Napoleon  would  not  have  been  able  to  put  more  than  sixty  thousand  men  in  the 
field.  But,  instead  of  marching  directly  on  Paris,  as  the  Prussians  at  headquarters 
desired,  the  allies  decided  on  the  Austrian  plan,  which  was  influenced  by  political 
arriire-pensees.  Accordingly,  the  main  army,  under  Schwarzenberg,  advanced 
through  Baden,  Alsace,  and  Switzerland,  and  reached  French  soil  on  December  21, 
ultimately  arriving  at  the  highlands  of  Langres  on  January  18,  1814.  Blucher, 
who  had  only  obtained  permission  after  many  disputes,  crossed  with  his  Prussians 
and  Eussians  the  middle  Ehine  at  Mannheim,  Kaub,  and  Coblenz  on  the  night  of 
the  new  year,  whUe  Ferdinand  Baron  Wintzingerode  crossed  the  lower  Ehine  near 
Dusseldorf  with  the  Eussians  on  January  13.  On  January  20  Blucher  and 
Schwarzenberg  were  able  to  join  hands  at  Epinal.  Quarrels  were  still  rife  in  the 
allied  headquarters.  Most  would  have  gladly  avoided  a  fight  and  concluded  peace 
with  Napoleon  on  the  Frankfurt  terms ;  but  Alexander,  in  opposition  to  Metter- 
nich,  was  now  in  favour  of  continuing  the  war,  and  finally  brought  Frederick  Wil- 
liam over  to  his  side.     All  that  Francis  obtained  was  that  the  negotiations  should 


68  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Cha:pteTi 

be  continued,  even  during  the  campaign,  at  a  congress  in  Chatillon-sur-Seine,  and 
that  the  frontiers  of  France  should  be  those  of  1792. 

Napoleon  transferred  the  regency  to  the  empress,  placed  Cambacdr^s  as  first 
councillor  at  her  side,  and  nominated  Joseph  Napoleon,  formerly  king  of  Spain,  to 
be  his  lieutenant-general,  with  instructions  to  hold  Paris  to  the  very  last.  The 
family  of  Napoleon  was  to  strain  every  nerve  to  keep  their  last  throne.  When 
the  emperor  took  farewell  of  his  wife  and  child  on  January  25,  he  did  not  suspect 
that  he  would  never  see  the  two  again.  His  intention  of  preventing  the  junction 
of  Blucher  with  Schwarzenberg  was  imsuccessful.  It  is  true  that  he  defeated 
Blucher  and  the  Eussians  on  the  27th  and  the  29th  of  January  near  St.  Dizier  and 
Brienne,  where  he  had  been  a  military  student.  But  he  was  defeated  by  Blucher 
on  February  1  near  La  Eothifere,  the  first  decisive  victory  for  centuries  which 
foreign  troops  had  won  over  Frenchmen  on  French  soil.  Paris  cried  for  peace,  and 
even  the  emperor  was  inclined  to  listen.  If  the  allies  had  made  full  use  of  their 
victory,  his  army  would  have  been  annihilated;  but  Schwarzenberg,  under  an 
agreement  with  Francis,  who  wished  to  rescue  his  son-in-law,  separated  himself 
from  Blucher,  and  Napoleon  slipped  out  of  the  net. 

The  emperor's  situation  had  distinctly  altered  for  the  worse.  King  Joachim 
of  Naples  and  his  consort,  Caroline,  sister  of  Napoleon,  after  secret  negotiations 
with  Lord  Bentinok,  who  commanded  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  with  Metternich, 
had  deserted  Napoleon's  cause.  Joachim  had  concluded  an  armistice  with  Ben- 
tinck  and  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  Austria  on  January  11,  1814,  ia  order  to 
remain  king.  He  declared  war  on  his  brother-in-law  on  February  15,  and  forced 
the  viceroy,  Eugfene,  to  retreat  behind  the  Mincio.  His  troops  drove  Napoleon's 
sister  Elise,  grand  duchess  of  Tuscany,  from  her  dominions,  and  she  soon  lost 
Lucca  also.  Joachim  wished  to  become  king  of  Italy  and  champion  of  the  inde- 
pendence of  Italy  (cf.  p.  64).  Napoleon,  it  is  true,  sent  back  Pius  VII  to  Eome 
in  the  spring  of  1814  as  the  natural  opponent  of  these  efforts,  but  gained  nothing 
by  his  policy. 

The  congi-ess  at  ChatUlon  had  met  on  February  5,  1814.  The  programme  of 
peace,  read  aloud  by  Count  Stadion,  the  Austrian  plenipotentiary,  demanded  that 
France  should  be  stripped  of  all  that  she  had  acq^uired  since  tbe  beginning  of  the 
Eevolution,  and  should  renounce  every  sort  of  overlordship  in  Germany,  Italy, 
and  Switzerland.  The  whole  congress  was  one  gigantic  fraud,  for  Napoleon 
would  never  have  consented  to  such  terms.  In  his  momentary  straits,  at  the 
advice  of  Maret,  he  sent  Caulaincourt  as  plenipotentiary  to  Chatillou  in  order  to 
conclude  peace.  But  the  very  next  days  showed  that  he  was  not  serious  in  the 
matter,  and  only  wished  to  gain  time.  "With  a  speed  worthy  of  the  best  days  of 
his  youth,  he  threw  himself  upon  the  divisions  of  his  enemies  which  were  widely 
separated,  and  was  victorious  in  the  battles  of  Champaubert,  Montmirail,  Chateau- 
Thierry,  Etoges,  Nangis,  and  Montereau  (10th  to  18th  of  February).  He  now 
revoked  the  powers  which  he  had  given  to  Caulaincourt,  rejected  every  demand  of 
the  allies,  whom  he  already  regarded  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  missed  the  splendid 
opportunity  for  a  favourable  peace,  relying  on  separate  negotiations  with  his 
father-in-law.  Bliicher  would  hear  nothing  of  an  armistice  and  a  peace,  assumed, 
in  place  of  Schwarzenberg,  the  leading  r6le  for  his  Silesian  army,  started  for  Paris 
on  February  2.3,  and  on  the  way  added  to  his  forces  Bulow  and  Wintzingerode, 
who  had  taken  Soissons.     Fresh  negotiations  for  an  armistice  in  Lusigny  produced 


^fr«?"i'S/.»]       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  69 

no  result.  Schwar^enberg  advanced  on  February  27  against  Troyes,  but  failed  to 
make  full  use  of  the  victory  of  the  Eussians  at  Bar-sur-Aube  over  Oudinot. 
Napoleon  recognised  in  Blucher  his  most  dangerous  antagonist,  hastened  therefore 
after  him,  that  he  might  not  occupy  Paris,  and  defeated  his  Eussians  at  Craonne 
(March  7).  But  this  success  meant  little  in  face  of  the  defensive  and  offensive 
treaty  concluded  on  March  9  in  Chaumont,  between  Eussia,  Great  Britain,  Austria, 
and  Prussia,  which  contained  the  promise  that  each  power  would  keep  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  men  under  arms,  and  would  enter  into  no  private  treaties  until 
the  great  object  was  attained.  On  the  9th  and  10th  of  March  Kleist  and  Yorck 
defeated  Napoleon's  right  wing  under  Marmont,  Duke  of  Eagusa,  at  Laon ;  but  he 
dispersed  the  Eussian  corps  of  St.  Priest  on  the  13th  at  Eheims,  and  turned  against 
Schwarzenberg.  He  heard  with  satisfaction  of  the  split  in  the  allied  headquarters, 
of  the  various  views  as  to  France's  future,  and  of  a  growing  dislike  of  Alexander's 
superiority,  while  he  still  cherished  the  hope  that  he  could  detach  Francis  from 
the  Confederation. 

From  north  and  south  came  bad  tidings  ;  Soult  and  Suchet  had  been  unfortu- 
nate against  Welliagton.  The  English  had  forced  their  way  slowly  but  surely 
through  the  Pyrenees ;  Bayonne  had  fallen  to  them  in  January,  and  Soult  was  now 
in  full  retreat  upon  Toulouse.  At  Lyons  the  Austrians  under  Bubna  were  causing 
Augereau  trouble,  a  heated  atmosphere  prevailed  at  Paris,  and  the  soldiers  and 
generals  of  the  emperor  seemed  bewildered.  Charles  Philippe,  Count  of  Artois, 
the  youngest  brother  of  the  beheaded  monarch,  appeared  in  France  with  his  sons, 
the  dukes  of  Angoulgme  and  Berry.  The  royalists  displayed  great  activity,  and 
under  Baron  VitroUes  importuned  the  Czar.  At  the  invitation  of  the  traitor  Maire, 
"Wellington,  through  his  general,  William  Carr  Beresford,  took  possession  of  Bor- 
deaux for  George  III,  while  the  town  declared  for  "King  Louis  XVIII,"  who 
was  living  in  Hartwell  (Buckinghamshire,  England).  Bubna  conquered  Lyons 
on  March  21,  and  the  idea  of  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  slowly  gained 
strength. 

The  congress  in  Chatillon  had  communicated  to  Caulaincourt  on  February  17 
the  conditions  of  peace,  which  were  based  on  the  restriction  of  France  to  the 
frontiers  of  the  year  1792  and  on  the  independence  of  Germany,  Holland,  Switzer- 
land, Italy,  and  Spain.  No  answer  was  even  yet  given,  although  Caulaincourt,  like 
Francis  and  Metternich,  emphatically  urged  Napoleon  to  give  way,  and  the  council 
of  state  advised  that  the  proposals  should  be  accepted.  At  last,  on  March  15, 
Caulaincourt  brought  the  counter-proposals  of  Napoleon,  which,  demanding  for 
France  the  Ehine  and  the  Alps  as  frontiers,  offended  Austria,  and  made  even 
Metternich  dissatisfied.  The  congress  thereupon  broke  up  on  March  19  ;  and 
Lieutenant-General  August  von  Gneisenau,  who  was  the  first  of  all  the  members 
at  the  headquarters  to  recommend  a  direct  march  on  Paris,  exclaimed  joyfully, 
"  Napoleon  has  done  us  a  better  service  than  the  whole  corps  diplomaticiue." 

The  Bohemian  army  also  advanced  against  Napoleon,  and  it  was  only  due  to  the 
slowness  of  Schwarzenberg  that  his  overthrow  was  once  more  postponed.  On  the 
20th  and  21st  of  March  Schwarzenberg  defeated  him  at  Arcis-sur-Aube ;  the  town 
was  taken  by  storm,  but  he  made  good  his  escape.  Instead  of  then  hurrying  to 
Paris  with  all  available  troops,  he  made  a  wide  ddtour  of  Schwarzenberg's  right 
wing  and  marched  to  St.  Dizier,  in  order  to  attack  the  allies  in  the  rear.  They 
learnt  of  his  intention  from  intercepted  letters  and  deceived  him;   he  mistook 


70  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  \_chapter  i 

Wintzingerode's  division  which  was  following  him  for  the  entire  army.  Bliicher 
crossed  the  Marne  and  effected  a  junction  with  Schwarenzberg  on  March  28  ;  they 
advanced  on  the  25th  upon  Paris.  Gneisenau's  advice  was  at  last  duly  valued. 
Pozzo  di  Borgo  and  Toll  had  succeeded  in  bringing  the  Czar  over  to  it ;  the  king  of 
Prussia  and  Schwarzenberg  had  assented.  Francis  alone  remained  in  Burgundy 
in  order  not  to  be  compelled  to  assist  in  the  deposition  of  his  son-in-law.  Together 
with  the  allied  army  a  spirited  appeal  sped  through  the  country. 

Napoleon  by  his  flanking  movement  had  left  his  capital  exposed  and  cut 
himself  off  from  its  resources;  he  was  lost.  The  weak  divisions  of  marshals 
Marmont  and  Mortier  were  defeated  on  March  25  at  La  Pfere-Champenoise  by 
Count  Peter  Pahlen  and  by  the  Crown  Prince  William  of  Wurtemberg.  The 
division  of  Count  Paothod  had  to  surrender,  and  both  marshals  took  up  a  position 
on  the  29th  under  the  walls  of  the  capital.  The  greatest  panic  prevailed  in  the 
city,  which  was  totally  unprepared  to  face  a  regular  siege.  Napoleon  hastened 
past  Troves  at  full  speed,  but  in  spite  of  forced  marches  arrived  too  late.  Treach- 
ery was  at  work  in  Paris.  Talleyrand  and  Fouch^  cut  the  ground  from  under  the 
emperor's  feet ;  King  Joseph  also  was  not  competent  for  his  duties  as  lieutenant- 
general,  and  quarrelled  with  the  feeble-spirited  empress  regent.  The  emperor, 
remembering  the  fate  of  Astyanax,  son  of  Hector,  had  charged  them  both  not  to 
allow  the  king  of  Eome  to  be  taken  prisoner.  Marie  Louise  left  Paris,  therefore, 
for  Blois,  on  March  29,  amid  the  murmurings  of  the  citizens,  taking  with  her  the 
child,  the  most  valuable  papers,  the  crown  diamonds,  and  the  rest  of  Napoleon's 
private  treasure.  King  Louis  Napoleon,  with  twelve  hundred  men  of  the  Old 
Guard,  accompanied  her.  Joseph  was  unable  to  spur  the  Parisians  to  present  a 
bold  front.  Both  marshals,  who,  by  the  addition  of  the  National  Guard,  had 
brought  their  army  up  to  thirty-four  thousand  men,  were  compelled  on  March  30, 
in  spite  of  an  obstiaate  resistance  in  the  battle  before  Paris,  to  retreat  step  by 
step  before  one  hundred  thousand  enemies,  and  to  capitulate  that  night.  Joseph 
hurried  to  Blois.  When  Napoleon  reached  Paris  before  daybreak  all  was  over, 
and  he  went  to  Fontainebleau. 

Among  the  allies  many  thought  of  revenge  for  Berlin,  Vienna,  and  Moscow, 
now  that  their  entry  into  Paris  was  imminent,  and  the  "  Tartar^had  forced  their 
way  into  Paris,"  as  Chateaubriand  exclaimed.  On  March  31  Al^ander,  Frederick 
William,  and  Schwarzenberg  entered  the  Porte  St.  Martini  with  the  guards.  The 
brave  troops  of  Yorck  and  Kleist  had  to  remain  outside,  since  their  king  did  not 
consider  their  appearance  suitable  for  a  march  past.  The  joy  of  the  Parisians  was 
undignified.  Fine  ladies  embraced  the  warriors,  the  beautiful  Duchess  of  Dino 
seated  herself  on  the  horse  of  a  Cossack.  The  most  abject  demonstrations  of 
homage  were  shown  to  the  allied  sovereigns  in  the  streets  and  the  theatres ;  their 
only  title  was  "  the  liberators."  The  Bourbons,  who  had  become  as  strange  to  the 
French  as  the  imperial  family  of  China,  were  now  suddenly  remembered,  and  from 
every  window  fell  a  shower  of  lilies ;  everywhere  white  scarves  and  cockades 
sprung  up.  At  the  same  time  some  of  the  National  Guard  fastened  the  Order  of 
the  Legion  of  Honour  to  the  tails  of  then-  horses,  so  as  to  drag  it  over  the  pavement, 
and  it  was  merely  due  to  the  interposition  of  the  Grand  Duke  Constantin  and 
Count  Fabian  von  der  Osten-Sacken,  who  had  been  nominated  military  governor 
of  Paris,  that  the  statue  of  Napoleon  was  not  torn  down  from  the  Vend6me 
column,  for  the  mob  had  already  begun  to  do  so.     Nothing  was  heard  but  abuse  of 


Z%"kT£ZiuHon'\       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  71 

Napoleon.     Alexander  had  alighted  at  Talleyrand's  house ;  everything  was  settled 
there. 

(Z)  The  Deposition  of  Napoleon.  —  Caulaincourt  had  informed  Mettemich  on 
March  25  that  he  was  now  fully  authorised  to  conclude  peace ;  but  he  learnt  that 
it  was  too  late.  On  March  31  the  Czar,  who  allowed  himself  to  be  feted  as  the 
"  Agamemnon  of  the  coalition,"  declared  that  there  could  be  no  negotiations  with 
"  Napoleon  Bonaparte  "  or  any  member  of  his  family,  but  that  the  senate  would 
be  requested  to  form  a  temporary  government.  Alexander  expressed  himself  the 
most  harshly  of  all  against  the  man  whom  he  had  treated  as  a  friend  at  Erfurt,  and 
all  Paris  repeated  his  words,  "  Only  Bonaparte  is  my  enemy ;  the  French  are  my 
friends ! "  The  most  venal  parasites  of  Napoleon  were  the  first  to  desert  him, 
and  mendaciously  assured  Alexander  that  all  France  was  royalist.  The  general 
council  of  the  Department  of  the  Seine  called  Napoleon  the  public  enemy,  and 
cried  out  for  Louis  XVIII.  The  senate  nominated  on  April  2  a  provisional  gov- 
ernment, with  Talleyrand  as  president,  declared  Napoleon  and  his  dynasty  to  be 
deposed,  released  all  Frenchmen  from  the  oath  taken  to  him,  overwhelming  him 
with  reproaches  in  its  "  reasons,"  and  at  the  audience  placed  the  Czar  above  Trajan 
and  the  Antonines,  which  called  forth  a  biting  rejoinder  from  Napoleon  in  the 
orders  of  the  day  for  April  4.  The  relics  of  the  legislative  body  and  all  the  civil 
magistrates  assented  to  the  deposition  on  April  3.  The  press  came  into  royalist 
hands.  Franqois  Ken^,  Vicomte  de  Chateaubriand,  threw  on  the  market  his  en- 
venomed pamphlet,  "  Be  Buonaparte  et  des  Bourlons"  whom  he  contrasted  as 
"  thirty-two  good  kings  "  with  the  "  actor  and  his  pretended  greatness,"  and  by  it 
did  more  for  Louis  XVIII,  as  the  latter  often  gratefully  acknowledged,  than  a 
hundred  thousand  soldiers.  Eegicides,  like  Count  G-arat,  praised  the  legitimists  as 
"  the  wisest."  Louis  de  Fontanes,  the  sycophant  of  Napoleon,  asserted  that  as  a 
non-Frenchman  he  could  not  revile  the  glory  of  France.  Thus  the  pack  vied  with 
one  another  in  their  rantings,  while  the  badges  of  the  empire  were  proscribed. 

But  all  danger  was  not  yet  past.  The  hero  of  the  18th  of  Brumaire  had  still 
troops  at  his  disposal.  He  had  come  to  the  throne  by  troops  ;  would  they  not  keep 
him  on  it  ?  He  was  in  fact  planning  a  military  coup  d'etat.  But  the  Parisian 
emissaries  worked  so  skilfully  upon  the  war-worn  officers  and  soldiers  that  they 
abandoned  his  cause ;  the  generals  wanted  to  enjoy  their  booty  and  their  glory  in 
tranquillity,  and  murmured  at  him  mostly  out  of  personal  pique.  Caulaincourt 
went  to  him,  and  told  him  the  complete  truth  as  to  the  matter.  On  April  4, 
marshals  Leffebvre,  Oudinot,  Ney,  and  Macdonald  refused  to  serve  him,  and  de- 
manded his  abdication  in  favour  of  the  king  of  Eome.  Napoleon  abdicated  the 
very  same  day,  "  for  the  welfare  of  the  country,  which  was  inseparable  from  the 
rights  of  his  son,  the  regency  of  the  empress,  and  the  laws  of  the  empire."  He 
hoped  to  interest  Austria  especially  by  the  regency  of  Marie  Louise.  Ney,  Mac- 
donald, and  Caulaiacourt  went  to  Paris  with  the  document  of  abdication  in  favour  ' 
of  "  Napoleon  II."  On  the  way  they  learnt  that  Marmont  had  negotiated  with 
the  allies,  and  they  then  abandoned  the  imperial  cause.  When  Napoleon,  in  the 
hope  of  a  rising  in  Italy,  wished  to  take  warlike  steps,  they,  like  Leffebvre  and 
Oudinot,  counselled  an  unconditional  abdication. 

On  April  6  Napoleon  abdicated,  for  himself  and  his  heirs,  as  emperor  of  the 
French  and  king  of  Italy,  "  because  there   was  no  personal  sacrifice,  not  even 


72  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  [_Chaper  i 

life  itself,  which  he  was  not  prepared  to  make  for  the  interests  of  France."  Ney, 
Macdonald,  and  Caulaincourt  brought  this  unconditional  abdication  from  Fontaine- 
bleau  to  Paris.  Marshals  and  generals,  one  after  the  other,  disowned  Xapoleon ; 
Augereau  even  accused  him  of  cowardice.  The  senate,  by  the  declaration  of 
April  6,  appointed  to  the  throne  "  Louis  Stanislaus  Xavier,  brother  of  the  late 
king,"  thus  silently  passing  over  Louis  XVII,  and  contradicting  the  assertion  of 
the  claimant  that  he  had  been  king  since  1795.  The  plenipotentiaries  of  the  de- 
throned emperor,  together  with  those  of  the  allies,  signed  on  April  11  the  treaty 
of  Fontainebleau.  Napoleon  retained  the  title  of  emperor,  and  became  sovereign 
of  the  little  island  of  Elba.  He  was  allowed  a  few  hundred  men  of  his  guard,  and 
a  civil  list  of  two  million  francs ;  an  equal  amount  was  given  to  his  family. 
For  the  future,  however,  only  one  million  annually  was  to  be  paid  to  the  empress 
Josephine;  but  she  died  soon  afterward  on  May  29, 1814.  Marie  Louise  retained 
the  imperial  title,  and  she  received  for  herself  and  her  son  the  duchies  of  Parma, 
Piacenza,  and  GuastaUa  as  sovereign.  The  removal  of  the  giant  to  Elba,  lying 
between  the  two  countries  most  nearly  connected  with  him,  France  and  Italy, 
and  not  to  St.  Helena,  as  Prussia  had  recommended,  was  an  act  of  foUy  on  the  part 
of  the  Czar,  if  due  account  was  taken  of  the  excited  mood  of  the  two  nations  and 
the  slender  prospects  of  the  restoration.  Napoleon  signed  the  contract  on  April  12. 
He  certainly  did  not  contemplate  suicide  ;  he  felt  that  he  still  had  a  future,  and 
made  plans  for  it.  He  said  quite  imperturbably,  "  The  Bourbons  are  now  the  best 
for  you.  The  good  king  will  not  wish  to  do  anything  bad ;  if  things  go  well,  he 
will  lie  in  my  bed  and  only  change  the  sheets."  He  left  behind  certainly  a  thor- 
oughly centralised  bureaucratic  State,  and  might  expect  with  satisfaction  that  his 
work  would  outhve  his  period  of  reigning.  He  was  caused  terrible  grief  when 
Marie  Louise,  consoled  by  Field-marshal  Count  Neipperg,  severed  her  fate  from 
his  and  did  not  follow  him  into  exile,  when  she  remained  mute  to  all  his  letters 
and  kept  from  him  his  son,  the  greatest  happiness  he  possessed. 

The  family  of  Napoleon  was  scattered ;  he  became  more  and  more  isolated 
daily ;  even  Berthier  deserted  him.  At  last  the  carriage  drove  up  which  was  to 
convey  to  Elba  "  the  emperor  of  the  West."  The  commissaries  of  Eussia,  Great 
Britain,  Austria,  and  Prussia  arrived,  in  order  to  accompany  hiro.  On  the  20th  of 
April  he  took  a  touching  farewell  from  his  guard  in  the  "  Cour  cres  adieux,"  kissed 
their  general  Baron  Petit  and  their  glorious  standard,  and  exhorted  the  soldiers  to 
serve  loyally  the  ruler  whom  the  nation  chose.  Horace  Vernet  has  perpetuated 
the  scene  in  his  picture.  The  farther  the  funeral  procession  of  imperialism  ad- 
vanced in  Southern  France,  the  more  fiercely  surged  the  tide  of  hatred.  In  Pro- 
vence Napoleon's  life  was  in  danger ;  the  people  wanted  to  tear  him  in  pieces. 
The  commissaries  finally  wrapped  him  in  an  Austrian  cloak  and  pinned  the  Bour- 
bon cockade  on  him.  He  himself  was  struck  with  fear  of  his  former  subjects,  and 
he  breathed  again  freely  when  on  April  28,  at  that  very  Fr^jus  where,  on  his  return 
from  Egypt,  he  had  commenced  the  victorious  progress  which  ended  in  the  18th  of 
Brumaire,  he  could  go  on  board  the  British  frigate  "  Undaunted."  He  landed  on 
Elba  May  4,  1814,  and  was  received  with  acclamations.  He  at  once  began  to 
improve  the  administration,  formed  a  small  army  and  a  fleet,  surrounded  himself 
with  an  excellent  force  of  police,  and  lived  very  economically,  especially  since 
the  pension  vouchsafed  him  by  the  treaty  of  Fontainebleau  was  not  paid  by 
Louis  XVIII.     His  aged  mother  and  his  sister  Pauline  came  to  him,  and  by  their 


Xf»™S£;^^]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  73 

mediation  he  was  reconciled  to  his  brother  Lucien.  His  brother-in-law  King 
Joachim,  whose  throne  was  tottering,  approached  him.  He  maintained  constant 
intercourse  with  Rome  and  Naples. 

(m)  The  First  Restoration.  —  The  national  flag  had  become  the  white  standard 
instead  of  the  tricolor,  and  this  made  a  bad  impression  on  the  army.  The  senate 
had  appointed  the  Count  of  Artois  on  April  14,  1814,  to  be  lieutenant-general 
of  the  kingdom,  and  Talleyrand,  who  held  the  reins  of  government,  concluded  an 
armistice  on  April  23  with  the  allies,  on  the  basis  of  the  frontiers  of  January  1, 
1792.  On  May  2  Louis  XVIII  entered  St.  Ouen,  outside  Paris;  he  dated  his 
reign,  as  always,  from  1795 ;  would  not  acknowledge  that  his  election  by  the 
senate  and  the  people  counted  for  anything,  but  maintained  his  divine  right,  prom- 
ising, however,  to  give  France  a  constitution.  On  May  3  Louis  entered  Paris  amid 
a  scene  of  wild  rejoicings,  but  he  soon  showed  himself  a  representative  of  the 
ancien  regime.  His  ministry  was  disunited.  Louis  himself  decided  on  the  policy 
to  be  adopted,  and  retained  the  administrative  system  of  the  emperor,  but  repressed 
the  army  and  lavished  his  treasure  upon  the  emigrants. 

The  (first)  treaty  of  Paris  of  May  30, 1814,  was  primarily  Talleyrand's  work. 
France  received  more  territory  than  it  had  possessed  on  January  1,  1792,  paid  no 
war  indemnity,  and  only  gave  back  the  treasures  of  art  carried  off  from  other  coun- 
tries by  Napoleon  which  had  not  yet  been  unpacked.  Alexander  showed  himself 
magnanimous,  especially  at  the  cost  of  Prussia.  The  conditions  of  the  peace  were 
to  be  ratified  at  a  general  congress  ia  Vienna.  Louis  concluded  a  sort  of  compro- 
mise with  the  Revolution  by  concediag  the  Gharte  Gonstitutionelle  of  June  4, 
which  had  been  drawn  up  by  Count  Beugnot  on  the  model  of  the  Magna  Charta. 
Under  this  document  Catholicism  was  recognised  as  the  religion  of  the  State,  but 
all  other  sects  were  promised  toleration.  The  emigres  were  restored  to  their  old 
titles,  and  those  of  Napoleon's  nobility  were  confirmed.  As  to  the  government,  the 
legislature  was  to  consist  of  two  chambers,  —  one  of  peers  and  one  of  elected  repre- 
sentatives. Both  for  the  active  and  the  passive  franchise  there  was  a  property 
qualification,  which  placed  political  power  nomuially  in  the  hands  of  the  middle 
classes.  But  the  power  of  the  legislature  was  confined  within  narrow  limits.  It 
is  true  that  the  lower  chamber  received  the  control  of  taxation  and  the  right  of 
supervising  expenditure,  and  that  ministers  were  to  be  responsible.  But  the  right 
of  iaitiating  laws  was  reserved  to  the  sovereign,  and  there  was  little  prospect  that 
the  lower  chamber,  if  it  attempted  to  use  its  legal  rights  against  the  crown,  would 
be  supported  by  the  chamber  of  peers,  which  consisted  partly  of  emigres  and  partly 
of  Bonapartists  who  had  humbled  themselves  before  the  restored  dynasty.  The 
new  legislature  was  well  satisfied  with  the  king  and  with  itself ;  but  it  did  not 
attract  the  nation  nor  entirely  please  the  supporters  of  Louis  XVIII.  The  adher- 
ents of  the  Count  of  Artois  were  more  .royalist  than  the  king,  and,  being  intolerably 
retrogressive,  considered  the  king  to  be  a  Jacobin  who  made  excessive  concessions 
to  the  Ee volution.  Artois  felt  insulted  at  words  of  disapproval  uttered  by  the 
king,  and  sulked  in  St.  Cloud.  The  country  nobility,  who  thought  their  good 
time  had  dawned,  found  none  of  the  spoils  which  they  expected,  and  did  not  dis- 
guise their  disappointment,  —  a  confession  which  Bdranger  lashed  in  his  "  Marquis 
de  Carabas  "  and  other  satiric  poems.  The  Duke  of  Orleans  lived  in  the  Palais 
Eoyal  like  an  ordinary  citizen,  apparently  superintending  the  education  of  his  troop 


74  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \chapter  i 

of  children,  but  was  quietly  forming  a  party  for  himself,  "  a  monarch  in  reserve." 
"  His  name,"  said  Louis  XVIII,  "  is  a  threatening  danger,  his  palace  is  a  rendezvous. 
He  does  not  stir,  and  yet  I  notice  that  he  advances.  This  activity  without  move- 
ment disquiets  me.  What  can  be  done  to  prevent  a  man  from  advancing  who  does 
not  apparently  take  one  step  ?  This  question  is  for  me  to  solve ;  I  should  not  wish 
to  be  compelled  to  leave  the  solution  to  my  successor." 

Benjamin  Constant,  Madame  de  Stael,  Lafayette,  and  many  who  had  been  prose- 
cuted by  Napoleon,  appeared  on  the  scene  once  more,  laid  the  foundation  of  a  con- 
stitutional party,  and  looked  to  find  under  the  Bourbons  the  liberty  of  which  they 
had  been  so  long  deprived.  The  party  of  the  emperor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  still 
considerable.  Its  leader  was  the  energetic  ex-queen  Hortense  of  Holland,  Duchess 
of  St.  Leu  ;  a  number  of  ministers  and  some  marshals  belonged  to  it.  The  "  regi- 
cides," Si^yfes,  Barras,  and  Tallien  at  their  head,  were  especially  discontented  with 
the  Bourbons,  for  the  new  constitution  deprived  them  of  their  senatorial  rank. 
Napoleon  was  suddenly  considered  by  them  to  be  the  champion  of  liberty,  and  even 
the  untrustworthy  Fouch^  made  overtures  to  them.  In  Southern  France,  especially 
in  Languedoc,  violent  outbreaks  occurred  between  Protestants  and  Catholics.  And 
in  the  midst  of  this  general  excitement  Napoleon's  soldiers,  released  from  impris- 
onment or  from  the  evacuated  fortresses,  returned  from  every  part  of  their  native 
country,  all  still  decorated  with  the  tricolor.  They  saw  in  the  Bourbons  the 
accomplices  of  the  foreigners,  who  had  been  brought  back  by  hostile  bayonets, 
but  in  the  banished  emperor  the  incarnation  of  the  glory  and  world-wide  rule 
of  France.  However  lavishly  Louis  distributed  orders  and  honours,  the  army 
awaited  the  vengeance  of  the  emperor  on  his  successor,  and  the  private  soldiers 
looked  with  contempt  on  their  generals,  who  had  suddenly  turned  Bourbon.  The 
government  came  into  conflict  with  the  clergy  on  account  of  the  Concordat,  which 
was  detested  by  the  Eestoration.  The  abrupt  reintroduction  of  Sunday  observance, 
and  other  measures  of  a  similar  tendency,  caused  bitter  feeling  against  the  power 
of  the  priests,  to  whom  Louis  himself  was  far  from  friendly.  The  restriction  of  the 
press  aroused  anger  and  served  no  useful  purpose.  Carnot  wrote  biting  pamphlets, 
the  comic  paper  "  Le  Nain  jaune  "  was  an  effective  weapon,  and  B4ranger  sounded 
every  note  of  satire  in  his  attacks  upon  the  royalists.  The  emigmnt  Count  Casimir 
Blacas,  the  treasurer  of  the  household,  enjoyed  the  full  favour  or  Louis.  He  sold 
offices  and  posts  and  considered  France  to  be  fortunate,  because  he  revelled  in  good 
fortune.  He  asserted  that  no  monarchy  had  ever  stood  firmer  than  that  of  the 
Eestoration ;  but  he  was  devoid  of  all  political  insight,  and  was  chiefly  to  blame  for 
the  perversities  of  the  government.  The  police  under  Baron  Dandr^  seemed  to  him 
to  be  unsurpassable,  whereas  they,  as  well  as  their  head,  were  incapable.  Fouch^ 
in  vain  warned  Louis  against  self-deception,  and  sounded  the  "  storm  signal "  in  his 
ears.  The  government  never  noticed  Napoleon's  mole-like  activity,  nor  how  the 
soil  in  France  was  being  undermined. 

(n)  The  Congress  of  Vienna.  —  Meantime  the  congress  met  at  Vienna, 
assuredly  the  most  brilliant  company  which  the  gay  imperial  city  ever  saw  (see 
accompanying  picture,  "  The  Congress  of  Vienna  in  the  Year  1815  ").  There  were 
so  many  emperors,  kings,  and  princes  of  every  rank  that  Talleyrand  declared  it 
was  detrimental  to  the  prestige  of  monarchy.  Vienna  became  the  rendezvous  of 
the  wealthy  idler.     Even  the  "  mediatised  "  showed  themselves  again  in  the  hope 


THE   CONGRESS   OF   VIENNA   IN   1815 


I. 

Austria  : 

1. 
2. 
3. 

4. 

II. 

Prussia  : 

5. 
6. 

III. 

Russia  : 

7. 

8. 

9. 

IV. 

England : 

10. 

Jean  Baptiste  Isabey  has  painted  the  Vienna  Congress  with  tlie  following  twenty-three 
representatives  of  the  five  Great  Powers  and  the  three  smaller  Powers  of  Europe  who  took  part 
in  the  Peace  of  Paris  : 

Klemens  Wenzel  Lothar,  Prince  von  Metternich  (1773-1859). 

Johanu  Philipp,  Baron  von  Wessenberg-Ampringen  (1773-1858). 

Friedrich  v6n  Gentz  (1764-1832). 

Nikolaus,  Baron  von  Wacken  (f  1834  als  k.  k.  wirkl.  Hofrat). 

Karl  August  Fiirst  von  Hardenberg  (1750-1822). 

F.  Wilhelm  Ch.  K.  P.,  Baron  von  Humboldt  (1767-1835). 

Karl  Robert,  Count  Nesselrode  (1780-1862). 

Andrei  Kirillo witsch ,  Count   dann  Prince   Rasumowskij   (1752  until 

1836). 
Gustav,  Count  Stackelberg  (1766-1850). 
Henry  Robert  Stewart,  Viscount  Castlereagh,  Marquis  of  Londonderry 

(1769-1822). 
11.  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  Duke  of  Wellington,  Duke  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo 

and  of  Vittoria,  Prince  of  Waterloo  (1769-18.52). 
■Charles    William    Vane,    Lord    Stewart,    Marquis    of    Londonderry 

(1778-1854;  brother  of  Castlereagh). 
William  Shaw,  Count  Cathcart  (1755-1843). 
Trench,  Richard  le  Poer,  Count  of  Clancarty  (1767-1837). 
Charles  Maurice,  Prinz  of  Talleyrand-Perigord,  Prince  of  Beneventum 

(1754-1838). 
Alexis,  Count  of  Noailles  (1783-1835). 

Marie  Charles  Cesar  de  Fay,  Count  of  La  Tour  du  Pin  (1758-1831). 
Emmerich  Joseph,  Duke  of  Dalberg  (1773-1833). 
Gustav  Karl  Friedrich,  Count  of  Lowenhjelm  (1771-1856). 
Don  Pedro  Gomez  Havelo,  Marquis  of  Labrador. 
Dom    Pedro    de    Sousa-Holstein,  Marquis    and    Duke    of   Palmella 

(1781-1850). 
Von  Saldanha  de  Gama. 
Count  Lobo  de  Silveira. 


12 


13. 

14. 

V. 

France : 

15. 

16. 
17. 
18. 

VI. 

Sweden  : 

19. 

vn. 

Spain  : 

20. 

VIII. 

Portugal  : 

21. 

22. 
23. 

Wellington.      Lobo.      Saldanha.   Lowen 
Hardenbcrg.    hjel 


Noailles.    Mctternich.    La  Tour      Nessclrode 

d"  Pin.  Palmella.  Castlcreagh. 


The  Congress  of  Vienna  in   1815.     A  sitting  of  the  Plenipote 

(From  Dorndorfs  Lithograph  af/ei 


Dalberg.  Rasumowskij.  Stewart. 

Wessenberg. 


Wacken.      Gentz.        Humboldt.  Cathcart. 

Labrador.      Clancarty.  Talleyrand.  Stackelberg. 


f  the  eight  Powers  concerned  in  the  Peace  of  Paris. 

iT  Jean  Baptisie  Isabey's  Picture.) 


jotentiaries  d  vi^^,  ^.g, 


Ju,rr</JrSu"«»]       HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  75 

of  being  resuscitated,  flocking  round  the  clever  widowed  Princess  of  Ftirstenberg, 
Count  Frederick  Solms-Laubach,  and  the  privy  councillor  Von  Gartner,  who  was 
called  satirically  "  Monsieur  le  surcharge  d'affaires."  The  congress  cost  the  em- 
peror Francis,  whose  finances,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  his  ministers,  remained  low, 
sixteen  million  guldens.  He  was  the  most  liberal  of  hosts,  and  gave  so  many  fgtes 
that  Prince  Ligne  ventured  to  say, "  The  congress  dances  but  does  not  progress." 
Maria  Ludovica,  the  "  empress  of  the  congress,"  was  naturally  adapted  to  be  the 
hostess  of  an  assembly  where  the  wit  and  beauty  of  Europe  met. 

By  a  secret  clause  in  the  treaty  of  Paris  all  the  most  important  questions  still 
outstanding  had  been  reserved  for  the  separate  decision  of  Austria,  Pussia,  Prus- 
sia, and  England.  If  this  quadruple  alliance  should  be  maintained  the  influence 
of  France  upon  the  settlement  would  be  extremely  slight ;  and  in  fact  Talleyrand, 
the  representative  of  France,  was  at  first  only  admitted  on  sufferance  to  the  coun- 
cils of  the  congress.  But,  thanks  to  his  consummate  powers  of  intrigue,  he  soon 
became  a  leading  figure  at  Vienna,  and  his  support  was  courted  by  kings  and 
diplomatists.  The  hero  of  the  Eevolution,  who  had  deserted  one  government  after 
another,  gave  the  French  policy  the  stamp  of  disinterestedness  and  of  a  wish  to 
benefit  the  nation.  He  laid  down  the  fundamental  principle  of  legitimacy,  and 
championed  historical  rights  against  rude  force  and  presumption.  The  principle 
of  legitimacy  became  the  most  valuable  protection  of  exhausted  France  and  the 
shield  of  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe.  Great  Britain,  Eussia,  and  the  chief 
German  sovereigns  wished,  at  Stein's  proposal,  to  see  the  German  questions  sepa- 
rated completely  from  the  European  and  entrusted  to  a  committee  of  five.  But 
on  September  30  Talleyrand  and  the  Spanish  representative,  Labrador,  appeared 
at  the  meeting,  and  Talleyrand  without  difficulty  broke  up  the  Quadruple  Alli- 
ance ;  he  demanded  and  obtained  (October  5)  that  the  eight  signatories  of  the 
peace  of  Paris  —  that  is  to  say,  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Sweden,  besides  those 
four  —  should  form  a  commission  in  order  to  prepare  the  most  weighty  questions 
for  the  congress,  and  that  this  commission  should  appoint  the  committees. 

The  incorporation  or  personal  union  of  Saxony  with  Prussia  was  introduced. 
Austria  assented  under  a  reservation  of  personal  advantages.  The  protest  of 
Frederick  Augustus  would  have  had  no  effect,  even  Great  Britain  would  not  have 
stirred  for  Saxony ;  but  Talleyrand  was  there  and  protected  Saxony.  He  inter- 
ested Austria  and  Great  Britain  in  preserving  Saxony,  which  was  all  the  more 
important  since  the  Saxon  and  Polish  questions  converged,  and  Prussia  threw  itself 
into  the  arms  of  Eussia.  A  great  armed  alliance  against  the  aggrandisement  of 
Eussia  and  Prussia  was  being  secretly  formed  under  the  influence  of  Talleyrand.  No 
one,  moreover,  wished  that  Alexander  should  hold  the  entire  grand  duchy  of  "War- 
saw and  create  a  new  kingdom  of  Poland.  Great  Britain  and  Austria,  Stein,  Har- 
denberg,  and  Humboldt,  were  opposed  to  this.  Frederick  William  alone,  without 
informing  Hardenberg,  declared  on  the  5th  of  November  for  Alexander,  who  had 
not  indeed  merited  such  a  service.  Metternich  expressed  himself  so  openly  against 
Eussia's  wishes  that  Alexander  broke  off  communications  with  him  on  the  14th  of 
December.  Metternich  demanded  the  admission  of  France  and  the  sanction  of 
Frederick  Augustus  to  the  proposed  settlement  of  the  Saxon  question.  The  demand 
was  refused  by  Prussia  and  Eussia.  Thereupon  on  the  3d  of  January,  1815,  a 
secret  offensive  and  defensive  treaty  was  arranged  between  Talleyrand,  Metternich, 
and  Castlereagh  to  provide  against  the  event  of  an  outbreak  of  war.      Bavaria, 


76  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [chapter  I 

Hesse-Darmstadt,  Hanover,  the  ISTetherlauds,  and  Sardinia  joined  it.  On  the  12th 
of  January  Talleyrand  entered  iato  the  council  of  the  Four  (now  Five)  Courts,  and 
Eussia  and  Prussia  were  forced  to  content  themselves  on  the  8th  of  February  with 
the  promise  of  half  their  extravagant  demands.  Talleyrand  protected  the  petty 
States  against  Austria  and  Prussia.  He  considered  it  especially  important  to  pre- 
vent the  aggrandisement  of  the  latter  power,  for  France  required  a  weak  and 
federally  organised  Germany. 

Stein  was  quite  in  the  dark  as  to  the  question  of  Germany's  new  constitution. 
Hardenberg  and  Humboldt  were  thoroughly  Prussian  in  their  views,  and  did  not 
calculate  with  theories,  as  he  did,  but  with  realities.  Stein's  ideal  was  the  German 
monarchy  of  the  tenth  to  the  thirteenth  centuries ;  he  wished  for  an  Austrian 
hereditary  monarchy,  but  also  contemplated  a  division  of  Germany  into  north  and 
south,  or  two  separate  confederations,  each  with  a  head,  in  which  Austria  should 
have  the  precedence  of  Prussia.  Hardenberg  and  Humboldt,  seeing  that  two  sepa- 
rate confederations  would  imply  the  ruin  of  Germany,  advocated  that  Austria  and 
Prussia  should  share  the  powers  ui  the  administration  of  a  united  Germany,  —  a 
single  confederation,  that  is  to  say,  with  two  heads.  Amongst  the  German  people 
there  was  a  strong  current  of  opinion  in  favour  of  reviving  the  empire ;  but  both 
Austria  and  Prussia  were  opposed  to  this  solution.  Even  the  treaty  of  Chaumont 
had  rejected  the  idea  of  an  empire.  Hardenberg  and  Humboldt  took  different  paths 
in  the  constitutional  question.  The  committee  of  five  German  powers  (Austria, 
Prussia,  Hanover,  Bavaria,  and  Wurtemberg)  appointed  on  October  14,  1814, 
wrangled  over  Humboldt's  five  articles.  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  showed  much 
bitterness,  since  they  were  unwilling  to  sacrifice  one  jot  of  their  sovereignty.  Stein 
lashed  their  selfish  policy  in  Gorre's  "  Ehenish  Mercury."  He  helped  to  originate 
the  petition  of  the  twenty-nine  petty  States  on  November  16  for  the  revival  of  the 
empire.  Even  the  smallest  of  the  small  stormed  against  the  imperiousness  of 
the  Five,  and  by  the  mouth  of  their  leader,  Hans  von  Gagern,  claimed  a  share 
in  the  highest  power.  Metternich,  Humboldt,  Hardenberg  brought  forward  new 
proposals.  On  February  2, 1815,  thirty-two  princes  and  free  towns  demanded  a 
general  German  congress  for  settling  the  constitution,  and  professed  their  readiness 
to  grant  constitutions  with  representative  assemblies.  Prussia  and^ustria  agreed. 
Stein  quite  suddenly  exerted  himself  once  more  for  a  German  empireTbut  was  unable 
to  oppose  Humboldt's  influence. 

(o)  The  Hundred  Bays.  —  A  trustworthy  agent  of  Talleyrand  watched  from 
Leghorn  all  the  events  on  Elba,  while  dissension  was  rife  in  the  congress  of  Vienna. 
Talleyrand  and  Louis  would  have  been  glad  to  know  that  the  ex-emperor  was  safely 
in  the  Azores  and  there  was  some  idea  of  removing  him ;  but  Napoleon,  who  learnt 
of  this  plan,  resolved  to  anticipate  it.  It  is  true  that  there  were  traces  of  a  move- 
ment in  Italy  in  his  favour,  but  he  did  not  wish  to  come  back  to  power  by  means 
of  an  Italian  conspiracy,  but  looked  steadfastly  to  France,  and  the  universal  dis- 
content which  prevailed  there  filled  him  with  new  life.  The  British  commissary, 
Neil  Campbell,  had  just  started  for  Leghorn,  and  thus  had  not  noticed  that  Napo- 
leon, confiding  his  mother  and  sister  to  the  inhabitants  of  Elba,  set  sail  on  February 
26, 1815,  with  eleven  hundred  men  and  seven  ships.  Proclamations  to  the  army  and 
people  were  composed  on  the  way,  which  were  intended  to  be  disseminated  on  land- 
ing.    On  the  1st  of  March  he  arrived  unopposed,  with  the  brig  "  L'Inconstant,"  at 


JlZM.TZ^S^'X       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  77 

the  bay  of  Juan  near  Cannes.  The  red  and  white  Elban  flag  with  the  three  golden 
bees  now  gave  way  to  the  tricolor.  Napoleon  with  careful  calculation  made  his 
way  through  mountainous  districts,  whose  poor  inliabitants  hoped  to  obtain  from 
him  the  realisation  of  their  modest  wishes,  and  did  not  advance  straight  upon 
the  rich  towns,  but  marched  a/ong  the  foot  of  the  Maritime  Alps,  and  his  proclama- 
tions, which  spoke  of  citizens  not  subjects,  worked  with  double  power  on  a  people 
whose  minds  were  attuned  to  sympathy  with  the  ideal  by  the  influence  of  majestic 
natural  scenery.  He  left  the  artillery  behind  on  the  way,  sent  the  ships  back  to 
Elba,  and  the  feeling  of  the  population  toward  him,  at  first  cold,  grew  gradually 
warmer.  The  troops  and  officials  of  Louis  moved  away  when  Napoleon  approached 
any  spot.  After  the  soldiers  of  the  fifth  regiment  of  the  line  had  joined  him  on 
the  7th  of  March  at  La  Mure,  his  confidence  grew  greater.  Numerous  peasants 
accompanied  the  "Angel  of  the  Lord."  The  seventh  regiment  of  the  liue  under 
Count  La  B^doyfere  now  went  over  to  him,  and  the  fourth  regiment  of  artillery,  in 
which  he  had  served  from  1791  to  1793,  opened  the  gates  of  Grenoble  to  him.  But 
he  spoke  the  language  of  democracy  and  peace,  and  no  longer  that  of  despotism  and 
everlasting  war.     He  marched  upon  Lyons  with  seven  thousand  men. 

Louis  XVIII  had  received  on  the  2d  of  March  under  a  black  seal  a  prediction 
of  the  same  fate  which  had  befallen  his  royal  brother.  The  Count  of  Artois  had 
entreated  him  to  place  Fouch^  at  the  head  of  the  police.  Then  Blacas  announced 
on  the  5th  the  landing  of  "  Bonaparte  with  a  handful  of  miscreants."  Marshal 
Soult  pledged  himself  to  the  loyalty  of  all  the  regimental  commanders,  but  Louis 
considered  soldiers  and  police  alike  insufficient  and  untrustworthy,  and  declared 
Bonaparte,  in  an  ordinance  of  March  5,  to  be  a  traitor  and  insurgent,  whom  it 
was  the  duty  of  every  one  to  arrest  and  bring  before  a  court-martial.  The 
princes  of  the  royal  house  hastened  into  the  departments.  The  Parisians  knew  no 
limits  to  their  demonstrations  of  loyal  sentiments.  All  the  magistrates  swore  irre- 
vocable loyalty ;  the  "  Moniteur  "  and  the  other  newspapers  abused  Napoleon,  only 
to  announce  a  few  days  later  the  arrival  of  "  His  Imperial  Majesty  at  his  palace  of 
the  TuHeries."  Nay  assured  the  king  he  would  bring  him  Bonaparte  in  a  cage, 
and  Soult  hurled  wild  charges  against  the  "  mad  adventurer  and  usurper."  The 
Academy  of  Sciences  struck  him  out  of  its  lists,  and  everywhere  there  were  shouts 
against "  the  new  Satan,  the  executioner  of  six  millions  of  French,  the  Corsican 
cannibal."  The  Count  of  Artois,  however,  now  known  as  Monsieur,  accompanied 
by  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  Macdonald,  found  a  cool  reception  in  Lyons,  which 
Napoleon  entered  on  the  10th  of  March  amid  a  storm  of  cheers.  The  second  city 
of  the  kingdom  was  his.  His  language  became  more  certain,  more  confident.  The 
emperor  was  showing  behind  the  champion  of  freedom  and  peace.  He  dissolved 
the  chambers  of  Louis,  summoned  a  "champ  de  Mai"  to  Paris,  and  called  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people  the  principle  of  his  power,  restored  to  the  imperial  offi- 
cials their  posts,  and  banished,  on  the  other  hand,  many  recently  returned  emi- 
grants. He  outlawed  Talleyrand,  the  Duke  of  Dalberg,  Marmont,  Augereau,  and 
others  as  traitors  to  their  country,  and  ordered  their  property  to  be  confiscated. 
He  then  indeed  tried  to  win  Talleyrand  for  his  cause,  but  unsuccessfully.  While 
H.  J.  Clarke,  Duke  of  Feltre,  the  minister  of  war,  assured  the  king  that  Napoleon 
was  lost,  the  latter  advanced,  ordered  that  all  Bourbons  found  in  France  must  be 
put  to  death,  and  spread  the  falsehood  that  Austria  and  Great  Britain  had  agreed 
to  his  return.    Ney,  in  spite  of  all  oaths,  joined  the  emperor  on  the  14th  of  March 


78  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  ^Chapter  i 

at  Lons-le-Saulnier  with  the  overwhelming  majority  of  his  soldiers.  The  road  to 
Paris  now  lay  open  to  Napoleon,  and  he  entered  Fontainebleau  on  the  20  th. 

■When  the  king  went  on  the  16th  to  the  Palais  Bourbon  to  open  the  extraor- 
dinary sitting  of  the  chambers,  the  troops  stationed  there  added  to  the  official 
"  Long  live  the  king  "  the  words  "  of  Kome  "  under  their  breath.  Louis'  speech 
was  spirited  and  kindled  a  last  flash  of  enthusiasm.  On  the  18th  the  chamber  of 
deputies  declared  the  war  against  "  Bonaparte  "  to  be  a  national  war  and  called 
the  country  to  arms.  Benjamin  Constant  thundered  against  the  new  "  Attila  and 
Genghis  Khan,"  and  the  Duke  of  Berry  assembled  an  army  near  Paris.  But 
Fouchd  put  everything  before  Louis  in  the  most  threatening  light.  Blacas  and 
Clarke  lost  their  heads,  and  in  the  night  of  the  19th  the  Bourbon  family  left  the 
Tuileries  to  become  emigrants  once  more;  they  went  through  Lille  to  Ghent. 
Napoleon,  borne  in  the  arms  of  officers  and  civil  servants,  entered  the  Tuileries  on 
the  evening  of  the  20th  of  March,  the  fourth  birthday  of  his  son.  Without  being 
compelled  to  fire  a  shot  he  had  once  more  conquered  France ;  his  eagles  had  flown 
from  church  tower  to  church  tower,  and  now  rested  on  Notre  Dame.  Paris,  on  the 
whole,  was  tranquil ;  the  great  majority  of  the  nation  assumed  a  somewhat  anxious 
mien.  Only  the  veterans  abandoned  themselves  to  unrestrained  enthusiasm  for 
the  plebeian  emperor,  and  the  peasants  in  the  east  of  France  and  the  masses  of 
workmen  in  the  towns  hailed  with  acclamation  the  man  of  the  people. 

Napoleon  recognised  very  clearly  that  the  feeling  in  France  had  changed,  and 
he  now  brought  the  charge  against  the  Bourbons  which  he  had  formerly  brought 
against  the  directory  on  his  return  from  Egypt,  that  they  had  led  "  his  France  "  to 
ruin.  After  appointing  a  ministry,  to  which  he  summoned  Carnot,  now  ennobled 
by  him,  as  minister  of  the  interior,  in  order  to  win  over  popular  opinion,  while 
Joseph  Fouoh^,  Duke  of  Otranto,  undertook  the  police,  he  promised  peace  to  France 
and  Europe.  He  abolished  the  censorship  and  posed  as  a  lover  of  freedom ;  he 
asserted  that  nothing  was  farther  from  his  purpose  than  to  be  the  Caesar  of  the 
human  race  and  to  covet  a  world  sovereignty.  Constant,  a  little  while  before  his 
deadly  enemy,  was  easily  convinced  when  Napoleon  said  that  he  wished  to  be  a 
plebeian  emperor,  a  peasant  emperor,  and  accepted  the  commission  of  drawing  up 
a  constitution.  The  royal  troops  gave  way  everywhere  to  those  of  Napoleon.  The 
spirited  Duchess  of  Angouleme  vainly  attempted  to  hold  Bordea^E.  The  duke 
was  taken  prisoner  by  Grouchy,  but  was  allowed  to  sail  on  the  16th  of  April  for 
Spain;  the  duchess  was  compelled  to  evacuate  Bordeaux  and  joined  Louis  XVIII 
at  Ghent,  where  the  Duke  of  Berry  had  been  for  some  time.  Even  La  Vendue  was 
not  for  the  Bourbons.  But  Europe  would  hear  nothing  of  Napoleon.  The  accred- 
ited ambassadors  in  Paris  asked  for  their  passports,  not  one  court  received  his 
representatives,  and  he  vainly  summoned  his  wife  and  child  to  him.  It  was  only 
with  the  sword  that  he  could  compel  Europe  once  more  to  acknowledge  him  ;  he 
therefore  prepared  for  a  new  war,  and  with  the  royal  treasure  reorganised  his  army. 

On  the  7th  of  March,  at  a  party  of  Metternich's  at  Vienna  the  couples  sud- 
denly stopped  in  the  middle  of  a  waltz,  for  the  news  spread  from  mouth  to  mouth, 
"  He  is  in  France  ! "  Alexander  I,  who  had  long  regretted  the  restoration  of  the 
Bourbons,  as  many  of  his  pronouncements  testify,  boasted  to  Talleyrand  of  his  pro- 
phetic vision,  while  Francis  reproachfully  told  the  Czar  that  he  now  saw  whither 
the  favour  extended  to  the  Jacobins  had  led.  The  allies  immediately  agreed  to 
suspend  the  withdrawal  of  their  troops  from  France,  and  armed  for  a  second  and 


l':T£''BtZZn'\       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  79 

decisive  struggle.  Stein  moved  on  the  8th  of  March  the  proscription  of  the  public 
enemy,  and  on  the  13th  the  eight  allied  powers  issued  the  proclamation  drawn  up 
by  Talleyrand  to  the  effect  that  Napoleon  Bonaparte  had  placed  himself  outside 
the  pale  of  civil  and  political  rights,  and  as  the  enemy  and  disturber  of  public 
tranquillity  was  liable  to  public  prosecution.  On  the  25th  of  March,  1815,  Eussia, 
Great  Britain,  Austria,  and  Prussia  renewed  at  the  congress  the  treaty  of  Chau- 
mont,  offered  assistance  to  all  countries  that  would  attack  "  Bonaparte,"  invited  all 
powers  to  join  them,  and  pledged  themselves  not  to  lay  down  their  weapons  until 
the  public  enemy  was  rendered  harmless.  The  other  States  of  Europe,  with  the 
Bourbons  of  Ghent  at  their  head,  joined  the  league,  which  was  formed  merely 
against  "Bonaparte"  and  not  against  the  French.  The  question,  indeed,  of  a 
second  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  was  extremely  doubtful.  The  Duke  of  Orleans 
and  the  former  Viceroy  Eugene  of  Italy  were  mentioned  as  possible  candidates. 
In  answer  to  the  attitude  of  Europe  Napoleon  declared  in  a  note  to  all  the  govern- 
ments that  the  empire  had  been  restored  by  the  universal  and  voluntary  decision 
of  the  French  nation,  and  that  he  would  rule  peaceably  and  respect  the  rights  of 
every  nation.  The  foreign  courts  conducted  his  messengers  back  to  the  frontiers, 
and  the  congress  at  Vienna  rejected  on  the  12th  of  March  any  and  every  proposal 
of  Napoleon's.  On  the  other  hand,  the  powers  sent  their  ambassadors  to  the 
legitimate  king  at  Ghent.  The  venal  Parisian  "  Moniteur  "  was  opposed  by  the 
"  Moniteur  de  Gand,"  under  the  management  of  Chateaubriand,  Guizot,  Lally- 
Tollendal,  and  others.  British  and  German  newspapers  cursed  Napoleon,  and 
passionate  speeches  were  made  against  him  in  the  British  parliament. 

Napoleon,  surrounded  by  the  Bonaparte  family,  lived  quietly  at  Paris  in  a 
gloomy  and  almost  sad  mood.  The  rentes,  a  good  barometer,  fell  in  April  from 
83  to  51.  Everyone  longed  for  peace  and  quiet.  He  alone  wished  to  shed  more 
blood,  for  he  required  war.  Intense  as  was  his  thirst  for  power,  yet  he  did  not 
wish  once  more  to  make  common  cause  with  the  Jacobins,  to  become  king  of  a 
peasant  war,  and,  in  order  to  secure  his  own  position,  to  inflict  the  horrors  of 
anarchy  on  France.  On  the  contrary,  he  abandoned  his  own  system,  renounced  a 
dictatorship,  and  became,  to  some  degree  provisionally,  a  constitutional  ruler.  The 
result  of  Constant's  labours  was  the  "  Acte  additionnel  aux  constitutions  de  I'em- 
pire,"  promulgated  on  the  23d  of  April,  which  for  a  long  time  was  the  most 
liberal  constitution  of  France.  The  emperor  possessed  the  executive  power,  and 
exercised  the  legislative  power  in  concert  with  the  chamber  of  peers,  whose  mem- 
bers were  to  be  hereditary,  and  with  the  chamber  of  representatives,  which  was 
elective  ;  freedom  of  the  press  and  of  petitioning  was  granted.  The  nation,  how- 
ever, was  not  satisfied  with  the  "  additional "  act ;  it  had  wished  for  an  entirely  new 
constitution.  It  saw  through  the  deceit,  and  did  not  believe  in  the  conversion  of 
the  Corsioan  into  a  lover  of  freedom,  or  in  his  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  people. 
Napoleon  noticed  the  hostility  of  public  feeling,  and  sustained  a  reverse  when  the 
nation  was  invited  to  vote  the  additional  constitution;  the  vast  majority  kept 
silent,  and  but  1,300,000,  including  the  army,  voted  for  it,  though  only  4,000  voted 
against  it.  In  order  to  offer  a  brilliant  spectacle  to  the  nation,  the  emperor,  after 
the  custom  of  his  Merovingian  "  predecessors,"  proclaimed  a  "  champ  de  Mai "  for 
the  1st  of  June.  But  while  he  made  a  false  parade  of  freedom  he  lacked  his  old 
self-reliance.  Full  of  justifiable  suspicion  of  Fouch^,  he  set  police  to  watch  over 
the  police  ;  nevertheless  Fouchd  found  means  to  form  a  conspiracy  with  the  court 


80  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_ChapteT  i 

at  Ghent.  The  allied  armies  once  more  approached  the  frontiers.  Castlereagh  and 
Lord  Liverpool,  the  English  prime  minister,  furnished  liberal  subsidies,  and  Great 
Britain  took  the  lead  against  Napoleon.  Meantime  the  elections  to  the  chambers 
went  on  very  slowly.  Most  of  the  members  elected  were,  it  is  true,  partisans  of 
the  emperor,  but  opponents  of  his  despotism ;  the  royalists  took  no  part  in  the 
matter.  The  old  war  in  La  Vendfe  between  the  Whites  and  the  Blues  broke  out 
in  May ;  the  Marquis  of  Eochejacquelein,  the  leader,  coimted  on  British  help,  and 
Napoleon  was  obliged  to  send  twenty  thousand  men,  for  want  of  whom  he  was  to 
be  sorely  hampered  at  Waterloo,  to  crush  the  rising.  In  spite  of  the  splendour  of 
a  military  and  national  festival,  a  feeling  of  depression  clung  to  the  "  champ  de 
Mai."  The  empress  and  her  son,  whom  Napoleon  would  have  been  delighted  to 
have  crowned,  were  absent,  but  round  him  were  seated  the  dethroned  kings  of  his 
own  family.  He  styled  himself  indeed  an  "  emperor,  consul,  and  soldier,  who 
depended  on  the  nation  for  everything,"  and  protested  that  he  would  sacrifice  him- 
self as  gladly  as  Codrus.  The  whole  spectacle  resulted  in  nothing,  and  the  oppo- 
sition derived  fresh  strength  from  it.  With  inward  reluctance  Napoleon  convened 
the  chambers.  He  hoped  to  see  his  brother  Luoien,  whom  he  promoted  to  be 
prince,  president  of  the  chamber  of  representatives;  but  instead  of  Lucien,  the 
ex-Girondist  Count  Languinais,  an  enemy  of  the  emperor,  was  elected.  There  was 
thus  no  prospect  of  guiding  this  chamber ;  but  there  was  more  hope  of  some  sup- 
port in  the  chamber  of  peers  by  the  entry  of  all  the  brothers  of  Napoleon,  Cardinal 
Fesch,  Prince  Eugfene,  and  numerous  marshals  and  ministers.  To  both  chambers 
Napoleon  on  the  7th  of  Jime  professed  that  he  would  unreservedly,  and  at  any 
cost  to  himself,  uphold  the  constitutional  monarchy. 

(jP)  The  Labours  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  —  The  congress  of  Vienna  during 
these  events  had  not  merely  organised  fetes,  but  had  written  sheafs  of  papers. 
Metternieh,  the  president,  carefully  promoted  German  particularism,  and  found 
Austria's  gain  in  the  division  and  subdivision  of  Germany.  He  had,  indeed,  spoken 
to  the  Hanoverian  plenipotentiary,  Count  Miinster,  of  tlae  idea  of  an  emperor,  but 
he  did  not  wish  to  hear  of  a  new  German  empire,  and  agreed  with  the  view  of 
his  own  master  that  a  German  confederation  of  independent  and  equally  privi- 
leged sovereigns  and  free  cities  should  be  formed  under  the  head^ip  of  Austria. 
Great  Britaiu  and  Eussia  were,  like  Austria,  opposed  to  the  idea  of  a  strong  Prus- 
sian State  and  of  a  Prussian  supremacy  in  Germany.  The  petty  States  and  also 
the  minor  States  of  Germany  were  naturally  enemies  of  Prussia  and  urged  the 
final  settlement  of  a  constitution.  Austria  and  Prussia  proposed  scheme  after 
scheme  in  Vienna,  and  on  the  23d  of  May  the  general  conferences  on  the  consti- 
tution question  were  opened,  at  which  Bavaria,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  and  the  petty 
States  haggled  about  every  article,  and  wretched  wranglings  as  to  precedence 
wasted  much  time.  On  the  10th  of  June  the  plenipotentiaries  of  all  the  German 
States  except  Wurtemberg  and  Baden  signed  the  draft,  when  Prussia  and  Hanover 
openly  expressed  their  opinion  of  the  lamentable  outcome  of  the  laboyrs  of  the 
congress.  The  Duke  of  Nassau  in  Usingen  and  Prince  Nassau-Weilburg  were 
the  first  among  the  German  princes  to  give  their  dominions  a  constitution  with 
considerable  popular  rights  (September  2,  1814).  The  king  of  Bavaria,  the  grand 
duke  of  Baden,  and  the  king  of  Wurtemberg  promised  constitutions ;  the  king  of 
Prussia  issued,  on  May  22,  1815,  a  fundamental  law  of  the  State,  with  promises 
of  provincial  estates  and  a  representation  of  the  people. 


Jlf^iuTZl^i^l       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  81 

Switzerland,  which,  was  declared  neutral,  received  a  new  constitution.  An 
ominous  prelude  and  sequel  to  Napoleon's  fall  was  that  of  King  Joachim  of 
Naples,  who,  being  unsuccessful  in  the  war  with  Austria,  the  pope,  and  the  British, 
had  been  forced  to  fly  after  the  defeat  at  Tolentino  on  May  2.  When  he  once 
more  set  foot  on  Neapolitan  soil  in  order  to  reconquer  his  kingdom,  he  was  con- 
demned to  death  by  a  court-martial,  and  was  shot  in  the  castle  of  Pizzo  in  Calabria 
(October  13, 1815).  Ferdinand  IV  had  been  reinstated  after  Tolentino,  and  after 
the  organic  union  of  Naples  and  Sicily  into  one  indivisible  kingdom  (December 
11, 1816)  he  called  himself  "Ferdinand  I,  king  of  the  Two  Sicilies."  The  grand 
duchy  of  Warsaw  was  divided  between  Eussia,  Austria,  and  Prussia,  who  all  pro- 
mised the  Poles  a  representative  constitution  and  national  institutions.  Alexander  I 
took  the  title  of  a  king  of  Poland,  Frederick  William  III  that  of  a  grand  duke 
of  Posen,  Francis  I  styled  himself  king  of  Galioia  and  Lodomeria,  while  Cracow 
became  a  free  State  under  the  protection  of  the  three  participating  powers.  Saxony 
concluded  peace  at  Vienna  on  May  18  with  Eussia  and  Prussia,  and  Frederick 
Augustus  ceded  the  greater  part  of  his  territory  to  Prussia.  Besides  this  Prussia 
received  back  not  only  almost  all  its  possessions  between  the  Ehine  and  the  Elbe, 
but  also  considerable  parts  of  the  territory  of  Cologne,  Nassau,  and  other  States. 
It  gave  Hanover,  Hildesheim,  Goslar,  East  Friesland,  etc.,  in  return  for  Lauenburg, 
and  exchanged  Lauenburg  with  Denmark  for  Swedish  Pomerania;  Bavaria  re- 
ceived Wurzburg  and  Aschaffenburg,  and  the  petty  States  did  not  come  off  empty- 
handed  ;  Austria  entered  once  more  into  possession  of  most  of  its  Italian  territory, 
which  afterward  formed  the  Lombard- Venetian  and  lUyrian  kingdom;  Tuscany 
and  Modena  became  the  territory  of  the  younger  Austrian  archdukes;  the  em- 
press Marie  Louise  received  Parma ;  the  "  Etrurian  "  Bourbons  and  the  pope  took 
possession  of  Lucca  and  the  States  of  the  Church ;  the  princes  of  Orange  received 
Holland,  Belgium,  Luxemburg,  and  Limburg,  and  Prince  William  assumed  the 
title  of  "  King  of  the  Netherlands."  Sardinia  was  increased  by  Genoa ;  the 
Elector  of  Hanover  became  king ;  the  dukes  of  Oldenburg,  Mecklenburg,  and  Saxe- 
Weimar  became  grand  dukes,  and  Frankfurt  once  more  a  free  city. 

The  Act  of  Federation,  which  implied  a  complete  victory  for  Austria,  was  signed 
on  June  8, 1815.  The  German  confederation  created  by  it  was  a  federation  of 
States,  an  international  league  of  sovereign  governments  without  a  vestige  of  popu- 
lar representation,  a  declaration  of  the  dependent  condition  of  the  German  people 
as  a  reward  for  its  unprecedented  sacrifices  in  the  War  of  Liberation.  The  minor 
States  of  Germany,  creations  of  Napoleon,  were  originally  unwilling  to  enter  into 
the  federation,  for  fear  of  endangering  their  sovereignty,  and  would  much  have 
preferred  to  play  the  part  of  independent  European  powers.  When  subsequently 
they  gave  their  subjects  constitutions,  they  did  so  less  from  personal  convictions 
than  from  fear  of  being  forced  to  do  so  by  the  federation.  The  German  people 
regarded  the  Act  of  Federation  either  with  indifference  or  showed  indignation 
at  it ;  but  few  governments  were  content  with  it.  Among  the  "  special  disposi- 
tions," section  13  was  the  most  important,  "  In  every  country  of  the  league 
there  shall  be  meetings  of  the  estates."  The  first  eleven  articles  of  the  Act  of 
Federation  were  guaranteed  by  the  final  act  of  the  congress,  which  subsequently 
gave  foreign  nations  a  pretext  to  claim  an  European  guardianship  over  the  German 
league. 

The   final  act  of  the  congress  of  Vienna  (June  9,  1815)  .comprised  aU  the 

•VOL.  VIH— 6 


82  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  i 

treaties  which  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Austria,  Spain,  France,  Great  Britain,  Por- 
tugal, Prussia,  Eussia,  and  Sweden  had  signed.  The  princes  and  free  cities  of 
Germany,  on  behalf  of  their  territories  which  formerly  belonged  to  the  German 
Empire,  — the  king  of  Denmark  for  Holstein  and  the  king  of  the  Netherlands  for 
Luxemburg,  — established  for  ever  the  German  federation,  under  the  presidency 
of  Austria,  "  for  the  maintenance  of  the  external  and  internal  security  of  Germany, 
and  of  the  independence  and  the  inviolability  of  the  equally  privileged  States  of 
the  federation."  A  federal  diet  in  Frankfurt  — a  permanent  congress  of  ambas- 
sadors, like  the  imperial  diet  of  Eatisbon  — was  to  transact  business.  The  pleni- 
potentiaries voted  with  eleven  single  votes  and  six  collective  votes  (Curise).  In 
questions  of  a  fundamental  nature  the  full  session  of  the  members  met,  in  which 
Austria,  Prussia,  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Hanover,  and  Wurtemberg  commanded  foiu: 
votes  each ;  Baden,  Electoral  Hesse,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  Holstein,  and  Luxemburg 
three  each ;  Brunswick,  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  and  Nassau  two  each ;  and  all  the 
other  States  one  each ;  sixty-nine  votes  in  all.  This  full  session  is  to-day  the  basis 
of  the  modern  German  federal  council.  The  federal  States  pledged  themselves 
not  to  wage  war  on  each  other,  but  to  lay  their  disputes  before  the  federal  diet. 
Baden  did  not  join  the  federation  until  July  26,  and  Wurtemberg  not  before  Sep- 
tember 1,  1815. 

(2)  The  Close  of  the  Career  of  Napoleon  I.  —  (a)  The  Campaign  and  the  End 
of  the  Hundred  Days.  —  Before  Napoleon  took  the  field  for  the  last  time,  on  June 
12,  1815,  he  placed  his  brother  Joseph  at  the  head  of  the  council  of  government, 
to  which  Lucien  also  belonged,  while  Jerome  went  on  the  campaign.  Napoleon 
could  with  difficulty  bring  128,000  men  against  Europe,  and  was  forced  to  employ 
some  70,000  men  to  guard  the  wide  expanse  of  the  French  frontiers ;  but  veterans 
full  of  military  efficiency  formed  the  core  of  his  army.  Prince  Schwarzenberg  was 
chiefly  to  blame  for  the  eccentric  strategy  of  the  allies.  He  did  not  bring  the  left 
wing  of  the  united  forces  into  action ;  even  the  Eussians,  under  Count  Barclay  de 
Tolly,  were  not  employed  for  any  decisive  operation.  The  right  wing  fought  the 
war  out.  This,  some  210,000  men  strong,  under  Field-marshals  Blucher  and  Wel- 
lington, stretched  from  the  lower  Moselle  through  Belgium  to  ^e  North  Sea,  and 
was  made  up  of  Germans,  British,  and  Netherlanders.  NapSeon,  who  did  not 
wish  to  wait  until  the  Austrians  and  Eussians  moved,  threw  himself  on  the  army 
in  Belgium,  which  did  not  calculate  on  so  rapid  an  attack.  His  soldiers  applauded 
him  rapturously.  He  skilfully  concealed  his  march  and  crossed  the  Sambre  on 
the  15th  of  June.  His  intention  was  to  force  his  way  between  the  troops  of  the 
two  field-marshals  and  prevent  their  joining  hands.  In  several  engagements  he 
inflicted  heavy  losses  on  the  Prussians.  He  considered  a  battle  against  the  whole 
Prussian  army  improbable,  and  sent  away  Ney  against  Wellington,  who  was  posted 
near  Quatrebras.  But  at  Ligny  Blucher  faced  him  with  his  whole  army.  Napoleon 
missed  Ney  as  much  as  Wellington  did  BlUcher.  Napoleon  won  a  sanguinary  vic- 
tory, his  last,  at  Ligny  on  the  16th  of  June,  but  did  not  make  full  use  of  it,  and 
rendered  it  possible  for  the  retreating  hostile  army  to  rally.  Wellington  defeated 
Ney  that  same  day  at  Quatrebras,  and  the  French  gave  way.  Napoleon  often 
seemed  not  to  be  the  Napoleon  of  former  days.  All  the  Prussian  corps  were 
enabled  to  unite  at  Wavre,  and  Napoleon  sent  Grouchy  with  32,000  men  in  a 
mistaken  direction  to  pursue  Blucher. 


Zr/£ssi'::]     history  of  the  world  ss 

Bliicher  had  promised  Wellington  his  help  for  the  18th  of  June,  should  the 
battle  be  fought  at  Waterloo.  Napoleon  resolved  to  crush  Wellington  there,  and 
eagerly  pressed  his  attack  with  the  utmost  spirit;  the  terrible  conflict  was  just 
taking  a  turn  favourable  to  him,  when  Bliicher,  so  eagerly  expected  by  Wellington, 
came  up,  together  with  Bulow  and  Zieten.  Napoleon  was  totally  defeated.  He 
fled  with  the  army,  exclaiming,  "  All  is  lost !  let  us  save  ourselves !  "  His  carriage 
and  treasure  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Prussians,  and  he  hurried  to  Charleroi. 
Since  Count  Gneisenau  indefatigably  pushed  on  the  pursuit,  only  ten  thousand 
men  of  Napoleon's  army  entered  Paris.  Grouchy  escaped  destruction.  The  blame 
of  the  defeat  was  ascribed  to  him,  and  many  accused  him  of  treachery ;  but  the 
fact  is  that  he  had  been  set  to  perform  an  impossible  task,  through  Napoleon's  im- 
perfect knowledge  of  the  country.  While  Napoleon  wrote  to  Joseph  that  all  was 
not  yet  lost,  that  firmness  must  be  shown,  and  all  available  fighting  material  col- 
lected, he  admitted  in  a  despatch  the  whole  truth  as  to  the  defeat,  and,  disastrously 
for  himself,  he  left  his  soldiers  on  the  20th  of  June  in  Laon,  in  order  to  influence 
the  popular  feeling  in  Paris  by  his  appearance.  But  the  vanquished  of  Waterloo 
was  a  nonentity  in  Paris  without  an  army ;  the  Parisians  only  thought  him  a  fresh 
burden,  of  which  they  must  quickly  rid  themselves,  in  order  not  to  share  with  him 
in  the  disfavour  of  Europe. 

The  emperor  conferred  with  his  brothers  and  ministers  in  the  Palais  de  I'Elysfe. 
Fouchd,  on  the  contrary,  tried  to  become  the  Talleyrand  of  1815,  and  dug  the 
ground  from  under  his  feet.  The  emperor  wanted  to  seize  the  dictatorship. 
But  according  to  Garnot's  advice  he  ought  to  have  made  the  chambers  offer  it  to 
him,  and  the  chambers  would  not  hear  of  such  a  thing.  When  the  emperor  and 
Lucien  thought  of  an  enforced  dissolution,  the  chambers  declared  themselves  in 
permanent  session,  and  stigmatised  every  attempt  at  dissolution  as  high  treason. 
The  minister  of  war.  Marshal  Davoust,  refused  the  assistance  of  the  army  in  dis- 
solving them.  Lafayette  induced  both  chambers  to  offer  a  decided  resistance  to 
Napoleon.  The  latter's  proposal  to  nominate  a  committee  for  negotiations  with 
foreign  countries  was  rejected,  and  nothing  remained  to  him  but  the  choice  be- 
tween a  voluntary  abdication  and  outlawry.  He  despised  once  more  any  rescue 
by  the  Jacobins.  When  he  had  once  been  an  absolute  and  constitutional  emperor, 
it  was  repugnant  to  him  to  still  belong  to  the  Eevolution.  He  therefore  dictated 
on  the  22d  of  June  his  abdication  in  favour  of  "  Napoleon  II."  The  ever-memo- 
rable Hundred  Days,  the  "  saturnalia  of  the  monarchy,"  were  past. 

(/3)  The  Second  Treaty  of  Paris  and  Napoleon's  Banishment  to  St.  Helena.  — 
Paris  remained  tranquil  and  almost  unconcerned.  A  provisional  government  was 
formed  under  the  direction  of  Fouch^ ;  the  chambers,  by  a  large  majority,  re- 
jected Napoleon  II,  in  spite  of  Lucien's  advocacy,  and  Fouch^  negotiated  with 
Louis  XVIII.  The  king  accelerated  his  return,  and  issued  on  the  25th  of  June 
the  proclamation  of  Cambrai,  in  which  he  promised  a  fatherly  government,  exclud- 
ing from  the  amnesty  the  chief  instigators  of  the  rising  of  1815.  He  had  reluct- 
antly dismissed  Blacas  because  the  allies  made  that  a  condition  of  his  return.  On 
the  3d  of  July  Paris  surrendered  to  the  allies,  who  entered  on  the  7th  under 
Bliicher  and  Wellington.  "  Marshal  Forwards  "  implored  his  sovereign  not  to  let 
the  diplomatists  lose  again  what  the  soldier  had  attained  by  his  blood.  "  This 
moment,"  he  said,  "  is  the  last  and  only  opportunity  of  securing  Germany  against 


84  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [chapter  i 

France."  Davoust  took  the  side  of  Louis.  On  the  8th  of  July  the  king,  accom- 
panied by  Artois  and  Berry,  re-entered  Paris  amid  a  wild  scene  of  enthusiasm,  and 
the  deceitful  ministry  of  Fouch^  came  into  office. 

What  Blucher  suspected  came  to  pass.  Diplomacy  once  more  cheated  Ger- 
many of  her  gains.  Eussia,  France,  and  Great  Britain  allowed  her  no  increase  of 
power.  Stein  openly  declared  that  Eussia's  object  was  to  keep  Germany  vulner- 
able, and  prevent  her  from  enjoying  the  fruits  of  her  labours.  Alsace  and  Lorraine 
were  not  restored  to  Germany,  nor  did  the  Grand  Duke  Charles  receive  the  king- 
dom of  Burgundy,  as  had  been  expected,  but  the  Duke  of  Eichelieu  obtained  for 
his  country  the  very  favourable  second  treaty  of  Paris  (November  20,  1815). 
France  received  the  frontiers  of  1790,  ceded  the  square  between  Maubeuge  and 
Givet,  which  had  been  given  her  in  the  first  treaty  of  Paris,  to  Belgium,  Saarlouis 
'  and  Saarbriicken  to  Prussia,  Landau  to  Austria  (which  gave  it  to  Bavaria),  the 
eastern  part  of  the  small  district  of  Gex  to  Geneva,  and  French  Savoy  to  Piedmont. 
The  northeastern  provinces  of  France,  which  this  time  paid  an  indemnity  of  seven 
hundred  million  francs  (£28,000,000),  were  to  be  occupied  by  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  allies  for  three  to  five  years,  according  to  the  condition  of  the 
country. 

The  threats  of  Davoust  induced  Napoleon  to  leave  Paris  and  take  up  his  resi- 
dence at  Malmaison,  where  everything  reminded  him  of  Josephine ;  Hortense  and 
Lucien  were  with  him.  He  knew  that  a  part  of  the  .^rench  were  still  for  him. 
Could  he  once  more  collect  seventy  thousand  men,  —  for  the  army  certainly  was 
devoted  to  him,  —  or  ought  he  to  abandon  everything  and  emigrate  to  America  ? 
His  mind  was  torn  by  conflicts  and  doubts.  On  the  29th  of  June  he  offered  his 
services  to  the  provisional  government  as  a  simple  general,  in  order  to  rescue  Paris 
and  defeat  the  allies.  But  Fouchd  scornfully  refused  the  offer,  and  counselled  hipi 
to  leave  the  country  for  his  personal  safety ;  a  Prussian  division  was  in  fact  ready 
to  seize  him  and  shoot  him.  Napoleon  put  on  civUian  clothes,  took  farewell  of  his 
family,  and  left  Malmaison  with  four  companions.  On  the  way  to  Eochefort, 
which  he  reached  on  the  3d  of  July,  he  hesitated;  perhaps,  he. thought,  he  could 
still  play  some  part.  The  same  thoughts  occupied  him  at  Eochefort,  just  as  a  pris- 
oner condemned  to  death  still  hopes  for  a  reprieve.  He  recurreito  the  idea  of  his 
army.  The  inhabitants  showed  him  respect,  and  he  did  not  msh  to  tear  himself 
away  from  France,  of  which  he  had  been  the  emperor  for  eleven  years,  and  the 
hero  since  Toulon.  Joseph  visited  him  on  the  Isle  dAix.  His  last  hopes  were 
dissipated ;  Louis  XVIII  was  once  more  on  the  throne. 

Napoleon  now  negotiated  with  Captain  Maitland,  who  commanded  the  British 
ship  "  BeUerophon  "  lying  in  the  roads  of  Basques,  in  order  to  be  conveyed  to  Eng- 
land, and  wrote,  like  a  true  actor,  to  the  Prince  Eegent  that  he  came  as  a  second 
Themistocles  to  the  hearth  of  his  antagonist,  the  magnanimous  British  nation. 
On  July  15, 1815,  the  "  BeUerophon  "  received  him,  not,  however,  as  he  thought,  as  a 
guest,  but  as  the  prisoner  of  his  deadly  enemy.  France  lay  behind  him  for  ever.  On 
the  26th  of  July  the  ship  reached  the  shores  of  England ;  but  the  government  for- 
bade him  to  land,  and  passed  a  resolution  that "  General  Bonaparte,"  in  order  that  he 
might  not  again  be  able  to  disturb  the  peace  of  Europe,  must  be  taken  to  the  steep 
.basaltic  rock  of  St.  Helena  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  without  arms,  money,  or  valu- 
ables. These  orders  to  some  extent  needlessly  added  to  the  misery  of  his  position. 
Napoleon  on  July  30  protested  against  the  violation  of  international  rights,  but 


Zfr^/f"iS«»]        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  85 

England  received  the  protest  with  indifference.  The  agreement  between  the  allies 
at  Paris  on  August  2  consigned  the  ex-emperor  to  the  custody  of  the  four  signa- 
tories of  the  treaty  of  Chaumont,  and,  besides  Great  Britain,  France,  Eussia,  and 
Austria  appointed  commissioners  to  watch  over  Napoleon  at  St.  Helena.  On  the 
7th  of  August  Napoleon,  accompanied  by  some  loyal  followers,  went  on  board  the 
man-of-war  "  Northumberland ; "  on  the  voyage  he  dictated  his  memoirs  to  Baron 
Las  Cases  and  the  adjutant-general  Baron  Gourgaud.  On  the  17th  of  October, 
1815,  he  landed  on  the  desolate  rock,  on  which  he  was  doomed  to  languish.  It 
was  not  until  December  that  he  took  up  his  allotted  residence  at  Longwood. 

Napoleon's  correspondence  was  subjected  to  strict  supervision.  All  that  he 
heard  from  Europe  caused  him  pain.  His  family  was  broken  up,  banished  from 
France,  and  deprived  of  their  property ;  his  retainers  were  prosecuted.  It  cannot 
cause  any  surprise  that  the  title  of  emperor  was  not  accorded  to  him  on  St.  Helena, 
since  George  III  had  never  recognised  it.  Sir  Hudson  Lowe,  the  governor,  who 
arrived  in  April,  1816,  was  narrow-minded  and  unconciliatory,  but  a  man  of  honour  ; 
he  soon  quarrelled  so  violently  with  the  prisoner  that  after  the  fifth  interview  he 
ceased  to  visit  him.  Napoleon  worked  industriously,  and  published  accounts  of 
his  position,  full  of  exaggerations  and  misstatements,  in  order  to  effect  a  change  in 
his  lot ;  but  he  achieved  nothing.  Pius  VII  alone  of  the  sovereigns  sympathised 
with  his  misery,  as  his  letter  to  Consalvi  in  October,  1817,  testified,  and  the  con- 
gress of  Aix-la- Chapelle  in  1818  expressed  its  assent  to  the  rigorous  regime  of 
Lowe.  Napoleon  abandoned  any  idea  of  escape,  and  did  not  accept  the  offer  of  his 
worthy  mother  and  his  brothers  and  sisters  to  share  his  exile.  While  he  dictated 
to  Las  Cases,  Gourgaud,  Marquis  Montholon-S^monville,  and  others,  he  represented 
himself  as  an  incomparable  general  and  as  a  national  hero  of  France.  He,  the 
friend  and  pupil  of  Talma,  wished  by  a  notoriously  garbled  literature  to  Napoleonise 
the  history  of  the  world,  to  sway  and  to  delude  his  contemporaries  and  his  poster- 
ity by  the  sense  of  his  importance.  His  will,  too,  was  drawn  up  in  a  thoroughly 
national  spirit,  and  gave  no  hint  of  the  cosmopolitan  world  despot.  Napoleon  I 
died  on  the  5th  of  May,  1821,  the  victim  of  painful  sufferings,  at  the  comparatively 
early  age  of  fifty-two,  with  the  conviction  that  '*  when  I  am  dead,  there  will  be  a 
reaction  everywhere,  even  in  England,  in  my  favour."  And  this  reaction  came. 
He  was  deiiied  by  France  and  Italy ;  poets,  painters,  and  singers  vied  in  glorify- 
ing him.  Bdranger,  by  his  songs  on  Napoleon,  became  the  national  favourite ;  the 
veterans  told  their  inquisitive  grandchildren  stories  of  the  "  Little  Corporal,"  the 
son  of  the  Eevolution ;  and  his  ashes  in  St.  Helena  were  a  menace  to  the  kings 
in  Paris.  Cleared  from  all  reproach  by  the  sufferings  of  his  later  years,  he  found 
his  way  irresistibly  to  the  hearts  of  the  French  people. 


4   THE   EEACTION 

A.  The  Beginnings  of  the  Second  Eestoeation 

(a)  The  State  of  Society.  —  The  position  of  King  Louis  XVIII,  now  brought 
back  for  the  second  time,  was  rendered  difficult  both  by  the  fame  of  his  predecessor 
and  the  follies  of  his  own  friends.  The  few  months  which  had  elapsed  since  the 
flight  of  AprU,  1814,  had  produced  incalculable  changes.     Talleyrand  had  vsrritten 


86  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  ichapter  i 

to  the  Count  of  Artois, "  Hitherto  we  have  had  glory,  do  you  bring  us  honour; "  and 
the  words  of  Beugnot,  "  Nothiug  is  changed,  only  one  more  Frenchman  has  arrived," 
were  put  into  the  lips  of  Artois.  The  parties  seemed  once  more  to  stand  in  the 
place  which  they  had  occupied  before  the  18th  of  Brumaire  (p.  32),  and  Napoleon 
remarked  rightly,  "  The  Whites  are  still  white,  and  the  Blues  remain  blue." 

Count  Rostopchin  (p.  57),  a  shrewd  observer  of  the  affairs  in  France,  has  very 
vividly  pictured  the  situation.  The  champions  of  liberty  of  the  Revolution  had  left 
nothing  in  its  place,  had  trampled  the  laws  under  their  feet,  destroyed  the  govern- 
ment, desecrated  the  churches,  and  dragged  the  royal  family  to  the  scaffold.  Heads 
were  lopped  like  cabbages.  Everyone,  the  worthless  before  the  others,  had  given 
orders ;  no  one  had  obeyed.  That  was  called  liberty  and  equality.  Fear  sealed  the 
lips  of  the  sensible  and  noble-minded.  The  revolutionists  only  knew  two  decisions, 
the  lamp-post  and  the  guillotine.  When  they  had  murdered  each  other  sufficiently, 
they  threw  themselves  upon  the  outside  world.  But  when  Bonaparte  escaped  from 
Egypt  and  said  "  Pst ! "  they  were  all  silent.  He  drove  out  the  clamorous,  governed 
army,  citizens,  and  clergy,  and  vigorously  plied  the  whip.  People  were  tired  of  a 
republic,  and  therefore  everyone,  though  at  first  somewhat  disconcerted  by  his 
firmness  of  hand,  shouted  "  Vive  VEmpereur  !  "  The  French  now  possessed  the 
equality  and  liberty  of  sighing  in  the  corner  to  their  heart's  content,  while 
Bonaparte,  "  like  a  mad  cat,"  rushed  furiously  through  Europe.  His  government 
banished  the  Bourbons,  whom  the  Revolution  had  hounded  out  of  France,  from  the 
hearts  of  the  French.  Napoleon's  memory  was  cherished  even  after  his  fall.  Pub- 
lic opinion  was  against  the  Bourbons,  who  after  a  third  expulsion  would  not  have 
ventured  to  think  of  any  return  ;  and  yet  they  ruled  far  more  mildly  than  Napo- 
leon, whose  fame,  however,  tickled  the  French  pride.  France  soon  presented  the 
picture  of  "  a  nation  without  thought,  a  throne  without  a  king,  a  sovereign  without 
movement,  a  government  without  power,  a  policy  without  views,  and  a  dynasty 
without  hopes."  This  was  the  verdict  of  the  man  who  set  fire  to  Moscow.  And 
Alexander  I  wrote  in  1820  to  his  friend  Count  Stroganoff  that  the  genius  of  the 
Revolution  did  not  allow  the  wounds  of  the  people  to  be  healed  or  social  order  to 
return  with  the  peace  of  1815  ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  did  everything  to  degrade  the 
rulers  in  the  eyes  of  the  ruled.  Formerly  it  had  been  said  "  dwide  et  impera,"  but 
now  salvation  lay  in  union  alone ;  all  the  powers  must  respectT-he  authority  of  the 
treaties  and  hold  fast  to  the  principles  of  order  and  discipline.  Thus  wisely,  in 
contrast  with  the  fickleness  and  impetuosity  of  the  French,  spoke  the  monarch  of 
a  people  of  whom  Benjamin  Constant  said  it  was  no  nation,  the  first  of  a  company 
which  Mirabeau  had  termed  "  the  premature  fruit  of  a  snow-covered  hot-house." 
The  society  of  France  had  been  thoroughly  democratised,  while  the  administration 
did  not  sustain  this  character  in  its  centralisation.  The  "  Charta,"  the  constitution 
of  Louis  XVIII,  recognised  this  democratisation  of  society. 

The  court  society,  however,  which  behaved  more  royally  than  royalty  itself, 
advised  Louis  to  rule  under  the  protection  of  the  foreign  armies,  while  he  himself 
uttered  unjustified  complaints  as  to  their  pressure ;  it  hated  the  new  current  of 
thought  more  than  ever,  and  wished  to  fight  it  to  the  death.  The  "  PavUlon  Mar- 
san,"  as  this  intractable  party  was  called  after  the  residence  of  the  Count  of  Artois, 
was  under  the  incapable  leadership  of  the  Abb4  de  Latil,  Prince  Jules  Polignac, 
who  was  an  uncompromising  enemy  of  the  Charta,  and  others.  The  chamber  of 
peers  and  the  chamber  of  deputies  were  reorganised,  and  this  "  chamhre  introu- 


-/J=VJ 


tiy^i^i^cc^j^l^''-'^ 


The  Beginning  and  the  Conclusion  of  the  Holy  Alliance  of  Sept.  26,  1S15 

(From  the  Prussian  copy  of  the  original  document  in  the  lloyal  Prussian  State  Arcliives  at  P.eilin.) 


EXPLANATION   OF   THE   DOCUMENT   ON    THE   OTHER   SIDE 


Copy. 

All  Nom  de  la  trfes  Sainte  et  indivisible 
Trinite. 

Leuvs  Majestes  I'Empereur  de  Russie,  I'Em- 
pereur  d'Autriche  et  le  Roi  de  Prusse,  par 
suite  des  grands  evenemens  qui  ont  signale 
en  Europe  le  cours  des  ti'ois  dernieres  annc'es 
et  principalement  les  bienfaits  multiplies  qu'il 
a  plu  A  la  Divine  Providence  de  repandre  sur 
les  Etats  dont  les  Gouverneurs  ont  place  [leur 
confiance  et  leur  espoir  en  EUe  seule,  ayant 
acquis  la  conviction  certaine  qu'il  est  neces- 
saire  d'assoir  la  niarche  k  adopter  par  les 
Puissances  dans  leur  rapports  mutuels  sur  les 
verites  sublimes  que  Nous  enseigne  I'Eternelle 
Religion  du  Dieu  Sauveur :] 

Fait  triple  et  signe  a  Paris,  I'an  de  grace 
1815  14/26.  Septembre 


L.  S. 
L.  S. 
L.  S. 


Franpois  propria 
Frederic  Guillaume 
Alexandre. 


Tkanslatio^'. 

In  the  Name  of  the  most  Holy  and  Undi- 
vided Trinity. 

Their  Majesties  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  the 
Emperor  of  Austria,  and  the  King  of  Prussia, 
in  consequence  of  the  great  events  which  have 
marked  in  Europe  the  course  of  the  last  three 
years,  and  especially  the  numerous  blessings 
which  it  has  pleased  Divine  Providence  to 
bestow  on  the  States,  whose  governors  have 
placed  [their  confidence  and  hope  in  it  alone, 
have  obtained  the  sure  conviction  that  it  is 
necessary  to  base  the  course  to  be  adopted  by 
the  Powers  in  their  mutual  relations  on  the 
sublime  truths  which  the  eternal  religion  of 
the  Saviour  teaches  us.] 

Executed  and  signed  in  triple  at  Paris  in 
the  year  of  grace  1S15,  14/26  Sept. 

Francis  (with  his  own  hand). 
Frederick  William. 
Alexander. 


Xf^;iA?IS.ir]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  87 

vaUe  "  was  ultra  royalist.  Louis,  both  from  calculation  and  from  grasp  of  the  situa- 
tion, held  fast  to  his  constitution,  and  was  involved  in  continued  conflict  w-ith  his 
brother  and  the  royalists  "  quand  meme,"  the  party  of  no  compromise.  He  had 
promised  an  amnesty,  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  checking  the  "  White  Terror " 
(p.  23)  in  Southern  France.  In  Marseilles,  Avignon,  Nismes,  Toulouse,  and  other 
places  disorders  broke  out,  in  which  religious  fanaticism  also  played  its  part. 
Bonapartists  and  Protestants  were  murdered  wholesale,  among  them  Marshal  Brune, 
Generals  Lagarde  and  Eamel ;  courts  and  local  authorities  were  powerless  to  check 
the  outrages. 

Fouchd  drew  up  the  proscription-lists  against  those  who  were  privy,  or  sus- 
pected of  being  privy,  to  the  Hundred  Days,  but  prudently  forgot  to  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  list ;  and  while  the  executions  of  General  La  B^doyfere  and 
Marshal  Ney,  accompanied  by  the  horrors  in  Lyons  and  Grenoble,  were  bound  to 
make  the  position  of  the  king  impossible,  and  while  the  foremost  men  of  France 
were  driven  out  of  the  country,  he  was  already  conspiring  with  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  being  also  anxious  to  overthrow  Talleyrand.  Fouch^  was  attacked,  never- 
theless, on  all  sides,  and  was  compelled  to  resign  the  Ministry  of  Police  in  Septem- 
ber, 1815,  and  was  expelled,  in  1816,  as  a  relapsed  regicide.  His  dismissal  was 
followed  closely  by  that  of  his  rival,  Talleyrand,  who  was  appointed  High  Chamber- 
lain, and  replaced,  to  the  satisfaction,  and  indeed  at  the  wish,  of  Prussia,  by  the 
former  governor-general  in  Odessa,  the  Duke  of  Richelieu,  an  emigrant  quite 
unaequauited  with  French  affairs.  Louis,  who  could  not  exist  without  favourites, 
had  given  his  heart  to  the  former  secretary  of  Madame  Mfere,  Decazes.  As  Fouch^'s 
successor.  Count  Decazes,  Duke  of  Glucksburg,  a  place  hunter,  sided  with  the 
Chambre  Introuvahle,  passed  the  most  capricious,  exceptional  measures  to  maintain 
order,  but  was  still  far  too  mild  for  the  ultra  royalists,  who  exercised  a  sort  of 
secondary  government  from  the  PavUlon  Marsan,  and  procured  Talleyrand's  help 
agaiQst  him. 

(6)  The  Holy  Alliance.  —  From  their  armed  alliance  against  Napoleon,  a  cer- 
taiQ  feeling  of  federative  union  seized  the  European  cabinets.  The  astoundiag 
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  strength- 
ened the  belief  in  the  dispositions  of  a  higher  power.  The  effect  on  the  Czar, 
Alexander  I,  was  the  most  peculiar.  Baroness  Juliane  Krudener,  a  reformed  lady 
of  fashion,  compared  him  with  Napoleon  as  "  the  angel  of  light  with  the  angel  of 
darkness,"  and  extolled  him  as  a  "  saviour  of  the  world."  He  had  steeped  himself 
in  the  theosophy  of  Fr.  X.  von  Baader.  Prince  Alexander  Galitzin,  the  friend  of 
his  youth,  had  referred  him  to  the  Bible  as  the  source  of  peace  and  all  wisdom. 
Bible  societies  flooded  Russia ;  touches  of  mysticism  were  kindled  by  the  side  of 
Christianity.  All  this  made  Alexander  susceptible  to  the  new  Magdalene.  She 
had  carried  his  heart  by  storm  one  evening  during  the  campaign  in  Heilbronn ; 
since  then  he  was  her  pupil.  In  June,  1815,  she  lived  at  the  same  time  as  he  did 
in  Heidelberg,  where  they  prayed  together  and  studied  the  Bible.  She  went  with 
him  to  Paris,  and  at  the  request  of  Eichelieu  and  other  Frenchmen,  worked  upon 
Alexander,  so  that  he  offered  especially  favourable  terms  to  France. 

The  Baroness  Krudener  often  spoke  to  Alexander  of  a  Christian  union  of 
nations,  and  stirred  him  to  form  the  Holy  Alliance.     Alexander  put  his  scheme 


88  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  \_chaj>ter  l 

before  her,  and  she  amended  it.  Frederick  William  III  immediately  agreed,  and 
Francis  I,  after  some  deliberation.  On  the  26th  of  September  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 
plenipotentiaries  of  divine  providence  they  promised  to  be  the  fathers  of  their  sub- 
jects and  to  lead  them  in  the  spirit  of  brotherhood,  in  order  to  protect  religion, 
peace,  and  justice ;  and  they  recommended  their  own  peoples  to  exercise  themselves 
daily  in  Christian  priaciples  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  obvi- 
ously excluded,  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.  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  connected  with  it.  In  its  beginnings  the  Alliance 
aimed  at  an  ideal;  and  its  founders  were  sincere  ui  their  purpose.  Hans  von 
Gagern,  C.  von  Schmidt-Phiseldek,  and  others,  were  enthusiastic  for  it.  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 
every  opportunity,  he  deduced  the  right  to  interfere  in  the  internal  affairs  of 
foreign  States.  The  congresses  of  Carlsbad,  Troppau,  Laibach,  and  Verona,  were 
the  offshoots  of  this  unholy  conception. 

In  addition  to  the  Holy  Alliance,  the  Treaty  of  Chaumont  was  renewed.  On 
the  20th  of  November,  1815,  at  Paris,  Eussia,  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  minis- 
ters for  the  purpose.  France,  which  had  so  long  disturbed  the  peace  of  Europe, 
was  to  be  placed  imder  international  police  supervision,  even  after  the  army  of 
occupation  had  left  its  soil.  Gentz  greeted  the  new  treaty  as  the  "  keystone  of  the 
whole  building."  A  conference  of  ambassadors,  sent  by  the  Eour  Courts,  was  to 
meet  every  week  in  Paris.  Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo  (pp.  47  and  m),  played  the  chief 
r6le  at  it.  There  was  no  fear  entertained  of  Louis  XVIII,  but  only  of  the  nation, 
whose  head  he  had  become  for  the  second  time ;  the  fickleness,  instability,  and 
ambition  of  the  French  had  for  centuries  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  world.  And, 
as  the  whole  earth  knew  to  its  cost,  its  leader  for  the  last  twenty  years  had  not 
been  Louis  XVIII,  who  after  the  horrors  of  persecution  and  banishment  sought  for 
rest  and  peace,  but  the  insatiate  glutton  for  conquest,  who,  radiant  with  the  glory 
of  blood-staiaed  battlefields,  could  not  live  without  war.  If  Louis  embodied  the 
principle  of  legitimacy,  and  rested  absolutely  on  the  past,  and  traced  his  claim  to 
the  throne  from  the  blood  of  "thirty-two  good  kings,"  Napoleon  was  a  man  of  the 
present,  who  dated  all  his  career  from  his  cowp  d'etat.  He  manifested  the  most  pro- 
nounced sense  of  actuality,  without  any  veil  of  pretence.  Like  his  mother,  the 
Eevolution,  he  had  broken  with  former  things,  had  closed  the  old  book,  and  begun 
a  new  history  of  the  world,  which  was  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  a  policy  of 
sentimentality,  and  recognised  no  motives  but  those  of  self-interest  and  ambition. 


J::TSTeZutl']       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  89 

(c)  Romanticism.  —  A  striking  contrast  to  the  pronounced  realism  of  the 
Napoleonic  era  was  now  seen  in  romanticism.  The  spirit  which  animated  it 
was  thoroughly  historical,  and  aimed  at  a  revival  of  a  previous  state  of  things ; 
it  was  intimately  dependent  on  history,  and  often  extolled  the  past  at  the  cost  of 
the  present.  The  Eomanticists  were  enemies  of  the  Eevolution  and  advocates 
of  the  Eestoration ;  and  owing  to  them  a  great  stimulus  was  given  to  the  study  of 
history.  The  world  was  weary  of  the  law  of  nature,  and  the  hollow  pretence  of 
the  Eevolution,  which  had  caused  so  much  bloodshed  and  horror,  such  bound- 
less confusion  and  uncertainty  in  all  the  conditions  of  life.  There  was  an  intense 
longing  to  leave  the  sterile  and  perplexing  religion  of  reason  for  the  positive  faith 
which  had  been  forcibly  suppressed,  and  for  the  firmly  founded  Church  of  Christ 
(cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  344) ;  men  learnt  once  more  how  to  pray ;  it  was  possible  to 
know  and  to  believe. 

Eomanticism  was  a  sort  of  voluntary  return  to  the  religion  of  the  past,  and  it 
wished  to  revive  mediaevalism.  Justus  Thibaut  wanted  to  emancipate  Germany 
from  the  Eoman  law,  and  demanded  in  1814  a  universal  civil  code  for  Germany; 
a  very  modern  desire,  but  he  wished  to  build  it  on  the  foundation  of  the  law  of 
nature.  Friedrich  Karl  von  Savigny  immediately  opposed  this  view,  wrote  "  Vom 
Beruf  unsrer  zeit  fur  Gesetzgebung  und  Bechtswissenschaft,"  and  thenceforward  led 
the  school  of  historical  jurisprudence,  which  was  founded  by  Gustav  Hugo.  To 
him  "  law  "  or  "  right "  was  a  means  of  expressing  the  true  nature  of  society,  lan- 
guage the  expression  of  the  social  spirit.  The  dispute,  which  started  in  Heidel- 
berg, between  the  philosophic  and  the  historic  schools  of  law  held  the  juridical 
world  ia  suspense  for  years ;  after  Thibaut,  the  Hegelian  Eduard  Gans  continued 
it  against  Savigny.  Only  through  this  dispute  and  the  new  conceptions  produced 
thereby,  so  men  asserted,  was  jurisprudence  brought  within  the  range  of  science  in 
the  present  meaning  of  the  word.  Savigny  edited  after  1815,  in  collaboration  with 
Karl  Friedrich  Eichhorn  and  Johann  Friedrich  Ludwig  Goschen,  the  "  Zeitschrift 
fiir  geschichtliche  Bechtsioissenschaft ;  "  in  his  "  Geschichte  des  romischen  Bechts  im 
Mittelalter"  (1815-31)  he  proved  the  connection  of  ancient  and  modern  law,  and 
Eichhorn  wrote  his  "Deutsche  Staats-  und  Bechtsgeschichte." 

Freiherr  Karl  vom  Stein  founded  in  January,  1819,  the  "Gesellschaft  fiir  dltere 
deutsche  Geschichtskunde."  He  was  only  too  glad  to  desert  politics  for  history,  and 
had  been  for  years  busied  with  the  idea  of  collecting  and  publishing  the  sources  of 
German  history.  He  now  hoped  for  a  new  renaissance  of  Germany,  and  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  "  Monumenta  Germanise  historica,"  of  which  he  lived  to  see 
two  volumes  appear.  Barthold  Georg  Niebuhr  wrote  between  1811  and  1830  his 
"Bomische  Geschichte,"  from  which  he  excluded  all  the  legends,  while  he  followed 
the  path  of  strict  criticism,  setting  a  model  to  all  workers  in  the  same  field ;  he 
fully  valued  popular  liberty,  but  set  his  face  against  all  excesses.  Augustin 
Thierry  and  Simonde  de  Sismondi  produced  works  of  permanent  value  on  the 
history  of  France,  England,  and  Italy.  Fr.  Chr.  Schlosser,  Friedrich  von  Eaumer 
and  Leopold  Eanke  also  came  to  the  front. 

Eomanticism  endued  aU  the  sciences  with  a  youthful  strength,  and  there  was 
a  revival  in  favour  of  national  individuality  as  compared  with  the  uniformity 
and  artificiality  of  the  fallen  Napoleonic  world  empire.  The  brothers  Jakob  and 
Wilhelm  Grimm  gave  the  German  people  a  grammar  and  a  science  of  Germanic 
philology;  while  Achim  von  Arnim   and  Clemens  Brentano   enriched   it  with 


90  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [chapter  i 

popular  songs  from  the  "  Wunderhom  "  of  the  German  past.  Germanic  paganism 
and  primitive  times  were  no  longer  banned.  Friedrich  Schlegel's  "  Sprache  und 
Weisheit  der  Inder  "  (1808)  was  the  beginning  of  comparative  philology,  a  science 
which  was  to  find  after  1816  its  real  creator  in  Franz  Bopp.  Herder  and  Goethe 
promoted,  each  in  his  own  way,  the  natural  sciences,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
Alexander  von  Humboldt,  the  mighty  hero  of  the  "  century  of  natural  science." 

There  was  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  Holy  Alliance  in  the  effort  of  Karl 
Ludwig  von  Haller,  a  native  of  Berne,  to  revive  the  proprietary  rule  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  The  standard-bearer  of  reactionary  feudalism  fought  against  Eousseau's 
"  Contrat  Social "  and  Kant ;  he  conceived  the  relation  of  ruler  and  subject  abso- 
lutely from  the  point  of  view  of  private  law,  regarded  the  State  as  the  property  of 
the  ruling  dynasty,  and,  as  an  enemy  of  the  constitutional  weakness  of  the  age, 
declared  that  the  ruler  was  not  bound  by  the  oath  to  a  constitution. 

Haller,  like  the  Prussian  Adam  H.  Miiller,  the  opponent  of  Adam  Smith's  doc- 
trines, carried  his  admiration  for  the  past  to  an  extreme ;  both,  without  exception, 
xejected  any  achievements  of  the  Eevolution.  Haller's  chief  work,  "die  Bestaura- 
tion  der  Staatswissenschaft"  (1816-20),  was  a  reflection  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
significant  for  the  age  of  the  Eestoration,  a  catechism  of  reaction.  The  intellectual 
Joseph  Gorres,  awaked  from  the  intoxication  of  the  Eevolution,  dreamt  of  a  world 
other  than  that  around  him,  sighed  for  the  imperialism  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with 
its  feudal  laws,  and  tried,  though  in  vain,  to  combine  the  modern  political  require- 
ments with  the  romanticism  of  the  ages  once  governed  by  the  Church. 

In  France  appeared  Count  Joseph  de  Maistre,  the  bigoted  Savoyard,  whose  first 
article  of  faith  was  that  the  world  which  had  been  thrown  into  confusion  by  the 
Eevolution  could  only  be  reduced  to  order  by  Eome,  and  that  only  the  pope  could 
be  the  true  world-ruler.  ("  Du  Pape,"  1819.)  In  opposition  to  him  stood  Benjamin 
Constant,  who  chiefly  developed  the  constitutional  theory  of  the  State.  Brought 
up  under  the  influence  of  Schiller,  Kant,  and  John  von  Miiller,  he  was  a  warm 
friend  of  personal  liberty,  and  would  hear  nothing  of  the  omnipotence  of  the  State, 
especially  in  the  religious  and  intelleptual  spheres.  With  his  constitutional  views 
he  took  a  peculiar  path  of  reasoning,  which  led  him  from  the  Acte  Additionnel 
(cf.  supra,  p.  79)  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  citizens.  ^ 

Karl  von  Eotteck,  more  radical  than  Constant,  wished  once  nrore  to  secure  for 
the  law  of  reason  a  victory  over  what  had  become  historical,  and  regarded  society 
from  the  standpoint  of  Eousseau ;  his  superficial  and  extravagantly  liberal  "  Allgc- 
meine  Geschichte"  (1813-27),  enjoyed  a  wide  circulation.  Even  if  his  general 
theories  did  not  conform  to  real  life,  Eotteck's  lines  of  thought  were  always  note- 
worthy, and  his  vigorous  onslaught  on  class  privileges  worked  in  the  service  of 
enlightenment.  He  opposed,  however,  universal  suffrage,  since  he  weU  understood 
its  folly.  Similar  views  were  held  by  his  friend  Karl  Theodor  Welcker,  the  chief 
collaborator  in  the  "  Staatslexicon"  (1834-49),  a  man  of  less  vigour,  but  of  greater 
wealth  of  ideas.  He  and  Eotteck  personified  South  German  liberalism  in  the 
chamber.  Friedrich  Christoph  Dahlmann,  a  character  of  the  strictest  integrity, 
showed  by  his  Waterloo  speech  of  1815  that  he  wished  not  merely  to  instruct  but 
to  act  in  politics.  He  urged  men  to  labour  earnestly  at  the  political  renaissance 
of  Germany.  He  advocated  on  principle  the  union  of  life  and  science,  and  was 
equally  at  his  ease  in  the  chair  of  the  professor  and  on  the  platform  of  the  politi- 
.cian,  being  at  once  an  historian  and  a  statesman.     A  friend  of  the  monarchy,  he 


X-;"Afir£tT        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  91 

was  especially  enthusiastic  for  the  constitutional  rights  of  nations,  and  saw  his 
ideal  in  the  British  constitution,  which  he  wished  to  introduce  into  the  continent. 
Thus  even  the  political  ideas  of  these  men  were  more  or  less  abruptly  contrasted 
one  against  the  other. 

The  romantic  poetry  then  flourished  in  Germany  ;  we  need  only  mention  the 
brothers  Schlegel,  Brentano,  Arnim,  Chamisso,  Novalis,  Fouqu^,  and  Tisch,  to  char- 
acterise its  spirit.  Eomantic  music  found  its  most  eloquent  expression  in  Karl 
Maria  von  Weber's  "  Freischiitz."  The  painting  of  romanticism  inspired  Peter 
Cornelius  and  Friedrich  Overbeck ;  the  brothers  Sulpice  and  Melchior  Boisser^e 
established  their  large  collection  of  Old  German  pictures  at  Cologne,  Heidelberg, 
and  Munich.  The  Gothic  style  was  the  prevailing  taste.  Friedrich  Schlegel  was 
the  first  to  appreciate  the  earlier  German  art  by  the  side  of  the  antique;  he  and 
Goethe  pointed  out  the  importance  of  the  two  Van  Eycks  (Vol.  VII,  p.  153),  for  art. 
Goethe  indeed  became  a  father  of  the  history  of  art.  The  clearer  thinkers  among 
the  artists  and  poets  did  not,  for  the  sake  of  the  heavenly  gifts,  forget  the  earthly 
good ;  they  had  a  warm  heart  for  the  welfare  of  their  country.  Cornelius  was 
convinced  that  "  God  wished  to  employ  all  the  splendid  germs  which  lay  in  the 
German  nation,  in  order  from  it  to  spread  a  new  kingdom  of  his  power  and  glory 
over  the  earth."  His  patron,  Louis  I  of  Bavaria,  thought  as  he  did ;  each  was 
the  complement  of  the  other.  Ludwig  Uhland  expected  great  things  from  the 
time  when  "  hope  is  kiudled  with  fresh  light,  and  the  destiny  of  the  people  raises 
the  pen  expectantly."  Although  the  Eomanticists  had  chosen  Goethe  as  their 
leader,  their  extravagance  soon  repelled  him;  they  wandered  off  into  mazes  of 
mysticism,  and  produced  crude  poems  of  mystery  and  marvel. 

Eomanticism  did  not  find  its  home  only  in  German  poetry.  Other  countries 
were  equally  under  its  sway.  The  Scandinavian  poetry  had  a  tinge  of  romanticism, 
though  it  escaped  the  bane  of  sickly  sentiment.  In  the  British  Isles  Kobert  Burns 
and  the  mighty  Walter  Scott,  whom  the  outside  world  admired  as  much  as  his 
own  country,  were  supreme.  France  saw  its  greatest  Eomanticist  in  Francois 
Eend,  Vicomte  de  Chauteaubriand,  the  standard-bearer  of  legitimacy,  who  in  his 
politics  was  too  advanced  a  free-thinker  to  please  the  legitimists.  Italy  looked 
with  justifiable  pride  on  Alessandro  Manzoni  and  Silvio  Pellico.  In  Eussia  the 
romantic  school  of  the  "  Arsamass  "  successfully  combated  the  French  classicism 
of  Gawril  E.  Dershawin. 

The  Eoman  theocracy,  with  the  help  of  the  Eomanticists  who  were  very  friendly 
to  it,  obtained  immense  successes.  With  newly  forged  arms  it  went  into  the  lists 
against  the  Eevolution,  just  as  the  States  of  the  Church  re-emerged  phoenix-like 
from  the  congress  of  Vienna.  Pope  Pius  VII  could  feel  himself  the  conqueror  of 
his  gaoler,  the  prisoner  of  St.  Helena,  whose  lot  he  alone  of  the  sovereigns  tried  to 
alleviate.  Pius  re-established  on  August  7,  1814,  the  Order  of  Jesuits  by  the  brief 
"  SoUicitudo  omnium,"  and  favoured  the  revival  of  the  Inquisition  in  Spain  under 
Ferdinand  VII.  There  were  numerous  conversions  to  the  Eoman  Church,  in  which 
millions  saw  the  only  support  against  the  monster  of  the  Eevolution  (cf.  Vol.  VII, 
p.  343).  We  need  only  remember  Friedrich  Schlegel,  Count  Stolberg,  Adam  Mliller, 
or  Karl  Ludwig  von  Haller,  and  the  conversions  in  the  highest  circles  of  England 
and  Eussia. 

How  triumphant  was  the  language  of  Chateaubriand's  countryman,  the  Breton 
abb^,  Eobert  de  Lamennais  !     He  before  all  others  employed  the  periodical  press 


92  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [_Chapter  T 

for  ultramontane  purposes,  fought  against  indifference  in  religious  matters,  and 
declared  that  the  age  was  powerless  against  the  Church ;  like  de  Maistre  he  deduced 
the  papal  infallibility  from  the  sovereignty  of  the  pope ;  he  adapted  the  ideas  of  de 
Maistre  to  suit  the  people,  and  worked  out  the  notion  that  implicit  obedience  was 
due  to  the  infallible  pope,  who  personified  the  reason  of  the  whole  body.  Schools 
ought  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Church,  and  Jesuits  ought  to  become  the 
keepers  of  the  public  conscience.  The  Vioomte  de  Bonald  and  de  Maistre,  who 
tabooed  all  the  constitutional  governments  of  modern  times,  saw  in  Eome  a  bul- 
wark against  revolution  and  unbelief,  and  longed  for  the  return  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
not  as  they  were  conceived  by  the  Eomanticists,  but  as  a  period  of  theocracy,  and 
overwhelmed  Lamennais  with  commendations.  Alphonse  de  Lamartine  and  Cha- 
teaubriand celebrated  the  praises  of  that  unique  man,  who  knew  how  to  speak  and 
to  write  in  a  style  at  once  powerful  and  popular,  and  who  counselled  a  penitent 
recurrence  to  papal  authority  and  blind  submission  as  the  only  remedy  for  the 
degraded  society  of  Europe. 

The  final  settlement  at  the  congress  of  Vienna,  which  reconstituted  the  Euro- 
pean world  in  the  year  1815,  showed  no  trace  of  the  romantic  feeling;  it  was,  on 
the  contrary,  the  result  of  a  purely  selfish  policy.  No  one  paid  any  regard  to 
nationality  in  the  matter ;  the  nations  were  divided,  according  to  the  Napoleonic 
method,  like  flocks,  and  artificial  agglomerates  were  made  which  did  not  and  could 
not  possess  any  genuine  feeling  of  patriotism.  Only  the  Holy  Alliance  bordered 
on  romanticism.  Metternich,  the  leading  European  minister,  was,  like  his  loyal 
servant,  Friedrich  von  Gentz,  free  from  all  romanticism.  But  among  the  roman- 
ticists, who  willingly  offered  themselves  to  him,  like  Adam  Miiller  and  Friedrich 
von  Schlegel,  he  saw  useful  tools  against  the  liberal  demands  of  the  age  and  against 
the  hated  "  constitutional  craze."  He  was  firmly  resolved  to  keep  Austria  free  from 
that  infirmity.  Metternich  was  convinced  that  the  political  system  of  Europe  as 
remodelled  at  Vienna  was  built  on  permanent  foundations  and  guaranteed  the 
peace  of  the  world  and  the  continuance  of  the  separate  States.  He  wished  to 
maintain  and  strengthen  what  was  already  existent  at  any  cost,  and  looked  there- 
fore with  suspicion  and  disfavour  on  the  nations  who,  after  Napoleon's  fall,  to 
which  they  had  largely  contributed,  demanded,  more  or  less  wildly^?ights,  liberties, 
and  concessions.  He  tried  to  dismiss  them  with  fair  words,  but  they  recurred 
again  and  again,  and  he  could  not  be  rid  of  them.  The  old  friendship  of  the 
Austrian  empire  with  Great  Britain  had  been  newly  consolidated  by  him ;  Castle- 
reagh  and  Wellington  were  sincere  admirers  and  supporters  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
chancellor. 

B.  The  Powers 

(a)  Great  Britain.  —  What  was  the  aspect  of  affairs  then  in  Great  Britain,  the 
much-lauded  country  of  constitutional  freedom  ?  The  results  of  her  foreign  and 
colonial  policy  had  been  brilliant.  William  Pitt,  the  younger  (1759-1806),  had 
taken  care  that  arms,  soldiers,  and  subsidies  were  put  in  play  against  the  Eevolution 
and  against  Napoleon,  and  after  his  death  the  sword  of  Albion  remained  unsheathed 
until  the  hour  of  Waterloo  had  struck ;  and  its  flag  waved  on  everj^  sea  (cf.  Vol. 
VI).  The  fleets  of  the  other  nations  were  annihilated  by  those  of  England,  which 
were  indisputably  the  first  in  the  world.  Great  Britain  had  expanded  in  the  West 
Indies,  had  raised  Canada  to  prosperity,  although  she  could  not  extinguish  the  old 


Xfr^f'Sll™]        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  93 

love  for  France  among  the  population,  had  obtained  territory  in  Africa,  and  by 
means  of  the  company  exercised  dominion  in  the  East  Indies  over  an  empire 
which  was  far  larger  and  more  populous  than  the  mother-country.  The  Sultan 
Tippoo  Sahib  of  Mysore,  a  cautious  ruler  and  a  wary  general,  the  deadly  foe  of  the 
British,  was  conquered,  and  the  power  of  the  Mahrattas  was  brolcen  two  decades 
later  by  the  Marquis  of  Hastings  (1818).  Almost  all  the  States  of  India,  including 
that  of  the  Great  Mogul  in  Delhi,  lost  their  independence  (of.  Vol.  II).  Burmah 
after  a  disastrous  war  forfeited  its  coast  districts  (1826),  and  attempts  were  made 
to  draw  Afghanistan  into  the  sphere  of  British  interests,  a  policy  which  led  to  com- 
plications with  Eussia.  Vast  treasures  were  brought  to  England  from  India,  and 
the  Indian  trade  assumed  unexpected  proportions.  Intrepid  navigators,  who  were 
hot  upon  the  scent  of  James  Cook,  discovered  new  groups  of  islands,  which  were 
brought  into  the  sphere  of  trade.  The  second  treaty  of  Paris  secured  for  the  mis- 
tress of  the  seas  the  possession  of  the  Cape  and  Ceylon,  and  gave  her  with  Gibraltar 
the  command  of  the  strait  between  Europe  and  Africa,  and  with  Malta  that  of  the 
sea-route  from  the  Western  to  the  Eastern  Mediterranean.  "  The  United  States 
of  the  Seven  Ionian  Isles  "  stood  under  British  protection,  but  endured  this  depend- 
ence with  ever-increasing  dissatisfaction,  notwithstanding  all  the  advantages  of  a 
firm  administration.  The  constitution  was  disliked  by  those  who  lived  under  it, 
and  the  power  of  the  British  commissioners  was  resented  as  excessive. 

A  series  of  great  inventions  had  given  the  British  a  sort  of  monopoly  for  the 
manufacture  of  woollen  and  cotton  stuffs.  James  Watt  had  discovered  the  steam 
engine,  Henry  Bell  had  worked  the  first  steamship  on  the  Clyde,  and  with  the 
growth  of  industries  trade  had  rapidly  shot  up.  The  British  commanded  the 
markets  of  the  world  and  directed  almost  all  sea-borne  trade.  Their  total  exports 
amounted  in  the  period  1801-1810  to  £41,000,000  annually.  The  Continental 
System  of  Napoleon  had  in  no  way  effected  the  ruin  of  British  trade,  and  after  the 
removal  of  the  embargo  the  volume  of  export  trade  increased  from  year  to  year. 
The  national  debt,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  had  grown  enormously,  owing  to  the 
long  period  of  war  by  land  and  sea;  in  1817  it  amounted  to  £850,000,000,  and  the 
necessary  interest  on  it  was  correspondingly  great. 

The  slave  trade,  against  which  Thomas  Clarkson,  William  Pitt  the  younger, 
and  WUliam  Wilberforce  had  worked  for  decades,  was  abolished  in  the  British 
Empire  under  GrenviLle's  cabinet  from  the  1st  of  January,  1808.  But  Wilberforce 
wished  for  its  abolition  throughout  the  whole  civilized  world.  He  vsrrote  to  Alex- 
ander I,  Frederick  William  III,  and  Talleyrand,  and  obtained  the  help  of  the  latter 
and  of  Castlereagh  at  the  congress  of  Vienna,  with  the  result  that  France,  Spain, 
and  Portugal  pledged  themselves  to  abolish  the  slave  trade.  He  and  Clarkson 
became  the  vice-presidents  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  1823.  France,  Spain, 
Portugal  and  Brazil  renounced  the  slave  trade ;  Wilberforce  and  his  pupil,  Thomas 
Fowell  Buxton,  did  not  rest  i;ntil  it  was  prohibited  in  the  British  colonies  and  until 
the  Emancipation  Act  of  Earl  Grey's  ministry  (August,  1833),  guaranteed  that  this 
would  be  done.  Twenty  millions  sterling  were  voted  by  parliament  as  compensa- 
tion to  the  owners.  Dahlmann,  in  his  Waterloo  speech  of  1815,  called  the  British 
State  "  the  only  watch-tower  of  freedom  left  in  the  great  flood."  It  stood  in  the 
foreground  commanding  respect,  and  its  constitution  was  universally  admired,  just 
as  Montesquieu  had  already  blindly  admired  it. 

And  yet  the  English  constitution  contained  many  defects  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  pp.  387, 


04  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapter  i 

393).  The  landowning  aristocracy  alone  possessed  the  public  rights,  the  self-gov- 
ernment, of  which  the  nation  was  so  proud.  Their  preponderance  was  felt  even  in 
the  government  of  the  towns.  The  landowners  were  supreme  in  the  army  and  the 
Church,  and  made  the  enfranchised  middle  class  dependent  on  their  wishes. 
Thanks  to  primogeniture  and  strict  entails,  the  landed  interest  displayed  remark- 
able vitality.  The  ruling  families  of  England  escaped  partitions  which  weakened 
and  impoverished  the  German  nobility  and  remained  a  mighty  pillar  of  the  consti- 
tution. Nearly  four-fifths  of  the  available  land  in  the  United  Kingdom  were  in 
their  possession,  and  they  habitually  availed  themselves  of  the  necessities  of  their 
poorer  neighbours  to  increase  their  estates  by  purchase,  and  their  acquisitions  were 
leased  to  tenant  farmers  at  the  highest  possible  rent.  Thus  the  large  estates  were 
formed  and  the  class  of  small  and  middling  freeholders  diminished. 

The  House  of  Lords  was  naturally  on  the  side  of  the  aristocracy,  and  the  latter 
knew  how  to  extend  their  influence  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Flourishing 
towns  like  Birmingham  and  Manchester  were  unrepresented  in  the  Lower  House, 
while  representatives  were  elected  for  a  long  list  of  unimportant "  Eotten  Boroughs," 
in  which  the  votes  of  the  electors  were  habitually  put  up  to  auction.  It  had  long 
been  emphatically  urged  that  such  a  system  was  discreditable,  and  the  elder  Pitt, 
who  had  himself  been  returned  for  a  "  rotten  borough,"  had  uttered  many  protests ; 
but  he  and  his  son  both  finally  left  things  as  they  were.  Although  their  industrial 
prosperity  produced  in  the  middle  classes  a  far  higher  level  of  culture  and  intelli- 
gence than  formerly,  still  they  were  quite  inadequately  represented  in  parliament ; 
and  since  the  rural  districts  contracted  before  the  growth  of  centres  of  industrial 
activity,  agriculture  fell  off  greatly.  The  production  of  goods  in  factories  employing 
machine-power  gave  the  death  blow  to  domestic  industry,  and  workmen  had  to 
submit  to  the  most  shameful  oppression  by  the  great  capitalists.  Eobert  Owen 
(cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  374),  endeavoured  to  promote  more  satisfactory  relations  between 
employers  and  employed ;  and  his  theories  received  a  practical  exemplification  in 
the  industrial  colony  which  he  founded  in  connection  with  his  cotton-mills  at 
New  Lanark.  But  his  example  met  with  hardly  any  imitators ;  he  himself  was 
suspected  by  the  champions  of  the  old  regime  and  its  abuses ;  the  poor  man's  loaf 
became  neither  cheaper  nor  better  for  his  benevolent  experiment.  The  landed 
proprietors  wished  to  sell  their  wheat  dear,  and  procured  proteRive  legislation 
against  the  import  of  corn  from  abroad.  The  price  of  corn  went  up  enormously ; 
and  when  it  fell,  parliament,  acting  entirely  in  the  interests  of  the  landowners, 
passed  the  Act  of  1815,  which  laid  a  heavy  duty  on  the  importation  of  wheat,  rye, 
barley,  etc.  Owen  also  recommended  a  national  system  of  instruction  without 
achieving  any  results ;  but  another  system,  which  he  viewed  with  favour,  that  of 
Bell  Lancaster,  based  on  the  idea  of  mutual  instruction,  came  into  vogue.  The 
question  of  education  as  well  as  the  state  of  the  poor  were  most  urgent  problems 
in  Ireland.  In  order  partially  to  relieve  their  distress  parents  sold  their  children 
to  the  factories,  where  in  spite  of  their  tender  age  they  were  worked  most  unmerci- 
fully (cf.  Vol.  VII,  371) ;  here  again  Owen's  appeal  for  legislation  for  the  protec- 
tection  of  workmen  was  not  immediately  successful.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
mention  that  such  evils  were  bound  to  increase  the  number  of  criminals ;  and  that 
the  condition  ,of  the  prisons  was  revolting. 

A  leading  opponent  of  the  abuses  and  defects  of  the  administration  of  justice 
was  Jeremy  Bentham.     He  advocated  legislative  reform  upon  utilitarian  principles 


^aT«?S"l»]        HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  95 

and  roused  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  Tory  party  by  demanding  reconstruction  of 
parliament.  He  attacked  every  prejudice  which  stood  in  the  way  of  his  suggestion 
with  arguments  drawn  from  the  principle  of  utility ;  his  ideas  met  with  less 
response  in  England  than  in  France  and  in  the  United  States  of  America. 
William  Cobbett,  a  deserter  from  the  Tories,  sounded  a  louder  note ;  he  overstepped 
aU  bounds  in  his  journal, "  The  Weekly  Eegister,"  and  yet  could  never  become  a 
real  friend  of  the  people.  His  plans  of  revolutionary  reform  made  no  impression 
on  parliament,  but  all  the  greater  impression  on  clubs  and  public  meetings; 
Cobbett  became  the  leader  and  counsellor  of  a  democratic  party.  He  incited  the 
masses  against  the  government,  which  he  said  was  the  cause  of  their  misery, 
revived  the  Hampden  and  Union  Clubs,  and  influenced  even  the  ideas  of  the  city. 
Disturbances  broke  out  in  London ;  there  was  talk  of  secret  societies,  and  the 
government  in  1817  temporarily  suspended  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  adopted  extra- 
ordinary measures,  restricted  the  liberty  of  the  press,  and  used  the  soldiery  to  break 
up  riotous  assemblies,  a  course  which  naturally  intensified  their  unpopularity. 

In  foreign  policy  the  British  government  was  closely  identified  with  Austria 
and  entertained  profound  distrust  of  Eussia,  whose  diplomatists  were  ubiquitous, 
while  the  Czar  seemed  much  inclined  to  undertake  a  crusade  against  the  bold 
pirates  of  the  Barbary  States,  whom  England  had  chastised  in  1816,  and  against 
the  Sultan.  Alexander  I  was  the  only  sovereign  who  kept  up  his  army  at  full 
strength  after  the  downfall  of  Napoleon ;  it  may  have  been  that  the  ambitions 
excited  by  Napoleon's  promises  at  Tilsit  and  Erfurt  were  still  fermenting  in  his 
brain. 

The  great  r5le  which  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  Tory,  was  destined  to  play  in  parlia- 
ment, then  began.  The  vigorous  opponent  of  Catholic  emancipation,  he  had 
worked  from  1812  to  1818  in  Ireland,  as  secretary  of  state,  to  secure  good  educa- 
tion and  an  effective  police  force  throughout  the  country ;  by  the  Cash  Payments 
Act,  he  had  succeeded  in  terminating  the  period  of  an  inconvertible  paper  currency, 
while  the  government  endeavoured  to  bolster  up  the  finances  by  the  imposition  of 
new  taxes  on  partially  indispensable  objects.  The  general  discontent  of  the 
people  found  in  August  1819  a  concerted  expression  in  a  monster  procession 
from  Manchester  to  St.  Peter's  Eield ;  the  incendiary  speeches  which  formed  the 
climax  of  the  demonstration  were  interrupted  by  the  charge  of  hussars  and  con- 
stables. This  occurrence,  in  which  many  were  wounded  or  killed,  seemed  to  the 
Opposition,  and  above  all  to  the  radicals,  a  good  pretext  for  accusing  the  government 
of  illegality  and  cruelty,  and  the  cry  of  murder  was  raised  throughout  the  king- 
dom. The  government  replied  by  repressive  measures,  as  it  wished  to  prevent  a 
revolution  and  curb  the  proletariate.  The  home  secretary,  Henry  Addington, 
Viscount  Sidmouth,  like  Castlereagh,  Grenville,  and  others  advocated  the  "  Six 
Acts"  of  1819,  which  conferred  large  powers  on  the  executive  authorities. 

The  sixty  years'  reign  of  George  III,  who  had  long  been  mentally  afflicted, 
ended  on  the  29th  of  January,  1820.  George  III  was  a  man  of  slow  wit,  and  few 
talents,  and  was  filled  with  jealousy  of  great  men  like  the  two  Pitts ;  but  in  spite 
of  deficient  capacity  he  endeavoured  to  govern  personally,  an  action  naturally 
incompatible  with  the  constitution.  The  first  Guelph  king  born  in  England, 
George  III  thought  and  acted  far  more  in  the  British  spirit  than  his  two  predeces- 
sors ;  Hanover  gradually  became  an  appanage  of  the  British  Empire,  while  George 
I  and  George  II  had  always  set  the  interests  of  their  native  land  above  those  of 


96  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [_Chapter  i 

Great  Britain.  Smitten  as  it  were  with  blindness,  George,  whose  worst  fault  was 
obstinacy,  threw  away  the  American  colonies,  declared  with  Lord  North  that  his 
subjects  in  those  parts  were  rebels  and  traitors,  and  preferred  to  lose  a  world  than 
revoke  some  foolish  commands  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  474) ;  "  in  one  campaign  the  crown 
lost  more  territory  than  Alexander  the  Great  had  conquered  in  his  whole  life." 
Eepeated  attempts  on  his  life  showed  how  unpopular  George  was,  and  he  vainly  tried 
to  dam  the  swelling  tide  of  popular  feeling  with  the  help  of  courtly  mmisters. 
He  would  not  hear  of  Catholic  Emancipation.  Himself  a  strictly  orthodox  man, 
of  whom  his  grandfather  had  said  that  he  was  fit  for  nothing  except  to  read  the 
Bible  to  his  mother,  he  declared  that  he  would  sooner  retire  to  a  cottage  or  be 
beheaded  than  break  his  coronation  oath  and  forget  that  he  was  a  Protestant  king. 

George  IV  (Prince  Eegent  since  1811),  who  succeeded  George  III,  led,  it  is 
true,  a  profligate  life,  but  maintained  the  same  attitude  toward  the  Catholics  as  his 
father  and  was  in  this  respect  at  least  emphatically  Protestant.  Since  his  only 
legitimate  daughter,  Charlotte,  had  died  in  1817,  as  the  young  wife  of  Leopold  of 
Saxe-Coburg,  his  brother  William,  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  also  had  no  legitimate 
children,  became  heir  to  the  crown.  George  IV,  a  superficial  voluptuary,  always 
on  the  look-out  for  fresh  liaisons  and  overwhelmed  in  debt,  lived  in  open  hostility 
to  his  imprudent  wife,  Caroline  of  Brunswick,  and  was  on  the  worst  of  terms  with 
his  father.  He,  too,  gradually  became  more  unpopular,  did  nothing  as  a  soldier  or 
a  statesman,  and  began  his  reign  with  the  shameless  trial  of  the  queen ;  he  lost 
his  case  in  the  eyes  of  his  people  and  of  the  world.  Caroline's  powerful  advocate 
in  the  royal  cause  cSlehre,  Henry  Peter,  Baron  Brougham  and  Vaux,  utterly  routed 
the  Premier,  Charles  Jenkinson,  Earl  of  Liverpool,  who  was  George's  adviser. 
The  unhappy  woman,  excluded  from  the  coronation,  died  soon  afterward  from 
chagrin  (1821). 

Eebellious  movements  in  Scotland  and  England  were  quickly  suppressed;  the 
Cato  Street  Conspiracy  of  Thistlewood  against  the  life  of  all  the  ministers  was  op- 
portunely discovered  and  punished  in  1820.  The  visits  of  George  IV  to  Ireland 
(1821),  and  to  Scotland  (1822),  parts  of  the  kingdom  which  none  of  his  three 
predecessors  had  ever  visited,  provoked  boundless  enthusiasm ;  George's  sovereignty 
seemed  to  be  more  firmly  established  there  than  ever. 

(h)  Austria.  —  The  Austrian  State,  totally  disorganised  by  the  period  of  the 
French  Eevolution  and  Napoleonic  wars,  had  nevertheless  succeeded  in  rounding 
off  its  territories  at  the  congress  of  Vienna.  In  internal  affairs  Francis  I  and 
Metternich  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  con- 
servatism. He  saw  a  national  danger  in  any  movement  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  popularity ;  notwithstanding  all  his  keenness  of  observation  and  his 
industry,  he  possessed  no  ideas  of  his  own.  Even  Metternich  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 


IT^iuSuiS:^       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  97 

Mm  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  Frederick  William  III,  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  who  was  really  acceptable  to  him  was  his 
youngest  brother,  the  narrow-minded  and  characterless  Louis.  On  the  other  hand, 
Francis  was  solicitous  for  the  spread  of  beneficial  institutions,  and  for  the  regula- 
tion of  the  legal  system;  in  1811  he  introduced  the  "Universal  Civil  Code,"  and 
in  so  doing  completed  the  task  begun  by  Maria  Theresa  and  Joseph  II.  His  chief 
defect  was  his  love  of  trifling  details,  which  deprived  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  for 
the  future,  but  only  tried  to  check  the  wheel  of  progress  and  to  hold  the  reins 
quietly  with  the  assistance  of  his  henchman  Gentz;  everythiag  was  to  remain 
stationary.  The  police  zealously  helped  to  maintain  this  principle  of  government, 
and  prosecuted  every  free-thinker  as  suspected  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  Franz  G-rillparzer  and 
Joseph  Christian  Freiherr  von  Zedlitz  came  into  collision  with  the  detectives. 
The  censorship  was  blindly  intolerant  and  pushed  its  interference  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 
unprogressive. 

The  Provincial  Estates,  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 
independence,  was  not  disposed  to  descend  from  its  height  to  the  general  insignifi- 
cance 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  the  government  at  Vienna,  which  wished  to  render  the  constitution 
of  Hungary  as  unreal  as  that  of  Carniola  and  Tyrol.  The  indignation  found  its 
expression  chiefly  in  the  assemblies  of  the  counties,  which  boldly  contradicted  the 
arbitrary  and  stereotyped  commands  from  Vienna,  while  a  group  of  the  nobility 
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  exclusive  rule  of  the  nobility.  The  violent  onslaught  of  the 
Eeichstag  against  the  government  led,  it  is  true,  to  no  result ;  the  standard-bearer 
of  that  group  was  Count  Stephen  Sz^cMnyi,  whom  his  antagonist,  Kossuth,  called 
"  the  greatest  of  the  Hungarians." 

The  Archduke  Rainer,  to  whom  the  viceroyalty  of  the  Italian  possessions  had 

been  entrusted,  was  animated  by  the  best  iatention  of  promoting  the  happiness 
VOL.  vni— 7 


98  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [chapter  i 

of  the  Lombardo- Venetian  kingdom,  and  of  familiarising  the  Italians  with  the 
Austrian  rule ;  but  he  was  so  hampered  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  policy  of  the  empire,  and  yet  failed  to 
understand  the  great  diversity  of  social  and  political  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,  both  there  and  in  Ger- 
many, 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  WaUis,  the  finance  minister,  had  devised  a  system  which 
reduced  by  one  fifth  the  nominal  value  of  the  paper  money  —  which  had  risen  to 
the  amount  of  ten  hundred  and  sixty  million  gulden  ■ — •  permanent  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  Philip  Stadion,  the  former 
minister  of  the  interior  (p.  50),  undertook  the  thankless  duties  of  minister  of 
finance.  He  honestly  exerted  himself  to  improve  credit,  introduce  a  fixed  mone- 
tary standard,  create  order  on  a  consistent  plan,  and  with  competent  colleagues  to 
develop  the  economic  resources  of  the  nation.  But  various  financial  measures  were 
necessary  before  the  old  paper  money  could  be  withdrawn  en  bloc,  and  silver  once 
more  put  into  circulation.  New  loans  had  to  be  raised,  which  increased  the 
burden  of  interest,  in  the  years  1816  to  1823,  from  nine  to  twenty-four  millions, 
and  the  annual  expenditure  for  the  national  debt  from  twelve  to  fifty  millions. 
The  National  Bank,  opened  in  1817,  afforded  efficient  help.  If  Stadion  did  not 
succeed  in  remodelling  the  system  of  indirect  taxes,  and  if  the  reorganisation  of 
the  land-tax  proceeded  slowly,  the  attitude  of  Hungary  great*  added  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  position  of  the  great  minister  of  reform,  who  died  in  May,  1824. 
The  State  of  the  Emperor  Francis  was  naturally  the  Promised  Land  of  custom- 
house restrictions  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  government 
buUt  commercial  roads  and  canals,  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  Shipping 
Company.  Eed  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." 

(c)  Prussia.  —  Were  things  better  in  the  rival  State  of  Prussia  ?  Frederick 
William  III  was  the  type  of  a  homely  bourgeois,  a  man  of  sluggish  intellect  and 


^f„7SS«»]       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  99 

of  a  cold  scepticism,  which  contrasted  sharply  with  the  patriotic  fire  and  self-devo- 
tion of  his  people.  His  main  object  was  to  secure  tranquillity  ;  the  storm  of  the 
war  of  liberation,  so  foreign  to  his  sympathies,  had  blown  over,  and  he  now  wished 
to  govern  his  kingdom  in  peace.  Keligious  questions  interested  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  Eeformed  Churches,  and  the  spirit  of  the  age 
seemed  very  favourable  for  the  attempt.  When  the  tercentenary  of  the  Eeform- 
ation  was  commemorated  in  the  year  1817,  he  appealed  for  the  union  of  the  two 
confessions,  and  found  much  response.  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  its  opponents,  although  the  old  tutelage 
of  the  Church  under  the  supreme  bishop  of  the  country  stUl  continued  to  be  felt, 
and  Frederick  William,  both  in  the  secular  and  spiritual  domain,  professed  an  ab- 
solutism which  did  not  care  to  see  district  and  provincial  synods  established  by 
its  side.  The  union,  indeed,  produced  no  peace  in  the  Church,  but  became  the 
pretext  for  renewed  quarrels ;  nevertheless  it  was  introduced  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  conducted  by  the  ambassador  Barthold  G.  Mebuhr,  a  great  historian 
but  weak  diplomatist.  Niebuhr  and  Karl  Freiherr  zum  Altenstein,  the  minister  of 
public  worship,  made  too  many  concessions  to  the  Curia,  and  were  not  a  match  for 
Consalvi  (p.  34),  the  cardinal  secretary  of  state.  On  the  16th  of  July,  1821, 
Pope  Pius  VII  issued  the  bull,  "  Be  salute  animarum,"  which  was  followed  by  an 
explanatory  brief,  "  Quod  de  fidelium."  The  king  confirmed  the  agreement  by  an 
order  of  the  cabinet ;  Cologne  and  Posen  became  archbishoprics,  Treves,  Munster, 
Paderborn,  Breslau,  Kulm,  and  Ermeland  bishoprics,  each  with  a  clerical  seminary. 
The  cathedral  chapters  were  conceded  the  right  of  electing  the  bishop,  who,  how- 
ever, had  necessarily  to  be  a  persona  grata  to  the  king. 

The  trace  did  not  indeed  last  long;  the  question  of  mixed  marriages  led  to 
renewed  controversy  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  343).  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  Ehine  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  VII  conducted  long  negotiations 
with  the  Prussian  ambassador.  Christian  Karl  Josias  Eitter  von  Bunsen,  who, 
steeped  in  the  spirit  of  romanticism,  saw  the  surest  protection  against  the  revolu- 
tion in  a  close  adherence  between  national  governments  and  the  Curia.  Pius  VIIT, 
a  deadly  enemy  of  all  enlightenment,  finally,  by  a  brief  of  1830,  permitted  the  con- 
secration of  mixed  marriages  only  when  the  promise  was  given  that  the  children 
bom  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 
incoherency,  and  the  position  of  Hanover  as  an  excrescence  on  its  body,  but  above 
everything  its  composition  out  of  a  hundred  territorial  fragments  with  the  most 


100  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  {_Chapev  i 

diversified  legislatures  and  the  most  rooted  dislike  to  centralisation,  the  aversion  of 
the  Ehenish  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  (more  than  doubled),  which  was 
welcome  in  itself.  By  unobtrusive  and  successful  labour  the  greatest  efforts  were 
made  toward  establishing  some  degree  of  unity.  The  ideal  of  unity  could  not  be 
universally  realised  in  the  legal  system  and  the  administration  of  justice.  The 
inhabitants,  therefore,  of  the  Ehenish  districts  were  conceded  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-ta;x  system  were  intolerable. 

The  root  idea  of  the  universal  duty  of  bearing  arms,  that  pillar  of  the  mon- 
archy, was  opposed  on  many  sides.  This  institution,  which  struck  deeply  into 
family  life,  met  with  especial  opposition  and  discontent  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 
Frederick  William  suspicious.  His  narrow-minded  but  influential  brother-in-law, 
Duke  Charles  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz,  the  sworn  opponent  of  the  reform  legisla- 
tion of  Stein,  Hardenberg,  and  Scharnhorst,  induced  him  to  believe  that  a  revolu- 
tionary 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  line  should  be  amalgamated.  But  the  originator  of  the  law  of  defence,  the 
minister  of  war,  Hermann  von  Boyen,  resolutely  opposed  this  blissful  necessity. 

An  ordinance  of  April  30, 1815,  divided  Prussia  into  ten  provinces;  but  since 
East  and  West  Prussia,  Lower  Khine  and  Cleve-Berg,  were  soon  united,  the  num- 
ber was  ultimately  fixed  at  eight,  which  were  subdivided  into  administrative 
districts.  Lord-lieutenants  {Oherprasidenten)  were  placed  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
vinces instead  of  the  former  provincial  ministries.  Their  admimstrative  sphere  was 
accurately  defined  by  a  cabinet  order  of  November  3,  1817  ;  mey  represented  the 
entire  government,  and  fortunately  these  responsible  posts  were  held  by  competent 
and  occasionally  prominent  men,  like  Sack,  Von  Vincke,  Von  Btilow,  Merckel,  and 
Von  Schon.  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  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  Frederick  William.  But  the  struggle  with  the  forces  of  local 
particularism  was  long  and  obstinate. 

The  great  period  of  Prince  Hardenberg,  chancellor  of  state,  was  over ;  he  could 
no  longer  master  the  infinity  of  work  which  rested  upon  him,  got  entangled  in  in- 
trigues and  escapades,  associated  with  despicable  companions,  and  immediately 
lost  ground  with  the  king,  himself  the  soul  of  honour ;  his  share  in  the  reorganisa- 
tion of  Prussia  after  the  wars  of  liberation  was  too  small.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
guarded  against  Eoman  encroachment,  and  assiduously  worked  at  the  question  of 
the  Constitution ;  his  zeal  to  realise  his  intentions  there  too  frequently  left  the 


ZTtS^^oi:!!']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  101 

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,  appeared  to  the  reactionaries  as  patrons  of  the  extravagant  enthusiasm 
and  "  Teutonising  "  agitation  of  the  youth,  —  as  secret  democrats,  in  short.  Boyen 
was  the  closest  supporter  of  Hardenberg ;  the  finance  minister,  Count  Billow,  for- 
merly the  distinguished  finance  minister  of  the  kingdom  of  Westphalia,  usually 
supported  him,  while  the  chief  of  the  war  office.  Job  von  Witzleben,  the  insepa- 
rable counsellor  of  the  king,  who  even  ventured  to  work  counter  to  the  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg,  was  one  of  the  warmest  advocates  of  the  reform  of  Stein  and  Har- 
denberg. The  reactionaries,  under  Friedrich  von  der  Marwitz  and  other  opponents 
of  the  great  age  of  progress,  relied  on  the  ministers  of  the  interior  and  of  the  police, 
the  overcautious  Friedrioh  von  Schuckmann  and  Prince  Wilhelm  zu  Sayn-Wittgen- 
stein-Hohenstein.  The  latter  was  a  bitter  enemy  of  German  patriotism  and  the 
Constitution,  and  the  best  tool  of  Metternich  at  the  court  of  Berlin.  The  same 
reactionary  feeling  was  displayed  by  J.  P.  Friedrich  Ancillon,  the  former  tutor 
of  the  crown  prince,  who  now  sat  in  the  foreign  office  and  had  much  influence 
with  the  king  and  crown  prince,  by  Von  Kamptz,  a  privy  coimcillor,  and  others. 

The  reaction,  which  naturally  followed  the  exuberant  love  of  freedom  shown 
in  the  war  of  liberation,  was  peculiarly  felt  in  Prussia.  Janke,  Schmalz,  the 
brother-in-law  of  Scharnhorst,  and  other  place-hunters  clumsily  attacked  in 
pamphlets  the  "  seducers  of  the  people "  and  the  "  demagogues,"  in  order  to  re- 
commend themselves  to  the  governments  as  saviours  of  the  threatened  society. 
They  suspected  the  demand  of  thousands  upon  thousands  for  a  constitution  and 
for  the  abolition  of  the  system  of  petty  States  in  favour  of  a  strong  Germany,  and 
compared  the  fragments  of  the  Tugendbund  with  the  Jacobins  of  France.  The 
indignation  at  these  falsehoods  was  general ;  there  appeared  numerous  refutations, 
the  most  striking  of  which  proceeded  from  the  pen  of  Schleiermacher  and  Niebuhr. 
The  Prussian  and  Wurtemberg  governments,  however,  stood  on  the  side  of  Schmalz 
and  his  companions,  and  rewarded  his  falsehood  with  a  decoration  and  acknow- 
ledgment. Frederick  William  III  indeed  strictly  forbade,  in  January,  1816,  any 
further  literary  controversy  about  secret  combinations,  but  at  the  same  time  re- 
newed the  prohibition  on  such  societies,  at  which  great  rejoicings  broke  out  in 
Vienna.  He  also  forbade  the  further  appearance  of  the  "  Ehenish  Mercury  "  of 
Joseph  Gorres,  which  demanded  a  constitution  and  liberty  of  the  press.  Gneise- 
nau,  to^some  extent  as  an  accomplice  of  Gorres,  was  removed  from  the  general 
command  in  Coblenz,  and  their  friend  Justus  Gruner,  a  "  Teutonised  Jacobin,"  was 
forced  to  retire  from  the  post  of  ambassador  at  Berne.  Wittgenstein's  spies  were 
continually  active.  The  emancipation  of  the  Jews,  in  contradiction  to  the  royal 
edict  of  1812,  lost  ground.  The  act  for  the  regulation  of  landed  property  pro- 
claimed in  September,  1811,  was  "explained"  in  May,  1816,  in  a  fashion  which 
favoured  so  greatly  the  property  of  the  nobles  at  the  cost  of  the  property  of  the 
peasants  that  it  virtually  repealed  the  Eegulation  Act. 

In  the  course  of  the  last  decade  there  had  been  frequent  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.  Hardenberg,  on  the  other 
hand,  fearing  for  his  own  supremacy,  had  contemplated  in  1810  giving  the  council 
a  far  more  modest  rSle.  But  neither  scheme  received  a  trial ;  and  in  many  quar- 
ters a  council  of  state  was  only  thought  of  with  apprehension.     When  then  finally 


102  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  {_Chapter  i 

the  ordinance  of  the  20th  of  March,  1817,  established  the  council  of  state,  it  was 
merely  the  highest  advisory  authority,  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 
taxation,  which  Count  Btilow,  the  finance  minister,  wished  to  carry  out  in  the 
spirit  of  modified  free  trade.  His  schemes  were  very  aggressive,  and  aimed  at 
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  two  hun- 
dred and  seventeen  million  thalers  (£33,000,000),  the  want  of  credit,  and  the  deficit, 
no  idea  of  any  remission  of  taxation  could  be  entertained.  In  fact,  Btilow  de- 
manded an  increase  of  the  indirect  taxes,  a  proposal  which  naturally  hit  the  lower 
classes  very  hard.  WilheLm  von  Humboldt  headed  the  opponents  of  Btilow,  and 
a  bitter  struggle  broke  out.  The  notables  convened  in  the  provinces  to  express 
their  views  rejected  Billow's  taxes  on  meal  and  meat,  but  pronounced  in  favour  of 
the  direct  personal  taxation,  graduated  according  to  classes,  which  was  warmly 
recommended  by  the  great  statistician  Joh.  Gottfried  Hoffmann,  a  member  of  the 
council  of  state. 

Biilow  was  replaced  as  finance  minister  at  the  end  of  1817  by  Wilhelm  Anton 
von  Klewitz,  the  extent  of  whose  office  was,  however,  much  diminished  by  all  sorts 
of  limitations,  and  received  the  newly  created  post  of  minister  of  trade  and  com- 
merce. At  the  same  time  Altenstein  became  sole  minister  of  public  worship  and 
instruction,  departments  which  had  previously  been  reckoned  under  the  ministry 
of  the  interior ;  and  Boyen  became,  as  it  were,  a  second  minister  of  justice  by  the 
side  of  Kircheisen,  —  a  shufiiing  of  offices  which  could  not  conduce  to  any  solidity 
or  unity.  In  Altenstein,  who  between  1808  and  1810  had  failed  to  distinguish 
himself  as  finance  minister,  Prussia  possessed  a  born  minister  of  public  worship. 
In  spite  of  many  unfavourable  conditions  he  put  the  educational  system  on  a 
sound  footing;  he  was  splendidly  supported  by  the  prominent  schoolmaster 
Johannes  Schulze,  by  Georg  Heinrich,  Ludwig  Nicolovius,  and  others,  and  directed 
the  department  for  twenty -three  years,  under  the  influence  of  Hegel's  philosophy ; 
he  introduced  in  1817  the  provincial  bodies  of  teachers,  advocated  universal  com- 
pulsory attendance  at  school,  encouraged  the  national  schools,  and  was  instrumental 
in  uniting  the  University  of  Wittenberg  with  that  of  Halle,  aiM  in  founding  the 
University  of  Bonn  (1818). 

Btilow,  a  pioneer  in  his  own  domain,  not  inferior  to  Altenstein  in  the  field  of 
Clmrch  and  school,  administered  the  customs  department,  supported  by  the  shrewd 
Karl  Georg  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  the  1st  of  August,  1817,  sanctioned  for  all  time  the 
principle  of  free  importation,  and  Maassen  drew  up  the  Customs  Act,  which  became 
law  on  May  26,  1818,  and  came  into  force  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  the  8th  of  February,  1819,  exempted  from  taxation  out  of 
the  list  of  inland  products  only  wine,  beer,  brandy,  and  leaf  tobacco ;  on  the  30th 
of  May,  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 


Zl'oTitSl!^]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  103 

and  scope  for  expansion.  It  mattered  little  if  manufacturers  complained,  so  long 
as  the  national  prosperity,  which,  was  quite  shattered,  was  revived.  Prussia  grad- 
ually 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 
and  popular  representation,  promised  by  the  king  by  the  edict  of  May  22,  1815  ? 
The  commission  promised  for  this  purpose  was  not  summoned  until  the  30th  of 
March,  1817.  Hardenberg  directed  the  proceedings  since  it  had  assembled  on 
July  7  in  Berlin,  sent  Altenstein,  Beyme,  and  Klewiz  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  progress  in  the  question  of  the  constitution  and  to  release  the  royal  word 
which  had  been  pledged ;  Frederick  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. 

(d)  German  Federation.  —  The  federal  diet,  the  union  of  the  princes  of  Ger- 
many, owed  its  existence  to  the  Act  of  Federation  of  the  8th  of  June,  1815,  which 
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  in- 
corporated into  other  political  bodies  or  be  incorporated  afresh ;  that  the  Act  of 
Federation  involved  the  implicit  recognition  of  this  necessity  (Answer  of  Humboldt 
to  the  House  of  Arenburg,  December  7,  1816).  The  Act  of  Federation  pleased 
hardly  anyone,  not  even  its  own  designers,  and  the  most  caustic  criticisms  were 
uttered  by  journalistic  circles ;  Luden's  "  Nemesis  "  said,  "  The  German  federation 
•  is  a  puzzle  and  a  disgrace,"  and  the  "  Elienish  Mercury  "  of  Gorres  scoffed  at  "  the 
Act  of  Federation,  that,  after  all  the  efforts  of  the  accoucheur,  came  into  the  world 
stUl-born,  and  was  doomed  before  it  saw  the  light." 

The  opening  of  the  federal  diet,  convened  for  the  1st  of  September,  1815,  was 
again  postponed,  siace  negotiations  were  taking  place  in  Paris,  and  there  were  vari- 
ous territorial  disputes  between  the  several  federal  States  to  be  decided.  Austria 
was  scheming  for  Salzburg  and  the  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  dying  out,  and  Baden  was  confronted  with  the  danger  of  dismem- 
berment. The  two  chief  powers  disputed  about  Mayence  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  26, 1815,  Wurtemberg  on 


104  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [chaj^teri 

September  1.  Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  Austria  and  Prussia  permission 
was  given  to  Eussia,  Great  Britain,  and  France  to  have  ambassadors  at  Frankfurt, 
while  the  federation  had  no  permanent  representatives  at  the  foreign  capitals. 
Many  of  the  South  German  courts  regarded  the  foreign  ambassadors  as  a  support 
against  the  leading  German  powers ;  the  secondary  and  petty  States  were  most 
afraid  of  Prussia.  Finally,  on  the  5th  of  November,  1816,  the  Austrian  ambas- 
sador, Johann  Eudolf  Count  Buol-Schauenstein,  opened  the  meeting  of  the  federa- 
tion in  Frankfurt  with  a  speech  transmitted  by  Mettemich.  On  all  sides  members 
were  eager  to  move  resolutions,  and  Mettemich  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  com- 
plete defeat  at  his  hands.  The  question  of  the  military  organisation  of  the  feder- 
ation was  very  inadequately  solved.  When  the  Barbary  States  in  1817  extended 
their  raids  in  search  of  slaves  and  booty  as  far  as  the  North  Sea,  and  attacked 
merchantmen  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  251),  the  Hanseatic  towns  lodged  complaints  before 
the  federal  diet,  but  the  matter  ended  in  words.  The  ambassador  of  Baden,  re- 
calling 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  maritime  powers ;  the  question  of  a  German  fleet  was  dropped.  Nor  was 
more  done  for  trade  and  commerce ;  the  mutual  exchange  of  food-stuffs  was  stni 
fettered  by  a  hundred  restrictions. 

How  did  the  matter  stand  with  the  performance  of  the  thirteenth  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  5,  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  wisdom  of  each  several  government."  Austria 
and  Prussia,  like  most  of  the  federal  governments,  rejoiced  at  this  evasion ;  it  mat- 
tered nothing  to  them  that  the  peoples  were  deceived  and  discontented.  The  same 
evasion  was  adopted  in  the  case  of  Article  XVIII,  on  the  libertv  of  the  press.  The 
north  of  Germany,  which  had  hitherto  lived  apparently  urflristurbed,  and  the 
south,  which  was  seething  with  the  new  constitutional  ideas,  were  somewhat  ab- 
ruptly divided  on  this  point. 

In  Hanover  the  feudal  system,  which  had  been  very  roughly  handled  by  West- 
phalian  and  French  rulers,  returned  cautiously  and  without  undue  haste  out  of  its 
lurking-place  after  the  restoration  of  the  House  of  Guelph.  In  the  general  Landtag 
the  landed  interest  was  enormously  in  the  preponderance.  Count  Miinster-Leden- 
burg,  who  governed  the  new  kingdom  from  London,  sided  with  the  nobility ;  the 
constitution  imposed  in  1814  rested  on  the  old  feudal  principles.  The  estates  sol- 
emnly announced  on  the  17th  of  January,  1815,  the  union  of  the  old  and  new  ter- 
ritories into  one  whole,  and  on  the  7th  of  December,  1819,  Hanover  received  a 
new  constitution  on  the  dual-chamber  system,  and  with  complete  equality  of 
rights  for  the  two  chambers.  The  nobility  and  the  official  class  were  predomi- 
nant. There  was  no  trace  of  an  organic  development  of  the  commonwealth ;  the 
nobility  conceded  no  reforms,  and  the  people  took  little  interest  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  chambers. 


JT^iuEZStu^       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  105 

The  preponderance  of  the  nobility  was  less  oppressive  in  Brunswick.  George  IV 
acted  as  guardian  of  the  young  duke,  Charles  II,  and  Count  Munster  in  Lon- 
don conducted  the  affau-s  of  state,  with  the  assistance  of  the  privy  council  of 
Brunswick,  and  promoted  the  material  interests  of  the  State,  and  the  country  re- 
ceived on  the  25th  of  April  in  the  "  renewed  system  of  States  "  a  suitable  consti- 
tution. 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  despicable  caprice  and  license  now  began ;  Charles  insulted  King  George  IV, 
and  challenged  Munster  to  a  duel.  Finally  the  federal  diet  intervened  to  end  the 
mismanagement,  and  everything  grew  ripe  for  the  revolution  of  1830  (p.  150). 

In  the  kingdom  of  Saxony,  so  reduced  in  territory  and  population,  matters  re- 
turned to  the  old  footing.  Frederick  Augustus  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,  Detlev  Count  Einsiedel,  con- 
sidered that  the  highest  political  wisdom  was  to  persevere  in  the  old  order  of 
things.  Industries  and  trade  were  fettered,  and  there  was  a  total  absence  of  ac- 
tivity. The  officials  were  as  narrow  and  one-sided  as  the  statesmen.  In  the  fed- 
eration Saxony  always  sided  with  Austria,  being  full  of  hatred  of  Prussia ;  Saxony 
was  only  important  in  the  development  of  art.  Even  under  King  Anton  (after 
May,  1827)  everything  remained  in  the  old  position.  Einsiedel's  statesmanship  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  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  common ;  trades  and  indus- 
tries were  stagnant.  Even  Oldenburg  was  content  with  "  political  hibernation." 
Frankfort-on-Main  received  a  constitution  on  the  18th  of  October,  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  absolutely.  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 
everything  back  to  the  footing  of  1806,  when  he  left  his  country;  he  declared  the 
ordinances  of  "his  administrator  JdrQme  "  not  to  be  binding  on  him,  recognised  the 
sale  of  domains  as  little  as  the  advancement  of  Hessian  officers,  but  wished  to 
make  the  fullest  use  of  that  part  of  the  Westphalian  ordinances  which  brought 
him  personal  advantage.  He  promised,  indeed,  a  liberal  representative  constitu- 
tion, but  trifled  with  the  Landtag,  and  contented  himself  with  the  promulgation  of 
the  unmeaning  family  and  national  law  of  March  4,  1817.  When  he  died,  unla- 
mented,  in  1821,  the  still  more  capricious  and  worthless  regime  of  William  II 
began,  which  was  marked  by  debauchery,  family  quarrels,  and  public  discontent. 
Far  more  edifying  was  the  state  of  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  reaction  after  the  conference 
at  Carlsbad.     He  gave  Hesse  on  the  17th  of  December  (18th  of  March),  1820,  a 


106  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [Chaj^teri 

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  Ehenish  Confederation,  Fred- 
erick of  Wurtemberg,  readily  noticed  the  increasing  discontent  of  his  subjects,  and 
wished  to  meet  it  by  the  proclamation  of  January  11,  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  15,  these  promptly 
rejected  it.  The  excitement  in  the  country  increased  amid  constant  appeals  to  the 
"  old  and  just  right."  Frederick  tried  to  propitiate  them  by  the  mediation  of  Karl 
August  Freiherr  von  Wangenheim ;  but  the  estates  put  no  trust  in  his  proffered 
arrangement.  Frederick  died  in  the  middle  of  the  dispute  on  October  30,  1816. 
Under  his  son  William  I,  who  was  both  chivalrous  and  ambitious,  a  better  time 
dawned  for  Wurtemberg.  But  the  estates  offered  such  opposition  to  him  that  the 
constitution  was  not  formed  until  September  25, 1819  ;  the  first  diet  of  1820-1821, 
on  the  contrary,  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  Ehine,  and  formed  out  of  it  the  Ehenish  Pala- 
tinate (Ehenish  Bavaria),  whose  population  remained  for  a  long  time  as  friendly 
to  France  as  Bavaria  was  hostile.  "  Father  Max  "  certainly  did  his  best  to  amal- 
gamate 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  of  the  blame  attached  to  this  policy  might  seem  to  be 
unjustified.  His  most  dangerous  opponents  were  the  crown  prince  Louis,  with 
his  leaning  toward  romanticism  and  his  "  Teutonic "  sympathies  and  hatred  of 
France,  and  Field-marshal  Karl  Philipp,  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  downfaE  of  the  hated 
Frenchman.  Montgelas'  constitution  of  May  1, 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  Bavari^  should  be  a  con- 
stitutional State,  a  model  to  the  whole  of  Germany.  Montgelas  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  2,  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  another.  The  Concordat  of  June  5,  1817,  signified  a  complete  victory  of 
the  Curia,  and  was  intolerable  in  the  new  state  of  Bavarian  public  opinion ;  the 
"  kingdom  of  darkness  "  stood  before  the  door.  The  crown  met  the  general  dis- 
content by  admitting  into  the  constitution  some  provisions  guaranteeing  the  rights 
of  Protestants,  and  thus  naturally  furnished  materials  for  further  negotiations  with 
the  Curia.  On  May  26,  1818,  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  Ehenish-Palatinate  were  opened  up  to  Bavaria  by 


ZTtkfEZiuH!^']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  107 

arrangements  with  Austria.  The  ruling  house  of  Zahringen,  except  for  an  an  ille- 
gitimate line,  was  on  the  verge  of  extinction,  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  Czar  Alexander,  his  brother-in-law,  Charles  had 
already  announced  to  Metternich  and  Hardenberg  in  Vienna  on  the  1st  of  De- 
cember, 1814,  that  he  wished  to  introduce  a  representative  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  constitu- 
tional question.  The  Bavarian  craving  for  Baden  territory  became  more  and  more 
threatening.  A  more  vigorous  spirit  was  felt  in  the  Baden  ministry  after  its  reor- 
ganisation. At  last,  on  the  4th  of  October,  Charles,  by  a  family  law,  proclaimed 
the  iudivisibility  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.  Fried- 
rich  Karl  Freiherr  von  Tettenborn,  Siegmund  Freiherr  von  Eeitzenstein,  Karl 
August  Barnhagen  von  Ense,  and  others  worked  upon  public  opinion  in  Europe, 
and  upon  the  failing  Grand  Duke  Charles.  Eussia,  first  and  foremost  of  the 
powers,  was  forced  to  influence  him.  The  solution  throughout  Germany  was  said 
to  be  a  constitution ;  Baden  was  now  forced  to  try  to  anticipate  Bavaria  in  making 
this  concession.  Even  the  emperor  Alexander  opened  the  first  diet  of  his  kiug- 
dom  of  Poland  on  the  basis  of  the  Constitution  of  1815,  and  took  the  occasion  to 
praise  the  blessiug  of  liberal  institutions.  Then  Bavaria  got  the  start  of  Baden. 
Tettenborn  and  Eeitzenstein  represented  to  Charles  that  Baden  must  make  haste 
and  create  a  still  more  liberal  constitution.  Karl  Friedrich  Nebenius  drew  up  the 
scheme.  Finally,  on  the  22d  of  August,  1818,  Charles  signed  the  constitution.  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  the  4th  of  October,  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  Wer- 
theim,  and  received  from  Austria  Hohengeroldseck.  The  congress  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  had  also  pronounced  in  favour  of  Baden  (1818). 

Nassau,  before  the  rest  of  Germany,  had  received,  on  the  2d  of  September,  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  3,  1818,  and  a  tedious  dispute 
soon  broke  out  about  the  crown  lands  and  State  property.  The  minister  of  state, 
Ernst  Freiherr  von  Bieberstein,  a  particularist  and  reactionary  of  the  purest  water, 
adopted  Metternich's  views.  In  popular  opinion  the  credit  of  the  first  step  was 
not  given  to  Nassau,  because  it  delayed  so  long  to  take  the  second. 

(e)  Young  Germany.  —  Among  the  youth  of  Germany  the  patriotic  songs  of 
Ernst  Moritz  Arndt  continued  to  sound,  even  when  the  sword  was  replaced  in  its 
sheath.  Friedrich  Ludwig  Jahn,  the  old  Lutzower,  the  son  of  a  priest  from  Prieg- 
nitz,  trained  the  bodies  of  the  young  after  the  Spartan  fashion  in  gymnastics,  but 


108  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  ichapter  i 

his  theories  involved  much  that  was  debatable  and  unnatural.  He  found  pleasure 
in  brutality  and  contempt  of  outward  formalities,  in  foolish  political  invectives, 
and  thus  repelled  nobler  natures.  Even  men  of  incontestably  liberal  views,  as 
Hendrik  Steffens  and  Karl  von  Eaumer,  resolutely  opposed  the  "  Turnvater,"  who 
had  taken  a  bad  course.  Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte,  the  philosopher,  believed,  as 
early  as  1811,  in  the  beneficial  effect  which  a  league  of  German  students  would 
produce,  and  the  first  attempt  in  such  a  direction  was  made  in  1814  by  the  brothers 
August  Adolf  Ludwig  and  Karl  Pollen,  at  the  University  of  Giessen.  But  Jena 
soon  surpassed  "the  Blacks"  and  their  rules,  the  "Mirror  of  Honour."  The 
"  Burschenschaft,"  or  Students'  Association,  was  formed  there  after  bloody  struggles 
with  the  brutalised  provincial  associations  {Landsmannschqften).  Assuming  the 
colours  of  Liitzow,  black,  red,  gold,  it  aimed  at  a  united  Germany  and  the  union 
of  all  German  students;  its  activity  began  on  the  12th  of  June,  1815,  and  was 
at  first  free  from  the  taint  of  party  spirit.  It  rapidly  spread  from  Jena  to  other 
universities,  and  in  order  to  facilitate  more  intimate  relations  between  the  mem- 
bers, a  friendly  conference  for  the  18th  of  October,  1817,  was  proposed.  This  was 
intended  to  take  place  in  the  country  of  Charles  Augustus,  on  the  soil  which 
nurtured  the  most  liberal  press  in  Germany.  Some  hundreds  of  students,  entirely 
Protestant,  simultaneously  commemorated  on  the  Wartburg  the  memory  of  the 
battle  of  liberation  at  Leipsic  and  the  tercentenary  of  Luther's  appearance  at 
Wittenberg.  The  proceedings  of  the  commemoration  were  at  first  dignified  and 
free  from  political  animosity  ;  but  then  the  meeting  turned  to  the  discussion  of 
politics,  and,  following  the  example  once  set  by  Luther,  committed  to  the  flames 
a  number  of  books  on  political  science  and  other  subjects,  which  seemed  detestable 
to  them  as  retrogressive,  and  thundered  out  a  Fereat !  at  all  "  scoundrelly  followers 
of  Schmalz."  This  soon  roused  the  governments.  The  fear  of  serious  conse- 
quences was  prominent  in  Munich,  Dresden,  Vienna,  and  Berlin.  Weimar  and 
Jena  were  decried  as  the  nests  of  Jacobinism,  and  Charles  Augustus  heard  the 
bitterest  reproaches  from  Metternich  and  Hardenberg.  The  Prussian  government 
even  thouglit  of  sending  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  men  to  Weimar,  and  of  cur- 
tailing academic  liberty.  But  Charles  Augustus  extended  his  protection  to  the 
"  Burschenschaft "  and  academic  liberty,  although  he  blamed  thaip  extravagances. 
Since  Weimar  and  not  Berlin  was  the  focus  of  German  literature,  and  Charles 
Augustus  its  patron  in  place  of  Frederick  the  Great,  German  freedom  had  nothing 
to  hope  for  under  Frederick  William  III,  and  it  sought  the  protection  of  the  former 
student  (Altbursch)  Charles  Augustus. 

(/)  Aix-la-Ghapelle.  —  Eussia,  Great  Britain,  Austria,  and  Prussia  had  decided 
on  ISTovember  20,  1815,  that  periodical  congresses  were  desirable  in  order  to 
consult  about  the  welfare  of  Europe;  the  first  met  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  showed 
Europe  that  an  aristocratic  league  of  powers  stood  at  its  head.  Alexander,  Francis, 
and  Frederick  William  appeared  in  person  accompanied  by  numerous  diplomatists, 
among  them  Metternich,  Gentz,  Hardenberg,  Humboldt,  Nesselrode,  Pozzo  di  Borgo, 
and  Capodistrias  ;  France  was  represented  by  Eichelieu ;  Great  Britain,  by  Welling- 
ton, Castlereagh,  and  Canning.  The  chief  question  to  be  decided  by  the  conferences, 
which  began  on  September  .30,  1818,  was  the  evacuation  of  France.  The  Duke  of 
Eichelieu  obtained  on  October  9  an  agreement  according  to  which  France  should 
be  evacuated  by  the  allied  troops  before  the  30th  of  November,  1818,  instead  of 


Xfr^A^SS™]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  109 

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  quin- 
tuple alliance  by  securing  the  admission  of  France  as  a  member  into  the  quadruple 
alliance.  It  is  true  that  France  was  received  on  November  15  into  the  federation  of 
the  great  powers,  and  that  it  joined  the  Holy  Alliance ;  but  the  reciprocal  guarantee 
of  the  five  great  powers,  advocated  by  Alexander  and  Ancillon,  did  not  come  to 
pass,  and  the  four  powers  renewed  in  secret  on  November  15  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  itelf  also  with  other  Eiiropean  questions 
without  achieving  any  successes,  and  increased  the  severity  of  the  treatment  of  the 
exile  on  St.  Helena. 

Alexander  I  of  Kussia,  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,"  the  powerful 
Count  Araktcheieff.  Although  art,  literature,  and  science  flourished  in  his  reign, 
although  the  fame  of  Alexander  Pushkin  was  at  its  zenith,  yet  the  fear  of  revolu- 
tion, assassination,  and  disbelief  cast  a  lengthening  shadow  over  the  policy  of  Alex- 
ander, and  he  governed  in  a  mystic  reactionary  spirit.  Michail  Speransky  seemed 
to  have  laboured  for  no  purpose.  Various  occurrences  in  Germany  heightened 
Alexander's  distrust  of  the  love  of  freedom  and  the  idealism  of  the  nations. 

When  it  became  apparent  that  Alexander  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  Present  Condi- 
tion of  Germany,"  which  was  directed  against  the  freedom  of  study  in  the  univer- 
sities and  the  freedom  of  the  press,  when  put  before  the  Czar  at  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
intensified  his  suspicious  aversion  to  all  that  savoured  of  liberty.  The  conference 
of  ambassadors  at  Paris  (p.  88)  was  declared  closed.  The  greatest  concord 
seemed  to  reign  between  the  five  great  powers  when  the  congress  ended  on  the 
21st  of  November. 

(g)  Richelieu.  —  Eichelieu  saw  with  horror  the  growth  of  the  revolutionary 
spirit  in  France,  and  he  therefore  advised  that  it  should  be  opposed  by  every 
means.  The  Conscription  Act  of  March  10,  1818,  which  completely  transformed 
the  army,  was  his  work ;  to  him  France  owed  the  friendly  and  mild  treatment 
which  she  experienced  from  the  allies  and  the  evacuation  of  her  soil  by  the  foreign 
soldiers.  But  the  intended  alteration  of  the  disastrous  Electoral  Law  of  1817 
led  to  Eichelieu's  retirement  on  December  29,  1818. 

The  ministry  of  Dessoles,  which  now  took  the  lead,  was  dominated  by  Eiche- 
lieu's rival,  the  favourite  Elie  Decazes,  who  became  minister  of  the  interior.  An 
arrangement  was  effected  with  the  Curia  on  August  23, 1819.  Freedom  of  the 
press  was  encouraged,  and  the  extraordinary  laws  against  the  liberty  of  the  subject 
were  repealed.  The  ministry,  however,  at  one  time  inclined  to  the  constitu- 
tionalists, at  another  to  the  ultra  royalists,  and  thus  forfeited  the  confidence  of 
all,  and  depended  on  the  personal  and  vacillating  policy  of  the  king,  while  the 
intensity  of  party  feeling  was  increased.  Even  a  great  batch  of  new  peers  in 
March,  1819,  did  not  give  the  crown  the  hoped-for  parliamentary  support.     An 


110  HISTORY    OF  THE   WORLD  Icimpteri 

alteration  of  the  Electoral  Law  seemed  imperative ;  it  was  essential  to  show  fight 
against  the  Left.  On  the  20th  of  November,  1819,  the  country  learnt  that  Dessoles 
was  dismissed  and  Decazes  had  become  first  minister.  The  vacillating  policy  of 
Decazes  quickly  estranged  all  parties,  and  they  only  waited  for  an  opportunity  to 
get  rid  of  him.  On  the  13th  of  February,  1820,  the  king's  nephew,  Charles  Ferdi- 
nand, Duke  of  Berry,  the  only  direct  descendant  of  Louis  XV  from  whom  children 
could  be  expected,  was  stabbed  at  the  opera,  and  the  ultras  dared  to  utter  the  lie 
that  Decazes  was  the  accomplice  of  Louvel  the  murderer.  The  royal  family 
implored  the  monarch  to  dismiss  his  favourite,  and  Louis  dismissed  Decazes  on 
February  21,  1820.  Eichelieu  became  first  minister  once  more. .  Decazes  went  to 
London  as  ambassador,  and  received  the  title  of  duke.  This  compulsory  change  of 
ministers  seemed  to  the  king  like  his  own  abdication.  Ezceptional  legislation 
against  personal  freedom  was  indeed  necessary,  but  it  increased  the  bitterness  of 
the  radicals,  who  were  already  furious  at  the  menace  of  the  Electoral  Law  of 
1817.  Matters  came  to  bloodshed  in  Paris  in  June,  1820  ;  the  Eight,  however, 
carried  the  introduction  of  a  new  electoral  law.  The  abandonment  of  France  to 
the  noisy  emancipationists  standing  on  the  extreme  Left  was  happily  diverted. 
Eichelieu  administered  the  country  in  a  strictly  monarchical  spirit,  but  never 
became  the  man  of  the  ultra  royalists  of  the  Pavilion  Marsan  (p.  86). 

(A.)  Carlsbad.  —  If  Metternich  looked  toward  Prussia,  he  saw  the  king  in  his 
element,  and  Hardenberg  in  continual  strife  with  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt ;  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  contemplated  the  repeal  of  the  Constitution.  In  Baden,  where 
Eotteck  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  hitter 
that  Louis,  on  the  28th  of  July,  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  tri- 
umph on  March  23,  1819,  by  the  bloody  deed  of  the  student  Karl  Ludwig  Sand. 
It  had  become  a  rooted  idea  in  the  limited  brain  of  this  fanatic  iJ^at  the  dramatist 
and  Eussian  privy  councillor,  August  von  Kotzebue,  was  a  Eussmn  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  conspiracy  of  the  student  associations  where  Sand 
had  studied.  Charles  Augustus  saw  that  men  looked  askance  at  him,  and  his  steps 
for  the  preservation  of  academic  liberty  were  unavailing. 

Metternich  possessed  the  power,  and  made  full  use  of  it,  being  sure  of  the 
assent  of  the  majority  of  German  governments,  of  Eussia,  and  of  Great  Britain ; 
even  from  France  approval  was  showered  upon  him.  Frederick  William  III, 
being  completely  ruled  by  Prince  Wittgenstein  and  Kamptz,  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 ;  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.     Haste  was  urgent,  as  it  seemed,  for  on  July  1, 


ZT^7iuSit^:'\       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  111 

1819,  Sand  had  already  found  an  imitator.  Karl  Loniag,  an  apothecary's  appren- 
tice, attempted  to  assassinate  at  Schwalbach  Karl  von  Ibell,  the  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  assas- 
sin committed  suicide  after  his  attempt  had  failed.  In  Prussia  steps  were  now 
taken  to  pay  domicUary  visits,  confiscate  papers,  and  make  arrests.  Jahn  was 
sent  to  a  fortress,  the  papers  of  the  bookseller  Georg  Andreas  Eeimer  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  which  the  bailiffs  chose  to  take.  Protests  were  futile.  Personal  freedom  had 
no  longer  any  protection  against  the  tyranny  of  the  police.  The  secrecy  of  letters 
was  constantly  infringed,  and  the  government  issued  falsified  accounts  of  an  in- 
tended revolution. 

On  July  29  Frederick  William  and  Mettemich  met  at  Teplitz.  Mettemich 
strengthened  the  king's  aversion  to  grant  a  general  constitution,  and  agitated 
against  Hardenberg's  projected  constitution.  On  August  1  the  contract  of  Teplitz 
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  universities,  and  article  13  of  the  Act  of  Federation  was  to  be  explained  in 
a  corresponding  sense.  Mettemich  triumphed,  for  even  Hardenberg  seemed  to 
submit  to  him. 

Mettemich  returned  with  justifiable  self-complacency  to  Carlsbad,  where  he 
found  his  selected  body  of  diplomatists,  and  over  the  heads  of  the  federal  diet  he 
discussed  with  the  representatives  of  a  quarter  of  the  governments,  from  August  6 
to  31,  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.  Mettemich  wished  to  grant  to  the  federal  diet  a  stronger 
influence  on  the  legislation  of  the  several  States,  and  through  it  indirectly  to  guide 
the  governments,  unnoticed  by  the  public.  The  interpretation  of  article  13  of  the 
Act  of  Federation  was  deferred  to  ensuing  conferences  at  Vienna,  and  an  agree- 
ment 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  num- 
bers, 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  com- 
missioners appointed  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  May- 
ence  to  investigate  the  treasonable  revolutionary  societies  which  had  been  dis- 
covered, but,  by  the  distinct  declaration  of  Austria,  such  commission  should  have 
no  judicial  power.  A  preliminary  executive  order  (to  terminate  after  August, 
1820)  was  intended  to  secure  the  carrying  out  the  resolutions  of  the  federation 
for  the  maintenance  of  internal  tranquillity,  and  in  given  cases  military  force  might 
be  employed  to  effect  it. 

On  the  1st  of  September  the  Carlsbad  conferences  ended,  and  the  party  of 
reaction  sang  their  Te  Deum.     Austria  appeared  to  be  the  all-powerful  ruler  of 


112  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chaperi 

Germany.  "  A  new  era  is  dawning,"  Metternich  wrote  to  London.  The  federal 
diet  accepted  the  Carlsbad  resolutions  with  unusual  haste  on  September  20,  and 
they  were  proclaimed  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.  AH  free-thinkers  saw  in  the  Carlsbad  resolutions  not  merely  a  check 
on  all  freedom  and  independence,  but  also  a  disgrace ;  nevertheless  the  govern- 
ments, in  spite  of  the  indignation  of  men  like  Stein,  Eotteck,  Niebuhr,  Dahlmann, 
Ludwig  Borne,  and  others,  carried  them  out  in  all  their  harshness.  The  central 
commission  of  enquiry  hunted  through  the  federation  in  search  of  conspiracies, 
and,  as  its  own  reports  acknowledge,  foimd  nothing  of  importance,  but  unscrupu- 
lously 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 
the  26th  of  November,  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  Hardenberg  was  prepared  for  any 
step  which  Metternich  prescribed.  Every  suspected  person  was  regarded  in  Berlin 
as  an  imported  conspirator.  The  edict  of  censorship  of  1819,  dating  from  the  day 
of  liberation,  October  18,  breathed  the  unholy  spirit  of  WoUner;  foreign  journals 
were  strictly  supervised.  The  reaction  was  nowhere  more  irreconcilable  than  in 
Prussia,  where  nothing  recalled  the  saying  of  Frederick  the  Great,  that  every  man 
might  be  happy  after  his  own  fashion.  The  gymnasia  were  as  relentlessly  perse- 
cuted 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  gaimtlet,  or  a  patriot  like  Justus  Gruner  was  ill-treated  on  his  very 
deathbed,  or  the  residence  of  Gorres  m.  Germany  rendered  intolerable.  This 
tendency  obviously  crippled  the  fulfilment  of  the  royal  promise  of  a  constitution,  — 
a  promise  in  which  Frederick  William  had  never  been  serious.  Hardenberg  and 
Humboldt  were  perpetually  quarrelling :  Humboldt  attacked  the  exaggerated 
power  of  the  chancellor,  who  was  not  competent  for  his  post ;  Hardenberg  laid  a 
new  plan  of  a  constitution  before  the  king  on  August  11,  1819.  The  king,  in  this 
dispute,  took  the  side  of  Hardenberg,  and  the  dismissal  of  Boven  and  Grolman 
was  followed  on  December  31,  1819,  by  that  of  Humboldt  ami  Count  Beyme. 
Metternich  rejoiced ;  Humboldt,  the  "  thoroughly  bad  man,"  was  put  on  one  side, 
and  thenceforth  lived  for  science.  Hardenberg's  position  was  once  more  strength- 
ened ;  his  chief  object  was  to  carry  the  revenue  and  finance  laws.  On  January  17, 
1820,  the  ordinance  as  to  the  condition  of  the  national  debt  was  issued,  from 
which  the  liberals  received  the  comforting  assurance  that  the  crown  would  not  be 
able  to  raise  new  loans  except  under  the  joint  guarantee  of  the  proposed  assembly 
of  the  estates,  and  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  20,  1820. 

In  accordance  with  the  agreement  made  lq  Carlsbad,  the  representatives  of  the 
inner  federal  assembly  met  in  Vienna,  and  deliberated  from  November  25,  1819, 
to  May  24,  1820,  over  the  head  of  the  federal  diet;  the  result,  the  final  act  of 


^;»™S£^f;]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  113 

Vienna  of  May  15,  1820,  obtained  the  same  validity  as  the  federal  act  of  1815. 
In  the  plenary  assembly  of  June  8,  1820,  the  federal  diet  promoted  it  to  be  a 
fundamental  law  of  the  federation.  Particularism  and  reaction  had  scored  a 
success,  and  the  efficiency  of  the  federal  diet  was  once  more  crippled.  But  in 
spite  of  all  efforts  the  national  wish  for  a  constitution  could  not  be  repressed 
nor  the  life  in  the  representative  assemblies  of  the  several  States  destroyed ;  many 
articles  of  the  act  of  federation  remained  unexecuted  in  Vienna.  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,  and  found  such 
homage  paid  him  that  the  disapproval  of  Count  Capodistrias  and  other  liberal- 
ising Eussian  statesmen  did  not  trouble  him  much. 

The  question  of  free  intercourse  between  the  federal  States  had  also  been 
discussed  ia  Vienna,  and  turned  men's  looks  to  Prussia's  efforts  toward  a  customs 
imion.  The  Customs  Act  of  May  26,  1818,  was  unmercifully  attacked ;  it  was 
threatened  with  repeal  at  the  congress  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  but  it  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  indefatigable  patience  went  toward  his  goal,  —  the  union  of  the  German 
States  to  Prussia  by  the  bond  of  their  own  iuterests.  In  1819  he  invited  the 
Thuringian  States,  which  formed  enclaves  in  Prussia,  to  a  tariff  union,  and  on  the 
25th  of  October  in  that  year  tlie  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.  But  now  the  most  intense  ill-feeling  against  the  arrogance  of  Prussia 
was  aroused  on  all  sides,  and  it  was  popularly  said  that  the  Prussian  tariff  law 
must  be  abandoned,  and  that  the  federation  alone  could  establish  the  commercial 
imion  of  Germany.  A  similar  tone  prevailed  at  the  conferences  of  Vienna.  Anhalt- 
Kothen  and  Saxe-Coburg  made  a  great  outcry ;  their  sovereignty  seemed  threatened. 
Other  States  also  offered  opposition,  and  the  northern  States  in  the  federation 
showed  themselves  still  more  anti-Prussian,  more  friendly  to  Austria,  and  more 
tenacious  of  the  old  order  than  the  South  of  Germany. 

The  German  Commercial  and  Industrial  Association  of  the  traders  of  Central 
and  Southern  Germany  was  founded  in  Frankfurt  during  the  April  Fair  of  1819, 
under  the  presidency  of  Professor  Friedrich  List  of  Tubingen.  The  memorial  of 
the  association,  drawn  up  by  List  and  presented  to  the  diet,  pictured  as  its  ulti- 
mate aim  the  universal  freedom  of  commercial  intercourse  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  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  (p.  107),  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  Ben- 
zenberg  alone  of  the  well-known  journalists  of  the  day  spol^e  for  Prussia.  Indeed 
the  hostility  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.  Prussia  alone  was  able 
VOL.  vni— 8 


114  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  ichapteri 

to  reach  the  goal,  though  only  after  a  hard  struggle  and  much  expenditure  of 
diplomacy.  Friedrich  Christian  Adolf  von  Motz,  Eichhom,  and  Karl  Georg 
Maassen  finally  carried  the  German  Customs  Union  (cf.  below,  p.  163),  and  thus 
prepared  the  ladder  by  which  Prussia  has  in  course  of  time  mounted  to  the 
headship  of  Germany  and  the  imperial  crown. 

{i)  TJie  Disorders  in  Spain  and  Portugal.  —  The  disturbed  condition  of  the 
Iberian  Peninsula  gave  the  leaders  of  the  reaction  a  new  justification  for  their 
policy  and  a  new  opportunity  of  applying  it.  Ferdinand  VII,  the  king  so  intensely 
desired  by  the  Spaniards,  had  soon  shown  himself  a  mean  despot,  whose  whole  gov- 
ernment was  marked  by  depravity  and  faithlessness,  by  falsehood  and  distrust. 
He  abolished  in  May,  1814,  the  Constitution  of  1812,  which  was  steeped  in  the 
spirit  of  the  French  constituent  assembly,  dismissed  the  cortes,  and  with  a  des- 
picable party  (camarilla)  of  favourites  and  courtiers  persecuted  all  liberals  and 
all  adherents  of  Joseph  Napoleon  (Josefinos,  Afrancesados) ;  he  restored  all  the 
monasteries,  brought  back  the  Inquisition  and  the  Jesuits,  and  scared  Spain  once 
more  into  the  deep  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  he  destroyed  all  benefits  of  gov- 
ernment and  the  administration  of  justice,  filled  the  prisons  with  innocent  men,  and 
revelled  with  guilty  associates.  Trade  and  commerce  were  at  a  standstill,  and  in 
spite  of  all  the  pressure  of  taxation  the  treasury  remained  empty.  The  ministries 
and  high  officials  continually  changed  according  to  the  caprice  of  the  sovereign, 
and  there  was  no  pretence  at  pursuing  a  systematic  policy.  Such  evils  led  to  the 
rebellions  of  discontented  and  ambitious  generals  such  as  Xaverio  Mina,  who 
paid  the  penalty  of  failure  on  the  scaffold  or  at  the  gallows.  Even  the  loyalty  of 
the  South  American  colonies  wavered ;  they  were  evidently  contemplating  defec- 
tion from  the  mother  country,  in  spite  of  all  counter  measures  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  497) ; 
and  the  rising  world  power  of  the  United  States  of  North  America  was  greatly 
strengthened.  By  the  influence  of  the  powers,  particularly  of  Eussia,  Ferdinand 
was  rudely  awakened  from  the  indolence  into  which  he  had  fallen.  Better  days 
seemed  to  be  dawning  for  Spain ;  but  the  reforming  mood  soon  passed  away. 

Eegiments  intended  to  be  employed  against  the  rising  in  South  America  had 
been  assembled  at  Cadiz,  but  at  this  centre  a  conspiracy  againsUthe  government  in 
Madrid  broke  out  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  500,  and  Vol.  IV,  p.  556).  On  New  Year's  day, 
1820,  the  colonel  of  the  regiment  of  Asturia,  Rafael  del  Riego  y  Nunez,  pro- 
claimed in  Las  Cabezas  de  San  Juan  on  the  Isla  de  Leon  the  Constitution  of  1812, 
arrested  at  Arcos  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  expeditionary  force  together  with 
his  staff,  drove  out  the  magistrates,  and  joined  Colonel  Antonio  Quiroga,  who  now 
was  at  the  head  of  the  undertaking.  The  attempt  to  capture  Cadiz  failed ;  Eiego's 
march  through  Andalusia  turned  out  disastrously,  and  he  was  forced  on  March  11 
to  disband  his  followers  at  Bienvenida.  Quiroga  also  achieved  nothing.  But  the 
cry  for  the  Constitution  of  1812  found  a  responsive  echo  even  in  Madrid.  Galicia, 
Asturia,  Cantabria,  and  Aragon  revolted.  The  royal  government  completely  lost 
heart,  since  it  had  too  evil  a  conscience.  The  king,  always  a  coward,  capitulated 
with  undignified  alacrity,  declared  himself  ready  to  gratify  "  the  universal  wish 
of  the  people,"  and  on  March  9  took  a  provisional  oath  of  adherence  to  the 
Constitution  of  1812. 

The  whole  kingdom  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  unruly  and  triumphant  Left.  It 
was  headed  by  Quiroga  and  Eiego,  and  the  government  was  obliged  to  confer  upon 


]j;f:;"Ss«™]     history  of  the  world  115 

both  these  mutineers  the  rank  of  field-marshal.  Quiroga  was  the  more  moderate 
of  the  two,  and  as  vice-president  of  the  oortes,  which  met  on  July  9,  endeavoured 
to  organise  a  middle  party.  Eiego  preferred  the  favour  of  the  mob ;  at  Madrid  he 
received  a  wild  ovation  (August  30  to  September  6),  and  a  hymn  composed  in  his 
honour  and  called  by  his  name  was  in  everybody's  mouth.  Although  his  arrogance 
produced  a  temporary  reaction,  the  party  which  he  led  was  in  the  end  triumphant. 
As  captain-general  of  Galicia  and  Aragon,  Eiego  became  master  of  the  situation, 
and  the  court  was  exposed  to  fresh  humiliations.  The  spirit  of  discontent  had  also 
seized  Portugal,  where  the  reorganiser  of  the  army,  Field-marshal  Lord  Beresford, 
conducted  the  government  for  King  John  (Joao)  VI,  who  was  absent  in  Brazil 
(cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  556).  A  national  conspiracy  against  the  British  was  quickly  sup- 
pressed in  1817 ;  but  the  feeling  of  indignation  smouldered,  and  when  Beresford 
himself  went  to  Eio  Janeiro  for  commands,  secret  societies  employed  his  absence 
to  stir  up  fresh  sedition.  The  rebellion  broke  out  on  August  24,  1820,  under 
Colonel  Sepulveda  and  Count  Silveira  in  Oporto,  and  Lisbon  followed  suit  on  Sep- 
tember 15.  The  juntas  instituted  in  both  places  amalgamated  into  one  provisional 
government  on  October  1,  and  when  Beresford  returned  on  October  10  he  was  not 
allowed  to  land.  The  cortes  of  1821  drew  up  on  March  9  the  preliminary  sketch 
of  a  constitution  which  limited  the  power  of  the  crown,  as  it  had  been  already 
limited  in  Spain.  All  the  authorities  swore  to  it ;  Count  Pedro  Palmella,  the  fore- 
most statesman  of  the  kingdom,  advised  John  VI  to  do  the  same.  John  appeared 
in  Lisbon,  left  his  eldest  son  Dom  Pedro  behind  as  regent  in  Brazil,  and  swore  to 
the  principles  of  the  constitution  on  July  3,  1821. 

(^)  The  Disorders  in  Italy.  —  In  Italy  there  was  a  strong  movement  on  foot  in 
favour  of  republicanism  and  union.  But  few  placed  their  hopes  on  Piedmont  itself, 
for  King  Victor  Emmanuel  I  was  a  bigoted,  narrow-minded  ruler,  who  sanctioned 
the  most  foolish  retrogressive  policy,  and,  like  William  I  at  Cassel,  declared  every- 
thing that  had  occurred  since  1798  to  be  simply  null  and  void.  There  was  no 
prospect  of  freedom  and  a  constitution  while  he  continued  to  reign.  His  prospec- 
tive successor  Charles  Felix  was  as  little  of  a  liberal  as  himself.  The  nobility  and 
the  clergy  alone  felt  themselves  happy.  The  hopes  of  better  days  could  only  be 
associated  with  the  head  of  the  indirect  line  of  Carignan,  Charles  Albert,  who  in 
Piedmont  and  Sardinia  played  the  rSle  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  in  France,  and 
represented  the  future  of  Italy  for  many  patriots  even  beyond  the  frontiers  of 
Piedmont.  In  Modena  Duke  Francis  IV  of  the  Austrian  house  did  away  with 
the  institutions  of  the  revolutionary  period  and  brought  back  the  old  regime.  The 
Society  of  Jesus  stood  at  the  helm.  Modena,  on  account  of  the  universal  discon- 
tent, became  a  hotbed  of  secret  societies.  In  the  papal  States  the  position  was 
the  same  as  in  Modena ;  it  was  hardly  better  in  Lucca,  or  in  Parma,  where  Napo- 
leon's wife,  the  empress  Marie  Louise,  held  sway.  In  Tuscany  the  Grand  Duke 
Ferdinand  III  reigned  without  any  spirit  of  revenge  or  bitterness ;  he  was  an 
enemy  of  the  reaction,  although  often  disadvantageously  influenced  from  Vienna. 
The  peace  and  security  which  his  rule  assured  to  Tuscany  promoted  the  growth  of 
intellectual  and  material  culture.  His  was  the  best  administered  State  in  the 
whole  of  Italy ;  and  when  he  died,  in  1824,  his  place  was  taken  by  his  son  Leo- 
pold II,  who  continued  to  govern  on  the  same  lines  and  with  the  same  happy 
results. 


