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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924088473123
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
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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
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