116  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  i 

Pius  VII  and  his  great  secretary  of  state,  Cardinal  Consalvi,  had  indeed  the 
best  intentions  when  the  States  of  the  Church  were  revived ;  but  the  upas-tree  of 
the  hierarchy  blighted  all  prosperity.  Not  a  vestige  remained  of  the  modern  civil- 
ized lay  State,  especially  after  Consalvi  was  removed  and  Leo  XII  (1823-1829) 
assumed  the  reins  of  government.  Secret  societies  and  conspiracies  budded,  and 
brigandage  took  a  fresh  lease  of  life.  The  secret  society  of  the  Carbonari  (Carbo- 
neria),  having  become  too  large  for  Neapolitan  soil  (1808),  maintained  relations 
with  the  Freemasons,  who  had  influence  in  the  Italian  disputes,  and  with  Queen 
Mary  Caroline  of  Naples,  who  turned  it  to  account  against  Joachim  Murat.  But 
soon  the  ties  between  the  "  Sect "  and  the  Bourbons  were  loosened ;  the  former 
joined  Joachim,  through  whom  it  hoped  to  secure  the  unification  and  independence 
of  Italy.  The  Bourbons,  on  the  contrary,  favoured  the  rival  society  of  the  Calderari, 
the  reactionary  associates  of  the  court.  The  government  vainly  tried  to  suppress 
the  Carbonari,  who,  though  degraded  by  the  admission  of  the  most  notorious 
criminals  into  their  ranks,  had  gained  a  hold  on  every  stratum  of  society. 

The  misgovernment  of  Naples  and  Sicily  gave  a  plausible  ezcuse  for  revolu- 
tionary agitation.  King  Ferdinard  IV,  a  phlegmatic  old  man,  full  of  cunning  and 
treachery,  licentiousness  and  cruelty,  had  not  fulfilled  one  of  the  promises  which 
he  had  given  on  his  return  to  the  throne,  but  had  on  the  contrary  secretly  prom- 
ised the  court  of  Vienna  that  he  would  not  grant  his  country  a  constitution  until 
Austria  set  him  the  example.  On  the  11th  of  December,  1816,  he  united  his 
States  into  the  "  Kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies,"  and  assumed  the  title  of  Ferdinand  I ; 
and,  although  he  left  in  existence  many  useful  reforms  which  had  been  introduced 
during  the  French  period,  he  bitterly  disappointed  his  Sicilian  subjects  by  abol- 
ishing the  constitution  which  Lord  Bentinck  had  given  them  in  1812.  The  police 
and  the  judicial  system  were  deplorably  bad ;  the  minister  of  police  was  the  worst 
robber  of  all,  and  the  head  of  the  Calderari.  The  army  was  neglected.  Secret 
societies  and  bands  of  robbers  vied  with  each  other  in  harassing  the  country,  and 
the  government  was  powerless  against  them.  The  newly  revived  citizen  militia 
was  immediately  infected  by  the  Carbonari,  which  tempted  it  with  the  charm  of  a 
"  constitution." 

Gugliemo  Pepe,  an  ambitious  general  but  fickle  character,  b^Jame  the  soul  of 
the  Carbonari  in  the  Sicilian  army,  and  gave  them  a  considerable  degree  of  mili- 
tary efficiency.  He  contemplated  in  1819  the  arrest  of  the  king,  the  emperor  and 
empress  of  Austria,  and  Metternich,  at  a  review.  The  plan  was  not  executed,  but 
the  spell  of  the  Spanish  insurrection  and  the  new  constitution  ensnared  him  and 
his  partisans.  On  July  2,  1820,  two  sub-lieutenants  raised  the  standard  of  revolt 
at  Nola,  and  talked  foolishly  about  the  Spanish  constitution,  which  was  totally 
unknown  to  them.  On  the  3d  this  was  proclaimed  in  Avellino.  Pepe  assumed 
the  lead  of  the  movement,  which  spread  far  and  wide,  and  marched  upon  Naples. 
The  miuistry  changed.  Ferdiuand  placed  the  government  temporarily  in  the 
hands  of  his  son  Francis,  who  was  detested  as  the  head  of  the  Calderari,  and  the 
latter  accepted  the  Spanish  constitution  on  July  7,  a  policy  which  Ferdinand  con- 
firmed. On  the  9th  Pepe  entered  Naples  in  triumph,  with  soldiers  and  militia ; 
and  Ferdinand,  the  tears  in  his  eyes,  took  an  oath  to  the  constitution  on  the  13th, 
in  the  palace  chapel.  The  Bourbons  began  to  wear  the  colours  of  the  Carbonari. 
Pepe,  as  commander-in-chief  and  captain-general  of  the  kingdom,  was  now 
supreme  ;  but  Ferdinand  hastened  to  assure  the  indignant  Metternich  that  all  his 


J?:7i:'Zl^i^'\       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  117 

oaths   and  promises  had  been  taken  under  compulsion  and  were  not  seriously 
meant. 

Sicily  no  longer  wished  to  be  treated  as  a  dependency  of  Naples,  and  claimed 
to  receive  back  the  Constitution  of  1812.  Messina  revolted,  and  Palermo  followed 
the  example  on  the  14th  of  July ;  on  the  18th  there  was  fighting  in  the  streets  of 
Palermo.  The  governor,  Naselli,  fled,  and  the  mob  ruled ;  but  on  the  18th  of  July 
a  provisional  government  was  installed.  The  independent  action  of  Sicily  aroused 
great  discontent  in  Naples.  General  Florestan  Pepe,  the  elder  brother  of  the 
captain-general,  was  despatched  to  Sicily  with  an  army,  and  he  soon  made  himself 
master  of  the  island.  But  the  crown  repudiated  the  treaty  concluded  by  him  with 
the  rebels  on  October  5,  sacrificed  Pepe  to  the  clamour  of  the  Neapolitan  parlia- 
ment, and  the  gulf  between  the  two  parts  of  the  kingdom  became  wider.  Metter- 
nich  had  been  unmoved  by  the  tidings  of  the  Spanish  agitation,  but  he  was  only 
the  more  enraged  when  he  heard  What  had  occurred  in  the  Two  Sicilies.  He  put 
all  blame  on  the  secret  societies,  and  praised  the  good  iutentions  of  Ferdinand's 
"  paternal "  government. 

(J)  Troppau  and  Zaibach.  —  The  insurrection  in  Spain  had  made  such  an 
impression  on  Alexander  that  in  a  circular  of  May  2,  1820,  he  invoked  the  spirit 
of  the  Holy  Alliance,  and  emphasised  the  danger  of  illegal  constitutions.  Metter- 
nich  strengthened  the  Austrian  forces  in  upper  Italy,  and  stated,  ia  a  circular  to 
the  Italian  courts,  that  Austria,  by  the  treaties  of  1815,  was  the  appointed  guar- 
dian of  the  peace  of  Italy,  and  wished  for  an  immediate  armed  interference  in  the 
afi'airs  of  Naples ;  but  he  encountered  strong  opposition  ia  Paris  and  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. Alexander,  whom  Metternich  actually  suspected  of  Carbonarism,  advised 
a  conference  of  sovereigns  and  ministers;  the  conference  met  on  the  20th  of 
October,  1820,  at  Troppau.  Alexander  brought  with  him  Capodistrias,  an  enemy 
of  Metternich ;  Francis  I  brought  Metternich  and  Gentz ;  Frederick  William  III 
was  accompanied  by  Hardenberg  and  Count  Giinther  von  Bernstorff ;  the  Count  de 
la  Ferronays  appeared  on  behalf  of  Louis  XVIII ;  and  Lord  Stewart  represented 
the  faint-hearted  policy  of  his  brother  Castlereagh,  which  was  condemned  by  the 
British  nation.  It  was  Metternich's  primary  object  that  the  congress  should 
approve  the  march  of  an  Austrian  army  into  Naples,  and  he  induced  the  congress 
to  invite  Ferdinand  to  Troppau.  Alexander  always  clung  closer  to  the  wisdom  of 
Metternich,  and  the  latter  skilfully  used  the  report  of  a  mutiny  among  the 
Semenoff  guards  as  an  argument  to  overcome  the  liberalism  of  the  Czar.  Alexander 
saw  before  his  own  eyes  how  the  Spanish  and  Italian  military  revolts  excited  imi- 
tation in  the  Eussian  army.  Frederick  William  was  equally  conciliatory  to  Met- 
ternich,  and  was  more  averse  than  ever  to  granting  a  constitution  on  the  model  of 
Hardenberg's  schemes.  In  the  protocol  of  November  19,  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
Eussia  came  to  an  agreement,  behind  the  back  of  the  two  Western  powers,  as  to 
the  position  which  they  would  adopt  toward  revolutions,  and  as  to  the  main- 
tenance of  social  order;  but  France  and  Great  Britain  rejected  the  idea  of  changing 
the  principles  of  international  law.  Ferdinand  took  fresh  oaths  to  his  people  and 
set  out  for  Troppau. 

After  Christmas  the  congress  closed  at  Troppau,  but  was  continued  in  January, 
1821,  at  Laibach.  Most  of  the  Italian  governments  were  represented.  Metternich 
again  took  over  the  presidency.    Ferdinand  was  at  once  ready  to  break  his  word, 


118  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  Ichapteri 

and  declared  that  his  concessions  were  extorted  from  him.  The  king  of  France  at 
first  hesitated.  A  miracle  seemed  to  have  been  performed  on  behalf  of  the  French 
Bourbons :  the  widow  of  Berry  gave  birth  on  the  29th  of  September,  1820,  to  a 
son,  the  Duke  Henry  of  Bordeaux,  who  usually  appeared  later  under  the  name  of 
Count  of  Chambord.  The  legitimists  shouted  for  joy,  talked  of  the  miraculous 
child,  the  child  of  Europe,  of  Astyanax,  who  would  console  his  mother  for  the 
death  of  Hector, "  the  stem  of  Jesse  when  nearly  withered  had  put  forth  a  fresh 
branch."  The  child  was  baptised  with  water  which  Chateaubriand  had  drawn 
from  the  Jordan.  The  Spanish  Bourbons  looked  askance  at  the  birth ;  they  were 
already  speculating  on  the  future  succession  to  the  throne,  and  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  secretly  suggested  in  the  English  press  suspicions  of  the  legitimacy  of  the 
child.  Louis  successively  repressed  several  military  revolts,  but  had  constantly  to 
struggle  with  the  claims  of  the  ultras,  who  embittered  his  reign.  Although  in  his 
heart  opposed  to  it,  he  nevertheless  assented  at  Laibach  to  the  programme  of  the 
Eastern  powers. 

Austria  sent  an  army  under  General  Johann  Maria  Baron  Frimont  over  the  Po, 
and  upheld  the  fundamental  idea  of  a  constitution  for  the  Two  Sicilies.  Ferdinand 
agreed  to  everything  which  Metternich  arranged.  France  did  not,  indeed,  at  first 
consent  to  that  armed  interference  with  Spain  which  Alexander  and  Metternich 
required.  On  February  26,  1821,  the  deliberations  of  the  congress  terminated. 
The  Neapolitan  parliament,  it  is  true,  defied  the  threats  of  the  Eastern  powers, 
and  declared  that  Ferdinand  was  their  prisoner,  and  that  therefore  his  resolutions 
were  not  voluntary.  But  their  preparations  for  resistance  were  so  defective  that 
the  Austrians  had  an  easy  task.  The  Neapolitan  army  broke  up  after  the  defeat 
of  Guglielmo  Pepe  at  Rieti  (March  7,  1821),  and  on  March  24  Frimont's  army 
marched  into  Naples  with  sprigs  of  olive  in  their  helmets.  Pepe  fled  to  Spain. 
In  Naples  the  reaction  perpetrated  such  excesses  that  the  powers  intervened ;  the 
victims  were  countless,  while  the  Austrians  maintained  order. 

In  Piedmont  the  revolution  broke  out  on  the  10th  of  March,  1821 ;  Charles 
Albert  of  Carignan  did  not  keep  aloof  from  it.  The  tricolor  flag  (red,  white,  and 
green)  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy  was  hoisted  in  Alessandria,  and  a  provisional  junta  on 
the  Spanish  model  was  assembled.  Turin  proclaimed  the  parliamoitary  constitution 
on  the  11th  of  March,  and  the  Carbonari  seized  the  power.  Victor  Emmanuel  I 
abdicated  on  March  13  in  favour  of  his  brother  Charles  Felix.  Charles  Albert, 
a  vacillating  and  untrustworthy  ruler,  who  was  regent  until  the  latter's  arrival, 
accepted,  contrary  to  his  inward  conviction,  the  new  constitution,  and  swore  to  it 
on  March  15.  Charles  Felix,  however,  considered  every  administrative  measure 
null  and  void  which  had  not  emanated  from  himself.  Charle^  Albert  was  panic- 
stricken,  resigned  the  regency,  and  left  the  country.  Alexander  and  Metternich 
agreed  that  there  was  need  of  armed  intervention  in  Piedmont.  Austria  feared  also 
the  corruption  of  her  Italian  provinces,  and  kept  a  careful  watch  upon  those  friends 
of  freedom  who  had  not  yet  been  arrested.  At  Novara,  on  April  8,  the  impe- 
rialists, under  Marshal  Bubna,  won  a  victory  over  the  Piedmontese  insurgents, 
which  was  no  less  decisive  than  that  of  Rieti  had  been  in  Naples.  Piedmont  was 
occupied  by  the  imperial  army ;  the  junta  resigned,  and  Victor  Emmanuel  re- 
newed his  abdication  on  April  19  at  Nice.  Charles  Felix  then  first  assumed  the 
royal  title  and  decreed  a  criminal  enquiry.  On  the  18th  of  October  he  made  his 
entry  into  Turin  amid  the  mad  rejoicings  of  the  infatuated  mob,  suppressed  every 


].^fr<;5"Zal^]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  119 

sort  of  political  party,  and  ruled  in  deathlike  quiet,  being  supported  by  the 
bayonets  of  Austria  and  by  the  dominion  of  the  Jesuits  in  Church,  school,  and 
State.  The  Austrians  did  not  leave  his  country  until  1823.  On  May  12, 1821,  a 
proclamation  issued  from  Laibach  by  the  Eastern  powers  announced  to  the  world 
that  they  had  rescued  Europe  from  the  intended  general  revolution,  and  that  their 
weapons  alone  served  to  uphold  the  cause  of  right  and  justice. 

Metternich,  promoted  by  the  emperor  to  the  office  of  chancellor  of  state,  stood 
at  the  zenith  of  his  success,  when  on  the  5th  of  May,  1821,  Napoleon  I,  the  man 
who  had  contested  his  importance  and  had  ruled  the  world  far  more  than  Met- 
ternich, died  at  St.  Helena.  The  black  and  yellow  flag  waved  from  Milan  to 
Palermo ;  princes  and  peoples  bowed  before  it.  Legitimacy  had  curbed  the  revolu- 
tionary craving,  and  Italy  was  further  from  unification  than  ever.  The  apostles  of 
freedom  and  unity,  men  like  Silvio  Pellico,  disappeared  in  the  dungeons  of  the 
Spielberg  and  other  fortresses  in  Austria.  Kussia  was  now  on  the  most  friendly 
terms  with  Austria,  and  the  result  was  soon  seen  when  the  monarchs  and  ministers 
stUl  at  Laibach  received  tidings  of  disorders  in  the  Danubian  principalities  and 
in  Greece. 

(m)  The  Beginnings  of  the  Greek  Insurrection.  —  While  Turkey  was  moulder- 
ing to  ruin,  the  spirit  of  the  French  Eevolution  had  been  felt  in  Greece ;  and  the 
aspirations  of  the  Greeks,  both  those  of  a  spiritual  and  those  of  a  material  charac- 
ter, had  mounted  high.  When  Napoleon's  empire  fell,  the  Greeks  discovered  that 
nothing  was  being  done  for  them  by  Europe,  and  that  they  must  act  for  themselves. 
A  few  individuals  founded  at  Odessa,  in  the  year  1814,  the  secret  society  of  the 
Hetaeria  Philike.  The  Hetseria  aimed  at  complete  separation  from  Turkey  and 
the  revival  of  the  old  Greek  empire  in  Constantiuople.  It  failed  to  win  Eussian 
aid  and  could  not  reckon  on  Servian  co-operation ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  spread  in. 
Greece,  in  the  islands  of  the  Ionian  and  ^gean  seas,  in  Eumelia,  Thessaly,  and 
South  Eussia,  and  shifted  its  centre  in  1818  to  Constantinople. 

The  Hetseria  hoped  that  Eussia  would  now  pronounce  iu  its  favour,  especially 
since  Count  Capodistrias  (Kapo  d'lstrias),  the  favourite  of  the  Czar,  was  a  Corfiote. 
Capodistrias,  it  is  true,  decliued  the  leadership  of  the  movement  in  1820,  but  he 
braved  the  certain  disapproval  of  Alexander  so  far  as  to  approve  the  idea  that  his 
friend  the  Fanariot,  Prince  Alexander  Ypsilanti,  a  general  in  the  Eussian  army, 
should  be  nominated  "  ephor-general  of  the  Hetaeria."  This  enthusiast,  round 
whose  name  romance  has  thrown  a  halo,  was  devoid  of  any  gift  for  administra- 
tion and  politics,  and  was  insignificant  as  a  commander.  It  was  an  act  of  folly  at 
the  outset  that  he  struck  the  first  blow  in  Moldavia  and  not  in  the  Morea,  where 
the  soil  was  to  some  degree  prepared.  The  moment  seemed  to  him  favourable, 
since  Sultan  Mahmud  II  was  at  war  with  Ali  Pasha  of  Janina,  whose  power  had 
grown  tni  it  embraced  almost  the  whole  south  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  Nor  were 
the  revolutions  in  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Italy  without  their  influence.  On  the 
7th  of  March,  1821,  Ypsilanti  marched  into  Jassy,  and,  hinting  at  the  help  of 
Eussia,  roused  the  Hellenes  to  a  war  of  liberation.  Disorders  and  excesses  fol- 
lowed him  everywhere,  even  when  he  entered  Bucharest,  on  April  9.  But  the 
Czar  at  Laibach,  guided  by  Metternich,  openly  declared  against  Ypsilanti.  The 
Hetffiria  seemed  to  them  both  another  form  of  Carbonarism,  and  they  thought  that 
Europe  ought  to  be  protected  from  such  revolutionists.     Ypsilanti  was  publicly 


120  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapt6ri 

repudiated  and  excommunicated  by  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople.  Turkish 
armies  advanced  victoriously  into  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  and  Ypsilanti,  after 
his  defeat  at  Dragachani  (June  19),  was  forced  to  cross  into  Austrian  territory 
with  his  brothers  ;  he  died  in  Vienna,  on  the  31st  of  January,  1828,  having  only 
been  released  from  prison  in  the  previous  year.  Isolated  Greek  bands  continued 
to  fight  in  the  Danubian  principalities.  But  m.  spite  of  all  heroic  courage  the 
rebellion  ended  on  the  20th  of  September,  1821,  with  a  defeat  at  the  monastery 
of  Sekko,  and  the  Turks  wreaked  a  merciless  vengeance. 

The  Morea  was  already  in  full  revolt  against  the  Turks.  On  the  4th  of  April, 
1821,  the  insurgents  took  Kalamate,  the  capital  of  Messenia,  and  Patras  raised 
the  flag  of  the  cross.  The  fire  of  revolt  spread  on  every  side,  and  raged  destruc- 
tively among  the  Moslems.  The  insurrection  was  led  by  the  national  hero,  Theo- 
dore Kolokotroni,  a  bold  adventurer  and  able  general,  though  his  followers  often 
did  not  obey  their  head,  and  the  fleet  of  the  islands  did  excellent  service.  The 
successes  of  the  Greeks  aroused  boundless  fury  in  Constantinople.  Intense  re- 
ligious hatred  was  kindled  in  the  Divan,  and  at  the  feast  of  Easter  (April  22)  the 
patriarch  Gregory  of  Constantinople  and  three  metropolitans  were  hanged  to  the 
doors  of  their  churches.  In  Constantinople  and  Asia  Minor,  in  the  Morea,  and  on 
the  islands  Islam  wreaked  its  fury  on  the  Christians. 

The  Eussian  people  had  felt  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  Hellenic  war  of 
independence  the  warmest  sympathy  for  their  oppressed  brethren,  and  after  the 
horrors  of  the  22d  of  April  the  government  could  no  longer  resist  the  exasperation 
felt  against  the  Turks ;  a  storm  of  indignation  swept  through  the  civilized  world. 
The  Eussian  ambassador,  Baron  Stroganoff,  a  PhUhellene,  spoke  vigorously  for  the 
Christians,  and  suspended  relations  with  the  Porte  in  June  ;  Juliane  von  Kriidener 
in  her  devotions  designated  the  "  angel  of  light,"  Alexander,  as  God's  chosen  in- 
strument for  the  liberation  of  Greece  and  for  the  defeat  of  the  Crescent;  and 
Capodistrias  announced  to  the  world,  in  his  note  of  June  28,  an  ultimatum  to 
Turkey  that  the  Turks  were  no  longer  entitled  to  remain  in  Europe.  A  mood 
very  unpleasing  to  Mettemich  had  come  over  the  fickle  Czar ;  the  cabinets  of 
Vienna  and  St.  James  saw  with  astonishment  that  Stroganoff  left  Constantinople 
in  August.  Metternioh  once  more  laid  stress  on  the  fact  that  the  triumph  of  the 
Greek  revolution  was  a  defeat  of  the  crown,  while  Capodistrias  -^s  for  the  support 
of  the  Greeks  and  for  war  against  Turkey.  The  Porte,  well  aware  of  the  discord 
of  the  European  cabinets,  showed  little  willingness  to  give  way  and  agree  to  their 
demands. 

Kolokotroni  had  invested  the  Arcadian  fortress  of  Tripolitza  since  the  end  of 
April,  1821.  All  Turkish  attempts  to  relieve  the  garrison  proved  futile,  while  the 
militia  had  been  drilled  into  efficient  soldiers,  and  on  October  5,  1821,  Tripolitza 
fell.  The  Greeks  perpetrated  gross  barbarities.  Prince  Alexander's  brother,  Prince 
Demetrius  Ypsilanti,  who  also  had  hitherto  served  in  Eussia,  had  been  archistra- 
tegos  since  June  of  that  year ;  but  he  possessed  little  reputation  and  could  not 
prevent  outrages.  The  continued  quarrels  and  jealousy  between  the  leaders  of 
the  soldiers  and  of  the  civilians  crippled  the  power  of  the  insurgents.  Prince 
Alexander  Mavrogordato,  a  man  of  far-reaching  imagination,  undertook,  together 
with  Theodore  Negri,  the  task  of  giving  Hellas  a  fixed  political  system.  In 
November,  1821,  Western  and  Eastern  Hellas,  and  in  December  the  Morea,  re- 
ceived constitutions.     The  national  assembly  summoned  by  Demetrius  Ypsilanti 


JlfTtlTllSt^'l       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  121 

to  Argos  was  transferred  to  Piadha,  near  the  old  Epidauros,  and  proclaimed  on 
January  13, 1822,  the  independence  of  the  Hellenic  nation  and  a  provisional  con- 
stitution, which  prepared  thfe  ground  for  a  monarchy.  While  it  broke  with  the 
Hetseria,  it  appointed  Mavrogordato  as  proedros  (president)  of  the  executive 
council  to  be  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  in  an  edict  of  January  27  it  justified  the 
Greek  insurrection  in  the  eyes  of  Europe.  Corinth  became  the  seat  of  government. 
But  the  old  discord,  selfishness,  and  pride  of  the  several  leaders  precluded  any 
prospect  of  a  favourable  issue  to  the  insurrection.  Kurshid  Pasha,  after  cunningly 
getting  rid  of  Ali  Pasha  of  Janina,  who  was  hostile  to  the  Sultan,  in  February, 
1822,  subjugated  the  Sidiotes.  As  a  result  of  the  objectless  instigation  of  Chios 
to  revolt,  a  fleet  landed  in  April  under  Kara  Ali,  and  the  island  was  barbarously 
chastised.  Indignation  at  the  Turkish  misrule  once  more  filled  the  European 
nations,  and  they  hailed  with  joy  the  annihilation  of  Kara  All's  fleet  by  Andreas 
Voko  Miaouli  and  Konstantin  Kanari  (June  19).  In  July  a  large  Turkish 
army  under  Mahmud  Dramali  overran  Greece  from  Phocis  to  Attica  and  Argos. 
The  Greek  government  fled  from  Corinth.  In  spite  of  all  the  courage  of  Mavro- 
gordato and  General  Count  Normann-Ehrenfels,  famous  for  the  attack  on  Kitzen 
(June  17,  1813),  Suli  was  lost,  owing  to  the  defeat  at  Peta  (July  16-17),  and 
Western  Hellas  was  again  threatened.  About  the  same  time  Alexander  again  fell 
into  the  toils  of  Metternich,  and  Capodistrias,  the  enemy  of  Austrian  influence,  was 
dismissed  in  July,  1822 ;  any  independent  action  of  Eussia  against  Turkey  was 
thus  prevented.  The  Czar,  whose  loathing  of  revolutions  grew  more  intense, 
was  once  more  closely  allied  with  Francis  I,  and  the  Holy  Alliance  was  nearly 
consolidated. 

(n)  Verona.  —  In  Spain  the  liberals  made  shameless  misuse  of  their  victory, 
and  limited  the  power  of  the  king  to  such  a  degree  that  he  naturally  tried  to 
effect  a  change.  His  past  was  a  guarantee  that  Ferdinand  VII  would  not  be  at  a 
loss  for  the  means  to  his  end.  He  courted  the  intervention  of  the  continent ;  but 
Louis  XVIII  and  Eichelieu  preferred  neutrality.  The  ultra  royalists,  however, 
became  more  and  more  arrogant  in  France.  The  Pavilion  Marsan  (p.  86)  ex- 
pelled Eichelieu  in  December,  1821,  and  brought  in  the  ministry  of  ViUfele ;  the 
reaction  felt  itself  fully  victorious,  and  the  clergy  raised  their  demands.  The 
Carboneria  was  introduced  from  Italy,  and  secret  societies  were  formed.  New 
conspiracies  of  republican  or  Napoleonic  tendency  followed,  and  led  to  executions. 
The  power  of  the  ultras  became  gradually  stronger  in  the  struggle  ;  party  feeling 
increased,  and  even  Count  Villfele  was  not  royalist  enough  for  the  ultras.  Ferdi- 
nand VII,  on  the  contrary,  favoured  the  radicals,  in  order  to  employ  them  against 
the  liberals.  Eiego  became  president  of  the  cortes  of  1822.  A  coup  de  main  of 
the  Guards  to  recover  for  Ferdinand  the  absolute  power  failed  in  July,  1822,  and 
Ferdinand  basely  surrendered  those  who  had  sacrificed  themselves  for  him.  In 
the  north  guerilla  bands  spread  in  every  direction  on  his  behalf ;  in  Seo  de  Urgel 
a  regency  for  him  was  established  on  August  15,  and  an  alliance  entered  into 
with  France. 

At  the  preliminary  deliberations  for  the  congress  intended  to  be  held  at  Verona, 
Metternich  reckoned  upon  his  "  second  self,"  on  Castlereagh,  now  the  Marquis  of 
Londonderry.  The  latter  died  by  his  own  hand  on  August  12,  1822,  an  event 
which  provoked  mad  rejoicings  among  English  liberals.     His  great  successor  in  the 


122  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichapter  i 

foreign  office,  George  Canning,  "  a  tory  from  inward  conviction,  a  modern  states- 
man from  national  necessity,"  broke  with  the  absolutist-reactionary  principles  of 
the  Holy  Alliance,  and  entered  the  path  of  a  national  independent  policy,  thus 
dealing  a  heavy  blow  at  Metternich  and  Austria.  Metternich  and  Alexander  stood 
the  more  closely  side  by  side. 

The  congress  of  sovereigns  and  ministers  at  Verona  was  certainly  the  most 
brilliant  since  that  of  Vienna.  In  October,  1822,  came  Alexander,  Francis,  and 
Frederick  William ;  most  of  the  Italian  rulers,  Metternich,  Nesselrode,  Pozzo  di 
Borgo,  Bernstorff,  and  Hardenberg ;  France  was  represented  by  Chateaubriand,  the 
Duke  of  Laval-Montmorency,  Count  La  Ferronays,  and  the  Marquis  of  Caraman ; 
Great  Britain  by  Wellington  and  Viscount  Strangford.  Entertainments  were  on 
as  magnificent  a  scale  as  at  Vienna.  Metternich  wished  to  annul  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  revolution,  and  with  it  the  extorted  constitution;  the  Eastern 
powers  and  France  united  for  the  eventuality  of  further  hostile  or  revolutionary 
steps  being  taken  by  Spain ;  Great  Britain  excluded  itself  from  their  agreements, 
while  Chateaubriand's  romanticism  intoxicated  the  Czar.  When  the  Greeks  at  the 
congress  sought  help  agaiust  the  Turks,  they  were  coldly  refused.  On  the  other 
hand,  an  understanding  was  arrived  at  about  the  gradual  evacuation  of  Piedmont 
by  the  Austrians ;  the  army  of  occupation  in  the  Two  Sicilies  was  reduced ;  and 
good  advice  of  every  sort  was  given  to  the  Italian  princes.  The  Eastern  powers 
and  France  saw  with  indignation  that  Great  Britain  intended  to  recognise  the 
separation  of  the  South  American  colonies  from  Spain,  and  their  independence, 
according  to  the  example  given  by  the  United  States  of  North  America  in  March, 
1822.     The  congress  of  Verona  ended  toward  the  middle  of  December. 

(o)  The  Armed  Intervention  of  France  in  Spain;  the  Separation  of  Portugal 
from  Brazil;  the  End  of  Louis  XVIII.  —  The  Viscount  of  Chateaubriand,  now 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  urged  a  rupture  with  Spain,  at  which  Louis  and  Villfele 
still  hesitated.  The  threatening  notes  of  the  powers  at  the  Verona  congress  roused 
a  storm  of  passion  in  Madrid,  while  the  diplomatists  in  Verona  had  set  themselves 
the  question  whether  nations  might  put  kings  on  their  trial,  as  Dante  does  in  his 
Divine  Comedy,  and  whether  the  tragedy  of  Louis  XVI  shouU  be  repeated  with 
another  background  in  the  case  of  Ferdinand  VII.  The  Spanish  nation  revolted 
against  the  arrogance  of  foreign  interference.  The  rupture  was  made ;  the  ambas- 
sadors of  Eussia,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  France  left  Spain  in  January,  1823.  The 
adventurous  George  Bessiferes  ventured  on  an  expedition  to  Madrid;  but  the 
Spanish  hope  of  British  help  against  France,  which  was  intended  to  carry  out 
the  armed  interference,  was  not  fulfilled. 

Louis  XVIII  placed  his  nephew,  Duke  Louis  of  AngoulSme,  at  the  head  of  an 
army  of  one  hundred  thousand  men,  which  was  to  free  Ferdinand  from  the  power  of 
the  liberals  and  put  him  once  again  in  possession  of  despotic  power.  In  the  chamber 
at  Paris  the  liberals,  indeed,  loudly  decried  the  war,  and  trembled  at  the  suppression 
of  the  Spanish  revolution,  although  Canning  openly  desired  the  victory  of  the 
Spanish  people.  Ferdinand  and  the  cortes  went  to  Seville.  Angoul^me  crossed  the 
frontier  stream,  the  Bidassoa,  on  April  7,  and  found  no" traces  of  a  popular  rising; 
nevertheless  he  advanced,  without  any  opposition,  and  was  hailed  as  a  saviour,  and 
entered  Madrid  on  May  24.  He  appointed  a  temporary  regency,  and  in  order  not 
to  hurt  the  national  pride,  avoided  any  interference  in  internal  affairs,  although 


Xfr^SK«»]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  123 

the  reactionary  zeal  of  the  regency  caused  him  much  uneasiness,  and  only  retained 
the  supreme  military  command.  But  the  cortes  in  Seville  relieved  the  king  of  the 
conduct  of  affairs  and  carried  him  off  to  Cadiz.  Victory  followed  the  French  flag. 
The  Spaniards  lost  heart,  and  were  defeated  or  capitulated.  Angoulgme  made 
forced  marches  to  Cadiz,  and  on  the  night  of  August  31  stormed  Fort  Trocadero, 
which  was  considered  impregnable.  An  expedition  of  Eiego  to  the  Isla  de  Leon 
ended  in  his  flight  and  arrest,  and  on  September  28  the  cortes,  in  consequence  of 
the  bombardment  of  Cadiz,  abandoned  their  resistance. 

Ferdinand  VII  voluntarily  promised  a  complete  amnesty  and  made  extensive 
professions.  He  was  accorded  a  State  reception  by  AngoulSme  on  October  1,  and 
was  proclaimed  as  absolute  monarch  by  a  large  party  among  the  Spaniards.  But 
hardly  was  he  free  before  the  perjurer  began  the  wildest  reaction.  Many  members 
of  the  cortes  and  the  regency  fled  to  England  to  escape  the  gallows,  and  Ferdi- 
nand exclaimed,  "  The  wretches  do  well  to  fly  from  their  fate ! "  The  powers  of 
Europe  viewed  his  action  with  horror.  Angoul^me,  whose  warnings  had  been 
scattered  to  the  winds,  left  Madrid  in  disgust  on  tlie  4th  of  November.  Eiego 
was  hanged  in  Madrid  on  November  7,  1823 ;  on  the  13th  Ferdinand  returned 
triumphant,  only  to  reign  as  detestably  as  before.  Talleyrand  called  the  war  of 
intervention  the  beginning  of  the  end ;  the  result  of  it  was  that  Spain  floundered 
further  into  the  mire.  The  ultras  tormented  the  country  and  Ferdinand  himself 
to  such  a  degree  that  he  began  to  weary  of  them.  The  colonies  in  South  America 
were  irretrievably  lost  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  512) ;  all  the  subtleties  of  the  congress  at 
Verona  and  of  Chateaubriand  could  not  change  that  fact.  At  Canning's  proposal 
the  British  government,  on  January  1,  1825,  recognised  the  independence  of  the 
new  republics  of  Buenos  Ayres,  Colombia,  and  Mexico.  This  was  a  fresh  victory 
over  the  principle  of  legitimacy  which  had  been  always  emphasised  by  Austria, 
Spain,  and  France,  as  well  as  by  Eussia  and  Prussia. 

The  Spanish  insurrection  naturally  affected  the  neighbouring  country  of  Por- 
tugal. The  September  Constitution  of  1820,  far  from  improving  matters  there 
had  actually  introduced  new  difficulties.  Constitutionalists  and  absolutists  were 
quarrelling  violently  with  each  other.  Dom  Pedro,  son  of  John  VI,  wlio  had  been 
appointed  regent  in  Brazil,  saw  himself  compelled  by  a  national  party,  which 
wished  to  make  Brazil  an  independent  empire,  to  send  away  the  Portuguese 
troops.  He  assumed  in  May,  1822,  the  title  of  a  permanent  protector  of  Brazil, 
and  convened  a  national  assembly  at  Eio  de  Janeiro,  which  on  August  1  and 
on  September  7  announced  the  independence  of  Brazil,  and  proclaimed  him,  on 
October  12,  1822,  emperor  of  Brazil,  under  the  title  of  Dom  Pedro  I  (cf.  Vol.  I, 
p.  525).     The  Portuguese  were  furious,  but  were  never  able  to  reconquer  Brazil. 

Queen  Charlotte,  wife  of  John  and  sister  of  Ferdinand  VII,  a  proud  and  artful 
woman,  refused  to  take  the  oath  to  the  Portuguese  constitution,  to  which  John 
swore,  and,  being  banished,  conspired  with  her  younger  son,  Dom  Miguel,  the 
clergy,  and  many  nobles,  to  restore  the  absolute  monarchy.  The  counter  revolu- 
tion of  Manoel  de  Silveira  Pinto  da  Fonseca,  Count  of  Amarante,  in  February, 
1823,  failed,  it  is  true,  but  Dom  Miguel  put  himself  at  its  head,  and  Lisbon  joined 
his  cause.  The  weak  John  sanctioned  this,  and  cursed  the  constitution ;  the  cortes 
were  dissolved.  John  promised  a  new  constitution,  and  triumphantly  entered 
Lisbon  with  his  son  on  June  5.  Portugal  was  brought  back  to  absolutism.  John 
was  a  mere  cipher ;  but  Miguel  and  Charlotte  ruled,  and  did  not  shrink  even  from 


124  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Cha^^ter  i 

tlie  murder  of  opponents.  Miguel  headed  a  new  revolt  against  his  father  on  April 
30, 1824,  in  order  to  depose  him.  But  John  made  his  escape  on  May  9  to  a  British 
man-of-war.  The  diplomatic  body  took  his  side,  and  at  the  same  time  the  pressure 
brought  to  bear  by  the  British  government  compelled  Miguel  to  throw  himself  at 
his  father's  feet  and  to  leave  Portugal  on  May  13.  An  amnesty  was  proclaimed. 
The  return  of  the  old  cortes  which  had  sat  before  1822  was  promised,  and  by 
British  mediation  the  treaty  of  Eio  was  signed  on  August  29,  1825,  in  which  the 
independence  and  self-government  of  Brazil  were  recognised.  On  the  26th  of 
April,  1826,  Portugal  received  a  liberal  constitution  by  the  instrumentality  of 
Dom  Pedro  I  of  Brazil,  who  after  his  father's  death  (March  10,  1826)  reigned  for 
a  short  period  over  his  native  country  as  Pedro  IV.  Then  (May  2)  Pedro  renounced 
the  crown  of  Portugal  in  favour  of  his  daughter.  Dona  Maria  II  da  Gloria.  On 
•June  25,  1828,  Dom  jMiguel  proclaimed  himself  king,  favoured  by  the  British  tory 
cabinet  of  Wellington  and  Aberdeen.  His  niece,  Maria  da  Gloria,  was  forced  to 
return  to  her  father  in  Brazil. 

Tiie  victory  of  Trocadero,  which  was  audaciously  compared  by  the  French 
ultras  to  Marengo  and  Austerlitz,  was  of  extraordinary  advantage  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Louis  XVIII.  "It  was  not  merely  under  Napoleon  that  victories  were 
won ;  the  restored  Bourbons  know  this  secret ; "  and  the  "  hero  of  Trocadero  "  was 
hailed  as  their  "champion"  by  the  king  on  December  2,  1823.  The  elections  to 
the  chambers  of  1824  were  favourable  to  them;  and  a  law  of  June  in  the  same 
year  prolonged  the  existence  of  the  second  chamber  to  seven  years,  which  might 
seem  some  check  on  change  and  innovation.  Villfele  stood  firm  at  the  helm,  over- 
threw Chateaubriand,  and  guided  Baron  Damas,  his  successor  at  the  foreign  office. 
But  Chateaubriand  revenged  himself  by  the  most  bitter  attacks  in  the  press.  Louis 
thereupon,  at  the  advice  of  Villfele,  revived  the  censorship  on  political  journals  and 
newspapers  (August  16, 1824).  The  much-tried  man  was  nearing  his  end.  He 
warned  his  brother  to  uphold  the  charter  loyally,  the  best  inheritance  which  he  be- 
queathed ;  if  he  did  so,  he  too  would  die  in  the  palace  of  his  ancestors.  Louis  XVIII 
died  on  the  16th  of  September,  1824.  France  hailed  Monsieur  as  Charles  X,  with 
the  old  cry,  "  Ze  roi  est  mort,  vive  le  roi."  But  Talleyrand  had  forebodings  that 
the  kingdom  of  Charles  would  soon  decay ;  and,  with  his  usuai  coarseness  of  senti- 
ment, he  said  over  the  corpse  of  Louis,  "  I  smell  corruption  here  ! " 

C.  European  Convulsions  (from  1823  to  the  July  Eevolution,  1830) 

(a)  The  Progress  of  the  Reaction  in  Germany. —  "While  in  Germany  the  cry 
for  constitutional  government  re-echoed  everywhere,  and  the  struggle  of  the 
Greeks  for  their  liberty  led  to  the  founding  of  Philhellenic  societies,  which 
were  enraptured  by  the  Greek  songs  of  Wilhelm  Miiller  of  Dessau,  the  reaction, 
zealously  fostered  in  Berlin  and  Vienna,  celebrated  its  triumphs.  Hardenberg's 
influence  over  Frederick  William  III  had  been  extinguished  by  Metternich,  and 
the  chahcellor  of  state  was  politically  dead,  even  before  he  closed  his  eyes,  on 
November  26,  1822.  The  king  saw  the  Carboneria  already  entering  Prussia,  put 
aside  Hardenberg's  project  for  a  general  assembly,  and  found  fault  with  him  when 
reminded  that  he  had  pledged  his  royal  word.  A  new  constitution  commission 
under  the  presidency  of  the  crown  prince  Frederick  William  (IV),  who  was 
steeped  in  romanticism,  consisted  entirely  of  Hardenberg's  opponents,  and  would 


^:7<SS"'^?;]       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  125 

only  be  content  with  charters  for  the  several  provinces.  The  king  consented  to 
them.  After  Hardenberg's  death  the  king  could  not  consent  to  summon  Wilhelm 
von  Humboldt,  but  abolished  the  presidency  in  the  cabinet ;  and  there  were  thence- 
forward only  departmental  ministers,  who  went  their  own  ways.  The  king  con- 
tented himself  with  the  law  of  June  5,  1823,  as  to  the  regulation  of  provincial 
estates.  Bureaucracy  and  feudalism  celebrated  a  joiat  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  Wurtemberg,  owing  to  the 
frankness  and  independence  of  its  representative,  Karl  August  Freiherr  von  Wan- 
genheim,  now  and  agaia  broke  from  the  trodden  path.  Wangenheim  suggested 
the  plan  of  confronting  the  great  German  powers  with  a  league  "  of  pure  and  con- 
stitutional Germany,"  under  the  leadership  of  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg,  and  by 
this  expedient  proposed  to  create  a  triple  alliance  (Trias),  such  as  Lindner's 
"Manuscript  aus  Siiddeutschland "  (1820),  had  demanded.  But  the  Vienna  con- 
ferences of  January,  1823,  arranged  by  Metternich,  soon  led  to  Wurtemberg's 
compliance.  Wangenheim  fell  in  July.  The  Carlsbad  resolutions  were  renewed 
in  August,  1824,  and  the  federal  diet  did  not  agitate  again,  after  it  had  quietly 
divided  the  unhappy  Central  Enquiry  Commission  at  Mayence  in  1828. 

(b)  Great  Britain  and  Beform.  —  The  trial  of  Queen  Caroline  had  inflicted 
a  severe  blow  on  the  British  crown  and  the  tory  ministry.  Byron  hurled  at 
George  IV  the  poet's  curse, — 

"  Charles  to  his  people,  Henry  to  his  wife, 
In  him  the  double  tyrant  starts  to  life  ; 
Justice  and  death  have  mix'd  their  dust  in  vain, 
Each  royal  vampire  wakes  to  life  again. 
Ah,  what  can  tombs  avail,  since  these  disgorge 
The  blood  and  dust  of  both  —  to  mould  a  George. " 

Windsor  Poetics. 

Fresh  life  was  introduced  by  Canning  into  home  and  foreign  policy ;  he  lent 
his  support  to  the  effort  for  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  although  without 
being  able  to  bring  it  to  a  successful  conclusion.  In  parliamentary  reform  Lord 
John  Eussell,  who  supported  Canning  as  zealously  as  he  opposed  Wellington,  took 
the  foremost  place.  It  was  due  to  his  unwearying  perseverance  that  the  bill  of 
June  7, 1832,  was  finally  passed.  The  president  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  William 
Huskisson,  a  pupil  of  Pitt,  worked  also  in  Canning's  spirit;  he  gave  full  scope 
to  a  commercial  policy,  and  undermined,  ev6n  if  he  could  not  overthrow,  the 
system  of  protective  tariffs  and  import  duties.  The  Navigation  Act  of  1651  was 
rendered  less  stringent ;  foreign  commerce,  freed  from  burdensome  restrictions, 
increased  by  leaps  and  bounds  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  128);  the  wool  and  silk  industries 
flourished.  Thousands  upon  thousands  believed  a  golden  age  was  dawning,  and 
speculated  wildly  in  the  shares  of  the  joint-stock  companies  which  were  springing 
up  like  mushrooms ;  there  were  the  most  exaggerated  hopes  as  to  the  profits  to  be 
made  by  trading  with  the  liberated  Spanish  colonies.  The  speculators  had  natu- 
rally not  to  wait  long  for  a  disillusion.  Unspeakable  misery  was  the  end  of  this 
extravagant  desire  for  wealth.  The  years  1825  and  1826  were  terrible,  in  spite  of 
all  the  bold  efforts  of  Huskisson,  Canning,  and  others.  Canning  might  be  regarded 
)  as  a  true  high  priest  of  liberal  ideas,  and  thus  it  was  a  day  of  great  significance 


126  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  i 

■when  in  April,  1827,  he  became  premier  and  first  lord  of  the  treasury.  Ireland 
caused  the  government  much  trouble.  Daniel  O'Connell,  a  barrister  and  a  born 
popular  orator,  together  with  Eichard  Shell,  raised  the  Catholic  Association,  at 
whose  head  he  stood  after  1815,  to  a  power  which  dominated  the  whole  island, 
and  demanded  equality  of  rights  for  the  Catholics. 

After  January,  1828,  Wellington  stood  at  the  head  of  a  purely  tory  cabinet, 
in  which  Sir  Kobert  Peel  was  home  secretary.  The  Corporations  Act  and  the 
Test  Act  were  repealed  in  May,  1828,  and  the  Catholic  Emancipation  Bill  was 
finally  passed  on  the  30th  of  March,  1829. 

(c)  The  Greek  War  of  Liberation,  1823-1S29. —The  year  1822  had  been  on 
the  whole  favourable  to  the  struggles  of  the  Greeks,  and  had  found  a  happy  con- 
clusion in  the  capture  of  Nauplia  in  December  and  the  destruction  of  the  army  of 
Dramali.  Missolonghi  defied  its  besiegers,  and  the  Turkish  general  Omer  Vrionis 
was  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  on  January  13, 1823.  In  the  year  1823  fortune  stUl 
favoured  the  Greeks,  but  internal  discord  was  rending  them.  They  began  to  fly 
at  each  other's  throats,  and  civil  wars  simplified  the  operations  of  the  Porte ;  the 
latter  was  now  helped  by  the  mighty  Mehemet  All  of  Egypt  (cf.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  717). 
His  troops  conquered  Crete  and  Kaso  in  1824,  those  of  Khosrew  Pasha  took 
Psara,  and  on  the  5th  of  February,  1825,  Mehemet's  adopted  son,  Ibrahim  Pasha, 
landed  at  Modon  in  the  Morea.  One  town  after  another  fell  into  his  power,  and 
soon  the  Greeks  could  no  longer  hold  the  field.  The  Egyptians  slaughtered  and 
devastated  in  every  direction.  Keen  interest  was  roused  in  the  world  by  the 
new  siege  of  Missolonghi  by  Eedshid  and  Ibrahim  Pasha.  Lord  Byron's  death 
(April  19, 1824),  for  the  cause  of  the  Hellenes,  had  consecrated  this  place.  The 
government  at  Nauplia  placed  Greece,  in  August,  1825,  under  the  absolute  protec- 
tion of  Great  Britain.  But  Missolonghi  fell  on  April  22-25, 1826,  and  the  Morea 
was  laid  waste.  Eedshid  threw  himself  upon  Attica.  On  the  6th  of  May,  1827, 
the  Greeks  suffered  a  severe  defeat  before  Athens,  and  on  June  5  of  that  year 
Athens  fell.  All  the  sacrifices  of  the  Greeks  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Philhel- 
lenes  of  the  whole  of  Europe  seemed  unable  to  prevent  the  calamity. 

After  a  meeting  of  the  emperors  Francis  and  Alexanfcr  at  Czernowitz  in 
October,  1823,  the  Eussian  government  proposed  conferences  in  St.  Petersburg,  in 
order  to  restore  peace  in  Greece.  A  Eussian  note,  dated  January  9,  1824,  was 
laid  before  the  powers  invited  to  attend,  —  Austria,  Prussia,  Great  Britain,  and 
France.  But  the  Greeks  and  the  Turks  would  not  hear  of  this  plan.  The  confer- 
ences in  Constantinople  and  St.  Petersburg  produced  no  results.  Canning,  how- 
ever, who  even  at  Eton  had  written  poetry  in  honour  of  the  brave  champions  of 
freedom,  felt  sympathy  with  the  Greeks,  and  threw  overboard  the  policy,  which 
his  predecessors  had  pursued,  of  favouring  the  Turk.  He  fostered  the  distrust  of 
Austria,  which  was  already  entertained  in  St.  Petersburg,  made  friends  with 
Eussia,  and  obtained  the  lead  in  the  Greek  question.  Then  occurred  the  death  of 
Alexander  I,  and  Eussia  struck  out  a  new  line  of  policy.  The  Eussians  saw  in 
Alexander's  death  a  heaven-sent  punishment  for  his  weak  desertion  of  the  Greeks, 
their  brethren  in  the  faith. 

The  Czar  had  died  with  a  sorrowful  heart ;  for  he  had  seen  the  love  of  his  people 
toward  him  grow  cold,  and  secret  societies  of  a  political  nature,  besides  free- 
masonry, introduced  into  the  nation  and  the  army.     The  "  Vigilance  Society  "  was 


Xfo%i"iS^«T        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  127 

followed  by  the  "  Free  Societies,"  "  The  League  of  Eussian  Knights/'  "  The  League 
of  Public  Welfare,"  and  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  latter  were  constructed  the 
"  Southern  and  Northern  Societies."  In  Volhynia  the  first  attempt  at  a  federation 
of  all  Slav  peoples  was  seen  in  the  "  Society  of  United  Slavs,"  and  in  Poland  the 
"  Patriotic  Society  "  made  its  way.  Every  league  had  different  plans,  and  many 
members  held  the  wildest  views.  Colonel  Paul  Pestel  and  his  companions  con- 
templated the  introduction  of  a  republic,  universal  equality,  the  murder  of  Alex- 
ander and  his  family ;  others  only  thought  of  restricting  his  despotic  power.  The 
government  noticed  the  very  imprudent  behaviour  of  the  conspirators,  mostly 
members  of  the  nobility,  in  the  army  and  navy ;  but  before  these  ventured  on  a 
coup  de  main  the  Czar  died  at  Taganrog,  on  December  1,  1825.  The  Grand  Duke 
Constantiue  had  renounced  the  succession,  a  fact  of  which  hardly  anyone  was 
aware,  and  referred  the  officials,  who  were  offering  their  homage,  to  his  younger 
brother,  Nicholas  Paulovitch ;  a  contest  in  renunciation  now  ensued,  and  it  was 
dif&cult  to  decide  who  had  become  emperor.  At  length  Nicholas  issued  a  procla- 
mation announcing  his  accession  to  the  throne  on  December  24;  but  the  con- 
spirators on  the  26th  incited  several  regiments  in  St.  Petersburg  to  revolt  against 
him.  A  battle  was  fought  on  the  senate-house  square  and  in  the  adjoining 
streets,  and  Nicholas'  victory  was  followed  by  the  infliction  of  the  severest 
penalties  on  the  "  Decabrists  "  ("  December  folk  "). 

Nicholas,  an  autocrat  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word,  ruled  thenceforward 
with  a  blindly  devoted,  if  not  blameless,  body  of  officials,  with  a  force  of  police, 
and  with  a  strict  censorship,  and  suppressed  with  iron  hand  all  liberalism.  In 
spite  of  all  his  harshness,  he  was  just  and  magnanimous.  He  ordered  Michail 
M.  Speransky,  the  Tribonian  of  Eussia  (p.  109),  to  form  a  collection  of  the  Eussian 
laws  since  1649,  the  Sswod  sakonow,  which  was  introduced  in  1835  as  the  only 
valid  code.  Eussians  studied  under  Savigny  in  Berlin ;  the  knowledge  of  Eussian 
law  and  Eussian  history  was  greatly  increased. 

Armenia  was  conquered  by  Ivan  Paskevitch,  and,  unlike  Alexander,  Nicholas 
soon  showed  his  teeth  to  Turkey,  not  from  any  sympathy  with  the  Greeks,  who  in 
his  eyes  were  mere  rebels,  but  from  reasons  of  policy.  Wellington  signed  in  St. 
Petersburg,  on  April  4,  1826,  an  Anglo-Eussian  protocol  for  the  pacification  of 
Greece,  which,  it  was  proposed,  should  take  a  position  toward  Turkey  similar  to 
that  of  the  Danubian  principalities'.  Although  the  Porte  remonstrated,  Nicholas 
and  Canning  pursued  their  way.  Canning  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  France  also 
for  the  Greeks,  and  Nicholas  prepared  his  armies.  On  the  6th  of  July,  1827, 
Eussia,  Great  Britain,  and  France  concluded  the  treaty  of  London,  in  which  they 
offered  their  mediation  between  the  Greeks  and  the  Turks,  and  declared  that  they 
would  not  for  the  future  tolerate  the  disturbance  of  peaceful  commercial  inter- 
course; the  Porte  should  exercise  full  suzerainty  over  the  tributary  Greek  State 
which  was  to  be  reorganised,  but  the  Greeks  should  be  subject  to  self- chosen 
authorities  and  a  completely  autonomous  government.  The  treaty  was  Canning's 
farewell  greeting;  he  died  on  August  8,  1827,  and  lamentations  at  his  death 
resounded  from  the  Greek  Archipelago  to  the  Andes  of  South  America. 

The  Porte  would  not  hear  of  European  intervention,  and  the  Triple  Alliance 
resolved  upon  war.  Its  fleet  annihilated  the  Turko-Egyptian  fleet  on  October  20, 
1827,  at  Navarino ;  Greece  was  freed  from  its  most  pressing  danger.  The  majority 
of  the  Greek  national  assembly  at  Dhamala  (Troizene),  which  was   friendly  to 


128  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  lchaj>teri 

Eussia,  elected  on  April  11, 1827,  Count  John  Capodistrias  president  (Kybernetes) 
of  Greece  for  seven  years.  He  entered  on  his  arduous  post  in  January,  1828,  at 
^gina,  only  to  become  more  submissive  to  Eussian  influence,  and  to  be  irreconcil- 
ably antagonistic  to  the  liberals.  In  May,  1828,  the  war  between  Eussia  and 
the  Turks  began.  Ivan  Diebitsch  crossed  the  Balkans,  but  when  he  proposed  to 
advance  from  Adrianople  to  Constantinople,  the  Divan  appealed  to  Prussia  to 
mediate.  The  peace  of  Adrianople  was  concluded  on  the  14th  of  September,  1829 ; 
this  extended  Eussia's  territory  in  Asia,  opened  the  Black  Sea  to  Eussian  trade, 
and  obtained  for  Greece  a  recognition  of  its  independence  from  the  Porte.  The 
Western  powers  did  not  at  aU  wish  it  to  become  a  sovereign  power  under  Eussian 
influence,  and  it  was  finally  agreed,  on  February  3,  1830,  that  the  independent 
State  should  be  confined  to  as  narrow  limits  as  possible,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Aspropotamos  to  the  mouth  of  the  Spercheios. 

I  (d)  France  under  Charles  X.  —  The  new  ruler  in  France,  Charles  X,  lived  on 
the  principle,  "  I  would  rather  saw  wood  than  be  king  on  the  terms  of  the  king 
of  England."  He  was  a  man  of  scrupulous  honour  and  honesty,  but  full  of  preju- 
dices and  stubbornness,  —  a  weak  spirit,  narrowed  by  pietism,  and,  in  spite  of  his 
gray  hairs,  he  still  remained  the  Count  of  Artois  of  the  emigration.  At  the  open- 
ing of  his  reign  he  was  praised  by  Victor  Hugo  and  Lamartine ;  but  his  popularity 
soon  vanished.  B^ranger  sneered  at  him  as  "  Charles  le  Simple,"  and  made  fun 
of  the  "  Gerontocracy."  Five-franc  pieces  represented  him  with  the  Jesuit  hat. 
The  power  of  the  priests  grew  abnormally ;  official  posts  were  given  to  followers  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  the  order  controlled  the  public  system  of  education.  Charles  was 
anointed  with  the  holy  oil  at  Eheims,  in  which  ceremony  the  old  traditions  were 
strictly  observed ;  he  followed  all  the  processions  in  Paris,  and  many  nobles  took 
refuge  in  the  Church  as  the  natural  support  against  the  predominant  liberalism. 
The  law  against  sacrilege  recalled  the  Middle  Ages ;  in  the  monastery -law  men 
detected  the  reintroduction  of  monasticism  and  mortmain.  The  act  of  the  27th  of 
April,  1825,  granted  to  the  emigrants  a  milliard  (£40,000,000)  as  a  compensation, 
though  certainly  inadequate,  for  their  losses  since  1789. 

Charles,  against  Villfele's  advice,  had  immediately  repg§led  the  censorship. 
The  liberal  press  now  attacked  imsparingly  Jesuitism  in  State,  Church,  school, 
and  societ}'-,  and  gained  increasing  reputation  by  the  lawsuits  which  it  had  to  face. 
The  champion  of  the  Galilean  Church  (Vol.  VII,  p.  201)  and  the  deadly  enemy  of 
the  ultramontanes,  Dupin  the  elder,  was  the  most  celebrated  man  in  the  liberal 
camp,  and  there  was  great  exultation  over  his  speeches  in  defence  of  "  Le  Constitu- 
tionnel,"  "  Ze  Journal  des  Debats,"  &c.  The  magistracy  and  the  majority  of  the 
chamber  took  the  side  of  the  opposition.  Charles  wished  to  reintroduce  the 
censorship,  and  bitterly  repented  having  repealed  it;  but  Chateaubriand  termed 
the  proposed  law  vandalism,  and  Eoyer-CoUard  called  it  atheistic,  and  the  peers 
forced  the  government  to  withdraw  the  bill  in  April,  1827.  Universal  detestation, 
heightened  by  the  disbanding  of  the  National  Guard,  threatened  VHlfele ;  but  the 
latter  ventured  on  new  steps  in  order  to  assert  his  position.  An  ordinance  of  June 
24,  1827,  had  restored  the  censorship,  and,  disregarding  the  unanimous  indignation 
of  royalists  (Chateaubriand,  Hyde  de  Neuville)  and  liberals  (Guizot,  Count  Sal- 
vandy,  and  Odilon  Barrot),  Villfele  went  boldly  onward.  Four  ordinances  of  the 
5th  of  November,  1827,  enacted  the  abolition  of  the  censorship,  the  dissolution  of 


X"7£S«ir]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  129 

the  second  chamber,  which  deserted  Villfele,  the  regulation  for  a  new  election,  and 
the  nomination  of  seventy-six  new  peers,  who  were  mostly  bishops  or  thorough- 
going emigres.  The  result  of  the  new  elections  was  distinctly  unfavourable  to  the 
ministry.  There  was  an  insurrection  in  Paris,  and  barricades  were  erected  for  the 
first  time  since  the  days  of  the  Fronde  (Vol.  VII,  p.  436).  Villfele  could  no  longer 
remain  at  the  helm. 

Viscount  de  Martignac,  the  soul  of  the  new  ministry  which  entered  on  office 
January  5,  1828,  was  a  man  of  honour  and  especially  adapted  to  act  as  mediator. 
His  clear  intellect  raised  him  head  and  shoulders  above  the  mass  of  the  royalists. 
He  wished  for  moderation  and  progress,  but  he  never  possessed  Charles'  affection, 
and  was  no  statesman.  Charles  opposed  Martignac's  diplomacy  with  the  help  of 
his  confidants.  Prince  Jules  Polignac  and  others ;  and  while  Martignac  seemed  to 
the  king  to  be  "  too  little  of  a  VUlfele,"  public  opinion  accused  him  of  being  "  too 
much  of  a  Villfele."  His  laws  as  to  elections  and  the  press  seemed  too  liberal  to 
Charles ;  his  interference  in  the  Church  and  the  schools  roused  the  fury  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  the  Abb^  Lamennais  (p.  91),  who  had  been  won  back  by  them, 
compared  the  king  with  Nero  and  Diocletian.  Lamennais  attacked  the  Galilean 
Church  of  "  atheistic "  France,  called  the  constitutional  monarchy  of  Charles  the 
most  abominable  despotism  which  had  ever  burdened  humanity,  and  scathingly 
assailed  the  ordinances  which  Charles  had  issued  in  June,  1828,  relating  to  re- 
ligious brotherhoods  and  clerical  education.  Martignac's  government,  he  said, 
demoralised  society,  and  the  moment  was  near  in  which  the  oppressed  people  must 
have  recourse  to  force,  in  order  to  rise  up  in  the  name  of  the  infallible  pope  against 
the  atheistic  king.  The  abba's  treatise,  "  Des  progrls  de  la  revolution  et  de  la 
guerre  contre  I'eglise"  (1829),  made  a  great  sensation,  and  he  himself  became  more 
and  more  democratic ;  it  was  the  natural  consequence  of  his  doctrines.  With  the 
sanction  of  Pope  Leo  XII,  the  patron  of  the  Jesuits,  he  founded  the  "  Society  for 
the  Defence  of  the  Catholic  Eeligion,"  for  which  "  Le  Catholique "  and  "  Le  Oor- 
respondant "  henceforward  worked,  and  in  September,  1830,  there  appeared,  after 
the  fall  of  Charles,  so  welcome  to  Lamennais,  his  Christian-revolutionary  journal, 
*'  L'Avenir,"  in  which  Lacordaire,  Count  Montalembert,  and  Gerbet  collaborated 
with  him.  The  Church  of  Rome  put  on  the  cap  of  liberty !  Martignac's  cabinet 
could  claim  an  important  foreign  success,  when  the  Marquis  de  Maison,  who  led 
an  expeditionary  corps  to  the  Morea,  compelled  the  Egyptians,  under  Ibrahim 
Pasha,  to  retreat  in  August,  1828,  and  thwarted  Metternich's  plan  of  a  quadruple 
alliance  for  the  forcible  pacification  of  Eussia  and  Turkey.  But  when  Martignac 
wished  to  decentralise  the  French  administration,  and  brought  in  bUls  for  this 
purpose  in  February,  1829,  he  was  deserted  by  everyone.  The  extreme  Right 
allied  itself  with  the  Left;  Martignac  was  compelled  to  withdraw  the  proposals 
in  April,  and  on  the  8th  of  August,  1829,  Prince  Polignac  took  his  place. 

The  name  of  Jules  Polignac  seemed  to  the  country  a  presage  of  coups  d'etat  and 
anti-constitutionalist  reaction.  A  cry  of  indignation  was  heard,  and  the  press  made 
the  most  violent  attacks  on  the  new  minister.  The  Duke  of  Broglie  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  society  formed  to  defend  the  charter,  called  "Aide-toi,  le  del 
t'aidera  ;  "  republicans,  eager  for  the  fray,  grouped  themselves  round  Louis  Blanqui, 
Etienne  Arago,  and  Armand  Barbfes.  The  newspaper,  "  National"  began  its  work 
on  behalf  of  the  Orleans  family,  for  whom  Talleyrand,  Thiers,  Jacques  Laffite  the 
hanker,  and  Adelaide  the  sister  of  Duke  Louis  Philippe,  cleared  the  road.     Even 

VOL.  VIII— 9 


130  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  {_Chajpteri 

Metternich,  Wellington,  and  the  emperor  Nicholas  advised  that  no  cowp  d'etat 
should  be  made  against  the  Charta.  Charles,  however,  remained  the  untaught 
emigrant  of  Coblenz,  and  did  not  understand  the  new  era ;  he  saw  in  every  con- 
stitutionalist a  supporter  of  the  revolutionary  party  and  a  Jacobin.  Polignac  was 
the  dreamer  of  the  restoration,  a  fanatic  without  any  worldly  wisdom,  whom  de- 
lusions almost  removed  from  the  world  of  reality,  who  considered  himself,  with 
his  limited  capacity,  to  be  infallible.  The  Virgin  had  appeared  to  him  and 
commanded  him  to  cut  off  the  head  of  the  hydra  of  democracy  and  infidelity. 

Polignac,  originally  only  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  became  on  the  17th  of 
November,  1829,  president  of  the  cabinet  council.  In  order  to  gain  over  the 
nation,  which  was  hostile  to  him,  he  tried  to  achieve  foreign  successes  for  it.  He 
laid  stress  on  the  principle  of  the  freedom  of  the  ocean  as  opposed  to  Great 
Britain's  claims  to  maritime  supremacy,  and  sketched  a  fantastic  map  of  the 
Europe  of  the  future ;  if  he  could  not  transform  this  into  reality,  at  all  events 
military  laurels  should  be  won  at  the  first  opportunity  which  presented  itself. 
The  Dey  of  Algiers  had  been  offended  by  the  French,  and  had  aimed  a  blow  at 
their  consul,  Deval,  during  an  audience.  Since  he  would  not  listen  to  any  remon- 
strances, France  made  preparations  by  land  and  sea.  In  June,  1830,  the  minister 
of  war,  Count  Bourmont,  landed  with  thirty -seven  thousand  men  near  Sidi-Ferruch, 
defeated  the  Algerians,  sacked  their  camp,  and  entered  the  capital  on  July  6,  where 
he  captured  much  treasure.  He  banished  the  Dey,  and  was  promoted  to  be  mar- 
shal of  France.  Algiers  became  French,  but  Charles  and  Polignac  were  not 
destined  to  enjoy  the  victory. 

The  press  and  the  parties  in  opposition  became  more  confident ;  Eoyer-CoUard 
candidly  assured  Charles  that  the  chamber  would  oppose  every  one  of  his  min- 
istries. Charles,  however,  only  listened  to  Polignac's  boastful  confidence,  and  at 
the  opening  of  the  chambers  on  the  2d  of  March,  1830,  in  his  speech  from  the 
throne  he  threatened  the  opposition  in  such  unmistakable  terms,  that  doctrinaires, 
as  well  as  ultra  liberals,  detected  the  unsheathing  of  the  royal  sword.  Pierre 
Antoine  Berryer,  the  most  brilliant  orator  of  legitimacy,  and  perhaps  the  greatest 
French  orator  of  the  century,  had  a  lively  passage  of  arms  in  the  debate  on  the 
address  with  Frangois  Guizot,  the  clever  leader  of  the  docMnaires,  and  was  de- 
feated; the  chamber,  by  221  votes  against  181,  accepted  on  March  16  a  peremptory 
answer  to  the  address,  which  informed  the  monarch  that  his  ministers  did  not 
possess  the  confidence  of  the  nation,  and  that  no  harmony  existed  between  the 
government  and  the  chamber.  Charles,  however,  saw  that  the  monarchy  itself 
was  at  stake,  declared  his  resolutions  unalterable,  and  insisted  that  he  would  never 
allow  his  crown  to  be  humiliated.  He  prorogued  the  chambers  on  March  19  until 
the  1st  of  September,  and  dismissed  prefects  and  officials,  while  the  221  were 
fgted  throughout  France.  Struck  by  these  events,  Charles  demanded  from  his 
ministers  a  statement  of  the  situation.  But  Polignac's  secret  memorandum  of 
April  14  lulled  his  suspicions  again.  It  said  that  only  a  small  fraction  of  the 
nation  was  revolutionary  and  could  not  be  dangerous ;  the  charter  was  the  gospel, 
and  a  peaceful  arrangement  was  easy.  Charles  dissolved  the  chambers  on  May  16, 
and  summoned  a  new  one  for  August  3.  Instead  of  recalling  Villfele,  he  strength- 
ened the  ministry  by  followers  of  Polignac.  On  the  19  th  of  May  De  Chantelauze 
and  Count  Peyronnet  came  in  as  minister  of  justice  and  minister  of  the  interior. 
The  appointment  of  Peyronnet  was,  in  Charles'  own  words,  a  slap  in  the  face  for 


i;«7<ssr;]     history  of  the  world  isi 

public  opinion,  for  there  was  hardly  an  individual  more  hated  in  France ;  he  now 
continually  advised  exceptional  measures  and  urged  a  coup  d  'itat  against  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Charta.  In  order  to  facilitate  the  victory  of  the  government  at  the 
new  elections,  he  explained  in  his  proclamation  to  the  people  on  June  13  that 
he  would  not  give  in.  But  the  society  "  Aide-toi,  le  del  t'aidera  "  secured  the 
re-election  of  the  221 ;  the  opposition  reached  the  number  of  272 ;  the  ministry, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  only  145  votes. 

Disorders  were  visible  in  the  whole  of  France.  Troops  were  sent  to  quiet 
them,  but  the  press  of  every  shade  of  opinion  fanned  the  flame.  Charles  saw 
rising  before  him  the  shadow  of  his  brother,  whom  weak  concessions  had  brought 
to  the  guillotine,  spoke  of  a  dictatorship,  and,  being  entirely  under  Polignac's  influ- 
ence, inclined  toward  the  plan  of  adopting  exceptional  measures  and  reasserting 
his  position  as  king.  The  Czar,  Peyronnet  himself,  Jakob  Eothschild,  and  others 
dissuaded  him.  But  on  the  25th  of  July,  1830,  he  signed  the  five  ordinances 
proposed  by  Polignac.  The  freedom  of  the  press  was  temporarily  suspended,  the 
publication  of  journals  was  made  dependent  on  permission  previously  obtained, 
the  chamber  of  deputies,  which  had  not  yet  met,  was  dissolved  and  a  new  one 
summoned  for  the  28th  of  September.  The  electoral  law  was  altered,  and  the  ultra- 
royalist  members  of  the  council  of  state,  who  had  been  dismissed  by  Martignac, 
were  recalled.  The  ordinances  were  published  on  July  26.  The  "  National "  of 
Adolphe  Thiers  at  once  became  the  centre  of  the  press  movement,  but  Charles 
at  St.  Cloud  congratulated  himself  on  his  work  and  nominated  the  universally 
unpopular  Marshal  Marmont,  Duke  of  Eagusa,  to  be  commander-in-chief  of  the 
first  military  division.  Marmont,  as  the  popular  excitement  grew,  called  out  the 
garrison  of  Paris,  and,  when  the  Eevolution  broke  out  there  on  July  27,  proclaimed 
a  state  of  siege  on  July  28 ;  at  the  same  time  he  and  the  Eussian  ambassador, 
Count  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  advised  Charles  to  make  concessions.  From  the  barricades 
which  had  been  hastily  thrown  up  resounded  the  cry,  "  Down  with  the  Bour- 
bons ! "  Polignac,  however,  did  not  lose  confidence,  although  the  insurrection 
increased  everywhere,  and  a  part  of  the  troops  went  over  to  the  people.  Paris 
was  lost.  The  dauphin,  Louis  Antoine,  Duke  of  Angoul§me,  took  over  the  com- 
mand of  the  troops  and  eagerly  joined  Marmont,  who  led  the  last  troops  from 
Paris  to  St.  Cloud.  The  National  Guard  was  restored  in  Paris  and  the  veteran 
Lafayette  took  the  command  of  them.  A  municipal  committee  was  formed  at 
Guizot's  initiative ;  the  citizens  governed  Paris,  and  Talleyrand  invited  the  Duke 
of  Orleans  to  come  to  Paris. 

Charles  X  at  last  recognised  that  he  was  on  the  verge  of  destruction.  He 
recalled  the  ordinances  on  July  30,  dismissed  the  ministry  of  Polignac,  and  en- 
trusted the  Duke  of  Mortemart  with  the  task  of  constructing  a  ministry,  by 
drawing  on  the  ranks  of  the  Left  Centre ;  but  when  Mortemart  came  to  the  house 
of  Laffitte,  which  the  opposition  had  made  their  headquarters,  it  was  explained  to 
him  that  it  was  too  late.  Louis  Philippe  assumed  on  July  31,  at  the  wish  of  both 
chambers,  the  office  of  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom,  allowed  himself  to  be 
embraced  by  Lafayette  as  a  citizen-king,  and  nominated  a  ministry.  On  that 
very  day  Charles  X  migrated  to  the  Trianon,  and  thence  to  Eambouillet.  His 
court  emptied  as  quickly  as  that  of  Louis  XVI  on  a  former  occasion,  and  his  troops 
deserted  in  masses.  As  a  last  resort,  he  offered,  on  August  1,  as  if  on  his  own  in- 
itiative, the  office  of  lieutenant-general  of  the  kingdom  to  Louis  Philippe ;  but  the 


132  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapteri 

duke  declined  it,  since  he  was  already  holdiag  that  position,  conferred  on  him  by 
the  chambers.  On  the  2d  of  August  Charles  and  the  dauphin  renounced  the  crown 
in  favour  of  Berry's  son,  the  Duke  of  Bordeaux,  whom  they  proclaimed  as  King 
Heury  V,  and  Charles  required  Louis  Philippe  to  make  all  arrangements  for 
Henry's  accession  to  the  throne.  Louis  Philippe,  however,  cheated  Henry  of  the 
crown,  and  took  the  oath  to  the  constitution  as  king  of  the  French  on  August  9. 
Charles  sailed  on  August  16  for  England;  in  1832  he  crossed  over  to  Austria. 
His  hopes  of  a  third  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  were  never  to  be  realised  (see 
p.  142). 


S^^'rif^^f]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  133 


II 

THE  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CHANGES  IN  EUROPE 
BETWEEN  1830  AND  1859 

Br  PROFESSOR  DR.  HANS   VON   ZWIEDINECK-SUDENHORST 


1.     CONSEEVATIVE  ABEEEATIONS 

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  differences  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  government,  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  tasks  of  the  State. 
Principahties  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  antiquated  or  had  been  abolished,  and  as  the  monarchy  in- 
creased in  power  at  the  expense  of  the  classes  it  had  invariably  employed  instru- 
ments of  government  more  scientifically  constructed  in  detail.  Bureaucracies  had 
ariseiL  Governments  had  intervened  between  princes  and  peoples  and  had  become 
ends  in  themselves.  The  theory  of  "  subordination,"  which  in  feudal  society  had 
denoted  an  economic  relation,  now  assumed  a  political  character ;  it  was  regarded 
as  a  necessary  extension  of  the  idea  of  sovereignty  which  had  become  the  sole  and 
ultimate  basis  of  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,  resulted  in  the  theory  that  the  guidance  of  society  was  a  governmental 
task,  and  consequently  laid  an  ever-increasing  number  of  claims  and  demands  upon 
the  government  for  the  time  being  (cf.  the  characteristics  of  the  period  between 
1650  and  1780,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  431-434). 

To  this  conception  of  the  rights  of  princes  and  their  delegates  as  a  result  of 
historic  growth  the  French  Eevolution  had  opposed  the  idea  of  "the  rights  of 
man ; "  to  the  National  Assembly  no  task  seemed  more  necessary  or  more  impera- 
tive than  the  extirpation  of  erroneous  theories  from  the  general  thought  of  the 
time ;  such  theories  had  arisen  from  the  exaggerated  importance  attached  to 
monarchical  power,  had  secured  recognition,  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  sover- 


134  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapterii 

eign  -will  of  the  people,  Prance  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  French- 
men that  the  emperor  had  led  his  armies  far  beyond  the  limits  of  French  domina- 
tion and  had  imposed  his  personal  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  sov- 
ereign people  to  the  absolute  despot.  Monarchs  and  nations  shared  alike  in  the 
task  of  overpowering  this  tyranny  which  had  aimed  at  abolishing  entirely  the 
rights  of  nations  as  such ;  but  from  victory  the  princes  alone  derived  advantage. 
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  Napo- 
leon ;  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 
Tyrol  could  not  be  wholly  explained  by  reference  to  the  commands  of  legally  con- 
stituted 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  agaiu  the  princely  families  recovered  their  power  and  position ;  they  had 
not  entertained  the  least  idea  of  dividing  among  themselves  the  spoUs  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 
admiuistering  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  important  than  the 
maintenance  of  social  order  and  morality.  It  was  explained  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  mcrease  the  powers 
of  the  government.  However,  "  the  limited  intelligence  of  the  subjects  "  strove 
against  this  interpretation  of  the  facts ;  they  could  not  forget  the  enormous  sacri- 
fices 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  satis- 
factory historic  foundations  and  was  therefore  indisputable.  In  the  age  of  feudal 
society  it  was  the  lords,  the  free  landowners,  who  had  waged  war,  and  not  the  gov- 
ernments, and  their  authority  had  been  limited  only  by  their  means.  Neither  the 
lives  nor  the  property  of  the  commonalty  had  ever  come  in  question  except 
in  cases  where  their  sympathies  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. 


^f^^'riS?;f]     HISTORY  of  the  world  135 

After  the  conception  of  sovereignty  had  been  modified  by  the  idea  of  "  govern- 
ment "  the  situation  had  been  changed.  Military  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  therefore  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  Eevolution  had  caused  the  overthrow  of  social  order. 
It  had  engendered  the  very  worst  of  human  passions,  destroyed  professions  and 
property,  sacrificed  a  countless  number  of  human  lives,  and  disseminated  infidelity 
and  immorality ;  revolution  therefore  must  be  checked,  must  be  nipped  in  the  bud 
in  the  name  of  God,  of  civilization  and  social  order.  This  opinion  was  founded 
upon  the  fundamental  mistake  of  refusing  to  recognise  the  fact  that  all  rights 
implied  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  is  known  as  conservatism ;  its  supporters  availed  themselves  of  the 
unnatural  limitations  laid  upon  the  subject  unduly  to  aggrandise  and  systemati- 
cally to  increase  the  privileges  of  the  ruling  class ;  and  this  process  received  the 
name  of  statecraft.  This  conservative  statecraft,  of  which  Prince  Metternich  was 
proud  to  call  himself  a  master,  proceeded  from  a  dull  and  spiritless  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  State. 
Pohtical  science  Metternich  had  none ;  he  made  good  the  deficiency  by  the  general 
admiration  which  his  intellect  and  character  inspired ;  his  diaries  and  many  of  his 
letters  are  devoted  to  the  glorification  of  these  merits.  A  knowledge  of  his  intel- 
lectual position  and  of  that  of  the  majority  of  his  diplomatic  colleagues  is  an  indis- 
pensable preliminary  to  the  understanding  of  the  aberrations  into  which  the 
statesmen  of  the  so-called  Eestoration  period  fell. 

The  restored  government  of  the  Bourbons  in  France  was  indeed  provided  with 
a  constitution ;  it  was  thus  that  the  Czar,  Alexander  I,  had  attempted  to  display 
his  liberal  tendencies  and  his  good-will  to  the  French  nation,  but  he  had  been 
forced  to  leave  the  Germans  and  Italians  to  their  fate,  and  had  satisfied  his  con- 
science 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  gi-anted  to  it  by  the  concoc- 
tion 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  popular  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 


136  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

of  restoration  and  reorganisation  coadjutors  highly  desirable  to  a  far-seeing  admin- 
istration, incapable  of  understanding  the  Italian  yearnings  for  union  and  activity, 
and  for  the  foundation  of  a  federal  State  free  from  foreign  irifluences,  the  great 
powers  of  Austria,  Eussia,  and  Prussia  employed  threats  and  force  in  every  form, 
with  the  object  of  imposing  constitutions  of  their  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  conservatism  declined  to  use  for  the  consolidation  of  the 
federation,  which  Austria  at  the  same  time  desired  to  exploit  for  her  own  ad- 
vantage. Conservatism  never,  indeed,  gave  the  smallest  attention  to  the  task  of 
uniting  the  interests  of  the  allied  States  by  institutions  making  for  prosperity,  or 
by  the  union  of  their  several  artistic  and  scientific  powers ;  it  seemed  more  ne'ces- 
sary  and  more  salutary  to  limit  as  far  as  possible  the  influence  of  the  popular 
representatives  in  the  administration  of  the  allied  States,  and  to  prevent  the  intro- 
duction 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  Eussia,  which  might  be  useful  in  the  suppression  of  revolu- 
tions, Austria  surrendered  that  right,  which  she  had  acquired  by  the  heavy  mili- 
tary sacrifices  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  of  appearing  as  the 
liberator  of  the  Balkan  Christians  from  Turkish  oppression. 

Political  history  provides  many  examples  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  aU,  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  conservat^m  of  the  Eestora- 
tion  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  purification,  or  of  improvement,  it  was  utterly 
incapable ;  for  in  fact  the  object  of  the  conservative  statesmen  and  their  highest 
ambition  was  nothmg  more  than  to  capture  the  admiration  of  that  court  society  in 
which  they  figured  in  their  uniforms  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  posses- 
sions; many,  indeed,  have  disappeared  for  ever  from  the  scene  of  history,  while 
others  have  passed  through  times  of  bitter  trial  and  deadly  struggle. 

2.  THE  FALL  OF  THE  BOUEBONS  IN  FEANCE 

The  French  were  the  first  to  put  an  end  to  the  weak  policy  of  the  Eestoration. 
Their  privileged  position  as  "  the  pioneers  of  civilization "  they  used  with  that 


S^:'rlS??J]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  137 

light-hearted  energy  and  vigour  by  which  their  national  character  is  peculiarly 
distinguished,  while  maintaining  the  dexterity  and  the  distinction  which  has 
invariably  marked  their  public  action.  The  cup  of  the  Bourbons  was  full  to 
overflowing.  It  was  not  that  their  powers  of  administration  were  in  any  material 
degree  inferior  to  those  of  other  contemporary  royal  houses ;  such  a  view  of  the 
situation  would  be  entirely  mistaken.  They  were,  however,  in  no  direct  connec- 
tion with  their  people,  and  were  unable  to  enter  into  relations  with  the  ruling 
society  of  Paris.  The  restored  emigres,  the  descendants  of  the  noble  families  of 
the  period  of  Louis  XV  and  Louis  XVI,  whose  members  had  lost  their  lives  under 
the  knife  of  the  guillotine,  were  unable  to  appreciate  the  spirit  which  animated  the 
France  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  This  spirit,  however,  had  availed  itself  of  the 
interim  which  had  been  granted  definitely  to  establish  its  position,  and  had  become 
a  social  power  which  could  no  longer  be  set  aside.  Family  connections  in  a  large 
number  of  cases,  and  the  ties  of  social  intercourse,  ever  influential  in  France,  had 
brought  the  Bonapartists  into  direct  relations  with  the  army,  and  with  the  generals 
and  officers  of  the  emperor  who  had  been  retired  on  scanty  pensions.  The  floating 
capital,  which  had  grown  to  an  enormous  extent,  was  in  its  hands,  and  was  indis- 
pensable to  the  government  if  it  was  to  free  itself  from  the  burden  of  a  foreign 
occupation.  By  the  decree  of  April  27,  1825,  the  reduced  noble  families  whose 
goods  had  been  confiscated  by  the  nation  were  relieved  by  the  grant  of  one  billion 
francs.  The  decree,  however,  did  not  imply  their  restoration  to  the  social  position 
they  had  formerly  occupied ;  the  emigrant  families  might  be  the  pensioners  of  the 
nation,  but  could  no  longer  be  the  leading  figures  of  a  society  which  thought  them 
tiresome  and  somewhat  out  of  date. 

Louis  XVIII,  a  well-disposed  monarch,  and  not  without  ability,  died  on  Sep- 
tember 16, 1824,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  Charles  X,  who  had,  as  Cormt 
of  Artois,  incurred  the  odium  of  every  European  court  for  his  obtrusiveness,  his 
avowed  contempt  for  the  people,  and  for  his  crotchety  and  inconsistent  character ; 
he  now  addressed  himself  with  entire  success  to  the  task  of  destroying  what  rem- 
nants of  popularity  the  Bourbon  family  had  retained.  He  was,  however,  tolerably 
well  received  upon  his  accession.  The  abolition  of  the  censorship  of  the  press  had 
gained  him  the  enthusiastic  praise  of  Victor  Hugo,  but  his  liberal  tendencies  dis- 
appeared after  a  short  period.  Jesuitical  priests  played  upon  his  weak  and  con- 
ceited mind  vnth  the  object  of  securing  a  paramount  position  in  France  under  his 
protection.  The  French,  however,  nicknamed  him,  from  the  words  of  B^ranger, 
the  bold  song-writer,  "  Charles  le  Simple,"  when  he  had  himself  crowned  in  Eheims 
after  the  old  Carolingian  custom.  His  persecution  of  the  liberal  press  increased 
the  influence  of  the  journalists.  The  chambers  showed  no  hesitation  in  rejecting 
the  law  of  censorship  introduced  by  his  minister,  Villfele.  When  he  dissolved 
them,  barricades  were  again  raised  in  Paris  and  volleys  fired  upon  citizens.  Even 
so  moderate  a  liberal  as  the  Vicomte  de  Martignac,  who  had  attempted  to  allay 
the  popular  excitement  by  more  equable  press  and  education  laws,  and  by  the  full 
protection  of  an  expression  of  opinion  founded  upon  scientific  principles,  could 
secure  no  recognition  from  the  old  man. 

Jesuit  pietism,  which  had  voluntarily  resigned  the  right  of  independent 
thought,  alone  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  king.  From  this  body  he  chose  his 
favourite,  the  Due  de  Polignac,  and  on  August  28,  1829,  placed  him  at  the  head  of 
a  ministry  which  included  not  a  single  popular  representative  among  its  members. 


138  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

Polignac,  who  was  as  short-sighted  as  he  was  tenacious  of  purpose,  was  in  no  way 
disturbed  by  this  fact,  and  hoped  by  comprehensive  political  undertakings  abroad 
to  secure  the  general  admiration  of  France  within  a  short  time.  However,  his 
plan  for  a  partition  of  European  Turkey,  and  for  the  establishment  of  a  territorial 
exchange  and  mart  in  connection  therewith,  by  which  France  was  to  enter  into 
possession  of  Belgium,  Luxembourg,  and  the  left  bank  of  the  Ehine,  came  too  late, 
as  Eussia  had  already  concluded  the  peace  of  Adrianople  (p.  128).  It  was  then 
hoped  that  the  conquest  of  Algiers  would  so  far  satisfy  the  popular  desires  for 
prestige  as  to  secure  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  certain  inconvenient  paragraphs  in  the 
constitution.  However,  before  the  reception  of  the  news  of  the  surrender  of  the  Dey 
(July  3, 1830),  popular  feeling  in  Paris  had  risen  so  high  that  the  French  victory 
over  a  greedy  pirate  was  of  no  counteracting  influence.  The  new  elections,  for 
which  writs  were  issued  after  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  had  demanded  the  dis- 
missal of  Polignac,  proved  unfavourable  to  the  ministry  and  forced  the  king  either 
to  change  the  ministry  or  make  some  change  in  the  constitution.  The  Jesuits  at 
that  time  had  not  yet  adequately  organised  their  political  system,  and  were  ia 
France  more  ignorant  and  obscure  than  in  Belgium  and  Germany.  However,  they 
thought  themselves  sure  of  their  ground,  and  advised  the  king  to  adopt  the  latter 
alternative,  notwithstanding  the  objections  of  certain  members  of  his  house,  in- 
cluding the  dauphine  Marie  Therfese. 

On  July  26  five  royal  ordinances  were  published.  In  these  the  freedom  of 
the  press  as  established  by  law  was  greatly  limited ;  the  Chambers  of  Deputies, 
though  only  just  elected,  were  again  dissolved ;  a  new  law  for  reorganising  the 
elections  was  proclaimed,  and  a  chamber  to  be  chosen  in  accordance  with  this 
method  was  summoned  for  September  28.  In  other  words,  war  was  declared  upon 
the  constitution.  According  to  paragraph  14  of  the  charter,  the  king  "  is  chief 
head  of  the  State.  He  has  command  of  the  military  and  naval  forces ;  can  declare 
war,  conclude  peace,  alliances,  and  commercial  treaties ;  has  the  right  of  making 
appointments  to  every  office  in  the  public  service,  and  of  issuing  the  necessary 
regulations  and  decrees  for  the  execution  of  the  laws  and  the  security  of  the 
State."  Had  the  king,  as  indeed  was  maintained  by  the  journals  supporting  the 
ministry,  ventured  to  claim  the  power  of  ruling  through  his  owi^decrees,  for  which 
he  alone  was  responsible,  then  all  regulations  as  to  the  state  of  the  legislature  and 
the  subordination  of  the  executive  would  have  been  entirely  meaningless.  Paris, 
desiring  freedom,  was  clear  upon  this  point,  and  immediately  set  itself  with  deter- 
mination to  the  task  of  resistance. 

The  first  day  began  with  the  demonstrations  of  the  printers,  who  found  their 
occupation  considerably  reduced  by  the  press  censorship.  This  movement  was 
accompanied  by  tumultuous  demonstrations  of  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  the 
general  public  in  the  Palais  Eoyal,  and  the  windows  of  the  unpopular  minister's 
house  were  broken.  On  the  morning  of  the  second  day  the  liberal  newspapers 
appeared  without  even  an  attempt  to  gain  the  necessary  authorisation  from  the 
authorities.  They  contained  a  manifesto  couched  in  identical  language  and 
including  the  following  sentence :  "  In  the  present  state  of  affairs  obedience  ceases 
to  be  a  duty."  The  author  of  this  composition  was  Adolphe  Thiers,  at  that  time 
the  best  known  political  writer  in  France  (bom  in  Marseilles,  15th  April,  1797, 
practising  as  advocate  in  Aix  in  1820).  In  1821  he  came  to  Paris  and  entered 
the  office  of  the  "  Constitutionnel,"  and  co-operated  in  the  foundation  of  several 


S^eir^f"^f]       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  139 

periodicals,  writiag  at  the  same  time  his  "  Histoire  de  la  Edvolution  frangaise " 
(ia  ten  volumes,  1823-1827).  This  work  was  rather  a  piece  of  journalism  than 
a  scientiiic  history.  It  attained  rapid  popularity  among  the  liberal  bourgeois  as  it 
emphasised  the  great  successes  and  the  valuable  achievements  of  the  revolution, 
while  discountenancing  the  aberrations  and  the  lamentable  excesses  of  an  anar- 
chical society ;  constitutionalism  and  its  preservation  were  shown  to  be  the  results 
of  all  the  struggles  and  sacrifices  which  France  had  undergone  to  secure  freedom 
and  power  of  self-determination  to  nations  at  large.  Thiers  also  supported  the 
view  of  the  members  that  the  charter  of  1814  provided  sufficient  guarantees  for 
the  preservation  and  exercise  of  the  rights  of  the  people.  These,  however,  must 
he  retained  in  their  entirety  and  protected  from  the  destructive  influences  of 
malicious  misinterpretation.  Such  protection  he  considered  impossible  under  the 
government  of  Charles  X.  He  was  equally  distrustful  of  that  monarch's  son,  the 
Duke  of  Angoul§me,  and  had  already  pretty  plainly  declared  for  a  change  of 
dynasty  and  the  deposition  of  the  royal  line  of  the  house  of  Bourbon  in  favour  of 
the  Orleans  branch. 

Thiers  and  his  journalistic  friends  were  supported  by  a  number  of  the  advo- 
cates present  in  Paris,  including  the  financiers  Jacques  Laffitte  and  Casimir  P^rier. 
They  also  possessed  a  considerable  following  and  enjoyed  rmlimited  influence 
among  the  property-owning  citizens,  who  were  again  joined  by  the  independent 
nobility  excluded  from  court.  They  gave  advice  upon  the  issue  of  manifestoes, 
while  Marshal  A.  F.  L.  V.  de  Marmont,  the  Duke  of  Eagusa  and  military  com- 
mander in  Paris,  strove,  with  the  few  troops  at  his  disposal,  to  suppress  the  noisy 
gatherings  of  the  dissatisfied  element,  wliich  had  considerably  increased  by  the 
27th  July.  Paris  began  to  take  up  arms  on  the  following  night.  On  the  28th, 
thousands  of  workmen,  students  from  the  polytechnic  schools,  doctors  and  citizens 
of  every  profession,  were  fighting  behind  numerous  barricades,  whicli  resisted  all  the 
efforts  of  the  troops.  Marmont  recognised  his  inability  to  deal  with  the  revolt, 
and  advised  the  king,  who  was  staying  with  his  family  and  ministers  in  Saint 
Cloud,  to  withdraw  the  ordinances.  Even  then  a  rapid  decision  might  have  caused 
a  change  of  feeliug  in  Paris,  and  have  saved  the  Bourbons  at  any  rate  for  the 
moment;  but  neither  the  king  nor  Polignac  suspected  the  serious  danger  con- 
fronting them,  and  never  supposed  that  the  Parisians  would  be  able  to  stand 
against  twelve  thousand  troops  of  the  line. 

This,  indeed,  was  the  number  that  Marmont  may  have  concentrated  from  the 
garrisons  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood.  In  view  of  the  well-known  capacity 
of  the  Parisians  for  street  fighting,  their  bravery  and  determination,  this  force 
would  scarce  have  been  sufficient,  even  granting  their  discipline  to  have  been 
unexceptionable,  and  assuming  their  readiness  to  support  the  king's  cause  to  the 
last.  The  troops,  however,  were  by  no  means  in  love  with  the  Bourbon  hierarchy, 
and  no  one  felt  any  inclination  to  risk  his  life  on  behalf  of  such  a  ridiculous 
coxcomb  as  Polignac,  against  whom  the  revolt  appeared  chiefly  directed.  The 
regiments  advancing  upon  Paris  from  the  neighbouring  provinces  halted  in 
the  suburbs.  Within  Paris  itself  two  regiments  of  the  line  were  won  over  by  the 
brother  of  Laffitte  the  financier  and  deserted  to  the  revolters.  During  the  fore- 
noon of  July  29,  Marmont  continued  to  hold  the  Louvre  and  the  Tuileries  with 
a  few  thousand  men.  In  the  afternoon,  however,  a  number  of  armed  detachments 
made  their  way  into  the  Louvre  through  a  gap  caused  by  the  retreat  of  a  Swiss 


140  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [_Chapter  ii 

battalion,  and  Marmont  was  forced  to  retire  into  the  Champs  Elysees.  In  the 
evening  the  marshal  rode  off  to  Saint  Cloud  with  the  news  that  the  movement  in 
Paris  could  no  longer  be  suppressed  by  force,  and  that  the  king's  only  course  of 
action  was  to  open  negotiations  with  the  leaders  of  the  revolt.  Marmont  had 
done  all  he  could  for  the  Bourbon  monarchy  with  the  very  inadequate  force  at  his 
disposal,  and  was  now  forced  to  endure  the  aspersions  of  treachery  uttered  by  the 
Duke  of  Angoulgme  before  the  guard.  This  member  of  the  Bourbon  family,  who 
had  been  none  too  brilliantly  gifted  by  Providence,  was  entirely  spoiled  by  the 
ultra  legitimist  rulers  and  priests,  who  praised  his  Spanish  campaign  as  a  brilliant 
military  achievement,  and  compared  the  attack  on  the  Trocadero  to  Marengo  and 
Austerlitz  (p.  124).  A  prey  to  the  many  illusions  emanating  from  the  brain  of 
the  "  sons  of  Saint  Louis,"  it  was  left  to  his  somewhat  nobler  and  larger-minded 
father  to  inform  him  that  even  kings  might  condescend  to  return  thanks,  at  any 
rate  to  men  who  had  risked  their  lives  in  their  defence. 

Marmont  was,  moreover,  mistaken  in  his  idea  that  Charles  could  retain  his 
throne  for  his  family  by  negotiations,  by  the  dismissal  of  Polignac,  by  the  recog- 
nition of  recent  elections,  or  even  by  abdication  in  favour  of  his  grandson  Henry, 
afterward  Count  of  Chambord.  The  fate  of  the  Bourbons  was  decided  on  the 
30th  July,  and  the  only  remaining  question  for  solution  was  whether  their  place 
should  be  taken  by  a  republic  or  by  a  liberal  constitutional  monarchy  under  the 
princes  of  Orleans. 

Louis  Philippe,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  of  the  princess  Louise  Marie 
Adelaide  of  Penthifevre,  had  been  given  on  his  birth  (6th  October,  l$73)  the  title 
of  the  Duke  of  Valois,  and  afterward  of  Duke  of  Chartres.  During  the  Kevolution 
he  had  called  himself  General  Egalitd,  and  Duke  of  Orleans  after  the  death  of  his 
father  (p.  14),  the  miserable  libertine  who  had  decided  the  death  of  Louis  XVL 
As  he  had  been  supported  by  Dumouriez  in  his  candidature  for  the  throne,  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  France  after  the  iiight  of  that  leader.  He  had  then  been  forced 
to  lead  a  very  wandering  life,  and  even  to  earn  his  bread  in  Switzerland  as  a  school- 
master. Forgiveness  for  his  father's  sins  and  for  his  own  secession  to  the  revolters 
had  long  been  withheld  by  the  royal  house,  until  he  was  at  length  recognised  as 
the  head  of  the  House  of  Orleans.  He  had  visited  almost  ever^country  in  Europe, 
and  in  North  America  had  enjoyed  the  opportunity  of  becomi^  acquainted  with 
the  democratic  state  and  its  powers  of  solving  the  greatest  tasks  without  the  sup- 
port of  priuces  or  standing  armies.  Consequently  upon  his  return  to  France 
he  was  considered  a  liberal,  was  both  hated  and  feared  by  the  royal  family,  and 
became  highly  popular  with  the  people,  the  more  so  as  he  lived  a  very  simple  life 
notwithstanding  his  regained  wealth ;  he  associated  with  the  citizens,  invited  their 
children  to  play  with  his  sons  and  daughters,  and  ia  wet  weather  would  put  up 
his  umbrella  and  go  to  the  market  and  talk  with  the  saleswomen.  He  had  become 
a  very  capable  man  of  business  and  was  highly  esteemed  in  the  financial  world. 
Complicity  on  his  part  in  the  overthrow  of  his  relatives  cannot  be  proved :  such 
action  was  indeed  unnecessary ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  desired  their 
fall  and  turned  it  to  his  own  advantage.  In  his  retreat  at  Eaincy  at  Neuilly  he 
received  the  message  of  Laffitte  and  the  information  from  Thiers  in  person  that 
the  chamber  would  appoint  him  lieutenant-general  to  the  king  and  invest  him 
with  full  power.  He  then  returned  to  Paris  (p.  131)  and  was  there  entrusted  by 
Charles  X  with  that  office  in  his  own  name  and  as  representative  of  Henry  V,  who 


S^«ri«™^']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  141 

was  still  a  minor.  He  conformed  his  further  procedure  to  the  spirit  of  these  com- 
mands as  long  as  he  deemed  this  course  of  action  favourable  to  his  own  interests. 
As  soon  as  he  became  convinced  that  the  king's  word  was  powerless,  he  announced 
the  monarch's  abdication,  but  kept  silence  upon  the  fact  that  he  had  abdicated 
in  favour  of  his  grandson.  No  doubt  the  representations  of  his  adherents  that  he 
alone  could  save  France  from  a  republic  largely  contributed  to  the  determination 
of  his  decision. 

On  July  31  it  was  definitely  decided  that  France  should  be  permanently  relieved 
of  the  Bourbons  who  had  been  imposed  upon  her ;  however,  concerning  the  future 
constitution  widely  divergent  opinions  prevailed.  The  decision  lay  with  the  Mar- 
quis of  Lafayette,  the  author  of  the  "  Eights  of  Man  "  theory,  the  patriarch  of  the 
Eevolution  who  had  already  taken  over  the  command  of  the  National  Guard  on 
the  29th,  at  the  request  of  the  chamber  of  deputies.  The  republicans,  who  had 
been  responsible  for  all  the  work  of  slaughter,  and  had  inspired  the  people  to 
take  up  arms,  reposed  full  confidence  in  him  as  a  man  after  their  own  heart,  and 
entrusted  him  with  the  office  of  dictator.  The  rich  bourgeoisie,  and  the  journalists 
in  connection  with  them,  were,  however,  afraid  of  a  republican  victory  and  of  the 
political  ideals  and  social  questions  which  this  party  might  advance  for  solution. 
That  liberalism  which  first  became  a  political  force  in  France  is  distinguished  by 
a  tendency  to  regulate  freedom  in  proportion  to  social  rank,  and  to  make  the 
exercise  of  political  rights  conditional  upon  education  and  income.  The  financial 
magnates  of  Paris  expected  to  enter  unhindered  into  the  inheritance  of  the  legiti- 
mists, and  permanently  to  secure  the  powers  of  government  so  soon  as  peace  had 
been  restored.  For  this  purpose  they  required  a  constitutional  king  of  their 
own  opinions,  and  Louis  Philippe  was  their  only  choice.  He  probably  had  no 
difficulty  in  fathoming  their  designs,  but  he  hoped  when  once  established  on  the 
throne  to  be  able  to  dictate  his  own  terms  and  address  himself  forthwith  to  the 
task  of  reducing  the  republican  party  to  impotence.  He  proceeded  in  a  solemn 
procession  to  the  town  hall,  with  the  object  of  winning  over  Lafayette  by  receiving 
the  supreme  power  from  his  hands.  The  old  leader  considered  this  procedure 
entirely  natural,  constituted  himself  plenipotentiary  of  the  French  nation,  and 
concluded  an  alliance  with  the  "  citizen-king,"  whom  he  introduced,  tricolour  in 
hand,  to  the  people  as  his  own  candidate. 

In  less  than  a  week  the  new  constitution  had  been  drawn  out  in  detail.  It 
was  to  be  "  the  direct  expression  of  the  rights  of  the  French  nation ; "  the  king 
became  head  of  the  State  by  the  national  will,  and  was  to  swear  to  observe  the 
constitution  upon  his  accession.  The  two  chambers  were  retained ;  an  elected 
deputy  was  to  sit  for  five  years,  and  the  limits  of  age  for  the  passive  and  the  active 
franchise  were  fixed  respectively  at  thirty  and  twenty-five  years.  The  right  of 
giving  effect  to  the  different  tendencies  which  were  indispensable  to  the  existence 
of  a  constitutional  monarchy  as  conceived  by  liberalism  was  reserved  for  the  legis- 
lature. Such  were  the  provisions  for  trial  by  jury  of  offences  against  the  press 
laws,  for  the  responsibility  of  ministers,  for  full  liberty  to  teachers,  for  compulsory 
education  in  the  elementary  schools,  for  the  yearly  vote  of  the  conscription,  and 
so  forth.  The  deputies  chosen  at  the  last  election  passed  the  proposals  by  a  large 
majority  (219  against  38).  Of  the  peers,  eighty-nine  were  won  over  to  their  side ; 
eighteen  alone,  including  Chateaubriand,  the  novelist  of  the  romantic  school, 
supported  the  rights  of  Henry  V. 


142  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [_Chapter  ii 

In  the  meantime  Charles  had  retired  from  Saint  Cloud  to  Eambouillet,  retaining 
the  Guards  and  certain  regiments  which  had  remained  faithful;  he  once  again 
announced  his  abdication,  and  that  of  Angoulgme,  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  and 
ordered  him  to  take  up  the  government  in  the  name  of  Henry  V.  To  this  demand 
Louis  Philippe  sent  no  answer ;  he  confined  his  efforts  to  getting  his  inconvenient 
cousin  out  of  the  country,  which  he  already  saw  at  his  own  feet.  When  his  repre- 
sentations produced  no  effect  in  this  direction,  his  adherents  organised  a  march  of 
the  National  Guard  to  Eambouillet,  a  movement  which,  though  more  like  a  holi- 
day procession  than  an  intimidating  movement,  brought  about  the  desired  result. 
The  Bourbons  and  their  parasites  showed  not  a  spark  of  knightly  spirit ;  not  the 
smallest  attempt  was  made  to  teach  the  insolent  Parisians  a  lesson,  or  to  let  them 
feel  the  weight  of  the  "  legitimist "  sword.  With  ostentatious  deliberation  a  move 
was  made  from  Eambouillet  to  Cherbourg  without  awakening  the  smallest  sign  of 
sympathy.  Charles  X  betook  himself  for  the  moment  to  England.  On  November  6, 
1836,  he  died  in  Gorz,  where  the  Duke  of  Angouleme  also  passed  away  on  June  3, 
1844.  To  the  duchess  Marie  Caroline  of  Berry,  the  daughter  of  Francis  I  of  Naples, 
remained  the  task  of  stirring  up  the  loyalists  of  La  Vendue  against  the  government 
of  the  treacherous  Duke  of  Orleans,  and  of  weaving,  at  the  risk  of  her  life,  intrigues 
for  civil  war  in  Prance.  In  spite  of  her  capture  (November  7, 1832,  at  Nantes)  she 
might  have  been  a  source  of  serious  embarrassment  to  Louis  Philippe,  and  perhaps 
have  turned  his  later  difficulties  to  the  advantage  of  her  son,  if  she  had  not  fallen 
into  disfavour  with  her  own  family,  and  with  the  arrogant  legitimists,  on  account 
of  her  secret  marriage  with  a  son  of  the  Sicilian  prince  of  Campofranco,  the 
Conte  Ettore  Carlo  Lucchesi  Palli,  to  whom  she  bore  a  son  while  in  captivity 
at  Blaye,  near  Bordeaux,  the  later  Duca  della  Grazia.  Her  last  son  by  her  first 
marriage,  the  Count  of  Chambord,  contented  himself  throughout  his  life  with  the 
proud  consciousness  of  being  the  legal  king  of  France ;  however,  the  resources  of 
the  good  Henry  were  too  limited  for  him  to  become  dangerous  to  any  government. 
France  had  thus  relieved  herself  of  the  Bourbons  at  little  or  no  cost;  she  was 
now  to  try  the  experiment  of  living  under  the  house  of  Orleans,  and  under  a  consti- 
tutional monarchy.  The  republicans  were  surprised  at  their  desertion  by  Lafayette ; 
they  could  not  but  observe  that  the  mass  of  the  people  who  jvere  insensible  to 
political  conviction,  and  accustomed  to  follow  the  influences  of  the  moment,  hailed 
with  acclamation  the  new  constitution  adjusted  by  the  prosperous  liberals.  For 
the  moment  they  retired  into  private  life  with  ill-concealed  expressions  of  dissat- 
isfaction, and  became  the  nucleus  for  a  party  of  malcontents  which  was  speedily 
and  naturally  reinforced  by  recruits  from  every  direction. 

"  The  King  of  the  French,"  as  the  Duke  of  Orleans  entitled  himself  from 
August  9, 1830,  at  the  very  outset  of  his  government  stirred  up  a  dangerous  strife, 
and  by  doing  so  undermined  his  own  position,  which  at  first  had  seemed  to  be 
founded  upon  the  national  will.  He  ought  to  have  honourably  and  openly  enforced 
the  "  republican  institutions  "  which  upon  Lafayette's  theory  were  meant  to  be 
the  environment  of  his  royal  power ;  he  ought  to  have  appeared  as  representing  the 
will  of  the  nation,  and  should  in  any  case  have  left  his  fate  exclusively  in  the 
hands  of  the  people.  He  attempted,  however,  to  secure  his  recognition  from 
the  great  powers,  to  assert  his  claims  to  consideration  among  the  other  dynasties 
of  Europe,  and  to  gain  their  confidence  for  himself  and  France.  Prince  Metternich 
supported  him  in  these  attempts  as  soon  as  he  observed  that  the  influences  of  the 


^°SSt::'BurlpI]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  143 

Left  had  been  nullified,  and  that  the  new  king  was  making  a  serious  effort  to  sup- 
press that  party.  The  Austrian  chancellor  fully  recognised  that  Louis  Philippe,  in 
preventing  the  formation  of  a  republic  by  his  intervention,  had  done  good  service 
to  the  cause  of  reaction ;  he  readily  thanked  him  for  his  erection  of  a  constitu- 
tional throne,  whereby  the  monarchies  had  been  spared  the  necessity  of  again 
taking  the  field  against  a  republican  France.  The  Bonapartists  had  proposed  to 
bring  forward  an  opposition  candidate  to  Louis  Philippe  in  the  person  of  the  highly 
gifted  and  ambitious  son  of  Napoleon  I  ("  le  fils  de  I'homme  ")  and  the  arch- 
duchess Maria  Louise,  who  had  been  brought  up  under  the  care  of  his  grandfather 
in  Vienna.  Metternich  strongly  opposed  this  idea,  although  the  emperor  Francis 
was  not  disinclined  to  support  it.  The  untimely  death  of  the  excellent  Duke  of 
Eeichstadt,  who  succumbed  to  a  galloping  consumption  on  July  22,  1832  (which 
was  not,  as  often  stated,  the  result  of  excessive  self-indulgence),  freed  "  the  citizen- 
king  "  from  a  danger  which  had  seemed  to  increase  with  every  year.  At  the  end 
of  August  30  England  recognised  unconditionally  and  without  reserve  the  new 
government  in  France ;  her  example  was  followed  by  Austria  and  Prussia,  to  the 
extreme  vexation  of  the  Czar  Nicholas  I.  The  House  of  Orleans  might  thus  far 
consider  itself  at  least  tolerated  as  the  successor  of  the  French  Bourbons. 


3.    NATIONAL  EISINGS  BETWEEN   1830   AND   1840 

The  events  of  1830  in  Paris  introduced  a  new  revolutionary  period  in  Europe 
which  was  to  produce  far  more  comprehensive  and  permanent  transformations 
than  the  Eevolution  of  1789.  From  that  date  was  broken  the  spell  of  the  reac- 
tionary theory  which  forbade  all  efforts  for  the  identification  of  monarchical  and 
popular  rights,  and  demanded  blind  submission  to  the  decrees  of  the  government. 
This  tyraimy  had  been  abolished  by  the  will  of  a  people  which,  notwithstanding 
internal  dissensions,  was  fully  united  in  its  opposition  to  the  Bourbons.  Thirty  or 
forty  thousand  men,  with  no  military  organisation  and  without  preparation  of  any 
kind,  had  defeated  in  street  fighting  twelve  thousand  troops  of  the  line,  under 
the  command  of  an  experienced  general,  a  marshal  of  the  Grand  Army  of  Napoleon  I. 
Though  gained  by  bloodshed,  the  victory  was  not  misused  or  stained  by  atrocities 
of  any  kind ;  at  no  time  was  any  attempt  made  to  introduce  a  condition  of  anarchy. 
Upon  the  capture  of  the  Louvre  by  bands  of  armed  citizens,  little  damage  had  been 
done,  and  the  artistic  treasures  of  the  palace  had  been  safely  removed  from  the 
advance  of  the  attacking  party.  In  the  course  of  a  fortnight  a  new  constitution 
had  been  organised  by  the  joint  action  of  the  leading  citizens,  a  new  regime  had 
been  established  in  every  branch  of  the  administration,  and  a  new  dynasty  had 
been  entrusted  with  supreme  power.  It  had  been  shown  that  revolutions  did  not 
of  necessity  imply  the  destruction  of  social  order,  but  might  also  become  a  means 
to  the  attainment  of  political  rights. 

Proof  had  thus  been  given  that  it  was  possible  for  a  people  to  impose  its  will 
upon  selfish  and  misguided  governments,  even  when  protected  by  armed  force. 
The  so-called  conservative  great  powers  were  not  united  among  themselves,  and 
were  therefore  too  weak  to  exclude  a  nation  from  the  exercise  of  its  natural  right 
of  self-government  when  that  nation  was  ready  to  stake  its  blood  and  treasure  on 
the  issue.     Other  peoples  living  vmder  conditions  apparently  or  actually  intol- 


144  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  Ichapter  ii 

erable  might  be  tempted  to  follow  this  example  and  to  revolt.  The  weight  of  a 
foreign  yoke,  a  term  implying  not  only  the  rule  of  a  conqueror  king,  but  also  that 
of  a  foreigner  legally  in  possession  of  the  throne,  is  more  than  ever  galling  if  not 
supported  upon  a  community  of  interests.  The  strong  aversion  which  springs  from 
the  contact  of  characters  fundamentally  discordant  can  never  be  overcome  even  by 
consideration  of  the  mutual  advantages  to  be  gained  from  the  union,  however  great 
these  advantages  may  be.  Eepugnance  and  animosity  purely  sentimental  in  their 
origin,  and  impossible  of  suppression  by  any  process  of  intellectual  exercise,  are 
influences  as  important  in  national  as  in  individual  life.  Physical  repulsion  has 
contributed  as  much  as  moral  indignation  to  the  anti-Semitic  movement.  And  in 
cases  of  international  quarrel  does  the  German  ever  allow  himself  to  manifest  that 
personal  animosity  to  the  Frenchman  or  to  the  Italian,  which  he  can  only  suppress 
with  difficulty  in  the  case  of  the  Slav  ?  Irritated  ambition,  exaggerated  pride,  the 
imder  and  over  estimation  of  defects  and  advantages,  are  so  many  causes  of  national 
friction,  with  tremendous  struggles  and  political  convulsions  as  their  consequence. 
To  prefer  national  sentiment  to  political  necessity  is  naturally  an  erroneous  doc- 
trine, because  contrary  to_  the  fundamental  laws  of  civilization,  which  define  man's 
task  as  the  conquest  of  natural  forces  by  his  intellectual  power  for  his  own  good. 
Yet  such  a  doctrine  is  based  at  least  upon  the  ascertained  fact  that,  notwithstanding 
ages  of  intellectual  progress,  instinct  is  more  powerful  than  reason,  and  that  the 
influences  of  instinct  must  be  remembered  both  by  nations  and  individuals  in  the 
pursuit  of  their  several  needs. 

In  nineteenth-century  Europe  the  development  of  inherent  national  powers  was 
entirely  justified,  if  only  because  for  centuries  it  had  been  neglected  and  thwarted, 
or  had  advanced,  if  at  all,  by  a  process  highly  irregular.  Many  European  countries 
had  developed  a  political  vitality  under,  and  as  a  consequence  of,  monarchical  gov- 
ernment ;  and  if  this  vitality  was  to  become  the  realisation  of  the  popular  will,  it 
must  first  gain  assurance  of  its  own  value  and  importance,  and  acquire  the  right  of 
self-government.  It  was  to  be  tested  in  a  series  of  trials  which  would  prove  its  vital 
power  and  capacity,  or  would  at  least  determine  the  degree  of  dependency  which 
should  govern  its  relations  to  other  forces.  Hence  it  is  that  national  revolutions 
are  the  substratum  of  European  political  history  after  th^  Vienna  congress. 
Hence  it  is  that  cabinet  governments  were  gradually  forced  to^ndertake  tasks  of 
national  importance  which  had  never  before  even  attracted  their  notice.  Hence, 
too,  such  nations  as  were  vigorous  and  capable  of  development  must  be  organised 
and  tested  before  entering  upon  the  struggle  for  the  transformation  of  society,  —  a 
struggle  which  ultimately  overshadowed  national  aspirations  and  became  itself  the 
chief  aim  and  object  of  civilized  endeavour. 

The  oppression  of  an  alien  rule  to  which  Europe  had  been  forced  to  submit 
was,  if  not  entirely  overthrown,  at  any  rate  shaken  to  its  foundations.  The  tyranny 
under  which  the  Christian  inhabitants  of  the  Balkan  countries  had  groaned  since 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  which  had  entirely  checked  every  tendency 
to  progress,  was  now  in  process  of  dissolution.  Among  the  Slav  races  of  the 
Balkans  the  Servians  had  freed  themselves  by  their  own  power,  and  had  founded 
the  beginnings  of  a  national  community.  With  unexampled  heroism,  which  had 
risen  almost  to  the  point  of  self-immolation,  the  Greeks  had  saved  their  nationality 
and  had  united  a  considerable  portion  of  its  numbers  into  a  self-contained  State. 
In  Germany  and  Italy  the  national  movement,  together  with  the  political,  had  been 


S^etrlf™^^       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  145 

crushed  in  the  name  of  the  conservative  great  powers  and  their  "  sacred  "  alliances ; 
in  this  case  it  was  only  to  be  expected  that  the  influence  of  the  French  Eevolution 
would  produce  some  tangible  effect.  It  was,  however,  in  two  countries  where  sys- 
tems unusually  artificial  had  been  created  by  the  arbitrary  action  of  dynasties  and 
diplomatists  that  these  influences  became  earliest  and  most  permanently  operative : 
in  the  new  kingdom  of  the  United  Netherlands,  and  in  Poland  under  the  Eussian 
protectorate. 

A.  Belgium 

In  1813  and  1815  the  Dutch  had  taken  an  honourable  share  in  the  general 
struggle  for  liberation  from  the  French  yoke;  they  had  formed  a  constitution 
which,  while  providing  a  sufficient  measure  of  self-government  to  the  nine  provinces 
of  their  kingdom,  united  those  nine  into  a  uniform  body  politic.  They  had  abol- 
ished their  aristocratic  republic  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  447),  which  had  been  replaced  by 
a  limited  hereditary  monarchy ;  the  sou  of  their  last  hereditary  stadtholder.  Prince 
William  Frederick  of  Orange,  had  been  made  king,  with  the  title  of  William  I, 
and  so  far  everything  had  been  done  that  conservative  diplomacy  could  possibly 
desire  (cf.  above,  p.  81).  Conservatism,  however,  declined  to  allow  the  Dutch 
constitution  to  continue  its  course  of  historical  development,  and  proceeded  to  ruin 
it  by  the  artificial  addition  of  Belgium,  —  a  proceeding  which  may  well  serve  as  an 
example  of  the  incompetent  bureaucratic  policy  of  Prince  Metternich.  The  Orange 
king  naturally  regarded  this  imexpected  accession  of  territory  as  a  recognition  of 
his  own  high  capacity,  and  considered  that  he  could  best  serve  the  interests  of  the 
great  powers  by  treating  the  Belgians,  whom  he  considered  as  Frenchmen,  as  sub- 
jects of  inferior  rank.  Many  disabilities  were  laid  upon  them  by  the  administration, 
which  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  Dutchmen.  Dutch  trade  had  begun  to  revive, 
and  Belgian  industries  found  no  support  in  Holland.  Day  by  day  it  became  clearer 
to  the  Belgians  that  union  with  Holland  was  for  them  a  disastrous  mistake,  and  they 
proceeded  to  demand  separation.  Not  only  by  the  Catholic  conservative  party,  but 
also  by  the  Kberals,  the  existing  difference  of  religious  belief  was  thought  to  accentu- 
ate the  opposition  of  interests.  The  attitude  of  hostility  to  their  evangelical  neigh- 
bours which  the  Catholic  provinces  of  the  Netherlands  had  adopted  during  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  Spanish  government  had  never  been  entirely  given  up, 
and  was  now  resumed,  after  a  short  armistice,  with  much  secret  satisfaction. 

Without  any  special  preparation,  the  ferment  became  visible  on  the  occasion 
of  a  performance  of  the  "  Revolution  Opera  "  completed  in  1828,  "  The  Dumb  Girl 
of  Portici,"  by  D.  F.  E.  Auber  (August  25,  1830).  Personal  intervention  might 
even  then  perhaps  have  saved  the  political  union  of  the  Netherland  coxmtries. 
The  king,  however,  made  no  honourable  attempt  to  secure  the  confidence  of  the 
Belgians,  and  any  possibility  of  agreement  was  removed  by  the  attempt  to  seize 
Brussels,  which  he  was  persuaded  to  make  through  Prince  Frederick,  who  had  ten 
thousand  men  at  his  command  (street  warfare'  from  September  23  to  25).  On 
November  10,  1830,  the  national  congress  decided  in  favour  of  the  introduction 
of  a  constitutional  monarchy,  and  for  the  exclusion  of  the  House  of  Orange  in 
favour  of  a  new  dynasty.  Here  also  the  expression  of  popular  will  failed  to  coin- 
cide with  the  hopes  of  the  Eevolution  leaders,  who  were  inclined  to  republican- 
ism. The  liberal  coteries,  who  were  forced  in  Belgium  to  act  in  concert  with  the 
Church,  preferred  government  under  a  constitutional  monarchy ;  if  a  republic  were 
VOL.  vm— 10 


146  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  ichapter  ii 

formed,  an  ultramontane  majority  would  inevitably  secure  tyrannical  supremacy, 
and  all  freedom  of  thought  would  be  impossible.  A  royal  family,  if  not  so  intel- 
lectually incapable  as  the  Bourbons,  would  never  bind  itself  hand  and  foot  to 
please  any  party,  but,  while  respecting  the  rights  of  the  minority,  would  unite 
with  them  in  opposition  to  any  attempted  perversion  of  power. 

The  ready  proposal  of  the  Belgians  to  accept  a  monarchical  government  was 
received  with  satisfaction  by  the  great  powers,  who  were  reluctantly  considering 
the  necessity  of  opposing  the  Eevolution  by  force.  The  Czar  Nicholas  had  already 
made  up  his  mind  to  raise  his  arm  against  the  West ;  his  attention,  however,  was 
soon  occupied  by  far  more  pressing  questions  within  his  own  dominions.  Metter- 
nich  and  Frederick  William  III  were  disinclined,  for  financial  reasons,  to  raise 
contingents  of  troops ;  the  scanty  forces  at  the  command  of  Austria  were  required 
in  Italy,  where  the  Carbonari  (p.  116)  were  known  to  be  in  a  state  of  ferment. 
Louis  Philippe  decided  the  general  direction  of  his  policy  by  declining  to  listen  to 
the  radical  proposals  for  a  union  of  Belgium  with  France,  and  thereby  strength- 
ened that  confidence  which  he  had  already  won  among  the  conservative  cabinets. 
The  proposal  of  England  to  call  a  conference  at  London  for  the  adjustment  of  the 
Dutch-Belgium  difficulty  was  received  with  general  approbation.  On  the  20th  De- 
cember the  independence  of  Belgium  was  recognised  by  this  assembly,  and  the 
temporary  government  in  Brussels  was  invited  through  ambassadors  to  negotiate 
with  the  conference.  The  choice  of  the  new  king  caused  no  great  difficulty ;  the 
claims  of  Orange,  OrMans,  and  Bavarian  candidates  were  considered  and  rejected, 
and  the  general  approval  fell  upon  Prince  Leopold  George  of  Coburg,  a  widower, 
who  had  been  previously  married  to  Charlotte  of  England.  On  the  4th  June, 
1831,  the  national  congress  appointed  him  king  of  the  Belgians,  and  he  entered 
upon  his  dignity  in  July. 

It  proved  a  more  difficult  task  to  induce  the  king  of  Holland  to  agree  to  an 
acceptable  compromise  with  Belgium  and  to  renounce  his  claims  to  Luxemburg, 
In  the  session  of  the  15th  October,  1831,  the  conference  passed  twenty-four  arti- 
cles, proposing  a  partition  of  Luxemburg,  and  fixing  Belgium's  yearly  contribu- 
tion to  the  Netherland  national  debt  at  8,400,000  guldens.  On  two  occasions  it 
became  necessary  to  send  French  troops  as  far  as  Antwerp  to  protect  Belgium,  a 
weak  military  power,  from  reconquest  by  Holland ;  and  on  mch  occasion  diplo- 
matic negotiation  induced  the  Dutch  to  retire  from  the  land  they  had  occupied. 
It  was  not  until  1838  that  peace  between  Belgium  and  Holland  was  definitely 
concluded ;  King  William  had  fruitlessly  straiaed  the  resources  of  his  State  to 
the  utmost,  and  for  the  increased  severity  of  the  conditions  imposed  upon  him  he 
had  merely  his  own  obstinancy  to  thank.  Belgium's  share  of  the  payment  toward 
the  interest  due  upon  the  common  national  debt  was  ultimately  fixed  at  5,000,000 
guldens.  On  the  9th  August,  1832,  King  Leopold  married  Louise  of  Orleans,  the 
eldest  daughter  of  Louis  Philippe ;  though  not  himself  a  Catholic,  he  had  his  sons 
baptised  into  that  faith,  and  thus  became  the  founder  of  a  new  Catholic  dynasty  ia 
Europe,  which  rapidly  acquired  importance  through  the  politic  and  dignified  con- 
duct of  Leopold  I. 

B.  Poland 

What  the  Belgians  had  gained  without  any  unusual  effort,  Poland  was  unable 
to  attain  in  spite  of  the  streams  of  blood  which  she  poured  forth  in  her  struggle 


^Xa^Tirlf™^/]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  147 

with  Eussia.  She  had  been  a  nation  on  an  equality  with  Eussia,  with  an  excel- 
lent constitution  of  her  own ;  her  resistance  now  reduced  her  to  the  position  of  a 
province  of  the  empire,  deprived  of  all  political  rights,  and  subjected  to  a  govern- 
ment alike  despotic  and  arbitrary.  The  popular  will  was  unable  to  find  expres- 
sion, for  the  nation  which  it  inspired  had  been  warped  and  repressed  by  a  wholly 
unnatural  course  of  development ;  there  was  no  unity,  no  social  organism,  to 
support  the  expansion  of  classes  and  professions.  There  were  only  two  classes 
struggling  for  definite  aims :  the  great  territorial  nobility,  who  were  attracted  by 
the  possibility  of  restoring  their  exaggerated  powers,  which  had  depended  on  the 
exclusion  of  their  inferiors  from  legal  rights ;  and  the  small  party  of  intelligent 
men  among  the  Schlactha,  the  petty  nobility,  civil  officials,  military  officers,  teach- 
ers, etc.,  who  had  identified  themselves  with  the  principles  of  democracy,  and  were 
attempting  to  secure  their  realisation.  Though  its  purity  of  blood  was  almost 
indisputable,  the  Polish  race  had  sunk  so  low  that  the  manufacturing  and  produc- 
tive element  of  the  population,  the  craftsmen  and  agricultural  workers,  had  lost  all 
feeling  of  national  union  and  had  nothing  to  hope  from  a  national  state.  Averse 
to  exertion,  incapable  of  achievement,  and  eaten  up  by  preposterous  self-conceit, 
Polish  society,  for  centuries  the  sole  exponent  of  national  culture,  was  inaccessible 
to  the  effect  of  any  deep  moral  awakening ;  hence  national  movement  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  term  was  impossible. 

At  the  outset  the  Polish  revolution  was  marked  by  some  display  of  resolution 
and  enthusiasm.  It  was,  however,  a  movement  animated  rather  by  ill-feeling  and 
injured  pride  than  originating  in  the  irritation  caused  by  intolerable  oppression.  It 
is  true  that  the  government  was  for  the  most  part  in  the  hands  of  the  Eussians,  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  was  in  any  way  more  unjust  or  more  corrupt 
than  the  monarchical  republic  that  had  passed  away.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the 
Eussian  administration  prevented  the  Poles  from  recognising  the  defective  results 
of  their  social  development,  from  working  to  remove  those  defects,  to  relieve  the 
burdens  of  the  labouring  classes,  and  to  found  a  community  endowed  with  some 
measure  of  vitality,  the  advantages  of  which  were  plainly  to  be  seen  in  the  neigh- 
bouring Prussian  districts.  The  moderate  independence  which  Alexander  I  had 
left  to  the  Polish  national  assembly  was  greater  than  that  possessed  by  the 
Prussian  provincial  assemblies.  The  Poles  possessed  the  means  for  relieving  the 
legislature  of  the  arrogance  of  the  nobles,  whom  no  monarchy,  however  powerful, 
had  been  able  to  check,  and  thus  freeing  the  people  from  the  weight  of  an  oppres- 
sion far  more  intolerable  than  the  arbitrary  rule  of  individuals,  officials,  and  com- 
manders. Yet  was  there  ever  a  time  when  the  much-lauded  patriotism  of  the 
Poles  attempted  to  deal  with  questions  of  this  nature  ?  So  long  as  they  failed 
to  recognise  their  duty  in  this  respect,  their  patriotism,  founded  upon  a  vanity 
which  had  risen  to  the  point  of  monomania,  was  valueless  to  the  nation  at  large. 

Events  proved  that  the  struggle  between  Poland  and  Eussia  cannot  be  de- 
scribed as  purposeless.  The  revolutionary  party  had  long  been  quietly  working, 
and  when  the  progress  of  events  in  France  became  known,  was  immediately 
inflamed  to  action.  Its  first  practical  steps  were  generally  attended  with  a  high 
measure  of  success.  After  the  storm  of  the  Belvedere  (29th  November,  1830), 
occupied  by  the  governor,  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine,  this  personage  was  so  far 
intimidated  as  to  evacuate  Warsaw  with  his  troops.  On  the  5th  December,  1830, 
a  provisional  government  was  already  in  existence.     On  the  25th  January,  1831, 


148  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapur  ii 

the  assembly  declared  the  deposition  of  the  House  of  Romanoff,  and  in  February 
a  Polish  army  of  seventy-eight  thousand  men  was  confronting  one  hundred  thou- 
sand Russians,  who  had  been  concentrated  on  the  frontiers  of  Old  Poland  under 
Field-Marshal  Hans  Karl  Diebitsch-Sabalkanski  (p.  128),  and  his  general  staff 
officer,  Karl  Friedrich,  Count  of  Toll.  These  achievements  were  the  unaided  work 
of  the  nobility ;  their  military  organisation  had  been  quickly  and  admirably  suc- 
cessful. Their  commander-in-chief.  Prince  Michael  Radziwill,  who  had  served 
under  Thaddeus  Kosciuszko  and  Ifapoleon,  had  several  bold  and  capable  leaders 
at  his  disposal.  If  at  the  same  time  a  popular  rising  had  taken  place  throughout 
the  country,  and  a  people's  war  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word  had  been  begun,  it  is 
impossible  to  estimate  the  extent  of  the  difficulties  with  which  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment would  have  had  to  deal.  Notwithstanding  the  victories  of  Bialolenka 
and  Grochow  (24th  to  25th  February,  1831),  Diebitsch  did  not  dare  to  advance 
upon  Warsaw,  fearing  to  be  blockaded  in  that  town ;  he  waited  for  reinforcements, 
and  even  began  negotiations,  considering  his  position  extremely  unfavourable. 
However,  Wolhynia  and  Podolia  took  no  serious  part  iu  the  revolt.  The  deputies 
of  the  Warsaw  government  found  scattered  adherents  in  every  place  they  visited ; 
but  the  spirit  of  enterprise  and  the  capacity  for  struggle  disappeared  upon  their 
departure.     It  was  only  in  Lithuania  that  any  extensive  rising  took  place. 

On  26th  May,  Diebitsch,  in  spite  of  a  heroic  defence,  inflicted  a  severe  defeat 
at  Ostrolenka  upon  the  main  Polish  army  under  Jan  Boncza  Skrzynecki.  Hence- 
forward the  military  advantage  was  decidedly  on  the  side  of  the  Russians.  The 
outbreak  of  cholera,  to  which  Diebitsch  succumbed  on  the  10th  June,  might  per- 
haps have  produced  a  turn  of  fortune  favourable  to  the  Poles.  Count  Ivan  Feod- 
vitch  •  Paskevitch-Eriwanski  (p.  127),  who  now  assumed  the  chief  command,  had 
but  fifty  thousand  men  at  his  disposal,  and  would  hardly  have  dared  to  advance  from 
Pultusk  if  the  numerous  guerilla  bands  of  the  Poles  had  done  their  duty  and  had 
been  properly  supported  by  the  population.  I^ever,  however,  was  there  any  gen- 
eral rising ;  terrified  by  the  ravages  of  the  cholera,  the  mob  declined  to  obey  the 
authorities,  and  their  patriotism  was  not  proof  against  their  panic.  Skrzynecki 
and  his  successor,  Henry  Dembinski,  had  fifty  thousand  men  under  their  colours 
when  they  attempted  to  resist  the  advance  of  Paskevitch  ^on  Warsaw ;  but 
within  the  capital  itself  a  feud  had  broken  out  between  the^ristocrats  and  the 
democrats,  who  were  represented  among  the  five  members  of  the  civil  government 
by  the  historian  Joachim  Lelewel,  after  the  dictatorship  of  Joseph  Chlopicki  had 
not  only  abolished  but  utterly  shattered  the  supremacy  of  the  nobles.  The  gov- 
ernment, at  the  head  of  which  was  the  senatorial  president,  Prince  Adam  George 
Czartoryiski,  was  forced  to  resign,  and  the  purely  democratic  administration  which 
succeeded  fell  into  general  disrepute.  Military  operations  suffered  from  lack  of 
concerted  leadership.  The  storm  of  Warsaw  on  the  6  th  and  7th  of  September, 
carried  out  by  Paskevitch  and  Toll,  with  seventy  thousand  Russians  against  forty 
thousand  Poles,  decided  the  struggle.  The  smaller  divisions  still  on  foot,  under 
the  Genoese  Girolamo  Ramoriao,  Mathias  Rybinski,  Rozycki,  and  others,  met  with 
no  support  from  the  population,  and  were  speedily  forced  to  retreat  beyond  the 
frontier. 

The  Polish  dream  of  freedom  was  at  an  end.  The  kingdom  of  Poland,  to  which 
Alexander  I  had  granted  nominal  independence,  became  a  Russian  province  in 
1832  by  a  constitutional  edict  of  the  26th  of  February;  henceforward  its  history 


^£?«'rif;5"']     HISTORY  of  the  world  149 

was  a  history  of  oppression  and  of  stern  and  cruel  tyranny.  However,  the  conse- 
quent suffering  failed  to  produce  any  purifying  effect  upon  the  nation,  though 
European  liberalism,  with  extraordinary  unanimity,  manifested  a  sympathy  which, 
in  Germany,  rose  to  the  point  of  ridiculous  and  hysterical  sentimentalism.  It  was 
by  conspiracies,  secret  unions,  and  political  intrigues  of  every  kind,  by  degrading 
mendicancy  and  sponging,  that  these  "  patriots  "  thought  to  recover  freedom  and 
independence  for  their  native  land.  Careless  of  the  consequences  and  untaught  by 
suffering,  in  1846  they  instigated  revolts  in  Posen  and  in  the  little  free  State  of 
Krakow  (p.  81),  which  was  occupied  by  Austria  at  the  request  of  Eussia,  and 
eventually  incorporated  with  the  province  of  Galicia.  The  peasant  revolt,  which 
was  characterised  by  unexampled  ferocity  and  cruelty,  made  it  plain  to  the  world 
at  large  that  it  was  not  the  Eussian,  the  Austrian,  or  the  Prussian  whom  the 
Polish  peasant  considered  his  deadly  enemy  and  oppressor,  but  the  Polish  noble. 

C.    The  Eevolts  in  Modena  and  the  Chuech  States 

The  revolutionary  party  in  connection  with  the  revolution  of  July  brought 
little  to  pass  in  Italy  except  abortive  conspiracies  and  a  general  state  of  disturb- 
ance. The  nation  as  a  whole  was  inspired  by  no  feeling  of  nationalism ;  the 
moderate  party  kept  aloof  from  the  intrigues  of  the  Carbonari,  who  continued 
their  activities  ia  secret  after  the  subjugation  of  Piedmont  and  Naples  by  the 
Austrians  (1821 ;  p.  117).  The  chief  Austrian  adherents  were  to  be  found  in 
the  Church  States ;  there,  however,  an  opposition  imion,  that  of  the  "  Sanf edists," 
had  been  formed,  with  the  countenance  of  the  papacy.  While  striving  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  papal  power  and  the  strengthening  of  religious  feeling,  the 
party  occupied  itself  with  the  persecution  of  all  liberals,  and  rivalled  the  Car- 
bonari in  the  use  of  poison  and  dagger  for  the  attainment  of  its  ends.  Cardinal 
Consalvi  had  availed  himself  of  the  help  of  the  Sanfedists ;  but  he  allowed  their 
power  to  extend  only  so  far  as  it  might  be  useful  for  the  furtherance  of  his  politi- 
cal objects.  However,  under  the  government  of  Pope  Leo  XII  (1823-1829),  the 
influence  of  the  party  increased  considerably,  and  led  the  Cardinal  Eivarola,  the 
legate  of  Eavenna,  to  perpetrate  cruelties  upon  the  Carbonari  in  Faenza,  a  policy 
which  contributed  to  increase  the  general  Ul-feeling  with  which  Italy  regarded  the 
futile  administration  of  the  papacy. 

Pius  VIII  (1829-1830)  and  Cardinal  Albani  supported  the  union  of  the  San- 
fedists; their  continued  attempts  at  aggrandisement  resulted  in  the  temporary 
success  of  the  revolution  in  Bologna.  This  movement  had  been  long  prepared,  and 
broke  out  on  the  4th  February,  1831,  when  Menotti  in  Parma  gave  the  signal  for 
action.  The  Duke  of  Modena,  Francis  IV  (p.  115),  imprisoned  Menotti  in  his 
own  house ;  feeling  himself,  however,  too  weak  to  deal  with  the  movement,  he 
fled  into  Austrian  territory  with  his  battalion  of  soldiers,  and  hastened  to  Vienna 
to  appeal  to  Metternich  for  help.  His  example  was  followed  by  Pope  Gregory  XVI, 
elected  on  the  2d  of  February,  1831  (formerly  Bartolommeo  Cappelleri,  general  of 
the  Camaldulensian  order),  whose  supremacy  was  no  longer  recognised  by  the 
Umbrian  towns  which  had  broken  into  revolt,  by  the  legations,  or  by  the  marks. 
The  Austrian  chanceller  thought  it  advisable  to  maintain  at  any  cost  the  protec- 
torate exercised  by  the  emperor  in  Italy ;  notwithstanding  the  threats  of  France, 
who  declared  that  she  would  regard  the  advance  of  Austrian  troops  into  the  Church 


150  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [chapter  ii 

States  as  a  casus  lelli,  he  occupied  Bologna  (21st  March),  after  seizing  Ferrara  and 
Parma  in  the  first  days  of  March.  Ancona  was  also  forced  to  surrender ;  in  this 
town  the  provisional  government  of  the  Komagna  had  taken  refuge,  together  with 
Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  son  of  the  king  of  Holland  and  of  Hortense  Beauhar- 
nais,  who  first  came  into  connection  with  the  revolutionary  party  at  this  date.  The 
task  of  the  Austrians  was  then  completed.  On  the  15th  of  July  they  retired 
from  the  papal  States,  but  were  obliged  to  return  on  the  24th  of  January,  1832, 
in  consequence  of  the  new  revolt  which  had  been  brought  about  by  the  cruelties 
of  the  papalini,  or  papal  soldiers.  Louis  Philippe  attempted  to  lend  some  show  of 
support  to  the  Italian  liberal  party  by  occupying  Ancona  at  the  same  time  (2  2d 
February).  Neither  France  nor  Austria  could  oblige  the  pope  to  introduce  the 
reforms  which  he  had  promised  into  his  administration.  The  ruluig  powers  of  the 
Curia  were  apprehensive  of  the  reduction  of  their  revenues,  and  steadily  thwarted 
all  measures  of  reorganisation.  When  Gregory  XVI  enlisted  two  Swiss  regi- 
ments for  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  order,  the  foreign  troops  evacuated  his 
district  in  1838. 

D.    The  Effects  of  the  July  Eevolution  upon  Germany 

In  Germany  the  effects  of  the  July  revolution  varied  according  to  differences  of 
political  condition,  and  fully  represented  the  divergences  of  feeling  and  opinion 
prevailing  in  the  separate  provinces.  There  was  no  uniformity  of  thought,  nor  had 
any  tendency  to  nationalist  movement  become  apparent.  Liberal  and  radical 
groups  were  to  be  found  side  by  side,  divided  by  no  strict  frontier  line  ;  more- 
over, operations  ia  common  were  inconceivable,  for  no  common  object  of  endeavour 
had  yet  been  found.  In  particular  federal  provinces  special  circumstances  gave 
rise  to  revolts  intended  to  produce  a  change  in  the  relations  subsisting  between 
rulers  and  ruled. 

Brunswick  was  a  scene  of  events  as  fortimate  for  that  State  as  they  were  rapid 
in  development.  Charles,  Duke  of  Brunswick,  who  had  begun  his  rule  in  1823  as 
a  youth  of  nineteen  years  of  age,  showed  himself  totally  incompetent  to  fulfil  the 
duties  of  his  high  position.  He  conducted  himself  toward  Ms  relations  of  Eng- 
land and  Hanover  with  an  utter  want  of  tact ;  and  toward^is  subjects,  whose 
constitutional  rights  he  declined  to  recognise,  he  was  equally  haughty  and  dic- 
tatorial.' After  the  events  of  July  he  had  returned  home  from  Paris,  where  he  had 
spent  his  time  in  the  grossest  pleasures,  and  immediately  oppressed  the  nobles  and 
the  citizens  as  ruthlessly  as  ever.  Disturbances  broke  out  in  consequence  on  the 
7th  September,  1830,  and  so  frightened  the  cowardly  libertiae  that  he  evacuated  his 
capital  with  the  utmost  possible  speed  and  deserted  his  province.  At  the  request 
of  Prussia,  his  brother  William,  who  had  taken  over  the  principality  of  Ols,  offered 
himself  to  the  people  of  Brunswick,  who  received  him  with  acclamation.  Notwith- 
standing the  opposition  of  Metternich  ia  the  diet,  the  joint  action  of  Prussia  and 
England  secured  William's  recognition  as  duke  on  the  2d  of  December,  after 
Charles  had  made  himself  the  laughing-stock  of  Europe  by  a  desperate  attempt 
to  cross  the  frontier  of  Brunswick  with  a  small  body  of  armed  ruffians. 

The  people  of  Hesse  forced  their  elector,  William  II,  to  summon  the  represent- 
atives of  the  orders  in  September,  1830,  and  to  assent  to  the  constitution  which 
they  speedily  drew  up.     On  the  8th  of  January,  1831,  the  elector,  ia  the  presence 


S^^'rlf;^;/]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  151 

of  the  crown  prince  Frederick  William,  signed  the  documents  and  handed  them 
to  the  orders ;  however,  the  people  of  Hesse  were  unable  to  secure  constitutional 
government.  They  declined  to  allow  the  elector  to  reside  among  them  in  Oassel, 
with  his  mistress,  Emilie  Ortlopp,  whom  he  made  countess  of  Keichenbach  m  1821, 
and  afterward  countess  of  Lessonitz ;  they  forced  him  to  withdraw  to  Hanover  and 
to  appoint  the  crown  prince  as  co-regent  (30th  September,  1831),  but  found  they 
had  merely  fallen  out  of  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire.  In  August,  1831,  Frederick 
WiUiam  I  married  Gertrude  Lehmann,  nee  Falkenstein,  the  wife  of  a  lieutenant, 
who  had  been  divorced  by  her  husband  in  Bonn  (made  countess  of  Schaumburg 
in  1831,  and  princess  of  Hanau  in  1853) ;  in  the  result  he  quarrelled  with  his 
mother,  the  princess  Augusta  of  Prussia,  and  with  the  orders,  who  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  injured  electress.  He  was  a  malicious  and  stubborn  tyrant,  who 
broke  his  pHghted  word,  deliberately  introduced  changes  into  the  constitution 
through  his  minister,  Hans  Daniel  von  Hassenpflug,  whom  he  supported  in  his 
struggle  with  the  orders  until  the  minister  also  insulted  him  and  opposed  his 
efforts  at  unlimited  despotism.  Hassenpflug  left  the  service  of  Hesse  in  July, 
1837,  first  entering  the  civil  service  in  Sigmaringen  (November,  1838),  then  that 
of  Luxemburg  (June,  1839),  ultimately  taking  a  high  place  in  the  public  admin- 
istration of  Prussia,  1841.  The  people  of  Hesse  then  became  convinced  that  their 
position  had  rather  deteriorated  than  otherwise ;  the  Landtag  was  continually  at 
war  with  the  government,  and  was  repeatedly  dissolved.  The  liberals  went  to  great 
trouble  to  claim  their  rights  in  endless  appeals  and  proclamations  to  the  federal 
council,  but  were  naturally  and  invariably  the  losers  in  the  struggle  with  the 
unscrupulous  regent,  who  became  elector  and  gained  the  enjoyment  of  the  rev- 
enues from  the  demesnes  and  the  trust  property  by  the  death  of  his  father  on  the 
20th  November,  1847.  The  liberals  were  not  anxious  to  resort  to  any  violent 
steps  which  might  have  provoked  the  federal  council  to  interference  of  an  un- 
pleasant kind  ;  they  were  also  unwilling  to  act  in  concert  with  the  radicals. 

Even  more  helpless  and  timorous  was  the  behaviour  of  the  Hanoverians,  when 
their  king,  Ernst  August,  who  had  contracted  debts  amounting  to  several  million 
thalers  as  Duke  of  Cumberland,  was  so  narrow^-minded  as  to  reject  on  December 
26, 1833,  the  constitution  which  had  been  arranged  after  long  and  difficult  negotia- 
tions between  the  nobility  and  the  representatives  of  the  peasants.  Seven  profes- 
sors of  Gottingen  (Jakob  and  Wilhelm  Grimm,  Friedrich  Christoph  Dahlmann, 
Wilhelm  Weber  and  Georg  Gottfried  Gervinus,  Heinrich  Ewald  and  Wilh.  Ed. 
Albrecht)  protested  against  the  patent  of  November  1,  1837,  which  absolved  the 
State  officials  from  their  oaths  of  fidelity  to  the  constitution.  The  State  prosecu- 
tion and  merciless  dismissal  of  these  professors  aroused  a  general  outcry  through- 
out Germany  against  the  effrontery  and  obstinacy  of  the  Guelphs ;  none  the  less  the 
orders,  who  had  been  deprived  of  their  rights,  were  too  timid  to  make  a  bold  and 
honourable  stand  against  the  powers  oppressing  them.  A  number  of  the  electors 
consented,  in  accordance  with  the  decrees  of  1819,  which  were  revived  by  the  king, 
to  carry  through  the  elections  for  the  general  assembly  of  the  orders,  thereby 
enabling  the  king  to  maintain  that  in  form  at  least  his  State  was  constitu- 
tionally governed  in  the  spirit  of  the  act  of  federation.  In  vain  did  that  indom- 
itable champion  of  the  popular  rights,  Johann  Karl  Tertern  Stuve,  burgomaster 
of  Osnabriick,  protest  before  the  federal  council  against  the  illegal  imposition  of 
taxes  by  the  Hanoverian  government.     The  prevailing  disunion  enabled  the  faith- 


152  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_ChapteT  ii 

less  ruler  to  secure  his  victory;  the  compliance  of  his  subjects  gave  a  fairly- 
plausible  colouring  to  his  arbitrary  explanation  of  these  unconstitutional  acts ; 
his  policy  was  interpreted  as  a  return  to  the  old  legal  constitution,  a  return 
adopted,  and  therefore  ratified,  by  the  orders  themselves. 

The  Saxons  had  displayed  far  greater  inclination  to  riot  and  conspiracy ;  how- 
ever, in  that  kingdom  the  transition  from  class  privilege  to  constitutional  govern- 
ment was  completed  without  any  serious  rupture  of  the  good  relations  between 
the  people  and  the  government ;  both  King  Anton,  and  also  his  nephew  Friedrich 
August  (II),  whom  he  had  appointed  co-regent,  possessed  sufficient  insight  to  recog- 
nise the  advantages  of  a  constitution;  the  co-operation  of  large  sections  of  the 
community  would  define  the  distribution  of  those  burdens  which  State  necessities 
inevitably  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of  individuals.  They  supported  the  minister 
Bernhard  August  of  Lindenau,  one  of  the  wisest  statesmen  in  Germany  under  the 
old  reactionary  regime,  when  he  introduced  the  constitution  of  September  4, 1831, 
which  provided  a  sufficient  measure  of  representation  for  the  citizen  classes,  and 
protected  the  peasants  from  defraudation ;  they  continued  their  supp6rt  as  long  as 
he  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  second  chamber.  When  his  progressive  tend- 
encies proved  incompatible  with  the  favour  which  the  Saxon  court  attempted  to 
show  the  Catholic  Church,  the  two  princes  considered  in  1843  that  they  were  able 
to  dispense  with  his  services.  The  great  rise  in  prosperity  manifested  in  every 
department  of  public  life  under  his  government  was  invariably  ascribed  to  his 
statesmanship  and  capacity. 

Not  entirely  disconnected  are  those  political  phenomena  which  occurred  in 
Baden,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  and  the  Bavarian  Palatinate,  as  results  of  the  changes 
which  had  been  brought  to  pass  in  France.  In  these  provinces  it  became  plain 
that  liberalism  and  the  legislation  it  promoted  was  incapable  of  satisfying  the 
people  as  a  whole,  or  of  creating  a  body  politic  sufficiently  strong  to  secure  the 
progress  of  sound  economic  development.  Nowhere  throughout  Germany  was 
the  parliamentary  spirit  so  native  to  the  soil  as  in  Baden,  where  the  democrats, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Freiburg  professors  Karl  von  Eottock  and  Karl 
Theodor  Welcker,  the  Heidelberg  jurist  Karl  Joseph  Mittermayer,  and  the  Mann- 
heim high  justice  Johann  Adam  von  Itzstein,  had  become  predominant  in  the 
second  chamber.  The  constitutions  of  Bavaria  and  Hesse-!^rmstadt  gave  full 
license  to  the  expression  of  public  opinion  in  the  press  and  at  public  meet- 
ings. But  liberalism  was  impressed  with  the  insufficiency  of  the  means  pro- 
vided for  the  expression  and  execution  of  the  popular  will ;  it  did  not  attempt 
to  create  an  administrative  policy  which  might  have  brought  it  into  line 
with  the  practical  needs  of  the  poorer  classes :  it  hoped  to  attain  its  political 
ends  by  unceasing  efforts  to  limit  the  power  of  the  crown  and  by  extending  the 
possibilities  of  popular  representation.  The  result  was  distrust  on  the  part  of  the 
dynasties,  the  government  officials,  and  the  classes  in  immediate  connection  with 
them,  while  the  discontented  classes,  who  were  invariably  too  numerous  even  in 
districts  so  blessed  by  nature  as  these,  were  driven  into  the  arms  of  the  radical 
agitators,  who  had  immigrated  from  France,  and  in  particular  from  Strassburg. 
The  very  considerable  freedom  allowed  to  the  press  had  fostered  the  growth  of  a 
large  number  of  obscure  publications,  which  existed  only  to  preach  the  rejection 
of  all  governmental  measures,  to  discredit  the  monarchical  party,  and  to  exasperate 
the  working  classes  against  their  more  prosperous  superiors.    The  numerous  Polish 


S^";rC«^f]       HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  153 

refugees  who  were  looking  for  some  convenient  and  exciting  form  of  occupation, 
requiring  no  great  expenditure  of  labour,  were  exactly  the  tools  and  emissaries 
required  by  the  leaders  of  the  revolutionary  movement,  and  to  them  the  general 
sympathy  with  the  fate  of  Poland  had  opened  every  door.  The  first  disturbances 
broke  out  in  Hesse-Darmstadt  at  the  end  of  September,  1830,  as  the  result  of  incor- 
poration in  the  Prussian  customs  union,  and  were  rapidly  suppressed  by  force  of 
arms  by  the  minister  Karl  du  Bas,  Freiherr  du  Thil ;  the  animosity  of  the  mob 
was,  however,  purposely  fostered  and  exploited  by  the  chiefs  of  a  democratic  con- 
spiracy who  were  preparing  for  a  general  rising. 

In  May,  1832,  the  radicals  prepared  a  popular  meeting  at  the  castle  of  Ham- 
bach,  near  Neustadt  on  the  Hardt.  No  disguise  was  made  of  their  intention  to 
unite  the  people  for  the  overthrow  of  the  throne  and  the  erection  of  a  democratic 
republic.  The  unusual  occurrence  of  a  popular  manifestation  proved  a  great  at- 
traction. The  turgid  outpourings,  seasoned  with  violent  invectives  against  every 
form  of  moderation,  emanating  from  those  crapulous  scribblers  who  were  trans- 
ported with  delight  at  finding  ia  the  works  of  Heinrich  Heine  and  Ludwig  Baruch 
BBrnes  inducements  to  high  treason  and  anti-monarchical  feeling,  inflamed  minds 
only  too  accessible  to  passion  and  excitement.  As  the  vintage  advanced  feeling 
grew  higher,  and  attracted  the  students,  including  the  various  student  corps  which 
had  regained  large  numbers  of  adherents,  the  remembrance  of  the  persecutions  of 
the  twenties  having  been  gradually  obliterated  (p.  199).  At  Christmas  time,  1832, 
an  assembly  of  the  accredited  representatives  of  these  corps  in  Stuttgart  were  in- 
duced to  accede  to  the  proposal  to  share  in  the  forthcoming  popular  rising.  The 
result  was  that  after  the  ^meute  set  on  foot  by  the  democrats  in  Frankfort-on-Main 
on  April  3, 1833,  when  an  attempt  was  made  to  seize  the  federal  palace  and  the 
bullion  there  stored,  it  was  the  students  who  chiefly  had  to  pay  for  their  lack  of 
common  sense  and  irresponsibility;  the  measures  of  intimidation  and  revenge 
undertaken  by  the  German  government  at  the  demand  of  Metternich  fell  chiefly 
and  terribly  on  the  heads  of  the  German  students.  No  distinction  was  made  be- 
tween the  youthful  aberrations  of  these  corps,  which  were  inspired  merely  by  an 
overpowering  sense  of  national  feeling,  and  the  bloodthirsty  designs  of  malevolent 
intriguers  (for  example,  of  the  priest  Friedrich  Ludwig  Weidig  in  Butzbach)  or  the 
imscrupulous  folly  of  revolutionary  monomaniacs,  such  as  the  Gottingen  privat- 
dozent  Von  Eauschenplat.  Hundreds  of  young  men  were  consigned  for  years  to 
the  tortures  of  horrible  and  pestilential  dungeons  by  the  cold-blooded  cruelty  of  red- 
tape  indifferentism.  The  brilliant  narratives  of  Fritz  Eeuter  in  "  Aus  seiner  Fes- 
tungszeit"  display  by  no  means  the  worst  of  the  deeds  of  cruelty  then  committed 
by  Prussian  officials.  The  punitive  measures  of  justice  then  enforced,  far  from 
creating  a  salutary  feeling  of  fear,  increased  the  existing  animosity,  as  is  proved  by 
the  horrors  of  the  Eevolution  of  1848. 

E.    The  New  Kingdom  of  Greece  tjnder  Otto  I 

After  the  Porte  had  given  its  consent  to  the  protocol  of  February  3,  1830 
(of.  p.  127),  the  great  powers  of  Europe  addressed  themselves  to  the  task  of  reor- 
ganising the  Greek  kingdom.  Thessaly,  Epirus,  Macedonia,  even  Acarnania,  re- 
mained under  Turkish  supremacy ;  but  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Greek  people 
forming  a  national  entity,  though  limited  in  extent,  were  now  able  to  begin  a  new 


154  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_ChapteTii 

and  free  existence  as  a  completely  independent  State.  This  success  had  been  at- 
tained by  the  remarkable  tenacity  of  the  Greek  nation,  by  the  continued  support 
of  England,  and  above  all  by  the  pressure  which  the  Eussian  co-religionists  of  the 
Greeks  had  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Turkish  military  power.  The  work  of  libera- 
tion was  greatly  hindered  by  the  diplomacy  of  the  other  great  powers,  and  particu- 
larly by  the  support  given  to  the  Turks,  the  old  arch  enemies  of  Christendom,  by 
Catholic  Austria.  To  Austria  it  is  due  that  the  Greek  question  has  remaiued 
unsolved  to  the  present  day ;  that  instead  of  developing  its  inherent  strength 
the  Greek  nation  is  still  occupied  with  the  uniiication  of  its  different  tribes,  and 
that  the  Turkish  State,  which  was  hostile  to  civilization,  and  has  justified  its 
existence  only  by  means  of  the  bayonets  of  Anatolian  regiments,  still  exists  on 
sufferance  as  a  foreign  body  within  the  political  system  of  Europe.  Once  again 
the  obstacle  to  a  thorough  and  comprehensive  reform  of  the  political  conditions 
within  the  Balkan  peninsula  was  the  puerile  fear  of  the  power  inherent  in  a  self- 
determining  nation,  and,  in  a  secondary  degree,  a  desire  for  the  maintenance  or 
extension  of  iniiuence  which  might  be  useful  in  the  peninsula.  The  true  basis  of 
SLich  influence  was  not  as  yet  understood.  It  is  not  the  statesmanship  of  ambas- 
sadors and  attaches  which  gives  a  nation  influence  abroad,  but  the  power  of  the 
nation  to  assert  its  will  when  its  interest  so  demands.  National  influence  rests 
upon  the  forces  which  the  State  can  command,  upon  the  industry  of  its  traders, 
the  value  and  utility  of  its  products,  the  creative  power  of  its  labour  and  capital. 

The  Greeks  were  now  confronted  with  the  difficult  task  of  concentrating  their 
forces,  accommodating  themselves  to  a  new  political  system,  and  making  their  in- 
dependence a  practical  reality ;  for  this  purpose  it  was  necessary  to  create  new 
administrative  machinery,  and  for  this  there  was  an  entire  dearth  of  the  necessary 
material.  The  problem  was  further  complicated  by  the  fact  that  a  desperately 
contested  war  had  not  only  unsettled  the  country,  but  reduced  it  almost  to  desola- 
tion. The  noblest  and  the  bravest  of  the  nation  had  fallen  upon  the  battlefields  or 
under  the  attacks  of  the  Janissaries  and  Albanians,  had  been  slaughtered  and 
hurled  into  the  flames  of  burning  towns  and  villages,  after  the  extortion  of  their 
money,  the  destruction  of  their  property,  and  the  ruin  of  their  prosperity.  The 
contribution  of  the  European  powers  to  facilitate  the  worl^of  reconstruction 
consisted  of  a  king  under  age  and  sixty  million  francs  at  a  high  rate  of  interest. 
Prince  Leopold  of  Coburg,  the  first  candidate  for  the  Greek  throne,  had  unfor- 
tunately renounced  his  project ;  he  would  have  proved  a  capable  and  benevolent 
ruler,  and  would  perhaps  have  adapted  himself  to  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 
Greek  life  and  thought,  with  the  eventual  result  of  providing  a  starting-point  for 
the  introduction  of  more  civilized  and  more  modern  methods.  In  consequence  of 
his  retirement,  the  presidency  of  the  count  Johannes  Capodistrias  (Kapo  d'Istrias) 
continued  for  some  time,  untU  the  murder  of  this  statesman,  who  had  deserved 
well  of  his  people  (9th  October,  1831) ;  then  followed  the  short  reign  of  his  brother 
Augustine,  who  did  not  enjoy  the  recognition  of  the  constitutional  party,  the 
Syntagmatikoi. 

Ultimately,  by  working  on  the  vanity  of  King  Louis  of  Bavaria,  European  diplo- 
macy persuaded  this  monarch  to  authorise  his  son  Otto,  born  on  the  1st  of  June, 
1815,  to  accept  the  Greek  throne.  The  government  was  to  be  carried  on  by  three 
Bavarian  officials  until  the  youth  attained  his  majority.  This  settlement  was 
brought  about  by  the  London  "  Quadruple  Convention"  on  the  7th  May,  1832,  and 


?£tfre.^f]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  155 

is  one  of  the  most  ill-considered  pieces  of  work  ever  performed  by  the  so-called 
statesmen  of  the  old  school.  Of  the  young  prince's  capacity  as  a  ruler  not  even 
his  father  can  have  had  the  smallest  idea  ;  yet  at  so  early  an  age  he  was  handed 
over  to  fate,  to  sacrifice  the  best  years  of  his  life  in  a  hopeless  struggle  for  power 
and  recognition.  The  Greeks  were  fooled  with  promises  impossible  of  fulfilment, 
and  inspired  with  mistrust  and  hatred  for  their  "  benefactors."  King  Otto  and  his 
councillors  had  not  the  patience  to  secure  through  the  national  assembly  a  gradual 
development  of  such  conditions  as  would  have  made  constitutional  government 
possible;  they  would  not  devote  themselves  to  the  task  of  superintendence,  of 
pacification,  of  disentangling  the  various  complications,  and  restraining  party  action 
withia  the  bounds  of  legality.  The  Bavarian  officials,  who  might  perhaps  have 
done  good  service  in  Wiirzburg  or  Amberg,  were  unable  to  accommodate  them- 
selves to  their  Greek  environment ;  their  mistakes  aroused  a  passionate  animosity 
against  the  Germans,  resulting  in  their  complete  expulsion  from  Hellas  in  1843. 
On  the  16th  March,  1844,  King  Otto  was  obliged  to  agree  to  the  introduction  of  a 
new  constitutional  scheme,  the  advantages  of  which  were  hidden  to  him  by  the  fact 
that  it  merely  aroused  new  party  struggles  and  parliamentary  discord.  Conse- 
quently he  did  not  observe  this  constitution  with  sufficient  conscientiousness  to 
regain  the  national  respect.  Disturbances  in  the  East  and  the  Crimean  War 
proved  so  many  additional  obstacles  to  his  efforts,  which  were  ended  by  a  revolt  in 
October,  1862  ;  the  Greeks  declined  to  admit  their  king  within  the  Piraeus  as  he 
was  returning  from  the  Morea,  and  thus  unceremoniously  dismissed  him  from 
their  service. 


4.    EELIGIOUS  AND    SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS   FEOM   1830-1850 

A.  The  Eeligious  Ferment 

The  great  revolutions  which  had  taken  place  in  the  political  world  since  1798 
were  not  calculated  to  produce  satisfaction  either  among  contemporaries  or  pos- 
terity. Disillusionment  and  fear  of  the  degeneration  of  human  nature,  distrust  of 
the  capacity  and  the  value  of  civic  and  political  institutions,  were  the  legacy  from 
these  movements.  As  men  lost  faith  in  political  movement  as  a  means  of  amelior- 
ating the  conditions  of  life  or  improving  morality,  so  did  they  yearn  for  the  con- 
tentments and  the  consolations  of  religion.  "Many  believe,  all  would  like  to 
believe,"  said  Alexis  de  Tocqueville  of  France  after  the  July  revolution.  However, 
the  germs  of  piety,  "  which,  though  uncertain  in  its  objects,  is  powerful  enough 
in  its  effects,"  had  already  sprung  to  life  during  the  Napoleonic  period.  Through- 
out the  nineteenth  century  there  is  a  general  yearning  for  the  restoration  of  true 
Christian  feeling  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  342).  It  was  a  desire  that  evoked  attempts  at 
the  formation  of  religious  societies  often  of  a  very  extraordinary  nature,  without 
attaining  any  definite  object ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  opened  the  possibility  of  a  mag- 
nificent development  to  the  power  of  Catholicism.  The  progress  of  the  movement 
has  made  it  plain  that  only  a  church  of  this  nature  can  be  of  vital  importance  to 
the  history  of  the  world,  and  that  the  revival  of  Christianity  can  be  brought  about 
upon  no  smaller  basis  than  that  which  is  held  by  this  church.  The  force  of  the 
movement  which  resulted  in  the  intensification  of  papal  supremacy  enables  us  to 
estimate  the  power  of  reaction  which  was  bound  to  occur,  though  the  oppression  of 


156  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter li 

this  supremacy  will  in  turn  become  intolerable  and  the  foundations  of  ultramon- 
tanism  and  of  its  successes  be  shattered. 

The  restoration  of  power  to  the  Catholic  Church  was  due  to  the  Jesuit  order, 
which  had  gradually  acquired  complete  and  unlimited  influence  over  the  papacy ; 
for  this  reason  the  success  attained  was  purely  artificial.  Jesuitism  has  no  ideals ; 
for  it,  religion  is  merely  a  department  of  politics.  By  the  creation  of  a  hierarchy 
withta  a  temporal  State  it  hopes  to  secure  full  scope  for  the  beneficent  activity  of 
Christian  doctrine  confined  within  the  trammels  of  dogma.  For  this  purpose 
Jesuitism  can  employ  any  and  every  form  of  political  government.  It  has  no  spe- 
cial preference  for  monarchy,  though  it  simulates  such  a  preference  for  dynasties 
which  it  can  use  for  its  own  purposes ;  it  is  equally  ready  to  accommodate  itself 
to  the  conditions  of  republican  and  parliamentary  government.  Materialism  is  no 
hindrance  to  the  fulfilment  of  its  task,  the  steady  increase  of  the  priestly  power ; 
for  the  grossest  materialism  is  accompanied  by  the  grossest  superstition,  and  this 
latter  is  one  of  its  most  valuable  weapons.  While  fosteriag  imbecility  and  iasan- 
ity,  it  is  also  able  to  share  in  the  hobbies  of  science,  criticism,  and  research.  One 
maiden  marked  with  the  stigmata  can  repair  the  damage  done  to  society  by  the 
well-meaning  efforts  of  a  hundred  learned  fathers. 

On  the  7th  of  August,  1814,  Pope  Pius  VII  issued  the  encyclical  Sollicitudo 
omnium,  reconstituting  the  Society  of  Jesus,  which  retained  its  origiual  constitu- 
tion and  those  privileges  which  it  had  acquired  since  its  foundation  (p.  91).  At 
the  congress  of  Vienna  Cardinal  Consalvi  had  succeeded  in  convincing  the 
Catholic  and  Protestant  princes  that  the  Jesuit  order  would  prove  a  means  of 
support  to  the  legitimists,  and  would,  in  close  connection  with  the  papacy,  under- 
take the  interests  of  the  royal  houses,  —  a  device  successfully  employed  even  at  the 
present  day.  This  action  of  the  papacy,  a  step  as  portentous  for  the  desttuies  of 
Europe  as  any  of  those  taken  during  the  unhappy  years  of  the  first  peace  of  Paris, 
appeared  at  first  comparatively  unimportant.  The  new  world  power  escaped 
notice  until  the  highly  gifted  Dutchman,  Johann  Philip  of  Eoothaan,  took  over  the 
direction  on  July  9,  1829,  and  won  the  Germans  over  to  the  order.  The  com- 
plaisance with  which  the  French  and  the  Italians  lent  their  services  for  the  attain- 
ment of  specific  objects  deserves  acknowledgment.  But  even  nM)re  valuable  than 
their  diplomatic  astuteness  in  the  struggle  against  intellectual  freedom  were 
the  blind  imreasoning  obedience  and  the  strong  arms  of  Flanders,  Westphalia,  the 
Ehine  districts,  and  Bavaria.  At  the  outset  of  the  thirties  the  society  possessed,  in 
the  persons  of  numerous  young  priests,  the  implements  requisite  for  destroying 
that  harmony  of  the  churches  which  was  founded  upon  religious  toleration  and 
mutual  forbearance.  By  the  same  means  the  struggle  against  secular  governments 
could  be  begun,  where  such  powers  had  not  already  submitted  by  concordat  to  the 
Curia,  as  Bavaria  had  done  in  1817  (p.  106). 

The  struggle  raged  with  special  fury  in  Prussia,  though  this  State,  consider- 
ing its  very  modest  pecuniary  resources,  had  endowed  the  new-created  Catholic 
bishoprics  very  handsomely.  The  Jesuits  declined  to  tolerate  a  friendly  agree- 
ment in  things  spiritual  between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  in  the  Ehine  terri- 
tories, to  allow  the  celebration  of  mixed  marriages  with  the  "  passive  assistance  " 
of  the  Catholic  pastor ;  they  objected  to  the  teaching  of  George  Hermes,  professor 
in  the  Catholic  faculty  at  the  new-created  university  of  Bonn,  who  propounded  to 
his  numerous  pupils  the  doctrine  that  belief  in  revelation  necessarily  implied  the 


?^!^%1rif^f]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  157 

exercise  of  reason,  and  that  the  dictates  of  reason  must  not  therefore  be  contra- 
dicted by  dogma. 

After  the  death  of  the  excellent  archbishop  of  Cologne,  Count  Ferdinand 
August  von  Spiegel  zum  Desenberg  (died  August  2,  1835),  the  blind  confidence  of 
the  government  elevated  the  prebendary  Klemens  August  Freiherr  von  Droste- 
Vischering  to  the  Rhenish  archbishopric.  He  had  been  removed  from  the  general 
vicariate  at  Miinster  as  a  punishment  for  his  obstinacy.  In  defiance  of  his  pre- 
vious promises,  the  ambiguity  of  which  had  passed  unnoticed  by  the  minister  Von 
Altenstein,  the  archbishop  arbitrarily  broke  off  the  agreement  concerning  mixed 
marriages  arranged  by  his  predecessor.  His  repeated  transgression  of  his  powers 
and  his  high-handed  treatment  of  the  Bonn  professors  obliged  the  Prussian  gov- 
ernment to  pronounce  his  deposition  on  November  14,  1837,  and  forcibly  to 
remove  him  from  Cologne.  The  Curia  now  protested  in  no  measured  terms 
against  Prussia,  and  displayed  a  galling  contempt  for  the  Prussian  ambassador. 
Christian  Josias  von  Bunsen,  who  had  exchanged  the  profession  of  archaology  for 
that  of  diplomacy.  Prince  Metternich  had  formerly  been  ready  enough  to  claim 
the  good  services  of  the  Berlin  cabinet  whenever  he  required  their  support ;  his 
instructive  diplomatic  communications  were  now  withheld,  and  with  some  secret 
satisfaction  he  observed  the  humiliation  of  his  ally  by  Eoman  statecraft.  The 
embarrassment  of  the  Prussian  administration  was  increased  both  by  the  attitude 
of  the  liberals,  who  with  doctrinaire  shortsightedness  disputed  the  right  of  the 
government  to  arrest  the  bishop,  and  by  the  extension  of  the  Catholic  opposition 
to  the  ecclesiastical  province  of  Rosen-G-nesen,  where  the  insubordination  and  dis- 
loyalty of  the  archbishop,  Martin  von  Dunin,  necessitated  the  imprisonment  of 
that  prelate  also  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  344). 

Those  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  who  were  under  Jesuit  influence  proceeded  to 
persecute  such  supporters  of  peace  as  the  prince-bishop  of  Breslau,  Count  Leopold 
of  Sedlnitzky  (1840),  employing  every  form  of  inter-collegiate  pressure  which  the 
labours  of  centuries  had  been  able  to  excogitate.  In  many  cases  congregations 
were  ordered  to  submit  to  tests  of  faith,  with  which  they  eventually  declined 
compliance.  A  more  vigorous,  and  in  its  early  stages  a  more  promising,  resist- 
ance arose  within  the  bosom  of  the  Church  itself.  This  movement  was  aroused 
by  the  exhibition  in  October,  1844,  of  the  "  holy  coat"  in  Treves,  a  relic  supposed 
to  be  one  of  Christ's  garments,  an  imposture  which  had  long  before  been  demon- 
strated ;  an  additional  cause  was  the  disorderly  pilgrimage  thereto,  promoted  by 
Bishop  WUhelm  Arnoldi.  The  chaplain,  Johannes  Eonge,  characterised  the  ex- 
hibition as  a  scandal,  and  denounced  the  "  idolatrous  worship  of  relics  "  as  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  spiritual  and  political  humiliation  of  Germany.  He  thereby 
became,  together  with  the  chaplain,  Johann  Czerski  in  Schneidemtihl  (Posen),  the 
founder  of  a  reform  movement,  which  at  once  assumed  a  character  serious  enough 
to  arouse  hopes  that  the  Catholic  Church  would  now  undergo  the  necessary  pro- 
cess of  purification  and  separation,  and  would  break  away  from  the  ruinous 
influence  of  Jesuitism.  About  two  hundred  "  German  Catholic "  congregations 
were  formed  in  the  course  of  the  year  1845,  and  a  Church  council  was  held  at 
Leipsic  from  March  23  to  26,  with  the  object  of  finding  a  common  basis  for 
the  constitution  of  the  new  Church.  However,  it  proved  impossible  to  arrange 
a  compromise  between  the  insistence  upon  free  thought  of  the  one  party  and  the 
desire  for  dogma  and  ritual  manifested  by  the  other.     What  was  wanted  was  the 


158  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  ir 

uniting  power  of  a  new  idea,  brilliant  enough  to  attract  the  universal  gaze  and  to 
distract  attention  from  established  custom  and  its  separatist  consequences.  Great 
and  strong  characters  were  wanting,  though  these  were  indispensable  for  the  direc- 
tion and  organisation  of  the  different  bodies  who  were  attempting  to  secure  their 
liberation  from  one  of  the  most  powerful  tyrants  that  has  ever  imposed  the  scourge 
of  slavery  upon  an  intellectually  dormant  humanity.  As  long  as  each  party  went 
its  own  way,  proclaimed  its  own  war-cry  to  be  the  only  talisman  of  victory,  and 
adopted  new  idols  as  its  ensign,  so  long  were  they  overpowered  by  the  determined 
persistency  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

Within  the  Protestant  churches  also  a  movement  for  intellectual  independence 
arose,  directed  against  the  suppression  of  independent  judgment,  and  the  subjuga- 
tion of  thought  to  the  decrees  of  the  "  Superiors,"  a  party  comprising  the  Berlin 
theologian  Ernst  Wilhelm  Hengstenberg  and  the  supporters  of  his  newspaper, 
the  "Evangelical  Church"  (Vol.  VII,  p.  346).  The  movement  was  based  upon  the 
conviction  that  belief  should  be  controlled  by  the  dictates  of  reason  and  not  by 
ecclesiastical  councils.  The  Prussian  government  limited  the  new  movement  to 
the  utmost  of  its  power ;  at  the  same  time,  it  was  so  far  successful  that  the 
authorities  avoided  the  promulgation  of  decrees  likely  to  excite  disturbance  and 
practised  a  certain  measure  of  toleration.  The  revelations  made  by  the  scientific 
criticism  of  the  evangelical  school  gave  a  further  impulse  in  this  direction  (Vol. 
VII,  pp.  344  and  350),  as  these  results  were  utilised  by  David  Friedrich  Strauss 
in  his  "  Life  of  Jesus  "  (1835),  and  in  his  "  Christian  Dogma,  explained  in  its  His- 
torical Development  and  iu  Conflict  with  Modern  Science"  (1840-1841), — works 
which  made  an  epoch  in  the  literary  world,  and  the  importance  of  which  remained 
undiminished  by  any  measures  of  ecclesiastical  repression. 

Among  the  Eomance  peoples  religious  questions  were  of  less  importance  than 
among  the  Germans.  In  Spain,  such  questions  were  treated  purely  as  political 
matters ;  the  foundation  of  a  few  Protestant  congregations  by  Manuel  Matamoros 
exercised  no  appreciable  influence  upon  the  intellectual  development  of  the  Span- 
iards. The  apostacy  of  the  Eoman  prelate  Luigi  Desancti  to  the  Waldenses  and 
the  appearance  of  scattered  evangelical  societies  produced  no  effect  upon  the 
position  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Italy.  In  France,  the  liberal  tendencies  in- 
troduced by  Alphonse  de  Lamartine  and  Victor  Hugo  remained  "literary  fashion; 
the  efforts  of  Pere  Jean  Baptiste  Lacordaire  and  of  Count  Charles  Forbes  de  Tryon- 
Montalembert  to  found  national  freedom  upon  papal  absolutism  were  nullified  by 
the  general  direction  of  Eoman  policy. 

There  was,  however,  one  phenomenon  deserving  a  closer  attention,  —  a  phenome- 
non of  higher  importance  than  any  displayed  by  the  various  attempts  at  religious 
reform  during  the  nineteenth  century,  for  the  reason  that  its  evolution  displays 
the  stages  which  mark  the  gradual  process  of  liberation  from  Jesuitism.  Hugues 
F^licit^  Eobert  de  Lamennais  began  his  priestly  career  as  the  fiery  champion  of 
the  papacy,  to  which  he  ascribed  infallibility.  He  hoped  to  secure  the  recognition 
of  its  practical  supremacy  over  all  Christian  governments.  Claimed  by  Leo  X  as 
the  "  last  father  of  the  Church,"  he  furiously  opposed  the  separatism  of  the  French 
clergy,  which  was  based  on  the  "  Galilean  articles  ; "  he  attacked  the  government 
of  Charles  X  as  being  "  a  horrible  despotism,"  and  founded  after  the  July  revolu- 
tion a  Christian-revolutionary  periodical,  "  L'Avenir  "  (p.  129),  with  the  motto, 
"  Dieu  et  Liberte  —  le  Pape  et  le  Peuph ;  "  by  his  theory,  not  only  was  the  Church 


St-S^'?^']       HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  159 

to  be  independent  of  the  State,  it  was  also  to  be  independent  of  State  support,  and 
the  clergy  were  to  be  maintained  by  the  voluntary  offerings  of  the  faithful.  This 
demand  for  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  necessarily  brought  Lamennais 
into  connection  with  political  democracy ;  hence  it  was  but  a  step  to  the  position 
that  the  Church  should  be  reconstructed  upon  a  democratic  basis.  This  fact  was 
patent  not  only  to  the  French  episcopate,  but  also  to  Pope  Gregory  XVI,  who  con- 
demned the  doctrines  of  the  "  father  of  the  Church,"  and,  upon  his  formal  submis- 
sion, interdicted  him  from  issuiag  any  further  publications.  Lamennais,  like  Arnold 
of  Brescia  or  Girolamo  Savonarola  in  earlier  times,  now  recognised  that  this  papacy 
was  incompetent  to  fulfil  the  lofty  aims  with  which  he  had  credited  it ;  he  rejected 
it  in  his  famous  "paroles  d'un  croyant "  (1834),  and  found  his  way  to  that  form  of 
Christianity  which  is  based  upon  brotherly  love  and  philanthropy,  and  aims  at 
procuring  an  equal  share  for  men  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  world's  goods. 

£.    The  First  Attempts  at  a  Solution  of  the  Social  Question 

That  Christian  socialism  to  which  Lamennais  had  been  led  by  reason  and  expe- 
rience was  a  by-product  of  the  numerous  attempts  to  settle  the  pressing  question 
of  social  reform,  attempts  begun  simultaneously  iu  France  and  England,  and  result- 
ing in  a  movement  which  soon  affected  every  nation.  The  great  revolution  had 
accomplished  nothing  in  this  direction.  The  sum  total  of  achievement  hitherto 
was  represented  by  certain  dismal  experiences  of  "  State  help  "  in  the  distribution 
of  bread  and  the  subsidising  of  bakers.  The  phrase  inscribed  in  the  "  Cahiers  "  of 
the  deputies  of  the  third  order  in  1789  had  now  been  realised  in  fact :  "  the  voice 
of  freedom  has  no  message  for  the  heart  of  the  poor  who  die  of  hunger."  F.  N. 
Babeuf,  the  only  French  democrat  who  professed  communistic  views,  was  not  un- 
derstood by  the  masses,  and  his  martjTdom,  one  of  the  most  unnecessary  political 
murders  of  the  Directory  (Vol.  VII,  p.  398 ),  had  aroused  no  movement  among 
those  for  whom  it  was  undergone.  The  general  introduction  of  machinery  in 
many  manufactures,  together  with  the  more  distant  relations  subsisting  between 
employer  and  workman,  had  resulted  in  an  astounding  increase  of  misery  among 
the  journeymen  labourers;  the  working  classes,  condemned  to  hopeless  poverty 
and  want,  and  threatened  with  the  deprivation  of  the  very  necessaries  of  exist- 
ence, broke  into  riot  and  insurrection ;  factories  were  repeatedly  destroyed  iu  Eng- 
land at  the  beginning  of  the  century ;  the  silk  weavers  of  Lyons  (1831)  and  the 
weavers  of  Silesia  (1844)  rose  against  their  masters.  These  facts  aroused  the  con- 
sideration of  the  means  by  which  the  appalling  miseries  of  a  fate  wholly  unde- 
served could  be  obviated. 

Among  the  wild  theories  and  fantastic  aberrations  of  Claude  Henri  de  Eouvroy, 
Count  of  Saint-Simon,  were  to  be  found  many  ideas  well  worth  consideration  which 
could  not  fail  to  act  as  a  stimulus  to  further  thought.  The  pamphlet  of  1814, 
"  Edorganisation  de  la  Soci^t^  Europ^enne,"  had  received  no  consideration  from 
the  congress  of  Vienna,  for  it  maintained  that  congresses  were  not  the  proper 
instrument  for  the  permanent  restoration  of  social  peace  and  order.  It  was,  how- 
ever, plainly  obvious  that  even  after  the  much-vaunted  "  restoration  "  the  lines  of 
social  cleavage  had  rapidly  widened,  and  that  the  majority  were  oppressed  with 
crying  injustice.  Not  wholly  in  vain  did  Saint-Simon  repeatedly  appeal  to  manu- 
facturers, industrial  potentates,  busiaess  men,  and  financiers,  with  warnings  against 


160  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  lchaj>terii 

the  prevailing  sweating  system  ;  not  in  vain  did  he  assert  in  his  "  Nouveau  Chris- 
tianisme  "  (1825  ;  cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  399),  that  every  church  in  existence  had  stulti- 
fied its  Christianity  by  suppressing  the  loftiest  teaching  of  Christ,  the  doctrine  of 
brotherly  love.  His  ideas  poured  forth  in  tumultuous  disorder  without  logical 
connection,  but  they  bore  their  fruit ;  they  gave  an  impulse  to  the  examination  of 
the  ultimate  basis  of  inheritance,  of  individual  proprietorship,  and  of  other  institu- 
tions indissolubly  connected  with  old  social  systems  then  prevailing,  but  of  ques- 
tionable value  for  the  social  transformations  of  the  future.  No  immediate  influence 
was  exerted  upon  the  social  development  of  Europe  by  Barth^lemy  Prosper  Con- 
stantin's  proposals  for  the  emancipation  of  the  flesh  (Vol.  VII,  p.  401),  and  for  the 
foundation  of  a  new  "  theocratic-industrial  State,"  or  by  Charles  Fourier's  project 
of  the  "  Phalanstfere,"  a  new  social  community  having  all  things  in  common  (ibid., 
p.  402),  or  by  the  Utopian  dreams  of  communism  expounded  by  Etienne  Cabet 
(ibid.,  p.  403)  in  his  "  Voyage  en  Icarie  "  (1842).  Such  theorising  merely  cleared 
the  way  for  more  far-seeing  thinkers,  who,  from  their  knowledge  of  existing  insti- 
tutions, could  demonstrate  their  capacity  of  transformation. 

In  England,  Eobert  Owen  (Vol.  VII,  p.  373),  the  manager  of  the  great  spinning- 
works  at  New  Lanark  in  Scotland,  was  the  first  to  attempt  the  practical  realisa- 
tion of  a  philosophical  social  system.  The  experiment  at  first  appeared  successful, 
but  its  futility  became  apparent  the  moment  that  it  passed  the  narrow  limits  of  a 
single  undertaking  under  the  direction  of  a  single  personality,  and  came  in  contact 
with  the  movement  for  the  subversion  of  class  interests  and  conditions  of  life,  and 
for  the  destruction  of  those  fundamental  religious  convictions  which  are  inseparable 
from  the  life  of  thought  and  feeling.  In  spite  of  these  aberrations,  Owen's  theories 
may  be  pronounced  a  definite  advance,  as  demonstrating  that  capitalism  as  a  basis 
of  economics  was  not  founded  upon  any  law  of  nature,  but  must  be  considered  as 
the  result  of  an  historical  development,  and  that  competition  is  not  an  indispensable 
stimulus  to  production,  but  is  an  obstacle  to  the  true  utilisation  of  labour. 

The  facts  thus  ascertained  were  worked  into  a  socialist  system  by  the  efforts 
of  a  German  Jew,  Karl  Marx,  born  in  1818  at  Treves  (VoL  VII,  p.  411),  a  man 
fully  equipped  with  Hegelian  criticism,  and  possessed  by  an  extraordinary  yearn- 
ing to  discover  the  causes  which  had  brought  existing  conditions  of  life  to  pass,  a 
characteristic  due,  according  to  Werner  Sombart,  to  "  hypertr%hy  of  intellectual 
energy."  His  theories  exhibited  no  trace  of  the  utopianism  which  had  inspired 
the  systems  of  French  social  reformers  and  communists.  He  freed  the  social 
movement  from  the  revolutionary  spirit  which  had  been  its  leading  character- 
istic hitherto.  He  placed  one  definite  object  before  the  movement,  the  "  national- 
isation of  means  of  production,"  the  method  of  attaining  this  end  being  a  vigorous 
class  struggle.  Expelled  from  German  soil  by  the  Prussian  police,  he  was  forced 
to  take  up  residence  in  Paris,  and  afterward  in  London.  There  he  gained  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  social  conditions  of  "Western  Europe,  devoting  special 
attention  to  the  important  developments  of  the  English  trades-union  struggles 
(Vol.  VII,  p.  378),  and  thus  became  specially  qualified  as  the  founder  and  guide  of 
an  international  organisation  of  the  proletariate,  which  he  had  himself  explained 
to  be  an  indispensable  condition  of  victory  in  the  class  struggle  he  had  proclaimed. 
In  collaboration  with  Friedrich  Engel  of  Elberfeld  he  created  the  doctrine  of 
socialism,  which  has  remained  the  basis  of  the  socialist  movement  to  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  That  movement  chiefly  centred  in  Germany,  after  Ferdi- 
nand Lassalle  had  assured  its  triumph  in  the  sixties  (Vol.  VII,  p.  415). 


S^:;riS^?]     HISTORY  of  the  world  lei 

The  social  movement  exerted  but  little  political  influence  upon  the  events  aris- 
ing out  of  the  July  revolution ;  its  influence,  again,  upon  the  revolutions  of  the 
year  1848  was  almost  inappreciable.  It  became,  however,  an  important  modifying 
factor  among  the  different  democratic  parties,  who  were  looking  to  political  revo-. 
lution  for  some  transformation  of  existing  public  rights,  and  for  some  alteration 
of  the  proprietary  system  in  their  favour. 


5.  THE  GEEMAN  FEDERATION  AND   THE   GEEMAN 
CUSTOMS   UNION 

A.  Germany  as  represented  by  the  Diet 

During  the  period  subsequent  to  the  congress  of  Vienna  a  highly  important 
modification  in  the  progress  of  German  history  took  place,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
such  expressions  of  popular  feeling  as  had  been  manifested  through  the  existing 
constitutional  outlets  had  effected  but  little  alteration  in  social  and  political  life. 
This  modification  was  not  due  to  the  diet,  which,  properly  speaking,  existed  to 
protect  the  common  interests  of  the  German  States  collectively :  it  was  the  work 
of  the  Prussian  government,  in  which  was  concentrated  the  keenest  insight  into  the 
various  details  of  the  public  administration,  and  which  had  therefore  become  a 
centre  of  attraction  for  minds  inclined  to  political  thought  and  for  statesmen  of 
large  ideals.  In  Germany  the  political  movement  had  been  preceded  by  a  period  of 
economic  progress  ;  the  necessary  preliminary  to  such  a  movement,  a  certain  level 
oE  prosperity  and  financial  power,  had  thus  already  been  attained.  This  achieve- 
ment was  due  to  the  excellent  qualities  of  most  of  the  German  races,  to  their 
industry,  their  thrift,  and  their  godliness.  The  capital  necessary  to  the  economic 
development  of  a  people  could  only  be  gradually  recovered  and  amassed  after  the 
enormous  losses  of  the  French  war,  by  petty  landowners  and  the  small  handi- 
craftsmen. However,  this  unconscious  national  co-operation  would  not  have 
availed  to  break  the  fetters  in  which  the  economic  life  of  the  nation  had  been 
chained  for  three  hundred  years  by  provincial  separatism.  Of  this  oppression  the 
disunited  races  were  themselves  largely  unconscious ;  what  one  considered  a  bur- 
den, his  neighbour  regarded  as  an  advantage.  Of  constitutional  forms,  of  the 
process  of  economic  development,  the  nation  severally  and  collectively  had  long 
since  lost  all  understanding,  and  it  was  reserved  for  those  to  spread  such  know- 
ledge who  had  acquired  it  by  experience  and  intellectual  toil. 

These  two  qualifications  were  wanting  to  the  Austrian  government,  which  had 
formed  the  German  federation  according  to  its  own  ideas.  Even  those  who  admire 
the  diplomatic  skill  of  Prince  Metternich  must  admit  that  the  Austrian  chancellor 
displayed  surprising  ignorance  and  ineptitude  in  dealing  with  questions  of  internal 
admtoistration.  His  interest  was  entirely  concentrated  upon  matters  of  immediate 
importance  to  the  success  of  his  foreign  policy,  upon  the  provision  of  money  and 
recruits ;  of  the  necessities,  the  merits  and  the  defects  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
empire  to  which  he  is  thought  to  have  rendered  such  signal  service,  of  the  forces 
dormant  in  the  State  over  which  he  ruled,  he  had  not  the  remotest  idea.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  bureaucracy  which  he  had  collected  and  employed  were,  with  few  excep- 
tions, men  of  limited  intelligence  and  poor  education  ;  cowardly  and  subservient  to 
authority,  they  were  so  utterly  incompetent  to  initiate  any  improvement  of  exist- 
voL.  vm  — 11 


162  HISTORY    OF    THE .  WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

ing  circumstances,  that  the  first  preliminary  to  any  work  of  a  generally  beneficial 
nature  was  the  task  of  breaking  down  their  opposition.  The  archduke  John,  the 
brother  of  the  emperor  Francis,  a  man  fully  conscious  of  the  forces  at  work  beneath 
the  surface,  a  man  of  steady  and  persistent  energy,  suffered  many  a  bitter  expe- 
rience in  his  constant  attempts  to  improve  technical  and  scientific  training,  to 
benefit  agriculture  and  the  iron  trades,  co-operative  enterprises,  and  savings  banks. 
The  emperor  Francis  and  his  powerful  minister  had  one  aversion  in  common, 
which  implied  unconditional  opposition  to  every  form  of  human  endeavour,  —  an 
aversion  to  pronounced  ability.  Metternich's  long  employment  of  Gentz  (cf.  the 
explanation  to  the  plate  facing  p.  74)  is  to  be  explained  by  the  imperative  need 
for  an  intellect  so  pliable  and  so  reliable  in  its  operations,  and  also  by  the  fact  that 
Gentz  would  do  anything  for  money ;  for  a  position  of  independent  activity,  for 
a  chance  of  realising  his  own  views  or  aims,  he  never  had  any  desire.  Men  of 
independent  thought,  such  as  Johann  Philipp  of  Wessenberg,  were  never  perma- 
nently retained,  even  for  foreign  service.  This  statesman  belonged  to  the  little 
band  of  Austrian  officials  who  entertained  theories  and  proffered  suggestions  upon 
the  future  and  the  tasks  before  the  Hapsburg  monarchy,  its  position  within  the 
federation,  and  upon  further  federal  developments.  His  opinion  upon  questions  of 
federal  reform  was  disregarded,  and  he  fell  into  bad  odour  at  the  London  confer- 
ence, when  his  convictions  led  him  to  take  an  independent  position  with  reference 
to  the  quarrel  between  Belgium  and  Holland  (p.  145). 

The  fate  of  the  German  federation  lay  entirely  in  the  hands  of  Austria,  and 
Austria  is  exclusively  responsible  for  the  ultimate  fiasco  of  the  federation,  which 
she  eventually  deserted.  The  form  and  character  of  this  alliance,  as  also  its  after 
development,  were  the  work  of  Metternich.  People  and  government  asked  for 
bread,  and  he  gave  them  a  stone.  He  conceived  the  State  to  be  merely  an  institu- 
tion officered  and  governed  by  police.  When  more  than  twenty  millions  of  Ger- 
mans declared  themselves  a  commercial  corporation  with  reference  to  the  world  at 
large,  with  the  object  of  equalising  the  conditions  of  commercial  competition,  of 
preventing  an  overwhelming  influx  of  foreign  goods,  and  of  opening  the  markets 
of  the  world  to  their  own  producers,  in  that  memorable  year  of  1834  the 
Austrian  government,  after  inviting  the  federal  representatives  to  months  of  con- 
ferences in  Vienna,  could  find  nothing  of  more  pressing  impor*  nee  to  bring  forward 
than  proposals  for  limiting  the  effectiveness  of  the  provincial  constitutions  as 
compared  with  the  State  governments,  for  increased  severity  in  the  censorship 
of  the  press,  and  for  the  surveillance  of  university  students  and  their  political 
activity.  Student  interference  in  political  life  is  utterly  unnecessary,  and  can 
only  be  a  source  of  mischief ;  but  Metternich  and  his  school  were  unable  to  grasp 
the  fact  that  such  interference  ceases  so  soon  as  political  action  takes  a  practical 
turn.  If  Austria  was  disappointed  in  her  expectations  of  the  German  federal 
States,  her  feelings  originated  only  in  the  fact  that  Prussia,  together  with  Bavaria, 
Wurtemberg,  Saxony,  and  Baden  entertained  far  loftier  views  than  she  herself 
upon  the  nature  of  State  existence  and  the  duties  attaching  thereto. 

B.   The  Customs  Union 

The  kingdom  of  Prussia  had  by  no  means  developed  in  accordance  with  the 
expectations  entertained  by  Metternich  in  1813  and  1815  ;  it  was  a  military  State, 


^S^::^^       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  163 

strong  enough  to  repel  any  possible  Eussian  onslaught,  but  badly  "  rounded  off," 
and  composed  of  such  heterogeneous  fragments  of  territory  that  it  could  not  in  its 
existing  form  aspire  to  predominance  in  Germany.  Prussia  was  as  yet  unconscious 
of  her  high  calling ;  she  was  wholly  spellbound  by  Austrian  federal  policy,  but 
none  the  less  she  had  completed  a  task  incomparably  the  most  important  national 
achievement  since  the  attainment  of  religious  freedom, —  the  foundation  of  the 
pan-Germanic  customs  union.  Joh.  Friedrich  von  Gotta,  the  greatest  German  book 
and  newspaper  publisher,  and  an  able  and  important  business  man,  had  been  able  to 
shield  the  loyal  and  thoroughly  patriotic  views  of  Ludwig  I  of  Bavaria  from  the 
inroads  of  his  occasionally  violent  paroxysms  of  personal  vanity,  and  had  secured 
the  execution  of  the  act  of  May  27, 1829,  providing  for  a  commercial  treaty  be- 
tween Bavaria-Wurtemberg  and  Prussia  with  Hesse-Darmstadt,  the  first  two  States 
to  join  a  federal  customs  union.  The  community  of  interests  , between  North  and 
South  Germany,  in  which  only  far-seeing  men,  such  as  Priedrich  List  (p.  113),  the 
national  economist,  had  believed,  then  became  so  incontestable  a  fact  that  the  com- 
mercial treaty  took  the  form  of  a  customs  union,  implying  an  area  of  uniform  eco- 
nomic interests.  The  "  Central  German  Union,"  which  was  intended  to  dissolve  the 
connection  between  Prussia  and  South  Germany  and  to  neutralise  the  advantages 
thence  derived,  rapidly  collapsed.  It  became  clear  that  economic  interests  are 
stronger  than  political,  and  the  dislike  amounting  to  aversion  of  Prussia  enter- 
tained by  the  Central  German  governments  became  friendliness  as  soon  as  anything 
was  to  be  gained  by  a  change  of  attitude,  —  in  other  words,  when  it  seemed  pos- 
sible to  fill  the  State  exchequers.  The  electorate  of  Hesse  had  taken  the  lead  in 
opposing  the  HohenzoUern  policy  of  customs  federation;  as  early  as  1831  she 
recognised  that  her  policy  of  commercial  isolation  spelt  ruin.  A  similar  process 
led  to  the  dissolution  of  the  so-called  "  Einbeok  convention"  of  March  27,  1830, 
which  had  included  Hanover,  Brunswick,  Oldenburg,  and  the  electorate  of  Hesse. 
Saxony  joined  Prussia  on  March  30,  as  did  Thiiringen  on  May  11,  1833;  on  May 
22, 1833,  the  Bavarian- Wurtemberg  and  the  Prussian  groups  were  definitely  united. 
On  January  1, 1834,  the  union  included  eighteen  German  States,  with  twenty- 
three  millions  of  inhabitants ;  in  1840  these  numbers  had  risen  to  twenty-three 
States  with  twenty-seven  millions  of  inhabitants.  In  1841  the  union  was  joined 
by  Brunswick,  and  by  Luxemburg  in  1842  ;  Hanover  did  not  come  in  until  Sep- 
tember 7, 1851,  when  she  ceased  to  be  an  open  market  for  English  goods.  The 
expenses  of  administration  and  of  guarding  the  frontiers  were  met  from  a  common 
fund.  The  profits  were  divided  among  the  States  within  the  union  in  proportion 
to  their  population.  In  1834  the  profits  amounted  to  fifteen  silver  groschen 
(one  mark  fifty  pf.)  per  head;  in  1840,  to  more  than  twenty  silver  groschen 
(two  marks). 

In  the  secondary  and  petty  States  public  opinion  had  been  almost  entirely 
opposed  to  such  unions.  Prussia  was  afraid  of  the  Saxon  manufacturing  indus- 
tries, and  Leipsic  foresaw  the  decay  of  her  great  markets.  The  credit  of  completing 
this  great  national  achievement  belongs  almost  exclusively  to  the  governments  and 
to  the  expert  advisers  whom  they  called  in  (cf.  p.  114).  Austria  now  stood  without 
the  boundary  of  German  economic  unity.  Metternich  recognised  too  late  that  he 
had  mistaken  the  power  of  this  union.  Proposals  were  mooted  for  the  junction  of 
Austria  with  the  allied  German  States,  but  met  with  no  response  from  the  indus- 
trial and  manufacturing  interests.     The  people  imagined  that  a  process  of  division 


164  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

was  even  then  beginning  which  was  bound  to  end  in  political  separation ;  but  the 
importance  of  Prussia,  which  naturally  took  the  lead  in  conducting  the  busiaess 
of  the  union,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  other  members  to  preserve  their  own 
predominance  and  independence,  became  obvious  even  to  those  who  had  originally 
opposed  the  conclusion  of  the  convention.  The  Wurtemberg  deputy  and  author, 
Paul  Pfizer,  recognised  the  necessity  of  a  political  union  of  the  German  States 
under  Prussian  hegemony,  and  saw  that  the  separation  of  Austria  was  inevitable. 
In  1845,  in  his  "  Thoughts  upon  Eights,  State  and  Church,"  he  expounded  the  pro- 
gramme which  was  eventually  adopted  by  the  whole  nation,  though  only  after  long 
struggles  and  severe  trials.  "  The  conditions,"  he  there  said,  "  of  German  policy  as 
a  whole  seem  to  point  to  a  national  alliance  with  Prussia  and  to  an  international 
alliance  with  the  neighbouring  Germanic  States  and  with  Austria,  which  is  a  first- 
class  power  even  apart  from  Germany.  There  can  be  no  question  of  abolishing 
all  political  connection  between  Germany  and  Austria.  In  view  of  the  danger 
threatening  Germany  on  the  east  and  west,  nothing  would  be  more  foolish ;  no 
enemy  or  rival  of  Germany  can  be  allowed  to  become  paramount  in  Bohemia  and 
Central  Germany.  But  the  complete  incorporation  of  Bohemia,  Moravia,  and 
Austria,  together  with  that  of  the  Tyrol,  Carinthia,  and  Styria,  would  be  less 
advantageous  to  Germany  than  the  retention  of  these  countries  by  a  power  con- 
nected with  her  by  blood  relationship  and  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance,  a 
power  whose  arm  can  reach  beyond  the  Alps  on  the  one  hand  and  to  the  Black 
Sea  on  the  other." 

C.  The  Beginnings  of  Feedeeigk  William  IV 

It  was  now  necessary  for  Prussia  to  come  to  some  agreement  with  the  German 
people  and  the  State  of  the  Hapsburgs.  For  more  than  three  centuries  the  latter 
had,  in  virtue  of  their  dynastic  power,  become  the  representatives  of  the  Eomano- 
German  Empire.  Their  historical  position  enabled  them  to  lay  claim  to  the 
leadership  of  the  federation,  though  their  power  in  this  respect  was  purely  external. 
Certain  obstacles,  however,  lay  m.  the  way  of  any  settlement.  It  was  difficult  to 
secure  any  feeling  of  personal  friendship  between  the  South  Germans  and  the  Prus- 
sians of  the  old  province.  Some  measure  of  political  reform  ^s  needed,  as  well  for 
the  consolidation  of  existing  powers  of  defence  as  for  the  provision  of  security  to  the 
individual  States  which  might  then  form  some  check  upon  the  severity  of  Prussian 
administration.  Fiaally,  there  was  the  peculiar  temperament  of  Frederick  Wil- 
liam IV,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  government  of  Prussia  upon  the  death  of  his 
father,  Frederick  William  III,  on  June  7,  1840.  In  respect  of  creative  power, 
artistic  sense,  and  warm,  deep  feeling,  his  character  can  only  be  described  as  bril- 
liant. He  was  of  the  ripe  age  of  forty-five,  and  his  first  measures  evoked  general 
astonishment  and  enthusiasm.  But  he  did  not  possess  the  strong  grasp  of  his 
great  ancestors,  and  their  power  of  guiding  the  ship  through  critical  dangers 
unaided.  He  had  not  that  inward  consciousness  of  strength  and  that  decisiveness 
which  shrinks  from  no  responsibility ;  least  of  all  had  he  a  true  appreciation  of 
the  time  and  the  forces  at  work. 

Prussia's  great  need  was  a  constitution  which  would  enable  her  to  send  up  to 
the  central  government  a  representative  assembly  from  all  the  provinces,  such 
assembly  to  have  the  power  of  voting  taxes  and  conscriptions,  of  supervising  the 


S^:irlfe/]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  165 

finances,  and  of  legislating  in  conjunction  with  the  crown.  On  May  22,  1815, 
Frederick  William  had  made  some  promises  in  this  direction  (cf.  p.  103) ;  but  these 
remained  unfulfilled,  as  the  government  could  not  agree  upon  the  amount  of  power 
which  might  be  delegated  to  an  imperial  parliament  without  endangering  the  posi- 
tion of  the  executive  (p.  125).  Such  danger  undoubtedly  existed.  The  organisation 
of  the  new-formed  provincial  federation  was  a  process  which  necessarily  affected 
private  interests  and  customs  peculiar  to  individual  areas  which  had  formerly 
been  independent  orders  of  the  empire,  and  were  now  forced  into  alliance  with 
other  districts  with  which  little  or  no  connection  had  previously  existed  (p.  100). 
The  conflicting  views  and  the  partisanship  inseparable  from  parliamentary  insti- 
tutions would  have  checked  the  quiet,  steady  work  of  the  Prussian  bureaucracy, 
and  would  in  any  case  have  produced  a  continual  and  unnecessary  agitation.  The 
improvements  in  the  financial  condition  created  by  the  better  regulation  of  the 
national  debt,  by  the  limitation  of  mlLitary  expenditure,  and  the  introduction  of  a 
graduated  system  of  taxation  (p.  102),  could  not  have  been  more  successfully  or 
expeditiously  carried  out  than  they  were  by  such  ministers  as  Count  L.  F.  V. 
H.  Biilow  and  A.  Wilhelm  von  Klewitz. 

So  soon  as  the  main  part  of  this  transformation  of  the  Prussian  State  had  been 
accomplished,  prosperity  began  to  return  to  the  peasant  and  citizen  classes,  and  the 
results  of  the  customs  regulations  and  the  consequent  extension  of  the  market  began 
to  be  felt.  The  citizens  then  began  to  feel  their  power  and  joined  the  inheritors  of 
the  rights  formerly  possessed  by  the  numerous  imperial  and  provincial  orders  in  a 
demand  for  some  share  in  the  administration.  It  was  found  possible  to  emphasise 
these  demands  by  reference  to  the  example  of  the  constitutional  governments  exist- 
ing in  neighbouring  territories.  The  speeches  delivered  by  Frederick  William  IV 
at  his  coronation  in  Konigsberg  (September  10, 1840),  and  at  his  reception  of  homage 
in  Berlin  (October  15, 1840),  in  which  he  displayed  oratorical  powers  rmequalled  by 
any  previous  prince,  appeared  to  point  to  an  immediate  fulfilmeat  of  these  desires. 
The  king's  assertion  that  in  Prussia  there  prevailed  "  unity  between  the  head  and 
the  members,  between  prince  and  people,  a  magnificently  great  and  general  unity 
in  the  efforts  of  every  class  to  one  splendid  goal"  (September  10);  his  question  to 
his  subjects  whether  they  were  ready  to  support  him  "  in  the  struggle  for  light,  for 
justice  and  truth"  (October  15), — these  were  considered  as  preparatory  to  the 
introduction  of  a  constitutional  form  of  government.  It  soon  became  clear,  how- 
ever, that  to  such  forms  Frederick  William  had  a  deep-rooted  aversion.  His  ideal 
State  was  modelled  upon  the  so-called  "  medievalism  "  invented  by  romantic  poets. 
While  ever  ready  to  cherish  dreams  of  heroic  devotion,  personal  fidelity,  and  self- 
sacrifice  by  king  and  people,  he  declined  to  consider  the  question  of  regulating  the 
executive  by  fixed  rules  of  law,  because  these  might  affect  his  divine  mission  and 
the  sanctity  of  his  calling. 

The  king  was  deeply  moved  by  the  outburst  of  national  enthusiasm  in  Ger- 
many which  was  evoked  by  the  unjustifiable  menaces  directed  against  Germany 
by  France  in  the  autumn  of  1840  during  the  Eastern  complications.  The  minister, 
Thiers,  who  had  been  in  office  since  March  1,  suddenly  broke  away  from  the  great 
powers  during  the  Turco- Egyptian  war  (cf.  Vols.  Ill  and  V),  and  initiated  a  policy 
of  his  own  in  favour  of  Egypt, — a  short-sighted  departure  which  obliged  England, 
Eussia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  to  conclude  the  quadruple  alliance  of  July  15,  1840, 
with  the  object  of  compelling  Mehemet  Ali  to  accept  the  conditions  of  peace 


166  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

which  they  had  arranged.  With  a  logic  peculiarly  their  own,  the  French  con- 
sidered themselves  justified  in  securing  their  immunity  on  the  Continent,  as  they 
were  powerless  against  England  by  sea.  The  old  nonsensical  argument  of  their 
right  to  the  Rhine  frontier  was  revived  and  they  proceeded  to  mobilise  their  forces. 
The  German  nation  made  no  attempt  to  disguise  their  anger  at  so  insolent  an  act 
of  aggression,  and  showed  all  readiness  to  support  the  proposals  for  armed  resist- 
ance.     Nikolaus   Becker  composed  a   song  against  the  French  which   became 

extremely  popular:  — 

"  For  free  and  German  is  the  Rhine, 
And  German  shall  remain, 
Until  its  waters  overwhelm 
The  last  of  German  name." 

The  nation  were  united  in  support  of  their  princes,  most  of  whom  adopted  a 
dignified  and  determined  attitude  toward  France.  Then  was  the  time  for  Frederick 
William  IV  to  step  forward.  Supported  by  the  warlike  temper  of  every  German 
race  (with  the  exception  of  the  Austrians,  who  were  in  financial  difficulties),  and 
by  the  popularity  which  his  speeches  had  gained  for  him,  he  might  have  intimi- 
dated France  both  at  the  moment  and  for  the  future.  However,  he  confined  him- 
self to  the  introduction  of  reforms  in  the  federal  military  constitution  at  Vienna, 
and  thus  spared  Austria  the  humiliation  of  openly  confessing  her  weakness.  The 
result  of  his  efforts  was  the  introduction  of  a  regular  inspection  of  the  federal 
contingents  and  the  occupation  of  Ulm  and  Rastatt  as  bases  for  the  concentration 
and  movements  of  future  federal  armies. 

Thus  was  lost  a  most  favourable  opportunity  for  securing  the  federal  predomi- 
nance of  Prussia  by  means  of  her  military  power,  for  she  could  have  concentrated 
a  respectable  force  upon  the  German  frontier  more  quickly  than  any  other  member 
of  the  federation.  Moreover,  the  attitude  of  Prussia  at  the  London  conference  was 
distinctly  modest,  and  in  no  way  such  as  a  great  power  should  have  adopted. 
The  king's  lofty  words  at  the  laying  of  the  foundation  stone  of  Cologne  cathedral 
on  September  4,  1842,  produced  no  deception  as  to  his  lack  of  political  decision. 
Frederick  William  IV  was  a  good  German  in  the  eyes  of  those  worthy  citizens 
who  were  everywhere  working  to  foster  a  national  poetry  aniarouse  enthusiasm 
for  the  German  virtues.  These  poetical  Philistines  and  their  rang  with  his  high- 
flown  speeches  aroused  the  sense  of  nationalism.  This  was  very  meritorious  and 
as  it  should  have  been,  but  from  a  king  of  Prussia  something  more  in  the  way  of 
action  was  to  be  expected.  Xor  was  this  the  only  failure.  Whenever  a  special 
effort  was  expected  or  demanded  in  an  hour  of  crisis,  Frederick  William's  powers 
proved  unequal  to  the  occasion,  and  the  confidence  which  the  nation  reposed  in 
him  was  deceived. 

6.    THE   COLLAPSE   OF   METTEENICH'S   SYSTEM 

A.   Conservative  Statesmanship  in  Austria 

The  lack  of  initiative  displayed  by  the  king  of  Prussia  was  a  valuable  help  to 
Metternich  in  carrying  out  his  independent  policy.  The  old  chancellor  in  Vienna 
liad  become  ever  more  profoundly  impressed  with  the  insane  idea  that  Providence 
had  specially  deputed  him  to  crush  revolutions,  to  support  the  sacred  thrones  of 
Europe,  Turkey  included,  and  that  he  was  the  discoverer  of  a  political  system  by 


Si:irlf;»t/]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  167 

which  alone  civilization,  morality,  and  religion  could  be  secured.  The  great 
achievement  of  his  better  years  was  one  never  to  be  forgotten  by  Ger- 
many,—  the  conversion  of  Austria  to  the  alliance  formed  against  the  great 
Napoleon,  and  the  alienation  of  the  emperor  Francis  from  the  son-in-law  whose 
power  was  almost  invincible  when  united  with  that  of  the  Hapsburg  emperor. 
At  that  time,  however,  Metternich  was  not  the  slave  of  a  system ;  his  action  was 
the  expression  of  his  will,  and  he  relied  upon  an  accurate  judgment  of  the  per- 
sonalities he  employed,  and  an  accurate  estimation  of  the  forces  at  his  disposal. 
As  he  grew  old,  his  self-conceit  and  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  his  own  powers 
led  him  blindly  to  follow  those  principles  which  had  apparently  determined  his 
earlier  policy  in  every  political  question  which  arose  during  the  European  supremacy 
which  he  was  able  to  claim  for  a  full  decade  after  the  Vienna  congress.  His 
belief  in  the  system  —  a  belief  of  deep  import  to  the  destinies  of  Austria  —  was 
materially  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  Czar  Alexander  I,  who  had  long  been 
an  opponent  of  the  system,  came  over  to  its  support  before  his  death  and  recog- 
nised it  as  the  principle  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  The  consequence  was  a  degenera- 
tion of  the  qualities  which  Metternich  had  formerly  developed  in  himself.  His 
clear  appreciation  of  the  situation  and  of  the  main  interests  of  Europe  in  the 
summer  of  1813  had  raised  Austria  to  the  most  favourable  position  which  she  had 
occupied  for  centuries.  Her  decision  determined  the  fate  of  Europe,  and  so  she 
acquired  power  as  great  as  it  was  unexpected.  This  predominance  was  the  work 
of  Metternich,  and  so  long  as  it  endured  the  prince  was  able  to  maintain  his  influ- 
ence. He,  however,  ascribed  that  influence  to  the  superiority  of  his  own  intellect 
and  to  his  incomparable  system,  neglecting  the  task  of  consolidating  and  securing 
the  power  already  gained.  Those  acquisitions  of  territory  which  Metternich  had 
obliged  Austria  to  make  were  a  source  of  mischief  and  weakness  from  the  very 
outset.  The  Lombardo-Venetian  kingdom  implied  no  increase  of  power  (p.  98), 
and  its  administration  implied  a  constant  drain  of  money  and  troops.  The  troops, 
again,  which  were  drawn  from  an  unwarlike  population,  proved  ujireliable.  The 
possession  itself  necessitated  interference  in  Italian  affairs  (p.  118),  and  became  a 
constant  source  of  embarrassment  and  of  useless  expense.  Valuable  possessions, 
moreover,  in  South  Germany  already  in  the  hands  of  the  nation  were  abandoned 
in  consideration  for  this  kingdom,  and  acquisitions  likely  to  become  highly  profit- 
able were  declined.  Within  the  kingdom  a  state  of  utter  supineness  prevailed  in 
spite  of  the  supervision  bestowed  upon  it,  and  the  incompetency  of  the  adminis- 
tration condemned  the  State  and  its  great  natural  advantages  to  impotence. 

Far  from  producing  any  improvement,  the  death  of  the  emperor  Francis  I 
(March  1,  1835)  caused  a  marked  deterioration  in  the  condition  of  the  country. 
The  archdukes  Charles  and  John  were  unable  to  override  the  supremacy  of  Metter- 
nich. As  hitherto,  they  were  unable  to  exercise  any  influence  upon  the  gov- 
ernment which  the  ill-health  and  vacillation  of  Ferdinand  I,  the  successor,  had 
practically  reduced  to  a  regency.  Franz  Anton,  count  of  Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, 
attempted  to  breathe  some  life  into  the  council  of  state,  but  his  efforts  were 
thwarted  by  Metternich,  who  feared  the  forfeiture  of  his  own  power.  The  Czar 
Nicholas  upon  his  visit  to  Teplitz  and  Vienna  (1835)  had  observed  that  Austria 
was  no  longer  capable  of  guaranteeing  a  successful  policy,  and  that  her  "  system  " 
could  not  be  maintained  in  practice,  remarks  which  had  done  no  good.  It  was 
impossible  to  convince  Metternich  that  the  source  of  this  weakness  lay  in.  himself 


168  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

and  his  determination  to  repress  the  very  forces  which  should  have  been  de- 
veloped. The  archduke  Ludwig,  the  emperor's  yoimgest  uncle  and  a  member  of 
the  State  conference,  was  averse  to  any  innovation,  and  therefore  inclined  to  up- 
hold that  convenient  system  which  laid  down  the  maintenance  of  existing  insti- 
tutions as  the  first  principle  of  statesmanship. 

However,  within  Austria  herself  the  state  of  affairs  had  become  intolerable. 
The  government  had  so  far  decayed  as  to  be  incapable  of  puttmg  forth  that  energy, 
the  absence  of  which  the  Czar  had  observed.  The  exchequer  accounts  betrayed 
an  annual  deficit  of  thirty  million  guldens,  and  the  government  was  forced  to  claim 
the  good  offices  of  the  class  representatives,  and,  what  was  of  capital  importance,  to 
summon  the  Hungarian  fieichstag  on  different  occasions.  In  that  assembly  the 
slumbering  national  life  had  been  aroused  to  consciousness,  and  proceeded  to  sup- 
ply the  deficiencies  of  the  government  by  acting  in  its  own  behalf.  Count  Stefan 
Sz^ch^nyi  (p.  97)  gave  an  impetus  to  science  and  art  and  to  other  movements 
generally  beneficial.  Ludwig  Kossuth,  Franz  Pulszky,  and  Franz  Deak  espoused 
the  cause  of  constitutional  reform.  A  flood  of  political  pamphlets  published 
abroad  (chiefly  in  Germany)  exposed  in  full  detail  the  misgovernment  prevailing 
in  Austria  and  the  crown  territories.  European  attention  was  attracted  to  the  in- 
stability of  the  conditions  obtaining  there,  which  seemed  to  betoken  either  the 
downfall  of  the  State  or  a  great  popular  rising.  Austria's  prestige  among  the 
other  great  powers  had  suffered  a  heavy  blow  by  the  peace  of  Adrianople,  and  now 
sank  yet  lower.  Metternich  was  forced  to  behold  the  growth  of  events,  and  the 
accomplishment  of  deeds  utterly  incompatible  with  the  fundamental  principles  of 
conservative  statesmanship  as  laid  down  by  the  congresses  of  Vienna,  Carlsbad, 
Troppau,  Laibach,  and  Verona. 

B.   The  Party  Struggles  in  Spain  and  Portugal 

(a)  Portugal,  1830-1833.  —  The  July  revolution  and  the  triumph  of  liberal- 
ism in  England  under  William  IV  caused  the  downfall  of  Dom  Miguel,  "  king " 
of  Portugal,  who  had  been  induced  by  conservative  diplomacy  to  abolish  the 
constitutional  measures  introduced  by  his  brother,  Dom  Pedro  of  Brazil.  To 
this  policy  lie  devoted  himself,  to  his  own  complete  satisfa*ion.  The  revolts 
which  broke  out  against  him  were  ruthlessly  suppressed,  and  thousands  of  lib- 
erals were  imprisoned,  banished,  or  brought  to  the  scaffold.  Presuming  upon  his 
success  and  relying  upon  the  favour  of  the  Austrian  court,  he  carried  his  aggran- 
disements so  far  as  to  oblige  England  and  France  to  use  force  and  to  support  the 
cause  of  Pedro,  who  had  abdicated  the  throne  of  BrazU  in  favour  of  his  son,  Dom 
Pedro  II,  then  six  years  of  age,  and  was  now  asserting  his  claims  to  Portugal. 
Pedro  I  adhered  to  the  constitutionalism  which  he  had  recognised  over-seas  as 
well  as  in  Portugal,  thus  securing  the  support  not  only  of  all  Portuguese  liberals, 
but  also  of  European  opinion,  which  had  been  aroused  by  the  bloodthirsty  tyranny 
of  Miguel.  The  help  of  the  English  admiral,  Charles  Napier,  who  annihilated  the 
Portuguese  fleet  at  Cape  Sao  Vicente  on  July  5,  1833,  enabled  Pedro  to  gain  a 
decisive  victory  over  Miguel,  which  the  latter's  allies  among  the  French  legitimists 
were  unable  to  avert,  though  they  hurried  to  liis  aid.  His  military  and  political 
confederate,  Don  Carlos  of  Spain,  was  equally  powerless  to  help  him. 


S^^?if;»^?]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  169 

(5)  Spain,  1833-18^.  —  In  Spain  also  the  struggle  broke  out  between  liberal- 
ism and  the  despotism  which  was  supported  by  an  uneducated  and  degenerate 
priesthood,  and  enjoyed  the  favour  of  the  great  powers  of  Eastern  Europe.  The 
conflagration  began  upon  the  death  of  King  Ferdinand  VII  (September  29,  1833), 
the  material  cause  being  a  dispute  about  the  hereditary  right  to  the  throne  re- 
sulting from  the  introduction  of  a  new  order  of  succession  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  557). 
The  decree  of  1713  had  limited  the  succession  to  heirs  in  the  male  line ;  but 
the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  March  29,  1830,  transferred  the  right  to  the  king's 
daughters  Isabella  and  Louise  by  his  marriage  with  Maria  Christina  of  Naples. 
Don  Carlos  declined  to  recognise  this  arrangement,  and  on  his  brother's  death 
attempted  to  secure  his  recognition  as  king.  After  the  overthrow  of  Dom  Miguel 
and  his  consequent  retirement  from  Portugal,  Don  Carlos  entered  Spain  in  person 
with  his  adherents,  who  were  chiefly  composed  of  the  Basques  fighting  for  their 
special  rights  (fueros),  and  the  populations  of  Catalonia  and  Old  Castile  who  were 
under  clerical  influence.  The  liberals  gathered  round  the  queen  regent,  Maria 
Christina,  whose  cause  was  adroitly  and  successfully  upheld  by  the  minister  Mar- 
tinez de  la  Rosa.  The  forces  at  the  disposal  of  the  government  were  utterly  in- 
adequate, and  their  fleet  and  army  was  in  so  impoverished  a  condition  that  they 
could  make  no  head  against  the  rebel  movement.  Under  the  leadership  of  Thomas 
Zumala-Carregui  the  Carlists  won  victory  after  victory,  and  would  probably  have 
secured  possession  of  the  capital,  had  not'the  Basque  general  received  a  mortal 
wound  before  Bilbao. 

Even  then  the  victory  of  the  "  Cristinos  "  was  by  no  means  secure.  The  radi- 
cals had  seceded  from  the  liberals  upon  the  question  of  the  relatroduction  of  the 
constitution  of  1812.  The  revolution  of  La  Granja  gave  the  radicals  complete 
influence  over  the  queen  regent ;  they  obliged  her  to  accept  their  own  nominees, 
the  ministry  of  Calatrava,  and  to  recognise  the  democratic  constitution  of  June  8, 
1837.  Their  power  was  overthrown  by  Don  Baldomero  Espartero,  who  com- 
manded the  queen's  troops  in  the  Basque  provinces.  After  a  series  of  successful 
movements  he  forced  the  Basque  general  Maroto  to  conclude  the  capitulation  of 
Vergara  (August  29,  1839).  The  party  of  Don  Carlos  had  lost  greatly  both  in 
numbers  and  strength,  owing  to  the  carelessness  and  pettifogging  spirit  of  the  pre- 
tender and  the  dissensions  and  domineering  spirit  of  his  immediate  adherents,  who 
seemed  the  very  incarnation  of  all  the  legitimist  foolishness  in  Europe.  When 
Carlos  abandoned  the  country  on  September  15,  1839,  General  Cabrera  continued 
fighting  in  his  behalf ;  however,  he  also  retired  to  French  territory  in  July,  1840. 

The  queen  regent  had  lost  all  claims  to  respect  by  her  intrigues  with  one  of 
her  body-guard,  and  was  forced  to  abdicate  on  October  12.  Espartero,  who  had 
been  made  Duke  de  la  Vittoria,  was  then  entrusted  by  the  Cortes  with  the  regency. 
The  extreme  progressive  party,  the  Exaltados,  failed  to  support  him,  although  he 
had  attempted  to  fall  in  with  their  views.  They  joined  the  Moderados,  or  moder- 
ate party,  with  the  object  of  bringing  about  his  fall.  Queen  Isabella  was  then 
declared  of  age,  and  ascended  the  throne  on  the  8th  and  10  th  of  November  respec- 
tively. Under  the  ministry  of  Don  Pi,amon  Maria  Narvaez,  Duke  of  Valencia,  the 
constitution  was  changed  in  1837  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the  Moderados,  and  con- 
stitutional government  in  Spain  was  thus  abolished.  Though  his  tenure  of  office 
was  repeatedly  interrupted,  Narvaez  succeeded  in  maintaining  peace  and  order  in 
Spain,  even  during  the  years  of  revolution,  1848-1849  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  559). 


170  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichaperii 


G.    The  Struggles  for  Unity  in  Italy 

The  moral  support  of  the  great  powers  and  the  invasion  of  the  French  army 
under  the  Duke  of  Angouleme  had  been  powerless  to  check  the  arbitrary  action  of 
the  Bourbons  and  clergy  in  Spain.  No  less  transitory  was  the  effect  of  the  Austrian 
victories  in  Italy  (p.  119) ;  the  Italian  people  had  now  risen  to  full  consciousness 
of  the  disgrace  implied  in  the  burden  of  a  foreign  yoke.  The  burden  indeed  had 
been  lighter  under  Napoleon  and  his  representatives  than  under  the  Austrians. 
The  governments  of  Murat  and  Eugfene  had  been  careful  to  preserve  at  least  a 
show  of  national  feeling ;  their  military  power  was  taken  from  the  country  itself, 
and  consisted  of  Italian  regiments  officered  with  French,  or  with  Italians  who  had 
served  in  French  regiments.  The  French  had  been  highly  successful  in  their 
efforts  to  accommodate  themselves  to  Italian  manners  and  customs,  and  were 
largely  helped  by  their  common  origin  as  Romance  peoples.  The  Germans,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Czechs,  Magyars,  and  Croatians,  who  formed  the  sole  support  of 
the  Austrian  supremacy  in  the  Lombardo-Venetian  kingdom,  knew  but  one  mode  of 
intercourse  with  the  Italians,  —  that  of  master  and  servant ;  any  feeling  of  mutual 
respect  or  attempt  at  mutual  accommodation  was  impossible.  A  small  number  of 
better-educated  Austrian  officers  and  of  better-class  individuals  in  the  rank  and 
file,  who  were  preferably  composed  of  Slav  regiments,  found  it  to  their  advantage 
to  maintain  good  relations  with  the  native  population ;  but  the  domineering  and 
occasionally  brutal  behaviour  of  the  troops  as  a  whole  was  not  calculated  to  con- 
ciliate the  Italians.  The  very  difference  of  their  uniforms  from  all  styles  pre- 
viously known  served  to  emphasise  the  foreign  origin  of  these  armed  strangers. 
Ineradicable  was  the  impression  made  by  their  language,  which  incessantly  out- 
raged the  delicate  Italian  ear  and  its  love  of  harmony. 

Of  any  exchange  of  commodities,  of  any  trade  worth  mentioning  between  the 
Italian  provinces  and  the  Austrian  crown  lands,  there  was  not  a  trace.  The  newly 
acquired  land  received  nothing  from  its  masters  but  their  money.  Italian  con- 
sumption was  confined  to  the  limits  of  the  national  area  of  production ;  day  by 
day  it  became  clearer  that  Italy  had  nothing  whatever  in  common  with  Austria, 
and  was  without  inclination  to  enter  into  economic  or  intelle"ual  relations  with 
her.  The  sense  of  nationalism  was  strengthened  by  a  growing  irritation  against 
the  foreign  rule ;  this  feeling  penetrated  every  class,  and  inspired  the  intellectual 
life  and  the  national  literature.  Vittorio  Alfieri,  the  contemporary  of  Napoleon, 
was  roused  against  the  French  yoke  by  the  movement  for  liberation  (cf.  p.  37).  His 
successors,  Ugo  Foscolo,  Silvio  Pellico,  Giacomo  Leopardi,  created  a  purely  nation- 
alist enthusiasm.  Their  works  gave  passionate  expression  to  the  deep-rooted  force 
of  the  desire  for  independence  and  for  equality  with  other  free  peoples,  to  the 
shame  felt  by  an  oppressed  nation,  which  was  groaning  under  a  yoke  unworthy  of 
so  brilliantly  gifted  a  people,  and  could  not  tear  itself  free.  Every  educated  man 
felt  and  wept  with  them,  and  was  touched  with  the  purest  sympathy  for  the 
unfortunate  victims  of  policy,  for  the  conspirators  who  were  languishing  in  the 
Austrian  fortresses.  Highly  valuable  to  the  importance  of  the  movement  was 
the  share  taken  by  the  priests,  who  zealously  devoted  themselves  to  the  work  of 
rousing  the  national  spirit,  and  promised  the  support  and  practical  help  of  the 
Catholic  Church  for  the  realisation  of  these  ideals.     It  was  Vincenzo  Gioberti  who 


S^:'rif;^f]       HISTORY    of   the    world  171 

first  demonstrated  to  the  papacy  its  duty  of   founding  the  unity  of  the  Italian 
nation. 

Mastai  Ferretti,  bishop  of  Imola,  now  Pope  Pius  IX,  the  successor  of  Greg- 
ory XVI  (died  June  1,  1846),  was  in  full  sympathy  with  these  views.  To  the 
Italians  he  was  already  known  as  a  zealous  patriot,  and  his  intentions  were  yet 
more  definitely  announced  by  the  decree  of  amnesty  issued  July  17,  1846,  recall- 
ing four  thousand  political  exiles  to  the  Church  States.  Conservative  statesmen 
in  general,  and  the  Austrian  government  in  particular,  had  granted  the  Catholic 
Church  high  privileges  within  the  State,  and  had  looked  to  her  for  vigorous  sup- 
port in  their  suppression  of  all  movement  toward  freedom.  What  more  mortify- 
ing situation  for  them  than  the  state  of  war  now  subsisting  between  Austria  and 
papal  Italy  ?  The  cabinet  of  Vienna  was  compelled  to  despatch  reinforcements 
for  service  against  the  citizen  guards  which  Pius  IX  had  called  iuto  existence 
in  his  towns,  and  therefore  in  Perrara,  which  was  in  the  occupation  of  Austrian 
troops. 

When  Christ's  vicegerent  upon  earth  took  part  in  the  revolt  agatast  the  "legiti- 
mist "  power,  no  surprise  need  be  felt  at  the  action  of  that  repentant  sinner,  Karl 
Albert  of  Sardinia.  Formerly  involved  with  the  Carbonari,  he  had  grown  sceptical 
upon  the  advantages  of  liberalism  after  the  sad  experiences  of  1821  (p.  118).  He 
now  renounced  that  good  will  for  Austria  which  he  had  hypocritically  simulated 
since  the  beginning  of  his  reign  (1831).  Turin  had  also  become  a  centre  of 
revolutionary  intrigue.  Opinion  in  that  town  pointed  to  Sardinia  and  its  military 
strength  as  a  stronger  nucleus  than  the  incapable  papal  government  for  a  nation 
resolved  to  enter  upon  a  war  of  liberation.  Count  Camillo  Benso  di  Cavour  (born 
August  10,  1810),  the  editor  of  the  journal  "II  Eisorgimento,"  strongly  recom- 
mended the  investment  of  Charles  Albert  and  his  army  with  the  military  guidance 
of  the  revolt.  The  Milan  nobility  were  influenced  by  the  court  of  Turin,  as  were 
the  more  youthful  nationalists  and  the  numerous  secret  societies  which  the  July 
revolution  had  brought  into  existence  throughout  Italy,  by  Giuseppe  Mazzini,  one 
of  the  most  highly  gifted,  and  therefore  one  of  the  most  dangerous,  leaders  of  the 
democratic  party  in  Europe. 

Austria  was  therefore  obliged  to  make  preparations  for  defending  her  Italian 
possessions  by  force  of  arms.  The  administration  as  conducted  by  the  amiable 
archduke  Rainer  was  without  power  or  influence.  On  the  other  hand.  Count 
Johann  Josef  Eadetzky  of  Eadetz  had  been  at  the  head  of  the  Austrian  forces  in 
the  Lombardo- Venetian  kiugdom  since  1831.  He  was  one  of  the  first  strategists 
of  Europe,  and  no  less  distinguished  for  his  powers  of  organisation  ;  m  short,  he 
fully  deserved  the  high  confidence  which  the  court  and  the  whole  army  reposed  in 
him.  He  was  more  than  eighty  years  of  age,  for  he  had  been  born  on  November  4, 
1766,  and  had  been  present  at  the  deliberations  of  the  allies  upon  their  movements 
in  1813 ;  yet  the  time  was  drawing  near  when  this  aged  general  was  to  be  the 
mainstay  of  the  Austrian  body  politic,  and  the  immutable  corner-stone  of  that 
tottering  structure. 

B.  The  Downfall  of  Jesuit  Predominance  in  Switzerland 

A  VERY  appreciable  danger  menacing  the  progress  of  nations  toward  self- 
determination  had  arisen  within  the  Swiss  confederation,  where  the  Jesuit  order 


172  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  ichapterii 

had  obtained  much  influence  upon  the  government  in  several  cantons.  By  the 
constitution  of  1815  the  federal  members  had  acquired  a  considerable  measure  of 
independence,  sufficient  to  permit  the  adoption  of  wholly  discordant  policies  by 
the  different  governments.  The  Jesuits  aimed  at  the  revival  of  denominational 
institutions  to  be  employed  for  far-reaching  political  objects,  a  movement  which 
increased  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  peace  between  the  Catholic  and  the  re- 
formed congregations.  Toleration  in  this  matter  was  provided  by  the  constitu- 
tion, but  its  continuance  naturally  depended  upon  the  abstention  of  either  party 
from  attempts  at  encroachment  upon  the  territory  of  the  other. 

In  1833  an  unsuccessful  attempt  had  been  made  to  reform  the  principles  of 
the  federation  and  to  introduce  a  uniform  legal  code  and  system  of  elementary 
education.  The  political  movement  then  spread  throughout  the  cantons,  where 
the  most  manifold  party  subdivisions,  ranging  from  conservative  ultramontanists 
to  radical  revolutionaries,  were  struggling  for  majorities  and  predominance.  In 
Aarga-u  a  peasant  revolt  led  by  the  monks  against  the  liberal  government  was 
defeated,  and  the  church  property  was  sold  (1841),  while  in  Zurich  the  conserva- 
tives were  uppermost,  and  prevented  the  appointment  of  David  Frederic  Strauss  to 
a  professorship  at  the  university.  In  Lucerne  the  ultramontanists  stretched  their 
power  to  most  inconsiderate  extremes,  calling  in  the  Jesuits,  who  had  already 
established  themselves  in  Freiburg,  Schwyz,  and  Wallis,  and  placing  the  educa- 
tional system  in  their  care  (October  24,  1844).  Two  democratic  assaults  upon  the 
government  were  unsuccessful  (December  8,  1844,  and  March  30,  1845),  but 
served  to  increase  the  excitement  in  the  neighbouring  cantons,  where  thousands  of 
fugitives  were  nursing  their  hatred  against  the  ultramontanes,  who  were  led  by 
the  energetic  peasant  Peter  Leu. 

The  murder  of  Leu  intensified  the  existing  ill-feeling  and  ultimately  led  to  the 
formation  of  a  separate  confederacy,  composed  of  the  cantons  of  Lucerne,  Schwyz, 
Uri,  Unterwalden,  Zug,  Freiburg,  and  Wallis,  the  policy  being  under  Jesuit  con- 
trol. This  Catholic  federation  raised  great  hopes  among  conservative  diplomatists. 
Could  it  be  strengthened,  it  would  probably  become  a  permanent  coimterpoise  to 
the  liberal  cantons,  which  had  hitherto  been  a  highly  objectionable  place  of  refuge 
to  those  peace  breakers,  who  were  hunted  by  the  police  of  thA  great  powers.  At 
the  federal  assembly  the  liberal  cantons  were  in  the  majority,  and  voted  on  July 
20,  1847,  for  the  dissolution  of  the  separate  federation,  and  on  September  3  for  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from  the  area  of  the  new  federation.  At  Metternich's 
proposal,  the  great  powers  demanded  the  appointment  of  a  congress  to  deal  with 
the  situation.  However,  the  diet  distrusting  foreign  interference,  and  with  good 
reason,  declined  to  accede  to  these  demands,  and  proceeded  to  put  the  federal 
decision  into  execution  against  the  disobedient  cantons.  Thanlis  to  the  careful 
forethought  of  the  commander-in-chief,  William  Henry  Dufour,  the  famous  carto- 
grapher, who  raised  the  federal  military  school  at  Thun  to  high  distinction,  and 
also  to  the  rapidity  with  which  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  federal  troops 
were  mobilised  (thirty  thousand  men),  the  "  Sonderbund  war "  was  speedily 
brought  to  a  close  without  bloodshed.  Austrian  help  proved  unavailing,  and  the 
cantons  were  eventually  reduced  to  a  state  of  impotency. 

The  new  federal  constitution  of  September  12,  1848,  then  met  with  unanimous 
acceptance.  The  central  power,  which  was  considerably  strengthened,  now  de- 
cided the  foreign  policy  of  the  country,  peace  and  war,  and  the  conclusion  of 


S^lrif^te']       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  173 

treaties,  controlling  also  the  coinage,  the  postal  and  customs  organisation,  and 
maintaining  the  cantonal  constitutions.  The  theories  upon  the  nature  of  the 
federal  State  propounded  by  the  jurist  professor.  Dr.  Johann  Kaspar  Bluntschli, 
were  examined  and  adopted  with  advantageous  results  by  the  radical-liberal  party, 
which  possessed  a  majority  in  the  constitutional  diet.  Bluntschli  had  himself  es- 
poused the  conservative-liberal  cause  after  the  war  of  the  separate  federation,  which 
he  had  vainly  tried  to  prevent.  Forced  to  retire  from  the  public  life  of  his  native 
town,  he  transferred  his  professional  activities  to  Germany  (Munich  and  Heidel- 
berg). The  developments  of  his  political  philosophy  were  not  without  their  in- 
fluence upon  those  fundamental  principles  which  have  given  its  special  political 
character  to  the  constitution  of  the  North  German  federation  and  of  the  modern 
German  Empire.  The  Swiss  confederation  provided  a  working  example  of  the 
unification  of  special  administrative  forms,  of  special  governmental  rights,  and  of 
a  legislature  limited  in  respect  of  its  sphere  of  action,  in  conjunction  with  a  uni- 
form system  of  conducting  foreign  policy.  Only  such  a  government  can  prefer 
an  unchallenged  claim  to  represent  the  State  as  a  whole  and  to  comprehend  its 
different  forces. 

E.  The  Eomantic  and  Constitutional  Movements  in  Prussia 

Neither  Metternich  nor  the  king  of  Prussia  were  courageous  enough  to  sup- 
port the  exponents  of  their  own  principles  in  Switzerland.  Prussia  had  a  special 
inducement  to  such  action  in  the  fact  of  her  sovereignty  over  the  principality  of 
Neuenburg,  which  had  been  occupied  by  the  liberals  in  connection  with  the  move- 
ment against  the  separate  federation,  and  had  been  received  into  the  confederation 
as  an  independent  canton.  In  the  aristocracy  and  upper  classes  of  the  population 
Frederick  William  IV  had  many  faithful  and  devoted  adherents,  but  he  failed  to 
seize  so  favourable  an  opportunity  of  defending  his  indisputable  rights  by  occupy- 
ing his  principality  with  a  sufficient  force  of  Prussian  troops.  His  vacillation  in 
the  Keuenburg  question  was  of  a  piece  with  the  general  uneasiness  of  his  temper, 
which  had  begun  with  the  rejection  of  his  draft  of  a  constitution  for  Prussia  and 
the  demands  of  the  representatives  of  the  orders  for  the  institution  of  some  form 
of  constitution  more  honourable  and  more  in  consonance  with  the  rights  of  the 
people. 

But  rarely  have  the  preparations  for  an  imperial  constitution  been  so  thoroughly 
made  or  so  protracted  as  they  were  in  Prussia.  From  the  date  of  his  accession 
the  king  had  been  occupied  without  cessation  upon  this  question.  The  expert 
opinion  of  every  adviser  worth  trusting  was  called  in,  and  from  1844  commission 
meetings  and  negotiations  continued  uninterruptedly.  The  proposals  submitted  to 
the  king  emanated,  in  full  accordance  with  conservative  spirit,  from  the  estates  as 
constituted ;  they  provided  for  the  retention  of  such  estates  as  were  competent, 
and  for  the  extension  of  their  representation  and  sphere  of  action  in  conjunction 
with  the  citizen  class ;  but  this  would  not  satisfy  Frederick  William.  The  consti- 
tution drafted  in  1842  by  the  minister  of  the  interior.  Count  Adolf  Heinrich  von 
Arnim-Boitzenburg,  was  rejected  by  the  king  in  consequence  of  the  clauses  pro- 
viding for  the  legal  and  regular  convocation  of  the  constitutional  estates.  The 
king  absolutely  declined  to  recognise  any  rights  appertaining  to  the  subject  as 
against  the  majesty  of  the  ruler ;  he  was  therefore  by  no  means  inclined  to  make 


174  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         ^Chapter  ii 

such  rights  a  leading  principle  of  the  constitution.  By  the  favour  of  the  ruler, 
exerted  by  him  in  virtue  of  his  divine  right,  the  representatives  of  the  original  con- 
stitutional estates  might  from  time  to  time  receive  a  summons  to  tender  their 
advice  upon  questions  of  public  interest.  As  the  people  had  every  confidence  in 
the  wisdom  and  conscientiousness  of  their  ruler,  agreements  providing  for  their 
co-operation  were  wholly  superfluous.  "  No  power  on  earth,"  he  announced  in  his 
speech  from  the  throne  on  April  11,  1847,  "would  ever  induce  him  to  substitute  a 
contractual  form  of  constitution  for  those  natural  relations  between  king  and  people, 
which  were  strong  above  all  in  Prussia  by  reason  of  their  inherent  reality.  Never 
under  any  circumstances  would  he  allow  a  written  paper,  a  kind  of  second  provi- 
dence, governing  by  paragraphs  and  ousting  the  old  sacred  faith,  to  intervene 
between  God  and  his  country." 

Such  was  the  residuum  of  all  the  discussion  upon  the  Christian  State  and  the 
"  hierarchical  feudal  monarchy  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  which  had  been  the  work  of 
the  Swiss  Ludwig  von  Haller  (p.  90  ad  fin.)  and  his  successors,  the  Berlin  author 
Adam  MUller,  the  Halle  professor  Heinrich  Leo,  and  Frederick  Julius  Stahl,  a  Jew 
converted  to  evangelicalism,  whom  Frederick  William  IV  had  summoned  from 
Erlangen  to  Berlin  in  1840.  By  a  wilful  abuse  of  history  the  wild  conceptions 
of  these  theorists  were  ezplained  to  be  the  proven  facts  of  the  feudal  period  and 
of  feudal  society.  Constitutional  systems  were  propounded  as  actual  historical 
precedents  which  had  never  existed  anywhere  or  at  any  time.  The  object  of 
these  efforts  as  declared  by  Stahl  was  the  subjection  of  reason  to  revelation,  the 
reintroduotion  of  the  Jewish  theocracy  iuto  modern  political  life.  Frederick 
William  had  allowed  himself  to  be  convinced  that  such  was  the  Germanic  theory 
of  existence,  and  that  he  was  forwarding  the  national  movement  by  making  his 
object  the  application  of  this  theory  to  the  government  and  administration  of 
his  State.  He  was  a  victim  to  the  delusion  that  the  source  of  national  strength 
is  to  be  found  in  the  admiration  of  the  vague  and  intangible  precedents  of  past 
ages,  whereas  the  truth  is  that  national  strength  must  at  every  moment  be 
employed  to  cope  with  fresh  tasks,  unknown  to  tradition  and  unprecedented. 

William,  prince  of  Prussia,  the  heir  presumptive  to  the  throne,  as  Frederick 
William  was  childless,  was  fully  alive  to  the  real  nature  of  these  political  halluci- 
nations. He  was  by  no  means  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  a^onstitution,  and 
was  apprehensive  lest  popular  representation  should  tend  to  limit  unduly  the 
military  expenditure  and  so  weaken  the  power  of  the  State  and  reduce  her 
prestige  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  powers.  If,  however,  so  important  a  step  as  an 
alteration  in  the  form  of  government  was  inevitable,  he  considered  it  the  king's 
duty  to  satisfy  public  opinion  and  to  give  full  and  frank  recognition  to  the  consti- 
tution when  arranged.  Notwithstanding  the  emphatic  protest  of  the  prince  to  the 
ministry,  at  the  head  of  which  was  Ernst  von  Bodelschwingh,  and  though  no  single 
minister  gave  an  unqualified  assent  to  the  project,  the  king  summoned  the  eight 
provincial  landtags  to  meet  at  Berlin  as  a  united  Landtag  for  April  11,  1847. 
The  patent  issued  on  February  3  announced  that  this  procedure  might  be  adopted 
"  when  State  necessities  required  fresh  loans  or  the  introduction  of  new  taxes  or 
the  raising  of  existing  taxation,"  or  whenever  the  king  might  think  desirable  in 
view  of  national  questions  of  special  importance.  In  case  of  war,  however,  the 
king  deemed  himself  justified  in  imposing,  as  heretofore,  extraordinary  taxes  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  united  Landtag.     Deliberations  were  to  be  carried  on  in  two 


l^^iAll^        HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  175 

chambers  :  in  tlie  "  estate  of  the  nobility,"  including  the  princes  of  the  blood,  the 
original  German  estates,  the  princes  of  Silesia  and  elsewhere,  with  the  counts 
and  heads  of  the  provincial  landtags ;  and  in  the  "  assembly  of  the  deputies  of 
the  knightly  orders,  the  towns,  and  local  communities."  Eesolutions  by  the  two 
chambers  in  concert  were  necessary  only  in  questions  of  taxation ;  petitions  and 
protests  were  only  to  be  brought  before  the  king  when  supported  by  a  two-thirds 
majority  in  either  chamber. 

Even  before  the  opening  of  the  assembly  it  became  manifest  that  this  constitu- 
tional concession,  which  the  king  considered  a  brilliant  discovery,  pleased  nobody. 
The  old  orders,  which  retained  their  previous  rights,  were  as  dissatisfied  as  the 
citizens  outside  the  orders,  who  wanted  a  share  in  the  legislature  and  adminis- 
tration. The  speech  from  the  throne,  a  long-winded  piece  of  conventional  oratory, 
was  marked  in  part  by  a  distinctly  uncompromising  tone.  Instead  of  returning 
thanks  for  the  concessions  which  had  been  made,  the  Landtag  proceeded  to  draw 
up  an  address  demanding  the  recognition  of  their  rights  without  any  promise  of 
their  good  will ;  at  this  the  king  displayed  great  indignation.  The  wording  of  the 
address,  which  was  the  work  of  Alfred  von  Auerswald,  was  extremely  moderate 
in  tone,  and  so  far  mollified  the  king  as  to  induce  him  to  promise  the  convocation 
of  another  Landtag  within  the  next  four  years ;  but  further  negotiations  made  it 
plain  that  both  the  representatives  of  the  nobility  and  the  city  deputies,  especially 
those  from  the  industrial  Ehine  towns,  were  entirely  convinced  that  the  Landtag 
must  persevere  in  demanding  further  constitutional  concessions. 

The  value  to  the  State  of  the  citizen  class  was  emphasised  by  Freiherr  Georg 
von  Vincke  of  Westphalia,  Hermann  von  Beckerath  of  Krefeld,  Ludolf  Camp- 
hausen  of  Cologne,  and  David  Hansemann  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  These  were  capi- 
talists and  employers  of  labour,  and  had  therefore  every  right  to  speak.  They 
were  at  the  head  of  a  majority  which  declined  to  assent  to  the  formation  of  an 
annuity  bank  for  relieving  the  peasants  of  forced  labour  and  to  the  proposal  for  a 
railway  from  Berlin  to  Konigsberg,  the  ground  of  refusal  being  that  their  assent 
was  not  recognised  by  the  crown  ministers  as  necessary  for  the  ratification  of  the 
royal  proposals,  but  was  regarded  merely  as  advice  requested  by  the  government  on 
its  own  initiative.  The  Landtag  was  then  requested  to  proceed  with  the  election 
of  a  committee  to  deal  with  the  national  debt.  Such  a  committee  would  have  been 
superfluous  if  financial  authority  had  been  vested  in  a  Landtag  meeting  at  regular 
intervals,  and  on  this  question  the  liberal  majority  split  asunder.  The  party  of 
Vincke-Hansemann  declined  to  vote,  the  party  of  Camphausen-Beckerath  voted 
under  protest  against  this  encroachment  upon  the  rights  of  the  Landtag,  while  the 
remainder  (two  hundred  and  eighty-four  timorous  liberals  and  conservatives)  voted 
unconditionally.  The  king  was  much  dissatisfied  with  this  result.  He  clearly  saw 
that  he  had  alienated  every  man  of  sense  and  character,  and  that  the  submissive 
party  were  not  likely  to  help  in  the  introduction  of  any  such  constitutional  reforms 
as  would  be  compatible  with  his  own  conception  of  the  position  of  the  crown. 

The  conviction  was  thus  forced  upon  liberal  Germany  that  the  king  of  Prussia 
would  not  voluntarily  concede  any  measure  of  constitutional  reform,  for  the  reason 
that  he  was  resolved  not  to  recognise  the  rights  of  the  people.  Prussia  was  not  as 
yet  capable  of  mastering  that  popular  upheaval,  the  beginnings  of  which  could  be 
felt,  and  using  its  strength  for  the  creation  of  a  German  constitution  to  take  the 
place  of  the  incompetent  and  discredited  federation. 


176  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  iChapterii 

7.   THE   FEBEUAEY   KEVOLUTION  AND   ITS  EFFECTS 

A.    The  Foundation  of  the  Second  Feenoh  Eepublic 

(a)  The  Fall  of  the  Orleans  Monarchy.  —  The  kingdom  of  Louis  Philippe  of 
Orleans  had  become  intolerable  by  reason  of  its  dishonesty.  The  French  cannot 
be  blamed  for  considering  the  Orleans  rulers  as  Bourbons  in  disguise.  This  scion  of 
the  old  royal  family  was  not  a  flourishLng  offshoot ;  rather  was  it  an  excrescence, 
with  all  the  family  failings  and  with  none  of  its  nobler  qualities.  Enthusiasm  for 
such  prudential,  calculating,  and  unimpassioned  rulers  was  impossible,  whatever 
their  education  or  their  claims.  Their  bad  taste  and  stinginess  destroyed  their 
credit  as  princes  in  France,  and  elsewhere  their  position  was  acknowledged  rather 
out  of  politeness  than  from  any  sense  of  respect. 

The  "  citizen-king  "  certainly  made  every  effort  to  make  his  government  popular 
and  national.  He  showed  both  jealousy  for  French  interests  and  gratitude  to  the 
liberals  who  had  placed  him  on  the  throne ;  he  spent  troops  unsparingly  to  save 
the  honour  of  France  in  Algiers  (cf.  pp.  130  and  138).  After  seven  years'  warfare 
a  completion  was  made  of  the  conquest,  which  the  French  regarded  as  an  exten- 
sion of  their  power.  The  bold  Bedouin  sheik,  Abd  el  Kader  (Vol.  IV,  p.  253),  was 
forced  to  surrender  to  General  L.  L.  Juchault  de  Lamoricifere  on  December  22, 
1847.  Louis  Philippe  imprisoned  this  noble  son  of  the  desert  in  France,  although 
his  son  Henri,  Due  dAumfile,  had  promised,  as  governor-general  of  Algiers,  that 
he  should  have  his  choice  of  residence  on  Mohammedan  territory.  The  king  also 
despatched  his  son  Fran9ois,  Due  de  Joinville,  to  take  part  in  the  war  against 
Morocco,  and  gave  him  a  naval  position  of  equal  importance  to  that  which  Aumale 
held  in  the  army.  He  swallowed  the  insults  of  Lord  Palmerston  in  order  to  main- 
tain the  "  entente  cordiale  "  among  the  Western  powers.  He  calmly  accepted  the 
defeat  of  his  diplomacy  in  the  Turco-Egyptian  quarrel  (p.  165),  and  surrendered 
such  influence  as  he  had  acquired  with  Mehemet  Ali,  in  return  for  paramountcy 
in  the  Marquesas  Islands  and  Tahiti.  He  married  his  son  Anton,  Duke  of  Mont- 
pensier,  to  the  Infanta  Louise  of  Spain,  with  some  idea  of  raving  the  dynastic 
connection  between  France  and  Spain.  ^ 

While  thus  resuming  the  policy  of  Louis  XIV,  he  also  went  to  some  pains  to 
conciliate  the  Bonapartists,  and  by  careful  respect  to  the  memory  of  Napoleon  to 
give  his  government  a  national  character.  The  remains  of  the  great  emperor  were 
removed  from  St.  Helena  by  permission  of  England  and  interred  with  great  solem- 
nity in  the  cathedral  of  the  Invalides,  on  December  15,  1840.  Louis  Bonaparte, 
the  nephew,  had  contrived  to  avoid  capture  by  the  Austrians  at  Ancona  (cf.  p.  150), 
and  had  proposed  to  seize  his  inheritance ;  twice  he  appeared  within  the  French 
frontiers  (at  Strassburg  on  October  30,  1836,  and  at  Boulogne  on  August  6,  1840), 
in  readiness  to  ascend  the  throne  of  France,  with  the  help  of  his  uncle's  partisans. 
He  only  succeeded  in  making  himself  ridiculous,  and  eventually  paid  for  his 
temerity  by  imprisonment  in  the  fortress  of  Ham.  There  he  remained,  condemned 
to  occupy  himself  with  writing  articles  upon  the  solution  of  the  social  question, 
the  proposed  Nicaraguan  canal,  etc.,  until  his  faithful  follower.  Dr.  Conneau, 
smuggled  him  into  England  under  the  name  of  Maurer  Badinguet. 

Thus  far  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe  had  been  fairly  successful ;  but  the  French 


^^r^!r^]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  177 

were  growing  weary  of  it.  They  were  not  entirely  without  sympathy  for  the  family 
to  which  they  had  given  the  throne,  and  showed  some  interest  in  the  princes,  who 
were  usually  to  be  found  wherever  any  small  success  might  be  achieved.  The 
public  sorrow  was  unfeigned  at  the  death  of  the  eldest  prince,  Louis,  Due  d'Or- 
leans,  who  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  a  carriage  on  July  13,  1842.  These  facts, 
however,  did  not  produce  any  closer  ties  between  the  dynasty  and  the  nation. 
Parliamentary  life  was  restless  and  ministries  were  constantly  changing.  Major- 
ities in  the  chambers  were  secured  by  artificial  means,  and  by  bribery  in  its  most 
reprehensible  forms.  Conspiracies  were  discovered  and  suppressed,  and  plots  for 
murder  were  made  tlie  occasion  of  the  harshest  measures  against  the  radicals ;  but 
no  one  of  the  great  social  groups  could  be  induced  to  link  its  fortunes  permanently 
with  those  of  the  House  of  Orleans. 

Unfortunately  for  himself,  the  king  had  reposed  special  confidence  in  the  his- 
torian FranQois  Pierre  Guillaume  Guizot,  the  author  of  histories  of  the  English 
revolution  and  of  the  French  civilization,  who  had  occupied  high  offices  in  the 
State  since  the  Restoration.  He  had  belonged  to  the  first  ministry  of  Louis  Philippe, 
together  with  the  Due  de  Broglie ;  afterward  he  had  several  times  held  the  post 
of  minister  of  education,  and  had  been  in  London  during  the  quarrel  with  the 
English  ambassador.  After  this  affair,  which  brought  him  no  credit,  he  returned 
to  France,  and  on  the  fall  of  Thiers  (October,  1840)  became  minister  of  foreign 
affairs,  with  practical  control  of  the  foreign  and  domestic  policy  of  France,  sub- 
ject to  the  king's  personal  intervention.  His  doctrinaire  tendencies  (cf.  p.  130) 
had  gradually  brought  him  over  from  the  liberal  to  the  conservative  side  and 
thrown  him  into  violent  opposition  to  his  former  colleagues,  Thiers  in  particu- 
lar. The  acerbity  of  his  character  was  not  redeemed  by  his  learning  and  his 
personal  uprightness ;  his  intellectual  arrogance  alienated  the  literary  and  political 
leaders  of  Parisian  society. 

The  republican  party  had  undergone  many  changes  since  the  establishment  of 
the  July  monarchy :  it  now  exercised  a  greater  power  of  attraction  upon  youthful 
talent,  a  quality  which  made  it  an  even  more  dangerous  force  than  did  the  revolts 
and  conspiracies  which  it  fostered  from  1831  to  1838.  These  latter  severely  tested 
the  capacity  of  the  army  for  street  warfare  on  several  occasions.  It  was  twice  ne- 
cessary to  subdue  Lyons  (in  November,  1831,  and  July,  1834),  and  the  barricades 
erected  in  Paris  in  1834  repelled  the  N"ational  Guards,  and  only  fell  before  the  regi- 
ments of  the  line  under  General  Bugeaud.  The  communist  revolts  in  Paris  under 
Armand  Barb6s  and  Louis  Auguste  Blanqui,  in  May,  1839,  were  more  easily  sup- 
pressed, though  the  Hotel  de  Ville  and  the  Palais  de  Justice  had  already  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  rebels.  These  events  confirmed  Louis  Philippe  in  his  inten- 
tion to  erect  a  circle  of  fortifications  round  Paris,  for  protection  against  enemies 
from  within  rather  than  from  without.  Homicidal  attempts  were  no  longer  per- 
petrated by  individual  desperadoes  or  bloodthirsty  monomaniacs,  such  as  the 
Corsican  Joseph  Fieschi,  on  July  28,  1835,  whose  infernal  machine  killed  eigh- 
teen people,  including  Marshal  Mortier.  They  were  undertaken  in  the  service  of 
republican  propagandism,  and  were  repeated  with  the  object  of  terrorising  the 
ruling  classes,  and  so  providing  an  occasion  for  the  abolition  of  the  monarchy. 
The  doctrines  of  communism  were  then  being  disseminated  throughout  France 
(cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  402),  and  attracted  the  more  interest  as  stock-exchange  specu- 
lation increased,  fortunes   were  made  with  incredible  rapidity,  and  expenditure 

VOL.  Vni  — 12 


178  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapter  ii 

rose  to  the  point  of  prodigality.  Louis  Blanc,  nephew  of  the  Corsican  statesman 
Pozzo  di  Borgo,  went  a  step  further  toward  the  transformation  of  social  and 
economic  life  in  his  treatise  "  L'Organisation  du  Travail,"  which  urged  that  col- 
lectivist  manufactures  in  national  factories  should  be  substituted,  for  the  efforts 
of  the  individual  employer  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  403).  The  rise  of  communistic  soci- 
eties among  the  republicans  obliged  the  old-fashioned  democrats  to  organise 
in  their  turn;  they  attempted  and  easily  secured  an  understanding  with  the 
advanced  liberals.  The  "dynastic  opposition,"  led  by  Odilon  Barrot  (cf.  above, 
p.  128),  to  which  Thiers  occasionally  gave  a  helping  hand  when  he  was  out  of 
office,  strained  every  nerve  to  shake  the  public  faith  in  the  permanence  of  the 
July  dynasty.  The  republican  party  in  the  second  chamber  were  led  by  Alex- 
andre Aug.  Ledru-EoUin  after  the  death  of  Etienue  Garnier  Pagfes  and  of  Armand 
Carrel,  the  leaders  during  the  first  decade  of  the  Orleans  monarchy.  A  distin- 
guished lawyer  and  brilliant  orator,  EoUin  soon  overshadowed  all  other  politicians 
who  had  aroused  any  enthusiasm  in  the  Parisians.  His  considerable  wealth 
enabled  him  to  embark  in  journalistic  ventures  ;  his  paper  "  La  E^forme  "  pointed 
consistently  and  unhesitatingly  to  republicanism  as  the  only  possible  form  of 
government  after  the  now  imminent  downfall  of  the  July  monarchy. 

(&)  The  Disturlances  in  Paris  from  February  2%  to  S4-  —  The  action  of  the 
majority  now  destroyed  such  credit  as  the  chamber  had  possessed ;  they  rejected 
proposals  from  the  opposition  forbidding  deputies  to  accept  posts  or  preferment 
from  the  government,  or  to  have  an  interest  in  manufacturing  or  commercial  com- 
panies, the  object  being  to  put  a  stop  to  the  undisguised  corruption  then  rife. 
Constitutional  members  united  with  republicans  in  demanding  a  fundamental 
reform  of  the  electoral  system.  Louis  Blanc  and  Ledru-Eollin  raised  the  cry  for 
universal  suffrage.  Banquets,  where  vigorous  speeches  were  made  in  favour  of 
electoral  reform,  were  arranged  in  the  autumn  of  1847,  and  continued  until  the 
government  prohibited  the  banquet  organised  for  February  22, 1848,  in  the  Champs 
Elys^es.  However,  Ch.  M.  Tannegui,  Count  Duchatel,  was  induced  to  refrain  from 
ordering  the  forcible  dispersion  of  the  meeting,  the  liberal  opposition  giving  up  the 
projected  banquet  on  their  side.  A  great  crowd  collected  oruthe  appointed  day  in 
the  Place  Madeleine,  whence  it  had  been  arranged  that  a  precession  should  march 
to  the  Champs  filysees.  The  republican  leaders  invited  the  crowd  to  march  to  the 
houses  of  parliament,  and  it  became  necessary  to  call  out  a  regiment  of  cavalry  for 
the  dispersion  of  the  rioters.  This  task  was  successfully  accomplished,  but  on  the 
23d  the  disturbances  were  renewed.  Students  and  workmen  paraded  the  streets 
arm  in  arm,  shouting  not  only  "  Eeform  !  "  but  also  "  Down  with  Guizot !  "  These 
cries  were  taken  up  by  the  National  Guard,  and  the  king,  who  had  hitherto  disre- 
garded the  movement,  began  to  consider  the  outlook  as  serious;  he  dismissed 
Guizot  and  began  to  confer  with  Count  Louis  Matthieu  Mol^,  a  leader  of  the 
moderate  liberals,  on  the  formation  of  a  new  ministry.  Thus  far  the  anti-dynastic 
party  had  been  successful,  and  now  began  to  hope  for  an  upright  government  on 
a  purely  constitutional  basis.  In  this  they  would  have  been  entirely  deceived,  for 
uprightness  was  not  one  of  the  king's  attributes.  But  on  this  point  he  was  not 
to  be  tested. 

On  the  evening  of  February  23  the  crowds  which  thronged  the  boulevards  gave 
loud  expression  to  their  delight  at  the  dismissal  of  Guizot.     Meanwhile  the  republi- 


S^^lrif^STe'l       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  179 

can  agents  were  busily  collecting  the  inhabitants  of  the  suburbs,  who  had  been  long 
since  prepared  for  a  rising,  and  sending  them  forward  to  the  more  excited  quarters 
of  the  city.  They  would  not,  in  all  probability,  have  been  able  to  transform  the 
good-tempered  and  characteristic  cheerfulness  which  now  filled  the  streets  of  Paris 
to  a  more  serious  temper,  had  not  an  unexpected  occurrence  filled  the  mob  with 
horror  and  rage.  A  crowd  of  people  had  come  in  contact  with  the  soldiers  sta- 
tioned before  Guizot's  house.  Certain  insolent  youths  proceeded  to  taunt  the  officer 
in  command ;  a  shot  rang  out,  a  volley  followed,  and  numbers  of  the  mockers  lay 
weltering  in  their  blood.  It  was  but  one  of  those  incidents  which  are  always  pos- 
sible when  troops  are  subjected  to  the  threats  and  taunts  of  the  people,  and  in  such 
a  case  attempts  to  apportion  the  blame  are  futile.  The  thing  was  done,  and  Paris 
rang  with  cries  of  "  Murder !  To  arms ! "  About  midnight  the  alarm  bells  of 
Notre  Dame  began  to  ring,  and  thousands  flocked  to  raise  the  barricades.  The 
morning  of  February  24  found  Paris  in  revolution,  ready  to  begin  the  struggle 
against  the  people's  king.  "Louis  Philippe  orders  his  troops  to  fire  on  the 
people,  like  Charles  X.  Send  him  after  his  predecessor ! "  This  proposal  of 
the  "  R^forme "  became  the  republican  solution  of  the  question. 

(c)  The  Proclamation  of  the  French  Republic.  —  The  monarchy  was  now  irre- 
vocably lost;  the  man  who  should  have  saved  it  was  asking  help  from  the 
liberals,  who  were  as  powerless  as  himself.  A  would-be  ruler  must  know  how  to 
use  his  power,  and  must  believe  that  his  will  is  force  in  itself.  When,  at  his  wife's 
desire,  the  king  appeared  on  horseback  before  his  regiments  and  the  National 
Guard,  he  knew  within  himself  that  he  was  not  capable  of  rousing  the  enthusiasm 
of  his  troops.  Civilian  clothes  and  an  umbrella  would  have  suited  him  better 
than  sword  and  epaulettes.  Louis  Philippe  thus  abdicated  in  favour  of  his  grand- 
son, the  Count  of  Paris,  whom  he  left  to  the  care  of  Charles,  Duke  of  Nemours,  took 
a  portfolio  of  such  papers  as  were  valuable,  and  went  away  to  St.  Cloud  with  his 
wife.  The  bold  daughter  of  Mecklenburg,  Henriette  of  Orleans,  brought  her  son, 
Louis  Philippe,  who  was  now  the  rightful  king,  into  the  chamber  of  deputies, 
where  Odilon  Barrot,  in  true  knightly  fashion,  broke  a  lance  in  behalf  of  the  king's 
rights  and  of  constitutionalism.  But  the  victors  in  the  street  fighting  had  made 
their  way  into  the  hall,  their  comrades  were  at  that  moment  invading  the  Tuileries, 
and  legitimists  and  democrats  joined  in  deposing  the  House  of  Orleans  and  demand- 
ing the  appointment  of  a  provisional  government. 

The  question  was  dealt  with  by  the  "  Christian  moralist,"  poet,  and  diplomatist, 
Alphonse  de  Lamartine,  whose  "  History  of  the  Girondists  "  in  eight  volumes,  with 
its  glorification  of  political  murder,  had  largely  contributed  to  advance  the  revolu- 
tionary spirit  in  France.  Though  the  electoral  tickets  had  fallen  into  the  greatest 
confusion,  he  contrived  to  produce  a  list  of  names  which  were  backed  by  a  strong 
body  of  supporters;  these  included  Louis  Gamier- Pagfes,  half-brother  of  the  de- 
ceased fitienne,  Ledru-RolHn,  the  astronomer  Dominique  Francois  Arago,  the  Jew- 
ish lawyer  Isak  Cr^mieux,  who  was  largely  responsible  for  the  abdication  of  Louis 
Philippe,  and  Lamartine  himself.  The  list  was  approved.  The  body  thus  elected 
effected  a  timely  junction  with  the  party  of  Louis  Blanc,  who  was  given  a  place 
in  the  government  with  four  republican  consultative  members.  They  then  took 
possession  of  the  H6tel  de  Ville,  filled  up  the  official  posts,  and  with  the  concur- 
rence of  the  people  declared  France  a  republic  on  February  25.     The  dethroned 


180  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapterii 

king  and  the  members  of  his  house  were  able,  if  not  unmenaced,  at  any  rate  with- 
out danger,  to  reach  the  coasts  of  England  and  safety,  or  to  cross  the  German 
frontier. 

The  new  government  failed  to  satisfy  the  socialists,  who  were  determined,  after 
definitely  establishing  the  "  right  of  labour,"  to  insist  upon  the  right  of  the  wage 
they  desired.  The  installation  of  State  factories  and  navvy  labour  at  two  francs 
a  day  was  not  enough  for  them ;  they  formed  hundreds  of  clubs  under  the  direction 
of  a  central  bureau,  with  the  object  of  replacing  the  government  for  the  time  being 
by  a  committee  of  public  safety,  which  should  proceed  to  a  general  redistribution 
of  property.  Ledru-EoUin  was  not  inclined  to  accept  the  offer  of  the  presidency 
of  such  an  extraordinary  body ;  he  and  Lamartine,  with  the  help  of  General  N.  A. 
Th.  Changarnier  and  the  National  Guards,  entirely  outmanoeuvred  the  hordes  which 
had  made  a  premature  attempt  to  storm  the  town  hall,  and  forced  them  to  sur- 
render. Peace  was  thus  assured  to  Paris  for  the  moment.  The  emissaries  of  the 
revolutionaries  could  not  gain  a  hearing  in  the  departments,  and  it  was  possible 
to  go  on  with  the  elections,  which  were  conducted  on  the  principle  of  universal 
suffrage.  Every  forty  thousand  inhabitants  elected  a  deputy;  every  department 
formed  a  uniform  electorate.  Lamartine,  one  of  the  nine  hundred  chosen,  ob- 
tained two  million  three  hundred  thousand  votes  in  ten  departments.  The 
assembly  was  opened  on  May  4. 

B.  Eevolutionaey  Movements  in  Central  Europe 

(a)  Mazzini.  —  To  the  organised  enemies  of  monarchy  the  February  revolu- 
tion was  a  call  to  undisguised  activity ;  to  the  world  at  large  it  was  a  token  that 
the  times  of  peace  were  over,  and  that  the  long-expected  movement  would  now 
inevitably  break  out.  It  is  not  always  an  easy  matter  to  decide  whether  these  sev- 
eral events  originated  in  the  inflammatory  labours  of  revolutionaries  designedly 
working  in  secret,  or  in  some  sudden  outburst  of  feeling,  some  stimulus  to  action 
hitherto  unknown.  No  less  difficult  is  the  task  of  deciding  how  far  the  conspira- 
tors were  able  personally  to  influence  others  of  radical  tendencies,  but  outside  their 
own  organisations.  These  organisations  were  most  important  ko  France,  Italy,  Ger- 
many, and  Poland.  The  central  bureaus  were  in  Paris  and  Switzerland,  and  the 
noble  Giuseppe  Mazzini,  indisputably  one  of  the  purest  and  most  devoted  of  Italian 
patriots,  held  most  of  the  strings  of  this  somewhat  clumsy  network.  His  journals 
"  La  Giovine  Europa  "  and  "  La  Jeune  Suisse  "  were  as  short-lived  as  the  "  Giovine 
Italia,"  published  at  Marseilles  in  1831 ;  but  they  incessantly  urged  the  duty  of 
union  upon  all  those  friends  of  humanity  who  were  wUling  to  share  in  the  task  of 
liberating  peoples  from  the  tyranny  of  monarchs. 

From  1834  a  special  "  union  of  exiles  "had  existed  a't  Paris,  which  declared 
"  the  deposition  and  expulsion  of  monarchs  an  inevitable  necessity,"  and  looked  for 
a  revolution  to  break  out  in  France  or  Germany,  or  a  war  between  France  and  Ger- 
many or  Eussia,  in  the  hope  of  assisting  France  in  the  attack  upon  the  German 
rulers.  Its  organisation  was  as  extraordinary  as  it  was  secret ;  there  were  "  moun- 
tains," "  national  huts,"  "  focal  points,"  "  circles,"  wherein  preparation  was  to  be 
made  for  the  transformation  of  Germany  in  the  general  interests  of  humanity. 
The  "righteous"  had  diverged  from  the  "outlaws,"  and  from  1840  were  reunited 
with  the  "  German  union,"  which  aimed  at "  the  formation  of  a  free  State  embracing 


SSSTLt^f]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  181 

the  whole  of  Germany."  The  persecutions  and  continual  "  investigations  "  which 
the  German  federation  had  carried  on  since  the  riots  at  Frankfurt  had  impeded, 
though  not  entirely  broken  off,  communications  between  the  central  officials  in 
Paris  and  their  associates  residing  in  Germany.  From  Switzerland  came  a  con- 
tinual stream  of  craftsmen,  teachers,  and  authors,  who  were  sworn  in  by  the  united 
republicans.  Karl  Mathy,  afterward  minister  of  state  for  Baden,  who  had  been 
Mazzini's  colleague  in  Solothurn,  was  one  of  their  members  in  1840,  when  he  was 
called  to  Carlsruhe  to  take  up  the  post  of  editor  of  the  "  Landtagszeitung." 

(h)  South  Germany.  —  The  deliberations  of  the  united  Landtag  at  Berlin 
(p.  113)  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the  South  German  liberals  to  the  highly 
talented  politicians  in  Prussia,  on  whose  help  they  could  rely  in  the  event  of  a 
rearrangement  of  the  relative  positions  of  the  German  States.  The  idea  of  some 
common  movement  toward  this  end  was  mooted  at  a  gathering  of  politicians  at 
Heppenheim  on  October  16,  1847,  and  it  was  determined  to  lay  proposals  for  some 
change  in  the  federal  constitution  before  the  assemblies  of  the  individual  States. 
In  the  grand  duchy  of  Baden  the  democrats  went  even  further  at  a  meeting  held 
at  Offenburg  on  September  12.  Proceedings  were  conducted  by  a  certain  lawyer 
of  Mannheim,  one  Gustav  von  Struve,  an  overbearing  individual  of  a  Livonian 
family,  and  by  Friedrich  Hecker,  an  empty-headed  prater,  also  an  attorney,  who 
had  already  displayed  his  utter  incapacity  for  political  action  in  the  Baden  Land- 
tag. To  justifiable  demands  for  the  repeal  of  the  decrees  of  Carlsbad,  for  national 
representation  within  the  German  federation,  for  freedom  of  the  press,  religious 
toleration,  and  full  liberty  to  teachers,  they  added  the  most  extravagant  and  imma- 
tm-e  proposals,  as  to  the  practicable  working  of  which  no  one  had  the  smallest 
conception.  They  looked  not  only  for  a  national  system  of  defence  and  fair  taxa- 
tion, but  also  for  "  the  removal  of  the  inequalities  existing  between  capital  and 
labour  and  the  abolition  of  all  privileges."  Eadicalism  thus  with  characteristic 
effrontery  plumed  itself  upon  its  own  veracity,  and  pointed  out  the  path  which 
the  masses  who  listened  to  its  allurements  would  take,  —  a  result  of  radical 
incapacity  to  distinguish  between  the  practicable  and  the  unattainable. 

Immediately  before  the  events  of  February  in  Paris  were  made  known,  the 
kingdom  of  Bavaria,  and  its  capital  in  particular,  was  in  a  state  of  revolt  and 
open  war  between  the  authorities  and  the  members  of  the  State.  The  king  and 
poet,  Ludwig  I,  had  conceived  a  blind  infatuation  for  the  dancer  Lola  Montez,  an 
Irish  adventuress  (Eosanna  Gilbert)  who  masqueraded  under  a  Spanish  name. 
This  fact  led  to  the  downfall  of  the  ministry,  which  was  clerical  without  excep- 
tion, and  had  been  stigmatised  as  such  by  Karl  von  Abel  of  Hesse  since  1837 ; 
a  further  consequence  were  street  riots,  unjustifiable  measures  against  the  students 
who  declined  to  show  respect  to  the  dancing-woman,  and  finally  bloody  conflicts. 
It  was  not. until  the  troops  displayed  entire  indifference  to  the  work  of  executing 
the  tyrannical  orders  which  had  been  issued  that  the  king  yielded  to  the  entreaties 
of  the  citizens,  on  February  11,  1848,  and  removed  from  Munich  this  impossible 
beauty,  who  had  been  made  a  countess. 

The  first  of  those  surprising  phenomena  in  Germany  which  sprang  from  the  im- 
pression created  by  the  February  revolution  was  the  session  of  the  federal  assembly 
on  March  1, 1848.  Earlier  occurrences  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Frank- 
furt no  doubt  materially  influenced  the  course  of  events.    In  Baden,  before  his 


182  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  ^Chapter  ii 

fate  had  fallen  upon  the  July  king,  Karl  Mathy  had  addressed  the  nation  from  the 
chamber  ,on  February  23 :  "  For  thirty  years  the  Germans  have  tried  moderation  and 
in  vain;  they  must  now  see  whether  violence  will  enable  them  to  advance,  and 
such  violence  is  not  to  be  limited  to  the  States  meeting-hall ! "  At  a  meeting  of 
citizens  at  Mannheim  on  the  27th,  an  address  was  carried  by  Struve  which  thus 
formulated  the  most  pressing  questions:  Universal  military  service  with  power 
to  el6ct  the  officers,  unrestrained  freedom  of  the  press,  trial  by  jury  after  the  Eng- 
lish model,  and  the  immediate  constitution  of  a  German  parliament.  In  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  a  popular  deputy  in  the  Landtag,  one  Heinrich  Freiherr  von  Gagern, 
the  second  son  of  the  former  statesman  of  Nassau  and  the  Netherlands,  demanded 
that  the  government  should  not  only  call  a  parliament,  but  also  create  a  central 
governing  power  for  Germany.  The  request  was  inspired  by  the  fear  of  an 
approaching  war  with  France,  which  was  then  considered  inevitable.  It  was  fear 
of  this  war  which  suddenly  convinced  the  high  federal  council  at  Frankfort-on- 
Main  that  the  people  were  indispensable  to  their  existence.  On  March  1  they 
issued  "  a  federal  decree  to  the  German  people,"  whose  existence  they  had  dis- 
regarded for  three  centuries,  emphasising  the  need  for  unity  between  all  the 
German  races,  and  asserting  their  conviction  that  Germany  must  be  raised  to  her 
due  position  among  the  nations  of  Europe.  On  March  1  Herr  von  Struve  led  a 
gang  of  low-class  followers  in  the  pay  of  the  republicans,  together  with  the  depu- 
ties of  the  Baden  towns,  into  the  federal  chamber.  Ejected  thence,  he  turned  upon 
the  castle  in  Carlsruhe,  his  aim  being  to  foment  disturbances  and  bloody  conflict, 
and  so  to  intimidate  the  moderately  minded  majority.  His  plan  was  foiled  by  the 
firm  attitude  of  the  troops.  But  the  abandonment  of  the  project  was  not  to  be 
expected,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  nationalist  movement  in  Germany  would  meet 
with  its  most  dangerous  check  in  radicalism. 

Telegrams  from  Paris  and  "West  Germany  reached  Munich,  when  the  newly 
restored  peace  was  again  broken.  The  new  minister,  State  Councillor  von  Berks, 
was  denounced  as  a  tool  of  Lola  Montez,  and  his  dismissal  was  enforced.  On 
March  6  King  Ludwig,  in  his  usual  poetical  style,  declared  his  readiness  to  satisfy 
the  popular  demands.  However,  fresh  disturbance  was  excited  by  the  rumour  that 
Lola  Montez  was  anxious  to  return.  Ludwig  I,  who  declined^o  be  forced  into  the 
concession  of  any  constitution  upon  liberal  principles,  lost  heart  and  abdicated  in 
favour  of  his  son  Maximilian  (II).  He  saw  clearly  that  he  could  no  longer  resist 
the  strength  of  the  movement  for  the  recognition  of  the  people's  rights.  The 
political  storm  would  unchain  the  potent  forces  of  stupidity  and  folly  which  the 
interference  of  short-sighted  majorities  had  created.  When  Ludwig  retired  into 
private  life,  Metternich  had  already  fallen. 

(c)  The  Fall  of  Metternich.  —  The  first  act  of  the  Viennese,  horrified  at  the 
victory  of  the  republicans  in  Paris,  was  to  provide  for  the  safety  of  their  money 
bags.  The  general  mistrust  of  the  government  was  shown  in  the  haste  with  which 
accounts  were  withdrawn  from  the  public  savings  banks.  It  was  not,  however, 
the  Austrians  who  pointed  the  moral  to  the  authorities.  On  March  3,  in  the 
Hungarian  Eeichstag,  Kossuth  proposed  that  the  emperor  should  be  requested  to 
introduce  constitutional  government  into  his  provinces,  and  to  grant  Hungary  the 
national  self-government  which  was  hers  by  right.  In  Vienna  similar  demands 
were  advanced  by  the  industrial  unions,  the  legal  and  political  reading  clubs,  and 
the  students. 


S;:irZ%f]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  183 

It  was  hoped  that  a  bold  attitude  would  be  taken  by  the  provincial  Landtag, 
which  met  on  March  13.  When  the  anxious  crowds  promenading  the  streets 
learned  that  the  representatives  proposed  to  confine  themselves  to  a  demand  for 
the  formation  of  a  committee  of  deputies  from  all  the  crown  provinces,  they 
invaded  the  council  cliamber  and  forced  the  meeting  to  consent  to  the  despatch  of 
a  deputation  to  lay  the  national  desire  for  a  free  constitution  before  the  emperor. 
While  the  deputation  was  proceeding  to  the  Hofburg,  the  soldiers  posted  before 
the  council  chamber,  including  the  archduke  Albrecht  (eldest  son  of  the  archduke 
Karl,  who  died  in  1847),  were  insulted  and  pelted  with  stones.  They  replied  with 
a  volley.  It  was  the  loss  of  life  thereby  caused  which  made  the  movement  a 
serious  reality.  The  citizens  of  Vienna,  startled  out  of  their  complacency,  vied 
with  the  mob  in  the  loudness  of  their  cries  against  this  "  firing  on  defenceless 
men."  Their  beliaviour  was  explained  to  Count  Metternich  in  the  Hofburg,  not 
as  an  ordinary  riot  capable  of  suppression  by  a  handful  of  police,  but  as  a  revolu- 
tion with  which  he  had  now  to  deal.  ISTowhere  would  such  a  task  have  been  easier 
than  in  Vienna  had  there  been  any  corporation  or  individual  capable  of  immediate 
action,  and  able  to  make  some  short  and  definite  promise  of  change  in  the  govern- 
ment system.  There  was,  however,  no  nucleus  round  which  a  new  government 
could  be  formed.  Prince  Metternich  being  wholly  impracticable  for  such  a  purpose. 
All  the  State  councillors,  the  court  dignitaries,  and  generally  those  whom  chance 
or  curiosity  rather  than  definite  purpose  had  gathered  in  the  corridors  and  ante- 
chambers of  the  imperial  castle,  were  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  the  chancellor 
of  state  must  be  sacrificed.  This  empty  figurehead  stood  isolated  amid  the  sur- 
rounding turmoil,  unable  to  help  himself  or  his  perplexed  advisers ;  he  emitted  a 
few  sentences  upon  the  last  sacrifice  that  he  could  make  for  the  monarcliy  and 
disappeared. 

He  left  no  one  to  take  up  his  power;  no  one  able  to  represent  him,  able 
calmly  and  confidently  to  examine  and  decide  upon  the  demands  transmitted 
from  the  street  to  the  council  chamber.  The  emperor  Ferdinand  was  him- 
self wholly  incapable  of  grasping  the  real  meaning  of  the  events  which  had 
taken  place  in  his  immediate  neighbourhood.  The  archduke  Ludwig,  one  of  Met- 
ternich's  now  useless  tools,  was  utterly  perplexed  by  the  conflict  of  voices  and 
opinions.  In  his  fear  of  the  excesses  that  tlie  "  Eeds  "  might  be  expected  to  per- 
petrate, he  lost  sight  of  the  means  whicli  might  have  been  used  to  pacify  the 
moderate  party  and  induce  them  to  maintain  law  and  order.  The  authorisation 
for  the  arming  of  the  students  and  citizens  was  extorted  from  him  perforce,  and 
he  would  hear  nothing  of  concessions  to  be  made  by  the  dynasty  to  the  people. 
Neither  he  nor  Count  Franz  Anton  Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky  ventured  to  draw  up 
any  programme  for  the  introduction  of  constitutional  principles.  Even  on  March 
14  they  demurred  to  the  word  "  constitution "  and  thought  it  possible  to  effect 
some  compromise  with  the  provincial  deputations.  Finally,  on  March  15  the 
news  of  fresh  scenes  induced  the  privy  councillor  of  the  royal  family  to  issue  the 
following  declaration :  "  Provision  has  been  made  for  summoning  the  deputies  of 
all  provincial  estates  in  the  shortest  possible  period,  for  tire  purpose  of  considering 
the  constitution  of  the  country,  with  increased  representation  of  the  citizen  class 
and  with  due  regard  to  the  existing  constitutions  of  the  several  estates."  The 
responsible  ministry  of  Kolowrat-Ficquelmont,  formed  on  March  18,  included 
among  Metternich's  worn-out  tools  one  man  only  possessed  of  the  knowledge 


184  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapter  ii 

requisite  for  the  drafting  of  a  constitution  in  detail;  this  was  the  minister  of 
the  interior,  Freiherr  Franz  von  Pillersdorf,  who  was  as  weak  and  feeble  in  char- 
acter as  in  bodily  health. 

Qi)  Hungary.  — In  Hungary  the  destructive  process  was  far  more  compre- 
hensive and  imposing.  On  March  14  Lajos  (Louis)  Kossuth  in  the  Eeichstag  at 
Pressburg  secured  the  announcement  of  the  freedom  of  the  press,  and  called  for  a 
system  of  national  defence  for  Hungary,  to  be  based  upon  the  general  duty  of 
military  service.  Meanwhile  his  adherents,  consisting  of  students,  authors,  and 
"  jurats  "  (idle  lawyers),  seized  the  reins  of  government  in  Ofen-Pest,  and  replaced 
the  town  council  by  a  committee  of  public  safety,  composed  of  radical  members  by 
preference.  On  the  15th  the  State  assembly  of  the  Eeichstag  was  transformed 
into  a  national  assembly.  Henceforward  its  conclusions  were  to  be  communicated 
to  the  magnates,  whose  consent  was  to  be  unnecessary.  On  the  same  day  a  depu- 
tation of  the  Hungarian  Eeichstag,  accompanied  by  jurats,  arrived  at  Vienna, 
where  Magyars  and  Germans  swore  to  fellowship  with  all  pomp  and  enthusi- 
asm. The  deputation  secured  the  concession  of  an  independent  and  responsible 
ministry  for  Hungary.  This  was  installed  on  March  23  by  the  Archduke  Pala- 
tine Stephan,  and  united  the  popular  representatives  among  Hungarian  politi- 
cians, such  as  Count  Ludwig  Batthyany  and  Stephan  Szdch^nyi,  with  Prince 
Paul  Eszterhazy,  the  Freiherr  Josef  von  Eotvos,  Franz  von  Deak,  and  Lajos 
Kossuth.  After  a  few  days'  deliberation  the  Eeichstag  practically  abolished  the 
old  constitution.  The  rights  of  the^  lords  were  abrogated,  and  equality  of  political 
rights  given  to  citizens  of  towns ;  the  right  of  electing  to  the  Eeichstag  was  con- 
ceded to  "  the  adherents  of  legally  recognised  religions ; "  laws  were  passed  regu- 
lating the  press  and  the  National  Guards.  The  country  was  almost  in  a  state 
of  anarchy,  as  the  old  provincial  administrations  and  local  authorities  had  been 
abolished  and  replaced  by  committees  of  public  safety,  according  to  the  precedent 
set  at  Pest. 

(«)  The  March  Revolution  of  Berlin.  —  The  example  of  Austria  influenced  the 
course  of  events  throughout  Germany ;  there  the  desire  for  a  free  constitution 
grew  ever  hotter,  and  especially  so  in  Berlin.  The  taxatioR  committees  were 
assembled  in  that  town  when  the  results  of  the  February  revolution  became 
known.  The  king  dismissed  them  on  March  7,  declaring  himself  inclined  to  sum- 
mon the  imited  Landtag  at  regular  intervals.  The  declaration  failed  to  give  satis- 
faction. On  the  same  day  a  popular  meeting  at  the  pavilions  in  the  zoological 
gardens  had  resolved  to  request  the  king  forthwith  to  convoke  the  assembly.  In 
the  quiet  town  public  life  became  more  than  usually  lively ;  the  working  classes 
were  excited  by  the  agitators  sent  down  to  them ;  in  inns  and  caf^s  newspapers 
were  read  aloud  and  speeches  made.  The  king  was  expecting  an  outbreak  of  war  ■ 
with  France.  He  sent  his  confidential  military  adviser,  Joseph  Maria  von  Radowitz, 
at  full  speed  to  Vienna  to  arrange  measures  of  defence  with  Metternich.  He  pro- 
posed temporarily  to  entrust  the  command  of  the  Prussian  troops  upon  the  Ehine 
to  the  somewhat  unpopular  Prince  William  of  Prussia.  However,  he  was  warned 
that  the  excitement  prevailing  among  the  population  of  the  Ehine  province  would 
only  be  increased  by  the  appearance  of  the  prince.  Despatches  fi-om  Vienna  fur- 
ther announced  the  faU  of  Metternich.     The  king  now  resolved  to  summon  the 


^cf^/J^Xif}       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  185 

united  Landtag  to  Berlin  on  April  17  ;  he  considered,  no  doubt,  that  Prussia  could 
very  well  exercise  her  patience  for  a  month. 

On  March  15  the  first  of  many  riotous  crowds  assembled  before  the  royal 
castle,  much  excited  by  the  news  from  Vienna.  Deputations  constantly  arrived 
from  the  provinces  to  give  expression  to  the  desire  of  the  population  for  some  con- 
stitutional definition  of  their  rights.  The  king  went  a  step  further  and  altered  the 
date  of  the  meeting  of  the  Landtag  to  April  2  ;  but  in  the  patent  of  March  18  he 
explained  his  action  by  reference  only  to  his  duties  as  federal  ruler,  and  to  his 
intention  of  proposing  a  federal  reform,  to  include  "  temporary  federal  represent- 
ation of  all  German  countries."  He  even  recognised  that  "  such  federal  repre- 
sentation implies  a  form  of  constitution  applicable  to  all  German  countries,"  but 
made  no  definite  promise  as  to  any  form  of  constitution  for  Prussia.  Neverthe- 
less, in  the  afternoon  he  was  cheered  by  the  crowd  before  the  castle.  But  the 
false  leaders  of  the  mob,  who  desired  a  rising  to  secure  their  own  criminal  objects, 
dexterously  turned  gratitude  into  uproar  and  bloodshed.  The  troops  concentrated 
in  the  castle  under  General  von  Prittwitz  were  busy  until  midnight  clear- 
ing the  streets  from  the  Linden  to  the  Leipzigerstrasse  and  Alexander  square. 
The  authorities  had  twelve  thousand  men  at  their  disposal,  and  could  easily  have 
stormed  the  barricades  next  morning ;  but  the  king's  military  advisers  were  unable 
to  agree  upon  their  action,  and  his  anxiety  and  nervousness  were  increased  by  the 
invited  and  uninvited  citizens  who  made  their  way  into  the  castle.  He  therefore 
ordered  the  troops  to  cease  firing,  and  the  nest  day,  after  receiving  a  deputation  of 
citizens,  commanded  the  troops  to  concentrate  upon  the  castle,  and  finally  to  retire 
to  barracks.  The  arguments  of  such  liberals  as  the  Freiherr  von  Vincke  (p.  175) 
and  of  the  Berlin  town  councillors  induced  the  king  to  this  ill-advised  step,  the 
full  importance  of  which  he  failed  to  recognise.  It  implied  the  retreat  of  the 
monarchical  power  before  a  riotous  mob  inspired  only  by  blind  antipathy  to  law 
and  order,  who,  far  from  thanking  the  king  for  sparing  their  guilt,  proclaimed  the 
retreat  of  the  troops  as  a  victory  for  themselves,  and  continued  to  heap  scorn  and 
insult  upon  king  and  troops  alike. 

A  new  ministry  was  formed  on  the  19th  of  March,  the  leadership  being  taken 
by  Count  Adolf  Heinrich  von  Arnim-Boitzenburg.  On  the  29th  his  place  was 
taken  by  Ludolf  Camphausen,  president  of  the  Cologne  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
who  was  joined  by  Hansemann  (p.  175)  and  the  leaders  of  the  liberal  nobility, 
Alfred  von  Auerswald,  Count  Maximilian  of  Schwerin,  and  Heinrich  Alex,  of 
Arnim.  The  ministrj'-  would  have  had  no  difficulty  in  forming  a  constitution  for 
the  State  had  not  the  king  reduced  the  monarchy  to  helplessness  by  his  display  of 
ineptitude.  That  honest  enthusiasm  for  the  national  cause  which  had  led  him  on 
March  21  to  escort  the  banner  of  black,  red,  and  gold  on  horseback  tlirough  the 
streets  of  Berlin,  far  from  winning  the  popular  favour  for  him,  was  scorned  and 
flouted  by  the  republicans.  The  energy  displayed  in  summoning  the  parliament 
was  too  rapid  a  change,  made  the  German  States  distrustful,  and  exposed  him  to 
degrading  refusals,  which  embittered  his  mind  and  lowered  his  dignity  in  the  eyes 
of  his  own  people. 

The  united  Landtag  met  on  April  2,  1848,  and  determined  upon  the  convoca- 
tion of  a  national  assembly,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  constitution  upon  the 
basis  of  universal  suffrage.  To  this  the  government  agreed,  at  the  same  time 
insisting  that  the  Prussian  constitution  was  a  matter  for  arrangement  between 


DESCEIPTION   OF   THE   CARICATURES   OVERLEAF 

Above:  Caricatures  of   some  of  the  chief  speakers  or  other  notable  members  of  the  Frank- 
fort Parliament,  1848-1849. 


Gagern, 

Schmerling, 

Venedey, 

Vogt, 

Stedmann, 

Zitz, 

Dahlmann, 

Raveaux, 

Eisenmann, 

Jalin, 

Blum, 

Heckseher, 

Gistra, 

Detmold, 

Radowitz, 

Boddien, 

Pagenstecher, 

Mittermaier. 

The  description  below  this  collection  of  heads  is  "  Piepmeyer  buys  the  portraits  of  the  different 
members  of  Parliament. "  From  Facts  and  Opinions  of  Herr  Piepmeyer,  deputy  member  of  the  Constituent 
National  Assembly  of  Frankfort-on-Main,  by  J(ohn)  H(ermann)  D(etmold)  and  A(dolph)  S(cbrodter) ; 
Frankfort-on-Main  (1849). 

Beloiv:  Caricatures  of  Bismarck,  Gerlach,  and  Stahl,  under  the  satirical  motto,  "  The  new 
Peter  of  Amiens  and  the  Crusaders."  Under  the  picture  is  the  following  description  in 
I'hyme : 

"  Saint  Gerlach  leads  the  troops,  Saint  Stahl  he  doth  the  donkey  guide, 
While  Bismarck,  leading  villain,  walks  in  armour  by  his  side  ; 
And  hard  behind,  upon  their  mares,  two  gallant  knights  do  trot ; 
Old  Sancho  Panza  Godschen  with  Sir  Wagner  Don  Quixote." 

(Drawing  by  Wilhelm  Scholz  in  "  Kladderadatsch  "  11  year,  number  45,  November  4,  1849.) 


?ft»™i'^?]       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  187 

Leipsic  by  the  concentration  of  troops,  was  obliged  to  give  way  to  dissolve  the 
ministry  of  Jul.  Traug.  von  Kdnneritz,  and  to  entrust  the  conduct  of  government 
business  to  the  leader  of  the  progressive  party  in  the  second  chamber,  Alexander 
Karl  Hermann  Braun.  Of  the  liberals  in  Saxony,  the  largest  following  was  that 
of  Eobert  Blum,  formerly  theatre  secretary,  bookseller,  and  town  councillor  of 
Leipsic.  He  was  one  of  those  trusted  public  characters  who  were  summoned  to 
the  preliminary  conference,  and  directed  the  attention  of  his  associates  to  the 
national  tasks  immediately  confronting  the  German  people.  In  the  patent  con- 
vokiag  the  united  Landtag  for  March  18,  even  the  king  of  Prussia  had  declared 
the  formation  of  a  "  temporary  federal  representation  of  the  States  of  all  German 
countries  "  to  be  a  pressing  necessity ;  hence  from  that  quarter  no  opposition  to 
the  national  undertaking  of  the  Heidelberg  meeting  was  to  be  expected. 

Five  hundred  representatives  from  all  parts  of  Germany  met  at  Frankfort-on- 
Main  for  the  conference  in  the  last  days  of  March;  they  were  received  with 
every  manifestation  of  delight  and  respect.  The  first  general  session  was  held  in 
the  church  of  St.  Paul,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Heidelberg  jurist,  Anton  Mit- 
termayer,  a  Bavarian  by  birth  (p.  152) ;  the  conference  was  then  invited  to  come  to 
a  decision  upon  one  of  the  most  important  questions  of  German  politics.  The 
committee  of  seven  had  drawn  up  a  programme  dealing  with  the  mode  of  election 
to  the  German  national  assembly,  and  formulating  a  number  of  fundamental  prin- 
ciples for  adoption  in  the  forthcoming  federal  constitution.  These  demanded  a 
federal  chief  with  responsible  ministers,  a  senate  of  the  individual  States,  a  popu- 
lar representative  house  with  one  deputy  to  every  seventy  thousand  inhabitants  of 
a  German  federal  State,  a  united  army,  and  representation  abroad ;  a  uniformity  in 
the  customs  systems,  in  the  means  of  communication,  in  civil  and  criminal  legis- 
lation. This  premature  haste  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  scanty  political  experience 
of  the  German  and  his  love  for  the  cut  and  dried ;  it  gave  the  radicals,  who  had 
assembled  in  force  from  Baden,  Darmstadt,  Frankfurt,  and  Nassau  under  Struve 
and  Hecker,  an  opportunity  of  demanding  similar  resolutions  upon  the  future  con- 
stitution of  Germany.  Hecker  gave  an  explanation  of  the  so-called  "  principles  " 
propounded  by  Struve,  demanding  the  disbanding  of  the  standing  army,  the  aboli- 
tion of  officials,  taxation,  and  of  the  hereditary  monarchy,  which  was  to  be  "  re- 
placed by  a  parliament  elected  without  restriction  under  a  president  similarly 
elected,  all  to  be  united  by  a  federal  constitution  on  the  model  of  the  free  States 
of  North  America."  Until  the  German  democracy  had  secured  legislation  upon 
these  and  many  other  points,  the  Frankfurt  conference  should  be  kept  on  foot, 
and  the  government  of  Germany  continued  by  an  executive  committee  elected 
by  universal  suffrage. 

Instead  of  receiving  these  delectable  puerilities  with  the  proper  amount  of 
amusement,  or  satirising  them  as  they  deserved  (see  the  upper  part  of  the  plate, 
"  Caricatures  of  the  Members  of  the  National  Conference  at  Frankfurt,"  etc.),  the 
moderate  democrats  and  liberals  were  inveigled  into  serious  discussion  with  the 
radicals.  Eeports  of  an  insignificant  street  fight  aroused  their  fears  and  forebod- 
ings, and  both  sides  condescended  to  abuse  and  personal  violence.  Finally,  how- 
ever, the  clearer-sighted  members  of  the  conference  succeeded  in  confining  the 
debate  to  the  subjects  preliminary  to  the  convocation  of  the  parliament.  The  pro- 
gramme of  the  committee  of  seven  and  the  "  principles  "  of  the  radicals  were  alike 
excluded  from  discussion.     Hecker's  proposition  for  the  permanent  constitution  of 


188  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  [Chaj^terii 

the  conference  was  rejected  by  368  votes  to  143,  and  it  was  decided  to  elect  a 
committee  of  fifty  members  to  continue  the  business  of  the  preliminary  parlia- 
ment. On  the  question  of  this  business  great  divergence  of  opinion  prevailed. 
The  majority  of  the  members  were  convinced  that  the  people  should  be  now  left 
to  decide  its  own  fate,  and  to  determine  the  legislature  which  was  to  secure  the 
recognition  of  its  rights.  A  small  minority  were  agreed  with  Heinrich  von  Gagern 
upon  the  necessity  of  keeping  in  touch  with  the  government  and  the  federal  coun- 
"cil,  and  constructing  the  new  constitution  by  some  form  of  union  between  the 
national  representatives  and  the  existing  executive  officials.  This  was  the  first 
serious  misconception  of  the  liberal  party  upon  the  sphere  of  action  within  which 
the  parliament  would  operate.  They  discussed  the  "  purification  "  of  the  federal 
council  and  its  "aversion  to  special  resolutions  of  an  unconstitutional  nature;" 
they  should  have  put  the  past  behind  them,  have  united  themselves  firmly  to 
the  federal  authorities,  and  carried  them  to  the  necessary  resolutions. 

The  mistrust  of  the  liberals  for  the  government  was  greater  and  more  lasting 
tlian  their  disgust  at  radical  imbecility,  a  fact  as  obvious  in  the  preliminary  con- 
ference as  in  the  national  assembly  which  it  called  into  being.  This  is  the  first 
and  probably  the  sole  cause  of  the  futility  of  the  efforts  made  by  upright  and 
disinterested  representative  men  to  guide  the  national  movement  in  Germany. 
Franz  von  Soiron  of  Mannheim  proposed  that  the  decision  upon  the  future  German 
constitution  should  be  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  national  assembly,  to  be 
elected  by  the  people ;  with  this  exception,  the  constitutional  ideal  was  abandoned 
and  a  utopia  set  up  in  its  place  not  utterly  dissimilar  to  the  dream  of  "  the  republic 
with  a  doge  at  its  head."  Soiron,  who  propounded  this  absurdity,  became  presi- 
dent of  the  committee  of  fifty. 

The  mode  of  election  to  the  national  constituent  assembly  realised  the  most 
extreme  demands  of  the  democrats.  Every  fifty  thousand  inhabitants  in  a  German 
federal  province.  East  and  West  Prussia  included,  had  to  send  up  a  deputy 
"  directly ; "  that  is  to  say,  appointment  was  not  made  by  any  existing  constitu- 
tional corporation.  Tlie  Czechs  of  Bohemia  were  included  without  cavil  among 
the  electors  of  the  German  parliament,  no  regard  being  given  to  the  scornful 
refusal  which  they  would  probably  return.  The  question  oLincluding  the  Poles 
on  the  Prussia  Baltic  provinces  was  left  to  the  decision  of  tne  parliament  itself. 
The  federal  council,  in  which  Karl  Welcker  had  already  become  influential,  pru- 
dently accepted  the  resolutions  of  the  preliminary  conference  and  communicated 
them  to  the  individual  States,  whose  business  it  was  to  carry  them  out. 

(&)  The  Attitude  of  Austria  and  Prussia.  — Feeling  in  the  different  governments 
had  undergone  a  rapid  transformation,  and  in  Prussia  even  more  than  elsewhere. 
On  March  21,  after  parading  Berlin  with  the  German  colours  (p.  185),  Frederick 
William  IV  had  made  a  public  declaration,  expressing  his  readiness  to  undertake 
the  direction  of  German  affairs.  His  exuberance  led  him  to  the  following  pro- 
nouncement :  "  I  have  to-day  assumed  tlie  ancient  German  colours  and  placed 
myself  and  my  people  under  the  honourable  banner  of  the  German  Empire.  Prus- 
sia is  henceforward  merged  in  Germany."  Tliese  words  would  have  created  a 
great  effect  had  the  king  been  possessed  of  the  power  which  was  his  by  right,  or 
had  he  given  any  proof  of  capacity  to  rule  his  own  people  or  to  defend  his  capital 
from  the  outrages  of  a  misled  and  passionately  excited  mob.     But  the  occurrences 


^S^^:VJf;n       HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  189 

at  Berlin  during  March  had  impaired  his  prestige  with  every  class ;  he  was 
despised  by  the  radicals,  and  the  patriotic  party  mistrusted  his  energy  and  his 
capacity  of  maintaining  his  dignity  in  a  difficult  situation.  Moreover,  the  German 
governments  had  lost  confidence  in  the  power  of  the  Prussian  State.  Hesse-Darm- 
stadt, Baden,  Nassau,  and  Wurtemberg  had  shown  themselves  ready  to  confer  full 
powers  upon  the  king  of  Prussia  for  the  formation,  in  tlieir  name,  of  a  new  federal 
constitution  with  provision  for  the  popular  rights.  They  were  also  willing  to  accept 
him  as  head  of  the  federation,  a  position  which  he  desired,  while  declining  the 
imperial  title  with  which  the  cheers  of  the  Berlin  population  had  greeted  him. 
When,  however.  Max  von  Gagern  arrived  in  Berlin  at  the  head  of  an  embassy  from 
the  above-mentioned  States,  the  time  for  the  enterprise  had  gone  by ;  a  king  who 
gave  way  to  rebels  and  did  obeisance  to  the  corpses  of  mob  leaders  who  had  fallen 
in  a  street  fight,  was  not  the  man  for  the  dictatorship  of  Germany  at  so  troublous 
a  time. 

Notwithstanding  their  own  difficulties,  the  Vienna  government  had  derived 
some  advantage  from  the  events  at  Berlin ;  there  was  no  reason  for  them  to  resign 
their  position  in  Germany.  The  emperor  Ferdinand  need  never  yield  to  Frederick 
William  lY.  The  Austrian  statesmen  were  sure  of  the  approval  of  the  German 
people,  even  of  the  national  and  progressive  parties,  if  they  straightway  opposed 
Prussian  interference  in  German  politics.  Eelying  upon  nationalist  sentiment  and 
appealing  to  national  sovereignty,  they  might  play  off  the  German  parliament 
against  the  king  of  Prussia.  Austria  was,  upon  the  showing  of  the  government 
and  the  popular  leaders,  the  real  Germany.  Austria  claimed  the  precedence  of  all 
German  races,  and  therefore  the  black,  red,  and  gold  banner  flew  on  the  Tower  of 
Stephan,  and  the  kindly  emperor  waved  it  before  the  students,  who  cheered  him 
in  the  castle.  The  offer  of  Prussian  leadership  was  declined ;  the  German  consti- 
tution was  to  be  arranged  by  the  federal  council  and  the  parliament,  and  Austria 
would  there  be  able  to  retain  the  leading  position  which  was  her  right. 

(c)  The  BepuUican  Revolt  of  Seeker  and  Struve  in  April,  1848.  —  The  case  of 
the  king  of  Prussia  was  sufficiently  disheartening ;  but  no  less  serious  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  German  movement  was  the  attitude  of  the  liberals  toward  the 
republicans.  The  professions  and  avowals  of  the  latter  had  not  been  declined  with 
the  decisiveness  that  belong  to  honest  monarchical  conviction.  Even  before  the 
meeting  of  parliament  disturbances  had  been  set  on  foot  by  the  Baden  radicals, 
and  it  became  obvious  that  radicalism  could  result  only  in  civU  war  and  anarchy, 
and  would  imperil  the  national  welfare.  But  the  liberals  had  not  learned  the 
great  truth  that  popular  rights  can  be  secured  only  in  well-ordered  States  under  a 
strong  government,  where  the  monarchical  power  is  firmly  established ;  instead  of 
placing  their  great  influence  at  the  service  of  the  governments,  they  looked  to 
their  own  fine  speeches  to  preserve  peace  and  order. 

The  Struve-Hecker  party  was  deeply  disappointed  with  the  results  of  the  pre- 
liminary conference.  It  had  not  taken  over  the  government  of  Germany ;  no 
princes  had  been  deposed,  and  even  the  federal  council  had  been  left  untouched. 
The  leaders,  impelled  thereto  by  their  French  associates,  accordingly  resolved  to 
initiate  an  armed  revolt  in  favour  of  the  republic.  The  "  moderate  "  party  had 
cleared  the  way  by  assenting  to  the  proposal  of  "  national  armament."  Under  the 
pretext  of  initiating  a  scheme  of  public  defence,  arms  for  the  destruction  of  con- 


190  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapterii 

stitutional  order  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  ruffians  who  had  been  wandermg 
about  the  Ehine  land  for  weeks  in  the  hope  of  robbery  and  plunder,  posing  as  the 
retinue  of  the  great  "  friends  of  the  people."  Acuter  politicians,  like  Karl  Mathy 
(p.  181),  discovered  too  late  that  it  was  now  necessary  to  stake  their  whole  personal 
influence  in  the  struggle  against  radical  insanity  and  the  madness  of  popular  agi- 
tators. In  person  he  arrested  the  agitator  Joseph  Fickler,  when  starting  from 
Carlsruhe  to  Constance  to  stir  up  insurrection ;  but  his  bold  ezample  found  few 
imitators.  The  evil  was  not  thoroughly  extirpated,  as  the  "  people's  men  "  could 
not  refrain  from  repeating  radical  catchwords  and  meaningless  promises  of  popular 
supremacy  and  the  downfall  of  tyrants  in  every  public-house  and  platform  where 
they  thought  they  could  secure  the  applause  for  which  they  thirsted  like  actors. 

Hecker  had  maintained  communications  with  other  countries  from  Karlsruhe, 
and  had  been  negotiating  for  the  advance  of  contingents  from  Paris,  to  be  paid 
from  the  resources  of  Ledru-EoUin  (p.  178).  After  Fickler's  imprisonment  on 
April  8  he  became  alarmed  for  his  own  safety,  and  fled  to  Constance.  There,  in 
conjunction  with  Struve  and  his  subordinates,  Doll,  WHlich,  formerly  a  Prussian 
lieutenant,  Mogling  of  "Wurtemberg,  and  Bruhe  of  Holstein,  he  issued  an  appeal  to 
all  who  were  capable  of  bearing  arms  to  concentrate  at  Donaueschingen  on  April 
12,  for  the  purpose  of  founding  the  German  repubhc.  With  a  republican  army  of 
fifty  men  he  marched  on  the  13th  from  Constance,  where  the  republic  had  main- 
tained its  existence  for  a  whole  day.  In  the  plains  of  the  Ehine  a  junction  was  to 
be  effected  with  the  "  legion  of  the  noble  Franks,"  led  by  the  poet  Georg  Herwegh 
and  his  Jewish  wife.  In  vain  did  two  deputies  from  the  committee  of  fifty  in 
Frankfurt  advise  the  republicans  to  lay  down  their  arms :  their  overtures  were 
rejected  with  contumely.  The  eighth  federal  army  corps  had  been  rapidly  mobil- 
ised, and  the  troops  of  Hesse  and  Wurtemberg  brought  this  insane  enterprise  to 
an  end  in  the  almost  bloodless  conflicts  of  Kandem  (April  20)  and  Guntersthal 
at  Freiburg  (April  23).  The  republicans  were  given  neither  time  nor  opportunity 
for  any  display  of  their  Teutonic  heroism.  Their  sole  exploit  was  the  shooting  of 
the  general  Friedrich  von  Gagern  from  an  ambush  as  he  was  returning  to  his 
troops  from  an  imsuccessful  conference  with  the  boastful  Hecker.  Herwegh's 
French  legion  was  dispersed  at  Dossenbach  (April  26)  by  a  company  of  Wurtem- 
berg troops.  These  warriors  took  refuge  for  the  time  being  m  Switzerland  with 
the  "  generals  "  Hecker,  Struve,  and  Franz  Siegl. 

8.    THE   STEUGGLES    FOE  THE   EIGHT   OF  NATIONAL   AUTONOMY 

A.  Italy 

As  early  as  January,  1848,  the  population  of  the  Lombard  States  had  begun 
openly  to  display  their  animosity  to  the  Austrians.  The  secret  revolutionary  com- 
mittees, who  took  their  instructions  from  Eome  and  Turin,  organised  demonstra- 
tions, and  forbade  the  purchase  of  Austrian  cigars  and  lottery  tickets,  the  profits  of 
which  went  to  the  Austrian  exchequer.  Threats  and  calls  for  blood  and  vengeance 
upon  the  troops  were  placarded  upon  the  walls,  and  cases  of  assassination  occurred. 
Field-Marshal  Count  Eadetzky  had  felt  certain  that  the  national  movement,  begun 
in  the  Church  States,  would  extend  throughout  Italy,  and  oblige  Austria  to  defend 
her  territory  by  force  of  arms.     He  was  also  informed  of  the  warlike  feeling  in 


S^^r^f«a       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  191 

Piedmont  and  of  the  secret  preparations  which  were  in  progress  there.  This 
view  was  well  founded.  Any  dispassionate  judgment  of  the  political  situation 
in  -the  peninsula  showed  that  the  governments  of  the  individual  States  were  in 
a  dilemma ;  either  they  might  join  the  national  yearning  for  liberation  from  the 
foreign  rule  and  help  their  subjects  in  the  struggle,  or  they  would  be  forced  to 
yield  to  the  victorious  advance  of  republicanism.  The  Savoy  family  of  Carignan 
(p.  118),  the  only  ruling  house  of  national  origin,  found  no  difficulty  in  deciding 
the  question.  As  leaders  of  the  patriotic  party  they  might  attain  a  highly  im- 
portant position,  and  at  least  become  the  leaders  of  a  federal  Italy ;  while  they 
were  forced  to  endanger  their  kingdom,  whatever  side  they  took. 

Eadetzky  was  indefatigable  in  his  efforts  to  keep  the  Vienna  government  in- 
formed of  the  approaching  danger,  but  his  demands  for  reinforcements  to  the 
troops  serving  in  the  Lombardo- Venetian  provinces  were  disregarded.  The  old 
war  minister.  Count  H.  Hardegg,  who  supported  Eadetzky,  was  harshly  dismissed 
from  his  position  in  the  exchequer,  and  died  of  vexation  at  the  affront.  Not  all 
the  obtuseness  and  vacillation  of  the  Vienna  bureaucracy  could  shake  the  old  field- 
marshal  (on  August  1, 1847,  he  began  his  sixty-fourth  year  of  service  in  the  im- 
perial army)  from  his  conviction  that  the  Austrian  house  meant  to  defend  its 
Italian  possessions.  He  was  well  aware  that  the  very  existence  of  the  monarchy 
was  involved  in  this  question  of  predominance  in  Italy.  A  moment  when  every 
nationality  united  under  the  Hapsburg  rule  was  making  the  most  extravagant  de- 
mands upon  the  State  was  not  the  moment  voluntarily  to  abandon  a  position  of 
the  greatest  moral  value. 

After  the  outbreak  of  the  revolt  many  voices  recommended  an  Austrian  retreat 
from  Lombardy  and  Venice.  It  was  thought  impossible  that  these  two  countries, 
with  independent  governments  of  their  own,  could  be  incorporated  in  so  loosely 
articulated  a  federation  as  the  Austrian  Empire  seemed  likely  to  become.  Such 
counsels  were  not  inconceivable  in  view  of  the  zeal  with  which  kings  and  min- 
isters, professors,  lawyers,  and  authors,  plunged  into  the  elaboration  of  political 
blunders  and  misleading  theories ;  but  to  follow  them  would  have  been  to  increase 
rather  than  to  diminish  the  difficulties  of  Austrian  politics,  which  grew  daily  more 
complicated.  In  the  turmoil  of  national  and  democratic  aspirations  and  pro- 
grammes the  idea  of  the  Austrian  State  was  forgotten ;  its  strength  and  dignity 
depended  upon  the  inflexibility  and  upon  the  ultimate  victory  of  Eadetzky  and  his 
army.  The  war  in  Italy  was  a  national  war,  more  especially  for  the  Austro- 
Germans ;  for  passion,  even  for  an  ideal,  cannot  impress  the  German  and  arouse  his 
admiration  to  the  same  extent  as  the  heroic  fulfilment  of  duty.  Additional  influ- 
ences upon  the  Austrians  were  the  military  assessment,  their  delight  in  proved 
military  superiority,  and  their  military  traditions.  Nationalism  was  indisputably 
an  animating  force  among  the  Germans  of  the  Alpine  districts.  Never  did  Franz 
Grillparzer  so  faithfully  represent  the  Austrian  spirit  as  in  the  oft-repeated  words 
which  he  ascribed  to  the' old  field-marshal,  upholding  the  ancient  imperial  banner 
upon  Guelf  soil :  « In  thy  camp  is  Austria ;  we  are  but  single  fragments." 

It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  a  statesman  of  unusual  penetration  and  insight 
might  even  then  have  recognised  that  Austria  was  no  longer  a  force  in  Germany, 
that  the  claim  of  the  Hapsburgs  to  lead  the  German  nation  had  disappeared  with 
the  Holy  Eoman  Empire.  "We  may  conceive  that,  granted  such  recognition  of  the 
facts,  a  just  division  of  influence  and  power  in  Central  Europe  might  have  been 


192  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [_Chapter  ii 

brought  about  by  a  peaceful  compromise  with  Prussia  ;  but  it  was  foolishness  to 
expect  the  House  of  Hapsburg  voluntarily  to  begin  a  partition  of  the  countries 
which  had  fallen  to  be  hers.  The  acquisition  of  Italy  had  been  a  mistake  on  the 
part  of  Metternich ;  but  the  mistake  could  not  be  mended  by  a  surrender  of  rights 
at  the  moment  when  hundreds  of  claims  would  be  pressed.  To  maintain  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  empire  was  to  preserve  its  internal  solidarity  and  to  uphold  the 
monarchical  power.  The  monarchy  could  produce  no  more  convincing  evidence 
than  the  victories  of  the  army.  An  army  which  had  retreated  before  the  Pied- 
montese  and  the  Guelf  guerilla  troops  would  never  have  gained  another  victory, 
not  even  in  Hungary. 

In  an  army  order  of  January  15,  1848,  Eadetzky  announced  in  plain  and  un- 
ambiguous terms  that  the  emperor  of  Austria  was  resolved  to  defend  the  Lombardo- 
V^netian  kingdom  against  internal  and  external  enemies,  and  that  he  himself 
proposed  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  imperial  will.  He  was,  however,  unable 
to  make  any  strategical  preparations  for  the  approaching  struggle ;  he  had  barely 
troops  enough  to  occupy  the  most  important  towns,  and  in  every  case  the  garrisons 
were  entirely  outnumbered  by  the  population.  Hence  it  has  been  asserted  that 
the  revolution  took  him  by  surprise.  The  fact  was  that  he  had  no  means  of  fore- 
stalling a  surprise,  and  was  obliged  to  modify  his  measures  in  proportion  to  the 
forces  at  his  disposal.  The  crowds  began  to  gather  on  March  17,  when  the  news 
of  the  Vienna  revolution  reached  Milan;  street  fighting  began  on  the  18th  and 
19th,  and  the  marshal  was  forced  to  concentrate  his  scattered  troops  upon  the  gates 
and  walls  of  the  great  city,  lest  he  should  find  himself  shut  in  by  an  advancing 
Piedmontese  army. 

On  March'  21  it  became  certain  that  Charles  Albert  of  Sardinia  would  cross 
the  Ticino  with  his  army.  Eadetzky  left  Milan  and  retreated  beyond  the  Mincio 
to  the  strong  fortress  of  Verona,  which,  with  Mantua,  Peschiera,  and  Legnago, 
formed  "the  quadrilateral"  which  became  famous  iu  the  following  campaign. 
Most  of  the  garrisons  in  the  Lombard  towns  were  able  to  cut  their  way  through, 
comparatively  few  surrendering.  However,  the  sixty-one  thousand  infantry  of  the 
imperial  army  were  diminished  by  the  desertion  of  the  twenty  Italian  battalions 
which  belonged  to  it,  amounting  to  ten  thousand  men.  It  \^s  necessary  to  aban- 
don most  of  the  State  chests ;  the  field-marshal  could  only  convey  from  Milan  to 
Verona  half  a  million  florins  in  coined  money,  which  was  saved  by  the  division 
stationed  in  Padua,  which  made  a  rapid  advance  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
revolt. 

Venice  had  thrown  off  the  yoke.  The  lawyer  Daniel  Manin,  of  Jewish  family, 
and  therefore  not  a  descendant  of  Lodovico  Manin,  the  last  doge,  had  gained  over 
the  arsenal  workers.  With  their  help  he  had  occupied  the  arsenal  and  overawed 
the  field-marshal,  Count  Ferdinand  Zichy,  a  brother-in-law  of  Metternich,  who  was 
military  commander  in  conjunction  with  the  civil  governor,  Count  Palffy  of  Erdod. 
Zichy  surrendered  on  March  22,  on  condition  that  the  non-Italian  garrison  should 
be  allowed  to  depart  unmolested.  Manin  became  president  of  the  new  demo- 
cratic republic  of  Venice,  which  was  joined  by  most  of  the  towns  of  the  former 
Venetian  terra  firma ;  however,  England  and  Prance  declined  to  recognise  the 
republic,  which  was  soon  forced  to  make  common  cause  with  Sardinia.  Mantua 
was  preserved  to  the  Austrians  by  the  bold  and  imperturbable  behaviour  of  the 
commandant  general,  Von  Gorczkowski. 


SSlTif.%f]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  193 

The  Italian  nationalist  movement  had  also  spread  to  the  south  Tyrol.  On 
March  19  the  inhabitants  of  Trent  demanded  the  incorporation  into  Lombardy 
of  the  Trentino,  that  is,  the  district  of  the  former  prince-bishopric  of  Trent.  The 
appearance  of  an  Austrian  brigade  under  General  von  Zobel  to  relieve  the  hard- 
pressed  garrison  of  the  citadel  secured  the  Austrian  possession  of  this  important 
town,  and  also  strengthened  the  only  line  of  communication  now  open  between 
Eadetzky's  headquarters  and  the  Austrian  government,  the  line  through  the  Tyrol. 
The  defence  of  their  country  was  now  undertaken  by  the  German  Tyrolese  them- 
selves ;  they  called  out  the  defensive  forces  which  their  legislature  had  provided 
for  centuries  past,  and  occupied  the  frontiers.  They  were  not  opposed  by  the 
Italian  population  on  the  south,  who  in  many  cases  volunteered  to  serve  in  the 
defence  of  their  territory ;  hence  the  revolutionary  towns  were  unable  to  make 
head  against  these  opponents,  or  to  maintain  regular  communication  with  the 
revolutionists  advancing  against  the  frontier.  Wherever  the  latter  attempted  to 
break  through  they  were  decisively  defeated  by  the  admirable  Tyrolese  guards, 
who  took  up  arms  against  the  Guelfs  with  readiness  and  enthusiasm. 

On  March  29, 1848,  the  king  of  Sardinia  crossed  the  Tieino,  without  any  formal 
declaration  of  war,  ostensibly  to  protect  his  own  territories.  He  had  at  his  dis- 
posal three  divisions,  amounting  to  about  forty-five  thousand  men,  and  after  gain- 
ing several  successes  in  small  conflicts  at  Goito,  Valeggio,  and  elsewhere,  against 
weak  Austrian  divisions,  he  advanced  to  the  Mincio  on  April  10.  Mazzini  (p.  180) 
had  appeared  in  Milan  after  the  retreat  of  the  Austrians ;  but  the  advance  of  the 
Piedmontese  prevented  the  installation  of  a  republican  administration.  For  a 
moment  the  national  movement  was  concentrated  solely  upon  the  struggle  against 
the  Austrian  supremacy.  Tumultuous  public  demonstrations  forced  the  petty  and 
central  States  of  Italy  to  send  their  troops  to  the  support  of  the  Piedmontese.  In 
this  way  nearly  forty  thousand  men  from  Naples,  Catholic  Switzerland,  Tuscany, 
Modena,  and  elsewhere  were  concentrated  on  the  Po  under  the  orders  of  General 
Giacomo  Durando,  to  begin  the  attack  on  the  Austrian  position  in  conjunction  with 
Charles  Albert. 

After  the  despatch  of  the  troops  required  to  cover  the  Etsch  valley  and  to 
garrison  the  fortresses,  Eadetzky  was  left  with  only  thirty-five  thousand  men; 
however,  he  was  able,  with  nineteen  Austrian  battalions,  sixteen  squadrons,  and 
eighty-one  guns,  to  attack  and  decisively  defeat  the  king  at  Santa  Lucia  on  May  6, 
as  he  was  advancing  with  forty-one  thousand  men  and  eighty  guns.  The  Zehner 
light  infantry  under  Colonel  Karl  von  Kopal  behaved  admirably ;  the  archduke 
Franz  Joseph,  heir  presumptive,  also  took  part  in  the  battle.  The  conspicuous 
services  of  these  bold  warriors  to  the  fortunes  of  Austria  have  made  this  obstinate 
struggle  especially  famous  in  the  eyes  of  their  compatriots.  Eadetzky's  victory  at 
Santa  Lucia  is  the  turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  Italian  revolution.  The  Aus- 
trian troops  definitely  established  the  fact  of  their  superiority  to  the  Piedmontese, 
by  far  the  best  of  the  Italian  contingents.  Conscious  of  this,  the  little  army  was 
inspired  with  confidence  in  its  own  powers  and  in  the  generalship  of  the  aged 
marshal,  whose  heroic  spirit  was  irresistible.  Many  young  men  from  the  best 
families  of  Vienna  and  the  Alpine  districts  took  service  against  the  Italians.  The 
healthy-minded  students  were  glad  to  escape  from  the  aula  of  the  University  of 
Vienna,  with  its  turgid  orations  and  sham  patriotism,  and  to  shed  their  blood  for 
the  honour  of  their  nation  side  by  side  with  the  brave  "  volunteers,"  who  went  into 

VOL.  VIII  — 13 


194  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [chapter  ir 

action  with  jest  and  laugh.  Such  events  considerably  abated  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  Italians,  who  began  to  learn  that  wars  cannot  be  waged  by  zeal  alone,  and  that 
their  fiery  national  spirit  gave  them  no  superiority  in  the  use  of  the  rifle. 

Eadetzky  was  not  to  be  tempted  into  a  reckless  advance  by  the  brilliant  success 
he  had  attained ;  after  thus  vigorously  repulsing  Karl  Albert's  main  force,  he 
remained  within  his  quadrilateral  of  fortresses,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  reserves 
which  were  being  concentrated  in  Austria.  Sixteen  thousand  infantry,  eight  squad- 
rons of  cavalry,  and  fifty-four  guns  marched  from  Isonzo  under  Laval,  Count 
Nugent,  masber  of  the  ordnance,  an  old  comrade  of  Eadetzky.  He  was  an  Irish- 
man by  birth,  and  had  entered  the  Austrian  army  in  1793  ;  in  1812  he  had  seen 
service  in  Spain  during  the  war  of  liberation,  and  in  1813  had  led  the  revolt  on  the 
coast  districts.  On  April  22  Nugent  captured  Udine,  and  advanced  by  way  of 
Pordenone  and  Conegliano  to  Belluno,  Feltre,  and  Bassano,  covering  his  flank  by 
the  mountains,  as  Durando's  corps  had  gone  northward  from  the  Po  to  prevent  his 
junction  with  Eadetzky.  Nugent  fell  sick,  and  after  continual  fighting  General 
Count  Georg  Thurn  led  the  reserves  to  San  Bonifaco  at  Verona,  where  he  joined 
the  main  army  on  May  22. 

Meanwhile  the  monarchical  government  in  Naples  had  succeeded  in  defeating 
the  republicans,  and  the  king  accordingly  recalled  the  Neapolitan  army,  which  had 
already  advanced  to  the  Po.  The  summons  A^as  obeyed  except  by  two  thousand 
men,  with  whom  General  Pepe  reinforced  the  Venetian  contingent.  This  change 
materially  diminished  the  danger  which  had  threatened  Eadetzky's  left  flank  ;  he 
was  now  able  to  take  the  offensive  against  the  Sardinian  armj',  and  advanced  against 
Curtatone  and  Goito  from  Mantua,  whither  he  had  arrived  on  May  28  with  two 
corps  and  part  of  the  reserves.  He  proposed  to  relieve  Peschiera,  which  was 
invested  by  the  Duke  of  Genoa ;  but  the  garrison  had  received  no  news  of  the 
advance  of  the  main  army,  and  were  forced  from  lack  of  provisions  to  surren- 
der on  May  30.  However,  after  a  fierce  struggle  at  Monte  Berico  on  June  10, 
in  "which  Colonel  von  Kopal,  the  Eoland  of  the  Austrian  army,  was  killed, 
Eadetzky  captured  Vicenza,  General  Durando  being  allowed  to  retreat  with  the 
Eoman  and  Tuscan  troops.  They  were  joined  by  the  "  crociati "  (crusaders),  who 
had  occupied  Treviso.  Padua  was  also  evacuated  by  the  reaplutionaries,  and  almost 
the  whole  of  the  Venetian  province  was  thus  recovered  by  the  Austrians.  Fresh 
reinforcements  from  Austria  were  employed  in  the  formation  of  a  second  reserve 
corps  under  General  von  Welden  on  the  Piave ;  this  force  was  to  guard  Venetia 
on  the  land  side. 

At  this  period  the  provisional  government  in  Milan  offered  the  Lombardo- 
Venetian  crown  to  the  king  of  Sardinia.  Charles  Albert  might  reasonably  hope  to 
wear  it,  as  the  Austrian  government,  which  had  retired  to  Innsbruck  on  the  renewal 
of  disturbances  in  Vienna,  showed  some  inclination  to  conclude  an  armistice  in 
Italy.  England  and  France,  however,  had  declared  the  surrender  by  Austria  of 
the  Italian  provinces  to  be  an  indispensable  preliminary  to  peace  negotiations. 
Eadetzky  hesitated  to  begin  negotiations  for  this  purpose,  and  remained  firm  in 
his  resolve  to  continue  the  war,  for  which  he  made  extensive  preparations  in  the 
course  of  June  and  July,  1848.  He  formed  a  third  army  corps  in  south  Tyrol, 
under  Count  Thurn,  a  fourth  in  Legnago,  under  General  von  Culoz,  and  was  then  able 
with  the  two  corps  already  on  foot  to  attack  the  king  in  his  entrenchments  at  Sona 
and  Sommacampagna.     Operations  began  here  on  July  23  and  ended  on  the  25th, 


?£^e1rlf?oT/]        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  195 

with  the  battle  of  Custozza.  The  king  was  defeated,  and  Eadetzky  secured  com- 
mand of  the  whole  line  of  the  Mincio. 

Charles  Albert  now  made  proposals  for  an  armistice.  However,  Eadetzky's 
demands  were  such  as  the  king  found  impossible  to  entertain.  He  was  forced  to 
give  up  the  line  of  the  Adda,  which  the  field-marshal  crossed  with  three  army- 
corps  on  August  1  without  a  struggle.  The  battle  of  Milan  on  the  4th  so  clearly 
demonstrated  the  incapacity  of  the  Piedmontese  troops,  that  the  king  must  have 
welcomed  the  rapidity  of  the  Austrian  advance  as  facilitating  his  escape  from  the 
raging  mob  with  its  cries  of  treason.  Eadetzky  entered  Milan  on  August  6,  and 
was  well  received  by  some  part  of  the  population.  Peschiera  was  evacuated  on  the 
10th.  With  the  exception  of  Venice,  the  kingdom  of  the  double  crown  had  now 
been  restored  to  the  emperor.  An  armistice  was  concluded  between  Austria  and 
Sardinia  on  August  9  for  six  weeks  ;  it  was  prolonged  by  both  sides,  though  with- 
out formal  stipulation,  through  the  autumn  of  1848  and  the  winter  of  1848-1849. 

In  Tuscany  the  grand  duke  Leopold  II  thought  he  had  completely  satisfied  the 
national  and  political  desires  of  his  people  by  the  grant  of  a  liberal  constitution 
and  by  the  junction  of  his  troops  with  the  Piedmont  army.  Since  the  time  of  the 
great  Medici,  this  fair  province  had  never  been  so  prosperous  as  under  the  mild 
rule  of  the  Hapsburg  grand  duke ;  but  the  republicans  gave  it  no  rest.  They  seized 
the  harbour  of  Livorno  and  also  the  government  of  Florence  in  February,  1849, 
under  the  leadership  of  Mazzini's  follower,  Francesco  Domenico  Guerrazzi,  whom 
Leopold  was  forced  to  appoint  minister.  The  grand  duke  fled  to  Gaeta,  where 
Pope  Pius  IX  had  sought  refuge  at  the  end  of  November,  1848,  from  the  republi- 
cans, who  were  besieging  him  in  the  Quirinal.  Mazzini  and  his  friend  Giuseppe 
Garibaldi,  who  had  led  a  life  of  adventure  in  South  America  after  the  persecutions 
of  the  thirties,  harassed  the  Austrians  with  the  adherents  who  had  gathered  round 
them.  They  operated  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Lago  Maggiore,  where  they  could 
easily  withdraw  into  Swiss  territory,  and  also  stirred  their  associates  in  Piedmont 
to  fresh  activity. 

King  Charles  Albert  saw  that  a  renewal  of  the  campaign  against  the  Austrians 
was  the  only  means  of  avoiding  the  revolution  with  which  he  also  was  threatened. 
He  had  therefore,  by  dint  of  energetic  preparation,  succeeded  in  raising  his  army 
to  one  hundred  thousand  men.  He  rightly  saw  that  a  victory  would  bring  all  the 
patriots  over  to  his  side ;  but  he  had  no  faith  in  this  possibility,  and  announced  the 
termination  of  the  armistice  on  March  12, 1849,  in  a  tone  of  despair.  Eadetzky  had 
long  expected  this  move,  and,  far  from  being  taken  unawares,  had  made  preparations 
to  surprise  his  adversary.  Instead  of  retiring  to  the  Adda,  as  the  Sardinian  had 
expected,  he  started  from  Lodi  with  fifty-eight  thousand  men  and  one  hundred  and 
eighty-six  guns,  and  made  a  turn  to  the  right  upon  Pavia.  On  March  20  he  crossed 
the  Ticino  and  moved  upon  Mortara,  while  Charles  Albert  made  a  corresponding 
manoeuvre  at  Buffalora  and  entered  Lombard  territory  at  Magenta.  He  had 
entrusted  the  command  of  his  army  to  the  Polish  revolutionary  general,  Adalbert 
Chrzanowski,  whose  comrade,  Eamorino  (p.  148),  led  a  division  formed  of  Lombard 
fugitives.  Eadetzky's  bold  flank  movement  had  broken  the  connection  of  the 
Sardinian  forces;  Chrzanowski  was  forced  hastily  to  despatch  two  divisions  to 
Vigevano  and  Mortara  to  check  the  Austrian  advance  which  was  directed  against 
the  Sardinian  line  of  retreat.  The  stronghold  of  Mortara  was  none  the  less  cap- 
tured on  March  2 1  by  the  corps  d'Aspre,  the  first  division  of  which  was  led  by  the 


196  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  ii 

archduke  Albrecht.  The  Sardinian  leaders  were  then  forced  to  occupy  Novara 
with  fifty-four  thousand  men  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  guns,  their  troops 
available  at  the  moment.  Tactically  the  position  was  admirable,  and  here  they 
awaited  the  decisive  battle.  Eetreat  to  Vercelli  was  impossible,  in  view  of  the 
advancing  Austrian  columns. 

On  March  23  Eadetzky  despatched  his  four'  corps  to  converge  upon  ISTovara. 
About  11  A.  M.  the  archduke  Albrecht  began  the  attack  upon  the  heights  of 
Bicocca,  which  formed  the  key  to  the  Italian  position.  For  four  hours  fifteen 
thousand  men  held  out  against  fifty  thousand,  until  the  corps  advancing  on  the 
road  from  Vercelli  were  able  to  come  into  action  at  3  p.m.  This  movement 
decided  the  struggle.  In  the  evening  the  Sardinians  were  ejected  from  the 
heights  of  Novara  and  retired  within  the  town,  which  was  at  once  bombarded. 
The  tactical  arrangement  of  the  Italians  was  ruined  by  the  disorder  of  their 
converging  columns,  and  many  soldiers  were  able  to  take  to  flight.  Further 
resistance  was  impossible,  and  the  king  demanded  an  armistice  of  Eadetzky, 
which  was  refused.  Charles  Albert  now  abdicated,  resigning  his  crown  to  Victor 
Emanuel,  Duke  of  Savoy,  his  heir,  who  happened  to  be  present.  During  the 
night  he  was  allowed  to  pass  through  the  Austrian  lines  and  to  make  his  way 
to  Tuscany. 

On  the  morning  of  March  24  King  Victor  Emanuel  had  a  conversation  with 
Eadetzky  in  the  farmstead  of  Vignale,  and  arranged  an  armistice  on  conditions 
which  were  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  future  peace.  The  status  quo  ante  in 
respect  of  territorial  possession  was  to  be  restored;  the  field-marshal  waived 
the  right  of  marching  into  Turin,  which  lay  open  to  him,  but  retained  the 
Lomellina,  the  country  between  the  Ticino  and  the  Sesia,  which  he  occupied 
with  twenty-one  thousand  men  until  the  conclusion  of  peace.  It  was  stipulated 
that  Sardinia  should  withdraw  her  ships  from  the  Adriatic  and  her  troops 
from  Tuscany,  Parma,  and  Modena,  and  should  forthwith  disband  the  Hun- 
garian, Polish,  and  Lombard  volunteer  corps  serving  with  the  army.  Brescia, 
which  the  republicans  had  occupied  after  the  retreat  of  the  Austrians  from 
Milan,  was  stormed  on  April  1  by  General  von  Haynau,  who  brought  up  his 
reserve  corps  from  Padua.  In  the  preceding  battles  the  Italians  had  committed 
many  cruelties  upon  Austrian  prisoners  and  wounded  soldiers.  For  this  reason 
the  conquerors  gave  no  quarter  to  the  defenders  of  the  town;  all  who  were 
caught  in  arms  were  cut  down,  and  the  houses  burned  from  which  firing  had 
proceeded. 

With  the  defeat  of  Sardinia  the  Italian  nationalist  movement  became  pur- 
poseless. The  restoration  of  constitutional  government  in  the  Church  States, 
Tuscany,  and  the  duchies  was  opposed  only  by  the  democrats.  Their  resistance 
was,  however,  speedily  broken  by  the  Austrian  troops,  Bologna  and  Ancona  alone 
necessitating  special  efforts ;  the  former  was  occupied  on  May  15,  the  latter  on 
the  19th.  Under  Garibaldi's  leadership  Eome  offered  a  vigorous  resistance  to  the 
French  and  Neapolitans,  who  were  attempting  to  secure  the  restoration  of  the  pope 
at  his  own  desire.  The  French  general  Victor  Oudinot,  a  son  of  the  marshal  of 
that  name  under  Napoleon  I,  was  obliged  to  invest  the  eternal  city  in  form  from 
June  1  to  July  3  with  twenty  thousand  men,  until  the  population  perceived  the 
hopelessness  of  defence  and  forced  Garibaldi  to  withdraw  with  three  thousand  re- 
publicans.    From  the  date  of  her  entry  into  Eome  until  the  year  1866  (and  again 


ltZiin%t^'\       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  197 

from  1867  to  1870)  France  maintained  a  garrison  in  the  town  for  the  protection  of 
the  pope.  Venice  continued  to  struggle  longest  for  her  independence.  Manin 
rejected  the  summons  to  surrender,  even  after  he  had  received  information  of  the 
overthrow  and  abdication  of  Charles  Albert.  The  Austrians  were  compelled  to 
drive  parallels  against  the  fortifications  in  the  lagoons,  of  which  Eort  Malghera 
was  the  most  important,  and  to  bombard  them  contimlously.  It  was  not  until 
communication  between  the  town  and  the  neighbouring  coast  line  was  entirely  cut 
off  by  a  flotilla  of  rowing  boats  that  the  failure  of  provisions  and  supplies  forced 
the  town  council,  to  which  Manin  had  entrusted  the  government,  to  surrender. 

Italy  was  thus  unable  to  free  herself  by  her  own  efforts.  Since  the  summer  of 
1848  the  Austrian  government  had  been  forced  to  find  troops  for  service  against 
the  rebels  in  Hungary.  It  was  not  until  the  autumn  that  the  capital  of  Vienna 
had  been  cleared  of  rioters ;  yet  Austria  had  been  able  to  provide  the  forces  neces- 
sary to  crush  the  Italian  power.  Her  success  was  due  to  the  generalship  and 
capacity  of  the  great  marshal,  who  is  rightly  called  the  saviour  of  the  monarchy, 
and  in  no  less  degree  to  the  admirable  spirit,  fidelity,  and  devotion  of  the  offi- 
cers, and  to  the  superior  bravery  and  endurance  of  the  German  and  Slav  troops. 
High  as  the  national  enthusiasm  of  the  Italians  rose,  it  could  never  compensate 
for  their  lack  of  discipline  and  military  capacity. 

B.  The  Austeo-Hungaeian  Mokarchy,  1848-1849 

The  struggle  between  Italy  and  Austria  may  be  considered  as  inevitable; 
each  side  staked  its  resources  upon  a  justifiable  venture.  The  same  cannot  be 
said  of  the  Hungarian  campaign.  Under  no  urgent  necessity,  without  the  propo- 
sition of  any  object  of  real  national  value,  blood  was  uselessly  and  wantonly  shed, 
and  the  most  lamentable  aberrations  and  political  blunders  were  committed.  The 
result  was  more  than  a  decade  of  bitter  suffering  both  for  the  Magyars  and  for  the 
other  peoples  of  the  Hapsburg  monarchy.  Such  evils  are  due  to  the  fact  that  rev- 
olutions never  succeed  in  establishing  a  situation  in  any  way  tolerable ;  they  burst 
the  bonds  of  oppression  and  avenge  injustice,  but  interrupt  the  normal  course  of 
development  and  of  constitutional  progress,  thereby  postponing  improvements  per- 
fectly attainable  in  themselves. 

(a)  Vienna  from  April  to  August,  IS^S.  —  Both  ta  Vienna  and  in  Hungary 
the  month  of  March  had  been  a  time  of  great  confusion.  In  the  sudden  excite- 
ment of  the  population  and  the  vacillation  of  the  government,  rights  had  been 
extorted  and  were  recognised ;  but  their  exercise  was  impeded,  if  not  absolutely 
prevented,  by  the  continued  existence  of  the  State.  In  Vienna  the  most  pressing 
questions  were  the  right  of  the  students  to  carry  arms  and  to  enter  public  life ;  in 
Hungary,  the  creation  of  a  special  war  office  and  an  exchequer  board  of  unlimited 
power.  The  students  were  the  leading  spirits  of  political  life  in  Vienna.  There 
was  no  constitutional  matter,  no  question  of  national  or  administrative  policy,  in 
which  they  had  not  interfered  and  advanced  their  demands  in  the  name  of  the 
people.  Movements  in  the  capital,  the  seat  of  government,  were  therefore  charac- 
terised by  a  spirit  of  immaturity,  or,  rather,  of  childishness.  Quiet  and  deliberate 
discussion  on  business  methods  was  unknown,  every  conclusion  was  rejected  as 
soon  as  made,  and  far-sighted  men  of  experience  and  knowledge  of  administrative 


198  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [chapter  ii 

work  were  refused  a  hearing.  Fluent  and  empty-headed  demagogues,  acquainted 
with  the  art  of  theatrical  rant,  enjoyed  the  favour  of  the  excitable  middle  and 
working  classes,  and  unfortunately  were  too  often  allowed  a  determining  voice 
and  influence  in  government  circles.  Any  systematic  and  purposeful  exercise  of 
the  rights  that  had  been  gained  was,  under  these  circumstances,  impossible ;  for 
no  one  could  appreciate  the  value  of  these  concessions.  Like  children  crying  for 
the  moon,  they  steadily  undermined  constituted  authority  and  could  put  nothing 
in  its  place. 

The  students  were  seduced  and  exploited  by  ignorant  journalists,  aggressive 
hot-headed  Jews,  inspired  with  all  Borne's  hatred  of  monarchical  institutions ;  any 
sensible  proposal  was  obscured  by  a  veil  of  Heine-like  cynicism.  To  the  journalists 
must  be  added  the  grumblers  and  the  base-born,  who  hoped  to  secure  lucrative  posts 
by  overthrowing  the  influence  of  the  more  respectable  and  conscientious  men. 
These  so-called  "  democrats "  gained  the  consideration  even  of  the  prosperous 
classes  by  reason  of  their  association  with  the  students,  who  represented  popular 
feeling.  They  controlled  the  countless  clubs  and  unions  of  the  National  Guard  in 
the  suburbs,  and  stirred  up  the  working  classes,  which  in  Vienna  were  in  the 
depths  of  political  ignorance ;  they  had  been,  moreover,  already  inflamed  by  the 
emissaries  which  the  revolutionary  societies  sent  out  into  France,  Switzerland,  and 
West  Germany,  and  were  inspired  with  the  wildest  dreams  of  the  approach  of  a 
new  era,  bringing  freedom,  license,  and  material  enjoyment  in  boundless  measure. 
Together  with  the  Jews,  the  Poles  also  attained  to  great  importance,  especially 
after  the  disturbances  in  the  Polish  districts  of  Austria  had  been  crushed  by  the 
energies  of  the  count  Franz  Stadion,  governor  of  Galicia,  and  of  the  town  com- 
mandant of  Krakow.  The  agitators  who  were  there  thrown  out  of  employment 
received  a  most  brilliant  reception  at  Vienna,  and  their  organisation  of  "  lightning 
petitions  "  and  street  parades  soon  made  them  indispensable.  On  April  25,  1848, 
was  published  the  constitution  of  Pillersdorf  (p.  184),  a  hastily  constructed  scheme, 
but  not  without  merit ;  on  May  9  the  election  arrangements  followed.  Both  alike 
were  revolutionary;  they  disregarded  the  rights  of  the  Landtag,  and  far  from 
attempting  to  remodel  existing  material,  created  entirely  new  institutions  in  accord- 
ance with  the  political  taste  prevailing  at  the  moment.  Cent^lisation  was  a  fun- 
damental principle  of  these  schemes ;  they  presupposed  the  existence  of  a  united 
territorial  empire  under  uniform  administration,  from  which  only  Hungary  and  the 
Lombard-Venetian  kingdom  were  tacitly  excluded.  The  Eeichstag  was  to  consist 
of  a  senate  and  a  chamber  of  deputies.  The  senate  was  to  include  male  members  of 
the  imperial  house  over  twenty-four  years  of  age,  an  undetermined  number  of  life- 
members  nominated  by  the  emperor,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  representatives 
from  among  the  great  landowners ;  in  the  chamber  thirty-one  towns  and  electoral 
districts  of  fifty  thousand  inhabitants  each  were  to  appoint  three  hundred  and 
eighty-three  deputies  through  their  delegates. 

From  the  outset  the  radicals  were  opposed  to  a  senate  and  the  system  of 
indirect  election ;  the  true  spirit  of  freedom  demanded  one  chamber  and  direct 
election  without  reference  to  property  or  taxation  burdens.  Such  a  system  was  the 
expression  of  the  people's  rights,  for  the  "  people  "  consisted,  naturally,  of  demo- 
crats. All  the  moderate  men,  all  who  wished  to  fit  the  people  for  their  respon- 
sibilities by  some  political  education,  were  aristocrats,  and  aristocrats  were  enemies 
of    the  people,  to    be  crushed,  muzzled,  and  stripped  of  their  rights.     Popular 


S^-irife']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  199 

dissatisfaction  at  the  constitution  was  increased  by  the  dismissal  of  the  minister 
of  war,  Lieutenant  Field-Marshal  Peter  Zanini,  and  the  appointment  of  Count 
Theodor  Baillet  de  Latour  (April  28).  The  former  was  a  narrow-minded  scion  of 
the  middle  class,  and  incapable  of  performing  his  duties,  for  which  reason  he  en- 
joyed the  confidence  of  the  democrats.  The  latter  was  a  general  of  distinguislied 
theoretical  and  practical  attainments  and  popular  with  the  army ;  these  facts  and 
his  title  made  him  an  object  of  suspicion  to  the  "  people."  At  the  beginning  of 
May  the  people  proceeded  to  display  their  dissatisfaction  with  the  ministerial 
president  Count  Karl  Ficquelmont  by  the  howls  and  whistling  of  the  students. 
On  May  14  the  students  fortified  themselves  with  inflammatory  speeches  in  the 
aula  and  allied  themselves  with  the  working  classes ;  on  the  15  th  they  burst  into 
the  imperial  castle  and  surprised  PiUersdorf,  who  gave  way  without  a  show  of 
resistance,  acting  on  the  false  theory  that  the  chief  task  of  the  government  was  to 
avoid  any  immediate  conflict.  Concessions  were  granted  providing  for  the  forma- 
tion of  a  central  committee  of  the  democratic  unions,  the  occupation  of  half  the 
outposts  by  National  Guards,  and  the  convocation  of  a  "  constituent  Eeichstag  " 
with  one  chamber. 

The  imperial  family,  which  could  no  longer  expect  protection  in  its  own  house 
from  the  ministry,  left  Vienna  on  May  17  and  went  to  Innsbruck,  where  it  was 
out  of  the  reach  of  the  democrats  and  their  outbursts  of  temper,  and  could  more 
easUy  join  hands  with  the  Italian  army.  It  was  supported  (from  June  3)  by 
Johann  von  Wessenberg,  minister  of  foreign  affairs,  a  diplomatist  of  the  old  federal 
period  (p.  162),  but  of  wide  education  and  clever  enough  to  see  that  in  critical 
times  success  is  only  to  be  attained  by  boldness  of  decision  and  a  certain  spirit  of 
daring.  After  Radetzky's  victory  on  the  Mincio  he  speedily  convinced  himself 
that  compliance  with  the  desires  of  France  and  England  for  the  cession  of  the 
Lombardo- Venetian  kingdom  would  be  an  absolute  error,  —  one,  too,  which  would 
arouse  discontent  and  irritation  in  the  army,  and  so  affect  the  conclusion  of  the 
domestic  difficulty ;  he  therefore  decisively  rejected  the  interposition  of  the  West- 
ern powers  in  the  Italian  question.  Wessenberg  accepted  as  seriously  meant  the 
emperor's  repeated  declarations  of  his  desire  to  rule  his  kingdom  constitutionally. 
As  long  as  he  possessed  the  confidence  of  the  court  he  affirmed  that  this  resolve 
must  be  carried  out  at  all  costs,  even  though  it  should  be  necessary  to  use  force 
against  the  risings  and  revolts  of  the  radical  party.  He  was  unable  to  secure  as 
early  a  return  to  Vienna  as  he  had  hoped ;  hence  he  was  obliged  to  make  what  use 
he  could  of  the  means  at  his  disposal  by  entrusting  the  archduke  Johann  with  the 
regency  during  the  emperor's  absence.  The  regent's  influence  was  of  no  value  ;  at 
that  time  he  was  summoned  to  conduct  the  business  of  Germany  at  Frankfort-on- 
Main,  and  his  action  in  Vienna  was  in  consequence  irregular  and  undertaken 
without  full  knowledge  of   the  circumstances. 

On  July  18  the  archduke  Johann,  as  representing  the  emperor,  formed  a  min- 
istry, the  president  being  the  progressive  landowner  Anton  von  Doblhoff.  The 
advocate  Dr.  Alexander  Bach,  who  had  previously  belonged  to  the  popular  party, 
was  one  of  the  members.  The  elections  to  the  Eeichstag  were  begun  after  Prince 
Alfred  of  Windisch-Graetz,  the  commander  of  the  imperial  troops  in  Bohemia,  had 
successfully  and  rapidly  suppressed  a  revolt  at  Prague  which  was  inspired  by  the 
first  Slav  congress  (p.  210).  This  achievement  pacified  Bohemia  (p.  211).  On  July 
10  the  deputies  of  the  Austrian  provinces  met  for  preliminary  discussion.     The 


200  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

claims  of  the  different  nationalities  to  full  equality  caused  a  difficulty  with,  respect 
to  the  language  in  which  business  should  be  discussed  ;  objections  were  advanced 
against  any  show  of  preference  to  German,  the  only  language  suitable  to  the  pur- 
pose. However,  the  necessity  of  a  rapid  iaterchange  of  ideas,  and  dislike  of  the 
wearisome  process  of  translation  through  an  interpreter,  soon  made  German  the 
sole  medium  of  communication,  in  spite  of  the  protests  raised  by  the  numerous 
Polish  peasants,  who  had  been  elected  in  Galicia  against  the  desires  of  the  nobility. 
The  most  pressing  task,  of  drafting  the  Austrian  constitution,  was  entrusted  to  a 
committee  on  July  31 ;  the  yet  more  urgent  necessity  of  further  and  immediately 
strengthening  the  executive  power  was  deferred  till  the  committee  should  have 
concluded  its  deliberations.  The  ministry  was  reduced  to  impotence  in  conse- 
quence, and  even  after  the  emperor's  return  to  Schb'nbrunn  (August  12)  its  position 
was  as  unstable  as  it  was  unimportant. 

(b)  The  Movement  for  Independence  in  Hungary.  —  While  these  events  were 
taking  place  in  Vienna  a  new  State  had  been  created  in  Hungary,  which  was  not 
only  independent  of  Austria,  but  soon  showed  itself  openly  hostile  to  her.  For 
this  result  two  reasons  may  be  adduced :  in  the  first  place,  misconceptions  as  to  the 
value  and  reliability  of  the  demands  advanced  by  the  national  spokesmen ;  and, 
secondly,  the  precipitate  action  of  the  government,  which  had  made  concessions 
without  properly  estimating  their  results.  The  Magyars  were  themselves  unequal 
to  the  task  of  transforming  their  feudal  State  into  a  constitutional  body  politic  of 
the  modern  type  as  rapidly  as  they  desired.  They  had  failed  to  observe  that  the 
application  of  the  principle  of  personal  freedom  to  their  existing  political  institu- 
tions would  necessarily  bring  to  light  national  claims  of  a  nature  to  imperil  their 
paramountcy  in  their  own  land,  or  that,  in  the  inevitable  struggle  for  this  para- 
mount position,  the  support  of  Austria  and  of  the  reigning  house  would  be  of 
great  value.  With  their  characteristic  tendency  to  overestimate  their  powers,  they 
deemed  themselves  capable  of  founding  a  European  power  at  one  stroke.  Their 
impetuosity  further  increased  the  difficulties  of  their  position.  They  were  con- 
cerned only  with  the  remodelling  of  domestic  organisation,  but  they  strove  to  loose, 
or  rather  to  burst  asunder,  the  political  and  economic  ties  wh^h  for  centuries  had 
united  them  to  the  German  hereditary  possessions  of  their  ruliug  house.  They 
demanded  an  independence  which  they  had  lost  on  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Mohacs 
(Vol.  V,  and  Vol.  VII,  p.  259).  They  deprived  their  king  of  rights  which  had 
been  the  indisputable  possession  of  every  one  of  his  crowned  ancestors.  Such  were, 
the  supreme  command  of  his  army,  to  which  Hungary  contributed  a  number  of 
men,  though  sending  no  individual  contingents ;  the  supreme  right  over  the  coin- 
age and  currency,  which  was  a  part  of  the  royal  prerogative,  and  had  been  per- 
sonally and  therefore  uniformly  employed  by  the  representatives  of  the  different 
sovereignties  composing  the  Hapsburg  power.  The  legal  code  confirmed  by  the  em- 
peror and  King  Ferdinand  at  the  dissolution  of  the  old  Eeichstag,  April  10, 1848, 
not  only  recognised  the  existing  rights  of  the  kingdom  of  Hungary,  but  contained 
concessions  from  the  emperor  which  endangered  and  indeed  destroyed  the  old  per- 
sonal union  with  Austria.  Of  these  the  chief  were  the  grant  of  an  independent 
ministry,  and  of  the  union  of  Hungary  and  Transylvania  without  any  obligation  of 
service  to  the  crown,  without  the  recognition  of  any  community  of  interests,  with- 
out any  stipulation  for  such  co-operation  as  might  be  needed  to  secure  the  existence 
of  the  joint  monarchy. 


?^^^irlf^S«']        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  201 

In  Croatia,  Slavonia,  in  the  Banat,  and  in  the  district  of  Bacska  inhabited  by 
the  Servians,  the  Slavonic  nationalist  movement  broke  into  open  revolt  against 
Magyar  self-aggrandisement ;  the  Hungarian  ministry  then  demanded  the  recall  of 
all  Hungarian  troops  from  the  Italian  army,  from  Moravia  and  G-alicia,  in  order  to 
quell  the  "  anarchy  "  prevailing  at  home.  The  imperial  government  now  disi^ov- 
ered  that  in  conceding  an  "  independent  "  war  ministry  to  Hungary  they  had  sur- 
rendered the  unity  of  the  army,  and  so  lost  the  main  prop  of  the  monarchical  power. 
The  difficulty  was  incapable  of  solution  by  peaceful  methods ;  a  struggle  could 
only  be  avoided  by  the  voluntary  renunciation  on  the  part  of  Hungary  of  a  right 
she  had  extorted  but  a  moment  before.  No  less  intolerable  was  the  independent 
attitude  of  Hungary  on  the  financial  question,  wherein  she  showed  no  inclination 
to  consider  the  needs  of  the  whole  community.  She  owed  her  political  existence  to 
German  victories  over  the  Turks  (Vol.  VII,  p.  259),  but  in  her  selfishness  would 
not  save  Austria  from  bankruptcy  by  accepting  a  quarter  of  the  national  debt  and 
making  a  yearly  payment  of  ten  million  guldens  to  meet  the  interest.  The  ma- 
jority of  the  ministry  of  Batthyany,  to  which  the  loyalist  Franz  von  Deak  (p.  168) 
belonged,  were  by  no  means  anxious  to  bring  about  a  final  separation  between  Hun- 
gary and  Austria ;  they  were  even  ready  to  grant  troops  to  the  court  for  service  in 
the  Italian  war,  if  the  imperial  government  would  support  Hungarian  action  against 
the  malcontent  Croatians.  In  May,  Count  Louis  Batthyany  hastened  to  the  impe- 
rial court  at  Innsbruck  and  succeeded  in  allaying  the  prevailing  apprehensions. 
The  court  was  inclined  to  purchase  Hungarian  adherence  to  the  dynasty  and  the 
empire  by  compliance  in  all  questions  affecting  the  domestic  affairs  of  Hungary. 
But  it  soon  became  clear  that  Batthyd.ny  and  his  associates  did  not  represent  public 
feeling,  which  was  entirely  led  by  the  fanatical  agitator  Kossuth,  who  was  not  to 
be  appeased  by  the  offer  of  the  portfolio  of  finance  in  Batthydny's  ministry. 

Louis  Kossuth  was  a  man  of  extravagant  enthusiasm,  endowed  with  great  his- 
trionic powers,  a  rhetorician  who  grew  more  and  more  excited  as  he  spoke,  and 
was  thoroughly  well  able  to  assume  the  pose  of  an  apostle  and  martyr.  Of  polit- 
ical reflection  he  was  wholly  incapable ;  his  powers  were  only  manifested  under 
the  influence  of  strong  excitement.  He  lived  only  for  the  moments  when  his 
eloquence  made  hundreds  and  thousands  the  blind  implements  of  his  will; 
his  ambition  demanded  a  place  in  some  contest  of  high  excitement,  where  such 
great  issues  were  at  stake  as  the  destinies  of  a  State  and  of  a  nation.  It  is  per- 
haps uncertain  whether  Kossuth  began  his  political  career  with  the  intention  of 
overthrowing  the  Hapsburgs  and  setting  up  a  Hungarian  republic  with  himself 
in  supreme  power  as  president  (cf.  p.  168).  But  that  such  would  have  been  the 
course  of  the  movement  in  Hungary  had  Kossuth  become  its  leader  is  beyond 
dispute ;  for  he  was  wholly  incapable  of  self-restraint,  yearned  for  the  stimulus 
of  excitement,  recoiled  from  no  extremity,  while  his  boundless  imaginative 
powers  were  ever  devising  new  and  adventurous  schemes  for  the  realisation  of 
his  objects. 

Tor  such  national  rights  as  the  Magyars  could  claim  for  themselves  full 
provision  was  made  by  the  constitution,  which  they  had  devised  on  liberal 
principles,  abolishing  the  existing  privileges  of  the  nobility  and  corporations; 
every  freedom  was  thus  provided  for  the  development  of  their  strength  and  indi- 
viduality. On  July  2, 1848,  the  Eeichstag  elected  under  the  new  constitution  met 
together.     The  great  task  before  it  was  the  satisfaction  of  the  other  nationalities, 


202  HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  ichapter  ii 

the  Slavs,  Eoumanians,  and  Saxons,  living  on  Hungarian  soil ;  their  acquiescence 
in  the  Magyar  predominance  was  to  be  secured  without  endangering  the  imity  of 
the  kingdom,  by  means  of  laws  for  national  defence,  and  of  other  innovations  mak- 
ing for  prosperity.  Some  clear  definition  of  the  connection  between  Hungary  and 
Austria  was  also  necessary,  if  their  common  sovereign  was  to  retain  his  prestige  in 
Europe  ;  and  it  was  of  the  first  importance  to  allay  the  apprehensions  of  the  court 
with  regard  to  the  fidelity,  the  subordination,  and  devotion  of  the  Magyars.  Kos- 
suth, however,  brought  before  the  Reichstag  a  series  of  proposals  calculated  to 
shatter  the  confidence  which  Batthyany  had  exerted  himself  to  restore  during  his 
repeated  visits  to  Innsbruck.  The  Austrian  national  bank  had  offered  to  advance 
twelve  and  one-half  million  gulden  in  notes  for  the  purposes  of  the  Hungarian 
government.  This  proposal  Kossuth  declined,  and  issued  Hungarian  paper  for  the 
same  amount ;  he  then  demanded  further  credit  to  the  extent  of  forty-two  millions, 
to  equip  a  national  army  of  two  hundred  thousand  men.  He  even  attempted  to 
determine  the  foreign  policy  of  the  emperor-king.  Austria  was  to  cede  all  Italian 
territory  as  far  as  the  Etsch,  and,  as  regarded  her  German  provinces,  to  bow  to  the 
decisions  of  the  central  power  in  Frankfurt.  In  case  of  dispute  with  this  power 
she  was  not  to  look  to  Hungary  for  support.  Such  a  point  of  view  was  wholly 
incompatible  with  the  traditions  and  the  European  prestige  of  the  House  of  Haps- 
burg ;  to  yield  would  have  been  to  resign  the  position  of  permanency  and  to  begin 
the  disruption  of  the  monarchy. 

It  was  to  be  feared  that  Hungarian  aggression  could  be  met  only  by  force.  The 
federal  allies,  who  had  already  prepared  for  what  they  saw  would  be  a  hard  strug- 
gle, were  now  appreciated  at  their  true  value.  They  included  the  Servians  and 
Croatians,  who  were  already  in  open  revolt  against  the  Magyars  and  had  been 
organised  into  a  military  force  by  Georg  Stratimirovt.  The  banace  of  Croatia 
was  a  dignity  in  the  gift  of  the  king,  though  his  nominee  was  responsible  to 
Hungary.  Since  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  the  position  had  been  held  by  an 
Austrian  general  belonging  to  a  distinguished  family  upon  the  military  frontier,  the 
Ereiherr  (afterward  count)  Joseph  Jellacic.  Though  no  professional  diplomatist,  he 
performed  a  master-stroke  of  policy  in  securing  to  the  support  of  the  dynasty  the 
southern  Slav  movement  fostered  by  the  "  Great  lUyrian  "  party  (cf.  Vol.  V).  He 
supported  the  majority  of  the  Agram  Landtag  in  their  efforts  to"ecure  a  separation 
from  Hungary,  thereby  exposing  himself  to  the  violent  denunciations  of  Batthydny's 
ministry,  which  demanded  his  deposition.  These  outcries  he  disregarded,  and  paci- 
fied the  court  by  exhorting  the  frontier  regiments  serving  under  Radetzky  to  remaia 
true  to  their  colours  and  to  give  their  lives  for  the  glory  of  Austria.  The  approba- 
tion of  his  comrades  in  the  imperial  army  strengthened  him  in  the  conviction  that  it 
was  his  destiny  to  save  the  army  and  the  imperial  house.  He  formed  a  Croatian 
army  of  forty  thousand  men,  which  was  of  no  great  military  value,  though  its 
numbers,  its  impetuosity,  and  extraordinary  armament  made  it  formidable. 

The  victories  of  the  Italian  army  and  the  reconquest  of  Milan  raised  the  sphit 
of  the  imperial  court.  On  August  12  the  emperor  returned  to  the  summer  palace 
of  Schcinbrunn,  near  Vienna  (p.  200),  and  proceeded  to  direct  his  policy  in  the 
conviction  that  he  had  an  armed  force  on  which  he  could  rely,  as  it  was  now 
possible  to  reconcentrate  troops  by  degrees  in  different  parts  of  the  empire.  On 
August  31,  1848,  an  imperial  decree  was  issued  to  the  palatine  archduke  Stephan, 
who  had  hitherto  enjoyed  full  powers  as  the  royal  representative  in  Hungary  and 


S^elriS^ti]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  203 

Transylvania ;  the  content  of  the  decree  referred  to  the  necessity  of  enforcing  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  523).  Such  was  the  answer  to  the  prepara- 
tions begun  by  Kossuth.  This  decree,  together  with  a  note  from  the  Austrian 
ministry  upon  the  constitutional  relations  between  Austria  and  Hungary,  was  at 
once  accepted  by  Kossuth  as  a  declaration  of  war,  and  was  made  the  occasion  of 
measures  equivalent  to  open  revolt.  On  September  11  the  minister  of  finance 
made  a  passionately  furious  speech,  which  roused  his  auditors  to  a  frenzied  excite- 
ment, in  which  he  declared  himself  ready  to  assume  the  dictatorship,  on  the  retire- 
ment of  Batthy^ny's  ministry.  On  the  same  day  the  Croatian  army  crossed  the 
Drave  and  advanced  upon  Lake  Flatten. 

(c)  Vienna  in  September  and  October,  184-8.  —  The  Vienna  democrats,  who 
might  consider  themselves  masters  of  the  capital,  had  been  won  over  to  federal 
alliance  with  Hungary.  The  most  pressing  necessity  was  the  restoration  of  a 
strong  government  which  would  secure  respect  for  established  authority,  freedom 
of  deliberation  to  the  Reichstag,  and  power  to  carry  out  its  conclusions.  The  Eeich- 
stag,  however,  preferred  to  discuss  a  superficial  and  ill-conceived  motion  brought 
forward  by  Hans  Kudlich,  the  youthful  deputy  from  Silesia,  for  releasing  peasant 
holdings  from  the  burdens  imposed  on  them  by  the  overlords.  The  work  of  this 
Eeichstag,  which  contained  a  large  number  of  illiterate  deputies  from  Galicia,  may 
be  estimated  from  the  fact  that  it  showed  a  strong  inclination  to  put  the  question 
of  compensation  on  one  side.  Dr.  Alexander  Bach  was  obliged  to  exert  all  his 
influence  and  that  of  the  ministry  to  secure  a  recognition  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, that  the  relief  of  peasant  holdings  should  be  carried  out  in  legal  form.  The 
"  people  "  of  Vienna  took  little  part  in  these  negotiations ;  their  attention  was  con- 
centrated upon  the  noisy  outcries  of  the  democrats,  who  were  in  connection  not 
only  with  the  radical  element  of  the  Frankfurt  parliament,  but  also  with  Hecker 
and  his  associates  (p.  181). 

As  early  as  the  middle  of  September  a  commencement  was  made  with  the  task 
of  fomenting  disturbances  among  the  working  classes,  and  the  retirement  of  the 
ministry  was  demanded.  Great  excitement  was  created  by  the  arrival  of  a  large 
deputation  from  the  Hungarian  Reichstag,  with  which  the  riotous  Viennese  formed 
the  tie  of  brotherhood  in  a  festive  celebration  (September  16).  The  Hungarians 
were  able  to  count  upon  the  friendship  of  the  Austrian  revolutionaries  after  their 
manifestations  of  open  hostility  to  the  court.  The  Hungarian  difficulty  weakened 
the  impression  made  by  Radetzky's  victories,  and  radical  minds  again  conceived 
hopes  of  overthrowing  the  imperial  house  and  forming  a  federal  Danube  republic. 

At  the  request  of  the  archduke  palatine.  Count  Louis  Batthydny  made  another 
attempt  to  form  a  constitutional  ministry  on  September  17,  with  the  object  of 
abolishing  Kossuth's  dictatorship ;  however,  no  practical  result  was  achieved.  The 
die  had  been  already  cast,  and  the  military  party  had  established  the  necessity  of 
restoring  the  imperial  authority  in  Hungary  by  force  of  arms.  The  archduke 
Stephan  attempted  to  bring  about  a  meeting  with  Jellaoic,  to  induce  him  to  evac- 
uate Hungarian  territory,  but  the  Banus  excused  himself ;  at  the  same  time  the 
palatine  was  informed  that  Field-Marshal  Count  Franz  Philipp  von  Lamberg  had 
been  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  the  imperial  troops  in  Hungary,  and  that 
the  Banus  was  under  his  orders.  This  was  a  measure  entirely  incompatible  with 
the  then  existing  constitution.     The  archduke  recognised  that  he  would  be  forced 


204  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  \_ciia:ptevii 

to  violate  his  constitutional  obligations  as  a  member  of  the  imperial  house ;  he 
therefore  secretly  abandoned  the  country  and  betook  himself  to  his  possessions  in 
Schaumberg  without  making  any  stay  in  Vienna.  When  Count  Lamberg  attempted 
to  take  up  his  post  in  the  Hungarian  capital  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  Kossuth's 
most  desperate  adherents,  and  was  cruelly  murdered  on  September  28, 1848,  at  the 
new  suspension  bridge  which  unites  Pesth  and  Ofen.  An  irreparable  breach  with 
the  dynasty  was  thus  made,  and  the  civil  war  began.  At  the  end  of  September  the 
Hungarian  national  troops  under  General  Johann  Moga,  a  force  chiefly  composed 
of  battalions  of  the  line,  defeated  Jellacic  and  advanced  into  Lower  Austria.  They 
were  speedily  followed  by  a  Hungarian  army  which  proposed  to  co-operate  with 
the  revolted  Viennese,  who  were  also  fighting  against  the  public  authorities. 

It  was  on  October  6,  1848,  that  the  Viennese  mob  burst  into  open  revolt,  the 
occasion  being  the  march  of  a  grenadier  battalion  to  the  Northern  railway  station 
for  service  against  the  Hungarians.  The  democratic  conspirators  had  been  stirred 
up  in  behalf  of  republicanism  by  Johannes  Eonge  (p.  157),  Julius  Frobel,  and  Karl 
Tausenau  ;  they  had  done  their  best  to  inflame  the  masses,  had  unhinged  the  minds 
of  the  populace  to  the  point  of  rebellion,  and  made  the  maintenance  of  public 
order  impossible.  The  uproar  spread  throughout  the  city,  and  the  minister  of  war. 
Count  Latour,  was  murdered.  The  radical  deputies,  Lohner,  Borrosch,  Fischhof, 
Schuselka,  and  others  now  perceived  that  they  had  been  playing  with  fire  and  had 
burnt  their  fingers.  They  were  responsible  for  the  murder,  in  so  far  as  they  were 
unable  to  check  the  atrocities  of  the  mob,  which  they  had  armed. 

Once  again  the  imperial  family  abandoned  the  faithless  capital  and  took  refuge 
in  the  archbishop's  castle  at  Olmiitz.  The  immediate  task  before  the  government 
was  to  overpower  the  republican  and  anarchist  movement  in  Vienna.  In  Olmiitz 
the  government  was  represented  by  the  Freiherr  von  Wessenberg  (p.  199),  and  was 
also  vigorously  supported  by  Prince  Felix  Schwarzenberg,  who  had  hastened  to  the 
court  from  Eadetzky's  camp.  He  had  been  employed  not  only  on  military  service, 
but  also  in  diplomatic  duties  in  Turin  and  Naples.  He  declared  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  constitutional  monarchy,  and  supported  the  decree  drafted  by  Wes- 
senberg, to  the  effect  that  full  support  and  unlimited  power  of  action  should  be 
accorded  to  the  Eeichstag  summoned  to  Kremsier  for  discussioi^with  the  imperial 
advisers  upon  some  miitually  acceptable  form  of  constitution  for  the  empire. 

There  was  strong  feeling  in  favour  of  placing  all  power  in  the  hands  of  Prince 
Alfred  Windisch-Graetz,  and  establishing  a  military  dictatorship  in  his  person, 
with  the  abolition  of  all  representative  bodies  ;  but  for  the  moment  this  idea  was 
not  realised.  Windisch-Graetz  was  appointed  field-marshal  and  commander-in- 
chief  of  all  the  imperial  forces  outside  of  Italy,  and  undertook  the  task  of  crush- 
ing the  revolt  in  Vienna  and  Hungary.  The  subjugation  of  Vienna  was  an  easy 
task.  The  garrison,  consisting  of  troops  of  the  line  under  General  Count  Karl 
Joseph  von  Auersperg,  had  withdrawn  into  a  secure  position  outside  the  city  on 
October  7,  where  they  joined  hands  with  the  troops  of  the  Banus  Jellacic  on  the- 
Leitha.  These  forces  gradually  penetrated  the  suburbs  of  Vienna.  On  October  21 
the  army  of  Prince  Windisch-Graetz,  marching  from  Moravia,  arrived  at  the  Danube, 
crossed  the  river  at  Nussdorf,  and  advanced  with  Auersperg  and  Jellacic  upon  the 
walls  which  enclosed  Vienna. 

The  democrats  in  power  at  Vienna,  who  had  secured  the  subservience  of  the 
members  of  the  Eeichstag  remaining  in  the  city,  showed  the  courage  of  bigotry ; 


?£^^'rif?^?]       HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  205 

they  rejected  the  demands  of  Windisch-Graetz,  who  required  their  submission, 
the  surrender  of  the  war  minister's  murderers,  and  the  dissolution  of  the  students' 
committees  and  of  the  democratic  unions ;  they  determined  to  defend  Vienna 
until  Hungary  came  to  their  help.  Eobert  Blum,  who,  with  Julius  FrObel,  had 
brought  an  address  from  the  Frankfurt  democrats  to  Vienna,  was  a  leading  figure 
ia  the  movement  for  resistance.  Wenzel  Messenhauser,  the  commander  of  the 
National  Guard,  undertook  the  conduct  of  the  defence,  and  headed  a  division  of 
combatants  in  person.  The  general  assault  was  delivered  on  October  28.  Only 
in  the  Praterstern  and  in  the  JagerzeUe  was  any  serious  resistance  encountered. 
By  evening  almost  all  the  barricades  in  the  suburbs  had  been  carried,  and  the 
troops  were  in  possession  of  the  streets  leading  over  the  glacis  to  the  bastions  of 
the  inner  city.  On  the  next  day  there  was  a  general  feeling  in  favour  of  sur- 
render. Messenhauser  himself  declared  the  hopelessness  of  continuing  the  struggle, 
and  advised  a  general  suiTcnder.  However,  on  the  morning  of  October  30  he  was 
on  the  tower  of  Stephan  watching  the  struggle  of  Jellacic  against  the  Hungarians 
at  Schwechat,  and  was  unfortunately  induced  to  proclaim  the  news  of  the  Hun- 
garian advance  with  an  army  of  relief,  thereby  reviving  the  martial  ardour  of  the 
desperadoes,  who  had  already  begun  a  reign  of  terror  in  Vienna.  He  certainly  op- 
posed the  fanatics  who  clamoured  for  a  resumption  of  the  conflict ;  but  he  quailed 
before  the  intimidation  of  the  democratic  ruffians,  and  resigned  his  command  with- 
out any  attempt  to  secure  the  due  observance  of  the  armistice  which  had  been 
already  concluded  with  Windisch-Graetz.  On  the  31st  the  field-marshal  threw  a 
few  shells  into  the  town  to  intimidate  the  furious  proletariate ;  but  it  was  not  until 
the  afternoon  that  the  imperial  troops  were  able  to  make  their  way  into  the  town. 
They  arrived  just  in  time  to  save  the  imperial  library  and  the  museum  of  natural 
history  from  destruction  by  fire. 

Vienna  was  conquered  on  November  1,  1848 ;  those  honourable  and  distin- 
guished patriots  who  had  spent  the  month  of  October  in  oppression  and  constant 
fear  of  death  were  liberated.  •  The  revolution  in  Austria  could  now  be  considered 
at  an  end.  The  capture  of  Vienna  cost  the  army  sixty  officers  and  one  thousand 
men  kUled  and  wounded.  The  number  of  the  inhabitants,  combatants  and  non- 
combatants,  who  were  killed  in  the  last  days  of  October  can  only  be  stated 
approximately.  Dr.  Anton  Schiitte,  an  eye-witness,  estimates  the  amount  at  five 
thousand. 

(d)  The  Hungarian  Revolt.  —  The  next  problem  was  the  conduct  of  the  war 
with  Hungary,  which  had  already  raised  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand  men, 
and  was  in  possession  of  everj'  fortress  of  importance  in  the  country  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Arad  and  Temesvar.  The  battle  of  Schwechat  (October  30,  1848)  had 
ended  with  the  retreat  of  the  thirty  thousand  men  and  the  seven  and  one-half 
batteries  brought  up  by  General  Moga.  The  energy  of  the  Hungarians  had  not 
been  equal  to  the  importance  of  the  occasion.  A  Hungarian  victory  at  that  time 
would  have  implied  the  relief  of  Vienna,  and  the  question  of  the  separation  of  the 
crown  of  Stephan  from  the  House  of  Hapsburg  would  certainly  have  become  of 
European  importance. 

Upon  the  abdication  of  the  emperor  Ferdinand  and  the  renunciation  of  his 
brother  the  archduke  Franz  Karl,  the  archduke  Franz  Joseph  ascended  the  throne 
on  December  2, 1848.     On  the  same  day  Prince  Windisch-Graetz  advanced  upon 


206  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [chapter  ii 

the  Danube  with  forty-three  thousand  men  and  two  hundred  and  sixteen  guns,  while 
General  Count  Franz  Schlick  started  from  Galicia  with  eight  thousand  men,  and 
General  Balthasar  von  Simunioh  moved  upon  Neutra  from  the  Waag  with  four  thou- 
sand men.  After  a  series  of  conflicts  at  Pressburg  (17th),  Eaab  (27th),  Moor 
(December  30,  1848),  and  after  the  victory  of  Schlicks  at  Kaschau  (DecemlDer  11), 
the  provisional  government  under  Kossuth  was  forced  to  abandon  Pesth  and  to 
retire  to  Debreczin ;  the  Banate  was  speedily  evacuated  by  the  national  troops,  as 
soon  as  Jellaoic,  who  now  commanded  an  army  corps  under  Windisch-Graetz,  was 
able  to  act  with  the  armed  Servians.  However,  the  field-marshal  underestimated 
the  resisting  power  of  the  nation,  which,  as  Kossuth  represented,  was  threatened 
with  the  loss  of  its  political  existence,  and  displayed  extraordinary  capacities  of 
self-sacrifice  and  devotion  in  those  dangerous  days.  He  was  induced  to  advance 
into  the  district  of  the  upper  Theiss  with  too  weali  a  force,  and  divided  his  troops, 
instead  of  halting  in  strong  positions  at  Ofen  and  Waitzen  on  the  Danube  and 
waiting  for  the  necessary  reinforcements.  The  battle  of  K^polna  (February  26  and 
27, 1849)  enabled  Schlick  to  effect  the  desired  junction,  and  could  be  regarded  as^ 
tactical  victory.  Strategically,  however,  it  implied  a  turn  of  the  scale  in  favour  of 
the  Hungarians ;  they  gradually  concentrated  under  the  Polish  general  Henryk 
Dembinski  (p.  148)  and  under  the  Hungarians  Arthur  Gorgey,  Ernst  von  Polten- 
berg,  Georg  Klapka,  Anton  Vetter  von  Doggenfeld,  and  were  able  to  take  the  offen- 
sive at  the  end  of  March,  1849,  under  the  general  command  of  Gorgey.  This 
commander  won  a  victory  at  Isasz^gh  (GodoUo)  on  April  6.  Ludwig  von  Melden, 
the  representative  of  Windisch-Graetz,  who  had  been  recalled  to  Olmiitz,  was  forced 
to  retire  to  the  Raab  on  April  27  to  avoid  being  surrounded.  The  town  of  Komom, 
under  Josef  von  Mayth^ny  and  Ignaz  von  Torok  had  offered  a  bold  resistance  to 
the  Austrian  besiegers,  who  had  hitherto  failed  to  secure  this  base,  which  was  of 
importance  for  the  further  operations  of  the  imperial  army.  General  Moritz  Perezel 
made  a  victorious  advance  into  the  Banate.  General  Joseph  Bern  fought  with 
varying  success  against  the  weak  Austrian  divisions  in  Transylvania  under  Gen- 
eral Anton,  Freiherr  von  Puchner :  the  remnants  of  these  were  driven  into 
WaUachia  on  February  20.  By  April,  1849,  the  fortresses  of  Ofen,  Arad,  and 
Temesvar  alone  remained  in  the  occupation  of  the  Austriam. 

The  promulgation  of  a  new  constitution  for  the  whole  of  Austria,  dated  March 
4,  1849,  was  answered  by  Kossuth  in  a  proclamation  from  Debreczin  on  April  14, 
dethroning  the  House  of  Hapsburg.  In  spite  of  the  armistice  with  Victor  Eman- 
uel, Italy  was  as  yet  too  disturbed  to  permit  the  transference  of  Eadetzky's  army 
to  Hungary.  Accordingly  on  May  1  the  emperor  Franz  Joseph  concluded  a  con- 
vention with  Eussia,  who  placed  her  forces  at  his  disposal  for  the  subjugation  of 
Hungary,  as  the  existence  of  a  Hungarian  republic  threatened  to  revive  a  rebellion 
in  Poland.  It  was  now  possible  to  raise  an  overwhelming  force  for  the  subjection 
of  the  brave  Hungarian  army.  General  von  Haynau  (p.  196)  was  recalled  from 
the  Italian  campaign  to  lead  the  imperial  army  in  Hungary.  He  advanced  from 
Pressburg  with  sixty  thousand  Austrians,  twelve  thousand  Eussians,  and  two 
hundred  and  fifty  guns.  Jellacic  led  forty-four  thousand  men  and  one  hundred 
and  sixty-eight  guns  into  south  Hungary,  while  the  Eussian  field-marshal  Prince 
Paskevitch  (p.  148)  marched  on  north  Hungary  by  the  Dukla  pass  with  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  thousand  men  and  four  hundred  and  sixty  guns.  Gorgey  repulsed 
an  attack  delivered  by  Haynau  at  Komorn  on  July  2  ;  on  the  11th  he  was  removed 


S'.^l^iXf']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  207 

from  the  command  in  favour  of  Dembinski,  and  defeated  on  the  same  battlefield, 
then  making  a  masterly  retreat  through  upper  Hungary  with  three  corps  to  Arad 
without  coming  into  collision  with  the  Eussian  contingents.  On  August  5  Dem- 
binski was  driven  back  from  Szoray  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Szegedin  and  the 
Hungarian  leaders  could  no  longer  avoid  the  conviction  that  their  cause  was  lost. 
On  August  11  Kossuth  fled  from  Arad  to  Turkey.  On  the  13th  Gorgey,  who 
had  been  appelated  dictator  two  days  previously,  surrendered  with  thirty-one 
thousand  men,  eighteen  thousand  horse,  one  hundred  and  forty-four  guns,  and  sixty 
standards,  at  Vilagos,  to  the  Eussian  general  Count  Fedor  W.  Eiidiger.  Further 
surrenders  were  made  at  Lugos,  Boros-Jeno,  Mehadia,  and  elsewhere.  On 
October  5  Klapka  marched  out  of  Komorn  under  the  honourable  capitulation  of 
September  27. 

Hungary  was  thus  conquered  by  Austria  with  Eussian  help.  For  an  exaggera- 
tion of  her  national  claims,  which  was  both  historically  and  politically  unjustifiable, 
she  paid  with  the  loss  of  all  her  constitutional  rights.  She  brought  down  grievous 
misfortune  upon  herself,  and  no  less  upon  the  Austrian  crown  territories ;  these 
also  were  handed  over  to  a  reactionary  party,  which  was  guided  by  principles  of 
predominance  rather  than  of  policy,  and  fought  for  paramountcy  without  scruple. 
The  Maygar  nationalists  had  expected  the  Western  powers  to  approve  their  struggles 
for  independence  and  to  support  the  new  Maygar  State  against  Austria  and  Eussia  ; 
they  calculated  particularly  upon  help  from  England.  They  were  now  to  learn 
that  the  Hungarian  question  is  not  one  of  European  importance,  and  that  no  one 
saw  the  necessity  of  an  independent  Hungarian  army  and  ministry  of  foreign  affairs 
except  those  Hungarian  politicians  whose  motive  was  not  patriotism,  but  self- 
seekiDg  in  its  worst  form. 

C.    SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN 

An  entirely  strong  and  healthy  national  feeling  came  to  expression  in  those 
"  sea-girt "  duchies,  the  masters  of  which  had  also  been  kings  of  Denmark  since  the 
fifteenth  century.  During  the  bitter  period  of  the  struggle  for  the  supremacy  of 
the  Baltic  (cf.  Vol.  VII)  they  had  but  rarely  been  able  to  assert  their  vested  right  to 
separate  administration.  They,  however,  had  remained  German,  whereas  the  royal 
branch  of  the  House  of  Holstein-Oldenburg,  one  of  the  oldest  ruling  families  in 
Germany,  had  preferred  to  become  Danish.  The  members  of  the  ducal  house  of 
Holstein,  which  had  undergone  repeated  bifurcations,  largely  contributed  to  main- 
tain German  feeling  in  Schleswig  and  Holstein,  and  asserted  their  independence 
with  reference  to  their  Danish  cousins  by  preserving  their  relations  with  the 
empire  and  with  their  German  neighbours.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  iudependence  was  so  strong  among  the  estates  of  the  two 
duchies,  that  the  "royal  law  "  of  1660,  abolishing  the  assembly  of  the  estates  and 
estabhshiug  the  paramountcy  of  the  Danish  branch  of  the  House  of  Oldenburg, 
could  not  be  executed  in  Schleswig  and  Holstein. 

The  result  of  the  Vienna  congress  had  been  to  secure  the  rights  of  the  German 
districts  and  to  separate  them  definitely  from  Napoleon's  adherent.  Metternich's 
policy  had  bungled  this  question,  like  so  many  other  national  problems,  by  handing 
over  Schleswig  to  the  Danes,  while  including  Holstein  in  the  German  federation. 
Unity  was,  however,  the  thought  that  inspired  the  population  of  either  country. 


208  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  lcha2>terii 

This  feeling  increased  in  strength  and  became  immediately  operative,  when  Den- 
mark was  so  impolitic  as  to  defraud  the  Germans  by  regulations  which  bore 
unjustly  upon  the  imperial  bank,  founded  in  1813.  The  disadvantages  of  Danish 
supremacy  then  became  manifest  to  the  lowest  peasant.  Danish  paper  and  copper 
were  forced  upon  the  duchies,  while  their  good  silver  streamed  away  to  Copen- 
hagen. The  struggle  against  this  injustice  was  taken  up  by  the  German  patriot 
leaders,  who  were  able  to  make  the  dissension  turn  on  a  constitutional  point  after 
the  publication  of  the  "  open  letter"  of  Kmg  Christian  VIII.  On  July  8, 1848, 
he  announced  the  intention  of  the  Danish  government,  ia  the  event  of  a  failure  of 
male  heirs,  to  secure  the  succession  to  the  undivided  "  general  monarchy  "  to  the 
female  line,  in  accordance  with  the  Danish  royal  law.  Christian's  only  son, 
Frederick,  was  an  invalid  and  childless,  and  the  duchies  had  begun  to  speculate 
upon  the  demise  of  the  crown  and  the  consequent  liberation  from  a  foreign  rule. 
Their  constitution  recognised  only  succession  in  the  male  line,  a  principle  which 
would  place  the  power  in  the  hands  of  the  ducal  house  of  Holstein-Sonderburg- 
Augustenburg,  while  in  Denmark  the  successor  would  be  Prince  Christian  of 
Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg,  who  had  married  Louise  of  Hesse-Cassel,  a  niece 
of  Christian  VIII.  Schleswig  had  the  prospect  of  complete  separation  from  Den- 
mark, and  this  object  was  approved  in  numerous  public  meetings  and  adopted  as  a 
guiding  principle  by  the  assembly  of  the  estates.  Schleswig  objected  to  separation 
from  Holstein,  and  to  any  successor  other  than  one  in  the  male  line  of  descent. 

Christian  VIII  died  on  January  20,  1848,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Frederic  II.  This  change  and  the  impression  created  by  the  revolutions  in 
Paris,  Vienna,  and  Berlin  confirmed  the  duchies  in  their  resolve  to  grasp  their 
rights  and  assert  their  national  independence.  Had  the  king  met  these  desires 
with  a  full  recognition  of  the  provincial  constitutions  and  the  grant  of  a  separate 
national  position  and  administration,  he  would  probably  have  been  able  to  retain 
possession  of  the  two  countries  under  some  form  of  personal  federation  without 
appealing  to  force  of  arms,  and  perhaps  to  secure  their  adherence  for  the  future. 
He  yielded,  however,  to  the  arguments  of  the  "  Eider  Danes,"  who  demanded  the 
abandonment  of  Holstein  and  the  incorporation  of  Schleswig  with  Denmark, 
regarding  the  Eider  as  the  historical  frontier  of  the  Danish  mwer.  This  party 
required  a  joint  constitutional  form  of  government,  and  induced  the  king  to  elect  a 
ministry  from  their  number,  and  to  announce  the  incorporation  of  Schleswig  in 
the  Danish  monarchy  to  the  deputation  from  the  Schleswig-Holstein  provinces  in 
Copenhagen  on  March  22, 1848.  Meanwhile  the  assembly  of  the  estates  at  Eends- 
burg  had  determined  to  declare  war  upon  the  Eider  Danes.  On  March  24  a  pro- 
visional government  for  the  two  duchies  was  formed  at  Kiel,  which  was  to  be 
carried  on  in  the  name  of  Duke  Christian  of  Augustenberg,  at  that  time  appar- 
ently a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Danes,  until  he  secured  liberty  to  govern  his 
German  territories  in  person. 

The  new  government  was  recognised  both  by  the  population  at  large  and  by 
the  garrisons  of  the  most  important  centres.  It  was  unable,  however,  immedi- 
ately to  mobilise  a  force  equivalent  to  the  Danish  army,  and  accordingly  turned  to 
Prussia  for  help.  This  step,  which  appeared  highly  politic  at  the  moment,  proved 
unfortunate  in  the  result.  The  fate  of  the  duchies  was  henceforward  bound  up 
with  the  indecisive  and  vacillating  policy  of  Frederic  William  IV,  whose  weak- 
ness became  daily  more  obvious  ;  he  was  incapable  of  fulfilling  any  single  one  of  the 


EXPLANATION  OF   THE   PICTUEE   OVEELEAF 

In  March,  1849,  the  German  central  power  in  Frankfort-on-Main  gave  Duke  Ernst  II  of 
Saxe-Coburg  command  of  a  brigade  of  the  imperial  army  in  Schleswig-Holstein ;  he  appointed 
Colonel  Eduard  v.  Treitsohke  and  two  other  Saxony  officers  to  his  staff  (from  the  papers  of  the 
first-mentioned  his  son  Henry  edited  a  generally  accurate  account  of  the  fight  of  Eckernforde, 
which  he  published  in  the  1896  volume  of  the  "  Historischen  Zeitsohrift ").  On  April  1  he 
reported  himself  to  the  commander-in-chief  in  Schleswig,  Lieutenant-General  K.  L.  W.  E.  von 
Prittwitz,  and  was  placed  in  reserve  with  his  brigade  (5  battalions  of  infantry  from  Baden, 
Gotha,  Meiningen,  Eeuss,  and  WUrtemberg,  2  batteries  of  light  artillery  from  Hesse-Darm- 
stadt and  Nassau,  2  squadrons  of  Hanseatic  dragoons ;  in  all  3,928  men,  12  guns,  and  223  horsee), 
with  orders  to  protect  the  length  of  the  east  coast  from  the  Schlei  to  Kiel  bay  against  any 
landing  that  the  Danes  might  attempt.  Two  Schleswig-Holstein  reserve  battalions  were  in 
process  of  formation  at  Kiel  and  Eckernforde,  not  under  the  Duke  of  Coburg,  but  commanded 
by  General  Eduard  v.  Bonin,  the  chief  officer  of  the  duchy ;  the  Schleswig-Holstein  heavy 
artillery  was  in  position  in  Priedrichsort  and  in  the  shore  batteries  upon  the  two  bays.  On 
April  2  the  Duke  established  his  headquarters  in  Gettorf  (between  Eckernforde  and  Kiel), 
having  on  the  spot  only  the  Gotha,  Meiningen,  and  Reuss  battalions  of  his  reserve  brigade,  the 
Nassau  battery  being  in  the  Schnellmark  wood  (in  all  2,150  men  with  6  guns). 

A  good  two  miles  to  the  east  of  Eckernforde,  an  unprotected  town  open  to  an  attack  in 
the  rear  by  troops  landed  from  the  sea,  lay  the  north  earthwork  on  a  small  promontory,  armed 
with  2  howitzers  and  4  24-pounders,  with  55  men,  under  the  command  of  the  Schleswig- 
Holstein  Captain  Eduard  Jungmann  (born  April  3,  1815,  at  Lissa  in  Posen,  gunnery  instructor 
in  Turkey  1845-1848,  died  March  25,  1862,  in  Hamburg).  Straight  opposite,  somewhat  within 
the  bay  and  scarce  a  mile  from  the  town,  lay  the  southern  earthwork,  indifi'erently  protected 
on  the  land  side  by  a  redoubt  only  available  for  infantry,  and  armed  with  4  heavy  guns  and 
37  men,  under  the  command  of  the  Schleswig-Holstein  subaltern  Ludwig  Theodor  Preusser 
(born  May  11,  1822,  in  Rendsburg,  cadet  of  Copenhagen,  farmer  in  1842,  volunteer  cavalry 
soldier  in  1848,  then  skirmisher  in  Fehmam  and  artillerist  in  October,  bombadier  in  February, 
1849 ;  perished  in  the  explosion  of  the  burning  "  Christian  VIII  "  with  the  Danish  lieutenant 
Captain  Krieger,  while  transporting  the  Danish  prisoners  from  the  vessel). 

On  April  3,  after  the  expiration  of  the  armistice  hostilities  were  resumed,  and  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  4th  the  Danish  fleet  ran  into  the  bay  of  Eckernforde  and  anchored  off  the  south- 
ern shore.  The  old  captain.  Christian  Karl  Paludan,  had  been  ordered  to  advance  upon  the 
bay  of  Eckernforde  by  General  Krogh,  the  Danish  commander-in-chief ;  he  had  under  his 
command  the  battleship  "  Christian  VIII,"  of  84  guns,  the  fast-sailing  frigate  "  Gesion  "  of 
48  guns,  the  two  steamers,  "  Hekla  "  and  "  Geyser,"  with  8  guns  each,  and  a  landing  party  250 
strong  in  3  sloops. 

The  details  of  the  brilliant  German  success  in  the  fight  of  the  5th  of  April,  1849,  may  be 
read  in  Treitschke's  account  (op.  cit.,  reprinted  in  Vol.  IV  of  his  "  Historischen  und  Politischen 
Aufsatze,"  Leipsic,  1897).  Towards  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  "  Christian  VIII "  hoisted 
a  flag  of  truce ;  but  the  captains,  Jungmann,  Wigand  (resident  commander  of  Eckernforde), 
and  Irminger  (commander  of  the  Schleswig-Holstein  reserve  battalion),  replied  that  they 
would  continue  the  fight ;  meanwhile  the  Duke  of  Coburg  and  Captain  v.  Stieglitz  had  been 
entangled  in  swampy  ground  and  proceeded  to  Gettorf.  After  four  o'clock  the  artillery  duel 
was  resumed,  and  was  chiefly  maintained  by  Jungmann,  Preusser,  and  Miiller,  the  Nassau  captain. 
About  six  o'clock  the  "Gesion  "  surrendered,  as  did  the  battleship  shortly  afterwards.  Paludan 
handed  his  sword  between  seven  and  eight  to  the  Duke,  who  had  hastened  to  the  scene  of 


action;  about  8.30  the  "  Christian  VIII,"  which  had  been  set  on  fire  at  six  by  a  shell  from 
the  north  battery,  blew  up. 

The  German  loss  was  only  4  dead  and  14  wounded,  whereas  the  Danes  lost  131  dead,  92 
wounded,  44  officers,  and  981  prisoners,  besides  their  warships.  Jungmann  was  promoted  to 
major  by  v.  Bonin,  who  placed  Preusser's  name  upon  the  list  of  lieutenants  after  his  death. 
The  figure-head  of  the  "  Christian  VIII,"  with  the  Danebrog  flag  taken  from  the  "  Gesion," 
and  Paludan's  sword,  are  still  preserved  in  a  ti'ophy  room  of  Coburg  Castle ;  cf.  the  joyous 
epic  "  Geisterspuk,  oder  Das  grosse  Umgehen  auf  der  Veste  Koburg,"  by  Fritz  Hofmann 
(Leipsic,  1877). 

"  In  the  battle  our  flag  is  our  glory  and  pride, 
And  its  colours  are  black,  gold,  and  red. 
Black  for  death;  red  for  blood;  our  freedom  is  gold. 
And  for  it  will  we  fight  until  dead." 

(Johann  Meyer  in  the  "  Orondunneredag  bi  Eckemfor,"  Leipsic,  1873.) 

The  painter  of  the  picture,  Rudolf  HardorS  of  Hamburg  (born  March  8,  1815),  hurried  to 
the  spot  on  April  6, 1849  (a  large  splinter  from  the  "  Christian  VIII"  is  still  in  his  possession), 
sketched  the  north  and  south  batteries  on  the  scene  of  the  conflict,  with  any  other  -visible 
memorials,  and  gained  much  detailed  information  from  the  Nassau  contingent.  Hence  the 
picture  (belonging  to  the  Hamburg  Art  Gallery)  may  justly  claim  to  be  a  historically  faithful 
reproduction  of  the  climax  of  that  day. 


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S^«^?rif^5f]       HISTORY    OF   THE  WORLD  209 

many  national  duties  of  whicli  he  talked  so  glibly.  His  first  steps  in  the  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  complication  displayed  extraordinary  vigour.  On  April  3,  1848,  two 
Prussian  regiments  of  the  guard  marched  into  Eendsburg,  and  their  commander, 
General  Eduard  von  Bonin,  sent  an  ultimatum  on  the  16th  to  the  Danish  troops, 
ordering  them  to  evacuate  the  duchy  and  the  town  of  Schleswig,  which  they  had 
seized  after  a  victory  at  Ban  (April  9)  over  the  untrained  Schleswig-Holstein 
troops.  On  April  12  the  federal  council  at  Frankfurt  recognised  the  provisional 
government  at  Kiel,  and  mobilised  the  tenth  federal  army  corps  (Hanover,  Meck- 
lenburg, and  Brunswick)  for  the  protection  of  the  federal  frontier.  The  Prussian 
general  Von  Wrangel  united  this  corps  with  his  own  troops,  and  fought  the  battle 
of  Schleswig  on  the  23d,  obliging  the  Danes  to  retreat  to  Alsen  and  Jutland. 

Throughout  Germany  the  struggle  of  the  duchies  for  liberation  met  with  enthu- 
siastic support,  and  was  regarded  as  a  matter  which  affected  the  whole  German 
race.  There  and  in  the  duchies  themselves  Prussia's  prompt  action  might  well  be 
considered  as  a  token  that  Frederic  William  was  ready  to  accomplish  the  national 
will  as  regarded  the  north  frontier.  Soon,  however,  it  became  plain  that  English 
and  Eussian  influence  was  able  to  check  the  energy  of  Prussia,  and  to  confine  her 
action  to  the  conclusion  of  a  peace  providing  protection  for  the  interests  of  the 
German  duchies.  The  king  was  tormented  with  fears  that  he  might  be  support- 
ing some  revolutionary  movement.  He  doubted  the  morality  of  his  action,  and  was 
induced  by  the  threats  of  Nicholas  I,  his  Eussian  brother-in-law,  to  begin  negotia- 
tions with  Denmark.  These  ended  in  the  conclusion  of  a  seven  months'  armistice 
at  Malmo  on  August  26,  1848,  Prussia  agreeing  to  evacuate  the  duchy  of  Schles- 
wig. The  government  of  the  duchies  was  to  be  undertaken  by  a  commission  of 
five  members,  nominated  jointly  by  Denmark  and  Prussia.  The  Frankfurt  parlia- 
ment attempted  to  secure  the  rejection  of  the  conditions,  to  which  Prussia  had 
assented  without  consulting  the  imperial  commissioner,  Max  von  Gagern,  who  had 
been  despatched  to  the  seat  of  war,  and  which  were  entirely  opposed  to  German 
feeling ;  but  the  resolutions  on  the  question  were  carried  only  by  small  majorities, 
the  parliament  was  unable  to  ensure  their  realisation,  and  was  eventually  forced  to 
acquiesce  in  the  armistice. 

Meanwhile  the  assembly  of  the  estates  of  Schleswig-Holstein  hastily  passed  a 
law  declaring  the  universal  liability  of  the  population  to  military  service,  and 
retired  in  favour  of  a'  "constituent  provincial  assembly,"  which  passed  a  new 
constitutional  law  on  September  15.  The  connection  of  the  duchies  with  the 
Danish  crown  was  thereby  affirmed  to  depend  exclusively  upon  the  person  of  the 
common  ruler.  The  Danish  members  of  the  government  commission  declined  to 
recognise  the  new  constitution,  and  also  demurred  to  the  election  of  deputies  from 
Schleswig  to  the  Frankfurt  parliament.  Shortly  afterward  Denmark  further 
withdrew  her  recognition  of  the  government  commission.  The  armistice  expired 
without  any  success  resulting  from  the  attempts  of  Prussia  to  secure  unanimity 
on  the  Schleswig-Holstein  question  among  the  great  powers.  War  consequently 
broke  out  again  in  February,  1849.  Victories  were  gained  by  Prussian  and  federal 
troops  and  by  a  Schleswig-Holstein  corps,  in  which  many  Prussian  officers  on  fur- 
lough from  the  king  were  serving,  at  Eckernforde  (April  5 ;  see  the  plate,  "  The 
Danish  Line  of  Battleship  '  Christian  VIII '  blown  up  at  Eckernforde  ")  and  Kold- 
ing  (April  23, 1849).  On  the  other  hand,  the  Schleswig-Holstein  corps  was  de- 
feated while  besieging  the  Danish  fortress  of  Fridericia,  and  forced  to  retreat 

VOL.  vin—  14 


210  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichapter  ii 

beyond  the  Eider.  On  July  10, 1849,  Prussia  concluded  a  further  armistice  with 
Denmark.  The  administration  of  the  duchies  was  entrusted  to  a  commission  com- 
posed of  a  Dane,  a  Prussian,  and  an  Englishman. 

At  the  same  time  the  government  of  Schleswig-Holstein  was  continued  in 
Kiel  in  the  name  of  the  provincial  assembly  by  Count  Friedrich  Reventlow  and 
WUhelm  Hartwig  Beseler,  a  solicitor.  They  attempted  to  conclude  some  arrange- 
ment with  the  king-duke  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  to  stir  up  a  fresh 
rising  of  the  people  against  Danish  oppression,  which  was  continually  increas- 
ing in  severity  in  Schleswig.  The  devotion  of  the  German  population  and  the 
enthusiastic  support  of  numerous  volunteers  from  every  part  of  Germany  raised 
the  available  forces  to  thirty  thousand  men,  and  even  made  it  possible  to  equip  a 
Schleswig-Holstein  fleet.  In  the  summer  of  1850  Prussia  gave  way  to  the  repre- 
sentations of  the  powers,  and  concluded  the  "  simple  peace "  with  Denmark 
(July  2).  Schleswig-Holstein  then  began  the  struggle  for  independence  on  their 
own  resources.  They  would  have  had  some  hope  of  success  with  a  better  general 
than  Wilhelm  von  Willisen,  and  if  Prussia  had  not  recalled  her  officers  on  fur- 
lough. Willisen  retired  from  the  battle  of  Idstedt  (July  24)  before  the  issue  had 
been  decided,  and  began  a  premature  retreat.  He  failed  to  prosecute  the  ad- 
vantage gained  at  Missunde  (September  12),  and  retired  from  Priedrichstadt 
without  making  any  impression,  after  sacrificing  four  hundred  men  in  a  useless 
attempt  to  storm  the  place. 

The  German  federation  which  had  been  again  convoked  at  Frankfurt  revoked 
its  previous  decisions,  in  which  it  had  recognised  the  rights  of  the  duchies  to 
determine  their  own  existence,  and  assented  to  the  peace  concluded  by  Prussia. 
An  Austrian  army  corps  set  out  for  the  disarmament  of  the  duchies.  Though  the 
provincial  Assembly  still  possessed  an  unbeaten  army  of  thirty-eight  thousand 
men  fully  equipped,  it  was  forced  on  January  11,  1851,  to  submit  to  the  joint 
demands  of  Austria  and  Prussia,  to  disband  the  army,  and  acknowledge  the  Danish 
occupation  of  the  two  duchies.  From  1852  Denmark  did  her  utmost  to  under- 
mine the  prosperity  of  her  German  subjects  and  to  crush  their  national  aspirations. 
Such  ignoble  methods  failed  to  produce  the  desired  result.  Neither  the  faithless- 
ness of  the  Prussian  government  nor  the  arbitrary  oppressiqa  of  the  Danes  could 
break  the  national  spirit  of  the  North  German  marches.  On  the  death  of  Frederic 
VII  (November  15, 1863)  they  again  asserted  their  national  rights.  Prussia  had 
become  convinced  of  their  power  and  of  the  strength  of  their  national  feeling,  and 
took  the  opportunity  of  atoning  for  her  previous  injustice. 

D.  Panslavism  and  the  Poles 

(a)  The  Slav  Congress  at  Prague.  —  Of  the  many  quixotic  enterprises  called 
into  life  by  the  "nation's  spring"  of  1848,  one  of  the  wildest  was  certainly  the 
Slav  congress  opened  in  Prague  on  June  2.  Here  the  catchword  of  Slav  solidarity 
was  proclaimed  and  the  idea  of  "  Panslavism "  discovered,  which  even  now  can 
raise  forebodings  in  anxious  hearts,  although  half  a  century  has  in  no  way  con- 
tributed to  the  realisation  of  the  idea.  At  a  time  when  the  nations  of  Europe  were 
called  upon  to  determine  their  different  destinies,  it  was  only  natural  that  the 
Slavs  should  be  anxious  to  assert  their  demands.  There  were  Slav  peoples  which 
had  long  been  deprived  of  their  national  rights,  and  others,  such  as  the  Slovaks  and 


?^^iriX']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  211 

part  of  the  southern  Slavs,  who  had  never  enjoyed  the  exercise  of  their  rights. 
For  these  a  period  of  severe  trial  had  begun ;  it  was  for  them  to  show  whether 
they  were  capable  of  any  internal  development  and  able  to  rise  to  the  level  of 
national  independence,  or  whether  not  even  the  gift  of  political  freedom  would 
help  them  to  carry  out  that  measure  of  social  subordination  which  is  indispensable 
to  the  uniform  development  of  culture.  The  first  attempts  in  this  direction  were 
somewhat  of  a  failure ;  they  proved  to  contemporaries  and  to  posterity  that  the 
Slavs  were  still  in  the  primary  stages  of  political  training  ;  that  the  attainment  of 
practical  result  was  hindered  by  the  extravagance  of  their  demands,  their  over- 
weening and  almost  comical  self-conceit ;  and  that  for  the  creation  of  States  they 
possessed  little  or  no  capacity.  The  differences  existing  in  their  relations  with 
other  peoples,  the  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  economic  conditions  under  which  they 
lived,  the  want  of  political  training  and  experience,  —  these  were  facts  which  they 
overlooked.  They  forgot  the  need  of  prestige  and  importance  acquired  by  and 
within  their  own  body,  and  considered  of  chief  importance  preparations  on  a  large 
scale,  which  could  never  lead  to  any  political  success.  Had  their  action  been 
limited  to  forwarding  the  common  interests  of  the  Austrian  Slavs,  it  might  have 
been  possible  to  produce  a  political  programme  dealing  with  this  question  ;  to  de- 
mand a  central  parliament,  and  through  opposition  to  the  Hungarian  supremacy  to 
assert  the  rights  of  the  Slav  majority  as  against  the  Germans,  Magyars,  and 
Italians.  But  the  participation  of  the  Poles  in  the  movement,  the  appearance  of 
the  Eussian  radical  democrat  Michael  Bakunin,  and  of  Turkish  subjects,  infinitely 
extended  the  range  of  the  questions  in  dispute,  and  led  to  propositions  of  the  most 
arbitrary  nature,  the  accomplishment  of  which  was  entirely  beyond  the  sphere  of 
practical  politics.  Panslavism,  as  a  movement,  was  from  the  outset  deprived  of 
all  importance  by  the  inveterate  failing  of  the  Slav  politicians,  which  was  to  set  no 
limit  to  the  measure  of  their  claims,  and  to  represent  themselves  as  stronger  than 
they  really  were. 

Greatly  to  the  disgust  of  its  organisers,  among  whom  were  several  Austrian 
conservative  nobles,  the  Slav  congress  became  an  arena  for  the  promulgation  of 
democratic  theories,  while  it  waited  for  a  congress  of  European  nations  to  found 
Pan-Slavonic  States.  These  States  were  to  include  Czechia  (Bohemia  and  Mora- 
via), a  Galician-Silesian  State,  Posen  under  Prussian  supremacy,  until  the  frag- 
ments of  Poland  could  be  united  into  an  independent  Polish  kingdom,  and  a 
kingdom  of  Slovenia  which  was  to  unite  the  Slav  popidation  of  Styria,  Carinthia, 
Carniola,  and  the  seaboard.  The  Slav  States  hitherto  under  Hapsburg  supremacy 
were  to  form  a  federal  State ;  the  German  hereditary  domains  were  to  be  gra- 
ciously accorded  the  option  of  entering  the  federation,  or  of  joining  the  State  which 
the  Frankfurt  parliament  was  to  create.  The  attitude  of  the  Slovaks,  Croatians, 
and  Servians  would  be  determined  by  the  readiness  of  the  Magyars  to  grant  them 
full  independence.  Should  the  grant  be  refused,  it  would  be  necessary  to  form  a 
Slovak  and  a  Croatian  State.  All  these  achievements  the  members  of  the  con- 
gress considered  practicable,  though  they  were  forced  to  admit  that  the  Slavs, 
whom  they  assumed  to  be  inspired  by  the  strongest  aspirations  for  freedom  and 
justice,  were  continually  attempting  to  aggrandise  themselves  at  one  another's  ex- 
pense ;  the  Poles,  the  Euthenians,  and  the  Croatians  respectively  considered  their 
most  dangerous  enemies  to  be  the  Eussians,  the  Poles,  and  the  Servians. 

The  Czech  students  in  Prague  had  armed  and  organised  a  guard  of  honour  for 


212  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [chapter  ii 

the  congress.  They  made  not  the  smallest  attempt  to  conceal  their  hatred  of  the 
Germans  ;  Germanism  to  them  was  anathema,  and  they  yearned  for  the  chance  of 
displaying  their  heroism  ia  an  anti-German  struggle,  as  the  Poles  had  done  against 
Eussia.  They  were  supported  by  the  middle-class  citizens,  and  the  working 
classes  were  easily  induced  to  join  in  a  noisy  demonstration  on  June  12,  1848, 
against  Prince  Alfred  Wiadisch-Graetz,  the  general  commanding  in  Prague,  as  he 
had  refused  the  students  a  grant  of  sixty  thousand  cartridges  and  a  battery  of 
horse  artillery.  The  demonstration  developed  into  a  revolt,  which  the  Czech 
leaders  used  as  evidence  for  their  cause,  though  it  was  to  be  referred  rather  to  the 
disorderly  character  of  the  Czech  mob,  than  to  any  degree  of  national  enthusiasm. 
The  members  of  the  congress  were  very  disagreeably  surprised,  and  decamped  with 
the  utmost  rapidity  when  they  found  themselves  reputed  to  favour  the  scheme 
for  advancing  Slav  solidarity  by  street  fights.  The  Vienna  government,  then 
thoroughly  cowed  and  trembling  before  the  mob,  made  a  wholly  unnecessary  at- 
tempt>at  intervention.  Prince  Windisch-Graetz,  however,  remained  master  of  the 
situation,  overpowered  the  rebels  by  force  of  arms,  and  secured  the  unconditional 
submission  of  Prague  (cf.  above,  p.  199).  He  was  speedily  master  of  all  Bohemia. 
The  party  of  Franz  Palacky,  the  Czech  historian  and  politician,  at  once  dropped  the 
programme  of  the  congress  in  its  entirety,  abandoned  the  ideal  of  Panslavism,  and 
placed  themselves  at  the  disposal  of  the  Austrian  government.  Czech  democratism 
was  an  exploded  idea ;  the  conservative  Czechs  who  survived  its  downfall  readily 
co-operated  in  the  campaign  against  the  German  democrats,  and  attempted  to  bring 
their  national  ideas  into  harmony  with  the  contiuuance  of  Austria  as  dominant 
power.  Palacky  became  influential  at  the  imperial  court  in  Olmutz  and  proposed 
the  transference  of  the  Reichstag  to  Kremsier,  where  his  subordinate,  Ladislaus 
Pieger,  took  an  important  share  in  the  disruption  of  popular  representation  by  the 
derision  which  he  cast  upon  the  German  democrats. 

The  Austrian  Slavs  had  acquired  a  highly  favourable  position  by  their  victory 
over  the  revolutionary  Magyars,  an  achievement  in  which  the  Croatians  had  a  very 
considerable  share.  They  might  the  more  easily  have  become  paramount,  as  the 
Germans  had  injured  their  cause  by  their  senseless  radicalism.  They  were,  how- 
ever, lacking  in  the  statesmanlike  capacity  necessary  to  carrmout  the  reorganisa- 
tion of  the  State  in  their  own  interests ;  they  became  the  ladder  by  which  the 
court  nobility  and  clergy  rose  to  unlimited  power.  They  were  rendered  incapable 
of  any  permanent  political  achievement  by  their  blind  animosity  for  their  German 
fellow  subjects.  Spite  and  malevolence  were  the  chief  causes  of  this  feeling,  which 
prevented  them  from  securing  allies  who  might  have  helped  them  to  preserve  the 
interests  of  the  State.  Their  fruitless  attempt  to  secure  a  paramount  position  in 
Bohemia  gave  them  a  share  in  the  conduct  of  the  State ;  this  they  could  claim  by 
reason  of  the  strength  and  productive  force  of  their  race  and  of  their  undeniable 
capacity  for  administrative  detail,  had  they  conceded  to  the  Germans  the  position 
to  which  these  latter  were  entitled  by  the  development  of  the  Hapsburg  monarchy 
and  its  destiny  in  the  system  of  European  States. 

(6)  The  Polish  Revolt  in  Posen.  —  The  year  1848  might  perhaps  have  afforded 
an  opportunity  for  the  restoration  of  Polish  independence,  had  the  leaders  of  the 
national  policy  been  able  to  find  the  only  path  which  could  guide  them  to  success. 
Any  attempt  in  this  direction  ought  to  have  been  confined  to  the  territory  occu- 


^f^rif^S^]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  213 

pied  by  Eussia ;  any  force  that  might  have  been  raised  for  the  cause  of  patriotism 
could  have  been  best  employed  upon  Eussian  soil.  Eussia  was  entirely  isolated  ; 
it  was  inconceivable  that  any  European  power  could  have  come  to  her  help,  as 
Prussia  had  come  in  1831,  if  she  had  been  at  war  with  the  Polish  nation.  Austria 
was  uaable  to  prevent  Galicia  from  participation  in  a  Polish  revolt.  Prussia  had 
been  won  over  as  far  as  possible  to  the  Polish  side,  for  her  possessions  in  Posen 
had  been  secured  from  any  amalgamation  with  an  independent  Polish  State.  The 
approval  of  the  German  parliament  was  as  firmly  guaranteed  to  the  Polish  nation- 
alists as  was  the  support  of  the  French  republic,  provided  that  German  interests 
were  not  endangered. 

Exactly  the  opposite  course  was  pursued :  the  movement  began  with  a  rising  in 
Posen,  with  threats  against  Prussia,  with  fire  and  slaughter  in  German  commu- 
nities, with  the  rejection  of  German  culture,  which  could  not  have  been  more  dis- 
astrous to  Polish  civilization  than  the  arbitrary  and  cruel  domination  of  Eussian 
officials  and  police.  Louis  of  Mieroslawski,  a  learned  visionary,  but  no  politician, 
calculated  upon  a  victory  of  EiHopean  democracy,  and  thought  it  advisable  to  for- 
ward the  movement  in  Prussia,  where  the  conservative  power  seemed  most  strongly 
rooted.  He  therefore  began  his  revolutionary  work  in  Posen,  after  the  movement 
of  March  had  set  him  free  to  act.  On  April  29,  1848,  he  fought  an  unsuccessful 
battle  at  the  head  of  sixteen  thousand  rebels  against  Colonel  Heinrich  von  Brandt 
at  Xions ;  on  the  30th  he  drove  back  a  Prussian  corps  at  Miloslaw.  However,  he 
gained  no  support  from  the  Eussian  Poles,  and  democratic  intrigue  was  unable  to 
destroy  the  discipline  of  the  Prussian  army,  so  that  the  campaign  in  Posen  was 
hopeless ;  by  the  close  of  May  it  had  come  to  an  end,  the  armed  bands  were  dis- 
persed, and  Mieroslawski  driven  into  exile.  At  a  later  date  (spring,  1849),  in 
Sicily  and  Baden,  he  placed  his  military  knowledge  at  the  disposal  of  the  cause 
of  revolution,  and  clung  with  extraordinary  tenacity  to  his  faith  in  the  saving 
power  of  democratic  principles,  notwithstanding  the  misuse  of  them  by  foolish  and 
unscrupulous  radicals.  He  was  the  author  of  the  admirable  descriptions  of  the 
revolution  of  1830-1831  (Paris,  1836-1838)  and  the  revolt  of  Posen  (Paris,  1853), 
in  which  he  criticises  his  own  nation. 


9.  THE  EED  AND   THE   DEMOCEATIC   EEPUBLIC   IN   FEANCE 

A.    The  Eadicals  in  May  and  June,  1848 

The  European  spirit  of  democracy  which  was  desirous  of  overthrowing  existing 
States,  planting  its  banner  upon  the  ruins  and  founding  in  its  shadow  new  bodies 
politic  of  the  nature  of  which  no  democrat  had  the  remotest  idea,  had  been  utterly 
defeated  in  France  at  a  time  when  Italy,  Germany,  and  Austria  were  the  scene  of 
wild  enthusiasm  and  bloody  self-sacrifice.  Democratic  hopes  ran  the  course  of  all 
political  ideals.  The  process  of  realisation  suddenly  discloses  the  fact  that  every 
mind  has  its  own  conception  of  any  ideal,  which  may  assume  the  most  varied 
forms  when  translated  into  practice.  A  nation  desirous  of  asserting  its  supremacy 
may  appear  a  unity  while  struggling  against  an  incompetent  government ;  but  as 
soon  as  the  question  of  establishing  the  national  supremacy  arises,  numbers  of 
different  interests  become  prominent,  which  cannot  be  adequately  satisfied  by  any 
one  constitutional  form.     The  simultaneous   fulfilment  of  the  hopes  which  are 


214  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [chapter  ii 

common  to  all  is  rendered  impossible  not  only  by  inequality  of  material  wealth,  but 
also  by  the  contest  for  power,  the  exercise  of  which  necessarily  implies  the  accu- 
mulation of  privileges  on  one  side  with  a  corresponding  limitation  on  the  other. 

When  the  nine  hundred  representatives  of  the  French  nation  declared  France 
a  republic  on  May  4, 1848  (cf.  p.  179),  the  majority  of  the  electors  considered  the 
revolution  concluded,  and  demanded  a  public  administration  capable  of  maintain- 
ing peace  and  order  and  removing  the  burdens  which  oppressed  the  taxpayer. 
The  executive  committee  chosen  on  May  10,  the  president's  chair  being  occupied 
by  the  great  physicist  Dominique  Francois  Arago,  fully  recognised  the  importance 
of  the  duty  with  which  the  country  had  entrusted  them,  and  was  resolved  honour- 
ably to  carry  out  the  task.  But  in  the  first  days  of  its  existence  the  committee 
found  itself  confronted  by  an  organised  opposition,  which,  though  excluded  from 
the  government,  claimed  the  right  of  performing  its  functions.  Each  party  was 
composed  of  democrats,  government  and  opposition  alike ;  each  entered  the  lists  in 
the  name  of  the  sovereign  people,  those  elected  by  the  moneyed  classes  as  well  as 
the  leaders  of  the  idle  or  unemployed,  who  for  two  months  had  been  in  receipt  of 
pay  for  worthless  labour  in  the  "  national  factories  "  of  France. 

On  May  15  the  attack  on  the  dominant  party  was  begun  by  the  radicals,  who 
were  pursuing  ideals  of  communism  or  political  socialism,  or  were  anxious  merely 
for  the  possession  of  power  which  they  might  use  to  their  own  advantage.  They 
found  their  excuse  in  the  general  sympathy  for  Poland.  The  leaders  were  Louis 
Blanc,  L.  A.  Blanqui,  P.  J.  Proudhon,  Etienne  Cabet  (Vol.  VII,  p.  403),  and  Francois 
Vincent  Easpail.  Ledru-EoUin  declined  to  join  the  party.  They  had  no  sooner 
gained  possession  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  than  a  few  battalions  of  the  National  Guard 
arrived  opportunely  and  dispersed  the  assembled  masses.  The  leaders  of  the  con- 
spiracy were  arraigned  before  the  court  of  Bourges,  which  proceeded  against  them 
with  severity,  while  the  national  factories  were  closed.  They  had  cost  France  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  daily,  and  were  nothing  more  than  a  meeting- 
ground  for  malcontents  and  sedition.  This  measure,  coupled  with  an  order  to  the 
workmen  to  report  themselves  for  service  in  the  provinces,  produced  the  June 
revolt,  a  period  of  street  fighting,  in  which  the  radical  democrats  who  gathered 
round  the  red  flag  carried  on  a  life  and  death  struggle  with  ^e  republican  demo- 
crats, whose  watchword  was  the  "  BepuUique  sans  phrase. '  The  monarchists 
naturally  sided  with  the  republican  government,  to  which  the  line  troops  and  the 
National  Guard  were  also  faithful.  The  minister  of  war.  General  Louis  Eugene 
Cavaignac,  who  had  won  distinction  in  Algiers,  supported  by  the  generals  Lamori- 
ci^re  (p.  176),  and  Ed.  Ad.  Damesne,  on  June  23  successfully  conducted  the  re- 
sistance to  the  bands  advancing  from  the  suburbs  to  the  centre  of  Paris.  The 
"  reds,"  however,  declined  to  yield,  and  on  June  24  the  national  assembly  gave 
Cavaignac  the  dictatorship.  He  declared  Paris  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  pursued  the 
rebels,  who  were  also  charged  with  the  murder  of  the  archbishop  Denis  Auguste 
Affre  (June  25),  to  the  suburb  of  Sainte-Antoine,  where  a  fearful  massacre  on 
June  27  made  an  end  of  the  revolt. 

B.    The  Presidency  of  Louis  Napoleon 

The  victory  had  been  gained  at  heavy  cost ;  thousands  of  wounded  lay  in  the 
hospitals  of  Paris  and  its  environs.     The  number  of  lives  lost  has   never  been 


??^^^'riSS"/]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  215 

determined,  tut  it  equalled  the  carnage  of  many  a  great  battle,  and  included  nine 
generals  and  several  deputies.  An  important  reaction  in  public  feeling  had  set  in  ; 
the  people's  favour  was  now  given  to  the  conservative  parties,  and  any  compromise 
with  the  radicals  was  opposed.  The  democratic  republic  was  based  on  the  co- 
operation of  the  former  "  constitutionalists."  Thiers,  Montalembert,  and  Odilon 
Barrot  (cf.  pp.  129  f.,  138,  and  178)  again  became  prominent  figures.  Cavaignac  was 
certainly  installed  at  the  head  of  the  executive  committee ;  however,  his  popu- 
larity paled  apace,  as  he  did  not  possess  the  art  of  conciliating  the  bourgeois  by 
brilliant  speeches  or  promises  of  relief  from  taxation.  The  constitution,  which  was 
ratified  after  two  months'  discussion  by  the  national  assembly,  preserved  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  people's  sovereignty.  The  cl^oice  of  a  president  of  the 
republic  was  not  left  to  the  deputies,  but  was  to  be  decided  by  a  plebiscite. 
This  provision  opened  the  way  to  agitators  capable  of  influencing  the  masses  and 
prepared  the  path  to  supremacy  to  an  ambitious  member  of  the  Bonaparte  family, 
who  had  been  repeatedly  elected  as  a  popular  representative,  and  had  held  a  seat 
in  the  national  assembly  siuce  September  26,  1848. 

From  the  date  of  his  flight  from  Ham  (p.  176)  Charles  Louis  Napoleon  had 
lived  in  England  in  close  retirement.  The  outbreak  of  the  February  revolution 
inspired  him  with  great  hopes  for  his  future  ;  he  had,  however,  learned  too  much 
from  Strassburg  and  Boulogne  to  act  as  precipitately  as  his  supporters  in  France 
desired.  He  remained  strong  in  the  conviction  that  his  time  would  come,  a  thought 
which  relieved  the  tedium  of  waiting  for  the  moment  when  he  might  venture  to 
act.  He  tendered  his  thanks  to  the  republic  for  permission  to  return  to  his  native 
land  after  thirty-three  years  of  proscription  and  banishment ;  he  assured  the  dep- 
uties who  were  his  colleagues  of  the  zeal  and  devotion  which  he  would  bring 
to  their  labours,  which  had  hitherto  been  known  to  him  only  "  by  reading  and 
meditation."  His  candidature  for  the  president's  chair  was  then  accepted  not  only 
hy  his  personal  friends  and  by  the  adherents  of  the  Bonapartist  empire,  but  also 
by  numerous  members  of  conservative  tendencies,  who  saw  in  uncompromising 
republicans  like  Cavaignac  no  hope  of  salvation  from  the  terrors  of  anarchy.  They 
were  followed  by  ultramontanes,  Orleanists,  legitimists,  and  socialists,  who  objected 
to  the  republican  doctrinaires,  and  used  their  influence  in  the  election  which  took 
place  on  December  10,  1848.  Against  the  one  and  a  half  millions  who  supported 
Cavaignac,  an  unexpectedly  large  majority  of  five  and  a  half  millions  voted  for  the 
son  of  Louis  Bonaparte  and  Hortense  Beauharnais.  As  a  politician  no  one  consid- 
ered him  of  any  account,  but  every  party  hoped  to  be  able  to  use  him  for  their 
own  purposes  or  for  the  special  objects  of  their  ambitious  or  office-seeking  leaders. 
The  behaviour  of  the  national  assembly  was  not  very  flattering  when  the  result  of 
the  voting  was  announced  on  December  20.  "  Some,  who  were  near  Louis  Bona- 
parte's seat,"  says  Victor  Hugo,  "  expressed  approval ;  the  rest  of  the  assembly  pre- 
served a  cold  silence.  Marrast,  the  president,  invited  the  chosen  candidate  to  take 
the  oath.  Louis  Bonaparte,  buttoned  up  in  a  black  coat,  the  cross  of  the  legion  of 
honour  on  his  breast,  passed  through  the  door  on  the  right,  ascended  the  tribune, 
and  calmly  repeated  the  words  after  Marrast ;  he  then  read  a  speech,  with  the  un- 
pleasant accent  peculiar  to  him,  interrupted  by  a  few  cries  of  assent.  He  pleased 
his  hearers  by  his  unstinted  praise  of  Cavaignac.  In  a  few  moments  he  had 
finished,  and  left  the  tribune  amid  a  general  shout  of  '  Long  live  the  republic ! '  but 
with  none  of  the  cheers  which  had  accompanied  Cavaignac."     Thus  "the  new 


216  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  ichapter  ii 

man "  was  received  with  much  discontent  and  indifference,  with  scanty  respect, 
and  with  no  single  spark  of  enthusiasm.  He  was  indeed  without  genius  or  fire 
and  of  very  moderate  capacity ;  but  he  understood  the  effect  of  commonplaces  and 
the  baser  motives  of  his  political  instruments,  and  was  therefore  able  to  attract 
both  the  interest  of  France  and  the  general  attention  of  the  whole  of  Europe. 

The  president  of  the  citizen  republic  was  thus  a  member  of  the  family  of  that 
great  conqueror  and  subduer  of  the  world  whose  remembrance  aroused  feelings  of 
pride  in  every  Frenchman,  if  his  patriotism  were  not  choked  by  legitimism :  it 
was  a  problem  difficult  of  explanation.  No  one  knew  whether  the  president  was 
to  be  addressed  as  prince,  highness,  sir,  monseigneur,  or  citizen.  To  something 
greater  he  was  bound  to  grow,  or  a  revolution  would  forthwith  hurl  him  back  into 
the  obscurity  whence  he  had  so  suddenly  emerged.  But  of  revolution  France  had 
had  more  than  enough.  "  Gain  and  the  enjoyment  of  it "  was  the  watchword,  and 
Louis  Napoleon  accepted  it.  Victor  Hugo  claims  to  have  shown  him  the  fun- 
damental principles  of  the  art  of  government  at  the  first  dinner  in  the  Elysde. 
Ignorance  of  the  people's  desires,  disregard  of  the  national  pride,  had  led  to  the 
downfall  of  Louis  Philippe ;  the  most  important  thing  was  to  raise  the  standard 
of  peace.  "And  how?"  asked  the  prince.  "By  the  triumphs  of  industry  and 
progress,  by  great  artistic,  literary,  and  scientific  efforts.  The  labour  of  the  nation 
can  create  marvels.  France  is  a  nation  of  conquerors ;  if  she  does  not  conquer 
with  the  sword,  she  will  conquer  by  her  genius  and  talent.  Keep  that  fact  in  view 
and  you  will  advance;  forget  it,  and  you  are  lost."  Louis  did  not  possess  this 
power  of  expression,  but  with  the  idea  he  had  long  been  familiar.  He  now 
increased  his  grasp  of  it.  He  knew  that  men  get  tired  of  great  movements, 
political  convulsion,  hypocritical  posing.  Most  people  are  out  of  breath  after 
they  have  puffed  themselves  like  the  frog  in  the  fable,  and  need  a  rest  to  recover 
their  wind.  As  long  as  this  desire  for  quietude  prevailed.  Napoleon  the  citoyen 
was  secure  of  the  favour  of  France.  The  moment  he  appealed  to  "  great  feelings  " 
his  art  had  reached  its  limits  and  he  became  childish  and  insignificant.  His 
political  leanings  favoured  the  liberalism  for  which  the  society  of  Paris  had  cre- 
ated the  July  kingdom.  This  tendency  was  shown  in  his  appointment  of  Odilon 
Barrot  as  head  of  his  ministry,  and  of  Edouard  Drouyn  de  I'l^ys,  one  of  his  per- 
sonal adherents,  as  first  minister  of  foreign  affairs. 

Desire  to  secure  the  constituted  authority  against  further  attacks  of  the 
"reds"  was  the  dominant  feeling  which  influenced  the  elections  to  the  national 
assembly.  By  the  election  law,  which  formed  part  of  the  constitution,  these  were 
held  in  May,  1849.  The  majority  were  former  royalists  and  constitutionalists, 
.who  began  of  express  purpose  a  reactionary  policy  after  the  revolt  of  the  com- 
munists in  June,  1848.  Fearful  of  the  Italian  democracy,  into  the  arms  of  which 
Piedmont  had  rushed,  France  let  slip  the  favourable  opportunity  of  fostering 
the  Italian  movement  for  unity  and  of  taking  Austria's  place  in  the  penin- 
sula. Had  she  listened  to  Charles  Albert's  appeal  for  help,  the  defeat  of  Novara 
(p.  196)  could  have  been  avoided,  and  the  Austrian  government  would  not  have 
gained  strength  enough  to  become  the  centre  of  a  reactionary  movement  which 
speedily  interfered  both  with  the  revolutionary  desires  of  the  radicals  and  the 
more  modest  demands  of  the  moderate-minded  friends  of  freedom.  Louis  Bona- 
parte fully  appreciated  the  fact  that  the  sentiments  of  the  population  at  large 
were  favourable  to  a  revival  of  governmental  energy  throughout  almost  the  whole 


S^e"iril^       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  217 

of  Europe.  He  saw  that  the  excesses  of  the  mob,  who  were  as  passionately  excited 
as  they  were  morally  degraded,  had  restored  coniidence  among  the  moneyed  classes 
and  those  who  desired  peace  in  the  power  of  religious  guidance  and  education. 
For  these  reasons  he  acquiesced  in  the  restoration  of  the  temporal  supremacy  of 
the  pope,  which  the  democracy  had  abolished,  thereby  rendering  the  greatest  of  all 
possible  services  to  the  ultramontanes. 

C.  The  Eestoeation  of  the  Temporal  Supremacy  op  the  Pope 

In  March,  1848,  Pius  IX,  the  "national  pope,"  had  assented  to  the  introduction 
within  the  States  of  the  Church  of  a  constitutional  form  of  government.  At  the 
same  time  he  had  publicly  condemned  the  war  of  Piedmont  and  the  share  taken 
in  it  by  the  Roman  troops,  which  he  had  been  unable  to  prevent.  This  step  had 
considerably  damped  public  enthusiasm  in  his  behalf.  Roman  feeling  also  declared 
agaiQst  him  when  he  refused  his  assent  to  the  liberal  legislation  of  the  chambers 
and  transferred  the  government  to  the  hands  of  Count  Pellegrino  de  Rossi.  The 
count's  murder  (November  15,  1848)  marked  the  beginning  of  a  revolution  in 
Rome  which  ended  with  the  imprisonment  of  the  pope  in  the  Quirinal,  his  flight 
to  the  Neapolitan  fortress  of  Gaeta  (November  27),  and  the  establishment  of  a 
provisional  government.  The  pope  was  now  inclined  to  avail  himself  of  the  ser- 
vices offered  by  Piedmont  for  the  recovery  of  his  power.  However,  the  constituent 
national  assembly  at  Rome,  which  was  opened  on  February  5,  1849,  voted  for  the 
restoration  of  the  Roman  republic  by  '  one  hundred  and  twenty  votes  against 
twenty-three,  and  challenged  the  pope  to  request  the  armed  interference  of  the 
Catholic  powers  in  his  favour.  The  Roman  republic  became  the  central  point  of 
the  movement  for  Italian  unity,  and  was  joined  by  Venice,  Tuscany,  and  Sicily. 
Mazzini  (p.  180)  was  the  head  of  the  triumvirate  which  held  the  executive  power ; 
Giuseppe  Garibaldi  (p.  196)  directed  the  forces  for  national  defence,  of  which 
Rome  was  now  made  the  headquarters. 

The  "  democratic  republic,"  which  was  being  organised  in  France,  would  have 
no  dealings  with  the  descendants  of  the  Carbonari,  or  with  the  chiefs  of  the  revo- 
lutionary party  in  Europe.  It  considered  alliance  with  the  clericals  absolutely 
indispensable  to  its  own  preservation.  Hence  came  the  agreement  to  co-operate 
with  Austria,  Spain,  and  Naples  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the  pope  to  his  tem- 
poral power.  Twenty  thousand  men  were  at  once  despatched  under  Marshal 
Gudiaot,  and  occupied  the  harbour  town  of  Civita  Vecchia  on  April  25,  1849.  The 
president,  however,  had  no  intention  of  reimposing  upon  the  Romans  papal  abso- 
lutism, with  all  the  scandals  of  such  a  government.  He  sent  out  his  trusty  agent, 
Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  to  effect  some  compromise  between  the  pope  and  the  Romans 
which  should  result  in  the  establishment  of  a  moderate  liberal  government.  Gudi- 
not,  however,  made  a  premature  appeal  to  force  of  arms.  He  suffered  a  reverse 
before  the  walls  of  Rome  (April  30),  and  the  military  honour  of  France,  which  a 
descendant  of  Napoleon  could  not  afford  to  disregard,  demanded  the  conquest  of 
the  eternal  city.  Republican  soldiers  thus  found  themselves  co-operating  with  the 
reactionary  Austrians,  who  entered  Boulogne  on  May  19,  and  reduced  half  of  Ancona 
to  ashes  (p.  196).  On  June  20  the  bombardment  of  Rome  began,  in  the  course  of 
which  many  of  the  most  splendid  monuments  of  artistic  skill  were  destroyed. 
The  city  was  forced  to  surrender  on  July  3,  1849,  after  Garibaldi  had  marched 
away  with  three  thousand  volunteers. 


218  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  [Chapter  ii 


D.  The  Coup  d'etat 

By  its  attitude  upon  the  Eoman  question,  and  by  its  refusal  of  support  to  the 
German  democrats,  who  were  making  their  last  efforts  in  the  autumn  of  1849  for 
the  establishment  of  republicanism  in  Germany,  the  French  republic  gradually 
lost  touch  with  the  democratic  principles  on  which  it  was  based.  Its  internal 
disruption  was  expedited  by  the  clumsiness  of  its  constitution.  A  chamber  pro- 
vided with  full  legislative  power  and  indissoluble  for  three  years  confronted  a 
president  elected  by  the  votes  of  the  nation  to  an  office  tenable  for  only  four 
years,  on  the  expiration  of  which  he  was  at  once  eligible  for  re-election.  Honest 
republicans  had  foreseen  that  election  by  the  nation  would  give  the  president  a 
superfluous  prestige  and  a  dangerous  amount  of  power ;  but  the  majority  of  the 
constituent  assembly  had  been,  as  Treitschke  explains,  "  inspired  with  hatred  of 
the  republic.  They  were  anxious  to  have  an  independent  power  side  by  side  with 
the  assembly,  perhaps  with  the  object  of  afterward  restoring  the  monarchy."  This 
object  Louis  Bonaparte  was  busily  prosecuting.  On  October  31,  1849,  he  issued  a 
message  to  the  country,  in  which  he  gave  himself  out  to  be  the  representative  of 
the  Napoleonic  system,  and  explained  the  maintenance  of  peace  and  social  order 
to  be  dependent  upon  his  own  position.  Under  pressure  from  public  opinion,  the 
chamber  passed  a  new  electoral  law  on  May  31,  1850,  which  abolished  about  three 
millions  out  of  ten  million  votes,  chiefly  those  of  town  electors,  and  required  the 
presence  of  a  quarter  of  the  electorate '  to  form  a  quorum.  The  radicals  were 
deeply  incensed  at  this  measure,  and  the  conservatives  by  no  means  satisfied.  The 
president  attempted  to  impress  his  personality  on  the  people  by  making  numerous 
tours  through  the  country,  and  to  conciliate  the  original  electorate,  to  whose  deci- 
sion alone  he  was  ready  to  bow. 

A  whole  year  passed  before  he  ventured  upon  any  definite  steps ;  at  one  time 
the  chamber  showed  its  power,  at  another  it  would  display  compliance.  However, 
he  could  not  secure  the  three-quarters  majority  necessary  for  determining  a  revision 
of  the  constitution,  although  seventy-nine  out  of  eighty-five  general  councillors 
supported  the  proposal.  There  could  be  no  doubt  that  the  pre^dential  election  of 
May,  1852,  would  have  forced  on  the  revision,  for  the  reason  tnat  Louis  Napoleon 
would  have  been  elected  by  an  enormous  majority,  though  the  constitution  did  not 
permit  immediate  re-election.  A  revolt  of  this  nature  on  the  part  of  the  whole 
population  against  the  law  would  hardly  have  contributed  to  strengthen  the  social 
order  which  rests  upon  constitutionally  established  rights  ;  the  excitement  of  the 
elections  might  have  produced  a  fresh  outbreak  of  radicalism,  which  was  especially 
strong  in  the  south  of  France,  at  Marseilles  and  Bordeaux.  The  fear  of  some  such 
movement  was  felt  in  cottage  and  palace  alike,  and  was  only  to  be  obviated  by  a 
monarchical  government.  No  hope  of  material  improvement  in  the  conditions  of 
life  could  be  drawn  from  the  speeches  delivered  in  the  chamber,  with  then  vain  ac- 
rimony, their  bombastic  self-laudation,  and  their  desire  for  immediate  advantage. 
The  childlike  belief  in  the  capacity  and  zeal  of  a  national  representative  assembly 
was  destroyed  for  ever  by  the  experience  of  twenty  years.  The  parliament 
was  utterly  incompetent  to  avert  a  coup  d"etat,  a  danger  which  had  been  forced 
upon  its  notice  in  the  autumn  of  1851.  It  had  declined  a  proposal  to  secure  its 
command  of  tire  army  by  legislation,  although  the  growing  popularity  of  the  new 


?r;:^'rife']     history  of  the  world  219 

Caesar  with  the  army  was  perfectly  obvious,  and  though  General  Jacques  Leroy  de 
Saint-Arnaud  had  engaged  to  leave  North  Africa  and  conduct  the  armed  inter- 
ference which  was  the  first  step  to  a  revision  of  the  constitution  without  consulting 
the  views  of  the  parliament. 

After  long  and  serious  deliberation  the  president  had  determined  upon  the 
coup  d'etat ;  the  preparations  were  made  by  Napoleon's  half-brother,  his  mother's 
son,  Count  Charles  Auguste  Louis  Josfephe  de  Morny,  and  by  Count  Aug.  Ch. 
Flahault.  He  was  supported  by  the  faithful  Jean  Gilbert  Victor  Pialin  de  Per- 
signy,  while  the  management  of  the  army  was  in  the  hands  of  Saint  Arnaud.  On 
December  2,  1851,  the  day  of  Austerlitz  and  of  the  coronation  of  his  great-uncle, 
it  was  determined  to  make  the  nephew  supreme  over  France.  General  Bernard 
Pierre  Magnan,  commander  of  the  garrison  at  Paris,  won  over  twenty  generals  to 
the  cause  of  Bonaparte,  in  the  event  of  conflict.  Louis  himself,  when  his  resolve 
had  been  taken,  watched  the  course  of  events  with  great  coolness.  Morny,  a  promi- 
nent stock-exchange  speculator,  bought  up  as  much  State  paper  as  he  could  get, 
in  the  conviction  that  the  coup  d'etat  would  cause  a  general  rise  of  stock.  The 
movement  was  begun  by  the  director  of  police,  Charlemagne  Emile  de  Maupas, 
who  surprised  in  their  beds  and  took  prisoner  every  member  of  importance  in  the 
chamber,  about  sixty  captures  being  thus  made,  including  the  generals  Cavaignac, 
Changarnier,  and  Lamoricifere ;  at  the  same  time  the  points  of  strategic  importance 
rovmd  the  meeting  haU  of  the  national  assembly  were  occupied  by  the  troops, 
which  had  been  reinforced  from  the  environs  of  Paris.  The  city  awoke  to  find 
placards  posted  at  the  street  corners  containing  three  short  appeals  to  the  nation, 
the  population  of  the  capital,  and  the  army,  and  a  decree  dissolving  the  national 
assembly,  restoring  the  right  of  universal  suffrage,  and  declaring  Paris  and  the 
eleven  adjacent  departments  in  a  state  of  siege.  In  the  week  December  14  to  21 
ten  millions  of  Frenchmen  were  summoned  to  the  ballot-box  to  vote  for  or  against 
the  constitution  proposed  by  the  president.  This  constitution  provided  a  respon- 
sible head  of  the  State,  elected  for  ten  years,  and  threefold  representation  of  the 
people  through  a  State  council,  a  legislative  body,  and  a  senate;  the  executive 
power  being  placed  imder  the  control  of  the  sovereign  people.  On  his  appearance 
the  president  was  warmly  greeted  by  both  people  and  troops,  and  no  opposition 
was  offered  to  the  expulsion  of  the  deputies  who  attempted  to  meet  and  protest 
against  the  breach  of  the  constitution. 

It  was  not  until  December  3  that  the  revolt  of  the  radicals  and  socialists  broke 
out ;  numerous  barricades  were  erected  in  the  heart  of  Paris,  and  were  furiously 
contested.  But  the  movement  was  not  generally  supported,  and  the  majority  of 
the  citizens  remained  in  their  houses.  The  troops  won  a  complete  victory,  which 
was  stated  to  have  secured  the  establishment  of  the  "  democratic  republic,"  though 
unnecessary  acts  of  cruelty  made  it  appear  an  occasion  of  revenge  upon  the  demo- 
crats. The  sturdy  exponents  of  barricade  warfare  were  broken  up  and  destroyed  as 
a  class  for  a  long  time  to  come,  not  only  in  Paris,  but  in  the  other  great  towns  of 
France,  where  the  last  struggles  of  the  Eevolution  were  fought  out. 

The  impression  caused  by  this  success,  by  the  great  promises  which  Louis 
Napoleon  made  to  his  adherents  and  by  the  rewards  which  he  had  begun  to  pay 
them,  decided  the  result  of  the  national  vote  upon  the  change  in  the  constitution, 
or,  more  correctly,  upon  the  elevation  of  Louis  Napoleon  to  the  dictatorship.  By 
December  20,  1851,  7,439,246  votes  were  given  in  his  favour,  against  640,737. 


220  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichaperii 

Bonapartism  in  its  new  form  became  the  governmental  system  of  France.  "  The 
severest  absolutism  that  the  nineteenth  century  has  seen  was  founded  by  the  gen- 
eral demonstrations  of  a  democracy.  The  new  ruler,  in  the  early  years  of  his  gov- 
ernment, was  opposed  by  all  the  best  intellects  in  the  nation ;  the  most  brilliant 
names  in  art  and  science,  in  politics  and  war,  were  united  against  him,  and  united 
with  a  unanimity  almost  unparalleled  in  the  course  of  history.  A  time  began  in 
which  wearied  brains  could  find  rest  in  the  nirvana  of  mental  vacuity,  and  in 
which  nobler  natures  lost  nearly  all  of  ths  best  that  life  could  give.  For  a  few 
years,  however,  the  masses  were  undeniably  prosperous  and  contented ;  so  small 
is  the  significance  of  mental  power  in  an  age  of  democracy  and  popular  adminis- 
tration "  (Treitschke).  It  is  the  popular  will  which  must  bear  the  responsibility 
for  the  fate  of  France  during  the  next  two  decades ;  the  nation  had  voluntarily 
humbled  itself  and  bowed  its  neck  to  an  adroit  adventurer. 


10.    LIBEEALISM,   EADICALISM,  AND   THE  EEACTION  IK 

GEEMANY 

A.  The  Feankfukt  Parliament 

On  May  18,  1848,  five  hundred  and  eighty-six  representatives  of  every  German 
race  met  in  the  church  of  St.  Paul  at  Frankfort-on-Main,  to  create  a  constitution 
corresponding  to  the  national  needs  and  desires.  The  great  majority  of  the  deputies 
belonging  to  the  national  assembly,  in  whose  number  were  included  many  distin- 
guished men,  scholars,  manufacturers,  officials,  lawyers,  property  owners  of  education 
and  experience,  were  firmly  convinced  that  the  problem  was  capable  of  solution,  and 
were  honourably  and  openly  determined  to  devote  their  best  energies  to  the  task. 
In  the  days  of  "  the  dawn  of  the  new  freedom,"  which  illumined  the  countenances 
of  politicians  in  the  childhood  of  their  experience,  flushed  with  yearning  and 
expectation  (cf.  p.  188)  the  power  of  conviction,  the  blessings  that  would  be  pro- 
duced by  immovable  principles  were  believed  as  gospel.  It  was  thought  that  the 
power  of  the  government  was  broken,  that  the  government,  willing  or  unwilling, 
was  in  the  people's  hands,  and  could  merely  accommodate  itsel^to  the  conclusions 
of  the  German  constituents.  Only  a  few  were  found  to  douDt  the  reliability  of 
parliamentary  institutions,  and  the  possibility  of  discovering  what  the  people 
wanted  and  of  carrying  out  their  wishes.  No  one  suspected  that  the  experience 
of  half  a  century  would  show  the  futility  of  seeking  for  popular  unanimity,  the 
division  of  the  nation  into  classes  at  variance  with  one  another,  the  disregard 
of  right  and  reason  by  parliamentary,  political,  social,  religious,  and  national 
parties  as  well  as  by  priuces,  and  the  inevitability  of  solving  every  question  which 
man  is  called  upon  to  decide,  by  the  victory  of  the  strong  will  over  the  weak. 

A  characteristic  feature  of  all  theoretical  political  systems  is  very  prominent 
in  liberalism  which  was  evolved  from  theory  and  not  developed  in  practice.  This 
feature  is  the  tendency  to  stigmatise  all  institutions  which  cannot  find  a  place 
within  the  theoretical  system  as  untenable,  useless,  and  to  be  abolished  in  conse- 
quence ;  hence  the  first  demand  of  the  liberal  politician  is  the  destruction  of  all 
existing  organisation,  in  order  that  no  obstacle  may  impede  the  erection  of  the 
theoretical  structure.  Liberals,  like  socialists  and  anarchists,  argue  that  States  are 
formed  by  establishing  a  ready-made  system,  for  which  the  ground  must  be  cleared 


S^frlf^ot/]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  221 

as  it  is  required.  They  are  invariably  the  pioneers  to  open  the  way  for  the  radi- 
cals, those  impatient  levellers  who  are  ready  to  taste  the  sweets  of  destruction 
even  before  they  have  formed  any  plans  for  reconstruction,  who  are  carried  away 
by  the  glamour  of  idealism,  though  utterly  incapable  of  realising  any  ideal,  who 
at  best  are  impelled  only  by  a  strong  desire  of  "  change,"  when  they  are  not  in- 
spired by  the  greed  which  most  usually  appears  as  the  leading  motive  of  human 
action.  Thus  it  was  that  the  calculations  of  the  German  liberals  neglected  the 
existence  of  the  federal  assembly,  of  the  federation  of  the  States  and  of  their 
respective  governments ;  they  took  no  account  of  those  forms  in  which  German 
political  life  had  found  expression  for  centuries,  and  their  speeches  harked  back 
by  preference  to  a  tribal  organisation  which  the  nation  had  long  ago  outgrown,  and 
which  even  the  educated  had  never  correctly  appreciated.  They  fixed  their  choice 
upon  a  constitutional  committee,  which  was  to  discover  the  form  on  which  the 
future  German  State  would  be  modelled ;  they  created  a  central  power  for  a  State 
as  yet  non-existent,  without  clearly  and  intelligibly  defining  its  relations  to  the 
ruling  governments  who  were  in  actual  possession  of  every  road  to  power. 

(a)  The  German  National  Assemhly  from  May  to  September,  184-8.  —  Discus- 
sion upon  the  "  central  power "  speedily  brought  to  light  the  insurmountable 
obstacles  to  the  formation  of  a  constitution  acceptable  to  every  party,  and  this 
without  any  interference  on  the  part  of  the  governments.  The  democrats  declined 
to  recognise  anything  but  an  executive  committee  of  the  sovereign  national 
assembly ;  the  liberals  made  various  proposals  for  a  triple  committee  in  connection 
with  the  governments.  The  bold  mind  of  the  president,  Heinrich  von  Gagern, 
eventually  soothed  the  uproar.  He  invited  the  parliament  to  appoint,  in  virtue  of 
its  plenary  powers,  an  imperial  administrator  who  should  undertake  the  business 
of  the  federal  council,  then  on  the  point  of  dissolution,  and  act  in  concert  with 
an  imperial  ministry.  The  archduke  Johann  of  Austria  was  elected  on  June  24, 
1848,  by  four  hundred  and  thirty-six  out  of  five  hundred  and  forty-eight  votes,  and 
the  law  regarding  the  central  power  was  passed  on  the  28th.  Had  the  office  of 
imperial  administrator  been  regarded  merely  as  a  temporary  expedient  until  the 
permanent  forms  were  settled,  the  choice  of  the  archduke  would  have  been  en- 
tirely happy  ;  he  was  popular,  entirely  the  man  for  the  post,  and  ready  to  further 
progress  in  every  department  of  intellectual  and  material  life.  But  it  was  a  griev- 
ous mistake  to  expect  him  to  create  substance  out  of  shadow,  to  direct  the  develop- 
ment of  the  German  State  by  a  further  use  of  the  "  bold  grasp,"  and  to  contribute 
materially  to  the  realisation  of  its  being.  The  archduke  Johann  was  a  good- 
hearted  man  and  a  fine  speaker,  full  of  confidence  in  the  "  excellent  fellows, "  and 
ever  inclined  to  hold  up  the  "  bluff  "  inhabitants  of  the  Alpine  districts  as  examples 
to  the  other  Germans,  intellectually  stimulating  within  his  limits,  and  with  a  keen 
eye  to  economic  advantage ;  but  nature  had  not  intended  him  for  a  politician. 
His  political  ideas  were  too  misty  and  intangible  ;  he  used  words  with  no  ideas  be- 
hind them,  and  though  his  own  experience  had  not  always  been  of  the  pleasantest, 
it  had  not  taught  him  the  feeling  then  prevalent  in  Austrian  court  circles.  For 
the  moment  his  election  promised  an  escape  from  all  manner  of  embarrassments. 
The  governments  could  recognise  his  position  without  committing  themselves  to 
the  approval  of  any  revolutionary  measure :  they  might  even  allow  that  his  elec- 
tion was  the  beginning  of  an  understanding  with  the  reigning  German  houses. 


222  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapter  ii 

This,  however,  was  not  the  opinion  of  the  leading  party  in  the  national 
assembly.  The  conservatives,  the  right,  or  the  right  centre,  as  they  preferred  to 
be  called,  were  alone  in  their  adherence  to  the  sound  principle  that  only  by  way  of 
mutual  agreement  between  the  parliament  and  the  governments  could  a  constitu- 
tional German  body  politic  be  established.  Every  other  party  was  agreed  that 
the  people  must  itself  formulate  its  own  constitution,  as  only  so  would  it  obtain 
complete  recognition  of  its  rights. 

This  fact  alone  excluded  the  possibility  of  success.  The  decision  of  the  question 
was  indefinitely  deferred,  the  favourable  period,  in  which  the  governments  were 
inclined  to  consider  the  necessity  of  making  concessions  to  the  popular  desires,  was 
wasted  in  discussion,  and  opportunity  was  given  to  particularism  to  recover  its 
strength.  There  was  no  desire  for  a  federal  union  endowed  with  vital  force  and 
offering  a  strong  front  to  other  nations.  Patriots  were  anxious  only  to  iavest 
doctrinaire  liberalism  and  its  extravagant  claims  with  legal  form,  and  to  make  the 
governments  feel  the  weight  of  a  vigorous  national  sentiment.  The  lessons  of  the 
French  Eevolution  and  its  sad  history  were  lost  upon  the  Germans.  Those  who 
held  the  fate  of  Germany  in  their  hands,  many  of  them  professional  politicians, 
were  unable  to  conceive  that  their  constituents  were  justified  in  expecting  avoid- 
ance on  their  part  of  the  worst  of  all  political  errors. 

The  great  majority,  by  which  the  central  power  had  been  constituted,  soon  broke 
up  into  groups,  too  insignificant  to  be  called  political  parties  and  divided  upon 
wholly  immaterial  points.  The  hereditary  curse  of  the  German,  dogmatism  and 
personal  vanity  with  a  consequent  distaste  for  voluntary  subordination,  positively 
devastated  monarchists  and  republicans  alike.  The  inns  were  scarcely  adequate  in 
number  to  provide  headquarters  for  the  numerous  societies  which  considered  the 
promulgation  of  political  programmes  as  their  bounden  duty.  The  "  Landsberg, " 
under  the  fiery  young  poet  Wilhelm  Jordan,  soon  seceded- from  the  "Casino," 
where  the  moderate  liberals  met  together  under  Fr.  Ch.  Dahlmann  and  Karl 
Mathy.  Some  fifty  members  of  the  left  centre  met  at  the  "  Augsburger  Hof " 
under  Eobert  v.  Mohl,  while  the  "  Wurtemberger  Hof "  was  patronised  by  a 
similar  number  under  the  Heidelberg  jurist  Karl  Anton  Mittelmaier,  a  native  of 
Munich,  and  Karl  Giskra,  professor  of  political  philosoplw-  at  Vienna  (cf. 
the  upper  half  of  the  plate,  p.  187).  The  left  met  in  th*  "  Westendhalle " 
under  the  presidency  of  two  natives  of  Cologne,  the  journalist  and  cigar-dealer, 
Karl  Eaveaux  and  Jakob  Venedey,  formerly  publisher  of  the  "  Gedchtete "  in 
Paris.  Meetings  were  also  held  at  the  "  JSTurnberger  Hof "  under  Wilhelm  Lowe 
of  Kalbe.  The  "  Deutsche  Haus  "  and  the  "  Donnersberg  "  were  the  headquarters 
of  the  extreme  left,  the  radicals ;  of  these  the  moderate  section  included  the 
Leipsic  bookseller  Eobert  Blum,  and  Karl  Vogt,  professor  and  colonel  of  the  citi- 
zen guard  of  Giessen.  The  extremists,  Arnold  Euge,  who  soon  lost  his  importance 
and  disappeared  from  the  parliament,  Ludwig  Simon  of  Treves,  Franz  Hein.  Zitz 
of  Mayence,  Julius  Frobel,  the  Swiss  author  and  bookseller,  elected  in  Eeuss, 
approached  the  tenets  of  anarchism  in  their  zeal  for  freedom,  proclaiming  the 
unlimited  right  of  self-determination  as  the  privilege  not  only  of  States,  but  of 
parishes  and  individuals.  The  "  Steinernes  Haus  "  was  occupied  by  the  Catholic 
conservatives,  Professor  Ignaz  DoUinger  of  Munich,  Prince  Felix  Lichnowski, 
General  Joseph  v.  Eadowitz,  and  others  ;  while  the  Protestants  met  in  the  "  Caf^ 
Milani "   and   afterward   in  the  "  Englischer  Hof, "  under  Georg  v.  Vincke  and 


?S,:lf;5?]       HISTORY    OF    THE  WORLD  223 

Count  Maximilian  of  Schwerin.  Further  clubs  were  formed  in  the  autumn  of 
1848,  which  saw  the  formation  of  the  "  Loge  Socrates, "  the  "  H8tel  Schroeder," 
the  "  Weidenbusch,"  and  others.  Club  formation  did  not  altogether  follow  the 
broad  line  of  division  between  monarchists  and  republicans ;  only  the  extreme 
left  was  pure  republican.  Numerous  deputies  were  to  be  found  in  the  left, 
who  sympathised  strongly  with  the  scheme  of  a  "  republic  with  a  doge  at  the 
head.  "  The  last  discussion  upon  the  imperial  constitution  produced  a  further 
cleavage  of  parties,  producing  the  "  Pan-Germans,"  who  desired  to  place  Austria  on 
a  footing  of  equality  with  the  pure  German  States,  and  the  "  little  Germans,"  who 
supported  a  closer  federation  under  Prussian  leadership  and  with  the  exclusion  of 
Austria. 

On  July  14,  1848,  the  archduke  Johann  made  his  entry  into  Frankfurt,  and 
the  federal  council  was  dissolved  the  same  day.  The  imperial  administrator 
established  a  provisional  ministry  to  conduct  the  business  of  the  central  power  till 
he  had  completed  the  work  at  Vienna  which  his  imperial  nephew  had  entrusted  to 
his  care.  At  th6  beguming  of  August,  1848,  he  established  himself  in  Frankfurt, 
and  appointed  PrLuce  Friedrich  Karl  von  Leiningen  as  the  head  of  his  ministry, 
which  also  iucluded  the  Austrian,  Anton  von  Schmerling ;  the  Hamburg  lawyer, 
Moritz  Heckscher ;  the  Prussians,  Hermann  von  Beckerath  (cf.  p.  175)  and  General 
Eduard  von  Peucker ;  the  Bremen  senator,  Arnold  Duckwitz ;  and  the  Wurtem- 
berger,  Robert  von  Mohl,  professor  of  political  science  at  Heidelberg.  To  ensure 
the  prestige  of  the  central  power,  the  minister  of  war,  von  Peucker,  had  given 
orders  on  August  6  for  a  general  review  of  contingents  furnished  by  the  German 
States,  who  were  to  give  three  cheers  to  the  archduke  Johann  as  imperial  adminis- 
trator. The  mode  in  which  this  order  was  carried  out  plainly  showed  that  the 
governments  did  not  regard  it  as  obligatory,  and  respected  it  only  so  far  as  they 
thought  good.  It  was  obeyed  only  in  Saxony,  Wurtemberg,  and  the  smaller  States. 
Prussia  allowed  only  her  garrisons  in  the  federal  fortresses  to  participate  in  the 
parade ;  Bavaria  ordered  her  troops  to  cheer  the  king  before  the  imperial  adminis- 
trator. In  Austria  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  order,  except  in  Vienna,  as  it 
affected  the  archduke ;  the  Italian  army  did  not  trouble  itself  about  the  imperial 
minister  of  war  in  the  least. 

At  the  same  time,  the  relations  of  the  governments  and  the  central  power  were 
by  no  means  unfriendly.  The  king  of  Prussia  did  not  hide  his  high  personal  es- 
teem of  the  imperial  administrator,  and  showed  him  special  tokens  of  regard 
at  the  festivities  held  at  Cologne  on  August  14,  1848,  in  celebration  of  the  six 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  foundation  of  the  cathedral.  Most  of  the  federal 
princes  honoured  him  as  a  member  of  the  Austrian  house,  and  continued  confiden- 
tial relations  with  him  for  a  considerable  time.  The  German  governments  further 
appointed  plenipotentiaries  to  represent  their  interests  with  the  central  power; 
these  would  have  been  ready  to  form  a  kind  of  monarchical  council  side  by  side 
with  the  national  assembly,  and  would  thus  have  been  highly  serviceable  to  the 
imperial  administrator  as  a  channel  of  communication  with  the  governments.  But 
the  democratic  pride  of  the  body  which  met  in  the  church  of  St.  Paul  had  risen 
too  high  to  tolerate  so  opportune  a  step  toward  a  "  system  of  mutual  accommoda- 
tion." On  August  30  the  central  power  was  obliged  to  declare  that  the  pleni- 
potentiaries of  the  individual  States  possessed  no  competency  to  influence  the 
decisions  of  the  central  power,  or  to  conduct  any  systematic  business. 


224  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

The  new  European  power  had  notified  its  existence  by  special  embassies  to 
various  foreign  States,  and  received  recognition  in  full  from  the  Netherlands,  Bel- 
gium, Sweden,  Switzerland,  and  the  United  States  of  North  America ;  Eussia 
ignored  it,  while  the  attitude  of  France  and  England  was  marked  by  distrust  and 
doubt.  Austria  was  in  the  throes  of  internal  convulsion  during  the  summer  of 
1848  and  unable  seriously  to  consider  the  German  question ;  possessing  a  confi- 
dential agent  of  pre-eminent  position  in  the  person  of  the  archduke  Johann,  she 
was  able  to  reserve  her  decision.  With  Prussia,  however,  serious  complications 
speedily  arose  from  the  war  in.  Schleswig-Holstein.  Parliament  was  aroused  to 
great  excitement  by  the  armistice  of  Malmo,  which  Prussia  concluded  on  August 
26  (p.  209),  without  consulting  Max  von  G-agern,  the  imperial  State  secretary 
commissioned  to  the  duchies  by  the  central  power.  The  central  power  had  de- 
clared the  Schleswig-Holstein  question  a  matter  of  national  ■  importance,  and  in 
virtue  of  the  right  which  had  formerly  belonged  to  the  federal  council  demanded 
a  share  in  the  settlement.  On  September  5  Dahlmann  proposed  to  set  on  foot  the 
necessary  measures  for  carrying  out  the  armistice;  the  proposal,  when  sent  up  by 
the  ministry  for  confirmation,  was  rejected  by  two  hundred  and  forty-four  to  two 
hundred  and  thirty  votes.  Dahlmann,  who  was  now  entrusted  by  the  imperial 
administrator  with  the  formation  of  a  new  ministry,  was  obliged  to  abandon  the 
proposal  after  many  days  of  fruitless  effort.  Ignoring  the  imperial  ministry, 
the  assembly  proceeded  to  discuss  the  steps  to  be  taken  with  reference  to  the 
armistice  which  was  already  in  process  of  fulfilment.  Meanwhile  the  demo- 
cratic left  lost  their  majority  in  the  assembly,  and  the  proposal  of  the  committee 
to  refuse  acceptance  of  the  armistice  and  to  declare  war  on  Denmark  through  the 
provisional  central  power  was  lost  by  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  votes  to  two 
hundred  and  thirty-seven. 

This  result  led  to  a  revolt  in  Frankfurt,  begun  by  the  members  of  the  extreme 
left  under  the  leadership  of  Zitz  of  Mayence  and  their  adherents  in  the  town  and 
in  the  neighbouring  States  of  Hesse  and  Baden.  The  town  senate  was  forced  to 
apply  to  the  garrison  of  Mayence  for  military  protection  and  to  guard  the  meetiug 
of  the  national  assembly  on  September  18,  1848,  with  an  Austrian  and  a  Prussian 
battalion  of  the  line.  The  revolutionaries,  here  as  in  Paris,  teja:ified  the  parliament 
by  the  invasion  of  an  armed  mob,  and  sought  to  intimidate  the  members  to  the 
passing  of  resolutions  which  would  have  brought  on  a  civil  war.  Barricades  were 
erected,  and  two  deputies  of  the  right,  the  prince  Felix  Lichnowsky  and  the  gen- 
eral Hans  Adolf  Erdmann  of  Auerswald,  were  cruelly  murdered.  Even  the  long- 
suffering  arch-ducal  administrator  of  the  empire  was  forced  to  renounce  the  hope  of 
a  pacific  termination  of  the  quarrel.  The  troops  were  ordered  to  attack  the  barri- 
cades, and  the  disturbance  was  put  down  in  a  few  hours  with  no  great  loss  of  life. 
The  citizens  of  Frankfurt  had  not  fallen  into  the  trap  of  the  "  reds,"  or  given  any 
support  to  the  desperadoes  with  whose  help  the  German  republic  was  to  be 
founded.  A  few  days  later  the  professional  revolutionary,  Gustav  Struve  (p.  181), 
met  the  fate  he  deserved ;  after  invading  Baden  with  an  armed  force  from  France, 
"  to  help  the  great  cause  of  freedom  to  victory,"  he  was  captured  at  Lorrach  on  Sep- 
tember 25, 1848,  and  thrown  into  prison. 

(S)  Prussia  during  the  last  Six  Months  of  18^8.  —  The  German  national  as- 
sembly was  now  able  to  resume  its  meetings,  but  the  public  confidence  in  its  lofty 


?^*tTif;.^']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  225 

position  and  powers  had  been  greatly  shaken.  Had  the  radical  attempt  at  intimi- 
dation proved  successful,  the  assembly  would  speedily  have  ceased  to  exist.  It 
was  now  able  to  turn  its  attention  to  the  question  of  "  fundamental  rights,"  while 
the  governments  in  Vienna  and  Berlin  were  fighting  for  the  right  of  the  executive 
power.  The  suppression  of  the  Vienna  revolt  by  Windisch-Graetz  had  produced  a 
marked  impression  in  Prussia.  The  conviction  was  expressed  that  the  claims  of 
the  democracy  for  a  share  in  the  executive  power  by  the  subjects  of  the  State,  and 
their  interference  in  government  affairs,  were  to  be  unconditionally  rejected.  Any 
attempt  to  coerce  the  executive  authorities  was  to  be  crushed  by  the  sternest 
measures,  by  force  of  arms,  if  need  be ;  otherwise  the  maintenance  of  order  was 
impossible,  and  without  this  there  could  be  no  peaceful  enjoyment  of  constitutional 
rights.  It  was  clear  that  compliance  on  the  part  of  the  government  with  the 
demands  of  the  revolutionary  leaders  would  endanger  the  freedom  of  the  vast 
majority  of  the  population ;  the  latter  were  ready  to  secure  peace  and  the  stability 
of  the  existing  order  of  things  by  renouncing  in  favour  of  a  strong  government 
some  part  of  those  rights  which  liberal  theorists  had  assigned  to  them.  In  view 
of  the  abnormal  excitement  then  prevailing,  such  a  programme  necessitated  sever- 
ity and  self-assertion  on  the  part  of  the  government.  This  would  be  obvious  in 
time  of  peace,  but  at  the  moment  the  fact  was  not  likely  to  be  appreciated. 

The  refusal  to  fire  a  salute  upon  the  occasion  of  a  popular  demonstration  in 
Schweidnitz  (July  31,  1848)  induced  the  Prussian  national  assembly  to  take  steps 
which  were  calculated  to  diminish  the  consideration  and  the  respect  of  armed 
force,  which  was  a  highly  beneficial  influence  in  those  troublous  times.  The  result 
was  the  retirement  on  September  7  of  the  Auerswald-Hansemann  ministry,  which 
had  been  in  office  since  June  25  ;  it  was  followed  on  September  21  by  a  bureau- 
cratic ministry  under  the  presidency  of  the  general  Ernst  von  Pfuel,  which  was 
without  influence  either  with  the  king  or  the  national  assembly.  The  left  now 
obtained  the  upper  hand.  As  president  they  chose  a  moderate,  the  railway  engi- 
neer Hans  Victor  von  Unruh,  and  as  vice-president  the  leader  of  the  extreme  left, 
the  doctrinaire  lawyer  Leo  Waldeck.  During  the  deliberations  on  the  constitu- 
tion they  erased  the  phrase  "  by  the  grace  of  God  "  from  the  king's  titles,  and 
finally  resolved  on  October  31,  1848,  to  request  the  imperial  government  in  Frank- 
furt to  send  help  to  the  revolted  Viennese.  This  step  led  to  long-continued 
communications  between  the  assembly  and  the  unemployed  classes,  who  were  col- 
lected by  the  democratic  agitators,  and  surrounded  the  royal  theatre  where  the 
deputies  held  their  sessions. 

On  November  1,  1848,  news  arrived  of  the  fall  of  Vienna  (p.  205),  and  Frederic 
Wniiam  IV  determined  to  intervene  in  support  of  his  kingdom.  He  dismissed 
Pfuel  and  placed  Count  William  of  Brandenburg,  son  of  his  grandfather  Frederic 
Wniiam  II  and  of  the  Countess  Sophie  Juliane  Friederike  of  Donhoff,  at  the  head 
of  a  new  ministry.  He  then  despatched  fifteen  thousand  troops,  under  General 
Friedrich  von  Wrangel,  to  Berlin,  the  city  being  shortly  afterward  punished  by  the 
declaration  of  martial  law.  The  national  assembly  was  transferred  from  Berlin  to 
Brandenburg.  The  left,  for  the  purpose  of  "  undisturbed  "  deliberation,  repeatedly 
met  in  the  Berlin  coffee-houses,  despite  the  prohibition  of  the  president  of  the 
ministry,  but  eventually  gave  way  and  followed  the  conservatives  to  Brandenburg, 
after  being  twice  dispersed  by  the  troops.  Berlin  and  the  Marks  gave  no  support 
to  the  democracy.     The  majority  of  the  population  dreaded  a  reign  of  terror  by 

VOL.  vni—  15 


226  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  ichapter  ii 

the  "  reds,"  and  were  delighted  with  the  timely  opposition.  They  also  manifested 
their  satisfaction  at  the  dissolution  of  the  national  assembly,  which  had  given  few 
appreciable  signs  of  legislative  activity  in  Brandenburg ;  at  the  publication  on 
December  5, 1848,  of  a  constitutional  scheme  drafted  by  the  government;  and  the 
issue  of  writs  for  the  election  of  a  Prussian  Landtag  which  was  to  revise  the  law 
of  suffrage.  Some  opposition  was  noticeable  in  the  provinces,  but  was  for  the 
moment  of  a  moderate  nature.  The  interference  of  the  Frankfurt  parliament  in 
the  question  of  the  Prussian  constitution  produced  no  effect  whatever.  The  centres 
of  the  right  and  left  had  there  united  and  taken  the  lead,  then  proceeding  to  pass 
resolutions  which  would  not  hinder  the  Prussian  government  in  asserting  its  right 
to  determine  its  own  affairs. 

(c)  Austria  in  the  Winter  of  18^8-18^9.  —  Public  opinion  in  Germany  had 
thus  changed :  there  was  a  feeling  in  favour  of  limiting  the  demands  that  might 
arise  during  the  constitutional  definition  of  the  national  rights;  moreover,  the 
majority  of  the  nation  had  declined  adherence  to  the  tenets  of  radicalism.  It 
seemed  that  these  facts  were  producing  a  highly  desirable  change  of  direction  in 
the  energies  of  the  German  national  assembly ;  the  provisional  central  power  was 
even  able  to  pride  itself  upon  a  reserve  of  force,  for  the  Prussian  government  had 
placed  its  united  forces  (three  hundred  and  twenty-six  thousand  men)  at  its  dis- 
posal, as  was  announced  by  Schmerling,  the  imperial  minister,  on  October  23, 
1848.  None  the  less,  an  extraordinary  degree  of  statesmanship  and  political 
capacity  was  required  to  cope  with  the  obstacles  which  lay  before  the  creation 
of  a  national  federation  organised  as  a  State,  with  adequate  power  to  deal  with 
domestic  and  foreign  policy.  But  not  only  was  this  supreme  political  iasighb 
required  of  the  national  representatives ;  theirs,  too,  must  be  the  task  of  securing 
the  support  of  the  great  powers,  without  which  the  desired  federation  was  unattain- 
able. This  condition  did  not  apply  for  the  moment  in  the  case  of  Austria,  whose 
decision  was  of  the  highest  importance.  Here  an  instance  recurred  of  the  law 
constantly  exemplified  in  the  lives  both  of  individuals  and  of  nations,  that  a 
recovery  of  power  stimulates  to  aggression  instead  of  leading  to  discretion.  True 
wisdom  would  have  concentrated  the  national  aims  upo^  a  clearly  recognisable 
and  attainable  object,  namely,  the  transformation  of  the  old  dynastic  power  of  the 
Hapsburgs  into  a  modern  State.  Such  a  change  would  of  itself  have  determined 
the  form  of  the  federation  with  the  new  German  State,  which  could  well  have  been 
left  to  develop  in  its  own  way.  Eussian  help  for  the  suppression  of  the  Hungarian 
revolt  would  have  been  unnecessary;  it  would  have  been  enthusiastically  given 
by  the  allied  Prussian  State  under  Frederic  William  IV.  The  only  tasks  of 
Austro-Hungary  for  the  immediate  future  would  have  been  the  fostering  of  her 
civilization,  the  improvement  of  domestic  prosperity,  and  the  extension  of  her 
influence  in  the  Balkan  peninsula.  Even  her  Italian  paramountcy,  had  it  been 
worth  retaining,  could  hardly  have  been  wrested  from  her.  No  thinking  member 
of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  could  deny  these  facts  at  the  present  day.  Possibly  even 
certain  representatives  of  that  ecclesiastical  power  which  has  endeavoured  for  three 
centuries  to  make  the  Hapsburg  dynasty  the  champion  of  its  interests  might  be 
brought  to  admit  that  the  efforts  devoted  to  preserving  the  hereditary  position  of 
the  Catholic  dynasty  in  Germany  led  to  a  very  injudicious  expenditure  of  energy. 

But  such  a  degree  of  political  foresight  was  sadly  to  seek  in  the  winter  of 


S^^nf?.^]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  227 

1848-1849.  The  only  man  who  had  almost  reached  that  standpoint,  the  old 
Freiherr  von  Wessenberg  (p.  199),  was  deprived  of  his  influence  at  the  critical 
moment  of  decision.  His  place  was  taken  by  one  whose  morality  was  even  lower 
than  his  capacity  or  previous  training,  and  whose  task  was  nothing  less  than  the 
direction  of  a  newly  developed  State  and  the  invention  of  some  modus  vivendi 
between  the  outraged  and  insulted  dynasty  and  the  agitators,  devoid  alike  of  sense 
and  conscience,  who  had  plied  the  nationalities  of  the  Austrian  Empire  with  evil 
counsel.  Prince  Windisch-Graetz  was  quite  able  to  overpower  street  rioters  or  to 
crush  the  "  legions "  of  Vienna ;  but  his  vocation  was  not  that  of  a  general  or  a 
statesman.  However,  his  word  was  all-powerful  at  the  court  in  Olmtitz.  On 
November  21,  1848,  Prince  Felix  Schwarzenberg  became  head  of  the  Austrian 
government.  His  political  views  were  those  of  Windisch-Graetz,  whose  intellec- 
tual superior  he  was,  though  his  decisions  were  in  consequence  the  more  hasty 
and  ill-considered.  His  policy  upon  German  questions  was  modelled  on  that  of 
Metternich.  The  only  mode  of  action  which  commended  itself  to  the  emperor 
Franz  Joseph  I,  now  eighteen  years  of  age  (p.  205),  was  one  promising  a  position 
of  dignity,  combining  all  the  "  splendour  "  of  the  throne  of  Charles  the  Great  with 
the  inherent  force  of  a  modern  great  power.  A  prince  of  chivalrous  disposition, 
who  had  witnessed  the  heroic  deeds  of  his  army  under  Eadetzky,  with  the  courage 
to  defend  his  fortunes  and  those  of  his  State  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  would 
never  have  voluntarily  yielded  his  rights,  his  honourable  position,  and  the  family 
traditions  of  centuries,  even  if  the  defence  of  these  had  not  been  represented  by 
his  advisers  as  a  ruler's  inevitable  task  and  as  absolutely  incumbent  upon  him. 

(d)  Qagern's  Programme  and  the  Imperial  Election  in  Frankfurt. — The  Frank- 
furt parliament  had  already  discussed  the  "fundamental  rights."  It  had  deter- 
mined by  a  large  majority  that  personal  imion  was  the  only  possible  form  of 
alliance  between  any  part  of  Germany  and  foreign  countries ;  it  had  decided  upon 
the  use  of  the  two-chamber  system  in  the  Eeichstag,  and  had  secured  representa- 
tion in  the  "chamber  of  the  States"  to  the  governments  even  of  the  smallest 
States;  it  had  made  provision  for  the  customs  union  until  May  18,  1849,  at  latest. 
Among  the  leaders  of  the  centre  the  opinion  then  gained  ground  that  union  with 
Austria  would  be  impossible  in  as  close  a  sense  as  it  was  possible  with  the  other 
German  States,  and  that  the  only  means  of  assuring  the  strength  and  unity  of  the 
pure  German  States  was  to  confer  the  dignity  of  emperor  upon  the  king  of  Prussia. 
The  promulgation  of  this  idea  resulted  in  a  new  cleavage  of  parties.  The  majority 
of  the  moderate  liberal  Austrians  seceded  from  their  associates  and  joined  the 
radicals,  ultramontanes,  and  particularists,  with  the  object  of  preventing  the  intro- 
duction of  Prussia  as  an  empire  into  the  imperial  constitution.  Schmerling 
resigned  the  presidency  of  the  imperial  ministry.  The  imperial  administrator 
was  forced  to  replace  him  by  Heinrich  von  Gagem,  the  first  president  of  the 
parliament.  His  programme  was  announced  on  December  16,  and  proposed  the 
foundation  of  a  close  federal  alliance  of  the  German  States  under  Prussian  leader- 
ship, while  a  looser  federal  connection  was  to  exist  with  Austria,  as  arranged  by 
the  settlement  of  the  Vienna  congress.  After  three  days'  discussion  (January 
11-14, 1849)  this  programme  was  accepted  by  two  hundred  and  sixty-one  members 
of  the  German  national  assembly  as  against  two  hundred  and  twenty-four.  Sixty 
Austrian  deputies  entered  a  protest  against  this  resolution,  denying  the  right  of  the 


228  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapterii 

parliament  to  exclude  the  German  Austrians  from  the  German  federal  State.  The 
Austrian  government  was  greatly  disturbed  at  the  promulgation  of  the  Gagern 
programme,  and  objected  to  the  legislative  powers  of  the  Frankfurt  assembly  in 
general  terms  on  February  7,  declaring  her  readiness  to  co-operate  in  a  union  of 
the  German  States,  and  protesting  against  the  "  remodelling "  of  existing  condi- 
tions. Thus  she  adopted  a  position  corresponding  to  that  of  the  federation  of 
1815. 

The  decision  now  remained  with  the  king,  Frederic  William  IV ;  he  accepted 
the  imperial  constitution  of  March  28,  1849,  and  was  forthwith  elected  emperor  of 
the  Germans  by  290  of  the  538  deputies  present.  The  constitution  in  document 
form  (see  the  plate,  "  Introduction,  Middle,  and  Conclusion  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  German  Empire  of  March  28,  1849  ")  was  signed  by  only  366  deputies,  as  the 
majority  of  the  Austrians  and  the  ultramontanes  declined  to  acknowledge  the 
supremacy  of  a  Protestant  Prussia.  The  290  electors  who  had  voted  for  the  king 
constituted,  however,  a  respectable  majority.  Still,  it  was  as  representatives  of  the 
nation  that  they  offered  him  the  imperial  crown,  and  they  made  their  offer  condi- 
tional upon  his  recognition  of  the  imperial  constitution  which  had  been  resolved 
upon  in  Frankfurt.  It  was  therein  provided  that  in  all  questions  of  legislation 
the  decision  should  rest  with  the  popular  house  in  the  Eeichstag.  The  imperial 
veto  was  no  longer  unconditional,  but  could  only  defer  discussion  over  three  sit- 
tings. This  the  king  of  Prussia  was  unable  to  accept,  if  only  for  the  reason  that 
he  was  already  involved  in  a  warm  discussion  with  Austria,  Bavaria,  and  Wurtem- 
berg  upon  the  form  of  a  German  federal  constitution  which  was  to  be  laid  before 
the  parliament  by  the  princes.  The  despatch  of  a  parliamentary  deputation  to 
Berlin  was  premature,  in  view  of  the  impossibility  of  that  unconditional  acceptance 
of  the  imperial  title  desired  and  expected  by  Dahlmann  and  the  professor  of  K(5- 
nigsberg,  Martin  Eduard  Simson,  at  that  time  president  of  the  national  assembly. 
The  only  answer  that  Frederic  William  could  give  on  April  3,  1849,  was  a  reply 
postponing  his  decision.  This  the  delegation  construed  as  a  refusal,  as  it  indicated 
hesitation  on  the  king's  part  to  recognise  the  Frankfurt  constitution  in  its  entirety. 
The  king  erred  in  believing  that  an  arrangement  with  Austria  still  lay  within  the 
hounds  of  possibility ;  he  failed  to  see  that  Schwarzenberg  ^ly  desired  to  restore 
the  old  federal  assembly,  while  securing  greater  power  in  it  to  Austria  than  she 
had  had  under  Metternich.  The  royal  statesman  considered  Hungary  as  already 
subjugated,  and  conceived  as  already  in  existence  a  united  State  to  be  formed  of 
the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  territories  together  with  Galicia  and  Dalmatia ;  he 
desired  to  secure  the  entrance  of  this  State  within  the  federation,  which  he  in- 
tended to  be  not  a  German,  but  a  central  European  federation  under  Austrian 
leadership. 

(e)  The  Conclusion  of  the  Frankfurt  Parliament.  —  On  the  return  of  the  par- 
liamentary deputation  to  Frankfurt  with  the  refusal  of  the  king  of  Prussia,  the 
work  of  constitution-building  was  brought  to  a  standstill.  The  most  important 
resolutions,  those  touching  the  head  of  the  empire,  had  proved  impracticable.  The 
more  far-sighted  members  of  the  parliament  recognised  this  fact,  and  also  saw  that 
to  remodel  the  constitution  would  be  to  play  into  the  hands  of  the  republicans. 
However,  their  eyes  were  blinded  by  the  fact  that  twenty-four  petty  States  of 
different  sizes  had  accepted  the  constitution,  and  they  ventured  to  hope  for  an 


EXPLANATION   OF   THE   FACSIMILE   OVEELEAF 

Explanation  is  hardly  necessary  of  this  facsimile  (reduced  to  |-  of  the  actual  size)  of  the 
German  constitution  document,  consisting  of  three  parts,  —  the  introduction,  middle,  and  conclu- 
sion of  the  original.  A  reference  may  be  given  to  part  16  of  the  "  Imperial  legislative  code," 
published  at  Frankfort-on-Main,  April  23,  1849,  where  the  "  constitution  of  the  German 
Empire "  is  printed  in  full.  The  document  there  begins  on  page  101,  the  middle  is  to  be 
found  on  page  112,  and  the  conclusion  on  page  136  (the  ratification  by  the  chiefs  of  the  imperial 
assembly  summoned  to  promulgate  a  constitution,  etc.). 


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S^^»rif^5?J        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  229 

improvement  in  the  situation.  The  liberals  were  uncertain  as  to  the  extent  of  the 
power  which  could  be  assigned  to  the  nation  in  contradistinction  to  the  govern- 
ments, without  endangering  the  social  fabric  and  the  existence  of  civic  society. 
To  this  lack  of  definite  views  is  chiefly  to  be  ascribed  the  fact  that  the  German 
national  assembly  allowed  the  democrats  to  lead  it  into  revolutionary  tendencies, 
until  it  ended  its  existence  in  pitiable  disruption. 

The  liberals,  moreover,  cannot  be  acquitted  from  the  charge  of  playing  the 
dangerous  game  of  inciting  national  revolt  with  the  object  of  carrying  through  the 
constitution  which  they  had  devised  and  drafted,  —  a  constitution,  too,  which  meant 
a  breach  with  the  continuity  of  German  historical  development.  They  fomented 
popular  excitement  and  brought  about  armed  risings  of  the  illiterate  mobs  of  Sax- 
ony, the  Palatinate,  and  Baden.  The  royal  family  were  expelled  from  Dresden  by 
a  revolt  on  May  3,  and  Prussian  troops  were  obliged  to  reconquer  the  capital  at  the 
cost  of  severe  fighting  on  May  7  and  8.  It  was  necessary  to  send  two  Prussian 
corps  to  reinforce  the  imperial  army  drawn  from  Hesse,  Mecklenburg,  Nassau,  and 
Wurtemberg,  for  the  overthrow  of  the  republican  troops  which  had  concentrated 
at  Eastatt. 

Heinrich  von  Gagern  and  his  friends  regarded  the  advance  of  the  Prussians  as  a 
breach  of  the  peace  in  the  empire.  The  Gagern  ministry  resigned,  as  the  archduke 
Johann  could  not  be  persuaded  to  oppose  the  Prussians.  The  imperial  administra- 
tor had  already  hinted  at  his  retirement  after  the  imperial  election;  but  the  Austrian 
government  had  insisted  upon  his  retention  of  his  ofiice,  lest  the  king  of  Prussia 
should  step  into  his  place.  He  formed  a  conservative  ministry  under  the  presidency 
of  the  Prussian  councillor  of  justice,  Maxim.  Karl  Friedr.  Wilh.  Gravell,  which 
was  received  with  scorn  and  derision  by  the  radicals,  who  were  now  the  dominant 
party  in  the  parliament.  More  than  a  hundred  deputies  of  the  centres  then  with- 
drew with  Gagern,  Dahlmann,  Welcker,  Simson,  and  Mathy  from  May  21  to  26, 1849. 
The  Austrian  government  had  recalled  the  Austrian  deputies  on  April  4  from  the 
national  assembly,  an  example  followed  by  Prussia  on  the  14th.  On  May  30,  71 
of  135  voters  who  took  part  in  the  discussion  supported  Karl  Vogt's  proposal  to 
transfer  the  parliament  from  Frankfurt  to  Stuttgart,  where  a  victory  for  Suabian 
republicanism  was  expected.  In  the  end  105  representatives  of  German  stupidity 
and  political  ignorance,  including,  unfortunately,  Ludwig  Uhland,  gave  the  world 
the  ridiculous  spectacle  of  the  opening  of  the  so-called  Eump  parliament  at  Stutt- 
gart on  June  6,  1849,  which  reached  the  crowning  point  of  folly  in  the  election  of 
five  "  imperial  regents."  The  arrogance  of  this  company,  which  even  presumed  to 
direct  the  movements  of  the  Wurtemberg  troops,  proved  inconvenient  to  the 
government,  which  accordingly  closed  the  meeting  hall.  The  first  German  parlia- 
ment then  expired  after  a  few  gatherings  in  the  Hotel  Marquardt. 

The  imperial  government,  the  administrator  and  his  ministry,  retained  their 
offices  until  December,  1849,  notwithstanding  repeated  demands  for  their  resigna- 
tion. A  committee  of  four  members,  appointed  as  a  provisional  central  power  by 
Austria  and  Prussia,  then  took  over  all  business,  documentary  and  financial.  As 
an  epilogue  to  the  Frankfurt  parliament,  mention  may  be  made  of  the  gathering  of 
160  former  deputies  of  the  first  German  Eeichstag,  who  had  belonged  to  the  "  im- 
perial party."  The  meeting  was  held  in  Gotha  on  June  26.  Heinrich  von  Gagern 
designated  the  meeting  as  a  private  conference ;  however,  he  secured  the  assent  of 
those  present  to  a  programme  drawn  up  by  himself  which  asserted  the  desirability 


230  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [_Chapter  ii 

of  a  narrower  ("  little  German  ")  federation  under  the  headship  of  Prussia,  or  of 
another  central  power  in  association  with  Prussia. 

B.  Prussia's  Attempt  at  Federal  Eeform: 

(a)  The  Policy  of  Union.  —  Upon  the  recall  of  the  Prussian  deputies  from  the 
Frankfurt  parliament  the  Prussian  government  issued  a  proclamation  to  the  Ger- 
man people  on  May  15,  1849,  declaring  itself  henceforward  responsible  for  the 
work  of  securing  the  unity  which  was  justly  demanded  for  the  vigorous  repre- 
sentation of  German  interests  abroad,  and  for  common  legislation  in  constitutional 
form  ;  that  is,  with  the  co-operation  of  a  national  house  of  representatives.  In  the 
conferences  of  the  ambassadors  of  the  German  States,  which  were  opened  at  Berlin 
on  May  17,  the  Prussian  programme  was  explained  to  be  the  formation  of  a  close 
federation  exclusive  of  Austria,  and  the  creation  of  a  wider  federation  which  should 
include  the  Hapsburg  State.  Thus  in  theory  had  been  discovered  the  form  which 
the  transformation  of  Germany  should  take.  On  her  side  Prussia  did  not  entirely 
appreciate  the  fact  that  this  programme  could  not  be  realised  by  means  of  minis- 
terial promises  alone,  and  that  the  whole  power  of  the  Prussian  State  would  be 
required  to  secure  its  acceptance.  The  nation,  or  rather  the  men  to  whom  the 
nation  had  entrusted  its  future,  also  failed  to  perceive  that  this  form  was  the  only 
kind  of  unity  practically  attainable,  and  that  to  it  must  be  eacrificed  those  "  guar- 
antees of  freedom  "  which  liberal  doctrinaires  declared  indispensable.  It  now 
became  a  question  of  deciding  between  a  radical  democracy  and  a  moderate  con- 
stitutional mouarchy,  and  German  liberalism  was  precluded  from  coming  to  any 
honourable  conclusion.  Regardless  of  consequences,  it  exchanged  amorous  glances 
with  the  opposition  iu  non-Prussian  countries ;  it  considered  agreement  with  the 
government  as  treason  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  saw  reaction  where  nothing  of 
the  kind  was  to  be  found.  It  refused  to  give  public  support  to  aggressive  repub- 
licanism, fearing  lest  the  people,  when  iu  arms,  would  prove  a  menace  to  private 
property,  and  lose  that  respect  for  the  growing  wealth  of  individual  enterprise 
which  ought  to  limit  their  aspirations  ;  at  the  same  time,  it  declined  to  abate  its 
pride,  and  continued  to  press  wholly  immoderate  demands  upca|  the  authorities,  to 
whom  alone  it  owed  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  social  ord*. 

The  Baden  revolt  had  been  suppressed  by  the  Prussian  troops  under  the  com- 
mand of  Prince  Wilhelm,  afterward  emperor,  who  invaded  the  land  which  the 
radicals  had  thrown  into  confusion,  dispersed  the  republican  army  led  by  Mieros- 
lawski  and  Hecker  in  a  series  of  engagements,  and  reduced  on  July  23,  1849,  the 
fortress  of  Rastatt,  which  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  republicans.  The  lib- 
erals at  first  hailed  the  Prussians  as  deliverers ;  the  latter,  however,  proceeded  by 
court-martial  against  the  leaders,  whose  crimes  had  brought  misery  upon  thou- 
sands, and  had  reduced  a  flourishing  proviuce  to  desolation.  Seventeen  death  sen- 
tences were  passed,  and  prosecutions  were  instituted  against  the  mutinous  officers 
and  soldiers  of  Baden.  The  "  free-thinking  "  party,  which  had  recovered  from  its 
fear  of  the  "  reds,"  could  then  find  no  more  pressing  occupation  than  to  rouse  pub- 
lic feeling  throughout  South  Germany  against  Prussia  and  "  militarism,"  and  to 
level  unjustifiable  reproaches  against  the  prince  in  command,  whose  clever  general- 
ship merited  the  gratitude  not  only  of  Baden,  but  of  every  German  patriot.  Even 
then  a  solution  of  the  German  problem  might  have  been  possible,  had  the  demo- 


?£^:irif;»t/]     history  of  the  world  231 

crats  in  South  Germany  laid  aside  their  fear  of  Prussian  "  predominance,"  and  con- 
sidered their  secret  struggle  against  an  energetic  administration  as  less  important 
than  the  establishment  of  a  federal  State  commanding  the  respect  of  other  nations. 
But  the  success  of  the  Prussian  programme  could  have  been  secured  only  by  the 
joint  action  of  the  whole  nation.  Unanimity  of  this  kind  was  a  very  remote  pos- 
sibility. Fearful  of  the  Prussian  "  reaction,"  the  nation  abandoned  the  idea  of 
German  unity,  to  be  driven  into  closer  relations  with  the  sovereign  powers  of  the 
smaller  and  the  petty  States,  and  ultimately  to  fall  under  the  heavier  burden  of  a 
provincial  reaction.  Austria  had  recalled  her  ambassador,  Anton,  count  of  Pro- 
kesoh-Osten,  from  the  Berlin  conference,  declining  all  negotiation  for  the  reconsti- 
tution  of  German  interests  upon  the  basis  of  the  Prussian  proposals  ;  but  she  could 
not  have  despatched  an  army  against  Prussia  in  the  summer  of  1849.  Even  with 
the  aid  of  her  ally  Bavaria,  she  was  unable  to  cope  with  the  three  hundred  thou- 
sand troops  which  Prussia  alone  could  place  in  the  field  at  that  time :  in  Hungary, 
she  had  been  obliged  to  call  in  the  help  of  Eussia.  United  action  by  Germany 
would  probably  have  met  with  no  opposition  whatever.  But  Germany  was  not 
united,  the  people  as  little  as  the  princes ;  consequently  when  Prussia,  after  the 
ignominious  failure  of  the  parliament  and  its  high  promise,  intervened  to  secure 
at  least  some  definite  result  from  the  national  movement,  her  well-meaning  pro- 
posals met  with  a  rebuff  as  humiliating  as  it  was  undeserved. 

The  result  of  the  Berlin  conferences  was  the  "  alliance  of  the  three  kings  "  of 
Prussia,  Hanover,  and  Saxony  (May  26, 1849).  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  declined 
to  join  the  alliance  on  account  of  the  claims  to  leadership  advanced  by  Prussia ; 
but  the  majority  of  the  other  German  States  gave  in  their  adherence  in  the  course 
of  the  summer.  A  federal  council  of  administration  met  on  June  18,  and  made 
arrangements  for  the  convocation  of  a  Eeichstag,  to  which  was  to  be  submitted  the 
federal  constitution  when  the  agreement  of  the  cabinets  thereon  had  been  secured. 
Hanover  and  Saxony  then  raised  objections,  and  recalled  their  representatives  on 
the  administrative  council  on  October  20.  However,  Prussia  was  able  to  fix  the 
meeting  of  the  Eeichstag  for  March  20, 1850,  at  Erfurt. 

Austria  now  advanced  claims  in  support  of  the  old  federal  constitution,  and 
suddenly  demanded  that  it  should  continue  in  full  force.  This  action  was  sup- 
ported by  Bavaria,  which  advocated  the  formation  of  a  federation  of  the  smaller 
States,  which  was  to  prepare  another  constitution  as  a  rival  to  the  "  union  "  for 
which  Prussia  was  working.  The  Saxon  minister  Friedrich  Ferdinand,  Freiherr 
von  Beust,  afterward  of  mournful  fame  in  Germany  and  Austria,  who  fought 
against  the  Saxon  particularism  which  almost  surpassed  that  prevalent  in  Bavaria, 
and  was  guided  by  personal  animosity  to  Prussia,  became  at  that  moment  the  most 
zealous  supporter  of  the  statesmanlike  plans  of  his  former  colleague,  L.  E.  Heia- 
rich  von  der  Pfordten,  who  had  been  appointed  Bavarian  minister  of  foreign 
affairs  in  April,  1849.  Hanover  was  speedily  won  over,  as  Austria  proposed  to 
increase  her  territory  with  Oldenburg,  in  order  to  create  a  second  North  German 
power  as  a  counterpoise  to  Prussia,  while  Wurtemberg  declared  her  adherence  to 
the  "  alliance  of  the  four  kings  "  with  startling  precipitancy.  The  chief  attraction 
was  the  possibility  of  sharing  on  equal  terms  in  a  directory  of  seven  members  with 
Austria,  Prussia,  and  the  two  Hesses,  which  were  to  have  a  vote  in  common.  The 
directory  was  not  to  exercise  the  functions  of  a  central  power,  but  was  to  have 
merely  powers  of  "  superintendence,"  even  in  questions  of  taxation  and  commerce. 


232  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapterii 

The  claims  of  the  chambers  were  to  be  met  by  the  creation  of  a  "  Eeichstag,"  to 
which  they  were  to  send  deputies.  Upon  the  secession  of  the  kingdoms  from 
Prussia,  disinclination  to  the  work  of  unification  was  also  manifested  by  the  elec- 
torate of  Hesse,  where  the  elector  had  again  found  a  minister  to  his  liking  in  the 
person  of  Daniel  von  Hassenpflug  (p.  151). 

It  would,  however,  have  been  quite  possible  to  make  Prussia  the  centre  of  a 
considerable  power  by  the  conjunction  of  all  the  remaining  federal  provinces,  had 
the  Erfurt  parliament  been  entrusted  with  the  task  of  rapidly  concluding  the 
work  of  unification.  In  the  meantime  Frederic  William,  under  the  influence  of 
friends  who  favoured  feudalism,  Ernst  Ludwig  of  Gerlach  and  Professor  Stahl,^ 
had  abandoned  his  design  of  forming  a  restricted  federation,  and  was  inspired  with 
the  invincible  conviction  that  it  was  his  duty  as  a  Christian  kiag  to  preserve 
peace  with  Austria  at  any  price ;  for  Austria,  after  her  victorious  struggle  with  the 
revolution,  had  become  the  prop  and  stay  of  all  States  where  unlimited  monarchy 
protected  by  the  divine  right  of  kings  held  sway.  To  guard  this  institution 
against  liberal  onslaughts  remained  the  ideal  of  his  life,  Prussian  theories  of  poli- 
tics and  the  paroxysms  of  German  patriotism  notwithstanding.  He  therefore 
rejected  the  valuable  help  now  readily  offered  to  him  in  Erfurt  by  the  old  imperial 
party  of  Frank  fiirt,  and  clung  to  the  utterly  vain  and  unsupported  hope  that  he 
could  carry  out  the  wider  form  of  federation  with  Austria  in  some  manner  com- 
patible with  German  interests.  His  hopes  were  forthwith  shattered  by  Schwar- 
zenberg's  convocation  of  a  congress  of  the  German  federal  States  at  Frankfurt,  and 
Prussia's  position  became  daily  more  unfavourable,  although  a  meetiDg  of  the 
princes  desirous  of  union  was  held  in  Berlin  in  May,  1850,  and  accepted  the  tem- 
porary continuance  until  July  15,  1850,  of  the  restricted  federation  under  Prussian 
leadership.  The  Czar  Nicholas  I  was  urgently  demanding  the  conclusion  of  the 
Schleswig-Holstein  complication,  which  he  considered  as  due  to  nothing  but  the 
intrigues  of  malevolent  revolutionaries  in  Copenhagen  and  the  duchies.  In  a 
meeting  with  Prince  William  of  Prussia,  which  took  place  at  Warsaw  toward  the 
end  of  May,  1850,  the  Czar  clearly  stated  that,  in  the  event  of  the  German  question 
resulting  in  war  between  Prussia  and  Austria,  his  neutrality  would  be  conditional 
upon  the  restoration  of  Danish  supremacy  over  the  rebels  in  Schleswig-Holstein. 

(i)  The  Electorate  of  Hesse.  — ■  Henceforward  Eussia  stands  between  Austria  and 
Prussia  as  arbitrator.  Her  intervention  was  not  as  unprejudiced  as  Berlin  would 
have  been  glad  to  suppose ;  she  was  beforehand  determined  to  support  Austria, 
to  protect  the  old  federal  constitution,  the  Danish  supremacy  over  Schleswig- 
Holstein,  and  the  elector  of  Hesse,  Frederick  William  I,  who  had  at  that  moment 
decided  on  a  scandalous  breach  of  faith  with  his  people.  This  unhappy  prince 
had  already  inflicted  serious  damage  upon  his  country  and  its  admirable  popula- 
tion (cf.  p.  151);  he  now  proceeded  to  commit  a  crime  against  Germany  by  stir- 
ring up  a  fratricidal  war,  which  was  fed  by  a  spirit  of  pettifogging  selfishness  and 
despicable  jealousy.  A  liberal  reaction  had  begun,  and  the  spirit  of  national  self- 
assertion  was  fading;  no  sooner  had  the  elector  perceived  these  facts  than  he 
proceeded  to  utilise  them  for  the  achievement  of  his  desires.  He  dismissed  the 
constitutional  ministry,   restored  Hassenpflug  to  favour  on  February   22,  1850, 


1  Cf.  p.  174  ;  see  also  the  lower  half  of  the  plate,  p.  187. 


S^lri'X"]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  233 

and  permitted  him  to  raise  tases  unauthorised  by  the  cliamber  for  the  space  of  six 
months.  The  chamber  raised  objections  to  this  proceeding,  and  thereby  gave  Has- 
senpflug  a  handle  which  enabled  him  to  derange  the  whole  constitution  of  the 
electorate  of  Hesse.  On  September  7  the  country  was  declared  subject  to  martial 
law.  For  this  step  there  was  not  the  smallest  excuse ;  peace  everywhere  prevailed. 
The  officials  who  had  taken  the  oaths  of  obedience  to  the  constitution  declined  to  act 
in  accordance  with  the  declaration,  and  their  refusal  was  construed  as  rebellion. 
On  October  9  the  officers  of  the  Hessian  army  resigned,  almost  to  a  man,  to  avoid 
the  necessity  of  turning  their  arms  upon  their  fellow-citizens,  who  were  entirely 
within  their  rights.  The  long-desired  opportunity  of  calling  in  foreign  help  was 
thus  provided ;  but  the  appeal  was  not  made  to  the  board  of  arbitration  of  the 
union,  to  which  the  electorate  of  Hesse  properly  belonged,  but  to  the  federal 
council  which  Austria  had  reopened  in  Frankfurt  (October  15,  1850). 

With  the  utmost  readiness  Count  Schwarzenberg  accepted  the  unexpected 
support  of  Hassenpflug,  whose  theories  coincided  with  his  own.  The  rump  of  the 
federal  parliament,  which  was  entirely  under  his  influence,  was  summoned  not 
only  without  the  consent  of  Prussia,  but  without  any  intimation  to  the  Prussian 
cabinet.  This  body  at  once  determined  to  employ  the  federal  power  for  the  resto- 
ration of  the  elector  to  Hesse,  though  he  had  left  Cassel  of  his  own  will  and  under 
no  compulsion,  fleeing  to  Wilhelmsbad  with  his  ministers  at  the  beginning  of 
September.  Schwarzenberg  was  well  aware  that  his  action  would  place  the  king 
of  Prussia  in  a  most  embarrassing  situation.  Federation  and  union  were  now  in 
mutual  opposition.  On  the  one  side  was  Austria,  with  the  kingdoms  and  the  two 
Hesses ;  on  the  other  was  Prussia,  with  the  united  petty  States,  which  were  worth- 
less for  military  purposes.  Austria  had  no  need  to  seek  occasion  to  revenge  herself 
for  the  result  of  the  imperial  election,  which  was  ascribed  to  Prussian  machina- 
tions ;  her  opportunity  was  at  hand  in  the  appeal  of  a  most  valuable  member  of 
the  federation,  the  worthy  elector  of  Hesse,  to  his  brother  monarchs  for  protection 
against  democratic  presumption,  against  the  insanities  of  constitutionalism,  against 
a  forsworn  and  mutinous  army.  Should  Prussia  now  oppose  the  enforcement  of 
the  federal  will  in  Hesse,  she  would  be  making  common  cause  with  rebels.  The 
Czar  would  be  forced  to  oppose  the  democratic  tendencies  of  his  degenerate  brother- 
in-law,  and  to  take  the  field  with  the  conservative  German  States,  and  with  Aus- 
tria, who  was  crowding  on  full  sail  for  the  haven  of  absolutism.  To  have  created 
this  situation,  and  to  have  drawn  the  fullest  advantage  from  it,  was  the  master- 
stroke of  Prince  Felix  Schwarzenberg's  policy.  Austria  thereby  reached  the  zenith 
of  her  power  in  Germany. 

The  fate  of  Frederic  William  IV  now  becomes  tragical.  The  heavy  punish- 
ment meted  oat  to  the  overweening  self-confidence  of  this  ruler,  the  fearful 
disillusionment  which  he  was  forced  to  experience  from  one  whom  he  had 
treated  with  full  confidence  and  respect,  cannot  but  evoke  the  sympathy  of  every 
spectator.  He  had  himself  declined  that  imperial  crown  which  Austria  so  bitterly 
grudged  him.  He  had  rejected  the  overtures  of  the  imperial  party  from  dislike  to 
their  democratic  theories.  He  had  begun  the  work  of  overthrowing  the  constitu- 
tional principles  of  the  constitution  of  the  union.  He  had  surrendered  Schleswig- 
Holstein  because  his  conscience  would  not  allow  him  to  support  national  against 
monarchical  rights,  and  because  he  feared  to  expose  Prussia  to  the  anger  of  his 
brother-in-law.     He  had  opposed  the  exclusion  of  Austria  from  the  wider  feder- 


234  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  ii 

ation  of  the  German  States.  He  had  always  been  prepared  to  act  in  conjunction 
with  Austria  in  the  solution  of  questions  affecting  Germany  at  large,  while  claim- 
ing for  Prussia  a  right  which  was  provided  in  the  federal  constitution,  —  the  right 
of  forming  a  close  federation,  the  right  which,  far  from  diminishing,  would 
strengthen  the  power  of  the  whole  organism.  And  now  the  sword  was  placed 
at  his  throat,  equality  of  rights  was  denied  to  him,  and  he  was  requested  to  submit 
to  the  action  of  Austria  as  paramount  in  Germany,  to  submit  to  a  federal  execu- 
tive, which  had  removed  an  imperial  administrator,  though  he  was  an  Austrian 
duke,  which  could  only  be  reconstituted  with  the  assent  of  every  German  govern- 
ment, and  not  by  eleven  votes  out  of  seventeen ! 

For  two  months  the  king  strove  hard,  amid  the  fiercest  excitement,  to  maintain 
his  position.  At  the  beginning  of  October,  1850,  he  sent  assurances  to  Vienna  of 
his  readtaess  "  to  settle  all  points  of  difference  with  the  emperor  of  Austria  from 
the  standpoint  of  an  old  friend."  He  quietly  swallowed  the  -arrogant  threads  of 
Bavaria,  and  was  not  to  be  provoked  by  the  warlike  speeches  delivered  at  Bregenz 
on  the  occasion  of  the  meeting  of  the  emperor  Franz  Joseph  with  the  kings  of 
South  Germany,  on  October  11.  He  continued  to  rely  upon  the  insight  of  the 
Czar,  with  whose  ideas  he  was  in  full  agreement,  and  sent  Count  Brandenburg  to 
Warsaw  to  assure  him  of  his  pacific  intentions,  and  to  gain  a  promise  that  he 
would  not  allow  the  action  of  the  federation  in  Hesse  and  Holstein  to  pass  un- 
noticed. Prince  Schwarzenberg  also  appeared  in  Warsaw,  and  it  seemed  that 
there  might  be  some  possibility  of  an  understanding  between  Austria  and  Prussia 
upon  the  German  question.  Schwarzenberg  admitted  that  the  federal  council 
might  be  replaced  by  free  conferences  of  the  German  powers,  as  in  1819 ;  he  did 
not,  however,  explain  whether  these  conferences  were  to  be  summoned  for  the  pur- 
pose of  appointing  the  new  central  power,  or  whether  the  federal  council  was  to  be 
convoked  for  that  object.  He  insisted  unconditionally  upon  the  execution  of  the 
federal  decision  in  Hesse,  which  implied  the  occupation  of  the  whole  electorate 
by  German  and  Bavarian  troops.  This  Prussia  could  not  allow,  for  military  reasons. 
The  ruler  of  Prussia  was  therefore  forced  to  occupy  the  main  roads  to  the  Ehine 
province,  and  had  already  sent  forward  several  thousand  men  under  Count  Charles 
from  the  Groben  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Fulda  for  this  purpose.  The  advance 
of  the  Bavarians  in  this  direction  would  inevitably  result  in*  collision  with  the 
Prussian  troops,  unless  these  latter  were  first  withdrawn. 

(c)  Olmiltz.  —  Heinrich  von  Sybel  has  definitely  proved  that  Count  Brandenburg 
returned  to  Berlin  resolved  to  prevent  a  war,  which  off'ered  no  prospect  of  success 
in  view  of  the  Czar's  attitude.  Eadowitz,  who  had  been  minister  of  foreign  afi'airs 
since  September  27,  1850,  called  for  the  mobilisation  of  the  army,  and  was  inclined 
to  accept  the  challenge  to  combat ;  he  considered  the  Austrian  preparations  com- 
paratively innocuous,  and  was  convinced  that  Eussia  would  be  unable  to  concen- 
trate any  considerable  body  of  troops  on  the  Prussian  frontier  before  the  summer. 
On  November  2,  1850,  the  king  also  declared  for  the  mobilisation,  though  with 
the  intention  of  continuing  negotiations  with  Austria,  if  possible ;  he  was  ready, 
however,  to  adopt  Brandenburg's  view  of  the  situation,  if  a  majority  in  the  minis- 
terial council  could  be  found  to  support  this  policy.  Brandenburg  succumbed  to  a 
sudden  attack  of  brain  fever  on  November  6  (not,  as  was  long  supposed,  to  vexation 
at  the  rejection  of  his  policy  of  resistance) ;  his  work  was  taken  up  and  completed 


?^^,™lf?»1f!       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  235 

by  Otto,  Treiherr  von  Manteuffel,  after  Eadowitz  had  left  the  ministry.  After  the 
first  shots  had  been  exchanged  between  the  Prussian  and  Bavarian  troops  at  Bron- 
zell  (to  the  south  of  Fulda),  on  November  8,  he  entirely  abandoned  the  constitution 
of  the  union,  allowed  the  Bavarians  to  advance  upon  the  condition  that  Austria 
permitted  the  simultaneous  occupation  of  the  high  roads  by  Prussian  troops,  and 
started  with  an  autograph  letter  from  the  kmg  and  Queen  Elizabeth  to  meet  the 
emperor  Franz  Joseph  and  his  mother,  the  archduchess  Sophie,  sister  of  the  queen 
of  Prussia,  in  order  to  discuss  conditions  of  peace  with  the  Austrian  prime  minis- 
ter. Prince  Schwarzenberg  was  anxious  to  proceed  to  extremities ;  but  the  young 
emperor  had  no  intention  of  beginning  a  war  with  his  relatives,  and  obliged 
Schwarzenberg  to  yield.  At  the  emperor's  command  he  signed  the  stipulation 
of  Olmiitz  on  November  29, 1850,  under  which  Prussia  fully  satisfied  the  Austrian 
demands,  receiving  one  sole  concession  in  return,  —  that  the  question  of  federal 
reform  should  be  discussed  in  free  conferences  at  Dresden. 

Thus  Prussia's  German  policy  had  ended  in  total  failure.  She  was  forced  to 
abandon  all  hope  of  realising  the  Gagern  programme  by  forming  a  narrower  federa- 
tion under  her  own  leadership,  exclusive  of  popular  representation,  direct  or  indirect. 
Prussia  lost  greatly  La  prestige ;  the  enthusiasm  aroused  throughout  the  provinces 
by  the  prospect  of  war  gave  place  to  bitter  condemnation  of  the  vacillation  im- 
puted to  the  kiag  after  the  "  capitulation  of  Olmiitz."  Even  his  brother,  Prince 
William,  burst  into  righteous  indignation  during  the  cabinet  council  of  December 
2, 1850,  at  the  stain  with  which  he  declared  the  white  shield  of  Prussian  honour 
to  have  been  marred.  Until  his  death,  Frederic  William  IV  was  reproached  with 
humiliating  Prussia,  and  reducing  her  to  a  position  among  the  German  States 
which  was  wholly  unworthy  of  her.  Yet  it  is  possible  that  the  resolution  which 
gave  Austria  a  temporary  victory  was  the  most  unselfish  offering  which  the  king 
could  then  have  made  to  the  German  nation.  He  resisted  the  temptation  of 
founding  a  North  German  federation  with  the  help  and  alliance  of  France,  which 
was  offered  by  Persigny  (p.  219),  the  confidential  agent  of  Louis  Napoleon.  Fifty 
thousand  French  troops  had  been  concentrated  at  Strassburg  for  the  realisation  of 
this  project.  They  would  have  invaded  South  Germany  and  devastated  Suabia 
and  Bavaria  in  the  cause  of  Prussia.  But  it  was  not  by  such  methods  that  German 
unity  was  to  be  attained,  or  a  German  empire  to  be  founded.  Eenunciation  for 
the  moment  was  a  guarantee  of  success  hereafter.  In  his  "  Eeflections  and  Eecol- 
lections  "  Prince  Bismarck  asserts  that  August  von  Stockhausen,  the  minister  of 
war,  considered  the  Prussian  forces  in  November,  1850,  inadequate  to  check  the 
advance  upon  Berlin  of  the  Austrian  army  concentrated  in  Bohemia.  He  had  re- 
ceived this  information  from  Stockhausen,  and  had  defended  the  king's  attitude  in 
the  chamber.  He  also  thinks  he  has  established  the  fact  that  Prince  William, 
afterward  his  king  and  emperor,  was  convinced  of  the  incapacity  of  Prussia  to 
deal  a  decisive  blow  at  that  period.  He  made  no  mention  of  his  conviction  that 
such  a  blow  must  one  day  be  delivered ;  but  this  assurance  seems  to  have  grown 
upon  him  from  that  date. 


236  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

11.   POLITICAL  AND   ECCLESIASTICAL  EETEOGEESSION,   1850-1853 

A.  The  Eeactionaey  Movement  in  "Western  Policy  after  1850 

The  victory  of  Sohwarzenberg  in  Olmiitz  gave  a  predominating  influence  in 
Central  Europe  to  the  spirit  of  the  Czar  Nicholas  I,  the  narrowness  and  bigotry  of 
which  is  not  to  be  paralleled  in  any  of  those  periods  of  stagnation  which  have  in- 
terrupted the  social  development  of  Europe.  Earely  has  a  greater  want  of  common 
sense  been  shown  in  the  government  of  any  Western  civilized  nation  than  was  dis- 
played during  the  years  subsequent  to  1850,  a  period  which  has  attained  in  this 
respect  a  well-deserved  notoriety.  It  is  true  that  the  preceding  movement  had 
found  the  nations  immature,  and  therefore  incapable  of  solving  the  problems  with 
which  they  were  confronted.  The  spirit  was  willing,  but  the  flesh  was  unpre- 
pared. The  miserable  delusion  that  construction  is  a  process  as  easy  and  rapid  as 
destructive  ;  that  a  few  months  can  accomplish  what  centuries  have  failed  to  per- 
fect ;  the  delusion  that  an  honest  attempt  to  improve  political  institutions  must  of 
necessity  effect  the  desired  improvement,  the  severance  of  the  theoretical  from  the 
practical,  which  was  the  ruin  of  every  politician,  —  these  were  the  obstacles  which 
prevented  the  national  leaders  from  making  timely  use  of  that  tremendous  power 
which  was  placed  in  their  hands  in  the  month  of  March,  1848.  Precious  time  was 
squandered  in  the  harangues  of  rival  orators,  in  the  formation  of  parties  and  clubs, 
in  over-ambitious  programmes  and  complacent  self-laudation  thereon,  in  displays 
of  arrogance  and  malevolent  onslaughts.  Liberalism  was  forced  to  resign  its 
claims ;  it  was  unable  to  effect  a  complete  and  unwavering  severance  from  radical- 
ism ;  it  was  unable  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  its  mission  was  not  to  govern,  but 
to  secure  recognition  from  the  government.  The  peoples  were  unable  to  gain  legal 
confirmation  of  their  rights,  because  they  had  no  clear  ideas  upon  the  extent  of 
those  rights,  and  had  not  been  taught  that  self-restraint  was  the  only  road  to  suc- 
cess. Thus  far  all  is  sufficiently  intelligible,  and,  upon  a  retrospect,  one  is  almost 
inclined  to  think  of  stagnation  as  the  inevitable  result  of  a  conflict  of  counter- 
balancing forces.  But  one  phenomenon  there  is,  which  becom^  the  rhore  aston- 
ishing in  proportion  as  it  is  elucidated  by  that  pure  light  of  impartial  criticism 
which  the  non-contemporary  historian  can  throw  upon  it,  —  it  is  the  fact  that  men- 
tal confusion  was  followed  by  a  cessation  of  mental  energy,  that  imperative  vigour 
and  interest  were  succeeded  by  blatant  stupidity,  that  the  excesses  committed  by 
nations  in  their  struggle  for  the  right  of  self-determination  were  expiated  by  yet 
more  brutal  exhibitions  of  the  misuse  of  power,  the  blame  of  which  rests  upon  the 
governments,  who  were  the  nominal  guardians  of  right  and  morality  in  their 
higher  forms. 

In  truth  a  very  moderate  degree  of  wisdom  in  a  few  leading  statesmen  would 
have  drawn  the  proper  conclusions  from  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  have  discovered 
the  formulfe  expressing  the  relation  between  executive  power  and  national  strength. 
But  the  thinkers  who  would  have  been  satisfied  with  moderate  claims  were  not  to 
be  found ;  it  seemed  as  if  the  very  intensity  of  political  action  had  exhausted  the 
capacity  for  government,  as  if  the  conquerors  had  forgotten  that  they  too  had  been 
struggling  to  preserve  the  State  and  to  secure  its  internal  consolidation  and  recon- 
9titution,  that  the  revolution  had  been  caused  simply  by  the  fact  that  the  corrupt 


^f^^TifrT/]       HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  237 

and  degenerate  State  was  unable  to  perform  what  its  subjects  had  the  right  to 
demand.  The  nations  were  so  uiterly  depressed  by  the  sad  experiences  which  they 
had  brought  upon  themselves,  as  to  show  themselves  immediately  sensible  to  the 
smallest  advances  of  kindness  and  confidence.  Irritated  by  a  surfeit  ot  democratic 
theory,  the  political  organism  had  lost  its  tone.  A  moderate  allowance  of  rights 
and  freedom  would  have  acted  as  a  stimulant,  but  the  constitution  had  been  too 
far  lowered  for  hunger  to  act  as  a  cure.  Education  and  amelioration,  not  punish- 
ment, was  now  the  mission  of  the  governments  which  had  recovered  their  unlim- 
ited power ;  but  they  were  themselves  both  iminformed  and  unsympathetic.  The 
punishment  which  they  meted  out  was  inflicted  not  from  a  sense  of  duty,  but  in 
revenge  for  the  blows  which  they  had  been  forced  to  endure  in  the  course  of  the 
revolution. 

(a)  Austria  under  Schwarzenberg's  Ministry.  —  Most  fatal  to  Austria  was  the 
lack  of  creative  power,  of  experienced  statesmen  with  education  and  serious  moral 
purpose.  In  this  country  an  enlightened  government  could  have  attained  its 
every  desire.  Opportunity  was  provided  for  effectuig  a  fundamental  change  in  the 
constitution ;  all  opposition  had  been  broken  down,  and  the  strong  vitality  of  the 
State  had  been  brilliantly  demonstrated  in  one  of  the  hardest  struggles  for  exist- 
ence in  which  the  country  had  been  engaged  for  three  centuries.  There  was  a  new 
ruler  (p.  227),  strong,  bold,  and  well  informed,  full  of  noble  ambition  and  tender 
sentiment,  too  young  to  be  hidebound  by  preconceived  opinion  and  yet  old  enough 
to  feel  enthusiasm  for  his  lofty  mission ;  such  a  man  would  have  been  the 
strongest  conceivable  guarantee  of  success  to  a  ministry  capable  of  leading  him  in 
the  path  of  steady  progress  and  of  respect  for  the  national  rights.  The  clumsy 
and  disjointed  Reichstag  of  Kremsier  (cf.  p.  204)  was  dissolved  on  March  7  and 
on  March  4,  1849,  a  constitution  (p.  206)  had  been  voluntarily  promulgated,  in 
which  the  government  had  reserved  to  itself  full  scope  for  exercising  an  independ- 
ent influence  upon  the  development  of  the  State.  In  this  arrangement  the  king- 
dom of  Hungary  had  been  included  after  its  subordinate  provinces  had  severed 
their  connection  with  the  crown  of  the  Stephans,  obtaining  special  provincial  rights 
of  their  own.  The  best  administrative  officials  in  the  empire,  Anton  Eitter  von 
Schmerling,  Alexander  (from  1854  Freiherr  von)  Bach,  Count  Leo  Thun  and 
Hohenstein,  and  Karl  von  Bruck,  were  at  the  disposition  of  the  prime  minister 
for  the  work  of  revivifying  the  economic  and  intellectual  life  of  the  monarchy. 
No  objection  would  have  been  raised  to  a  plan  for  dividing  the  non-Hungarian 
districts  into  bodies  analogous  to  the  English  county,  and  thus  laying  the  impreg- 
nable foundations  of  a  centralised  government  which  would  develop  as  the  educa- 
tion of  the  smaller  national  entities  advanced.  The  fate  of  Austria  was  delivered 
into  the  hands  of  the  emperor's  advisers ;  but  no  personality  of  Eadetzky's  stamp 
was  to  be  found  among  them.  The  leading  figure  was  a  haughty  nobleman,  whose 
object  and  pleasure  was  to  sow  discord  between  Austria  and  the  Prussian  king 
and  people,  Austria's  most  faithful  allies  since  1815.  It  was  in  Frankfurt,  and  not 
in  Vienna  or  Budapesth,  that  the  Hapsburg  State  should  have  sought  strength  and 
^irotection  against  future  storms. 

Even  at  the  present  day  the  veil  has  not  been  wholly  parted  which  then  shrouded 
the  change  of  political  theory  in  the  leading  circles  at  the  Vienna  court.  Certain, 
however,  it  is  that  this  change  was  not  the  work  of  men  anxious  for  progress,  but 


238  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

was  due  to  the  machinations  of  political  parasites  who  plunged  one  of  the  best- 
intentioned  of  rulers  into  a  series  of  entanglements  which  a  life  of  sorrow  and 
cruel  disappointments  was  unable  to  unravel.  The  precious  months  of  1850,  when 
the  nation  would  thankfully  have  welcomed  any  cessation  of  the  prevalent  dis- 
turbance and  terrorism,  or  any  sign  of  confidence  ia  its  capacities,  were  allowed  to 
pass  by  without  an  effort.  In  the  following  year  the  national  enemies  gained  the 
upper  hand ;  it  was  resolved  to  break  with  constitutionalism,  and  to  reject  the 
claims  of  the  citizens  to  a  share  in  the  legislature  and  the  administration.  In 
September,  1851,  the  governments  of  Prussia  and  Sardinia  were  ordered  to  annul 
the  existing  constitutions.  This  was  a  step  which  surpassed  even  Metternich's 
zeal  for  absolutism.  Schmerling  and  Bruck  resigned  their  posts  in  the  ministry 
(January  5  and  May  23,  1851),  feeling  their  taability  to  make  head  against  the 
reactionary  movement.  On  August  20,  1851,  the  imperial  council  for  which  pro- 
vision had  been  made  in  the  constitution  of  March  4, 1849,  was  deprived  of  its 
faculty  of  national  representation.  As  the  council  had  not  yet  been  called  into 
existence,  the  only  interpretation  to  be  laid  upon  this  step  was  that  the  ministry 
desired  to  re-examine  the  desirability  of  ratifying  the  constitution.  On  December 
31,  1851,  the  constitution  was  annulled,  and  the  personal  security  of  the  citizens 
thereby  endangered,  known  as  they  were  to  be  in  favour  of  constitutional  measures. 
The  police  and  a  body  of  gendarmes  who  were  accorded  an  unprecedented  degree 
of  license  undertook  the  struggle,  not  against  exaggerated  and  impracticable  de- 
mands, but  against  liberalism  as  such,  while  the  authorities  plumed  themselves 
in  the  fond  delusion  that  this  senseless  struggle  was  a  successful  stroke  of  states- 
manship. Enlightened  centralisation  would  have  found  thousands  of  devoted 
coadjutors  and  have  awakened  many  dormant  forces ;  but  the  centralisation  of 
the  reactionary  foes  of  freedom  was  bound  to  remain  fruitless  and  to  destroy  the 
pure  impulse  which  urged  the  people  to  national  activity. 

(b)  The  Dresden  Conferences.  —  The  successors  in  foreign  policy,  by  which 
presumption  had  been  fostered,  now  ceased.  During  the  Dresden  conferences, 
which  had  been  held  in  Olmiitz  (p.  235),  Schwarzenberg  found  that  he  had  been 
bitterly  deceived  in  his  federal  allies  among  the  smaller  State^^nd  found  that  he 
had  affronted  Prussia  to  no  purpose  as  far  as  Austria  was  concerned.  His  object 
had  been  to  introduce  such  modifications  in  the  act  of  federation  as  would  enable 
Austria  and  the  countries  dependent  on  her  to  enter  the  German  federation,  which 
would  then  be  forced  to  secure  the  inviolability  of  the  whole  Hapsburg  power. 
England  and  France  declined  to  accept  these  proposals.  The  German  governments 
showed  no  desire  to  enter  upon  a  struggle  with  two  great  powers  to  gain  a  federal 
reform  which  could  only  benefit  Austria.  Prussia  was  able  calmly  to  await  the 
collapse  of  Schwarzenberg's  schemes.  After  wearisome  negotiations  (lasting  from 
December,  1850,  to  May,  1851)  it  became  clear  that  all  attempts  at  reform  were 
futile,  as  long  as  Austria  declined  to  grant  Prussia  the  equality  which  she 
desired  in  the  presidency  and  in  the  formation  of  the  proposed  "directory." 
Schwarzenberg  declined  to  yield,  and  all  that  could  be  done  was  to  return  to  the 
old  federal  system,  and  thereby  to  make  the  discreditable  avowal  that  the  col- 
lective governments  were  as  powerless  as  the  disjointed  parliament  to  amend 
the  unsatisfactory  political  situation.  In  the  federal  palace  at  Frankfort-on- 
Main,  where  the  sovereignty  of  that  German  national  assembly  had  been  organ- 


S^^TIX^a']        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  239 

ised  a  short  time  before  (p.  182),  the  opinion  again  prevailed  (from  1851)  that 
there  could  be  no  more  dangerous  enemy  to  the  State  and  to  society  than  the 
popular  representative.  The  unfortunate  liberals,  humiliated  and  depressed  by 
their  own  incompetency,  now  paid  the  penalty  for  their  democratic  tendencies  ; 
they  were  branded  as  "  destructive  forces,"  and  punished  by  imprisonment  which 
should  properly  have  fallen  upon  republican  inconstancy. 

(c)  The  Smaller  German  States  and  Prussia  under  the  Restored  Paramountcy 
of  the  Federal  Council.  —  The  majority  of  the  liberal  constitutions  which  the 
revolution  of  1848  had  brought  into  existence  were  in  most  cases  annulled ; 
this  step  was  quickly  carried  out  in  Saxony,  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  and  Wurt- 
emberg  (June,  September,  and  November,  1850),  though  the  chamber  contiaued  an 
obstinate  resistance  until  August,  1855,  in  Hanover,  where  the  blind  king  George  V 
had  ascended  the  throne  on  November  18,  1851.  The  favor  of  the  federation 
restored  her  beloved  ruler  to  the  electorate  of  Hesse.  He  positively  revelled  in 
the  cruelty  and  oppression  practised  upon  his  subjects  by  the  troops  of  occupa- 
tion. His  satellite,  Hassenpflug,  known  as  "  Hessen-Fluch  "  (the  curse  of  Hesse), 
zealously  contributed  to  increase  the  severity  of  this  despotism  by  his  ferocity 
against  the  recalcitrant  officials,  who  considered  themselves  bound  by  their 
obligations  to  the  constitution. 

In  Prussia  the  reactionary  party  would  very  gladly  have  made  an  end  of  con- 
stitutionalism once  and  for  all;  but  though  the  king  entertained  a  deep-rooted 
objection  to  the  modern  theories  of  popular  participation  in  the  government,  he 
declined  to  be  a  party  to  any  breach  of  the  oath  which  he  had  taken.  Bunsen 
and  Prince  WHliam  supported  his  objections  to  a  coup  d'etat,  which  seemed  the 
more  unnecessary  as  a  constitutional  change  in  the  direction  of  conservatism  had 
been  successfully  carried  through  (February  6, 1850).  The  system  of  three  classes 
of  direct  representation  was  introduced  (end  of  April,  1849),  taxation  thus  becoming 
the  measure  of  the  political  rights  exercised  by  the  second  chamber.  The  possibility 
of  a  labour  majority  in  this  chamber  was  thus  obviated.  The  upper  chamber  was 
entirely  remodelled.  Members  were  no  longer  elected,  but  were  nominated  by  the 
crown ;  seats  were  made  hereditary  in  the  different  noble  families,  and  the  prepon- 
derance of  the  nobility  was  thus  secured.  The  institution  of  a  full  house  of  lords 
(October  12,  1854)  was  not  so  severe  a  blow  to  the  State  as  the  dissolution  of  the 
parish  councils  and  the  reinstitution  of  the  provincial  Landtags  (1851),  as  in  these 
latter  the  unbiassed  expression  of  public  opinion  was  a  practical  impossibility. 

Schleswig-Holstein  was  handed  over  to  the  Danes  ;  the  constitution  of  Septem- 
ber 15,  1848,  and  German  "  proprietary  rights  "  were  declared  null  and  void  by  a 
supreme  authority  composed  of  Austrian,  Prussian,  and  Danish  commissioners.  By 
the  London  protocol  of  May  8,  1852,  the  great  powers  recognised  the  succession 
of  Prince  Christian  of  Holstein-Glucksburg,  who  had  married  Princess  Louise, 
a  daughter  of  the  Countess  of  Hesse,  Louise  Charlotte,  sister  of  Christian  VIII. 
However,  the  German  federation  did  not  favour  this  solution ;  the  estates  of  the 
duchies,  who  had  the  best  right  to  decide  the  question,  were  never  even  asked  their 
opinion.  On  December  30,  1852,  Duke  Christian  of  Holstein-Augustenburg  sold 
his  Schleswig  estates  to  the  reigning  house  of  Denmark  for  2,250,000  thalers, 
renouncing  his  hereditary  rights  at  the  same  time,  though  the  other  members  of 
the  family  declined  to  accept  the  renunciation  as  binding  upon  themselves.     Thus 


240  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \Cha:pter  ii 

the  Danes  gained  but  a  temporary  victory.  It  was  even  then  clear  that  after  the 
death  of  King  Frederick  VII  the  struggle  would  be  renewed  for  the  separation  of 
the  German  districts  from  the  "  Danish  United  States." 

A  legacy  of  the  national  movement,  the  "  German  fleet "  was  put  up  to  auction 
at  this  date.  The  German  federation  had  no  maritime  interests  to  represent.  It 
declined  the  trouble  of  extorting  a  recognition  of  the  German  flag  from  the  mari- 
time powers.  Of  the  four  frigates,  five  corvettes,  and  six  gunboats,  which  had  been 
fitted  out  at  a  cost  of  three  million  six  hundred  thousand  thalers,  Prussia  bought 
the  larger  part,  after  Hanoverian  machinations  had  induced  the  federal  council  to 
determine  the  dissolution  of  the  fleet  on  April  2, 1852.  Prussia  acquired  from 
Oldenburg  a  strip  of  territory  on  the  Jade  Bay,  and  in  course  of  time  constructed 
a  naval  arsenal  and  harbour  (Wilhelmshaven),  which  enabled  her  to  appear  as  a 
maritime  power  in  the  Baltic. 

These  facts  were  the  more  important  as  Prussia,  in  spite  of  violent  opposition, 
had  maintained  her  position  as  head  of  that  economic  unity  which  was  now  known 
as  the  "ZoUverein"  (p.  163).  The  convention  expired  on  December  31,  1853. 
Prom  1849  Austria  had  been  working  to  secure  the  position,  and  at  the  tariff  con- 
ference held  in  Wiesbaden  in  June,  1851,  had  Secured  the  support  of  every  State 
of  importance  within  the  ZoUverein  with  the  exception  of  Prussia.  Prussia  was  in 
consequence  forced  to  renounce  the  preference  for  protective  duties  which  she  had 
evinced  in  the  last  few  years,  and,  on  September  7,  1851,  to  join  the  free  trade 
"  Steuerverein  "  which  Hanover  had  formed  with  Oldenburg  and  Lippe  (1834  and 
1836).  The  danger  of  a  separation  between  the  eastern  and  western  territorial 
groups  was  thus  obviated ;  the  ZoUverein  of  Austria  and  the  smaller  German  States 
was  cut  off  from  the  sea  and  deprived  of  all  the  advantages  which  the  original 
Prussian  ZoUverein  had  offered.  Austria  now  thought  it  advisable  to  conclude  a 
commercial  treaty  with  Prussia  on  favourable  terms  on  February  19,  1853,  and  to 
leave  the  smaller  States  to  their  fate.  In  any  case  their  continual  demands  for 
compensation  and  damages  had  become  wearisome.  Nothing  remained  for  them 
except  to  join  Prussia.  Thus  on  April  4, 1853,  the  ZoUverein  was  renewed,  to  last 
until  December  31,  1865.  It  was  an  association  embracing  an  area  of  nine  thou- 
sand and  forty-six  square  (German)  miles,  with  thirty-five  miU^n  inhabitants. 

B.  Ecclesiastical  Ebactionary  Movements  in  Eelation  to  the  State 

As  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon  I,  so  now  the  lion's  share  of  the  plunder  acquired 
in  the  struggle  against  the  revolution  fell  to  the  Church.  Liberalism  had  indeed 
rendered  an  important  service  to  Catholicism  by  incorporating  in  its  creed  the  phrase, 
"  the  free  Church  in  the  free  State."  The  Jesuits  were  weU  able  to  turn  this  freedom 
to  the  best  account.  They  demanded  for  the  German  bishops  unlimited  powers  of 
communication  with  Eome  and  with  the  parochial  clergy,  together  with  full  dis- 
ciplinary powers  over  all  priests  without  the  necessity  of  an  appeal  to  the  State. 
Nothing  was  simpler  than  to  construe  ecclesiastical  freedom  as  implying  that  right 
of  supremacy  for  which  the  Church  had  yearned  during  the  past  eight  centuries. 
This  was  now  reformulated  in  the  catch-word,  church  rights  before  territorial 
rights.  Hermann  von  Vicari,  the  archbishop  of  Freiburg,  pushed  the  theory  with 
such  brazen  effrontery  that  even  the  reactionary  government  was  forced  to  imprison 
him.     However,  in  Darmstadt  and  Stuttgart  the  governments  submitted  to  the 


Ss^ril:^']     HISTORY  of  the  world  241 

demands  of  Eome.  Parties  in  the  Prussian  chamber  were  increased  by  the  addi- 
tion of  a  new  Catholic  party,  led  by  the  brothers  August  and  Peter  Franz  Eeichens- 
perger,  to  which  high  favour  was  shown  by  the  "  Catholic  contingent "  in  the 
ministry  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  —  a  party  created  by  the  ecclesiastical  minister 
Joh.  Albr.  Friedr.  Eichhorn  in  1841  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  348). 

There  was  no  actual  collision  in  Prussia  between  ultramontanism  and  the  tem- 
poral power.  The  government  favoured  the  reaction  in  the  evangelical  Church 
wliich  took  the  form  of  an  unmistakable  rapprochement  to  Catholicism.  The 
powers  were  committed  to  a  policy  of  mutual  counsel  and  support,  their  ultimate 
aim  beiag  the  suppression  of  independent  thought,  so  far  even  as  to  prevent  be- 
lievers from  satisfying  the  inmost  needs  of  their  spiritual  life.  Friedr.  Jul.  Stahl, 
Ernst  Wilhelm  Hengstenberg,  and  Ernst  Ludwig  von  Gerlaoh,  who  had  gained 
complete  ascendancy  over  Frederic  William  IV  since  the  revolution  (cf.  pp.  158 
and  174),  were  undermining  the  foundations  of  the  evangelical  creed,  especially 
the  respect  accorded  to  inward  conviction,  on  which  the  whole  of  Protestantism 
was  based.  In  the  "  regulations  "  of  October,  1854,  the  schools  were  placed  under 
Church  supervision,  and  in  the  "  Church  councils  "  hypocrisy  was  made  supreme. 
When  a  Bunsen  advanced  to  champion  the  cause  of  spiritual  freedom,  he  gained 
only  the  honourable  title  of  "devastator  of  the  Church." 

In  Austria  the  rights  of  the  human  understanding  were  flouted  even  more  com- 
pletely than  in  Prussia  by  the  conclusion  of  the  notorious  concordat  of  August  18, 
1855.  This  agreement  was  the  expression  of  an  alliance  between  ultramontanism 
and  the  new  centralising  absolutism.  The  hierarchy  undertook  for  a  short  period 
to  oppose  the  national  parties  and  to  commend  the  refusal  of  constitutional  rights. 
In  return  the  absolutist  State  placed  the  whole  of  its  administration  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Church,  and  gave  the  bishops  unconditional  supremacy  over  the  clergy,  who 
had  hitherto  used  the  position  assigned  to  them  by  Joseph  II  for  the  benefit  of  the 
people,  and  certainly  not  for  the  injury  of  the  Church.  The  Church  thus  gained  a 
spiritual  preponderance  which  was  used  to  secure  her  paramountcy.  It  was  but  a 
further  step  in  the  course  of  development  which  the  Jesuit  order  had  imposed 
upon  the  Catholic  Church.  The  suppression  of  the  Christian  congregation  was 
necessarily  succeeded  by  the  disestablishment  of  the  spiritual  pastor.  When  this 
process  had  been  completed  and  the  local  clergy  deprived  of  State  protection,  the 
episcopacy  might  be  reduced  to  impotence,  and  the  papacy  transformed  into  an 
Oriental  despotism,  under  which  the  Jesuit  leaders  would  become  permanent  grand 
viziers.  All  this,  too,  in  the  name  of  a  religion  which  taught  the  equality  of  all 
men  as  made  in  the  image  of  God,  which  insisted  on  morality  based  upon  spiritual 
freedom  as  the  ideal  of  life,  which  had  once  given  mankind  joy  and  strength  for 
the  struggle  against  oppression,  selfishness,  and  intolerance !  A  new  epoch  in 
religious  history  was  thereby  inaugurated ;  now  was  to  be  tested  the  true  value  of 
the  religion,  upon  a  perversion  of  which  Jesuitism  was  attempting  to  found  a  new 
scheme  of  organisation,  which  could  only  end  in  the  victory  of  Catholic  influence 
over  the  orders,  or  in  the  dissolution  of  the  Church. 

The  example  of  Austria  was  imitated  in  the  Italian  States  which  owed  their 
existence  to  her.  Piedmont  alone  gathered  the  opponents  of  the  Koman  hierarchy 
under  her  banner,  for  this  government  at  least  was  determined  that  no  patriot  should 
be  led  astray  by  the  great  fiction  of  a  national  pope.  In  Spain  the  Jesuits  joined 
the  Carlists  (p.  169,  above),  and  helped  them  to  carry  on  a  hopeless  campaign, 

VOL.  Till— 16 


242  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  ii 

marked  by  a  series  of  defeats.  In  Belgium,  on  the  other  hand  (p.  146,  above),  they 
secured  an  almost  impregnable  position  in  1855,  and  fought  the  liberals  with  their 
own  weapons.  Only  Portugal,  whence  they  had  first  been  expelled  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  551),  kept  herself  free  from  their  influence  in  the 
nineteenth,  and  showed  that  even  a  Catholic  government  had  no  need  to  fear  the 
threats  of  the  papacy.  Eome  had  set  great  hopes  upon  France,  since  Louis  Napo- 
leon's "  plebiscites  "  had  been  successfully  carried  out  with  the  help  of  the  clergy. 
But  the  Curia  found  France  a  very  prudent  friend,  and  one  not  to  be  caught  off  her 
guard.  The  diplomatic  skill  of  Napoleon  III  was  never  seen  to  better  advantage 
than  in  his  delimitation  of  the  spheres  respectively  assigned  to  the  temporal  and 
the  spiritual  powers.  Even  the  Jesuits  were  unable  to  fathom  his  intentions,  and 
never  knew  how  far  he  was  inclined  to  compromise  himself  with  them. 


12.    THE   FLUCTUATIONS    OF  POWER   UNDER   THE   INFLUENCE   OF 
THE   SECOND   FRENCH   EMPIRE   TO   THE   YEAR   1859 

In  the  realm  of  the  blind  the  one-eyed  man  is  king ;  above  the  reactionary 
governments  rose  the  "  saviour  of  order,"  who  had  been  carried  to  the  throne  by 
the  Revolution.  The  presidential  chair,  which  had  gained  security  and  permanence 
from  the  coup  d'etat  of  December  2,  1851  (p.  218),  was  made  a  new  imperial 
throne  within  the  space  of  a  year  by  the  adroit  and  not  wholly  rmtalented  heir  to 
the  great  name  of  Bonaparte.  On  January  14, 1852,  he  had  brought  out  a  consti- 
tution to  give  France  a  breathing  space,  exhausted  as  she  was  by  the  passionate 
struggle  for  freedom,  and  to  soothe  the  extravagance  of  her  imaginings.  But  this 
constitution  needed  a  monarchy  to  complete  it.  The  basis  of  a  national  imperial 
government  was  there  in  detail :  a  legislative  body  elected  by  national  suffrage ;  a 
senate  to  guarantee  the  constitutional  legality  of  legislation ;  an  "  appeal  to  the 
people  "  on  every  proposal  which  could  be  construed  as  an  alteration  of  the  consti- 
tution ;  a  strong  and  wise  executive  to  conduct  State  business,  whose  "  resolutions  " 
were  examined  in  camera,  undertaking  the  preparation  and  execution  of  every- 
thing which  could  conduce  to  the  welfare  of  the  people.  ^The  twelve  million 
francs  which  the  energetic  senate  had  voted  as  the  president's  yearly  income  might 
equally  well  be  applied  to  the  maintenance  of  an  emperor.  When  the  question  was 
brought  forward,  the  country  replied  with  seven  million  eight  hundred  and  forty 
thousand  votes  in  the  afi&rmative,  while  the  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  thousand 
dissentients  appeared  merely  as  a  protest  in  behalf  of  the  right  of  independei.t 
judgment.  On  December  2,  1852,  Napoleon  III  was  added  to  the  number  of 
crowned  heads  in  Europe  as  Emperor  of  France  by  the  grace  of  God  and  the  will 
of  the  people.  No  power  attempted  to  refuse  recognition  of  his  position.  The 
democratic  origin  of  the  new  ruler  was  forgotten  in  view  of  his  services  in  the 
struggle  against  the  Revolution,  and  in  view  of  his  respect  for  considerations  of 
religion  and  armed  force.  Unfortunately  the  youthful  monarch  could  not  gain 
time  to  convince  other  powers  of  his  equality  with  themselves.  The  old  reigning 
houses  were  not  as  yet  sufficiently  intimate  with  him  to  seek  a  permanent  union 
through  a  marriage  alliance ;  yet  he  was  bound  to  give  France  and  himself  an  heir, 
for  a  throne  without  heirs  speedily  becomes  uninteresting.  Born  on  April  20, 
1808,  he  was  nearly  forty-five  years  of  age,  and  dared  not  risk  the  failure  of  a 


S^^Tif^Ti]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  243 

courtship  which  might  expose  him  to  the  general  sympathy  or  ridicule.  Without 
delay  he  therefore  married,  on  January  29,  1853,  the  beautiful  Countess  Eugdnie 
of  Teba,  of  the  noble  Spanish  house  of  Guzman,  who  was  then  twenty-six  years  of 
age.  She  was  eminently  capable,  not  only  of  pleasing  the  Parisians,  but  also  of 
fixing  their  attention  and  of  raising  their  spirits  by  a  never-ending  series  of  fresh 
devices.  No  woman  was  ever  better  fitted  to  be  a  queen  of  fashion,  and  fashion 
has  always  been  venerated  as  a  goddess  by  the  French. 

A.  The  Crimean  War 

Nothing  but  a  brilliant  foreign  policy  was  now  lacking  to  secure  the  per- 
manence of  the  Second  Empire.  It  was  not  enough  that  Napoleon  should  be 
tolerated  by  his  fellow  sovereigns ;  prestige  was  essential  to  him.  There  was  no 
surer  road  to  the  hearts  of  his  subjects  than  that  of  making  himself  a  power  whose 
favour  the  other  States  of  Europe  would  be  ready  to  solioic.  For  this  end  it  would 
have  been  the  most  natural  policy  to  interest  himself  in  the  affairs  of  Italy,  con- 
sidering that  he  had  old  connections  with  the  Carbonari,  with  Mazzini,  and  with 
Garibaldi.  But  it  so  happened  that  the  Czar  Nicholas  was  obliging  enough  at 
this  juncture  to  furnish  the  heir  of  Bonaparte  with  a  plausible  pretext  for  inter- 
fering in  the  affairs  of  Eastern  Europe.  Napoleon  III  cannot  be  regarded  as  pri- 
marily responsible  for  the  differences  which  arose  in  1853  between  England  and 
Eussia.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  seized  the  opportunity  afforded  by 
the  quarrel  of  these  two  powers,  and  hurried  the  English  government  into  an 
aggressive  line  of  policy  which,  however  welcome  to  the  electorates  of  English  con- 
stituencies, was  viewed  with  misgiving  by  many  English  statesmen,  and  was  des- 
tined to  be  of  little  advantage  to  any  power  but  the  Second  Empire. 

The  Czar  Nicholas  has  for  a  long  time  past  regarded  the  partition  of  the  Turk- 
ish Empire  in  favour  of  Eussia  as  a  step  for  which  the  European  situation  was 
now  ripe.  England  and  Austria  were  the  powers  whose  interests  were  most 
obviously,  threatened  by  such  a  scheme.  But  he  thought  that  Austria  could  be 
disregarded  if  the  assent  of  England  were  secured ;  and  as  early  as  1844  he  had 
sounded  the  English  government,  suggesting  that,  in  the  event  of  partition,  an 
understanding  between  England  and  Eussia  might  be  formulated  with  equal  ad- 
vantage to  both  powers.  His  overtures  had  met  with  no  definite  reply ;  but  he 
appears  to  have  assumed  that  England  would  not  stand  in  his  way.  In  1852, 
feeling  secure  from  further  insurrections  in  Poland,  he  unmasked  his  batteries 
against  the  Porte.  There  was  an  old-standing  feud  between  the  Greek  and  Latin 
Christians  living  in  Palestine  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  Sultan ;  by  a  strange 
coincidence  this  feud  entered  upon  a  new  and  more  virulent  phase  at  the  very 
moment  when  the  Czar  was  able  and  willing  to  insist  upon  his  protectorate 
over  the  whole  Greek  Church.  As  a  matter  of  course  he  found  himself  upon 
this  question  in  opposition  to  France.  The  temptation  to  reassert  the  French 
protectorate  over  the  Latin  Christians  of  the  East  was  increased  by  the  an- 
noyance which  Napoleon  felt  at  the  arrogant  demeanour  of  the  Russian  court 
toward  himself.  But  Napoleon,  busied  as  he  was  with  preparing  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  empire,  could  not  afford  to  push  his  resistance  to  extremes, 
and  it  would  have  been  the  wisest  course  for  Nicholas  to  make  sure  of  the  prey 
which  he  had  in  view,  by  occupying  the  Danube  principalities  in  force,  before 


244  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapterii 

Austria  ana  Prussia  had  finished  quarrelling  over  the  question  of  federal  reforms. 
The  fact  was  that  the  development  of  his  plans  was  checked  for  a  moment  by  the 
unexpected  submissiveness  of  the  Sublime  Porte,  which  agreed  to  guarantee  the 
Greek  Christians  of  the  Holy  Land  in  the  possession  of  the  coveted  privileges. 
New  pretexts  for  aggression  were,  however,  easily  discovered ;  and  on  May  11, 
1853,  Prince  Menschikoff  despatched  an  ultimatum,  demanding  for  Eussia  a  pro- 
tectorate over  the  fourteen  millions  of  Greek  Christians  who  inhabited  the  various 
countries  under  Turkish  rule.  Submission  to  such  a  demand  was  equivalent  to 
accepting  a  partition  of  the  Turkish  dominions  between  Eussia  and  the  Sultan. 
Even  without  allies  the  Sultan  might  be  expected  to  make  a  stand ;  and  allies 
were  forthcoming.  Though  Napoleon  had  been  first  in  the  field  against  Eussia,  it 
was  from  England  that  Abdul  Med j  id  now  received  the  strongest  encouragement. 
Some  months  before  the  ultimatum  Nicholas  had  confessed  his  cherished  object  to 
the  English  ambassador ;  and  though  the  shock  of  this  disclosure  had  been  tem- 
pered by  a  proposal  that  England  should  take  Egypt  and  Candia  as  her  share  of 
the  spoil,  the  English  government  was  clear  that,  in  one  way  or  another,  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  Turkish  Empire  must  be  secured.  Lord  Stratford  de  Eedcliffe,  the 
English  representative  at  Constantinople,  advised  that  no  concession  whatever 
should  be  made  to  Eussia.     The  advice  was  taken. 

Although  the  Czar  had  probably  not  counted  upon  war  as  a  serious  probability, 
nothing  now  remained  but  to  face  the  consequences  of  his  precipitation,  to  recall 
his  ambassador,  and  to  send  his  troops  into  the  Danube  principalities.  They  were 
invaded  on  July. 2,  1853,  the  Czar  protesting  "that  it  was  not  his  intention  to 
commence  war,  but  to  have  such  security  as  would  ensure  the  restoration  of  the 
lights  of  Eussia." 

1  Unprepared  as  he  was,  he  had  every  prospect  of  success  if  he  could  secure  the 
co-operation  of  Austria.  Had  these  two  powers  agreed  to  deliver  a  joint  attack 
upon  Turkey,  inducing  Prussia,  by  means  of  suitable  concessions,  to  protect  their 
rear,  the  fleets  of  the  Western  powers  could  not  have  saved  Constantinople,  and 
their  armies  would  certainly  not  have  ventured  to  take  the  field  against  the  com- 
bined forces  of  the  two  Eastern  emperors.  But  the  Czar  overrated  his  own  powers 
and  underrated  the  capacity  of  tlie  Sultan  for  resistance.  Ajl  that  Nicholas  de- 
sired from  Austria  was  neutrality ;  and  this  he  thought  that  ne  might  confidently 
expect  after  the  signal  service  which  Eussian  armies  had  rendered  in  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  Hungarian  rebellion.  No  advance  was  made  on  his  part  toward  an  un- 
derstanding with  Austria  until  the  two  Western  powers  had  definitely  appeared  on 
the  scene.  This  happened  immediately  after  the  Black  Sea  squadron  of  the  Turkish 
fleet  had  been  destroyed  in  the  harbour  of  Sinope  by  Admiral  Nakimoff  (Novem- 
ber 30,  1853).  The  allied  French  and  English  fleets  had  been  in  the  Bosporus 
for  a  month  past  with  the  object  of  protecting  Constantinople ;  they  now,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Napoleon,  entered  the  Black  Sea  (January,  1854).  At  this  juncture 
Prince  Orloff  was  despatched  to  Vienna,  without  authority  to  offer  any  concessions, 
but  merely  to  appeal  to  Austrian  gratitude.  It  would  have  needed  a  statesman  of 
unusual  penetration  to  grasp  the  fact  that  Austrian  interests  would  really  be 
served  by  a  friendly  response  to  this  dilatory  and  unskilfully  managed  applica- 
tion ;  and  such  a  statesman  was  not  to  be  found  at  the  Hofburg.  Schwarzenberg 
liad  died  very  suddenly  on  April  5,  1852,  and  his  mantle  had  fallen  upon  the 
shoulders  of  Count  Karl  Ferdinand  von  Buol-Schauenstein,  who  had  no  other 


S?^rZ"S?e']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  245 

qualifications  for  his  responsible  position  beyond  rigid  orthodoxy  and  some  small 
experience  acquired  in  a  subordinate  capacity  during  the  brief  ministry  of  Schwar- 
zenberg.  Buol  confirmed  his  master,  Franz  Joseph,  in  the  erroneous  idea  that  the. 
interests  of  Austria  and  Eussia  in  the  East  were  diametrically  opposed.  Accord- 
ingly Prince  Orloff  was  rebuffed,  and  Austria  supported  a  demand  for  the  evacua- 
tion of  the  Danubian  principalities  which  was  issued  by  the  Western  powers  on 
February  27,  1854.  France  and  England  were  encouraged  by  this  measure  of 
Austrian  support  to  conclude  a  defensive  treaty  with  the  Sultan  on  March  12  and 
to  declare  war  on  Eussia  on  March  27.  In  the  first  stages  of  hostilities  they  had 
the  support  of  the  Austrian  forces.  Austria  accepted  from  Turkey  a  formal  com- 
mission to  hold  the  Danube  principalities  during  the  course  of  the  war,  and  co- 
operated with  a  Turkish  army  in  compelling  the  Eussian  troops  to  withdraw.. 
And  on  August  8  Austria  joined  with  France  and  England  in  demanding  that. 
Eussia  should  abandon  her  protectorate  over  Servia  and  the  Danubian  princi- 
palities, should  allow  free  navigation  of  the  Danube,  should  submit  to  a  revisiom 
of  the  "  Convention  of  the  Straits  "  (of  July,  1841)  in  the  interests  of  the  balance 
of  power,  and  should  renounce  the  claim  to  a  protectorate  over  the  Greek  Chris- 
tians of  the  Turkish  dominions. 

When  these  demands  were  rejected  by  Eussia,  and  the  war  passed  into  its 
second  stage,  with  France  and  England  acting  on  the  offensive  in  order  to  provide 
for  the  peace  of  the  future  by  crippling  Eussian  power  in  the  East,  it  might  have 
been  expected  that  Austria  would  go  on  as  she  had  begun.  But  at  this  point  a 
fifth  power  made  its  influence  felt  in  the  already  complicated  situation.  Frederic 
William  IV  did  not  go  to  the  lengths  advised  by  Bismarck,  who  proposed  that 
Prussia  should  restore  peace  by  concentrating  an  army  on  the  SHesian  frontier, 
and  threatening  to  attack  whichever  of  the  two  neighbouring  empires  should 
refuse  a  peaceful  settlement.  But  the  king  of  Prussia  was  by  no  means  inclined 
to  make  capital  out  of  Eussian  necessities,  and  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  sugges- 
tions of  Austria  for  an  armed  coalition  against  the  Czar.  The  result  was  that 
Austria,  though  she  concluded,  in  December,  1854,  an  offensive  alliance  with 
France  and  England,  did  not  actually  take  part  in  the  Crimean  war. 

The  plan  of  an  attack  upon  Sebastopol,  the  headquarters  of  Eussian  naval  and 
military  power  in  the  Black  Sea,  had  been  suggested  to  England  by  Napoleon  III 
at  an  early  stage  of  the  war.  It  was  set  aside  for  a  time  in  favour  of  naval  war- 
fare in  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  But  the  English  government,  on  finding  that 
little  good  came  of  a  blockade  of  Odessa,  and  that  Cronstadt  was  proof  against 
attack,  turned  its  gaze  toward  Sebastopol,  and  overruled  Kapoleon,  who  had  come 
to  prefer  the  idea  of  raising  rebellion  against  Eussia  in  the  Caucasus.  In  the^ 
autumn  of  1854  operations  against  Sebastopol  were  commenced,  by  a  joint  French 
and  English  force,  which,  under  the  command  of  Lord  Eaglan  and  Marshal  St. 
Arnaud,  landed  at  Eupatoria  on  September  14,  and  on  September  20  cleared  the 
road  to  Sebastopol  by  a  battle  at  the  river  Alma,  in  which  the  brunt  of  the  fighting 
and  the  heaviest  loss  fell  upon  the  English.  On  September  26,  Balaclava,  to  the 
south  of  Sebastopol,  was  occupied  by  the  allies  as  a  naval  base,  and  on  October  9 
the  siege  of  Sebastopol  itself  was  commenced,  a  siege  which  was  to  last  for  more 
than  twelve  months. 

Several  desperate  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  Eussian  field  army  to  bring^ 
relief  to  the  garrison  were  unavailing.    On  October  25  Prince  Menschikoff  brought 


246  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapt^  ii 

against  the  allied  position  at  Balaclava  a  force  of  twenty-two  thousand  infantry, 
thirty-four  thousand  cavalry,  and  seventy-eight  guns ;  but  the  battle  which  ensued, 
though  memorable  for  the  charges  of  the  Heavy  Brigade  and  the  Light  Brigade, 
was  of  an  indecisive  character.  On  November  5  the  position  south  of  the  harbour 
of  Sebastopol,  which  is  known  (but  incorrectly)  as  Mount  Inkerman,  was  attacked 
simultaneously  by  the  garrison  and  the  field  army  under  Menschikoff's  direction ; 
but  after  a  hard  day's  fighting  against  inferior  numbers  the  Eussians  retired  with 
a  loss  of  twelve  thousand  men,  more  than  twelve  times  that  which  the  allies  had 
sustained.  On  the  other  hand,  the  allies  failed  to  break  the  communications  of  the 
ganison  with  the  outer  world,  and  little  was  done  in  the  course  of  the  winter 
owing  to  the  terrible  privations  which  the  besiegers  suffered  in  consequence  of  a 
wretched  commissariat  system.  In  the  course  of  the  four  winter  months  the  Eng- 
lish alone  lost  nine  thousand  men  by  sickness.  In  January,  1855,  the  allies  were 
constrained  to  apply  for  assistance  to  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia,  from  which  ia  the 
month  of  May  they  received  a  contingent  of  fifteen  thousand  men.  Help  would 
have  come  more  naturally  from  Austria,  but  Buol-Schauenstein  had  not  the  deter- 
miaation  to  proceed  without  Prussian  countenance  on  the  path  which  he  had 
entered  in  the  previous  year,  and  Austria  missed  the  golden  opportunity  for 
strengthening  her  position  in  Eastern  Europe. 

The  Czar  Nicholas  died,  worn  out  with  chagrin  and  anxiety,  on  March  2,  1855. 
His  policy  had  cost  Eussia  a  loss  which  was  officially  calculated  at  two  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  men ;  and  "  Generals  January  and  February  "  had  treated  him 
even  more  severely  than  the  allied  force  which  he  had  expected  them  to  annihi- 
late. Negotiations  were  opened  by  his  son  Alexander  II,  who  declined,  however, 
to  limit  the  Eussian  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea.  The  allies  therefore  proceeded  with 
the  attack  upon  Sebastopol ;  and  after  a  third  unsuccessful  attack  upon  their  posi- 
tion (battle  of  the  Tchernaya,  August  16,  1855),  the  Eussians  were  compelled,  by 
a  fearful  cannonade  and  the  loss  of  the  Malakoff  (September  8),  which  was  stormed 
by  the  Erench  in  the  face  of  an  appalling  fire,  to  evacuate  the  city.  The  capture 
of  the  Armenian  fortress  of  Kars  by  General  Muravieff  in  November  enabled  the 
Eussians  to  claim  more  moderate  terms  of  peace  than  would  otherwise  have  been 
possible.  On  February  6,  1856,  a  congress  opened  at  Paris  %a  settle  the  Eastern 
question,'  and  peace  was  signed  on  March  30  of  the  same  year. 

By  the  terms  of  the  peace  of  Paris  the  Black  Sea  was  declared  neutral  and 
open  to  the  merchant  ships  of  every  nation.  It  was  to  be  closed  against  the  war 
ships  of  all  nations,  except  that  Eussia  and  Turkey  were  permitted  to  equip  not 
more  than  ten  light  vessels  apiece  for  coastguard  service,  and  that  any  State  inter- 
ested in  the  navigation  of  the  Danube  might  station  two  light  vessels  at  the  mouth 
of  that  river.  The  integrity  of  Turkey  was  guaranteed  by  the  powers,  all  of  whom 
renounced  the  right  of  interfering  in  tlie  internal  affairs  of  that  State,  nothing 
beyond  certain  promises  of  reforms  being  demanded  from  the  Sultan  in  return  for 
these  favours.  Eor  the  regulation  of  the  navigation  of  the  Danube  a  standing 
commission  of  the  interested  powers  was  appointed  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  124).  Mol- 
davia and  Wallachia  were  left  in  dependence  on  the  Sultan,  but  with  complete 
autonomy  so  far  as  their  internal  administration  was  concerned.  They  were  to  pay 
a  tribute,  and  their  foreign  relations  were  to  be  controlled  by  the  Porte.    Mol- 


1  See  the  plate,  "  The  Congress  of  Paris  in  the  Year  1856.' 


THE   PAKIS   CONGEESS   IN  THE   YEAR   1856 


Edouard  Dubufe  has  depicted  the  Paris  Congress  in  the  persons  of  the  following  fifteen 
Representatives  of  the  five  Great  Powers  and  the  two  smaller  Powers  of  Europe,  who  were 
involved  in  the  Eastern  question  in  connection  with  the  Crimean  War. 


I.   France  : 


III.   Austria  : 


IV.    TCREET  : 


VI. 


5. 

6. 

7. 


Florian  Alexandre  Joseph,  Count  Colonna  Walewski  (1810-1868). 

2.  Fran9ois  Adolphe,  Baron  de  Bourqueney  (1799-1869). 

3.  Vincent,  Count  of  Benedetti  (1817-1900),  as  recorder. 

II.   England  :     4.    George  William  Frederick  Villiers,  Count  Clarendon,  Baron  Hyde  of 
Hindon  (1800-1870). 
Henry  Richard  Charles  Wellesley,  Baron  Cowley  (1804-1884). 

Karl  Ferdinand,  Count  of  Buol-Schauenstein  (1797-1865). 
Joseph    Alexander    Hafenbredl,    known    as    Freiherr     von     Htibner 
(1811-1892). 

Mohammed  Emin  A(a)li  Pascha  (1815-1871). 
Mehemed  Djemil  Bei  (1825-1872). 

Count  Camillo  Benso  di  Cavour  (1810-1861). 
Salvator  Pes  Marohese  de  Villamarina. 

Alexej  Fedorowitsch,  Count  Orlow  (1797-1861). 
Philipp,  Baron  of  Brunnow  (1797-1875). 

Otto  Theodor,  Freiherr  von  Manteufiel  (1805-1882). 
Maximilian    Friedrich   Karl    Franz,    Count   of   Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg- 
Schonstein  (1813-1859). 

(The  two  last  named  did  not  take  their  seats  in  the  Council  until  the  18th  of  March,  1856.) 

Aug.  Blanchard's  engraving,  from  a  proof-print  of  which  our  reproduction  is  taken,  was 
published  in  1859  by  Goupil  &  Co.,  in  Berlin,  Paris,  and  New  York.  Among  the  publications 
of  this  firm  is  Jentzen's  lithograph  of  1854,  representing  in  full  detail  "  The  Champions  of  the 
Orthodox  Faith  "  (Nicholas  I  and  his  court). 

In  a  lithograph  by  C.  Sohultz,  published  by  Wild,  Count  Walewski  again  appears  in  the 
centre  as  president,  the  other  figures,  from  Bourqueney  to  Clarendon,  being  on  the  left,  and 
from  Villamarina  to  Buol,  on  the  right ;  the  Prussian  representatives  and  the  recorder 
Benedetti  are  missing.  In  a  third  picture  of  this  congress,  the  representatives  of  the  powers 
are  represented  sitting  side  by  side  in  pairs,  while  Benedetti  stands  modestly  in  the  background 
on  the  left. 

Cf.  Edouard  Gourdon,  "Histoire  du  Congr^s  de  Paris  (Paris,  1857). 


VII. 


Sardinia  : 

10. 

11. 

Russia  : 

12. 

13. 

Prussia  : 

14. 

15. 

Cowley 


Bou 


The  Congress 

(From  Augiiste  Blanchard's  copper -plate 


Hiibner 
Manteuffel  Walewski 


Djemil  Benedetti 


Clarendon 


Brunnow  Hatzfeldt 

Aali  Villamarin 


aris  in   1856. 

iving  after  Edouard  Dubufe's  Picture.) 


S^rirLtpf]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  247 

da  via  recovered  that  part  of  Bessarabia  -which  had  been  taken  from  her  by  Eussia, 
and  in  this  way  the  latter  power  was  pushed  back  from  the  Danube.  In  Asia 
Minor  the  action  of  France  and  England  restored  the  frontier  to  the  status  quo 
ante. 

Thus  the  jealousy  and  the  mutual  distrust  of  the  Christian  empires  and  nations 
of  Europe,  together  with  their  fear  of  self-aggrandisement  on  the  part  of  any  one 
power,  had  induced  them  to  take  under  their  special  protection  and  to  prolong  the 
existence  of  a  State  founded  on  rapine  and  incapable  of  fulfilling  its  duties  either 
to  its  Christian  or  to  its  Mussulman  subjects.  Henceforward  Turkey  could  be 
nothing  more  than  an  obstacle  to  the  natural  development  of  these  peoples,  and  to 
the  ultimate  decision  of  the  destiny  of  the  Balkan  States. 

B.  The  Downfall  of  Austria  in  Italy 

(a)  The  Domestic  Policy  of  liapoleon  III. — ^For  a  short  time  Napoleon  III 
had  undertaken  to  play  the  part  of  a  second  Metternich.  He  concealed  his  actual 
position  and  succeeded  in  inspiring  Europe  with  a  wholly  unfounded  belief  in  the 
strength  of  his  country  and  himself.  The  world's  exhibition  of  1855,  and  the 
congress  which  immediately  followed,  had  restored  Paris  to  her  former  prestige  as 
the  centre  of  Europe.  Pilgrims  flocked  to  the  city  of  pleasure  and  good  taste,  upon 
the  adornment  of  which  the  prefect  of  the  Seine,  G-eorges  Eugdne  Haussmann,  was 
permitted  to  expend  a  hundred  millions  of  francs  per  annum.  The  sound  govern- 
mental principle  laid  down  by  the  first  ISTapoleon,  of  keeping  the  fourth  estate 
contented  by  high  wages,  and  thus  securing  its  good  behaviour  and  silent  approval 
of  an  absolute  monarchy,  was  followed  with  entire  success  for  the  moment  in  the 
"  restored  "  empire  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  408).  However,  Napoleon  III,  like  Metter- 
nich, was  penetrated  with  the  conviction  that  the  ruler  must  of  necessity  be  abso- 
lute. His  greatest  mistake  consisted  in  the  fact  that  he  refrained  from  giving  a 
material  content  to  the  constitutional  forms  under  which  his  government  was 
established.  By  this  means  he  might  have  united  to  himself  that  section  of  the 
population  which  is  not  subject  to  the  influence  of  caprice,  and  values  the  recog- 
nition of  its  modest  but  actual  rights,  however  scanty  in  number,  more  highly  than 
the  Jesuitical  bombast  about  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  by  which  nations  are 
too  often  befooled.  The  "  legislative  body  "  should  have  been  made  representative, 
and  should  have  been  given  control  of  the  finances  and  right  of  initiating  legisla- 
tive proposals.  Such  a  change  would  have  been  far  more  profitable  to  the  heir 
who  was  born  to  the  emperor  on  March  16,  1856,  than  the  illusory  refinements 
which  gained  the  second  empire  the  exaggerated  approbation  of  all  the  useless 
•epicures  in  existence. 

(6)  The  Relations  of  France  to  Russia  and  Austria,  Prussia  and  England.  — 
Eussia  seemed  to  have  been  reduced  to  impotency  for  a  long  time  to  come,  and 
her  power  to  be_  now  inferior  to  that  of  Turkey.  She  proceeded  to  accommodate 
herself  to  the  changed  conditions.  Alexander  II  assured  his  subjects  that  the  war 
begun  by  his  father  had  improved  and  secured  the  position  of  Christianity  in  the 
East,  and  proceeded  with  magnificent  dispassionateness  to  make  overtures  to  the 
French  ruler,  who  had  just  given  him  so  severe  a  lesson.  The  Eussian  politicians 
were  correct  in  their  opinion  that  Napoleon  was  relieved  to  have  come  so  well  out 


248  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Icha^terir 

of  his  enterprises  in  the  East,  and  that  they  need  fear  no  immediate  disturbance 
from  that  quarter.  Napoleon  III  showed  himself  worthy  of  this  confidence.  He 
met  Russia  half  way,  respected  her  desires  whenever  he  could  do  so,  and  received  a 
tacit  assurance  that  Russia  would  place  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  designs  against 
any  other  power.  Though  Austria  had  not  fired  a  shot  against  the  Prussian  troops, 
•  she  proved  far  less  accommodating  than  France,  whose  troops  had  triumphantly 
entered  Sebastopol.  Austria  had  declined  to  repay  the  help  given  her  in  Hun- 
gary; she  had  also  appeared  as  a  rival  in  the  Balkans,  and  had  only  been  restrained 
by  Prussia  from  dealing  Russia  a  fatal  blow.  Thus  Austria's  weakness  would 
imply  Russia's  strength,  and  would  enable  her  the  more  easily  to  pursue  her 
Eastern  policy. 

Prussia  had  fallen  so  low  that  no  interference  was  to  be  feared  from  her  in  the 
event  of  any  great  European  complication,  though  there  was  no  immediate  appre- 
hension of  any  such  difficulty.  In  a  fit  of  mental  weakness  which  foreshadowed 
his  ultimate  collapse,  Frederic  William  IV  had  concentrated  his  thoughts  upon 
the  possibility  of  recovering  his  principality  of  Neuenberg.  Success  was  denied 
him.  After  the  ill-timed  attempt  at  revolution,  set  on  foot  by  the  Prussian  party 
in  that  province  on  September  3,  1856,  he  was  forced  to  renounce  definitely  all 
claim  to  the  province  on  May  26,  1857.  The  fact  that  the  principality  was  of  no 
value  to  Prussia  did  not  remove  the  impression  that  the  German  State  had  again 
suffered  a  defeat.  Napoleon  was  one  of  the  few  statesmen  who  estimated  the 
power  of  Prussia  at  a  higher  rate  than  did  the  majority  of  his  contemporaries ;  in 
a  conversation  with  Bismarck  in  March,  1857,  he  had  already  secured  Prussia's  neu- 
trality in  the  event  of  a  war  in  Italy,  and  had  brought  forward  proposals  of  more 
importance  than  the  programme  of  the  union.  With  the  incorporation  of  Hanover 
and  Holstein  a  northern  sea  power  was  to  be  founded  strong  enough,  in  alliance 
with  France,  to  oppose  England.  All  that  he  asked  in  return  was  a  "small  de- 
limitation "  of  the  Rhine  frontier ;  this,  naturally,  was  not  to  affect  the  left  bank, 
the  possession  of  which  would  oblige  France  to  extend  her  territory  and  would 
rouse  a  new  coalition  against  her.  Bismarck  declined  to  consider  any  further  pro- 
jects in  this  direction,  and  sought  to  extract  an  undertaking  from  the  emperor,  that 
Prussia  should  not  be  involved  in  any  great  political  combination.  England's  re- 
sources were  strained  to  the  utmost  in  Persia,  India,  and  Chin"  and  she  needed 
not  only  the  goodwill  but  the  friendly  offices  of  France.  For  these  reasons  the 
Tory  ministry,  which  came  into  power  in  1858  upon  the  fall  of  Palmerston,  could 
not  venture  to  disturb  the  good  understanding  with  Napoleon,  however  strongly 
inclined  to  this  course. 

(c)  The  Eealisation  of  the  National  Idea.  —  Napoleon  was  thus  free  to  con- 
front the  apparently  feasible  task  of  increasing  his  iafluence  in  Europe  and  concili- 
ating the  goodwill  of  his  subjects  to  the  empire.  It  was  now  necessary  to  apply 
the  second  fundamental  principle  of  the  Bonapartist  rulers,  to  avoid  any  thorough 
investigation  of  internal  difficulties  by  turning  attention  to  foreign  affairs,  by 
assuming  a  commanding  position  among  the  great  powers,  and  by  acquiring 
military  fame  when  possible.  Polignac  had  already  made  a  similar  attempt 
(p.  138).  He  had  failed  through  want  of  adroitness  ;  the  capture  of  Algiers  came 
too  late  to  prevent  the  July  revolution.  Napoleon  did  not  propose  to  fail  thus,  and 
for  once,  at  least,  his  attempt  proved  successful.     Naturally  the  methods  by  which 


Political  and  Social' 
Changes  in  Europe 


']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  249 


ministers  had  begun  war  under  the  "  old  regime  "  were  impossible  for  a  popular 
emperor.  Moreover,  Napoleon  III  was  no  soldier ;  he  could  not  merely  wave  his 
sword,  like  his  great  uncle,  and  announce  to  Europe  that  this  or  that  dynasty- 
must  be  deposed.  Principles  must  be  followed  out,  modern  ideas  must  be  made 
triumphant ;  at  the  least,  the  subject  nation  must  be  made  to  believe  that  the  indi- 
vidual was  merely  the  implement  of  the  great  forces  of  activity  latent  in  peoples. 
He  had  turned  constitutionalism  to  excellent  account ;  the  struggles  of  the  liberal 
party  to  obtain  a  share  in  the  government  had  ended  by  raising  him  to  the  throne. 
Another  idea  with  which  modern  Europe  was  fuUy  penetrated,  that  of  nationality, 
might  now  be  exploited  by  an  adroit  statesman.  Napoleon  neither  exaggerated 
nor  underestimated  its  potency  ;  only  he  had  not  realised  how  deeply  it  was  rooted 
ia  the  hearts  of  the  people.  He  knew  that.it  was  constantly  founded  upon  folly 
and  presumption,  and  that  the  participation  of  the  people  in  the  task  of  solving 
State  problems  fostered  the  theory  that  the  concentration  of  the  national  strength 
was  ever  a  more  important  matter  than  the  maiutenance  of  the  State ;  hence  he 
inferred  the  value  of  the  national  idea  as  a  means  of  opening  the  struggle  against 
existing  political  institutions.  But  of  its  moral  power  he  had  no  conception  ;  he 
never  imagined  that,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  it  would  become  a  constructive  force 
capable  of  bending  statecraft  to  its  will.  Here  lay  the  cause  of  his  tragic  down- 
fall :  he  was  like  the  apprentice  of  some  political  magician,  unable  to  dismiss  the 
spirits  whom  he  had  evoked  when  they  became  dangerous. 

His  gaze  had  long  been  directed  toward  Italy ;  the  dreams  of  his  youth  re- 
turned upon  him  in  new  guise  and  lured  him  to  make  that  country  the  scene  of 
his  exploits.  It  was,  however,  in  the  East,  which  had  already  proved  so  favourable 
to  Napoleon's  enterprises,  that  he  was  to  make  his  first  attempt  to  introduce  the 
.  priaciple  of  nationality  into  the  concert  of  Europe.  Turkey  was  forced  to  recog- 
nise the  rights  of  the  Eoumanian  nation,  of  which  she  had  hardly  so  much  as 
heard  when  the  question  arose  of  the  regulation  of  the  government  in  the  Danube 
principalities.  She  could  offer  no  opposition  when  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  each 
of  which  could  elect  a  hospodar  tributary  to  the  Sultan,  united  in  their  choice  of 
one  and  the  same  personality,  the  colonel  Alexander  Johann  Cusa,  and  appointed 
Mm  their  prince  at  the  outset  of  1859  (January  29  and  February  17). 

By  this  date  a  new  rising  of  the  kingdom  of  Sardinia  against  Austria  had 
already  been  arranged  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  the  foreign  government  in 
Italy.  The  victorious  progress  of  the  national  idea  in  the  Danube  principalities, 
which  not  only  destroyed  Austria's  hopes  of  extending  her  territory  on  the  Black 
Sea,  but  also  became  a  permanent  cause  of  disturbance  in  her  Eastern  possessions, 
was  now  to  justify  its  application  in  Italy.  The  attentat  of  the  Italian  Felice, 
Count  Orsini,  and  his  three  associates,  who  threw  bombs  at  the  imperial  couple  in 
Paris  on  January  14, 1858,  wounding  both  of  them  and  one  hundred  and  forty-one 
others,  is  said  to  have  materially  contributed  to  determine  Napoleon's  decision  for 
the  Italian  war:  He  was  intimidated  by  the  weapons  which  the  nationalist  and 
radical  party  now  began  to  employ,  for  Orsini  in  the  very  face  of  death  appealed 
to  him  to  help  his  oppressed  fatherland,  and  it  became  manifest  that  this  outrage 
was  merely  the  expression  of  national  excitement. 

A  similar  state  of  tension  existed  in  the  Sardinian  State,  its  dynasty,  and  its 
leader.  Count  CamiUo  Cavour  (p.  171),  who  had  been  the  prime  minister  of  King 
Victor  Emanuel  since  November  4,  1852.    At  first  of  moderate  views,  he  had 


250  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [chapter  n 

joined  the  liberals  under  Urbano  Eattazzi  and  Giovanni  Lanza,  and  had  entered 
into  relations  with  the  revolutionary  party  throughout  the  peninsula.  He  had 
succeeded  in  inspiring  their  leaders  with  the  conviction  that  the  movement  for 
Italian  unity  must  proceed  from  Piedmont.  Vincenzo  Gioberti,  Daniele  Manin 
(pp.  192  and  197),  and  Giuseppe  Garibaldi  adopted  Gavour's  programme,  and  pro- 
mised support  if  he  would  organise  a  new  rising  against  Austria.  Cavour,  with 
the  king's  entire  approval,  now  made  this  rising  his  primary  object ;  he  was  con- 
fident that  Napoleon  would  not  permit  Austria  to  aggrandise  herself  by  reducing 
Italy  a  second  time.  The  Austrian  government  played  into  his  hands  by  declining 
to  continue  the  arrangements  for  introducing  an  entirely  autonomous  and  national 
form  of  administration  into  Lombardy  and  Venice,  and  by  the  severity  with  which 
the  aristocratic  participants  in  the  Milan  revolt  of  February  6,1853,  were  pmi- 
ished.  Sardinia  sheltered  the  fugitives,  raised  them  to  honourable  positions,  and 
used  every  means  to  provoke  a  breach  with  Austria.  The  schemes  of  the  House  of 
Savoy  and  its  adherents  were  discovered  by  the  Viennese  government,  but  too  late ; 
they  were  too  late  in  recognising  that  Lombardy  and  Venice  must  be  reconciled  to 
the  Austrian  supremacy,  by  relaxing  the  severity  of  the  military  occupation.  Too 
late,  again,  was  the  archduke  Maximilian,  the  enlightened  and  popular  brother  of 
the  emperor,  despatched  as  viceroy  to  MUan,  to  concentrate  and  strengthen  the 
Austrian  party.  Cavour  gave  the  Lombards  no  rest;  by  means  of  the  national 
union  he  spread  the  fire  throughout  Italy,  and  continually  incited  the  press  against 
Austria.  The  Austrian  government  was  soon  forced  to  recall  its  ambassador  from 
Turin,  and  Piedmont  at  once  made  the  counter  move. 

(d)  The  War  of  1859.  — In  July,  1858,  Napoleon  came  to  an  agreement  with 
Cavour  at  Plombiferes ;  France  was  to  receive  Savoy  if  Sardinia  acquired  Lom- 
bardy and  Venice,  while  the  county  of  Nizza  was  to  be  the  price  of  the  annexation 
of  Parma  and  Modena.  The  House  of  Savoy  thus  sacrificed  its  ancestral  territories 
to  gain  the  paramountcy  in  Italy.  The  term  "  Italy  "  then  implied  a  federal  State 
which  might  include  the  Pope,  the  gi-and  duke  of  Tuscany,  and  the  king  of 
Naples.  Sardinia  at  once  began  the  task  of  mobilisation,  for  which  preparation 
had  been  already  made  by  the  construction  of  two  hundred  and.  fifty  miles  of  rail- 
way liaes.  On  January  1,  1859,  at  the  reception  on  New  Year's  day.  Napoleon 
plainly  announced  to  the  Austrian  ambassador,  Freiherr  von  Htibner,  his  intention 
•of  helping  the  Italian  cause.  On  January  17  the  community  of  interests  between 
France  and  Sardinia  was  reaffirmed  by  the  engagement  of  Prince  Joseph  Napoleon 
(Plon-Plon),  son  of  Jerome  of  Westphalia,  to  Clotilde,  the  daughter  of  Victor 
Emanuel.  Even  then  the  war  might  have  been  avoided  had  Austria  accepted 
England's  intervention  and  the  condition  of  mutual  disarmament.  Napoleon  dared 
not  provoke  England,  and  informed  Cavour  on  April  20  that  it  was  advisable  to 
fall  in  with  England's  proposals.  But  the  cabinet  of  Vienna  had  in  the  meantime 
been  so  ill  advised  as  to  send  an  ultimatum  to  Sardinia  threatening  an  invasion 
within  thirty  days,  if  Sardinia  did  not  forthwith  and  unconditionally  promise  to 
disarm.  This  action  was  the  more  ill-timed,  as  Austria  was  herself  by  no  means 
prepared  to  throw  the  whole  of  her  forces  into  Italy.  By  accepting  English  inter- 
vention Cavour  evaded  the  necessity  of  replying  to  the  ultimatum.  France 
declared  that  the  crossing  of  the  Ticino  by  the  Austrians  would  be  regarded  as  a 
casios  belli.     The  crossing  was  none  the  less  effected  on  April  30,  1859. 


^c^ZiinBt^']       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  251 

The  war  which  then  began  brought  no  special  honour  to  any  of  the  combat- 
ants, though  it  materially  altered  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe.  In  the  first 
place,  the  Austrian  army  showed  itself  entirely  unequal  to  the  performance  of  its 
new  tasks ;  in  respect  of  equipment  it  was  far  behind  the  times,  and  much  of  its 
innate  capacity  had  disappeared  since  the  campaigns  of  1848  and  1849  ;  leader- 
ship and  administrative  energy  were  alike  sadly  to  seek.  Half-trained  and  often 
wholly  uneducated  of&cers  were  placed  in  highly  responsible  positions.  High  birth, 
irrespective  of  capacity,  was  a  passport  to  promotion ;  a  fine  presence  and  a  kind 
of  dandified  indifference  to  knowledge  and  experience  were  more  esteemed  than 
any  military  virtues.  There  was  loud  clashing  of  weapons,  but  general  ignorance 
as  to  their  proper  use.  The  general  staff  was  m  an  unusually  benighted  condition ; 
there  were  few  competent  men  available,  and  these  had  no  chance  of  employment, 
imless  they  belonged  to  one  of  the  groups  and  coteries  which  made  the  distribution 
of  offices  their  special  business.  At  the  end  of  April,  1859,  the  army  in  Italy 
amounted  to  little  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  men,  although  Austria  was 
said  to  have  at  command  five  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  iufantry,  sixty  thou- 
sand cavalry,  and  fifteen  hundred  guns.  The  commander-in-chief.  Count  Franz 
Gyulay,  was  an  honourable  and  faiiiy  competent  officer,  but  no  general.  His 
chief  of  the  staff.  Colonel  Franz  Kuhn,  Freiherr  von  Kuhnenfeld,  had  been  sent  to 
the  seat  of  war  from  his  professional  chair  in  the  military  academy,  and  while  he 
displayed  the  highest  ingenuity  in  the  iavention  of  combinations,  was  unable  to 
formulate  or  execute  any  definite  plan  of  campaign. 

With  his  one  hundred  thousand  troops  Gyulay  might  easily  have  overpowered 
the  seventy  thousand  Piedmontese  and  Italian  volunteers  who  had  concentrated  on 
the  Po.  The  retreat  from  that  position  could  hardly  have  been  prevented  even 
by  the  French  generals  and  a  division  of  French  troops,  which  had  arrived  at  Turia 
on  April  26,  1859  ;  however,  the  Austrian  leaders  were  apprehensive  of  being  out- 
flanked on  the  Po  by  a  disembarkation  of  the  French  troops  at  Genoa.  Gyulay 
remained  for  a  month  in  purposeless  inaction  in  the  Lomellina,  the  district  between 
Ticiao  and  Sesia  ;  it  was  not  until  May  23  that  he  ventured  upon  a  reconnaissance 
to  Montebello,  which  produced  no  practical  result.  The  conflict  at  Palestro  on 
May  30  deceived  him  as  to  Napoleon's  real  object;  the  latter  was  following  the 
suggestions  of  General  Adolphe  N"iel,  and  had  resolved  to  march  round  the  Aus- 
trian right  wing.  Garibaldi  with  three  or  four  thousand  ill-armed  guerilla  troops 
had  crossed  the  Ticino  at  the  south  of  Lake  Maggiore.  This  route  was  followed 
by  a  division  under  General  Marie  Edme  Patrice  Maurice  de  MacMahon,  and  Niel 
reached  Novara  on  the  day  of  Palestro  and  proceeded  to  threaten  Gyulay's  line  of 
retreat,  who  accordingly  retired  behind  the  Ticino  on  June  1.  He  had  learned 
nothing  of  MacMahon's  movement  on  his  left,  and  thought  his  right  wing  suf- 
ficiently covered  by  the  division  of  Count  Edward  of  Clam-Gallas,  who  was  ad- 
vancing from  the  Tyrol.  The  battle  on  the  Naviglio  followed  on  June  3,  and 
Gyulay  maintained  his  position  with  fifty  thousand  men  against  the  fifty-eight 
thousand  under  the  immediate  command  of  the  emperor  Napoleon  in  person. 

MacMahon  had  crossed  the  Ticino  at  Turbigo,  driven  back  Clam-Gallas,  and 
found  himself  by  evening  on  the  Austrian  left  fiank  at  Magenta  (June  4,  1859). 
Unable  to  rely  on  his  subordinates  for  a  continuance  of  the  struggle,  Gyulay  aban- 
doned his  position  on  the  following  day,  evacuated  Milan,  and  led  his  army  to  the 
Mincio.    At  this  point  the  emperor  Franz  Joseph  assumed  the  command  in  per- 


252  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  {Chapter  ii 

son ;  reinforcements  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand  troops  had 
arrived,  together  with  reserve  and  occupation  troops  amounting  to  one  hundred 
thousand  men.  With  these  the  emperor  determined  to  advance  again  to  the  Chiese 
on  the  advice  of  General  Wilhelm,  Freiherr  Eamming  von  Eiedkirchen,  who  pre- 
sided over  the  counciL  of  war  in  association  with  the  old  quartermaster-general 
Heinrich,  Freiherr  von  Hess.  On  June  24  they  encountered  the  enemy  advancing 
in  five  columns  upon  the  Mincio,  and  to  the  surprise  of  the  combatants  the  battle 
of  Solferino  was  begun,  one  of  the  bloodiest  conflicts  of  the  century,  which  ended 
in  the  retreat  of  the  Austrians,  notwithstanding  the  victory  of  Lieutenant  Field- 
Marshal  Ludwig  von  Benedek  over  the  Piedmontese  on  the  rignt  wing.  Three 
hundred  thousand  men  with  nearly  eight  hundred  guns  were  opposed  on  that  day, 
and  rarely  have  such  large  masses  of  troops  been  handled  in  an  important  battle 
with  so  little  intelligence  or  generalship.  The  French  had  no  definite  plan  of 
action,  and  might  have  been  defeated  without  great  difficulty  had  the  Austrian 
leaders  been  able  to  avoid  a  similar  series  of  blunders.  The  losses  were  very 
heavy  on  either  side.  Twelve  thousand  Austrians  and  nearly  seventeen  thousand 
allies  were  killed  or  wounded ;  on  the  other  hand,  nine  thousand  Austrian  prisoners 
were  taken  as  against  twelve  hundred  Italians. 

The  emperor  Napoleon  had  not  yet  brought  the  campaign  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion; his  weakened  army  was  now  confronted  by  the  "  quadrilateral "  formed 
by  the  fortresses  of  Peschiera,  Mantua,  Verona,  Legnago,  which  was  covered  by 
two  hundred  thousand  Austrians.  Moreover,  Austria  could  despatch  reinforce- 
ments more  rapidly  and  in  greater  numbers  than  France.  Austrian  sympathies 
were  also  very  powerful  in  South  Germany,  and  exerted  so  strong  a  pressure  upon 
the  German  federation  and  on  Prussia,  that  a  movement  might  be  expected  at 
any  moment  from  that  direction.  Frederic  William  IV  had  retired  from  the 
government  since  October,  1857,  in  consequence  of  an  affection  of  the  brain; 
since  October  7,  1858,  his  brother  William  had  governed  Prussia  as  prince-regent. 
He  had  too  much  sympathy  with  the  Austrian  dynasty  and  too  much  respect 
for  the  fidelity  of  the  German  federal  princes  to  attempt  to  make  capital  out  of 
his  neighbour's  misfortunes ;  he  had  even  transferred  Herr  von  Bismarck  from 
Frankfiut  to  St.  Petersburg,  to  remove  the  influence  upon  %e  federation  of  one 
wlio  was  an  avowed  opponent  of  Austrian  paramountcy.  But  he  awaited  some 
definite  proposal  from  the  Vienna  government.  Six  army  corps  were  in  readiness 
to  advance  upon  the  Pthine  on  receipt  of  the  order  for  mobilisation.  The  emperor 
Franz  Joseph  sent  Prince  Windisch-Graetz  to  Berlin,  to  call  on  Prussia  for  help  as 
a  member  of  the  federation,  although  the  terms  of  the  federal  agreement  did  not 
apply  to  the  Lombard-Venetian  kingdom ;  but  he  could  not  persuade  himself  to 
grant  Prussia  the  leadership  of  the  narrower  union,  or  even  to  permit  the  founda- 
tion of  a  North  German  union.  A  politician  of  the  school  of  Felix  Schwarzen- 
berg  was  not  likely  to  formulate  a  practicable  compromise.  Austria  thus  threw 
away  her  chance  of  defeating  France  and  Bonapartism  with  the  help  of  her  German 
brethren,  and  of  remaining  a  permanent  and  honoured  member  of  the  federation 
which  had  endured  a  thousand  years,  merely  because  she  declined  an  even  smaller 
sacrifice  than  was  demanded  in  1866. 

During  the  progress  of  these  federal  negotiations  at  Berlin  the  combatants  had 
themselves  been  occupied  in  bringing  the  war  to  a  conclusion.  The  emperor 
Napoleon  was  well  aware  that  the  temper  of  the  federation  was  highly  dangerous 


?Sir^f^:']        HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  253 

to  himself,  and  that  Englancl  and  Prussia  would  approach  him  with  offers  of  inter- 
vention. He  therefore  seized  the  opportunity  of  extricating  himself  by  proffering 
an  armistice  and  a  provisional  peace  to  the  emperor  Franz  Joseph.  After  two 
victories  his  action  bore  the  appearance  of  extreme  moderation.  Austria  was  to 
cede  Lombardy  to  France,  the  province  then  to  become  Sardinian  territory ;  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  and  the  Duke  of  Modena  were  to  be  permitted  to  return 
to  their  States,  but  were  to  be  left  to  arrange  their  governments  for  themselves, 
without  the  interference  of  either  of  the  powers ;  Austria  was  to  permit  the  foun- 
dation of  an  Italian  federation ;  the  desire  of  the  emperor  Franz  Joseph  to  retain 
Peschiera  and  Mantua  was  granted.  On  these  terms  the  armistice  was  concluded 
on  July  8,  and  the  provisional  peace  of  Villafranca  on  July  11.  The  official 
account  of  the  war  of  1859  by  the  Austrian  general  staff  attempts  to  account  for 
the  emperor's  conclusion  of  peace  on  military  grounds,  emphasising  the  difficulty 
of  continuing  hostilities  and  the  impossibility  of  placing  an  army  on  the  Upper 
Ehiue,  in  accordance  with  the  probable  demands  of  the  federation.  This  is  an 
entirely  superficial  view  of  the  question.  Had  Prussia  declared  war  on  France  on 
the  ground  of  her  agreement  with  Austria,  without  consulting  the  federation,  and 
sent  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  within  a  month  from  the  Ehine  to  the 
French  frontier,  the  anxieties  of  the  Austrian  army  in  Italy  would  have  been 
entirely  relieved.  Napoleon  would  certainly  have  left  Verona  if  the  Prussians 
had  been  marching  on  Paris  by  routes  perfectly  well  known  to  him. 

Count  Cavour  resigned  on  learning  the  conditions  of  peace,  and  expressed  his 
fear  that  the  liberation  of  Italy  "  as  far  as  Adria  "  had  been  uidefinitely  postponed. 
Victor  Emanuel  calmly  appended  his  signature  to  the  peace.  He  had  seen  too 
much  of  Napoleon  III,  his  cousin  by  marriage,  to  desire  any  permanent  military 
association  with  him.  He  was  a  better  officer  than  Louis,  and  had  convinced  him- 
self that  the  nephew  had  inherited  nothing  of  his  uncle's  military  genius.  His 
incapacity  was  likely  to  cause  many  mistakes  unavoidable  on  his  part.  Bismarck 
had  passed  an  anxious  time  in  St.  Petersburg,  fearing  lest  "  Prussia  would  gradu- 
ally be  drawn  into  the  wake  of  Austrian  policy,"  and  was  greatly  relieved  when 
Austria  spared  Prussia  the  necessity  of  a  declaration  of  war.  To  his  far-sighted 
eye  the  possibility  revived  of  "  healing  the  breach  in  Prussia's  relations  with  the 
federation  ferro  et  igni  (by  sword  and  fire),"  a  remedy  which  he  had  already  pre- 
dicted in  his  memorable  note  to  the  minister  of  foreign  affairs.  Count  Alexander 
von  Schletnitz,  on  May  12,  1859. 

In  the  general  course  of  history,  the  Italian  war  of  1859  is  an  episode  of 
no  particular  account.  The  conditions  which  it  brought  about  were  materially 
changed  by  November  11,  when  the  peace  of  Zurich  was  concluded.  Sardinia 
herself  had  refused  to  join  the  Italian  federation.  The  "Emilian  provinces," 
Eomagna,  Parma,  and  Modena,  together  with  the  grand  duchy  of  Tuscany,  were 
under  a  government  created  by  the  independent  party,  and  ready  for  incorpora- 
tion with  the  kingdom  of  the  House  of  Savoy.  On  January  20,  1860,  Cavour 
reappeared  as  prime  minister.  Full  preparation  was  thus  made  for  the  victory  of 
the  national  idea  in  Italy ;  the  decision  as  to  the  ultimate  form  of  the  German 
body  politic  was  only  temporarily  postponed. 

Another  and  yet  more  important  question  had,  however,  been  decided,  —  the 
problem  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  reactionism.     Scarce  ten  years  had  passed 


254  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  Ichapterii 

since  Felix  Schwarzenberg  turned  the  Austrian  State  from  its  natural  path  of 
development,  refused  to  show  any  consideration  for  national  rights,  and  attempted 
to  replace  the  counsel  of  the  nation's  representatives  by  the  insinuations  of  Jesuits. 
Already  proof  had  been  given  that  not  thus  can  States  rise  to  power.  The  Austria 
which  in  1849  had  renewed  its  youth  and  justified  its  existence  to  an  astonished 
world,  had  relapsed  into  impotency  and  disgrace.  The  help  of  heaven,  through 
heaven's  self-styled  representative,  the  Pope  of  Eome,  had  been  withheld,  and 
must  be  sought  through  the  strength  of  the  nations  which  declared  themselves 
of  age  to  act  in  their  own  behalf. 


z%^f^»™i]        HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  255 


III 

THE  UNIFICATION  OF  ITALY  AND  GEEMANY 

(1859-1866) 

Br  DR.   HEINRICH   FRIEDJUNG 


1.  PEELIMINAEY   EEMAEKS 

THE  greatest  political  event  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  the  simultaneous 
establishment  of  the  national  unity  of  the  German  and  Italian  peoples. 
The  aspect  of  Europe  was  more  permanently  changed  by  this  than  by 
any  event  since  the  creation  of  an  empire  by  Charles  the  Great.  The 
feeling  of  nationality  is  as  old  as  the  nations  themselves,  and  the  history  of  the 
two  nations  with  their  divisions  and  subdivisions  records  in  almost  every  genera- 
tion proud  exhortations  or  plaintive  appeals  to  assert  their  imity  by  force  of  arms. 
From  Dante  and  Petrarch,  from  Machiavelli  and  Julius  II  ("  out  with  the  barba- 
rians from  Italy ! "),  down  to  Alfieri  and  Ugo  Foscolo,  the  line  is  almost  unbroken. 
The  Germans  show  the  same  sequence.  But  the  appeals  of  the  writers  of  the  Ger- 
man Eenaissance,  from  Hutten  to  Puffendorf  and  Klopstock,  never  had  such  a  pas- 
sionate ring,  since  the  nation,  even  when  most  divided,  was  always  strong  enough 
to  ward  off  the  foreign  yoke.  At  last  the  intellectual  activity  of  the  eighteenth 
century  raised  the  spirit  of  nationality,  and  the  German  people  became  conscious 
that  its  branches  were  closely  connected.  The  intellectual  culture  of  the  Germans 
would,  as  David  Strauss  says  in  a  letter  to  Ernest  Eenan,  have  remained  an 
empty  shell,  if  it  had  not  finally  produced  the  national  state.  We  must  carefully 
notice  that  the  supporters  of  the  movement  for  unification  both  in  Germany  and 
Italy  were  drawn  exclusively  from  the  educated  classes;  but  their  eiforts  were 
powerfully  supported  by  the  establishment  and  expansion  of  foreign  trade,  and  by 
the  construction  of  roads  and  railways,  since  the  separate  elements  of  the  nation 
were  thus  brought  closer  together.  The  scholar  and  the  author  were  joined  by 
the  manufacturer,  who  produced  goods  for  a  market  outside  his  own  small  country, 
and  by  the  merchant,  who  was  cramped  by  custom-house  restrictions.  Civil  ser- 
vants and  military  men  did  not  respond  to  that  appeal  until  much  later.  The 
majority  of  the  prominent  officials  and  officers  in  Germany  long  remained  particu- 
larists,  until  Prussia  declared  for  the  unity  of  the  nation. 

In  Italy  the  course  of  affairs  was  somewhat  different.  There  the  generals  and 
officers  of  the  Italian  army  created  by  Napoleon  were  from  the  first  filled  with  the 
conviction  that  a  strong  political  will  was  most  important  for  the  training  of  their 
people;  the  revolution  of  1821  (see  p.  118)  was  greatly  due  to  them.  Similarly 
the  officers  of  the  smaller  Italian  armies  between  1859  and  1861  joined  in  large 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD         ichapter  iii 

numbers  the  side  of  King  Victor  Emmanuel.  The  movement  reached  the  masses 
last  of  all.  But  they,  even  at  the  present  day  in  Italy,  are  indifferent  towards  the 
new  regime  ;  while  in  South  Germany  and.  Hanover,  and  occasionally  even  on  the 
Ehiue,  they  are  still  keenly  alive  to  their  own  interests.  When  Garibaldi  marched 
against  the  army  of  the  king  of  Naples,  the  soldiers  of  the  latter  were  ready  and 
willing  to  strike  for  his  cause,  and  felt  themselves  betrayed  by  generals  and  offi- 
cers. It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  Neapolitan  Bourbons  had  no  inconsiderable 
following  among  the  lower  classes.  The  Catholic  clergy  of  Italy  were  divided ; 
the  leaders  supported  the  old  regime,  while  the  inferior  clergy  favoured  the  move- 
ment. The  mendicant  friars  of  Sicily  were  enthusiastic  for  Garibaldi,  and  the 
Neapolitan  general  Bosco,  when  he  marched  against  the  patriot  leader,  was  forced 
to  warn  his  soldiers  in  a  general  order  not  to  allow  themselves  at  confession  to  be 
shaken  in  their  loyalty  to  their  king.  Pius  IX  endured  the  mortification  of  see- 
ing that  in  1862  no  less  than  8,493  priests  signed  a  petition  praying  him  to  place 
no  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  unification  of  Italy. 

It  was  from  Germany,  the  mother  of  so  many  ideas,  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  the  modern  movement,  of  which  the  watchword  is  national  and 
political  unity,  took  its  start.  But  the  impulse  was  not  given  by  the  current  of 
internal  development ;  it  came  from  outside,  through  the  tyranny  of  Napoleon. 
The  nation  recognised  that  it  could  only  attain  independence  by  union,  and  keep  it 
by  unity.  The  conception  of  emperor  and  empire  found  its  most  powerful  advocate 
in  Baron  vom  Stein.  But  he  and  his  friends,  as  was  natural,  considered  the  over- 
throw of  the  foreign  tyranny  more  important  at  first  than  formal  unity.  In  his 
memorial  addressed  to  the  Czar  in  1812  he  pointed  out  how  desirable  it  was  that 
Germany,  since  the  old  monarchy  of  the  Ottos  and  the  Hohenstauffen  could  not 
be  revived,  should  be  divided  between  the  two  great  powers,  Prussia  and  Austria, 
on  a  line  corresponding  to  the  course  of  the  Main.  He  would,  however,  have 
regarded  this  solution  only  as  an  expedient  required  by  existing  circumstances. 
"  I  have  only  one  fatherland,"  he  wrote  to  Count  Miinster  at  London  on  December 
1, 1812,  —  "  that  is  called  Germany ;  and  since  I,  according  to  the  old  constitution, 
belong  to  it  and  to  no  particular  part  of  it,  I  am  devoted,  heart  and  soul,  to  it 
alone,  and  not  to  one  particular  part  of  it.  At  this  mMpent  of  great  develop- 
ments the  dynasties  are  a  matter  of  absolute  indifference  to  me.  They  are  merely 
instruments."  Stein's  efforts  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  where  he  vainly  stood  out 
for  the  emperor  and  the  imperial  diet,  remained  as  noble  examples  to  the  next  gen- 
eration. The  thought  of  nationality  radiated  from  Germany,  where  Arndt,  Uhland, 
Korner,  and  Ruckert  had  written  in  its  spirit.  But  Napoleon  had  roused  also  the 
Italians  and  the  Poles,  the  former  by  uniting  at  least  Central  and  Upper  Italy 
(with  the  exception  of  Piedmont)  into  the  Kingdom  of  Italy ;  the  latter  by  hold- 
ing out  to  them  the  bait  of  a  restored  constitution.  It  is  significant  that  the  first 
summons  to  unity  was  uttered  by  Murat,  who,  when  he  marched  against  the  Aus- 
trians  in  1815,  wished  to  win  the  nation  for  himself,  and  employed  Professor  de 
Rossi  of  Bologna,  who  was  murdered  in  1848  when  a  liberal  minister  of  the  Pope 
(p.  217),  to  compose  a  proclamation  embodying  the  principle  of  Italian  unity. 
The  peoples  of  the  Austrian  monarchy  were  subsequently  roused  by  Germany  to 
similar  efforts. 

There  was  this  distinction  between  Germany  and  Italy :   in  the  former  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  had  served  to  keep  alive  the  tradition  of  unity,  whUe  in  Italy 


Kf-ttat]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  257 

no  political  unity  had  existed  since  Eoman  times.  In  Italy  the  movement  towards 
unity  had  no  historical  foundation,  and  the  "municipal  spirit"  was  everywhere 
predominant  until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  When  in  1848  a  number 
of  officers,  who  were  not  natives,  were  enrolled  in  the  Piedmontese  army,  the  sol- 
diers long  made  a  sharp  distinction  between  their  "  Piedmontese  "  and  their  "  Ital- 
ian "  superiors.  So  again  in  the  Crimean  war,  when  fifteen  thousand  Piedmontese 
were  sent  to  fight  on  the  side  of  the  French  and  English,  most  of  them  heard  for 
the  first  time  that  the  foreign  nS,tions  termed  them  Italians.  In  Germany,  again,  it 
was  a  question  of  uniting  prosperous  States,  but  in  Italy  of  overthrowing  unstable 
ones  (for  example,  the  States  of  the  Church  and  Naples).  In  Germany  it  was  nec- 
essary to  reckon  with  superabundant  forces  and  the  jealousy  of  two  great  powers ; 
and  by  the  side  of  them  stood  a  number  of  prosperous  petty  States  where  culture 
flourished.  Italy,  on  the  other  hand,  was  dependent  on  the  Austrians,  who  were 
termed  Tedeschi,  or  Germans ;  in  this  connection,  however,  the  Italians  were  forced 
to  admit  that  an  organised  government  and  a  legislature,  which  in  comparison  with 
Piedmont  itself  showed  considerable  advance,  existed  only  in  the  Austrian  dis- 
tricts ;  that  is  to  say,  under  the  rule  of  the  Hapsburgs.  And  in  addition  the  Ital- 
ians had  to  struggle  against  the  great  difficulty  that  the  papacy,  as  a  spiritual 
empire,  opposed  their  imification. 

2.  THE  UNION  OF  ITALY 

A.  Eeteospect  of  the  First  Half  of  the  Nineteenth  Centuey 

(a)  The  Age  of  the  Conspiracies.  —  The  risings  of  1821  in  Naples  and  Pied- 
mont as  well  as  that  of  1831  in  the  Eomagna  (p.  150)  aimed  far  more  at  the 
introduction  of  parliamentary  forms  than  at  the  attainment  of  national  unity. 
The  thought  of  liberty  was  stronger  then  than  that  of  nationality.  Only  in  the 
background  did  the  secret  society  of  the  Carbonari  entertain  the  vague  idea  of  the 
union  of  Italy.  The  followers  of  the  Genoese,  Joseph  Mazzini  (1805-1872 ;  cf. 
p.  180),  claim  for  him  the  honour  of  being  the  first  to  follow  out  the  idea  of  unity 
to  its  logical  conclusion.  Certain  it  is  that  Mazzini,  borne  on  by  fiery  enthusiasm 
and  undeterred  bj"-  failures,  devoted  his  whole  life  to  the  realisation  of  this  idea. 
"  I  have  just  taught  the  Italians,"  he  said,  on  one  occasion  after  the  war  of  1859, 
"  to  lisp  the  word  '  unity.'  "  It  was  after  his  arrest  in  1830  by  the  Piedmontese 
government  as  a  member  of  the  Carbonari,  when  he  spent  several  months  as  a 
prisoner  in  the  fortress  of  Savona,  that  he  formed  the  plan  of  founding  a  league 
under  the  name  of  "  Young  Italy,"  with  the  object  of  creating  an  Italian  republic. 
Animated  by  a  faith  which  amounted  to  fanaticism,  he  took  as  his  watchword  "  God 
and  the  People ! "  He  described  later  his  feelings  as  a  prisoner :  "  I  saw  how 
Eome,  in  the  name  of  God  and  of  a  republican  Italy,  offered  the  nations  a  common 
goal  and  the  foundation  of  a  new  religion.  And  I  saw  how  Europe,  wearied  of 
scepticism,  egoism,  and  anarchy,  received  the  new  faith  with  enthusiastic  acclama- 
tions. These  were  my  thoughts  in  my  cell  at  Savona."  He  did  not  shrink  from 
employing  all  the  weapons  of  conspiracy,  including  even  assassination.  All  the 
rebellions  and  conspiracies  which  he  plotted  proved  failures ;  but  even  under  the 
stress  of  conscientious  scruples  as  to  the  right  he  had  to  drive  so  many  highly 
gifted  colleagues  to  death  and  long  years  of  captivity,  he  was  supported  by  the 

VOL.  Vni  — 17 


258  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  iii 

thought  that  only  thus  could  the  ideal  of  nationality  be  kept  before  the  eyes  of 
the  people.  In  the  oath  which  he  administered  to  the  members  of  his  secret 
league  they  vowed  "  by  the  blush  which  reddens  my  face  when  I  stand  before  the 
citizens  of  other  countries  and  convince  myself  that  I  possess  no  civic  rights,  no 
country,  no  national  flag  ...  by  the  tears  of  Italian  mothers  for  their  sons  who 
have  perished  on  the  scaffold,  in  the  dungeon,  or  in  exile  ...  I  swear  to  devote 
myself  entirely  and  always  to  the  common  object  of  creating  one  free  independent 
and  republican  Italy  by  every  means  within  my  power." 

The  league  spread  over  Italy  and  every  country  where  Italians  lived.  Giuseppe 
Garibaldi  heard  for  the  first  time  of  Mazzini  in  1833,  when  as  captain  of  a  small 
trading-vessel  he  was  sitting  in  an  inn  at  Taganrog  on  the  Black  Sea,  and  listened 
to  the  conversation  at  the  next  table  of  some  Italian  captains  and  merchants 
with  whom  he  was  unacquainted.  "  Columbus,"  he  wrote  in  1871,  "  certainly 
never  felt  such  satisfaction  at  the  discovery  of  America  as  I  felt  when  I  found  a 
man  who  was  endeavouring  to  liberate  his  country."  He  eagerly  joined  the  fiery 
orator  of  that  dinner-party,  whose  name  was  Cuneo,  and,  armed  with  an  introduc- 
tion from  him,  hastened  to  Mazzini,  who  was  then  plotting  his  conspiracies  at 
Marseilles.  Garibaldi  took  part  in  one  of  the  futile  risings  of  February,  1834, 
was  condemned  to  death,  and  escaped  to  Argentina,  where  he  gathered  his  first 
experiences  of  war.  He  long  followed  the  leadership  of  Mazzini,  although  the 
natures  of  the  two  men  were  too  different  to  permit  any  very  tatimate  relations 
between  them.  Garibaldi  called  Mazzini  the  "  second  of  the  Infallibles ; "  but  he 
esteemed  him  so  highly,  that  at  a  banquet  given  in  his  honour  at  London  in  1864 
he  toasted  him  as  his  master. 

(b)  The  Beginnings  of  the  Constitutional  Movement  in  Favour  of  Union.  — 
Mazzini  was  the  central  figure  of  the  Italian  movement  only  up  to  the  middle  of 
the  fifties.  After  that  an  amelioration  was  traceable  in  the  life  of  his  nation. 
When  the  middle  classes  took  up  the  cause  of  freedom  as  one  man,  the  importance 
of  the  conspiracies  disappeared  and  the  entire  system  of  secret  societies  (for  the 
Carbonari  and  the  Young  Italy  were  opposed  by  the  Sanfedists,  the  league  of  the 
reaction ;  cf.  p.  149)  became  discredited.  Public  life  was^ow  more  instinct  with 
vitality.  A  blind  and  biassed  republicanism  was  no  longer  the  only  cry;  the 
leaders  of  the  movement  began  to  take  the  actual  conditions  into  account,  and 
the  Piedmontese,  in  particular,  worked  in  the  cause  of  constitutional  monarchy. 
Mazzini,  on  the  other  hand,  hated  the  house  of  Savoy  equally  with  every  other 
dynasty.  Two  of  his  conspiracies  were  aimed  against  Piedmont,  so  that  sentence 
of  death  was  pronounced  on  him  by  the  courts  of  that  kingdom. 

The  new  ideas  started  from  Piedmont.  The  noble  priest  Vincenzo  Gioberti 
proposed  the  plan  that  all  Italy  should  rally  round  the  Pope,  and  follow  him  as 
leader  io  the  war  of  independence.  A  number  of  Piedmontese  nobles,  Count 
Cesare  Balbo,  Marquis  Massimo  dAzeglio,  and  the  greatest  of  them,  Count 
Camillo  Cavour,  were  filled  with  the  conviction  that  the  government  of  Italy 
belonged  by  right  to  the  constitutional  monarchy  of  Piedmont.  They  had  all 
grown  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  conservative  ideas,  respectful  towards  the  monarchy, 
and  filled  with  admiration  for  the  army  and  the  civil  service  of  Piedmont.  The 
revolutionists  of  1848  were  united  only  in  their  hatred  of  the  foreign  yoke;  their 
views  for  the  future  were  of  the  most  conflicting  character,  and  must  have  led  to 


S,^:f«1Sa:4]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  259 

dissension  if  they  had  been  clearly  formulated.  The  hope  that  Pope  Pius  would 
be  permanently  won  for  the  great  thought  soon  faded  away.  In  the  whole  agita- 
tion the  idea  of  federalism  was  still  widely  predominant.  Venice  and  Eome 
under  Daniele  Manin  and  Mazzini  declared  for  independent  republics  ;  even  Lom- 
bardy  felt  some  reluctance  to  unite  with  Sardinia.  De  Eossi,  the  papal  minister, 
wished  merely  for  a  league  of  the  sovereign  princes  of  Italy,  not  a  united  parlia- 
ment. In  Piedmont  the  middle-class  citizens  opposed  with  suspicion  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  monarchical  military  State,  and  Cavour,  who  defended  the  royal 
authority,  was  in  1849  one  of  the  most  unpopular  of  politicians.  Even  then  he 
was  opposed  to  Urbano  Kattazzi,  who  was  soon  destined  to  become  the  leader  of 
the  bourgeois  circles.  Italy  thus  succumbed  to  the  sword  of  Eadetzky  (p.  195) ; 
Napoleon,  as  President  of  the  French  Eepublic,  put  an  end  to  the  Eoman  Eepublic, 
since  he  did  not  wish  to  allow  all  Italy  to  be  subjugated  by  the  Austrians.  The 
heroic  and,  for  some  time,  successful  defence  of  Eome  by  Garibaldi  (cf.  p.  217;  on 
the  scene  of  this  memorable  fight,  at  the  summit  of  the  Janiculus,  a  colossal 
monument  has  been  erected  in  his  honour)  raised  him  to  be  the  popular  hero  of 
the  nation,  while  Mazzini's  republican  phrases  began  to  seem  vapid  to  the 
intelligent  Italians. 

The  wars  of  1848  and  1849  left  the  Italians  with  the  definitive  impression  that 
only  Piedmont  could  have  ventured  to  face  the  Austrian  arms  in  the  open  field. 
King  Charles  Albert  was  clearly  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  Italian  unity ;  he  died 
soon  after  his  abdication,  a  broken-hearted  man,  in  a  Portuguese  monastery.  Since 
his  son  Victor  Emmanuel  alone  among  the  Italian  princes  maintained  the  constitu- 
tion granted  in  1848,  the  hopes  of  Italy  were  centred  in  him.  In  the  year  1852 
Cavour  reached  the  immediate  goal  of  his  burning  but  justifiable  ambition;  for 
after  he  had  allied  himself  with  Eattazzi  and  the  liberal  middle  class,  he  was 
intrusted  with  the  direction  of  the  government.  He  soon  ventured  openly  to 
radicate  Piedmont,  which  had  been  overthrown  so  recently,  as  the  champion  in  the 
next  war  of  liberation.  He  drew  his  weapons  from  the  arsenal  of  the  clever 
ministers  who,  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  had  helped  the  dukes 
of  Savoy  to  hold  their  own  between  France  and  Austria.  He  was  the  heir  of  the 
old  dynastic  policy  of  Savoy,  but  in  a  greater  age,  dominated  by  the  thought  of 
nationality.  He  sought  and  obtained  an  alliance  with  the  man  whom  the  repub- 
licans of  Italy  hated  intensely,  and  against  whose  life  they  plotted  more  than  one 
conspiracy. 

(c)  The  Encroachment  of  Napoleon  III  and  the  Resignation  of  Cavour.  —  The 
question  may  well  be  asked  whether  the  Italian  blood  was  stirred  in  the  veins  of 
the  Bonapartes  when,  in  1805,  the  first  Napoleon  created  the  kingdom  of  Italy, 
and  when,  in  1830,  his  nephew  entered  into  a  secret  Italian  alliance,  and  finally,  as 
Napoleon  III,  allied  himself  with  Cavour  for  the  liberation  of  Italy.  It  is  not 
an  unlikely  supposition,  although  diplomatic  reasons  and  the  lust  of  power  were 
the  primary  motives  which  actuated  the  nephew  of  the  great  conqueror  in  forming 
this  alliance ;  for  he  considered  that  his  uncle  had  bequeathed  to  him  the  duty 
of  destroying  the  work  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  especially  in  Italy,  where 
Austria  had  entered  on  the  inheritance  of  France.  Napoleon  won  friends  for 
France  on  all  sides  when  he  came  forward  as  the  advocate  for  the  idea  of  nation- 
ality.   While  he  did  so,  there  lay  in  the  bottom  of  his  heart  the  intention  of 


260  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \_Chapter ill 

increasing  the  territory  of  France,  on  the  basis  of  this  idea,  by  the  annexation  of 
Belgium  and  Savoy,  and  of  thus  uniting  all  French-speaking  peoples  under  the 
empire.  On  the  other  side,  he  thought  it  dangerous  to  stretch  out  his  hand  to  the 
Ehine,  where  the  Germans,  whom  he  called  the  coming  race,  might  oppose  him. 
He  wished  to  free  Italy  from  the  Austrian  rule,  but  only  in  order  to  govern  it  as 
suzerain.  For  this  reason  he  declined  from  the  outset  to  entertain  the  idea  of 
giving  political  unity  to  the  peninsula.  He  only  agreed  with  Cavour  at  Plombiferes 
(p.  250)  that  Sardinia  should  be  enlarged  into  a  North  Italian  kingdom  with  from 
ten  to  twelve  millions  of  inhabitants.  There  was  to  be  a  Central  Italian  kingdom, 
consisting  of  Tuscany  and  the  greater  part  of  the  States  of  the  Church.  Naples  was 
to  be  left  untouched.  The  Pope  was  to  be  restricted  to  the  territory  of  the  city  of 
Eome  and  its  vicinity,  and  in  compensation  was  to  be  raised  to  the  headship  of  the 
Italian  confederacy.  Napoleon  reserved  to  himself  the  nomination  of  his  cousin 
Joseph,  called  Jerome,  to  the  throne  of  Central  Italy,  but  concealed  his  intention 
from  Cavour,  while  he  hinted  to  him  that  he  wished  to  place  the  son  of  King 
Murat  on  the  throne  at  Naples.  In  return  for  his  armed  assistance  the  emperor 
stipulated  for  the  cession  of  Savoy  and  Nice. 

The  campaign  of  1859  was  successfully  conducted  by  the  allies ;  but  it  was 
a  terrible  blow  to  Italy  when  Napoleon,  principally  from  anxiety  at  the  prepara- 
tions of  Prussia,  concluded  with  the  emperor  Francis  Joseph,  on  July  11,  1859, 
the  preliminary  peace  of  Villafranca.  His  promises  therefore  were  only  partially 
fulfilled.  By  allowing  Venetia  to  remain  Austrian  he  belied  the  proclamation 
announcing  that  "  Italy  shall  be  free  from  the  Alps  to  the  Adriatic,"  with  which 
he  had  opened  the  war  on  May  3.  Cavour  felt  himself  deceived  and  exposed.  His 
old  opponent,  Mazzini,  had  derided  his  policy  before  the  war,  and  had  warned  the 
Italians  not  to  exchange  the  rule  of  Austria  for  that  of  France.  However  unwise 
this  attitude  of  the  old  conspirator  might  be,  he  now  seemed  to  be  correct  in  the 
prediction  that  Napoleon  would  deceive  the  Italians.  The  passionate  nature  of 
Cavour,  which  slumbered  behind  his  half  good-natured,  half  mockingly-diplomatic 
exterior,  burst  out  in  him  with  overwhelming  force.  He  hurried  to  the  headquar- 
ters of  Victor  Emmanuel  and  required  him  to  lay  down  his  crown,  as  his  father, 
Charles  Albert,  had  done,  in  order  to  show  clearly  to  the  WM-ld  the  injustice  perpe- 
trated by  Napoleon.  Cavour  displayed  such  violence  that  T;he  two  men  parted  in 
downright  anger.  But  Cavour,  without  further  demur,  resigned  his  office.  That 
was  the  wisest  step  he  could  take  to  turn  aside  the  reproach  of  treachery,  which 
the  republican  party  was  already  bringing  against  him.  In  the  course  of  a  conver- 
sation with  the  senator  Joachim  Pietri,  an  intimate  friend  of  Napoleon,  he  gave 
vent  to  his  displeasure  in  the  most  forcible  terms,  and  threw  in  the  teeth  of  the 
emperor  the  charge  of  deceit.  "  Your  emperor  has  insulted  me,"  he  cried ;  "  yes, 
sir,  insulted  me.  He  gave  me  his  word,  and  promised  me  to  relax  no  efforts  until 
the  Austrians  were  completely  driven  out  of  Italy.  As  his  reward  for  so  doing 
he  stipulated  for  Nice  and  Savoy.  I  induced  my  sovereign  to  consent  to  make  this 
sacrifice  for  Italy.  My  king,  my  good  and  honourable  king,  trusted  me  and  con- 
sented. Your  emperor  now  pockets  his  reward  and  lets  us  shift  for  ourselves.  .  .  . 
I  am  dishonoured  before  my  king.  But,"  added  Cavour,  "  this  peace  will  lead  to 
nothing ;  this  treaty  will  not  be  carried  out." 

One  of  the  causes  which  led  Napoleon  to  conclude  peace  so  rapidly  was  the 
fear  that  the  Italians  would  go  far  beyond  his  original  intention  and  win  complete 


S.'^^fSX]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  261 

political  independence  for  themselves.  Cavour,  in  spite  of  his  proud  words  about 
the  integrity  of  the  Piedmontese  policy,  had  really  wished  on  his  side  to  outwit 
the  emperor.  For,  at  his  instigation  and  in  consequence  of  the  agitations  of  the 
National  Union,  which  he  had  secretly  organised,  not  merely  had  Parma,  Modena, 
and  the  Komagna  risen  against  the  Pope,  but  even  in  Central  Italy,  in  Tuscany,  in 
the  Marches  and  in  Umbria,  the  authorities  had  been  driven  out,  and  everywhere 
there  was  an  outcry  for  United  Italy.  Victor  Emmanuel  had  certainly,  at  the  wish 
of  Napoleon,  refused  this  request,  and  had  only  accepted  the  supreme  command  of 
the  volunteer  corps  which  were  forming  everywhere.  Napoleon  wished  to  preclude 
any  further  extension  of  this  movement.  Hence  the  hasty  conclusion  of  the 
armistice,  and  the  provisions  of  the  peace  of  Zurich  (November  10,  1859)  that 
Sardinia  might  retain  Lombardy,  but  not  extend  her  territory  further.  In  Tus- 
cany, Parma,  and  Modena  the  old  order  of  things  was  to  be  restored,  if  the  people 
agreed  to  accept  it ;  and  the  States  of  the  Church  (and  this  condition  was  taken  as 
obvious)  must  once  more  be  subject  to  the  Pope.  All  Italian  States  were  to  form 
a  confederation,  which  Austria,  as  representing  Venice,  wished  to  join.  Cavour, 
incensed  at  these  fetters  imposed  on  the  Italians,  said  as  he  left  the  ministry,  "  So 
be  it !  they  will  force  me  to  spend  the  rest  of  my  life  in  conspiracies."  And  in  the 
last  letters  before  his  retirement  he  secretly  urged  the  leaders  of  the  movement  in 
Central  Italy  to  collect  money  and  arms,  to  wait  their  time  loyally,  and  resist  the 
•wishes  of  Napoleon. 

B.  The  Ministry  of  Eattazzi 

Rattazzi,  Cavour's  successor,  was  an  eloquent  and  practised  advocate,  of  a 
tractable  disposition,  and  therefore  more  acceptable  to  the  king  than  Cavour ;  he 
possessed  a  mind  more  capable  of  words  and  schemes  than  of  action.  Cavour, 
speaking  of  him,  said  that  he  was  the  first  among  the  politicians  of  the  second 
class.  In  accordance  with  the  popular  feeling  Giuseppe  Dabormida,  the  new  min- 
ister of  foreign  affairs,  declared  on  July  23  that  Sardinia  would  never  enter  into 
an  Italian  confederation  in  which  Austria  took  any  part.  This  policy  was  abso- 
lutely essential  for  self-preservation,  since  Piedmont,  in  a  league  with  Austria,  the 
Pope,  and  Naples,  would  always  have  been  in  the  minority. 

The  new  cabinet  was  wavering  and  insecure,  and  so  dependent  on  the  will  of 
Napoleon  that  it  did  not  venture  to  take  any  forward  step  without  his  consent. 
But  at  this  point  the  fact  became  evident  that  the  work  of  unification  was  not 
dependent  on  the  ability  of  individuals,  but  on  the  attitude  of  the  whole  nation. 
It  is  astonishing  with  what  political  tact  the  several  Italian  countries  struggled  for 
union  with  Sardinia.  The  Sardinian  government  was  compelled  to  recall,  imme- 
diately after  the  preliminary  peace,  the  men  it  had  sent  to  Bologna,  Florence, 
Modena,  and  Parma  to  lead  the  agitation.  These  districts  were  consequently  thrown 
upon  their  own  resources ;  but  Tuscany  found,  on  August  1, 1859,  in  Baron  Bettino 
Eicasoli,  and  the  Eomagna  and  the  duchies  in  Luigi  Carlo,  a  retired  physician, 
leaders  who  governed  the  provisional  commonwealths  with  sagacity,  and  guided  the 
public  voting  which  declared  for  submission  to  Victor  Emmanuel.  Only  in  quite 
exceptional  cases  was  any  violence  used  against  the  hated  tools  of  the  former  gov- 
ernments ;  otherwise  order  prevailed  generally,  and  a  childlike,  almost  touching, 
enthusiasm  for  the  imity  of  Italy.     The  Pope  attempted  a  counter-blow,  and  sue- 


262  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         Ichapter  ill 

ceeded  in  conquering  Perugia  on  July  20,  1859,  by  means  of  his  Swiss  mercenaries 
who  did  not  shrink  from  outrage  and  plunder.  Thereupon  the  Eomagna,  Tuscany 
and  Modena  concluded  a  defensive  alliance.  General  Manfredo  Fanti  organised  in 
October,  1859,  a  force  of  forty  thousand  men ;  so  that  the  Pope  desisted  from  further 
attacks.  Since  the  treaty  of  Villafranca  left  the  return  of  the  former  governments 
open,  so  long  as  foreign  interference  was  excluded,  the  Pope  and  the  dukes  calcu- 
lated upon  an  outbreak  of  anarchy,  which  would  provoke  a  counter-blow.  They 
centred  their  hopes  on  the  Mazzinists ;  and  Walewski,  the  minister  of  Napoleon 
who  was  unfavourable  to  the  Italians,  said  that  he  preferred  them  to  a  party  which 
styled  itself  a  government.  But  this  hope  faded  away  before  the  wise  attitude  of 
the  Central  Italians. 

The  emperor  Napoleon  now  saw  himself  confronted  by  the  unpleasant  alterna- 
tive of  allowing  the  Italians  fuU  liberty,  or  of  restoring  the  old  regime  by  force. 
But  ought  the  liberator  of  Italy  to  declare  war  on  the  coimtry  ?  And  it  was  stOl 
more  out  of  the  question  to  allow  the  interference  of  the  defeated  Austrians.  He 
repeatedly  assured  the  Italians  that  he  persisted  in  his  intention  to  carry  out  his 
programme  of  federation.  Doubt  has  been  felt  whether  the  letter  to  this  effect 
which  he  addressed  on  October  20,  1859,  to  Victor  Emmanuel  really  expressed  his 
true  intention.  In  that  letter  he  repeated  his  demand  for  the  restoration  of  the 
old  regime  in  Central  Italy  and  for  the  formation  of  an  Italian  confederation  with 
the  Pope  at  its  head.  But  it  is  clear  that  this  was  really  his  own  and  his  final 
scheme ;  for  he  was  too  wise  not  to  foresee  that  a  united  and  powerful  Italy  might 
one  day  turn  against  France.  With  this  idea,  therefore,  he  said  to  Marquis  Napoleone 
di  Pepoli,  "  If  the  movement  of  incorporation  crosses  the  Apennines,  the  union  of 
Italy  is  finished,  and  I  do  not  wish  for  any  union,  —  I  wish  simply  and  solely  for 
independence."  His  programme  would  have  proved  the  most  favourable  solution 
for  France,  since  it  would  then  always  have  had  a  hand  in  the  affairs  of  Italy,  from 
the  simple  reason  that  the  North  Italian  kingdom,  which  owed  its  existence  to  him, 
would  have  had  no  other  support  against  Austria  and  the  remaining  sovereigns  of 
Italy.  That  was  the  precise  contingency  which  Cavour  most  feared ;  and  for  that 
reason  he  secretly  urged  the  leaders  of  Central  Italy  not  to  comply  with  the 
intentions  of  Napoleon.  In  fact,  deputations  from  the  Eoma«na,  Tuscany,  and  the 
duchies  offered  the  sovereignty  to  King  Victor  Emmanuel.  He  did  not  dare  to 
accept  the  offer  against  the  wish  of  Napoleon,  and  merely  promised  in  his  reply  that 
he  would  represent  to  Europe  the  wishes  of  the  Central  Italians. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  Victor  Emmanuel,  in  these  complications,  enter- 
tained for  a  moment  the  idea  of  joining  hands  with  Mazzini  and  raising  the  stand- 
ard of  revolt  against  Napoleon.  By  the  agency  of  Angelo  Brofferio,  the  leader  of 
the  democratic  opposition  in  the  Piedmontese  parliament  and  the  opponent  of 
Cavour's  diplomacy,  the  king  negotiated  with  the  old  republican  conspirator  on 
whom  first  his  father  and  later  he  himself,  in  1857,  had  caused-  sentence  of  death 
to  be  passed  on  account  of  his  organisation  of  a  revolt  in  Piedmont.  Mazzini 
showed  at  this  crisis  how  greatly  the  welfare  of  his  country  outweighed  with  him 
all  other  considerations.  He  sent  a  message  to  that  effect  to  the  king,  and  only 
asked  him  to  break  off  entirely  with  Napoleon,  whom  the  republicans  regarded  as 
Antichrist.  In  return  for  that  concession  Mazzini  offered  to  raise  the  whole  of 
Italy,  including  Eome  and  Naples,  after  which  would  follow  the  promotion  of 
Victor  Emmanuel  to  be  king  of  the  peninsula.     But  then  —  for  Mazzini  expressly 


S/.:fetS.^]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  263 

made  this  proviso  —  he  intended  to  fight,  as  previously,  for  the  republic  and  for 
the  expulsion  of  the  house  of  Savoy.  The  king  is  reported  to  have  said  to  Brofferio, 
"  Try  to  come  to  an  understanding  ;  but  take  care  that  the  public  prosecutor  hears 
nothing  of  it."  The  negotiations,  however,  did  not  lead  to  the  desired  goal,  for  the 
game  seemed  to  the  king  to  be  too  dangerous.  Mazziui  certainly  promised  on  that 
occasion  more  than  he  could  perform ;  his  schemes  could  not  have  been  carried  into 
execution  against  the  express  wishes  of  Napoleon,  who  would  not  have  abandoned 
the  Pope  and  Eome.  Italy  had  only  obtained  the  support  of  the  emperor  against 
Austria,  because  the  monarchical  policy  of  Cavour  offered  a  guarantee  that  in  Italy 
at  least  the  revolutionaries,  who  threatened  his  rule  in  France,  were  kept  in 
restraint.  The  emperor,  as  his  action  in  the  year  1867  clearly  proves,  would  have 
certainly  employed  force  agaiust  Italy,  even  though  Eome  had  been  raised  in  rebel- 
lion ;  for  since  the  French  democrats  were  implacably  hostile  to  him,  he  was  bound 
at  least  to  have  the  clerical  party  on  his  side. 

Garibaldi,  who  then  was  intrusted  by  the  provisional  government  with  the  com- 
mand of  the  Tuscan  troups,  overlooked  all  these  considerations,  and  was  already 
determiaed  to  advance  on  Eome.  But  Farini,  the  dictator  of  the  Eomagna  and 
of  the  duchies,  thought  his  enterprise  dangerous,  and,  going  to  meet  him,  induced 
him  to  withdraw  from  Central  Italy.  Having  returned  to  Turin,  Garibaldi  was 
received  with  consideration  by  Victor  Emmanuel,  who  was  privy  to  this  plot ;  he 
then  addressed  a  manifesto  to  Italy,  in  which  he  condemned  the  miserable,  fox- 
like politicians,  and  called  upon  the  Italians  to  place  their  hopes  exclusively  on 
Victor  Emmanuel.  That  monarch,  under  his  outward  simplicity,  possessed  natural 
shrewdness  enough  to  remain  on  good  terms  with  all  who  wished  to  further  the 
unity  of  Italy.  In  this  consist  mostly  his  inestimable  services  in  the  cause  of  the 
unification  of  Italy. 


C.    The  Second  Ministry  of  Cavour 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1859  Napoleon  was  forced  to  admit  that  he  could 
not  carry  out  his  programme  in  Central  Italy  by  peaceful  methods.  He  thus  ran  the 
risk  of  losing  Savoy  and  Nice,  which  had  been  promised  him  as  a  reward  before 
the  war.  His  own  interests  and  his  predilection  for  the  Italian  cause  combined  to 
induce  him  to  leave  a  part,  at  any  rate,  of  Central  Italy  to  Victor  Emmanuel.  In 
order  to  carry  out  this  change  of  policy  Walewski  was  dismissed  and  Edouard 
Antoine  Thouvenel,  a  liberal,  who  shared  Napoleon's  preference  for  Italy,  was 
nominated  foreign  minister  on  January  5,  1860.  But  the  new  policy  was  not  pos- 
sible with  the  cabinet  of  Eattazzi,  since  that  minister  did  not  possess  the  courage 
to  assume  the  responsibility  for  the  cession  of  Savoy  and  Nice.  A  bold  and  broad 
policy  could  only  be  carried  out  with  the  assistance  of  Cavour.  The  latter  was 
already  thirsting  for  power,  whUe  Eattazzi  was  vainly  trying  to  block  his  road.  It 
is  true  that  the  king  was  not  pleased  with  the  exchange  of  ministers;  he  still 
cherished  some  rancour  against  Cavour  for  the  "  scene  "  which  the  latter  had  made 
with  him  after  the  peace  of  Villafranca  (see  p.  260).  Public  opinion,  on  the  other 
hand,  more  especially  in  Central  Italy,  looked  to  Cavour  alone  for  the  realisa- 
tion of  its  wishes.  Since  his  ambition  was  fired  by  the  prospect  of  new  and  grand 
exploits,  he  induced  his  friends  to  work  vigorously  on  his  behalf,  so  that  the  cabinet 


264  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapter  iii 

of  Eattazzi  was  compelled  to  make  way  for  him  on  January  16,  1860.  Eattazzi 
and  his  colleagues  were  not  all  so  candid  in  their  views  as  Dabormida,  the  foreign 
minister,  who  felt  he  could  not  compare  with  Cavour,  and  wrote  at  the  time :  "  I 
was  impatient  to  give  up  my  place  to  him.  But  he  was  still  more  impatient  than 
I  was.  I  am  sorry  that  he  expended  so  much  trouble  in  bursting  the  doors  that 
stood  open  to  him.     But  he  has  the  right  to  be  ambitious." 

Napoleon,  although  not  disposed  to  a  grand  and  sweeping  policy,  had  the  astute- 
ness requisite  to  disguise  his  frequent  changes  of  front,  and  to  veil  his  machinations 
with  a  semblance  of  magnanimity.  Since  he  knew  that  the  English  distrusted 
him,  and  foresaw  that  the  annexation  of  Savoy  and  Nice  would  appear  to  them  the 
prelude  to  an  extensive  policy  of  aggrandisement,  he  lulled  their  suspicions  by 
concluding  a  commercial  treaty  on  free-trade  principles  (January  23,  1860).  At 
the  same  time  he  informed  the  Pope  that  France  no  longer  wished  to  insist  on  the 
restoration  of  the  legations  of  the  Eomagna,  Bologna,  and  Ferrara  to  the  States  of 
the  Church. 

This  change  in  the  policy  of  Napoleon  could  not  have  been  more  unwelcome 
to  any  one  than  to  the  Pope.  After  all,  Pius  IX  had  himself  to  blame  for  it,  since 
he  opposed  the  sensible  counsels  of  Napoleon.  The  emperor  had  requested  him  in 
a  letter  of  July  14,  1859,  to  grant  to  the  already  rebellious  legations  a  separate 
administration  and  a  lay  government  nominated  by  the  Pope.  "  I  humbly  conjure 
your  Holiness,"  so  the  letter  ran,  "  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  a  devoted  son  of  the 
Church,  who  in  this  matter  grasps  the  needs  of  his  time,  and  knows  that  force  is 
not  sufficient  to  solve  such  difficult  problems.  In  the  decision  of  your  Holiness  I 
see  either  the  germs  of  a  peaceful  and  tranquil  future,  or  the  continuation  of  a 
period  of  violence  and  distress."  But  the  Curia  continued  obstinate,  and  declared 
that  it  could  not  break  with  the  principles  on  which  the  States  of  the  Church  had 
been  governed  hitherto.  The  Pope,  in  fact,  protested  against  the  concession  of 
religious  liberty  which  had  been  granted  by  the  provisional  government  at  Bologna. 
Napoleon  now  adopted  a  severer  tone.  He  published  in  December,  1859,  a  pam- 
phlet, "  The  Pope  and  the  Congress,"  in  which  it  was  stated  that  a  restoration  of 
papal  rule  in  Central  Italy  had  become  impossible.  Granted  that  a  secular  king- 
dom was  necessary  for  the  Pope  in  order  to  maintain  his  in^pendence,  a  smaller 
territory  would  be  sufficient  for  that  purpose.  Shortly  Sterwards  Napoleon 
addressed  a  second  letter  to  Pius  IX,  in  which  he  called  upon  the  Pope  on  his 
side  also  to  make  some  sacrifice  for  the  union  of  Italy,  which  was  slowly  and 
surely  progressing. 

Cavour,  meantime,  had  not  reached  his  goal.  On  February  17,  1860,  Italy 
learnt  the  latest  of  the  constantly  changing  programmes  of  Napoleon.  According 
to  this,  only  Parma  and  Modena  were  to  be  incorporated  with  Sardinia.  Victor 
Emmanuel  would  rule  the  legations  as  vicar  of  the  Pope;  but  Tuscany  must 
remain  independent ;  at  most  a  prince  of  the  house  of  Savoy  might  be  placed  on 
the  throne.  Cavour,  however,  met  the  refusal  of  Napoleon  by  a  bold  move,  on 
which  Eattazzi  would  never  have  ventured.  Without  asking  the  emperor,  and 
against  his  will,  a  plebiscite  was  taken  in  March,  1860,  in  all  the  provinces  of 
Central  Italy,  including  Tuscany,  on  the  question  whether  they  wished  for 
incorporation  in  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  The  elections  for  the  parliament  of 
Upper  Italy  proceeded  at  the  same  time  with  equal  enthusiasm.  All  the  capi- 
tals intirusted  Cavour  with  full  powers  in  order  to  express  their  confidence.     It 


^i.^:^'t::iy\      history  of  the  world  265 

was  no  rhetorical  figure  when  Napoleon,  in  a  speech  delivered  on  March  1, 
expressed  his  dissatisfaction  at  the  arbitrary  action  of  Italy.  Cavour,  however,  had 
cleverly  secured  the  good  will  of  England,  which  had  quite  agreed  to  the  proposal 
that  Italy  should  withdraw  from  the  influence  of  Napoleon.  Palmerston  was 
malicious  enough  to  praise  Cavour  in  the  British  parliament  for  the  boldness  of 
his  action. 

Now  at  length  Cavour  opened  regular  negotiations  about  the  cession  of  Savoy 
and  Nice,  which  had  been  promised  by  the  treaty  of  January,  1858.  What  was 
the  emperor  to  do  ?  Was  he,  on  his  side,  to  risk  the  loss  of  the  two  provinces  by 
his  obstinacy  ?  Perhaps  even  at  the  eleventh  hour  he  might  have  prevented  the 
incorporation  of  Tuscany,  if  he  had  declared  that  under  these  conditions  he  would 
be  contented  with  Savoy ;  but  now  the  expectations  and  the  covetousness  of  the 
French  had  been  whetted,  and  he  could  not  draw  back.  There  is  no  question  that 
Napoleon  then  abandoned  the  real  interests  of  France,  and  was  vanquished  by 
Cavour.  It  had  often  been  said,  and  subsequent  events  have  proved  the  truth  of 
the  statement,  that  Cavour  exercised  a  positively  magical  influence  on  Napoleon's 
vacillating  mind.  The  Italian  had  probed  the  soul  of  the  French  emperor,  and 
knew  how  far  he  might  go.  Having  correctly  gauged  on  the  one  hand  the  selfish 
interests  of  Napoleon,  and  on  the  other  his  sympathetic  attitude  toward  the  Italian 
question,  Cavour  could  venture  to  play  with  him  up  to  a  certain  point. 

But  there  were  limits  to  this  policy.  Cavour  in  vain  tried  all  the  arts  of  his 
diplomacy,  and  every  expedient  which  his  subtle  mind  suggested,  to  save  Nice  at 
least  for  the  Italians.  But  here  he  was  confronted  by  the  definite  resolution  of 
the  emperor,  who  would  have  exposed  himself  in  the  face  of  France,  had  he  given 
in.  Cavour  and  Benedetti  (see  the  explanation  of  the  plate  on  page  246)  signed  the 
treaty  on  March  24, 1860.  When  this  was  done,  the  Italian  minister,  with  a  flash 
of  humour,  turned  round  suddenly  and  whispered  in  the  ear  of  Benedetti,  "  We  are 
partners  in  guilt  now,  are  we  not  ? " 

But  an  anxious  time  was  in  store  for  Cavour,  —  the  debate  in  the  Italian 
parliament.  The  great  majority  of  the  people,  certainly,  understood  that  King 
Victor  Emmanuel  and  Cavour  could  not  have  acted  otherwise.  Eattazzi,  how- 
ever, the  old  rival  of  Cavour,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  opposition; 
and  he  had  a  strong  supporter  in  Garibaldi,  who  took  his  seat  in  parliament 
with  the  express  object  of  opposing  the  cession  of  Nice,  his  native  town,  to 
France.  Henceforth  he  hated  Cavour,  who,  as  he  said,  had  made  him  an  alien 
in  his  own  country.  Garibaldi  was  not  so  indignant  at  the  fact  itself  as  he 
was  that  Cavour  had  deceived  him ;  since  a  year  previously,  in  answer  to  a  dhect 
question,  the  minister  had  denied  the  cession  of  Nice.  In  no  other  way  could  the 
crafty  statesman  have  secured  Garibaldi's  sword  for  the  war  of  liberation.  On 
the  other  hand.  Garibaldi  esteemed  the  king  highly,  because  some  months  later  to 
the  question,  "  Yes  or  no,"  he  had  returned  the  true  answer.  Victor  Emmanuel 
then  added  that,  if  he  as  king  submitted  to  cede  Savoy,  the  country  of  his  ances- 
tors, to  France,  Garibaldi  must  be  prepared  to  make  equal  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of 
the  union  of  Italy. 

We  are  told  that  Cavour,  at  this  critical  time,  in  order  to  soothe  Garibaldi's 
feelings,  sent  him  a  note  with  the  brief  question,  "  Nice  or  Sicily  ? "  He  is  thus 
said  to  have  incited  the  enthusiastic  patriot  to  conquer  the  island.  The  story  is 
quite  improbable ;  for  Cavour  would  certainly  have  preferred  to  mark  time  for  the 


266  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD         [Chapter  iii 

present,  and  consolidate  the  internal  and  economic  conditions  of  the  kingdom  of 
North  Italy,  which  consisted  of  4,000,000  Piedmontese,  2,500,000  Lombards,  and 
4,000,000  Central  Italians.  This  State,  without  the  States  of  the  Church,  which 
were  in  an  impoverished  condition  through  bad  administration,  and  without  the 
pauper  population  of  Naples,  would  certainly  have  risen  to  considerable  prosperity. 
It  would  have  been  well  for  North  Italy  not  to  have  been  burdened  with  the  task 
of  drawing  the  semi-civilized  districts  of  the  South  into  the  sphere  of  its  higher 
culture  and  its  greater  prosperity.  "  We  must  first  organise  ourselves,"  Cavour 
said  at  this  time,  "and  form  a  powerful  army;  then  we  can  turn  our  eyes  to 
Venetia  and  further  to  the  south,  and  to  Eome."  It  was  certainly,  therefore,  no 
hypocrisy  when,  up  to  March,  1860,  he  repeatedly  sent  envoys  to  Naples,  in  order 
to  induce  the  Bourbons  to  follow  a  national  policy  and  enter  into  an  aUiance  with 
the  kingdom  of  North  Italy. 

D.  Gaeibaldi 

(a)  The  Sicilian  Enterprise.  —  But  here  the  genius  of  the  Italian  people  took 
other  paths.  The  wary  statesman  soon  saw  himself  carried  onward  by  the  party 
of  action  farther  than  he  himself  had  wished ;  for  Mazzini  and  his  partisans  were 
incessantly  scheming  the  revolt  of  Sicily.  Under  their  instructions  Francesco 
Crispi,  who  had  long  before  been  condemned  to  death  by  the  Neapolitan  courts, 
travelled  through  the  island  at  great  personal  risk,  collecting  on  all  sides  sympa- 
thisers with  the  cause,  and  preparing  for  the  day  of  rebellion.  The  Sicilians  did 
indeed  rise  in  various  places,  but  their  attempts  were  hopeless  if  Garibaldi  could 
not  be  induced  to  invade  Sicily.  He  declared  to  the  Mazzinists  from  the  very  first 
that  he  would  only  join  the  struggle  under  the  standard  of  "Italy  and  Victor 
Emmanuel;"  in  spite  of  his  republican  leanings  he  saw  with  unerring  perception 
that  Italy  could  only  be  united  by  means  of  the  Piedmontese  monarchy.  Mazzini 
also  declared,  as  in  the  previous  year,  that  he  wished  first  and  foremost  to  conform 
to  the  expressed  will  of  the  people. 

But  the  conscientious  Garibaldi  still  hesitated ;  he  was  weighed  down  by  the 
enormous  responsibility  of  leading  the  fiery  youth  of  Italy  to^anger  and  to  death, 
since  all  former  plots  against  the  Bourbons  had  miscarried  and  been  drowned  in 
the  blood  of  their  promoters.  King  Ferdinand  II  of  Naples  (called  "  Efe  Bomba  " 
since  the  savage  bombardment  of  Messina  in  September,  1848)  understood  how  to 
attach  the  soldiers  of  his  army  to  his  person ;  he  was  hard-hearted  but  cunning,  and 
by  his  affectation  of  native  customs  won  himself  some  popularity  with  the  lower 
classes  on  the  mainland.  The  Sicilians,  indeed,  hated  their  Neapolitan  rulers  from 
of  old ;  and  the  people  gladly  recalled  the  memory  of  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  by  which 
they  had  wrested  their  freedom  from  Naples  in  1282.  King  Ferdinand  died  on 
May  22,  1859,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  weak  son  Francis  II,  a  feeble,  religious 
nature,  with  no  mind  of  his  own.  Since  the  outbreak  in  Sicily  was  suppressed, 
and  seemed  to  die  away,  Cavour  urgently  dissuaded  Garibaldi  from  his  enterprise, 
even  though  he  later  secretly  aided  it  by  the  supply  of  arms  and  ammunition.  It 
was  Cavour's  business  then  to  decline  any  responsibility  in  the  eyes  of  the  diplo- 
matists of  Europe  for  the  unconstitutional  proposal  of  the  general. 

Garibaldi  finally  took  the  bold  resolution  of  sailing  for  Sicily  on  May  5,  1860, 
with  a  thousand  or  so  of  volunteers.     This  marks  the  beginning  of  his  heroic 


J!:^,7^/g:z:Q      history  of  the  world  267 

expedition,  and  also  of  the  incomparable  game  of  intrigue  played  by  Cavour ;  for 
the  whole  body  of  European  diplomatists  raised  their  voices  in  protest  against  the 
conduct  of  the  Italian  government  which  had  allowed  a  warlike  expedition  against 
a  neighbouring  State  in  time  of  peace.  Cavour,  assailed  by  all  the  ambassadors, 
declared,  with  some  reason,  that  Garibaldi  had  acted  against  the  wishes  of  the 
government,  and  informed  the  French  emperor  that  the  government  was  too  weak 
to  hinder  the  expedition  by  force,  since  otherwise  there  was  the  fear  of  a  repub- 
lican rising  against  the  king.  At  the  same  time  Cavour  adopted  measures  to  avert 
all  danger  from  Garibaldi.  Admiral  Count  Carlo  Pellion  di  Persano  received 
commands  from  him  to  place  his  ships  between  Garibaldi's  transports  and  the 
Neapolitan  fleet  which  was  watching  for  them.  To  this  intentionally  cryptic  order 
Persano  replied  that  he  believed  he  understood ;  if  need  arose,  Cavour  might  send 
him  to  the  fortress  at  Fenestrelles.  He  must  have  made  up  his  mind  to  be  repu- 
diated, like  Garibaldi,  in  event  of  the  failure  of  the  expedition. 

Garibaldi  landed  at  Marsala,  the  LilybEsum  of  the  ancients,  on  May  11, 1860. 
He  obtained  but  little  help  from  the  Sicilians;  when  he  attacked  on  May  15,  near 
Calatafimi,  the  royal  troops,  the  twenty-four  hundred  Sicilians  who  had  joined 
him  ran  away  at  the  first  shot,  while  he  won  a  splendid  victory  with  his  volun- 
teers. At  Palermo,  however,  all  was  ready  for  the  insurrection.  In  concert  with 
his  friends  there  Garibaldi,  notwithstanding  the  great  numerical  superiority  of  the 
Bourbon  troops,  ventured  on  a  bold  attack  during  the  night  of  the  27th-28th 
May.  The  people  sided  with  him ;  the  troops  of  the  king  were  fired  upon  from 
the  houses  and  withdrew  to  the  citadel,  whence  they  bombarded  Palermo.  Eebel- 
lion  blazed  up  through  the  whole  island,  and  the  scattered  garrisons  retired  to  the 
strong  places  on  the  coast,  especially  to  Messina. 

(6)  The  Expulsion  of  the  Bourbons  from  Naples.  —  Alarmed  at  the  revolt  of 
the  island,  King  Francis  of  Naples  changed  his  tone ;  in  his  dire  necessity  he  sum- 
moned liberal  ministers  to  his  counsels,  and  promised  the  Neapolitans  a  free  con- 
stitution. He  sent  an  embassy  to  Napoleon  III  with  a  petition  for  help.  The 
attitude  of  the  latter  was  significant.  He  explained  to  the  envoys  that  he  desired 
the  continuance  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  but  that  it  did  not  lie  in  his  power  to 
check  the  popular  movement.  The  Italians,  he  said,  were  keen-witted,  and  knew 
that,  after  having  once  shed  the  blood  of  the  French  for  their  liberation,  he  could 
not  proceed  against  them  with  armed  force.  He  added,  "The  power  stands  on 
the  national  side,  and  is  irresistible.  We  stand  defenceless  before  it."  He  advised, 
however,  the  king  of  Naples  to  abandon  Sicily,  and  to  offer  an  alliance  to  King 
Victor  Emmanuel.  Napoleon  promised  to  support  this  proposal.  This  was  done, 
and  all  the  great  powers  assented  to  the  wishes  of  France,  —  even  England,  which, 
with  all  its  inclination  to  Italy,  still  wished  that  the  peninsula  should  be  divided 
into  two  kingdoms.  Cavour  was  in  the  most  difficult  position ;  it  was  impossible, 
iu  defiance  to  Europe,  to  refuse  negotiations  with  Naples,  but  he  could  not  but 
fear  to  risk  his  whole  work  if  he  offered  his  hand  to  the  hated  Bourbons.  He 
therefore  consented  to  negotiations,  for  form's  sake,  and  even  induced  King  Victor 
Emmanuel  to  write  a  letter  to  Garibaldi,  calling  upon  the  latter  to  discontinue 
landing  troops  on  the  mainland  of  Naples.  Garibaldi  thereupon  replied  to  the 
king  on  June  27,  "  Your  Majesty  knows  the  high  respect  and  affection  which  I 
entertain  for  your  person ;  but  the  state  of  affairs  in  Italy  does  not  allow  me  to 


268  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         Ichapter  iii 

obey  you  as  I  should  wish.  Allow  me,  then,  this  time  to  be  disobedient  to  you. 
So  soon  as  I  have  accomplished  my  duty  and  the  peoples  are  freed  from  the 
detested  yoke,  I  will  lay  down  my  sword  at  your  feet,  and  obey  you  for  the  rest 
of  my  life." 

But  Cavour  was  harassed  by  a  still  further  anxiety.  Garibaldi,  on  his  march 
through  Sicily,  surrounded  himself  almost  exclusively  with  partisans  of  Mazzini, 
and  was  resolved,  so  soon  as  Naples  was  liberated,  to  march  on  Eome.  If  then  the 
republican  party  of  action  in  this  way  did  their  best  for  the  liberation  of  Italy,  the 
fate  of  the  monarchy  was  sealed.  Cavour,  therefore,  concurrently  with  the  negotia- 
tions with  Naples,  staked  everything  to  provoke  a  revolution  on  the  mainland,  by 
which  not  Garibaldi,  but  Persano  or  the  king  himself,  should  be  proclaimed  dic- 
tator. He  entered  into  a  compact  with  one  of  the  ministers  of  the  king  of  Naples, 
Liborio  Eomano,  who  equally  with  Alessandro  Nunziante,  duke  of  Majano,  adju- 
tant-general of  Ferdinand  II,  was  ready  for  treachery.  Cavour  hoped  by  aid  of 
the  latter  to  rouse  to  revolt  a  part  of  the  Neapolitan  army.  He  wrote  to  Persano, 
"  Do  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact,  Admiral,  that  the  moment  is  critical  Ic  is  a  ques- 
tion of  carrying  out  the  greatest  enterprise  of  modern  times,  by  protecting  Italy 
from  foreigners,  pernicious  principles,  and  fools."  But  Nunziante,  awakening  the 
suspicion  of  the  Bourbon  government,  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  on  board  the 
Piedmontese  fleet.  The  king's  uncle.  Prince  Louis,  Count  Aquila,  who  seemed  to 
have  been  won  for  the  Italian  cause,  was  ordered  by  his  nephew  to  quit  the  kingdom. 

It  was  thus  evident  that  Garibaldi's  services  must  once  more  be  utilised  in  order 
to  overthrow  the  Bourbons.  He  landed  on  August  19,  1860,  on  the  coast  of  the 
peninsula  near  Melito,  and  marched  directly  on  Naples.  The  generals  who  were 
sent  against  him  were  unreliable,  since  their  hearts  were  in  the  Italian  cause.  The 
soldiers  who '  supported  the  Bourbons  thought  themselves  betrayed,  and  murdered 
General  Pileno  Briganti  at  Mileto  (August  25)  after  he  had  concluded  terms  of  capit- 
ulation with  Garibaldi.  The  latter  was  received  everywhere  with  enthusiasm ;  the 
common  people  regarded  him  as  an  invulnerable  hero.  When  he  entered  Naples  on 
September  7,  1860,  with  his  18,000  volunteers,  he  was  greeted  by  Liborio  Eomano 
as  liberator ;  the  king  withdrew  with  his  army  of  60,000  men  into  a  strong  for- 
tress on  the  Volturno.  A  momentous  crisis  had  arrived.  Far  the  adherents  of 
Mazzini  in  the  train  of  Garibaldi  it  was  of  vital  importance  to  prevent  the  people 
of  Naples  from  being  called  upon  to  vote  whether  they  wished  Victor  Emmanuel 
to  be  king.  They  confirmed  Garibaldi  in  the  idea  of  marching  immediately  on 
Eome,  of  driving  out  the  French  troops,  and  of  putting  an  end  to  the  hierarchy. 
Garibaldi's  breast  swelled  with  his  previous  successes  ;  he  was  susceptible  to  flat- 
tery, and  firmly  persuaded  himself  that  it  was  merely  Cavour's  jealousy,  if  Victor 
Emmanuel  did  not  follow  the  noble  impulses  of  his  heart  and  throw  open  to  him 
the  road  to  Eome  and  Venice.  When  Cavour  sent  his  trusted  envoy,  the  Sicilian 
Giuseppe  La  Farina,  in  order  to  put  himself  in  communication  with  Garibaldi,  the 
latter  insulted  him  by  ordering  his  expulsion  from  Sicily.  At  first  Garibaldi 
acquiesced  in  the  dictatorship  of  Agostino  Depretis,  who  was  sent  by  the  king ; 
but  on  September  18  he  replaced  him,  from  suspicion  of  his  connection  with 
Cavour,  by  Antonio  Mordini,  an  intimate  friend  of  Mazzini.  In  this  way  Garibaldi 
succeeded  in  involving  Italy  simultaneously  in  a  war  with  France  and  Austria. 
The  emperor  Napoleon  looked  sullenly  at  Naples,  where  a  revolutionary  focus  was 
forming  that  threatened  his  throne  with  destruction. 


S/rf^r^J        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  269 

E.  Cavoue's  End 

(a)  Gastelfidardo.  —  Once  more  Cavour  faced  the  situation  with  the  boldest 
determination.  He  was  firmly  convinced  that  the  monarchy  and  the  constitutional 
government  of  North  Italy  must  contribute  as  much  to  the  union  of  the  peninsula 
as  Garibaldi ;  he  therefore  counselled  the  king  to  advance  with  his  army  into  the 
papal  territory  and  to  occupy  it,  —  with  the  exception  of  Eome,  which  was  protected 
by  Napoleon,  —  to  march  on  Naples  and  to  defeat  the  army  of  the  Bourbon  king, 
which  was  encamped  on  the  Volturno.  Matters  had  come  to  such  a  crisis  that, 
when  Victor  Emmanuel  sent  his  minister  Luigi  Earini  (1859-1860  dictator  of  the 
Emilia)  and  General  Enrico  Cialdini  to  Napoleon  III,  in  order  to  expound  his  plan, 
the  emperor  gave  a  reply  which  showed  that  he  was  not  blind  to  the  necessity  of 
the  action  taken  by  Victor  Emmanuel. 

The  Pope,  in  order  not  to  be  entirely  dependent  on  the  help  of  France,  which 
was  intended  merely  to  protect  Eome  itself  and  its  immediate  vicinity,  had  sur- 
rounded himself  with  an  army  of  20,000  enlisted  soldiers,  at  whose  head  he  placed 
General  L.  L.  Juchault  de  Lamoricifere,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Legitimist  party 
in  France.  The  mercenaries  consisted  of  French,  Austrians,  Belgians,  and  Swiss ; 
their  officers  were  partly  the  flower  of  the  Legitimist  nobility  of  France,  —  a  fact 
which  could  not  be  very  pleasant  to  Napoleon.  But  King  Victor  Emmanuel  sent 
40,000  men,  under  the  command  of  General  Manfredo  Fanti,  against  the  States  of 
the  Church ;  and  Lamoriciere,  who  was  obliged  to  leave  half  his  troops  to  suppress 
the  inhabitants  of  the  States  of  the  Church,  was  attacked  by  a  greatly  superior  force. 
He  was  so  completely  defeated  at  Gastelfidardo  on  September  18,  1860,  that -he 
was  only  able  to  escape  to  Ancona  with  130  men,  while  almost  the  entire  papal 
army  was  taken  prisoner.  Persano  received  orders  to  bombard  Ancona;  it  sur- 
rendered on  September  29. 

(I)  On  the  Volturno.  —  The  troops  of  Garibaldi  had  in  the  meantime  attacked 
the  Bourbon  army  on  the  Volturno,  but  without  any  success.  The  Bourbon  troops 
crossed  the  Volturno  in  order,  in  their  turn,  to  attack.  Garibaldi  boldly  held  his 
ground  with  his  men,  and  the  Neapolitans,  although  three  to  one,  could  not  gain  a 
victory ;  but  Garibaldi  was  far  from  being  able  to  calculate  upon  a  rapid  success. 
Under  these  circumstances  public  opinion  was  strongly  impressed  when  the  army 
of  Victor  Emmanuel  appeared  on  the  bank  of  the  Volturno  ;  the  Neapolitans  with- 
drew behind  the  Garigliano. 

It  was  high  time  that  King  Victor  Emmanuel  appeared  in  Naples  ;  for  Gari- 
baldi was  now  so  completely  under  the  influence  of  the  opponents  of  Cavour  that 
he  flatly  refused  to  allow  the  incorporation  of  Naples  and  Sicily  in  the  kingdom 
of  Italy  to  be  carried  out.  Mordini,  his  representative  in  SicUy,  worked  at  his  side, 
with  the  object  that  independent  parliaments  should  be  summoned  in  Naples  and 
Palermo,  which  should  settle  the  matter.  Garibaldi  actually  informed  the  king 
he  would  not  agree  to  the  union,  unless  Cavour  and  his  intimate  friends  were  first 
dismissed  from  the  ministry.  By  this  demand,  however,  he  ran  counter  to  almost 
the  entire  public  opinion  of  Italy.  In  Naples  especially  and  in  Sicily  all  pru- 
dent men  wished  for  a  rapid  union  with  Italy,  since  the  break-up  of  the  old 
regime,  in  Sicily  especially,  had  brought  in  its  train  confusion,  horrors,  and  politi- 


270  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD         \_Chapter  iii 

cal  murders.  Garibaldi  long  debated  with  himself  whether  he  should  yield; 
but  when  the  Marquis  Giorgio  PaUavicino-Trivulzio  (who  had  fretted  away  the 
years  of  his  manhood  as  a  prisoner  in  the  Spielberg  at  Briinn  and  was  now  the 
leader  of  the  party  of  action),  and  with  him  virtually  the  whole  population  of 
Naples,  went  over  to  the  other  side,  the  patriot  general  mastered  himself  and 
ordered  the  voting  on  the  imionwith  Italy  to  be  arranged  (October  21).  The  king 
would  have  been  prepared  to  grant  his  wish  and  to  nominate  him  lieutenant-gen- 
eral of  the  districts  conquered  by  him,  had  not  Garibaldi  attached  the  condition  to 
it  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  march  on  Eome  in  the  coming  spring.  As  this 
could  not  be  granted,  he  withdrew  in  dignified  pride,  although  deeply  mortified  and 
implacably  hostile  to  Cavour,  to  his  rocky  island  of  Caprera.  In  his  farewell  pro- 
clamation he  called  upon  the  Italians  to  rally  round  "  II  Efe  galantuomo  ; "  but  he 
foretold  his  hope  that  in  March,  1861,  he  would  find  a  million  Italians  under  arms, 
hinting  in  this  way  that  he  wished  by  their  means  to  liberate  Eome  and  Venice. 
But  a  fact,  which  many  years  later  was  disclosed  in  the  memoirs  of  Thouvenel  and 
Beust,  shows  how  correct  the  judgment  of  Cavour  was  when  he  kept  the  Italians 
at  this  time  away  from  Eome.  When  Garibaldi  wished  to  march  against  Eome, 
Napoleon  told  the  Vienna  cabinet  that  he  had  no  objection  if  it  wished  to  draw 
the  sword  against  Italy  to  uphold  the  treaty  of  Zurich,  —  that  is  to  say,  for  the 
papacy ;  only,  it  could  not  be  allowed  to  disturb  Lombardy  again.  It  is  conceivable 
that  Court  Eechberg  (p.  284),  the  foreign  minister,  dissuaded  the  emperor  Francis 
Joseph  from  a  war  which  could  bring  no  gain  to  Austria  even  in  case  of  victory. 

(c)  The  Fall  of  Gaeta;  Death  of  Cavour.  —  The  Bourbon  army  could  not  hold 
its  ground  against  the  troops  of  Victor  Emmanuel,  and  King  Francis  threw  himself 
into  the  fortress  of  Gaeta.  When  he  surrendered  there  with  eight  thousand  men 
on  February  13,  1861,  the  union  of  Italy  was  almost  won.  Cavour  himself  was  not 
fated  to  see  the  further  accomplishment  of  his  wishes.  He  was  attacked  by  a 
deadly  illness  not  long  after  an  exciting  session  of  parliament,  in  which  Garibaldi 
heaped  bitter  reproaches  on  his  head.  In  his  delirium  he  dreamed  of  the  future 
of  his  country.  He  spoke  of  Garibaldi  with  great  respect ;  he  said  that  he  longed, 
as  much  as  the  general,  to  go  to  Eome  and  Venice.  He  spok^  with  animation  of 
the  desirability  of  reconciling  the  Pope  with  Italy.  When  ms  confessor  Giacopo 
handed  him  the  sacrament  on  June  6, 1861,  he  said  to  him,  "Brother,  brother,  a 
free  Church  in  a  free  State  "  ("  Frate,  frate,  libera  chiesa  in  libero  state  ").  These 
were  his  last  words. 


F.  The  Eomak  Question:  the  Fall  or  Eicasoli  and  Garibaldi 

No  problem  had  engrossed  the  maker  of  Italy  in  the  last  months  of  his  life  so 
much  as  the  Eoman  question.  There  was  a  section  of  his  friends  who  considered 
it  necessary  to  yield  Eome  to  the  Pope,  in  order  that  the  secular  power  of  the 
papacy  might  remain  undisturbed.  Such  was  the  idea  of  D'Azeglio.  Stefano 
Jacini  thought  that  Eome,  on  the  model  of  the  Hanse  towns,  might  be  turned  into 
a  free  State,  where  the  Pope  might  maintain  his  residence  in  the  character  of  a 
protector  and  suzerain.  Cavour,  on  the  contrary,  was  convinced  that  Italy  without 
its  natural  capital  was  an  incomplete  structure.     He  would  have  granted  the  Pope 


S,^f^J?r4]        HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  271 

the  most  favourable  conditions  if  the  latter  would  have  met  the  wishes  of  the 
Italians.  The  throne  of  Peter,  which  so  many  able  statesmen  had  filled  in  the 
past,  was  now  held  by  Pius  IX,  a  childlike,  religious  nature,  who  allowed  himself 
to  be  enmeshed  by  the  irreconcilable  ideas  of  Giacomo  Antonelli  and  the  Jesuits, 
and  by  his  obstinacy  proved  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  union  of  Italy.  In  spite 
of  repeated  pressure  from  the  emperor  Napoleon,  he  refused  to  admit  the  intro- 
duction of  reforms  in  the  administration  of  the  papal  States,  or  to  conciliate  the 
national  feelings  of  the  Italians.  Victor  Emmanuel,  even  before  his  march  into 
the  States  of  the  Church,  professed  his  readiness  to  recognise  the  papal  sovereignty 
within  the  old  territorial  limits,  provided  that  the  Curia  transferred  to  him  the 
vicariate  over  the  provinces  taken  from  it.  It  was  an  equally  beneficial  circum- 
stance for  the  infant  State  that  the  Pope,  by  repudiating  liberty  of  conscience  and 
free  political  institutions  in  his  Encyclical  of  December  8, 1864,  and  in  the  Syllabus 
(Syllabus  complectens  prcecipuos  nostrce  mtatis  errores),  outraged  the  sensibilities 
even  of  those  Catholics  who  wished  for  the  maintenance  of  the  temporal  power, 
but  did  not  wish  to  plunge  back  into  mediaevalism.  Liberal  ideas  would  not  have 
been  able  to  continue  their  victorious  progress  between  1860  and  1870  in  the 
Catholic  countries  of  Austria,  Italy,  and  Prance  if  the  papal  chair  had  not  invol- 
untarily proved  their  best  ally. 

Baron  Bettino  Eicasoli,  the  successor  of  Cavour,  thought  that  he  acted  in  his 
predecessor's  spirit  when  he  made  dazzling  proposals  to  the  Pope,  on  condition  that 
the  latter  should  recognise  the  status  quo.  Eicasoli  proposed  a  treaty,  which  not 
merely  assured  all  the  rights  of  the  papal  primacy,  but  offered  Pius,  as  a  reward 
for  his  concilia toriness,  the  renunciation  by  the  king  of  all  his  rights  as  patron, 
especially  that  of  the  appointment  of  the  bishops.  By  this  the  Pope  would  have 
completely  ruled  the  Church  of  Italy ;  and  that  State  would  have  been  deprived  of 
a  sovereign  right,  which  not  merely  Louis  XIV,  but  Philip  II  of  Spain  and  Ferdi- 
nand II  of  Austria,  would  never  have  allowed  themselves  to  lose.  In  place  of 
any  answer  the  cardinal  secretary,  Antonelli,  declared,  in  the  official  "  Giornale  di 
Eoma,"  that  the  proposal  of  Eicasoli  was  an  unparalleled  effrontery. 

This  unfortunate  attempt  overthrew  the  ministry  of  Eicasoli,  and  under  his 
successor,  Eattazzi,  Garibaldi  hoped  to  be  able  to  carry  out  his  design  against 
EoEbe.  He  mustered  his  volunteers  in  Sicily,  and  landed  with  two  thousand  men 
on  the  coast  of  Calabria ;  but  the  government  was  in  earnest  when  it  announced 
that  it  would  oppose  his  enterprise  by  arms.  Garibaldi,  wounded  by  a  bullet  in  the 
right  foot,  was  forced  to  lay  down  his  arms  after  a  short  battle  at  Aspromonte  on 
August  29,  1862.  The  road  to  Eome  was  not  opened  to  the  Italians  until  the 
power  of  France  was  overthrown  by  the  victories  of  Germany. 

3.   THE   FAILUEES   OF  EMPEEOE  NAPOLEON  III 

Although  the  Italian  policy  of  Napoleon  III  seemed  vague  and  contradictory, 
even  to  his  contemporaries,  yet  he  was  still  in  their  eyes  entitled  to  the  credit  of 
being  the  creator  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy ;  so  that  in  the  year  1860  he  stood  at 
the  zenith  of  his  influence  in  Europe.  He  successfully  concealed  from  public 
opinion  how  much  had  really  been  done  contrary  to  his  wishes.  It  was  discovered 
that  his  character  was  sphinx-like,  and  what  was  really  weakness  seemed  to  be 
Machiavellian  calculation.     Cavour  indeed  saw  through  him  and  made  full  use  of 


272  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         Ichapteriii 

his  vacillation ;  and  years  later  the  story  was  told  how  Bismarck,  even  in  those 
days,  called  the  French  emperor  une  incapacite  meconnue  (an  overestimated  incap- 
able). But  as  against  this  unauthenticated  verdict  we  must  remember  that  the 
emperor  possessed  a  wide  range  of  intellectual  interests  and  a  keen  comprehension 
of  the  needs  of  his  age.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  lacking  in  firmness ;  natures 
like  Cavour  and  Bismarck  easily  thwarted  his  plans,  and  could  lead  him  towards 
the  goal  which  they  had  in  view. 

Outside  France,  Napoleon's  advocacy  of  the  national  wishes  of  the  smaller 
nations  of  Europe  made  him  popular.  When  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  contrary  to 
the  tenor  of  the  treaties,  chose  a  common  sovereign,  Alexander  Cusa  (p.  249), 
Napoleon  III,  with  the  help  of  Eussia,  induced  the  great  powers  to  recognise 
him,  and  protected  the  Eoumanians  when  their  principalities  were  united  into  a 
national  State.  Cusa,  it  is  true,  was  deposed  by  a  revolution  on  February  23,  1866. 
Prince  Charles  of  HohenzoUern,  who  was  chosen  on  April  20,  obtained  for  the 
youthful  State,  by  the  force  of  his  personality,  complete  independence  on  May  21, 
1877,  and  the  title  of  a  kingdom  on  March  26,  1881. 

(a)  Poland.  —  It  was  Napoleon's  purpose  to  perform  equal  services  for  the 
Poles.  The  Czar  Alexander  II,  in  order  to  conciliate  them,  placed,  in  June,  1862, 
their  countryman,  the  Marquis  of  Wielopolski,  at  the  side  of  his  brother  Constan- 
tine,  the  viceroy  of  Poland.  Wielopolski  endeavoured  to  reconcile  his  people  to 
Eussia,  in  order  to  help  his  countrymen  to  win  some  share,  however  modest,  of 
self-government.  But  the  passionate  fury  of  the  Poles  frustrated  his  purpose,  and 
he  was  unable  to  prevent  the  outbreak  of  the  insurrection  (January,  1863).  He 
thereupon  gave  up  his  post,  and  the  Eussian  government  adopted  the  sternest 
measures.  In  February  Prussia  put  the  Eussian  emperor  under  an  obligation  by 
granting  permission  to  Eussian  troops  to  follow  Polish  insurgents  into  Prussian 
territory.  This  compact,  it  is  true,  did  not  come  into  force,  since  it  aroused  the 
indignation  of  Europe ;  but  it  showed  the  good  will  of  Prussia,  and  Bismarck,  by 
this  and  other  services  in  the  Polish  question,  won  the  Czar  over  so  completely 
that  Eussia's  neutrality  was  assured  in  the  event  of  a  quarrel  in  Germany.  Napo- 
leon now  induced  England,  and,  after  long  hesitation,  Austria  also,  to  tender  to 
Eussia  a  request  that  the  Poles  should  be  granted  a  complete  £0anesty ;  but  Eussia 
refused  this  request.  The  support  of  Prussia  was  peculiarly  valuable  to  Eussia, 
because  France,  England,  and  Austria  resolved  to  intercede  further  for  the  Poles. 
In  a  note  of  June  27,  1863,  the  three  powers  recommended  to  Eussia  the  grant 
of  six  demands,  of  which  the  most  important  were  a  Polish  parliament  and  a 
complete  amnesty.  Palmerston  supported  these  first  steps  of  Napoleon,  in  the 
interests  of  English  rule  in  India.  In  Poland  he  saw  a  wound  to  Eussian  power, 
which  he  determined  to  keep  open.  But  he  refused  his  assent  to  more  serious 
measures  which  Napoleon  pressed  on  his  consideration,  because  the  Polish  question 
was  not  so  important  for  the  English  that  they  would  embark  on  a  war  for  this 
sole  reason ;  still  less  could  Austria,  since  it  was  one  of  the  participatory  powers, 
follow  Napoleon  on  his  path.  The  Czar,  however,  was  so  enraged  at  Austria's 
vacillating  attitude  that  he  thereupon  immediately  proposed  to  King  William  an 
alliance  against  France  and  Austria.  Bismarck  advised  his  sovereign  not  to  accept 
the  Czar's  proposal,  because  in  a  war  against  France  and  Austria  the  brunt  of  the 
burden  would  have  devolved  on  Prussia.     Napoleon  then  proposed  to  the  Austrian 


ItalJ'^utZ:Q       HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  273 

emperor,  through  the  Due  de  Gramont,  that  he  should  cede  Galicia  to  Poland, 
which  was  to  be  emancipated,  but  in  return  take  possession  of  the  Danubian  prin- 
cipalities. Count  Eechberg  answered  that  it  was  strange  to  suggest  to  Austria  to 
wage  a  war  with  Eussia  for  the  purpose  of  losing  a  province,  when  it  was  cus- 
tomary to  draw  the  sword  only  to  win  a  fresh  one.  Napoleon  thus  saw  himself 
completely  left  in  the  lurch,  and  Eussia  suppressed  the  rebellion  with  bloodshed 
and  severity ;  the  governor-general  of  Wilna,  Michael  Muravjev,  was  conspicuous 
by  the  remorseless  rigour  with  which  he  exercised  his  power. 

(6)  Mexico.  —  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  consider  Napoleon  as  a  sympathetic 
politician,  who,  if  free  to  make  his  choice,  would  have  devoted  the  resources  of  his 
country  to  the  liberation  of  oppressed  nations.  His  selfishness  was  revealed  in  the 
expedition  against  Mexico ;  and  there  too  he  tried  to  veil  his  intention  by  specious 
phrases.  Be  announced  to  the  world  that  he  wished  to  strengthen  the  Latin  races 
in  America  as  opposed  to  the  Anglo-Saxons,  who  were  striving  for  the  dominion 
over  the  New  World.  He  had  originally  started  on  the  expedition  in  concert  with 
England  and  Spain,  in  order  to  urge  upon  the  Mexican  government  the  pecuniary 
claims  of  European  creditors.  The  two  allies  withdrew  when  Mexico  conceded 
their  request ;  the  Prench  general.  Count  Lorencez,  thereupon,  in  violation  of  the 
treaty,  seized  the  healthy  tableland  above  the  fever-stricken  coast  of  Vera  Cruz, 
where  the  French  had  landed.  General  Forey  then  conquered  the  greatest  part 
of  the  land,  and  an  assembly  of  notables,  on  July  11,  1863,  elected  as  emperor 
the  archduke  Maximilian,  brother  of  Francis  Joseph.  He  long  hesitated  to  accept 
the  crown,  because  Francis  Joseph  gave  his  assent  only  on  the  terms  that  Maxi- 
milian first  unconditionally  renounce  all  claim  to  the  succession  in  Austria. 
After  Napoleon  had  promised,  in  the  treaty  of  March  12,  1864,  to  leave  at  least 
twenty  thousand  French  soldiers  in  the  country  imtil  1867,  the  archduke  finally 
consented  to  be  emperor;  he  did  not  shut  his  eyes  to  the  fact  that  monarchy 
would  be  slow  to  strike  root  in  the  land.  Napoleon,  by  placing  the  emperor 
Maximilian  on  the  throne,  pursued  his  object  of  gradually  withdrawing  from  the 
Mexican  affair,  since  the  United  States  protested  against  the  continuance  of  the 
French  in  Mexico.  When,  then,  war  between  Prussia  and  Austria  threatened 
ominously.  Napoleon  felt  his  Mexican  pledges  increasingly  burdensome ;  since  the 
president,  Benito  Juarez,  with  growing  success,  was  trying  to  emancipate  the 
country  from  the  foreigners.  The  reader  is  referred  to  Vol.  I,  p.  523,  for  the  his- 
tory of  the  way  in  which  Napoleon  finally  deserted  the  unhappy  emperor,  and  thus 
incurred  a  partial  responsibility  for  his  execution  at  Queretaro. 

The  restless  ambition  of  Napoleon's  policy  aroused  universal  distrust  in  Europe. 
When  the  war  of  1866  broke  out,  after  his  failures  in  the  Polish  and  Mexican 
affair,  his  star  was  already  setting ;  and  a  growing  republican  opposition,  supported 
by  the  younger  generation,  was  raising  its  head  menacingly  in  France. 

4.    MILITAEY  EEFOEM  AND   THE   CONSTITUTIONAL  STEUGGLE 

IN  PEUSSIA 

A.   The  Ministky  of  Hohenzollekn-Schweein 

Cavour  on  his  death-bed  spoke  unceasingly  of  the  future  of  his  country,  and 
thus  expressed  himself  about  Germany :  "  This  German  Federation  is  an  absurdity; 

VOL.  Vni  — 18 


274  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         Ichapter  iii 

it  will  break  up,  and  the  union  of  Germany  will  be  established.  But  the  house 
of  Hapsburg  cannot  alter  itself.  What  will  the  Prussians  do,  who  are  so  slow  in 
coming  to  any  conclusions  ?  They  will  need  fifty  years  to  effect  what  we  have  cre- 
ated in  three  years."  This  was  the  idea  of  the  future  which  the  dying  statesman, 
to  whom  the  name  of  Bismarck  was  still  probably  unknown,  pictured  to  himself. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  Germany,  notwithstanding  its  efficiency  and  its  culture, 
would  have  required,  without  Bismarck,  another  half-century  for  its  union.  King 
Frederick  William  I  had  possessed  an  efficient  army,  without  being  able  to  turn 
it  to  account,  as  his  great  son  did.  Twice  the  tools  were  procured  and  ready, 
before  the  master  workman  appeared  on  the  scene  who  knew  how  to  use  them. 

We  know  precisely  the  goal  which  King  William  I  put  before  himself  in  the 
German  question  before  Bismarck  became  his  minister.  The  plans  which,  as 
prince  regent,  he  unfolded  to  the  emperor  Francis  Joseph  at  the  conference  at 
Teplitz,  toward  the  end  of  July,  1860,  were  modest.  He  was  prepared  to  form  an 
alliance  with  Austria  which  would  have  guaranteed  to  that  country  its  ezisting 
dominions,  thus  including  Venice.  In  return  he  required  a  change  in  the  presi- 
dency of  the  German  Federation  as  well  as  the  command  in  the  field  over  the 
troops  of  North  Germany  in  future  federal  wars ;  the  supreme  command  in  South 
Germany  was  to  fall  to  Austria.  Thus  for  the  future  there  would  be  no  possibility 
of  the  Federation  choosing  a  general  for  itself,  as  Austria  had  desired  on  June  6, 
1859,  when  Germany  armed  against  Napoleon  III.^  Prussia  was  bound  to  prevent 
a  majority  in  the  Federation  deciding  the  question *'of  the  supreme  command  of  its 
army.  Neither  William  I  nor  his  ministers  then  aimed  at  the  subjugation  of  Ger- 
many. But  even  those  claims  were  rejected  by  Austria.  Francis  Joseph  declared 
that  the  presidency  in  the  Federation  was  an  old  prerogative  of  his  house,  and 
therefore  unassailable.  On  the  other  matter  no  negative  answer  was  returned, 
and  negotiations  were  opened  with  the  federal  diet ;  but  Austria  was  certain  that 
the  assembly  would  reject  the  proposition. 

If  we  leave  out  of  sight  the  army  reforms,  the  inestimable  work  of  William  I, 
we  shall  observe,  until  the  appearance  of  Bismarck  on  the  scene,  serious  vacilla- 
tion in  the  home  policy  no  less  than  in  the  foreign  policy  of  Prussia.  When  the 
prince  regent  became  the  representative  of  King  Frederick  jJVilliam  IV  (p.  252), 
he  issued  on  October  9,  1858,  a  programme  which  announced  in  cautious  language 
the  breach  with  the  reactionary  method  of  government.  The  avoidance  of  all 
canting  piety  produced  a  beneficial  impression ;  but  there  were  only  platitudes  on 
the  German  question,  among  others  the  phrase,  "  Prussia  must  make  moral  con- 
quests in  Germany."  When  the  prince  regent  soon  afterwards  summoned  a  min- 
istry of  moderate  liberals,  with  Prince  Anton  of  HohenzoUern  at  its  head,  public 
opinion  breathed  more  freely,  and  the  dawn  of  a  "  new  era  "  was  expected.  The 
name  of  Count  Maximilian  Schwerin,  minister  of  the  interior,  seemed  to  guarantee 
a  broad-minded  policy  of  reform.  Count  Alexander  von  Schleinitz,  the  minister 
of  foreign  affairs,  was,  on  the  contrary,  still  firmly  attached  to  the  old  system. 
The  Prussian  people  meantime  understood  the  good  intention,  and  the  new  elec- 
tions to  the  chamber  brought  a  majority  of  moderate  liberals  which  was  prepared 
to  support  the  government.  A  number  of  liberal  leaders  intentionally  refrained, 
from  standing,  in  order  not  to  arouse  the  misgivings  of  the  prince  regent  that  a 
repetition  of  the  state  of  things  in  1848  was  intended.  The  leading  figure  in  the 
chamber  which  met  in  January,  1859,  was  Georg  von  Vincke  (p.  175),  whose 


Zy'':^'^^:(y]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  275 

loyalty  was  beyond  suspicion.  Commendable  political  wisdom  was  shown  in  this 
moderation  on  the  part  of  the  constituencies.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  new  govern- 
ment introduced  schemes  of  reform  touching  the  abolition  of  the  land-tax  privi- 
leges of  the  nobility  and  the  abolition  of  the  police  powers  of  the  owhers  of 
knight-estates.  Great  efforts  were  expended  to  induce  the  upper  house,  where 
the  conservatives  possessed  a  majority,  to  accept  the  reforms.  In  a  matter  of 
German  politics,  where  the  conscience  of  the  people  chimed  in,  the  new  era  ful- 
filled the  expectations  formed  of  it.  Prussia  spoke  boldly  in  the  federal  diet  on 
behalf  of  the  restoration  of  the  constitution  of  Electoral  Hesse  (cf.  pp.  232,  239), 
which  had  been  meanly  curtailed. 

The  government  could  not  rise  superior  to  these  attacks.  The  prince  regent  was 
unable  to  bring  himself  to  make  a  clean  sweep  of  a  set  of  unpopular  high  officials, 
who  had  been  much  to  blame  in  the  reactionary  period  for  open  violations  of  the 
laws.  The  revolt  of  Italy  had  a  great  and  immediate  effect  on  the  German  people. 
The  founding  of  the  National  Society,  with  Eudolf  von  Bennigsen  at  its  head,  in 
July,  1859,  was  a  direct  consequence  of  the  Italian  war.  The  society  aimed  at 
the  union  of  all  German-speaking  races  outside  the  Austrian  Empire  under  the 
leadership  of  a  liberal  Prussia.  The  regent,  far  from  being  encouraged,  felt 
alarmed  by  the  events  in  Italy ;  the  revolutionary  rising  in  Naples  and  Garibaldi's 
march  repelled  him.  He  could  not  convince  himself  that  the  national  will  was 
entitled  to  override  legitimist  rights.  His  whole  policy,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
was  thus  stamped  by  conservatism  and  uncertainty.  The  Austrian  minister 
Kechberg,  at  the  conferences  of  the  emperor  Francis  Joseph  with  the  prince  regent 
and  with  the  Czar  at  Teplitz  and  Warsaw,  succeeded  in  confirming  these  two  mon- 
archs  in  the  conviction  that  they  too  were  threatened  by  the  national  and  liberal 
tendencies.    Austria  was  no  longer  isolated  in  that  respect  as  in  1859  (p.  253). 


B.  The  Army  Eefoem 

(a)  The  Alteration  in  the  Laws  of  Compulsory  Military  Service. — All  these 
circumstances  co-operated  to  close  the  ears  of  the  Prussian  people  when  the  king, 
who  succeeded  his  brother  on  the  throne  on  January  2,  1861,  came  before  the 
chamber  with  the  plan  of  army  reform.  William  I  was  superior  to  the  majority 
of  his  German  contemporaries  in  recognising  that  a  comprehensive  Prussian  policy 
could  only  be  carried  out  with  a  strong  army.  Leopold  von  Eanke  says  of  a  con- 
versation which  he  had  with  the  king  on  June  13,  1860  :  "  The  sum  of  his  resolu- 
tions was  ...  to  leave  the  German  princes  undisturbed  in  their  sovereignty,  but 
to  effect  a  union  in  military  matters  which  would  conduce  to  a  great  and  general 
efficiency.  He  fully  grasped  the  idea  that  the  military  power  comprised  in  itself 
the  sovereignty."  As  long  before  as  the  preparations,  which  might  have  led  to  a 
war  with  Austria  in  1850,  the  prince  was  convinced  that  the  Prussian  army,  which 
nominally,  on  a  war  footing,  numbered  200,000  men  with  the  colours,  and  400,000 
in  the  Landwehr,  was  not  sufficient  for  protracted  campaigns.  The  existing  organ- 
isation had  been  formed  in  the  critical  times  when  the  distrust  of  Napoleon  I  and 
vexatious  treaty  obligations  compelled  Prussia  to  keep  up  a  small  peace  army. 
Under  the  financial  stress  of  the  period  subsequent  to  1815,  she  was  forced  to  con- 
tinue with  this  defensive  army,  which  in  comparison  with  that  of  other  military 


276  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD         Ichapter  iii 

states  was  much  weaker  than  the  army  which  Frederick  II  had  raised  in  his  far 
smaller  kingdom.  The  mobilisation  of  1859  had  shown  serious  deficiencies  in 
every  direction.  Besides  this  the  prince  regent  even  then,  in  order  to  remedy  the 
most  crying  evils,  had  instituted  an  important  reform  on  his  own  authority. 
Hitherto  there  had  been  few  or  no  permanent  staffs  for  the  Landwehr  regiments ; 
so  that  on  a  fresh  mobilisation  the  troops  could  not  be  placed  in  the  ranks  as  soon 
as  they  were  called  out,  but  had  first  to  be  formed  into  regiments.  Such  a  state 
of  things  seems  incredible  at  the  present  day.  At  the  demobilisation  of  1859  the 
prince  regent  directed  that  the  recently  formed  staffs  of  the  Landwehr  regiments 
should  be  kept  up.  This  change  could  not,  however,  go  far  enough ;  for  since  the 
members  of  the  Landwehr  were  bound  to  be  dismissed,  those  staffs  consisted 
mostly  of  of&cers  only,  and  were  not  sufficient  to  form  the  basis  of  a  powerful 
new  organisation.  The  attention  of  William  I  was  now  directed  to  this  point. 
But  the  war  minister  of  the  day,  Eduard  von  Bonin,  was  too  timid  to  undertake 
the  responsibility  of  the  necessary  measures,  and  on  December  5,  1859,  Albrecht 
von  Eoon  had  to  be  summoned  in  his  place. 

The  new  proposal  came  before  the  Prussian  diet  on  February  10,  1860.  One 
of  the  great  drawbacks  of  the  existing  constitution  of  the  army  lay  in  the  fact  that, 
while  annually  on  the  average  155,650  men  reached  their  twentieth  year,  only 
20,000  men  were  enrolled  in  the  army.  Thus  twenty-six  per  cent  of  the  young 
men  capable  of  bearing  arms  bore  the  whole  burden  of  military  service,  which  was 
especially  heavy,  since  the  obligation  to  serve  in  the  Landwehr  lasted  to  the  thirty- 
ninth  year.  The  consequence  of  this  was  that  in  the  first  levy  of  the  Landwehr 
one-half  of  the  total  numbers,  and  in  the  second  levy  five-sixths,  were  married  men. 
The  number  of  men  liable  to  serve  had  remained  the  same  for  more  than  forty 
years,  although  the  population  of  the  country  had  increased  from  ten  to  eighteen 
millions.  The  obligatory  period  of  service  in  the  standing  army  (three  years  with 
the  colours,  two  years  in  the  reserve)  was  too  short  for  the  body  of  the  army.  The 
government  therefore  proposed  to  levy  annually,  instead  of  40,000  men,  60,000 
men,  —  forty  per  cent,  that  is,  of  all  those  liable  to  serve ;  while  in  return  the 
obligation  to  serve  in  the  Landwehr  was  to  last  only  to  the  age  of  thirty-five 
years.  Besides  this,  the  three  years'  service  in  the  reserve«vas  to  be  raised  to 
five  years.  This  change  signified  a  considerable  strengthening  of  the  standing 
army  and  a  reduction  of  the  Landwehr.  This  is  shown  by  the  figures  of  the 
full  war  footing  which  it  was  hoped  to  reach.  The  army  was  intended  hence- 
forth to  consist  of  371,000  men  with  the  colours,  126,000  men  in  the  reserve,  and 
163,000  in  the  Landwehr.  The  scheme  demanded  the  attention  of  the  diet 
in  two  respects.  On  the  one  side  a  money  grant  was  necessary,  since  it  was 
impossible  to  enrol  the  numerous  new  corps  in  the  old  regiments,  and  thirty- 
nine  new  line  regiments  had  to  be  i-aised.  An  annual  sum,  £1,350,000  sterling, 
was  required  for  the  purpose.  Besides  this,  the  existing  law  as  to  military  service 
required  to  be  considerably  modified.  This  applied  not  merely  to  the  division 
of  the  period  of  service  between  the  standing  army  and  the  Landwehr,  but  also 
concerned  the  length  of  compulsory  active  service.  At  that  time,  in  order  to  spare 
the  finances,  the  soldiers  were  often  dismissed  after  serving  two  or  two  and  a  half 
years.  King  William  did  not  consider  this  period  sufficient,  and  demanded  the 
extension  of  the  period  of  service  to  three,  and  in  the  case  of  the  cavalry  to 
four,  years. 


^Z^:^t^:iy'\        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  277 

(6)  The  Infantry  Tactics.  —  Measures  of  no  less  importance  had  then  been 
taken  with  regard  to  the  tactics  of  the  infantry.  After  the  war  of  1859  there  arose 
the  question  of  the  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  the  experiences  of  the  Italian  cam- 
paign. The  defensive  methods  of  the  Austrians  had  proved  inferior  to  the  offen- 
sive tactics  of  the  more  dashing  French.  The  French  had  often  succeeded,  in 
infantry  combats,  in  rushing  with  an  impetuous  charge  under  the  Austrian  bullets, 
which  had  a  very  curved  trajectory,  and  in  thus  winning  the  day.  For  this  reason 
it  was  the  ordinary  belief  in  the  Austrian  army  that  defensive  tactics  must  once 
for  all  be  given  up.  The  successes  of  the  French  were  overestimated,  and  there 
was  a  return  in  the  years  1859  to  1866  to  "shock  tactics;"  these  attached  little 
importance  to  the  preliminary  musketry  engagement,  and  consisted  in  firing  a  few 
volleys  and  then  charging  with  the  bayonet.  Many  voices  even  in  the  Prussian 
army  advocated  a  similar  plan.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Karl  Eudolf  OUech  was  sent 
by  the  Prussian  general  staff  to  France  in  August,  1859,  in  order  to  investigate  the 
condition  of  the  French  army.  He  returned  strongly  prejudiced  in  favour  of  the 
System  of  shock  tactics,  and  advised  the  king  to  issue  an  order,  in  connection  with 
a  similar  order  issued  by  Frederick  the  Great  for  the  cavalry,  that  "  every  infantry 
commander  would  be  brought  before  a  court-martial  who  lost  a  position  without 
having  met  the  attack  of  the  enemy  by  a  counter  attack. "  King  William  was  at 
all  times  clever  in  discovering  prominent  men  for  leading  positions.^  The  chief 
of  the  general  staff,  Lieutenant-General  Helmuth  von  Moltke,  clearly  saw  the  risk 
of  this  advice.  In  his  remarks  on  OUech's  report  he  laid  great  weight  on  the 
attacking  spirit  in  an  army ;  but  he  recognised  correctly  that  the  needle-gun,  intro- 
duced in  1847,  secured  the  Prussians  the  advantage  in  the  musketry  fighting, 
and  that  in  the  reorganisation  of  the  army  stress  should  be  laid  on  that  point. 
Moltke's  principle  was  that  the  infantry  should  make  the  fullest  use  of  their  supe- 
rior firing  power  at  the  beginning  of  the  battle,  and  should  for  that  purpose  select 
open  country,  where  the  effect  of  fire  is  the  greatest.  An  advance  should  not  be 
made  before  the  enemy's  infantry  were  shattered,  and  in  this  movement  attacks 
on  the  enemy's  flank  were  preferable.  The  Prussians  fought  in  1866  with  these 
superior  tactics,  and  they  owed  to  them  a  great  part  of  the  successes  which  they 
achieved. 

C.  The  Attitude  of  the  Landtag 

(a)  The  Increase  of  the  Army  Budget.  — The  Prussian  Landtag  did  not  mistake 
the  value  of  the  proposals  made  by  the  government,  but  raised  weighty  objections. 
The  majority  agreed  to  the  extension  of  the  annual  recruiting,  to  the  increase  of  the 
officers  and  under-officers,  and  to  the  discharge  of  the  older  members  of  the  Land- 
wehr.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  diminution  in  the  number  of  the  Landwehr 
on  a  war  footing,  and  the  resulting  reduction  of  their  importance,  but  especially  the 
three-years  compulsory  service,  aroused  vigorous  opposition.  General  Friedrich 
Stavenhagen,  who  gave  evidence  for  the   proposal,  characterised  the   two-years 

^  On  one  occasion,  after  the  war  of  1870,  he  playfully  related  ho-w  he  first  called  attention  to  the 
young  Lieutenant  von  Moltke.  The  officers  had  heen  given  by  him,  as  an  exercise,  some  plans  of  fortifica- 
tion to  work  out.  Moltke's  work  attracted  him  ;  he  called  his  superiors'  attention  to  him,  saying  laugh- 
ingly that  the  young  officer  was  as  thin  as  a  pencil,  but  showed  splendid  promise.  He  chose  this  officer 
to  be  the  military  adviser  of  his  son  (the  subsequent  Emperor  Frederick  III)  in  1865,  just  as  he  had  wished 
Eoon  in  1847  to_  undertake  the  prince's  education. 


278  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD         [_Chapter  iii 

service  as  sufficient.  The  government  recognised  that  it  could  not  carry  the  bill 
relating  to  compulsory  service,  and  therefore  withdrew  it.  It  was  content  to 
demand  an  increase  of  nine  million  thalers  (£1,300,000  sterling)  in  the  war  budget, 
in  order  to  carry  out  the  increase  of  the  regiments.  The  finance  minister.  Baron 
von  Patow,  explained  in  the  name  of  the  government  that  the  organisation  thus 
created  was  provisional,  and  would  not  assume  a  definite  character  until  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  popular  representatives  had  agreed  about  the  law  itself.  The 
Old  Liberal  majority  of  the  Chamber  of  Eepresentatives  adopted  this  middle 
course,  and  sanctioned  the  required  increase.  Thus  the  yearly  budget  for  the 
army  was  raised  to  32,800,000  thalers  (£4,920,000  sterling),  or,  roughly,  a  quarter 
of  the  entire  revenue  of  130,000,000  thalers  (£19,500,000). 

This  expedient  was  manifestly  illusory.  The  king  at  once  ordered  the  dis- 
banding of  thirty-six  regiments  of  Landwehr,  whose  place  was  taken  by  an  equal 
number  of  line  regiments.  Altogether  one  hundred  and  seventeen  new  battalions 
and  twelve  new  squadrons  were  formed.  Obviously  the  king,  who  presented 
colours  and  badges  to  the  new  regiments  on  January  18,  1861,  in  front  of  the 
monument  of  Frederick  the  Great,  could  not  disband  these  newly  formed  units 
or  dismiss  their  officers.  The  Chamber  of  Eepresentatives  became  in  fact  sus- 
picious, but  agreed  to  the  increased  army  budget  once  more  for  the  next  year. 
Since  the  elections  to  the  Landtag  were  imminent,  the  final  decision  stood  over 
for  the  new  house. 

(5)  The  Struggle.  —  It  would  be  a  mistake  to  treat  the  events  which  followed 
in  the  ordinary  manner,  relating  how  the  king  was  prudent,  but  the  Chamber  was 
petty  iu  the  army  question,  and  how  in  this  struggle  the  wisdom  of  the  regent 
fortunately  prevailed  over  the  meddlesomeness  of  the  professional  politicians. 
The  state  of  affairs  was  quite  otherwise.  The  dispute  in  the  matter  itself  was 
not  indeed  beyond  settlement.  In  case  of  necessity  it  would  have  been  possible 
to  arrive  at  a  compromise  as  to  the  amount  of  compulsory  service,  and  the  Prus- 
sian army  would  hardly  have  been  less  effective,  if  the  two-years  military  service 
had  been  introduced  then  and  not  postponed  until  after  the  death  of  Emperor 
Wniiam  I.  This  consideration  does  not  lessen  the  credit  d^  to  the  king.  But, 
as  the  new  elections  showed,  there  was  another  and  greater  issue  at  stake.  The 
influence  of  liberal  ideas  in  Europe  was  precisely  then  at  its  height,  and  public 
opinion  tended  toward  the  view  that  the  royal  power  in  Prussia  must  be  checked, 
exactly  as  it  had  been  in  that  model  parliamentary  state,  England.  The  citizen 
class  had  then,  it  was  thought,  come  to  years  of  maturity,  and  it  possessed  a  right 
to  take  the  place  of  the  monarchy  and  nobility  in  the  power  hitherto  enjoyed  by 
them.  At  the  new  elections  (December  6,  1861)  the  Progressive  party,  in  which 
the  members  of  the  movement  of  1848  assumed  the  lead,  was  formed  in  opposition 
to  the  Old  Liberals,  who  had  left  their  stamp  on  the  former  chamber ;  this  political 
group  had  not  yet  the  whole  electorate  on  its  side;  it  won  one  hundred  seats, 
barely  a  third  of  the  whole  assembly.  The  Old  Liberals  felt  themselves  mean- 
while outstripped,  especially  since  the  king  no  longer  extended  his  confidence  to 
the  liberal  ministers,  who  were  defeated  on  the  army  question. 

While  this  change  was  being  effected  among  the  citizen  class,  the  nobihty  and 
the  conservative  party  on  the  other  hand,  who  had  been  greatly  chagrined  at  being 
dismissed  from  the  helm  of  State  after  the  assumption  of  the  regency  by  the 


S,^:fe1t^4]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  279 

prince,  put  forward  their  claim  not  less  resolutely.  The  great  services  of  the 
Prussian  nobility  to  the  army  and  the  civil  service,  to  which  both  before  and  after 
it  supplied  first-class  men,  could  not  of  course  be  disputed.  But  to  justifiable 
pride  at  this  fact  was  joined  such  intense  class  prejifdice  that  even  a  man  like 
Eoon  could  not  for  a  long  time  bring  himself  to  recognise  the  justification  of  an 
elected  representation  of  the  people.  General  Edwin  von  Manteuffel,  as  chief  of 
the  royal  military  cabinet,  worked  with  him  in  the  same  spirit.  Ernst  von 
Oerlach  and  Hermann  Wagener  represented  in  the  "  Kreuzzeitung  "  similar  views 
(cf.  the  explanation  of  the  illustration  at  p.  187).  Karl  Twesten,  one  of  the  most 
prominent  members  of  the  Liberal  party,  called  General  Manteuffel  a  mischievous 
man  in  a  mischievous  position, —  a  taunt  which  Manteuffel  answered  by  a  challenge 
to  a  duel,  in  which  Twesten  was  wounded.  The  liberal  ministers  saw  with  con- 
cern how  the  king  inclined  more  and  more  toward  the  paths  of  the  conservative 
party.  They  counselled  him,  in  view  of  the  impending  struggle  over  the  military 
question,  to  conciliate  public  opinion  by  undertaking  reforms  in  various  depart- 
ments of  the  legislature.  Eoon  vigorously  opposed  this  advice,  which  he  saw  to 
be  derogatory  to  the  crown.  He  induced  the  king  on  March  1, 1861,  to  adjourn 
these  bills,  which  had  already  been  settled  upon.  He  unceasingly  urged  the  king 
to  dismiss  his  liberal  colleagues  and  to  adopt  strong  measures.  In  a  memorial 
laid  before  the  king,  dated  April,  1861,  he  wrote  of  the  HohenzoUern-Schwerin 
cabinet,  in  which,  nevertheless,  he  himself  had  accepted  a  seat,  that  "  it  is  only 
compatible  with  the  pseudo-monarchy  of  Belgium,  England,  or  of  Louis  Philippe,  — 
not  with  a  genuinely  Prussian  monarchy  by  the  grace  of  God,  with  a  monarchy 
according  to  your  ideas.  People  have  tried  to  intimidate  your  Majesty  by  the  loud 
outcry  of  the  day.  All  the  unfortunate  monarchs,  of  whom  history  tells,  have  so 
fared ;  the  phantom  ruined  them,  simply  because  they  believed  in  it." 


B.   The  Summons  of  Bismarck 

(a)  The  Hohenlolie  Ministry.  —  The  opposition  was  apparent  as  soon  as  the  new 
chamber  assembled  (January  14,  1862).  Opponents  of  the  proposal  were  elected 
on  the  commission  for  discussing  the  army  bill  in  a  large  majoritj^  "WTien  the 
budget  was  discussed,  the  motion  of  A.  H.  W.  Hagen,  one  of  the  representatives, 
was  accepted,  which  called  for  more  precise  details  of  the  State  finances.  This 
was  a  reasonable  demand,  and  was  soon  afterwards  conceded  by  Bismarck.  But 
the  conservative  advisers  of  the  king  stigmatised  the  wish  then  as  an  encroach- 
ment on  the  rights  of  the  crown,  and  the  Chamber  of  Eepresentatives  was  dis- 
solved on  March  18, 1862,  after  a  short  term  of  life.  At  the  same  time  the  liberal 
ministry  was  dismissed.  Its  place  was  taken  by  a  cabinet  in  which  officials 
preponderated,  but  which  on  the  whole  bore  a  conservative  character.  The 
president  was  Prince  Adolf  von  Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen ;  Gust.  W.  von  Jagow, 
Count  Leopold  zur  Lippe,  Count  H.  von  Itzenplitz,  and  Heinr.  von  Muhler  were 
partisans  of  the  conservatives. 

It  is  certainly  to  the  credit  of  Eoon  and  Manteuffel  that  their  influence  on  the 
Mng  paved  the  way  for  Bismarck.  But  they  made  the  commencement  of  his  term 
of  office  more  difficult  for  the  great  minister,  since  he  was  at  once  drawn  into  the 
most  violent  antagonism  to  popular  representation.     The  question  must  be  raised 


280  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         [Chapter  in 

whether  Prassia,  with  her  great  military  and  intellectual  superiority,  would  not 
have  obtained  the  same  results  if  there  had  been  no  such  rupture  with  public 
opinion.  The  crown  prince  Frederick  William  held  this  view,  and  it  was  shared 
not  only  by  Albert,  the  English  prince  consort,  but  also  the  king's  son-in-law,  the 
grand  duke  Frederick  of  Baden,  who  just  then  was  reforming  his  country  with 
the  help  of  the  liberal  ministers  Baron  Franz  von  Eoggenbach  and  Karl  Mathy. 
Men  of  a  similar  type  would  have  gladly  co-operated  to  help  King  William  to 
gain  the  imperial  crown.  King  William  himself  felt  that,  in  consequence  of  his 
quarrel  with  the  chamber,  many  sincere  friends  of  Prussia  were  mistaken  as  to 
his  country's  German  mission.  This  point  was  emphasised  even  in  the  national 
assembly. 

In  order  to  counteract  this  tendency,  the  king  had  appointed  Count  Albrecht 
von  Bernstorff,  who  advocated  the  union  of  Germany  under  the  leadership  of 
Prussia,  to  be  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  place  of  Schleinitz,  who  held 
legitimist  views.  Bernstorff  adopted  in  fact  most  vigorous  measures,  when  several 
States  of  the  German  ZoUverein,  on  the  conclusion  of  the  free-trade  commercial 
treaty  with  France,  threatened  they  would  in  consequence  withdraw  from  the 
ZoUverein.  They  found  a  supporter  in  Austria,  who  would  gladly  have  broken  up 
the  ZoUverein ;  but  they  were  forced  to  yield  to  Prussia,  since  their  own  eco- 
nomic interests  dictated  their  continuance  in  the  ZoUverein.  Bernstorff  further- 
more, in  a  note  addressed  to  the  German  courts  on  December  20,  1861,  announced 
as  a  programme  the  claim  of  Prussia  to  the  leadership  of  Lesser  Germany.  By  this 
step  the  Berlin  Cabinet  reverted  to  the  policy  of  union  which  had  been  given  up 
in  1850  (cf.  p.  231).  The  party  of  Greater  Germany  collected  its  forces  in  oppo- 
sition. Austria  resolved  to  anticipate  Prussia  by  a  tangible  proposition  to  the 
diet,  and  proposed  federal  reforms :  that  a  directory  with  corresponding  central 
authority  should  be  established,  and  by  its  side  an  assembly  of  delegates  from 
the  popular  representatives  of  the  several  States.  But,  before  this  proposal 
should  be  agreed  to,  steps  were  to  be  taken  to  elaborate  a  common  system  of  civil 
procedure  and  contract  law  for  the  whole  of  Germany.  Both  the  Prussian  note 
and  the  Austrian  proposal  met  with  opposition  and  a  dissentient  majority  in  the 
federal  diet  at  Frankfurt ;  for  the  secondary  States  did  not  wish  to  relinquish  any 
part  of  their  sovereignty  in  favour  of  either  the  Prussian  or  th#Austrian  govern- 
ment. The  necessary  condition  for  the  success  of  the  Prussian  policy  would  have 
been  a  majority  in  a  German  parliament  on  the  side  of  Prussia,  as  in  1849.  But 
Bernstorff,  although  in  his  heart  he  favoured  the  plan,  could  not  advise  the  king 
to  summon  a  national  assembly,  because,  as  things  then  stood,  its  majority  would 
have  approved  of  the  opposition  of  the  Prussian  progressive  party. 

(5)  Monarchy  and  Parliament.  —  In  the  new  elections  to  the  Chamber  of 
Eepresentatives  radical  liberalism  gained  the  greatest  number  of  seats.  The  two 
sections  of  this  party  numbered  together  235  members,  two-thirds,  that  is,  of  the 
352  representatives  of  the  Landtag;  the  Old  Liberals  under  the  leadership  of 
Vincke  had  dwindled  to  23  votes.  The  new  majority  gladly  accepted  the  chal- 
lenge flung  to  them  ;  for  the  idea,  which  Eoon  had  erroneously  termed  the  ultimate 
goal  even  of  the  moderate  liberals,  was  actively  dominant  among  them.  They 
wished  for  no  compromise,  but  aimed  at  the  subordination  of  the  king  to  the  par- 
liament.   The  examples  of  England  and  Belgium  dominated  their  plans  in  every 


S^,^fS:a4]       HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD  281 

detail.  The  army  question  became  the  outward  pretext  on  which  the  two  constitu- 
tional theories  came  into  conflict  with  each  other.  Since  the  king  did  not  concede 
the  two-years  compulsory  service,  which  the  chamber  demanded  as  a  condition 
of  the  army  reform,  the  house  resolved  on  September  23,  1862,  to  strike  out  entirely 
the  costs  of  the  reform,  which  was  tantamount  to  disbanding  the  new  regiments. 
In  this  way  a  humiliation  was  laid  on  the  king,  which  was  intended  to  bend  or 
break  him. 

King  William  was  resolved  rather  to  lay  down  the  crown  than  to  submit  to  a 
compulsion  by  which,  according  to  his  feelings,  he  would  have  been  degraded  to 
the  position  of  a  puppet  ruler.  He  seriously  contemplated  this  step,  when  the 
ministry  of  Hohenlohe,  seeing  no  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  asked  to  be  dismissed. 
The  king  doubted  whether  men  would  be  found  bold  enough  to  confront  the  Cham- 
ber of  Eepresentatives.  Whenever  Eoon  and  Manteuffel  had  formerly  spoken  of 
Bismarck  (see  his  portrait  at  p.  331),  the  king  had  hesitated  to  intrust  the  govern- 
ment to  a  man  whom  he  considered  to  be  a  hot-head.  Now,  he  told  Eoon,  Bis- 
marck would  no  longer  entertain  any  wish  to  be  at  the  head  of  affairs ;  besides  that, 
he  happened  to  be  on  leave,  travelling  in  Southern  France.  Eoon,  however,  could 
assure  the  king  that  Bismarck,  who  had  been  already  recalled,  was  prepared  to 
enter  the  service  of  the  king.  Soon  afterwards  the  latter  learned  that  Bismarck 
had  immediately  on  his  return  paid  a  visit,  by  invitation,  to  the  crown  prince. 
King  Wniiam's  suspicions  were  aroused  by  this,  and  he  thought,  "  There  is  nothing 
to  be  done  with  him ;  he  has  already  been  to  my  son."  All  doubts,  however,  were 
dissipated  when  Bismarck  appeared  before  him  and  unfolded  his  scheme  of  gov- 
ernment. The  king  showed  him  the  deed  of  abdication,  which  he  had  already 
drafted,  because,  so  he  said,  he  could  not  find  another  ministry.  Bismarck  encour- 
aged him  by  the  assurance  that  he  intended  to  stand  by  him  in  the  struggle 
between  the  supremacy  of  the  crown  and  of  parliament.  On  the  day  when  the 
Chamber  of  Eepresentatives  passed  the  resolution  by  which  the  monarch  felt  him- 
self most  deeply  wounded,  on  the  23d  of  September,  1862,  the  nomination  of  Bis- 
marck as  President  of  the  Ministry  was  published. 


5.   BISMAECK'S  TIEST  FIGHTS 

A.  His  Antagonism  to  the  Chamber  of  Eepresentatives  and  to  the 

Crown  Prince 

Bismarck's  work  is  the  establishment  of  the  unity  of  Germany  no  less  than 
the  revival  of  the  power  of  the  monarchy  and  of  all  conservative  forces  in  that 
country.  His  contemporaries  have  passed  judgment  upon  him  according  to  their 
political  attitudes.  Those  who  regarded  the  advancing  democratisation  of  England 
and  France  as  equally  desirable  for  Germany,  and  as  the  ultimate  goal  of  its 
development,  were  bound  to  see  an  opponent  in  the  powerful  statesman.  A  diffi- 
cult legal  question  was  put  before  Bismarck  at  the  very  outset  of  his  activity.  He 
counselled  the  king  to  disregard  the  budget  rights  of  the  Chamber  of  Eepresenta- 
tives. For  the  historical  estimate  of  Bismarck  it  is  not  of  primary  importance 
whether  the  constitutional  arguments  which  he  employed  on  this  occasion  are  ten- 
able or  not ;  this  legal  question  must  certainly  be  decided  against  Bismarck.     He 


282  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         Ichapter  iii 

took  his  stand  on  the  ground  that  the  budget  was,  according  to  the  constitution,  a 
law  on  which  the  Crown,  the  Upper  Chamber,  and  the  Chamber  of  Eepresentatives 
must  agree ;  and  that  the  authors  of  the  Prussian  constitution  had  on  this  point 
reversed  the  practice  of  England,  where  money  grants  are  exclusively  the  province 
of  the  lower  house.  They  had  not  provided  for  the  event  that  the  three  might 
not  be  able  to  agree  and  the  law  could  thus  not  be  passed ;  there  was  therefore  an 
omission.  But  since  the  State  could  not  stand  still,  a  constitutional  deadlock  had 
resulted,  which  would  be  fatal  in  its  consequences  unless  the  budget  for  the  year 
were  provided  by  the  arbitrary  action  of  the  crown.  The  consequence  of  this 
theory  was  that  the  crown  could  enforce  all  the  larger  budget  demands,  even 
though  the  two  chambers  had  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  smaller  sum.  From 
this  point  of  view  every  theory  turned  on  the  exercise  of  the  powers  of  the  consti- 
tutional authorities.  In  the  great  speech  in  which  the  Prussian  Minister- President 
explained  his  views,  he  confronted  the  chamber  with  his  political  principles :  "  The 
Prussian  monarchy  has  not  yet  fulfilled  its  mission ;  it  is  not  yet  ripe  to  form  a 
purely  ornamental  decoration  of  the  fabric  of  your  constitution,  nor  to  be  incor- 
porated into  the  mechanism  of  parliamentary  rule  as  an  inanimate  piece  of  the 
machinery."  Even  the  king  wavered  for  a  moment  when  Bismarck  in  the  budget 
commission  of  the  Chamber  of  Eepresentatives  (September  30,  1862)  made  his 
famous  assertion  that  "  the  union  of  Germany  could  not  be  effected  by  speeches, 
societies,  and  the  resolutions  of  majorities ;  a  grave  struggle  was  necessary,  a 
struggle  that  could  only  be  carried  through  by  blood  and  iron."  Even  Eoon 
considered  this  phrase  as  dangerous. 

The  State  was  administered  for  four  years  without  a  constitutionally  settled 
budget.  The  Chamber  of  Eepresentatives  declared  this  procedure  illegal,  and 
great  excitement  prevailed  throughout  the  country.  In  order  to  suppress  the 
opposition,  strict  enactments  were  published  on  June  1,  1863,  which  were  directed 
against  the  freedom  of  the  press  and  of  the  societies.  At  this  period  the  crown 
prince  Frederick  William  joined  the  opponents  of  Bismarck,  because  he  thought 
the  procedure  of  the  ministers  might  provoke  a  new  revolution  in  Prussia.  He 
made  a  speech  on  June  5,  in  the  town  hall  at  Danzig  when  receiving  the  municipal 
authorities,  which  was  directed  against  the  government :  "  I  too  regret  that  I  have 
come  here  at  a  time  when  a  quarrel,  of  which  I  have  been  ft  the  highest  degree 
surprised  to  hear,  has  broken  out  between  the  government  and  the  people.  I 
know  nothing  of  the  enactments  which  have  brought  about  this  result."  The 
crown  prince  at  the  same  time  sent  a  memorandum  to  the  king  to  the  same  effect ; 
but  on  June  30  he  wrote  to  the  Minister-President  a  letter  full  of  indignation  and 
contempt,  which  would  have  shaken  th'e  resolution  of  any  other  man  than  Bismarck : 
"  Do  you  believe  that  you  can  calm  men's  minds  by  continual  outrages  on  the  feel- 
ing of  legality  ?  I  regard  the  men  who  lead  his  Majesty  the  King,  my  most  gracious 
father,  into  such  paths,  as  the  most  dangerous  counsellors  for  crown  and  country." 
The  king  was  deeply  hurt  at  the  public  appearances  of  his  son ;  he  contemplated 
harsh  measures  against  him,  and  Bismarck  was  compelled  to  dissuade  him  from 
his  purpose.  The  minister  reminded  the  king  that  in  the  quarrel  between  Fred- 
erick William  I  and  his  son  the  sympathy  of  the  times,  as  well  as  of  posterity, 
had  been  with  the  heir  to  the  throne ;  and  he  showed  the  inadvisability  of  making 
the  crown  prince  a  martyr.  Thus  the  situation  in  Prussia  seemed  to  be  strained 
to  the  breaking  point.    The  Eepresentative  Chamber  adopted  in  1863,  by  a  large 


S.^:fGtr4]       HISTORY    of   the   world  283 

majority,  the  resolution  that  ministers  should  be  liable  out  of  their  private  fortune 
for  any  expenditure  beyond  the  budget. 


B.  The  German  Question 

It  is  marvellous  with  what  independence  and  intellectual  vigour  Bismarck 
guided  foreign  policy  in  the  midst  of  these  commotions.  We  need  only  examine 
the  pages  of  history  from  1850  to  1862  to  find  clearly  how  little  Prussia  counted 
as  a  European  power.  It  played,  in  consequence  of  the  vacillation  of  Frederick 
William  IV,  a  feeble  r5le,  especially  at  the  time  of  the  Crimean  war.  Even  later, 
when  William  I  was  governing  the  country  as  prince  regent  and  as  king,  Cavour 
(cf.  above,  p.  263),  who  was  continually  forced  to  rack  his  brains  with  the  possi- 
bilities which  might  effect  a  change  in  the  policy  of  France  and  Austria,  England 
and  Eussia,  hardly  took  Prussia  into  consideration.  That  State,  during  the  Italian 
crisis  of  1860,  had  little  more  weight  than  a  power  of  the  second  rank,  —  only 
about  as  much  as  Spatu,  of  which  it  was  occasionally  said  that  it  would  strengthen 
or  relieve  the  French  garrison  in  Eome  with  its  troops.  Great  as  are  the  services 
of  King  William  to  the  army  and  the  State  of  Prussia,  he  could  not  have  attained 
such  great  successes  without  a  man  like  Bismarck. 

Considering  the  feebleness  of  Prussia,  which  had  been  the  object  of  ridicule 
for  years,  every  one  was,  at  first,  surprised  by  the  vigorous  language  of  Bismarck. 
When,  in  one  of  the  earliest  cabinet  councils,  he  broached  the  idea  that  Prussia 
must  watch  for  an  opportunity  of  acquiring  Schleswig-Holstein,  the  crown  prince 
raised  his  hands  to  heaven,  as  if  the  orator  had  uttered  some  perfectly  foolish 
thing,  and  the  clerk  who  recorded  the  proceedings  thought  he  would  be  doing  a 
favour  to  Bismarck  if  he  omitted  the  words ;  the  latter  was  obliged  to  make  the 
additional  entry  in  his  own  writing.  The  newspapers  and  political  tracts  of  that 
time  almost  entirely  ridicule  the  attitude  of  the  new  minister,  whom  no  one 
credited  with  either  the  serious  intention  or  the  strength  to  carry  out  his  pro- 
gramme. His  contemporaries  were  therefore  only  confirmed  in  their  contempt  for 
him  when,  on  November  26,  1882,  he  suddenly  ended  the  constitutional  struggle 
in  Electoral  Hesse,  which  had  lasted  several  decades,  by  sending  an  orderly  to  the 
elector  Frederick  WQKam,  with  the  peremptory  order  that  he  should  give  back  to 
the  country  the  constitution  of  1831.  And  now  came  his  amazing  conversation 
with  the  Austrian  ambassador.  Count  Aloys  Karolyi!  Austria,  shortly  before, 
without  coming  to  terms  with  Prussia,  had  brought  before  the  assembly  in  Frank- 
furt the  proposal  already  mentioned  (p.  279)  for  federal  reform.  Bismarck,  in  that 
conversation,  tavmted  Austria  with  having  deviated  from  the  method  of  Prince 
Mettemich,  who  came  to  a  previous  arrangement  with  Prussia  as  to  all  measures 
concerning  German  affairs ;  and  he  declared  to  the  count  that  Austria  would  soon 
have  to  choose  between  the  alternatives  of  vacating  Germany  and  shifting  its 
political  centre  to  the  east,  or  of  finding  Prussia  in  the  next  war  on  the  side  of  its 
opponents.  This  assertion  fell  like  a  bombshell  on  Vienna.  Count  Eechberg  was 
not  so  wrong  when  he  talked  of  the  "  terrible "  Bismarck,  who  was  capable  of 
doing  anything  that  might  conduce  to  the  greatness  of  Prussia. 


284  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         [chapter  iii 


C.  Austria  as  a  Constitutional  State 

The  two  great  parties  in  Geriuany  were  organised  at  the  precise  moment  when 
Bismarck  entered  upon  office.  A  diet  of  representatives  from  the  different  German 
parliaments,  which  was  attended  by  some  two  hundred  members,  met  at  Weimar 
on  September  28,  1862.  This  assembly  demanded  the  summons  of  a  German 
parliament  by  free  popular  election,  and  the  preliminary  concentration  of  non- 
Austrian  Germany ;  for  the  first,  at  any  rate,  Austria  would  have  to  remain  outside 
the  more  restricted  confederation.  This  assembly  and  the  activity  of  the  National 
Society  led  on  the  other  side  to  the  formation  of  the  Greater  Germany  Eeform 
Society,  which  came  into  existence  at  Frankfort.  It  demanded  a  stricter  consolida- 
tion of  the  German  states  under  the  leadership  of  Austria.  The  narrow  particu- 
larism of  the  princes  and  their  immediate  followers,  who  were  unwilling  to 
sacrifice  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole  body  any  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual 
States,  kept  aloof  from  these  efforts.  Their  underlying  thought  was  expressed  by 
the  Hanoverian  minister,  Otto  Count  Borries,  who,  when  opposing  the  efforts  of  the 
National  Society  on  May  1,  1860,  went  so  far  as  to  threaten  that  the  secondary 
states  would  be  forced  into  non-German  alliances  in  order  to  safeguard  their 
independence. 

The  Greater  Germany  movement  gained  adherents  not  merely  by  the  constitu- 
tional struggle  in  Prussia,  but  also  by  the  movement  towards  liberalism  in  Austria. 
The  absolute  monarchy,  which  had  ruled  in  Austria  since  1849,  ended  with  a 
defeat  on  the  battle-field  and  the  most  complete  financial  disorder.  The  pressure 
of  the  harsh  police  regulations  weighed  all  the  more  heavily,  as  the  State  organs, 
since  the  conclusion  of  the  concordat  with  Eome  (p.  241),  were  put  equally  at  the 
service  of  ecclesiastical  purposes.  The  discontent  of  every  nationality  in  the 
empire  impelled  the  emperor  after  Solferino  (June  24, 1859)  to  make  a  complete 
change.  It  would  have  been  the  natural  course  of  proceedings  if  the  emperor  had 
at  once  resolved  to  consolidate  the  unity  of  the  empire,  which  had  been  regained 
in  1849,  by  summoning  a  general  parliament.  But  the  crown,  and  still  more  the 
aristocracy,  were  afraid  that  in  this  imperial  representation  the  German  bourgeoisie 
would  come  forward  with  excessive  claims.  For  this  reason  ai^ristocratic  inter- 
lude followed.  Count  Goluchowski,  a  Pole,  hitherto  governor  of  Galicia,  became 
minister  of  the  interior  on  August  21,  1859 ;  while  Count  Eechberg,  who  had 
already  succeeded  Count  Buol-Schauenstein  as  Minister  of  the  Exterior  and  of  the 
Imperial  House  on  May  17,  was  given  the  post  of  president.  The  administrative 
business  of  the  entire  monarchy  was,  by  the  imperial  manifesto  of  October  20, 
1860,  concentrated  in  a  new  body,  the  National  Ministry,  at  whose  head  Golu- 
chowski was  placed,  while  the  conduct  of  Hungarian  affairs  was  intrusted  to 
Baron  Nikolaus  Bay  and  Count  Nikolaus  Sz^csen ;  at  the  same  time  orders  were 
issued  that  the  provincial  councils  (Landtage)  and  a  council  of  the  empire  elected 
from  them  (Beichsrat)  should  be  summoned.  These  bodies  were,  however,  only  to 
have  a  deliberative  voice ;  and  besides  that,  a  preponderant  influence  in  the  provin- 
cial bodies  was  assigned  to  the  nobility  and  the  clergy.  It  was  a  still  more  decisive 
step  that  the  members  of  the  conservative  Hungarian  haute  noblesse,  in  their  aver- 
sion to  German  officialism,  induced  the  emperor  once  more  to  intrust  the  admin- 
istration of  Hungary  and  the  choice  of  officials  to  the  coimty  courts  (assemblies  of 


^^J'^fJZ^Q       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  '      285 

nobles),  as  had  been  the  case  before  the  year  1848.  These  measures  produced  a 
totally  different  result  from  that  anticipated  by  Bay  and  Sz^csen.  The  meetings 
of  the  county  courts,  which  had  not  been  convened  since  1849,  were  filled  with  a 
revolutionary  spirit,  and,  while  offering  at  once  the  most  intense  opposition,  refused 
to  carry  out  the  enactments  of  the  ministers,  because,  so  they  alleged,  the  constitu- 
tionally elected  Reichstag  was  alone  entitled  to  sanction  taxation ;  and  they  chose 
officials  who  either  absolutely  refused  to  collect  taxes,  or  only  did  so  in  a  dilatory 
fashion.     The  country  in  a  few  months  bordered  on  a  state  of  rebellion. 

As  the  Hungarian  ministers  of  the  emperor  had  plunged  the  empire  into  this 
confusion,  they  were  compelled  to  advise  him  to  intrust  a  powerful  personality 
from  the  ranks  of  the  high  German  officials  with  the  conduct  of  affairs.  Anton 
von  Schmerling  (p.  237)  was  nomiuated  minister  of  finance  on  December  17,  1860, 
in  the  place  of  Goluchowski.  He  won  over  the  emperor  to  his  view,  which  was 
imfavourable  to  the  Hungarians,  and  carried  his  point  as  to  maintaining  one  united 
constitution  and  the  summoning  of  a  central  parliament.  He  proposed  at  the 
same  time  that  a  limited  scope  should  be  conceded  to  the  diets  of  the  individual 
provinces.  These  were  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  constitution  granted  on 
February  26, 1861.  Schmerling  deserves  credit  for  having  restored  the  prestige 
of  the  constitution  in  Hungary  without  bloodshed,  even  if  severe  measures  were 
used.  The  county  assemblies  were  dissolved,  and  trustworthy  native  officials  sub- 
stituted for  them.  The  vacillation  of  the  emperor  in  1860  strengthened,  however, 
the  conviction  of  the  Magyars  that  in  the  end  the  crown  would  yield  to  their 
opposition,  and  once  more  concede  the  independence  of  Hungary  in  the  form  in 
which  it  was  won  by  the  constitution  of  April,  1848.  The  leadership  of  this 
opposition  in  the  Landtag  summoned  in  1861  was  taken  by  Franz  Dedk  (p.  168); 
the  Landtag,  in  the  address  which  was  agreed  upon,  refused  to  send  representatives 
to  the  central  parliament,  and  complete  independence  was  demanded  for  Hungary. 


D.  The  Diet  of  Princes  at  Frankfdet 

Schmerling  advanced  unhesitatingly  on  the  road  which  he  had  taken.  At  the 
same  time  he  won  great  influence  over  the  management  of  German  affairs,  and  for 
some  period  was  more  powerful  in  that  sphere  than  the  minister  of  the  exterior. 
Count  Kechberg.  The  latter  considered  it  prudent  to  remain  on  good  terms  with 
Prussia,  and  not  to  unroll  the  German  question.  Schmerling,  on  the  other  hand, 
put  higher  aims  before  himself,  and  wished  to  give  Germany  the  desired  federal 
reform,  and  to  strengthen  Austria's  influence  in  Germany  by  the  establishment  of 
a  strong  central  power  in  Frankfurt.  He  hoped  to  overcome  the  resistance  of 
Prussia  by  help  of  the  popular  feeling  in  non-Prussian  Germany.  He  enlisted 
confidence  in  Germany  also  by  the  introduction  of  constitutional  forms  in  Austria. 
Austria  tried  to  sweep  the  German  princes  along  with  her  in  one  bold  rush.  The 
emperor,  in  deference  to  a  suggestion  of  his  brother-in-law,  Maximilian,  the  hered- 
itary prince  of  Thurn  and  Taxis,  resolved  to  summon  all  German  princes  to  a  con- 
ference at  Frankfort-on-Main,  and  to  lay  before  them  his  plan  of  reform.  The 
king  of  Prussia  in  this  matter  was  not  treated  differently  from  the  pettiest  and 
weakest  of  the  federal  princes.  The  emperor  communicated  his  intention  to  King 
"WiUiam  at  their  meeting  in  Gastein  on  August  2,  1863,  and,  without  waiting  for 


286  HISTORY   OF    THE    WORLD         Ichapter  iii 

the  stipulated  written  decision  of  the  king,  handed  him  by  an  adjutant  on  August  3 
the  formal  invitation  to  the  Diet  of  Princes  summoned  for  August  IG. 

The  blow  aimed  by  Austria  led  to  a  temporary  success.  Public  opinion  in 
South  Germany  was  aroused,  and  in  some  places  became  enthusiastic ;  the  sover- 
eigns and  princes  gave  their  services  to  the  Austrian  reform.  All  this  made  a 
deep  impression  on  Kiag  William ;  the  Bavarian  queen  Marie  and  his  sister-in- 
law,  the  widow  of  King  Frederick  William  IV,  urged  him  on  his  journey  from 
Gastein  to  Baden-Baden  to  show  a  conciliatory  attitude  towards  the  Austrian 
proposal.  Nevertheless  he  followed  Bismarck's  advice  and  kept  away  from  the 
meeting  at  Frankfurt.  The  emperor  Francis  Joseph  made  his  entry  into  the  free 
town  amid  the  pealing  of  the  bells  and  the  acclamations  of  the  inhabitants  who 
favoured  the  Austrian  cause.  He  skilfully  presided  over  the  debate  of  the  princes, 
and  King  John  of  Saxony  (1854-1873),  an  experienced  man  of  business  and  an 
eloquent  speaker,  confuted  the  protests  which  were  preferred  by  a  small  minority. 
The  grand  duke  Frederick  Francis  II  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  proposed  to 
invite  King  William  to  make  the  journey  to  Frankfurt.  King  John  assented,  but 
made  two  additional  proposals,  which  were  not  quite  friendly  to  Prussia.  He  first 
induced  the  meeting  to  declare  that  it  considered  the  Austrian  proposals  suitable 
as  a  basis  for  reform ;  and  it  was  also  soon  settled  that  the  refusal  of  the  king  of 
Prussia  was  no  obstacle  to  further  deliberation.  After  these  resolutions,  which 
were  taken  on  August  18,  King  John  went  to  Baden-Baden,  in  order  to  take  the 
invitation  to  the  king  of  Prussia. 

King  William  did  not  seem  disinclined  to  accept  the  invitation,  and  said  to 
Bismarck,  "  Thirty  princes  sending  the  invitation,  and  a  king  as  cabinet  messenger, 
how  can  there  be  any  refusal  ? "  But  Bismarck  saw  that  this  surprise,  planned  by 
Austria,  was  a  blow  aimed  at  Prussia,  and  he  would  have  felt  deeply  humiliated 
by  the  appearance  of  his  monarch  at  Frankfurt.  Germany  was  to  see  that  any 
alteration  of  the  German  constitution  must  prove  abortive,  from  the  mere  opposi- 
tion of  Prussia.  Bismarck  required  all  his  strength  of  will  to  induce  William  to 
refuse ;  he  declared  that  if  the  king  commanded  him,  he  would  go  with  him  to 
Frankfurt,  but  that  when  the  business  was  ended  he  would  never  return  with  him 
to  Berlin  as  minister.  The  king,  therefore,  took  his  advice.  "VHiat  Bismarck  had 
foreseen  now  occurred.  It  is  true  that  the  Austrian  proposal  was  in  the  end  dis- 
cussed, and  accepted  against  the  votes  of  Baden,  Schwerin,  Weimar,  Luxemburg, 
Waldeck,  and  the  younger  line  of  Eeuss.  But  since  the  meeting  only  pledged 
itself  in  the  event  of  an  agreement  with  Prussia  as  the  basis  of  these  resolutions, 
Austria  had  not  achieved  the  main  result  at  which  she  aimed. 


6.    THE   STEUGGLE  FOE   SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN 

A.  The  Hereditary  Eight  to  the  Duchies 

All  these  debates  and  intrigues  sank  into  the  background  when  the  fate  of 
Schleswig-Holstein  was  destined  to  be  decided  by  arms.  The  occasion  for  this 
was  given  by  the  death  of  the  Danish  king  Frederick  VII  on  November  15,  1863, 
with  whom  the  main  line  of  the  royal  house  became  extinct.  The  collateral  line 
of  Holstein-Glucksberg  possessed  the  hereditary  right  to  Denmark,  while  the 


ZJ':^''^Q       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  287 

house  of  Augustenburg  raised  claims  to  Schleswig-Holstein.  All  Germany  thought 
that  the  moment  had  come  to  free  Schleswig-Holstein  from  the  Danish  rule  by 
supporting  the  Duke  of  Augustenburg.  The  two  great  German  powers  were,  how- 
ever, pledged  in  another  direction  by  the  treaty  of  London  (p.  239).  Denmark 
had  expressly  engaged  by  that  arrangement  to  grant  Schleswig-Holstein  an  inde- 
pendent government ;  on  this  basis  the  great  powers  on  their  side  guaranteed  the 
possession  of  the  duchies  to  the  king  of  Denmark  and  all  his  successors.  The 
two  great  German  powers  were  to  blame  for  having  compelled  the  inhabitants 
of  Schleswig-Holstein  in  1850  to  submit  to  Denmark  (cf.  p.  210).  From  hatred 
of  liberalism  and  all  the  mistakes  it  was  supposed  to  have  made  in  1848,  they 
destroyed  any  hopes  which  the  inhabitants  of  Schleswig-Holstein  might  have  formed 
for  the  future,  after  the  royal  house  should  have  become  extinct.  Duke  Christian 
of  Augustenburg  sold  his  hereditary  rights  to  Denmark  for  two  and  one-quarter 
mUhon  thalers  (£500,000),  although  his  son  Frederick  protested.  But  Denmark 
did  not  think  of  fulfilling  her  promise.  The  German  Federation  was  content  for 
years  to  remonstrate  and  propose  a  court  of  arbitration.  Finally,  the  Federal 
Council  resolved  on  armed  intervention  against  Denmark.  Hanoverian  and  Saxon 
troops  occupied  Holstein,  but  they  were  compelled  to  halt  on  the  Eider,  since 
Schleswig  did  not  belong  to  the  Federation. 

In  Copenhagen  the  Eider-Danish  party  (p.  210)  drew  peculiar  conclusions 
from  these  circumstances ;  since,  they  said,  Schleswig  did  not  belong  to  the  Federa- 
tion, the  treaty  of  London  might  be  disregarded,  the  bond  between  Schleswig  and 
Holstein  dissolved,  and  Schleswig  at  any  rate  amalgamated  into  the  unified  State 
of  Denmark.  Threatening  crowds  forced  the  new  monarch  Christian  VIII,  in 
spite  of  his  superior  insight,  to  consent  to  the  united  constitution.  The  treaty  of 
London  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  broken.  The  claim  of  Duke  Frederick 
of  Augustenburg  to  Schleswig-Holstein  thus  was  unanimously  applauded  by  the 
popular  voice  of  Germany.  He  declared  himself  ready  to  follow  loyally  the 
democratic  constitution  which  the  duchies  had  given  themselves  in  1848,  and 
surrounded  his  person  with  liberal  counsellors.  A  large  proportion  of  the  govern- 
ments of  the  petty  German  states  recognized  the  duke  as  the  heir,  and  the  major- 
ity of  the  Federal  Council  decided  in  his  favour. 

Prussia  and  Austria,  indeed,  as  signatories  of  the  treaty  of  London,  felt  them- 
selves bound  by  it  toward  Europe.  They  possessed,  according  to  it,  the  right  to 
compel  Denmark  to  grant  to  the  duchies  independence  and  union  under  one  sov- 
ereign ;  but  they  could  exempt  themselves  from  recognising  the  hereditary  right  of 
King  Christian  VIII.  Austria  in  particular,  whose  stability  rested  on  European 
treaties,  did  not  venture  to  admit  that  the  right  of  nationality  could  undo  those 
treaties.  Was  Prussia  able  to  confront  the  other  great  powers  with  her  unaided 
resources  ?  Bismarck  with  all  his  determination  thought  such  a  move  too  dan- 
gerous. The  stake  in  such  a  struggle  would  have  been  too  trivial ;  for,  as  Bis- 
marck showed  the  Prussian  House  of  Eepresentatives,  Prussia  would  have  lent  its 
arms  to  establish  the  claims  of  a  duke  who,  like  the  other  petty  States,  would 
have  mostly  voted  with  Austria  at  Frankfurt.  "  The  signing  of  the  treaty  of  Lon- 
don," so  Bismarck  said  on  December  1,  1863,  in  the  Prussian  House  of  Eepresent- 
atives, "  may  be  deplored ;  but  it  has  been  done,  and  honour  as  well  as  prudence 
commands  that  our  loyal  observance  of  the  treaty  be  beyond  all  doubt."  These 
reasons  did  not,  however,  convince  the  House.     It  pronounced  in  favour  of  the 


288  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD        [Chapter  iii 

hereditary  right  of  the  Duke  of  Augustenburg.  Bismarck  vainly  put  before  the 
opposition  that,  as  soon  as  Prussia  abandoned  the  basis  of  the  treaty  of  London, 
no  pretext  could  be  found  for  interfering  in  Schleswig,  which  stood  outside  the 
German  Confederation. 

The  violent  opposition  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  to  Bismarck's  methods 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  conservative  party,  to  which  Bismarck  had  belonged, 
had  in  1849  and  1850  condemned  the  rebellion  of  Schleswig-Holstein  against  Den- 
mark ;  and  there  was  the  fear  that  the  supporters  of  legitimacy  would  once  more 
in  the  end  make  the  duchies  subject  to  Denmark.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  two 
great  German  powers  had  tolerated  the  infringements  of  the  treaty  of  London  by 
Denmark  since  1852,  and  had  not  contributed  at  all  to  preserve  the  rights  of  the 
duchies.  This  explains  the  blame  laid  upon  the  two  great  powers  by  the  com- 
mittee of  an  assembly  of  representatives  at  Frankfurt  on  December  21,  1863,  in 
an  address  to  the  German  people.  For  twelve  years,  it  said,  the  Danes  had  been 
allowed  to  trample  under  foot  the  treaty  of  London.  Now  with  the  extinction  of 
the  royal  house,  and  the  revival  of  the  hereditary  right  of  Augustenburg,  the  pos- 
sibility had  come  of  getting  rid  of  the  shameful  treaty.  "  Now,  when  the  execution 
of  that  treaty  would  be  fatal  to  the  cause  of  the  duchies,  armies  were  being  put 
into  the  field  in  order  to  enforce  its  execution." 

This  reproach  against  the  Prussian  policy  would  have  been  justified  if  Bismarck 
had  still  been,  as  he  was  in  1848,  a  man  of  exclusively  conservative  party  politics. 
The  German  people  could  not  know  that  he  had  become  a  far  greater  man.  He 
had  now  fixed  his  eye  on  the  acquisition  of  the  duchies  by  Prussia,  and  steered 
steadily  toward  that  goal  which  Xing  William  still  considered  unattainable. 
Just  now  he  won  a  great  diplomatic  triumph ;  Austria  on  the  question  of  the 
duchies  was  divided  from  the  German  minor  States,  her  allies,  and  Bismarck  wid- 
ened the  breach.  He  explained  to  the  Vienna  cabinet  that  Prussia  was  resolved 
to  compel  Denmark  to  respect  the  treaty  of  London  by  force  of  arms,  and  if  neces- 
sary single-handed.  Austria  now  could  not  and  dared  not  leave  the  liberation  of 
Schleswig  to  her  rival  alone,  otherwise  she  would  have  voluntarily  abdicated  her 
position  in  Germany.  Eechberg,  who  in  any  case  was  favourably  disposed  to  the 
alliance  with  Prussia,  induced  his  master,  under  the  circu^tances,  to  conclude 
the  armed  alliance  with  Prussia  ;  Francis  Joseph  was,  however,  disappointed  that 
the  diet  at  Frankfurt  and  the  anti-Prussian  policy  had  borne  no  fruits.  The  two 
great  powers  pledged  themselves  in  the  treaty  of  January  16,  1864,  to  attack 
Denmark,  and  settled  that  after  the  liberation  of  the  duchies  no  decision  should 
be  taken  about  them  except  by  the  agreement  of  the  two  powers.  Austria  thus  felt 
protected  against  surprises  on  the  part  of  Prussia.  The  treaty  met  with  the  most 
violent  opposition  both  in  the  Prussian  and  the  Austrian  representative  assem- 
blies. The  money  for  the  conduct  of  the  war  was  actually  refused  in  Berlin.  The 
Austrian  chamber  did  not  proceed  to  such  extreme  measures,  but  the  majority 
held  it  to  be  a  mistake  that  Austria  adopted  a  hostile  position  against  the  minor 
States  and  neglected  the  opportunity  to  make  a  friend  of  the  future  Duke  of 
Schleswig-Holstein. 

£.  The  Wae  with  Denmark 

The  army  to  conquer  Schleswig  consisted  of  37,000  Prussians  and  23,000  Aus- 
trians,  who  were  opposed  by  40,000  Danes.     The  supreme  command  of  the  invad- 


S,^"Jtta°4]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  289 

ing  force  was  held  by  Field-Marshal  Count  Friedrich  von  Wrangel,  under  whom 
stood  the  Austrian  Lieutenant-Field-Marshal  Baron  Ludwig  von  Gablenz.  The 
Danes  hoped  to  the  last  for  foreign  help,  but  the  threats  of  England  to  the  German 
powers  were  smoke  without  a  fire.  The  Danes  first  attempted  resistance  along  the 
Danewerk.  But  the  Austrians  in  the  battles  of  Jagel  and  Overselk,  on  February  3, 
stormed  the  outposts  in  front  of  the  redoubts  and  pursued  the  Danes  right  under 
the  cannons  of  the  Danewerk.  Since  there  was  the  fear  that  the  strong  position 
would  be  turned  by  the  Prussians  below  Missunde,  the  Danish  general  De  Meza 
evacuated  the  Danewerk  on  February  5  and  withdrew  northwards.  The  Austrians 
followed  quickly  and  came  up  with  the  Danes  the  very  next  day  at  Oversee,  and 
compelled  them  to  fight  for  their  retreat.  Schleswig  was  thus  conquered  with 
the  exception  of  a  small  peninsula  on  the  east,  where  the  lines  of  Diippel  were 
raised,  which  were  in  touch  with  the  island  of  Alsen  and  the  powerful  Danish 
fleet.  Prussia  proposed  then  to  force  the  Danes  to  conclude  peace  by  an  invest- 
ment of  Jutland.  The  Austrian  cabinet  could  not  at  first  entertain  this  plan. 
General  Manteuffel  (p.  279),  who  was  sent  to  Vienna,  only  carried  his  point  when 
Prussia  gave  a  promise  that  Schleswig-Holstein  should  not  be  wrested  from  the 
suzerainty  of  the  Danish  crown ;  on  the  contrary,  the  independent  duchies  were 
to  be  united  with  Denmark  by  a  personal  union.  The  allies  thereupon  conquered 
Jutland  as  far  as  the  Liim  Fiord,  and  by  storming  the  liues  of  Diippel,  on  April  18, 
the  Prussian  arms  won  a  brilliant  success.  Since  also  the  blockade  of  the  mouths 
of  the  Elbe  was  relieved  by  the  sea-fight  of  Heligoland  on  May  9, 1864,  where  Aus- 
trian and  Prussian  ships  fought  under  the  Austrian  Wilhelm  von  Tegetthoff,  Ger- 
many had  finally  shown  that  she  no  longer  allowed  herself  to  be  humiliated  by 
the  petty  state  of  Denmark. 

C.  The  Treaty  of  Gastein 

The  future  fate  of  the  duchies  was  now  the  question.  Popular  opinion  in  Ger- 
many protested  loudly  against  their  restoration  to  the  Danish  king,  and  Bismarck 
now  fed  the  flame  of  indignation,  since  he  wished  to  release  Prussia  from  the 
promise  she  had  made.  But  he  would  not  have  attained  this  object  had  not  the 
Danes,  fortunately  for  Germany,  remained  obstinate.  A  conference  of  the  powers 
concerned  met  in  London  on  April  25,  1864.  The  Danish  plenipotentiaries,  still 
hoping  for  the  support  of  England,  rejected  on  May  17  the  proposal  of  Prussia 
and  Austria  for  the  constitutional  independence  of  the  duchies,  even  in  the  event 
of  their  possession  being  intended  for  their  king  Christian.  The  matter  was  thus 
definitely  decided.  Austria  was  now  compelled  to  retire  from  the  agreement  last 
made  with  Prussia.  The  Vienna  cabinet,  making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  resolved  to 
prevent  Schleswig-Holstein  from  falling  to  Prussia  by  nominating  the  Duke  of 
Augustenburg.  King  William  had  long  been  inclined  to  this  course,  if  only  Duke 
Frederick  was  willing  to  make  some  arrangement  with  Prussia  about  his  army,  as 
Coburg  had  already  made ;  if  he  would  grant  Prussia  a  naval  station  and  allow  the 
North  Sea  canal  to  be  constructed ;  and  if  the  duchies  entered  the  ZoUverein. 
The  duke  would  certainly  have  agreed  to  these  terms  in  order  to  obtain  the  sover- 
€ignty,  had  not  Austria  on  its  side  made  more  favourable  promises.  There  was  a 
strong  wish  at  Vienna  to  prevent  Schleswig-Holstein  becoming  a  vassal  state  of 
Prussia.     The  duke,  encouraged  by  this,  promised  the  king  indeed  to  observe  those 

VOL.  vni  — 19 


290  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  ^Chapter  in 

conditions,  but  he  added  the  qualification  that  he  could  not  know  whether  the 
Estates  of  Schleswig-Holstein  would  assent  to  the  treaty.  If  this  did  not  happen 
he  was  ready  to  withdraw  in  favour  of  his  son.  This  additional  proviso  filled  Bis- 
marck with  misgivings ;  for  the  farce  might  be  repeated  which  had  been  played 
before,  when  Duke  Christian  of  Augustenburg  sold  his  claims  to  Denmark,  and  his 
son  Frederick  then  came  forward  with  his  hereditary  right  to  Schleswig-Holstein. 
The  determination  of  the  Prussian  prime  minister,  not  to  give  in  until  the  coun- 
tries were  incorporated  into  Prussia,  grew  stronger  day  by  day.  The  first  step  in 
that  direction  was  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Denmark  on  October  30,  1864 ; 
the  two  duchies  were  unconditionally  resigned  to  Austria  and  Prussia,  without  any 
consideration  being  paid  to  the  hereditary  claims  of  the  houses  of  Augustenburg 
and  Oldenburg. 

Bismarck  did  not  want  to  break  with  Austria  yet.  He  therefore  was  sorry  to 
see  that  Count  Eechberg  retired  on  October  27,  1864,  from  his  office  as  minister  of 
the  exterior ;  the  charge  was  brought  against  him  in  Austria  that  the  policy  of 
alliance  with  Prussia  which  he  followed  was  to  the  advantage  of  the  latter  State 
only.  His  successor,  Count  Alexander  Mensdorff-Pouilly,  had,  it  is  true,  the  same 
aims  as  Eechberg ;  but  since  he  was  less  experienced  in  affairs,  the  opponents  of 
Prussia,  especially  Hofrat  Baron  Ludwig  von  Biegeleben,  gained  more  and  more 
influence  among  his  higher  officials.  This  circumstance  was  the  more  mischievous 
since  the  two  great  powers  were  administering  the  duchies  jointly,  —  an  arrange- 
ment which  in  any  case  led  to  friction.  In  February,  1865,  Prussia  came  forward 
with  the  conditions  under  which  she  was  willing  to  nominate  the  Duke  of  Augus- 
tenburg to  Schleswig-Holstein.  They  contained  in  substance  what  had  already 
been  commimicated  to  the  duke.  But  Austria  did  not  agree  to  them.  Weight 
was  laid  in  Vienna  on  the  argument  that  the  German  Confederation  was  a  union 
of  sovereign  princes,  and  no  vassal  state  of  Prussia  could  be  allowed  to  take  its 
place  in  it.  Prussia  thereupon  adopted  stricter  measures  and  shifted  her  naval 
base  from  Danzig  to  Kiel.  Bismarck  then  openly  declared,  "  If  Austria  wishes  to 
remain  our  ally,  she  must  make  room  for  us." 

The  war  cloud  even  then  loomed  ominously.  The  Berlin  cabinet  inquired 
at  Florence  whether  Italy  was  prepared  to  join  the  allianc^.  The  two  German 
powers  still,  however,  shrank  from  a  passage  at  arms  immediately  after  a  jointly 
conducted  campaign.  The  result  of  prolonged  negotiations  was  the  treaty  of 
Gastein  on  August  14,  1865.  The  administration  of  the  duchies,  hitherto  carried 
on  in  common,  was  divided,  so  that  Nearer  Holstein  (see  the  map  facing  p.  304) 
was  left  to  Austria,  and  Further  Schleswig  to  Prussia.  Lauenburg  was  ceded 
absolutely  to  Prussia  for  two  and  a  quarter  million  thalers  (£650,  000).  Prussia 
was  clearly  advancing  on  a  victorious  career,  and  the  acquisition  of  the  duchies 
was  in  near  prospect.  The  Prussian  Eepresentative  Chamber,  which  eighteen 
months  previously  had  spoken  distinctly  for  the  hereditary  right  of  the  Duke 
of  Augustenburg,  once  more  in  the  summer  of  1865  debated  the  affair.  But  now 
the  friends  of  the  scheme  of  incorporation  were  already  so  numerous  that  it  could 
no  longer  agree  to  a  resolution  by  a  majority.  It  was  seen  that  the  foreign  policy 
of  the  Progressives  in  Prussia  had  been  wrecked.  The  king,  as  a  recognition 
of  his  services,  raised  Bismarck  to  the  rank  of  count  (September  15),  and  thus 
proclaimed  to  the  outside  world  that  he  had  absolute  confidence  in  his  conduct 
of  affairs. 


S,^:r^2?r4]        HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  291 


D.    The  Euptuee  between  Austria  and  Prussia 


Bismarck  called  the  treaty  of  Gastein  a  patching  of  the  crack  in  the  building. 
In  reality  the  premier,  as  appears  from  his  "  Gedanken  und  Erinnerungen " 
("  Thoughts  and  Eeminiscences  "),  had  long  determined  on  a  war  with  Austria. 
Since  Austria  favoured  the  partisans  of  the  Duke  of  Augustenburg  as  much  as 
ever,  and  afforded  opportunity  for  their  agitations  against  Prussia,  the  Prussian 
note  of  January  26,  1866,  complained  of  the  "means  of  rebellion"  which  Austria 
employed.  It  was  announced  in  this  document  that  Prussia  claimed  hence- 
forward complete  liberty  for  her  policy.  This  was  the  formal  notice  of  abandon- 
ing the  alliance  which  had  existed  for  two  years.  Even  before  this  Bismarck 
entered  into  communication  with  Napoleon  III,  and  had  visited  him  for  that 
purpose  in  October,  1865,  at  Biarritz.  He  wanted  to  assure  himself  of  the 
neutrality  of  France  in  the  event  of  a  war  of  Prussia  with  Austria.  Napoleon 
however,  was  not  roused  from  his  dreamy  reserve  by  the  disclosures  of  the 
Prussian  minister;  he  waited  for  an  offer  from  Prussia  as  the  price  of  his 
neutrality,  encouraged  Bismarck  to  bolder  steps,  but  pledged  himself  at  first 
to  nothing.  More  serious  negotiations  were  to  be  postponed  until  the  hostility 
to  Austria  grew  acute. 

There  was  not  long  to  wait.  Bismarck  still  kept  the  door  of  peace  open 
to  himself,  in  case  Austria  was  willing  to  withdraw  from  Schleswig-Holstein. 
But  the  course  of  proceedings  at  the  Prussian  cabinet  council  of  February  28, 
1866,  shows  that  the  king  was  familiar  with  the  idea  of  war.  The  Minister- 
President  developed  at  this  council  the  thought  that  no  war  was  to  be  kindled 
for  the  sake  of  Schleswig-Holstein  only ;  a  greater  goal,  the  union  of  Germany, 
must  be  contemplated.  It  was  resolved,  first  of  all,  to  open  negotiations  with 
Italy  for  a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance.  In  this  council  of  war,  Moltke  gave 
his  unqualified  vote  for  the  war,  while  the  crown  prince  uttered  an  emphatic 
warning  against  such  a  policy,  for  the  reason  that  it  rendered  probable  the  inter- 
ference of  foreigners. 

When  General  Giuseppe  Govone  was  sent  in  the  name  of  the  Italian  govern- 
ment to  Berlin  in  March,  1866,  the  impending  danger  of  war  was  recognised  in 
Vienna.  An  important  change  had  occurred  in  Austria  in  July,  1865.  Schmer- 
ling  had  failed  to  win  the  emperor  over  permanently  to  his  political  views. 
Francis  Joseph  was  dissatisfied  because  the  parliament  summoned  at  Schmerling's 
advice  raised  excessive  claims  to  a  share  in  the  government,  and  went  too  far  in 
reducing  the  war  budget.  The  Austrian  and  Hungarian  aristocracy  joined  the 
opponents  of  the  united  constitution,  and  Count  Moritz  Esterhazy,  minister  with- 
out portfolio  since  July  19,  1861,  used  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  emperor  to  under- 
mine the  German  cabinet.  On  July  30,  1865,  the  "  Counts'  Ministry,"  under  the 
presidency  of  Count  Richard  Belcredi,  was  nominated  in  the  place  of  Schmerling ; 
an  imperial  manifesto  on  September  20,  1865,  proclaimed  the  suspension  of  the 
constitution  and  adjournment  of  the  Imperial  Council.  The  high  nobility  was 
favoured  in  every  branch  of  the  government,  Slavism  pitted  against  Germanism, 
and  the  way  prepared  for  the  settlement  with  Hungary.  Esterhazy  in  this  cabi- 
net was  the  dominant  figure  in  foreign  policy ;  he  was  influenced  in  an  anti-Prus- 
sian direction  by  Hofrat  Biegeleben  of  the  foreign  office,  while  the  weak  minister 
of  the  exterior.  Count  Mensdorff,  vainly  spoke  for  the  maintenance  of  peace. 


292  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         [Chapter  iii 


E.    The  War  Peeparations  of  the  Two  Nations 

Alarmed  by  the  warlike  intentions  of  the  Prussian  government,  the  Austrians 
thought  it  advisable  in  March,  1866,  to  take  measures  for  arming.  Some  ten 
battalions  were  transferred  to  Bohemia,  in  order  to  strengthen  the  corps  stationed 
there,  and  several  cavalry  regiments  from  Hungary  and  Transylvania  were  ordered 
to  move  into  the  province  which  was  iirst  menaced.  Count  K^rolyi  (p.  283), 
the  Austrian  ambassador  in  Berlin,  was  at  the  same  time  commissioned  to  ask  if 
Prussia  really  intended  to  attack  Austria.  This  precipitate  procedure  of  Austria 
rendered  it  easier  for  Bismarck  and  the  generals,  who  were  advising  war,  to 
induce  King  William  also  to  make  preparations.  The  measures  taken  by  the 
cabinet  council  of  March  28  comprised  the  supply  of  horses  for  the  artillery, 
the  repair  of  the  fortresses,  and  the  strengthening  of  the  divisions  quartered  in 
the  south  of  the  country.  Bismarck  answered  the  really  objectless  inquiry  of 
Count  Karolyi  in  the  negative,  but  at  the  same  time  sent  a  circular  to  the 
German  courts,  in  which  he  accused  Austria  of  wishing  to  intimidate  Prussia 
by  her  preparations,  as  she  had  done  in  1850.  He  further  announced  that 
Prussia  would  soon  come  forward  with  a  plan  for  the  reform  of  the  German 
federal  constitution. 

But  more  important  than  these  measures  and  notes,  which  caused  so  much 
public  uneasiness,  were  the  secret  negotiations  for  the  conclusion  of  the  alliance 
with  Italy.  These  did  not  proceed  smoothly  at  first,  since  Italy  was  afraid  of 
being  made  a  tool;  for  Prussia  might  use  the  threat  of  an  Italian  alliance  to 
induce  Austria  to  give  way.  The  Italian  government,  in  order  to  avoid  this, 
declared  it  could  only  consent  to  a  formal  and  offensive  alliance  for  the  purpose 
of  attacking  Austria-Hungary.  King  William  could  not  agree  to  this,  since  he  did 
not  contemplate  an  invasion  of  Austria,  for  which  indeed  there  was  no  pretext. 
The  Prussian  government  was  only  prepared  for  a  friendly  alliance,  which  should 
prevent  either  party  forming  a  separate  convention  with  Austria  and  leaving  the 
other  in  the  lurch.  The  result  was  the  compromise  of  a  defensive  and  offensive 
alliance,  to  be  valid  for  three  months  only,  in  case  war  mas  not  declared  by 
Prussia  before  that  date.  Italy  hesitated  to  agree  to  it,  and  applied  to  Napo- 
leon III  for  advice.  The  French  emperor  desired  nothing  more  ardently  than  a 
war  in  Germany,  in  order,  during  its  continuance,  to  pursue  his  schemes  on  Bel- 
gium and  the  Rhine  districts.  He  knew  that  William  I  would  not  be  persuaded 
by  Bismarck  to  fight,  unless  he  was  previously  assured  of  the  alliance  of  Italy ; 
otherwise  the  king  thought  the  campaign  would  be  dangerous,  since  nearly  the 
whole  remaining  part  of  Germany  stood  on  the  side  of  Austria.  It  may  be 
ascribed  to  the  advice  of  Napoleon  that  the  hesitating  Italian  premier  Alfonso 
de  La  Marmora  concluded  a  treaty,  to  hold  for  three  months,  on  April  8,  1866. 

Bismarck  wished  to  employ  this  period  in  pushing  on  the  German  question. 
He  intended  to  show  the  nation  that  it  must  look  to  Prussia  alone  for  the  fulfil- 
ment, of  its  wishes  for  union.  Prussia  proposed  on  April  10,  in  the  diet  of  Frank- 
furt, to  summon  a  German  parliament  on  the  basis  of  universal  suffrage.  In  order 
to  separate  Bavaria  from  Austria,  a  proposal  was  made  to  the  former  State  that 
the  supreme  command  of  the  German  federal  troops  should  be  divided ;  Prussia 
should  command  in  the  north,  Bavaria  in  the  south.     But  Bismarck's  intention. 


Zy'^^mtl^ly]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  293 

sincere  as  it  was,  did  not  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  majority  of  the  German 
people.  The  liberals  asserted  that  the  conversion  of  Bismarck  to  the  idea  of  a 
German  parliament  with  universal  suffrage  was  not  genuine,  and  derided  the  idea 
that  a  government  which  did  not  respect  the  right  of  popular  representation  in 
its  own  country  would  unite  Germany  under  a  parliamentary  constitution.  So 
rooted  was  the  distrust  of  Prussia  that  Bavaria  refused  this  favourable  proposal. 
Baron  von  der  Pfordten,  the  minister  (p.  231),  was  in  his  heart  not  averse  to 
the  plan ;  but  the  court,  especially  Prince  Charles,  the  uncle  of  the  young  king 
Louis  II,  urged  an  alliance  with  Austria. 

When  Austria  saw  that  her  prospects  of  winning  over  to  her  side  the  minor 
German  States  had  improved,  the  war  party  in  Vienna  gained  the  ascendancy,  and 
the  cautious  counsels  of  Mensdorff  were  disregarded.  During  the  course  of  April, 
however,  negotiations  were  begun  between  Vienna  and  Berlin  for  a  simultaneous 
disarmament  on  both  sides ;  and,  as  the  result  of  a  conciliatory  note  of  Austria, 
prospects  of  peace  were  temporarily  disclosed.  King  William  thought  that 
Prussia  ought  not  to  be  obstinate  in  resisting  all  attempts  at  an  understanding. 
This  more  peaceful  tendency  was  nullified  by  the  preparations  of  Italy,  which 
watched  with  uneasiness  the  inauguration  of  better  relations  between  Prussia  and 
Austria.  By  command  of  King  Victor  Emmanuel  some  one  hundred  thousand  men 
were  enrolled  in  the  army  during  the  month  of  April.  The  Austrian  head  of  the 
general  staff,  Alfred,  Baron  von  Henikstein,  represented  to  the  emperor  in  a 
memorandum  of  April  20  that  Austria  was  seriously  threatened ;  for,  if  Prussia 
also  armed,  Austria  would  be  defenceless  for  nearly  a  month,  because  the  regi- 
ments were  not  stationed,  as  in  Prussia,  in  their  own  recruiting  districts,  and 
the  network  of  railways  was  not  complete.  As  a  result  of  this,  the  emperor 
Francis  Joseph,  disregarding  the  warnings  of  Count  Mensdorff,  ordered  the  mobil- 
isation of  the  southern  army  on  April  21,  and  that  of  the  northern  army  on 
the  27th. 

The  counsellors  of  King  William,  who  were  urging  war,  thus  were  given 
weighty  reasons  why  Prussia  could  not  remain  behind  in  her  preparations.  The 
king,  as  his  letter  of  April  23,  1866  (published  in  the  appendix  to  Bismarck's 
"  Gedanken  und  Erinnerungen  "),  shows,  was  in  any  case  already  convinced  of  the 
necessity  of  crossing  swords  with  Austria,  since  he  contemplated  even  in  April  a 
sudden  attack  on  the  still  unprepared  imperial  capital.  But  since  he  was  unwilling 
to  appear  in  the  eyes  of  Europe  as  the  breaker  of  the  peace,  he  had  waited  for  the 
mobilisation  of  Austria.  Now  the  same  steps  were  taken  by  him  between  the  5th 
and  12th  of  May. 


F.  The  Final  Negotiations  and  the  Outbreak  of  War 

War  was  thus  almost  inevitable.  The  Vienna  cabinet,  which  did  not  under- 
rate the  dangers  of  an  attack  from  two  sides  simultaneously,  resolved  at  the 
eleventh  hour  on  a  complete  change  of  policy  toward  Italy.  Of  late  years  the 
sale  of  the  province  of  Venetia  had  been  refused,  as  detrimental  to  the  honour  of 
Austria ;  she  was  now  willing  to  relinquish  the  province,  in  order  to  have  a  free 
hand  for  a  war  of  conquest  against  Prussia.  Prince  Metternich,  the  Austrian 
ambassador  at  Paris,  was  commissioned  to  call  in  the  mediation  of  Napoleon  III. 


294  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  {Chapter  iii 

The  Vienna  cabinet  was  willing  to  pledge  itself  to  cede  Venetia,  on  condition  that 
Italy  remain  neutral  in  the  coming  war  and  that  Austria  was  then  able  to 
conquer  Silesia.  Napoleon  thought  it  a  stroke  of  good  fortune  to  have  received 
simultaneous  proposals  from  Prussia  and  Austria.  By  a  skilful  employment  of  the 
situation  the  aggrandisement  of  France  in  the  north  or  east  was  virtually  assured. 
When  he  communicated  the  offer  of  Austria  to  the  Italian  government,  the  latter 
justly  retorted  that  the  conditional  promise  of  a  cession  of  Venetia  did  not  present 
the  slightest  certainty ;  the  conquest  of  Silesia  by  Austria  was  doubtful,  and  if  it 
did  succeed,  Austria's  position  would  be  so  much  improved  that  she  would  cer- 
tainly not  feel  disposed  to  redeem  her  pledge.  Thereupon  Austria  professed 
readiness  to  sign  a  treaty  which  should  secure  Venetia  unconditionally  to  the 
Italians.  This  offer  presented  a  great  temptation  to  Italy,  but  could  only  be 
accepted  at  the  expense  of  a  flagrant  breach  of  faith  towards  Prussia.  The 
Italian  cabinet,  after  a  debate  of  several  hours,  resolved  on  May  14  to  refuse  the 
offer,  since  the  wish  for  war  was  already  kindled  in  Italy,  and  the  acceptance  of 
the  gift  would  certainly  have  been  attributed  by  the  republican  portion  of  the 
population  to  the  craven  and  dishonourable  policy  of  the  house  of  Savoy. 

The  negotiations  nevertheless  were  so  far  profitable  to  Austria  that  Italy  was  no 
longer  arming  for  a  war  to  the  knife,  since  she  was  almost  certain  to  gain  Venetia 
even  if  the  result  of  the  war  was  less  favourable.  Austrian  diplomacy  further 
succeeded  in  establishing  closer  relations  with  Prance.  Napoleon  once  more 
attempted  to  induce  Prussia  to  give  a  distinct  undertaking  with  reference  to  ces- 
sions of  territory  on  the  Rhine.  Bismarck,  however,  put  him  off  with  general 
promises;  his  "dilatory"  diplomacy,  as  he  afterward  expressed  himself,  aimed  at 
rousing  in  Napoleon  the  belief  that  he  was  quite  ready  to  be  somewhat  of  a 
traitor  to  his  country,  but  that  the  king  would  not  hear  a  word  of  any  cession  of 
German  territory  to  France.  His  policy  was  both  bold  and  astute ;  he  secured 
the  neutrality  of  the  emperor,  without  giving  him  the  shghtest  pledge  which 
compromised  Prussia. 

Napoleon,  like  almost  all  Frenchmen  of  that  time,  was  convinced  that  Austria 
in  the  struggle  with  Prussia  had  the  military  superiority;  the  former  in  1859  had 
often  nearly  gained  a  victory,  and  even  after  the  battle  of  Sc^erino  the  Austrian 
army  was  far  from  being  conquered  (p.  252).  The  French,  proud  of  their  own 
military  efliciency,  believed  that  so  redoubtable  an  opponent  could  not  be  beaten 
by  any  other  army  than  that  of  France.  For  that  reason  their  emperor  had 
induced  Italy  to  form  an  alliance  with  Prussia,  in  order  to  restore  the  balance  of 
power;  and  similarly,  he  wished  to  secure  his  position  for  the  probable  event  of  an 
Austrian  victory.  Napoleon  therefore  concluded  a  secret  treaty  with  the  Vienna 
cabinet  on  June  12,  in  which  Austria  undertook  to  cede  Venice,  even  iir  event  of 
a  victory,  to  Italy,  which  the  emperor  always  favoured.  The  scheme  which  he 
had  now  made  the  goal  of  his  policy  was  as  follows :  Venetia  was  to  be  ceded  to 
Italy,  Silesia  to  Austria,  Schleswig-Holstein  and  other  North  German  districts 
to  Prussia,  which  in  turn  would  have  to  give  up  considerable  territory  on  the 
Ehine  to  France.  But  instead  of  arming  in  order  to  carry  out  this  desirable  solu- 
tion. Napoleon  thought  he  would  pose  as  arbitrator  of  Europe  after  the  exhaustion 
of  his  rivals.  That  was  his  mistake.  The  Italy  of  1860,  unprepared  and  poorly 
armed,  had  been  easily  forced  to  give  up  Nice  and  Savoy ;  but  Napoleon  never 
suspected  that  Prussia  after  the  war  would  be  strong  enough  to  refuse  the  claims 


S.^;^''^^r4]        HISTORY    of    the    world  295 

of  France.  His  mistake  lay  in  adopting  one  and  the  same  line  of  policy  with 
Cavour  and  Bismarck,  with  Italians  and  Germans. 

The  nearer  the  war  came,  the  more  unfavourable  became  the  diplomatic  situa- 
tion of  Prussia.  The  ambassador  at  Paris,  Count  Goltz,  warned  his  countrymen 
not  to  depend  on  the  neutrality  of  Napoleon.  The  governments  of  the  German 
secondary  States  felt  themselves  menaced  by  the  propositions  for  federal  reform 
(p.  293),  and  public  opinion  in  South  and  West  Germany  was  averse  to  Prussia. 
Any  hope  that  Bavaria  and  Hanover  would  remain  neutral  disappeared ;  Saxony 
was  closely  united  with  Austria.  It  was  peculiarly  painful  to  King  William  that 
he  was  besieged  with  petitions  from  Prussian  towns  and  communities  praying  for 
the  maintenance  of  peace.  Intense  aversion  to  the  war  prevailed,  especially  in  the 
Catholic  districts  on  the  Ehine ;  when  the  members  of  the  Landwehr  were  called 
up,  there  was  actual  insubordination  shown  in  some  places.  The  king,  there- 
fore, considered  it  advisable  to  entertain  the  proposals  for  mediation  which  were 
now  being  mooted.  When  Anton  von  Gablenz,  a  Saxon  landowner  and  brother  of 
the  Austrian  general,  came  to  Berlin  to  recommend  a  partition  of  Germany 
between  the  two  powers,  he  received  full  authority  to  place  this  proposal  before 
the  Vienna  cabinet.  But  the  Austrian  ministry  rejected  that  mediation,  obviously 
because  his  government  had  already  decided  for  a  war,  and  because  Austria  could 
no  longer  desert  the  minor  German  States,  with  which  she  practically  had  come 
to  terms,  and  let  them  be  partitioned  at  the  last  moment.  It  was  Austria  now 
who  urged  on  the  war  and  rendered  Bismarck's  steps  easier.  The  Vienna  cabi- 
net thus  refused  the  proposal,  emanating  from  Napoleon,  to  send  representatives 
to  a  congress,  on  the  ground  that  the  fate  of  Veuetia  would  form  the  object  of 
the  negotiations;  one  great  power  could  not  allow  other  States  to  decide  on  its 
rights  of  ownership. 

King  William  still  hesitated  to  give  the  signal  for  war.  By  the  5th  of  June 
all  Prussian  army  divisions  on  the  southern  frontier  had  taken  up  their  posts. 
Moltke  thought  that  the  Prussian  corps  should  advance  concentrically  into 
Saxony  and  Bohemia  and  attack  the  Austrians,  who  could  hardly  be  ready  to 
fight  for  another  three  weeks.  But  the  king  preferred  to  await  the  progress  of 
the  hostile  measures  which  the  Vienna  cabinet  was  already  taking  in  Schleswig- 
Holstein  and  Frankfurt.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  great  impetuosity  was  shown  at 
Vienna.  The  Austrian  government  summoned  the  Estates  of  Holstein  to  discuss 
the  fate  of  the  country,  although  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty  the  duty  was  incumbent 
on  them  of  exercising  no  control  over  Holstein  without  the  assent  of  Prussia. 
When  Prussia  retorted  by  marching  troops  into  Holstein,  the  Vienna  cabinet 
called  upon  the  German  Confederation  to  order  the  mobilisation  of  the  federal 
army  against  the  violation  of  the  federal  treaty  by  Prussia.  The  decisive  sitting 
of  the  federal  diet  was  held  en  June  14.  Prussia  had  explained  to  the  minor 
States  that  she  would  regard  the  resolution  to  mobilise  as  a  declaration  of  war. 
Nevertheless  a  motion  of  Bavaria  was  voted  on,  which,  even  if  not  expressly 
aimed  against  Prussia,  still  had  for  its  object  the  formation  of  a  federal  army. 
When  the  motion  was  carried  by  9  to  6  votes,  the  Prussian  plenipotentiary,  Karl 
Fried,  von  Savigny,  announced  the  withdrawal  of  Prussia  from  the  Confederation. 
King  William  immediately  afterwards  gave  the  order  for  the  invasion  of  Saxony, 
Hanover,  and  Electoral  Hesse. 


296  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         IChapter'iii 

7.   THE  DECISIVE   STEUGGLE 

A.   Hanover 

At  the  oiitbreak  of  the  war  some  two  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  Prussians 
were  ready  to  march  into  Austria  and  Saxony;  only  forty-eight  thousand  were 
intended  to  fight  the  minor  States.  The  latter  indeed  could  put  about  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  thousand  soldiers  in  the  field;  but  Moltke  went  on  the  principle 
that  the  decisive  blow  must  be  struck  on  the  chief  scene  of  war  with  superior 
forces.  The  first  blow  was  aimed  at  Hanover,  Electoral  Hesse,  and  Nassau, 
whose  sovereigns  had  refused  to  promise  neutrality.  The  blind  king  George  V 
of  Hanover  declared  to  the  Prussian  ambassador.  Prince  Gustav  von  Isenburg- 
Bildingen,  that  compliance  with  the  demand  of  Prussia  was  equivalent  to  his 
being  mediatised;  but  that  he  would  never  allow  himself  to  be  mediatised,  —  he 
would  rather  die  an  honourable  death.  Manteuffel  thereupon  advanced  with  his 
division  into  Hanover  from  Holsteiu,  while  Goeben  and  Beyer  advanced  from  the 
west.  General  Vogel  von  Falckenstein  held  the  supreme  command  of  these  troops. 
The  Hanoverians,  eighteen  thousand  strong,  retreated  before  this  superior  force 
toward  the  south,  and  were  successful  in  escaping  the  first  plan,  which  calculated 
that  they  would  still  be  at  Gottingen ;  so  that  Ealckenstein  actually  believed  they 
had  slipped  from  him.  He  abandoned  the  pursuit  for  a  time;  the  troops  of 
King  George  might  have  thus  reached  the  forest  of  Thuringia  by  way  of  Gotha  and 
Eisenach,  and  escaped  to  Bavaria  in  safety.  It  was  only  on  Moltke's  urgent 
warnings  that  Falckenstein  finally  sent  Goeben's  division  to  Eisenach;  the  road 
by  way  of  Gotha  was  barred  to  them  by  General  von  Flies.  King  George  thus 
saw  himself  surrounded.  Flies,  who  was  nearest  to  him,  attacked  him  on  June 
27  with  nine  thousand  men  at  Langensalza.  The  outnumbered  Hanoverians 
bravely  held  the  field;  but  immediately  afterwards  the  net  was  drawn  closer 
round  them,  and  King  George  was  forced  to  surrender  on  June  29. 

B.  The  War  in  Bohemia  ^ 

(a )  The  First  Movements  of  the  Opposing  Forces.  —  The  Prussian  main  army  was 
faced  by  248,000  Austrians,  who  were  joined  by  23,000  Saxons.  The  Austrian 
commander  was  Ludwig  von  Benedek,  who  had  reaped  a  rich  harvest  of  honours 
in  the  campaigns  of  1848,  1849,  and  1859;  in  the  battle  of  Solferiuo  he  held 
the  field  on  the  right  wing,  and  did  not  retire  until  the  rest  of  the  army  had  left 
the  scene  of  action.  He  had  been  commander-in-chief  of  the  Austrian  army  in 
Italy,  which  he  expected  to  command  in  the  next  war.  He  was  imperturbable, 
experienced,  and  high-minded,  but  he  recognised  the  limitations  of  his  abilities. 
He  knew  that  he  was  only  adapted  to  be  a  general  under  less  important  condi- 
tions, such  as  on  the  scene  of  war  in  Upper  Italy ;  he  was  lacking  in  the  far-sighted 
intellect  and  thorough  military  education  requisite  for  the  leader  of  a  large 
army.  When  finally  against  his  will  he  accepted  the  supreme  command  against 
Prussia,  he  had  to  receive  lectures  from  one  of  his  officers  on  the  military  geogra- 
phy of  Germany.  Since  popular  opinion  not  merely  in  Austria,  but  also  in  South 
Germany,  expected  his  nomination  to  the  command  of  the  northern  army,  the 


'S^iy"::&t^aiy'\        HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  297 

emperor  Francis  Joseph  begged  him  to  overcome  his  scruples.  He  refused,  and 
only  gave  way  after  the  emperor  had  represented  to  him  that  he  could  not  be 
allowed  to  desert  the  dynasty  at  a  crisis.  Lieutenant-Field-Marshal  Baron  Henik- 
stein,  as  chief  of  the  general  staff,  nominally  stood  at  his  side,  but  in  reality 
Major-General  Gideon  von  Krismanic  conducted  the  operations.  At  his  advice 
the  army  was  stationed  in  Moravia,  resting  on  Olmiltz,  and  Bohemia  occupied 
only  by  a  small  number  of  troops.  In  this  latter  country  barely  one  army  corps 
was  stationed,  under  Count  Eduard  von  Clam-Gallas  (p.  251) ;  the  Saxons  there- 
upon retreated. 

Moltke's  original  plan  to  open  the  war  by  an  attack,  and  by  June  6  to  invade 
Bohemia  from  all  sides,  had  not  been  put  into  practice  for  diplomatic  reasons. 
The  divisions  of  the  Prussian  army  were  at  this  time  posted  in  a  long  line  of  400 
kilometers  (250  miles)  from  Halle  to  Neisse.  According  to  Moltke's  plan  they 
were  to  unite  their  forces  in  the  enemy's  country.  But  when  the  attack  had  to 
be  postponed,  and  it  was  reported  at  the  Prussian  headquarters  that  the  Austrians 
were  in  Moravia,  it  was  thought  that  Benedek  was  aiming  a  blow  at  Silesia.  The 
divisions  of  the  Prussian  army  therefore,  which  were  stationed  to  the  east,  pushed 
toward  the  left  and  took  up  a  strong  position  on  the  Neisse. 

(h)  Tlie  Advance  of  the  Prussians  ;  Benedek' s  Plan  of  Attack.  —  This  delay  in 
taking  the  offensive  was  turned  to  account  as  soon  as  war  was  determined  upon. 
On  June  15  the  advance  guard  of  the  army  of  the  Elbe  under  General  Karl  Eber- 
hard  Herwarth  von  Bittenfeld,  one  and  one-half  army  corps  (48,800  men),  marched 
into  Saxony.  The  first  army,  consisting  of  three  corps  (97,000  men),  assembled 
in  Lusatia  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles ;  the  second  army  finally,  three  and 
one-half  corps  (121,000  men)  strong,  was  stationed  in  Silesia  under  the  crown 
prince  Frederick  William.  The  corps  of  Von  der  Mtilbe  (25,000  men,  mostly 
militia)  followed  as  a  reserve.  All  the  divisions  were  ordered  to  enter  Bohemia 
on  June  21,  and  the  district  of  Jitschin  (Gitschin)  was  fixed  as  the  rendez- 
vous, where  they  were  to  meet  on  June  28.  In  consequence  of  the  shifting  of 
the  SHesian  corps  toward  the  southeast  on  the  Neisse,  the  distance  which  the 
army  of  the  crown  prince  had  to  traverse  to  Jitschin  was  longer  than  the  lines 
of  march  of  Prince  Frederick  Charles  and  of  the  army  of  the  Elbe.  The 
separate  advance  of  the  Prussian  divisions  into  Bohemia  was  thus  attended 
with  considerable  danger.  Moltke,  whose  hands  had  been  hitherto  tied  by  dip- 
lomatic considerations,  knew  this ;  and,  remaining  behind  at  first  with  the  king 
in  Berlin,  he  directed  the  movements  of  the  three  armies  with  marvellous 
foresight. 

The  Austrians  received  the  order  on  June  20  to  march  out  of  their  quarters  in 
Moravia.  Benedek,  accurately  informed  by  his  intelligence  department  of  the 
detached  position  of  the  Prussians,  wished  to  lead  his  army  opportunely  between 
the  advancing  divisions  and  to  defeat  one  after  the  other  before  they  combined. 
The  first  army  reached  Eeichenberg  on  June  23  and  pressed  on  toward  the  Tser  ; 
the  army  of  the  Elbe  marched  parallel  to  it.  The  second  army  was  still  on 
Silesian  soil,  advancing  toward  the  passes  of  the  Eiesengebirge  (the  Giant  Moun- 
tains). As  Benedek  established  his  headquarters  at  Josefstadt  in  Bohemia  on 
June  26,  and  Prince  Frederick  Charles  had  already  traversed  northern  Bohemia, 
the  Austrian  leader  selected  him  for  his  first  opponent.     He  ordered  the  two 


298  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         Ichapter iii 

corps  which  he  had  stationed  in  Bohemia  —  the  Austrian  under  Clam-Gallas,  and 
the  Saxon,  60,000  men  in  all — to  face  Prince  Frederick  Charles  on  the  Iser  in 
order  to  detain  him.  He  himself  put  the  main  body  of  his  army  in  movement 
toward  the  Iser. 

(c)  The  Battles  of  Trautenau,  Nachod,  and  Slcalitz  {June  'B7  and  28).  —  The 
troops  of  the  crown  prince  crossed  the  Bohemian  frontier  in  the  passes  of  the 
Eieseugebirge  on  June  26  ;  Benedek,  therefore,  while  wishing  to  attack  Prince 
Frederick  Charles  with  six  army  corps  in  all,  sent  back  two  corps  under  Gablenz 
(p.  289)  and  Hamming  (p.  252)  to  guard  the  mountain  passes  against  the  second 
army.  Since  the  movements  of  the  Prussians  were  admirably  combined,  and  one 
army  was  eager  to  relieve  the  other,  these  two  Austrian  corps  were  vigorously 
attacked  on  the  27th  of  June.  Thus  the  Prussian  I  corps  under  General  Adolf 
von  Benin  was  pitted  against  the  Austrian  corps  of  Gablenz  at  Trautenau,  while 
General  Karl  Friedr.  von  Steinmetz  met  Hamming's  force  at  Nachod.  These 
sanguinary  encounters  resulted  in  a  defeat  of  the  Austrians  at  the  latter  place, 
and  a  victory  at  the  other.  Nevertheless  it  was  already  clear  that  the  Prussian 
tactics  were  far  superior  to  those  of  Austria.  The  Prussian  needle-gun  fired  three 
times  as  fast  as  the  Austrian  muzzle-loader ;  and  apart  from  this  the  "  shock 
tactics  "  of  the  Austrians  (p.  277),  who  tried  to  storm  heights  and  belts  of  forest 
with  the  bayonet,  were  to  a  high  degree  disastrous.  The  Prussians  brought  the 
enemy's  attack  to  a  standstill  by  rapid  firing;  they  then  threw  themselves  in 
smaller  divisions  on  the  flanks  of  their  adversary,  and  completed  his  overthrow. 
Hence  the  terrible  losses  of  the  Austrians  even  after  a  successful  charge.  At 
Trautenau,  although  victors,  they  lost  183  officers  and  4,231  men  killed  and 
wounded,  the  Prussians  only  56  officers  and  1,282  men ;  at  Nachod  5,700 
Austrians  fell,  and  only  1,122  Prussians.  The  superiority  of  the  Prussians  was 
manifest  everywhere,  —  in  the  preparations  for  the  war,  in  tactics,  and  in  the 
better  education  of  the  officers  and  men. 

On  the  evening  of  June  27  the  gravity  of  these  facts  was  not  yet  realised  in 
the  A.ustrian  headquarters.  Benedek  therefore  adhered  to  his  plan  of  continuing 
his  advance  against  Frederick  Charles.  This  was,  however,  darigerous,  because  the 
nearer  enemy,  the  crown  prince,  would  certainly  put  him*lf  more  en  evidence 
on  the  next  day.  Veteran  officers  advised  Krismanio,  under  the  circumstances, 
to  abandon  the  attack  on  the  first  army  and  to  hurl  himself  with  all  available 
troops  against  the  second  army.  If  this  had  been  done,  the  crown  prince  would 
have  had  to  contend  against  an  attack  by  superior  numbers.  This  was  known 
at  the  Prussian  headquarters,  and  Frederick  William  and  his  chief  of  the 
general  staff,  Leonhard  von  Blumenthal,  made  up  their  minds  that  they  would 
have  hard  fighting  on  their  further  advance  through  the  mountain  passes.  Bonin, 
after  his  reverse  of  June  27,  had  returned  to  Prussian  territory,  whereas  the 
Guards  advanced  on  the  road  to  Eipel,  and  Steinmetz  from  Nachod  towards  Ska- 
litz.  The  crown  prince  waited  with  his  staff  in  the  middle  between  these  two 
columns,  ready  to  hasten  to  the  post  of  danger.  The  coolness  and  caution  of  the 
generalship,  considering  the  difficult  position,  could  not  be  surpassed.  Benedek 
still  obstinately  held  to  his  original  plan.  He  actually  inspected  on  the 
morning  of  June  28  the  three  corps  concentrated  against  Steinmetz,  without, 
however,  striking  a  blow  at  him  with  these  superior  numbers.     On  the  contrary. 


S/™f<?Lt:4]        HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  299 

he  ordered  the  greater  part  of  these  troops  to  march  against  Frederick  Charles, 
and  commissioned  the  archduke  Leopold  in  particular  to  take  up  a  strong  position 
behind  the  Elbe.  By  so  doing  he  abandoned  a  favourable  chance  and  made  a  mis- 
calculation, for  that  very  day  the  troops  of  the  crown  prince  came  up  with  the 
combined  Austrian  forces  both  at  Skalitz  and  Trautenau.  Archduke  Leopold, 
contrary  to  Benedek's  orders,  offered  battle  at  Skalitz,  and  brought  a  complete 
defeat  on  himself ;  out  of  the  twenty  thousand  Austrians,  five  thousand  were  left 
on  the  field  of  battle.  At  the  same  time  Gablenz,  who  had  been  victorious  on 
the  previous  day  at  Trautenau,  was  defeated  by  the  Guards  under  Prince  Augus- 
tus of  Wurtemberg  near  Trautenau.  The  crown  prince  had  thus  forced  his  way 
through  the  passes  on  June  28,  and  the  way  to  the  Elbe  was  free.  It  was  now 
clear  that  in  the  duel  between  Prussia  and  Austria  the  Protestant  power  was 
superior  strategically  and  intellectually. 

(d)  MUnchengrdtz  and  Jitschin  (June  38  and  89).  —  The  other  Prussian  com- 
mander had  not  pursued  his  object  so  vigorously  as  the  crown  prince.  The 
advance  guard  of  Prince  Frederick  Charles,  whose  chief  of  the  general  staff  was 
General  Konst.  Bernh.  von  Voigts-Ehetz,  reached  the  Iser  on  the  26th  of  June. 
The  army  of  the  Austrians  and  Saxons  tried  unsuccessfully  to  dispute  the  passage 
in  a  sanguinary  night  encounter  at  Podol.  But  the  prince  followed  up  his  vic- 
tory somewhat  slowly,  and  allowed  his  advance  to  be  checked  by  the  rear-guard 
action,  unfavorable  indeed  to  the  Austrians,  at  Miinchengratz  on  June  28. 
Moltke,  who  was  carefully  watching  over  the  .movements  of  the  two  armies,  sent 
the  prince  the  following  telegram  frOm  Berlin  on  June  29  :  "  His  Majestj^  expects 
the  first  army,  by  a  rapid  advance,  to  relieve  the  second  army,  which,  in  spite  of 
a  series  of  successful  engagements,  finds  itself  now  in  a  difficult  position."  In 
consequence  of  these  orders  the  prince  continued  to  advance  with  incomparable 
energy. 

Benedek  had  meantime  learnt  with  deep  inward  perturbation  that  his  three 
corps,  which  had  been  moved  against  the  crown  prince,  were  defeated.  This 
news  produced  such  an  effect  on  him  that  he  gave  up  the  offensive  which  he  had 
intended  to  assume  against  Prince  Frederick  Charles.  He  resolved,  at  the  advice 
of  Krismanic,  the  "  strategist  of  positions,"  to  take  up  a  naturally  strong  defensive 
position  on  the  hills  above  the  Elbe,  and  to  await  there  subsequent  attacks.  He 
also  sent  to  the  combined  Austrian-Saxon  army  an  order  to  retire  on  to  the  main 
army.  But  unfortunately  the  intelligence  department  at  his  headquarters  was  so 
dilatory  that  this  order  had  not  arrived,  when  the  troops  of  Prince  Frederick 
Charles  attacked  the  Saxons  and  the  corps  of  Clam-Gallas  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
29th  of  June,  at  Jitschin.  The  commanders  of  the  allies  must  have  thought  that 
the  main  army  was  near  at  hand,  and  that  they  ought  therefore  to  defend  Jit- 
schin, the  junction  of  the  roads.  They  accepted  the  battle,  and  at  first  successfully 
resisted.  Then  about  seven  o'clock  the  Austrian  officer  arrived  and  handed  in  the 
order  to  retreat.  The  Austrians  now  wished  to  discontinue  the  battle,  but  were 
involved  in  disastrous  engagements  by  the  keea  advance  of  the  Prussians  and 
were  completely  beaten.  The  Saxons  of  the  crown  prince  Albert  withdrew  in  good 
order;  but  the  corps  of  Clam-Gallas  broke  up  on  the  retreat,  which  lasted  the 
whole  night  and  the  following  day,  and  reached  the  main  army  in  a  deplorable 
condition. 


300  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         \_Chapteriii 

(e)  The  Retreat  of  the  Austrians.  —  The  strong  position  occupied  in  the 
meantime  by  the  Austrian  main  army  was  thus  rendered  untenable,  for  the 
two  army  corps,  which  were  supposed  to  form  the  left  wing,  were  defeated,  and 
Prince  Frederick  Charles  could  attack  the  Austrians  in  flank  and  rear.  Benedek 
was  therefore  forced  to  give  the  order  for  retreat  in  the  night  of  June  30-July  1. 
Since  the  Prussians  did  not  follow  him  at  once,  they  did  not  know  how  far  he 
had  led  his  army  back.  King  William  and  Moltke  had  meanwhile  reached  the 
army  of  Prince  Frederick  Charles  on  July  1.  'Moltke  believed  that  the  Austrians 
had  occupied  a  strong  position  behind  the  Elbe,  and  were  waiting  behind  the 
fortresses  of  Josefstadt  and  Koniggratz  for  the  attack.  They  were,  however, 
already  halting  behind  the  Bistritz,  a  tributary  of  the  Elbe,  where  they  had  come 
exhausted  by  a  disorderly  night  march.  Benedek,  through  these  events,  had  lost 
all  hope  of  victory ;  and  when,  on  the  morning  of  July  1,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Friedrich  von  Beck  came  into  his  camp  with  instructions  from  the  emperor 
Francis  Joseph  to  report  on  the  condition  of  the  army,  a  council  of  war  had 
decided  on  a  further  retreat  behind  the  Elbe,  and,  if  necessary,  even  to  Olmiitz 
or  toward  Vienna.  This  gloomy  state  of  affairs  was  expressed  in  a  telegram 
which  was  sent  immediately  afterwards  by  the  Austrian  commander  to  the 
emperor,  urgently  advising  him  to  conclude  peace  at  any  price.  A  disaster  for 
the  army  was  inevitable.  Francis  Joseph  believed,  however,  he  could  not  declare 
himself  conquered  without  a  pitched  battle.  He  therefore  answered, ."  Peace  is 
impossible.  We  must  retreat  if  necessary.  Has  any  battle  taken  place  ? "  This 
expression  of  the  emperor's  will  seems  to  have  determined  Benedek  to  accept  a 
pitched  battle,  and  as  the  Prussians  were  rapidly  advancing  he  made  instant 
preparations  for  it. 

Late  in  the  evening  of  July  2  the  news  was  brought  to  the  Prussian  head- 
quarters that  the  Austrians  were  still  in  front  of  the  Elbe,  ready  to  accept  the 
challenge.  It  was  determined  by  King  William  and  Moltke,  after  deliberation, 
to  attack  the  enemy  at  once  in  full  force,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Count  Eeinhold 
Finck  von  Finckenstein  (killed  at  Mars-la-Tours,  1870)  was  sent,  while  it  was 
still  night,  to  the  crown  prince  to  summon  him  to  start  at  once.  Major-General 
von  Blumenthal  had  lately  advised  the  two  Prussian  armies,«rho  were  no  longer 
prevented  from  joining  forces,  to  concentrate  tactically  to  the  west  of  the  Elbe, 
in  order  thus  to  obviate  the  danger  of  being  separated  in  a  pitched  battle. 
Moltke,  however,  ordered  that  the  plan  of  separating  the  armies  should  still  be 
observed,  but  in  such  a  way  that  the  armies  on  the  day  of  battle  might  join 
forces  by  a  rapid  march.  He  wanted  to  be  able  to  attack  the  Austrians  in  tlie 
front  with  one  army,  and  on  the  flank  with  another.  The  greatness  of  Moltke 
lies  in  this  bold  strategy,  which  aims  at  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  enemy 
by  enclosing  him  between  broad  advancing  masses ;  the  application  of  this 
method  enabled  him  in  1870  to  capture  entire  armies. 

(/)  The  Battle  of  Koniggratz.  —  The  Austrians  and  Saxons  on  the  morning  of 
the  battle  of  Koniggratz,  July  3,  were  two  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  men  strong, 
drawn  up  in  close  formation.  The  great  disadvantage  of  their  position  was  that 
they  had  the  Elbe  in  their  rear ;  but,  of  course,  several  bridges  had  been  thrown 
across  it.  The  centre  and  the  left  wing  pointed  west,  and  awaited  the  attack  of 
Prince  Frederick  Charles ;  the  right  wing,  consisting  of  the  fourth  and  second 


K»^«--4]        HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  301 

corps,  was  ordered  to  face  north,  since  the  advance  of  -the  second  army  might  be 
expected  from  that  quarter. 

The  crown  prince,  following  the  orders  given  him,  started  immediately  at 
early  morning,  but  he  did  not  reach  the  battlefield  before  noon.  In  the  mean- 
time the  first  army  attacked  the  centre ;  the  Elbe  army,  the  right  wing  of  the 
Austrian  army.  The  Elbe  army  made  good  progress ;  on  the  other  hand,  Prince 
Frederick  Charles  vainly  exhausted  his  efforts  against  the  string  centre  of  the 
Austrians.  The  Austrian  artillery  was  planted  in  tiers  on  the  hills  of  Chlum, 
Lipa,  and  Langenhof,  and  at  once  precluded  any  attempt  at  an  infantry  attack. 
Since  Prince  Frederick  Charles  was  compelled  to  wait  until  the  crown  prince 
joined  his  left  wing,  the  weak  spot  in  his  line  was  there,  for  the  Austrians, 
temporarily  superior  in  numbers,  might  outflank  him.  It  was  fortunate  for  the 
Prussians  that  the  seventh  division  was  stationed  there  under  the  brave  Major- 
General  Eduard  Friedr.  von  Fransecky,  who  covered  the  weakness  of  his  position 
by  a  determined  and  splendid  offensive.  He  advanced  into  the  Swiepwald,  drove 
out  the  Austrians,  and  from  that  position  harassed  their  right  wing,  which  was 
ordered  to  hold  its  ground  against  the  expected  attack  of  the  crown  prince. 
The  Austrian  generals,  Count  Thassilo  Festetics  and  Count  Karl  von  Thun- 
Hohenstein,  feeling  themselves  attacked  by  Fransecky,  intended  to  beat  this 
enemy  first  at  any  cost.  Lured  on  by  the  hope  of  military  fame,  they  left  their 
position,  which  faced  north;  the  fourth  corps,  under  the  command  of  General 
Anton  Eitter  MoUinary  von  Monte  Pastello,  after  Festetics  was  wounded,  tried 
to  deprive  the  Prussians  of  the  Swiepwald.  This  attack  was  at  first  repelled 
with  loss,  and  the  wood  could  not  be  captured  by  the  Austrians  until  a  part  of 
the  second  corps  turned  against  Fransecky.  Hitherto  eleven  Prussian  battalions 
had  held  their  ground  against  fifty-nine  Austrian  battalions. 

The  battle,  however,  at  noon  was  extremely  favourable  to  the  Austrians.  King 
William  looked  anxiously  toward  the  north,  where  the  crown  prince  had  long 
been  vainly  expected.  Benedek  deliberated  whether  he  ought  not  now  to  bring 
up  his  strong  reserves  and  win  a  victory  by  a  vigorous  assault  on  the  Prussian 
centre.  But  he  felt  himself  crippled  by  the  news,  which  reached  him  three  hours 
earlier  than  King  William  and  Moltke,  that  the  crown  prince  was  approaching. 
Benedek  saw  also,  with  uneasiness,  how  his  right  wing,  intent  upon  the  struggle  in 
the  Swiepwald,  left  groat  gaps  toward  the  north.  It  thus  happened  that  the  second 
army,  when  it  came  on  the  scene  at  noon,  was  able  at  the  first  onset  to  overlap 
the  Austrian  right  wing.  The  Prussian  Guards  and  the  sixth  corps  were  in  the 
first  line ;  the  corps  of  Bonin  and  Steinmetz  followed  after.  The  Guards  pressed 
on  victoriously,  conquered,  after  a  short  fight,  the  key  of  the  Austrian  position, 
the  village  of  Chlum,  and  soon  afterwards  Lipa  also.  Startling  as  was  this 
onslaught  of  the  Prussians,  and  great  as  was  its  success,  Benedek  still  thought  it 
possible  to  retrieve  the  day.  He  brought  up  his  reserves  in  order  to  retake  Chlum. 
The  Austrians,  charging  bravely,  actually  drove  back  the  Guards  by  their  superior 
force.  They  were  on  the  point  of  entering  Chlum  when,  rather  late,  the  Prussian 
corps  under  Bonin  appeared,  repulsed  the  Austrians,  and  soon  afterwards  their 
defeat  was  decided.  The  army  of  Prince  Frederick  Charles,  hitherto  kept  in 
check,  now  advanced,  and  the  Prussian  cavalry  was  called  upon  to  complete  the 
victory.  Although  the  Austrian  cavalry  stopped  this  pursuit  in  the  battle  of 
Streschewitz,  the  masses  of  infantry,  abandoning  all  order,  poured  down  on  the 


302  HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD         \_Chapter  in 

Elbe,  looking  for  the  bridges  over  the  river.  It  was  fortunate  for  them  that 
they  were  not  pursued  by  the  Prussian  infantry.  The  Austrians,  although  terrible 
disorder  prevailed  in  places  among  them  while  crossing  the  Elbe,  were  able  to 
reach  the  left  bank  of  the  Elbe  in  the  night  of  July  4.  Their  losses  were  terrible ; 
they  amounted  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners  to  more  than  44,000  men,  some 
half  of  whom,  wounded  or  unwounded,  were  taken  prisoners.  The  Prussians  had 
1,335  killed  and  9,200  wounded.  Most  of  the  Austrians  had  fallen  during  their 
fruitless  attacks  in  dense  masses  on  the  Prussian  needle-guns  (cf.  pp.  277  and 
298). 

C.  The  Battle  of  Custoza 

This  crushing  disaster  was  only  slightly  compensated  by  the  victory  which 
the  Austrians  won  on  June  24, 1866,  over  the  Italians  at  Custoza.  The  Italians 
were  twice  as  strong  as  the  array  of  74,000  men  imder  Archduke  Albert;  but 
they  made  the  mistake  of  dividing  their  army,  and  of  crossing  the  Mincio 
with  the  larger  part,  while  the  smaller  part,  under  Enrico  Cialdini,  Duke  of 
Gaeta,  was  intended  to  cross  the  Po.  Archduke  Albert,  who  was  supported  by 
Major-General  Franz  Freiherr  von  John  as  chief  of  the  general  staff,  threw  him- 
self with  an  irresistible  attack  on  the  army  advancing  from  the  west  under 
the  king  and  La  Marmora,  and  unexpectedly  attacking  its  left  wing  gained  the 
victory. 


8.   THE   LAST   STRUGGLES  AND   THE   CONCLUSION   OF  PEACE 

A.  The  Advance   of  the    Prussians  to  the   Danube;   the  Struggles  in 
Western  and  Southern  Germany 

Francis  Joseph  thought  it  necessary  after  the  battle  of  Koniggratz  to  call  in 
the  mediation  of  France.  The  official  Paris  journal  announced  on  July  5,  1866, 
that  Venetia  had  been  ceded  by  Austria  to  the  emperor  Napoleon.  Austria 
counted  confidently  that  the  French  emperor  would  urge  Ita||r  to  neutrality,  and 
would  check  the  victorious  career  of  Prussia  by  stationing  an  army  on  the  Ehine. 
Advice  to  this  effect  was  given  to  the  emperor  by  his  minister  of  the  exterior; 
Drouyn  de  I'Huys  (p.  216).  But  France  was  not  prepared  for  war;  the  emperor 
was  at  that  time  incapacitated  by  a  torturing  disease,  and  he  therefore  allowed' 
himself  to  be  persuaded  by  Prince  Jerome  (originally  Joseph ;  p.  250),  as  well  as 
by  his  ministers,  the  Marquis  de  Lavalette  and  Eugene  Rouher,  to  abandon  the  idea 
of  hostilities  against  Prussia,  in  order  to  win  territorial  concessions  from  King 
William  by  negotiations.  The  Prussian  ambassador  Count  Goltz  (p.  295)  adroitly 
represented  to  him  how  much  more  favourable  an  amicable  arrangement  with 
Prussia  would  be  for  him.  From  this  moment  onwards  France  had  played  for 
the  last  time  her  role  as  leading  power  in  Europe. 

Prussia  was  energetic  in  reaping  the  fruits  of  her  victory.  Goltz  kept  Napoleon 
in  suspense  by  courteous  hints,  without  pledging  the  Prussian  government  in  any 
matter.  When  the  French  diplomatist  Benedetti  (see  explanation  of  plate  on  page 
246)  appeared  at  the  Prussian  headquarters  in  Moravia,  with  a  commission  from 


^^J^^ZX:]        HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  303 

Napoleon,  the  circumstance  aroused  fear  in  Bismarck  that  Napoleon  would  now 
come  forward  with  his  claims  ;  but  it  appeared  that  Benedetti  had  none  but  vague 
orders,  and  was  only  intended  to  hinder  the  entry  of  the  Prussians  into  the  Aus- 
trian capital.  Meantime  Benedek  in  his  rapid  retreat  had  reached  Olmtitz  with 
his  army.  The  second  army  was  ordered  to  watch  and  follow  him,  while  the 
first  marched  southward  on  Vienna.  Since  Austria  thought  its  southern  frontier 
was  secured  by  the  cession  of  Venetia,  the  larger  part  of  the  field  army  stationed 
in  Italy,  fifty-seven  thousand  men,  was  ordered  to  the  northern  theatre  of  war. 
Archduke  Albert  assumed  the  supreme  command.  Benedek  was  instructed  to 
withdraw  from  Olmtitz  to  the  Danube,  in  order  that  the  newly  collected  army 
might  be  on  the  defensive  behind  the  river.  But  the  defeated  general  loitered  so 
long  in  Olmiitz  that  detachments  of  the  army  of  the  crown  prince  were  able  to 
get  in  front  of  his  army.  Benedek's  marching  columns  were  attacked  on  July  15 
near  Tobitschau,  south  of  Olmiitz,  and  suffered  a  serious  reverse ;  eighteen  cannon 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Prussians.  Benedek  was  thus  forced  to  abandon  his 
march  southward  and  withdrew  toward  Hungary,  in  order  to  reach  the  Danube 
by  a  detour  along  the  Waag.  In  consequence  of  this,  the  Prussians  were  able  to 
appear  on  the  Danube  earlier  than  he  could. 

Meantime  the  Prussians  were  fighting  successfully  against  the  minor  States. 
General  Vogel  von  Falckenstein,  after  the  capture  of  the  Hanoverians  (p.  296), 
had  orders  to  force  himself  at  Fulda  between  the  Bavarian  army  and  the  eighth 
federal  corps  (Wiirtemberg,  Hesse,  Baden),  in  order  to  attack  iirst  the  one  and 
then  the  other.  The  Bavarian  general.  Prince  Charles,  ordered  the  commander 
of  the  eighth  corps.  Prince  Alexander  of  Hesse,  to  join  forces  with  him;  but 
the  federal  diet  wished  that  Alexander  should  first  protect  Frankfurt,  and 
induced  him  to  postpone  the  junction.  This  made  it  possible  for  the  Bavarians 
to  be  attacked  and  defeated  by  Goeben's  division  at  Kissingen  on  July  10,  1866. 
Although  Moltke  now  ordered  General  Falckenstein  to  pursue  at  once  the  main 
body  of  the  enemy,  the  Bavarians,  and  crush  them,  Falckenstein  thought  it 
better  to  capture  Frankfurt  first.  He  defeated  the  federal  corps  in  the  engage- 
ments of  Laufach  and  Aschaffenburg  and  entered  the  Free  City  victoriously. 
But,  since  by  so  doing  he  had  disobeyed  the  orders  from  the  king's  headquarters, 
he  was  deprived  of  the  supreme  command;  and  on  July  19  General  Manteuffel 
(p.  289)  took  his  place.  Once  more  the  Prussians  were  enabled  to  attack  indi- 
vidually their  disunited  opponents,  and  to  defeat,  first  the  federal  corps  at 
Bischofsheim  and  Wertheim,  and  then  the  Bavarians  at  Neubrunn  and  Eoss- 
brunn.  The  brave  German  troops,  who  were  destined  to  cover  themselves  with 
glory  in  1870,  were  forced  to  yield  then,  because  there  was  no  unity  or  clear  plan 
among  their  commanders. 


B.  Nicholsbueg;  Lissa. 

GoLTZ,  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  Napoleon,  had  concluded  with  him  on  July 
14  preliminary  agreements  as  a  basis  for  peace.  The  withdrawal  of  Austria  from 
the  German  Confederation  was  fixed  as  the  first  condition ;  but  the  dominions  of 
the  Austrian  monarchy  were  not  to  suffer  any  loss  except  that  of  Venetia.  Prus- 
sia, in  addition,  stipulated  for  the  right  to  form  a  North-German  confederation 


S,'S.ffJ?r4]        HISTORY  OF   THE   WORLD  305 

king  to  terminate  the  conflict  with  the  Prussian  House  of  Eepresentatives  by 
offering  the  hand  of  friendship  to  it  in  his  speech  from  the  throne  on  August  5, 
1866.  There  were  irreconcilable  conservatives  who  urged  the  king  to  use  the 
foreign  victory  for  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  liberal  party;  but  the  royal 
speech  expressly  recognised  that  the  expenditure  incurred  for  military  purposes 
would  have  subsequently  to  be  sanctioned  by  the  Landtag,  and  therefore  asked  an 
indemnity  for  such  expenses.  In  this  point  the  king  followed,  not  without  hesi- 
tation, the  advice  of  Bismarck.  In  the  conversation  with  the  president  of  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives  he  declared  that  in  a  similar  case  he  would  not  be  able 
to  act  otherwise  than  he  had  done  before ;  but  this  statement,  for  which  Bismarck 
declined  responsibility,  was  fortunately  not  made  public  until  later. 

Not  less  clever  was  his  treatment  of  the  conquered  secondary  States.  Bismarck 
set  up  the  principle  that  full  incorporation  or  a  complete  amnesty  to  the  indi- 
vidual States  was  the  just  course ;  the  entry  of  those  who  were  chosen  members 
of  the  new  federation  ought  not  to  be  burdened  with  hard  conditions.  Hanover, 
Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  and  Frankfort-on-Main  were  fully  incorporated,  by  which 
means  the  Prussian  territory  was  enlarged  by  thirteen  hundred  square  miles 
(German).  On  the  other  hand,  the  demands  for  a  war  indemnity  imposed  by 
Prussia  on  the  remaining  States  were  moderate.  The  greatest  triumph  of  his 
negotiations  was  that  Wurtemberg,  Baden,  and  Bavaria  concluded,  between  the 
13th  and  21st  of  August,  1866,  a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance,  on  the  basis  of 
which  their  military  forces  were,  in  case  of  war,  to  be  under  the  command  of 
Prussia.  These  provisions,  which  were  kept  secret  for  the  moment,  constitute 
the  foundation  of  the  union  of  Germany. 

This  favourable  event  bad  been  chiefly  effected  by  the  action  of  Napoleon,  who 
had  unwisely  let  the  right  time  slip  past,  and  only  now  stretched  out  his  hands  to 
German  territory.  Bismarck,  with  the  most  subtle  diplomatic  skill,  had  fed  the 
king  with  false  hopes  until  the  war  was  decided.  The  emperor  now  demanded 
the  price  of  his  neutrality.  His  ambassador,  Benedetti,  in  an  interview  with  Bis- 
marck on  August  5  demanded  the  Ehenish  Palatinate  with  Mainz,  as  well  as  the 
district  on  the  Saar.  Bismarck  then  haughtUy  opposed  him.  He  threatened  that, 
if  France  insisted  upon  these  claims,  he  would  at  once,  and  at  any  cost,  make  peace 
with  the  South  Germans  and  advance  in  alliance  with  them  to  conquer  Alsace 
and  Lorraine.  Napoleon  was  alarmed,  since  his  forces  were  no  match  for  the 
gigantic  war  equipment  of  Germany.  Prussia  alone  had  660,000  men  with  the 
colours.  But  Bismarck  took  care  that  the  demands  of  France  were  published  in  a 
Paris  journal,  so  that  the  national  feeling  of  the  Germans  was  intensely  aroused. 
On  the  strength  of  these~impressions,  the  above-mentioned  alliances  with  the  South 
German  States  were  brought  about.  Germany  was  thus  put  in  a  sufficiently 
strong  position  to  defend  every  inch  of  national  soil  against  East  and  West. 
Napoleon  III  was  diplomatically  defeated  before  he  was  conquered  on  the  field  of 
battle.  Drouyn  de  I'Huys,  since  the  emperor  would  not  listen  to  his  proposals  for 
forcing  on  a  war,  took  farewell,  and  said,  "  I  have  seen  three  dynasties  come  and 
go.    I  know  the  signs  of  approaching  disaster,  and  I  withdraw." 


VOL.  Vm  — 20 


306  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         I  Chapter  ir 


IV 
WESTERN  EUROPE  IN  THE  YEARS  1866-1902 

Br   PEOFESSOR   DR.    GOTTLOB    EGELHAAF 


1.  WESTEEN  EUEOPE,  1866-1871 

A.  The  Amalgamation  of  the  New  Pkovinoes  with  the  Kingdom 

OF  Peussia 

ON"  October  3,  1866,  King  William  formally  took  possession  by  letters- 
patent  of  Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  and  Frankfort-on-Main,  which 
the  peace  of  Prague  (p.  304)  had  assigned  to  him  by  the  law  of  nations, 
and  whose  incorporation  into  Prussia  had  been  sanctioned  by  the  Landtag 
of  the  monarchy  in  September.  The  king  declared  in  his  speech  to  the  Hanoverians 
on  the  same  day  that  he  honoured  the  grief  which  they  experienced  in  tearing 
themselves  from  earlier  and  endeared  connections,  but  that  the  interests  of  the 
nation  dictated  the  firm  and  lasting  union  of  Hanover  with  Prussia,  and  that  Ger- 
many should  be  the  gainer  by  the  acquisitions  of  Prussia.  However  correct  these 
principles  were,  a  large  part  of  the  Hanoverians  were  little  inclined  to  recognise 
them  and  to  submit  to  the  inevitable.  Devotion  to  the  Guelfic  house,  above  all 
to  the  king  George  V,  whose  blindness  made  him  an  object  of  universal  pity,  and 
his  spouse,  the  universally  beloved  Queen  Mary ;  the  consideration  that  the  gentry 
of  the  country  would  be  ousted  from  the  exclusive  possesgjon  of  the  high  offices 
of  state ;  that  the  capital  would  be  severely  injured  by  the  loss  of  the  court ;  that 
antiquated  but  familiar  methods  of  business  would  be  broken  down  on  all  sides 
by  the  Prussian  freedom  of  trade  and  freedom  of  movement ;  the  traditional  dis- 
like of  the  Hanoverians  for  the  Prussians,  especially  for  the  Berliners,  who  were 
decried  as  supercilious  and  empty-headed;  in  short,  personal  feeling  and  prac- 
tical interests,  —  combined  in  producing  the  result  that  the  Prussian  rule  was  only 
endured  by  the  nobility,  the  clergy,  and  a  large  part  of  the  citizens  and  peasants, 
with  a  silent  indignation.  The  king,  who  had  fled  to  the  Castle  of  Hietzing,  near 
Vienna,  added  fuel  to  the  discontent  by  a  manifesto  to  his  people  on  October  5, 
in  which  he  declared,  in  opposition  to  the  warrant  of  William  I,  that  the  incor- 
poration of  his  land  into  Prussia  was  null  and  void,  and  expressed  his  confidence 
in  the  Almighty  that  He  would  restore  Hanover  to  the  Guelfic  house  "  as  He  had 
done  sixty  years  ago,  when  the  same  injustice  from  the  same  quarter  was  not 
allowed  to  continue."  Societies  were  secretly  formed  throughout  the  country 
whose  aim  was  this  restoration,  and  it  was  proposed  to  hold  a  "Hanoverian 
Legion  "  in  readiness,  which,  should  a  crisis  arise,  might  be  on  the  spot  sword  in 


irZfmTiTo2]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  307 

hand.  The  hatred  of  the  people  toward  Prussia  was  shown  in  the  abuse  showered 
on  individuals,  especially  on  Prussian  soldiers. 

It  is  interesting  to  hear  that  Bismarck  entertained  the  idea,  which  had  once 
been  successfully  realised  by  Cleisthenes  at  Athens  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  279),  of  break- 
ing up  the  existing  combinations,  and  creating  out  of  them  new  forms  of  political 
life,  which  should  facilitate  the  fusion  of  the  old  and  new  parts  of  the  country. 
According  to  his  speech  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  on  February  5,  1867,  he 
wished  to  redivide  all  the  country  west  of  the  Elbe  into  four  large  provinces,  which 
should  correspond  to  the  medieval  tribes,  and  be  called  Old  Franconia,  Westphalia, 
Lower  Saxony,  and  Thuringia.  Old  and  New  Prussia  were  to  be  merged  in  these 
provinces  as  a  means  of  softening  the  contrast  between  them  and  the  rest  of  the 
Prussian  State.  Bismarck  did  not  succeed  in  carrying  out  this  idea ;  "  the  States, 
gradually  created  by  political  events,  showed  themselves  stronger  than  the  original 
tribes." 

No  course  was  left  but  to  govern  the  province  of  Hanover,  which  remained 
unaltered  ia  itself,  with  a  benevolent  but  firm  hand,  and  to  trust  in  the  all-effacing 
power  of  time.  Dictatorial  powers  in  the  new  territorial  divisions  had  been 
granted  to  the  government  until  September  30,  1867,  and  the  Prussian  constitu- 
tion was  to  come  into  force  in  those  parts  on  October  1,  1867.  Advantage  was 
taken  of  this  circumstance  to  send  an  order  to  the  governor-general,  Von  Voigts- 
Ehetz  (p.  299),  that  all  of&cials  on  whose  implicit  co-operation  no  reliance  could 
be  placed  should  without  further  delay  be  removed  from  their  posts ;  a  number 
of  Guelf  agitators  also  were  confined  in  the  fortress  of  Minden.  This  measure 
was  so  far  effective  that  outward  tranquillity  was  restored ;  but  there  were  indica- 
tions that  among  the  people  loyalty  to  the  Guelfs  was  by  no  means  predominant. 
On  October  1  thirty-nine  representatives  to  the  Second  Chamber,  and  seventy 
delegates  from  the  communes,  declared  that  they  accepted  the  annexation  as  an 
unalterable  fact  brought  on  by  the  obstinacy  of  the  former  government  itself ;  and 
when  on  October  11  a  special  Hanoverian  corps,  the  tenth,  was  raised,  four  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  out  of  six  hundred  and  sixty  Hanoverian  oflicers,  that  is  to  say, 
almost  two-thirds,  at  once  went  into  the  Prussian  service,  —  a  circumstance  which, 
it  may  be  well  understood,  caused  a  bitter  disappointment  to  the  banished  king. 

Things  went  far  more  smoothly  in  Electoral  Hesse  and  Nassau  than  in  Han- 
over ;  in  the  former  the  despotic  rule  of  Elector  Frederick  William  I,  and  in  the 
latter  the  inconsiderate  exercise  of  forest  rights  and  the  refusal  to  grant  the  liberal 
constitution  of  1849,  whose  restoration  the  Landtag  vainly  demanded,  had  caused 
the  subjects  to  dislike  their  sovereigns  so  that  the  end  of  the  system  of  petty  States 
was  universally  felt  to  be  a  release  from  unendurable  conditions.  The  feeling 
in  Frankfurt  was  very  bitter,  since  the  town  where  the  ancient  emperors  were 
elected,  one  of  the  most  important  commercial  capitals  of  South  Germany,  was 
reduced  from  a  free  city  to  a  provincial  Prussian  town ;  even  the  immediate  and 
enormous  development  of  the  city,  which,  as  soon  as  it  was  freed  from  its  isolation, 
outstripped  all  the  other  South  German  towns  except  Munich,  could  not  banisli 
the  mortification  felt  at  the  loss  of  independence. 

Bismarck  and  the  king  were  indefatigably  busy  in  meeting,  so  far  as  was 
feasible,  the  wishes  of  the  annexed  districts  in  order  to  win  them  over  to  the  new 
order  of  things.  Electoral  Hesse  owed  to  the  personal  intervention  of  the  mon- 
arch the  fact  that  half  of  its  State  treasure  was  left  in  1867  as  a  provincial  fund,  to 


308  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD         [Chapter  iv 

provide  for  workhouses,  the  maintenance  of  the  poor,  and  for  the  national  library ; 
and  the  province  of  Hanover  received  in  February,  1868,  the  yearly  grant  of  a  sum 
of  five  hundred  thousand  thalers  for  purposes  of  local  administration.  Ample 
pecaniary  compensation  was  also  made  to  the  deposed  sovereigns.  The  elector  of 
Hesse  received  in  September,  1867,  the  other  moiety  of  the  State  treasure,  which 
had  accumulated  from  the  subsidies  paid  by  England  in  1776  for  the  troops  sent 
to  America.  The  Duke  of  Nassau  was  assigned,  in  September,  1867,  some  castles 
and  fifteen  million  gulden  (=  twenty-seven  million  marks),  and  King  George 
received  in  the  same  month  a  capital  sum  of  sixteen  million  thalers,  the  income 
of  which  was  to  be  paid  him  in  half-yearly  instalments,  though  the  sum  itself 
remained  in  the  hands  of  trustees  until  an  agreement  had  been  made  with  his 
relations  as  to  its  administration.  It  was  naturally  supposed  in  view  of  these 
friendly  concessions,  which  were  only  sanctioned  by  the  Prussian  Landtag  after  a 
hard  contest,  that  the  three  princes  would  tacitly,  if  not  expressly,  waive  all 
claims  to  their  former  territories.  But  since  King  George  in  February,  1868,  and 
Elector  Frederick  William  in  September,  1868,  publicly  made  violent  attacks  upon 
Prussia,  the  sums  due  to  the  two  sovereigns  in  March  and  September,  1868,  were 
sequestrated.  Since  George  brought  his  Guelf  legion  to  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  and  kept  them  in  France  imarmed  (as  "fugitives"),  a  law  of  spring,  1869, 
provided  that  the  interest  of  the  sequestrated  sixteen  million  thalers  should  be 
applied  to  warding  off  the  schemes  devised  by  the  king  and  his  emissaries  to 
disturb  the  peace  of  Prussia.  From  Bismarck's  saying,  "  We  will  pursue  these 
obnoxious  reptiles  into  their  holes,"  the  sum  of  money  in  question  was  soon  uni- 
versally called  the  Keptile  fund ;  it  was  mostly  employed  on  newspaper  articles 
in  support  of  the  new  order  of  things.  It  was  not  until  1892  that  the  seques- 
tration was  ended  in  favour  of  Duke  Ernest  Augustus  of  Cumberland,  son  of 
George  V. 

In  Schleswig-Holstein  (p.  291)  the  feeling  in  favour  of  Duke  Frederick  stiU 
continued ;  but  the  certainty  that  the  Prussian  eagle  would  once  for  all  protect 
the  duchies  against  the  detested  Danish  yoke,  and  the  propaganda  of  a  Danish 
-  nationality  which  was  now  awakening  in  the  Danish  border  districts  of  Schleswig, 
contributed  slowly  but  surely  to  the  end  that  the  largely^)redominant  German 
population  learnt  to  adapt  itself  to  the  new  conditions.  The  brave  spirit  of  the 
duke,  who  saw  his  fondest  hopes  blighted,  and  scorned  to  foment  a  useless  resist- 
ance to  the  detriment  of  the  duchies,  helped  much  to  tranquillize  men's  minds 
and  prepared  them  for  the  day  when  his  daughter  Augusta  Victoria  should  wear 
the  imperial  crown. 

B.  The  Establishment  of  the  Noeth  German  Confedeeation 

Prussia,  at  the  moment  when  it  withdrew  from  the  German  Confederation 
and  began  the  war  against  Austria,  had  invited  all  the  North  German  States  to 
conclude  a  new  league.  In  August,  1866,  nineteen  governments,  which  had  fought 
on  Prussia's  side  in  the  war,  professed  their  readiness  to  take  that  step.  Meiningen 
and  the  elder  line  of  Eeuss,  which  had  stood  on  the  side  of  Austria,  did  the  same' 
after  some  hesitation,  and  the  old  anti-Prussian  Duke  Bernhard  of  Meiningen 
abdicated  in  favour  of  his  son  George.     Ministerial  conferences  were  opened  in 


2f::r^i7eT\ro2]    history  of  the  world  soe 

Berlin  on  December  15,  under  the  presidency  of  Bismarck,  to  which  representa- 
tives were  sent  by  all  the  North  German  governments,  and  by  Saxony  and  Hesse- 
Darmstadt  for  their  territory  right  of  the  Main.  The  fundamental  principles  of  a 
new  federal  constitution. were  settled  in  these  conferences.  According  to  it  the 
presidency  of  the  isonfederation  should  belong  to  the  king  of  Prussia  in  so  far 
that  he  should  represent  the  confederation  in  foreign  politics,  declare  peace  and 
war  in  its  name,  superintend  the  execution  of  the  federal  resolutions,  nominate 
all  officials  of  the  confederation,  and  command  its  army  and  fleet.  The  Federal 
Council  was  to  represent  the  governments,  and  in  it  (on  the  basis  of  the  voting 
conditions  in  the  former  German  Confederation)  seventeen  votes  should  be  given 
by  Prussia,  four  by  Saxony,  two  each  by  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  and  Brunswick, 
one  by  each  of  the  remaining  eighteen  States,  —  making  forty-three  votes  in  all. 
The  Federal  Council  shared  in  the  whole  work  of  legislation,  and  represented  the 
sovereigns  of  the  confederation.  The  people  were  to  share  in  the  legislation  by 
means  of  a  Eeichstag  springing  from  the  direct  universal  suffrage.  This  Reichstag 
possessed  also  initiative  rights ;  it  was  not  proposed  to  pay  the  deputies.  The 
following  wer(3  declared  to  be  federal  matters :  the  army  and  navy,  in  which  con- 
nection (by  article  56)  the  peace  strength  of  the  army  was  fixed  at  one  per  cent 
of  the  population  of  1867,  and  the  right  of  increasing  it  every  ten  years  was 
reserved  ;  then  foreign  policy,  posts  and  telegraphs,  tolls  and  trade.  The  finances 
were  to  be  based  on  the  tolls,  the  compulsory  taxes,  and  the  profits  of  the  posts 
and  telegraphs.  To  supply  any  deficit  in  the  revenue  the  individual  States  were 
pledged  to  "  register  contributions  "  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  of  their  popula- 
tion. The  federal  budget  was  to  be  sanctioned  for  periods  of  three  years ;  the 
expenses  of  the  army  were  estimated  at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thalers  a  head  in  perpetuity.  After  different  objections  had  been  successfully 
raised  against  certain  of  these  provisions,  they  were  finally  approved  on  February 
2,  1867,  and  in  that  form  submitted  to  the  constituent  Eeichstag  elected  on 
February  12. 

It  was  a  matter  of  the  greatest  importance  for  the  party  conditions  in  this 
Eeichstag  that  in  the  autumn  of  1866,  when  an  effort  was  being  made  to  get  rid 
of  the  Prussian  dispute,  two  new  parties  appeared  on  the  scene.  The  National 
Liberal  party  had  been  founded  on  October  24,  by  men  like  Max  von  Forckenbeck, 
Friedr.  Hammacher,  Ed.  Lasker,  Otto  Michaelis,  Karl  Twesten,  Hans  Viktor  von 
Unruh ;  it  shook  itself  free  from  the  Progressive  party,  which  was  sinking  more 
and  more  into  a  policy  of  barren  negations,  and  aimed  at  a  confidential  and 
vigorous  association  with  the  great  statesman  who  had  shown  by  his  actions  that 
he  was  not  the  bigoted  country  squire  {Junker)  which,  according  to  the  outcry  of 
the  Progressives,  he  always  had  been  and  still  was.  "  We  are  united,"  said  the 
National  Liberal  programme  of  June  13,  1867,  "  by  the  thought  that  national 
unity  cannot  be  attained  and  permanently  established  without  the  complete 
satisfaction  of  the  liberal  claims  of  the  people."  While  the  assenting  members  of 
the  Left  thus  took  up  a  position  of  their  own,  the  moderate  Conservatives  took  an 
identical  step  and  founded  the  Free  Conservative  party  (since  1871  called  also  the 
"  German  Empire  party  "),  which  proposed  to  unite  the  observance  of  sound  Con- 
servative principles,  respect  for  authority  and  support  of  the  monarchy,  with  wise 
progress  and  the  maintenance  of  civil  liberty.  In  the  constituent  Eeichstag  the 
Conservatives  numbered  59  deputies;  the  Free  Conservatives,  36;  the  Old  Lib- 


310  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD         {Chapter  ir 

erals,  who  stood  near  them,  27 ;  the  National  Liberals,  79 ;  Progressives,  only  19, 
In  addition  there  were  18  Particularists,  12  Poles,  2  Danes,  1  Social  Democrat 
(Aug.  Bebel),  and  a  number  of  "  wild "  politicians.  The  decision  lay  with  the 
two  parties  whose  principles  brought  them  into  touch,  and  who,  in  the  phrase  of 
the  day,  were  termed  the  Right  and  Left  Centre,  the  Free  Conservatives  and  the 
National  Liberals. 

The  Eeichstag  chose  for  president  Eduard  Simson,  who  had  presided  at  the 
National  Assembly  in  Frankfurt  1848-1849,  and  thus  was  outwardly  connected 
with  the  traditions  of  the  Hereditary  Imperial  party.  The  feeling  prevailed  in 
the  debates  that,  whatever  might  be  the  private  views  of  the  representatives,  it 
was  impossible  to  disregard  the  wishes  of  the  State  governments,  and  that,  under 
all  the  circumstances,  something  must  be  effected  by  mutual  concessions.  Bis- 
marck gave  vigorous  expression  to  his  feeling  in  his  speech  of  March  11, 1867, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  which  he  ever  made,  when  he  appealed  to  those  who 
would  not  sanction  any  diminution  of  the  Prussian  budget  rights  in  the  case  of 
army  estimates.  "  The  mighty  movements,  which  last  year  induced  the  nations 
from  the  Belt  to  the  Adriatic,  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Carpathians,  to  play  that 
iron  game  of  dice  where  royal  and  imperial  crowns  are  the  stake,  the  thousands 
and  thousands  of  victims  of  the  sword  and  of  disease,  who  by  their  death  sealed 
the  national  decision,  cannot  be  reconciled  with  a  resolution  ad  acta.  Gentlemen, 
if  you  believe  that,  you  are  not  masters  of  the  situation  !  .  .  .  How  would  you 
answer  a  veteran  of  Koniggratz  if  he  asked  after  the  results  of  these  mighty 
efforts?  You  would  say  to  him,  perhaps,  'Yes,  indeed,  nothing  has  been  done 
about  German  union  ;  tliat  will  come  in  time.  But  we  have  saved  the  budget 
right  of  the  Prussian  Chamber  of  Deputies,  the  right  of  endangering  every  year 
the  existence  of  the  Prussian  army ;  for  this  we  have  fought  with  the  emperor 
under  the  walls  of  Pressburg.  Console  yourself  witli  that,  brave  soldier,  and  let 
the  widow,  too,  who  has  buried  her  husband,  find  consolation  there.'  Gentlemen, 
this  position  is  an  impossibility !  Let  us  work  quickly,  let  us  put  Germany  in 
the  saddle,  and  she  will  soon  learn  to  ride." 

In  the  course  of  the  conferences  some  forty  amendments  to  the  bill  were  dis- 
cussed by  the  Reichstag.  Thus  the  confederation  acquire^  the  right  of  levying 
not  only  indirect  but  direct  taxes ;  every  alteration  in  the  army  and  the  fleet  was 
made  dependent  on  the  express  sanction  of  the  president.  Criminal  jurisdiction, 
legal  procedure,  and  in  private  law  contract  rights  at  least  were  transferred  to  the 
confederation.  The  federal  chancellor  was  to  accept  by  his  signature  the  moral, 
not  legal,  responsibility  for  the  enactments  of  the  president.  The  voting  for  the 
Reichstag  was  to  be  secret ;  the  eligibility  of  officials  as  candidates  was  to  be 
recognised.  Accurate  reports  of  the  public  sittings  of  the  Reichstag  were  to  be 
secure  against  prosecution.  The  deputies  were  to  be  paid.  The  federal  budget 
was  to  be  passed  for  one  year  only,  instead  of  three.  In  military  matters  the  pro- 
viso that  one  hundredth  of  the  population  of  1867  should  serve  with  the  colours  in 
peace  time,  and  the  rate  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  thalers  per  head  were  only 
to  be  in  force  until  December  31,  1871.  The  confederation  was  given  the  right 
to  raise  loans  in  urgent  cases ;  in  the  case  of  denial  of  justice  in  any  State  the 
confederation  was  bound  (if  a  remedy  could  not  be  obtained  by  legal  methods)  to 
interfere  and  afford  lawful  help.  As  regarded  the  entry  of  one  or  more  of  the 
South  German  States  into  the  confederation,  it  was  settled  that  this  should  be 


rSST^soJ       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  311 

effected,  on  the  motion  of  the  president,  by  means  of  a  legislative  act.  Finally, 
alterations  of  the  constitution  were  treated  in  the  same  way,  but  a  two-thirds 
majority  in  the  federal  council  was  requisite. 

The  federal  governments  accepted  nearly  all  of  these  resolutions ;  Bismarck,  in 
their  name,  lodged  protests  against  two  of  them  in  the  Eeichstag  on  April  15. 
First,  against  the  grant  of  daily  pay  to  the  representatives  in  the  Keichstag.  In 
the  eyes  of  the  governments  the  limitation  of  eligibility  imposed  by  the  non- 
granting  of  allowances  was  an  indispensable  counterpoise  to  universal  suffrage. 
The  Eeichstag  accordingly  abandoned  the  daily  allowances.  Secondly,  the  gov- 
ernments regarded  it  as  thoroughly  inadmissible  that  the  existence  of  the  army 
after  December  31,  1871,  should  be  dependent  on  the  annual  votes  of  fiuctuatiag 
majorities,  while  the  expenditure  on  the  civil  administration  was  legally  fixed. 
Eudolf  Gneist,  a  deputy,  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  lower  house  might 
well  refuse  the  expenses  of  a  mercenary  army,  such  as  existed  in  England,  but 
that  a  national  army,  like  the  German,  must  be  regarded  as  a  permanent  institu- 
tion. The  governments  would  have  preferred  that,  according  to  the  original 
scheme,  the  minimum  strength  of  the  army  should  have  been  settled  once  for  all, 
and  a  permanent  provision  voted  for  maintaining  it.  They  finally  (April  17) 
declared  their  agreement  to  the  proposal  introduced  by  Prince  Hugo  von  Hohen- 
lohe-Ohringen,  Duke  of  Ujest,  in  the  name  of  the  Free  Conservatives,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  National  Liberals  by  their  Hanoverian  leader  Eudolf  von  Bennigsen. 
This,  which  was  accepted  on  April  15,  provided  that  the  present  peace  strength  of 
the  army,  fixed  in  article  56  (henceforward  60),  of  the  constitution  on  the  second 
reading  until  December  31,  1871,  at  one  hundredth  of  the  population,  and  the 
lump  sum  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  thalers  per  head  of  the  army,  should 
be  kept  in  force  beyond  the  31st  of  December,  1871,  but  only  so  long  as  they 
should  not  be  altered  by  federal  laws ;  but  the  disbursement  of  sums  for  the 
entire  national  army  was  to  be  annually  fixed  by  State  law.  On  April  17, 
1867,  the  king  closed  the  constituent  Eeichstag  with  a  speech  from  the  throne, 
which  expressed  his  satisfaction  that  the  federal  power  had  obtained  its  necessary 
authority,  and  that  the  members  of  the  confederation  had  retained  freedom  of 
movement  in  every  department  where  it  might  be  advantageous  for  them. 

After  the  Landtags  of  the  individual  States  had  declared  their  assent,  the  con- 
stitution became  a  reality  on  July  1, 1867.  Only  about  four-fifths  of  the  German 
people  were  now  united  in  the  "  North  German  Confederation ; "  but  this  union  was 
closer,  and  hence  more  powerful,  than  any  previous  one  in  Germany ;  and  for  the 
first  time  in  their  history  the  German  people  possessed  the  assured  right  of  co-oper- 
ating in  the  framing  of  their  fortunes  by  the  mouths  of  freely  elected  representa- 
tives. The  South  Germans,  indeed,  still  held  aloof;  but  the  universal  feeling 
was,  as  Johannes  Miquel,  a  Hanoverian  National  Liberal,  expressed  it,  "  The  line 
of  the  Main  is  no  longer  a  spectre,  but  only  a  halting-place  for  us,  where  we  can 
take  water  and  coal  on  board,  and  can  recover  our  breath  in  order  soon  to  proceed 
further  on  our  route." 

G.  The  Difficulties  and  Expedients  of  Napoleon 

(a)  The  Luxemhurg  Affair.  —  During  the  deliberations  of  the  Eeichstag  a 
heavy  storm-cloud  had  gathered,  but  had  happily  been  dispersed.     The  French 


312  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

emperor  Napoleon  III  had  attempted  on  August  5,  1866  (cf.  p.  305),  to  obtain 
"  compensations "  for  the  aggrandisement  of  Prussia  and  the  union  of  Northern 
Germany,  by  demanding  Ehenish  Hesse  with  Mainz  and  the  Bavarian  Ehenish 
Palatinate.  Having  met  with  a  flat  refusal,  he  had  claimed,  as  his  reward  for 
leaving  Germany  to  Prussia,  both  Belgium  and  Luxemburg ;  the  latter,  which  was 
ruled  by  William  III  of  the  Netherlands  under  the  title  of  Grand  Duke,  con- 
tained some  two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  on  an  area  of  twenty-six  hundred 
square  kilometers.  Bismarck  prolonged  the  negotiations  in  this  matter,  since  he 
did  not  wish  to  irritate  France  beyond  endurance,  and  so  drive  her  into  the  arms 
of  the  enemies  of  Prussia.  He  did  not  return  any  definite  answer  to  the  offer 
which  he  simultaneously  received  of  an  offensive  and  defensive  alhance  with  the 
French  Empire ;  but,  so  far  as  Luxemburg  was  concerned,  left  no  doubt  in  the 
mind  of  Count  Benedetti,  the  French  ambassador,  that  King  William  would 
decline  to  give  France  any  active  assistance  in  acquiring  it,  and  at  most  would 
passively  tolerate  the  proceeding. 

But  in  order  to  give  a  timely  intimation  to  friend  and  foe  that  any  outbreak 
of  war  would  find  Germany  united,  Bismarck  published  on  March  19,  1867,  the 
offensive  and  defensive  alliances  which  Prussia  had  concluded  in  August,  1866, 
with  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden  (p.  305),  and  which  were  joined  also  by 
Hesse-Darmstadt  on  April  11,  1867.  Three  points  were  established  by  these  trea- 
ties. (1)  North  and  South  Germany  supported  each  other  in  case  of  war  with 
their  entire  military  force ;  (2)  this  force  stood  under  the  single  and  supreme  com- 
mand of  the  king  of  Prussia ;  (3)  all  the  States  guaranteed  to  each  other  the  integ- 
rity of  their  respective  territories.  Napoleon,  indeed,  persuaded  King  William  III 
of  the  Netherlands  to  conclude  a  treaty,  in  virtue  of  which  the  latter  ceded  to  the 
emperor  his  right  to  Luxemburg,  in  return  for  a  compensation  of  five  million  francs; 
but  the  king,  who  very  reluctantly  surrendered  Luxemburg,  insisted  on  Prussia's 
formal  assent  to  the  treaty,  and,  as  already  mentioned,  this  assent  was  not  forth- 
coming. On  April  1  Eudolph  von  Bennigsen,  according  to  a  previous  agreement 
with  the  government,  put  a  question  to  Bismarck  on  the  subject  of  Luxemburg,  and 
the  result  was  to  show  that  the  whole  nation  was  unanimously  resolved  to  prevent 
at  all  hazards  the  smallest  encroachment  on  German  territoy,  even  on  territory 
which  was  only  connected  with  the  body  of  the  nation  by  tne  bond  of  the  Zoll- 
verein  (as  had  been  the  case  with  Luxemburg  after  the  dissolution  of  the  German 
Confederation).  "  If  we  fail  to  do  this,"  exclaimed  Bennigsen,  "  the  stamp  of  an 
un-German  weakness  will  mark  our  policy."  Napoleon,  whose  military  resources 
were  not  ready  for  a  collision  with  Germany,  finally  recoiled  before  this  determined 
declaration,  and  all  the  more  so  because  Austria,  where,  since  October  30, 1866,  the 
Saxon  Baron  von  Beust  presided  at  the  Foreign  Office,  was  not  induced  even  by 
the  offer  of  Silesia  to  form  an  armed  alliance  against  Prussia.  Austria  had  felt,  too 
recently  and  too  acutely,  the  military  superiority  of  Prussia  to  venture  on  a  new 
war  especially  one  against  the  entire  German  nation. 

On  the  proposal  of  the  Czar  Alexander  II  a  conference  of  all  the  great  powers 
was  summoned  at  London,  and  this  decided  that  Luxemburg  should  be  left  to  the 
house  of  Nassau-Orange,  but  be  declared  neutral.  Prussia  accordingly  had  to 
withdraw  her  garrison  from  the  former  federal  fortress,  Luxemburg,  and  to  allow 
the  destruction  of  its  fortifications.  But  Luxemburg  remained  in  the  ZoUverein 
as  before.     The  inglorious  termination  of  a  matter  far  from  glorious  in  itself  was 


rSSSj       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  313 

very  detrimental  to  Napoleon's  reputation ;  tlie  victories  of  Prussia  and  the  forma- 
tion of  the  North  German  Confederation  (just  as  the  creation  of  the  kingdom  of 
Italy  some  few  years  before)  were  reckoned  by  all  supporters  of  the  doctrine  of 
Prance's  natural  and  "  legitimate  "  hegemony  in  Europe  as  severe  defeats  to  France. 
"  Now,"  exclaimed  Thiers,  half  in  menace  half  in  warning,  before  the  Chamber  in 
March,  1867,  "  no  further  blunders  may  be  committed."  The  emperor  felt  himself 
deeply  injured  that  Prussia  had  refused  the  enlargement  of  France,  which  he  so 
ardently  desired.  "  Bismarck  has  attempted  to  deceive  me,"  he  afterwards  said  to 
Heinrich  von  Sybel,  "  but  an  emperor  of  France  may  not  let  himself  be  deceived." 
Even  the  Catholic  party  was  indignant  with  him,  because  he  had  allowed  the  revo- 
lution a  free  hand  and  had  left  the  Pope  to  be  despoiled  (p.  271).  The  Kepubli- 
can  opposition  completely  outdid  itself  in  most  venomous  attacks  on  the  emperor, 
of  which  Victor  Hugo  and  A.  Eogeard  made  themselves  the  mouthpieces. 

And  now,  to  crown  all,  there  came  the  crash  of  the  Mexican  expedition.  The 
emperor  gave  way  before  the  threat  of  the  United  States  that  they  would  treat  the 
continued  presence  of  a  French  army  on  American  soil  as  a  casus  belli.  The  des- 
perate entreaties  of  the  empress  Charlotte,  who  came  to  Europe  in  July,  1866,  to 
plead  her  husband's  cause,  were  useless ;  when  she  realised  her  position,  her  reason 
gave  way.  Between  the  end  of  January  and  the  middle  of  March,  1867,  the  French 
troops,  under  Frangois  Achille  Bazaine  (cf.  p.  338),  withdrew  from  Mexico,  and 
Maximilian,  who  was  too  proud  to  desert  his  followers  in  the  hour  of  danger,  and 
still  hoped  to  strengthen  the  fading  influence  of  his  party  by  liberal  concessions,  was 
taken  prisoner  at  Quer^taro,  together  with  Generals  Miguel  Miramon  and  Tomas 
Mejia,  brought  before  a  court-martial,  and  shot  as  a  rebel,  on  the  19th  of  June,  1867 
(cf.  p.  273  and  Vol.  I.  p.  523). 

(6)  The  Liberal  Movement  in  France  and  the  Closer  delations  of  France  and 
Austria.  —  In  order  to  conciliate  French  public  opinion.  Napoleon  determined 
upon  liberal  measures  which  ran  counter  to  tlie  despotic  traditions  of  the  Second 
Empire  (cf.  p.  247).  He  granted  to  the  senate  and  the  legislative  body  in 
January,  1867,  the  right  to  interpellate  the  government,  and  gave  permission  that 
not  merely  the  "  minister  of  state,"  i.  e.  the  hitherto  all  powerful  premier,  but 
every  minister,  might  present  the  case  for  his  policy  before  the  Chamber,  only,  of 
course,  under  "instructions  from  the  emperor."  This  concession  was  regarded, 
however,  as  a  fundamentally  important  step,  by  which  the  emperor  wished  to 
introduce,  in  the  place  of  his  own  exclusive  irresponsibility,  ministerial  respon- 
sibility; that  is  to  say,  he  wished  to  pass  from  a  despotic  to  a  constitutional,  or 
even  parliamentary,  method  of  government.  That  was  not  indeed  Napoleon's 
intention ;  but  one  step  leads  to  another,  and  the  emperor's  failing  health  made  it 
more  and  more  incumbent  on  him  to  relieve  himself  of  the  business  of  govern- 
ment. The  politicians,  who  thought  they  must  contest  a  change  of  system  on 
political  or  personal  grounds,  now  combined  together  into  a  reactionary  club  under 
the  name  of  the  "  Cercle  de  la  rue  de  V Arcade."  The  intellectual  leader  of  these 
"Arcadians"  was  the  "vice-emperor,"  the  minister  of  state  Eug.  Eouher  (p.  302), 
while  the  liberalising  party,  le  tiers  parti,  which  grew  up  in  1866  between  the 
"Arcadians"  and  the  Eepublicans,  was  led  by  the  former  Eepublican,  but  now 
"  freethinking  Imperialist,"  Emil  Ollivier,  a  talented  but  ambitious  and  weak 
character. 


314  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [Chajiteriv 

The  Paris  International  Exhibition  of  the  summer  of  1867  shed  a  transitory 
hrilliance  over  France  and  the  emperor ;  but  the  murderous  attempt  of  a  Pole, 
Anton  Bereszowski,  on  the  life  of  the  emperor  Alexander  II  (June  6)  struck  a 
discordant  note  in  the  midst  of  the  festivities,  and  comments  were  made  on  the 
absence  of  the  emperor  Francis  Joseph,  who  was  in  mourning  for  his  brother 
Maximilian,  the  victim  of  Napoleon's  bad  faith,  and  kept  away  from  the  French 
capital.  Napoleon  and  his  consort,  therefore,  journeyed,  in  August,  1867,  to 
Salzburg  to  express  their  sympathy  to  Francis  Joseph ;  they  stayed  there  from 
the  18th  to  the  23d  of  August,  and  although  Napoleon  had  only  come  accompanied 
by  Genera]  Fleury,  yet  through  him  and  Beust  a  better  understanding  was  brought 
about  between  the  two  empires,  —  a  step  which  was  universally  regarded  in  Ger- 
many as  aimed  at  Prussia.  But  although  the  two  parties  had  merely  agreed  that 
Prussia  should  be  prevented  from  crossing  the  Main,  and  Eussia  from  crossing  the 
Pruth,  yet  now  two  camps  were  formed  in  Europe :  Prussia  and  Eussia  stood  in 
the  one,  Austria  and  France  in  the  other.  Francis  Joseph  paid  his  return  visit 
to  Paris  on  October  23.  On  his  way  there  he  had  exchanged  a  "flying  and 
formal "  greeting  with  the  king  of  Prussia,  at  the  latter's  wish,  in  Oos ;  but  he 
said  to  General  Ducrot  in  Strassburg,  "  I  hope  that  we  shall  some  day  march  side 
by  side." 

D.  The  Consolidation  of  Germany 

(a)  The  Relations  between  North  and  South  Germany.  —  The  treaty  of  Prague, 
according  to  the  French  conception  of  it,  implied  that  Prussia  by  its  terms  was 
restricted  to  North  Germany,  and  might  not  venture  to  form  any  union  with  the 
South  German  States,  unless  the  assent  of  every  power  participating  in  the 
treaty  was  obtained.  France  reckoned  herself  one  of  these  powers,  because  she 
had  intervened  in  July,  1866;  but  she  had  not  in  any  way  signed  the  treaty, — 
indeed,  she  could  not  have  been  allowed  to  do  so,  since  she  had  taken  no  share  in 
the  war,  —  and  therefore  possessed  properly  no  right  to  superintend  the  execution 
of  the  treaty.  Bismarck  adhered  strictly  to  the  principle  that  Austria  alone  was 
entitled  to  take  any  action  in  this  matter,  but  that  even  .^stria  might  not  raise 
any  objections,  if  all  the  States  of  the  South,  combined  into  a  union,  wished  to 
form  a  national  bond  with  the  North.  The  only  doubtful  point  was  whether  any 
single  State  was  competent  to  join  the  North  German  Confederation.  But  it  very 
soon  became  clear  that  the  "Southern  Confederation,"  planned  at  Prague  in  1866, 
would  not  come  to  pass.  Bavaria,  as  by  far  the  largest  State,  would  naturally  have 
obtained  the  predominant  position  ;  but  King  Charles  of  Wurtemberg  was  still  less 
willing  to  acknowledge  the  superiority  of  King  Louis  II  than  that  of  the  king  of 
Prussia.  The  grand  duke  Frederick  of  Baden,  son-in-law  of  the  king  of  Prussia, 
a  liberal  and  patriotic  prince,  was  resolved  to  enter  the  North  German  Confedera- 
tion at  the  next  opportunity,  and  his  views  were  shared  by  the  majority  of  his 
subjects.  His  ministers,  Karl  Mathy  (p.  280)  and  Eudolph  von  Freydorf,  were 
staunch  German  patriots  like  himself.  Mathy  had  written  to  Bismarck  on 
November  18,  1867,  asking  for  Baden's  entrance  into  the  federation,  but  was 
put  off  with  hopes  for  the  future,  and  died  before  attaining  his  object  (February 
4,  1868). 


IISSTiM       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  315 

In  spite  of  all  democratic  and  ultramontane  opposition,  the  South  and  North 
■were  drawing  closer  to  each  other.  Agreeably  to  the  spirit  of  the  treaties,  all  the 
states  south  of  the  Main  introduced  in  1868  universal  conscription  and  armed 
their  infantry  with  the  Prussian  needle-gun  ;  in  consequence  of  this  they  obtained 
Prussian  instructors  for  their  troops,  and  Hesse-Darmstadt  concluded,  in  April, 
1867,  a  military  treaty  with  Prussia,  by  the  terms  of  which  its  troops  were  com- 
pletely incorporated  into  the  army  of  the  North  German  Confederation  as  a  part 
of  the  Eleventh  Army  Corps  (p.  307).  The  royal  Saxon  army,  however,  by  virtue 
of  the  convention  of  February  7, 1867,  constituted  from  the  1st  of  July  onwards  the 
Twelfth  North  German  Army  Corps,  under  its  own  administration  (General  Fabrice, 
minister  of  war),  and  was  commanded  by  Prince  Albert.  In  Wtirtemberg  the  new 
war  minister,  Eudolf  von  Wagner,  with  his  able  and  fiery  chief  of  the  general 
staff,  Albert  von  Suckow,  proceeded  to  reform  the  army  on  the  Prussian  model ; 
and  the  example  was  followed  in  Bavaria,  despite  the  particularism  of  that  kingdom 
by  the  war  minister,  Sigmund  von  Prankh.  The  preparation  for  a  united  German 
army  proceeded  without  interruption.  The  treaty  of  federation  with  Prussia  was 
accepted  by  the  Chambers  in  the  autumn  of  1867,  in  Baden  without  any  struggle, 
but  in  Wiirtemberg  after  violent  parliamentary  disputes,  although  the  democratic 
party  of  Wiirtemberg  foretold  that  the  new  policy  of  "  militarism "  would  impose 
an  intolerable  burden  on  the  people  without  securing  them  against  France.  The 
treaty,  according  to  the  Bavarian  constitution,  did  not  require  the  approval  of  the 
estates. 

Owing  to  this  union  of  all  German  races  in  a  common  system  of  defence  with 
such  safeguards,  the  ZoUverein,  which  had  been  renounced  by  Prussia,  was  once 
more  established  on  a  new  basis.  First  of  all,  the  so-called  liberum  veto  of  each 
particular  State  (the  right  to  repudiate  any  resolution  of  the  majority  as  not  legally 
binding  on  the  non-assenting  State)  was  abolished  ;  in  its  place  was  introduced  the 
principle  that  resolutions  passed  by  the  majority  were  binding  on  the  minority. 
The  work  of  legislating  for  the  ZoUverein  was  to  be  carried  out  by  the  Federal 
Council  and  Eeichstag  according  to  this  principle.  The  former  was  brought  up  to 
58  votes  by  the  accession  of  6  Bavarian  votes,  4  from  Wiirtemberg,  3  from  Baden, 
and  2  further  votes  from  Hesse ;  48  deputies  from  Bavaria,  17  from  Wiirtemberg, 
14  from  Baden,  and  6  additional  deputies  from  Hesse  were  to  enter  the  Eeichstag, 
so  that  the  number  of  its  members  grew  to  384.  These  South  German  deputies 
were  naturally  entitled  and  bound  to  appear  in  the  Eeichstag,  only  when  the 
Eeichstag  was  changed  into  the  "  Customs  Parliament "  for  transacting  the  busi- 
ness of  the  customs  laws.  Besides  matters  connected  with  customs,  the  taxation 
of  the  salt  obtained  within  the  ZoUverein  and  of  the  tobacco  produced  or  imported 
into  the  ZoUverein  fell  within  that  body's  competence.  The  duration  of  the  customs 
treaty  was  once  more  (cf.  p.  240)  fixed  for  twelve  years,  with  the  proviso  that, 
if  notice  was  not  given,  it  would  continue  as  a  matter  of  course  for  another  twelve 
years.  These  treaties  also  met  with  opposition  in  Wiirtemberg  and  Bavaria  from 
the  protectionists  and  the  particularists,  who  not  only  feared  heavy  economic  loss 
from  the  free-trade  principles  prevailing  in  Prussia,  but  also  disliked  the  customs 
union  with  the  North  as  a  preliminary  step  to  political  amalgamation.  Yet 
the  interests  of  trades  and  industries,  which  obviously  could  not  exist  without  the 
ZoUverein,  were  so  important  that  in  the  Bavarian  Eepresentative  Chamber,  on  the 
22d  of  October,  1867,  117  votes  against  17,  and  on  the  31st  in  the  Wiirtemberg 


316  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         [chapter  iv 

Chamber,  73  against  16,  were  given  for  the  customs  union.  The  First  Chamber  in 
Bavaria,  that  of  the  Imperial  Councillors,  made  a  futile  attempt  to  preserve  the 
Bavarian  "  liberum  veto  ;  "  the  minister-president.  Prince  Chlodwig  zu  Hohenlohe- 
Schillingsfiirst,  went  for  that  purpose  to  Berlin.  Since  Bismarck  declared  that  he 
would  sooner  renounce  the  customs  treaty  itself  than  allow  this  limitation  on  it, 
the  lords  gave  way. 

The  elections  to  the  Customs  Parliament  held  in  February  and  March,  1868, 
produced  no  encouraging  results  for  the  national  cause.  Out  of  85  South  German 
representatives,  50  were  strongly  averse  to  entering  the  North  German  Confed- 
eration; and  of  the  35  others,  9  Bavarian  representatives  might  be  reckoned  as 
lukewarm  in  the  cause.  In  Bavaria  27  Particularists  in  all,  and  in  Wiirtemberg 
none  but  Particularists,  had  been  elected,  and  the  Varnbiiler-Mittnacht  ministry 
had  made  in  the  elections  common  cause  with  the  Democrats  and  Ultramon- 
tanes  against  the  "  German  party."  In  Hesse,  on  the  other  hand,  only  National 
Liberals,  and  in  Baden  8  (against  6  Particularists),  were  elected.  The  South  Ger- 
man Particularists  constituted  in  the  Customs  Parliament  the  "South  German 
Fraction,"  and  the  attempt  of  the  National  Liberals  to  pass  a  parliamentary  decree 
in  favour  of  "  the  complete  national  union,"  failed  on  May  7  to  obtain  a  majority. 
But  when  on  May  18,  in  reference  to  proposals  for  altering  the  existing  duties 
upon  wine  in  Hesse,  a  Wiirtemberg  deputy,  Eudolf  Probst,  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  European  situation  made  it  advisable  to  avoid  any  undue  influ- 
ence on  a  South  German  State,  since  otherwise  the  avalanche  hanging  on  the 
mountain  might  be  set  in  movement.  Count  Bismarck  exclaimed,  "  An  appeal  to  the 
fear  of  foreign  countries  finds  no  response  in  German  hearts ; "  and  the  represent- 
ative of  the  Bavarian  Allgau,  the  excellent  Joseph  Volk,  uttered  the  words,  so 
hopeful  for  the  future,  "  Now  has  the  springtime  of  Germany  begun. "  The  legis- 
lative results  of  the  Customs  Parliament  were  small  enough ;  the  petroleum  tax, 
which  was  demanded  owing  to  the  financial  distress  of  the  individual  States,  and 
a  considerable  increase  of  the  tobacco  duty,  were  refused,  and  also  the  tariff 
reform,  of  which  both  proposals  were  parts.  In  the  second  session,  in  June,  1869, 
the  course  of  affairs  was  similar.  The  tariff  was  only  finally  completed  in  the 
third  session,  in  May,  1870,  when,  in  place  of  the  duty  on||)etroleum,  which  was 
unpopular  in.  the  Parliament  as  increasing  the  expense  of  lights,  an  increase 
of  the  coffee  duty  was  proposed  by  the  governments  and  accepted  by  the  Parlia- 
ment. In  this  way  the  Customs  Parliament  had  shown  itself  not  entirely  barren 
in  results. 

(6)  The  Liberal  Legislation  of  the  North  German  Confederation. — All  the 
more  favourable  must  our  verdict  be  on  the  first  and  only  regular  Eeichstag  of  the 
North  German  Confederation,  which  had  been  elected  after  the  constitution  had 
come  into  force  on  August  31,  1867.  It  showed  an  even  stronger  majority,  ready 
for  effective  action  and  co-operation  with  the  government,  than  had  appeared  the 
constituent  Reichstag ;  and  although  there  were  cases  of  friction  between  the 
Liberal  as  well  as  the  Conservative  side  of  the  house  and  Bismarck,  the  results  of 
the  three  parliamentary  sessions  of  1868,  1869,  and  1870  were  extraordinarily 
significant.  In  the  first  place,  by  the  postal  reform  the  entire  North  German 
postal  system  of  January  1,  1868,  became  a  federal  concern,  and  a  uniform  rate  of 
postage  was  introduced  for  all  letters  in  the  whole  federal  territory.     The  North 


Y^tlfmi-Iml      HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  317 

German  post  soon  became,  under  the  management  of  the  clever  Postmaster- 
General  Heinrich  Stephan,  a  model  for  the  whole  world.  Important  features  — 
in  spite  of  many  drawbacks  —  were  the  introduction  of  internal  free  trade, 
freedom  of  migration,  and  new  rules  as  to  domicile  in  cases  where  poor  relief 
was  claimed ;  the  abolition  of  all  legal  restrictions  on  interest ;  the  organisation  of 
a  scheme  for  forming  a  fleet,  according  to  which  in  the  course  of  ten  years, 
1868-1878,  a  fleet  of  sixteen  ironclads  and  fifty-five  other  war  vessels  was  to  be 
built ;  the  removal  of  all  bars  to  freedom  of  marriage ;  finally,  the  promulgation 
of  a  code  of  criminal  law  in  May,  1870,  in  which  all  penalties  were  lowered 
agreeably  to  the  prevalent  spirit  of  mercy,  and  ample  discretion  left  to  the  judge 
in  awarding  penalties.  If  the  death  penalty  was  still  retained,  at  least  for  murder 
and  murderous  plots  against  sovereigns,  this  was  only  due  to  the  determined  way 
in  which  Bismarck,  in  a  weighty  and  thoughtful  speech,  advocated  this  punish- 
ment. The  efforts  of  the  Liberals  to  make  the  responsibility  of  the  imperial 
Chancellor  a  legal  and  not  a  merely  moral  one,  were  defeated  in  April,  1868,  since 
Bismarck  declared  it  inadmissible  "  to  make  the  federal  Chancellor  subordinate 
to  a  provincial  judge."  The  law  as  to  the  federal  debt,  which  caused  this  dispute 
to  blaze  up,  was  also  defeated.  On  the  proposal  of  the  new  Prussian  Finance  Min- 
ister, Otto  Camphausen,  who  converted  the  Prussian  state  debt  in  December,  1869, 
into  an  irredeemable  stock  at  four  and  one-half  per  cent,  and  thus  restored  the 
equilibrium  of  Prussian  finance,  the  control  of  the  federal  debt  was  intrusted  to 
the  Prussian  audit  office,  a  measure  which  at  least  had  the  merit  of  satisfying 
practical  requirements.  The  question  which  arose  in  the  period  of  conflicts 
whether  the  freedom  of  speech  belonging  to  the  deputies  should  be  uncondition- 
ally protected  against  legal  prosecution  was  decided  not  indeed  by  law,  but  by 
actual  result,  in  so  far  that  the  government,  since  that  time,  has  never  made  an 
attempt  to  take  legal  measures  against  a  deputy  for  any  utterance  in  Parliament. 

Bismarck's  endeavour  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the  Liberals  was  shown  in  this 
point  as  well  as  in  the  radical  economic  legislation  which  gave  to  commerce  a 
wide  and  perhaps  excessive  degree  of  liberty  from  state  control.  This  displeased 
the  Conservatives,  a  part  of  whom  regarded  the  great  statesman  as  an  undisguised 
deserter  ;  but  the  coalition  of  the  government  with  Liberalism  was  for  the  newly 
founded  and  essentially  progressive  State  a  historical  necessity,  from  which  no 
statesman  could  escape.  On  the  other  hand,  Bismarck  once  more,  in  February, 
1870,  opposed  the  wishes  expressed  for  the  admission  of  Baden  into  the  North 
German  Confederation,  since  by  such  a  concession  the  kingdoms  of  Wiirtemberg 
and  Bavaria,  which  then  alone  remained  outside  the  national  union,  would  have 
been  surrendered  completely  to  the  influence  of  Austria,  and  constantly  pledged 
to  maintain  the  frontier  of  the  Main.  Bismarck  "  did  not  wish  to  skim  the  cream 
from  the  milk,"  but  to  let  Baden  do  its  work  as  an  advocate  of  national  unity  in 
the  South  by  the  side  of  the  particularist  kingdoms.  Besides  this,  a  closer  con- 
nection with  the  Grand  Duchy  would  have  made  the  North  responsible  for 
the  defence  of  its  long  frontier  line  against  the  attacks  of  France.  A  strategic 
task  of  such  difficulty  was  not  one  to  be  taken  except  under  the  pressure  of 
necessity. 


318  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD         [Chapter  ir 


H.    AUSTRO-HUNGART   AFTER   1866 

(a)  The  Dualism.  —  Hungary,  after  the  suppression  of  the  Hungarian  rebel- 
lion of  the  year  1849,  was  deprived  of  independence,  and  was,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, reduced  to  the  constitutional  status  of  a  crown  demesne,  which  in  the  last 
resort  was  governed  from  Vienna.  The  proud  Magyar  people  had  not  resigned 
itself  in  silence  to  this  lot,  but  continuously  demanded  the  restoration  of  its 
independence.  It  absolutely  refused  to  send  representatives  to  the  Reichsrat  in 
Vienna,  the  central  parliament  of  the  monarchy  created  by  the  constitution  of 
February  26,  1861  (p.  285).  The  leader  of  the  opposition  was  Francis  D^ak 
(1803-1876),  originally  a  lawyer  and  judicial  assessor  in  his  own  county  of  Szala. 
He  had  been  Minister  of  Justice  in  1848  (cf.  p.  201),  and  became  later  a  parHa- 
mentary  politician  by  profession  ;  he  was  a  man  of  shrewdness,  determination,  and 
integrity,  of  temperate  views,  resolute  in  advocating  the  rights  of  his  people  and 
yet  unwilling  to  interfere  with  the  undoubted  rights  of  the  crown.  He  was 
opposed  to  the  feudal  abuse  of  serf  labour  no  less  than  to  the  communistic  views, 
rife  among  the  Hungarian  peasantry,  whose  supporters  would  have  most  gladly 
divided  the  property  of  the  nobles  among  themselves.  Some  reputation  and 
influence  was  also  enjoyed  by  Count  Julius  Andrassy,  whose  inclinations 
and  capabilities  led  him  by  preference  into  the  region  of  foreign  policy. 

The  defeat  of  Austria  in  the  year  1859  broke  the  ice  both  in  the  western  and 
eastern  half  of  the  empire.  Schmerling,  the  creator  of  the  February  constitution, 
consented  in  April,  1861,  to  summon  once  more  the  Hungarian  Landtag,  which 
had  been  dissolved  in  1849.  But  since  D^ak  demanded  a  return  to  the  state  of 
things  which  had  existed  before  1848,  no  understanding  was  reached,  and  in 
the  year  1866  General  Klapka  (p.  206),  with  Bismarck's  support,  organised  a 
"  Hungarian  legion  "  to  fight  on  the  side  of  Prussia  against  the  house  of  Hapsburg- 
Lorraine.  The  defeat  of  1866  convinced  the  emperor  Francis  Joseph  that  a 
reconciliation  with  Hungary  was  absolutely  essential,  if  Austria  was  not  to  be 
completely  crippled  by  internal  feuds  and  prevented  from  maintaining  its  already 
tottering  position  as  a  great  power.  "  In  the  East,"  said  |A.ndrassy,  "  no  power 
is  less  important  than  Austria,  and  yet  it  ought,  in  the  interests  of  civilization,  to 
have  great  influence  there."  The  Germans  in  Austria  came  to  the  help  of  the 
Magyars  when  they  declared  at  a  meeting  in  Aussee  on  the  10th  of  September, 
1866  :  "Dualism,  but  not  Federalism  !  no  joint  monarchy,  still  less  a  mere  federa- 
tion, but  two  halves  of  the  empire,  compact  in  themselves  and  closely  united 
together  against  the  outside  world." 

The  new  foreign  minister,  Friedrich  Ferdinand,  Baron  Beust  (1809-1886),  an 
excessively  energetic  statesman,  whose  pride  did  not  blind  him  to  the  needs  of 
the  time,  worked  toward  the  same  end.  He  wished  to  restore  Austria  to  its  old 
position  by  settling  the  dissensions  and  by  modern  legislation,  and  to  leave  its 
forces  free  for  a  strong  foreign  policy,  which  might  limit  the  encroachments  of 
Prussia  and  Eussia.  The  circumstance  that  Beust  was  a  foreigner  and  a  Protes- 
tant enabled  him  to  act  with  a  greater  impartiality  toward  the  affairs  of  Austria 
than  a  native  statesman  engaged  in  party  struggles  could  usually  manifest,  but  it 
roused  much  prejudice  and  distrust  against  him.  When  he  had  already  declared 
to  the  reassembled  Hungarian  Eeichstag  on  November  19, 1866,  his  wiUingness  to 


]!!t:rfi76T/902'\      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  319 

conform  with  the  wishes  of  the  nation,  having  been  nominated  on  February  7, 1867, 
Prime  Minister  of  Austria  in  place  of  Count  Belcredi,  he  succeeded  in  obtaining 
the  imperial  decrees  of  February,  1867.  According  to  these  Hungary  recovered 
its  independence,  receiving  a  responsible  ministry  of  its  own  under  Andrassy. 
Croatia,  the  military  frontier,  and  Transylvania  were  united  with  it ;  the  "  Court 
Chancery,"  which  existed  for  Hungary  and  Transylvania  in  Vienna  as  well  as  the 
ofl&ce  of  Hungarian  Viceroy,  were  abolished  from  the  moment  the  new  ministry 
began  its  official  activity.  The  western  half  of  the  empire  (for  which,  unoffi- 
cially the  name  of  Cis-Leithania,  or  the  country  west  of  the  border-river  Leitha, 
was  soon  adopted)  naturally  also  received  its  special  government. 

It  was  proposed  that  foreign  policy,  the  army  (the  German  language  to  be 
used  for  words  of  command),  the  excise,  and  the  national  debt  should  be  regarded 
as  joint  concerns  of  the  "  Austrian -Hungarian  monarchy,"  as  the  official  title  ran. 
According  to  this  agreement  three  imperial  ministers  were  created  for  foreign 
affairs,  the  army,  and  the  finances.  The  imperial  minister  for  foreign  affairs 
was  to  preside  in  the  imperial  ministry  and  bear  the  title  of  Imperial  Chancellor ; 
this  office  was  conferred  on  Baron  Beust,  as  the  promoter  of  the  Ausgleich 
(compromise)  with  Hungary.  The  imperial  ministers  were  responsible  to  the 
so-called  Delegations  for  their  measures  ;  these  Delegations  were  bodies  of  thirty- 
six  deputies  each,  which  were  elected  by  the  parliaments  of  the  two  halves  of  the 
kingdom  (on  a  fixed  proportion  to  the  First  and  Second  Chambers),  and  met 
alternately  at  Vienna  and  Pesth.  They  discussed  the  governmental  proposals 
separately  and  independently ;  valid  resolutions  could  therefore  only  come  into 
force  by  the  agreement  of  the  Delegations.  The  share  of  Hungary  in  the  joint 
expenditure  was  fixed  in  1867  at  thirty  per  cent,  that  of  Austria  at  seventy  per 
cent.  The  Ausgleich,  and  also  the  Customs  and  Commerce  Treaty  of  the  two 
halves  of  the  Empire,  were  to  be  valid  for  ten  years.-'  On  June  8,  1867,  the 
solemn  coronation  of  Francis  Joseph  and  his  consort  Elizabeth  took  place  in 
Pressburg. 

The  Magyars  felt  themselves  victors  and  masters  in  their  own  country.  The 
Eoumanians  and  the  Saxons  in  Transylvania  were  destined  soon  to  feel  the  heavy 
hand  of  the  ruling  people,  which  wished  by  conciliation  or  by  force  to  make 
Magyars  of  the  whole  population  of  Hungary.  The  Croats,  on  the  other  hand, 
who  formed  a  compact  nation  of  two  millions,  and  were  inveterate  enemies  of  the 
Hungarians,  received  from  the  Hungarians  on  June  21,  1868,  the  concession  that 
a  special  Croat  minister  should  sit  in  the  ministry  at  Pesth,  and  that  forty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  revenues  of  the  country  should  remain  reserved  for  the 
country  itself.  Accordingly  on  December  29,  1868,  the  twenty-nine  Croat 
deputies  appeared  in  the  Hungarian  Eeichstag,  from  which  they  had  been  absent 
for  fully  twenty  years. 

(&)  The  Liberal  Transformation  of  Austria. — The  disputes  between  parties 
and  nationalities  in  Austria  were  strained  to  the  utmost.     The  Germans  defended 

1  The  Aitsgleich  was  renewed  in  1877  and  1887.  But  in  1897  the  renewal  met  with  great  difficulties, 
so  that  the  Ausgleich  was  first  of  all  temporarily  put  into  force  by  an  imperial  order,  according  to  the  rule 
laid  down  by  the  constitution  for  the  event  of  the  disagreement  of  the  delegations.  The  "  quotas  "  were 
fixed  on  June  10,  1899,  with  regard  to  the  great  gi-owth  since  1867  of  the  economic  resources  of  Hungary, 
at  34.4  for  Hungary  and  at  65.6  for  Austria  ;  and  on  December  31,  1902,  the  governments  agreed  upon 
the  new  Ausgleich;  of.  p.  375. 


320  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD         [chapter  iv 

the  centralised  constitution  of  February  25,  1861,  and  with  it  the  predominance 
of  their  race,  for  which  they  claimed  superiority  to  other  nationalities  in  intel- 
lectual gifts  and  achievements ;  politically,  the  majority  of  them  were  Liberals. 
The  Slavs,  on  the  other  hand,  but  above  all  the  Czechs,  were  for  a  form  of 
federalism,  which  would  guarantee  more  liberty  of  action  to  the  several  crown 
lands;  and  the  Feudals  and  Clericals  supported  the  same  view.  But  Beust 
induced  the  Poles,  by  concessions  at  the  cost  of  the  Galician  Euthenians  (who 
compose  forty-three  per  cent  of  the  seven  millions  of  Galician  population)  and 
of  the  other  crown  lands,  to  take  their  seats  in  the  Beichsrat ;  and  ho  also  suc- 
ceeded in  procuring  a  German  majority  in  the  Landtags  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia. 
Thus  on  May  22,  1867,  the  regular  "  inner "  Beichsrat  (composed  of  deputies  of 
the  several  Landtags)  could  be  opened ;  but  the  Czechs  refused  to  sit  in  it.  The 
ministry  of  Beust,  in  conformity  with  the  universal  change  in  opinion,  piloted 
through  the  two  houses  of  the  Beichsrat  a  series  of  laws  during  the  course  of  the 
year  1867  which  received  the  force  of  statutes  by  the  imperial  sanction  given  on 
December  21, 1867.  By  this  means  Austria,  once  the  promised  land  of  despotism, 
was  changed  into  a  modern  constitutional  State.  Thus  ministerial  responsibility 
was  introduced  and  a  state  court  of  twenty-five  members  was  created  for  the 
trial  of  impeached  ministers ;  equality  of  all  citizens  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  equal 
eligibility  to  all  offices,  freedom  of  migration,  liberty  of  the  press  and  of  associa- 
tion, liberty  of  conscience  and  religion,  the  inviolability  of  private  houses,  and  the 
secrecy  of  letters,  freedom  of  religion,  freedom  of  education,  the  separation  of  the 
administration  of  justice  from  the  government,  in  short,  all  the  blessings  of  a 
modern  State,  were  bestowed  at  one  blow  on  a  people  which  a  few  months  before 
had  been  governed  like  a  herd  of  cattle.  The  House  of  Eepresentatives  received 
the  right  of  electing  a  President,  the  right  of  voting  taxes  and  recruits,  the  right 
of  legislation  in  all  important  matters;  it  was  to  be  summoned  annually,  and  its 
debates  were  to  be  public.  The  powers  of  the  Landtags  were  proportionately 
limited. 

These  achievements  were  accompanied  by  a  law,  based  on  the  eleventh  article 
of  ■  the  law  as  to  the  representation  of  the  empire,  dealing  with  the  supervision  of 
the  primary  schools  ( Volhsschule),  by  which  local,  districk  and  national  school- 
boards  were  constituted,  and  to  all  three  of  them  not  merely  representatives  of 
the  Church,  but  also  of  the  State  and  of  education,  were  nominated.  The  Concordat 
of  the  year  1855  (p.  241)  had  enslaved  education  and  given  the  Church  full  power 
over  the  schools,  but,  by  one  of  the  few  invariable  laws  of  history,  the  reaction 
was  only  the  more  violent.  It  was  useless  that  twenty-five  archbishops  and 
bishops,  assembled  in  Vienna  on  September  28,  1867,  raised  a  solemn  protest 
against  the  agitation  "which  imperilled  the  most  sacred  piroperty  of  mankind, 
threatened  the  salvation  of  the  souls  of  seventeen  million  Christians,  and  pro- 
posed to  create  marriages  without  permanence  and  divine  sanction,  and  schools 
without  religion  and  morality."  The  emperor,  in  a  letter  to  the  archbishop  of 
Vienna,  Jos.  Othmar  Eitter  von  Eauscher,  blamed  the  bishops  because,  instead 
of  being  conciliatory,  they  had  roused  intense  animosity,  and  thus  rendered  the 
task  of  the  government  more  arduous.  On  the  30th  of  December  he  nominated 
the  so-called  Bilrgerministerium  (bourgeois  cabinet),  whose  head  was  the  liberal 
Prince  Carlos  Auersperg,  and  in  which  the  liberal  leaders,  Eduard  Herbst, 
Karl  Giskra,  and  Leopold  Eitter  von  Hasner  administered  the  law  department, 


Western  Europe  in 
ike  Years  1866-1902, 


]      HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  321 


the  home  office,  and  the  department  of  religious  worship  and  education  respec- 
tively. This  ministry,  under  the  especial  support  of  Beust  (who  in  this  connection 
assured  the  papal  nuncio  that  according  to  his  conviction  the  Austrian  monarchy 
and  the  Catholic  Church  were  sisters,  who  must  mutually  help  each  other), 
carried  in  the  Upper  House  in  j\Iarch,  1868,  the  laws  which  had  been  determined 
upon  by  the  Lower  House  in  1867.  By  these  laws  (1)  civil  marriage  was  granted 
in  the  case  where  a  priest,  for  reasons  not  recognised  by  the  State,  refused  to  put 
up  the  banns  of  an  engaged  couple ;  (2)  the  supreme  management  of  a  school 
{with  exception  of  the  religious  instruction)  was  reserved  to  the  State,  and  the 
post  of  teacher  was  open  to  every  citizen  of  the  State  without  distinction  of 
denomination ;  (3)  in  mixed  marriages  the  sons  were  to  accept  the  religion  of 
the  father,  the  daughters  that  of  the  mother,  and  every  citizen  should  have  the 
right  to  change  his  religion  on  completing  his  fourteenth  year.  The  emperor 
signed  the  laws  on  May  25,  1868.  But  when  Pius  IX  on  the  22d  of  June 
denounced  them  in  the  most  bitter  terms  as  abominable,  absolutely  null,  and 
once  for  all  invalid,  the  feud  between  Church  and  State  became  most  acute. 
The  Pope,  in  view  of  the  legislation  directed  against  the  omnipotence  of  the 
Church,  felt  himself  only  strengthened  in  his  long-cherished  intention  of 
claiming  doctrinal  infallibility  for  the  papal  chair.  When,  however,  on  July  18, 
1870,  this  attribute  was  awarded  him  by  the  Vatican  Council,  Austria,  although 
the  Burgerministerium  had  been  dissolved  on  April  11,  1870,  in  consequence  of 
the  internal  disunion  which  had  appeared  in  it  as  far  back  as  December,  1869, 
replied  by  a  revocation  of  the  Concordat  on  July  30,  and  the  restoration  of  the 
jplacituni  regium  (royal  consent)  as  an  essential  condition  for  the  validity  of  any 
papal  enactment  in  Austria. 

During  these  struggles  the  finances  of  Austria  were  reorganised  by  a  some- 
what violent  measure.  The  proposal  of  Ignaz  Edlen  von  Plener,  Minister  of 
Commerce,  was  accepted  by  a  large  majority  in  the  Lower  House  in  June,  1868; 
by  this  the  entire  public  debt  was  to  be  transformed  into  one  unified  five  per  cent 
stock,  but  as  the  interest  was  to  pay  a  tax  of  twenty  per  cent,  the  rate  of  inter- 
est payable  by  the  State  was  in  fact  reduced  to  four  per  cent.  The  army  was 
reorganised  in  December,  1868,  on  the  basis  of  universal  conscription,  and  the  war 
strength  fixed  for  ten  years  at  eight  hundred  thousand  men.  The  Landwehr  was 
to  comprise  not  merely  the  older  members  of  the  line  troops,  but  also  those  per- 
sons who,  though  available,  had  been  rejected  as  superfluous,  and  had  thus  not 
enjoyed  any  training  in  the  ranks. 


F.  Great  Britain;  Parliamektaey  Eeform;  Ireland;  Abyssinia 

In  England,  in  the  year  1866  (cf.  Vol.  VI)  the  Liberal  ministry  brought  defeat 
on  themselves  by  a  new  Eeform  Bill  to  reduce  the  qualification  for  the  franchise. 
They  resigned  without  appealing  to  the  country,  and  were  succeeded  by  a  Tory 
cabinet.  The  office  of  Prime  Minister  fell  to  Lord  Derby,  but  the  moving  spirit 
was  Mr.  Disraeli,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  Early  in  1868  Lord  Derby,  owing  to  ill  health,  resigned,  and  the  min- 
istry was  reconstituted  under  Mr.  IDisraeh.  Already,  before  this  change  had 
occurred,  the  latter  had  succeeded  in  carrying  the  measure  upon  which  the  repu- 

VOL.  Vm.— 21 


322  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         [Chaj>t6riv 

tation  of  this  administration  principally  depends.  He  understood  very  clearly 
that  he  could  not  postpone  electoral  reform  if  he  wished  to  keep  in  power.  He 
resolved  therefore  to  prove,  by  solving  the  problem,  that  the  Conservatives  knew 
how  to  satisfy  the  necessary  requirements  of  the  country  as  well  as,  if  not  better 
than,  the  Liberals,  and  introduced  a  bill  in  March,  1867,  which  was  carried  after 
long  discussions  in  both  Houses,  and  received  the  signature  of  Queen  Victoria 
on  August  15.  According  to  this  second  Eeform  Act  the  county  franchise  was 
conferred  on  every  man  who  had  been  for  one  year  in  occupation  of  premises 
of  the  annual  value  of  £12  and  rated  for  the  relief  of  the  poor.  In  the  boroughs 
every  householder,  after  one  year's  residence  and  payment  of  poor-rate,  received 
the  suffrage;  and  it  was  also  conferred,  subject  to  the  same  conditions,  upon 
those  occupying  lodgings  of  the  annual  value  of  £10.  Borough  constituencies 
which  contained  less  than  seven  thousand  souls  retained  only  one  member 
apiece.  On  the  other  hand,  the  larger  towns  were  ^ven  several ;  for  instance, 
Liverpool,  Manchester,  Birmingham,  and  Leeds  had  four  members  each.  This 
Act  was  followed,  in  1868,  by  others  for  Scotland  and  Ireland,  which,  while 
differing  from  the  English  Act  in  many  details,  were  framed  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple. If  the  first  electoral  reform  of  1832  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  377)  placed  the 
aristocracy  of  capital  by  the  side  of  the  aristocracy  of  birth,  the  reform  of  1867 
created  a  third  body  of  electors,  which  was  made  up  of  labouring  men  and  the 
representatives  of  intellectual  training.  From  both  of  these  classes  the  suffrage 
had  hitherto  been  practically  withheld.  England  by  this  reform  took  a  long  step 
toward  democracy.  One  result,  which  soon  appeared,  was  an  agitation  for  abol- 
ishing the  House  of  Lords,  the  aristocratic  nature  of  which  was  in  sharp  contrast 
to  the  continually  swelling  tide  of  public  opinion. 

The  discontent  of  the  Irish  with  the  English  rule,  which  was  based  on  a  sys- 
tem by  which  absentee  landlords  extracted  profits  from  the  mass  of  poor  inhab- 
itants, brought  about  the  formation  of  the  Fenian  Society  (Vol.  VII,  p.  395), 
which,  with  headquarters  in  the  United  States,  tried  to  break  down  the  English 
rule  by  every  means,  including  revolvers  and  dynamite.  The  conspiracies  for 
which  the  society  was  responsible  were  sternly  punished.  But  it  was  generally 
felt  that  something  must  be  done  to  remove  the  legitima^  grievances  of  the  Irish 
people.  The  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  was  moved  by  the  Liberal 
opposition,  and  the  government  were  defeated  on  this  question.  After  some  delay, 
during  which  the  reform  legislation  of  the  cabinet  was  successfully  completed, 
Disraeli  took  the  issue  of  a  general  election.  He  was  defeated  at  the  polls,  and 
a  Liberal  government  was  called  to  power,  under  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  the  last 
month  of  1868.  A  bill  for  Irish  disestablishment  was  moved  without  delay,  and 
in  July,  1869,  passed  into  law.  The  Established  Church  of  Ireland,  to  which 
hardly  one-sixth  of  the  Irish  population  belonged,  was  converted  into  a  Free 
Church,  with  a  capital  of  £12,000,000,  and  a  notable  step  was  thus  taken 
towards  diminishing  "  the  scandal  and  calamity  of  the  relations  between  England 
and  Ireland,"  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  himself  the  most  enthusiastic 
of  churchmen. 

In  the  year  1868  England  found  herself  involved  in  a  military  expedition  in 
Africa.  A  certain  Kasai  had  raised  himself  to  be  emperor  of  the  whole  of  Abys- 
sinia (cf.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  567) ;  he  assumed  the  name  of  Theodore  II,  exterminated 
brigandage,  improved  the  administration  of  justice,  and  broke  the  power  of  the 


rS/Z/firifoJ      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  323 

clergy  by  confiscating  the  property  of  the  Church.  Since,  however,  he  imprisoned 
Eaglish  missionaries,  by  whom  he  considered  himself  to  have  been  slandered  in 
Europe,  and  would  only  set  them  free  in  exchange  for  skilled  engineers,  England 
sent  to  Abyssinia  an  army  of  sixteen  thousand  men  and  forty-five  guns,  under 
the  command  of  Sir  Eobert  Napier  (afterwards  Lord  Napier  of  Magdala).  The 
latter  defeated  the  Abyssinians,  who  were  only  armed  with  flintlocks,  at  Magdala 
and  stormed  the  fortress,  built  on  three  rocky  summits,  on  the  13th  of  April, 
1868;  Theodore  II  thereupon  shot  himself  in  despair.  With  him  died  his  bold 
scheme  to  extirpate  Islam  in  Egypt  and  to  set  up  there  the  rule  of  Christianity 
and  of  the  Abyssinians.  Islam,  on  the  contrary,  soon  acquired  fresh  life  in  the 
South  (Vol.  Ill,  pp.  556  et  seq.).  The  Enghsh  left  Abyssinia  after  freeing  the 
missionaries. 


G.  The  Eoman  Question;  the  Conseqttenges  of  the  Treaty  of 

September,  1864 

The  Eoman  question  was  one  of  the  most  difficult  with  which  Napoleon  III 
had  to  deal.  The  emperor  had  withdrawn  his  troops  from  Eome  in  Septem- 
ber, 1864,  after  the  Italian  government  had  pledged  itself  to  remove  the  seat  of 
the  monarchy  from  Turin  to  Florence  (which  promise  implied  a  certain  abandon- 
ment of  claim  to  the  capital,  Eome),  and  neither  to  attack  Eome  itself  nor  to 
allow  it  to  be  attacked  by  any  other  power.  The  Ultramontanes  in  France  were 
beside  themselves  at  this  agreement ;  they  saw  in  it  the  withdrawal  of  French 
protection  from  the  still  existing  fragment  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope, 
the  beginning,  therefore,  of  its  end ;  and  if  they  regarded  this  end  as  a  heavy 
blow  to  the  Church,  the  Chauvinist  party,  headed  by  Adolphe  Thiers,  which 
held  the  French  leadership  in  Europe  to  be  part  of  the  order  of  the  universe, 
regarded  a  complete  victory  of  the  Italian  national  State  as  an  irrevocable  hin- 
drance to  that  leadership  on  the  south  side  of  the  Alps,  just  as  the  establishment  of 
the  German  national  State  seemed  to  be  the  end  of  that  predominance  on  the  east 
bank  of  the  Ehine.  In  February,  1866,  the  French  Chamber  under  these  two 
influences  adopted  the  resolution  that  the  secular  sovereignty  of  the  Pope  was 
essential  for  his  spiritual  reputation ;  and  after  the  reversion  of  Venice  to  Italy 
ultramontane  attacks  were  showered  upon  liberal  conceptions  in  general  and 
Italy  in.  particular.  The  radical  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  Victor  Duruy, 
who  brought  the  Orders  which  concerned  themselves  with  education  under  the 
common  law,  claimed  for  the  State  the  education  of  girls,  and  founded  national 
libraries  of  a  liberal  character ;  but  he  had  to  guard  against  the  pronounced  hos- 
tihty  of  the  clericals,  and  could  not  prevent,  in  July,  1867,  the  temporary  closure 
of  the  Ecole  Normale,  the  teachers'  training  institution,  in  which  liberal  views 
were  active. 

The  effect  of  these  occurrences  was,  on  the  Italian  side,  that  the  democratic 
minister  Eattazzi,  a  friend  to  the  French,  hoped  for  a  revolution  in  Eome  itself, 
in  the  course  of  which  Victor  Emmanuel  might  come  forward,  as  in  1859,  to 
restore  order.  If  his  troops  occupied  Eome  in  this  way,  the  Eoman  question  might 
be  solved  very  simply,  without  direct  violation  of  the  September  treaty.  But  the 
thoughtless  Garibaldi,  overflowing  with  fiery  zeal,  tore  in  pieces  this  delicate  web 


324  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  ir 

of  statecraft  by  entering  the  States  of  the  Church  in  September,  1867,  at  the  head 
of  a  band  of  volunteers,  in  order  to  overthrow  the  Pope.  When  Eattazzi,  on 
beiag  required  by  Napoleon  III  to  take  counter  measures  in  virtue  of  the  treaty, 
preferred  to  tender  his  resignation,  the  emperor  sent  an  army  from  Toulon  to 
Kome  under  General  P.  L.  Ch.  de  Failly.  This,  together  with  the  papal  soldiers 
under  General  Hermann  Kanzler,  overtook  the  Garibaldians,  who  had  immedi- 
ately begun  to  retreat,  on  Monte  Pi,otondo  near  Mentana,  northeast  of  Eome,  and 
dealt  them  a  crushing  blow  (November  3).  "The  chassepots  have  done  won- 
ders," Failly  wrote  to  the  king.  The  French  army  was  now  compelled  to 
remain  in  Eome,  since  otherwise  the  rule  of  the  Pope  would  have  immediately 
collapsed.  A  part  of  Napoleon's  power  was  again  firmly  planted  in  Italy,  the 
indignation  of  all  opponents  of  the  Papacy  against  the  guardian  of  the  Pope  was 
once  again  unloosed,  and  the  dislike  of  the  Italians  for  the  man  who  prevented 
the  completion  of  their  unity  was  accentuated.  The  emperor  vainly  tried  to 
submit  the  Eoman  question  to  the  decision  of  a  European  congress,  which  he 
proposed  to  call  for  this  purpose.  No  other  great  power  wished  to  burn  its  fingers 
in  this  difficult  affair. 


R.  New  Complications 

(a)  The  French  Army-Reform.  —  Napoleon,  meantime,  conscious  that  France, 
from  the  military  point  of  view,  was  far  behind  Prussia,  had  devised  all  sorts 
of  plans  to  equalise  this  disproportion.  The  first  scheme,  which  really  effected 
some  result  and  went  to  the  root  of  the  evil,  simply  aimed  at  the  introduction 
of  a  universal  conscription  after  the  Prussian  model;  but  the  emperor  encoun- 
tered in  this  the  opposition,  both  of  his  generals  —  who  for  the  most  part  were 
sufficiently  prejudiced  to  consider  a  professional  army  as  more  efficient  than  a 
national  army — and  of  the  politicians,  who,  partly  out  of  regard  for  the  popular 
dislike  of  universal  military  service,  partly  on  political  grounds,  would  hear 
nothing  of  such  a  measure.  All  radicals  shrank  from  "  militarism  "  and  every 
measure  which  might  strengthen  the  monarchy.  Thus  the  keen-sighted  and 
energetic  War  Minister,  Marshal  Adolphe  Niel,  was  force*  in  the  end,  against  his 
better  judgment,  to  be  content  with  a  law  proclaiming,  it  is  true,  in  principle, 
universal  military  service,  and  fixing  its  duration  at  nine  years,  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  at  once  neutralised  this  reform,  since  each  individual  had  the  admitted  right 
to  buy  himself  off  from  service  in  the  line.  Only  the  duty  of  forming  part  of  the 
militia,  or  garde  mobile,  was  incumbent  on  every  one  ;  but  from  considerations  of 
economy,  this  garde  mobile  was  allowed  to  exist  on  paper  only,  without  any 
attempt  to  call  it  into  existence  beyond  the  form  of  nominating  the  officers ;  the 
men  were  not  organised  or  even  called  out  for  training.  It  thus  happened  that 
the  North  German  Confederation,  with  30,000,000  souls  and  an  annual  levy  of 
90,000,  could  put  an  army  of  540,000  into  the  field,  but  France,  with  36,000,000 
inhabitants,  raised  only  330,000  men.  In  armament,  however,  the  French  infan- 
try enjoyed  a  considerable  advantage,  since  it  was  equipped  with  the  Chasse- 
pot  rifle,  which  had  a  range  of  1,200  paces,  compared  with  which  the  needle-gun, 
with  a  range  of  400  paces  only,  became  at  long  distances  as  useless  as  a  stick ;  in 
addition  to  this,  the  French  was  superior  to  the  German  weapon  by  reason  of  a 


Krr.^r«2]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  325 

smaller  bore  (11  mm.),  a  better  breech,  and  by  its  handiness.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  North  German  artillery,  whose  shells  only  burst  on  striking,  was 
superior  to  the  French,  whose  missiles  burst  after  a  certain  time,  often  difficult  to 
calculate  exactly,  and  sometimes  exploded  in  the  air  before  reaching  their  mark. 
The  mitrailleuse,  on  which  the  French  founded  great  hopes,  proved  itself  in  1870 
to  be  by  no  means  a  serviceable  weapon,  and  it  was  not  considered  necessary  on 
the  German  side  to  adopt  it. 

The  necessity  of  again  finding  stronger  support  in  the  nation  suggested  to  the 
emperor  in  January,  1869,  the  plan  of  securing  the  purchase  and  management  by 
the  French  Eastern  Eailway  of  the  Belgian  private  railways  to  Brussels  and 
Eotterdam.  In  this  way  Belgium  would  become  first  economically,  and  subse- 
quently politically  dependent  on  France.  But  the  Belgian  Liberal  government, 
under  Hub.  Jos.  Frfere-Orban,  refused  assent  to  the  treaty  for  sale ;  and  since  in 
this  question  they  were  backed  by  their  otherwise  deadly  enemies,  the  ultramontane 
party,  this  attempt  also  of  the  emperor  to  restore  his  prestige  proved  a  failure. 

Although  Prussia  had  entirely  kept  away  from  any  share  in  the  whole  matter, 
she  was  accused  by  several  French  papers  of  having  instigated  the  Belgian  gov- 
ernment to  opposition.  Even  the  treaty  with  Baden,  by  which  Badeners  were 
allowed  to  pass  their  terms  of  military  service  in  Prussia,  and  Prussians  in 
Baden,  could  not  successfully  be  represented  as  an  infringement  of  the  Treaty  of 
Prague.  Nevertheless,  France,  Austria,  and  Italy,  since  the  summer  of  1868,  had 
vigorously  prosecuted  the  negotiations  for  a  Triple  Alliance  directed  against 
Prussia.  But  Beust  was  restrained  by  several  considerations :  the  embarrassed 
condition  of  Austrian  finances  ;  the  incompleteness  of  the  army-reform  ;  the  thou- 
sand and  one  difficulties  of  the  domestic  situation;  the  reluctance  of  ten  million 
Germans  in  Austria  to  make  war  on  their  compatriots ;  the  aversion  of  Hungary 
to  every  project  for  restoring  the  Austrian  predominance  in  Germany.  He  saw 
himself  quite  unable  to  undertake  a  war  immediately,  however  much  a  war  might 
have  suited  his  inveterate  hatred  of  Prussia.  Such  a  war,  according  to  his  view, 
ought  to  arise  from  a  non-German  cause,  some  collision  of  Austria  and  Eussia  in 
the  East,  when  Prussia  would  go  over  to  the  Eussian  side,  and  thus  any  appearance 
of  the  war  being  waged  against  German  union  would  be  avoided ;  otherwise,  war 
was  the  best  method  of  effecting  an  immediate  reconciliation  between  North  and 
South. 

A  war  against  German  unity  was  unacceptable  to  the  Italians  also,  since 
in  all  probability  it  would  have  been  followed  by  a  war  against  their  own  unity ; 
and  this  they  did  not  wish  to  see  destroyed,  but  completed ;  and  probably  a  por- 
tion of  the  Conservative  party  would  only  have  been  induced  to  fight  against 
Prussia  by  the  surrender  of  Eome.  But  the  emperor,  who  did  not  ventiire  to 
inflict  a  further  wound  upon  the  susceptibilities  of  his  Catholic  subjects,  could  not 
in  any  case  fulfil  this  condition  ;  and  the  majority  of  the  Italians  stood  on  the  side 
of  the  ministers,  who  declared  to  King  Victor  Emmanuel  in  July,  1869,  that  they 
could  not  be  parties  to  obliterating  the  events  of  the  year  1866.  Light  is  thrown 
on  the  situation  by  the  anxiety  of  Beust  lest  Napoleon  should  not  be  playing  an 
honorable  game,  but  in  the  last  instance,  if  Prussia,  intimidated  by  the  Triple 
Alliance,  was  inclined  to  concessions,  should  make  an  agreement  with  Prussia  at 
the  cost  of  Austria.  Since  the  negotiations  thus  met  insuperable  difficulties 
everywhere,  their  continuance  was,  in  September,  1869,  indefinitely  postponed,  to 


326  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         [Chapter  iv 

use  Napoleon's  words  to  Francis  Joseph.  No  terms  (according  to  Beust's  state- 
ments) had  yet  been  signed,  but  a  verbal  agreement  had  been  made  on  three 
points :  (1)  That  the  aim  of  the  alliance,  if  ever  it  was  concluded,  should  be 
protection  and  peace ;  (2)  that  the  parties  should  support  each  other  in  all  nego- 
tiations between  the  Great  Powers ;  and  (3)  that  Austria,  in  a  war  between  France 
and  Prussia  should  remain  at  least  neutral. 

(b)  The  Ministry  of  Ollivier  and  the  Plebiscite  {1870).  —  At  the  moment  when 
these  negotiations  had  come  to  a  standstill,  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  the 
internal  affairs  of  France.  At  the  new  elections  to  the  Legislative  Body  on  May 
23,  1869,  a  great  shrinkage  of  the  Eoyalist  votes  was  apparent ;  while  the  oppo- 
sition in  1857  had  received  only  810,000,  and  in  1863  had  reached  1,800,000,  it 
now  swelled  to  3,300,000,  and  the  figures  of  the  government  party  receded  from 
5,300,000  in  the  year  1663  to  4,600,000.  OUivier's  "Third  Party"  obtained  130 
seats  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  combined  with  the  40  votes  of  the  Eepub- 
lican  Left  formed  a  majority  against  the  followers  of  Eouher.  Napoleon  III 
need  not  have  regarded  the  result  of  the  elections  as  a  sign  of  popular  hostility  to 
himself ;  even  the  Third  Party  was  imperialist ;  but  the  result  was  bound  to 
endanger  his  position,  if  he  declared  his  agreement  with  Eouher  and  the 
"  Arcadians  "  (cf.  p.  313).  He  therefore  veered  round,  dissolved  the  "  National 
Ministry  "  on  July  17  (Eouher  was  compensated  by  the  Presidency  in  the  Senate, 
which  on  the  second  of  August,  in  a  solemn  session,  accepted  the  scheme  of 
Eeform  settled  by  the  Cabinet),  and  submitted  on  September  6, 1869,  comprehensive 
constitutional  reforms  to  the  approval  of  the  Senate.  By  these,  the  Legislative 
Body  acquired  the  rights  of  electing  all  its  officials,  of  initiating  legislation,  of 
demanding  inquiries,  and  of  appropriating  the  supplies  which  it  voted  to  specific 
branches  of  the  public  service.  Although  the  constitutional  responsibility  of  the 
emperor  himself  was  not  given  up,  yet  the  principle  of  ministerial  responsibility 
was  introduced,  and  provision  made  for  impeachment  of  ministers  before  the 
Senate.  The  emperor  himself,  when  speaking  to  the  Italian  ambassador,  Con- 
stantin  Nigra,  characterised  the  scope  of  these  reforms  as  follows :  "  I  had  the 
choice  between  war  and  personal  rule  on  one  side,  and  pea#  with  liberal  reforms 
on  the  other  side.  I  decided  for  the  latter."  The  circumstance  that  his  experi- 
enced War  Minister,  Niel,  died  on  August  14,  1869,  had,  at  first  the  effect  of 
making  every  warlike  expedition  seem  doubly  hazardous ;  it  was  destined  to  be 
seen  that  his  successor,  Marshal  Leboeuf,  possessed  neither  the  experience  nor 
the  foresight  of  Niel. 

The  emperor  summoned  on  January  2,  1870,  the  Ministry,  which,  in  virtue  of 
the  decree  of  the  Senate,  was  to  undertake  the  responsible  conduct  of  business.  Its 
head  was  Emile  Ollivier,  who  became  Minister  of  Justice  and  Public  Worship;  Count 
Daru,  a  clever  and  cautious  man  of  marked  personality,  received  the  Foreign  Office  ;• 
the  Home  Office  went  to  Chevandier  de  ValdrSme,  the  Finances  to  Buffet.  But 
since  the  Left  demanded  that  the  Chamber  should  receive  the  right  of  co-operating 
in  any  future  alteration  of  the  constitution,  as  otherwise  a  resolution  of  the  Senate 
might  recall  one  day  what  it  had  granted  the  previous  day,  the  emperor  without 
demur  submitted  the  constitutional  changes  to  a  plebiscite  on  the  ground  that 
the  nation  had  in  his  time  (1852 ;  cf.  p.  242)  approved  the  constitution  of  the 
empire,  and  had  therefore  a  claim  to  say  if  this  constitution  was  to  be  altered. 


Wesfern  Europe  in 
the  Years  1866-1902, 


]       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  327 


The  question  put  to  the  people  was  whether  it  approved  of  the  decree  of  the 
Senate  on  September  6,  1869,  and  whether  it  wished  by  this  means  to  facilitate 
the  future  transmission  of  the  crown  from  the  emperor  to  his  son.  The  answer 
of  7,350,142  electors  was  in  the  affirmative,  that  of  1,538,825  in  the  negative ;  in 
the  army,  which  was  also  allowed  to  vote,  285,000  answered  "  Yes,"  48,000,  "  No." 
Although  opposition  was  considerable,  yet  it  was  split  up  into  an  absolutist  part,  for 
which  the  decree  of  the  Senate  went  much  too  far,  and  a  republican,  for  which  the 
decree  did  not  go  far  enough,  since  it  not  only  allowed  the  empire  to  stand,  but 
even  assisted  Napoleon  to  consolidate  his  power.  Against  this  divided  opposition 
the  majority,  which  in  any  case  was  five  times  as  large,  showed  to  prodigious  advan- 
tage, and  the  emperor  was  justified  in  seeing  in  the  PMbiscite  of  the  8th  of  May, 
1870,  a  strong  proof  of  the  confidence  of  quite  five-sixths  of  the  French  in  his 
person,  in  his  dynasty  and  his  rule. 

(c)  The  Vatican  Council  in  its  Relation  to  European,  Politics.  —  Soon  afterwards 
the  Ministry  underwent  an  important  change  by  the  substitution  of  the  Due  de 
Gramont  for  Daru.  The  latter  had  two  motives  for  resignation.  In  the  first 
place  he  had  not  been  able  to  carry  his  point  that  not  merely  the  emperor 
alone  was  entitled  to  order  any  future  plebiscites,  but  that  the  Legislative  Body 
must  also  be  first  heard  on  the  matter.  Secondly,  Daru  was  much  concerned 
about  the  Vatican  Council,  which  Pius  IX  had  opened  in  Eome  on  the  8th  of 
December,  1869,  in  order  that,  at  the  very  moment  when  the  temporal  power  of 
the  papacy  was  diminished  and  even  threatened  with  complete  destruction,  the 
spiritual  power  might  be  made  unlimited  through  the  proclamation  of  the  Pope's 
infallibiUty  in  matters  of  the  faith  and  morals.  The  Bavarian  prime  minister, 
Prince  Chlodwig  von  Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst  (1819-1901)  faced,  as  far  back  as 
April  9,  1869,  the  serious  danger  which  threatened  the  independence  of  States  if 
this  doctrine  of  the  papal  infallibility  was  received,  and  called  upon  all  States 
which  had  Catholic  subjects  to  adopt  a  common  policy  towards  the  papal  claim ; 
but  from  various  reasons  he  only  found  support  in  Eussia,  which  forbade  its 
Catholic  bishops  to  attend  the  Council,  and  he  was  defeated  by  the  ultramon- 
tane and  particularist  majority  of  the  Bavarian  Landtag  on  February  15,  1870. 
Daru  fared  no  better  with  his  warnings ;  his  own  colleague  OUivier  declared  that 
the  infallibility  affected  only  the  internal  administration  of  the  Church  and  did 
not  concern  the  State  —  as  if  the  Church  on  her  side  would  recognise  any  sphere 
of  human  action  as  entirely  belonging  to  the  State  !  —  and  put  him  off  with  the 
dubious  assurances  of  the  papal  Secretary  of  State,  Count  Giacomo  Antonelli: 
"In  theory  we  soar  as  high  as  Gregory  VII,  and  Innocent  III ;  in  practice  we  are 
yielding  and  patient."  No  effect  was  produced  by  the  warnings  of  the  noble 
Montalembert,  once  so  extolled  by  the  Ultramontanes.  He  blamed  the  oppression 
of  the  State  by  the  Church  no  less  than  that  of  the  Church  by  the  State.  "  We 
ought,"  he  said,  "  to  stem  in  time  the  stream  of  flattery,  deceit,  and  servility  which 
threatens  to  flood  the  Church."  He  died  before  his  warning  cry  was  justified  by 
events,  and  Darn's  successor,  Gramont,  was  a  thoroughgoing  Ultramontane  and 
as  such  hated  heretical  Prussia. 

{d)  The  Rise  of  the  Social  Democratic  Party.  —  In  the  efforts  of  the  Curia  to 
make  the  papal  chair  the  guiding  influence  of  every  nation,  there  was  an  ele- 


328  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  ir 

ment  of  hostility  to  the  nationalist  principle  in  its  political  application ;  and  the 
same  is  true  of  other  efforts,  which  then  first  showed  themselves  in  greater  force, 
the  effort,  that  is,  of  the  Social  Democrats.'  The  career  of  Ferdinand  Lassalle  as 
an  agitator  falls  in  the  years  1862-1864.  Lassalle  wished  to  make  the  working- 
class,  which  was  being  bled  by  capital,  master  in  the  State  by  means  of  universal 
suffrage,  and  more  than  that,  to  make  it  a  capitalist  by  the  institution  of  State-- 
supported  co-operative  societies  with  yearly  division  of  the  profits.  The  "  Inter- 
national "  (planned  in  London  in  1864)  was  founded  at  Geneva  in  September,  1866, 
as  a  union  intended  to  comprise  the  workmen  of  every  nation.  These  efforts  were 
not,  however,  completely  developed  until  later  (cf.  below,  p.  361) ;  the  nationalist 
movement  had  first  to  run  its  course  in  Central  Europe. 


J.  The  Outbreak  of  the  Franco-German  War 

(a)  France's  Relations  with  Austria.  —  The  peace  of  Europe  seemed,  on  June 
30,  1870,  to  be  absolutely  assured ;  Ollivier  could  declare  in  the  Chamber  that 
no  disturbance  threatened  it  from  any  quarter,  and  Leboeuf,  the  War  Minister, 
proposed  to  enlist  in  the  army  for  1871  only  90,000  instead  of  100,000  recruits. 
The  Deputies  of  the  Left  committed  themselves  to  the  statement  that  the 
40,000,000  Germans  who  had  united  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia  were  no 
menace  to  France,  and  Ollivier  himself  can  almost  be  described  as  a  friend  of 
German  unity.  Archduke  Albert  of  Austria,  however,  had  visited  Paris  in  April, 
1870,  on  the  pretext  of  an  educational  journey  to  the  south  of  France,  and,  in  view 
of  the  possible  admission  of  Baden  to  the  North  German  Confederation  (p.  314), 
had  spoken  of  the  necessity  of  common  measures  for  the  observance  of  the  treaty 
of  Prague.  He  unfolded,  in  this  connection,  the  plan  that  if  war  became  necessary, 
a  French  army  should  push  on  past  Stuttgart  to  Nuremberg,  in  order  to  unite 
there  with  the  Italians,  who  would  advance  by  way  of  Munich,  and  with  the 
Austrians,  who  would  come  from  Bohemia ;  they  would  then  fight  the  Prussians 
in  the  region  of  Leipsic.  The  archduke  was  therefore  playing  with  the  fire;  but 
he  declared  that  the  transformation  of  the  Austrian  army  mould  not  be  completed 
for  one  or  two  years,  and  emphasised  the  necessity  that,  since  Austria  required 
six  weeks  to  mobilise,  France  should  strike  the  first  blow  alone,  at  any  rate  in  the 
spring,  in  order  that  the  Prussians  might  be  settled  with  before  autumn  came  with 
long,  cold  nights  and  before  Eussia  could  interfere.  A  council  of  war  which 
Napoleon  held  on  May  17  declared  that  the  demand  that  France  should  first 
make  the  effort  single-handed  could  not  be  entertained.  General  Lebrun,  who 
was  then  sent  to  Vienna,  did  not  find  Francis  Joseph  inclined  to  waive  the 
demand  which  Prince  Albert  had  made.  The  emperor  held  it  to  be  essential  not 
merely  from  the  military,  but  also  from  the  political  standpoint,  since  if  he 
declared  war  simultaneously  with  France,  the  Prussians  would  make  full  use  of  the 
"  new  German  idea  "  and  sweep  on  the  South  with  them.  He  would  have  to  wait 
for  the  course  of  the  war,  and  then,  when  the  French  had  advanced  into  South 
Germany  and  were  welcomed  as  liberators  from  the  Prussian  yoke,. he  would  take 
the  opportunity  and  join  in  the  war. 

^  See  more  fully  on  this  subject,  in  Vol.  VII,  p.  113. 


^'PZfiZ%2]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  329 

The  course  of  events  in  South  Germany  gave  France  room  to  hope  for  a  change 
in  popular  opinion.  In  Bavaria,  Hohenlohe  had  been  turned  out  in  February,  and 
had  been  replaced  by  Count  Otto  Bray-Steinburg,  a  staunch  Particularist.  In 
Wurtemberg  the  most  inveterate  Democrats  gave  out  the  watchword,  "French 
rather  than  Prussian,"  and  a  mass-petition,  which  received  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  signatures,  demanded  the  introduction  of  a  militia  army  on  the  Swiss 
model.  King  Charles  replied  in  March,  1870,  by  the  dismissal  of  Ernst  Gessler, 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  who  was  accused  of  weakness,  and  by  summoning  Suckow 
(p.  315)  to  the  War  Ministry.  The  latter  declared  his  readiness  to  make  a  reduc- 
tion of  half  a  million  of  gulden  in  the  war-budget  (a  step  to  which  his  predecessor, 
Wagner,  had  not  consented),  but  in  other  respects  to  maintain  the  army  organisa- 
tion on  the  Prussian  system,  which  had  only  been  introduced  in  1868.  A  keen- 
sighted  French  observer,  the  military  plenipotentiary,  Colonel  Eug.  G.  Stoffel, 
himself  warned  the  emperor  Napoleon  against  overestimating  the  particularist 
forces.  In  any  case  it  was  very  dubious  whether  the  French  could  and  would 
fulfil  the  conditions  on  which  Austria  made  its  co-operation  depend,  —  in  the 
event,  that  is,  of  its  being  forced  into  war  by  the  breach  of  the  treaty  of  Prague, 
which  it  postulated  as  the  preliminary  condition  for  any  military  action.  The 
impression  thus  won  ground  even  there,  that,  in  spite  of  the  tension  in  the  Euro- 
pean situation,  in  spite  of  the  passions  and  personal  influences  which  were  making 
toward  a  war,  the  maintenance  of  peace,  for  the  year  1870  at  least,  still  seemed 
probable  at  the  beginning  of  July. 

(6)  The  Hohenzollern  Candidature  for  the  Spanish  Throne.  —  The  government 
of  Queen  Isabella  II  of  Spain  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  559)  had  long  fallen  into  complete 
disrepute  owing  to  the  unworthy  character  of  the  queen,  who  had  openly  broken 
her  marriage  vows.  Since  Isabella  abandoned  herself  entirely  to  the  reactionary 
party,  the  Liberals  rose,  under  the  leadership  of  Francisco  Serrano  and  Juan  Prim, 
on  September  20,  1868.  After  the  defeat  of  the  royal  army  at  the  bridge  of 
Alcolea  on  the  Guadalquivir,  in  which  the  commander-in-chief,  General  Pavia, 
was  severely  wounded  (September  28),  the  queen,  who  was  just  then  staying  at 
the  seaside  watering-place,  San  Sebastian,  was  obliged  to  fly,  with  her  family  and 
her  "  intendant,"  Carlos  Marfori,  to  France.  The  idea  which  the  bigoted  queen 
had  still  been  entertaining  of  sending  Spanish  troops  to  Rome  in  place  of  the 
French  was  thus  destroyed.  The  victorious  Liberals  did  not  contemplate  relieving 
the  emperor  of  France  from  the  burden  of  protecting  the  Pope. 

They  held  fast  to  the  monarchy,  nevertheless ;  and  as  all  attempts  to  obtain 
as  king  either  Duke  Thomas  of  Genoa,  the  nephew  of  the  king  of  Italy,  who  was 
still  a  minor,  or  the  clever  Ferdinand  of  Coburg-Gotha  (the  titular  king  of  Por- 
tugal, a  widower  since  1853),  were  abortive,  they  offered  the  throne  to  the  lat- 
ter's  son-in-law,  the  hereditary  prince  Leopold  of  HohenzoUern-Sigmaringen  (born 
1835),  who  was  a  Catholic,  happily  married,  the  father  of  sons,  an  upright  and 
energetic  man  in  the  prime  of  life.  A  preliminary  offer  was  made,  according  to 
Heinrich  von  Sybel,  in  April,  1869,  but  in  the  first  place  privately  by  a  letter  of 
Marshal  Prim  to  Karl  Anton,  the  father  of  the  hereditary  prince ;  but  the  latter 
hesitated  to  accept  so  hazardous  a  crown.  It  is  certain  that  the  Spaniard,  J. 
Allende  Salazar,  brought  an  offer,  with  the  greatest  secrecy,  in  September, 
1869,  to  the  castle  of  Weinburg  in  Switzerland,  where  the   HohenzoILerns  then 


330  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         \_Chapter  iv 

resided;    but  he  received  a   refusal,  since   the   undertaking   appeared   far   too 
rash. 

The  state  of  affairs  was  not  altered  until  Salazar  made  a  new  attempt,  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1870.     He  was  sent  with  letters  of  Prim's  to  the  prince,  the  hereditary- 
prince.  King  William,  and  Bismarck.     He  went  first  to  Berlin.     King  WilUam 
thought  the  offer  should  not  be  accepted ;  but  he  recognised  that,  according  to  the 
family  laws  applying  to  the  whole  house  of  Hohenzollern,  he  had,  as  head  of  the 
house,  no  right  of  prohibition  in  this  case.     Bismarck  behaved  diff"erently.     He 
did  not,  indeed,  promise  himself  any  direct  military  assistance  from  Spain  if  a 
Hohenzollern  wore  the  Spanish  crown,  but  closer  friendly  relations  between  the 
two  countries,  and,  as  a  result,  a  strengthening  of  the  position  of  Germany  by 
"one  if  not  two  army  corps,"  and  more  especially  improved  commercial  inter- 
course.    He  therefore  advised  the  hereditary  prince  "to  abandon  all  scruples  and 
to  accept  the  candidature  in  the  interests  of  Germany."     But  the  prince  could 
not  even  yet  make  up  his  mind.     It  was  only  natural  to  consider  the  effect  of 
such  a  candidature  on  France.     Eobert  von  Keudell,  one  of  Bismarck's  trusted 
followers,  expressly  states  that  Bismarck  did  not  foresee  any  danger  of  an  out- 
break of  war  on  this  ground,  since  Napoleon  would  sooner  see  the  Hohenzollern 
in  Madrid  than  Isabella's  brother-in-law,  Duke  Anton  of  Montpensier  of  the 
house  of  Orleans,  or  a  republic.     Napoleon  also,  who  had  been  informed  of  the 
matter  by  Karl  Anton  in  the  autumn  of  1869,  had  said  neither  "  yes  "  nor  "  no," 
and  therefore  seemed  to  raise  no  objection.     A  renewed  inquiry  in  Paris  itself 
was  impossible,  since  Prim  had  urgently  begged  for  secrecy  in  the  matter,  in  order 
that  it  might  not  be  at  once  frustrated  by  the  efforts  of  the  opposition.     And, 
again,  the  house  of  Sigmaringen  was  so  closely  connected  with  the  Bonapartes  by 
Karl  Anton's  mother,  a  Murat,  and  his  wife,  a  Beauharnais,  that  the  possibility 
was  not  excluded  that  Napoleon  III  would  actually  consent.     Bismarck  now 
secretly  sent  to  Spain  two  trusty  agents,  the  clever  Lothar  Bucher  and  Max  von 
Versen,  who  brought  back  satisfactory  news ;  but  all  this  was  done  in  a  personal 
and  private  way,  and  the  Prussian  government  was  not  implicated.     Finally,  in 
order  to  escape  from  the  candidature  of  the  Duke  of  Montpellier,  which  was  natu- 
rally unpalatable  to  the  Spanish  authorities,  Salazar  was  (mce  more  sent  to  Sig- 
maringen at  the  beginning  of  June,  1870,  and  this  time  received  the  consent  of 
Karl  Anton  and  of  Leopold.     A  great  moment  seemed  to  have  arrived  for  the 
house  of  Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen,  and  Leopold  felt  it  a  heavy  responsibility  to 
withdraw  from  a  people  "  which,  after  a  long  period  of  weakness,  was  making 
manly  efforts  to  raise  its  national  civilization  to  a  higher  plane ; "  that  is  to  say,  to 
free  itself  from  the  dominion  of  the  Ultramontanes.     The  candidature  of  Leopold 
was  thereupon  officially  proclaimed  in  Madrid  on  July  4,  and  the  Cortes  was 
summoned  for  the  20th  of  July  to  elect  a  king. 

(c)  The  Pretensions  of  Gramont  and  the  Telegram  from  Ems.  —  Throughout 
the  whole  affair  the  point  at  issue  was  a  matter  which  in  the  first  instance  was  a 
completely  private  concern  of  the  Spanish  nation.  The  Spaniards  could  clearly 
elect  any  person  they  wished  to  be  king,  and  if  they  looked  for  such  a  person  among 
the  scions  of  sovereign  or  formerly  sovereign  houses,  all  that  could  be  demanded 
was  that  the  elected  king  should  renounce  all  hereditary  right  to  another  throne, 
in  order  that  a  union  of  the  Spanish  with  another  monarchy,  and  the  consequent 


Otto  von  Bismarck  at  Foui;  Diffkiiext  Stages  ix  his  Career 


E,XPLANATION    OF   THE    FOLLOWING   POETEAITS   OF   BISMAECK 

1.  Otto  von  Bismarck-Schonhausen  as  Deichhaupimann  (Inspector  of  dykes)  and  Conservative 

Deputy  in  1850.     (Lithograph  from  a  picture  painted  from  life  by  M.  Berendt.) 

2.  Bismarck  as  Envoy  at  the  German  Diet  in  1858.      (After  an  oil  painting  by  Jacob  Becker 

at  Friedrichsruh.) 
5.    Prince  Bismarck  as  Chancellor  of  the  newly  united  German  Empire,  July  3,  1871.     (From 

a  photograph.) 
t.    Bismarck  in  his  seventieth  year.     (April  12,  1885;  from  a  photograph.) 


rSSTM       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  331 

danger  to  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  might  be  avoided  for  all  time  to  come. 
In  the  case  in  point  no  such  renunciation  was  necessary,  since  the  Swabian  line 
of  the  Hohenzollerns  possessed  no  hereditary  rights,  and  the  hereditary  prince 
Leopold  accordingly  could  not  be  called  a  Prussian  prince.  The  Prussian  govern- 
ment, therefore,  as  such  took  absolutely  no  share  in  the  question,  since  it  could 
claim  no  right  to  influence  the  decision  ;  the  king,  the  crown  prince,  and  Bismarck 
had  given  their  opinion  merely  as  private  individuals.  Nevertheless  the  official 
news  of  the  proposed  candidature  of  Leopold  fell  like  a  thunderbolt  on  Paris,  and 
Gramont  was  at  once  convinced  that  he  had  once  more  to  do  with  a  diabolical 
stratagem  of  Bismarck's  against  the  interests  and  honour  of  France.  Although 
the  French  representative  in  Madrid,  Baron  H.  Mercier  de  Lostende,  telegraphed 
that  Prim  declared  every  charge  against  Bismarck  to  be  groundless,  and  assever- 
ated that  the  candidature  was  the  exclusive  work  of  the  Spanish  nation,  Gramont 
allowed  a  question  to  be  asked  him  on  the  point  by  a  deputy,  L.  Cockery,  in  the 
legislative  body,  on  July  6.  He  explained  defiantly  that  France,  with  all  respect 
for  the  wishes  of  the  Spanish  nation,  would  not  allow  a  foreign  power  to  place 
one  of  its  princes  on  the  throne  of  Charles  V,  and  thus  disturb  the  equilibrium  of 
Europe ;  as  if,  indeed,  Spain,  which  had  so  long  sunk  to  a  second-rate  power,  was 
still  the  empire  which,  three  centuries  before,  held  the  leading  position  in  Europe, 
and  as  if  Leopold  would  be  proclaimed  king  simultaneously  in  Berlin  and  in 
Madrid !  The  impression  was  widespread  that  such  senseless  and  inconsiderate 
language  must  inevitably  lead  to  war. 

The  further  procedure  of  Gramont  confirmed  this  fear.  He  ordered  Count 
Benedetti  (born  1817 ;  cf.  p.  302),  who  was  taking  the  cure  in  Wildbad,  to  put  the 
request  before  King  William  in  Ems  that,  since  he  had  allowed  Leopold's  candi- 
dature and  thus  mortified  France,  he  would  now  impress  upon  the  prince  the  duty 
of  withdrawing  his  assent.  But  the  king  obviously  could  not  be  persuaded  to  do 
that;  what, according  to  the  family  laws,  he  could  not  have  sanctioned, he  was  also 
unable  to  forbid,  especially  after  Gramont's  behaviour  on  July  6.  He  sent,  how- 
ever, an  intimation  to  Sigmaringen  that  he  would  personally  have  no  objection  to 
any  renunciation  which  the  prince  might  choose  to  make.  Faced  by  the  danger 
of  plunging  Germany  and  Spain  into  war  if  he  persevered  in  his  candidature, 
Leopold  actually  withdrew  from  his  candidature  on  July  12.  King  William  sent 
the  telegram  of  the  "  Kolnische  Zeitung,"  which  contained  this  news,  by  the  hand 
of  his  adjutant  Prince  Anton  Eadziwill,  to  the  French  ambassador  on  the  prome- 
nade at  Ems  on  the  morning  of  July  13.  The  king  considered  the  incident  closed, 
and  that  was  the  view  of  the  whole  world,  as  it  was  the  wish  of  Napoleon  and 
Ollivier.  Gramont  thought  differently  ;  he  insisted  that  the  king  must  be  brought 
into  the  affair,  and  therefore  pledge  himself  never  to  grant  his  approval,  should 
the  candidature  be  renewed.  Benedetti  received  telegraphic  orders  from  his 
superior  to  tell  the  king  this  on  that  very  morning  of  the  13th  July.  He  did 
so,  and  met  with  a  refusal,  but  repeated  it  and  "  at  last  very  pressingly,"  as  the 
king  telegraphed  to  Bismarck  at  Berlin ;  so  that  the  king  finally,  in  order  to  get 
rid  of  him,  sent  him  a  message  by  his  aide-de-camp  to  the  effect  that  he  had  no 
further  communications  to  make  to  him.  The  king,  in  a  telegram  worded  by 
Heinr.  Abeken,  the  Privy  Councillor  of  Legation,  left  it  to  Bismarck's  discretion 
whether  he  would  or  would  not  communicate  at  once  this  new  demand  of 
Benedetti's  and  its  rejection  to  the  North  German  ambassadors  among  foreign 


332  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD         {Chapter  iv 

powers  and  to  the  press.    But  he  distinctly  did  not  command  this  communication 
to  be  made. 

Bismarck,  who  had  returned  from  Varzin  in  deep  distress  at  the  king's  long- 
suffering  patience  toward  the  French,  conferred  with  Eoon  and  Moltke  in  Berlin 
and  was  resolved  to  remain  minister  no  longer  unless  some  satisfaction  was 
obtained  for  the  audacious  behaviour  of  the  French ;  and  he  deserves  all  credit 
for  having  never  flinched  for  a  moment.  To  force  a  war,  which  he  regarded  as  a 
terrible  calamity,  if  Keudell  may  be  believed,  and  as  likely  to  be  the  first  in  a 
long  series  of  racial  conflicts,  was  a  policy  which  Bismarck  would  never  have 
adopted  merely  for  the  sake  of  hastening  that  union  between  North  and  South 
which  was  certain  to  come  sooner  or  later.  But  now,  when  the  war  was  forced 
upon  him,  when  it  could  not  be  avoided  without  the  "cankering  sore"  of  a  deep 
humiliation  to  a  people  just  struggling  into  national  life,  he  knew  no  scruples, 
and  no  hesitation.  At  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  on  July  13,  the  celebrated  telegram 
from  Ems  was  sent  to  the  editor  of  the  semi-official  "  Norddeutsche  Allegemeine 
Zeitung  "  and  to  the  embassies.  The  message  reproduced  verbatim  the  telegram, 
composed  by  Abeken,  which  the  king  sent  from  Ems,  with  the  omission  of  any 
irrelevant  matter  and  ran  as  follows :  "After  the  news  of  the  resignation  of  Prince 
HohenzoUern  had  been  officially  communicated  to  the  imperial  French  Govern- 
ment by  the  royal  Spanish  Government,  the  French  ambassador  in  Ems  further 
requested  His  Majesty  the  king  to  authorise  him  to  telegraph  to  Paris  that  His 
Majesty  pledged  himself  for  the  future  never  to  give  his  assent,  if  the  Hoheu-  - 
zoUerns  should  renew  their  candidature.  His  Majesty  thereupon  declined  to 
grant  another  audience  to  the  French  ambassador,  and  informed  the  latter  through 
his  aide-de-camp  that  His  Majesty  had  no  further  communication  to  make  to  the 
ambassador. " 

This  telegram,  which  was  known  throughout  Germany  on  the  14th  of  July, 
evoked  on  all  sides  the  deepest  satisfaction  that  a  clear  and  well-merited  rebuff 
had  been  given  to  French  presumption ;  and  this  satisfaction  was  increased  when 
it  was  learnt  that  Gramont  had  made  a  further  demand  of  the  ambassador  Baron 
Karl  von  Werther  in  Paris,  namely,  that  the  king  of  Prussia  should  write  a  letter 
to  the  emperor  Napoleon,  in  which  he  should  declare  thatiitie  had  no  intention 
of  insulting  France  when  he  agreed  to  the  candidature  of  Leopold.  The  telegram 
from  Ems  in  no  way  compelled  the  war;  that  was  rather  done  by  the  French 
arrogance  toward  Germany ;  it  was  as  Strauss  wrote  to  Kenan :  "  We  are  fighting 
again  with  Louis  XIV."  Any  insult  to  France  in  the  person  of  its  representative 
in  Ems  was  carefully  avoided ;  Benedetti  himself  testified  "  there  was  neither  an 
insulting  nor  insulted  party  there,"  —  or  if  there  was  one,  then  Hans  Delbriick 
is  right  when  he  says  :  "  The  insulting  party  was  the  French  nation,  the  insulted 
the  German."  ^  Every  one  read  from  the  telegram  this  truth  and  the  repulse  of 
French  insolence.  Since  the  message  left  out  all  the  diplomatic  considerations, 
which  neither  the  king  nor  Benedetti  had  omitted,  and  merely  presented  the 
kernel  of  the  matter,  Abeken's  despatch  became  Bismarck's,  or,  as  Moltke  said, 
"out  of  the  chamade  came  the  fanfare,"  and  out  of  the  judicial  report  came 
the  trumpet-call  which  summoned  Germany  to  the  breach. 


1  According  to  Seignobos,  V Europe  Contemporaine,  II,  p.  810  (Eng.  tr.),  the  real  grievance  of  France 
may  have  been  a  personal  insult  offered  by  King  William  to  Napoleon  III.  —  Ed. 


IrSfS-ifc-2]       HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  333 

(d)  The  Decision  to  Mobilise,  and  the  French  Declaration  of  War.  —  The 
acerbity  of  King  William's  refusal  to  pledge  himself  permanently  was  fully  felt 
in  Paris ;  but  the  fact  could  not  be  disguised  that,  in  view  of  the  withdrawal  of  a 
candidature  described  by  France  as  unendurable,  no  one  in  Europe  would  approve 
of  the  conduct  of  the  imperial  government  if  it  declared  itself  dissatisfied.  The 
majority,  therefore,  of  the  ministers  rejected  Gramont's  demand  that  the  reserves 
should  be  called  out ;  it  was  left  to  Gramont  to  put  up  with  this  reprimand  for 
his  of&cious  procedure  or  to  resign.  This  was  in  the  morning  of  July  14.  The 
emperor  himself  also  was  for  peace,  since  he  knew  the  military  strength  of 
the  Germans  and  considered  the  pretext  for  the  war  inappropriate.  Even  the 
Empress  Eugenie  seems  to  have  been  unjustly  accused  of  having  urged  on  the 
war  from  hatred  of  heretical  Germany  and  from  anxiety  as  to  her  son's  prospects. 
If,  however,  the  feeling  in  the  Cabinet  Council  veered  round  in  the  course  of  the 
14th  of  July,  and  late  at  night  the  resolution  to  mobilise  was  taken,  the  English 
ambassador.  Lord  Lyons,  aptly  suggested  the  reason  in  the  following  words :  "  The 
agitation  in  the  army  and  in  tlie  nation  was  so  strong  that  no  government  which 
advocated  peace  could  remain  in  office."  The  emperor,  his  heart  full  of  evil  fore- 
bodings, yielded  to  this  tide  of  public  opinion ;  Ollivier  and  the  entire  ministry 
could  not  resist  it.  On  the  plea  of  a  freshly  arrived  telegram,  which  in  spite  of 
the  wishes  of  the  opposition  was  not  produced  (it  cannot  have  been  the  telegram 
from  Ems,  which  was  already  known),  a  motion  was  brought  forward  on  July  15 
in  the  legislative  body  for  the  calling  out  of  the  Garde. Mobile  and  for  the  grant 
of  sixty-six  millions  for  the  army  and  the  fleet ;  after  a  stormy  discussion  it  was 
carried  by  two  hundred  and  forty-five  votes  against  ten  votes  of  the  extreme  Left. 
The  French  nation  had  forced  its  government  into  war ;  its  representatives  almost 
unanimously  approved. 

The  of&cial  declaration  of  war  against  Prussia  by  Napoleon  was  announced 
in  Berlin  by  the  charge  d'affaires,  Georges  Le  Sourd,  on  July  19.  The  situation  had 
developed  with  such  rapidity  through  Gramont's  impetuosity  and  Benedetti's 
mission  to  Ems  that  this  declaration  of  war  is  the  only  olficial  document  which 
came  to  the  Prussian  government  from  Paris.  To  judge  by  the  official  records  the 
war  seems  to  have  commenced  like  a  pistol-shot,  whereas  in  reality  it  was  due  to 
causes  stretching  back  over  past  centuries.  The  relations  of  the  German  and  the 
French  nations,  which  had  been  speedily  changing  since  1552  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  266) 
to  the  disadvantage  of  the  former,  were  destined  to  be  definitely  readjusted  by  the 
war,  and  the  absolute  independence  of  Germany  from  the  "  preponderance  "  of 
France  was  to  be  once  for  all  established. 

(e)  The  Effect  of  the  Declaration  of  War  on  Germany.  —  The  whole  of  Germany 
felt  at  once  that  this  was  so.  The  declaration  of  war  was  like  the  stroke  of  a 
magician's  wand  in  its  effect  upon  the  internal  feuds  and  racial  animosities  by 
which  the  German  nation  had  been  hitherto  divided.  They  vanished,  and,  with 
them,  the  mistaken  hope  of  France  that  now,  as  on  so  many  former  occasions, 
Germany  might  be  defeated  with  the  help  of  Germans.  The  spokesmen  of  the 
anti-Prussian  party  in  the  South  remained  as  perverse  and  obstinate  as  ever ;  but 
they  no  longer  had  behind  them  the  masses,  who,  at  the  moment  when  the  national 
honour  and  security  seemed  menaced,  obeyed  the  call  of  patriotism  with  a  gTati- 
fying  determination,  and  felt  that,  not  merely  by  virtue  of  the  treaties  to  which 


334  HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD         [Chapter  iv 

they  had  sworn,  but  also  by  virtue  of  unwritten  right,  the  cause  of  Germany  was 
to  be  found  in  the  camp  of  Prussia  (p.  191).  When  the  king  travelled  on  July 
15  from  Ems  via  Coblenz  to  Berlin,  his  journey  became  a  triumphal  progress 
through  Germany.  Being  informed,  at  the  Berlin  railway  station  of  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  French  Chambers,  he  decided  to  mobilise  the  whole  Northern  army, 
and  not  merely  some  army  corps,  as  he  had  originally  intended.  He  fixed  the 
16th  of  July  as  the  first  day  for  all  preparations  to  be  completed.  That  same 
day  King  Lewis  II  of  Bavaria,  since  the  casus  foederis  had  occurred  and  Bavaria 
by  the  treaty  had  to  furnish  help,  ordered  the  Bavarian  army  to  be  put  on  a  war 
footing.  On  July  17  the  same  order  was  given  by  King  Charles  I  of  Wtirtem- 
berg,  who  had  hastened  back  from  St.  Moritz  to  Stuttgart. 

The  North  German  Eeichstag  assembled  on  July  19.  It  was  greeted  with  a 
speech  from  the  throne,  which  in  its  dignified  strength  and  simplicity  is  a  model 
of  patriotic  eloquence  such  as  could  only  fiow  from  the  classic  pen  of  Bismarck. 
"  If  Germany  silently  endured  in  past  centuries  the  violation  of  her  rights  and 
her  honour,  she  only  endured  it  because  in  her  distraction  she  did  not  know  her 
strength.  .  .  .  To-day,  when  her  armour  shows  no  flaw  to  the  enemy,  she  possesses 
the  will  and  the  power  to  resist  the  renewed  violence  of  the  French.  .  .  .  God 
will  be  with  us  as  with  our  fathers."  The  Eeichstag  unanimously,  except  for  the 
two  Social  Democrats,  granted  one  hundred  and  twenty  million  thalers  for  the 
conduct  of  the  war ;  the  South  German  Landtags  did  the  same.  The  enthusiasm 
and  self-devotion  with  which  the  German  nation,  excepting  naturally  the  Guelf 
legion  (p.  308)  and  the  great  financial  houses,  which  even  at  this  epoch-making 
moment  thought  only  of  themselves,  rose  up  in  every  district  to  fight  for  honour, 
freedom,  and  unity,  was,  in  one  respect,  more  remarkable  than  that  which  the  great 
days  of  1813  had  brought  to  light ;  for  the  first  time  in  German  history  Germany 
arose  as  a  united  whole. 

(/)  The  Attitude  of  the  other  Nations.  —  While  the  armies  were  collecting,  Bis- 
marck published  in  the  "  Times  "  the  offer,  which  France  had  made  him  through 
Benedetti  in  August,  1866,  proposing  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  between 
Prussia  and  France;  by  it  Luxemburg  and  Belgium  were  to  be  assigned  to  France, 
which  in  return  would  allow  Prussia  a  free  hand  in  Gernmny.  The  English  ex- 
minister  Lord  Malmesbury  called  this  scheme  a  "  detestable  document,"  because 
it,  in  spite  of  Benedetti's  embarrassed  attempts  at  denial,  furnished  a  proof  that 
the  French  government  had  been  prepared  to  annihilate  its  neighbours,  who  were 
only  protected  by  the  law  of  nations,  without  any  just  claim.  It  was  solely  due 
to  Prussia's  sense  of  justice  and  astuteness  that  Napoleon's  purpose  was  not  siic- 
cessfully  accomplished.  Such  revelations  contributed  their  share  to  the  result 
that  no  arm  was  raised  in  Europe  for  France.  England  at  once  declared  her 
neutrality,  and  English  merchants  derived  large  profits  from  the  war  by  supply- 
ing coal  and  munitions  of  war  to  the  French.  Russia  was  favourably  disposed  to 
Prussia  ;  it  feared  that  an  insurrection  of  the  Poles  might  break  out  on  any  advance 
of  the  French  to  Berlin,  and  hoped  to  obtain  during  the  war  an  opportunity  to 
cancel  the  treaty  of  Paris  of  1856.  In  Italy  King  Victor  Emmanuel  was  indeed 
personally  inclined  to  support  the  French,  on  whose  side  he  had  fought  in  1855 
and  1859  ;  but  his  ministers  were  opposed  to  a  war,  which  was  waged  against  the 
growing  unity  of  Germany.    Any  hindrance  to  this  growth  must  signify  a  defeat 


rSSXsos]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  335 

of  the  principle  of  nationality,  and  thus  become  dangerous  to  the  unity  of  Italy. 
The  lowest  price  at  which  Italy  could  be  won  was  in  any  case  the  surrender  of 
Kome ;  but  Napoleon  III  stood  in  awe  of  the  clerical  party,  and  could  not  make 
up  his  mind  to  a  step  which  would  incense  them. 

The  policy  of  Austria  was  at  least  transparent.  Hitherto,  as  it  appears,  she 
had  not  pledged  herself  to  anything.  Beust  sent  on  July  11a  harsh  remonstrance 
to  Paris,  that  the  nation  had  plunged  headlong  into  a  difficult  undertaking,  in 
which  Austria  could  promise  nothing  except  to  look  on  as  a  well-wishing  spec- 
tator. But  on  the  20th  of  July,  although  a  Kronrat  on  July  18  had  resolved 
on  neutrality,  and  had  sanctioned  for  its  maintenance  war  preparations  at  a  cost 
of  twenty  million  gulden,  Beust  composed  a  second  letter  to  the  ambassador,  Prince 
Metternich,  which  explained  every  misunderstanding  that  might  have  arisen  from 
the  unexpectedness  of  this  war,  and  in  which  Austria  promised  to  regard  the  cause 
of  Prance  as  her  own,  and  to  contribute  to  the  success  of  the  French  arms  within 
all  possible  limits.  Austria  intended  to  complete  her  preparations  under  the 
cloak  of  neutrality,  without  exposing  herself  to  a  premature  attack  from  the  side 
of  Eussia.  On  the  completion  of  these  preparations,  Austria  and  Italy  were  jointly 
to  offer  unacceptable  terms  to  Prussia,  and  then  war  might  be  openly  waged  by 
all  three  powers.  How  this  crafty  document  can  be  reconciled  with  the  previous 
attitude  of  Austria  and  the  note  of  July  11  is  a  riddle,  the  solution  of  which  must 
await  further  explanations  from  the  secret  history  of  those  days.  '  But  since  Italy's 
accession  was  not  bought  by  Napoleon,  the  plan  of  the  Triple  Alliance  at  the 
decisive  hour  was  still  unrealised.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  French  army  was 
crushed  by  the  Germans  soon  stifled  any  wish  to  take  part  in  the  war,  which  had 
been  felt  at  Vienna. 

{g)  The  Vote  of  the  Vatican  Council  on  the  Infallihility  of  the  Pope.  ■ —  On  the 
eve  of  the  declaration  of  war,  on  July  18,  an  event  involving  grave  issues  occurred 
at  Eome.  The  Vatican  Council,  assembled  since  December  8, 1869,  was  oppressed 
from  the  outset  by  the  sense  of  an  inevitable  destiny.  The  opposition  reckoned 
some  150  bishops  and  abbots,  and  among  them  many  of  the  first  names  of  Cath- 
olic Christendom;  for  example,  the  Frenchmen  Georges  Darboy  and  Fel.  Ant. 
Dupanloup,  the  Austrians  Friedr.  Col.  Prince  Schwarzenberg,  Kauscher  (p.  320), 
and  Jos.  Georg.  Strossmayer,  and  Karl  Jos.  von  Hefele  of  Wiirtemberg.  But  it 
was  outvoted  in  the  ratio  of  three  to  one  by  the  supporters  of  infallibility,  and  was 
itself  divided,  since  one  part  alone  was  opposed  to  the  dogma  itself,  the  other 
part  only  did  not  wish  to  see  it  proclaimed  just  then.  Besides  this  the  papal  pleni- 
potentiaries conducted  the  proceedings  in  such  a  way  as  to  preclude  any  notion  of 
freedom  in  the  expression  of  opinions  or  in  voting.  After  a  trial  vote  of  July  13 
had  shown  the  result  that  451  ayes  and  88  noes  were  recorded,  and  a  deputation 
of  the  opposition  to  the  Pope  had  produced  no  effect,  most  of  the  opposition  left 
Eome,  since  they  did  not  wish  to  defy  the  Pope  to  his  face.  Thus  on  July  18, 1870 
(cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  348),  amid  the  crashes  of  a  terrible  storm  which  shrouded  the 
council  hall  in  darkness,  the  dogma  was  accepted,  by  533  votes  against  2,  that  the 
Pope  of  Eome,  when  he  speaks  ex  cathedra  to  settle  some  point  of  faith  and  morals, 
is  infallible)  and  that  such  decisions  are  in  themselves  unalterable  even  by  the 
common  consent  of  the  Church. 


336  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

K.  The  "War  of  Geemany  against  the  Feench  Empiee 

(a)  The,  MoMlisation  ;  iJu  Advance  ;  Moltke's  Plan  of  Campaign.  —  It  was  to  be 
expected,  from  the  rapidity  with  which  France  had  brought  on  the  outbreak  of  the 
war,  that  she  would  have  the  start  of  the  Germans  in  its  preparations,  and  would 
bring  the  war  as  soon  as  possible  into  Germany.  Leboeuf,  the  Minister  of  War, 
certainly  used  the  phrase  "  we  are  absolutely  ready  to  the  last  gaiter-button,"  and 
possibly  the  emperor  hoped  to  break  the  spirit  of  Prussia  by  rapid  blows,  and  then 
to  incorporate  Belgium.  But  it  was  soon  shown  that  France  was  not  ready. 
"  There  was  a  deficiency,"  so  the  French  historian  Arthur  Chuquet  says, "  in  money, 
in  food,  in  camp-kettles,  cooking  utensils,  tents,  harness,  medicine,  stretchers,  every- 
thing, in  short ; "  the  existing  railways  were  inadequate  to  convey  to  the  frontiers 
the  300,000  men  whom  France  had  at  her  disposal  for  the  war,  so  that  half  of 
them  were  obliged  to  march  on  foot.  The  regiments  were  not  constructed  according 
to  definite  and  compact  geographical  districts :  Alsatians  had  to  travel  to  Bayonne 
in  order  to  join  the  ranks  of  their  regiments,  and  southerners  to  Brittany.  The 
result,  under  the  stress  of  circumstances,  was  an  irremediable  confusion  and  an 
unusual  delay  in  the  advance.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mobilisation  proceeded 
quickly  and  easily  among  the  Germans,  where  everything  had  been  prepared  as 
far  as  could  be  beforehand,  and  every  day  was  assigned  its  proper  task.  Moltke 
made  the  suggestive  remark  that  the  fourteen  days  of  the  mobilisation,  during 
which  there  was  nothing  to  carry  out  that  had  not  been  long  foreseen,  were  some 
of  the  most  tranquil  days  of  his  life. 

The  French,  according  to  the  original  and  proper  intention,  formed  one  single 
army,  the  army  of  the  Ehine,  whose  commander-in-chief  was  to  be  the  emperor, 
with  Leboeuf  as  chief  of  the  General  Staff;  but  when  it  came  to  the  point,  this  army 
was  divided  into  two  forces,  one  of  200,000  men  uuder  Marshal  Bazaine  in  Metz, 
and  one  of  100,000  men  under  Marshal  MacMahon  in  Strassburg.  The  German 
troops  were  divided  into  three  armies  (see  the  sketch  on  the  map  at  p.  340).  The 
first  was  posted  under  General  Steinmetz  northeast  of  Trier,  round  Wittlich,  and 
was  made  up  of  the  7th  and  the  8th  corps,  from  the  Ehine  districts  and  West- 
phaUa ;  it  numbered  some  60,000  men.  Next  to  it  came  the  second  army,  under 
Prince  Frederick  Charles,  which  consisted  of  the  3d,  4th,  and  10th  corps,  that  is 
to  say,  of  Brandenburgers,  Saxons  from  the  province,  and  Hanoverians,  and  of  the 
Guards ;  it  took  up  its  position  round  Neunkirchen  and  Homburg,  and  was  134,000 
men  strong.  Finally,  the  third  army  (130,000  men)  was  placed  under  the  com- 
mand of  the  Crown  Prince  Frederick  "William;  to  it  belonged  the  5th  and  11th 
corps,  from  Posen,  Hesse,  and  Thuringia,  as  well  as  the  Bavarians,  "Wiirtembergers, 
and  Badeners ;  they  were  stationed  at  Eastatt  and  Landau.  The  Crown  Prince, 
before  going  to  the  front,  visited  the  South  German  courts  and  quickly  won  the 
hearts  of  his  soldiers  by  his  chivalrous  and  kindly  nature.  Strong  reserves  stood 
behind  the  three  armies,  namely,  the  9th  and  12th  corps  (the  Schleswig-Holsteiners 
and  the  Saxons  from  the  kingdom)  at  Mainz,  and  the  1st,  2d,  and  6th  corps,  the 
East  Prussians,  Pomeranians,  and  Silesians,  who  on  account  of  the  railway  condi- 
tions could  not  be  sent  to  the  front  until  the  twentieth  day,  and  were  also  intended 
to  be  kept  in  readiness  for  all  emergencies  against  Austria.  The  sea-coast  was  to 
be  guarded  against  the  expected  attacks  of  the  French  fleet  by  the  17th  division 
(Magdeburg  and  the  Hanse  towns)  and  by  the  Landwehr. 


rCSriy      HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  337 

Moltke  (p.  277),  as  chief  of  the  Prussian  General  Staff,  disclaimed  all  idea  of  a 
minutely  elaborated  plan,  since  the  execution  of  such  a  plan  cannot  be  guaranteed ; 
for  every  battle  creates  a  new  situation,  which  must  be  treated  and  regarded  by 
itself.  Moltke  therefore  laid  down  three  points  only  as  of  paramount  importance. 
First,  when  the  enemy  is  met,  he  must  be  attacked  with  full  strength ;  secondly, 
the  goal  of  all  efforts  is  the  enemy's  capital,  the  possession  of  which,  owing  to  the 
strict  centralisation  of  French  government,  is  of  paramount  importance  in  a  war 
against  France ;  thirdly,  the  enemy's  forces  are,  if  possible,  to  be  driven,  not  toward 
the  rich  south  of  France,  but  toward  the  north,  which  is  poorer  in  resources  and 
bounded  by  the  sea. 

(h)  The  Skirmishes  and  Battles  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Month  of  August. —  Since 
no  blow  was  intended  to  be  struck  before  the  advance  of  the  entire  army  was  com- 
pleted and  the  full  weight  of  a  combined  attack  was  assured,  the  French  had  for  a 
few  days  apparently  a  free  hand,  and  with  three  army  corps  drove  back  out  of 
Saarbriicken  on  August  2  the  three  battalions  of  Lieut.-Colonel  Eduard  von  Pestel. 
During  the  operations  the  emperor  took  his  son,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  under  fire ; 
according  to  the  official  telegram  "  some  soldiers  shed  tears  of  joy  when  they  saw 
the  prince  so  calm."  But  the  satisfaction  was  soon  turned  into  chagrin,  when 
the  third  army,  in  order  to  cover  the  left  flank  of  the  second  army,  which  was 
advancing  towards  the  Saar,  marched  closer  to  it,  and  on  August  4th  attacked  the 
French  division  of  General  Abel  Douay,  which  occupied  the  town  of  Weissenburg, 
and  the  Gaisberg  lying  south  of  it,  and  utterly  defeated  it.  Among  the  prisoners 
were  a  number  of  Turcos  or  Arab  soldiers  from  Algiers,  whom  Napoleon,  though 
they  could  not  be  reckoned  as  civilized  soldiers,  had  no  scruples  in  employing  in 
the  war  against  the  Germans ;  but  they  could  not  resist  the  impetuous  valour  of 
the  Bavarians  and  Poseners. 

The  cheers  at  this  first  victory  had  hardly  died  away  when  new  and  glorious 
tidings  resounded.  On  the  6th  of  August  the  third  army  on  its  advance  into 
Alsace  encountered  the  army  of  Marshal  MacMahon,  which  occupied  a  strong 
position  near  the  small  town  of  Worth  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Sauerbach,  a  tribu- 
tary of  the  Ehine.  The  Bavarians  attacked  on  the  right,  the  Prussians  on  the  left, 
and  in  the  last  period  of  the  protracted  and  bloody  battle  the  Wiirtembergers  had 
also  the  chance  of  interfering  with  success.  The  end  was  that  the  French,  whose 
numerical  inferiority  was  counterbalanced  by  their  formidable  positions  on  heights 
and  vineyards,  were  completely  defeated,  and  with  a  loss  of  16,000  men  and  33  can- 
nons they  poured  into  the  passes  of  the  Vosges  in  headlong  flight.  "After  they 
had  fought  like  lions,"  says  Arthur  Chuquet, "  they  fled  like  hares."  The  Germans 
paid  for  the  brilliant  victory,  which  gave  to  them  Lower  Alsace  with  the  exception 
of  Strassburg,  by  a  loss  of  10,000  men,  among  whom  were  nearly  500  officers. 

On  the  same  day  the  disgrace  of  Saarbriicken  was  wiped  out.  The  7th 
corps  under  General  Heinr.  von  Zastrow,  supported  by  the  8th  and  3d,  took  the 
apparently  impregnable  heights  of  Spicheren  near  Saarbriicken,  although  only 
twenty-seven  German  battalions  were  on  the  spot  against  thirty-nine  of  the 
French.  General  Charles  Aug.  Frossard,  since  he  did  not  wish  to  be  cut  off  from 
Metz,  saw  himself  compelled  to  make  a  hasty  retreat,  which  abandoned  eastern 
Lorraine  to  the  Germans.  This  victory,  on  account  of  the  unqualified  tactical 
superiority  which  the   French  had  over   the  Germans,  surpassed  even  that  of 

VOL.  vm  — 22 


338  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  iv 

Worth ;  it  was  wou,  because  the  German  troops  did  not  shirk  the  most  difficult 
task,  and  because  they  hastened  to  help  each  other  wherever  the  thunder  of  can- 
nons announced  that  brothers  were  standing  in  the  fight.  "  My  motto  is,  a  cow- 
ard he  who  does  not  help  where  help  he  can,"  thus  August  Karl  von  Goeben,  the 
general  then  commanding  the  6th  corps,  wrote  home ;  and  every  German  corps 
acted  throughout  the  war  according  to  this  principle  of  true  comradeship  in  arms. 
The  news  from  the  scene  of  war  produced  in  Paris,  where  for  weeks  the  inhab- 
itants had  deluded  themselves  with  infatuated  hopes  of  victory,  and  had  shouted 
themselves  hoarse  with  the  cry  "  k  Berlin  !  "  a  terrible  disillusionment,  and  then 
intense  bitterness  against  the  government,  on  whose  shoulders  all  the  blame  for  the 
defeats  was  laid,  since  that  was  the  most  convenient  thing  to  do.  The  Ollivier 
ministry  was  overthrown  by  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence  in  the  Chambers,  which 
declared  it  incapable  to  organise  the  defence  of  the  country ;  but  the  Republicans 
did  not  succeed  in  their  intention  to  place  an  executive  committee  of  the  Chambers 
at  the  head  of  the  country,  and  so  to  supersede  the  empire  offhand.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  empress  transferred  the  premiership  to  General  Palikao  (cf.  Vol.  II, 
p.  109),  who  took  the  Ministry  of  War  from  Leboeuf  and  gave  him  the  command 
of  a  corps. 

(c)  The  Battles  before  Metz.  —  The  emperor  wished  at  first  to  retire  with  his 
whole  army  to  the  camp  of  Chalons-sur-Marne,  where  MacMahon  was  collecting 
the  fragments  of  his  army  and  gathering  fresh  troops  round  him.  But  since  the 
abandonment  of  the  whole  of  eastern  France  to  its  fate  would  have  been  a  politi- 
cal mistake.  Napoleon  remained  for  the  moment  stationary  in  Metz,  against  which 
the  first  and  second  armies  now  were  put  into  movement,  while  the  third  advanced 
through  the  Vosges  toward  Chalons.  Since  this  latter  had  the  longer  way  to 
march,  the  king  issued  orders  that  the  two  other  armies  should  advance  more 
slowly,  in  order  that  the  combined  German  forces  might  compose  an  unbroken 
and  continuous  mass  with  a  front  of  equal  depth,  and  that  the  enemy  might  not 
find  any  opportunity  to  throw  himself  in  overwhelming  numbers  on  any  one 
part.  On  the  14th  of  August  the  advance  guard  of  the  first  army  under  Karl 
Friedr.  von  der  Goltz  had  almost  reached  the  gates  of  Me^  when  they  found  the 
French  main  army  preparing  to  retreat.  In  order  to  check  them  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Moselle  and  to  bring  on  a  pitched  battle  at  Metz,  Goltz,  in  spite  of  his 
inferior  numbers,  attacked  the  enemy.  The  French,  eager  at  last  to  chastise  the 
bold  assailant,  immediately  wheeled  round;  but  just  as  at  Spicheren  the  nearest 
German  regiments,  so  soon  as  they  heard  the  thunder  of  the  cannons,  hurried  to 
the  assistance  of  Goltz,  freed  him  from  great  danger,  and  drove  the  French  back 
under  the  fort  of  St.  Julien,  which  with  its  heavy  guns  took  part  at  nightfall  in 
the  fierce  engagement.  Thus  the  retreat  of  the  French  was  delayed  by  one  day, 
and  in  the  meantime  the  main  body  of  the  Germans  had  reached  the  Moselle. 
Napoleon,  yielding  to  public  opinion,  now  resigned  the  supreme  command  to 
Marshal  Bazaine,  in  whom  the  army  and  navy  reposed  unfounded  confidence,  left 
Metz  with  precipitate  haste  on  August  14,  and  entered  Chalons  with  MacMahon  on 
the  17th. 

The  main  army  itself  did  not  leave  Metz  until  August  15,  and  then  only 
advanced  five  miles  in  a  whole  day,  since  the  baggage  train  blocked  all  the  roads. 
Meantime  the  3d  army  corps,  that  of  the  Brandenburgers,  under  Constantin  von 


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I^'^rfrsXim']      HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD        .  339 

Alvensleben,  had  reached  the  road  which  leads  from  Metz  past  Vionville  and 
Mars-la-Tour  to  Verdun  and  the  valley  of  the  Meuse,  and  the  general  determined 
at  all  hazards  to  block  the  further  march  of  the  enemy  in  that  direction,  although 
he  was  well  aware  that  he  would  have  four  French  corps  opposed  to  him, 
and  for  a  considerable  time  could  count  on  no  support  being  brought  him.  A 
desperate  struggle  began  (August  16) ;  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  Alvens- 
leben had  not  a  single  infantry  battalion  or  any  artillery  in  reserve ;  when, 
then,  Marshal  Canrobert,  with  sound  judgment,  pressed  on  in  order  to  break  up 
the  exhausted  German  line,  the  12th  cavalry  brigade,  comprising  the  Magde- 
burg cuirassiers  and  the  Altmark  uhlans  under  General  Adalbert  von  Bredow 
(I  March  3,  1890),  was  compelled  to  attack  the  enemy,  notwithstanding  all  the 
difficulties  of  a  cavalry  attack  on  infantry  armed  with  chassepots.  The  brave 
horsemen,  charging  fearlessly,  broke  through  two  divisions  of  French  infantry,  and 
put  the  artillery  stationed  behind  them  to  flight,  but  were  then  attacked  by  two 
French  cavalry  divisions,  who  outnumbered  them  by  four  to  one.  The  Germans 
retreated,  again  dispersed  the  French  infantry,  which,  having  once  more  rallied, 
barred  their  road,  and  retired  to  their  former  position  at  Flavigny,  Out  of  800 
men  in  this  "  Eide  of  Blood  and  Death,"  which  Ferd.  Freiligrath  has  sung  in 
stirring  verse,  400  fell  or  were  taken  prisoners  ;  but  their  heroism  was  not  in  vain. 
"  This  heroic  ride  into  the  jaws  of  death,"  says  Arthur  Chuquet,  "  saved  the  3d 
corps.  Canrobert  did  not  move  again  that  whole  day ;  he  might  have  broken 
through,  but  from  the  furious  onslaught  of  Bredow's  six  squadrons  he  feared  to 
fall  into  a  trap  and  kept  quiet."  But  since  gradually  the  10th  corps  from  the 
left  and  the  8th  corps  from  the  right  came  to  Alvensleben's  support,  the  danger 
passed ;  the  Germans,  who  on  this  day  faced  120,000  French  at  first  with  29,000 
and  later  with  65,000  men,  were  in  possession  of  the  field  of  battle. 

Of  the  roads  by  which  Bazaine  could  teach  Verdun  from  Metz,  the  southern 
was  blocked  against  him ;  he  could  only  effect  his  retreat  now  on  the  northern  road, 
by  Saint-Privat.  And  that  possibility  was  then  taken  from  him,  since  on  the 
18th  of  August  the  two  German  armies,  both  of  which  meantime  had  crossed  the 
Moselle  above  Metz,  advanced  to  the  attack  on  the  entire  front  from  Sainte-Marie- 
aux-Chgnes  and  Saint-Privat  to  Gravelotte.  In  the  course  of  the  operations  the 
Saxons  under  the  Crown  Prince  Albert,  and  the  Guards  under  Prince  Augustus 
of  Wurtemberg,  stormed  the  fortress-like  position  of  Saint-Privat  with  terrific  car- 
nage ;  on  the  right  wing  at  Gravelotte  no  success  was  attained.  But  the  main 
point  had  been  achieved.  The  great  French  army  had  been  hurled  back  on  Metz, 
and  was  immediately  surrounded  there  by  the  Germans  in  a  wide  circle.  The 
indecision  of  the  French  commander-in-chief  was  much  to  blame  for  this  momen- 
tous issue  to  the  prolonged  struggle,  in  which  some  180,000  men  on  either  side 
ultimately  took  part.  From  fear  of  being  finally  cut  off  from  Metz  itself  and  sur- 
rounded in  the  open  field,  Bazaine  kept  a  third  of  his  forces  in  reserve  ;  if  he  had 
staked  these,  he  might,  perhaps,  have  won  the  game.  The  casualties  on  either 
side  were  enormous.  The  Germans  lost  on  the  14th,  16th,  and  18th  of  August 
5,000,  16,000,  and  20,000  men,  making  a  total  of  41,000  killed,  wounded,  and  pris- 
oners ;  the  French,  8,600, 16,000,  and  13,000,  some  33,000  men  in  all.  The  com- 
parative smallness  of  the  French  losses  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  they  were 
mostly  on  the  defensive  (although  they  ought  properly  to  have  attacked)  and 
fought  behind  intrenchments. 


340  .  HISTORY    OF    THE   WORLD         [Chapter  iv 

(d)  The  Right  Advance  of  the  Germans ;  Sedan.  —  The  French  army  in  Metz 
was  lost,  if  a  hand  were  not  stretched  out  to  it  by  its  comrades  in  arms  outside  the 
town ;  it  was  rumoured  that  Bazaine  would  make  a  renewed  attempt  to  meet  the 
expected  relieving  force  at  Montmddy  or  Sedan.  All  the  journals  in  Paris  declared 
with  one  voice  that  Bazaine  must  be  rescued  at  any  cost.  Under  the  pressure 
of  this  situation  MacMahon,  who  had  been  reinforced  at  Chftlons  by  a  division 
recalled  from  the  Spanish  frontier  and  by  four  regiments  of  marines,  and  had  been 
nominated  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  forces  outside  Metz,  decided  not  to 
retreat  to  Paris,  a  course  which  seemed  to  him  most  correct  in  itself,  but  to  leave 
the  camp  of  Chalons  to  its  fate  and  march  on  Montm^dy  by  way  of  Vouziers  and 
Buzancy,  and  there  effect  a  junction,  if  possible,  with  Bazaine. 

King  William  had  meantime  commanded  Prince  Frederick  Charles  to  invest 
Metz  with  seven  army  corps  (the  1st,  2d,  3d,  7th,  8th,  9th,  and  10th).  General 
Steinmetz,  since  he  was  not  on  good  terms  with  Prince  Frederick  Charles,  now 
his  superior,  and  especially  since  he  had  failed  in  his  task  (Gravelotte),  was 
appointed  governor-general  of  Posen  and  Silesia.  The  9th  and  12th  corps  as  well 
as  the  Guards  were  placed,  as  "the  Meuse  army,"  under  Crown  Prince  Albert  of 
Saxony,  a  splendid  leader,  and  instructions  were  given  to  him  to  push  on  towards 
Chalons  with  the  third  army ;  his  task  was  to  frustrate  all  attempts  of  the  French 
to  take  up  a  position  there  and  advance  on  Metz.  But  when  the  Meuse  army 
had  passed  Verdun,  and  the  third  army  had  reached  Ste-Menehould,  the  head- 
quarters, which  followed  these  movements,  learnt  of  MacMahon's  march  from 
Chalons  and  Eheims ;  Moltke  immediately  issued  orders  on  August  25  that  the 
two  armies  should  wheel  to  the  right,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  take  MacMahon  in 
the  rear.i  This  dangerous  manoeuvre,  which  extended  of  course  to  the  baggage 
trains  of  the  armies,  was  completely  successful,  without  causing  any  confusion  to 
the  columns.  MacMahon  failed  to  see  the  favourable  chance,  which  presented 
itself  for  several  days,  of  hurling  his  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men 
against  the  ninety  thousand  under  the  Crown  Prince  of  Saxony  and  annihilating 
them  before  the  third  army  came  up. 

When  MacMahon  found  no  trace  of  Bazaine  on  the  27th  of  August  at  Mont- 
m^dy,  he  wished  to  commence  the  retreat  on  Paris ;  but  ojo.  the  direct  orders  of 
Palikao,  the  Minister  of  War,  and  postponing  military  to  political  considerations, 
he  continued  his  march  in  the  direction  of  Metz,  and  hastened  to  his  ruin.  On 
the  30th  of  August  the  corps  of  General  de  Failly  was  attacked  by  the  Bavarians 
and  the  4th  Prussian  corps  under  Gustav  von  Alvensleben  at  Beaumont,  and 
thrown  back  on  Mouzon. 

The  whole  French  army  retired  from  that  place  to  the  fortress  of  Sedan, 
in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  rest  there  and  then  to  retire  along  the  Belgian  frontier 
northwards.  But  that  was  not  allowed  to  happen.  The  Meuse  army  pressed  on 
from  the  east,  the  third  army  from  the  west;  the  11th  corps  seized  the  bridge 
which  crossed  the  Meuse  at  Donchery,  and  thus  cut  off  the  road  to  the  northwest. 
The  neighbourhood  of  Sedan  was  certainly  easy  to  defend,  since  the  Meuse,  some 
streams,  and  gorges  presented  considerable  difficulties  to  an  attack ;  but  on  Sep- 
tember 1  the  Germans,  who  outnumbered  the  French  by  almost  two  to  one, 
advanced  victoriously  onward,  in  spite  of  the  most  gallant  resistance.     The  Bava- 


'  See  the  sketch  of  the  lines  of  operation  on  the  inserted  map,  "  The  War  of  1870-1871. 


Ti^ZfriZ-^o2'\      HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  341 

rians  captured  Bazeilles  on  the  southwest,  where  the  inhabitants  took  part  in  the 
fight  and  thus  brought  upon  themselves  the  destruction  of  their  village.  The  11th 
corps  took  the  cavalry  of  Illy  in  the  north.  A  great  cavalry  attack,  under  the 
Marquis  de  Gallifet,  at  Floing  could  not  change  the  fortune  of  the  day ;  the  French 
army,  thrown  back  from  every  side  on  to  Sedan,  had  only  the  choice  between 
surrendering  or  being  destroyed  with  the  fortress  itself,  which  could  be  bombarded 
from  all  sides.  Marshal  MacMahon  was  spared  the  necessity  of  making  his 
decision  in  this  painful  position  ;  a  splinter  of  a  shell  had  severely  wounded  him  in 
the  thigh  that  very  morning  at  half -past  six.  The  general  next  to  him  in  seniority, 
Baron  Wimpffen,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Algiers,  was  forced,  in  consideration  of 
the  six  hundred  and  ninety  pieces  of  artillery  trained  on  the  town,  to  conclude  an 
unconditional  surrender  on  September  2.  In  this  way,  besides  21,000  French  who 
had  been  taken  during  the  battle,  83,000  became  prisoners  of  war ;  and  with  them 
558  guns  were  captured.  The  French  had  lost  17,000  in  killed  and  wounded  (the 
Germans  9,000) ;  an  army  of  120,000  men  was  annihilated  at  a  single  blow.  Two 
German  corps  were  required  to  guard  the  prisoners  and  deport  them  gradually  to 
Germany. 

The  emperor  Napoleon  himself  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Germans,  together 
with  his  army.  It  is  attested,  as  indeed  he  wrote  to  King  William,  that  he  wished 
to  die  in  the  midst  of  his  troops  before  consenting  to  such  a  step ;  but  the  bul- 
lets, which  mowed  thousands  down,  passed  him  by,  in  order  that  the  man  on 
whom  in  the  eyes  of  history  the  responsibility  for  the  war  and  the  defeat  rests, 
although  the  whole  French  nation  was  really  to  blame,  should  go  before  the 
monarch  whom  he  had  challenged  to  the  fight,  and  that  the  latter  should  prove 
his  magnanimity  to  be  not  inferior  to  his  strength.  The  meeting  of  the  two 
monarchs  took  place  at  two  o'clock  in  the  chateau  of  Bellevue  near  Francis,  during 
which  Napoleon  asserted  that  he  had  only  begun  the  war  under  compulsion  from 
the  popular  opinion  of  his  country.  The  castle  of  Wilhelmshohe  near  Cassel  was 
assigned  him  as  his  abode,  and  the  emperor  was  detained  there  in  honourable 
confinement  until  the  end  of  the  war. 

That  evening  the  king,  who  in  a  telegram  to  his  wife  had  given  God  the  honour, 
proposed  a  toast  to  Eoon,  the  Minister  of  War,  who  had  whetted  the  sword,  to 
Moltke,  who  had  wielded  it,  and  to  Bismarck,  who  by  his  direction  of  Prussian 
policy  for  years  had  raised  Prussia  to  her  present  pre-eminence.  He  modestly 
said  nothing  about  himself,  who  had  placed  all  these  men  in  the  responsible  posts 
and  rendered  their  efforts  possible ;  but  the  voice  of  history  will  testify  of  him 
only  the  more  loudly  that  he  confirmed  the  truth  of  the  saying  of  Louis  XIV, 
"  gouverner,  c'est  choisir,"  — •  the  choice  of  the  men  and  the  means,  both  require 
the  decision  of  the  monarch. 


£.  The  Wae  of  Geemany  against  the  French  Republic 

(a)  The  Results  of  the  Victory  of  Sedan.  —  The  victory  of  Sedan  led  to  a  series 
of  momentous  results.  Not  merely  did  it  evoke  in  Germany  universal  rejoicings, 
such  as  the  capture  of  the  monarch  of  a  hostile  State  and  of  a  great  army  neces- 
sarily call  forth,  but  it  powerfully  stimulated  the  national  pride  and  definitely 
shaped  the  will  of  the  nation.     Thousands  of  orators  at  festivities  in  honour  of 


342  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  iChapter  iv 

the  victory  and  countless  newspaper  articles  voiced  the  determination  that  such 
successes  were  partially  wasted  if  they  did  not  lead  to  the  recovery  of  that  western 
province  which  had  been  lost  in  less  prosperous  times,  of  Alsace  and  German 
Lorraine  with  Strassburg  and  Metz,  and  also  to  the  establishment  of  that  complete 
German  unity  which  was  first  planned  in  1866.  Bismarck  gave  a  competent 
expression  to  the  former  feeling  when  he  declared  in  two  notes  to  the  ambassadors 
of  the  North  German  Confederation,  on  September  13  and  16,  that  Germany  must 
hold  a  better  guarantee  for  her  security  than  that  of  the  good-will  of  France.  So 
long  as  Strassburg  and  Metz  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  French,  France 
would  be  stronger  to  attack  than  Germany  to  defend ;  but,  once  in  the  possession 
of  Germany,  both  towns  gained  a  defensive  character,  and  the  interests  of  peace 
were  the  interests  of  Europe. 

In  the  second  place,  the  victory  of  Sedan  affected  the  attitude  of  the  neutral 
powers.  We  know  from  the  evidence  of  King  William's  letter  of  September  7, 
1870,  to  Queen  Augusta,  that  all  kinds  of  cross-issues  had  cropped  up  before 
Sedan  ;  that  neutrals  had  contemplated  pacific  intervention  with  the  natural 
object  of  taking  from  Germany  the  fruit  of  its  victories.  The  ultimate  source  of 
these  plans  was  Vienna,  where  much  consternation  at  the  German  victories  was 
bound  to  be  felt.  But  they  had  found  an  echo  in  St.  Petersburg  also.  The  Czar 
Alexander,  it  is  true,  loyally  maintained  friendly  relations  with  Prussia,  and  his 
aunt  Helene  {nee  Princess  of  Wurtemberg,  wife  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael 
Pavlovitch,  brother  of  the  Czar  Nicholas  I)  was  a  trustworthy  support  to  the 
German  party  at  court ;  but  the  imperial  chancellor  Alexander  M.  Gortchakoff 
expressed  disapproval  of  every  demand  for  a  cession  of  French  territory,  since 
that  would  prove  a  new  apple  of  discord  between  Germany  and  France,  and  thus 
a  standing  menace  to  the  peace  of  Europe.  King  William  made  the  just  remark 
that  according  to  this  view  Germany  must  give  back  the  whole  left  bauk  of  the 
Ehine,  since  in  that  case  only  was  tranquillity  to  be  looked  for  from  France.  The 
battle  of  Sedan  put  an  end  to  all  wish  on  the  part  of  the  neutrals  to  interfere  in  a 
war  which  they  had  not  hindered.  It  was  as  Emanuel  Geibel  expressed  it  in  the 
lines  — 

"  Es  stritt  mit  uns  im  Gliede  % 

Niemand  als  Gott  allein; 
So  soil  nun  auch  der  Friede 

Ein  deutscher  Friede  sein."  ^ 

The  third  result  of  the  day  of  Sedan  was  that  the  French  Empire  fell  with  a 
crash.  The  Empress  Eugdnie  received  the  official  news  of  the  surrender  on  the 
evening  of  the  2d  of  September.  She  hesitated  the  whole  of  the  .3d  as  to  what  was 
to  be  done  in  this  position.  But  on  the  4th  the  Chamber  had  to  be  allowed  to 
speak,  and  Jules  Favre,  the  leader  of  the  Left,  immediately  moved  that  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  and  his  house  should  be  declared  deposed,  and  that  the  corps  Ugislatif 
should  nominate  a  committee,  which  might  exercise  all  the  powers  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  whose  task  it  should  be  to  drive  the  enemy  from  the  country.  The 
Palikao  ministry  also  proposed  a  similar  committee  of  five  members  to  be  nomi- 
Jiated  by  the  legislative  body,  but  its  lieutenant-general  was  to  be  Palikao.  The 
latter  furnished  a  guarantee  that  the  committee,  on  which  in  any  case  the  majority 


1  ' '  None  fought  on  our  side  but  God  alone,  and  so  the  peace  we  make  shall  be  a  German  peace. " 


rssriros]     history  of  the  world  343 

of  the  Chamber  would  elect  trustworthy  Bonapartists,  would  keep  the  place  warm 
for  the  empire,  which  might  be  reinstated  at  a  fitting  hour. 

The  fear  of  this  incited  the  mob  to  act  not  with  the  Chamber,  but  against  it- 
Crowds  thronged  into  the  galleries,  and  finally  into  the  chamber  itself,  so  that 
Eugene  Schneider,  the  president,  declared  it  an  impossibility  to  continue  the  debate 
under  such  conditions,  and  the  sitting  was  over.  The  attempt  to  hold  an  evening 
sitting,  and  exclude  all  disturbance,  could  not  now  be  carried  out ;  at  three  o'clock 
the  Senate  also  had  to  be  closed.  The  republic  Was  then  proclaimed  at  the  Hotel 
de  Ville  ;  and  in  its  name  the  deputies  of  Paris,  with  the  exception  of  Thiers,  who 
refused,  met  as  a  provisional  government.  The  radical  journalist,  Henri  Count 
Eochefort,  whom  it  was  thus  hoped  to  win  over,  and  General  Trochu,  as  governor 
of  Paris,  were  nominated  members  of  it.  Trochu  became  head  of  this  government, 
and  Jules  Favre  was  his  deputy.  A  ministry  was  formed  by  this  government  on 
September  5,  in  which  Favre  assumed  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  the  energetic 
lawyer  L^on  Gambetta  that  of  the  Interior,  and  General  Lefi6  the  War  Office. 
The  legislative  body  was  at  once  dissolved,  the  Senate  abolished,  all  officials 
released  from  their  oath  taken  to  the  emperor,  and  thirty  new  prefects  of  strict 
republican  views  appointed.  The  German  merchants  who  had  hitherto  remained 
in  France  were,  so  far  as  no  special  permission  was  granted  to  them,  ordered  to 
leave  Paris  and  its  vicinity  within  twenty-four  hours. 

(b)  The  Continuation  of  the  Struggle,  and  the  Advance  on  Paris.  —  On  the  burn- 
ing question  of  the  moment,  whether  France  after  these  severe  defeats  should  not 
seek  peace,  Favre  declared  in  a  circular  of  September  6  that,  if  the  king  of 
Prussia  wished  to  continue  this  deplorable  war  against  France,  even  after  the  over- 
throw of  the  guilty  dynasty,  the  government  would  accept  the  challenge  and 
would  not  cede  an  inch  of  national  territory  nor  a  stone  of  the  fortresses.  Thiers, 
who  had  volunteered  for  the  task,  was  sent  on  September  12  to  the  neutral 
powers,  to  induce  them  to  intervene ;  but,  in  view  of  the  above-mentioned  procla- 
mations of  Bismarck  of  the  13th  and  16th  of  September,  no  power  thought  it  pru- 
dent to  meddle,  since  Germany  desired  a  cession  of  territory  as  emphatically  as 
France  refused  one.  Any  agreement  between  the  belligerents  was  thus  for  the  time 
totally  excluded.  Thiers  received  in  London,  Vienna,  St.  Petersburg,  and  Florence 
courteous  words,  but  no  support.  Beust,  deeply  concerned,  then  wrote,  "  Je  ne  vois 
plus  d' Europe ; "  even  Gortchakoff  drily  advised  the  envoy  to  purchase  peace  with- 
out delay  by  some  sacrifices,  since  later  it  might  have  to  be  bought  more  dearly. 

The  Germans  meanwhile  were  marching  straight  on  Paris.  Metz  remained  at 
the  same  time  invested  by  the  seven  corps  under  Frederick  Charles  ;  the  effort  of 
Bazaine  to  play  into  MacMahon's  hand  on  August  31  and  September  1,  by  a  great 
attempt  to  break  through  at  Noisseville,  proved  completely  futile ;  thirty-six  thou- 
sand Germans  had  held  a  line  of  five  and  one-half  miles  against  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  thousand  French. 

Even  the  French  fleet  of  ironclads,  which  appeared  in  August  off  Heligoland 
and  Kolberg,  could  do  nothing  from  its  want  of  troops  to  land.  Shattered  by  a 
terrible  storm  on  September  9,  it  returned  ingloriously  to  its  native  harbours.  On 
November  9  the  French  despatch  boat  "  Bouvet "  was  attacked  by  the  German 
gunboat  "Meteor"  under  Captain  Knorr  off  the  harbour  of  Havana  and  compelled 
to  withdraw  through  the  destruction  of  its  boiler. 


344  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         [chapter  ir 

When  the  Germans  after  the  capture  of  Eheims  and  Laon  appeared  in  the 
vicinity  of  Paris,  Favre  asked  for  an  interview  with  Bismarck.  Conversations 
between  the  two  statesmen  took  place  on  the  19th  and  20th  of  September  in  the 
chateaux  of  Haute  Maison  and  Ferriferes.  Favre  declared  that  cessions  of  territory 
could  in  any  case  only  be  granted  by  a  national  assembly,  and  asked  for  fourteen 
days'  armistice,  in  order  that  such  an  assembly  might  be  elected.  Bismarck  was 
ready  to  accede  to  the  request,  but  asked,  as  compensation  for  the  fact  that  France 
in  these  fourteen  days  of  armistice  could  to  some  degree  recover  her  breath,  that 
the  fortresses  of  Pfalzburg,  Toul,  and  Strassburg  should  be  surrendered.  Since 
Favre  would  not  hear  of  such  conditions  the  negotiations  were  thus  broken  off. 

(c)  The  Fall  of  Strassburg.  —  The  Germans  completed  the  investment  of  Paris 
on  the  19th  September,  and  forced  Toul  to  capitulate  on  the  23d.  Strassburg  had 
been  besieged  since  the  11th  of  August  by  the  Baden  troops  under  General  Werder, 
and  since  the  23d  had  been  exposed  to  a  bombardment  through  which  the  picture 
gallery,  the  library  with  its  wealth  of  priceless  manuscripts,  the  law  courts  and 
government  buildings,  and  the  theatre  were  burnt ;  of  the  cathedral,  only  the  roof 
caught  fire.  Four  hundred  and  fifty  private  houses  were  ruined  and  two  thousand 
persons  killed  or  wounded.  This  misfortune  was  due  to  the  fact  that  Strassburg 
was  a  thoroughly  antiquated  fortress,  the  bombardment  of  which  involved  the 
destruction  not  merely  of  the  works  but  also  of  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  French  commander.  General  Uhrich,  ought  not,  under  the  circumstances,  to  have 
allowed  matters  to  go  so  far  as  a  bombardment ;  but  in  the  knowledge  that  "  Strass- 
burg was  Alsace,"  he  offered  resistance  until  a  storm,  the  success  of  which  admitted 
no  doubt,  was  imminent.  The  capitulation  was  signed  on  September  28,  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning ;  it  was  the  very  day  on  which,  one  hundred  and  eighty 
years  before,  Louvois  had  accepted  the  surrender  of  Strassburg  to  the  army  of 
Louis  XIV  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  484).  There  were  endless  rejoicings  in  Germany 
when  the  good  news  was  proclaimed  that  a  city  had  been  won  back  which  had 
remained  dear  to  every  German  heart,  even  in  the  long  years  when  it  stood  under  a 
foreign  yoke.  The  28th  of  September  was  felt  to  be  a  day  of  national  satisfaction, 
a  tangible  guarantee  that  the  time  of  German  humiliatiMi  and  weakness  was 
now  past  for  ever. 

Since  Strassburg  had  fallen,  the  great  railroad  to  Paris  lay  at  the  disposal  of 
the  Germans ;  the  captures  of  Schlettstadt  (October  24),  Verdun  (November  8), 
Neubreisach  (November  10),  Diedenhofen  (November  24),  Montm^dy  (December 
14),  and  Pfalzburg  (December  14)  completed  the  reduction  of  the  smaller  fortresses 
of  the  East,  with  which  great  stores  of  artillery  and  powder  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  victors.  The  communications  in  the  rear  of  the  Germans  gained  greatly  in 
security  and  quiet. 

{d)  The  Siege  of  Paris,  and  the  French  Attempts  to  relieve  the  City.  —  This  fact 
was  the  more  important  because,  since  the  battle  of  Sedan,  the  war,  which  hitherto 
had  been  a  duel  between  armies,  assumed  another  phase.  Under  the  title  of 
Franctireurs  armed  bands  from  among  the  people  took  part  in  the  struggle,  and 
caused  considerable  losses  by  unexpected  attacks  on  isolated  German  outposts 
and  rear-guards.  On  the  German  side  these  bands  were  declared  to  stand  outside 
the  law  of  nations,  and  villages  whose  inhabitants   took  part  in  the  war  as 


rS.1rri"o^]      HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  345 

Franctixeurs  were  under  certain  conditions  burnt  down  as  a  deterrent.  Even 
Frenchmen  admit  that  the  licentious  Franctireurs  were  frequently  more  dangerous 
to  the  natives  than  to  the  enemy. 

The  chief  aim  of  the  French,  now  that  negotiations  for  peace  had  fallen 
through,  was  necessarily  the  liberation  of  the  capital.  For  although  among  the 
1,700,000  persons  who  were  in  Paris,  some  540,000  were  men  capable  of  bearing 
arms,  yet  of  these  the  340,000  Parisian  National  Guards  were  worthless  from 
the  military  point  of  view,  and  of  the  120,000  Gardes  Mobiles,  only  a  part  of 
the  provincials  was  of  any  value.  Thus  only  the  80,000  soldiers  of  the  line 
were  thoroughly  useful,  and  with  these  alone  General  Trochu  could  not  break 
through  the  150,000  and  later  200,000  picked  German  troops,  who  were  draw- 
ing an  iron  girdle  round  the  city  (under  the  supreme  direction  of  the  king, 
who  resided  at  Versailles),  and  force  them  to  raise  the  siege.  Under  these 
conditions  the  duty  of  obtaining  support  from  outside  was  incumbent  on  the 
members  of  the  government,  who  had  left  Paris  in  good,  time,  in  order  to 
conduct  the  arming  of  the  country,  and  had  taken  up  their  seat  at  Tours  on 
the  Loire. 

But  life  was  not  instilled  into  this  "  delegation,"  consisting  of  three  old  men, 
Cr^mieux  (p.  179),  Martin  Fourichon,  and  Alex.  Glais-Bizoin,  until  Gambetta  left 
Paris  on  October  6  in  a  balloon,  and  arrived  in  Tours  on  the  9th.  He  imme- 
diately took  on  himself  the  Ministry  of  War  in  addition  to  that  of  the  Interior, 
and  with  the  passionate  energy  of  his  southern  temperament  and  his  thirty-two 
years  he  girded  himself  for  the  task  of  "  raising  legions  from  the  soil  with  the 
stamp  of  his  foot,"  and  of  crushing  the  bold  hordes  who  dared  to  harass  holy 
Paris,  "  the  navel  of  the  earth."  Gambetta's  right  hand  in  the  organisation  of 
new  forces  was  Charles  de  Freycinet,  a  man  of  forty-two,  a  Protestant,  originally 
an  engineer,  clever  and  experienced,  clear  and  cool  in  all  his  actions,  but,  in 
consequence  of  the  complete  wreck  of  the  professional  soldiers,  full  of  haughty 
contempt  for  military  professional  knowledge,  and  inspired  by  the  persuasion  that- 
now  men  of  more  independent  views  must  assume  the  lead,  and  that  a  burning 
patriotism  must  replace  military  drill.  The  thought  recurred  vaguely  to  the  minds 
of  both  that  1870  must  go  to  school  with  1793,  and  that  just  as  then  the  soldiers 
trained  in  the  traditions  of  Frederick  the  Great  and  Laudon  were  repulsed  by  the 
levy  en  masse,  so  now  the  laurels  might  be  torn  from  the  soldiers  of  "William  I 
by  the  same  means.  That  was  really  a  grave  error.  In  1793  the  powers  allied 
against  France  were  defeated  chiefly  from  their  want  of  combination,  not  by  the 
armed  masses  of  the  French  people,  which  to  some  extent  existed  only  on  paper ; 
and  the  army  which  was  now  fighting  on  French  soil  far  surpassed  the  troops  of 
the  first  coalition  in  number  and  moral  worth.  Gambetta's  exertions  did  not  there- 
fore rescue  France,  but  only  prolonged  her  death  agony,  multiplied  the  sacrifices, 
and  enhanced  the  victory  of  the  Germans.  Besides  this,  it  was  not  possible,  with 
all  his  resolute  determination,  to  turn  armed  men  into  soldiers  in  a  moment. 
Since  it  was  necessary  in  a  country  which  only  possessed  six  batteries  and  two 
million  cartridges  to  procure  arms  and  ammunition  from  every  source,  especially 
from  England,  a  varied  selection  of  weapons  was  the  result ;  there  were  in  the 
new  army  alone  fifteen  different  kinds  of  guns  in  use.  Nevertheless  Gambetta 
deserves  admiration  for  having  raised  six  hundred  thousand  men  within  four 
months ;  and  even  if  all  attempts  were  completely  shattered  against  the  superior 


346  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD         Ichapter  iv 

strategy  and  the  incomparable  efficiency  of  the  German  troops,  still  Gambetta 
saved  the  honour  of  France,  and  with  it  the  future  of  the  republic. 

(e)  The  Fall  of  Metz.  —  The  Germans,  shortly  after  Gambetta's  arrival  at 
Tours,  had  occupied  Orleans  on  October  11,  under  the  command  of  the  Bavarian 
general,  Ludwig  von  der  Tann-Ratsamhausen,  and  on  the  18th  of  October,  under 
General  Ludw.  von  "Wittich,  stormed  Chateaudun,  which  was  burnt,  because  the 
inhabitants  had  joined  in  the  fight.  But  now  troops  in  such  superior  numbers 
were  being  massed  against  Von  der  Tann,  that  at  the  headquarters  in  Versailles 
serious  misgivings  were  felt  as  to  the  possibility  of  checking  all  the  threatening 
advances  upon  Paris. 

Under  these  circumstances  all  eyes  were  eagerly  fixed  on  Bazaine  (pp.  313, 
336),  who  still  kept  half  the  German  army  stationary  under  the  walls  of 
Metz.  During  this  period  all  sorts  of  political  negotiations  had  been  conducted 
between  Bazaine,  the  German  headquarters,  and  the  empress  Eugenie,  now  an 
exile  in  England.  The  gist  of  these  negotiations  was  that  Bazaine,  supported  by 
his  army,  which  still  remained  loyal  to  its  captive  monarch,  should  conclude  a 
peace  and  restore  the  empire;  but  the  attempt  failed  from  the  numerous  and  great 
difficulties  which  stood  in  the  way,  and  the  position  of  the  encircled  army,  which 
was  unable  to  burst  the  ring  of  besiegers,  became  daily  worse.  From  the  8th  to 
the  31st  of  October  continuous  rain  fell  in  such  torrents  that  the  besiegers  and 
the  besieged,  who  were  both  encamped  on  the  open  field  in  miserable  huts,  suffered 
incredible  hardships.  Hardly  any  one  had  dry  clothes ;  the  wind  whistled  through 
the  crevices ;  and  German  divisions  which  had  only  a  fifth  of  their  numbers  in 
hospital  were  considered  to  be  in  an  exceptionally  good  condition.  Among  the 
French,  the  miseries  of  the  weather  were  aggravated  by  the  daily  increasing  want 
of  provisions ;  in  the  end  the  soldiers  received  only  one-third  of  their  original 
allowance  of  bread,  and  the  supply  of  salt  was  entirely  exhausted.  Bazaine  there- 
fore, after  he  had  vainly  tried  to  obtain  the  neutralisation  of  his  army,  and  then 
its  surrender,  without  the  concurrent  capitulation  of  Metz,  was  compelled  to 
surrender  himself  with  173,000  men  and  1,570  pieces  of  artillery  to  Prince 
Frederick  Charles  on  October  27.  This  was  a  success  wlach  surpassed  the  day 
of  Sedan  in  grandeur,  if  not  in  glory.  Germany  now  had  in  her  hands  the 
territory  which  she  thought  essential  to  secure  her  tranquillity,  and  the  whole 
army  of  Frederick  Charles  was  available  for  other  theatres  of  war. 

(/)  Russia's  Attack  on  the  Treaty  of  Paris  of  1856.  —  About  this  time  the 
world  was  surprised  by  a  circular  from  the  Russian  imperial  chancellor  Prince 
Gortchakoff,  which,  bearing  date  October  31,  contained  the  declaration  that  the 
treaty  of  Paris  of  March  30,  1856,  had  been  repeatedly  infringed  ;  for  example, 
in  1859  and  1862,  by  the  union  of  the  two  Danubian  principalities  of  Moldavia 
and  Wallachia  into  the  single  principality  of  Roumania  (p.  272),  and  that  it  was 
not  Russia's  bounden  duty  to  observe  merely  those  clauses  in  the  treaty  which 
were  detrimental  to  her.  She  did  not  therefore  consider  herself  bound  by  that 
provision  which  declared  the  Black  Sea  neutral,  but  would,  on  the  contrary,  make 
full  use  of  her  right  to  construct  a  naval  harbour  there.  The  circular  showed 
that  the  authorities  at  St.  Petersburg  wished  to  turn  to  account  the  position 
of   Europe,  and  during   the  weakness   of  France   to   cancel  that  treaty  which 


rSSnfoJ      HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  347 

France  and  England  in  their  time  had  forced  upon  the  dominions  of  the  Czar, 
since  it  was  detrimental  to  the  honour  and  power  of  Eussia. 

England  and  Austria  issued  on  the  10th  and  16th  of  November  a  protest 
against  this  selfish  policy  of  Eussia ;  but  the  conference  at  London,  which  met  at 
Bismarck's  suggestion  on  January  17,  1871,  approved  the  action  of  Eussia  in  the 
Black  Sea,  and  only  stipulated  that  the  Straits  of  the  Dardanelles  and  the  Bospho- 
rus  should  be  closed  to  the  warships  of  all  the  great  powers  (with  the  obvious 
exception  of  Turkey).  The  German  Empire  stood  in  this  question  on  the  side  of 
Eussia,  whose  emperor  had  indisputably  facilitated  the  victory  over  France  by  his 
attitude,  even  if  his  chancellor,  Gortchakoff,  tried  to  depreciate  as  far  as  possible 
the  results  of  this  victory. 

(g)  The  Battles  on  the  Loire.  —  After  the  fall  of  Metz  Prince  Frederick  Charles 
received  orders  to  detach  the  1st,  7th,  and  8th  corps  (substantially,  therefore,  the 
original  first  army),  under  General  Manteuffel,  in  order  to  capture  the  still  untaken 
fortresses  in  the  rear  of  the  Germans ;  he  himself,  with  his  four  remaining  corps, 
the  2d,  3d,  9th,  and  10th,  was  to  advance  rapidly  on  the  Loire  by  way  of  Fontaine- 
bleau  and  Sens.  The  state  of  things  in  that  direction  was  critical.  The  French 
army  of  the  Loire  under  General  L.  J.  B.  d'Aurelle  de  Paladines,  an  energetic 
leader,  with  a  strength  of  60,000  men,  had  thrown  himself  on  the  15,000  Bavarians 
of  Von  der  Tann,  defeated  these  at  Coulmiers  on  November  9,  and  compelled 
them  to  evacuate  Orleans.  The  king  immediately  sent  to  the  support  of  the 
Bavarians  the  17th  and  22d  divisions  (Hanseates,  Mecklenburgers,  and  Thurin- 
gians),  with  four  cavalry  divisions,  which  were  no  longer  required  before  Paris,  and 
intrusted  the  command  of  this  "  army  section,"  including  the  Bavarians,  to  the 
Grand  Duke  Frederick  Francis  II  of  Mecklenburg.  Everything  pointed  to  a  great 
and  decisive  action.  The  Paris  army  was  preparing  for  a  sortie  on  a  large  scale, 
to  which  Gambetta  wished  to  respond  by  a  bold  attack  from  Orleans  ;  the 
Germans  encamped  in  front  of  the  metropolis  were  to  be  caught,  if  possible, 
between  two  fires  and  compelled  to  raise  the  siege.  But  the  onslaught  of  58,000 
French  on  November  28  at  Beaune-la-Eolande,  under  the  impetuous  General 
Jean  Constant  Crouzat,  whom  Freycinet  made  the  mistake  of  restraining,  proved 
ineffectual  against  the  bravery  of  five  German  regiments  and  some  batteries,  com- 
manded by  Major  Korber,  a  hero  of  Mars-la-Tour.  But  the  great  sortie  which 
General  Ducrot  (p.  314)  attempted  in  the  southeast  of  Paris  on  November  30, 
against  the  positions  of  the  Wurtembergers  and  Saxons  near  the  villages  of 
Champigny  and  Brie  (see  the  sketch  map  on  p.  340),  did  not  attain  its  object  in 
spite  of  the  great  superiority  of  the  French.  The  fire  of  the  Wurtembergers, 
bursting  from  behind  the  park  walls  of  Villiers  and  Coeuilly,  mowed  down  the 
attacking  columns  of  the  French  in  heaps.  On  December  2  the  village  of 
Champigny,  which  had  been  lost  on  November  30,  was  to  a  great  extent  won 
back  by  help  of  the  Pomeranians,  and  on  December  3  the  army  of  the  sortie 
returned  back  to  Paris.  It  had  lost  12,000  men,  the  Germans  6,000,  and  the 
besiegers  had  to  abandon  all  hope  of  breaking  their  way  through  by  their  unas- 
sisted strength.  General  Ducrot,  who  had  vowed  to  conquer  or  to  die,  and  exposed 
himself  recklessly  to  the  bullets,  was  compelled  to  re-enter  Paris  alive  and 
defeated. 

Prince  Frederick  Charles  defeated  the  army  of  the  Loire,  now  commanded 


348  HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD         [Chapter  iv 

by  the  gallant  General  Chanzy,  in  the  four  days'  battle  of  the  1st  to  the  4th 
of  December  at  Loigny  and  Orleans,  and  on  December  4  the  Grand  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg  again  entered  this  town.  German  outposts  bivouacked  beneath 
the  statue  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans.  The  French  army  was  in  a  most  lamentable 
plight;  the  soldiers,  clothed  only  in  linen  trousers  and  blouses,  shivered  with  cold 
and  refused  to  fight  any  more.  The  army  was  finally  broken  into  two  parts,  of 
which  one,  under  Charles  Bourbaki,  turned  eastward  on  December  4  (see  below), 
the  other  part,  under  Chanzy,  retired  in  a  northwesterly  direction  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Loire,  leaving  Tours  to  its  fate,  while  Gambetta  with  the  "  delegation  " 
fled  to  Bordeaux  on  December  8.  Chanzy,  pursued  by  the  Prince  and  the  Grand 
Duke,  was  again  defeated  at  Beaugency  (December  7-10)  and  driven  back  on 
Le  Mans.  But  the  Germans  followed  him  thither,  along  roads  deep  in  snow  and 
covered  with  ice,  where  the  cavalry  had  to  dismount  and  lead  their  horses,  and  on 
January  11  and  12,  1871,  won  another  great  victory  before  Le  Mans,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  Chanzy  was  compelled  to  retire  still  further  west  toward  Brittany 
to  Laval.     The  army  of  the  Loire  was  thus  to  all  intents  annihilated. 

(h)  The  Battles  round  Dijon  and  in  the  North.  — Meantime  there  was  fighting 
in  two  other  districts.  General  Werder,  after  the  capture  of  Alsace,  had  forced  his 
way  into  Franche  Comt^  and  Burgundy,  where  he  occupied  Dijon,  the  capital,  on 
October  31.  The  chief  command  against  him  was  held  by  the  hero  of  the  Italian 
revolution.  Garibaldi,  who  was  so  much  moved  by  the  change  of  France  into  a 
republic  that  he  placed  his  sword  at  the  services  of  that  very  nation  which  in 
1860  had  taken  his  native  town  of  Nice  from  the  national  State  of  Italy  (p.  265). 
Chuquet  remarks  that  he,  who  was  only  a  shadow  of  himself  and  could  no  longer 
sit  a  horse,  together  with  his  Chief  of  the  Staff  Bordone,  an  ex-apothecary,  would 
have  done  best  to  have  remained  on  his  rocky  island  of  Caprera.  The  Gari- 
baldian  volunteers  from  Italy  and  other  countries  who  mustered  round,  the 
leader  were  a  rabble  clothed  in  a  picturesque  uniform,  who  eventually  proved 
more  troublesome  to  the  French  than  to  the  Germans.  The  Badeners,  under 
General  Adolf  von  Gltimer,  without  allowing  themselves  to  be  stopped  by  these 
troops,  took  Nuits  by  storm  on  December  18,  a  town  whjph  was  defended  by 
General  Gamille  Cramer,  a  fugitive  from  Metz,  who  had  to  drive  his  officers  to  the 
attack  with  a  pistol  at  their  heads.  GUimer  himself  and  Prince  William  of  Baden, 
brother  of  the  Grand  Duke  Frederick,  were  severely  wounded  on  this  occasion. 

The  other  theatre  of  war  was  the  northeast  of  France,  especially  Picardy  and 
Normandy.  The  resistance  here,  as  elsewhere,  was  organised  by  emissaries  from 
the  "  delegation "  (p.  345),  and  the  northern  army  was  created,  so  that  the 
German  headquarters  sent  General  von  Manteuffel  there  in  November  with  two 
army  corps,  the  first  under  H.  A.  von  Zastrow  (p.  337),  and  the  eighth  under  August 
von  Goeben.  Manteuffel  defeated  the  French  under  Farre  on  November  27  at 
Amiens,  where  the  "  Moblots  "  (Gardes  Mobiles)  by  a  disgraceful  flight  carried  the 
troops  of  the  line  away  with  them.  Amiens  and  Eouen  were  occupied,  and 
General  von  Goeben  knew  how  to  treat  the  Normans  so  well  that  they  ran  after 
him  trustingly  on  the  roads,  and  the  peasants  wilhngly  brought  provisions  to  the 
markets,  —  quite  otherwise  than  in  the  east,  where  all  the  shutters  were  closed 
and  the  doors  locked  when  the  Germans  approached. 

The  prudent  and  energetic  General  Faidherbe  (cf.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  489)  succeeded, 


TnTyZfisT-iml      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  349 

it  is  true,  in  rallying  and  strengthening  the  French  troops ;  but  on  his  advance 
from  Lille  he  was  beaten  back  by  Manteuffel  on  the  river  La  Hallue,  at  Port 
Noyelles,  on  December  23.  Since  his  soldiers  were  forced  to  spend  the  night 
fasting,  with  a  temperature  far  below  freezing  point,  he  felt  himself,  on  December 
24,  unable  to  fight  any  further ;  he  therefore  abandoned  his  dangerous  positions 
and  withdrew  to  Arras.  A  second  advance,  on  January  3, 1871,  at  Bapaume,  was 
equally  unsuccessful.  General  Goeben  (p.  338),  who,  after  Manteuffel  was  sent 
to  the  southeast,  received  the  supi-eme  command  over  the  two  German  corps,  ended 
the  war  in  the  north  by  the  capture  of  the  fortress  of  P^ronne  on  January  8,  and 
by  the  brilliant  victory  at  St.  Quentin  on  January  19,  where  Faidherbe  lost 
13,000  men.  The  fortress  of  St.  Quentin  itself  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors, 
and  the  French  northern  army  was  reduced  to  such  a  condition  that  it  no  longer 
counted  for  anything. 

(i)  Tlie  Question  of  the  Bombardment  of  Beleaguered  Paris.  —  The  capital  of 
France  held  out  all  this  time  against  the  Germans  who  were  investing  it.  But 
provisions  were  getting  scarcer  and  scarcer,  and  occasional  attempts  at  insurrec- 
tion among  the  populace  indicated  that  the  reputation  of  the  government  was 
waning.  The  resistance  nevertheless  lasted  far  longer  than  was  ever  considered 
probable  on  the  German  side,  and  public  opinion  in  Germany  demanded  with 
increasing  emphasis  that  Paris  should  be  effectively  bombarded  to  accelerate  the 
capitulation.  Bismarck,  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  siege,  maintained  that  too 
much  energy  could  not  be  shown  in  attacking  the  enemy,  since,  in  the  first  place, 
the  investing  army  suffered  mentally  and  physically  from  the  long  inaction,  and, 
secondly,  since  the  apparently  successful  resistance  of  Paris  revived  the  hopes  of 
the  French  for  an  eventual  victory  and  once  more  brought  up  the  danger  of  foreign 
intervention  which  was  thought  to  have  been  surmounted  after  the  day  of  Sedan. 
But  the  Crown  Prince,  his  Chief  of  the  Staff,  Leonhard  von  Blumenthal  (p.  300), 
Moltke  himself,  and  General  von  Gottberg  were  of  opinion  that  a  bombard- 
ment would  not  reach  the  workmen's  quarter  of  Paris,  and  would  thus  be 
ineffective,  and  that  the  only  means  of  reducing  the  city  lay  in  starving  it  out ; 
according  to  Blumenthal  six  weeks  would  be  sufficient.  King  William  was  first 
enlightened  as  to  the  true  state  of  affairs  in  the  council  of  war  of  the  9th  and  10th 
of  December  by  the  artillery  leaders  General  von  Hindersin,  Prince  Kraft  von 
Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen,  and  others.  Bismarck  and  Boon,  in  their  memoirs,  sustain 
the  thesis,  which  cannot  now  be  substantiated,  that  representations  coming  from 
England  by  way  of  Berlin  and  through  the  Crown  Princess  had  produced  in  the 
Emperor's  mind  a  reluctance  to  treat  Paris,  the  Mecca  of  civilization,  like  any 
ordinary  fortress. 

(k)  The  Solution  of  the  Question  of  German  Unity.  —  During  this  time  of 
expectancy  the  most  important  event  of  all,  the  question  of  the  unity  of  Germany, 
was  destined  to  be  decided  under  the  walls  of  Paris.  There  was  a  universal  feel- 
ing directly  after  the  first  victories  that  the  Germans,  who  had  marched  united  to 
the  war,  ought  not  at  its  close  to  break  up  again  into  the  old  disunion,  but  that 
political  union  ought  to  result  from  the  military  union  as  a  necessary  consequence 
and  as  the  chief  fruit  of  the  war.  From  the  moment  when  Bismarck,  in  the  name 
of  the  Germans,  demanded  the  cession  of  Strassburg  and  Metz  as  tangible  guaran- 


350  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  ir 

tees  for  peace,  the  fact  was  firmly  established  that  these  border  fortresses  of 
the  German  people  could  not  be  held  without  the  permanent  political  unity  of  the 
German  nation.  The  current  of  opinion  setting  towards  unity  was  strong  enough 
to  carry  with  it  the  princes,  who,  on  account  of  the  probable  sacrifices  of  their 
sovereignty  thereby  entailed,  could  not  lightly  resolve  upon  the  decisive  negotia- 
tions. These  negotiations  were  stimulated  by  a  large  meeting  held  in  Berlin  on 
August  30,  which  proposed  as  its  motto  that  the  fruits  of  the  war  must  be,  "  a 
united  nation  and  protected  frontiers."  The  Grand  Duke  Frederick  of  Baden,  whose 
first  counsellor  since  the  death  of  Mathy  (see  above,  p.  314)  was  the  keen  advo- 
cate of  national  unity,  Julius  Jolly,  declared  on  September  2  that  he  would  sup- 
port the  constitutional  union  of  the  South  German  States  with  the  North  German 
Confederation.  King  Lewis  II  of  Bavaria  and  King  Charles  1  of  Wiirtemberg  also 
gave  an  assurance  on  the  5th  and  7th  of  September  that  they  were  anxious  to 
secure  to  Germany  the  fruits  of  victory  in  the  fullest  measure  and  to  establish  a 
just  mean  between  the  national  coherency  of  the  German  races  and  their  individual 
independence. 

The  official  negotiations  were  opened  at  Munich  towards  the  end  of  September 
by  Eudolf  Delbruck  (born  April  16,  1817,  died  February  1,  1903),  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Federal  Chancery  of  the  North  German  Confederation,  and  afterwards 
continued  by  Bismarck  in  Versailles.  They  encountered,  indeed,  considerable 
difficulties,  since  the  Particularists  were  only  willing  to  concede  the  most  modest 
measure  of  centralisation.  The  Bavarians  argued  the  superfluousness  of  a  strict 
union  from  the  very  loyalty  which  all  races  had  shown  to  the  thought  of  nation- 
ality; in  case  of  necessity  Germany  would  always  find  all  her  children  rallying 
round  her.  The  king  of  Bavaria  claimed  as  compensation  for  his  consent  to  the 
establishment  of  a  German  federal  State  a  sort  of  viceroyalty  for  the  house  of 
Wittelsbach,  so  that  the  Bavarian  ambassadors  in  the  event  of  any  impediment  to 
the  imperial  ambassadors,  should  of  their  own  accord  represent  them.  In  fact, 
according  to  the  diary  of  Moritz  Busch,  Prince  Leopold,  the  uncle  of  the  king,  had 
suggested  on  January  10, 1871,  the  alternation  of  the  imperial  crown  between  the 
houses  of  HohenzoUern  and  Wittelsbach,  but  had  received  no  answer  at  all.  In 
addition  to  Bavaria,  Hesse,  the  Minister  of  which,  Baron«^on  Dalwigk,  was  a 
sworn  enemy  to  Prussia,  made  as  many  difficulties  as  possible.  The  king  of  Wiir- 
temberg on  the  12th  of  November,  when  everything  seemed  already  settled, 
allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  by  influence  from  Munich  once  more  to  delay  the 
termination.  But  when  Baden  on  the  15th  of  November  signed  the  treaty  as  to 
the  admission  into  the  North  German  Confederation,  and  Hesse  followed  on  the 
same  day,  the  ice  was  broken. 

According  to  remarks  in  the  diary  of  the  Crown  Prince  Frederick  William, 
which  are  confirmed  by  the  contemporary  notes  of  Ludwig  Bamberger,  the  Crown 
Prince  became  so  impatient  at  the  delays  in  the  settlement  of  the  matter  that  he 
thought  that  the  business  should  be  hurried  on,  that  emperor  and  empire  should 
be  proclaimed  by  the  princes  of  Baden,  Oldenburg,  Weimar,  and  Coburg,  and  a 
constitution  corresponding  to  the  reasonable  wishes  of  the  people  should  be  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Eeichstag  and  the  Landtags ;  in  that  case  the  two  South  German 
kings  would  have  to  acquiesce  with  the  best  grace  they  could.  The  Crown  Prince 
and  Bismarck  were  thoroughly  agreed  upon  the  point  that  the  king  of  Prussia  as 
president  of  the  German  Federal  State  must  bear  the  old  and  honourable  title  of 


rSSrioJ      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  351 

emperor.  The  aged  monarch  himself  had  grave  doubts  as  to  relegating  to  the 
second  place  the  comprehensive  title  of  King  of  Prussia,  which  his  ancestor 
Frederick  I  had  created  of  his  own  set  purpose,  and  of  assuming  an  empty  title, 
which  his  brother  had  declined  in  1849,  and  which  he  himself  had  jestingly  styled 
"  brevet- major." 

Bismarck  maintained  his  own  wise  independence  toward  the  father  and  the 
son.  To  the  first  he  emphasied  the  fact  that  the  title  of  emperor  contained  an 
outward  recognition  of  the  de  facto  predominant  position  of  the  Prussian  king,  on 
which  much  depended ;  and  he  asked  the  latter  whether  he  could  consider  it  wise 
and  honourable  to  exercise  compulsion  on  two  loyal  allies  who  had  shed  their  blood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  North  Germans.  He  is  said  to  have  uttered  words 
which  are  no  less  noble  and  beautiful  than  they  are  wise,  "I  wish  for  a  contented 
Bavaria."  He  was  convinced  that  the  new  empire  would  not  rest  on  firm  founda- 
tions unless  all  the  German  races  joined  it  of  their  own  free  v/ill,  without  the 
feeling  that  any  compulsion  was  being  applied  to  them.  He  therefore  granted  to 
the  Bavarians  and  the  Wilrtembergers  by  the  "  Eeserved  Eights  "  a  privileged 
position  in  the  empire,  which,  although  only  accepted  with  reluctance  by  all 
determined  supporters  of  German  unity,  has  justified  the  foresight  of  the  great 
statesman  by  affording  these  kingdoms  the  opportunity  of  joining  the  national 
cause  without  humiliation  to  their  sense  of  importance.  The  treaties  which  Von 
Bray-Steinburg  as  minister  signed  on  23d  November  at  Versailles  for  Bavaria,  and 
the  ministers  Von  Mittnacht  and  Von  Suckow  signed  on  25th  November,  1870, 
at  Berlin  for  Wiirtemberg,  reserved  for  both  States  the  independent  administration 
of  the  post  office  and  telegraphs,  and  the  private  right  of  taxing  native  beer  and 
brandy ;  this  second  privilege  was  granted  to  Baden  also.  It  was  further  settled 
that  the  Bavarian  army  should  be  a  distinct  component  part  of  the  German 
Federal  army  with  its  own  military  administration  under  the  command  of  the 
king  of  Bavaria,  and  that  also  the  Wurteraberg  (13th)  army  should  form  a  dis- 
tinct corps,  whose  commander,  however,  could  only  be  nominated  by  the  king  of 
Wurtemberg  with  the  previous  assent  of  the  king  of  Prussia.  The  organisation, 
training,  and  system  of  mobilisation  of  the  Bavarian  and  Wiirtemberg  troops  were 
to  be  remodelled  according  to  the  principles  in  force  for  the  Federal  army.  The 
Federal  commander  possesses  the  right  to  inspect  the  Bavarian  and  Wurtemberg 
armies,  and  from  the  first  day  of  mobilisation  onwards  all  the  troops  of  North  and 
South  Germany  alike  have  to  obey  his  commands. 

The  consideration  which  Bismarck  showed  to  the  kings  procured  him  not 
merely  their  sincere  confidence  during  the  whole  term  of  his  life,  a  fact  which 
was  politically  of  much  value,  but  also  facilitated  the  settlement  of  the  question 
of  the  title.  Eecognising  that  it  is  more  palatable  to  the  ambition  of  secondary 
States  to  have  a  German  emperor  over  them  than  a  king  of  Prussia,  King  Louis 
consented  on  December  3  to  propose  to  the  German  princes,  in  a  letter  drafted 
by  Bismarck  himself  but  accepted  and  sent  by  Louis,  that  a  joint  invitation  should 
be  given  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Prussia  to  combine  the  exercise  of  the  rights 
of  president  of  the  Federation  with  the  style  of  a  "G-erman  emperor."  King 
William  consented,  waiving  his  scruples  in  deference  to  the  universal  wish  of  the 
princes  and  peoples  of  Germany.  The  Eeichstag  and  the  Landtags  sanctioned 
the  constitution  of  the  "  German  Empire  "  in  December  and  January,  and  on  the 
18th  of  December  a  deputation  of  the  Eeichstag  appeared  at  Versailles,  in  order 


352  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         ichapter  iv 

to  transmit  to  the  king  through  the  president,  Simson  (p.  228),  the  good  wishes  of 
the  representatives  of  the  people  for  the  imperial  crown.  There  was  still  friction 
to  be  smoothed  away  ;  but  on  the  18th  of  January,  1871,  the  day  on  wliich  in  1701 
the  Prussian  monarchy  had  been  proclaimed  (Vol.  VII,  p.  500)  in  the  Hall  of 
Mirrors  of  the  splendid  Chateau  of  Versailles,  erected  by  Louis  XIV,  the  adop- 
tion of  the  imperial  title  was  solemnly  inaugurated  in  the  presence  of  numer- 
ous German  princes.  The  Grand  Duke  Frederick  of  Baden  led  the  first  cheer 
for  His  Majesty  Emperor  William.  In  a  proclamation  to  the  German  people, 
composed  by  Bismarck,  the  emperor  announced  his  resolve  "  to  aid  at  all  times, 
the  growth  of  the  empire,  not  by  the  conquests  of  the  sword,  but  by  the  goods 
and  gifts  of  peace,  in  the  sphere  of  national  prosperity,  freedom,  and  culture."  In 
the  thirty  years  and  more  that  have  elapsed  since  that  day  the  world  has  had 
opportunity  to  recognise  that  this  purpose  has  been  no  empty  phrase,  but  the 
guiding  star  of  three  German  emperors. 

(I)  The  Destruction  of  the  Paris  Forts ;  the  Battles  on  the  Lisaine.  —  At  the 
moment  when  the  empire  was  revived,  or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  was  called 
into  existence,  the  Trench  powers  of  resistance  were  everywhere  becoming 
exhausted ;  even  those  of  the  capital  were  failing.  At  Christmas  time  235  heavy 
pieces  of  siege  artillery  were  collected  in  Villacoublay,  east  of  Versailles,  and  the 
bombardment  of  the  east  front  of  Paris  was  commenced  on  December  27  with 
such  violence  that  the  French  evacuated  Mont  Avron  "almost  at  a  gallop."  The 
bombardment  of  the  city  itself  began  from  the  south  side  on  the  5th  of  January, 
and  after  five  and  a  half  hours  Fort  Issy  ceased  its  fire.  Since  the  shots,  owing 
to  an  elevation  of  thirty  degrees,  which  had  been  obtained  by  special  contrivances, 
carried  beyond  the  centre  of  the  city,  the  inhabitants  fled  from  the  south  to  the 
north  of  Paris,  —  a  movement  by  which  the  difficulties  of  feeding  them  were 
much  increased.  A  great  (and  final)  sortie  toward  the  west,  which  was  attempted 
on  January  19  by  Trochu  with  ninety  thousand  men,  was  defeated  at  Buzenval 
and  Saint-Cloud,  before  the  French  had  even  approached  the  main  positions  of  the 
Germans.  The  bombardment  of  the  north  front  began  on  January  21.  Here  too 
the  forts  were  completely  demolished ;  parts  of  the  bastions  were  soon  breached ; 
the  garrisons  had  no  protection  against  the  German  shells.  It  was  known  in  the 
city  that  Chanzy  had  been  completely  routed  at  Le  Mans  on  January  11  and  12, 
and  the  last  prospect  of  relief  was  destroyed  by  the  ill  tidings  from  the  east. 

General  Bourbaki  had  marched  in  that  direction  with  the  one-half  of  the  army 
of  the  Loire ;  with  the  strength  of  his  forces  raised  to  130,000  men,  he  hoped  to 
compel  the  Germans  under  Werder,  who  only  numbered  42,000,  to  relinquish  the 
siege  of  the  fortress  of  Belfort,  and  to  force  the  Germans  before  Paris  to  retire,  by 
threatening  their  communications  in  the  rear.  But  Werder  attacked  the  enemy, 
three  times  his  superior  in  numbers,  at  Montbdliard  on  the  Lisaine,  and  repulsed, 
in  the  three  days'  fighting,  from  the  15th  to  17th  January,  all  the  attacks  of 
Bourbaki.  Not  one  French  battalion  was  able  to  reach  Belfort,  where  salvos 
had  been  vainly  fired  in  honour  of  victory  when  the  cannon-shots  were  heard. 
Bourbabi  commenced  his  retreat,  dispirited  and  weakened ;  but  when  he  learnt 
that  Moltke  had  sent  General  Manteuffel  with  the  Pomeranians  and  Ehinelanders 
(the  1st  and  7th  corps)  to  block  his  road  by  Gray  and  Dole,  and  when 
Garibaldi,  although  he  retook  Dijon  and  on  January  23  captured  the  flag  of  the 


l^'PZfrioTiyoB]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  353 

61st  regiment  from  under  a  heap  of  dead  bodies,  was  unable  to  help  him,  he  went 
back  to  Pontarlier.  But  before  he  surrendered  his  army  to  be  disarmed  by  the 
neutral  Swiss  he  made  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  blow  out  his  brains.  His 
successor  Justin  Clinchant  finally  crossed  the  Franco-Swiss  frontier  on  February  1 
with  80,000  men.  The  last  army  of  France  was  thus  annihilated  and  the  fate 
of  Belfort  sealed.  Colonel  Denfert-Eochereau  surrendered  the  bravely  defended 
but  now  untenable  town  to  General  Udo  von  Tresckow  on  February  18. 

(?»)  From  the  Armistice  to  the  Conclusion  of  Peace.  —  In  Paris  the  dearth  of 
provisions  grew  greater  and  greater  during  January.  On  the  21st  a  pound  of  ham 
cost  16s.,  a  pound  of  butter  20s.,  a  goose  112s.  Horses,  cats  (=  9s.),  dogs,  and 
rats  had  long  been  eaten.  In  view  of  the  threatened  famine,  Favre,  the  Foreign 
Minister,  eventually  appeared  at  the  German  headquarters  on  January  23,  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty-seventh  day  of  the  siege,  to  negotiate  the  terms  of  a 
capitulation.  An  agreement  was  at  last  reached  on  January  28,  by  which  an 
armistice  of  twenty-one  days  was  granted  for  the  election  of  a  National  Assembly, 
which  should  decide  on  war  and  peace ;  but  in  return  for  the  concession  all  the 
forts  round  Paris  were  delivered  up  to  the  Germans,  and  the  whole  garrison  of  the 
town  declared  prisoners  of  war.  The  town  had  to  hand  over  all  its  cannons  and 
rifles  within  fourteen  days ;  the  only  exception  was  made  in  favour  of  the  National 
•Guard,  the  disarmament  of  which  Favre  declared  to  be  impracticable  owing  to  the 
insurrectionary  spirit  prevailing  in  that  corps.  Paris  was  thus  in  the  hands  of 
the  Germans,  although  the  emperor  refrained  from  a  regular  occupation  of  it, 
which  might  easily  lead  to  bloody  encounters  and  hence  to  new  difficulties,  in 
the  hope  of  peace  being  soon  concluded.  Permission  was,  of  course,  given  for 
provisioning  the  city. 

Gambetta  would  not  consent  to  the  armistice,  but  was  compelled  by  Jules 
Simon,  who  was  sent  by  the  government  to  Bordeaux,  to  retire  on  February  6. 
The  great  man  of  the  crisis  was  henceforward  Adolphe  Thiers  (p.  313),  who  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  had  counselled  a  cautious  policy,  and  then,  after  Sedan, 
had  vainly  endeavoured  to  induce  the  great  powers  to  intervene.  He  had  proved 
himself  a  far-sighted  patriot,  from  whom  the  country  might  look  for  its  rescue. 
On  February  8,  twenty-six  departments  elected  him  to  the  National  Assembly, 
which  numbered  among  the  768  deputies  400  to  500  supporters  of  the  mon- 
archy (Orl^anists  and  Legitimists),  but  included  a  large  majority  for  peace. 
Fully  a  third  of  France  was  occupied  by  the  Germans,  and  Faidherbe  declared 
that  if  the  government  wished  to  continue  the  war  in  Flanders,  the  people  would 
intervene  and  surrender  to  the  Germans  !  On  February  17  Thiers  was  elected  to 
the  highest  post  in  the  State  under  the  title  of  "  Chief  of  the  Executive,"  and  was 
sent  on  the  21st  to  Versailles  in  order  to  negotiate  a  peace.  Bismarck  demanded 
the  whole  of  Alsace  with  Belfort,  and  a  fifth  of  Lorraine  with  Metz  and  Dieden- 
hofen,  in  addition  six  milliards  and  the  entry  of  the  German  troops  into  Paris. 
After  prolonged  negotiations  he  assented  to  remit  one  milliard  and  waive  all 
claim  to  Belfort  (see  the  accompanying  plate,  "Important  Extracts  from  the 
Preliminary  Peace  of  Versailles,"  etc.),  but  insisted  the  more  emphatically  on  the 
entry  into  Paris,  which  in  some  degree  would  impress  the  seal  on  the  German 
victories  and  place  clearly  before  the  eyes  of  the  French  their  complete  defeat,  as 
a  deterrent  from  future  wars.     Thiers  hurried  with  the  conditions  mentioned  to 

VOL.   Vra.— 23 


354  HISTORY   OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

Bordeaux.  On  March  1,  the  same  day  on  which  thirty  thousand  German  soldiers, 
selected  from  all  the  German  races,  marched  into  Paris  and  occupied  the  quarter 
of  the  town  near  the  Champs  Elysfes  together  with  the  Chateau  of  the  Tuileries, 
the  preliminary  treaty  for  peace,  which  the  National  Assembly  had  adopted,  after 
a  stormy  debate,  by  546  votes  to  107,  was  completed  in  Bordeaux.  The  official 
ratification  of  it  reached  Versailles  on  the  evening  of  March  2.  The  Germans 
evacuated  Paris  on  the  3d,  and  retired  behind  the  right  bank  of  the  Seine,  which 
was  to  be  the  boundary  of  the  two  armies  until  the  final  peace  was  concluded. 
According  to  this  agreement  the  forts  to  the  east  and  north  of  Paris  were  still 
occupied  by  the  Germans. 

The  subsequent  peace  negotiations  were  conducted  in  Brussels  by  plenipoten- 
tiaries, but  proceeded  so  slowly  that  Bismarck,  at  the  beginning  of  May,  1871, 
finally  invited  Favre  to  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  clear  under- 
standing with  him  through  a  personal  conference.  After  a  short  discussion  the 
final  peace  was  signed  there  on  May  10  (see  the  accompanying  plate) ;  it  contained, 
contrary  to  the  preliminary  treaty,  a  small  exchange  of  territory  at  Belfort  and 
Diedenhofen,  and  the  proviso  that  the  evacuation  of  French  territory  by  the 
Germans  should  take  place  by  degrees,  in  proportion  as  instalments  of  the  war 
indemnity  were  paid. 

The  results  of  the  German  struggle  for  unity  were  immense.  In  comparison 
with,  them  the  sacrifices  of  the  war  were  not  so  excessive.  They  amounted  on  the  . 
German  side  to  28,600  killed  in  battle,  12,000  deaths  from  disease,  and  4,000  miss- 
ing, —  a  grand  total,  therefore,  of  about  45,000  men ;  the  number  of  wounded  was 
calculated  at  101,000.  The  French  lost  150,000  killed  and  150,000  wounded;  the 
number  of  prisoners  was  eventually  raised  to  more  than  600,000. 

Emperor  William  I  held  a  grand  review  of  the  victorious  troops  in  the  east 
of  Paris  on  March  7,  and  entered  Berlin  on  March  17.  On  the  21st  of  March 
he  opened  in  person  the  first  German  Eeichstag ;  on  June  16  a  triumphal  entry 
of  the  German  army,  selected  out  of  all  the  German  races,  was  made  into  Berlin 
between  two  lines  of  seven  thousand  four  hundred  captured  cannons.  The  age 
of  Louis  XIV  and  the  Napoleons  was  over.  The  European  balance  of  power  rested 
henceforward  firmly  and  securely  on  the  unassailable  migM  of  the  German  nation, 
now  united  for  all  time. 


2.   WESTERN  EUEOPE,  1871-1902 

A.  The  German  Empire 

In  the  years  1871-1902  three  emperors  have  ruled  at  the  head  of  the  German 
Empire.  First,  the  veteran  founder  of  the  empire,  William  I,  from  1871  to  1888 ; 
then  his  son  Frederick  III,  known  as  Crown  Prince  Frederick  William,  a  victim 
of  incurable  cancer,  who  reigned  only  ninety-nine  days,  from  March  9  to  June  15, 
1888;  and,  lastly,  his  eldest  son  William  II  (born  the  27th  of  January,  1859). 

The  differences  between  the  characters  of  these  three  rulers  are  strongly 
marked.  William  I  was  a  man  of  simple  character,  a  thorough  soldier,  taking  no 
great  interest  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  but  keenly  devoted  to  the  practical  business 


EXPLANATION   OF   THE  FOLLOWING   DOCUMENTS 

In  the  Preliminaries  of  Peace  signed  at  Versailles  on  February  26,  1871,  much  interest 
attaches  to  the  conclusion  of  the  first  article,  in  which,  after  the  cession  of  Alsace-Lorraine, 
together  with  i\Ietz,  express  mention  is  made  of  the  cession  of  Marie-aux-chgnes  and  Viouville 
to  Germany  and  of  the  retention  of  Belfort  by  France,  as  well  as  to  the  beginning  of  the  second 
article,  in  which  France  consents  to  pay  five  milliards  of  francs  (instead  of  the  six  milliards 
demanded  by  Germany).  The  handwriting  is  that  of  a  government  official.  The  last  page 
of  the  lengthy  preliminary  treaty  contains,  besides  the  last  paragraph  of  the  articles,  the  signa- 
tures of  Bismarck  (with  his  seal),  Thiers,  and  Favre.  Underneath,  in  the  autograph  of  Count 
Bray,  is  the  declaration  of  assent  by  the  States  of  South  Germany,  namely,  Bavaria  (Count 
,Bray-Steiuburg),  "Wiirtemberg  (Baron  Waechter  and  Mittnacht),  and  Baden  (Jolly). 

Since  the  most  important  stipulations  as  to  Alsace-Lorraine,  Belfort,  and  the  war  indemnity 
are  not  found  in  the  Treaty  of  Frankfort  Itself,  but  only  in  the  preliminaries  of  peace  at  Ver- 
sailles, the  preamble  and  the  conclusion  of  the  definitive  treaty  are  most  interesting  portions. 


Text  of  the  Original. 

Left.  [Preamble.  Article  I.  .  .  .  La  fron- 
tiere  telle  qu'elle  vient  d'etre  decrite,  se  trouve 
marquee  en  vert  sur  deux  exemplaires  con- 
formes  de  la  carte  du  territoire  formant  le 
Gouvernement  general  d' Alsace,  publiee  k  Ber- 
lin, en  septembre  1870,  par  la  division  geogra- 
phique  et  statistique  de  I'etat-major  general, 
et  dont  un  exemplaire  sera  joint  k  chacune 
des  deux  expeditions  du  present  traite.] 

Toutefois  le  trace  indique  a  subi  les  modifi- 
cations suivantes  de  I'accord  des  deux  parties 
contractantes :  Dans  I'ancien  departement  de 
la  Moselle  les  villages  de  Marie-aux-chenes 
pres  de  St.  Privat-la-Montagne,  et  de  Viou- 
ville, a  I'ouest  de  Rezonville,  seront  cedes  k 
I'Allemagne.  Par  contre  la  ville  et  les  forti- 
fications de  Belfort  resteront  a  la  France  avec 
un  rayon  qui  sera  determine  ulterieurement. 


Article  II. 

La  France  paiera  a  Sa  Majeste  I'Empereur 
d'Allemagne  la  somme  de  cinq  milliards  de 
francs. 

[Le  paiement  d'au  moins  un  milliard  de 
francs  aura  lieu  dans  le  courant  de  I'annee 
1871,  et  celui  de  tout  le  reste  de  la  dette  dans 
un  espace  de  trois  annees  k  partir  de  la  rati- 
fication des  presentes. 


English  Translation. 

.  .  .  [The  frontier,  as  just  described,  is 
marked  in  green  on  two  identical  copies  of 
the  map  of  the  territory  constituting  the  gov- 
ernment-general of  Alsace,  published  at  Ber- 
lin in  September,  1870,  by  the  geographical 
and  statistical  division  of  the  Headquarters 
Staff ;  an  impression  of  the  map  will  be  at- 
tached to  each  of  the  two  copies  of  the  present 
treaty.] 

The  frontier  as  there  marked  has,  however, 
been  modified  as  follows  by  the  consent  of  the 
two  contracting  parties  :  in  the  former  depart- 
ment of  Moselle  the  villages  of  Marie-aux- 
chenes  near  St.  Privat-la-Moutagne,  and  of 
Vionville,  to  the  west  of  Rezonville,  will  be 
ceded  to  Germany.  On  the  other  hand  the 
town  and  fortress  of  Belfort  will  continue  to 
belong  to  France,  together  with  some  sur- 
rounding districts  which  will  be  subsequently 
defined. 

Article  II. 

France  will  pay  to  H.  M.  the  German  Em- 
peror the  sum  of  five  milliards  of  francs. 

[At  least  one  milliard  of  francs  will  be  paid 
during  the  year  1871,  and  the  rest  of  the  in- 
demnity before  the  expiration  of  three  years 
from  the  ratification  of  these  presents. 


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Article  III. 

L'evacuation  des  territoires  fraiipais  occupes 
par  les  troupes  allemandes  commencera.   .   .   .] 


En  foi  de  quoi  les  soussigues  ont  revetu  le 
present  traite  preliminaire  de  leurs  signatures 
et  de  leurs  sceaux. 

Fait  k  Versailles  le  26.  fevrier  1871. 

V.  Bismarck.    Afdolphe]  Thiers. 
Jules  Favre 

Les  Royaumes  de  Baviere  et  de  Wurttem- 
berg  et  le  Grand  Duche  de  Bade  ayant  pris 
part  k  la  guerre  actuelle  coname  allies  de  la 
Prusse  et  faisant  partie  maintenant  de  I'Em- 
pire  Germanique,  les  soussigues  adherent  h,  la 
presents  convention  au  noni  de  leurs  souve- 
rains  respeotifs. 

Versailles,  le  26  Fevrier,  1871. 

C''  de  Bray-Steiuburg 

B'  de  Waechter 

Mittnacht. 

Jolly 

Right.  Le  Prince  Othon  de  Bismarck-Schoen- 
hausen,  Chancelier  de  I'Empire  germanique, 
le  Comte  Harry  d'Arnim,  Envoye  extraordi- 
naire et  Ministre  plenipotentiare  de  Sa  Ma- 
jesto  I'Empereur  d'Allemagne  pres  du  St. 
Siege :  stipulant  au  nom  de  Sa  Majeste  I'Em- 
pereur d'Allemagne,  d'un  c6te,  de  I'autre 
Monsieur  Jules  Favre,  Ministre  des  affaires 
^trangeres  de  la  Kepublique  fran9aise,  Mon- 
sieur Augustin  Thomas  Joseph  Pouyer  Quer- 
tier,  Ministre  des  finances  de  la  Republique 
frangaise,  et  Monsieur  Marc  Thomas  Eugene 
de  Goulard,  Membre  de  I'Assemblee  nationale, 
stipulant  au  nom  de  la  Republique  fran^aise 
[s'etant  .   .   . 


.  .  .  d'un  c5te,  et  de  I'autre  par  I'Assemblee 
nationale  et  par  le  Chef  du  Pouvoir  executif 
de  la  Ri^publique  fran9aise]  seront  echangees 
a  Francfort  dans  le  delai  de  dix  jours  ou  plus 
tot  1  si  faire  se  peut. 

En  foi  de  quoi  les  Plenipotentiares  respec- 
tifs  Font  signe  et  y  ont  appose  le  cachet  de 
leurs  armes. 

Fait  h  Francfort  le  10  mai  1871. 
V.  Bismarck  Jules  Favre 

Arnim  Pouyer-quertier 

E.  de  Goulard 


Article  HI. 

The  evacuation  of  the  French  territory  oc- 
cupied by  the  German  troops  will  begin  .   .   .] 


In  confirmation  whereof  the  undersigned 
have  attached  their  signatures  and  seals  to 
the  present  treaty. 

Versailles,  February  26,  1871. 

v.  Bismarck.         A.  Thiers. 
Jules  Favre. 

Since  the  kingdoms  of  Bavaria  and  of  Wtir- 
temberg  and  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden  have 
taken  part  in  the  present  war  as  allies  of 
Prussia,  and  now  form  a  part  of  the  Geiman 
Empire,  the  undersigned  agree  to  the  present 
convention  in  the  names  of  their  respective 
sovereigns. 

Versailles,  February  26,  1871. 

Count  Bray-Steinburg 

Baron  Waechter 

Mittnacht 

Jolly 

Prince  Otto  Bismarck-Schoenhausen,  Chan- 
cellor of  the  German  Empire,  Count  Harry 
Arnim,  Ambassador  Extraordinary  and 
Plenipotentiary  of  H.  M.  the  German 
Emperor  to  the  Holy  See,  contracting  in  the 
name  of  H.  M.  the  German  Empei-or  of  the 
one  part,  Monsieur  Jules  Favre,  Foreign 
Minister  of  the  French  Republic,  Monsieur 
Augustin  Thomas  Joseph  Pouyer -Quertier, 
Finance  Minister  of  the  French  Republic,  and 
Monsieur  Marc  Thomas  Eugen  de  Goulard, 
member  of  the  National  Assembly,  contract- 
ing in  the  name  of  the  French  Republic,  of 
the  other  part  .   .  . 


.  .  .  [on  the  one  side^nd  on  the  other  by 
the  National  Assembly  and  by  the  chief  of 
the  executive  power  of  the  French  Republic] 
will  be  exchanged  at  Frankfort  within  a 
period  of  ten  days,i  or  sooner  if  possible. 

In    confirmation     of     the     above    the    re- 
spective plenipotentiaries  have  signed  it  and 
sealed  it  with  their  own  coat  of  arms. 
Signed  at  Frankfort  the  10th  May,  1871. 
V.  Bismarck  Jules  Favre 

Arnim .  Pouyer-  Quertier 

E.  de  Goulard. 


The  -wordphUSt  originally  written  by  the  clerk  has  been  erased  and  plus  t6t  substituted. 


IrrZfmi-im']      HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  355 

of  life,  full  of  manly  amiability  and  loyal  conscientiousness.  The  words  he  uttered 
on  his  deathbed,  "  I  have  no  time  to  be  tired,"  characterise  his  whole  nature.  He 
had  the  highest  conception  of  his  royal  rights  and  duties;  he  read  everything 
which  he  had  to  sign,  and  emphatically  asserted  his  own  views  ;  but  he  was  acces- 
sible to  the  counsel  of  experienced  statesmen.  He  adhered  with  the  greatest 
tenacity  to  the  old  Prussian  traditions. 

Frederick  III  was  by  nature  and  through  the  influence  of  his  English  consort 
Victoria,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert  of  Coburg, 
devoted  to  the  liberal  ideas  of  the  time,  a  warm  friend  of  all  artistic  and  scientific 
effort  (for  example,  following  the  suggestion  of  Ernst  Curtius  he  ordered  the 
excavations  at  Olympia  to  be  carried  out  at  the  cost  of  the  State),  and  a  soldier  so 
far  and  no  farther  than  his  political  position  required.  In  his  brief  reign  he 
allowed  himself  to  be  directed  by  the  imperial  chancellor.  Otto  von  Bismarck 
(fJuly  30,  1898;  Prince  Bismarck  since  1871),  from  whom  his  father  had 
repeatedly  declared  that  he  never  wished  to  be  separated.  Differences  of  opinion 
which  had  earlier  (especially  1863-1866)  existed  between  the  monarch  and  the 
statesman  sank  so  much  into  the  background  in  the  ninety-nine  days,  that  Bis- 
marck asserted  he  had  never,  in  his  long  ministerial  career,  known  less  friction 
between  crown  and  ministry  than  under  the  emperor  Frederick. 

Affairs  assumed  a  quite  different  shape  under  William  II,  who,  coming  to  the 
throne  as  a  young  man  of  twenty-nine  years,  brought  with  him  a  thoroughly  inde- 
pendent, indeed  despotic,  nature,  and  in  the  consciousness  of  ample  abilities  and 
honest  purpose  felt  competent  to  be  his  own  chancellor.  Thus,  after  only  one 
year  and  a  half  a  sharp  quarrel  broke  out  between  the  young  monarch  and 
the  gray-haired  statesman,  who  so  long  had  conducted  affairs  with  prudence  and 
courage.  From  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  legitimate  position  of  the  prime 
minister  toward  the  crown  and  his  colleagues,  and  as  to  the  social  and  political 
questions  which  William  II  thought  he  was  able  to  solve  at  one  stroke,  the  feud 
blazed  up  so  fiercely  that  the  emperor  on  March  20,  1890,  abruptly  dismissed  Bis- 
marck. Since  then.  Count  Leo  von  Caprivi  (f  February  6,  1899),  from  October, 
1894,  Prince  Chlodwig  von  Hohenlohe-Schillingsftirst  (f  July  6,  1901),  and  after 
October  17, 1900,  Bernhard  (Count)  von  Biilow,  have  successively  filled  the  office 
of  imperial  chancellor ;  but  the  importance  of  the  office  has  been  much  diminished 
by  the  personal  activity  of  the  emperor. 

Although  just  criticism  has  often  been  brought  to  bear  on  particular  measures 
taken  by  the  government  in  the  period  from  1871  to  1902,  and  on  its  frequently 
slack  and  unsteady  attitude  since  1890,  and  although  serious  discontent  was  pro- 
duced, especially  under  Caprivi,  by  its  Anglophile  tendencies,  its  indulgence 
towards  the  Poles,  and  its  brusque  treatment  of  Bismarck,  whom  the  emperor 
took  back  into  favour  in  January,  1894,  yet  it  cannot  be  disguised  that  during  this 
whole  period  the  development  of  the  German  nation,  in  spite  of  disagreeable  epi- 
sodes of  every  sort,  has  been  materially  advanced.  The  phrase  of  William  II, 
"I  am  leading  you  towards  splendid  prospects,"  was  a  proud  but  not  untrue 
utterance. 

{a)  The  Consolidation  of  the  Umpire  at  Rome.  —  The  institutions  of  the  empire 
in  the  very  first  years  of  its  existence  were  completed  by  unceasing  and  generally 
successful  legislative  work.      In  the  year  1872  a  uniform   decimal  system  was 


356  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  {Chapter  iv 

introduced  in  place  of  the  former  countless  varieties  of  coins,  weights,  and  measures. 
The  coinage  was  placed  on  the  basis  of  a  gold  standard,  which  could  not  be 
seriously  shaken  by  the  violent  attacks  of  the  bimetallist  party. 

In  the  domain  of  legal  administration  the  unification  of  civO.  procedure  and 
the  arrangement  of  the  courts  was  carried  out  in  1876,  after  the  North  German 
Confederation  had  already  imified  the  administration  of  the  criminal  law  (p.  317). 
The  concluding  step  in  the  reform  in  the  law  courts  was  the  acceptance  of  a  uni- 
form civil  code  by  the  Eeichstag  in  the  year  1896.  The  code,  after  the  introduc- 
tory labours  were  completed,  came  into  force  for  the  whole  empire  on  January  1, 
1900.  Under  this  head  comes  the  decree,  made  in  the  year  1898,  establishing  a 
uniform  military  crimiual  procedure,  when  a  concession  was  made  to  the  Bavarian 
spirit  of  individualism  in  the  shape  of  an  exclusively  Bavarian  senate  in  the  High 
Court  at  Berlin. 

Bismarck  availed  himself  of  the  economic  crisis  in  the  middle  of  the  seventies 
to  effect  in  1879,  with  the  help  of  the  Centre,  a  tariff  reform  which  granted  mod- 
erate protective  tariffs  for  all  branches  of  national  productive  enterprise  for  agri- 
culture and  industrial  employments,  and  filled  the  empty  coffers  of  the  empire  by 
the  State  taxes  imposed  on  colonial  produce.  Since  then  the  empire,  until  quite 
recently,  instead  of  being  compelled  to  meet  its  expenses  by  calling  upon  the 
individual  States  for  proportionate  contributions  (p.  309),  has  been,  on  the  con- 
trary, in  a  position  in  favourable  years  to  devote  considerable  advances  out  of  its 
income  to  these  States.  The  allied  governments  regarded  the  complete  severance 
of  the  finances  of  the  empire  from  those  of  the  separate  States,  so  that  each  part 
would  have  assigned  to  it  distinct  sources  of  taxation  for  its  exclusive  use,  as  the 
ideal  of  a  systematised  financial  economy.  Hitherto  this  plan  of  the  Prussian 
finance  minister  Johannes  von  Miquel  (f  September  8, 1901)  has  failed  to  obtain  a 
majority  in  the  Reichstag ;  the  Centre  in  particular  dreaded  that  its  parliamentary 
influence  would  be  weakened  by  the  independence  of  the  imperial  government  in 
financial  respects,  and  that  the  independence  of  the  separate  States  would  be 
despised  by  an  empire  which  was  self-supporting.  In  the  end  the  necessity  of 
meeting  the  imperial  outgoings  in  extreme  cases  by  claims  on  the  separate  States 
seemed  an  incentive  to  economy  in  imperial  finance.  T^  ZoUverein  was  in  1882 
and  1885  completed  by  the  entry  of  the  still  outstanding  Hanse  towns  Hamburg 
and  Bremen  into  the  union,  though  Hamburg  only  consented  after  an  opposi- 
tion as  violent  as  it  was  short-sighted.  Bismarck,  when  the  thought  of  unity  had 
forced  its  way  in,  true  to  his  fixed  principle  of  promoting  unity,  did  much  to  sup- 
port the  just  interests  of  Hamburg ;  and  the  city  owes  to  that  step,  from  which  it 
originally  feared  its  destruction,  a  prosperity  of  trade  and  commerce  which  raises 
it  to  the  first  place  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  which  is  only  surpassed  by 
London  in  the  whole  world.  During  the  chancellorship  of  Caprivi  commercial 
treaties  were  settled  in  1892  with  Austria,  Italy,  and  Eoumania,  and  one  with  Eussia 
in  1894.  Industries  were  greatly  benefited  by  these,  while  agriculturists  com- 
plained of  severe  losses  from  the  lowering  of  the  corn  tax  from  five  marks  to  three 
and  one-half  marks  for  the  double  hundredweight.  For  this  reason  the  proposal 
to  renew  the  commercial  treaties  which  expired  in  1904  met  with  the  emphatic 
opposition  of  the  German  agriculturists,  and  the  government  declared  its  readiness 
to  restore  the  rate  of  five  marks.  The  Eeichstag  approved  the  tariff  laid  before  it 
on  December  14,  1902. 


Western  Europe  in 
the  Years  1866-1902, 


]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  357 


The  reform  of  the  military  system  was  of  great  importance  for  the  consolida- 
tion of  national  unity ;  for  peaceable  as  the  policy  of  the  empire  has  been  under 
all  three  emperors,  yet  the  existence  of  so  powerful  a  force  as  the  empire  repre- 
sents has  roused  envy  and  distrust  in  Europe  on  many  sides.  Above  all,  the  heart- 
felt longing  of  the  French  nation  remained  for  decades  fixed  on  one  object, — 
the  exaction,  so  soon  as  any  opportunity  presented,  of  a  bloody  revenge  for  the 
humiliation  sustained  in  1870-1871,  and  the  restoration  of  the  old  pre-eminence 
of  France  in  Europe.  The  obvious  necessitv  of  withdrawing  military  matters 
from  the  arena  of  parliamentary  disputes  and  of  giving  them  a  more  secure  and 
more  permanent  basis  than  was  possible  under  the  system  of  annual  grants,  and 
the  natural  wish  of  the  Eeichstag  to  maintain  with  regard  to  the  army  its  right 
of  making  yearly  money  grants,  constituted  a  difficult  problem ;  Bismarck,  how- 
ever, in  1874,  found  an  acceptable  middle  course,  by  agreeing  to  the  proposal  of 
the  National  Liberals,  who  were  predominant  in  the  Eeichstag,  and  by  declaring 
that  the  grant  of  the  requisite  means  for  a  peace  strength  of  401,000  men  for  seven 
years  would  be  sufficient.  In  1880  the  necessary  sums  for  an  army  of  427,000 
men,  corresponding  to  the  increase  of  the  population,  were  once  more  granted. 
When  in  1887  the  government  asked  for  a  renewal  of  the  septennial  grant,  this  time 
for  468,000  men,  a  majority,  formed  of  a  Catholic  Centre  and  the  Left,  which  had 
existed  since  the  elections  of  the  autumn  of  1881,  rejected  this  demand  by  186  votes 
to  154.  The  468,000  men  were  only  to  be  granted  for  three  years.  But  the  emperor 
then,  with  the  consent  of  the  Bundesrat,  dissolved  the  Eeichstag,  and,  on  the  new 
elections,  the  government  obtained  a  majority  of  roughly  220  to  180  votes,  so  that 
on  March  11  the  army  bill  as  framed  by  the  government  was  accepted.  The 
Eeichstag  elected  under  the  influence  of  the  military  dispute  and  of  an  apprehended 
colhsion  with  France  was  in  other  respects  fruitful  in  results.  In  1888  it  sub- 
stituted quinquennial  elections  for  triennial,  in  order  that  the  Eeichstags  might 
enjoy  a  longer  period  of  activity  undisturbed  by  election  considerations.  Since  it 
was  impossible  permanently  to  carry  out  the  system  of  universal  liability  to  bear 
arms  with  a  three  years'  service  except  at  an  enormous  cost,  in  1893,  under 
Caprivi's  chancellorship,  but  not  without  a  renewed  dissolution  of  the  Eeichstag 
(May  6),  the  two  years'  period  of  service,  with  a  concurrent  raising  of  the  peace 
strength  to  479,000  men,  privates,  lance-corporals,  and  corporals  (that  is  to  say, 
without  reckoning  the  under  officers,  the  one-year  volunteers,  and  the  officers),  was 
passed  on  July  15  by  a  bare  majority.  The  increase  of  recruits  consequent  on 
this  law  amounted  annually  to  60,000  men.  The  opposition  was  willing,  indeed, 
to  accept  the  shortening  of  the  period  of  service,  but  not  to  concede  the  strength- 
ening of  the  army ;  this  time,  however,  it  was  finally  left  in  a  minority  in  the 
Eeichstag,  although  it  was  supported  by  a  small  majority  of  the  electors. 

The  ever  pressing  necessity  that  Germany  should  acquire  her  share  of  interna- 
tional commerce,  and  the  oversea  territory  which  is  indispensable  as  a  base  for 
such  commerce  (cf.  below,  p.  363),  led,  under  William  II,  to  the  building  of  a 
powerful  fleet.  "  Our  future,"  declared  the  emperor,  "  lies  on  the  sea ;  we  must 
follow  a  world-policy."  In  1898,  therefore,  a  preliminary  naval  bill  was  carried 
in  the  Eeichstag,  which  fixed  the  number  of  battle-ships  at  nineteen.  But  the 
victory  of  the  United  States  of  North  America  over  the  feeble  naval  resources  of 
Spain  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  564,  and  Vol.  IV,  p.  562)  immediately  changed  the  situation ; 
the  United  States  became  a  great  power  in  Eastern  Asia,  and  it  was  shown  that 


358  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

antiquated  ships  were  not  merely  worthless,  but  absolutely  dangerous  to  their 
crews,  since  they  are  certain  to  be  destroyed  in  a  battle  with  better-equipped 
opponents.  In  order  that  Germany  might  not  be  entirely  outstripped,  a  second 
naval  bUl  was  passed  on  June  12,  1900,  through  the  patriotic  self-sacrifice  of  the 
Eeichstag,  by  201  votes  to  103,  by  which  the  number  of  the  battle-ships  was 
increased  to  38,  that  of  the  cruisers  to  52.  If  the  provisions  of  this  bill  are  car- 
ried out  by  1916,  Germany  will  then  be  able  to  put  into  action  a  war  fleet  which 
might  contest  with  the  English  fleet  (so  far  as  it  cotdd  be  employed  for  the  North 
Sea)  for  the  sovereignty  of  her  own  sea.  The  French  journal  "  Le  Temps "  was 
right  when  in  1898  it  greeted  the  first  attempts  to  found  a  German  fleet  on  a 
grand  scale  with  the  words,  "  Une  grande  puissance  navale  va  entrer  en  seine." 

(h)  The  Kulturhampf.  —  The  first  decade  of  the  new  empire  was  to  a  large 
extent  occupied  with  a  violent  struggle  between  the  Prussian  State  and  the 
Catholic  Church,  in  which  the  sympathies  of  the  whole  empire  were  enlisted  on 
the  one  side  or  the  other.  It  was,  as  Karl  Aug.  von  Hase,  the  Protestant  ecclesi- 
astical historian  (Vol.  VII,  p.  346)  aptly  remarked,  in  itself  improbable  that  the 
Eoman  Curia  and  a  State  of  such  pre-eminently  Protestant  stamp  as  the  German 
Empire  would  at  once  find  their  proper  relations  one  to  the  other  without  a 
conflict ;  on  the  contrary,  they  would  only  learn  this  from  a  contest  in  which 
both  parties  felt  the  strength  of  their  antagonist. 

In  the  first  German  Eeichstag  an  almost  exclusively  Catholic  party  was 
formed,  the  Centre,  which  stood  under  the  extremely  clever  leadership  of  the 
Hanoverian  ex-Minister  of  State  Ludwig  Windthorst  (1812-1891),  and  immedi- 
ately proved  itself  the  refuge  of  Ultramontane,  Guelf,  and  Particularist  efforts. 
It  aimed,  but  unsuccessfully,  at  a  German  interference  in  Italy,  in  order  to  win 
back  for  the  Pope  his  temporal  power,  and  demanded  that  the  articles  of  the 
Prussian  constitution,  which  secured  to  the  churches  complete  freedom  from  State 
control,  should  be  introduced  into  the  imperial  constitution  ;  but  it  was  unable 
to  carry  its  wishes  either  with  Bismarck  or  in  the  Eeichstag.  It  adopted,  in 
consequence,  an  unfriendly  attitude  towards  the  government.  The  Prussian  gov- 
ernment further  complained  that  the  Catholic  clergy  iu  ;^sen  and  West  Prussia, 
by  an  abuse  of  their  influential  position,  especially  in  th*  matter  of  elementary 
schools,  which  were  under  their  direction,  supported  the  national  Polish  move- 
ments and  prejudiced  the  German  Catholics  in  favour  of  Poland. 

As  a  result  of  all  this  agitation  Heinr.  von  MUhler,  the  Minister  of  Public 
Worship,  who  was  considered  a  willing  tool  of  the  ambitious  schemes  of  the 
Church,  both  Catholic  and  Evangelical,  was  dismissed  in  January,  1872,  and  the 
ministry  of  Public  Worship  and  Instruction  was  transferred  to  Adalbert  Falk 
(1827-1900),  a  man  who  might  be  expected  to  check  these  plans.  The  latter 
first  carried  a  bill  in  1872,  which  strictly  defined  the  inspection  of  schools 
as  a  State  concern,  and  threw  open  to  laymen  the  office  of  inspector,  par- 
ticularly in  country  districts.  Falk  then  in  1873  brought  before  the  Landtag 
of  the  monarchy  the  four  bills,  which,  in  spite  of  violent  opposition  on  the  part 
of  the  Centre  and  the  Extreme  Eight,  obtained  a  large  majority  and  were  called 
"  May  Laws,"  since  they  received  the  sanction  of  the  crown  in  May,  1873.  The 
first  of  these  laws  confined  within  closer  limits  the  right  of  the  churches  to 
inflict  penalties  on  laymen  in  the  case  of  contumacy  ;  the  second  restricted  their 


rS/ir«J       HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  359 


the 


disciplinary  power  over  their  clergy  and  abolished  all  foreign  (and  therefore  all 
papal)  jurisdiction  over  Prussian  clergy.  The  third  enacted  that  the  clergy 
should  no  longer  be  educated  for  their  profession  in  ecclesiastical  but  in  State 
institutions,  and  prohibited  their  attendance  at  foreign  seminaries,  especially 
those  in  Eome  ;  it  also  provided  that  the  bishops,  before  making  any  appointment 
to  a  benefice,  should  give  notice  to  the  State  authorities,  and,  if  a  well-founded 
protest  was  made  by  the  State,  should  make  another  nomination.  The  fourth  law 
regulated  withdrawals  from  the  churches.  Finally,  in  1875  a  fifth  law  abolished 
all  religious  orders  in  Prussia  which  did  not  devote  themselves  to  the  care  of  the 
sick,  and  thus  in  particular  put  an  end  to  their  activity  in  school  matters. 

Since  the  Pope,  and  the  bishops  following  the  example  set  them  by  the  Pope, 
pronounced  these  laws  incompatible  with  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  in  accordance  with  the  saying,  "  We  must  obey  God  more  than  men,"  refused 
submission  to  these  laws,  a  struggle  of  many  years'  duration  broke  out  between 
the  State  and  the  Church ;  the  vast  majority  of  the  Catholic  population  showed 
unbroken  loyalty  and  obedience  to  their  spiritual  leaders.  The  struggle  was 
waged  on  both  sides  with  much  bitterness,  and  since  Catholic  priests  frequently 
used  the  pulpit  in  order  to  fire  the  believers  to  resist  the  State  laws,  the  Prussian 
government  held  itself  bound  to  proceed  against  such  agitation  by  penal  measures. 
But  since  criminal  jurisdiction  was  one  of  the  rights  of  the  empire,  it  was 
inevitable  that  the  latter  should  be  entangled  in  the  quarrel.  At  the  instance 
of  Johann  Lutz,  the  Bavarian  minister,  who  was  engaged  in  a  keen  contest  with 
the  Bavarian  Ultramontanes,  the  so-called  "pulpit  paragraph,"  which  attached 
penalties  to  the  misuse  of  the  pulpit  for  inciting  opposition  against  the  govern- 
ment, had  been  inserted  in  the  Criminal  Code  in  November,  1871.  The  empire 
on  two  other  occasions  lent  the  Prussian  government  its  aid,  first  on  July  4, 1872, 
when  it  prohibited  the  Jesuit  order  and  its  branches  from  owning  establishments 
in  the  dominions  of  the  empire  and  from  developing  any  activity  as  an  order,  and 
again  on  February  6,  1875,  when  it  introduced  civil  marriage  in  a  universally 
binding  form  (not  merely  the  so-called  civil  marriage  of  necessity).  By  these 
imperial  laws  it  was  rendered  impossible  for  the  Catholic  clergy  and  that  warlike 
militia  of  the  infallible  Pope,  the  order  of  Jesuits,  to  agitate  against  the  May 
Laws ;  and  the  influence  of  the  Church  on  civil  life  was  checked,  since  a  marriage 
might  be  contracted  and  a  household  founded  without  the  benediction  of  the 
Church. 

The  government  was  supported  in  this  struggle  by  the  two  middle  parties, 
the  Free  Conservatives  and  the  National  Liberals,  who  formed  its  parliamentary 
support  generally,  and  for  some  time  also  by  the  Progressist  party.  To  a  leader 
of  this  party,  Professor  Rudolf  Virchow  of  Berlin,  is  due  the  phrase  that  the 
dispute  was  a  "  Kulturkampf,"  that  is  to  say,  a  victory  of  the  State  would  signify 
a  victory  of  culture  over  barbarism.  Almost  the  entire  liberal  and  radical  press 
attacked  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  Centre  most  vigorously,  and  the  minister 
Falk  (=  falcon)  was  greeted  on  his  journeys  as  the  noble  falcon  whose  mission 
was  to  scare  away  the  tribe  of  owls  from  Germany. 

The  government  had  for  its  supporters  among  the  Catholic  population  the 
Old  Catholics,  the  opponents  of  the  dogma  of  infallibility,  who,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Reinkens  (chosen  bishop  by  their  synod;  cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  352),  Friedr. 
Michelis,   Dbllinger,  Joh.    Friedr.  Eitter  von  Schulte,  and   others,  represented 


360  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         \_Chapter  iv 

the  religious  aspirations  of  Catholicism  in  contrast  to  the  political  ambitions 
of  the  Ultramontanes,  and  the  so-called  National  Catholics,  who  recognised,  it  is 
true,  the  infallible  Pope,  but  with  a  peculiar  inward  contradiction  argued  for  the 
independence  of  the  State  in  its  own  territory,  as  if  the  Church,  built  up  on  the 
basis  of  infallibility,  would  regard  any  territory  as  exempt  from  her  authority. 
But  the  great  bulk  of  the  Catholic  Prussians  attached  themselves  more  closely 
than  ever  to  the  side  of  the  Pope  and  the  bishops,  owing  to  the  "  Diocletian-like 
persecution,"  when  seven  out  of  twelve  Prussian  bishops  were  deposed  for  neg- 
lecting to  give  notice  of  ecclesiastical  appointments,  and  nearly  one  thousand 
parsonages  were  made  vacant.  The  number  of  Catholic  journals  grew  in  six  years 
from  four  to  one  hundred  and  twenty,  and  the  Centre,  which,  when  founded,  held 
only  fifty  seats  in  the  Eeichstag,  rose  to  more  than  one  hundred  members,  since 
by  degrees  all  the  constituencies  in  which  the  Catholic  religion  predominated 
were  captured  by  it.  The  parliamentary  position  of  the  Centre  was  strengthened 
in  1876  by  the  circumstance  that  the  Conservative  movement,  which  had  long 
been  weakening,  was  revived,  and  soon,  under  the  name  of  the  "  German-Conser- 
vative party,"  obtained  considerable  power  in  the  Eeichstag.  It  did  not  allow 
the  Extreme  Eight  (which  under  the  ex-Landrat  Gustav  von  Diest-Daber  declared 
war  on  Bismarck  as  a  revolutionary  and  a  hireling  of  the  ultra-Semitic  bourse) 
to  give  the  keynote  to  its  policy,  but  in  general  political  questions  followed  the 
lead  of  the  great  statesman  who  had  formerly  been  fiercely  attacked  without 
good  cause  by  the  Conservatives,  also  on  account  of  the  radical  Prussian  district 
organisation  (cf.  p.  366).  It  took  up,  however,  an  unfavourable  attitude  towards 
the  Kulturkampf,  because  the  latter  did  far  more  harm  to  the  Evangelical  Church 
than  to  the  Catholic.  The  Catholics  found  an  advocate  at  court  in  the  empress 
Augusta,  and  the  difficulties  which  this  clever  woman  put  in  the  path  of  Bismarck 
and  Falk  were  much  resented  by  both. 

Bismarck  during  the  heat  of  the  dispute  had  already  declared  that  the  govern- 
ment built  up  their  hopes  of  peace  mainly  on  the  prospfect  that  a  peace-loving 
Pope  would  once  again,  as  had  happened  in  past  history,  succeed  the  belligerent 
Pope  Pius  IX.  This  event  occurred  in  February  20, 1878,  when,  after  the  death 
of  Pius  (February  7),  Cardinal  Joachim  Pecci  was  elected  fiape,  and  took  the  title 
of  Leo  XIII.  He  prided  himself  on  calming  by  peaceful  concessions  the  disturb- 
ances under  which  the  reputation  alike  of  State  and  Church  had  suffered  greatly 
(Bismarck  was,  on  July  13, 1874,  the  object  of  a  murderous  attack  by  KuUmann,  a 
fanatical  Catholic).  The  nuncio  at  Munich,  Gaet.  Al.  Masella,  visited  Bismarck 
at  Kissingen  in  July,  1878.  Falk  was  obliged  to  retire  on  July  14,  1879,  and  the 
co-operation  of  the  Centre  with  Bismarck  in  the  question  of  the  customs  tariff  had 
a  favourable  influence  on  the  other  relations  of  the  two  parties.  After  nine  years 
of  excessively  difficult  negotiations  a  truce  was  concluded  in  1887,  to  which  the 
most  trenchant  May  Laws  were  sacrificed ;  for  instance,  the  law  concerning  the 
ecclesiastical  court  and  the  preliminary  training  of  the  clergy  in  State  institutions. 
But  the  State  had  by  no  means  made  an  unconditional  surrender  to  the  Church ; 
on  the  contrary,  all  the  three  imperial  laws  remained  in  force,  and  in  Prussia  the 
law  as  to  State  control  of  the  schools,  the  exclusion  of  the  orders  from  the  schools, 
and  the  obligation  of  the  bishops  to  signify  beforehand  to  the  Oherprdsid'ent  (lord 
lieutenant)  of  the  respective  province  the  names  of  the  clergy  whom  they  proposed 
to  appoint  to  vacant  benefices.     The  Centre  became,  nominally  after   Caprivi's 


rS.lTsTM      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  361 

entrance  on  ofl&ce,  and  completely  after  it  held  the  presidency  of  the  Reichstag, 
more  and  more  a  support  of  the  government,  and  knew  how  to  turn  its  powerful 
position  in  parliament  to  its  own  account.  It  was  not  able,  however,  to  procure 
the  subordination  of  schools  to  the  Church,  although  this  proposal  was  keenly 
advocated  by  Count  Eobert  von  Zedlitz,  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship  in  1892 ; 
a  measure  for  the  admission  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  "  Lex  Heinze  "  against  the  nude 
in  art  were  also  rejected;  although  in  the  first  and  third  points  the  Centre  was 
supported  by  the  Conservatives.  Since  1893  there  had  frequently  been  a  majority 
in  the  Eeichstag  in  favour  of  the  readmission  of  the  Jesuits ;  and  at  the  begin- 
ning of  1903  the  imperial  chancellor  disclosed  to  it  the  prospect  of  repealing  the 
second  paragraph  of  the  law  affecting  the  Jesuits  (p.  359),  by  virtue  of  which  the 
Bundesrat  can  assign  a  residence  to  individual  Jesuits. 

(c)  The  Social  Question  in  Germany.  —  The  discovery  of  the  steam-engine  by 
James  Watt  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  pp.  109  and  370)  inaugurated  an  economic  develop- 
ment which  destroyed  the  previously  existing  connection  of  labour  with  the  tools 
of  labour ;  the  tools  were  given  up  to  the  capitalist,  who  then  hired  and  made  full 
use  of  the  human  working  power.  In  earlier  centuries  the  handworker  himself 
possessed  the  tools  of  his  craft  and  was  independent;  he  worked  only  on  his 
account.  But  for  the  future  only  the  rich  man  could  procure  the  costly  working 
apparatus,  to  which  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine  has  led ;  the  workman,  in 
order  to  earn  his  living,  was  compelled  to  hire  himself  out  to  the  owner  of  the 
machine,  and  to  leave  him  a  share  of  the  proceeds  of  his  work.  The  workmen 
felt  this  to  be  unjust ;  they  did  not  take  into  consideration  that  the  factory  owner 
primarily  has  to  bear  the  risks  of  a  stoppage  of  the  machinery,  and  must  devote 
his  brains  and  his  business  faculties  to  the  management  of  the  whole  concern. 
They  demanded  the  full  proceeds  of  their  work  for  themselves,  and  accordingly 
aimed  at  transferring  the  apparatus  of  labour  (the  factories,  the  machinery,  and 
the  sites)  into  the  joint  possession  of  all  workers.  They  considered  that  one 
who  hired  workmen  for  wages,  whether  as  a  manufacturer  or  as  a  landowner,  was 
making  unfair  profit  out  of  his  fellow-men.  That  was  the  view  of  the  Social 
Democrats,  who,  as  their  name  attests,  aimed  at  replacing  the  supremacy  of  a 
capitalist  aristocracy  by  that  of  the  people  united  for  the  purposes  of  collective 
production.  The  scientific  champions  of  Social  Democracy  in  Germany  were 
Ferdinand  Lassalle  (1825-1864),  Karl  Marx  (1818-1883),  and  Friedrich  Engels 
(1820-1895) ;  their  leaders,  August  Bebel  (born  1840),  and  Wilhelm  Liebknecht 
(1826-1900 ;  cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  414  et  seq.). 

The  movement  was  rapidly  swollen  by  the  stimulus  which  was  given  to  trade 
and  industries  immediately  after  the  war  of  1870,  since  hundreds  of  new  fac- 
tories sprang  up,  and  thousands  and  thousands  of  men  abandoned  agriculture 
and  streamed  into  the  factories.  The  reaction  which  set  in  after  the  second  half 
of  the  year  1873  left  a  mass  of  these  workmen  without  bread,  planted  bitter- 
ness and  revolutionary  thoughts  in  their  hearts,  and  thus  increased  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  were  discontented  with  the  existing  order  of  things.  In  the 
year  1875  the  two  parties  hitherto  existing  within  the  Social  Democracy,  the 
followers  of  Bebel  and  Liebknecht,  and  those  of  Lassalle,  amalgamated  at  Gotha 
into  the  "  Socialist  Labour  party,"  and,  thanks  to  universal  suffrage,  won  in  the 
elections  to  the  Eeichstag  of  1877  more  than  twenty  seats. 


362  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

An  indirect  consequence  of  the  efforts  of  the  Social-Democratic  press  to  incite 
the  people  against  the  State  and  society  was  that  on  May  11,  1878,  a  plumber's 
assistant.  Max  Hobel,  who  described  himself  as  an  Anarchist  and  Nihilist,  fired 
several  revolver-shots  at  the  emperor  William,  then  in  his  eighty-first  year. 
The  shots  missed,  but  on  June  2  Dr.  Karl  Nobiling  (who  by  prompt  suicide 
avoided  all  inquiry)  repeated  the  murderous  attempt  with  greater  success ;  by 
firing  two  charges  of  buckshot  at  the  emperor  while  he  was  graciously  saluting 
his  people  from  his  carriage,  he  inflicted  some  thirty  wounds  on  the  old  man,  so 
that  the  Crown  Prince  had  to  represent  him  officially  for  six  months.  The 
intense  feeling  excited  by  these  brutal  outrages  contributed  to  the  result  that  the 
newly  elected  Eeichstag  accepted  in  October,  1878,  the  law  "  against  the  com- 
mon danger  threatened  by  the  Social  Democracy,"  not  indeed  permanently,  as 
the  government  wished,  but  only  for  two  and  a  half  years;  but  the  law  was 
repeatedly  prolonged  (until  September  30,  1890;  cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  416).  By  this 
law  all  the  clubs  of  the  Social  Democrats  were  broken  up  and  their  newspapers 
suppressed ;  but  the  organisation  still  existed  in  secret,  and  new  organs  of  a 
Social-Democratic  tendency  appeared  under  the  pretext  of  representing  workmen's 
interests.  Nevertheless  the  law,  by  imposing  strong  restraints  on  revolutionary 
behaviour,  emphatically  impressed  upon  the  Social  Democrats  the  power  of  the 
State  and  of  society,  and  educated  them  to  more  law-abiding  behaviour ;  it  never 
suppressed,  nor  indeed  ever  wished  to  suppress,  the  movement  itself,  which  had 
deep-lying  economic  causes. 

Emperor  William  and  Bismarck  were  from  the  first  thoroughly  convinced 
that  restrictive  legislation  must  be  accompanied  by  constructive  measures,  and 
that  the  roots  of  discontent  can  only  be  destroyed  by  the  removal  of  the  just 
grievances  of  the  workmen  and  by  solicitude  for  "  the  unprotected  members  of 
the  State,  that  they  may  not  be  run  over  and  trampled  under  foot  on  the  high- 
road of  life."  The  Eeichstag  chosen  in  1881,  which  contained  a  majority  of 
Ultramontanes  and  Democrats,  received  on  November  17  a  memorable  message 
from  the  emperor,  describing  the  business  of  social  reform  as  an  urgent  duty  of 
the  State ;  the  emperor,  then  eighty-four  years  old,  expressed  his  wish  in  it  that 
"  at  his  death  he  might  bequeath  to  the  needy  greater  seciM-ity  and  abundance  of 
assistance."  This  action  of  the  government  and  the  intelligent  support  of  the 
Eeichstag  produced  a  series  of  beneficial  enactments :  first,  the  law  as  to  the  insti- 
tution of  banks  for  the  support  of  workmen  when  ill  or  injured  (1883  and  1884); 
then  the  law  as  to  insurance  against  old  age  and  infirmity  (1889)  ;  lastly,  the  laws 
as  to  the  protection  of  workmen  against  inconsiderate  demands  upon  their 
time  and  strength  (1891),  as  to  absolute  Sunday  rest  from  labour  in  all  industries 
(1891),  and  a  qualified  Sunday  rest  in  business  (from  January  1,  1897).  An 
attempt  has  been  made  in  recent  years  to  supplement  by  a  series  of  new  enact- 
ments the  deficiencies  that  have  come  to  light  in  the  actual  working  of  those 
laws. 

The  "  National  Socialism,"  or,  to  use  Bismarck's  phrase,  the  "  practical  Chris- 
tianity," which  appeared  in  this  legislation,  was  opposed  by  the  "  German  Ead- 
ical  Party,"  which  was  formed  in  1884  out  of  the  Progressist  party  and  the  Left 
wing  of  the  National  Liberals  ;  it  approved  of  the  "  Manchester  doctrine,"  ac- 
cording to  which  any  interference  of  the  State  in  economic  matters  has  only  an 
injurious  effect,  and  salvation  comes  from  the  "  free  play  of  economic  forces." 


I^SSSs]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  363 

The  party  did  not,  however,  find  much  support,  and  dropped  from  more  than  one 
hundred  deputies  to  between  twenty  and  thirty.  It  split  up  in  1893 ;  the  followers 
of  Eugen  Eichter  styled  themselves  a  "  Eadical  popular  party,"  while  the  more 
moderate  minority  formed  the  "  Kadical  Union." 

The  Social  Democrats  also  were  opposed  to  the  National  Socialists.  If  the 
latter  school  went  too  far  for  the  German  Eadicals,  it  did  not  go  far  enough  for 
the  Social  Democrats.  A  legislation  which  brings  daily  a  million  marks  to  the 
workmen,  and  to  which  the  French  Social  Democrat  and  Minister  of  Commerce, 
Alexandre  Millerand,  paid  in  1900  a  tribute  of  warm  recognition,  was  termed 
by  them  a  "  policy  of  alms  " ;  whereas  this  legislation,  which  for  example  pro- 
vided that  any  surplus  derived  from  the  customs  tariff  of  1902  should  be  assigned 
to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  workmen,  in  principle  offers  the  workman  no 
favours,  but  merely  rights.  The  Social  Democrats,  after  the  exceptional  law, 
which  expired  on  October  1,  1890,  grew  so  amazingly  that  in  1898  it  obtained 
two  and  one-quarter  million  votes  and  fifty-six  seats.  But  while  it  was  spreading 
over  a  quarter  of  the  nation,  an  inner  change  was  unceasingly  proceeding,  which 
must  change  it  from  a  party  of  violent  revolution  to  a  party  of  lawful  develop- 
ment by  peaceful  means  and  of  gradual  reform.  Instead  of  hunting  after  the 
imaginary  picture  of  the  socialistic  "  state  of  the  future,"  where  there  is  only  one 
class  of  men  and  heaven  is  transported  to  earth,  the  Social-Democratic  masses 
and  some  of  their  leaders,  for  example,  Ed.  Bernstein  (Vol.  VII,  p.  418)  and 
Georg  von  VoUmar,  applied  themselves  to  reform  and  ameliorate  the  existing 
order,  which  offered  ample  room  even  for  the  "disinherited." 

(d)  The  Acquisition  of  Colonies  hy  the  German  Empire.  —  Schiller,  in  his 
poem,  "  Die  Teilung  der  Erde  "  (The  partition  of  the  earth),  complained  a  hundred 
years  ago  that  the  world  had  been  given  away  to  foreign  nations,  and  only  the 
sky  was  left  remaining  for  the  German.  But,  little  as  a  nation  is  able  to  live 
permanently  without  an  ideal,  still  less  can  it  do  so  without  bread ;  and  the 
more  quickly  the  German  population  grew  (it  increased  in  the  three  decades, 
1871-1901,  from  thirty-eight  to  fifty-six  millions),  the  more  essential  it  was  to 
procure  elsewhere  the  means  of  subsistence  for  the  masses  who  could  not  find 
food  at  all  times  from  agriculture.  Everything  then  combined  to  urge  Germany 
on  the  path  of  economic  development.  But  in  order  to  obtain  cheap  raw  mate- 
rials for  the  industries  and  to  make  a  sale  for  their  products,  all  of  which  the 
home  market  could  not  take,  Germany  needed  assured  commercial  dealings  with 
other  nations  and  a  sufficiently  strong  war  fleet  (p.  358)  to  be  able  to  maintain 
that  security  of  trade,  if  necessary,  by  force  of  arms ;  and  not  only  this,  but  it 
required  its  own  oversea  possessions  as  bases  for  commerce,  as  coaling  stations 
for  its  ships,  and  as  advanced  posts  in  those  hitherto  closed  parts  of  the  globe 
which  are  now  slowly  opening  to  European  civilization,  — ■  Africa  and  East  Asia. 

Prince  Bismarck  did  not  hasten  this  development  toward  the  acquisition  of 
colonies,  for  the  good  reason  that  the  possibility  of  disputes  with  other  nations 
was  increased  by  it,  and  Germany,  as  it  was,  required  to  be  on  her  guard  in 
Europe,  owing  to  the  French  thirst  for  vengeance  ;  he  also  was  of  opinion  that  only 
an  inevitable  development,  springing  from  internal  causes,  afforded  in  itself  guar- 
antees of  success  and  permanency  ;  colonies  must  "  grow  wild."  But  where  this 
was  the  case,  he  ultimately  intervened  with  the  mighty  arm  of  the  empire,  to 


364  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter IV 

help  and  to  protect.  Thus  he  took  under  the  protection  of  the  empire  (Vol.  Ill, 
p.  496),  on  April  24,  1884,  the  territory  which  Luderitz,  a  merchant  of  Bremen, 
acquired  on  the  bay  of  Angra  Pequena  in  Southwest  Africa  from  the  Hottentots ; 
acquisitions  of  fresh  territory  then  followed  in  rapid  succession;  the  order  of 
events  was  everywhere  the  same ;  first  of  all,  trading  companies  established  them- 
selves, and  obtained  the  protection  of  the  empire  ;  then,  after  some  time,  followed 
the  annexation  of  the  territory  which  they  had  acquired.  In  this  way  the  Cam- 
eroons,  Togoland,  German  Southwest  Africa  and  German  East  Africa,  Kaiser  Wil- 
helin's  Land  in  New  Guinea,  the  Bismarck  Archipelago,  the  Marshall  Islands, 
the  Carolines  and  Mariannes,  and  the  two  chief  islands  of  the  Samoa  group, 
Sawaii  and  Upolu,  were  successively  acquired  between  1884  and  1899.  The 
entire  colonial  possessions  of  Germany  comprised,  in  1901,  about  2,650,000  square 
kilometres,  with  more  than  12,000,000  inhabitants.  The  frontiers  have  been  as 
accurately  defined  as  possible  by  treaties  with  France,  England,  the  Congo  State, 
and  the  United  States  of  America,  and  thus  an  incontestable  legal  right  has  been 
acquired.  Togoland  and  the  Cameroons  are  the  most  flourishing  territories ;  in  the 
others  a  steady  development  can  be  observed,  although  private  capital,  as  well  as 
the  empire,  will  have  to  take  bolder  risks  if  the  treasures  still  lying  unexploited 
in  the  soil  of  the  colonies  are  to  be  brought  to  light. 

(e)  TJie  Chinese  Troubles.  —  Japan  in  1894-1895,  in  a  war  fought  for  the  pre- 
dominant influence  in  Corea,  annihilated  the  fleet  of  China  on  the  river  Yalu,  and 
by  the  treaty  of  Shimonoseki  obtained  the  cession  of  Formosa ;  but  without 
being  able  to  hold  the  important  peninsula  of  Liautung,  and  with  it  the  key 
to  Pekin,  in  face  of  the  united  representations  of  Eussia,  France,  and  Germany 
(Vol.  II,  p.  53).  Since  that  time  the  question  of  the  Far  East  has  been  opened, 
the  difficulty  of  which  consists  in  the  fact  that  all  the  great  powers  wish  to 
secure  their  share  in  the  commercial  advantages  to  be  derived  from  China ;  but  in 
this  matter  the  interests  of  Eussia  on  the  one  side  and  those  of  Japan  and  Eng- 
land on  the  other,  are  diametrically  opposed.  Eussia,  as  the  near  neighbour  of 
China,  can  best  lay  hands  on  its  northern  provinces ;  but  Japan  cannot  look 
with  indifference  on  this  rapid  growth  of  Eussia,  and  the^nterests  of  England 
in  the  Yangtse  district  are  so  great  that  the  independence  of  China  is  of  para- 
mount importance  to  her.  In  the  fourth  place  comes  Germany,  whose  trade 
with  China  grows  continuously ;  France  is  only  concerned  with  the  south  of 
the  vast  empire,  on  which  the  French  colony,  Tonkin,  won  in  1885,  abuts 
(Vol.  II,  p.  539). 

The  murder  of  German  Catholic  missionaries  in  the  province  of  Shantung 
gave  the  German  Empire  in  November,  1897,  an  opportunity  of  taking  a  firm 
position  in  Kiauchau,  and  of  leasing  in  January,  1898,  a  piece  of  land  there  from 
China  for  ninety-nine  years ;  the  town  of  Tsingtau  has  rapidly  risen  to  great 
prosperity.  Eussia  thereupon  "  leased,"  in  December,  1897,  the  Chinese  harbour 
Port  Arthur,  and  in  March,  1898,  England  did  the  same  with  the  harbour  of 
Weihaiwei,  which  faces  Port  Arthur  on  the  south  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Pechili.  A 
number  of  European  companies  obtained  from  the  young  emperor,  Kwang  Hsu, 
who  was  personally  inclined  to  progress  and  followed  the  advice  of  the  reform- 
loving  statesman,  Li  Hung  Chang  (1821-1901),  the  permission  to  build  lines  of 
railway  which  should  open  up  the  interior  of  China  to  commerce. 


I^r^ZfisT-rm]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  365 

This  rapid  influx  of  Europeans,  which  flooded  the  empire  so  long  closed  to  the 
outside  world,  produced  a  national  reaction  in  North  China,  the  region  immedi- 
ately affected.  The  political  society  of  the  "  Boxers  "  was  formed,  whose  object 
was  the  expulsion  of  the  foreigners ;  the  Boxers  murdered  in  the  year  1900  some 
two  hundred  and  fifty  Europeans  and  thirty  thousand  Chinese  Christians,  not 
infrequently  with  cruel  tortures.  It  was  assumed  as  certain  that  the  dowager 
empress  Tsze  Hsi  favoured  the  first  efforts  of  the  Boxers ;  she  nominated  Prince 
Tuam,  a  bitter  enemy  of  all  foreigners,  president  of  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  the  offi- 
cials who  look  after  foreign  affairs.  On  June  12  the  secretary  of  the  Japanese 
embassy,  and  on  June  20  Baron  Ketteler,  the  German  ambassador,  were  assas- 
sinated in  the  streets  of  Pekin ;  the  latter  was  shot  by  a  soldier  of  tlie  imperial 
standard  bearers  acting  under  instructions  from  high  quarters.  The  rest  of 
the  ambassadors  with  their  families  were  besieged  for  almost  two  months  by 
Boxers  and  imperial  troops,  and  owed  their  lives  to  the  European  relieving 
force  which  was  summoned  in  time,  and  perhaps  to  the  efforts  of  some  high  offi- 
cials who  were  friendly  to  foreigners. 

On  the  receipt  of  this  news  the  emperor  William  II  sent  a  squadron  of 
warships  and  some  twenty-five  thousand  volunteers  to  China.  The  other  great 
powers  similarly  equipped  considerable  forces ;  in  order  to  guarantee  the  necessary 
co-operation  of  these  troops,  a  commander-in-chief  of  the  allied  forces  was  nomi- 
nated in  the  person  of  a  German  field-marshal,  Count  Waldersee,  a  veteran  of 
sixty-seven  years.  But  before  he  arrived  in  China,  Pekin  had  been  captured,  on 
August  14,  by  some  twenty  thousand  Europeans,  Americans,  and  Japanese,  and 
the  lives  of  the  besieged  were  saved.  The  imperial  court  had  fled  to  the  old  capi- 
tal, Singanfu.  "Waldersee  had,  however,  still  an  opportunity  of  contributing  to 
the  improvement  of  the  situation  by  clearing  the  lai'ge  and  populous  province  of 
Pechili  from  Boxers  and  robbers,  and  also,  by  tactful  action,  of  maintaining 
harmony  among  the  troops  of  the  powers,  whose  interests  in  China  were  in  some 
respects  divergent.  It  often  seemed  as  if  a  quarrel  would  break  out  between 
England  and  Eussia,  who  seized  Manchuria  under  the  pretext  of  being  obliged  to 
establish  order.  Germany  and  England,  on  the  other  hand,  came  to  an  agreement 
in  October,  1900,  on  the  terms  that  they  would  not  try  to  procure  for  themselves 
special  advantages  in  China,  and  would  enforce  the  principle  of  the  "  open  door  " 
"for  all  civilized  nations.  China  finally  consented  to  offer  satisfaction  for  the  mur- 
ders to  Germany  (Prince  Chun  in  Potsdam,  September  4,  1901)  and  Japan, 
hy  means  of  special  expiatory  embassies ;  and  in  the  protocol  of  the  peace 
signed  on  September  7,  China  promised  the  payment  of  £67,000,000  sterling  as 
indemnity  for  the  cost  of  the  war  to  Germany,  England,  France,  Italy,  Japan, 
Austria,  Eussia,  and  the  United  States.  Pekin  was  soon  afterwards  evacuated  by 
the  allies;  the  imperial  court  returned  in  December,  1901,  to  the  capital.  On 
January  30  and  in  March,  1902,  England  and  Japan  first  (cf.  Vol.  II,  p.  54) 
and  then  Eussia  and  Prance  concluded  alliances  for  the  promotion  of  their 
interests  in  China  and  Corea,  so  that  now  in  the  Par  East  two  alliances  are 
opposed  one  to  the  other.  The  German  Empire  stUl  maintains,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  its  subjects,  like  other  powers,  a  garrison  in  Pechili ;  a  strong  garrison 
is  quartered  in  Tsingtau. 


366  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         Ichapter  iv 

(/)  The  Individual  States  of  the  German  Empire,  (a)  Prussia. —  The  Prussian 
State  received  through  the  mighty  events  of  1866  and  1870,  which  altered  its 
whole  framework  and  put  new  and  important  duties  before  it,  a  definite  stimulus 
toward  internal  reforms :  the  absolutism  and  the  bureaucratic  principles  of  the 
age  of  Frederic  the  Great  had  obtained  recognition  in  the  constitution  of  1850; 
the  landed  nobility  were  still  a  privileged  body.  It  was  necessary  that  these 
anomalies  should  be  removed  and  that  self-government  should  be  introduced. 
For  example,  in  rural  districts  the  lord  of  the  manor  had  still  the  right  to  nom- 
inate the  Schultheiss  (village  mayor) ;  the  Landrat  of  the  district  was  appointed 
by  the  king  on  the  nomination  of  the  chief  landowner,  the  other  inhabitants  of 
the  district  being  neglected;  and  the  nobility  predominated  in  the  provincial 
Landtags. 

The  king,  in  his  speech  from  the  throne  on  the  opening  of  the  Landtag  on 
November  27,  1871,  had  pledged  his  word  that  his  government  would  introduce 
a  new  scheme  of  local  government.  Count  Friedrich  zu  Eulenburg  (1815- 
1881,  Minister  1862-1878),  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  set  to  work  to  elaborate 
it,  and  although  the  House  of  Peers,  under  the  influence  of  the  private  interests 
of  the  aristocracy,  rejected  the  bill  at  first  and  Bismarck  had  grave  doubts  on  the 
point,  he  carried  it  in  December,  1872,  with  the  help  of  the  king,  who  created 
twenty-five  new  peers.  The  king  signed  the  bill  on  December  13.  It  applied 
at  first  only  to  the  five  eastern  provinces :  Prussia,  Pomerania,  Brandenburg, 
Saxony,  and  Silesia.  Anxiety  as  to  the  sentiment  of  the  Poles  forbade  the  grant 
of  full  self-government  to  the  districts  in  Posen.  According  to  the  new  law,  the 
country  communities  elected  for  the  future  their  own  head ;  and  only  in  some 
special  cases  was  the  landowner  or  his  nominee  still  allowed  to  fill  up  this 
post.  Country  and  town  communities  which  contained  under  twenty-five  thou- 
sand inhabitants  were  for  the  time  being  constituted  as  a  district,  whose  affairs 
were  administered  by  a  Kreistag  (district  council)  of  at  least  twenty-five  members 
chosen  by  delegates,  and  therefore  indirectly,  from  all  the  residents  in  the  district. 
In  the  Kreistags  half  the  votes  at  most  were  to  belong  to  the  towns,  the  rest  to  the 
rural  population.  At  the  head  stands  a  Landrat  whom  the  king  appoints  at 
the  nomination  of  the  entire  Kreistag ;  a  committee  of  six  ir^nbers  is  assigned  to 
the  Landrat  to  assist  him.  Towns  with  more  than  twenty-Wve  thousand  inhab- 
itants form  special  "  urban  districts."  Since  the  new  scheme  of  local  government 
worked  very  satisfactorily,  it  was  extended  in  1885-1889  to  the  remaining  six 
provinces ;  in  Posen,  for  the  reasons  mentioned,  narrower  limits  were  imposed  on 
self-government. 

In  the  year  1875  the  provincial  Landtags  were  reformed.  In  future  they  were 
to  consist  of  representatives  of  the  Kreistags  and  of  the  municipal  colleges  (the 
magistrates  and  municipal  officers)  which  met  for  the  purpose  of  election  in  a 
common  session ;  they  were  to  assemble  at  least  once  in  every  two  years  at  the 
royal  summons  and  pass  resolutions  affecting  all  provincial  matters,  especially  the 
construction  of  roads,  land  improvements,  public  institutions,  public  libraries, 
the  care  of  monuments,  and  the  application  of  the  sums  of  money  assigned  to  the 
provinces  by  the  State  in  virtue  of  the  law  of  dotation.  A  provincial  committee 
of  seven  to  thirteen  persons,  with  a  provincial  director  as  the  head  of  all 
the  provincial  officials,  was  to  be  elected  for  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of 
the  province.     The  feature  of  all  this  legislation  was  that  it  preserved  to  the 


l^Zfmr-m2\       HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  367 

greatest  possible  degree  the  principle  of  communal  self-government;  there  is  now 
no  country  in  the  world  which,  so  far  as  laws  enable  it,  can  show  so  many 
guarantees  as  Prussia  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  law  and  for  the  effectiveness  of 
self-government ;  the  duty  of  the  people  now  is  to  cultivate  those  characteristics 
which  give  to  such  laws  force  and  vitality. 

Bismarck,  however,  was  so  displeased,  both  at  the  action  of  his  colleagues, 
who  had  acted  against  his  wishes  when  they  induced  the  king  to  create  that 
batch  of  peers,  and  also  at  the  political  short-sightedness  of  the  conservatives, 
who  had  brought  matters  to  a  crisis  in  the  House  of  Peers,  that  he  resigned, 
on  December  21,  1872,  the  premiership  in  the  Prussian  ministry  to  the  War 
Minister,  Field  Marshal  Count  Eoon,  and  confined  himself  merely  to  the  headship 
of  the  foreign  department.  But  he  soon  learnt  that  this  separation  of  the  office 
of  Imperial  Chancellor  from  that  of  Prussian  Premier  made  the  position  of  the 
Imperial  Chancellor  far  more  arduous,  and  he  therefore  resumed  the  premiership 
when  Eoon  from  failing  health  retired  on  November  9,  1873,^  not  to  give  it  up 
until  his  fall  in  March,  1890. 

The  liberal-minded  Professor  of  Jurisprudence,  Emil  Herrmann,  who  had  been 
placed  by  Ealk,  the  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  at  the  head  of  the  Prussian  evan- 
gelical High  Consistory,  elaborated  in  1873  for  the  eastern  provinces  an  evangelical 
church  constitution,  which  limited  the  power  of  the  king,  as  bishop  of  the  country, 
since  it  gave  each  parish  a  vestry,  and  each  district  and  province  a  representative 
synod  for  ecclesiastical  purposes.  In  1876  this  constitutional  work  was  crowned 
by  the  institution  for  the  eight  old  provinces  of  a  general  synod,  which  consisted 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  delegates  from  provincial  synods,  thirty  members  nomi- 
nated by  the  king,  and  six  representatives  of  the  universities  of  Konigsberg, 
Greifswald,  Breslau,  Berlin,  Halle,  and  Bonn.  Owing  to  the  splendid  organisation 
of  the  "  positive "  or  orthodox  party,  which  possessed  in  the  greater  part  of  the 
clergy  and  the  great  landowners  trustworthy  partisans  and  leaders,  it  thus 
obtained  the  majority  in  most  of  the  synods,  those  of  the  districts  and  provinces, 
and  in  the  general  synod.  In  the  new  provinces  of  Hanover,  Schleswig-Holstein, 
and  Hesse-Nassau  no  change  was  made  in  the  existing  national  churches ; 
the  High  Consistory  in  Berlin  remained  accordingly  the  supreme  authority 
only  for  the  church  of  the  eight  old  provinces.  In  every  single  province  the 
conduct  of  the  provincial  ecclesiastical  affairs  fell  to  a  consistory  and  a  general 
superintendent. 

So  soon  as  it  became  possible  for  Bismarck,  after  the  French  war  and  the  first 
institution  of  the  empire,  to  pay  greater  attention  to  the  problems  of  economic  life, 
he  gave  proof  of  the  same  spirit  of  far-sighted  statesmanship  and  bold  progress 
which  runs  through  his  other  work.  In  1879,  owing  to  the  economic  crisis  which 
broke  out  in  1873  after  two  years  of  great  prosperity,  he  left  the  path  of  free  trade, 
through  following  which  Germany  "  threatened  to  bleed  to  death  "  (p.  356),  for  that 
of  moderate  protective  tariffs  (a  policy  which  made  him  as  unpopular  with  the 
Liberals  as  acceptable  to  the  Centre).  He  asked  in  the  Prussian  Landtag  of  1876 
for  full  powers  to  sell  all  the  Prussian  State  railways  on  a  suitable  opportimity  to 
the  empire ;  he  hoped  thus  to  transfer  all  German  railroads  to  the  empire  and  by 
so  doing  to  render  possible  a  uniform  railway  policy  on  a  large  scale.  The  motion 
was  carried  in  the  Landtag  and  became  law  in  June,  1876,  by  the  royal  signature, 

1  He  died  February  23,  1879. 


368  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

in  consequence  of  which  Delbrtick,  the  president  of  the  Imperial  Chancery  and 
hitherto  Bismarck's  colleague,  an  opponent  of  any  State  interference  in  economic 
matters,  retired  from  his  office.  The  minor  States,  however,  offered  stubborn 
resistance  to  the  amalgamation  of  the  German  railroads,  since  they  feared  some 
danger  to  their  independence  from  the  surrender  of  their  lines ;  and  since  Bismarck 
avoided  on  principle  the  exercise  of  any  pressure  on  the  members  of  the  Confeder- 
ation except  in  cases  of  the  most  urgent  necessity  (p.  351),  he  abandoned  the  great 
idea  and  withdrew  to  a  narrower  sphere  where  he  could  proceed  according  to  his 
judgment. 

With  the  help  of  the  cautious  and  energetic  Albert  Maybach,  who  in  1878 
became  head  of  the  newly  created  Ministry  of  Public  Works,  between  1880  and  1885 
all  the  larger  private  railways,  of  which  there  were  forty-nine  altogether,  were 
bought  for  a  sum  of  about  five  and  a  half  milliards  of  marks  (£275,000,000)  for 
the  State,  which  in  1878  owned  only  4,800  kilometres,  but  now  owns  34,000.  The 
extent  of  the  privately  owned  lines  has  diminished  to  1,300  kilometres,  and  most 
of  them  are  purely  local  lines.  By  the  completion  of  this  purchase  by  the  State  the 
largest  railway  system  in  the  world  under  one  management  was  created,  and  its 
systematic  working  was  rendered  possible ;  since  a  considerable  amount  of  inde- 
pendence was  left  to  the  twenty-one  boards  of  railway  directors,  one  of  which  had 
to  manage  some  1,600  kilometres,  the  disadvantages  of  excessive  centralisation  were 
avoided.  Although  fault  has  been  found  with  the  Prussian  railway  management, 
and  in  particular  the  high  scale  of  its  charges  was  blamed,  since  a  yearly  surplus 
of  about  two  and  a  half  millions  sterling  was  obtained,  yet  the  results  of  this  ad- 
ministration are  undeniable.  The  surplus  was  profitably  applied  to  other  objects ; 
during  a  period  when  France  spent  ten  millions  on  augmentation  of  salaries  and 
improvements  of  land,  Prussia  laid  out  two  hundred  millions  on  that  object.  In 
the  year  1896  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Hesse  (which  formerly  was  the  first  minor  State 
to  join  the  ZoUverein,  cf.  p.  163)  once  more  was  the  first  minor  State  to  conclude 
with  Prussia  a  treaty  as  to  a  community  of  railways  by  which  the  Prussian  and 
Hessian  State  railways  might  be  administered  as  a  whole ;  Hesse  sends  a  member 
to  the  Supreme  Board  of  Management  in  Berlin,  and  receives  its  share  of  the  profits. 
These  amounted  annually  to  about  two  million  marks  (£100,000)  with  which  a 
series  of  long-postponed  Hessian  State  projects,  such  as  the  inllrovement  of  the  pay 
of  officials,  could  be  carried  out  without  any  claims  being  made  on  the  taxpayers. 
Besides  this  the  quantity  of  rolling-stock  was  considerably  increased,  the  fares  low- 
ered, and  the  salaries  of  all  the  railway  employees  substantially  raised. 

On  June  24, 1890,  the  Oberbiirgermeister  of  Prankfurt,  Johannes  Miquel  (Feb- 
ruary 11, 1828,  to  September  8,  1901 ;  cf.  pp.  311  and  356),  was  by  the  special 
favour  of  the  king  appointed  head  of  the  Prussian  Finance  Ministry  and  held  the 
post  until  the  beginning  of  May,  1901.  His  friend  Eudolf  von  Bennigsen  ven- 
tured to  call  him  in  a  funeral  oration  the  greatest  Prussian  finance  minister  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  To  him  is  chiefly  due  the  credit  for  having  completely 
reorganised  the  system  of  taxation  in  the  year  1891.  He  arranged  the  income  tax 
as  follows :  The  taxpayer  was  placed  under  an  obligation  to  declare  his  income  on 
oath;  the  scale  of  taxation  was  graduated  according  to  income;  and  income 
derived  from  real  property  was  subjected  to  a  supplementary  tax.  Under  this 
system  the  burden  of  taxation  was  equahsed,  whereas  previously  the  rich  (owinw 
to  the  assessment  of  their  income  by  others)  had  paid  too  little  and  the  poor  were  to 


llrrZfmf-iToB]      HISTORY   OF    THE   WORLD  369 

a  large  extent  relieved  of  their  burden ;  incomes  under  nine  hundred  marks  (£45) 
remained  untaxed.  The  gross  proceeds  of  the  income  tax,  after  the  reform  carried 
out  in  the  year  1892,  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions,  and  that 
of  the  property  tax  to  thirty-two  millions  of  marks ;  the  net  proceeds  of  both  taxes 
amounted  to  one  hundred  and  forty  ndillions,  or  a  full  quarter  of  the  current 
administrative  expenses  of  the  State.  In  connection  with  this  reform  of  the  State 
taxes  Miquel  carried  a  bill  in  the  Landtag  for  a  new  method  of  local  rating. 

While  Miquel  has  secured  a  well-earned  reputation  by  his  fiscal  reform,  he  was 
less  successful  with  his  plan  (p.  356)  for  placing  the  finances  of  the  empire  and  of 
the  separate  States  on  distinct  bases  and  of  obviating  the  disturbing  influences  of 
the  empire  (by  demands  for  contributions  from  the  several  States)  on  the  budget 
of  the  federal  States.  Equally  unsuccessful  was  the  plan,  which  the  emperor  him- 
self cordially  supported,  of  constructing  a  great  network  of  canals  from  the  Ehine 
to  the  Weser  and  the  Elbe,  with  the  object  of  relieving  the  great  strain  on  the  rail- 
ways of  the  Eastern  Ehine  district  and  Westphalia.  It  is  true  that  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives  in  1886  sanctioned  the  canal  from  Dortmund  on  the  Euhr  to  the 
Ems ;  but  the  canals  from  Dortmund  to  the  Ehine  and  the  great  "  Inland  Naviga- 
tion Canal"  from  the  Ems  to  the  Weser  and  further  to  the  Elbe  aroused  serious 
doubts  among  the  representatives  of  agriculture  in  the  Conservative  body  and  in 
the  Centre,  who  feared  a  further  increase  in  the  importations  of  foreign  corn,  as  well 
as  among  the  Silesian  manufacturers  who  expected  from  it  that  their  rivals  in  the 
West  would  have  greater  facilities  for  outbidding  them :  the  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives rejected  the  proposal  on  August  17, 1899,  by  228  to  126  votes.  An  amended 
proposal,  which  was  introduced  in  1901,  met  also  with  such  determined  opposition 
that  the  government  suddenly  dissolved  the  Landtag  in  May,  since  its  delilDerations 
were  bound  to  be  barren  in  results. 

(/3)  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Wurtemberg,  and  Baden.  —  In  Bavaria,  under  King 
Lewis  II  (born  1845),  Lutz  (p.  359)  was  at  the  head  of  affairs.  He  was  a  keen 
antagonist  of  the  Ultramontanes,  who  also  met  with  the  pronounced  disfavour  of 
the  king.  The  latter  withdrew  more  and  more  from  public  life,  and  relapsed  into 
a  dreamy  existence,  devoted  to  music  and  architecture,  while  his  enormous  expen- 
diture on  royal  castles  totally  disordered  the  civil  list.  He  was  obliged  in  the 
end  to  be  placed  under  supervision ;  in  order  to  escape  from  it  he  drowned  himself 
and  his  attendant  physician  Bernhard  von  Gudden  in  the  lake  of  Staruberg  on 
June  13,  1886.  Since  his  brother  Otto  (born  1848)  had  also  long  been  mentally 
afflicted,  his  uncle  Prince  Leopold  (born  1821,  second  son  of  Louis  I)  assumed  the 
sovereignty  as  Prince  Eegent.  He  left  the  Liberal  ministry  in  oiiice;  but  the 
Ultramontanes  acquired  more  and  more  influence,  and  after  1899  they  had  even 
a  small  majority  in  the  Second  Chamber.  At  the  urgent  pressure  of  the  Eoman 
Catholic  bishops  the  State  refused  to  recognise  the  Old  Catholics  as  belonging  to 
the  Catholic  Church,  and  only  granted  them  the  rights  of  a  private  religious  body 
(March,  1891).  The  moderate-liberal  minister  President  Count  von  CraUsheim 
was  compelled  to  resign  on  May  31,  1890. 

In  Saxony  King  John  died  on  October  29,  1873;  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Albert,  who  had  won  fame  in  the  wars  of  1866  and  1870-1871,  and  was  a  capable 
ruler  with  German  sympathies.  In  order  to  anticipate  the  imperial  railway 
scheme,   the    Saxon  government   bought  up   gradually  all  the   private  lines  in 

VOL.  vm  — 24 


370  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD         [Chapter  iv 

Saxony  by  the  middle  of  the  seventies;  in  1894  and  1901  the  class-tax  and 
income-tax  law  of  the  year  1873  was  reformed  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of 
the  times.  Owing  to  an  increase  in  the  number  of  the  Social  Democrats,  who 
carried  in  1891-1892  eleven,  and  in  1895  actually  fourteen,  out  of  the  eighty-one 
electoral  districts  for  the  Landtag  election,  the  government  and  the  Estates,  which 
since  1880  were  under  the  control  of  the  Conservatives,  resolved  in  1896,  notwith- 
standing the  well-grounded  protests  of  educated  sympathisers  with  the  social 
cause,  to  replace  the  universal  suffrage  introduced  in  1868  by  a  suffrage  graduated 
in  three  classes,  which  would  render  the  third  class  of  owners  and  voters  quite 
helpless  against  the  two  upper  classes.  In  the  year  1897  the  Social  Democrats 
lost  six  seats  at  once  in  consequence  ;  and  from  1901  on  no  Social  Democrat  has 
sat  in  the  Landtag.  Since  the  death  of  King  Albert  at  Sibyllenort  on  June  19, 
1902,  his  brother  George  (born  1832)  has  been  on  the  throne. 

In  Wtirtemberg,  under  the  rule  of  King  Charles  I  (1864-1891,  born  1823)  the 
"German  Party,"  which  combined  in  itself  the  National  Liberals  and  the  Free 
Conservatives,  was  preponderant  in  the  Landtag,  and  Baron  von  Mittnacht  (p.  351), 
the  minister-president  in  agreement  with  this  party,  conducted  the  affairs  of  state 
in  a  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  empire.  In  the  year  1891  Charles  I  was  succeeded  by 
his  cousin  William  II  (born  1848),  who  had  served  in  the  French  war  and  gave 
proof  of  conscientiousness,  good  intentions,  and  sound  sympathy  with  the  national 
cause.  On  December  1,  1893,  in  the  hunting-lodge  of  Bebenhausen  near  Tubingen 
he  agreed  with  the  emperor  to  draw  up  a  joint  seniority  list  for  the  Prussian  and 
Wtirtemberg  officers.  At  the  Landtag  elections  of  1895  the  Democrats  of  the 
"  German  Popular  Party  "  and  the  Centre,  which  had  just  been  formed  in  Wtirtem- 
berg, obtained  jointly  the  majority,  and  the  former  party  filled  the  presidency  of 
the  Second  Chamber.  Mittnacht  adapted  himself  to  the  demands  of  the  Democ- 
racy, but  neither  the  constitutional  reform,  which  proposed  to  exclude  from  the 
chamber  the  privileged  classes  ("  Knights  and  Prelates  "),  nor  the  fiscal  reform, 
by  which  a  supplementary  income  tax  was  to  be  introduced,  nor  the  law  to  abol- 
ish the  appointment  for  life  of  the  district  presidents  {Ortsvorsteher)  weathered  the 
parliamentary  storms  which  they  provoked.  At  the  end  of  1901  Wtirtemberg, 
while  maintaining  its  postal  independence  (p.  351),  resigned  its  special  postage 
stamps;  from  April  1,  1902,  onward  one  uniform  stamp%ame  into  use  for  the 
whole  empire,  excluding  Bavaria.  Since  1900  a  movement  has  been  on  foot  to 
conclude  a  railway  amalgamation  with  Prussia-Hesse,  since  the  profits  of  the  State 
railways  barely  reached  three  per  cent;  but  the  ultramontane  and  democratic 
majority  of  the  Second  Chamber  offered  temporary  opposition  to  such  a  step. 

In  Baden  Grand  Duke  Frederick  I  (born  1826),  the  son-in-law  of  Emperor 
William  I,  a  thoroughly  loyal  prince  of  national  and  liberal  sympathies,  has 
reigned  since  1852.  The  intense  antagonism  between  the  State  and  the  Catholic 
Church  led  in  1876,  under  the  ministry  of  Julius  Jolly  (February,  1868-October, 
1876)  to  the  introduction  of  elementary  schools  of  mixed  denominations.  Since 
1881  the  tension  has  gradually  been  relaxed;  but  the  Centre  pursued  unremit- 
tedly  their  object  of  reducing  the  ruling  National  Liberal  party  in  the  Landtag 
to  a  minority  by  the  help  of  the  Democrats;  they  lowered  the  majority  of 
their  rivals  in  1891  to  one  vote,  and  completely  attained  their  object  in  1893. 
On  June  27,  1901,  there  occurred  a  change  in  the  ministry  in  favour  of  Conserva- 
tism, since  Arthur  Brauer  became  Premier  in  place  of  the  veteran  Liberal  Wilhelni 


rk:fZ-fiT6Zm2]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  371 

Nokk  (t  February  13,  1903),  and  Alexander  Dusch,  Minister  of  Public  Worship ; 
the  latter  showed  an  inclination  to  fulfil  the  wish  of  the  Episcopal  Curia  in  Frei- 
burg and  of  the  Centre  for  the  toleration  of  monasteries,  since  he  hoped  in  this 
way  to  get  the  upper  hand  of  the  more  conciliatory  party  in  the  Centre. 

(7)  The  Imperial  Provinces  (Reichslande).  —  In  Alsace-Lorraine,  by  the  impe- 
rial law  of  June  9,  1871,  the  executive  power  was  conferred  upon  the  emperor. 
The  country  thus  became  an  imperial  province  (BeicJisland)  in  so  far  that  the 
executive  power  in  the  State,  which  in  the  other  German  countries  is  held  quite 
apart  from  the  executive  power  in  the  empire,  coincides  here  with  it.  The 
Imperial  Chancellor  was  minister  for  the  Beichsland ;  the  administration  of 
the  country  was  conducted  from  1871  to  1879  by  the  able  and  wise  Eduard  von 
Mbller,  who  was  nominated  High  President.  In  virtue  of  paragraph  10  of  the 
law  of  30th  December,  1871,  he  possessed  the  right  of  taking  every  measure  which 
seemed  necessary  to  him  in  case  of  danger  to  the  public  safety,  and  in  the  most 
extreme  cases  even  to  raise  troops  for  the  defence  of  the  country.  The  disaffection 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Alsace-Lorraine,  among  whom  in  particular  the  "  Notables," 
namely,  the  manufacturers,  large  landowners,  doctors,  and  notaries,  were  quite 
un-German,  rendered  this  "Dictatorship  paragraph"  essential  for  a  long  time.  On 
January  1,  1874,  the  imperial  constitution  came  into  force  for  Alsace-Lorraine ; 
the  fifteen  representatives  elected  to  the  Eeichstag  belong  almost  all  to  the 
"  Protesters,"  who  condemned  the  severance  of  the  provinces  from  France  as  an 
act  of  violence. 

But  gradually  the  so-called  Autonomists  gained  ground ;  these  accepted  the 
incorporation  into  Germany  as  an  irrevocable  fact,  but  wished  to  win  the  greatest 
amount  of  self-government  and  provincial  independence  for  the  country.  Bismarck 
thought  it  wise  to  support  the  movement  and  by  this  indirect  method  to  make  the 
inhabitants  of  Alsace-Lorraine  good  Germans.  He  granted  to  the  country  in 
October,  1874,  a  popular  representation,  —  at  first  deliberative  only,  but  since  1877 
with  powers  to  legislate ;  this  was  the  Landesaiisschuss,  which  contains  fifty-eight 
members,  —  thirty-four  elected  by  the  three  district  councils  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Alsace  and  Lorraine,  twenty  by  the  twenty  country  districts,  four  by  the  towns 
of  Colmar,  Metz,  Miilhausen,  and  Strassburg.  Universal  and  equal  suffrage  was 
not  employed  for  the  Zandesausschuss,  since  that  would  have  served  to  make  the 
anti-German  clerical  party  supreme ;  but  the  restricted  suffrage  gave  the  Notables 
the  authority. 

On  July  4,  1879,  the  empire  granted  to  the  Imperial  Province  the  self- 
government  which  it  desired.  An  imperial  Governor-General  (Statthalter)  was  to 
administer  the  country  for  the  future  in  place  of  the  High  President;  under 
him  were  placed  for  the  conduct  of  affairs  a  Secretary  of  State  and  four  Under- 
Secretaries  of  State,  all  to  be  nominated  by  the  emperor.  The  Imperial  Chancel- 
lor thus  ceased  to  be  minister  for  the  Imperial  Province ;  Alsace-Lorraine  was 
allowed  to  send  three  deliberative  representatives  into  the  Bundesrat,  which  thus 
was  increased  to  sixty-one  members.  The  post  of  governor  was  filled  from  1879 
to  1885  by  the  ex-Field-Marshal  Edwin  von  Manteuffel  (p.  348),  who  displayed  a 
deplorable  weakness  toward  the  Notables.  He  was  succeeded  by  Prince  Chlodwig 
von  Hohenlohe-Schillingsflirst  (cf.  pp.  316  and  327),  hitherto  ambassador  at  Paris, 
whose  refined  and  dignified  manner  somewhat  improved  the  situation.     When  he 


372  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

became  Imperial  Chancellor  in  1894,  the  governorship  was  conferred  on  the  uncle 
of  the  empress,  Prince  Hermann  von  Hohenlohe-Langenburg. 

The  results  of  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  incorporation  of  the  Reichsland  into 
the  empire  are  not  unsatisfactory,  if  fairly  estimated.  The  inhabitants  of  Alsace- 
Lorraine  have  gradually  adapted  themselves  more  or  less  to  the  new  position  of 
affairs.  The  Protesting  party  as  such  has  disappeared,  and  if  the  country  has  not 
yet  become  German  in  the  fullest  sense,  it  is,  at  any  rate,  no  longer  Prench.  The 
reasons  for  the  slow  development  are  clear:  threads  which  have  been  snapped  for 
nearly  two  centuries  can  only  slowly  be  joined  together  again,  and  the  year  1870, 
which  for  Germans  is  a  great  and  glorious  remembrance,  signifies  for  Alsace- 
Lorraine  a  year  of  defeat  and  oppression,  and  the  blessings  it  brought  with  it  are 
only  slowly  being  realised  by  the  people.  In  June,  1902,  such  progress,  however, 
had  been  made  that,  from  confidence  in  the  increasing  good-will  of  the  population 
toward  the  empire,  the  "Dictatorship  paragraph"  was  repealed;  and  the  inhab- 
itants of  Alsace-Lorraine  now  from  being  Germans  of  the  "  second  class  "  became 
Germans  of  the  "  first  class." 

(8)  Hesse-Darmstadt  and  the  other  Qerman  Federal  States.  —  In  the  Grand 
Duchy  of  Hesse-Darmstadt  the  Grand  Duke  Lewis  III  (1848-1877)  died  on  June 
13,  1877,  a  prince  as  incapable  as  he  was  conceited.  Under  his  nephew  Louis  IV 
(1877-1892),  who  was  married  to  Alice,  daughter  of  Queen  Victoria  of  Great 
Britain,  and  had  commanded  the  Twenty-fifth  Division  in  the  Prench  war,  the 
long-standing  dispute  with  the  Catholic  Church  was  settled  in  1887-1888.  His 
son  Ernest  Louis  (born  1868)  concluded  in  1896  the  railway  convention  with 
Prussia  (p.  368). 

In  Brunswick  the  reigning  line  became  extinct  on  October  18,  1884,  by  the 
death  of  Duke  William,  and  since  the  next  heir,  Duke  Ernest  Augustus  of 
Cumberland,  son  of  the  exiled  King  George  V  of  Hanover,  who  died  in  1878, 
had  not  made  any  treaty  with  Prussia,  Prince  Albert  of  Prussia  (born  1837),  a 
nephew  of  Emperor  William  I,  was  appointed  regent  by  the  Bundesrat.  The 
interest,  however,  on  the  Guelf  fund  (p.  308)  was  paid  over  in  1892  to  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland.  In  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  the  Grand  Duk^Frederick  Francis  II, 
who  had  commanded  in  Prance  with  distinction  in  1870,  "ed  on  April  15,  1883. 
In  Saxe-Coburg  and  Gotha,  Duke  Ernest  II  died  on  August  22,  1893  ;  he  had 
fought  in  1849  at  Eckernforde  (cf.  explanation  of  the  plate  at  p.  209)  and  had 
made  a  sacrifice  to  the  cause  of  unity  by  a  military  treaty  with  Prussia  as  far 
back  as  1860.  In  Lippe-Detmold  Prince  Waldemar,  at  his  death  on  March  20, 
1895,  left  a  will,  according  to  which  Prince  Adolf  of  Schaumberg,  brother-in- 
law  of  the  emperor,  was  to  govern  as  regent  for  his  feeble-minded  brother.  Prince 
Alexander.  But  Count  Ernest  zur  Lippe-Biesterfeld  protested  against  this,  and 
by  the  decision  of  a  court  of  arbitration,  in  which  King  Albert  of  Saxony  presided 
over  six  members  of  the  Imperial  Court,  Count  Ernest  was  appointed  to  the 
regency  in  July,  1897.  In  Oldenburg,  Grand  Duke  Peter,  one  of  the  warmest 
supporters  of  national  unity,  died  on  June  13, 1900  ;  and  in  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, 
Grand  Duke  Charles  Alexander,  one  of  the  last  eye-witnesses  of  the  great  age 
of  Weimar,  who  had  seen  Goethe  and  breathed  some  of  his  inspiration,  died  on 
January  5,  1901. 


Jl!iZfir67-ifo2]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  373 


B.  Austria-Hungary 

(a)  Austria.  —  Although  in  Austria  the  German  Literal  bourgeois  ministry 
of  Herbst-Giskra  (p.  320)  resigned  at  the  beginning  of  1870,  partly  on  account 
of  internal  dissensions,  yet  the  Constitutional  party  there,  resting  on  the  Ger- 
man Liberals,  remained  at  the  helm  until  1879.  Prince  Adolph  Auersperg  was  at 
the  head  of  the  Liberal  cabinet  from  1871  to  1879.  The  Czechs,  who  did  not  recog- 
nise the  constitution  of  1861,  absented  themselves  from  the  Eeichsrat  and  made 
no  concealment  of  their  leanings  toward  Russia  as  the  chief  Slav  power.  By  this 
means  the  position  of  the  constitutional  party  was  gradually  shaken  ;  and  when, 
at  the  beginning  of  October,  1878,  it  opposed  the  occupation  of  Bosnia  and  Her- 
zegovina by  Austria,  it  completely  lost  ground  with  the  emperor  Francis  Joseph, 
who  recognised  that  this  occupation  was  of  vital  interest  to  the  monarchy,  which 
had  to  secure  a  more  advantageous  position  for  itself  on  the  Balkan  Peninsula 
against  the  intrusion  of  Eussian  influence.  The  emperor  summoned  on  August 
12,  1879,  the  ministry  of  Count  Eduard  Taaff'e,  which  aimed  at  the  so-called  recon- 
ciliation of  the  nationalities  by  the  grant  of  equal  rights  to  all ;  but  by  this  he 
gave  offence  to  the  Germans,  who  had  hitherto  held  the  leading  position,  and 
relied  in  fact  upon  the  Slavs  as  well  as  the  German  clericals  allied  with  them  and 
the  feudal  nobility  (especially  the  Bohemian).  The  Czechs,  amongst  whom  the 
conservative  Old  Czechs  were  gradually  crowded  out  by  the  more  radical  Young 
Czechs,  now  entered  the  Eeichsrat  and  usurped  the  power  in  the  Landtag  Cham- 
ber at  Prague,  in  consequence  of  which,  among  other  things,  they  carried  the 
proposed  division  of  the  ancient  German  University  at  Prague  into  German 
and  Czech  sections.  The  Germans  on  their  side  did  not  appear  for  some  time  in 
the  Landtag.  The  more  radical  views  of  the  "  German  Popular  party  "  and  of  the 
"  Pan-German "  party,  which  only  pursued  German  national  interests,  under  the 
clever  leaders  Von  Schonerer,  Iro,  and  Wolf,  gained  more  and  more  the  ascendancy 
with  them,  and  overshadowed  the  Liberal  Constitutional  party,  which  placed  the 
interests  of  Austria  above  the  cause  of  nationality.  The  two  former  parties  were 
at  the  same  time  strongly  anti-Semitic,  while  the  Liberal  Conservative  party  had 
a  large  Jewish  element.  Taaffe  fell  on  November  11,  1893,  since  he  wished  to 
introduce  universal  and  equal  suffrage,  an  innovation  which  would  have  greatly 
weakened  the  parliamentary  representation  of  the  Poles,  Conservatives  and 
Liberals. 

After  an  attempt  to  govern  with  the  Coalition  Ministry  of  Count  Alfred 
Windisch-Graetz  (until  June  16,  1895),  Count  Badeni,  a  Pole,  seized  the  reins  of 
government  on  September  29, 1895.  He  conceded  in  1896  the  election  of  seventy- 
two  representatives  by  universal  suffrage  (in  addition  to  the  three  hundred  and 
fifty-three  representatives  elected  under  a  restricted  franchise),  but  in  general  con- 
ducted an  administration  on  principles  partly  Slav,  partly  clerical,  and  partly 
feudal,  and  by  his  language  ordinances  of  April  5,  1897,  in  consequence  of  which 
all  of&cials  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia  from  1901  onwards  were  to  possess  a  mas- 
tery of  the  Czech  as  well  as  of  the  German  language,  precipitated  the  whole 
Austrian  monarchy  into  the  wildest  confusion.  For  in  order  to  prevent  the 
Czechising  of  the  official  classes,  and  finally  of  the  Germans  generally,  which  was 
threatened  by  the  language  ordinance,  the  Germans  in  the  Eeichsrat  set  about  the 


374  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  IF 

most  reckless  obstruction  of  all  parliamentary  business,  and  secured  on  November 
28, 1897,  the  dismissal  of  Badeni  and  the  repeal  of  the  ordinances. 

But  the  storm  was  not  calmed  by  this.  The  Czechs  demanded  the  restoration 
of  the  ordinances,  which  would  have  only  meant  the  establishment  of  equal  rights 
for  all ;  but  the  Germans  demanded  legal  recognition  of  the  dignity  of  the  Ger- 
man language  as  the  language  of  the  State.  The  Eeichsrat  was  completely  crippled 
for  four  full  years  by  this  impassable  breach  between  the  parties,  since  at  one 
time  the  Germans,  at  another  the  Czechs,  "  obstructed,"  while  by  their  intermina- 
ble speeches  and  motions  they  hindered  the  progress  of  legislation.  The  German 
constitutional  party  sank  more  and  more  into  the  background ;  Vienna  was  wrested 
from  it  by  the  Catholic  "  Social  Christian "  party  under  its  leader  Karl  Liieger, 
whom  the  emperor  actually  confirmed  in  office  as  burgomaster  (April,  1897),  and 
the  Pan-German  section  was  enlarged  in  the  Eeichsrat  elections  of  1900  from  five 
to  twenty-one  representatives.  While  the  Catholic  clergy  made  overtures  to  the 
Slavs,  a  movement,  advancing  with  the  watchword  "  Freedom  from  Eome ! "  began 
among  the  Catholic  German  population  of  Bohemia  and  the  Alpine  districts ;  this 
movement  has  led  to  the  founding  of  numerous  Evangelical  or  Old  Catholic  com- 
munities in  hitherto  purely  Catholic  districts,  and  it  is  still  increasing.  Since  the 
barrenness  of  the  Eeichsrat  was  finally  felt  to  be  irksome  by  the  electorates,  whose 
economic  interests  remained  unsatisfied,  the  minister  Ernst  von  Koerber  (after 
January  19,  1900)  succeeded  in  1901,  by  an  appeal  to  material  interests,  in  break- 
ing down  the  spell  of  obstruction  and  making  the  newly  elected  Eeichstag  once 
more  capable  of  work.  More  than  seven  hundred  million  crowns  were  granted 
then  for  railroads  and  canals,  and  in  May,  1902,  a  budget  bill  was  carried  for  the 
first  time  for  five  years. 

(&)  Hungary.  —  The  relations  of  Hungary  to  Cisleithania  depended  after  1867 
on  the  terms  of  a  treaty  concluded  for  ten  years  (p.  319),  which  was  renewed  in 
1877  and  1887.  But  the  third  renewal  met  with  great  difficulties,  since  Cislei- 
thania demanded  an  increase  in  the  share  of  thirty  per  cent  which  Hungary  has 
to  pay  of  the  common  expenditure,  and  the  inefficiency  of  the  Eeichsrat  of  1897- 
1901  spread  to  this  domain.  The  Ausgieich  was  therefore  ua  1897  first  extended 
by  a  royal  and  imperial  urgency  ordinance.  The  Liberal  p'ty  founded  by  Deak 
(p.  318)  was  uninterruptedly  predominant ;  in  1894,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
the  Crown  and  of  the  Upper  House,  it  introduced  civil  marriages,  legalised 
undenominationalism  and  the  recognition  of  the  Jewish  religious  community. 
The  celebration  of  the  millennium  of  the  Hungarian  nation  took  a  most  brilliant 
form.  The  Germans,  Eoumanians,  and  Serbs  in  Hungary  had  indeed  cause  to  com- 
plain of  the  forcible  suppression  of  their  nationality.  Thus,  in  1898,  in  virtue  of 
a  State  law  Magyar  names  were  substituted  for  all  the  non-Magyar  place  names, 
and  at  the  elections  the  ministry  of  Desiderius  Banffy,  which  was  formed  on 
January  14,  1895,  employed  every  means  of  intimidating  and  deceiving  public 
opinion.  The  inevitable  change  of  cabinet  on  February  26,  1899,  which  brought 
into  power  the  ministry  of  Koloman  von  Szell,  led  to  some  improvement  in  this 
respect ;  the  elections  of  1901  were  carried  out  for  the  first  time  without  acts  of 
violence.  A  law,  which  disqualified  the  presidents  of  banks  for  seats  in  the 
House  of  Eepresentatives,  served  also  to  purify  public  affairs.  Szell  effected  on 
June  10,  1899,  a  preliminary  convention  with  Austria  about  the  Ausgieich,  accord- 


rS.lreS^]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  375 

ing  to  which  it  was  to  be  extended  until  1907;  the  Hungarian  quota  was  also 
raised  to  thirty-four  and  four-tenths  per  cent.  On  December  31,  1902,  both  gov^ 
ernments  finally  agreed  to  the  Ausglcich,  but  it  has  not  yet  been  formally  accepted 
in  the  parliaments. 

C.  Geeat  Britain 

The  electoral  reform  of  1867,  which  bestowed  the  suffrage  upon  all  house- 
holders and  all  occupiers  of  lodgings  of  corresponding  value  in  the  towns,  was 
extended  in  1884  to  county  constituencies,  and  thus  the  Lower  House,  originally  an 
aristocratic  corporation,  became  more  and  more  democratic.  The  Irish  question 
engrossed  English  politics  for  a  decade.  It  owed  its  existence  to  the  fact  that 
the  mass  of  the  Irish  country  population  had  lost  the  ownership  of  the  soil 
since  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquest  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  in  the  position  of 
oppressed  farmers  cultivated  the  land  which  belonged  to  some  ten  thousand 
landlords  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  394).  To  this  social  abuse  was  added  the  national  con- 
trast between  Irish  and  English,  and,  thirdly,  the  religious  difference,  since  the 
Irish  are  almost  all  Catholic,  and  only  the  Anglo-Saxon  immigrants  and  the 
north  (the  province  of  Ulster  with  Belfast)  are  Protestant.  The  Liberal  Cabinet 
of  Gladstone  carried  in  1881  a  land  law  which  protected  the  farmer  against 
excessive  rent  and  arbitrary  eviction  by  the  landlords.  But  the  Irish  were  not 
contented  with  that;  led  by  Charles  Parnell,  they  demanded  for  the  farmers  in 
possession  full  rights  of  ownership  of  the  soil,  as  well  as  home  rule, — that  is  to 
say,  the  self-government  of  the  island,  and  a  parliament  of  their  own  in  Dublin. 
Gladstone  resolved  to  venture  on  granting  this  request;  but  on  June  7,  1886,  he 
was  defeated  at  a  general  election  through  the  disinclination  of  England  for  home 
rule.  Power  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  coalition  of  the  Tories  and  the  deserters 
from  this  party,  the  Liberal  L^nionists.  When  the  fortune  of  the  elections  turned 
in  his  favour  in  1892,  his  bill  was  wrecked  in  September,  1893,  on  the  opposition 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  was  backed  up  by  the  majority  of  English  voters, 
though  Scotland  took  the  Irish  side. 

In  July,  1895,  the  Tories  and  Liberal  Unionists  won  so  complete  a  victory  at 
the  polls  that  the  combined  Conservative  and  Unionist  ministry  of  Lord  Salis- 
bury was  supported  by  a  majority  of  four  hundred  and  eleven  members  against  two 
hundred  and  fifty-four  Liberals  and  Irish  members.  The  prospects  of  home  rule  for 
Ireland  were  thus  annihilated ;  but  the  hatred  felt  by  the  Irish  became  only  the 
more  intense,  and  every  defeat  of  the  English  troops  by  Zulus,  Boers,  and  Indian 
Afridi  was  hailed  with  delight  by  the  extremest  section  of  the  Nationalists. 
Joseph  Chamberlain  (born  July  8,  1836),  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies, 
became  more  and  more  the  soul  of  the  cabinet.  He  was  the  real  head  of  the 
Imperialist  movement,  which  aims  at  the  closest  bond  of  union  between  the 
mother  country  and  her  colonies,  and  takes  for  its  watchword  "  Greats  Britain  " 
in  place  of  "  Great  Britain." 

This  policy  was  impeded  in  South  Africa  by  the  two  Free  States,  which  had 
been  formed  by  the  emigration  of  Dutch  Boers  from  Cape  Colony  (cf.  Vol.  Ill, 
p.  506),  the  Orange  Free  State  (March  11,  1854),  and  the  South  African  Eepublic 
or  Transvaal  (February  13,  1858).  England  had  laid  her  hand  on  the  Transvaal 
as  far  back  as  April  12,  1877,  but  after  the  defeat  of  her  troops  under  Sir  George 


376  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapterir 

Colley  on  Majuba  Hill  (February  27,  1881)  had  thought  it  prudent  to  recognise 
once  more,  on  August  3,  the  independence  of  the  country.  Elsewhere,  however, 
the  expansion  of  British  influence  in  South  Africa  proceeded  apace.  In  1879 
the  warlike  king  of  the  Zulus,  Cetewayo  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  437),  at  the  head  of  his 
20,000  warriors,  had  inflicted  at  first  a  severe  disaster  on  the  English  army  of 
15,000  under  Lord  Chelmsford.  A  detachment  of  the  24th  regiment  had  been 
massacred  at  Isandula  on  the  Tugela  on  January  22,  1879,  when  500  men  and 
60  officers  fell ;  the  regimental  colours  and  two  cannons  were  taken  by  the 
blacks.  Prince  Louis  Napoleon,  the  brave  and  capable  son  of  Napoleon  III,  met 
an  untimely  death  in  an  ambush  on  June  1.  Finally,  however,  Cetewayo  was 
overcome  at  Ulundi  on  July  4,  1879,  by  the  superior  strategy  of  his  civihzed  oppo- 
nents. His  land  was  divided  among  thirteen  chiefs,  but  was  reunited  in  1882 
under  Cetewayo's  son  Dinisulu. 

In  1882  England  took  advantage  of  a  rebellion,  which  the  national  party  in 
Egypt  under  Arabi  Pasha  plotted  against  the  Khedive  Tewfik  Pasha  (1879-1892 ; 
cf.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  719),  who  was  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  the  Europeans,  to  make 
herself  actual  master  of  the  country,  after  the  bombardment  of  Alexandria  by 
the  British  fleet  and  the  defeat  of  Arabi  by  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  at  Tel-el-Kebir. 
Tewfik's  son  Abbas  II  Hilmi  has  been  since  1892  Viceroy  of  Egypt,  nominally 
under  the  Sultan.  A  fanatical  religious  movement,  at  whose  head  stood  the 
"  Mahdi,"  Mohammed  Ahmed  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  559),  arose  in  the  Sudan  against  the 
unbelievers,  who  occupied  a  Mohammedan  land.  The  Mahdi  captured  on  January 
26, 1885,  Khartoum,  which  was  heroically  defended  by  the  English  General  Gordon, 
who  was  himself  killed.  But  the  successor  of  the  Mahdi,  the  Khalifa  AbduUahi 
(ibid.  p.  566),  was  totally  defeated  on  September  2, 1898,  at  Omdurman  by  the  Eng- 
lish General  Kitchener,  the  Sirdar  (commander-in-chief)  of  the  Egyptian  army, 
and  was  killed  on  November  24,  1899.  By  a  treaty  between  England  and  Egypt 
Lord  Kitchener  became  governor  of  the  Eastern  SudSn  after  France,  at  whose 
orders  Captain  J.  B.  Marchand  had  occupied  Fashoda  on  the  Nile,  had  been  com- 
pelled by  threats  of  war  to  withdraw  her  troops  from  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 
The  treaty  of  March  21,  1899,  handed  over  as  compensation  the  west  of  the 
Sudftn  (Wadai  and  Kanem)  in  most  respects  to  the  Fren(^. 

Mr.  Chamberlain  now  set  about  his  purpose  of  making  Africa  English  from 
the  Nile  to  the  Cape.  After  Jameson's  raid  in  the  Transvaal  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  512) 
had  failed,  on  January  1,  1896,  Chamberlain,  in  June,  1899,  demanded  that  the 
republic  should  grant  full  rights  of  citizenship  after  a  five  years'  residence  to  all 
"  Uitlanders  "  (foreigners  who  had  poured  into  the  country  in  crowds  owing  to  the 
gold  mines  in  Johannesburg),  a  demand  which  threatened  the  danger  that  the 
Boers  themselves  would  in  the  end  be  outvoted  by  the  new  citizens.  Besides 
this,  Mr.  Chamberlain  revived  the  English  claim  of  suzerainty  over  the  Transvaal, 
which  had  been  expressly  admitted  in  the  Pretoria  Convention  of  1881.  Presi- 
dent Kriiger,  in  a  conference  with  Sir  Alfred  (afterwards  Lord)  Milner,  the  British 
High  Commissioner,  expressed  himself  as  willing  to  concede  the  franchise,  if 
Great  Britain  would  abandon  the  claim  to  suzerainty.  The  excuse  for  the  latter 
demand  was  found  in  the  London  Convention  of  1884,  an  amended  form  of  the 
Pretoria  Convention,  in  which  the  British  suzerainty  had  not  been  explicitly 
mentioned.  But  if  Mr.  Gladstone's  government  had  been  willing  to  abandon  the 
claim  or  to  waive  its  discussion  in  1884,  the  Unionist  cabinet  thought  otherwise  in 


rS,t/J-im]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  377 

1899.  The  High  Commissioner  broke  off  the  negotiations.  Troops  were  ordered 
to  South  Africa  from  England  and  India,  and  it  became  evident  that  if  the  Transvaal 
was  to  strike,  the  blow  ought  not  to  be  further  delayed.  The  Free  State,  under 
President  Steyn,  declared  its  intention  of  standing  by  the  Transvaal;  and  on  October 
9, 1899,  the  Boers  presented  an  ultimatutn  demanding  the  withdrawal  of  British 
troops  from  South  Africa.  As  this  was  refused,  war  broke  out.  During  the  first 
months  the  Boers,  favoured  by  their  marksmanship  and  their  temporary  superi- 
ority in  numbers,  invaded  Natal  and  Cape  Colony,  and  besieged  the  towns  of  Mafe- 
king,  Kimberley,  and  Ladysmitli.  The  army  sent  to  the  reHef  of  Ladysmith  was 
several  times  repulsed  on  the  Tugela,  and  another,  marching  upon  Kimberley,  was 
brought  to  a  standstill  after  it  had  forced  a  passage  over  the  Modder  Eiver,  by  a 
serious  check  at  Magersfontein  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  514).  But  the  Boers  were  lacking  in 
spirit  for  a  bold  attack  ;  they  were  encamped  almost  inactive  in  front  of  the 
three  towns  until  the  new  British  Commander-in-Chief  Lord  Eoberts,  whose  Chief 
of  the  Staff  was  Lord  Kitchener,  had  collected  vastly  superior  forces.  With  these 
he  relieved  Kimberley,  took  General  Cronje  prisoner  with  four  thousand  men  on 
February  27,  1900,  at  Paardeberg,  and  captured  between  March  and  June  the 
towns  of  Bloemfontein,  Johannesburg,  and  Pretoria.  Long  before  the  last  of  these 
had  fallen  the  heroic  garrison  of  Ladysmith  had  been  relieved.  The  capture  of 
Hlangwana  Hill  on  February  19  enabled  General  BuUer  to  cross  the  Tugela, 
and  after  some  days'  hard  fighting  the  Boers  broke  up  the  siege,  and  BuUer 
entered  Ladysmith  on  February  28.  On  July  29,  1900,  General  Marthinus 
Prinsloo  (f  February  2,  1903)  surrendered  with  three  thousand  men  at  Fouries- 
burg.     England  thought  that  the  goal  was  reached. 

President  Krtiger  went,  in  October,  1900,  to  Holland,  in  order  from  thence  to 
obtain  the  intervention  of  the  great  powers,  especially  of  Eussia,  whose  peaceable- 
minded  young  Czar  Nicholas  II  (succeeded  November  1,  1894)  had  promoted  a 
conference  of  all  the  great  powers  at  the  Hague  from  May  18  to  July  29,  1899,  to 
discuss  the  establishment  of  international  peace,  and,  as  this  was  not  feasible,  the 
more  humane  conduct  of  war  and  the  institution  of  a  permanent  court  of  arbitra- 
tion. But  no  intervention  of  the  powers  resulted,  since  England  bluntly  refused 
every  idea  of  mediation,  and  no  one  could  injure  the  mistress  of  the  seas.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  insisted  on  the  complete  subjection  of  the  Boers.  King  Edward  VII, 
who  had  succeeded  his  aged  mother  Victoria  on  January  22,  1901,  assumed  the 
title  "  Supreme  Lord  of  and  over  the  Transvaal  Colony  and  Supreme  Lord  of 
and  over  the  Orange  Eiver  Colony."  But  the  resistance  of  the  Boers  was  not  yet 
completely  overcome.  Under  their  leaders  Christian  de  Wet  in  the  Orange  State, 
and  Louis  Botha  with  his  subordinates  Delarey,  Beyers,  Viljoen,  Chr.  Botha,  and 
J.  C.  Smuts  in  the  Transvaal,  they  began  a  terrible  guerilla  war,  while  the  Dutch 
of  Cape  Colony,  in  spite  of  various  Boer  inroads,  remained  on  the  whole  tranquil. 
A  nation  of  three  hundred  thousand  souls,  of  whom  at  most  sixty  thousand  were 
fighting  men,  defied  the  great  world  power,  which,  from  want  of  conscription,  could 
only  arm  and  ship  over  paid  soldiers  (in  the  end  about  three  hundred  thousand 
men). 

The  terms  of  peace  offered  by  the  English  government  on  March  7,  1901,  in 
the  course  of  a  personal  conference  at  Middelburg  on  February  20,  between 
Kitchener  and  Louis  Botha,  were  declared  by  the  latter  to  be  impossible,  since 
England  did  not  accept  the  demands  of  the  Boers,  namely,  the  recognition  of  their 


378  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD         [chapter  iv 

independence,  and  an  amnesty  for  the  Cape  rebels.  In  September,  Kitchener 
began  to  deport  all  the  Boer  prisoners  out  of  Africa  and  to  confiscate  the  prop- 
erty of  the  still  fighting  burghers  for  the  support  of  their  families.  He  ordered  a 
number  of  captured  Boer  officers  who  were  natives  of  Cape  Colony  to  be  shot, 
according  to  the  laws  of  war,  as  rebels  caught  red-handed.  But  since  neither  party 
could  win  a  complete  victory,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  on  May  31,  1902, 
in  Pretoria,  according  to  which  the  Boers  recognised  Edward  VII  as  their  lawful 
sovereign,  and  in  return  received  the  assurance  of  internal  independence  and  the 
sum  of  three  millions  sterhng  for  the  rebuilding  of  their  destroyed  farmhouses. 
The  Cape  rebels  were  to  be  punished  only  by  loss  of  their  electoral  rights.  On 
February  1,  1903,  Lieuten ant-General  Sir  Neville  Lyttelton  was  appointed  com- 
mander-in-chief of  all  the  British  troops  in  South  Africa  from  the  Zambesi  to  the 
Cape. 

D.   Feance 

(a)  The  Internal  Development.  —  The  great  majority  of  the  French  National 
Assembly  elected  on  February  8,  1871,  were  in  favour  of  monarchy,  and,  since 
Paris  was  republican,  the  assembly  fixed  on  Versailles  as  the  seat  of  government. 
The  threatened  restoration  of  the  monarchy,  as  well  as  the  conscious  pride  with 
which  Paris  as  the  "  heart  of  France  "  was  opposed  to  the  provinces,  produced  that 
terrible  revolution  which  is  called,  from  the  municipal  committee  elected  by  the 
proletarian  masses,  the  rising  of  the  Commune.  On  March  28  the  "Communistic 
Eepublic  "  was  proclaimed,  which  at  once  procured  the  required  supplies  of  money 
by  compulsory  loans  from  the  wealthy  and  by  the  confiscation  of  the  property 
of  the  religious  orders.  The  Parisians  had  been  allowed  to  keep  their  arms  on  the 
conclusion  of  the  truce  in  January,  1871,  at  the  express  request  of  the  infatuated 
Favre  ;  with  these  arms  they  resisted  for  nearly  two  months  the  attacks  of  the  army 
led  by  Marshal  MacMahon  against  the  rebellious  city.  The  troops  eventually 
forced  their  way  into  the  city  after  a  series  of  murderous  engagements ;  but  in 
the  moment  of  defeat  the  Communards  sought  to  revenge  themselves  on  their 
conquerors  by  levelling  the  Vendome  column,  burning  the  Tuileries,  the  H6tel  de 
Ville,  and  other  public  buildings,  and  shooting  the  clergy  fanen  into  their  hands, 
and  foremost  among  them  Georges  Darboy,  Archbishop  of  Paris.  As  a  punishment 
for  this,  twenty-six  ringleaders  were  executed  by  order  of  court-martial  on  the 
Plain  of  Satory,  and  some  10,000,  who  had  been  taken  with  arms  in  their  hands, 
were  sentenced  to  transportation  or  imprisonment  in  France  itself.  In  the  conflict 
7,500  soldiers  and  6,500  rebels  had  been  killed  or  wounded. 

These  terrible  events  at  first  only  strengthened  the  inclination  towards  mon- 
archy. Thiers,  however,  being  convinced  that  in  the  end  a  conservative  republic 
was  the  form  of  constitution  most  advantageous  to  his  country,  opposed  any  resto- 
ration of  the  monarchy ;  but  although  by  a  prompt  payment  of  the  five  milliards 
he  contrived  that  France  should  be  evacuated  by  the  Germans  in  1873,  he  was 
compelled  to  retire  from  the  post  of  president  of  the  executive  in  May,  1873,  before 
the  evacuation  was  complete.  Marshal  MacMahon  (pp.  251  and  337)  became  his 
successor.  Since  there  were  three  parties  in  the  ranks  of  the  royalists,  —  the  sup- 
porters of  the  Bourbons,  of  the  house  of  Orleans,  and  of  the  Bonapartes,  —  it  was 
very  difficult  to  set  up  the  monarchy,  which,  after  all,  only  one  of  these  dynasties 


lr{^rfIZ%2\       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  379 

could  hold.  The  Orldanists,  it  is  true,  gave  way  to  their  childless  cousin  Henry 
(V)  of  Bourbou,  who,  as  Count  of  Chambord,  lived  at  Frohsdorf,  near  Vienna,  and 
MacMahon  was  prepared  to  restore  the  Bourbou  monarchy ;  but  when  in  1873 
the  Count  demanded  the  disuse  of  the  national  tricolor  and  the  reintroduction  of 
the  white  standard  with  the  lilies  of  his  house,  in  order  that  there  might  be  a  clear 
sign  of  the  return  of  the  nation  to  the  pre-revolutionary  standpoint,  the  courage 
even  of  the  moderate  royalists  failed  at  such  a  step.  The  republic  received  in 
1875  its  legal  basis  by  the  grant  of  a  seven  years'  tenure  of  office  to  its  president. 

When  MacMahon  in  1877  made  a  renewed  attempt  to  pave  the  way  for  a  res- 
toration of  the  monarchy,  he  failed,  through  the  energy  of  Gambetta  (p.  343)  and 
the  resistent  power  of  Eepublicanism.  The  elections  produced  a  strong  republican 
majority,  and  on  January  30,  1879,  MacMahon,  despairing  of  the  victory  of  his 
cause,  gave  way  to  the  republican  Jules  Gr^vy.  He  was  followed  by  FranQois  Sadi 
Carnot,  J.  P.  P.  Casimir-P^rier,  Fdlix  Faure,  and  Emile  Loubet;  the  latter  has  held 
the  office  since  February  18,  1899.  Gr^vy  was  forced,  through  the  defalcations  of 
his  stepson  Daniel  Wilson,  to  resign  on  December  1, 1887  ;  Carnot  fell  on  June  24, 
1894,  at  Lyons,  under  the  dagger  of  the  Italian  anarchist  Santo  Caserio  ;  Casimir- 
Pdrier  retired  as  soon  as  the  15th  of  January,  1895,  from  disgust  at  his  office,  which 
conferred  more  external  glitter  than  real  power;  and  Faure  died  on  February  16, 
1899,  soon  after  an  attack  of  apoplexy. 

The  Monarchists  were  no  longer  able  to  obtain  a  commanding  position,  espe- 
cially since  Pope  Leo  XIII  in  1892  had  ordered  the  Catholics  to  support  the 
existing  constitution.  The  party  which  was  obedient  to  the  Pope  styled  itself  les 
rallies.  Even  the  venality  of  republican  statesmen  who  allowed  themselves  to  be 
paid^  for  their  support  in  Parliament  by  the  company  for  the  construction  of  the 
Panama  Canal,  which  went  bankrupt  in  December,  1888,  was  unable  to  overthrow 
the  republican  government.  A  crisis  even  more  alarming  was  produced  by  the 
lawsuit  of  the  Jewish  captain  Alfred  Dreyfus,  who,  on  December  22,  1894,  was 
found  guilty  of  betraying  military  secrets,  ignominiously  degraded  and  transported 
to  the  Devil's  Island,  near  Cayenne,  but  after  the  resumption  of  his  trial  was 
condemned,  on  September  9,  1899,  to  ten  years'  imprisonment  in  a  fortress,  only 
on  September  19  to  be  pardoned  by  President  Loubet.  But  again  the  republic 
weathered  the  storm.  One  consequence  of  the  Dreyfus  agitation  has  been  to 
increase  the  anti-clerical  tendencies  of  the  executive.  In  June,  1899,  the  Social 
Democrat  Alexandre  Millerand  (p.  363)  actually  entered  the  cabinet  as  Min- 
ister of  Commerce.  In  March,  1901,  a  law  against  associations  was  passed  by  the 
ministry  of  Waldeck-Eousseau,  which  placed  under  State  control  the  religious 
orders,  especially  those  inveighing  against  the  "  atheistic  "  republic,  punished  the 
disobedient  ones  with  dissolution,  and  deprived  the  orders  of  the  instruction  of 
the  young. 

A  drama  which  is  interesting  from  a  different  point  developed  round  the  figure 
of  General  Boulanger.  He  was  Minister  of  War  from  January,  1886,  to  June,  1887, 
and  obtained  an  immense  popularity.  He  almost  provoked  a  war  with  Germany 
in  the  spring  of  1887,  and  after  April,  1888,  undertook  to  remodel  the  constitution 
with  a  view  to  the  restoration  of  the  empire.  Wherever  he  appeared  on  his  black 
charger  the  crowds  greeted  him  with  loud  cheers.     But  at  last  M.  Constans,  the 

^  See  the  verdicts  of  March  24,  1893,  and  Decemher  30,  1897. 


380  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  iv 

minister,  boldly  laid  hands  on  him,  and  arraigned  him  before  the  High  Court  as  a 
conspirator  against  the  constitution.  Boulanger,  from  fear  of  condemnation,  and 
not  being  bold  enough  to  stir  up  a  revolution,  fled,  on  April  8,  to  Brussels,  where 
he  died  by  his  own  hand,  oa  September  30,  1891. 

(h)  The  Foreign  Policy  of  the  Republic.  —  In  the  sphere  of  foreign  policy  the 
Third  Eepublic  was  very  successful  in  so  far  that  on  May  12,  1881,  by  use  of  the 
temporarily  good  understanding  with  Germany  established  by  the  ministry  of 
Jules  Ferry,  Sidi  Ali,  the  Bey  of  Tunis  (f  June  11, 1902),  was  forced  to  accept  the 
French  protectorate,  and  thus  the  position  of  France  on  the  Mediterranean  was 
much  strengthened.  Tonkin  in  Further  India  was  acquired  after  a  checkered 
campaign  against  China,  between  1883  and  1885  (cf.  Vol.  II,  p.  534) ;  on  October 
2, 1893,  Siam  was  driven  back  behind  the  Mekong  (ibid.  p.  529) ;  and  on  August  6, 
1896,  Madagascar  was  incorporated  into  the  French  colonial  possessions  (ibid, 
p.  572).  France  also  won  considerable  territory  on  the  continent  of  Africa.  In 
1892  she  occupied  the  negro  kingdom  of  Dahomeh  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  461),  while  con- 
currently the  whole  western  Sudan  from  Timbuctoo  to  the  Congo  became  French 
(cf.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  492).  On  Lake  Chad  France  is  the  predominant  power,  and 
treaties  with  Germany  and  England  secured  its  possessions.  Eecent  troubles  in 
Morocco  have  given  an  opportunity  for  French  interference,  which  the  republic 
shows  every  intention  of  utilising  to  the  utmost.  Her  only  severe  check  in  Africa 
has  been  that  experienced  from  England  in  connection  with  the  Fashoda  episode 
(see  above,  p.  376). 

But  the  originally  most  ardent  wish  of  the  French,  to  revenge  themselves  on 
Germany  and  to  win  back  Alsace-Lorraine,  has  not  been  gratified.  The  efficiency 
of  the  German  army  and  the  increasing  numerical  superiority  of  the  German 
population  (in  1901  fifty-six  million  Germans  to  thirty-eight  million  French) 
excluded  all  possibility  of  a  French  victory  in  a  duel  between  the  two  nations. 
Even  the  Dual  Alliance  with  Eussia,  which  was  projected  in  1891  under  Alex- 
ander III  and  concluded  under  Nicholas  II  (deciding  visit  of  the  Czar  to  France 
October  6-9,  1896,  return  visit  of  Faure's  August  23-26,  1897),  has  freed,  indeed, 
France  from  her  isolation,  but  —  according  to  the  noteworthy  confession  of 
le  Sikcle  of  September  19,  1901  — has  made  a  re-conquest  of  the  lost  provinces 
impossible,  for  the  reason  that  Eussia  also  must  wish  to  stand  on  good  terms  with 
her  neighbour  Germany.  A  dispute  with  the  Sultan,  Abdul  Hamid  II,  who  did 
not  satisfy  the  demands  of  some  French  officials,  led  to  the  despatch  of  a  French 
fleet  under  Vice-Admiral  L^once  Albert  Caillard  in  November,  1901,  to  Mytilene. 
The  Sultan  gave  in,  granted  to  French  schools  and  hospitals  in  Turkey  the 
immunity  from  taxation  which  was  demanded  for  them,  and  thus  saved  the 
island  from  the  fate  of  Cyprus,  which  the  English  had  occupied  in  1878  in 
order  to  keep  it. 

E.  Spain. 

{a)  The  Period  1870-1890.  —  After  the  candidature  of  Prince  Leopold  of 
Hohenzollern  for  the  throne  of  Spain  had  failed  (p.  331),  the  Spaniards  succeeded 
in  finding  a  king  in  the  person  of  Prince  Amadeo  of  Savoy,  the  second  son  of 
Victor  Emmanuel  II ;  but  the  excellent  monarch  soon  abdicated,  on  February  11, 


rjYi:rX7-iTo2]       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  381 

1873,  since  he  was  unable  to  display  any  profitable  activity  owing  to  the  party 
spirit  which  choked  every  attempt.  The  republic,  of  which  Don  Emilio  Castelar 
was  the  head,  and  against  which  the  Carlists  (cf.  Vol.  IV,  p.  557)  at  once  rose, 
only  held  together  for  a  short  time.  On  January  14,  1875,  Alfonso  XII,  son  of 
the  exiled  Isabella,  was  proclaimed  king.  He  crushed  in  1876  the  insurrection 
of  the  Carlists,  who  contested  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  of  1830  (Vol.  IV,  p.  553),  and 
consequently  the  legitimacy  of  the  monarchy  of  Isabella  and  her  son,  and  sup- 
ported the  cause  of  the  Duke  of  Madrid,  Don  Carlos,  born  in  1848,  a  grandson 
of  the  brother  of  Ferdinand  VII.  Don  Carlos,  who  obstinately  maintained  his 
pretensions,  was  forced  once  more  to  withdraw  into  exile.  When  Alfonso  XII,  a 
prince  of  whom  some  hopes  were  entertained,  died  as  early  as  November  25,  1885, 
his  widow,  Maria  Christina  of  Austria,  took  over  the  government  for  her  still 
unborn  child.  She  gave  birth,  on  May  17,  1886,  to  Alfonso  XIII,  who  attained 
his  majority  on  May  17,  1902.  Under  the  regency  of  Maria  Christina  universal 
suffrage  was  introduced  on  May  1,  1890. 

(J)  The  War  with  the  United  States  of  America.  —  In  1895  an  insurrection 
once  more  broke  out  in  Cuba  against  the  Spanish  government,  which  the  inhab- 
itants blamed  for  the  unscrupulous  profit  it  made  out  of  the  island ;  they  also 
complained  that  they  were  excluded  from  all  important  offices.  As  the  Spanish 
governors,  although  in  the  end  two  hundred  thousand  men  had  been  thrown  into 
the  island,  could  not  master  the  insurrection,  and  a  revolution  broke  out  on  the 
Philippines  whose  resources  were .  drained  by  the  monastic  orders,  the  United 
States  of  America,  a  power  from  which  the  rising  of  the  Cubans  had  long  received 
secret  encouragement,  interfered  in  the  matter  in  1898,  partly  to  enforce  respect  for 
the  enlarged  Monroe  doctrine  (Vol.  I,  p.  563),  partly  from  eagerness  to  possess  the 
island  which  produced  sugar  and  tobacco  in  large  quantities  and  of  an  excellent 
quality.  Since  Spain  would  not  surrender  Cuba,  President  McKinley  declared 
war  on  it.  The  Americans,  under  the  command  of  George  Dewey,  defeated  the 
Spanish  fleet,  which  consisted  of  antiquated  ships,  in  the  Bay  of  Cavite  in  front 
of  Manila  (May  1),  while  W.  T.  Sampson,  and  then  Winfield  Scott  Schley,  were 
victorious  off  Santiago  in  Cuba  (July  3),  and  captured  this  fort  after  fierce  fights. 
Maria  Christina  was  driven  to  conclude  the  treaty  of  Paris  of  December  10,  1898, 
by  which  Spain  was  forced  to  relinquish  Cuba,  Puerto  Eico,  and  the  Philippines. 
The  monarchy,  to  which  in  the  sixteenth  century  half  the  New  World  belonged, 
had  at  one  blow  completely  lost  its  still  large  colonial  possessions.  The  groups  of 
the  Caroline,  Pellew,  and  the  Marianne  islands,  now  worthless  to  her  under  the 
new  conditions,  were  sold  by  Spain  to  the  German  Empire  on  June  19,  1899,  for 
seventeen  million  marks  (Vol.  IV,  p.  560),  and  her  colonial  ministry  was  abolished. 
The  sole  oversea  possessions  of  Spain  at  the  present  day  are  the  islands  of 
Fernando  Po  and  Annobom,  opposite  the  Cameroons,  the  Canary  Isles,  and  Ceuta, 
Eio  del  Oro,  and  Corisco. 

The  Cuban  war  has  crowned  with  success  a  movement  in  the  United  States 
which  goes  far  beyond  the  traditional  limitation  of  the  sphere  of  influence  of  the 
United  States  in  America  (the  Venezuelan  disturbance  gave  another  example), 
since  it  aims  at  the  establishment  of  a  world-empire  striving  for  the  dominion 
over  the  Pacific  ("  Imperialism  ").  The  acquisition,  in  June,  1897,  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands  (where,  on  January  17, 1893,  Queen  Liliuokalani  was  deposed  and  a  repub- 


382  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  \_Chapter  ir 

he  proclaimed;  cf.  Vol.  II,  p.  323)  was  a  step  in  this  direction;  the  conquest  of 
the  Philippines,  where  the  aboriginal  Tagal  population  even  now,  in  spite  of  the 
capture  of  their  leader,  Emilio  Aguinaldo  (ibid.  p.  571)  is  in  arms  against  the  new 
rulers,  and  of  the  Caroline  island  Guam,  as  well  as  of  the  Samoa  islands  Tutuila 
and  Manua  (on  December  2,  1899,  by  a  treaty  with  Germany  ;  cf.  Vol.  II,  p.  326 
et  seq.),  mark  further  stages  on  a  road  on  which  the  United  States  may  easily 
come  into  collision  with  other  great  powers.  The  necessity  of  strengthening  the 
army  from  twenty-five  thousand  to  one  hundred  thousand  men,  and  of  increasing 
the  fleet  proportionately,  has  already  intruded  itself.  The  United  States,  indeed, 
by  the  growth  in  population  (on  June  1,  1900,  seventy-six  millions,  which,  com- 
pared with  the  state  of  things  in  1890,  means  an  increase  of  twenty-one  per  cent), 
and  by  the  gigantic  industrial  development  under  the  influence  of  the  protective 
tarifl'  introduced  by  McKinley  in  1890  (Vol.  I,  p.  563),  have  attained  a  power 
which  makes  them  appear  formidable  rivals  of  Europe.  The  capitalistic  develop- 
ment which  led  to  the  formation  of  trusts,  such  as  the  Standard  Oil  Trust,  the 
Sugar  Trust,  etc.,  and  to  the  accumulation  of  enormous  fortunes  (multi-millionaires, 
such  as  J.  J.  Astor,  Andrew  Carnegie,  Jay  Gould,  Pierpont  Morgan,  John  Eocke- 
feller,  etc.)  has  also  brought  over  to  the  ISTew  World  the  struggles  between  labour 
and  capital,  and  prolonged  the  existence  of  a  corrupt  political  morality,  which 
regards  the  State  and  its  offices  as  the  spoils  of  party  conflict.  President  Garfleld 
was  murdered  on  July  2, 1881,  by  a  place-hunter  (by  name  Charles  Guiteau)  whose 
petition  he  had  refused,  and  on  September  14,  1901,  President  McKinley  fell  a 
victim  to  the  wounds  which  an  anarchist,  Leon  Czolgosz,  had  inflicted  on  him 
in  Buffalo. 

F.   Italy 

The  predominant  party  in  the  kingdom  of  Italy  was  from  1861  to  1876  the 
Consorteria,  or  Moderate  Conservative,  which  had  been  founded  by  Cavour.  Its 
failures,  however,  and  all  kinds  of  personal  jealousies  enabled  the  Left  to  gain  the 
supremacy,  which  was  only  temporarily  taken  from  it  by  the  renewed  strength  of 
the  Eight  under  the  Marquis  di  Eudini.  The  Left  abolished  the  duty  on  flour, 
which  made  the  workingman's  bread  dear,  and  conferred  the^uffrage  on  all  who 
could  read  and  write  and  paid  a  small  tax.  But  it  could  not  check  satisfactorily 
the  miserable  destitution  of  the  poorer  classes,  especially  of  the  labourers  in  the 
north,  in  the  Basilicata,  and  in  Sicily,  and  of  the  miners  in  the  Sicilian  sulphur- 
mines.  Sicily  also  suffered  under  the  reign  of  terror,  which  the  secret  society  of 
the  Mafia  established  in  many  parts.  Owing  to  the  dearth  of  food  the  social 
revolution  in  Milan,  Ancona,  the  Eomagna,  and  Southern  Italy  repeatedly  pro- 
duced open  insurrection  against  the  authority  of  the  State.  Prom  the  6th  to  the 
12th  of  May,  1898,  Milan  was  completely  in  the  hands  of  the  revolution,  and  order 
was  only  restored  after  sanguinary  conflicts  in  which  fifty-three  persons  were 
killed  and  hundreds  wounded.  The  efforts  of  Italia  irredenta,  which  wished  to 
unite  with  the  monarchy  the  whole  "  unredeemed  "  Italian  population  outside  Italy 
(in  Trieste,  Dalmatia,  Tirol,  Ticino,  and  Nice),  had  been,  especially  since  1878, 
detrimental  to  a  good  understanding  with  neighbouring  States ;  they  hindered 
the  alliance  of  Italy  with  Austria,  and  so  also  with  Germany,  and  gave  France  an 
opportunity  to  carry  off,  on  the  pretext  of  the  depredations  of  the  Tunisian  border 


r&mTM       HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  383 

tribes  of  the  Krumir,  the  province  of  Tunis,  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  Italians, 
who  had  been  trying  to  acquire  it  themselves.  King  Humbert  I,  the  worthy  son 
of  Victor  Emmanuel  11  (1878  to  1900),  being  thus  taught  the  dangers  of  the 
policy  of  the  "free  hand,"  concluded  in  March,  1887,  at  the  advice  of  his  minister 
Count  Eobilant,  the  Triple  Alliance  with  Austria  and  Germany,  which,  being  sub- 
sequently consolidated  by  the  policy  of  Francesco  Crispi,  has  proved  hitherto  the 
main  support  of  the  peace  of  Europe.  It  secured  Italy's  position  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  thus  effectively  checked  French  designs  on  Tripoli.  The  attempt  to 
place  Abyssinia  under  Italian  suzerainty  gained,  indeed,  for  Italy  the  possession  of 
Assab  in  1881,  and  that  of  Massowah  in  1885  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  573).  But  on  March  1, 
1896,  the  great  King  Menelik  with  ninety  thousand  men  defeated  and  nearly 
annihilated  the  Italian  army,  fifteen  thousand  men  strong,  under  Baratieri  at 
Abba  Garima,  east  of  Adowah,  carried  three  thousand  Italian  soldiers  as  prisoners 
into  the  heart  of  his  country,  and  extorted  on  October  26,  1896,  a  peace  which 
secured  the  independence  of  Abyssinia  and  confined  the  Italian  colony  on  the 
Bed  Sea  ("  Eritrea  ")  within  narrower  limits  ;  it  now  only  extends  from  Massowah 
to  the  rivers  Marab  and  Belesa.  Bank  scandals,  from  which  even  ministers  did 
not  emerge  without  damage  to  their  reputations,  caused  repeatedly,  as  in  1894,  for 
example,  considerable  excitement.  King  Humbert  was  assassinated  on  July  29, 
1900,  at  Monza,  by  Gaetano  Bresci,  an  anarchist  sent  from  America;  he  was 
succeeded  by  his  son  Victor  Emmanuel  III  (born  1869),  who  by  his  marriage  to 
Princess  Helene  of  Montenegro  (October  24, 1896)  has  formed  an  alliance  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Adriatic.  The  economic  position  of  Italy  has  made  considerable 
progress,  now  that  African  expeditions  no  longer  sap  the  vitality  of  the  country, 
and  a  commercial  treaty  has  been  made  with  France.  The  four  per  cent  Italian 
rentes  stood  in  1901  almost  at  par.     The  Triple  Alliance  was  renewed  in  1902. 

The  papacy  is  bitterly  hostile  to  the  national  State  of  Italy,  which  has 
deprived  it  of  all  secular  possessions.  It  forbade  all  true  sons  of  the  Church  to 
show  any  sort  of  recognition  of  the  "  usurping  "  kingdom  of  Italy  by  taking  part 
in  the  political  elections  to  the  Second  Chamber,  and  thus  to  a  large  extent 
checkmated  the  Conservatives,  to  the  manifest  advantage  of  the  Eadicals.  Even 
the  Guarantee  Act  of  May,  1871,  which  secures  to  the  Pope  his  independence,  the 
possession  of  the  Vatican,  and  a  yearly  income  of  three  million  lire,  has  not  so  far 
been  acknowledged  by  the  Curia,  since  it  emanates  from  the  legislature  of  the 
monarchy,  and  the  right  of  the  monarchy  to  exist  is  contested  by  the  Pope. 


G.  Switzerland 

The  Swiss  Confederation  has  gone  through  a  progressive  development,  so  far 
as  material  interests  are  concerned,  since  about  1860.  It  obtained  a  rich  market 
for  its  industries  by  commercial  treaties  with  its  neighbours,  and  the  great 
lines  of  mountain  railways  into  the  Engadine,  over  the  St.  Gotthard,  through 
the  heart  of  which  a  tunnel  fifteen  kilometres  long  was  driven  in  1882,  and  into 
the  Bernese  Oberland,  promoted  the  influx  of  strangers,  from  which  Switzerland 
derives  great  profits. 

The  constitution  of  the  confederation,  like  those  of  many  cantons,  has  gradually 
become  more  democratic  in  the  course  of  years.     After  the  cantons  of  ZUrich, 


384  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD         [Chapter  iv 

Basel-Land,  Berne,  and  others  had  introduced  since  1869  the  referendtim,  or  the 
voting  of  the  entire  people  on  legislative  proposals,  the  Federal  Constitution  was 
modified  on  May  29,  1874,  according  to  the  views  of  the  Liberals  and  the  Centre. 
Legislation  on  the  subjects  of  contracts,  bills,  and  trade,  as  well  as  the  jurisdiction 
over  the  army  and  the  Church,  were  assigned  to  the  confederation;  it  also  received 
powers  in  economic  matters.  A  supreme  federal  court  and  a  system  of  registra- 
tion of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages  by  government  officials  were  introduced. 
The  referendum  is  allowed  in  all  cases  when  either  thirty  thousand  voters  or 
eight  out  of  the  twenty-two  cantons  demand  that  the  nation  itself  shall  say  the 
last  word  on  a  measure  approved  by  the  Federal  and  IsTational  Councils.  On  July 
5, 1891,  the  popular  rights  were  increased  by  the  grant  to  the  people  of  the  initia- 
tive in  the  legislation  on  condition  that  fifty  thousand  votes  require  it.  This  con- 
cession to  democratic  principles  has,  it  must  be  confessed,  produced  the  result 
that  many  useful  laws  which  had  been  decided  upon  by  the  legislative  bodies 
have  been  lost  at  the  very  last,  especially  when  an  increased  expenditure  might 
be  expected  from  them.  The  French  cantons  of  Western  Switzerland  and  the 
Catholic  cantons  of  Old  Switzerland  often  came  together  in  the  attempt  to  hinder 
all  progressive  centralisation.  The  confederation  received,  however,  on  October 
25,  1885,  the  monopoly  of  manufacturing  and  selling  alcohol,  and  in  1887  the 
supervision  of  the  forests  and  the  right  to  legislate  on  the  food  supply ;  in  1898 
the  nationalization  of  the  railways  and  uniformity  of  procedure  in  civil  and 
criminal  cases  were  granted  by  the  people. 

The  confederation  quarelled  with  the  papal  throne  in  1873,  because  Bishop 
E.  Lachat  of  Basle  had  on  his  own  responsibility  published  the  Vatican  decrees. 
The  bishopric  of  Basle  was  in  consequence  abolished  by  the  confederation  on 
January  29  ;  Kaspar  Mermillod,  who  put  himself  forward  as  Bishop  of  Geneva, 
was  banished  from  the  country  on  February  17,  and  the  papal  charge  d'affaires, 
G.  B.  Agnozzi,  was  given  his  passports  toward  the  end  of  November.  The  Old 
Catholic  movement  found  great  support  in  Switzerland,  and  received  on  June  7, 
1876,  a  bishop  of  its  own  ("  Christian  Catholic  ")  in  the  person  of  Edward  Herzog, 
and  a  special  theological  faculty  in  Berne,  which  was,  however,  only  thinly 
attended.  But  in  the  course  of  time  a  fresh  agreement  was  effected  between 
Church  and  State ;  the  bishopric  of  Basle  was  revived  in  iB84-1885,  though  the 
nunciature  remained  in  abeyance. 

The  social  movement  of  the  time  led  in  1887  to  the  legal  restriction  of  the 
maximum  working  day  to  eleven  hours,  in  1881  to  the  adoption  of  a  law  of 
employers'  liability,  and  in  1890  to  the  establishment  of  workmen's  insurances 
against  accidents  and  illness.  On  the  other  hand,  the  social  democratic  proposal 
to  introduce  into  the  constitution  the  "  Right  to  Labour "  was  rejected  by  the 
people  by  three  hundred  thousand  to  seventy-three  thousand  votes.  While 
the  radical  democratic  party  was  prominent,  the  social  democracy  generally, 
although  it  rested  on  the  radical  Griltli-Verein  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  423),  which  had 
formally  joined  it  in  1901,  and  constituted  a  special  group  in  the  National 
Council,  has  attained  to  no  great  influence.  Since  also  the  Conservative  Liberals 
were  able  to  exercise  vei'y  limited  power,  the  minority  have  lately  directed  their 
efforts  to  carry  the  system  of  proportionate  voting  in  the  confederation  as  well 
as  in  the  cantons,  and  thus  to  secure  themselves  at  least  a  proportionate  share 
in  the  popular  representation  and  in  legislation. 


riwfi»-M      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  385 


S.  Belgium 

The  Kingdom  of  Belgium  had  been  released  by  the  war  of  1870-1871  from 
the  continual  danger  which  had  threatened  it  from  the  side  of  the  Third  Empire 
(cf .  pp.  312, 334).  The  two  great  parties  of  Liberals  and  Clericals  were  alternately 
in  office,  as  had  been  the  case  for  the  past  decades.  But  both  parties  saw  them- 
selves compelled,  on  political  grounds,  to  abandon  gradually  the  exclusive. recog- 
nition of  the  French  language  in  official  matters  and  private  intercourse,  and  to 
make  concessions  to  the  Flemings,  who  composed  more  than  half  the  population 
of  the  kingdom.  Accordingly,  under  the  clerical  cabinet  of  Baron  J.  J.  d'Anethan, 
the  use  of  the  Flemish  language  was  permitted  in  the  law  courts ;  under  the  liberal 
ministry  of  Hub.  Jos.  Frere-Orban,  in  1878,  its  employment  as  the  medium  of 
instruction  in  the  national  schools  was  conceded ;  while  under  the  renewed  clerical 
government  of  1886  a  royal  Flemish  academy  for  language  and  literature  was 
founded.     In  1892  officers  were  required  to  learn  the  two  national  languages. 

Frfere-Orban,  supported  by  a  majority  of  eighteen  votes,  carried,on  July  1, 1879, 
the  law  which  introduced  undenominational  national  schools  into  Belgium.  The 
religious  instruction  was  now  given  outside  the  school  hours,  but  class-rooms  were 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  clergy  for  the  purpose.  Owing  to  the  ambiguous 
attitude  of  the  Curia,  which  ostensibly  exhorted  the  faithful  to  follow  the  law,  but 
in  secret  stirred  up  opposition,  dAnethan,  then  ambassador  at  the  Vatican,  was 
recalled  and  the  nuncio  Serafino  Vannutelli  was  given  his  passports.  In  1881 
the  number  of  State  gymnasia  (athena;ums)  was  increased  and  fifty  undenomi- 
national girl  schools  founded.  But  since  the  new  schools  laid  considerable  burdens 
on  parishes  (as  much  as  twenty-two  million  francs  yearly),  discontent  gradually 
was  felt  with  the  Liberal  ministry,  which  also  opposed  the  introduction  of  universal 
suffrage ;  and  the  Clericals  by  the  elections  of  1884  won  a  majority  of  twenty 
votes.  The  Clerical  Cabinet  of  Jules  Malou  now  passed  a  law,  in  virtue  of  which 
parishes  were  empowered  to  recognise  the  "  free  "  schools,  that  is  to  say,  the  schools 
erected  by  the  Church,  as  national  schools  in  the  meaning  of  the  law  of  1879 ;  in 
this  way  the  latter  was  practically  annulled.  For  the  parishes  from  motives  of 
economy  made  such  ample  use  of  this  permission  (in  1,465  cases),  that  out  of  1,933 
national  schools  877  were  closed  within  a  year,  and  were  replaced  by  Church 
schools.  Diplomatic  intercourse  with  the  Curia  was  resumed  in  1885  by  a  Bel- 
gian ambassador  to  the  Vatican  (Baron  E.  de  Pitteurs-Hi^gaerts)  and  by  the 
reappointment  of  a  nuncio  in  Brussels  (Domen-Ferrata).  The  Clerical  party 
maintained  their  majority  at  the  next  elections ;  in  fact  they  grew  to  be  more  than 
two-thirds  of  the  members  of  the  Chamber. 

The  rise  of  the  Social  Democrats,  whose  influence  had  begun  to  spread  far  and 
wide  through  the  industrial  regions  of  Belgium,  combined,  with  a  fall  of  wages,  to 
produce  a  disastrous  revolution  in  Lifege,  Brussels,  and  Charleroi  in  March,  1886,  on 
the  occasion  of  a  festival  in  honour  of  the  Paris  Commune.  A  new  and  formidable 
antagonist  faced  the  Clericals  in  place  of  the  Liberals,  who  were  divided  into  a 
moderate  and  a  radical  section.  The  government  attempted  to  pave  the  way 
for  Social  Reform  by  the  creation  of  courts  of  arbitration  between  workmen 
and  manufacturers,  by  the  introduction  of  State  supervision  over  workshops,  and 
the  prohibition  of  the  payment  of  wages  in  kind ;  but  the  Clericals  could  not  bring 

VOL.  Vni  — 25 


386  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  ir 

themselves  to  adopt  really  comprehensive  measures  of  strict  social  justice,  among 
which  the  universal  liability  to  military  service  would  be  reckoned.  At  the  elec- 
tions of  1892  they  lost  the  two-thirds  majority,  and  conceded  in  1893  universal 
suffrage,  with  the  proviso  that  electors  who  possessed  means,  were  married,  and 
academically  educated  should  possess  a  plural  vote  (cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  425).  The 
number  of  electors  was  increased  by  this  law  from  130,000  to  1,200,000.  Since 
the  first  clause  in  particular  helped  the  clerical  party  in  the  country,  it  main- 
tained its  majority ;  the  Liberals  and  Social  Democrats  vainly  endeavoured  to 
strike  the  clause  conceding  plurality  of  votes  (le  vote  plural)  out  of  the  constitu- 
tion. A  general  strike  organised  for  this  purpose  0]i  April  14,  1902,  had  to  be 
abandoned  on  the  20th ;  and  the  new  elections  on  May  25  resulted  in  a  small 
gain  for  the  Clericals. 

King  Leopold  II  did  good  service  in  opening  up  Africa,  where  he  founded,  with 
the  help  of  Sir  Henry  Stanley,  the  Congo  State  (cf.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  494),  which  contains 
2,250,000  sq.  kilometres  and  a  population  of  14,000,000.  This  State  was  recog- 
nised by  the  great  powers  at  the  Berlin  Congo  Conference  in  1885,  and  Leopold,  in 
virtue  of  a  Belgian  law  which  allowed  him  to  bear  this  double  title,  assumed  the 
style  of  Sovereign  of  the  Congo  State.  The  supreme  government  is  at  Brussels ; 
the  local  government  has  its  seat  at  Boma  on  the  Congo,  where  it  develops  the 
resources  of  the  enormous  realm  to  which  the  other  powers  granted,  on  July  2, 
1890,  permission  to  levy  import  duties,  and  maintains  tolerable  order  with  four 
thousand  soldiers.  In  the  year  1892  Belgium  lent  the  Congo  State  twenty-five 
million  francs  free  of  interest,  and  received  in  return  the  right  to  buy  the  State 
in  ten  years.  After  a  hot  debate  the  Chamber  assented  to  a  government  proposal 
which  asked  for  a  postponement  of  the  decision  as  to  any  incorporation  of  the 
Congo  State  into  Belgium  (July  17,  1901). 


J.  The  Netherlands 

In  the  Netherlands  also  the  institution  of  undenominational  national  schools 
in  1857  gave  rise  to  excited  party  disputes.  After  that  date  the  Catholics  were 
completely  separated  from  the  Liberals,  and  among  the  Jrotestants  a  Christian- 
Conservative  party,  the  "Anti-revolutionary,"  was  formed,  which  gradually  won 
many  supporters ;  its  leader  is  the  energetic  and  talented  Abraham  Kuyper  (born 
1837),  a  pastor  of  the  reformed  religion.  In  March,  1888,  and  again  in  1901  the 
united  Catholics  and  Anti-revolutionaries  obtained  the  majority.  Kuyper,  as 
Prime  Minister  of  the  Conservative  Cabinet  constructed  on  July  27,  1901,  was 
now  able  to  announce  their  decision  to  procure  for  Christianity  once  more  its 
proper  influence  on  national  life,  and  thus  first  and  foremost  to  restore  the  deno- 
minational national  schools. 

The  social  movement  in  Holland  can  point  to  comparatively  little  results.  In 
1889  a  measure  was  passed  to  prohibit  the  excessive  labour  of  women  and  children 
(cf.  Vol.  VII,  p.  424),  and  in  1892  a  graduated  scale  of  taxation  on  property  and 
incomes  was  introduced.  In  1896  universal  suffrage  was  accepted,  with  the  limita- 
tions that  the  electors  may  be  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  must  pay  some  amount, 
however  small,  of  direct  taxation.  A  strike  of  railway  employees  in  February, 
1903,  necessitated  remedial  legislation. 


I"SSri"o2]      HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  387 

In  the  Dutch  Indies  the  colonial  government  in  1873-1879  and  1896  had  to 
conduct  difficult  campaigns  against  the  Sultan  of  Achin  in  Sumatra  (cf.  Vol.  II, 
p.  554),  and  in  1894-1895  another  on  the  island  of  Lombok,  where  the  native 
dynasty  had  been  deposed. 

The  male  line  of  the  house  of  Orange  since  June  21,  1884,  when  the  Crown 
Prince  Alexander  died  childless,  was  only  represented  by  the  king,  William  III. 
It  was  therefore  settled  in  1888  by  a  constitutional  law  that,  on  the  death  of 
William,  his  daughter  Wilhelmina  (born  1880,  by  the  king's  second  marriage 
with  Emma  of  Waldeck)  should  inherit  the  throne.  The  anticipated  event 
occurred  on  November  23,  1890.  While  in  Luxemburg,  where  females  cannot 
reign,  the  former  Duke  Adolf  of  Nassau  (cf.  p.  308),  as  head  of  the  Walram  line 
and  in  this  respect  heir  of  the  Ottoman  line  of  the  house  of  Nassau,  became  Grand 
Duke,  the  clever  and  popular  queen  mother  Emma  took  over  the  regency  for 
Wilhelmina  until  August  31,  1898.  On  that  day  the  young  queen,  who  then 
attained  her  majority,  entered  herself  on  her  high  of&ce,  and  promised  to  rule 
with  that  same  spirit  of  devotion  to  duty  which  endeared  her  ancestors  to  the 
Dutch  nation.  On  February  7,  1901,  she  gave  her  hand  to  Duke  Henry  of 
Mecklenburg,  who  received  the  title  of  a  Prince  of  the  Netherlands,  but  no  heir 
to  the  throne  has  yet  been  born. 


388  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  Ichapter  r 


V 

THE  HISTORICAL  IMPORTANCE   OF  THE  ATLANTIC 

Bt  PEOFESSOR  KARL   WEULE 


1.   CONFIGUEATION  AND   POSITION 

THE  Atlantic  may  be  regarded  as  a  long  canal  which  winds,  in  the  form 
of  a  letter  S  (see  the  map  facing  page  389),  and  preserving  an  almost 
imiform  breadth,  between  the  Old  World  and  the  New.  It  extends  from 
one  polar  circle  to  the  other.  Such  a  configuration,  when  once  it  became 
known  to  mankind,  was  bound  to  favour  international  communications.  The 
narrowness  of  the  Atlantic  has  had  momentous  results  for  the  history  both  of 
states  and  of  civilization.  But  it  was  long  before  the  shape  of  the  Atlantic  was 
realised,  and  this  for  two  reasons.  First,  the  Atlantic  has  few  islands,  and  this  is 
particularly  true  of  the  zone  which  was  the  first  to  be  attempted  by  navigators,  the 
zone  lying  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Mediterranean.  Secondly,  the  Mediterranean 
was  a  poor  school  for  explorers.  The  broken  coasts  and  the  numerous  islands  of 
that  sea  make  navigation  too  easy.  The  Mediterranean  peoples  did  not  therefore 
obtain  that  experience  which  would  have  fitted  them  for  the  crossing  of  the  outer 
ocean.  Their  explorations  were  never  extended  more  than  a  moderate  distance 
from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  either  in  the  Greco- Eoman  period  or  in  more  recent 
times. 

Almost  the  same  obstacles  existed  to  the  navigation  of  tiie  northern  zone  of  the 
Atlantic.  The  North  Sea  and  Baltic  are  not  easily  navi^ed,  but  they  presented 
difficulties  so  great  that  for  a  long  time  tliey  discouraged  the  inhabitants  of  their 
littorals  from  taking  to  the  sea.  We  have  seen  that  the  dolmen  builders  showed 
some  aptitude  for  maritime  enterprise  (Vol.  I,  p.  167) ;  and  much  later  we  find  the 
men  of  the  Hanse  towns  and  their  rivals  in  Western  Europe  made  some  use  of  the 
sea  for  trade.  But  maritime  enterprise  on  a  gi-eat  scale  was  not  attempted  by  these 
peoples.  In  the  days  before  Columbus,  only  the  inhabitants  of  Western  Norway 
made  serious  attempts  to  explore  the  ocean.  They  were  specially  favoured  by  nature. 
A  chain  of  islands,  the  Faroes,  Iceland,  and  Greenland,  served  them  as  steppiag- 
stones.  But  the  voyage  from  Norway  to  the  Faroes  is  one  of  more  than  four  hun- 
dred miles  over  a  dangerous  ocean ;  and  this  was  a  much  more  difficult  feat  than 
the  voyage  of  the  ancients  from  Gades  to  the  Isles  of  the  Blest,  if  indeed  that 
voyage  was  ever  made.     The  evidence  for  it  is  by  no  means  of  the  best. 

For  the  history  of  exploration  and  of  culture  it  is  a  fact  of  some  importance 
that  the  Norsemen  found,  beyond  the  Faroe  Islands,  a  number  of  convenient  halt- 
ing-places.    They  were  prevented  by  this  circumstance  from  regarding  Vineland 


ff'T'lt^r""""}      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  389 

and  Markland  and  Helluland  as  discoveries  of  special  importance.  They  thought 
of  these  far-lying  northern  lands  as  suitable  soil  for  colonies,  like  Iceland  and 
Greenland.  They  never  realised  that  they  had  reached  the  bounds  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  made  as  little  account  of  the  New  World  as  of  their  earlier  and  more 
trifling  discoveries.  The  ci-vilized  peoples  of  Central  and  Southern  Europe  passed 
over  the  intelligence  of  the  new  countries  as  a  matter  of  no  moment.  They  did  so 
for  reasons  which  we  have  already  explained  (Vol.  II,  p.  253),  chiefly  because  mate- 
rial and  spiritual  progress  after  the  year  1000  A.  d.  was  concentrated  on  the  east 
rather  than  on  the  west  of  Europe.  Still  the  new  discoveries  attracted  more  atten- 
tion in  the  world  outside  Scandinavia  than  is  commonly  admitted.  We  learn,  for 
instance,  that  Gudrid,  the  heroic  wife  and  companion  of  Thorfinn  Karlsefni,  the 
discoverer  and  coloniser  of  the  three  new  countries,  made  towards  the  end  of  her 
life  the  pilgrimage  to  Eome ;  and  two  ships  from  Karlsefni's  fleet  were  driven  out 
of  their  course  from  Vineland  and  touched  at  Irish  ports.  Moreover,  the  northern 
bishops,  more  particularly  those  of  Greenland  and  Iceland,  spread  the  news  of 
the  discoveries  through  Southern  Europe.  The  scant  attention  which  their  tales 
received  was  undoubtedly  due  to  the  ignorance  and  apathy  of  Western  Christen- 
dom. The  Norsemen  themselves  soon  lost  interest  in  Vineland,  Markland,  and 
Helluland.  The  very  existence  of  these  countries  was  forgotten,  and  the  belief, 
inherited  from  the  classical  period,  that  the  western  ocean  was  of  illimitable  extent 
combined  to  hold  the  field.  Not  until  the  lessons  of  Greek  geographical  science 
were  again  studied  with  attention  did  the  more  enlightened  intellects  of  Europe 
conceive  the  possibility  of  traversing  the  Atlantic. 

It  would  be  even  more  futile  to  discuss  at  length  the  attempts  which  were 
made  in  early  times  to  fathom  the  secret  of  the  South  Atlantic.  They  were  of  the 
slightest  kind,  although  the  conditions  were  here  exceptionally  favourable.  The 
South  Atlantic,  it  is  true,  can  boast  of  few  islands ;  but  the  distance  between  some 
points  of  Africa  and  South  America  is  not  too  great  to  be  crossed  in  a  few  days  by 
modern  steamers ;  and  the  crossing  from  Sierra  Leone  to  the  Cape  of  San  Eoque 
is  a  possible  one  for  the  outrigged  boats  of  the  Polynesians  or  for  the  prau  of 
the  Malays.  But  the  original  inhabitants  of  Africa  and  South  America  had  no 
inducement  to  make  the  voyage,  and  if  they  put  out  to  sea  at  all  they  rarely  ven- 
tured out  of  sight  of  land.  And  if  they  had  been  left  to  make  the  discovery  for 
themselves,  they  would  probably  feel  themselves  to-day  just  as  much  on  the  edge 
of  infinity  as  they  seemed  to  be  when  Columbus  started  on  the  first  of  his  great 
voyages. 

The  Atlantic  is  not  merely  remarkable  for  its  narrowness  and  dearth  of  islands, 
but  also  for  the  great  indentations  which  are  to  be  found  in  its  coasts  on  either 
side  (see  the  map  facing  this  page).  These  have  exercised  a  great  and  a  beneficial 
influence  on  the  climate  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  Those  of  the  American  coast 
line  balance  those  of  the  Old  World  to  a  remarkable  degree.  It  is  true  that  the 
eastern  coast  of  South  America  bends  inward  with  a  sweep  less  pronounced  than 
that  of  the  west  coast  of  Africa.  But  there  is  a  striking  parallelism ;  and  the  same 
phenomenon  strikes  us  when  we  study  the  shores  of  the  North  and  Central  Atlantic, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  broken  and  indented  coast  lines  make  it  difficult  to  perceive 
the  broad  similarities  at  the  first  glance.  Thus  the  Mediterranean  corresponds  to 
the  immense  gulf  which  separates  North  and  South  America. 

The  part  which  the  Mediterranean  of  the  Old  World  has  played  in  history  is  so 


390  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [Chaper  r 

important  that  it  has  demanded  special  treatment  in  a  previous  volume  (IV,  Sec- 
tion I).  The  Mediten-anean  of  America  has  no  such  claim  upon  the  attention  of 
the  historian.  It  facilitated  the  conquest  and  settlement  of  the  Spanish  colonies.  It 
has  favoured  the  development  of  those  motley  communities  which  fringe  its  shores 
from  Cuba  and  Florida  on  the  north  to  the  Cape  of  San  Eoque  on  the  south.  But 
when  we  have  said  this,  we  have  exhausted  the  subject  of  its  historical  importance. 
More  important  it  doubtless  will  be  in  the  future.  Even  at  the  present  time  it 
affords  the  sole  outlet  for  the  Central  and  Southern  States  of  the  American  Union ; 
and  when  the  Panama  Canal  is  completed,  this  sea  will  become  the  natural  high- 
road between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  a  great  factor  in  political  and  economic  his- 
tory. It  will  be  what  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  was  in  the  early  days  of  the  Old 
World.     But  we  are  concerned  with  history  and  not  with  prophecy. 

North  of  the  latitude  of  Gibraltar  the  two  shores  of  the  Atlantic  present  a 
remarkable  symmetry.  In  shape  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  Hudson's  Bay 
resemble  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic.  Labrador,  Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia, 
and  Cape  Breton  Island  may  be  compared  with  Northwestern  Europe.  The  chief 
difference  between  the  two  coast  lines  is  one  of  scale.  Hudson's  Bay,  for  example, 
is  considerably  larger  than  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic  put  together.  This  does 
not  detract  from  the  importance  of  the  symmetry  which  we  have  pointed  out.  It  is 
all  the  more  important  because  it  is  most  striking  on  those  lines  of  latitude  which 
have  been  most  important  in  the  history  of  mankind. 

In  view  of  this  symmetry,  it  is  truly  remarkable  that  the  history  of  the  two 
seaboards  should  be  so  dissimilar.  Our  two  North  European  seas  have  been  the 
theatres  of  events  and  movements  which  have  left  enduring  traces  upon  the  for- 
tunes of  North  and  Western  Europe.  Particularly  is  this  the  case  with  the  Baltic, 
to  which  we  have  elsewhere  devoted  a  separate  section  (in  Vol.  V) ;  and  it  has  been 
necessary  to  discuss  the  North  Sea  also  at  some  length.  But  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ocean  we  find  seas  of  which  the  history  is  a  blank.  From  time  to  time  Hud- 
son's Bay  has  been  explored  by  Europeans.  But  they  have  failed  as  often  as  they 
have  succeeded,  and  they  have  airbed  at  little  more  than  investigating  the  bound- 
aries of  the  bay.  The  only  other  human  inhabitants  have  been  a  few  tribes 
of  Indians  and  Esquimaux,  who  have  gained  a  precarious  ^bsistence  by  hunting, 
and  who  are  to-day  what  they  have  been  from  time  immemorial.  The  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  has  a  more  noteworthy  record,  it  is  true.  It  has  been  the  channel  of 
communication  between  the  colony  of  Canada,  Europe,  and  the  United  States.  It 
has  played  a  part  not  dissimilar  to  that  of  the  North  Sea.  But  the  history  of  the 
North  Sea  is  infinitely  more  rich  and  varied.  Climatic  conditions  have  prevented, 
and  continue  to  prevent,  these  American  waters  from  rivalling  their  European  coun- 
terparts. For  the  navigation  of  Hudson's  Bay  ships  are  required  of  an  unusually 
stent  build.  Great  nautical  skill  is  essential;  and  even  then  it  is  only  during 
a  favourable  summer  that  navigation  becomes  practical.  The  prospects  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  are  less  gloomy.  It  affords  a  passage  to  the  Great  Lakes ;  'and  the  fish- 
ing grounds  of  Newfoundland  wiH  provide  an  opening  for  a  great  industry  for 
an  indefinite  period  of  time.  It  is,  however,  unlikely  that  even  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  will  ever  rise  to  a  position  of  great  independent  importance. 

The  richly  indented  configuration  of  its  Arctic  shores  has  been  of  even  less 
advantage  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Nine  hundred  years  ago  the  existence  of  that 
chain  of  islands,  the  Faroes,  Iceland,  and  Greenland,  enabled  Europeans  to  reach 


Zf^il^r"""']      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  391 

the  western  shores  of  the  ocean ;  at  the  same  time  those  islands  have  received  a 
scanty  sprinkling  of  European  immigrants  as  permanent  settlers,  or,  as  in  the  case 
of  Greenland,  have  been  colonised  repeatedly.  The  colonies  thus  founded  naturally 
suffered  from  the  extreme  severity  of  the  climate,  and  achieved  no  feats  of  any 
historical  importance.  Notwithstanding  the  special  products  of  the  civilization 
of  Iceland,  and  the  vigorous  ecclesiastical  life  of  "West  Greenland,  these  north- 
ern communities  loom  vaguely  through  the  mist  like  the  Hyperboreans  (Vol.  II, 
p.  200) ;   the  outer  world  knows  little  of  their  existence. 

At  the  same  time  the  Northern  Atlantic  Ocean  has  influenced  the  development  of 
our  general  civilization  in  two  directions ;  namely,  by  those  physical  characteristics 
which  originate  from  its  configuration,  and  by  its  situation  with  reference  to  the 
other  countries  on  the  globe.  The  extensive  fishing  grounds  which  it  affords  have 
been  a  source  of  wealth  to  European  populations.  Even  when  we  take  into  account 
the  colossal  proportions  of  modern  international  trade,  deep-sea  fishing  is  none  the 
less  an  industry  of  note,  and  makes  a  very  important  difference  in  the  profit  and  loss 
accounts  of  many  a  northern  country.  Three  hundred  and  even  two  hundred 
years  ago  the  fishing  fleets  of  the  Northern  Sea,  which  were  then  numerous  though 
clumsy,  gathered  no  doubt  a  harvest  in  no  degree  greater  than  do  the  steam  fishing- 
boats  of  the  present  day ;  but  at  that  time  the  profits  made  a  much  more  appre- 
ciable difference  to  the  national  wealth,  and  the  safety  of  the  national  food  supply 
was  more  largely  dependent  upon  their  efforts. 

Much  more  important  from  a  historical  point  of  view  is  the  influence  on  char- 
acter of  this  trading  in  the  difficult  northern  seas ;  for  the  Teutonic  nations  of 
Northwest  Europe,  and  for  the  French,  it  was  the  best  of  all  possible  schools  of  sea- 
manship, and  largely  contributed  to  the  fact  that  these  nations  were  able  to  play 
a  leading  part  in  the  general  annexation  of  the  habitable  globe  which  was  tak- 
ing place  during  the  last  three  centuries.  The  fisheries  are  here  in  closest  communi- 
cation with  that  other  attempt,  which  historically  at  least  exercised  influence  no 
less  enduring,  to  find  a  passage  round  North  America  or  round  Northern  Europe  and 
Asia  to  the  east  shore  of  Asia.  In  truth,  nothing  did  so  much  to  promote  the  mari- 
time efficiency  of  the  British  nation  as  the  repeated  attempts  that  were  made  to 
find  the  northwest  and  northeast  passages  (Vol.  I,  p.  589)  which  began  with  the 
voyage  of  the  elder  Cabot,  and  continued  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
To  the  Atlantic  as  a  whole  belongs  the  high  service  of  having  led  the  civilized 
peoples  of  the  Old  "World  out  to  the  open  sea  from  the  confines  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean and  other  landlocked  waters ;  from  the  time  of  Columbus  it  has  been  a 
school  of  technical  skill  and  self-reliance.  However,  its  most  northern  part,  storm- 
lashed  and  ice-bound  as  it  is,  is  in  no  way  inferior  to  the  whole,  in  this  respect  at 
least,  that  it  gave  to  one  sole  nation  not  of  itself  particularly  strong,  to  the  English, 
the  supremacy  over  the  seas  of  the  world  within  a  short  three  centuries. 


2.  THE  AGE  BEFOEE   COLUMBUS 

A.   Until  the  Eetikement  of  the  Eomans  eeom  the  North  Sea 

In  the  first  volume  of  his  work  on  human  races  and  their  distribution,^  Fried- 
rich  Eatzel  was  the  first  to  designate  America  as  the  eastern  portion  of  the  habitable 

1  Anthropogeographie,  1st  ed.,  published  in  1882. 


392  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  r 

glote,  a  designation  entirely  familiar  to  our  own  generation  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  18). 
The  Atlantic  Ocean  is  regarded  as  a  broad  gulf  dividing  the  western  and  east- 
ern shores  of  the  habitable  world,  conceived  as  a  huge  band  of  territory  extend- 
ing from  Cape  Horn  to  Smith  Sound ;  this  implies  a  limitation  of  our  previous  ideas 
regarding  the  age  of  the  human  race.  Its  share  in  universal  history  does  not  begin 
before  the  moment  when  the  keel  of  the  first  Norse  boat  touched  the  shore  of 
Greenland  or  Helluland.  Thus  this  sea,  so  important  in  the  development  of  the 
general  civilization  of  modern  times,  is,  historically  speaking,  young,  and  its  sig- 
nificance in  the  history  of  racial  intercourse  is  not  to  be  compared  with  that  of  the 
Pacific  or  the  Indian  Ocean.  When  compared  with  those  ages  during  which  these 
two  giants,  together  with  our  Mediterranean,  our  Baltic  and  North  Seas,  made  their 
influence  felt  upon  the  course  of  history,  traditional  or  written,  the  mere  thou- 
sand years  during  which  the  Atlantic  has  influenced  history  become  of  minor 
importance.  The  investigator,  indeed,  who  is  inclined  to  regard  as  "  historical " 
only  those  cases  in  which  the  literary  or  architectural  remains  of  former  races  have 
left  us  information  upon  their  deeds  and  exploits,  will  naturally  be  inclined  to 
leave  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  possession  of  its  historical  youth.  He,  however,  who 
is  prepared  to  follow  out  the  ideas  upon  which  this'  work  has  been  based,  and  to 
give  due  weight  to  all  demonstrable  movements  and  meetings  of  peoples,  which 
form  the  first  visible  sign  of  historical  activity  upon  the  lower  planes  of  human 
existence,  will  consider  the  importance  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  extending 
backwards  to  a  very  remote  antiquity. 

Our  views  of  historical  development,  in  so  far  as  they  regard  mankind  as  the 
last  product  of  a  special  branch  of  evolution  within  the  organic  world,  have  under- 
gone a  considerable  change  within  recent  times ;  the  most  modern  school  of  anthro- 
pologists conceives  it  possible  to  demonstrate,  with  the  help  of  comparative  anatomy, 
that  the  differentiation  of  mankind  from  other  organisms  was  a  process  which 
began,  not  with  the  anthropoid  apes,  that  is  to  say,  at  a  period  comparatively 
late  both  in  the  history  of  evolution  and  geologically,  but  at  a  much  earlier 
point  within  the  development  of  the  mammals.  From  a  geological  and  palteonto- 
logical  point  of  view,  this  conclusion  carries  us  far  beyond  the  lowest  limits  pre- 
viously stated  as  the  beginnings  of  mankind  (Vol.  I,  p.  115).  We  reach  the  Tertiary- 
Age  (cf.  Vol.  II,  pp.  130,  537  ;  Vol.  Ill,  p.  414),  a  lengthy  peMod,  interesting  both 
for  the  changes  which  took  place  within  organic  life  and  for  the  extensive  altera- 
tions that  appeared  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth.  The  nature  and  extent  of  these 
changes  must,  in  so  far  as  the  new  theory  is  correct,  have  been  of  decisive  impor- 
tance for  the  earliest  distribution  of  existing  humanity.  If  the  theory  be  true  that 
during  the  Tertiary  Age  two  broad  isthmuses  extended  from  the  western  shore  of  the 
modern  Old  World  to  modern  America,  then  from  the  point  of  view  of  historical 
development  there  can  be  no  difficulty  in  conceiving  these  isthmuses  as  inhabited 
by  primeval  settlers.  That  point  of  the  globe  over  which  at  the  present  day  the  deep 
waters  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  heave  would  then,  in  fact,  have  been,  not  only  the 
earliest,  but  also  the  most  important,  scene  of  activity  for  the  fate  of  mankind.  As 
regards  the  later  importance  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  collapse  of  these  two 
isthmuses  marks  the  beginning  of  a  period  which  is  of  itself  of  such  great  geological 
length  that  those  first  conditions  which  influenced  the  fate  of  our  race  appear  to  its 
most  recent  representatives  as  lost  in  the  mists  of  remote  antiquity.  After  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  appeared  in  its  present  form,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Old  World  had 


^t^Ana^r"""'!     HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  393 

not  the  slightest  communication  with  the  dwellers  upon  the  other  shore.     The 
Atlantic  Ocean  then  became  in  fact  a  gulf  dividing  the  habitable  world. 

In  all  times  and  places  mystery  and  obscurity  have  exercised  an  attraction 
upon  mankind,  and  thus,  too,  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  bounding  as  it  did  the  civili- 
zation gathered  round  the  Mediterranean,  attracted  the  inhabitants  of  those  coun- 
tries from  an  early  period.  As  early  as  the  second  millennium  before  the  birth  of 
Christ  we  find  the  Phoenicians  on  its  shores,  and  soon  afterwards  their  western 
branch,  the  Carthaginians.  The  special  inducement  to  venture  out  upon  its  waves 
was  the  need  of  tin,  the  demand  for  which  increased  with  the  growing  use  of 
bronze ;  and  the  rarity  of  this  metal  induced  them  to  brave  the  dangers  of  the 
unknown  outer  sea.  However,  these  two  branches  of  the  great  commercial  nations 
of  Western  Asia  did  not  attain  to  any  great  knowledge  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  We 
are  reminded  of  the  reluctance  of  the  towns  and  republics  of  Italy  to  pass  through 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  though  the  high  seas  had  long  been  sailed  by  the  Portu- 
guese and  Spaniards,  or  the  cowardice  of  the  Hanseatics,  who  hardly  dared  to 
approach  the  actual  gates  of  the  ocean,  when  we  find  these  two  peoples  who  ruled 
for  so  many  centuries  over  the  Mediterranean,  which  is  itself  of  no  small  extent, 
unable  to  advance  any  material  distance  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  Even  as 
regards  the  tin  trade,  the  chief  labour  was  probably  undertaken  by  the  seafaring 
coast  dwellers  of  separate  parts  of  Western  Europe.  How  small  in  reality  were 
the  achievements  of  both  nations  upon  the  Atlantic  is  plainly  shown  by  the 
amount  of  praise  lavished  upon  the  coasting  voyage  of  Hanno  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  182), 
which,  however  important  for  geographical  science,  was  no  great  achievement  of 
seamanship.  It  is  a  characteristic  feature  of  all  landlocked  seas  to  limit  not  only 
the  view,  but  also  the  enterprise,  of  the  maritime  peoples  upon  their  shores. 

In  Greek  civilization  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  such  is  only  of  theoretical  impor- 
tance. A  few  explorers  did  indeed  advance  from  the  Mediterranean  northwards 
and  southwards  into  the  Atlantic ;  such  were  Pytheas  of  MassUia  (about  300  B.  c. ; 
cf.  Vol.  V,  p.  11),  who  journeyed  beyond  Britain  to  the  fabulous  land  of  Thule. 
His  compatriot  and  contemporary,  Euthymenes,  followed  by  Eudoxos  of  Cyzicus 
(about  150  B.  c.)  and  the  historian  Polybius  (about  205-123  B.  c),  succeeded  in 
reaching  different  points  upon  the  west  coast  of  Africa ;  but  none  of  these  under- 
takings led  to  any  practical  result.  The  reason  for  this  fact  is  to  be  found  in  the 
length  of  a  voyage  from  the  coast  of  Greece,  which  was  a  far  more  difficult  under- 
taking for  the  sailors  of  those  days  than  it  now  appears.  Especially  important, 
moreover,  is  the  fact  that  the  Greeks,  although  they  were  the  general  heirs  of  the 
Phoenician  colonial  policy,  never  attempted  to  overthrow  the  supremacy  of  the 
Carthaginians  in  the  western  half  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  For  them,  there- 
fore, the  great  western  ocean  remained  permanently  wrapped  in  the  obscurity  of 
distance,  a  fact  which  enabled  them  to  people  its  illimitable  breadth  with 
creations  of  fancy,  such  as  the  "  Atlantis  "  of  Plato ;  but  distance  was  too  im- 
portant an  obstacle  to  be  successfully  overcome  by  their  instinct  for  colonisa- 
tion and  discovery. 

However,  in  one  respect  at  least  the  Atlantic  Ocean  was  of  great  importance 
to  the  Greek  world,  at  any  rate  in  antiquity ;  it  exercised  a  decisive  influence 
upon  the  cosmography  of  the  old  Ionic  geographers.  The  chief  characteristics  of 
this  cosmography  are  determined  by  the  conception  of  Oceanus,  the  illimitable 
breadth  of  which   surrounds  the  continents.     This  Oceanus  seems  to  have  been 


394  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  v 

actually  known  to  the  western  Greeks  even  in  antiquity,  probably  by  hearsay 
report  derived  from  Phoenician  sources  until  considerably  later  than  the  Homeric 
age,  and  by  personal  inspection  after  the  beginning  of  their  own  period  of  colo- 
nisation. It  was  not  until  the  Samian  Colaeus  (about  640  B.  0.)  made  his  invol- 
untary voyage  through  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  to  the  Punic  Tarshish  that  the 
Greeks  became  acquainted  with  the  outer  boundaries  of  their  cosmos  by  personal 
examination.  If  it  be  asked  how  their  knowledge  of  this  external  sea  at  one  single 
point  could  have  led  to  the  conception  of  an  all-embracing  ocean,  we  can  reply 
with  a  reference,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  fascination  which  remoteness  lends  to  any 
object,  and,  further,  to  the  character  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  itself.  However  vast 
the  Mediterranean  may  for  the  moment  have  seemed  to  the  Phoenicians  and  Greeks, 
they  had  eventually  discovered  a  shore  bounding  it  on  every  side,  and  occupied 
by  human  inhabitants.  But  in  the  sea  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  their  expe- 
riences were  wholly  different.  The  Phoenicians,  fearing  the  competition  of  other 
commercial  rivals,  had  been  careful  to  represent  its  enormous  breadth  as  unsuited 
for  maritime  traffic.  Personal  experience  showed  the  Greeks,  it  is  true,  the  exag- 
gerated nature  of  this  statement ;  but  at  the  same  time  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  con- 
sidering even  its  purely  physical  features,  formed  a  sea  of  wholly  different  character 
to  the  Mediterranean.  The  proportions  of  its  waves  in  length  and  breadth,  the 
greater  rise  and  fall  of  its  tides,  and  finally  its  unending  restlessness,  must  have 
produced  a  profound  impression  upon  those  who  passed  eastward  from  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules,  leaving  behind  them  the  gentle  ripples  and  the  peaceful  bays  of  the 
Mediterranean.  The  surprising  lack  of  islands,  which  could  not  fail  to  contrast 
with  the  experience  gained  in  the  Mediterranean,  no  doubt  also  influenced  the 
formation  of  that  cosmography  which  obtained  credence  not  only  in  the  Greek 
world,  but  also  among  the  Eomans  and  the  Arabs,  and  continued  to  hold  ita 
ground  even  when  the  discovery  of  the  Canary  Islands  and  Madeira  had  proved 
that  the  Atlantic  was  not  wholly  destitute  of  islands. 

The  Atlantic  Ocean  came  into  the  purview  of  the  Eomans  at  the  moment  when 
their  struggle  with  Carthage  for  the  Iberian  Peninsula  ended  definitely  in  their 
favour  (210  b.  c.  Vol.  IV,  p.  485) ;  it  was  not  until  then  that  this  rapidly  developing 
power  in  the  west  of  the  Mediterranean  was  able  to  advance  from  the  east  coast 
of  Spain  to  the  interior  of  the  country  and  thence  to  its  weRern  coast.  Notwith- 
standing the  activity  of  Eome  in  colonisation,  her  supremacy  in  Iberia  led  to 
no  enterprises  by  sea ;  nor  were  any  such  undertaken  by  the  Eomans  untU  they 
had  established  themselves  in  Gaul,  and  had  thus  gained  possession  of  a  consider- 
able seaboard  upon  the  Atlantic  Oceaiu  It  was  in  55  and  54  B.  c.  that  Julius 
Caesar  made  his  voyage  to  Britain ;  a  few  decades  later  came  the  advance  of  Drusus 
and  of  Germanicus  into  the  North  Sea.  The  nature  of  these  conquests  precluded 
adventure  upon  the  open  sea.  The  Eomans  were  attempting  only  to  secure  their 
natural  frontier  against  the  threatened  encroachments  of  the  Germanic  tribes,  and 
confined  their  explorations  to  the  southern  portion  of  the  North  Sea. 

During  the  first  thousand  years  after  the  birth  of  Christ  the  North  Sea  is  the 
only  part  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  which  can  be  demonstrated  to  have  had  any  endur- 
ing influence  upon  the  history  of  Western  Europe.  The  Veneti  and  other  tribes 
inhabiting  the  western  coasts  of  Spain,  Gaul,  and  Germany  certainly  adventured 
their  vessels  upon  the  open  sea  southwards  in  continuation  of  the  primeval  trade 
in  tin  and  amber ;  even  the  Eomans  before  indefinitely  retiring  from  Britain  made 


o^ir^lS""""]     HISTORY    OF   THE  WORLD  395 

one  further  advance  during  the  expedition  which  Cn.  Julius  Agricola  (84  A.  d.) 
undertook  in  the  seas  and  bays  surrounding  Great  Britain.  Of  other  nations,  how- 
ever, we  hear  nothing  during  this  age  which  would  lead  us  to  conclude  that  they 
carried  on  communication  by  means  of  the  ocean  to  any  important  extent. 


B.  From  the  Sixth  to  the  Fifteenth  Century 

(a)  The  Atlantic  Ocean  as  a  Centre  of  Legend.  —  The  age  preceding  the  tenth 
century,  with  the  exception  of  the  expedition  of  the  Norsemen,  is  entirely  wanting 
in  maritime  exploits,  but  is,  on  the  other  hand,  rich  in  legends,  the  locality  of 
which  is  the  Atlantic  Ocean  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  350).  These  are  important  to  the  his- 
tory of  civilization  by  reason  of  their  number ;  they  are  the  most  striking  proof 
of  that  general  interest  which  was  excited  even  during  the  "  darkest "  century  of 
the  Middle  Ages  by  the  great  and  mysterious  ocean  upon  the  west.  Historically, 
too,  they  are  of  importance  for  the  influence  which  their  supposed  substratum 
of  geographical  fact  has  exercised  upon  the  course  of  discovery.  This  interest 
appears,  comparatively  weak  at  first,  in  the  "  Atlantis  "  legend.  This  legend, 
together  with  many  other  elements  forming  the  geographical  lore  of  classical 
Greece,  was  adopted  by  the  Middle  Ages,  but  cannot  be  retraced  earlier  than 
the  sixth  century.  For  nearly  one  thousand  years  it  disappears  with  Kosmas 
Indikopleustes  (Vol.  IV,  p.  215),  that  extraordinary  traveller  and  student  in  whose 
works  the  attempt  to  bring  all  human  discovery  into  harmony  with  the  Bible, 
an  attempt  characteristic  of  patristic  literature,  reaches  its  highest  point.  In  the 
"  Atlantis  "  of  Plato  Kosmas  apparently  sees  a  confirmation  of  the  teachings  of 
Moses,  which  had  there  placed  the  habitation  of  the  first  men ;  it  was  not  until 
the  time  of  the  Deluge  that  these  men  were  marvellously  translated  to  our  own 
continent.  However,  the  ten  Kings  of  Atlantis  were  the  ten  generations  from 
Adam  to  Noah. 

The  largest  space  in  the  Atlantic  geography  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  occupied 
by  the  legend  of  the  voyage  of  St.  Brandan,  and  of  the  island  or  group  of  islands 
called  after  him.  This  Island  of  Brandan  is  the  most  firmly  founded  of  those 
many  "  Utopias "  where  the  Middle  Ages  conceived  the  earthly  paradise  to  be, 
and  after  which  they  sought  with  greater  zeal  than  they  devoted  to  the  discovery 
of  other  more  valuable  districts.  In  contrast  to  the  majority  of  paradises,  this  was 
localised  in  the  west,  no  doubt  with  some  hazy  recollection  of  the  ancient  Isles  of 
the  Blest  and  the  Gardens  of  the  Hesperides.  The  hero  of  the  legend  is  Brandan 
the  Irishman,  who  died  on  the  16th  of  May,  578,  as  the  Abbot  of  Clonfert.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  excited  by  the  descriptions  of  travel  which  he  heard  from  his 
guest  friend  Barintus,  and  to  have  set  out  with  fourteen  comrades  in  search  of  the 
land  of  promise.  For  no  less  than  seven  years  the  monks  were  travelling  about 
the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  this  wandering  and  the  whole  of  the  mythical  island  archi- 
pelago form  the  subject  of  the  narrative.  Their  adventures  were  countless  and 
marvellous  untH  they  finally  reached  the  main  object  of  their  journey ;  this  was  a 
great  island,  not  to  be  crossed  in  forty  days'  journey,  where  night  was  never  seen, 
and  where  the  trees  were  ever  laden  with  fruit,  as  though  the  season  were  an  ever- 
lasting and  prosperous  autumn.     According  to  the  actual  words  of  the  legend. 


396  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  ichapter  V 

which  made  its  way  into  every  literature  of  Europe  from  the  eleventh  century 
onwards,  at  the  end  of  their  forty  days'  wandering  on  the  Island  of  Paradise  a 
divine  messenger  met  them  in  a  shining,  youthful  form,  who  invited  them  to  return 
home  after  loading  their  ship  with  precious  stones  and  fruit.  "  Tor  seven  years," 
he  said,  "  G-od  had  allowed  the  pious  Brandan  to  continue  searching  for  this  coun- 
try, in  order  that  he  might  unfold  to  him  all  the  secrets  iu  the  great  ocean.  But 
after  a  long  space,"  added  the  stranger,  "  this  country  will  be  thrown  open  to  your 
descendants,  when  we  come  to  the  help  of  Christianity  in  its  hour  of  need."  These 
words  might  almost  induce  one  to  suppose  that  Brandan's  Island  refers  to  some 
special  locality  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  to  some  particular  discovery  made  upon 
its  surface ;  criticism  has,  however,  made  it  clear  that  there  is  no  substratum 
whatever  of  geographical  fact.  However,  the  legend  remains  of  importance  in  the 
history  of  discovery,  even  later  than  the  period  of  the  discovery  of  America.  During 
the  sixteenth  century  ships  were  thrice  sent  out  in  search  of  the  famous  land  of 
Brandan,  and  even  so  late  as  1721  the  governor  of  the  Canary  Islands  fitted  out  a 
ship  for  the  same  object. 

An  equally  shadowy  creation,  though  not  without  importance,  is  the  Island  of 
Antil(l)ia,  the  "  island  of  the  seven,  towns ; "  the  influence  of  the  open  Atlantic 
Ocean  upon  mediaeval  thought  is  here  represented  in  an  even  earlier  stage  of  devel- 
opment than  in  the  legend  of  the  Isle  of  Brandan ;  for  this  legend  goes  back  to  the 
entry  of  the  Arabs  into  Europe.  After  the  decisive  battle  near  Cadiz,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Salado  (battle  of  Xeres  de  la  Frontera,  711 ;  cf.  Vol.  IV,  pp.  495,  496),  the 
archbishop  of  Portugal  is  said  to  have  fled  with  six  other  bishops  to  a  distant  island 
in  the  ocean,  where  each  of  them  founded  a  town.  This  island  of  the  Seven  Towns 
occupied  the  attention  of  mankind  for  centuries,  at  first  only  in  legend  and  popular 
tradition;  but  from  the  fifteenth  century  onward  a  long  series  of  special  expedi- 
tions were  sent  in  search  of  it.  Documents  of  the  Portuguese  kings  of  that  period 
assign  the  island  of  the  Seven  Towns  to  its  discoverer  with  no  less  security  than 
was  then  customary  in  the  case  of  actually  discovered  districts  ;  Paolo  Toscanelli 
(Vol.  I,  p.  349)  plainly  mentions  it  in  his  famous  letter  to  the  Canon  Ferdi- 
nand Martin(e)z  (June  25,  1474).  Finally,  it  played  a  decisive  part  in  the  plans 
of  discovery  formed  by  Columbus ;  it  was  in  Antillia  that  he  hoped  to  attain  a 
welcome  rest  after  his  long  journey  westwards.  Even  when  nWtrace  of  the  island 
was  discovered  during  the  first  journey,  belief  remained  unshaken ;  on  the  25th  of 
September,  1492,  Columbus  pronounced  that  they  must  have  sailed  past  it. 

The  last  great  legendary  country  within  the  limits  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  is  the 
Island  of  Brazil.  It  appears  on  many  maps  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies in  very  various  degrees  of  latitude,  but  always  well  out  in  the  ocean.  Though 
there  was  not  the  smallest  evidence  for  its  geographical  existence,  yet  belief  in  it 
was  soon  as  generally  accepted  as  in  the  Island  of  AntiUia ;  and,  as  in  the  latter 
case,  during  the  last  decades  of  the  fifteenth  century,  immediately  before  and  after 
the  discovery  of  America,  ship  after  ship  sailed  out  upon  the  wide  ocean  in  hope  of 
its  discovery,  though  in  this  case  the  funds  were  provided  by  the  merchants  of  the 
British  harbour  of  Bristol.  The  Brazil  expeditions  of  1480  and  the  following 
years  were  the  first  considerable  efforts  made  by  the  English  people  upon  the  wide 
ocean,  their  first  and  almost  half  imconscious  display  of  maritime  power.  As  in 
the  first  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  name  Antillia  was  applied  to  the 
islands  discovered  by  Columbus  and  his  contemporaries  off  the  new  continent ; 


^irSln^r'"™']     HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  397 

so  also  the  name  of  Brazil  was  transferred  to  the  newly  discovered  South  American 
Continent,  as  soon  as  its  riches  in  coloured  woods  had  been  recognised. 

(b)  The  Atlantic  Ocean  at  the  Outset  of  the  Age  of  Discovery.  —  The  power  of 
legend  as  a  purely  theoretical  force  continued  after  the  first  millennium  A.  d.  only  in 
the  northeastern  borders  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  Baltic,  owing  to  its  Mediter- 
ranean situation,  was  at  that  period  the  theatre  of  so  much  human  activity  and 
progress  that  it  is  better  reserved  for  special  treatment.  The  North  Sea,  regarded 
as  a  landlocked  ocean,  was  not  so  greatly  benefited  by  its  position  as  it  has  been  in 
the  later  ages  of  inter-oceanic  communication ;  at  the  same  time  the  coincidence  of 
advantages,  small  in  themselves,  but  considerable  in  the  aggregate,  have  made  it 
more  important  than  any  other  part  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  an  area  of  traffic. 
These  advantages  included  one  of  immeasurable  importance  to  early  navigation, 
namety,  a  supply  of  islands  which,  as  formerly  in  the  Mediterranean,  conducted 
the  navigator  almost  involuntarily  from  point  to  point ;  a  further  advantage  was  the 
character  of  its  inhabitants,  who  were  far  too  energetic  to  be  contented  with  a  coun- 
try which  was  by  no  means  one  of  those  most  blessed  by  nature.  Hence  we  need 
feel  no  surprise  at  the  fact  that  the  North  Sea  was  navigated  in  all  directions  as 
early  as  the  eighth  century  by  the  Vikings ;  their  excursions  to  Iceland,  Greenland, 
and  to  that  part  of  North  America  which  here  projects  farthest  into  the  ocean,  are 
fully  intelligible  when  we  consider  the  splendid  training  which  the  stormy  north- 
eastern Atlantic  Ocean  offered  to  a  nation  naturally  adventurous. 

The  example  of  the  Norsemen  was  not  generally  imitated  in  Europe  at  that  time. 
Charles  the  Great  launched,  it  is  true,  a  fleet  upon  the  North  Sea  to  repulse  their 
attacks,  and  this  was  the  first  step  made  by  the  German  people  in  the  maritime 
profession;  though  we  also  see  the  merchants  of  Cologne  from  the  year  1000  send- 
ing their  vessels  down  the  Ehine  and  over  the  Straits  to  London,  the  commer- 
cial rivalry  of  Flanders  and  Northern  France  following  them  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  about  the  same  time  the  fleets  of  the  Easterlings  visiting  the  great 
harbour  on  the  Thames.  For  the  immediate  estimation  of  existing  transmarine 
relations  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  Europe,  these  expeditions  are  useful  starting 
points ;  they  have,  however,  nothing  to  do  with  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  a  highway 
hetween  the  Eastern  and  Western  Hemispheres.  The  navigators  who  opened  up 
the  Atlantic  for  this  purpose  started  from  the  point  which  past  history  and  the 
commercial  policy  of  civilized  peoples  indicated  as  the  most  suitable,  that  is,  from 
the  Mediterranean. 

The  sudden  expansion  of  the  Mohammedan  religion  and  the  Arabian  power 
over  a  great  portion  of  the  Mediterranean  gave  a  monopoly  of  the  whole  of 
the  trade  passing  from  east  to  west  to  the  masters  of  Egypt  and  the  Syrian  ports 
(Vol.  IV,  p.  33,  and  Vol.  Ill,  p.  361) ;  a  considerable  alteration  took  place  in 
those  conditions  under  which  for  more  than  a  century  commercial  exchange  had 
quietly  proceeded  between  the  far  east  and  the  west,  —  an  alteration,  too,  greatly 
for  the  worse.  Commercial  intercourse  became  so  difficult  that  the  chief  carrying 
nations  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  commercial  city-states,  began  to  consider  the 
possibility  of  circumventing  the  obstacles  presented  by  the  Moslem  power,  which 
not  even  the  Crusaders  had  been  able  to  shatter.  From  the  year  1317  the  traders 
of  Venice  and  Genoa  regularly  passed  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  to  secure  their 
share  of  that  extensive  trade  in  England  and  Flanders  which  had  everywhere 


398  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  Ichaper  r 

sprung  into  prosperity  north  of  the  Alps,  owing  to  the  great  economic  advance 
made  by  Northwest  Europe  (Vol.  VII,  p.  10). 

Almost  a  generation  earlier  they  had  advanced  from  Gibraltar  southwards 
in  the  direction  which  should  have  brought  them  into  direct  communication  with 
India,  according  to  the  geographical  knowledge  of  that  day.  This  idea  is  the  lead- 
ing motive  in  the  history  of  discovery  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
so  far  as  the  history  was  worked  out  upon  the  sea.  We  see  it  realised  in  the  voy- 
age of  the  brothers  Vaduio  and  Guido  de'  Vivaldi  of  Genoa  in  1281,  and  that  of 
Ugolino  Vivaldi,  who  in  1291  sailed  down  the  west  coast  of  Africa  in  a  ship 
of  Teodosio  Doria  with  the  object  of  discovering  the  sea  route  to  India;  it  is 
an  idea  apparent  in  the  voyages  made  by  the  Itahans  to  Madeira,  to  the  Canaries 
and  to  the  Azores,  enterprises  both  of  nautical  daring  and  of  geographical  impor- 
tance. Mention  must  also  be  made  at  this  point  of  the  several  advances  upon  the 
west  coast  of  Africa  made  by  Henry  the  Navigator  (Vol.  IV,  p.  539) ;  this  series  of 
attempts  occupied  the  whole  life  of  this  strange  character. 

It  is  true  that  the  Portuguese  of  the  fifteenth  century,  like  the  Italians  before 
them,  proposed  to  use  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  a  means  of  communication  only  up  to 
that  point  where  an  imaginary  western  mouth  of  the  Nile  came  forth  from  the  Dark 
Continent.  Not  in  vain  were  the  Arabs  the  teachers  of  the  West,  both  in  what  they 
did  and  in  what  they  did  not  understand ;  their  additions  to  the  knowledge  of  river 
systems  are  even  more  superficial  than  those  made  by  European  geographers  of  the 
Dark  Ages.  The  mistake  of  the  Arabs  most  fruitful  in  consequences  was  their 
division  of  the  Upper  Nile  into  three  arms :  one  flowing  into  the  Mediterranean 
from  Egypt,  one  flowing  into  the  Eed  Sea  on  the  coast  of  Abyssinia,  and  one  flow- 
iag  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  the  coast  of  Northwest  Africa.  This  hydrographical 
myth,  of  which  a  hint  had  been  given  long  before  by  Ptolemy,  was  transmitted  to 
the  West  immediately  by  the  Arabs.  To  the  influence  of  this  strange  theory 
we  must  ascribe  the  attempts  made  by  the  Italians  and  also  by  Prince  Henry ; 
they  hoped  to  find  a  short  cut  to  the  realm  of  Prester  John  and  the  Elysium 
of  Southern  Asia. 

A  common  feature  in  all  the  theories  of  the  time  about  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
is  the  tendency  to  consider  it  as  the  illimitable  western  boundary  of  the  habitable 
world.  In  the  history  of  discovery,  this  mental  attitude  contftues  until  the  time 
of  Columbus,  whose  westward  voyage  cannot  for  that  very  reason  be  compared  with 
any  similar  undertaking,  because  it  was  based  upon  the  conception  of  the  world  as 
a  closely  united  band  of  earth.  However,  in  the  scientific  treatment  of  the  great 
sea  upon  the  west,  views  and  conceptions  of  the  world  as  a  united  whole  had  made 
their  influence  felt  almost  two  centuries  earlier.  The  fact  that  elephants  are  to  be 
found  both  in  Eastern  India  and  Western  Africa  had  led  Aristotle  to  suppose  that 
the  two  countries  were  separated  by  no  great  expanse  of  ocean.  Eratosthenes,  the 
scientific  opponent  of  the  Stagirite,  actually  discussed  the  possibility  of  sailing  on 
the  same  line  of  parallel  from  Iberia  to  India,  supposing  the  immense  obstacles 
jjresented  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  be  first  removed.  Poseidonius  attempted  to 
estimate  the  length  of  this  passage  from  east  to  west ;  he  estimated  that  a  voy- 
age westward  before  a  continuous  east  wind  would  extend  for  seventy  thousand 
stades  before  India  was  reached.  Finally  the  question  was  asked,  "  How  far  is 
it  from  the  further  coast  of  Spain  to  India  ? "  and  was  answered  by  Seneca,  the 
author  of  the  "  Qusestiones  Naturales,"  with  the  words,  "  A  journey  of  but  few  days 


^'S^SSr"""']     HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  399 

when  a  steady  wind  fills  the  sails."  This  philosopher,  while  he  thus  carefully 
avoids  any  attempt  at  an  accurate  estimate  of  distance,  dearly  belonged  to  .that 
school  of  geographical  theorists  which  ia  antiquity  considered  that  water  covered 
but  a  verj"-  moderate  proportion  of  the  surface  of  the  globe,  and  that  this  globe 
was  chiefly  formed  of  land,  which  lay  upon  it  in  the  form  of  an  open  cloak 
(a  chlamys,  Strabo  calls  it) ;  the  Atlantic  Ocean  would  be  represented  by  the 
openings  in  the  cloak. 

After  the  Patristic  Age,  which  knew  nothing  of  this  conception  of  the  cloak,  the 
theory  was  revived  by  scholasticism  upon  the  basis  of  Asiatic  and  Greek  geography. 
As  transmitted  by  the  Arabs,  this  theory  respecting  the  configuration  of  the  ocean 
assumed  that  form  which  was  bequeathed  by  Marinus  of  Tyre  about  100  A.  D.  and  by 
Ptolemy  to  the  Caliphs.  The  Western  Ocean,  upon  this  theory,  was  not  reduced  to 
the  narrow  canal  which  Seneca  had  conceived ;  but,  compared  with  the  length  of 
the  continent  which  formed  its  shores,  it  yet  remained  so  narrow  that  a  man 
with  the  enterprise  of  Columbus  might  very  well  have  entertained  the  plan  of 
finding  the  eastern  world  upon  the  west  by  crossing  its  waters.  Ptolemy  had  given 
the  extent  of  the  continent  between  the  west  coast  of  Iberia  and  the  east  coast 
of  Asia  as  180  degrees  of  longitude  ;  thus  one-half  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe 
was  left  for  the  ocean  lying  between.  He  had  thus  considerably  reduced  the  esti- 
mate of  his  informant  Marinus,  who  had  assigned  225  degrees  longitude  for  the 
whole  extent  of  land,  thus  leaving  only  135  degrees  for  the  ocean ;  that  is  to  say, 
a  little  more  than  a  third  of  the  circumference  of  the  globe,  a  distance  which  a 
good  saUor  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  could  pass  over  in  a  short  time. 
Columbus  was  more  inclined  to  rely  upon  Marinus,  as  Paolo  Toscanelli  (p.  396) 
had  estimated  the  extent  of  land  at  very  nearly  the  same  number  of  degrees  as  the 
Tyrian.  Eelying  upon  the  stupendous  journeys  of  Marco  Polo  and  the  travelling 
monks  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  he  observed  that  Marinus  had 
estimated  his  225  degrees  of  longitude  only  for  that  part  of  Eastern  Asia  which 
was  known  to  him ;  whereas  the  fact  was,  that  this  continent  extended  far  beyond 
the  eastern  boundary  assumed  by  Marinus,  and  should  therefore  be  much  nearer 
the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands  than  was  supposed.  This  view  strengthened  Columbus 
in  that  tenacity  and  endurance  which  enabled  him  to  continue  working  for  his 
voyage  during  ten  years  full  of  disappointments  (Vol.  I,  pp.  351-353),  and  it  gave 
him  that  prudent  confidence  which  is  the  most  distinguishing  feature  of  his 
character. 

3.    THE  AGE  APTER  COLUMBUS 

(a)  The  Atlantic  Ocean  as  an  Educational  Force.  —  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
facts  in  the  history  of  geographical  discovery  is  the  failure  of  the  discoverer  of  the 
New  World  to  recognise  it  in  its  true  character  as  an  independent  portion  of  the 
earth's  surface ;  Columbus  died  ia  that  belief  that  he  had  sailed  on  four  occa- 
sions to  the  eastern  and  southern  shores  of  Asia,  and  therefore  to  his  last  breath 
remained  faithful  to  that  picture  of  the  globe  we  have  been  describing.  His  con- 
temporaries were  under  the  same  delusion.  This  adherence  to  old  beliefs  regarding 
the  hydrography  of  the  globe  has  produced  the  characteristic  circumstance  that,  in 
political  history  and  in  the  history  of  exploration,  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  are  closely 
linked  until  the  year  1513,  when  Nunez  de  Balboa  descended  from  the  heights  of 
Darien  to  the  shore  of  the  southern  sea  (Vol.  I,  p.  361).     The  Pacific  and  Atlantic 


400  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [chapter  v 

Oceans  were  considered  as  forming  one  sea  which,  lay  between  the  western  and 
eastern  shores  of  an  enormous  continental  island,  the  Indian  Ocean  being  nothing 
more  than  an  indentation  facilitating  communication  to  the  western  shore.  It  was 
not  until  the  return  of  the  "  Victoria  "  from  the  voyage  of  circumnavigation  under- 
taken by  Magalhaes  (September  6,  1522)  that  Europe  learnt  that  between  the 
western  and  eastern  shores  of  their  own  world  there  lay,  not  the  narrow  sea  they 
had  expected  to  find,  but  two  independent  oceans,  divided  by  a  double  continent, 
narrower  and  running  more  nearly  north  and  south,  and  possessing  all  the  character- 
istics of  an  independent  quarter  of  the  globe.  An  entirely  new  picture  of  the  world 
then  rose  before  the  civilization  of  the  age,  —  new,  not  only  from  a  scientific  point 
of  view,  but  new  also,  as  soon  appeared,  in  the  influence  it  was  to  exert  upon  the 
further  development  of  the  history  of  mankind,  which  had  hitherto  run  an  almost 
purely  contiaental  course. 

In  every  age  from  that  of  the  early  Accadians  to  that  of  Hanseatic  ascendancy 
in  the  Baltic,  the  sea  has  ever  been  used  as  a  means  of  communication.  Before  the 
year  1500  a.  d.  we  see  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Indian  Ocean  with  all  their 
branches,  as  well  as  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic,  in  constant  use  by  mankind, 
and  during  that  long  period  we  know  of  a  whole  series  of  powers  founded  upon 
purely  maritime  supremacy.  But  the  political  and  economic  history  even  of  those 
peoples  whose  power  was  apparently  founded  upon  pure  maritime  supremacy  has  . 
been  everywhere  and  invariably  conditioned  by  changes  and  displacements  in  their 
respective  hinterlands ;  even  sea  powers  so  entirely  maritime  as  the  PhcBnician  and 
Punic  mediaeval  Mediterranean  powers  and  the  Hanseatics  have  been  invariably 
obliged  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the  overwhelming  influence  of  the  Old 
World.  To  those  peoples  their  seas  appeared,  no  doubt,  as  mighty  centres  of 
conflict ;  but  to  us,  who  are  accustomed  to  remember  the  unity  underlying  indi- 
vidual geographical  phenomena,  these  centres  of  historical  action  give  an  impres- 
sion of  narrow  bays,  even  of  ponds.  On  and  around  them  a  vigorous  period  of 
organic  action  may  certainly  have  developed  at  times,  but  their  importance  to 
the  geographical  distribution  of  human  life  surpasses  very  little  their  spatial 
dimensions. 

After  the  age  of  the  great  discoveries  history  loses  its  continental  character, 
and  the  main  theatre  of  historical  events  is  gradually  transfejped  to  the  sea.  At 
the  same  time  the  coexistence  of  separate  historical  centres  of  civilization  comes 
gradually  to  a  close,  and  history  becomes  world-wide.  However,  the  leap  which 
the  population  of  Europe  was  then  forced  to  make  from  their  own  convenient  land- 
locked seas  to  the  unconfined  ocean  was  too  great  to  be  taken  without  some  previoTis 
training.  This  training  the  Atlantic  Ocean  provided  in  full ;  in  fact,  during  the 
sixteenth  century  its  historical  importance  begins  and  ends  with  the  task  of  edu- 
cating European  nations  to  capacity  for  world  supremacy.  No  other  sea  upon  the 
surface  of  the  globe  has  exercised  such  an  influence,  nor  was  any  sea  so  entirely 
suited  as  a  training  ground  by  configuration  or  position.  The  Pacific  Ocean  lies 
entirely  apart  from  this  question,  for  reasons  explained  in  Volume  I;  from  1513 
the  task  naturally  placed  before  the  white  races  was  that  of  learning  to  sail  this 
sea,  the  greatest  of  all  oceans,  and  apparently  the  richest  in  prospects.  Its  impor- 
tance is  chiefly  as  a  battlefield ;  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  military  tratuing.  In 
this  respect  the  Indian  Ocean  can  also  be  omitted  (Vol.  II),  particularly  for  geo- 
graphical reasons,  though  at  the  same  time  the  chief  obstacle  to  its  extensive  use 


ofrilS"'"""*"]     HISTORY   OF   THE  WORLD  401 

by  European  nations  is  its  lack  of  some  natural  communication  with  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Compared  with  these  hindrances,  the  political  obstacles  varying  in  strength, 
but  never  wholly  absent,  raised  by  the  Moslem  powers  of  Syria  and  Egypt  are  of 
very  secondary  importance.  How  important  the  first  obstacle  has  ever  been  is 
shown  by  the  results  of  the  piercing  of  it  in  modern  times  by  an  artificial  water- 
way, which  is  kept  open  by  treaty  to  the  ships  of  every  nation. 

Speaking  from  the  standpoint  of  universal  history,  we  may  say  that  the  Medi- 
terranean has  exercised  a  retrograde  influence  upon  humanity,  even  more  so  than 
the  Baltic.  Both  seas  conferred  great  benefits  upon  the  inhabitants  of  their  shores, 
and  indeed  the  Mediterranean  gave  so  much  that  we  may  speak  of  a  Mediterranean 
civilization  (Vol.  IV,  pp.  9-12)  which  had  lasted  for  thousands  of  years,  and  did  not 
end  until  the  growing  economic,  political,  and  intellectual  strength  of  Northern  and 
Southern  Europe  transferred  the  historical  centre  of  gravity  from  this  inlet  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean  itself.  But  neither  of  these  two  seas  enabled 
the  inhabitants  on  its  shores  to  take  the  lead  upon  the  ocean,  when  the  fulness  of 
time  appeared  with  the  westward  voyage  of  Columbus,  the  eastward  voyage  of 
Vasco  de  Gama,  and  the  circumnavigation  of  the  globe  by  Magalhaes.  These  seas 
renounced  the  claims  which  they  preferred  before  that  great  decade,  to  be  regarded, 
if  not  as  the  transmitters  of  civilization  and  history,  yet  to  be  considered  as  a  his- 
■  tory  and  as  a  civilization.  We  do  not  see  either  Venice  or  Genoa  crossing  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar,  or  the  Hanseatics  crossing  the  Skagerrack  or  the  Straits  of  Dover,  with 
the  object  of  taking  their  share  in  the  struggle  that  was  beginning  for  maritime 
supremacy.  Those  powers  were  sufficiently  skilled  in  seamanship  to  maintain  their 
supremacy  within  their  own  narrow  circles,  but  their  experience  was  insufficient  to 
enable  them  to  venture  upon  the  open  seas  surrounding  the  globe. 

A  strict  and  thorough  maritime  education  has  been  from  the  age  of  discov- 
ery the  fundamental  condition  for  the  attainment  of  the  position  of  a  modern 
civilized  power  in  the  hard  struggle  between  races  and  peoples.  Of  the  nations 
whose  voices  are  heard  with  respect  in  the  councils  of  peoples,  there  is  none  which 
does  not  consider  itself  permanently  equipped  and  armed  for  the  wide  and  mighty 
political  and  economic  struggle  upon  the  stage  of  the  world ;  for  of  the  original 
combatants  on  the  scene  those  have  obviously  remained  victorious  who  were  forced 
to  gain  their  early  experience  in  the  hard  school  of  maritime  struggle. 

These  original  combatants  were  Spain  and  Portugal  upon  one  hand,  Holland, 
England,  and  France  upon  the  other,  and  the  scene  of  struggle  was  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  As  regards  Spain  and  Portugal,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  this  sea  con- 
cerned them  only  temporarily  and  within  definite  limits,  thanks  to  the  papal  edict 
of  the  6th  of  May,  1493,  which  divided  the  world  between  the  two  Eomance  powers 
at  the  outset  of  their  career  of  colonisation  on  conditions  which  placed  their  bound- 
aries within  the  Atlantic  Ocean  itself.  This  line  of  demarcation  was  to  run  from 
north  to  south  at  a  distance  of  one  hundred  leagues  from  the  Cape  Verde  Islands, 
which  was  extended  to  three  hundred  and  seventy  by  the  treaty  of  Tordesillas  of 
the  7th  of  June,  1494-(Vol.  I,  p.  359).  Thus,  as  soon  appeared,  the  main  portion  of 
the  New  World  fell  within  the  Spanish  half,  and  only  the  east  of  South  America 
was  given  to  the  Portuguese.  The  importance  of  their  American  possessions  was 
naturally  overshadowed  by  the  far  more  important  tasks  which  fell  to  the  share  of 
the  little  Portuguese  nation  in  the  Indian  Ocean  during  the  next  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  (Vol.  II,  pp.  450-457).     BrazU  served  primarily  as  a  base  for  the  further 

VOL.  Vm  — 26 


402  HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD  Ichafter  v 

voyage  to  India  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  It  was  impossible  to  make  it  a  point 
of  departure  for  further  Portuguese  acquisitions,  as  the  Spaniards  opposed  every 
step  in  this  direction  on  the  basis  of  the  treaties  of  partition  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  398). 

More  lasting  was  the  struggle  of  the  two  Iberian  powers  with  the  nations  that 
had  been  rapidly  rising  from  the  sixteenth  century  onwards  north  of  the  Pyrenees 
and  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  No  account  had  been  taken  of  them  in  the  papal  edict ; 
any  one  of  them,  therefore,  was  legally  free  to  extend  its  power  over  the  seas  of  the 
world  had  not  the  Spanish  supremacy  blockaded  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  the  only 
exit  westward  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  while  the  Portuguese  closed  the  only  route 
leading  eastward,  that  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Neither  Holland  nor  Eng- 
land felt  strong  enough,  before  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  break  down  this 
double  barrier ;  these  youthful  powers  needed  almost  a  century  of  development 
before  they  became  capable  of  embracing  the  globe  in  their  flight.  During  this 
age  the  growing  sea  powers  of  Northwest  Europe  were  confined  to  the  North 
Atlantic  Ocean,  which  was  assigned  to  them  by  geographical  conditions.  Great 
were  the  benefits  that  they  gained  from  this  limitation.  We  are  reminded  of  the 
old  Normans  and  their  stern  training  in  the  North  Atlantic  (p.  397),  when  we 
observe  the  enthusiastic  attempts  of  the  English  and  Dutch  after  the  age  of  Cabot 
to  find  an  exit  from  the  limits  of  the  Northern  Ocean  to  the  eastern  shore  of  Asia. 
We  see  them  set  forth  again  and  again,  with  energy  at  times  diminished  but  never 
wholly  extinguished,  to  find  a  passage  upon  the  northwest  or  northeast  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  which  was  not  only  to  be  shorter  than  the  long  journey  round  the 
southern  points  of  Africa  and  America,  but  would  also  bring  with  it  the  further 
advantage  of  making  its  discoverers  independent  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
monopoly  of  those  two  routes  by  sea. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  other  European  powers  besides 
England  and  Holland  crowded  into  the  north  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  pursuit 
of  the  same  objects ;  we  find  not  only  French  explorers  and  fishermen,  but  also 
Spaniards  and  Portuguese,  in  the  Polar  waters  of  the  American  Atlantic.  How- 
ever, none  of  the  other  nations  pursued  their  main  object  with  such  tenacity  as 
the  two  first-named  peoples,  above  all,  the  English;  the  period  between  1576  and 
1632  belongs  entirely  to  them^  and  was  occupied  without  interruption  by  their 
constant  endeavours  to  discover  the  northwest  passage  (VH.  I,  p.  589). 

The  reward,  however,  which  the  English  people  gained  from  their  stern  school 
of  experience  in  the  northern  seas  was  one  of  high  importance.  England  then  was 
unimportant  from  a  geographical  point  of  view,  and  a  nonentity  in  the  commercial 
relations  of  the  world  at  large  ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  that  clear  evidence  was  forthcoming  that  the  communication  by  water 
between  Baffin  Bay  and  the  Behring  Straits,  though  existing,  was  of  no  use  for 
navigation.  But  the  high  nautical  skill,  the  consciousness  of  strength,  and  the 
resolve  to  confront  any  task  by  sea  with  adequate  science  and  skill,  in  short,  the 
unseen  advantages  which  the  English  nation  gained  from  these  great  Arctic  expe- 
ditions and  from  their  slighter  efforts  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
proved  of  far  higher  importance  than  the  tangible  results  achieved.  It  was  these 
long  decades  of  struggle  against  the  unparalleled  hostilities  of  natural  obstacles 
that  made  the  English  mariners  masters  on  every  other  sea,  and  taught  the  English 
nation  what  a  vast  reserve  of  strength  they  had  within  themselves. 

In  considering  the  historical  career  of  this  extraordinary  island  people  from  the 


^iS»/r'™"]     HISTORY   OF   THE    WORLD  403 

sixteenth  century  onwards,  we  are  forced  to  regard  modern  history  as  a  whole  from 
the  standpoint  of  national  Arctic  exploration,  although  this  is  far  too  confined  for 
om-  purposes  as  compared  with  the  sum  total  of  forces  operative  throughout  the 
world.  During  the  age  when  maritime  skill  was  represented  hy  the  city  republics 
in  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  Normans  in  the  North  Sea  and  the  Northern  Atlantic 
Ocean,  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  were  already  fully  occupied  with  their  own 
domestic  affairs  (the  Moorish  domination).  Their  first  advance  in  the  direction  of 
nautical  skill  was  not  made  until  a  considerable  time  after  the  liberation  of  Lisbon 
from  the  Moorish  yoke  (1147;  Vol.  IV,  p.  514),  when  the  magnificent  harbour 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus  had  become  more  and  more  a  centre  for  Flemish 
and  Mediterranean  trade  ;  even  then  it  was  found  necessary  to  call  in  all  kinds  of 
Italian  teachers  of  the  nautical  art.  It  was  only  slowly  and  at  the  cost  of  great 
.  effort  that  Spain  and  Portugal  became  maritime  peoples ;  and  their  subjects  were 
never  seafarers  in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is  applied  to  the  English  and  the 
Dutch  of  the  present  day,  to  the  Norwegians,  or  even  to  the  Malays  or  Polynesians ; 
the  period  of  their  greatness  gives  us  rather  the  impression  of  an  age  of  ecstasy,  a 
kind  of  obsession  which  can  seize  upon  a  whole  nation  and  inspire  them  to  bril- 
liant exploits  for  a  century,  but  which  results  in  an  even  greater  reaction  so  soon  as 
serious  obstacles  to  their  activity  make  themselves  felt.  Only  thus  can  we  explain 
the  fact  that  these  two  peoples,  once  of  world-wide  power,  disappeared  with  such 
extraordinary  rapidity  and  so  entirely  from  the  world-wide  ocean.  The  last  Spanish 
fleet  worthy  of  consideration  was  destroyed  off  the  Downs  by  the  Dutch  lieutenant- 
admiral,  Marten  Harpertzoon  Tromp,  on  the  21st  of  October,  1629  ;  about  the  same 
period  the  Portuguese  were  also  considered  the  worst  sailors  in  Europe. 

The  Dutch  and  the  French  held  their  ground  more  tenaciously.  In  both  cases 
Arctic  training  ran  a  somewhat  different  course  than  in  the  case  of  the  English ; 
during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  they  certainly  took  part  in  the 
attempt  to  discover  the  northwest  and  northeast  passages ;  with  a  tenacity  highly 
praiseworthy  they  applied  themselves  to  the  more  practical  end  of  Arctic  deep-sea 
fisheries  and  sealing.  That  such  occupations  could  provide  a  good  school  of  mari- 
time training  is  proved  by  the  energy  with  which  the  Dutch  and  afterwards  the 
English  and  the  French  made  the  great  step  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Indian 
Ocean;  further  evidence  is  also  to  be  seen  in  the  unusually  strong  resistance 
which  the  two  colonial  powers  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  were 
able  to  offer  to  their  most  dangerous  rival,  the  growing  power  of  England. 


B.  The  Paet  played  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  the  Steuggle  foe 

SUPEEMACY    IN    THE    WOELD'S    COMMEECE 

Towaeds  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  historical  character  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  undergoes  a  fundamental  change.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
period  of  great  discoveries  its  special  destiny  had  been  to  provide  a  maritime 
training  for  the  nations  of  Northwest  Europe,  and  to  make  these  nations  suffi- 
ciently strong  for  successful  resistance  to  the  two  powers  of  Spain  and  Portugal, 
for  whom  the  supremacy  of  the  world  seemed  reserved  by  their  geographical 
position,  the  world-wide  activity  of  their  discoverers,  and  the  pronouncements  of 
the  Pope.     Maritime  capacity  they  had  attained  by  their  bold  ventures  in  the 


404  HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD  [chapter  v 

Arctic  and  Antarctic  waters  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  the  struggle  was  fought  out  by 
these  nations  independently  or  in  common  ia  the  seas  to  the  south  either  of  their 
own  continent  or  of  the  West  Indies. 

"We  refer  to  the  great  epoch  of  the  English  and  Dutch  wars  against  the  "  invin- 
cible "  fleets  of  Philip  II ;  it  was  a  period,  too,  of  that  licensed  piracy,  almost  equally 
fruitful  in  political  consequences,  which  was  carried  on  in  the  waters  of  East  Amer- 
ica by  representatives  of  all  the  three  northern  powers.  The  North  Sea,  the  Baltic, 
and  the  Mediterranean  have  all  been  scourged  by  pirates  at  one  time  and  another  ; 
and  in  all  three  cases  the  robbers  plied  their  trade  so  vigorously  and  for  so  long  a 
time  that  the  historian  must  take  account  of  them.  This  older  form  of  piracy  was, 
however,  undertaken  by  ruffians  wholly  beyond  the  pale  of  law,  who  were  every 
man's  enemy  and  no  man's  friend,  and  plundered  all  alike  as  opportunity  occurred, 
it  being  everybody's  duty  to  crush  and  excirpate  them  when  possible.  But  towards 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  different  state  of  affairs  prevailed  on  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  After  the  discovery  of  America  as  an  independent  continent,  it  became  a 
question  of  life  and  death  for  the  Northwest  European  powers,  who  had  grown  to 
strength  in  the  last  century,  to  find  an  exit  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  riches 
of  the  eastern  countries  of  the  Old  World.  It  was  possible  that  this  exit  was  to  be 
found  only  in  the  south,  in  view  of  the  constant  ill-success  of  expeditions  towards 
the  Pole ;  and  to  secure  the  possession  of  it  in  that  quarter  was  only  possible  by 
the  destruction  of  the  two  powers  that  held  it.  This  attempt  was  undertaken  and 
carried  through  in  part  by  open  war,  in  part  by  piracy,  which  was  not  only  secretly 
tolerated  but  openly  supported  by  governments  and  rulers.  No  stronger  evidence 
is  forthcoming  for  the  value  attached  to  these  weapons  and  the  free  use  of  them 
during  the  last  ten  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  (cf.  Vol.  II,  p.  455)  than  the  honour- 
able positions  of  Sir  Thomas  Cavendish,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  Sir  John  Hawkins,  and 
Sir  Walter  Ealeigh.  On  April  4,  1581,  the  maiden  queen  went  on  board  Drake's 
ship,  concerning  which  the  Spanish  ambassador  had  lodged  a  complaint  of  piracy 
on  its  return  from  the  circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  and  dubbed  him  knight. 

This  irrepressible  advance  on  the  part  of  the  Northwest  powers  towards  the 
east  of  the  Old  World  is  closely  connected  with  the  fact  that  the  struggle  for  mari- 
time supremacy  was  confined  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean  only  for  a  short  period ;  hardly 
had  England  and  Holland  become  conscious  of  their  strerjth  than  we  find  both 
powers  in  the  East  Indies,  on  the  west  coast  of  America,  in  short,  wherever  it  was 
possible  to  deprive  the  two  older  powers  of  the  choicest  products  of  their  first 
and  most  valuable  colonies.  So  early  as  1595  Cornells  de  Houtman  (Vol.  II, 
p.  453)  sailed  with  four  Dutch  ships  to  Java  and  the  neighbouring  islands  ;  he  was 
followed  shortly  afterwards  by  the  English  and  then  by  the  Danes  in  1616  (ibid, 
p.  454).  When  the  Northwest  European  powers  began  to  extend  their  encroach- 
ments beyond  the  limits  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  this  latter  naturally  ceased  to  be 
what  it  had  been  for  a  century  past, —  the  main  theatre  of  the  naval  war ;  not  that 
it  became  any  more  peaceful  during  the  next  two  centuries.  On  the  contrary,  the 
struggle  which  broke  out  amongst  the  victorious  adversaries  after  the  expulsion 
of  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards  from  their  dominant  position  were  even  more 
violent  and  enduring  than  those  of  earlier  days.  This  conflict,  too,  was  largely 
fought  out  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  but  it  was  waged  with  no  less  ferocity  on  the 
Atlantic. 

The  great  length  of  the  two  coast  lines  which  confine  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and 


^t;:ssr'"""]    history  of  the  world  405 

the  general  strength  and  growing  capacity  of  the  states  of  Northwest  Europe,  led 
to  the  result  that,  during  the  course  of  the  last  three  centuries,  repeated  changes 
have  taten  place  both  in  the  locality  and  vigour  of  the  struggle  for  the  supremacy 
of  this  ocean,  and  also  in  the  personality  of  the  combatants.  Among  these  latter  we 
find  Portugal  and  Spain  long  represented  after  their  rapid  decadence ;  in  the  first 
decades  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Portuguese  colonies  on  the  coast  of  Upper 
Guinea  fall  quickly  one  after  the  other  into  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  (Elima  con- 
quered 1537) ;  in  1642  Brazil  fell  into  the  hands  of  Holland,  after  eighteen  years' 
struggle,  though  nineteen  years  later,  in  1661,  it  was  restored  to  Portugal  for  an 
indemnity  of  eight  million  guldens;  in  1651  the  Dutch  seized  and  held  for  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  years  the  important  position  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  (see  the 
map  facing  page  389).  In  the  West  Indies  the  division  of  the  Spanish  possessions 
began  from  1621  with  the  foundation  of  the  Dutch  West  Indian  Company,  that 
"  band  of  pirates  on  the  lookout  for  shares ; "  in  the  course  of  the  next  ten  years 
the  majority  of  the  smaller  Antilles  were  taken  from  their  old  Spanish  owners. 
In  1655  Cromwell  took  possession  of  Jamaica.  The  rest  of  the  larger  Antilles 
remained  Spanish  for  a  considerably  longer  period;  Hayti  held  out  its  eastern 
part  until  1821,  and  Cuba  and  Porto  Eico  remained  Spanish  until  1898  (cf.  above, 
p.  381). 

The  combatants  in  Northwest  Europe  are  divided  into  groups  according  to  their 
respective  importance ;  on  the  one  hand  the  three  powers  of  England,  Holland, 
and  Erance,  each  of  which  has  made  enormous  efforts  to  secure  the  supremacy  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Indian  Oceans,  and  on  the  other  hand  Denmark,  Sweden,  and 
Prussia,  which  pursued  objects  primarily  commercial  and  on  a  smaller  scale.  Their 
efforts  on  the  African  coast  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  490)  are  marks  of  the  rising  importance 
then  generally  attached  to  transoceanic  enterprise,  and  form  points  of  departure  of 
more  or  less  importance  in  the  histories  of  the  states  concerned ;  but  in  the  history 
of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  all  of  these  are  events  of  but  temporary  importance  compared 
with  the  huge  struggle  between  the  other  three  powers. 

(a)  The  Importance  of  the  Navigation  Acts.  —  The  begiimings  of  this  struggle 
as  far  as  England  and  Holland  are  concerned  go  back  to  the  foundation  of  the 
English  East  India  Company ;  the  first  serious  outbreak  took  place  upon  the  promul- 
gation of  the  Navigation  Act  by  Oliver  Cromwell  on  October  9, 1655  (cf.  Vol.  VII, 
pp.  98-100).  Henceforward  English  history  is  largely  the  tale  of  repeated  efforts 
to  destroy  the  Dutch  supremacy,  at  first  in  home  waters,  afterwards  upon  the 
Atlantic,  lastly  on  the  Indian  Ocean.  This  policy  produced  the  three  great  naval 
wars  of  1652-1654, 1664-1667,  and  1672-1674,  which,  without  resulting  in  decisive 
victory  for  the  English,  left  them  free  to  proceed  with  the  second  portion  of  their 
task,  the  overthrow  of  French  sea  power  and  the  acquisition  of  predominance  in 
the  commerce  of  the  world.  Judged  by  the  prize  at  stake,  this  struggle  must  rank 
among  the  greatest  of  modern  times.  It  began  in  1688,  when  Louis  XIV  opened 
his  third  war  of  aggression ;  it  continued  with  some  cessations  of  hostilities  until 
the  Congress  of  Vienna  (1815).  The  struggle  was  carried  on  at  many  points.  A 
land  war  in  India  (1740-1760)  decided  the  future  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  The  con- 
test to  secure  communications  with  that  ocean  was  fought  out  in  Egypt  (1798- 
1801)  and  at  the  Cape  (1806);  but  the  main  conflicts  were  waged  on  the  seaboard 
of  the  Atlantic  or  on  its  waters.     Supremacy  in  the  Atlantic  meant  supremacy  in 


406  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  r 

the  world  until  the  age  of  steam  began  and  the  Suez  Canal  opened  a  new  route  to 
the  Further  East. 

Some  events  which  are  otherwise  of  secondary  importance  deserve  notice  because 
they  prove  how  much  the  current  estimate  of  the  Atlantic's  importance  changed  in 
the  course  of  the  struggle.  Tangier  came  into  the  hands  of  England  in  1662  as  the 
dowry  of  Catharine  of  Braganza,  the  queen  of  Charles  II ;  it  was  given  up  in  1684 
on  the  ground  that  it  cost  more  than  it  brought  in.  Twenty  years  later  English 
opinion  as  to  the  value  of  Tangier  had  been  materially  modified ;  and  Gibraltar,  on 
the  opposite  shore,  was  seized  in  1704.  Since  then  England  has  never  relaxed  her 
hold  upon  this  fortress ;  it  has  been  repeatedly  strengthened  and  defended  imder 
the  greatest  difficulties.  Were  Tangier  an  English  possession  to-day,  English  it 
would  certainly  remain,  even  though  it  were  to  cost  infinitely  more  than  the  yearly 
vote  of  £40,000  which  England  has  expended  on  Gibraltar  for  the  last  two  cen- 
turies. Equally  significant  is  the  attitude  of  England  towards  the  solitary  isle  of 
St.  Helena.  The  Portuguese,  by  whom  it  was  discovered  in  1502,  were  content  to 
found  a  little  church  on  the  island ;  the  Dutch  noticed  St.  Helena  so  far  as  to  destroy 
the  church  ia  1600.  But  the  East  India  Company,  upon  acquiring  it  in  1650,  recog- 
nised its  importance  by  establishing  upon  it  the  Fort  of  St.  James.  The  island, 
however,  was  not  appreciated  at  its  full  value  until  the  English  supremacy  in  the 
Indian  Ocean  and  Australia  had  been  founded ;  that  is,  not  before  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  The  taking  over  of  St.  Helena  by  the  English  government 
in  1815  was  the  logical  sequel  to  the  occupation  of  the  Cape.  Both  of  these  new 
possessions  were  intended  to  serve  as  calling  stations  on  the  main  line  of  ocean 
trafiic.  It  was  not  until  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  that  this  line  declined  in 
importance.  The  main  route  now  runs  from  Gibraltar,  by  Malta  and  Cyprus,  to 
Egypt,  Perim,  and  Aden. 

(b)  The  Importance  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  —  The  eastern  part  of 
the  Atlantic  has  served,  like  the  Indian  Ocean,  as  an  anteroom  to  the  Pacific.  The 
first  explorers  of  the  Atlantic,  and  those  powers  which  first  seized  strategic  points 
in  it,  had  the  Pacific  for  their  ultimate  object.  The  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  has 
taken  away  this  characteristic  of  the  Atlantic,  which  is  now  important  for  its  own 
sake  alone.  * 

The  political  history  of  the  Atlantic  begins  upon  its  western  seaboard,  though 
not  so  early  as  the  history  of  exploration  might  lead  us  to  expect.  In  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  colonies  of  South  and  Central  America  a  vicious  system  of  govern- 
ment acted  as  a  bar  to  political  and  economic  development.  In  the  French  and 
English  colonies  of  North  America  progress  was  slow,  owing  to  the  existence  of 
serious  physical  obstacles.  Independent  development  began  in  the  American 
continent  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  American  War  of  Independence  marks  from  yet  another  point  of  view  a 
turning-point  in  the  history  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  After  the  Convention  of  Tor- 
desillas  (p.  401),  Spain  had  ruled  supreme  in  the  Atlantic,  and  had  almost  put  her 
authority  in  a  position  above  the  possibility  of  challenge  when  she  attempted  to  use 
Holland  as  a  base  for  attacking  England,  the  second  of  her  rivals  as  an  instrument 
for  the  destruction  of  the  first.  The  treaty  of  Paris  (1763)  gave  England  a  similar 
position  of  predominance  in  the  North  Atlantic,  since  it  definitely  excluded  the, 
French  from  North  America  and  left  their  navy  in  a  shattered  condition.     The" 


^irilir'""'""]     HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  407 

treaty  created  a  mare  clausum  on  a  great  scale  and  for  the  last  time;  under  it 
England  for  the  first  time  realised  the  object  towards  which  her  policy  had  been 
directed  for  the  last  two  hundred  years.  This  situation,  the  most  remarkable  which 
the  Atlantic  had  witnessed  since  the  days  of  Columbus,  lasted  for  over  thirteen 
years.  It  was  not  at  once  destroyed  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence  (1776), 
but  the  growth  of  the  United  States  introduced  a  change  into  the  existing  con- 
ditions. England's  position  was  altered  for  the  worse ;  and  the  North  Atlantic 
began  to  play  a  new  part  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Hitherto  there  had  been  a 
movement  from  east  to  west ;  this  was  now  reversed  by  slow  degrees.  Europe  had 
acted  upon  America ;  America  began  at  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury to  react  upon  Europe ;  and  now,  at  the  commencement  of  the  twentieth 
century,  America  has  become  a  factor,  sometimes  a  disturbing  and  unwelcome 
factor,  in  European  complications. 

(c)  Importance  of  the  Wars  of  Coalition.  —  The  American  War  of  Independ- 
ence was  a  chapter  in  the  conflict  for  colonial  and  commercial  power  between 
England  and  France.  The  United  States  were  largely  indebted  to  French  support 
for  their  victory.  The  desire  to  obliterate  the  humiliation  of  the  treaty  of  Paris 
and  to  avenge  the  loss  of  vast  tracts  of  territory  in  America  and  India  had  proved 
too  much  for  the  French.  Their  interference  was  repaid  with  interest  by  the  Eng- 
lish ;  for  a  long  period  the  French  marine  was  swept  from  the  seas  ;  for  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  nineteenth  century  England  monopolised  the  seas  of  the  whole 
world.  Next  to  the  period  of  Atlantic  supremacy  from  1763  to  1776,  that  which 
followed  the  peace  of  1815  is  the  most  brilliant  in  the  "  rough  island  story  "  of  the 
English.  Geographical  conditions  were  favourable  to  them.  But  they  also  showed 
a  quality  which  few  nations  have  possessed,  —  the  power  of  not  only  recognising, 
but  also  of  securing,  their  true  interests. 

Only  in  recent  times  have  the  real  principles  which  actuated  England  in  the 
wars  against  the  Eevolution  and  Napoleon  received  general  recognition.  Yet 
Goethe's  fine  historical  sense  detected  the  truth ;  he  thought  that  the  most  use- 
ful lesson  which  he  had  learned  from  Walter  Scott's  "  Life  of  Napoleon  "  was  the 
truth  that  England  had  never  intervened  except  in  the  interests  of  England.  It 
was  long  supposed  that  in  the  period  1795-1815  England  had  acted  as  the  cham- 
pion of  European  liberty,  as  a  deliverer  from  the  aggressive  tyranny  of  France. 
All,  indeed,^ could  see  that  England's  treatment  of  Holland  was  governed  by  selfish 
motives;  that  the  union  of  Holland  and  France  in  1795  was  the  pretext  and  not 
the  true  reason  for  the  destruction  of  the  Dutch  mercantile  and  fishing  fleet,  and 
for  the  seizure  of  the  Dutch  colonies  between  1795  and  1801.  The  general  war 
furnished  a  convenient  occasion  for  destroying  an  old  rival  which  was  still  active 
and  dangerous.  Nor  was  it  difficult  to  see  that  England  intended  to  nip  French 
sea  power  in  the  bud.  But  the  ordinary  European  mind  was  too  much  dazzled  by  the 
personality  of  Napoleon  to  scrutinise  his  great  opponents  coolly  and  dispassionately. 
It  was  enough  for  England's  allies  to  know  that  her  primary  object  was  the  over- 
throw of  the  Corsican  usurper.  What  her  ulterior  motives  might  be,  they  neither 
knew  nor  cared;  she  was  free,  so  far  as  they  were  concerned,  to  suppress  the 
development  of  continental  commerce,  to  secure  what  colonies  still  remained  to 
the  Dutch,  to  capture  the  fleets  of  war  stiU  remaining  in  Italy,  Spain,  Denmark, 
and  Holland.     They  regarded  with  equanimity  the  maritime  supremacy  which  the 


408  HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD  [Chapter  V 

English  were  found  to  have  gained  after  completing  a  period  of  twenty  years 
of  "  self-sacrifice." 

C.  The  Atlantic  Ocean  after  the  ISTapoleonic  Wars 

With  the  two  conventions  of  peace  concluded  at  Paris  on  May  30, 1814,  and 
November  20,  or  with  the  closing  act  of  the  Vienna  Congress  of  the  9th  of  June, 
1815,  the  Atlantic  Ocean  commences  a  new  period  of  its  historical  importance.  In 
those  conventions  England  had  certainly  condescended  to  return  to  their  former 
masters  some  portion  of  the  colonial  plunder  that  she  had  gained  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  These  concessions  were,  however,  of  very  little  importance  compared 
with  the  extent  and  the  economic  and  strategical  value  of  that  iacrease  to  which  the 
island  kingdom  could  point  on  and  upon  the  Atlantic  Ocean  alone.  Even  at  that 
time  these  concessions  were  more  than  counterbalanced  by  England's  retention  of 
the  Cape,  and  the  claims  which  such  a  position  implied  to  the  whole  of  South 
Africa.  Tobago  and  Santa  Lucia  in  the  West  Indies,  Guiana  in  South  America 
were  to  be  considered,  under  these  circumstances,  as  accessions  all  the  more  welcome 
to  England.  These  possessions  could  not  compensate  for  the  irrevocable  loss  of  the 
North  American  colonies,  but  they  implied  an  increase  in  the  area  of  operations 
from  which  she  could  contentedly  behold  the  development  of  the  strong  and  inde- 
pendent life  in  the  New  World.  The  rocky  island  of  Heligoland,  which  had  been 
united  to  England  in.  1814  for  seventy-six  years,  narrow  as  it  was,  was  only  too 
well  placed  to  dominate  commercially  and  strategically  both  the  Skagerrack  and 
particularly  the  mouths  of  the  Weser  and  Elbe ;  it  gave  England  the  position,  so 
to  speak,  of  guardian  over  the  slow  growth  of  Germany  and  the  no  less  slow 
recovery  of  Denmark. 

England's  maritime  predominance  after  the  conclusion  of  the  great  European 
wars  was  so  strong,  and  the  transmarine  relations  into  which  she  had  entered  in 
the  course  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  were  also  so  numerous,  that 
this  energetic  nation  could  not  fail  to  draw  the  fullest  possible  advantage  in  every 
quarter  of  the  world  from  the  position  which  she  occupied  at  the  moment.  The 
period  of  England's  unlimited  predominance  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  which  she  had 
gained  at  some  cost  to  her  own  strength  by  the  wars  against  prance  (1755-1763), 
had  been  too  short  for  the  completion  of  those  transmarine  objects  which  she  had 
in  view;  but  after  1815  England  alone  of  all  the  powers  foimd  herself  not  only 
at  the  height  of  her  strength,  but  had  also  the  additional  advantage  of  being 
able  to  avail  herself  of  a  longer  period  of  time  to  strengthen  her  position  in  other 
respects  precisely  as  she  pleased.  Then  it  was  that  England  extended  her  Indian 
colonial  empire  in  every*  direction,  founded  an  equally  valuable  sphere  of  rule  in 
Australia,  and  established  herself  in  South  Africa  and  on  the  most  important 
points  along  the  Indian  Ocean  (cf.  Vols.  II  and  III).  In  view  of  these  undertak- 
ings, which  claimed  the  whole  of  her  attention,  England  had  but  little  energy  to 
spare  during  this  period  for  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  occupation  of  the  Falkland 
Islands  to  secure  the  passage  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan  in  1833,  the  occupation  of 
Lagos  as  the  obvious  exit  from  the  Sudan  district  of  Central  Africa  in  the  year 
1861,  and  finally  the  beginning  of  the  further  development  of  a  limited  trade  on 
several  other  points  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  —  these  were  at  that  time  the  only 
manifestations  of  British  activity  on  the  Atlantic  shores. 


^imS""""1     HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  409 

(a)  The  West  Coast.  —  The  increase  in  the  value  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
nations  of  the  world  at  large  only  began  with  the  coincidence  of  a  large  number  of 
new  events.  Of  these  the  earliest  is  the  surprisingly  rapid  growth  of  steam  power 
for  the  purpose  of  transatlantic  navigation.  Not  only  were  the  two  shores  of  the 
ocean  brought  considerably  nearer  for  the  purpose  of  commercial  exchange  than 
was  ever  possible  with  the  old  sailiag-vessels,  but  passenger  traffic  was  also 
largely  increased;  emigration  from  Europe  to  the  New  World  on  the  scale  on 
which  it  has  been  carried  out  since  1840  was  only  possible  with  the  help  of 
steam  traffic. 

The  European  powers  of  the  last  two-thirds  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  not 
yet  fully  realised  the  importance,  either  from  an  economic  or  political  poiat  of  view, 
of  the  emigration  to  the  United  States,  a  phenomenon  remarkable  not  only  for  its 
extent  but  for  the  unanimity  of  its  object ;  yet  the  states  thereby  chiefly  affected 
had  already  drawn  general  attention  to  the  fact.  This  process  of  emigration  and 
its  results  only  forced  themselves  upon  the  general  notice  upon  either  side  of  the 
ocean  after  the  youthful  constitution  of  the  United  States  of  North  America  had 
coalesced  into  a  permanent  body  politic  and  had  developed  a  new  race,  the  Yankee, 
by  a  fusion,  unique  in  the  history  of  humanity,  of  that  growing  population  which 
streamed  to  it  from  every  country  of  the  world,  and,  finally,  when  this  new  nation 
had  applied  its  energies  to  the  exploitation  of  the  enormous  wealth  of  natural 
riches  in  its  broad  territory. 

This  highly  important  point  of  time  was  reached  considerably  earlier  than  any 
human  foresight  could  have  supposed,  owing  to  the  unexampled  rapidity  of  the 
development  of  the  United  States  ;  and  its  importance  holds  good  not  only  for  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  but  for  the  habitable  globe.  So  early  as  1812  the  United  States, 
when  scarcely  out  of  their  childhood,  had  declared  war  upon  the  mighty  maritime 
power  of  England,  for  reasons  of  commercial  politics  (cf.  Vol.  I,  p.  461  ff.) ;  in  con- 
sequence, the  United  States  seceded  somewhat  ingloriously,  and  paid  for  its  first 
attempt  at  transoceanic  aggression  by  confining  itself  to  its  own  iuternal  affairs  for 
a  long  period ;  in  particular,  the  proclamation  of  the  Monroe  doctrine  on  September 
2, 1823  (cf.  VoL  I,  p.  537),  is  to  be  considered  as  a  political  act  materially  affecting 
the  Atlantic  Ocean.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  doctrine  still  remains  in  full  force 
notwithstanding  the  selfish  demands  of  France  upon  Mexico  in  1861  (Vol.  I, 
p.  521),  and  certain  views  apparently  entertained  by  England  and  Germany  with 
regard  to  South  America,  as  the  American  press  affirmed,  during  the  disturbances 
concerning  Venezuela  (p.  364).  To  this  sense  of  their  own  military  and  naval 
insufficiency  is  chiefly  to  be  ascribed  the  fact  that  the  transmarine  efforts  of  the 
United  States  were  applied  first  of  all  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  which  is  turned 
away  from  Europe,  although  the  European  side  still  forms  their  historical  coast. 
Between  1870  and  1880  America  secured  her  influence  in  Hawaii  (Vol.  II, 
p.  319),  while  at  the  same  time  she  succeeded  in  establishing  herself  in  Samoa 
(ibid.  p.  324).  It  was  not  until  she  advanced  to  the  position  of  a  leading  state  in 
respect  of  population  and  resources  that  she  ventured  any  similar  steps  upon  the 
Atlantic  side,  and  even  then  her  attacks  were  directed  only  against  the  Spaniards, 
who  had  grown  old  and  weak. 

The  war  of  1898  (p.  381)  was  the  first  great  transmarine  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  United  States.  By  their  action  at  that  time  they  openly  broke  with  their 
former  tradition  of  self -confinement  to  their  own  territory ;  for  that  reason  above 


410  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  [Chapter  v 

all  others  the  United  States  have  become  a  factor  in  the  politics  of  the  rest  of  the 
world,  not  on  account  of  the  military  capacity  which  they  then  displayed :  any 
European  power  could  have  done  as  much  either  by  land  or  sea.  Far  more  impor- 
tant to  European  civilization  than  their  military  development  is  the  economic 
development  of  North  America,  which  has  advanced  almost  in  geometrical  pro- 
gression. The  immediate  consequence  of  that  development  has  been  that  home 
production  not  only  suffices  for  the  personal  needs  of  the  United  States,  but  has 
introduced  a  formidable  and  increasing  competition  with  European  wares  in  Asia, 
Africa,  and  the  South  Seas,  or  has  even  beaten  them  on  their  own  ground ;  more- 
over, the  enormous  abundance  of  economic  advantages  has  transformed  the  previous 
character  of  transatlantic  navigation  materially  to  the  advantage  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  hardly  likely  that  the  bewildering  number  of  transatlantic  lines  of 
steam  and  sailing  ships  will  in  any  way  diminish  (see  the  map  facing  this  page, 
"  International  Communication  "),  in  the  face  of  the  North  American  trust  which 
was  carried  out  in  1902.  But  American  control  over  English  transatlantic  lines 
and  certain  continental  lines  most  certainly  implies  a  weakening  of  European  pre- 
dominance. Henceforward  the  Atlantic  Ocean  loses  its  old  character  and  becomes 
a  great  Mediterranean  Sea.  The  teaching  of  history  shows  us  that  its  further 
development  is  likely  to  proceed  in  this  direction ;  so  much  is  plain  from  the 
development  of  circumstances  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Our  European  Medi- 
terranean and  Baltic  are  not,  perhaps,  entirely  parallel  cases,  owing  to  their  com- 
paratively smaller  area ;  yet  the  history  which  has  been  worked  out  upon  their 
respective  shores  is  in  its  main  features  nearly  identical.  Whether  we  consider 
the  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians,  the  Ionic  Greeks,  or  the  modern  French  on  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  or  turn  our  attention  to  the  Hanse  towns  or  the  Swedes 
upon  the  Baltic,  the  result  is  the  same ;  first  of  all,  we  find  tentative  efforts  at  occu- 
pation of  the  opposite  shores.  Phcenicia  occupies  Carthage ;  Greece  colonises  Asia 
Minor ;  France,  Algiers  and  Tunis ;  and  Sweden,  Finland  and  Esthonia.  In  this 
way  permanent  lines  of  communication  are  slowly  developed,  though  the  mother 
country  for  a  long  period  remains  the  only  base.  Independent  commercial  and 
individual  life  on  the  part  of  the  colony  only  appears  as  a  third  step.  Both  the 
Carthaginians  and  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  surpassed  their  mother  countries  both 
in  the  extent  and  organisation  of  their  economic  development^ind  the  boldness  with 
which  they  carried  it  out. 

Applying  these  conclusions  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  prospects  before  the  Old 
World  seem  somewhat  doubtful ;  even  to-day  many  an  individual  might  find  good 
reason  for  characterising  the  once  boundless  ocean  as  a  future  mare  clausum,  access 
to  which  is  to  depend  upon  Yankee  favour.  In  any  case,  the  times  when  the  Euro- 
pean powers  could  rightly  regard  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  their  special  domain  by 
right  of  inheritance  are  past  for  ever.  Probably  after  the  opening  of  the  Central 
American  Canal,  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  countries  upon  its  shores  will  become 
more  prominent  than  hitherto  (Vol.  I,  p.  582) ;  however,  the  general  direction  of 
American  life  will  remain  as  before,  directed  towards  Europe  and  the  Atlantic 
Ocean. 

The  reasons  for  this  are  both  historical  and  geographical.  Historically  speak- 
ing, the  closest  national  and  political  relations  conjoin  both  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.  It  is  true  that,  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  rapid  growth  of  modern 
life,  the  dates  of  the  foundation  of  the  South  and  North  American  colonies  appear 


.T;l°e^li«r'™"]      HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  411 

considerably  remote.  None  the  less  Brazil  at  the  present  day  considers  herself  a 
daughter  of  Portugal,  and  the  united  provinces  of  Canada  recognise  their  origin  upon 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  In  his  dissertation,  "  The  Sea  as  a  Source  of  National 
Greatness  "  (1900),  Friedrich  Eatzel  shows  that  these  old  ties  of  relationship  tend 
to  reappear  with  renewed  force.  In  the  financial  year  1890-1891  two  and  four- 
tenths  per  cent  of  the  United  States  imports  went  through  New  Orleans,  sis  per 
cent  through  San  Francisco,  but  no  less  than  eighty-one  and  five-tenths  per  cent 
through  the  great  harbours  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  Moreover,  notwithstanding  the 
rapid  development  of  the  west,  the  most  populous  and  the  most  commercially 
powerful  colonies  and  states  of  North  America  are  to  be  found  on  the  Atlantic 
coast ;  the  great  towns,  the  most  important  centres  of  political  and  intellectual  life, 
are  also  situated  upon  the  shores  that  look  towards  Europe. 

The  indissoluble  character  of  these  historical  relations  is  reflected  almost  iden- 
tically in  the  geographical  conditions.  To  a  modern  steamship  even  the  great 
breadth  of  the  Pacific  is  but  a  comparative  trifle,  and  this  means  of  rapid  commu- 
nication is  proportionately  a  more  powerful  influence  in  the  narrower  seas.  It 
was  not  untQ  steam  navigation  had  been  developed  that  the  full  extent  of  the 
Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans  was  explored.  In  the  case  of  the  Atlantic  the  date  of 
exploration  is  much  more  remote,  but  this  ocean  has  profited  to  an  infinitely  greater 
extent  than  the  two  former  by  the  new  means  of  communication.  The  advantage 
of  friendly  shores  lying  beyond  its  harbours  favoured  extensive  sailing  voyages 
ever  since  1492,  and  this  advantage  natm-ally  exists  in  increased  extent  for  steam 
navigation.  The  general  shortness  of  the  lines  of  passage  is  more  than  a  mere 
geographical  phenomenon.  Politically  and  economically,  it  brings  the  countries 
and  continents  into  closer  relation.  England  and  North  America  are  not  only 
more  closely  related  anthropologically  and  ethnographically,  but  at  the  present 
day  they  carry  on  a  larger  interchange  of  commercial  products  than  any  other  two 
countries.  Improved  communication  between  the  harbours  of  these  two  countries 
is  certainly  not  the  ultimate  cause  of  the  two  phenomena  above  mentioned. 

(&)  The  Eastern  Coast.  —  Upon  the  west  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  the  achieve- 
ments of  technical  skill  in  steam  navigation,  together  with  the  political  and  eco- 
nomic advance  of  the  United  States,  has  increased  the  importance  of  this  sea  to 
an  unforeseen  extent ;  so,  too,  upon  the  east  the  achievement  of  connecting  the 
Mediterranean  and  Red  Sea,  and  the  political  progress  implied  in  the  rise  of  the 
German  Empire,  have  led  to  the  same  result.  To  the  southern  part  of  the  ocean  as 
a  whole  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  implied  at  first  some  loss ;  since  1870  the 
old  lines  of  steamship  traffic  from  Europe  to  India  and  the  Pacific,  by  way  of  the 
Cape,  have  been  deserted ;  sailing  lines  carrying  heavy  cargo  to  the  south  and  east- 
ern shores  of  Asia  and  the  steamship  lines  bringing  Europe  into  direct  communi- 
cation with  the  west  coast  of  Africa  have  remained.  Notwithstanding  the  rise 
of  a  commercial  movement  from  west  to  east  and  a  consequent  lessening  of  the 
importance  of  the  eastern  ocean,  the  Suez  Canal  may  in  a  certain  sense  be  regarded 
as  the  primary  cause  of  the  greater  value  which  has  been  recently  attached  to  the 
eastern  Atlantic  Ocean  and  its  shores.  The  opening  of  this  canal  (of  no  use  to 
sailing-ships)  through  the  old  isthmus  at  the  end  of  the  Eed  Sea  was  certainly  not 
the  first  and  only  cause  of  the  remarkable  sudden  rise  in  oceanic  communication, 
which  is  a  feature  as  distinctive  of  the  years  1870  to  1880,  as  is  the  decay  in  com- 


412  HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD  \_Chapter  V 

munication  by  sail  that  then  began ;  this  advance  in  transoceanic  communication  is 
much  rather  to  be  ascribed  to  progress  in  the  art  of  naval  construction.  The  fact, 
however,  remains  that  since  that  period  the  Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans,  which  had 
formerly  been  unknown  to  the  maritime  nations  of  Europe,  with  the  exception  of 
peoples  like  the  English  and  the  Dutch,  who  had  sailed  on  them  for  nearly  three 
centuries,  have  now  been  thrown  open  to  the  maritime  world  at  large ;  these 
powers  required  but  a  very  mild  stimulus  to  become  aspirants  for  colonial 
possessions  instead  of  desiring  merely  commercial  activity. 

This  impulse  is  now  visible  as  an  influence  affecting  every  district  of  the  world 
that  stO-l  awaits  division,  and  it  was  Germany  that  performed  the  historical  service 
of  giving  it ;  we  refer  not  to  the  old  "  geographical  idea,"  but  to  the  modern  imited 
empire  of  Germany,  which  has  realised  the  necessity  of  making  strenuous  efforts  if 
it  is  not  to  go  unprovided  for  in  the  general  division  of  the  world.  All  the  old  and 
new  colonial  powers  at  once  gathered  to  share  in  the  process  of  division,  so  far  as  it 
affected  the  islands  and  surrounding  countries  of  the  two  eastern  oceans,  —  a  fact 
that  proves  the  importance  of  the  new  line  of  communication  which  had  imme- 
diately given  an  increased  value  to  the  districts  in  question.  These  attractions  were 
nowhere  existent  in  the  case  of  the  west  coast  of  the  Dark  Continent,  which  has 
only  recently  been  opened,  and  perhaps  not  yet  entirely  to  commerce ;  they  would, 
no  doubt,  have  remained  unperceived  even  yet  had  it  not  been  for  the  surprising 
rapidity  with  which  Germany  established  herself  on  different  points  of  the  long 
shore  and  thereby  attracted  the  attention  of  others  to  that  locality.  So  quickly  did 
the  value  of  the  continent  rise  that  in  the  short  space  of  a  year  not  a  foot  of  the 
sandy  shore  remained  unclaimed.  Since  that  date,  almost  the  whole  of  the  inte- 
rior of  Africa,  which  had  remained  untouched  for  four  centuries,  has  been  divided 
among  the  representatives  of  modern  world  policy.  Owing  to  the  massive  con- 
figuration and  primeval  character  of  the  district,  the  greater  portion  of  its  history 
has  so  far  been  worked  out  within  the  continent  itself  behind  its  sandhills  and 
mangrove  forests ;  at  the  same  time,  this  discovery  of  modern  politics,  which  in 
our  own  day  implies  an  immediate  commercial  development,  has  again  made  the 
adjoining  area  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  a  prominent  factor  in  the  great  struggle  for 
the  commerce  of  the  world,  more  prominent,  indeed,  than  could  have  been  imagined 
two  decades  previously.  The  ocean,  though  it  has  ceased  to#provide  a  path  for 
commerce  from  west  to  east  upon  a  large  scale,  has  become  a  path  for  commercial 
intercourse  from  south  to  north  of  no  unimportant  character. 


4.   EETROSPECT 

The  examination  of  the  general  historic  importance  of  the  Pacific  and  Indian 
Oceans  implied  the  examination  of  vast  periods  of  history.  The  complexity  of  the 
conditions  prevailing  upon  the  Pacific  Ocean  made  it  necessary  for  us  to  devote 
attention  to  an  area  of  enormous  breadth.  For  the  Atlantic  Ocean  the  case  in  both 
respects  is  different ;  chronological  and  local  contraction  is  the  main  feature  of  its 
history.  It  was  not,  like  the  Pacific,  an  assistance  to  racial  formation  or  to  the 
fusions  and  interchanges  of  nationalities  that  took  place  on  the  east  and  north  of 
the  Indian  Ocean ;  imtil  modern  times  it  remained  as  a  gap  in  the  habitable  world. 
It  appears,  it  is  true,  thousands  of  years  previously  within  the  limits  of  well-attested 


.^IK^Lirr^'"""]     HISTORY   OF    THE   WORLD  413 

history,  but  as  an  area  hardly  sailed  upon,  illimitable  and  dreaded,  its  breadth 
almost  bare  of  islands,  early  peopled  with  fantastic  imaginings,  the  growing  num- 
ber and  popularity  of  which  plainly  show  the  sentiment  attached  to  it  for  many 
hundreds  of  years. 

The  conquest  of  the  ocean  was  successfully  carried  out  for  the  first  time  at  a 
point  where  geographical  configuration  favoured  the  passage,  while  also  demanding 
that  maritime  capacity  which  can  only  be  acquired  in  a  hard  school  of  training. 
Such  a  school  was  provided  for  nearly  a  century  by  the  Northern  Atlantic  Ocean 
for  those  nations  who  were  forced  to  stand  aside  even  after  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World,  and  the  clear  delineation  of  its  hydrographical  conditions,  by  two 
enthusiastic  and  highly  favoured  nations  of  the  south,  had  greatly  increased  the 
sphere  of  influence  of  the  white  races.  In  the  event  neither  enthusiasm  nor 
good  fortune  proved  decisive  for  the  attainment  of  success  in  this  labour;  the 
honour  due  to  the  final  conquerors  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  sea  in  general 
belongs  chiefly  to  the  English  nation,  which,  after  its  training  in  the  Arctic  school, 
made  self-interest  the  leading  motive  of  enterprise  in  every  case. 

The  predominance  over  the  Atlantic  Ocean  which  this  nation  has  rapidly 
acquired  can  no  more  be  maintained  at  the  present  day  than  its  domination  over 
any  other  sea.  Such  an  attempt  is  impossible  in  consequence  of  the  modern 
development  of  other  great  powers  on  the  sea  as  well  as  on  land,  and  also  because 
of  the  ominous  neighbourhood  of  the  United  States.  The  recent  American  enter- 
prises beyond  the  sea,  based  as  they  are  upon  a  brilliant  course  of  development, 
have  deprived  the  Atlantic  Ocean  of  its  Old  World  character  as  a  boundary  sea  or 
oneanus  ;  at  the  present  day  it  is  a  Mediterranean  dividing  the  two  worlds.  In  the 
Old  World,  the  narrow  area  of  the  European- African  Mediterranean  once  gathered 
the  material  and  intellectual  wealth  of  antiquity  upon  its  shores,  and  became  the 
nurse  of  widely  differentiated  civilizations  ;  so  at  the  present  day  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
especially  on  its  northern  shores,  has  become  the  intermediary  of  our  civilization, 
which  embraces  the  world.  This  ocean  is  now  the  permanent  means  of  communica- 
tion between  the  two  great  centres  of  civilization,  and  the  promoter  of  every 
advance  in  culture.  We  ask  whether  this,  its  character,  is  to  be  permanent  ?  The 
value  of  the  Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans,  of  the  Baltic  and  Mediterranean,  to  human- 
ity in  the  past  can  be  traced  without  difficulty,  while  their  value  at  the  present 
moment  is  clearly  apparent,  but  what  their  influence  will  be  upon  humanity  here- 
after, how  their  relations  may  be  adjusted  with  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  their  latest  and 
most  successful  rival,  only  time  can  show. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abba  Garima,  3S3 

Abbas  II,  Hilmi,  viceroy  of 
Egypt,  376 

Abd-el-Kader,  176 

Abdul  Hamid  II,  380 

Abdul  Medjid,  244 

AbduUahi,  Khalifa,  376 

Abeken,  Heinrich,  331,  332 

Abel,  Karl  von,  181 

Aboukir,  29,  42 

Aboukir,  bay  of,  28,  29 

Abrant^s,  duke  of.  See  Junot, 
49 

Abyssinia,  321-323,  383 

Acarnia,  153 

Addington,  Henry,  viscount 
Sidmouth,  34,  38,  95 

Adelaide,  Madame,  129 

Adolph,  grand  duke  of  Luxem- 
burg, duke  of  Nassau,  309, 
387 

Adrianople,  Peace  of,  128 

Affre,  Denis  Auguste,  214 

Afghanistan,  93 

Africa,  East:  German,  364 

Africa,  South,  375,  376 

Africa,  Southwest,  German,  364 

Agnozzi,  G.  B.,  384 

Agricola,  Cnaeus  Julius,  395 

Aguinaldo,  Emilio,  382 

Aix,  23 

Aix-la-ChapeUe,  Congress  of,  85, 
107,  108 

Ajaccio,  24,  25 

Albani,  cardinal,  149 

Albanians,  154 

Albert,  archduke  of  Austria,  183, 
196,  303,  328 

Albert,  prince  of  Prussia,  372 

Albert  I,  king  of  Saxony,  315, 
339,  340,  370,  372 

Albert,  prince-consort,  280 

Albrecht,  AVilhelm  Ed.,  151 

Alessandria,  32 

Alexander,  prince  of  Hesse,  303 

Alexander,  crown  prince  of  the 
Netherlands,  387 

Alexander  I,  czar  of  Russia,  33- 
34,  37,  41,  42,  46-48,  51,  53, 
55-61,  66-67,  69-71,  73,  75, 
78,  81,  86,  87,  95,  107,  109, 
117,  126,  135,  147,  167  ; 

Alexander  II,  czar  of  Russia,  246 

247,  272,  312,  314,  342 
Alexandria,  28,  30,  376 
VOL.  vin.  —  27 


Alfieri,  Vittorio,  170 

Alfonso  XII,  king  of  Spain,  381 

Alfonso  XIII,  king  of  Spain,  381 

Algiers,  49,  130,  176 

Ali  Pasha  of  Janina,  119 

"AUiance    of    the    four   kings," 

231 
Alma,  battle  of,  245 
Alps,  Maritime,  77 
Alsace,  9,  84,  305,  337,  342,  353 
Alsace-Lorraine,  371,  372,  380 
Altenstein,  Karl  zum,  54,  99, 102, 

103,  157 
Alvensleben,     Constantin     von, 

339 
Alvensleben,  Gustav  von,  340 
Amadeus,  king  of  Spain,  380 
America,  399-411 
American  Revolution,  406,  407 
Americans,  409 
Amiens,  33,  348 
Ancients,  council  of,  24 
Ancillon,    J.   P.    Friedrich,   101, 

109 
Anokarstrom,  14 
Ancona,  26,  196,  382 
Andrassy,  Julius,  318,  319 
Anethan,  J.  J.  d',  385 
Angouleme,   duchess  of,  78,  138 
Angoul^me,  duke  of,  69, 122, 123, 

131,  140,  142,  170 
An  halt-Dessau,  59 
Anhalt-Kothen,  113 
Annobom,  Island  of,  381 
Ansbach,  42 
Anselme,  16 
Anstett,  Johann   Profasius  von, 

62 
Anti-Semitism,  144 
AntilUa,  Island  of,  396 
Anton,  archduke  of  Austria,  42 
Anton,  prince  of  HohenzoUem, 

274 
Anton,  king  of  Saxony,  105,  152 
Antonelli,  Giacomo,  271,  327 
Antraigues,  Emmanuel  L.  H.  de 

Launey  de,  6 
Antwerp,  65,  67 
Aquila,    count   of.     See   Louis, 

count  of  Aquila 
Arabi  Pasha,  376 
Arad,  205 
Arago,      Dominique      Frangois, 

214 
Arago,  Etienne,  129 


Aragon,  6 

Araktcheieff,  109 

Aranda,  Pedro  Abaroay  Bolea, 
48 

"Arcadians"  313 

Arcis-sur-Aube,  69 

Arenburg,  House  of,  103 

Armenia,  127 

Arndt,  Ernst  Moritz,  45,  57,  107, 
111,  112,  113,  256 

Arnim,  Achim  von,  89,  91 

Arnim,  Heinrich  Alexander  von, 
185 

Arnim-Boitzenburg,  Adolf  Hein- 
rich von,  173 

Arnoldi,  Wilhelm,  157 

Arras,  15 

Arysch,  El,  29 

Aschaffenburg,  81,  303 

Aspern-Essling,  52 

Aspromonte,  battle  of,  271 

Assab,  383 

Astor,  J.  J.,  382 

Athens,  126 

Atlantic  Ocean,  388-413 

"Atlantis,"  393,  395 

Auber,  D.  F.  E..  145 

Auersperg,  Adolph,  373 

Auersperg,  Carlos,  320 

Auersperg,  Karl  Joseph  von,  204 

Auerstadt,  45 

Auerswald,  Alfred  von,  175,  185 

Auerswald,  Hans  Adolf  Erd- 
mann  von,  224,  225 

Augereau,  Pierre  Francois,  69, 
71,  77 

Augusta,  electress  of  Hesse,  151 

Augustenburg,  House  of,  208, 
287 

Augustus,  prince  of  Arenberg,  9, 
55 

Augustus,  prince  of  Wurtem- 
berg,  299,  339 

Aumale,  duke  of,  176 

Aurelle  de  Paladines,  L.  J.  B.  d', 
347 

Austerlitz,  41-44,  47 

Australia,  408 

Austria,  14,  17,  22,  26,  27,  29,  32, 
37,  39,  40,  42,  43,  46,  51-53,  56, 
58,  61-63,  68,  71-77,  79-81, 
84,  85,  96-98,  136,  162,  166- 
168,  182-184,  188-207,  226- 
227,  237-238,  241,  247-254, 
2S'lh-292,  294,  295,  299,  303, 


418 


HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD 


Index 


304,  313,  318,  320,  321,  325, 

326,  328,   329,  335,  343,  347, 

373-375,  383 
Austria-Hungary.     See  Austria 

and  see  Hungary 
Austro-Prussian  War,  292-305 
Autun,  12 
Auxonne,  25,  39 
Avignon,  25,  26,  59,  76,  87 
Azeglio,  Massimo  d',  258 
Azores,  76 

Baader,  Fr.  X.  VON,  87 
Babeuf,  27 

Bach,  Alexander,  199,  203,  237 
Bacska,  district  of,  201 
Badajoz,  33,  65 

Baden,  26,  37,  42,  43,  80,  103, 
110,  152,   181,  189,  229,  305, 
312,  314,  315,  317,  328,  370, 
371 
Baden  Palatinate,  103,  107 
Badeni,  Kasimir  Felix,  373,  374 
Bagration,  Peter,  42,  57 
Bailly,  8,  13 
Bakunin,  Michael,  211 
Balaclava,  battle  of,  245 
Balbo,  Cesare,  258 
Balboa,  Nuilez  de,  399 
Balkan  states,  47,  144 
Baltic  Sea,  300,  392,  397,  401, 

404 
Bamberger,  Leopold,  350 
Bapaume,  349 
Bar-sur-Aube,  69 
Baratieri,  Oreste,  383 
Barbary  States,  29,  34,  95 
Barb^s,  Armand,  129,  177 
Barclay  de  Tolly,  Michael,  61 
Bar^re,  17,  18,  20,  21 
Barnave,  9 
Barras,  Jean  Fran5ois,  18,  22,  25, 

29,  30,  31,  74 
Barrot,   Odilon,    128,   178,   179, 

215,  216 
Bartenstein,  46 
Barth^lemy,  Frangois  de,  27 
Bas,  Karl  du,  153 
Basel-Land,  384 
Basle,  23 
Basques,  169 
Basques,  Roads  of,  84 
Bastille,  the,  8 
Batavian      Republic.       See 

Netherlands 
Batthyany,   Ludwig,    184,   201, 

202,  203 
Bautzen,  battle  of,  61 
Bavaria,  17,  22,  29,  32-34, 37,  42, 

43,  53,  62,  75,  76,  80,  81,  106, 

110,  156,  181,  292,  293,  295, 

305,  312,  315,  317,  334,  351, 

356 
Bavarian  Palatinate,  152 
Bay,  Nikolaus,  284,  285 
Baylen,  50 
Bayonne,  49,  62,  69 
Bazaine,  313,  336,  338-340,  343, 

346 


Beaconsfield,  lord,  321,  322 

Beaucaire,  25 

Beauharnais,  Eugene  de,  41,  49, 

59,  60,  65,  68,  79,  80,  170 
Beauharnais,  Hortense  de,  74,  84 
Bebel,  August,  310,  361 
Beck,  Friedrich  von,  300 
Becker,  Nikolaus,  166 
Beckerath,   Hermann  von,   175, 

223 
Belcredi,  Richard,  291,  319 
Belfort,  352 

Belgium,  6,  14,  16,  17,  22,  27,  30, 
35,  82,  84,  138,  145,  146,  260, 
312,  325,  38,5-386 
Bell,  Henry,  93 
Bellegarde,  Henri  de,  65 
Bem,  Joseph,  206 
Benedek,  Ludwig  von,  252,  296- 

303 
Benedetti,  Vincent,     265,     302, 

305,  312,  331-334 
Bennigsen,  I^evin  August  Theo- 

phil,  46,  47 
Bennigsen,  Rudolf  von,  275,  311, 

312,  368 
Benningsen.     See  Bennigsen 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  74 
Bentinck,  Lord  William  Charles 

Cavendish,  68,  116 
Benzenberg,   Johann    Friedrich, 

113 
Beranger,  Pierre  Jean  de,  73,  74, 

85,  128,  137  _ 
Beresford,  William  Carr,  69,  115 
Bereszowski,  Anton,  314 
Berg,  grand  duchy  of,  65 
Beriin,  22,  42,  56,  59,  62,  64,  70 
Bemadotte.     See  Charles  XIV, 
John,    king    of    Sweden    and 
Norway 
Berne,  28,  384 
Bernhard,  duke  of  Saxe-Meinin- 

gen,  308 
Bernstein,  Eduard,  363 
Bemstorff,  Albrecht  von,  280 
Bernstorff,    Gtlnther    von,     117 

122 
Berry,  duchess  of,  142 
Berry,  duke  of  69,  78,  84,  110 
Berryer,  Pierre  Antoine,  130 
Berthier,  Alexandre  Pierre,  28, 

32,  72 
Bertrand,  Henri  Gratien,  46,  63 
Beseler,  Wilhelm  Hartwig,  210 
Bessarabia,  56 
Bessiferes,  George,  122 
Beugnot,  Jacques  Claude,  73 
Beust,  Friedrich  Ferdinand,  231, 
312,  314,  318,  319-321,  325, 
326,  335,  343 
Beyer,  Gustav  Friedrich  von,  296 
Beyers,  377 

Beyme,  Kari  Friedrich,  103,  112 
Bialolenku,  battle  of,  148 
Bialystock,  province  of,  47 
Bidassoa,  122 

Bieberstein,  Ernst  von,  107 
Biegeleben,  Ludwig  von,  290 


Bienvenida,  114 
Bilbao,  169 

Billaud-Varennes,  20,  21 
Birmingham,  94 
Bischofsheim,  303 
Bismarck,  107,    235,    245,    248, 
252,  253,  272,  274,  279,  281- 
283,    290-295,    303-305,   307, 
308,  310-314,  316,  317,  330- 
332,  334,  341,  343,  344,  349- 
351,  353-355,   360,  362,  363, 
367,  371 
Bismarck  Archipelago,  364 
Bissen,  count,  52 
Blacas,  Pierre  Louis  Jean  Casimir 

de,  74,  77,  83 
Black  Sea,  246 
Blanc;  Louis,  178,  179,  214 
Blanqui,  Louis,  129,  177,  214 
Blittersdorf,  Fr.  L.  R.  von,   186 
Bloemfontein,  377 
Blois,  70 

Blucher,  60-63,  65-70,  82-84 
Blum,  Robert,  187,  205,  222 
Blumenau,  304 
Blumenthal,  Leonhard  von,  298, 

300,  349 
Bluntschli,  Johann  Kaspar,  173 
Bocche  di  Cattaro,  47 
Bodelschwing,  Ernst  von,  174 
Bohemia,  52,  164,  292,  295-297, 

320 
Boisser^e,  Melchior,  91 
Boisser^e,  Sulpice,  91 
Boissy   d'Anglas,    Francois   An- 
toine de,  24,  25 
Bologna,  26,  150,  196 
Bonald,  vicomte  de,  92 
Bonaparte,  Carlo  Maria,  24 
Bonaparte,  Caroline,  68 
Bonaparte,  Charlotte,  49 
Bonaparte,  EUza,  41,  68 
Bonaparte   Jerome,  39,   47,  48, 

52,  55,  64,  82 

Bonaparte,   Joseph,  31,  39,  41, 

43,  47,  49-51,  54,  55,  61,  68, 

9,  82-84,  114 

Bonaparte,  Letitia,  24,  39,  72,  87 

Bonaparte,  Louis,  39,  41,  47,  54, 

70 
Bonaparte,  Louis  Napoleon.  See 

Napoleon  III 
Bonaparte,  Lucien,  31, 33,  39,  73, 

80,  82,  83,  84 
Bonaparte,     Napoleon    Jerome. 

See  Napoleon,  prince 
Bonaparte,  PauUne,  38,  43,  72 
Bonapartists,  137,  143,  343 
Bonin,  Adolf  von,  298,  301 
Bonin,  Eduard  von,  209,  276 
Bonn,  University  of,  102 
Bopp,  Franz,  90 
Bordeaux,  17,  69,  78,  218 
Bordeaux,  duke  of.     See  Cham- 

BORD,  count  of 
Bordone,    Philippe  Toussaint 

Joseph,  348 
Borne,  Ludwig,  112,  153 
Borodino,  57 


Index 


HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD 


419 


Borries,  Otto,  284 

Borrosoh,  204 

Bosco,  general,  256 

Bosnia,  373 

Bossuet,  3 

Botha,  Christian,  377 

Botha,  Louis,  377 

Boulanger,  379,  380 

Boulogne,  38 

Bourbaki,  Charles,  348,  352 

Bourbons,  13,  21,  39,  43,  49,  69, 

70,  72,  74,  79,  86,  135-143 
Bourdaloue,  3 
Bourges,  19 
Bourges,  Court  of,  214 
Bourmont,  Louis  Auguste  Victor, 

130 
Bov,  battle  of,  209 
"Boxers,"  365 
Boyen,  Hermann  von,  100,  101, 

102,  112 
Brandan,  St.,  395,  396 
Brandenburg,  Friedrioh  Wilhelnn 

von,  225,  234 
Brandt,  Heinrioh  von,  213 
Brauer,  Arthur,  370 
Braun,  Alexander  Karl  Hermann, 

187 
Bray-Steinburg,  Otto  von,  329, 

351 
Brazil,  49,  115,   123,   124,   393, 

397,  401,  405,  411 
Bredow,   Adalbert  von,  339 
Breisgau,  103 
Bremen,  65,  105 
Brentano,  Clemens,  89  91 
Bresci,  Gaetano,  383 
Brescia,  196 
Breslau,  59,  60 
Briganti,  Fileno,  268 
Brissot,  13 
Bristol,  396 
Brittany,  3,  17,  27 
Brofferio,  Angelo,  262 
Broglie,  Achille  Charles  Leonce 

,  Victor  de,  129,  177 
Broglie,  Victor  Frangcis  de,  8 
Bronzell,  235 
Brougham,  lord,  96 
Bruck,  Karl  Ludwig  von,  98, 237, 

238 
Bruhe,  190 
Brune,  28,  30,  87 
Briinn,  42 

Brunswick,  150,  163,  372 
Brussels,  22,  385 
Bubna,  Ferdinand,  general,  60, 

61,69 
Bucharest,  56,  119 
Bucher,  Lothar,  330 
Buenos  Aires,  123 
Buffet,  Louis  Joseph,  326 
Bugeaud,  Thomas,  177 
BuUer,  Sir  Redvers  Henry,  377 
Bulow,  Bernhard  von,  355 
Billow,  Friederich  Wilhelm  von, 

60-62,  64,  68 
Biilow,  L.  F.  V.  H.  von,  100, 102, 

165 


Bunsen,  Christian  Karl  Josias 
von,  99,  157,  239,  241 

Buo!l-S.chauenstein,  Johann 
Rudolf  von,  104 

Buol-Schauenstein,  Karl  Ferdi- 
nand, 244,  245,  246,  284 

Burgos,  50 

Burgundy,  9,  84 

Burmah,  93 

Burns,  Robert,  91 

"Burschenschaft,"  108 

Busaoo,  65 

Buxhowden,  Friedrich  Wilhelm 
von,  48 

Buxton,  Thomas  Howell,  93 

Buzenval,  352 

Byron,  125,  126 

Byzantine  Empire,  28 

Cabet,  IStienne,  160,  214 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  391 

Cabrera,  Ramon,  169 

Cadiz,  50,  114,  123,  396 

Cadoudal,  Georges,  38,  39 

Caesar,  JuUus,  394 

Caillard,  L6once  Albert,  380 

Cairo,  28,  29 

Calabria,  81 

Calatafimi,  battle  of,  267 

Calatrava,  Jose  Maria,  169 

Calderari,  116 

Calonne,  Marquis  de,  5 

Cambac^rfis,  Jean  Jacques  Regis 

de,  25,  31,  35,  36,  68 
Cambrai,  proclamation  of,  83 
Cameroons,  364 
Campbell,  Neil,  76 
Camphausen,  Ludolf,  175 
Camphausen,  Otto,  317 
Campo  Formio,  27,  40 
Canary  Islands,  381,  394,  398 
Canning,  George,   48,   108,   122, 

125,  126,  127" 
Canrobert,  Frangois  Certain,  339 
Cape  Colony,  93,  377 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  405,  408 
Cape  Sao  Vicente,  battle  of,  168 
Capodistrias,  Augustine,  154 
Capodistrias,  Joannes,   108,  112, 

117,  120,  128,  154 
Caprivi,  Leo  von,  355,  356 
Caraman,  Victor  Louis  de,  122 
Carbonari,    116,    146,    149,    171, 

257 
Carignan,  House  of,  191 
Carinthia,  164 
Carlists,  241,  381 
Carlo,  Luigi,   261 
Carlos,  Don,  168,  169 
Carlos,  Don,  duke  of  Madrid,  381 
Carlotta,  empress  of  Mexico,  313 
Carlsbad    conferences,    88,    105, 

110-114 
Carnegie,  Andrew,  382 
Carnot,  Frangois  Sadi,  379 
Carnot.     I^azare     Nicolas    Mar- 
guerite, 20,  21,  25-27,  29,  36, 

39,  65,  74,  83 
Caroline  of  Brunswick,  96,  125 


Caroline  Islands,  364,  381 
Carra,  Jean  Louis,  6,  11 
Carrel,  Armand,  178 
Carrier,  18 
Carthage,  38,  394 
Carthaginians,  393 
Casimir-P<"rier,  J.  P.  P.,  379 
Cassano,  30 
Cassel,  63,  64 
Castelar,  Emilio,  381 
Castile,  Old,  169 
Castlereagh,  Robert  Stewart,  67 

75,  80,  93,  95,  108,  109,  121 
Catalonia,    1 69 
Catharine    of     Braganza,   queen 

consort  of  Charles  II,  406 
Catharine  II,  empress  of  Russia, 

12,  22,  27 
Catholics,    Germany,    358,    359, 

360,  361 
Caulaincourt,  Armand  Augustin 

Louis,  duke  of  Vicenza,  48,  61, 

66,  68,  69,  71,  72 
Cavaignac,   Louis  Eugene,  214, 

215,  219 
Cavendish,  Sir  Thomas,  404 
Cavour,  Camillo  Benso  di,  171, 

249,  250,  253,  258,  260,  262, 

263-266,  267,  268,  269,  270, 

295,  382 
Cayenne,  27 
Central  America,  406 
Central  German  Union,  163 
Cetewayo,  376 
Ceylon,  93 
Chalons,  338,  340 
Chamberlain,  Joseph,  375-377 
Chambord,   count  of,   118,   132, 

140,  142,  379 
Chamisso,  Adelbert  von,  91 
Champaubert,  battle  of,  68 
Champigny,  347 
Championnet,  Jean  Etienne,  29 
Chanzy,  352 
Changarnier,  Nicolas  A.  T.,  180, 

219 
Chantelauze,   Jean  Claude  Bal- 
thazar Victor  de,  130 
Chanzy,  Antoine  Eugene  Alfred, 

348 
Chaptal,  Jean  Antoine,  43 
Charlemagne,  5,  44,  45,  49,  52, 

397 
Charieroi,  83,  385 
Charles,  archduke  of  Austria,  41, 

50,  52,  98,  167 
Charles,    grand  duke  of  Baden, 

107 
Charles,  prince  of  Bavaria,  303 
Charles   11,  duke  of  Brunswick, 

105,  150 
Charles  II,  king  of  England,  406 
Charles  X,  king  of  France,  8,  69, 

73,  77,  84,  86,  124,  128,  129, 

130,  131,  137-142,  158 
Charles,   duke   of   Mecklenburg- 

Strelitz.  100 
Charles  I,  king  of  Roumania,  272 
Charles  III,  king  of  Spain,  48 


420 


HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD 


Index 


Charles  IV,  king  of  Spain,  17,  33, 

49 
Charles  XIII,  king  of  Sweden,  55 
Charles    XIV,    John,    king    of 

Sweden  and  Norway,  42,  55, 

56,  60,  61,  63,  67 
Charles  I,  king  of  Wurtemberg, 

314,  329,  334,  350,  370 
Charles  Albert,  king  of  Sardinia, 

115,  118,  171,  192-195,  259 
Charles  Alexander,  grand  duke 

of  Saxe-Weimar-Eisenaoh,  372 
Charles  Anton,  prince  of  Hohen- 

zollern,  329,  330 
Charles  Emmanuel  IV,  king  of 

Sardinia,  29 
Charles  Augustus,   grand    duke 

of    Saxe-Weimar,     104,     108, 

110 
Charles  Fehx,  king  of  Sardinia, 

115,  118 
Charles  Louis  Frederick,  grand 

duke  of  Baden,  64,  80,  84 
Charles  William  Ferdinand,  duke 

of  Brunswick,  14,  15,  22 
Charlotte,     princess     of     Great 

Britain,  96 
Qharlotte,  queen  of  Portugal,  123 
Charlottenburg,  45,  46 
Chartres,  6 
Chartres,   duke   of.     See   Louis 

Philippe,  king  of  the  French 
Chateau-Thierry,  battle  of.  68 
Chateaubriand,    Frangois    Rene 

de,  70,  71,  79,  91,  92,  122,  124, 

128,  141 
Chateaudun,  346 
Chatillon,  68 

Chaumette,  Pierre  Gaspard,  19 
Chaumont,  treaty  of,  76,  79,  85, 

88 
Chauvinist  Party,  323 
Chelmsford,  lord,  376 
Cherbourg,  5 

Chernyscheff,  Alexander,  63 
Chevandier   de    Valdrome,  Jean 

P.  N.  E.,  326 
China,  364,  365 
Chios,  121 

Chlopicki,  Joseph,  148 
Chlum,  301 
Chouans,  the,  23,  32 
Christian,  duke  of  Augustenburg, 

208,  239,  287  _ 
Christian  VII,  king  of  Denmark, 

17,  33 
Christian  VIII,  king  of  Denmark 

208 
Christian  IX,  king  of  Denmark, 

208,  239 
Christian  August,  duke  of  Augus- 
tenburg, 290 
Chrzanowski,  Adalbert,  195 
Cialdini,  Enrico,  269 
Cintra,  50 

Cisalpine  Republic,  26-28,  36 
Cispadane  Republic,  26 
Ciudad  Rodrigo,  65 
Civita  Vecchia,  217 


Clam-Gallas,   Eduard  von,  251, 

297-299 
Clarke,  Henri  Jacques  GuiUaume. 

See  Fbltre 
Clarkson,  Thomas,  93 
Clary,  Desir^e,  60 
Clinchant,  Justin,  353 
Clive,  lord,  33 
Clootz,  Anacharsis,  11,  19 
Clotilde,  princess,  250 
Cobbett,  William,  95 
Cobenzl,    Ludwig   von,   32,   40, 

41 
Coblenz,  15,  16,  67 
Coburg,  prince  of,  22 
Cockery,  L.,  331 
Code  Napoleon,  35,  100 
Coteus,  394 
Colbert,  5 

CoUey,  Sir  George,  376 
CoUot  d'Herbois,  Jean  Marie,  20 
Colmar,  371 
Cologne,  157 
Columbia,  123 

Columbus,  396,  398,  399,  401 
Commune,  378 
Conciergerie,  the,  18 
Concordat,  1802,  34,  74 
Concordat,  1855,  320 
Conde,  prince  of,  4 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  44, 

45 
Congo,  386 
Conneau,  Henri,  176 
Consalvi,  cardinal,  34,  40,  85,  99, 

116,  149,  156 
Constans,  379 
Constant,    Benjamin,  74,  78,  79, 

86,  90 
Constantin,  Barth^lemy  Prosper, 

150 
Constantine,     grand     duke     of 

Russia,  70,  127,  147 
Constantinople,  47,  51 
Cook,  James,  93 
Copenhagen,  48 
Coppet,  8 

Corday,  Charlotte,  17 
Cordehers  Club,  11,  14,  15 
Corea,  364,  365 
Cormenin,  Louis  Marie,  31 
Cornelius,  Peter,  91 
Comwallis,  Lord,  33 
Corsica,  24,  25 
Cosmas  Indikopleu.stes,  395 
Cotta,  Johann  Friedrich  von,  163 
Cottbus,  47 
Coulmiers,  347 
"Counts'  Ministrv,"  291 
Couthon,  18,  20-22 
Cracow,  81,  149 
Crailsheim,  369 
Craonne,  69 
Cramer,  Camille,  348 
Cr(5mieux,  Isak,  179,  34 
Crete,  126 

Crimean  War,  243-247 
Crispi,  Francesco,  266,  383 
Croatia,  201,  202,  211,  319 


Croats,  319 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  405 

Cronje,  Piet,  377 

Crouzat,  Jean  Constant,  347 

Cuba,  381,  405 

Culoz,  194 

Cuneo,  258 

Cusa,  Alexander,  249,  272 

Custine,  4,  15 

"Customs  Parliament,"  316 

Customs    union,    German.     See 

"Zollverein" 
Custozza,  battle  of,  195,  302 
Czartoryiski,  Adam  Georg,   42, 

148 
Czechs,  188,  320 
Czersky,  Johann,  157 
Czolgosz,  Leon,  382 

Dabormida,  Giuseppe,  261,  264 
Dahlmann,  Friedrich  Christoph, 

90,  93,  112,  151,  222,  224,  228, 

229 
Dahomey,  380 
Dalberg,  Emeric  Joseph,  duke  of, 

77 
Dalberg,  Karl  Theodor  von,  37, 

44,  55,  64 
Dalwigk,   Karl   Friedrich  Rein- 
hard  von,  350 
Damas,  124 
Damesne,  Ed.  Ad.,  214 
Dandr6,       Antoine       Balthasar 

Joseph,  74 
Danewerk,  289 
Danton,  11,  13,  15,  17-20 
Dantsic,  46,  47 

Danubian  principalities,  51,  245 
Darboy,  Georges,  335,  378 
Dam,  Napoleon,  326,  327 
Dauphin^,  6 

David,  Jacques  Louis,  21 
Davoust,  Louis  Nicolas,  61,  62, 

83,  84 
Davout.     See  Davoust 
Deak,  Franz  von,  168,  184,  201, 

28^318 
Debreczin,  206 
Decabrists,  127 
Decazes,  Ehe  de,  87,  109,  110 
Declaration    of     Independence, 

406,  407 
Delarey,  377 
Delbriick,  Hans,  332 
Delbruck,  Rudolf,  350,  368 
Delhi,  93 
Dembinski,  Henryk,     148,    206, 

207 
Denmark,  232,  286-289,  290 
Dennewitz,  32,  62,  67,  84,  408 
Depretis,  Agostino,  268 
Derby,  earl,  321 
Dershawin,  Gawril  R.,  91 
Desanoti,  Luigi,  158 
DesSze,  Romain,  16 
DesmouUns,   Camille,  8,  11,  19, 

20 
Dessoles,  109,  110 
Dewey,  George,  381 


Index 


]' 


HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD 


421 


Dhamala,  national  assembly  of, 

127 
Diebitsch,  Ivan,  128 
Diebitsch-SabaUsanski,  Hans 

Karl,  58,  148 
Diedenhofen,  344 
Diest-Daber,  Gustav  von,  360 
Dijon,  348,  352 
Dino,  duchess  of,  70 
Disraeli,    Benjamin.     See    Bea- 

CONSFIELD,  LOHD 

Doblhoff,  Anton  von,  199 
Doggenfeld,  Anton  Vetter  von, 

206 
Dohna,  Alexander  zu,  59 
Doll,  190 
DoUinger,  Johann  Joseph  Ignaz, 

222,  359 
Domen-Ferrata,    papal    nuncio, 

385 
Donaueschingen,  190 
Donhoff,  Sophie  Juliane  Friede- 

rike,  225 
Doria,  Teodosio,  398 
Dossenbach,  190 
Douay,  Abel,  337 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  404 
Dresden,  56,  60,  61,  63 
Dresden  conferences,  238 
Dreyfus,  Alfred,  379 
Droste-Vischering,   Klemens 

August  von,  157 
Drouyn  de  I'Huys,  Edouard,  216, 

302,  305 
Drusus,  394 
Dubarry,  countess,  21 
Duchatel,  Charles  Marie  Tanne- 

guy  de,  178 
Duckwitz,  Arnold,  223 
Ducos,  Pierre  Roger,  31 
Ducrot,  347 

Dufour,  William  Henry,  172 
Dumouriez,  general,  14,  16,  17, 

140 
Dunin,  Martin  von,  157 
Dunkirk,  17 
Dupauloup,  Fehx  Antoine  Phili- 

pert,  335 
Dupin,  Andrd  M.  J.  J.,  the  elder, 

128 
Dupont,  19 

Dupont  de  I'Etang,  Pierre,  50 
Diippel,  battle  of,  289 
Durando,  Giacomo,  193,  194 
Duroc,  Michel,  45 
Duruy,  Victor,  323 
Dusch,  Alexander,  371 
Dusseldorf,  26 
Dutch  West  Indian  Co.,  415 
Duyn,  Van  der,  65 

ECKERNFORDE,  BatTLE  OF,  209 

£cole  Normale,  323 

Edict  of  Nantes,  3 

Edward  VII,  king  of  England, 

377,  378 
Eggmiihl,      prince      of.         See 

Davoust 


Egypt,  28-30,  32,  33,  46,  86, 
376 

Eichhorn,  Joh.  A.  F.,  241 

Eichhorn,  Johann  Friedrich,  113 

Eichhorn,  Karl  Friedrich,  89 

"Eider  Danes,"  208,  287 

Einbeok  convention,  163 

Einsiedel,  Detlev  von,  105 

Eisenach,  296 

Elba,  33,  72,  76,  77 

Elchingen,  duke  of.     See  Ney 

Elizabeth,  Madame,  14,  21 

Elizabeth,  queen  of  England,  404 

Embabeh,  28 

Ems,  332 

Engel,  Friedrich,  160 

Engels,  Friedrich,  361 

Enghien,  duke  of,  38-40,  48 

England,  1,  4,  10,  12,  16,  17,  22, 
28-29,  32,33,  38,  40-49,  53,56, 
61,  62,  67,  77-80,  84,  85,  92- 
96,  125-126,  224,  243-246,  248 
321,  323,  334,  343,  347,  364, 
375-378,  402-408,  411 

Entraigues,  E.  L.  H.  de  Launey 
d'.  See  Antraiqubs,  Emman- 
uel L.  H.  DE  Launey  d' 

Eovos,  Josef  von,  184 

Epinal,  67 

Epirus,  153 

Erfurt,  34,  51,  55,  64,  71 

Ernest  II,  duke  of  Saxe-Coburg 
and  Gotha,  372 

Ernest  III,  duke  of  Saxe-Coburg, 
17 

Ernest  August,  duke  of  Cumber- 
land, 308,  372 

Ernest  August,  king  of  Hanover, 
151,  186 

Espartero,  Baldomero,  169 

Esquimaux,  390 

Esterhazy,  Moritz,  291 

Esterhazy,  Paul,  184 

Etoges,  battle  of,  68 

Etruria,  48 

Ettenheim,   39 

Eudoxos  of  Cyzicus,  393 

Eugenie,  empress  of  the  French, 
243,  333,  342,  346 

Eulenburg,  Friedrich   zu,  366 

Euthymenes,  393 

Ewald,  Heinrich,  151 

Eylau,  46 

Fabrice,  Georg    Friedrich 

Alfred  von,  315 
Faenza,  149 
Faidherbe,    Louis    L^on    C^sar, 

348,  349 
Failly,     Pierre     Louis     Charles 

Achille  de,  general,  324,  340 
Falckenstein,  Eduard  Vogel  von. 

See  Vogel  von  Falckenstein 
Falk,  Adalbert,  358,  360,  367 
Falkland  Islands,  408 
Farini,  Luigi,  263,  269 
Faroe  Islands,  388 
Farre,  Jean  Joseph,  348 
Fashoda,  376,  380 


Faure,  F^lix,  379 
Favras,  Marquis  de,  11 
Favre,  Jules,  342,  344,  354,  378 
Feltre,   H.   J.'  Clarke,    duke  of, 

77,78 
F^nelon,  3 
Fenians,  322 
Ferdinand  I,  emperor  of  Austria, 

167,  183,  189,  199,  200,  205 
Ferdinand  II,  king  of  Naples,  266 
Ferdinand   IV,   kirg  of  Naples. 

See  Ferdinand  1,  king  ol  the 

Two  Sicilies 
Ferdinand  II,  king  of  Portugal, 

329 
Ferdinand   I,   king  of  the  Two 

Sicilies,  17,33,  116,  117 
Ferdinand  VII,  king  of  Spain,  49 

50,  62,  66,  91,  114,  121,  122, 

169 
Ferdinand    III,    grand  duke  of 

Tuscany,  115 
Fernando  Po,  Island  of,  381 
Ferrara,  26,  150,  171 
Ferretti,  Mastai.     See  Pirs  IX, 

pope 
Ferry,  Jules,  380 
Fesch,  Joseph,  cardinal,  40,  S3, 80 
Festetics,  Thassilo,  301 
Fichte,  Johann  Gottlieb,  45,  108 
Fickler,    Joseph,  190 
Fieschi,  Joseph,  177 
Finck  von   Finckenstein,   Eein- 

hold,   300 
Finkenstein,  46 
Finland,  47,  48 

Ficquelmont,  Karl  Ludwig,  199 
Fischhof,  204 

Five  Hundred,  council  of,  24,  31 
Flahault,  Aug.  Ch.,  219 
Flanders,  156 
Flavigny,  339 
Fl^chier,  3 
Fleurus,  22 
Fleury,  cardinal,  3 
Fleury,  Emile  Felix,  314 
Flies,  von,  general,  296 
Flushing,  67 
FoUen,    August    Adolf   Ludwig, 

108 
Follen,  Kari,  108 
Fontainebleau,  49,  59,  70,  72,  78 
Fontainebleau,  edict  of,  54 
Fontanes,  Louis  de,  71 
Forckenbeck,  Max  von,  309 
Forey,  6lie  Fr6d^ric,  273 
Formosa,  364 
Forster,  8 
Foscolo,  Ugo,  170 
Fouch^,   Joseph,  8,  21,   70,   74, 

77-79,  83,  84,  87 
Fouqu6,    Friedrich    Heinrich 

Karl  de  la  Motte,  91 
Fouquier-Tinville,  20 
Founchon,  Martin,  345 
Fourier,  Charles,  160 
Fouriesburg,  377 
Fox,  Charles  James,  38,  44 
France,   1-6,  9-74,   84-87,   109, 


422 


HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD 


Index 


122,    128-132,    136-143,    165, 

176-180,   213-220,   224,   242- 

247,  294,  302,  304,  313,  325, 

328,  334,  336,  342,  343,  346, 

354,  376,  378-380 
Francis   I,   emperor   of  Austria, 

14,  15,  27,  32,  33,  40-42,  44- 

46,  50,  51,  53,  56,  58,  67-70,  75, 

78,81,88,  96,  162,,  167 
Francis  IV,  duke  of  Modena,  115, 

149 
Francis    II,    lung    of    tlie    Two 

Sicilies,  266-268 
Francis    Charles,     archduke    of 

Austria,  205 
Francis  Joseph   II,   emperor  of 

Austria,   205,   206,   227,    234, 

235,  245,  251,    274,  275,   288, 

291,  293,  297,  300,  302,  314, 

317,  319,  320,  326,  328,  373 
Franco-German  War,  328-354 
Franconia,  26,  44,  307 
Frankfort-on-Main,   15,  65,   104, 

153,  186,  303,  305-307 
Frankfort-on-Main,      conference 

of,  186 
Frankfort-on-Main,  diet  of,  1863. 

See  German  Princes,  diet  of, 

1883 
Frankfort-on-Main,  high  federal 

council  at,  182 
Frankfort-on-Main,    revolt    in, 

224 
Frankfort  ParUament,  220,  221, 

227  _ 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  4 
Fransecky,    Friedrich  von,   301, 

304 
Frederick,  duke  of  Augustenburg, 

287,  288,  290 
Frederick     I,     grand     duke     of 

Baden,    280,    314,    350,    352, 

370 
Frederick  VII,  king  of  Denmark, 

208,  240,  288 
Frederick  III,  German  emperor, 

280,  282,  291,  297,  298,  301, 

338,  349,  350,  354,  355 
Frederick,  prince  of  Netherlands, 

145  ^ 
Frederick  II,  the  Great,  king  of 

Prussia,  1,  42,  45 
Frederick  I,  king  of  Wurtemberg, 

43,  56 
Frederick    Augustus,     duke     of 

Nassau-Usingen,  80 
Frederick   Augustus    I,    king   of 

Saxony,  47,  59,  60,  63,  64,  75, 

81,  105 
Frederick  Augustus  II,  king  of 

Saxony,  152,  188 
Frederick     Charles,     prince     of 

Prussia,    297,    298,    299-301, 

336,  340,  343,  346,  347 
Frederick     Francis     II,      grand 

duke  of  Mecklenburg,  347,  372 
Frederick  William  I,  elector  of 

Hesse,  151,  186,  232,  283,  307, 

308 


Frederick    William,    prince    of 

Nassau- Weilburg,  80 
Frederick   William   II,    king   of 

Prussia,  13-15,  23,  27,  225 
Frederick  William  III,   king  of 

Prussia,  22,  27,  32,  39,  40,  42, 

43,  45-47,  50,  54,  56,  58,  59, 

61,  66,  67,  70,  75,  80,  81,  88, 

98-103,  108,  111,  146 
Frederick   William   IV,   king  of 

Prussia,    124,    164-166,    173- 

175,   188,  208,  223,  226,  228, 

232-235,  241,  245,  248,  252 
Frederick  William,  crown  prince. 

See   Frederick   III,   German 

emperor 
Frederick  William  Charles,  king 

of  Wurtemberg,  80,  106 
Fredrikshamn,  48 
Free    Conservative    Party.     See 

German  Empire  Party 
Freemasons,  116 
Freiburg,  172 
Frejus,  31,  72 

French  Eastern  Railw^ay,  325 
Fr^  re-Orb  an,  Hubert  Joseph, 

325,  385 
Fr^ron,  Louis  Stanislas,  18,  23, 

25 
Freycinet,  Charles  de,  345 
Freydorf,  Rudolph  von,  314 
Fridericia,  battle  of,  209 
Friedland,  47 

Friedrichsfeld,  castle  of,  64 
Friedrichstadt,  210 
Friesland,  64 

Frimont,  Johann  Maria,  118 
Frobel,  Julius,  204,  205,  222 
Frossard,  Charles  August,  337 
Fuentes  d'Onoro,  65 
Fulda,  64 
Filrstenberg,  princess  of,  75 

Gablbnz,  Anton  von,  295,  298 

Gablenz,  Ludwig  von,  299 

Gaeta,  195,  270 

Gagern,  Friedrich  von,  190 

Gagern,  Hans  von,  76,  88 

Gagern,  Heinrich  von,  182,  186, 
188,  221,  227,  229 

Gagern,  Max  von,  189,  209,  224 

GaHcia,  60,  149,  273 

Galitzin,  Alexander,  87 

Galilean  Church,  3 

Gallifet,  Gaston  Auguste,  mar- 
quis de,  341 

Gambetta,  L(5on,  343,  345-348, 
353,  379 

Cans,  Eduard,  89 

Garat,  Dominique  Joseph,  71 

Garfield,  James  Abram,  382 

Garibaldi,  Giuseppe,  195,  196, 
217,  251,  256,  258,  259,  263, 
265-271,  304,  323,  348,  352 

Gartner,  von,  75 

Gastein,  treaty  of,  290,  291 

Gatshina,  30 

Gaudier,  35 

Geneva,  28,  37,  84 


Genoa,  26,  81,  397 

Genoa,  duke  of,  194 

Gentz,  Friedrich  von,  40,  44,  50, 

88,  108,  111,  117,  162 
George  III,  king  of  England,  16, 

27,  32,  69,  85,  95,  96 
George  IV,  king  of  England,  60, 

96,  105,  125 
George  V,  king  of  Hanover,  239, 

296,  306,  308 
George  II,  duke  of  Saxe-Meinin- 

gen,  308 
George,  king  of  Saxony,  370 
Gerbet,  Philippe  Olympe,  129 
Gerlach,  Ernst  Ludwig  von,  232, 

241,  279 
German  Empire  Party,  309 
German     Federation,     103-107, 
161-166,     186-190,     221-235, 
239-240,    273-274,    290,   295, 
303 
German      National      Assembly, 

221-235 
German  parliament,  186-190 
German  princes,   diet   of,   1863, 

285,  286 
German  Radical  Party,  362,  363 
Germanicus,  394 
Germany,  17,  23,  25,  26,  32-34, 
38,  42-45,  60-52,  58,  60,  64, 
68,  76,  80,  83,  88-91,  98-108, 
110-114,     124-125,     150-153, 
161-166,     173-175,     181-182, 
184-190,     207-210,     220-235, 
238-241,     255-257,     273-283, 
285-289,  292,  293,  295,  314- 
318,  329,  333,  334,  342,  354, 
380-383,  408 
Gervinus,  Georg  Gottfried,  151 
Gessler,  Ernst,  329 
Ghent,  78-80 
Giacopo,  270 
Gibraltar,  93,  406 
Gioberti,  Vincenzo,  170,  250,  258 
Girard,  Jean  Baptiste,  62 
Gironde,  13,  14,  25 
Girondfcts,  13,  14,  16-18,  23 
Giskra,  Karl,  222,  320 
Gitschin.     See  Jitschin 
Givet,  84 
Gladstone,  322 
Glais-Bizoin,  Alexander,  345 
Glatz,  46 

Glumer,  Adolf  von,  348 
Gneisenau,    August    Wilhelm 
Anton  Neithardt  von,  66,  69, 
70,83,  101,  112 
Gneist,  Rudolf,  311 
Gobel,  bishop  of  Paris,  19 
Godoy,  Manuel  de,  17,  33,  48,  49 
Goeben,  August  Karl  von,  296, 

338,  348 
Goethe,  90,  91 
Gohier,  Louis  Ger6me,  31 
Goito,  battle  of,  193 
Golemishchef-Kutusoff,  Michael, 

42,  57,  58,  60 
Goltz,  Karl  Friedrich  von  der,  338 
Goltz,  Kolmar  von  der,  295,  302 


JwtZex  I 


HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD 


423 


Goluchowski,  count,  284,  285 
Gorczkowski,  Karl  von,  192 
Gordon,  Charles  George,  376 
Gorgey,  Arthur,  206 
Gorres,  Jakob  Joseph  von,  101, 

103 
Gortchakoff,  342,  343,  347 
Goschen,    Johann     Friedrich 

Ludwig,  89 
Goslar,  81 
Gotha,  229 

Gottberg,  general,  349 
Gottingen,  296 
Gourgaud,  Gaspard,  85 
Gouvion  St.  Cyr,  Laurent  de,  38 
Govone,  Giuseppe,  291 
Gramont,  Antoine  Agenor  Alfred 

de,  273,  327,  331-333 
Graudenz,  46 
Gravell,    Maximilian    Karl    Fr. 

Wh.,  229 
Gravelotte,  339,  340 
Greece,  119-121,  126-128,  153- 

155 
Greenland,  388,  389,  391 
Gregoire,  Henri,  19 
Gregory,  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, 120 
Gregory  XVI,  pope,  149,  159 
Grenoble,  77,  87 
GrenviUe,  lord,  32,  38,  44,  95 
Grevy,  Jules,  379 
Grey,  earl,  93 
Grillparzer,  Franz,  97 
Grimm,  Jacob,  89,  151 
Grimm,  Wilhelm,  89,  151 
Grisons,  29 

Groben,  Charles  von,  234 
Grochow,  battle  of,  148 
Grolman,  Karl  Wilhelm  Georg, 

112 
Grossbeeren,  62 
Grossgorschen  (Liltzen),  60 
Grouchy,  78,  82,  83 
Gruner,  Justus,  101 
GrutK  Verein,  384 
Guam,  382 

Guastalla,  duchy  of,  43,  72 
Gudden,  Bernhard  von,  389 
Gudrid,  389 
Guelph  fund,  308,  372 
Guelph,  House  of,  104 
Guerrazzi,  Frangesco  Domenico, 

195 
Guiana,  33,  408 
Guiteau,  Charles,  382 
Guizot,    Frangois    Pierre    Guil- 

laume,  79,  128,  130,  177 
Giinthersthal  at  Freiburg,  190 
Gustavus  III,  king  of  Sweden, 

12,  14 
Gustavus  IV,  Adolphus,  king  of 

Sweden,  17,  33,  44,  48,  55 
Gyulay,  Franz,  251 

Habeas  Corpus  Act,  95 
Hageberg,  62 
Hagen,  A.  H.  W.,  279 
Hague,  65,  377 


Hague,  treaty  of,  22 
Halle,  University  of,  102 
Haller,  Karl  Ludwig  von,  90,  91, 

174 
Hambach  castle,  153 
Hamburg,  39,  59,  61,  62,  64,  65, 

105 
Hammacher,  Friedrich,  309 
Hampden  Club,  95 
Hanau,  64 
Hanau,  princess  of.     See  Lbh- 

MANN,  Gertrude 
Hanno,  393 
Hanover,  38,  39,  42,  43,  45,  46, 

55,  76,  81,  104,  163,  186,  231, 

239,  248,  295,  296,  305-308, 

367 
"Hanoverian  Legion,"  306 
Hanoverians,  306 
Hanseatic  towns,  104 
Hansemann,    David,    175,    185, 

225 
Hapsburgs,  52,  226 
Hardegg,  H.,  191 
Hardenber,g,     Karl     August 

Theodor  von,   46,  50,  54,  58, 

69,  61,  63,  66,  75,  76,  100,  101, 

103,  108,  112,  117,  124 
Hase,  Karl  August  von,  358 
Hasner,  Leopold  von,  320 
Hassenpflug,  Hans   Daniel  von, 

151,  232,  233,  239 
Hastings,  marquis,  93 
Hastings,  Warren,  33 
Haugwitz,     Christian     Heinrich 

Karl,  23,  30,  42,  43,  45,  46 
Haussmann,  Georges  Eugene,  247 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  404 
Haynau,  J.  J.  von,  196,  206 
Hayti,  405 
Hebert,  16,  19-20 
Hecker,  Friedrich,  181,  186,  187, 

189,  190,  203,  230 
Heckscher,  Moritz,  223 
Hefele,  Karl  Joseph  von,  335 
Hegel,  102 
Heidelberg,  87,  186 
Heilbronn,  87 
Heilsberg,  47 
Hein,  Franz,  222 
Heine,  Heinrich,  153 
Heinrich,  Georg,  102 
Heitersheim,  37 
Helene,  queen  of  Italy,  383 
Heligoland,  67,  289,  408 
Helluland,  389 

Henikstein,  Alfred  von,  293,  297 
Hengstenberg,    Ernst    Wilhelm, 

158,  241 
Henriette,    duchess   of   Orleans. 

See  Orleans,  duchess  of 
Henriot,  21,  22 
Henry  IV,  king  of  France,  34 
Henry  V,  king  of  France.     See 

Chambord,  count  of 
Henry,    duke    of    Mecklenburg, 

387 
Henry,  the  Navigator,  398 
Heppenheim,  181 


Herbst,  Eduard,  320,  373 
Herder,  Johann  Gottfried,  90 
Hermes,  George,  156 
Herrmann,  Emil,  367 
Herwarth  von  Bittenfeld,  Karl 

Eberhard,  297 
Herwegh,  Georg,  190 
Herzegovina,  3713 
Herzog,  Edward,  384 
Hesse,    electorate,   25,   37,    104, 

163,   186,   190,  232,  233,  239, 

295,  305-307 
Hesse-Darmstadt,    42,    76,    80, 

103,   152,  186-,  189,  309,  312, 

368,  372 
Hesse-Nassau,  367 
Hetairia  PhiUke,  119 
Hildesheim,  81 
Hindersin,  Gustav  Eduard  von, 

349 
Hobel,  Max,  362 
Hochberg,  counts  of,  107 
Hoche,  Lazare,  20,  22,  23,  26,  27 
Hochstadt,  32 
Hofer,  Andreas,  52,  53 
Hoffmann,  Joh.  Gottfried,  102 
Hogendorp,  Dyrk  van,  65 
Hohengeroldseck,  107 
Hohenlinden,  33 
Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen,    Adolf 

von,  279 
Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen,  Kraft  zu, 

349 
Hohenlohe-Langenburg,   Her- 
mann von,  prince,  372 
Hohenlohe-Schjllingsfilrst, 

Chlodwig   zu,   316,   327,   329, 

355,  371,  372 
HohenzoUem,  House  of,  46,  330, 

331 
Holabrunn,  42 
Holstein,  290,  295 
Holstein-Gottorp,  56 
"Holy  alliance,"  87,  88,  92,  109, 

167 
Hondscoote,  20 
Hotel  de  Ville,  Paris,  378 
Houchard,  general,  15,   20 
Houtman,  ComeUs  de,  404 
Hubner,  J.  A.,  250 
Hudson's  Bay,  390 
Hugo,  Gustav,  89 
Hugo,  Victor,  128,  137,  158,  215, 

216,  313 
Humbert  I,  king  of  Italy,  383 
Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  90 
Humboldt,  Wilhelm  von,  62,  75, 

76,  102,  108,  110,  112,  125 
Hilneburg,    count.      See   Van- 

DAMME 

"Hungarian  Legion,"  318 
Hungary,  42,  50,  97,  184,  197- 

207,  285,  291,  292,  318,  319, 

325 
Huskisson,  William,  125 

Ibell,  Karl  von.  111 
Iberia,  394 
Ibrahim  Pasha,  126 


424 


HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD 


Index 


Iceland,  388,  389,  390 
Idstedt,  battle  of,  210 
Illyrian  kingdom,  81 
India,  28,  29,  33,  46,  93,  408 
Indians,  North  American,  390 
Indikopleustes,  Cosmas.     See 

COSMAS 

Inkerman,  battle  of,  246 

International,  the,  328 

Ionian  Islands,  27,  47,  93 

Ireland,  94,  321,  322,  375 

Irish  Church,  322 

Iro,  373 

Isabella,  queen  of  Spain,  169, 
329 

Isandula,  376 

Isaszeg,  battle  of,  206 

Isenburg-Budipgen,  Gustav  von, 
296 

Isle  d'Aix,  84 

Italy,  26,  29,  30,  33,  34,  37,  41- 
44,  49,  53,  65,  68,  76,  85,  115- 
117,  149-150,  167,  170,  171, 
180,  190-197,  247-254,  257- 
271,  290-292,  294,  304,  323, 
325,  334,  335,  343,  382,  383 

Itzenplitz,  H.  von,  279 

Itzstein,  Johann  Adam  von,  152 

Jacobin  Club,  6,  9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 

17-19,  23,  32,  83 
Jaffa,  29 

Jagow,  Gust.  W.  von,  279 
Jahn,    Friedrich    Ludwig,    107, 

111,  112 
Jameson,  Leander  Starr,  376 
Janissaries,  154 
Japan,  364 
Jassy,  119 

Jellacifi,  Joseph,  202-204,  206 
Jemappes,  16 
Jena,  45 

Jena,  University  of,  108 
Jesuits,  115,  119,  128,  129,  137, 

138,   156-158,   171,  172,  240- 

242 
Jever,  Germany,  47 
Jews,  101,  198 
Jitschin  (Gitschin),  297,  299 
Joan  of  Arc,  38 
Johannesberg,  377 
John,   archduke  of  Austria,  33, 

162,  167,  199,  221,  223 
John  VI,  king  of  Portugal,  33, 

115,  123,  124 
John,  king  of  Saxony,  369 
Joinville,  duke  of,  176 
Jolly,  Julius,  350,  370 
Joly  de  Fleury,  Jean  Frangois,  5 
Jordan,  Wilhelm,  222 
Joseph  II,  Icing  of  Belgium,  6 
Joseph  II,  emperor  of  Germany, 

97,  241 
Josephine,  empress  of  the  French, 

31,  40,  41,  53,  72,  84 
Joubert,  general,  26,  29,  30 
Jourdan,  Jean  Baptiste,  20,  22, 

26,29 
Joux,  38 


Juan,  bay  of,  77 
Juarez,  Benito,  273 
Junkers,  309 
Junot,  Andoche,  49,  50 
Jura,  38 

Kaisbeslautern,  22 

Kahsch,  59 

Kahsch,  proclamation  of,  60 

Kalisch,  treaty  of,  61 

Kamenski,  count,  46 

Kamptz,  Karl  C.  A.  H.  von,  101, 

110 
Kanaris,  Konstantin,  121 
Kandern,  190 
Kanem,  376 
Kant,  Immanuel,  90 
Kanzler,  Hermann,  324 
Kapo    d'Istrias.     See    Capodis- 

TRIAS 

Kapolna,  battle  of,  206 

Kara  Ali,  121 

Karlsefni,  Thorfinn,  389 

Karlsruhe,  182 

Karolyi,  Alois  K.  von,  283,  292 

Kars,  fortress  of,  246 

Kaschau,  battle  of,  206 

Kaso,  126 

Katzbach,  62 

Kaub,  67 

Kellermann,  Franjois  Christophe 

de,  general,  50 
Ketteler,  Wilhelm  Emanuel  von, 

365 
Keudell,  Robert  von,  330,  332 
Khartoum,  376 
Khosrew  Pasha,  126 
Kiauchau,  364 
Kiel,  290 
Kimberley,  377 
Kircheisen,    Friedrich    Leopold 

von,  102 
lutchener.   Lord   Horatio   Her- 
bert, 376,  377,  378 
Klapka,  Georg,  206,  207,  318 
Kleber,  Jean   Baptiste,   general, 

29,  30,  33 
Kleist,  Heinrich  von,  52,  63,  69, 

70 
Klewitz,    Wilhelm   Anton    von, 

102,  103,  165 
Klopstock,  8 

Knights  of  St.  John,  34,  37 
Knorr,  Eduard  von,  343 
Kolberg,  46 
Kolding,  battle  of,  209 
Kolokotroni,  Theodore,  120 
Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky,  Franz 

Anton  von,  167,  183 
Komom,  206 
Konigsberg,  47,  165 
Koniggratz,  battle  of,  300,  302 
Konigstein,  62 
KSnneritz,  Julius  Traugott  von, 

187 
Korber,  Ernst  von,  347,  374 
Kopal,  Karl  von,  193,  194 
Korner,  256 
Korner,  Theodor,  52,  65 


Kosel,  46 

Kosmas.     See  Cosmas 

Kosciusko,  Thaddeus,  22 

Kossuth,  Ludwig,  97,  168,  182, 
184,  201-204,  206 

Kotzebue,  August  von,  110 

Kowno,  56 

Krasnoi,  57 

Kray,  Paul,  marshal,  30,  32 

Kremlin,  the,  57 

Kremsier,  Parliament  of,  237 

Krismanic,  Gideon  von,  297-299 

Krudener,  Juliane  von,  87,  120 

Kriiger,  Paul,  376,  377 

Krumir,  383 

Kudlich,  Hans,  203 

Kuhn  von  Kuhnenfeld,  Franz, 
251,  304 

KuUmann,  Eduard  Franz  Lud- 
wig, 360 

Kulm,  63 

Kurshiv  Pasha,  121 

Kutusoff.     See  Golemishchef 

Kuyper,  Abraham,  386 

Kwang  Hsu,  emperor  of  China, 
364 

Kydullen,  46 

La  Bedoyeeb,  Charles  A.  F.  H. 

DE,  77,  87 
Labrador,  Pedro  Gomez  Kavelo, 

75 
Lachat,  E.,  384 
Lacordaire,  Jean  Baptiste  Henri, 

129,  158 
Lady  smith,  377 
La  Farina,  Giuseppe,  268 
Lafayette,  4,  8,  10,  12-14,  73,  83, 

131,  141,  142 
La  Fere-Champenoise,  70 
La    Ferronays,    Auguste    Pierre 

Ferran  de,  117,  122 
Laffite,  Jacques,  129,  139,  140 
Lagarde,  general,  87 
Lagos,  408 
La  Granja,  169 
LaibaA   Congress  of,  88,   117- 

119 
Lain^,  Joseph  Henri  Joachim,  67 
Lake  Chad,  380 
Lally-ToUendal,   Trophime 

Gdrard  de,  79 
La  Marmora,  Alfonso  de,  292 
Lamartine,  Alphonse  de,  92,  128, 

158,  179,  180 
Lamballe,  princess,  15 
Lamberg,     Franz    Philipp    von, 

203,  204 
Lamennais,   Hugues   Felicity 

Robert  de,  91,  129,  158,  159 
Lameth,  Charles  Malo  Frangois, 

4 
Lamorici^re,  C.  L.  Juchauld  de, 

176,  214,  219 
Langenhof,  301 
Langensalza,  296 
Langres,  highlands  of,  67 
Languedoo,  74 
Lanjuinais,  Jean  Denis,  80 


Index 


HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD 


425 


Lannes,  general,  42,  52 
Lanza,  Giovanni,  250 
Laon,  69,  83,  344 
Lar6veill6re-Lepeaux,  25 
Larochef  ouoauld-Liancourt, 

duke  of,  8 
La  Rothiere,  France,  68 
Las  Casas,  Emmanuel  A.  D.  M.  J 

de,  85 
Lasker,  Eduard,  309 
Lassalle,     Ferdinand,     160,  328, 

361 
Latour,  count,  204 
Lauenburg,  55,  81,  290 
Laufach,  303 
Lavalette,    Charles   Jean   Marie 

FeUx  de,  302 
Lavater,  28 
Law,  John,  5 
Lebas,  21,  22 
Leboeuf,  Edmond,  marshal,  326, 

328,  336,  338 
Lebrun,    Barth61emy   Louis 

Joseph,  328 
Lebrun,  Charles  Frangois,  31 
Ledru-Rollin,      Alexandre 

Auguste,  178-180,  190,  214 
LefSbvre,  marshal,  71 
Lefl6,  343 
Leghorn,  26,  48,  76 
Lehmann,  Gertrude,  151 
Leiningen,    Friedrich    Karl, 

prince  of,  223 
Leipsic,  63,  65,  163 
Lelewel,  Joachim,  148 
Le  Mans,  348 
Leo  XII,  pope,  99,  116,  129,  149, 

158,  159 
Leo  XIII,  pope,  360,  379 
Leo,  Heinrich,  174 
Leoben,  26 

Leopardi,  Giacomo,  170 
Leopold,    archduke   of   Austria, 

299 
Leopold,  regent  of  Bavaria,  350, 

369 
Leopold  I,  king  of  the  Belgians, 

96,  146,  154 
Leopold  II,  king  of  the  Belgians, 

386 
Leopold,     prince    of    Coburg. 

See   Leopold  I,  king  of  the 

Belgians 
Leopold  I,  emperor  of  Germany, 

40 
Leopold  II,  emperor  of  Germany, 

12,  14 
Leopold,  prince  of  HohenzoUern, 

329-332,  380 
Leopold     II,     grand     duke     of 

Tuscany,  115,  195 
Le  Sourd,  Georges,  333 
Letourneur,  Charles  Louis  Fran- 
gois Honor^,  25 
Leu,  Peter,  172 
Li  Hung  Chang,  364 
Lichnowski,    Felix,  222,  224 
Liebenstein,   Ludwig   August 

Friedrich,  110 


Liebertwolkwitz,  63 

Liebkneoht,  Wilhelm,  361 

Liege,  385 

Ligny,  82 

Ligurian  Republic,  36,  41 

Lille,  78 

Lihuokalani,  queen  of  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  381 

Limburg-Styrum,  count,  65 

Lindenau,  Bernhard  August,  152 

Lindet,  21 

Lindner,  125 

Lipa,  301 

Lippe-Biesterfeld,  Ernst  zur,  372 

Lisbon,  62,  403 

Lissa,  304 

List,  Friedrich,  113,  163 

Liverpool,  lord,  80,  96 

Livorno,  195 

Lloyd  shipping  company,  98 

Lohner,  204 

Loigny,  348 

Lombardy,  26,  27,  98,  253 

Lombok,  387 

Lomellina,  196 

Lom^nie  de  Brienne,  Etienne 
Charles  de,  5,  6,  24,  68 

London,  33 

London  conference,  166,  289 

London  convention,  1884,  376 

London,  treaty  of,  127 

Longwood,  85 

Loning,  Karl,  111 

Lons-le  Saulnier,  78 

Lords,  House  of,  322 

Lorencez,  count,  273 

Lorraine.  9,  84,  305,  337,  342 

Loubet,  Emile,  379 

Louis,  count  of  Aquila,  268 

Louis,  archduke  of  Austria,  168, 
183 

Louis  I,  grand  duke  of  Baden, 
110 

Louis  I,  king  of  Bavaria,  91, 106, 
163,  181 

Louis  II,  king  of  Bavaria,  107, 
293,  314,  334,  350,  351, 
369 

Louis  XII,  king  of  France,  34 

Louis  XIV,  king  of  France,  31, 
40,  405 

Louis  XV,  king  of  France,  2 

Louis  XVI,  king  of  France,  2,  3, 
5^7,  10-14,  16,  21,  53 

Louis  XVII,  dauphin  of  France, 
17,  21,  23 

Louis  XVlII,  king  of  France,  11, 
30,  39,  69,  71-74,  76-78,  83- 
86,  87,  88,  110,  121,  124 

Louis  I,  grand  duke  of  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  105 

Louis  III,  grand  duke  of  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  372 

Louis  IV,  grand  duke  of  Hesse- 
Darmstadt,  372 

Louis,  prince  of  Parma,  33 

Louis  Napoleon,  son  of  Napoleon 
III,  337,  376 

Louis    PhiUppe,    king    of    the 


French,  77,  118,  131,  140-143, 

176-180 
Louise,  duchess  of  Montpensier. 

See  Montpensier,  duchess  of 
Louise,   queen  of  the  Belgians, 

146 
Louise,  queen  of  Denmark,  208, 

239 
Louise,  queen  of  Prussia,  41,  47, 

53,  54,  59 
Louise  Marie  Adelaide  of    Pen- 

thievre,  140 
Louisiana,  33,  38 
Loustalot,  Elis^e,  11 
Louvel,  Louis  Pierre,  110 
L'Ouverture,  Toussaint,  38 
Louvois,  34 
Lowe,  Sir  Hudson,  85 
Lowe,  Wilhelm,  222 
Liibeck,  65 

Lucca,  36,  41,  68,  81,  115 
Lucchesini,  23 
Lucerne,  172 
Luden,  lleinrich  L.,  103 
Luderitz,  Franz  Adolf  Eduard, 

364 
Lueger,  Karl,  374 
Luneville,  33,  40,  42 
Lusatia,  297 
Lusigny,  68 

Lutz,  Johann  von,  359,  369  ' 
Luxembourg,  138,  146,  312,  334 
Lyons,  17,  18,  23,  69,  77,  87,  159, 

177 
Lyons,  Lord,  333 
Lyttelton,  Sir  Neville,  378 

Maassen,  KarlGeorg,  102,  114 
Macdonald,  marshal,  30,  58,  62, 

63,  71,  72,  77 
Mack,  Karl  von,  42 
McKinley,  WilUam,  381,  382 
MacMahon,  Marie  Edme  Patrice 

Maurice  de,  251,  336-338,  340, 

341,  343,  378,  379 
Macedonia,  153 
Madagascar,  380 
Madeira,  394,  398 
Madrid,  33,  49-52,  65 
Mafeking,  377 
Mafia,  382 
Magalhaes,  400,  401 
Magdala,  323 
Magdeburg,  64 
Magellan,  Straits  of,  402,  408 
Magersfontein,  377 
Magnan,  Bernard  Pierre,  219 
Magnano,  30 
"Mahdi,"  the,  376 
Mahmud  II,  Sultan,  56,  119 
Mahmud  Dramali,  l21 
Maire,  69 

Maistre,  Joseph  de,  90,  92 
Maitland,   Sir  Frederick  Lewis, 

84 
Majuba  Hill,  376 
Malakoff,  246 
Malebranche,  3 
Malesherbes,  3,  6,  16 


426 


HISTORY   OF   THE   WORLD 


I  Index 


Malet,  Claude  Frangois  de,  57,  60 

Mallet  du  Pan,  14 

Malmaison,  84 

Malmesbury,  lord,  334 

Malmo,  armistice  of,  209,  224 

Malo-Jaroslawetz,  57 

Malon,  Jules,  385 

Malouet,  7 

Malta,  28,  32-34,  38,  93 

Mamelukes,  28 

Manchester,  94 

Manila,  381 

Manin,  Daniele,  192,  250,  259 

Manin,  Lodovico,  192 

Mannheim,  26,  30,  67,  182 

Manteuffel,  Edwin  von,  279,  281, 

296,  303,  347-349,  371 
Manteuffel,  Otto  von,  235 
Mantua,  26,  30,  192 
Manuel,  Louis  Pierre,  13 
Manzoni,  Alessandro,  91 
Marat,  9,  11,  16,  17 
Marco  Polo.     See  Polo 
Marengo,  32 

Maret,  Hugo  Bernard,  68 
Marfori,  Carlos,  329 
Maria  Carolina,  queen  of  Naples, 

116        _ 
Maria  Christina,  queen  of  Spain, 

1806-78,  169 
Maria  Christina,  queen  of  Spain, 

mother  of  Alfonso  XIII,  381 
Maria  Feodorovna,  empress,  53 
Maria   II,   da  Gloria,   queen  of 

Portugal,  124 
Maria  Louisa,  queen  of  Spain,  17 
Maria  Ludovica,  empress,  53,  75 
Maria  Theresia,  empress,  1,  97 
Marianne  Islands,  364,  381 
Marie,  queen  of  Bavaria,  286 
Marie     Antoinette,     queen     of 

France,  2,  11-13,  18 
Marie    Louise,    empress    of   the 

French,  53,  60,  68,  70-72,  80, 

81,  115 
Marie   Therese,   duchess  of  An- 

gouleme.     See  Angoulbme 
Marinus  of  Tyre,  399 
Markland,  389 
Marmont,  Auguste,  F.  L.  V.  de, 

30,   63,  69-71,  77,   131,   139, 

140 
Maroto,  Raphael,  169 
Marquesas  Islands,  176 
Marrac,  castle  of,  49 
Marseilles,  15,  17,  23,  87,  218 
Marshall  Islands,  364 
Martignac,  Jean  Baptiste,  S.  G. 

de,  129,  137 
Martinez  de  la  Rosa,  Francisco, 

169 
Marwitz,  Friedrich  von  der,  46, 

101 
Marx,  Karl,  160,  361 
Masella,  Gaetano  A.,  360 
Massena,  Andr^,  29,  30,  32 
Massillon,  3 
Massowah,  383 
Matamoros,  Manuel,  158 


Mathy,  Karl,  181,  182,  190,  222, 

229,  280,  314 
Maubeuge,  84 
Maupas,  Charlemagne  Emile  de, 

219 
Maurepas,  Jean  F.  P.  de,  3-5 
Mavrogordato,   Alexander,    120, 

121 
Maximilian,  archduke  of  Austria. 

See  Maximilian,  emperor  of 

Mexico 
Maximilian  II,  king  of  Bavaria, 

182 
MaximiUan,  emperor  of  Mexico, 

250,  273,  313,  314 
Maximilian,  prince  of  Thurn  and 

Taxis,^  285 
Maximilian    I,    Joseph,    king   of 

Bavaria,  63,  80,  106 
Maybach,  Albert,  3  )8 
Mayence,  15,  27,  32,  37,  40,  45, 

60,  64,  103,  305 
Maytheny,  Josef  von,  206 
Mazarin,  cardinal,  3 
Mazzini,  Giuseppe,  171,  180,  181, 

193,  217,  257,  258,  260,  262, 

263,  266 
Mecklenburg-  Sohwerin,  105,'  239 
Mecklenburg- Strelitz,  105 
Mediterranean,     388,    389,    392, 

393,  397,  400,  403,  404,  410 
Mehemet  AU,  126,  165,  176 
Meiningen,  House  of,  308 
Mejia,  Tomas,  313 
Melas,  marshal,  30,  32 
Melden,  Ludwig  von,  206 
Menelik,  king  of  Abyssinia,  383 
Menotti,  Ciro,  149 
Menou,  general,  33 
Menschikoff,  prince,  244-246 
Mensdorff-Pouilly,        Alexander, 

290,  291,  293 
Mercier  de  Lostende,  H.,  331 
Mergentheim,  37 
Mermillod,  Kaspar,  384 
Merseburg,  60 
Messenhauser,  "Wenzel,  205 
Messina,  39 
Metternich,  Clemens  Wenzel  von, 

52,  53,  56,  58-69,  71,  75,  76, 

78,  80,  88,  92,  96-98,  100,  108- 

113,  116,  117,   122,   130,   135, 

142,  146,  149,   153,   157,   161, 

162,    166-168,    172,    182-184, 

207 
Metternich,     Richard     Clement 

Joseph  Hermann  von,  293,  335 
Metz,  336-338,  340,  342,  346,  371 
Mexico,  123,  273,  313,  409 
Meza,  Christian  Julius  de,  289 
Miaouli,  Andreas  Voko,  121 
Michaelis,  Otto,  309 
Michelis,  Friedrich,  359 
Michelet,  1 
Middelburg,  377 
Mieroslawski,  I^ouis,  213,  230 
Miguel,  Dom,  123,  124,  168 
Milan,  26,  30,  382 
Milan,  battle  of,  195 


Milan,  revolt  of,  250 
Miloslaw,  battle  of,  213 
Millerand,  Alexandre,  363,  379 
Mihier,  Lord  Alfred,  376,  377 
Mina,  Xaverio,  114 
Mincio,  32 

Minden,  fortress  of,  307 
Miquel,  Johannes  von,  311,  356, 

368,  369 
Mirabeau,  4,  6-12,  24,  38,  86 
Miramon,  Miguel,  313 
Missolonghi,  siege  of,  126 
Missunde,  battle  of,  210 
Mitau,  32 

Mittelmaier,  Karl  Anton,  222 
Mittermayer,  Anton,  187 
Mittermayer,  Karl  Joseph,  152 
Mittnacht,   Hermann  von,  351, 

370 
Mockem,  60,  63 
Modena,  26,  149, 253, 262, 264 
Moga,  Johann,  204,  205 
Mogling,  190  _ 
Mohammedanism,  397 
Mohl,  Robert  von,  222,  223 
Moldavia,  246 
Mole,  Louis  Matthieu,  178 
MoUer,  Eduard  von,  371 
MoUinary   von  Monte   Pastello, 

Anton,  301 
Moltke,  Helmuth  von,  277,  291, 

295-297,  299,  300,  303,  332, 

336,  337,  340,  349 
Monroe  doctrine,  381,  409 
Montalembert,    Charles    Forbes 

de,  129;  158,  215,  327 
Montb^liard,  352 
Monte  Berico,  battle  of,  194 
Montebello,  32 
Montereau,  battle  of,  68 
Montesquieu,  2,  16 
Montez,  Lola,  181,  182 
Montgelas,  Max  Josef,  106 
Montm^dy,  340,  344 
Montmirail,  battle  of,  68 
Montholon-SemonviUe,  85 
Montpe^er,  duchess  of,  167 
Montpensier,  duke  of,  176,  330 
Moor,  battle  of,  206 
Moors  in  Spain,  403 
Moravia,  42,  164,  297,  320 
Mordini,  Antonio,  268 
Morea,  120 
Moreau,  Jean  Victor,  general,  26, 

30,  32,  33,  39,  40,  63 
Morny,  Charles    Auguste    Louis 

Joseph  de,  219 
Morocco,  380 
Mortara,  195 
Mortefontaine,  32 
Mortemart,  C.  L.  V.  de  Roche- 

chouart,  131 
Mortier,  Edouard  A.  C.  J.,  38,  70, 

177 
Moscow,  57,  65,  70 
Motz,  Friedrich  Christian  Adolf 

von,  114 
Mounier,  7 
Mount  Tabor,  29,  31 


Index  I 


HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD 


427 


Muhler,  Heinrich  von,  279,  358 
Mulbe,  297 
Mulhausen,  371 
MuUer,  Adam,  90,  92,  174 
MilUer,  Johannes  von,  8,  90 
Miiller,  Wilhelm,  124 
Milnchengratz,  299 
Munich,  32,  42 
Milnster-Ledenburg,     Ernst 

Friedrioh  Herbert,  60,  80,  104 
Murat,  Joachim,  33,  42,  49,  57, 

64,  65,  68,  73,  116,  170,  256 
Murat,  prince,  260 
Muravieff,  general,  246 
Muravjev,  Michael,  273 
Mytilene,  380 

Nachod,  battle  of,  298 

Nakimoff,  admiral,  244 

Nangis,  battle  of,  68 

Nantes,  18 

Napier,  Charles,  168 

Napier,  Lord  Robert,  323 

Naples,  26,  29,  49,  50,  81,  116, 

256  257 
Napoleon  I,  14,  20,  24-36,  38-58, 

60-75,  77-87,  91, 109, 119, 134, 

176,  407 
Napoleon  II,  58,  70,  71,  80,  83, 

143 
Napoleon  III,  150,  176,  215-220, 

242-255,     259-265,     267-274, 

291,  293-295,  302-305,  311- 

314,  323-326,  329,   330,   332, 

334-337,  341 
Napoleon,  prince,  250,  302 
Narvaez,  Ramon  Maria,  169 
Naselli   117 

Nassau,  107,  189,  296,  305-307 
Nassau-Weilburg,  prince  of,  80 
Natal,  377  _ 

National  Liberal  Party,  309 
Nauplia,  126 
Navarino,  battle  of,  127 
Navarre,  10 
Naviglio,  battle  of,  251 
Nebenius,   Karl  Friedrioh,    107, 

113 
Necker,  Jacques,  4—12 
Neerwinden,  17 
Negri,  Theodore,  120 
Neipperg,  72 
Nelson,  28,  29,  42 
Nemours,  duke  of,  179 
Nesselrode,    Karl   Robert,    108, 

122 
Netherlands,  22,  30,  34-38,  47, 

54,  65,  67,  76,  145,  146,  386- 

387,  402-405,  407 
Neubreisach,  344 
Neubrunn,  303 
Neuenberg,  principaUty  of,  173, 

248 
Neuville,  Hyde  de,  128 
New  Guinea,  364 
New  Lanark,  94,  160 
Ney,  Micliel,  61-63,  71,  72,  77, 

82,  87 
Nice,  16,  26,  294 


Nicholas  I,  czar  of  Russia,  127, 

143,  146,  167,  209,  232,  336, 

243,  244,  246 
Nicliolas  II,  czar  of  Russia,  377 
Nicolovius,  Ludwig,  102 
Niebulir,  Barthold  Georg,  89,  99, 

101,  112 
Niel,  Adolphe,  251,  324,  326 
Nigra,  Constantin,  326 
Nile,  398 
Nismes,  87 
Nizza,  250,  265 
Nobihng,  Karl,  362 
Nokk,  Wilhelm,  371 
Nola,  116 
NoUendorf,  63 

Normann-Ehrenfels,  count,  121 
Norsemen,  388,  389 
North,  lord,  96 
North    German    Confederation, 

82,    303,    306-317,    324,    328, 

342   350 
Nortli  Sea,  53,  82,  397,  404 
Norway,  56,  61,  67 
Norwegians,  403 
NovaHs,  91 

No  vara,  battle  of,  118,  196 
Novi,  30 

Nugent,  Laval,  194 
Nuits,  348 
Nunziante,  Alessandro,  268 

O'CoNNELL,  Daniel,  126 
Oglio,  26 

Oldenburg,  55,  105,  163,  231 
OUech,  Karl  Rudolf,  277 
OlUvier,    ]&mile,    313,    326-328, 

331,  333,  338 
Olmutz,  204,  297,  303 
Olmiitz,  stipulation  of,  235 
Omdurman,  376 
Omer  Vrionis,  126 
Orange  Free  State,  375,  377 
Orleans,  348 
Orleans,  duchess  of,  179 
Orleans,    duke    of.     See    Louis 

Philippe,  king  of  the  French 
Orleans,  duke  of  (called  Egahte) , 

6,  10,  21,  79,  87,  140 
Orleans,  duke  of   (son  of  Louis 

PhiUppe),  177 
Orleans,  House  of,  139 
Orloff,  prince,  244,  245 
Orsini,  FeUce,  249 
Ortlopp,  Emilie,  151 
Ostrolenka,  battle  of,  148 
Osten-Sacken,  Fabian  von  der,  70 
Osterach,  29 
Osterode,  46 
Ostin,     Charles    Emmanuel 

Leclerc  d',  38 
Otto  I,  king  of  Greece,  154,  155 
Oudinot,  Nicolas  Charles,  54,  62, 

69,  71 
Oudinot,  Nicolas  Charles  Victor, 

196,  217 
Overbeck,  Friedrich,  91 
Oversee,  battle  of,  289 
Owen,  Robert,  94,  160 


Paardeberg,  377 

Pacthod,  Michel  Marie,  70 

Padua,  13,  16 

Pagds,  Etienne  Gamier,  178 

Pag^s,  Louis  Gamier,  179 

Pahlen,  Peter,  70 

Palacky,  Franz,  212 

Palatinate,  229 

Palermo,  29,  267 

Palestine,  244 

Palestro,  251 

Palffy  of  Erdod,  count,  192  ' 

Palikao,    Charles  de,    338,    340, 

342 
Pallavioino-Trivulzio,  Giorgio, 

270 
Palh,  Ettore  Carlo  Lucchesi,  142 
Palm,  Johann  Philipp,  45 
Palmella,  Pedro,  115 
Palmerston,  lord,  176,  248,  265, 

272 
Panama  canal,  379,  390 
Panslavism,  210-212 
Pan-Slavonic  states,  211 
Paoli,  Pasquale,  24 
Paris,  5,  6,  8-10,  13,  14,  16,  21, 

24,  25,  30,  33,  34,  37,  45,  51, 

68-70,  72,  78,  79,  83-85,  346, 

349,  352-354 
Paris,  count  of,  179 
Paris,  treaty  of,  55,  75,  83,  246, 

346,  406,  408 
Paris    International  Exhibition, 

314 
Parma,  26,  33,  36,  41,  81,   115, 

150,  253,  264 
Parma,  duchy  of,  72 
Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  375 
Parsdorf,  32  ' 
Parthenopean  republic,  29 
Particularist  Party,  316 
Paskevitch-Eriwanski,  Ivan 

Feodvitch,  127,  148,  206 
Paul  I,  czar  of  Russia,  29,  32,  33 
Paunsdorf,  63 
Pavia,  Jos6  Manuel,  329 
Pedro  I,  emperor  of  Brazil,  123, 

168 
Pedro  II,  emperor  of  Brazil,  168 
Peel,  Robert,  95,  126 
Pekin,  365 
Pellew  Islands,  381 
Pellico,  Silvio,  91,  119,  170 
Pepe,  Florestan,  117 
Pepe,  Guglielmo,  116,  118 
PepoU,  Napoleone  di,  262 
Perezel,  Moritz,  206 
P^rier,  Casimir,  139 
Peronne,  349 
Persano,  Carlo   Pellion   di,   267, 

268,  304 
Persia,  29 
Persigny,    Jean    Gilbert    Victor 

Fiahn  de,  219 
Pemgia,  262 
Peschiera,  194,  195 
Pestel,  Eduard  von,  337 
Pestel,  Paul,  127 
Peta,  battle  of,  121 


428 


HISTORY    OF   THE   WORLD 


llndez 


Peter,  grand  duke  of  Oldenburg, 

372 
Peter  Frederick  Louis,  duke  of 

Oldenburg,  55 
Peter  the  Great,  czar  of  Russia,  2 
Potion,  13-15 
Petit,  Jean  Martin,  72 
Peucker,  Eduard  von,  223 
Peyronnet,  Charles    Ignace    de, 

130,  131 
Pfalzburg,  344 
Pfizer,  Paul,  164,  186 
Pfordten,  L.  R.  Heinrich  von  der, 

231,  293 
Pfuel,  Ernst  von,  225 
Phihppines,  381,  382 
Phoenicians,  393,  394 
Piacenza,  36,  41,  72 
Piadha,  121 
Pichegru,  Charles,  22,  26,  27,  38, 

39 
Piedmont,  33,  84,  118,  250,  257 
Pietri,  Joachim,  260 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  388,  394 
Pillersdorf,  Franz  von,  184,  198, 

199 
Pillnitz,  Saxony,  13,  16 
Piombino,  41 
Pitt,  WiUiam,  the  elder,  17,  31, 

38,  41,  44 
Pitt,  William,  the  younger,  92,  93 
Pitteurs-Hiegaerts,  E.  de,  385 
Pius  VI,  pope,  12,  17,  28 
Pius  VII,  pope,  29,  34,  40,  41,  49, 

54,  59,  66,  68,  81,  85,  91,  99, 

116,  156 
Pius  VIII,  pope,  99,  149 
Pius  IX,  pope,  195,  217,  256,  259, 

261,  264,  269-271,  321,  324, 

327,  329,  335,  360 
Plebiscite,  326,  327 
Plener,  Ignaz  von,  321 
Plombifires,  250 
Poisohwitz,  armistice  of,  61 
Podol,  299 
PodoHa,  148 
Poland,  12,  27,  46,  53,  57,  59,  61, 

64, 109,  146-149, 198,210-213, 

272-273,  358 
Polignac,  duchess  of,  5 
Polignac  Armand  de,  39 
Polignac,  Jules  de,  39,  86,  129, 

130,  137,  139 
Polo,  Marco,  399 
Poltenberg,  Ernst  von,  206 
Polybius,  393 
Pomerania,  46,  60 
Ponierania,  Swedish,  48,  81 
Poniatowski,  Joseph,  63 
Port  Arthur,  364 
Port  Noyelles,  349 
Portugal,  29,  38,  47-50,  54,  62, 

114,  115,  123,  168,  169,  242, 

401-405 
Poscherun,  58 
Poseidonius,  398 
Posen,  149,  212,  213 
Potsdam,  42,  45,  56,  59 
Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Carlo  Andrea, 


47,  66,  67, 70, 88, 108, 122, 131, 
178 

Pragmatic  sanction,  169,  203 

Prague,  199,  211,  212 

Prague,  peace  congress  of,  61 

Prague,  treaty  of,  304,  306,  314, 
328,  329 

Prankh,  Sigmund  von,  315 

Pressburg,  43 

Pressburg,  battle  of,  206 

Prester  John,  398 

Pretoria,  377 

Pretoria  Convention,  376 

Prieur,  Pierre  Louis,  called 
Prieur  de  la  Marne,  21 

Prim,  Juan,  329-331 

Prinsloo,  Marthinus,  377 

Prittwitz,  M.  K.  E.  von,  185 

Probst,  Rudolph,  316 

Probstheida,  63 

Progressive  Party,  Prussia,  290 

Prokescli-Osten,  Anton  von,  231 

Proudhon,  P.  J.,  214 

Provence,  72 

Prussia,  3,  12,  14,  17,  22,  23,  25- 
27,  29,  32,  37-47,  50-52,  54, 
56,  59-63,  75,  76,  81,  98-103, 
136,  156,  162,  163,  173-175, 
184-186,  188-190,  224-226, 
230-232,  273-283,  290,  292- 
294,  296,  299,  303,  305,  307, 
313,  314,  318,  333,  334,  343, 
359,  366,  367 

Psara,  126 

Ptolemy,  Claudius,  399 

Puchner,  Anton  von,  206 

Puerto  Rico,  381,  405 

Pulszky,  Franz,  168 

Pultusk,  46 

Pushkin,  Alexander,  109 

Pytheas  of  Massiha,  393 

QUATREBRAS,  82 

Quinet,  2 

Quiroga,  Antonio,  114,  115 

Raab,  battle  of,  206 
Radetzky,  Johann  Joseph,  171, 

190-196,  199,  227 
Radowitz,  Joseph  von,  184,  222 
Radziwill,  Anton,  331 
Radziwill,  Michael,  148 
Raglan,  lord,  245 
Rainer,  archduke  of  Austria,  97, 

171 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  404 
Ramel,  Jean  Pierre,  87 
Ramming      von'     Riedkirohen, 

Wilhelm,  252,  298 
Ramorino,  Girolamo,  148,  195 
Ranke,  Leopold  von,  89,  275 
Raspail,  Francois  Vincent,  214 
Rastatt,  229 

Rastatt,  congress  of,  27,  28,  30 
Ratisbon,  37,  43,  44 
Ratisbon,  diet  of,  37 
Rattazzi,  Urbano,  250,  259,  261, 

263,  264,  323,  324 
Ratzel,  Friedrich,  411 


Raumer,  Friedrich  von,  89 
Raumer,  Karl  von,  108 
Rauschenplat,  Johann  E.  A.,  153 
Rauscher,   Joseph   Othmar  von, 

320,  335 
Raveaux,  Karl,  222 
Rechberg,     Johann     Bernhard, 

270,  273,  275,  283,  284,  288, 

290 
Redshid  Pasha,  126 
Referendum,  384 
Reform  bill,  1866,  321 
Reform  bill,  1867,  322 
Reichenbach,  61 
Reichenberg,  297 
Reichensperger,  August,  241 
Reichensperger,  Peter  Franz,  241 
Reichstadt,  duke  of.     See  Napo- 
leon II 
Reimer,  Georg  Andreas,  111 
Reinkens,  Joseph  Hubert,  359 
Reitzenstein,      Siegmund     von, 

107 
Renan,  Ernest,  255 
Repnin-Wolkonski,  Nicholas,  64 
"Reptile"   Fund.    See   Guelph 

Fund 
Republican  calendar,  19 
Reuss,  House  of,  308 
Renter,  Fritz,  153 
Rewbell,  Jean  Francois,  25. 
Rewentlow,  Friedrich,  210 
Rheims,  69,  344 
Rhenish  confederation,    46,  47, 

51-53,  55,  56,  58,  60,  64,  66 
"Rhenish  Mercury,"  76 
Rhenish  Palatinate,  305 
Rhine  frontier,  248 
RicasoU,  Bettino,  261,  271 
Richelieu,  cardinal,  3,  5,  10 
Richelieu,    Armand    Emmanuel 

du  Plessis  de,  84,  87,  108,  109, 

110 
Richter,  Eugen,  363 
Ried,  63 

Rieger,  Ladislaus,  212 
Riego  y#funez,  Rafael  del,  114, 
,  115,  121,  123 
Rieti,  battle  of,  1 18 
Rio,  treaty  of,  124 
Rivarola,  cardinal,  149 
Roberts,  lord,  377 
Robespierre,  12,  13,  15,  22,  25,  31 
Robilant,  Carlo  F.  N.,  383 
Rochefort,  Henri,  343 
Rochefort,  France,  84 
Rochambeau,  4 
Rochejacquelein,  80 
Rockefeller,  John,  382 
Roderer,  13 

Roger-Ducos.     See  Duces 
Roggenbach,  Franz  von,  280 
Rohan,  cardinal,  3 
Roland,  Madame,  13,  14 
Rolica,  Portugal,  50 
Romagna,  253,  257,  262,  382 
Roman  republic,  28 
Romano,  Liborio,  268 
Romans,  394 


HISTORY   OF    THE   WORLD 


429 


Romanticism,  89,  91 

Rome,   3,   28,    35,    49,   53,    68, 

217,  269,  270,  323,  324,  329, 

335 
Romer,  Friedrich,  186 
Ronge,  Johannes,  157,  204 
Roon,    Albreoht   Theodor   Emil 

von,  279,  281,  332,-  341,  349, 

367 
Roothaan,  Johann  Philipp  van, 

156 
Rosen-Gnesen,  province  of,  157 
Rossbach,  battle  of,  2 
Rossbrunn,  303 
Rossi,  Pellegrino  de,  217,  256 
Rostopchin,  Fedor,  57,  86 
Rothschild,  Jacob,  131 
Rotondo,  Monte,  324 
Rotteolc,  Karl  von,  90,  110,  152 
Rouen,  348 

Rouher,  Eugene,  302,  313,  326 
Roumania,  249 
Roumanians,  319 
Roumelia,  47 
Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  2,  6, 12, 

18-20,  90 
Royer-CoUard,  Pierre  Paul,  128, 

130 
Rozycki,  148 
Ruclcert,  256 
Rudiger,  Fedor  W.,  207 
Rudini,  Antonio,  382 
Ruge,  Arnold,  222 
Riigen,  island  of,  67 
Rumjanzoff,  Nicholas,  53 
Rump  parliament,  229 
Russia,   22,  29,  33,   38-42,  44- 

46,  50,  53,  55,  57-63,  67,  75, 

79-81,  84,    85,  87,    126,   128, 

206,  224,  243-247,  314,  318, 

334,  335,  343,  346,  347,  364, 

380 
Ruthenians,  Galician,  320 
Rybinski,  Mathias,  148 

Saaleeld,  45 
Saarbriicken,  84,  337 
Saarlouis,  84 

Sack,  Johann  August,  100 
St.  Aignan,  August  de,  66 
Saint^Andr^,  Jean  Bon,  21 
St.  Angelo,  fortress  of,  49 
Saint-Amaud,  Jacques  Leroy  de, 

219  245 
St.  Cloud,  11,  31,  73,  352 
St.  Dizier,  68,  69 
St.  Helena,  48,  83-85,  406 
Saint-Huruge,  Victor  A.  de  la  F. 

de,  10 
St.  Jean  d'Acre,  29 
St.  Just,  Louis  Antoine  L6on  de, 

16,  18,  20-22 
St.  Petersburg,  8,  37,  56 
St.  Quentin,  349 
Saint-Simon,    Claude    Henri   de 

Rouvroy  de,  159 
Salamanca,  65 
Salazar,  J.  AUende,  329,  330 
Salm,  prince  of,  55 


Salvandy,  Narcisse  Achille,  128 
Salzburg,  43,  103,  314 
Samoan  Islands,  364,  382 
Sampson,  W.  T.,  381 
San  Domingo,  23,  38 
Sand,  Karl  Ludwig,  110 
Sandwich  Islands,  381 
Sanfedists,  149,  258 
Santa  Lucia,  battle  of,  193 
Santo  Caserio,  379 
Santa  Lucia,  W.  I.,  408 
Santiago,  Cuba,  381 
Saragossa,  52 
Sardinia,  26,  29,  49,  76,  81,  246, 

249 
Savary,  Anna  Jean  Marie  Ren(5, 

duke  of  Rovigo,  48 
Savigny,  Friedrich  Karl  von,  89 
Savigny,  Karl  Friedrich  von,  295 
Savona,  52,  54,  67 
Savoy,  14,  16,  22,  26,  250,  260 
Saxe-Koburg,  113 
Saxony,  26,  45,  46,  50,   60,  64, 

75,    81,   105,     152,    229,   239, 

295,  297,  304,  307,  309,  369, 

370 
Sayn-Wittgenstein,    Ludwig 

Adolf  Peter  von,  59 
S  a  y  n  -Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, 

Wilhelmzu,  101,  110 
Scharnhorst,  Gerhard  David  von, 

56,  59 
Scharnhorst,  Johann  David  von, 

100 
Scheveningen,  65 
Schill,  Ferdinand  von,  46 
Schiller,  90 
Schlegel,   August  Wilhelm  von, 

91 
Schlegel,  Friedrich,  91 
Schleiermacher,  Friedrich  Ernst 

Daniel,  45,  101,  111 
Schleinitz,  Alexander  von,  253, 

274 
Schleswig,  290 
Schleswig,  battle  of,  209 
Schleswig-Holstein,     207-210, 

224,  233,  239,  283,  286-291, 

294,  295,  304,  308,  359,  367 
Schlettstadt,  344 
Schley,  Winfield  Scott,  381 
Schlick,  Franz,  206 
Schlosser,  Fr.  Chr.,  89  _ 
Schlozer,  August  Ludwig  von,  8 
Schmalz,  Theodor  Anton  Hein- 

rich,  101 
Schmeriing,    Anton    von,    223, 

226,  227,  237,  238,  285,  291, 

318 
Schmidt-Phiseldek,  C.  von,  88 
Schneider,  Eugene,  343 
Schneider,  Eulogius,  8 
Schon,  100 

Schonbrunn,  42,  43,  52,  53 
Schonerer,  Georg,  373 
Schonfeld,  63 

Schuckmann,  Friedrich  von,  101 
Sohulze,  Johanes,  102 
Schuselka,  204 


Schiitte,  Anton,  205 
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen,  1 13 
Schwarzenberg,  Felix,  204,  227, 

228,  233,  235-238,  244,  254 
Schwarzenberg,    Friedrich    ^■on, 

335 
Schwarzenberg,      Karl     Philipp 
von,  58,    60,    62,   63,   67,   b9, 
82 
Schwechat,  battle  of,  205 
Schweidnitz,  225 
Schwerin,  Maximilian  von,  185, 

223,  274 
Schwyz,  172 
Scott,  Walter,  91 
Sebastopol,  245 
Secret  societies,  Russia,  127 
Sedan,  340-342 
Sedlnitzky,  Leopold  von,  157 
Seine,  department  of,  71 
Sekko,  battle  of,  120 
Sehm  III,  sultan,  22,  28,  29 
Seneca,  398 
Sepulveda,  115 
Serrano,  Francisco,  329 
Servia,  202,  21,  245 
Shantung,  364 
Shell,  Richard,  126 
Siberia,  57 
Sicily,  29,  49,  81,  116,  117,  266, 

267   382 
Sidi  All,  Bey  of  Tunis,  380 
Sidi-Ferruch,  130 
Siegl,  Franz,  190 
Si^yes,  Emmanuel  Joseph,  6-8, 

10,  13,  30,  31,  36,  74 
Silesia,  42,  46,  62,  159,  175,  294, 

312 
Silveira,  Jos6  Xaverio  Mousinho 

da,  115 
Silveira      Pinto      da      Fonseca, 

Manoel  de,  123 
Simon,  Jules,  353 
Simon,  Ludwig,  222 
Simson,     Martin    Eduard,    228, 

229,  310,  352 
Simunich,  Balthasar  von,  206 
Sinope,  harbour  of,  244 
Sismondi,  Simonde  de,  89 
Skalitz,  battle  of,  298,  299 
Skrzynecki,  Jan  Bonczu,  148 
Slav   congress   in   Prague,   210- 

211 
Slave  trade,  abolition  of,  93 
Slavonia,  201 
Slavs,  320 
Slobosia,  48 
Slovaks,  211 
Smidt,  johann,  105 
Smith,  Adam,  90 
Smith,  William  Sidney,  29 
Smolensk,  Russia,  57 
Smorgoni,  Russia,  57 
Smuts,  J.  C,  377 
Social   Democratic    Party,    Ger- 
many, 328,  334,  361-363,  370 
Social  Democrats,  Belgium,  385, 

386 
Socialist  Labour  Party,  361 


430 


HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD 


rindez 


Soiron,  Franz  von,  188 

Soissons,  68 

Solferino,  battle  of,  252,  284 

Solms-Laubach,  Frederick,  75 

Sombart,  Werner,  160 

Sommacampagna,  194 

Sona,  194 

Sonderbund  war,  172 

Soult,  marshal,  52,  61,  66,  69, 

77 
South    African    Republic.     See 

Transvaal 
South  America,  123,  406 
South-German  confederation, 

304,  311 
Spain,  23,  33,  38,  41,  44,  47-54, 

61,  62,  65,  66,  114,  115,  121, 

168,  169,  329,  331,  380-382, 

401-405 
Speckbacher,  Joseph,  52 
Speier,  15 

Speransky,  Michail,  109,  127 
Spiegel  zum  Desenberg,   Ferdi- 
nand August  von,  157 
Stadion,  Franz,  198 
Stadion,    Johann    Phihpp    Karl 

Joseph,  45,  50,  52,  61,  68,  98 
Stael,  Madame  de,  74 
Stahl,  Friedrich  Julius,  174,  232, 

241 
Stanley,  Sir  Henry  M.,  386 
Staps,  53 

States  of  the  Church,  324 
Steffens,  Hendrik,  8,  108 
Stavenhagen,  Friedrich,  277 
Stein,  Karl  von,  3,  38,  46,  50,  51, 

54,  57-60,  65,  66,  75,  76,  89, 

100,  101,  102,  107,  112,  256 
Steinmetz,  Karl  Friedrich  von, 

298,  301,  336,  340 
Stephan,  archduke,  202 
Stephan,  Heinrich,  317 
Sternberg  diet,  105 
Stewart,  lord,  117 
Stookach,  29 

Stockhausen,  August  von,  235 
Stoffel,  Eugene  G.,  329 
Stolberg,  Christian  von,  8,  91 
Stourdza,  Alexander,  109 
Strabo,  399 
Strangford,    Percy     Clinton 

Sydney  Smythe,  122 
Strassburg,  336,  337,  371 
Stratford  de  Redchffe,  lord,  244 
Stratimirovt,  Georg,  202 
Strauss,   David   Friedrich,    158, 

172,  255 
Streschewitz,  battle  of,  301 
Stroganoft,  Paul,  86,  120 
Strossmayer,  Joseph  Georg,  335- 

337,  342,  344,  371 
Struve,   Gustav   von,    181,    182, 

187,  189,  224 
Stlive,  Johann  Karl  Tertern,  151 
Styria,  26,  164 
Suchet,   Louis  Gabriel,   61,    66, 

69 
Suckow,  Albert   von,   315,    329, 

351 


Sudan,  376 

Suez  canal,  406,  411 

Suliotes,  121 

Sumatra,  387 

Suvaroff,  Alexander,  22,  29,  30 

Swabia,  26,  29,  44 

Sweden,  12,  17,  32,  39,  40,  43,  46, 

54,  66,  62,  67 
Swiepwald,  301 
Switzerland,  8,  17,  28-30,  34,  37, 

38,  43,  68,  81,  171-173,  180, 

383-384 
Sybel,   Heinrich  von,  234,  313, 

329 
Syntagmatikoi,  154 
Syria,  29 

Sz6ch6nyi,  Stephen,  97,  168,  184 
Sz^csen,  Nikolaus,  284,  285 
Szell,  Koloman  von,  374 

Taafpb,  Eduard,  373 

Tahiti,  176 

Talavera,  52 

Talleyrand,  3,  12,  31,  32,  37,  39, 

43,  44,  48,  49,  60,  70,  71,  73, 

75-78,  83,  87,  93,  124,  129 
Tallien,  Jean  Lambert,  25,  74 
Talma,  51 
Tangier,  406  . 
Taim-Ratsamhausen,    Ludwig, 

von  der,  346,  347 
Tannegui,  Ch.  M.,  178 
Taranto,  Gulf  of,  33 
Tarascon,  23 
Tauroggen,  treaty  of,  58 
Tausenau,  Karl,  204 
Tchemaya,  battle  of,  246 
Tegethoff,  Wilhelm  von,  289,  304 
Tel-el-kebir,  376 
Temesvir,  205 
TepUtz,  contract  of,  66,  111 
Tettenborn,  Karl  von,  59,  107 
Teutonic  order,  37 
Tewfik  Pasha,  376 
Theodore  II,  king  of  Abyssinia, 

322,  323 
Th^ot,  Catharine,  21 
Thessaly,  153 
Thibaut,  Justus,  89 
Thielmann,   Johann  Adolf  von, 

60 
Thierry,  Augustin,  89 
Thiers,  Adolphe,  129,  131,  139, 

140,  165,  177,  215,  313,  323, 

343,  353,  378 
Thistlewood,  Arthur,  96 
Thomas,  duke  of  Genoa,  329 
Thouvenel,     Edouard    Antoine, 

263 
Thugut,  Franz  Maria  von,  22,  25, 

32,  33 
Thun,  Leo  von,  237 
Thun-Hohenstein,  Karl  von,  301 
Thuringia,  113,  163,  307 
Thurn,  Georg,  194 
Tilsit,  34,  47,  48,  51,  55 
Tippoo  Sahib,  29,  93 
Tiseh,  91 
Tobago,  408 


Tobitschau,  303 

TocqueviUe,  Alexis  de,  155 

Togoland,  364 

Tolentino,  26,  81 

Toll,  Karl,  70 

Tolly,  Michael  Barclay  de,  56,  82 

Tolstoy,  Peter,  count,  48 

Tonkin,  380 

Tordesillas,  convention  of,  406 

Torok,  Ignaz  von,  206 

Torres  Vedras,  Portugal,  62 

Toscanelli,  Paolo,  396,  399 

Toulon,  18,  20,  25,  27,  28,  84 

Toulouse,  5,  17,  69,  87 

Tours,  345 

Trachenberg,  61 

Trafalgar,  42 

Transpadane  republic,  26 

Transvaal,  375,  376,  377,  378 

Transylvania,  200,  292,  319 

Trautenau,  299 

Trautenau,  battle  of,  298 

Trebbia,  30 

Trent,  193 

Treves,  157 

Trianon,  tariff  of,  54 

Trieste  98 

Triple  Alliance,  325,  326,  335, 

383 
Tripolitza,  fortress  of,  120 
Trocadero,  fort,  123 
Trochu,  Louis  Jules,  343,  345, 

352 
Tromp,     Marten     Harpertzoon, 

403 
Tronchet,  Frangois  Denis,  16 
Troppau,  88,  117 
Troppau,  congress  of,  117-119 
Troyes,  5,  70 

Tsze  Hsi,  empress  of  China,  365 
Tuam,  prince,  365 
Tugendbund,  51 
Tuileriee,  the,    31,   57,    66,   78, 

378 
Turco-Egyptian  war,  165 
Turcos,  337 
Turgot,  a^5 
Tunn,  IH 
Turkey,  12,  17,  29,  34,  47,  51, 

127,  138,  154,  243,  245,  246, 

380 
Tuscany,  26,  33,  253,  261,  262 
Tuscany,  grand  duke  of,  23 
Tuscany,  grand  duchess  of.     See 

Bonaparte,  Eliza 
Twesten,  Karl,  279,  309 
Tyrol,  26,  50,  52,  53,   164,  193, 

304 


TJdinb,  194 

Uhland,  Ludwig,  91,  229,  256 

Uhrich,    Jean    Jacques,    Ale.xis, 

344 
Ujest,    Hugo    von    Hohenlohe- 

Ohringen,  duke  of,  311 
Ulm,  42,  44 
Ultramontanes,    316,    323,   327, 

330,  359,  360 


Index 


HISTORY    OF   THE    WORLD 


431 


Ulundi,  376 
Union  Club,  95 
United  States,  96,  273 
Unruh,  Hans  Victor  von,  225 
Unterwalden,  172 
Uri,  172 


Valais,  37,  55 

Valeggio,  battle  of,  193 

Valengay,  49,  66 

Valence,  25,  39 

Valmy,  15 

Vandamme,  Dominique  Ren6,  63 

Vannutelli,  Serafino,  385 

Varennes,  12 

Varnbuler,  Friedrich  G.  K.  von, 

316 
Varnhagen     von     Ense,     Karl 

August  von,  107 
Vasco  de  Gama,  401 
Vauban,  5 
Vendue,  La,  3,  19,  20,  22,  23,  25, 

27,  32,  78,  80 
Venedey,  Jacob,  222 
Veneti,  the,  394 
Venetia,  36,  293-295,  303 
Venezuela,  409 
Venice,   17,  26,    192,    194,   197, 

397 
Verdun,  339,  344 
Vergniaud,  14^-16 
Vernet,  Horace,  72 
Verona,  congress  of,  88,  121,  122 
Versailles,  2-4,  8,  10 
Versen,  Max  von,  330 
Vicari,  Hermann  von,  240 
Vicenza,  194 

Victor,  Claude  Perrin,  52 
Victor  Emanuel  I,  king  of  Italy, 

196,  206,  249,  250,  253,  256, 

259,  261-265,  267,  269,  293, 

323,  325,  334,  383 
Victor    Emmanuel    I,    king    of 

Sardinia,  115,  118 
Victor    Emanuel    II,    king    of 

Sardinia.     See  Victor  Eman- 
uel I,  king  of  Italy 
Victoria,  queen  of  England,  322 
Victoria,   empress  of    Germany, 

355 
Vienna,  23,  26,  42,  183 
Vienna,  congress  of,  74,  79-81, 

96,  408 
Vienna,  treaty  of,  13,  60 
Vilagos,  battle  of,  207 
Viljoen,  377 

Viliafranca,  treaty  of,  253,  260 
Vill^le,  Jean   Baptiste   S^raphin 

Joseph  de,  121,  124,  128 
Vimiero,  Spain,  50 
Vincennes,  39 
Vinoke,  Georg  von,  175, 185, 222, 

274 
Vineland,  388,  389 
Virchow,  Rudolf,  359 
Vistula,  46 
VitroUes,  Eugfene  F.  A.  d'A.  de, 

69 


Vittoria,  61 

Vittoria,  battle  of,  65 

Vivaldi,  Guido  de,  398 

Vogel  von  Falckenstein,  Eduard, 
303 

Vogt,  Karl,  222,  229 

Voigts-Rhetz,  Konstantin  Bern- 
hard,  299,  307 

Volk,  Joseph,  316 

VoUmar,  Georg  von,  363 

Vorarlberg,  29,  53 

"Vorpariament,"  186-190 


Wachau,  63 
Wadaii,  376 

Wagener,  Hermann,  279 
Wagner,  Rudolph  von,  315 
Wagram,  52 
Walcheren,  island  of,  53 
Waldeck,  Leo,  225 
Waldeck-Rousseau,  379 
Waldemar,     prince     of     Lippe- 

Detmold,  372 
Waldersee,  Alfred  von,  365 
Walewska,  countess,  46 
Walewski,  count,  262,  263 
Wallachia,  246 
Wallis,  Joseph,  98 
Wallis,  Switzerland,  172 
Wangenheim,  Karl  August  von, 

106,  125 
Warsaw,  46,  47,  53,  55,  56,  81, 

147,  148 
Wartburg,  108 
Wartenburg,  63 
Washington,  George,  34 
Waterloo,  80,  83 
Watt,  James,  93 
Wattignies,  20 
Wavre,  Belgium,  82 
Weber,  Karl  Maria  von,  91 
Weber,  Wilhelm,  151 
Weidig,  Friedrich  Ludwig,  153 
Weihaiwei,  364 
Weissenburg,  337 
Welcker,  Kari  Theodor,  90,  111, 

152,  186,  188,  229 
Welden,  Franz  Ludwig,  194 
Wellesley,      Sir      Arthur.     See 

Wellington 
Wellesley,  Richard  CoUey  Wel- 
lesley, marquis  of,  33 
Wellington,   50,  52,  54,  61,  65, 

69,  82,  83,  108,  122,  126,  127, 

129 
Werder,  August  von,  352 
Werder,  Bernhard   F.    W.    von. 

344,  348 
Wertheim,  107,  303 
Werther,  Kari  von,  332 
Wessenb'erg,    Johann  PhiUpp 

von,  162,  199,  204,  227 
West  Indies,  405 
WestphaUa,  47,  54,  63,  64,  101, 

156,  307 
Wet,  Christian  de,  377 
"White  Terror,"  23,  87 
Wielopoloki,  marquis  of,  272 


Wilberforce,  WiUiam,  93 

Wilhelmina,  queen  of  the  Nether- 
lands, 387 

Wilhelmshafen,  240 

Wilhelmshohe,  341 

William,  prince  of  Baden,  348 

William  I,  duke  of  Brunswick, 
150,  372 

Wilham  I,  German  emperor, 
174,  184,  230-232,  235,  239, 
252,  274-283,  285,  286,  288, 
292,  293,  295,  300,  302,  304, 
306,  330-334,  342,  345,  349, 
351,  352,  354,  355,  362 

William  II,  German  emperor, 
354,  355,  357,  365,  369,  370 

William  IV,  king  of  England, 
168 

William  I,  elector  of  Hesse,  105 

William  II,  elector  of  Hesse,  105, 
150 

William,  duke  of  Nassau,  1 07 

William  I,  king  of  the  Nether- 
lands, 65,  81,  145,  146 

William  III,  king  of  the  Nether- 
lands, 312,  387 

Wilham,  prince  of  Prussia.  See 
William,  I,  German  emperor 

Wilham,  I,  king  of  Wurtemberg, 
70,  106 

William  II,  king  of  Wurtemberg, 
370 

Willich,  190 

WilUsen,  Wilhelm  von,  210 

Wilson,  Daniel,  379 

Wilton,  Tyrol,  52 

Wimpffen,  341 

Windisch-Graetz,  199,  204-206, 
212,  225,  227,  252,  373 

Windthorst,  Ludwig,  358 

Winkowo,  Russia,  57 

Wintzingerode,  Ferdinand  von, 
67,  68,  70 

Wittelsbach,  House  of,  22 

Wittenberg,  University  of,  102 

Wittgenstein.  See  Sayn- Witt- 
genstein 

Wittich,  Ludwig  von,  346 

Witzleben,  Job  von,  101 

Wjasma,  Russia,  57 

Wolhynia,  148 

Wolseley,  lord,  376 

Worms,  15 

Worth,  337,  338 

Wrangel,  Friedrich  von,  209,  225, 
289 

Wrede,  Karl  Philhpp  von,  55,  62, 
63,  106 

Wurmser,  Dagobert  Sigismond 
von,  20 

Wurtemberg,  26,  32,  37,  42,  76, 
80,  81,  103,  125,  189,  190,  239 

XiONS,  Battle  of,  213 

YoHCK,   Hans    David    Ludwig 

VON,  58,  60,  63,  69,  70 
Young,  Arthur,  4 


432 


HISTORY    OF    THE    WORLD 


flndex 


Ypsilanti,  Alexander,  119,  120 
Ypsilanti,  Demetrius,  120 

Zahhingen,  House  of,  107 
Zanini,  Peter,  199 
Zastrow,    Heinrioh    Adolf    von, 
337,  348 


Zedlitz,  Joseph  Christian  von,  97 
Zedlitz,  Robert  von,  361 
Ziohy,  Ferdinand,  192 
Ziethen,  Hans  Ernst  Karl  von, 

83 
Zhaim,  52 
Zobel,  general,  193 


"Zollverein,"  103,  161-166,  240, 

280,  289,  312,  315,  356 
Zug,  172 

Zumala-Carregui,  Thomas,  169 
Zurich,  172 
Zurich,  canton  of,  384 
Zurich,  treaty  of,  253,  261